I was up at the break of dawn again and this ti, I didn't lounge around in bed to let the ti pass to an appropriate one. I hopped out of bed, changed my clothes, cleaning spells were appropriately applied, and I left my room through the door. Surprisingly, neither the maid nor the man following
were waiting for , so I slipped out of the keep without any hanger-ons and I went to the master blacksmith's.
The old man looked surprised to see , then he laughed. “Yer leaving today, ain't ya?”
I nodded and the man waved at the forge. We both went to work and had the thing lit and glowing red by the ti his actual apprentice showed up. The young man's proclamation that the gods favored him was ignored, because both I and the blacksmith knew I wasn't going to be around for the next month and the apprentice would have to do things by himself.
I gathered up the things the blacksmith prepared for the soldiers, armors and weapons, and carefully loaded it into the cart with so burlap packing material. The apprentice was the 'horse' again today and hauled the cart to the middle of the town. I grabbed the two burlap sacks that the south gate patrols needed and they looked grateful when I delivered them first.
I had thought about waiting until I passed through the gate that afternoon to deliver them, then decided it was better for them to have their equipnt before I had to travel along the Kingsroad. It was safer for everyone if they were fully equipped and not lacking in weapons and armor when it was needed.
I delivered the rest of the equipnt just in ti to rush back to the keep to break my fast. I had to keep my word to both Arya and Torrhen to et for the al, mostly because it would be the last one I would share with the both of them for quite so ti.
Another liberal application of cleaning spells and a brief stop at my room to change, and I went to the Great Hall. Ned Stark was there and he nodded to
as soon as I appeared. He already knew I had finished my work for the blacksmith, even though it usually took
all morning. I greeted him like usual and sat to wait for the room to fill up.
As I sat there, I had a very neat idea. I pulled out several rolled up sheets of parchnt from my pocket, cheating by using my inventory, and I took out a fountain pen and started writing out so sheet music. The first one I wrote out was my neat idea, the the music for the show, A Ga of Thrones, and it worked great for the instrunts the minstrels had.
I set it aside to let the ink dry and the second sheet I filled with a song for Sansa. I wanted it to be a lesson for her, so I chose Sting's Fortress Around Your Heart, with slightly altered lyrics, to show her she was cutting herself off from making many friends with her attitude and behavior. It might give Catelyn a reality check, too.
I sat there for a mont and thought about a good general song, and smiled. I chose Corey Hart's Never Surrender and I didn't even have to change any of the lyrics. It would be inspiring on its own and didn't need
to sing it, although the boosts to defense and regeneration would be phenonal if I did.
Now that I had three songs, one without words and much easier to copy, I made several copies of the the music and finished up just as people started entering the room. I looked up and saw Ned Stark's surprise at
actually writing out music and I held in my laugh, because I hadn't ant to reinforce what I said about practising music.
The woman that was the lead musician from the group of minstrels the night before, saw
with the writing instrunt and sheets of music. She rushed over and almost tackled
as she hugged , then she picked up one of the copies of the the music and her eyes almost twinkled.
My table quickly filled up, as did the rest of the hall, and the other musicians ca over and the woman handed out the copies to the ones that could read them. They were surprised by it and then they went over to the corner to set up their things.
“Thank you, Jon.” The woman said and gave
a look that would have had
blushing if I didn't know she was sleeping with the trumpeter. She leaned down and kissed my cheek, grabbed the other two songs, and rushed over to the corner.
The food was brought out as they practised a few chords and I turned back to the table and smiled at the people around . Before I could speak, the first notes of the the song filled the room and everyone turned to stare at them, even Ned. He knew I had just composed it and his eyes darted to
a few tis as the minstrels made a great reproduction of the the music.
“You made that?” Gretchel asked
as she poured a drink for Rickard Karstark.
“Just before everyone ca in, actually.” I said and put the pen into my pocket and rolled up the rest of the blank sheets of parchnt and put them into my other pocket as I stored them.
“It's nice.” Another girl said, slightly lying. She was only hearing it for the first ti and didn't really have an opinion about it. She just said it was nice because I made it.
“It's my last contribution to Sansa's naday celebration.” I said and that gained their attention. “I'm heading to the citadel of maesters this afternoon and it's nearly as far away from Kings Landing as Winterfell is.”
“Why?!?” Soone gasped from the main table.
I turned to look and saw Sansa being hushed by Catelyn. Apparently, she hadn't told her about
being sent off. When I turned back to look at the people around , nearly all of them had sad faces. I wasn't sure what I could say to reassure them, though. Unlike Arya, I couldn't promise to co back in a month, because everyone knew I would be travelling for at least that long just to get there.
