The Thu'um and the Seven Kingdoms (Rehost)

[brian boru]

Since Space battles is going down like the Titanic, I've decided to rehost my fic over here. Nothing new just didn't want to lose it. Here is the crummy first attempt, AND the second go round with Psycho as Editor and assistant writer.

OOC: Because I was bored and the plot bunny wouldn't leave me alone.

The Thu'um and the Seven Kingdoms


Groaning, I opened my eyes expecting to find myself in my dim dorm room I was shocked when I was instead staring directly at a high noon sun, the bright flash of light fried my retinas, forcing me to shove my right hand in front of my eyes and to blink repeatedly until I could properly adjust.

Once I could see I pulled myself into a sitting position and tried to get a better view of my surroundings. I was in the middle of some grassy field that stretched along the side of some large river. To my left I could see where the river was flowing into some huge body of water, most likely some sort of ocean, while behind me was a large forest of hardwoods of various types, and to my right, the river stretched further inland as far as the eye could see. Unfortunately for me, not a wit of this was at all familiar to me and I was starting to become a bit panicky wondering where the hell I was and how I got here.

When I moved to get back to my feet I noticed that in my left hand was a small scrap of paper. On a closer look I noticed that it had something written on it.

Then I tried to read it, I stared at it for what felt like an eternity, not because it was illegible, it was written in English and grammatically it made perfect sense. It was what was written on the damn thing that was more than a little problematic.

Welcome to Westeros, yes that Westeros.

The place is King's Landing and the Time is the day that Aegon the Conqueror, his Sisters, his half-brother, his dragons, and his invading force will land. Or rather would have landed.

You see a freak storm suddenly blew in and struck the Targaryens right in the middle of their trip, no survivors. If you are interested, Aegon's body is down by the beach with his sword Blackfyre up for grabs.

Unfortunately, Westeros needs to be united, kind-of VERY IMPORTANT for later events, but now the Dragons won't be coming. Unless you do the job (WHAT!?!?!?!?!) Now don't look like that. I won't leave you completely in the lurch. You may not have a trio of giant fire-breathing lizards on your side, but that doesn't mean that you won't have the power of Dragons on your side.

Just flip this paper over to see what I mean. Use my gift well and unite the Seven Kingdoms, the fate of an entire world depends on whether or not you are up to the task.

There was no signature at the end and for a moment I couldn't comprehend what it was I just saw, then slowly, hesitantly, I turned over the note.

On the back were a series of what looked like chicken scratch, which for some reason it looked vaguely familiar. But before I could reason out where I had seen them, streams of multicolored light erupted from the markings and seemed to whirl around me like some little multicolored tornado. Before I could even react to the lights they disappeared. As I was trying to figure out what the hell just happened words began to bubble up from the depths of my mind, words that back home would have been utter gibberish but here, after that light show?

I stood there for a while, contemplating some way to test if what I had just experienced was real or some hallucination brought on by stress. Then a familiar phrase came to mind. Looking around, I saw a fair sized boulder half out of the ground not too far from where I stood, 'perfect' I thought to myself. I planted my feet, facing directly at the boulder, took in a deep breath and spoke the words that, if they worked, would change my life completely.

"FUS....RO DAH!!!!"

With that phrase, a blue colored shock-wave erupted from my throat and slammed into the boulder, ripping it from the ground and sending it flying for a good 50 yards before slamming back into the ground with a huge thud and rolling for another 20 feet.

I stared, more than a little shocked that little test had actually worked, then a little grin appeared on my face, which then grew into a ear-splitting smile, then I started to laugh until it was one of gleeful abandon. Another shout came to mind, aiming for the river I bellowed the new words.

"YOL.... TOOR SHUL!!!!" A gigantic stream of fire emitted from my mouth, bright red and I knew with incredible heat despite feeling neither pain nor even any heat. When it made contact with the water, a giant plume of sizzling water and steam flew at least a hundred feet into the air and made the other side of the river impossible to see.

I then turned to the forest, a short distance away from the river, and yet another phrase came to mind, here was the perfect way to test it.

"WULD.... NAH KEST!!!!"