It did give
a chance to talk to Torrhen about our trip that afternoon and how I wanted to modify it slightly to still ride with him on horseback and he and his guards would ride back with my horse. The young man smiled and agreed, because I was keeping my word and I didn't cancel the trip.
The al was subdued as we ate and my imminent departure drew closer. Even though I wasn't leaving until the afternoon, it was much too short to do more than say goodbye to everyone. They all had work to do and I would be long gone before their day ended.
The thing was, I couldn't even say I was going to see them again. Once I was out of Winterfell, the only thing that would make
co back was seeing Arya again, since I had given up all my rights to the place and any claims for a ho or lands. My ti here hadn't been a good one and there were too many bad mories to ever let
make a ho here.
I felt a strong old hand grip my shoulder and I realized I had dropped my gaze to my barely eaten food. I looked up and saw Rickard Karstark standing by . He gave
a sad knowing look, nodded once, and he and his people walked out of the Great Hall. The minstrels stopped playing and gathered their things as quick as can be, and followed them.
“Good luck and be safe.” Gretchel said and ran her hand through my hair. “Mikken's still working and says the sa thing.”
I nodded, because I couldn't go into the kitchen to see her.
“Don't ferget about us, yea?” The blacksmith's apprentice asked.
I smiled at him. “I'm buying all the small plowshares you have and maybe a sword or two.”
The boy laughed. “Yer handin'em out along the way?”
“Yes, to those that need one.” I said and felt happy that he guessed what I was doing right way. “I'll be visiting a few of the masters, like the tanners, seamstresses, and others before I leave.”
That had the rest of the people at my table laugh as well. Most of them worked for those masters of their crafts and I would be spreading my money among all of them. They said they would tell their masters I'll be by and left the Great Hall a little happier than they had been when they heard I was leaving.
I stood up to leave as well and turned towards the main table, only to see Catelyn had already taken Sansa and Arya away. I walked over to Ned and he sighed with a shake of his head, so I shrugged and walked over to the servant's entrance and left to go to my room to pack. That let
avoid the majority of the people that were spreading the word about
leaving to everyone nearby.
*
Even with being forewarned, all of the people Jon said he would visit to buy things, were surprised when he bought nearly half of everything they had. It gave them quite a bit of money and they would be set for a very long ti to co. A few of them would make extra trips to the harbour for more supplies, and in a few cases, much better quality items.
They all assud Jon had saved his money for years and that was spending it all on them before heading off and starting his life over. It made them sad and also happy, because he was ensuring that the people of Winterfell benefited the most from his sudden departure. His excuse that he wouldn't be there to help them personally, had them thank him for being so thoughtful.
By the ti Jon arrived at the carriage, it was already loaded up high with bundles of the things he bought, most of which he would hand out to the people in the lands along the Kingsroad, because they couldn't take ti away from their lives to travel all the way to Winterfell for the things that weren't strictly necessary for them to live their lives.
Maester Luwin had a food basket and handed a few things to the driver and to the other driver that would rest inside the carriage with them, so he could take over driving at night. We also had two soldiers on horseback and one sitting beside the driver and another inside the carriage.
That was all Ned Stark could afford to send along and he wasn't happy about it, because it wouldn't be enough to defend the carriage if they encountered a large group of bandits. Jon didn't tell him to not worry about it, since that was unrealistic. All he said was that he had a good sword and he would do his best to not let Maester Luwin be kidnapped like a damsel.
That made the soldiers laugh and one clapped him on the back. It put them into a good mood and they climbed into the carriage and onto their horses, then bid the people around them goodbye. Jon made sure to wave to everyone and pretended to blow a few kisses to so of the mothers of the girls that were there to see him off, which everyone laughed at.
Torrhen and his two guards rode along with the carriage and were surprised a bastard was held in such high regard, until they rembered Jon had given up his rights as a bastard and the people loved him for it. He had also given them a sense of pride in themselves, a song to lift their spirits, and spent more money on the people than Torrhen had seen in his young life.
As they travelled, the carriage stopped briefly at several farms and Jon did as he promised. He asked about farming and handed over a small plowshare, blankets, clothing, and a dagger for protection. The grateful looks on the people's faces made Torrhen think about his own father's rule of Karhold.
He knew he couldn't give everything away like Jon was; but, maybe he could invest in so thicker cloth and have the seamstresses of their own small town make nice blankets to give out to the people that needed them. It wouldn't take much ti to do, so he promised himself to ask his father about having it done as soon as they returned to their own keep.
Torrhen eventually turned around to return to Winterfell in order to arrive for the evening al. He had a much higher opinion of Jon Snow than he had before, which was saying sothing, because he already had a great opinion of the boy. When he t with his father about his idea, he knew the old man shared his opinion when he agreed without protest and offered to pay for half.