I shot off like a bullet towards the forest, the wind blowing past me as if I were shot out of a cannon, 'HA HA THIS IS AWESOHHHHSHITTT!!!!'

WHAM!!!!!

"....ow...."

I learned three things that day.
One: I needed to practice more with the shouts
Two: This was very real and I would need to be more cautious
Three: Trees are very, Very, VERY...hard.... ow....

 

[brian boru]

For the next half hour I strode along the bank of the river, heading down-stream, and simply enjoying the warm sunny day.

If you had seen me walking along the riverbank you would have seen a young man, around 20 years of age, 22 to be exact, with dark brown hair and green eyes, at 5'8" and a little over 13 stone I was a pretty solid young man though not particularly imposing. My features were a bit rounded and I had a small gut though I carried it well. I was wearing what I had been wearing the day before I found myself here. Blue jeans, a black t-shirt, and a thick cargo cloth coat tied around my waist to help with the heat. Ah yes the heat, back home it was the middle of February in Atlanta, Georgia, which while nothing compared to places in the Mid-West or the North-East, could still be DAMN COLD! Hence the VERY nice coat I had been wearing. Unfortunately for me, it was apparently high summer and the coat would have been utter murder, hence the making a kilt out of it.

As I walked, my mind wandered and I looked around at the surrounding countryside. On either side of the river there were swaths of tale grasses around waist height and extended from the riverbank for about twenty feet before turning into an old-growth deciduous forest with a mixture of oaks and other hardwoods. The sky was clear and the sun was high in the sky and I could see the glimmer of water as the river widened into a large bay. If I recalled correctly, the River I was walking along was the Blackwater Rush which flowed into Blackwater bay, one of the largest bays on the continent.

"The land here is nice, I wonder why there aren't more people living here?" I mused out loud. I would later learn that this area was currently the battle ground between several different kingdoms and had been for centuries, Harren and Argilac of the Riverlands and the Stormlands respectively were the current contenders . A consequence of this was that most folk tended to avoid this area for the most part, the only people who lived here were a trio of fishing villages on the North side of the River.

After walking for what felt like an hour, I finally reached mouth of the river. Looking around, I noted a trio of hills close to one with one overlooking the bay on the other side of the river.

"Ah, so that's where King's Landing is... will be... would have been, whatever." I commented, then mused what it would be like to have a castle there like Aegon would have done, lord of all I saw and a mighty conqueror. The thought brought an involuntary grin to my face and a low satisfied rumble in the bottom of my throat.

"Yes, that would be very nice, I could very just claim this place, no one seems to have a castle here, and lord over it like Aegon would have. Hail Thomas the Conqueror of the House Brodie, first of his name! King of the Iron Throne and Lord of the Seven Kingdoms!

…..whoa, where did that come from?"

As quickly as the image of conquest, power, and glory flashed in my mind, the cold hard facts came crashing back in as I remembered just what the situation was for me. "Declare myself as a King, yeah that would go over REAL well with the Kings right now, especially the ones who are my closest neighbors. One's a bloody-stained monster, and the other is so proud he had arrogant as part of his title after he died. I'd be lucky if they just killed me, even if I can belch fire at will."

That little monologue did cause me to think about the abilities the entity had given me. The dragon words on the back of that note gave me intricate knowledge of nearly two dozen dragon shouts, but I hadn't actually thought to actually list just which ones and how many of them I had.

But before I began to try and try and speak out the various shouts, I noticed that I had finally reached the coast. On the beach right where the bay touched the river one my side, I spotted a shape that looked somewhat like a man. I immediately jogged towards the shape, already guessing who it was laying there in the sand. When I reached the body and saw the equipment it bore, my guess was confirmed.

Death had not been kind to Aegon Targaryen, his body was battered and twisted like a giant doll in the hands of some giant toddler and his flesh was pale and blotchy, his face bloated and bits torn here and there, his hair was straggled and clumped from the salt water, and there was already the stink of decay emanating from his body so strong that it nearly made me retch. While I had seen dead bodies before, it had always been either on television, in funeral homes, or at churches. Interestingly enough he had not lost his sword. Still in its sheath which in turn was girded to his waist, the hilt of the blade reflected the early afternoon sun.