*
The best part about having large bundles of things to pick through to hand out, none of the people around
had any idea how many of each item I had in the burlap sacks. They had been delivered already hidden from view and I could make as many copies of them as I wanted to hand out.
I also avoided one particular burlap sack and had to discreetly cast a silence spell to stop a particular little wolf's giggles from reaching the soldiers that watched
as I put another gift package together. I wasn't sure how the little scamp had manage to put herself into the packed bundles and it didn't really matter. I cast a slight notice--not on it as well, just in case.
We weren't far enough away from Winterfell for
to 'discover' the stowaway and not have her imdiately captured by one of the soldiers and brought right back to Catelyn. It would leave us even more vulnerable to attack if we lost one of the soldiers so soon. We were already at a minimum amount of protection and any less than that was just asking for criminals to target us.
As the sky darkened, I finally stopped giving out gift packages and had the burlap sacks about three-quarters empty. It was funny that no one questions how I could have stuffed so many things into the sacks and none of them asked why I always kept one sack off to the side and untouched.
I did make sure to slip food inside the lip of the bag during altis, just so she didn't have to only eat the dried trail food she had sohow managed to bring along. I also propped it up and renewed the cushioning charms under it to let the girl sleep without trouble.
Why wasn't I trying to send Arya back to Winterfell? Because Catelyn probably already knew she was gone and I was going to be blad anyway. It was better to be actually guilty for sothing than to be falsely accused and suffer for the cri anyway.
Plus, it fit into my plans for another young girl perfectly. I just needed to wait for the right mont before I could have the big reveal. A brief check with my clairvoyance power let
see the girl was locked in her room and kept prisoner, even during the day, so I had only a short ti to pull it off.
Since she was almost on the other side of the world, our days and nights were reversed, so while it was night falling here, it was dawn breaking there. I had to wait for the morning here and the night there before I could do what I planned. Also, none of the people travelling with
were morning people and my plan should go off without a hitch.
*
Danaerys Targaryen, or Stormborn, or a few other nas she was a little too young to appreciate, hated being a political prisoner. She had been locked in her very nice room, that was little more than a prison, for several days now. It didn't look like she was going to be released anyti soon, either.
Her food was delivered without the guard speaking to her, no matter what she said, and she huffed as night fell and it was ti for her to go to bed. She laid down on her comfortable bed that she hated, because sleep was all she could do in her room. There were no books or anything fr her to stay occupied and she closed her eyes as she wished she was anywhere else but there.
Danaerys comfortable bed under her and the warmth of the room suddenly disappeared. She startled at the change and sat up to see what happened, onto to find herself in the middle of so road and staring at a fancy carriage with several soldiers and an old man wearing a robe that were changing one of the large wooden wheels.
“You look lost.” A soft male voice said from beside her
Danaerys turned her head to look and caught her breath. The face of the boy her age was handso, his long dark hair was wavy and looked well cared for, and his smile made her feel warm inside.
“Hello, my adopted na is Jon. Jon Snow.” He said and held a hand out to her. “Let
help you.”
Danaerys wasn't sure why she thought his words ant a lot more than only helping her to her feet from the cold hard ground. However, she didn't feel any deceit from him or instantly distrusted him like she had with the n that had locked her in that room. Her hand moved and she gently took his offered one.
She couldn't stop the smile that ford on her face when he smiled so warmly at her, then he lifted her to her feet without effort and bent over her hand to lightly kiss it. She blushed, because unlike the other tis it happened, it wasn't mocking or done for propriety's sake.
“D-Dany.” Danaerys whispered, her voice slightly shaky. She didn't say her full na, just in case he knew who she was. Everyone hated her and her family for what they did and she didn't want to see anger or hatred on that handso face.
Jon's smile widened and he motioned to the carriage. “Let's go inside where it's warm.”
Dany nodded and was surprised that he held onto her hand as he led her over to the thing.
“Oh! You're shivering. We'll need so heavier clothes for you and maybe an extra blanket.” Jon said and brought her to the back of the carriage where a few bundles of burlap sat. “The extra clothes are in this bag here.” He said and poked it with a finger.
To Dany's surprise, the bag giggled, then it was opened and she stared at the young girl that was just revealed.
“Arya!” Jon fake gasped and the little girl lunged out of the bag and hugged him tightly.
Dany wasn't sure what was going on as they were suddenly surrounded and many questions were asked. Very little answers ca from her, since she had no idea how she arrived there, and the little girl nad Arya only laughed when asked and hugged the handso boy tighter.
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