Loath I was to steal from the dead and manhandling a dead body was even less pleasant a prospect, but I needed that sword dammit so taking a deep breath before holding in, I reached down and undid the sword belt and then just as carefully grabbed the sheath and tugged the entire thing from the dead would be conqueror. I then backed head for the water and scrubbed the belt with sand and salt water. A bit neurotic I guess, but that belt had been wrapped around a dead body for who know how long and it set my mind at ease to rub and rinse the belt down before putting it on myself, even if the whole process was a complete placebo.

I then turned and bowed my head in respect to the dead and then made a sign of the cross (I am Roman Catholic) and muttered a quick Our Father, ending it with, "May you find peace in the next world and be happy with your loved ones, Aegon Targaryen. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen."

I was about to turn go back upriver when I spotted another body a little further down the beach, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to investigate the corpse, might be a few coins on it that I could use. When I got closer to the body, I was able to see that it was female, the smaller size and fairly impressive bosom were dead giveaways to the gender of the body. The silver-gold hair marked a Targaryen and the half undone braids of the woman's hair signaled that this was Visenya Targaryen, the warrior sister-wife of Aegon. I noticed that she too had a scabbard girded to her waist though the sword was gone, likely at the bottom of the ocean. She was wearing a long black dress with red and gold trimming, the water had make the dress cling to her body and showed the generous curves she'd had.

"Such a shame," I mused to myself. Women dieing or being hurt had always irked me, call me chauvinistic but I had always held it in my mind that a man's duty was to keep the women in his life safe, whether or not they could handle themselves. It was flat out wrong to not come to a woman's aid if she needed it and seeing this young woman, she could have been much older than me, two or three years at the most, dead here on the beach felt wrong and more than a little sad.

I was about to turn away when I saw a twitch of movement out of the corner of my eye. I whipped my head back to intently study the woman wondering if I had seen what I thought I saw. There it was! The fingers of her right hand twitched just a bit.

"What the....? Dammit ROB!!!" I cursed, then quickly knelt down beside the woman and grabbing her wrist tried to feel for a pulse. Her skin was cold and clammy but there, just barely noticeable, was a slow but steady pulse. I put my cheek next to her nose and mouth, there was slow and shallow but also steady breathing. She was alive! But, how? The note said that all hands were lost!

I didn't stand there thinking for two long as I realized that this woman was like freezing, half-drowned, and probably a handful of other things which WOULD kill her if I didn't do something. I then bent down and grabbed the young woman, who was heavier than I thought, and quite nice to hold a dark corner of my mind thought though I quickly drove that thought out, and headed back up stream.

When I got far enough upstream I quickly laid her out in the field between the river and the forest and then cudgeled my brain, trying to remember all the things I had learned in the boy scouts.

"Alright what do we need? Uh... Fire! Right get a fire going. Alright umm... oh right keeping wet clothes on a person is bad! Need to get those off her.... oh..."

My train of thought stopped for a moment and I turned back to the silver haired woman. She was a very attractive young woman, with silver hair and very pretty feature, her figure was curved and even to my untrained eye I could see the toned shape to them which spoke of years of exercise, most like with the sword. My mind flashed to dark and intriguing places, which I quickly shook away with a jerk of my head while muttering, "not right now! Alright so... get the wet cloths off and wrap them in something dry. My coat, thank God I had that with me that'll be perfect!"

With a plan in mind I quickly set to work. Blushing like a school girl the entire time and trying to think of the most unsexy thing imaginable while doing it, I removed her dress, making sure to try and keep it in one piece, laying it out in the sun to dry. Then I rubbed her arms and legs to try and warm up her limbs and increase the blood flow, "man this feels nice, not how I expected to feel a girl's legs for the first time," I muttered under my breath, then promptly berated myself for doing such a thing when this woman could die if I didn't hurry.

I then removed my t-shirt and dried the woman off to the best of my ability before also laying out on the ground to dry. I then took my coat and laid it over the woman, doing my best to cover her as best I could. Then I turned towards the forest and started to gather as much dead brush, sticks, and dead logs as I could and quickly set up a fire.

Once I had the wood set up, I came to a horrified conclusion that I had nothing to start the fire with, I was about to panic when I remembered my new powers, but could I do something this fine tuned? Well either way I had to if I was going to save this woman.

Kneeling next to the fire, I thought of the first word of the Fire Breath shout, Yol. Thinking with all my might on a tiny little flame, like when a match is struck or the flame of a candle, I prayed this would and uttered the word in almost a whisper. "yol..." To my surprise and relief, a tiny puff of flame licked the dry brush and amazingly, caught. I then blew on it in a more mundane way allowing the little fire to spread to the rest of the wood until I had a nice fire going. I then moved the young woman, blushing a bit when I accidentally touched her bare skin and put her as close to the fire as I could with out running the risk of burning her.

Then I headed down to the river, got a long drink, all the while hoping that it wouldn't rip my stomach to shreds later, and walked back to the fire to sit next to the young woman waiting to see when she would wake up as color was already returning to her complexion. All the while I tried to figure out why this young woman was still alive and what would the consequences be of rescuing her.

It wasn't too long before she showed signs of waking up and I moved over to her ready to ask how she felt. When she opened her violet eyes and focus on me, she stared at my face in complete silence. Before I could say anything, she reacted with a scream and a punch to my nose, which while really not all that hard, had been unexpected enough and just in the right spot, to knock me off my knees and on my butt clutching my nose. Al the while I thought, 'I wonder if this was really the best idea. OW!'

 

[brian boru]

"Ow, ow, ow! Damn! Why'd she do that?! Talk about gratitude. OW!" I clutched my nose and muttered curses under my breath as the woman in front of me tried to rise to a seated position. I say tried as that punch seemed to have taken what strength she had. After a few abortive attempts, she gave up and merely glared at me with a shocking amount of fire to it.

Her eyes scanned me, noting my less than stellar physique, the unkempt three day stubble, and my shaggy dark brown wild hair with obvious contempt. Then she examined herself and I swear I saw a hint of a blush before she turned her gaze back to me, then she ground out in a cracked voice, most likely because of her dried throat, "My clothes, where are they?" Her voice was a high alto, not the highest, nor the deepest, but with plenty of strength to it and there was an accent unlike I had ever heard before and to be honest sounded just slightly alluring.

Shaking my head from those thoughts, I extend my left arm to where her dress was laying out in the sun drying. "Over there, I found you half-drowned down by the beach, your clothes were soaked and you were about to freeze to death unless I got you out of them."

She stared for a moment, then a look of panic was on her face and she struggled to get up again, "Aegon, Rhaenys, Orys, the fleet... need to..." she looked like she was about to hurt herself before I put my hand on one of her shoulders and pushed her back to the ground, she was so weak it barely required any force on my part to keep her there.

"Don't get up," I told her apprehensive of what I had to tell her next, "rest please. You're lucky to alive as it is. I don't want you to try and kill yourself trying to overexert yourself."

She glared hate at me for a moment but then nodded and lay back down, then she happened to noticed the sword at my waist. Then her eyes narrowed again and she said in a low, loaded voice, "That sword belongs to my husband, how did you get it?" She indicated at the sword I had tied around my belt.

'Oh I am going to hate doing this!' I took a deep breath and answered her question. "I found this off a dead man not far from where I found you. I hate telling you this, but I'm afraid if this really is your husband's sword, then he is now gone from this world." Then I waited for how she would take it.

She stared at me speechless, obviously not wanting to accept what I said. Then she whispered "...Ageon..." and started to weep, her body shaking with each sob, her exhaustion, injuries, and now this news had been too much for her to take.

I uncomfortably sat there, unsure as what to do, finally I placed my hand back on her shoulder in the only kind gesture I could think of. She seemed to fail to notice my gesture and continued to cry until she suddenly started coughing to the point of gagging.

When I saw this I immediately got up and said, "Hold on a moment, I get you something to drink. I walked down to the river but when I reached I remembered that the entity that dropped me hear had left me nothing but the shirt on my back. "Okay think, think, what can I use, what can I use...." Then remembering the sword I now I got an idea.

Turning towards the river I took a deep breath and then bellowed "FO KRAH DIIN!" A jet of hyper-cold frost emitted from my mouth and formed a large block of ice from the river. Then I took the sword and chopped chunks from the ice, the Valeriyen steel chopping into it with almost no effort, before taking several smaller pieces and bringing them with me back to the camp.

The cold on my bare hands was about to be unbearable when I reached Visenya, who had stopped coughing and crying though tears continued down her face and her eyes were now red and puffy. I helped get her into a seated position, using a large log I had dragged in earlier as a prop, before handing a piece of ice to her saying, "Here you go, I have more if you need them."

She stared in shock at the ice then at me before accepting the ice and began to suck the water from it before crunching a bit off and letting it melt in her mouth. When she went through that one I gave her another piece, when she finished that one she seemed to have satisfied her thirst. We sat for at least an hour as we watched the fire and waited for her clothes to dry.

When she seemed to have calmed down I decided to try and strike up a conversation, "You mentioned Aegon before, you wouldn't happen to be one of the Ladies Targaryen would you?"

She paused for a moment, a look of vague impress on her face, before she nodded, "Yes I am Visenya Targaryen of Dragonstone; and you are?"

"Oh right, I'm Tom Brodie of nowhere in particular, it is an honor to meet your acquaintance milady." I answered with a bow of my head.

She bowed her head in return and said, "Tom Brodie, I thank you for saving my life and giving me aid, if you can assist me in returning to Dragonstone I will reward you in whatever way I can."

"Thank-you milady, you are too kind." I answered.

I then turned and pull my own shirt back on and check her clothing, it had dried off in the summer sun though it might be more than a little stiff. "Er your dress is dry enough milady, do you think you can get it on yourself?" I asked.

My face turned red when she said, more then a little embarrassed at the prospect herself, "I don't think I can, but considering that you have not taken advantage of me this entire time, I feel that you have enough virtue to aid me with this. It is not like I have a choice in the matter anyway."

I nodded my face a fire-hydrant red as I picked up the dress and walked around the fire to her. All the while I thought,'Oh Lord! Is this going to be awkward!'

OOC: And this is the last par of the first chapter, now a question to ya'll. Considering that I having nothing but the clothes on my back, the sword at my waist, and my shouts, I will have to use them all the time just to survive. Which Visenya WOULD notice, now what I am asking how would she react to this. The situation for her is this, Dragonstone's strength was ripped by the storm, her brother, sister, and half-brother are all dead, she has no other relatives, she also hasn't had Magor by this point. But she is alive, healthy and has met this fellow who can shout people to pieces, bellow fire, and even shoot himself across a river with a running start, but is a political moron and not all that great with a weapon other than smack the other guy until he stops moving.

I would like some advice as to how she would likely deal with this. She is intelligent, aggressive, and somewhat stern, her crying her was an odd one time event.

 

[brian boru]

We did not talk too much the rest of that day, Visenya was too exhausted to do much else. After getting her back into her sun and fire dried dress, which was a whole other story which I am afraid I will not answer expect suffice to say that there was much fumbling and blushing on my part and much sighing and eye rolling on Visenya's, I lay her back down near the fire and let her rest, she had fallen asleep quickly and had left me sitting by the the fire wondering what I should do now?

As I thought, I helped gather my thoughts by voicing them as they came to me. "This is odd, that note said that all hands should have drowned in that storm, yet there she is, a little worse for wear but alive. Why? But more importantly, how does her being alive affect my plans?

I was going to go to the Riverlands and start trying to raise hell against Harren but now?

I saved her, I can't well go and abandon her, she's by herself and wouldn't stand much of a chance even if she can fight.

So what do I do?

What do I do?" I asked no one in particular, I didn't wait long for an answer, as I couldn't really live my self if I had left her alone, even if I could have done so easily.

I looked back over to her and a thought came to mind, "I could use her help, I have no real experience with leadership other than the boyscouts and none with war and conquest, wargames don't count," I continued, the fire and the dozing Targaryen making an excellent audience for my monologue.

The more I thought about it, the more appeasing the idea became, "Yes, that could work! She'll be the pointer and the velvet glove, and I'll be the hammer and the mailed fist, at least for now, and in the meantime, I'll learn all I can from her. My goal is to conquer Westeros, and I'd be an idiot if I didn't make use of every advantage." I nodded once in satisfaction before my focus was directed away from thoughts of conquest and Kingship to more mundane issues when my stomach grumbled in complaint as I had eaten anything since I came here.

I cursed the entity once more for leaving me here with nothing but clothes, it wasn't like I could shout myself food, or could I? I had around twenty something shouts, a Valyrien steel sword, and the great forest that would be known as the Kingswood beginning about twenty yards from me. 'Hmmmm.... I wonder if I can pull this off?' I thought to myself before girding the sword and entering the woods.

It turned out I could pull it off surprisingly well, I entered the woods as quietly as I could, undoubtedly I would have made any hunter or woodsman worth his salt laugh himself sick as my antics but I managed to make up for it with several of the less combat-focused shouts I had acquired. The first thing was to whisper the Aura Whisper shout, "Laas Yah Nir." Immediately, the forest lit up with the red silhouettes of squirrels, birds, and rabbits and finding a concentration of game was more then easy now to find a way to keep them still long enough to use the sword. Then another shout came to mind and I had the solution a quick application of Kyne's Peace ("Kaan Drem Ov.") left any animal that had been caught in the blast completely docile. The first animal I came across was a rabbit at the base of a large oak tree, acting for all the world that I didn't exist, even when I pulled out the blade to kill it.

As I stood there poised for the strike, I couldn't help but feel that this was somewhat unfair for the rabbit, it couldn't even run unless I struck and didn't kill it immediately. But then I remembered that I hadn't eaten a damn thing and with the amount of exertion I would be having to do later I would need it desperately, not even counting how long it had been since Visenya had eaten, I steeled myself and lunged, the rabbit twitched once before giving up the ghost. I quickly picked the little animal up and went on my way.

I went on like this for roughly an hour, when I came back out of the forest, I had a quartet of rabbits in my hands, more than enough for two people. Tucked under my arm was a long branch roughly as long as I was tall several other smaller branches.

When I reached the camp I set the branch so that it leaned at an angle then taking my shoe laces I made a pair of loops to hang the rabbits from as I worked. Remembering my dad doing this once as well as a couple of how-to's videos I had seen before and praying the entire time that I didn't screw this up, I very carefully made slits at the ankles of the first rabbit before peeling the skin off of it.

Amazingly I got through all four of the rabbits without a hiccup, though the entire time I was wishing that I had at least a knife to work with, fumbling with the big sword was ridiculous, even if it was Valyrien steel! When I finished skinning and dressing them, I washed all four of the rabbits in the river also tossing all of the offal into the Blackwater Rush while I was there, to try and deter predators from sniffing around our camp at night, that prompted me to make a mental note to grab some more fuel from the forest later for tonight.

After cleaning the meat and myself off I went back to the camp, taking the smaller branches I had gathered earlier I stuck the rabbits on the sticks, jabbed one end into the ground, and had the meat sitting over to the fire to cook. This part, while somewhat different to what I was used to, was actually the easiest part of this entire venture. Having not much else to do, I all but turned my brain off and focused on the meat as it roasted over the fire.

The scent of roasted rabbit was soon wafting through the air, to my surprise the smell woke Visenya, who seemed to have already begun to recover when she was able to get to seated position on her own. I turned to her and nodded my head then said, "Ah, I see your awake milady. How do you feel about some rabbit-on-a-stick?"

She looked at the the cooking rabbits and I could see the hunger in her eyes before she turned her gaze back to me and nodded, "Yes, please."

I nodded in return and when one of the rabbits was ready, I took the entire stick and handed it over to Visenya. She took the stick and to my surprise, ate the rabbit meat with a surprising amount of decorum and manners for what she had gone through and what she had to work with. Seeing that she seemed to be alright I turned to my own meal. Between the two of us we carved clean through all four rabbits, while the both of us were starving, I was the only one to start gnawing on the bones and even scrapping my teeth along the bones like some sort of lath, Visenya declined repeating my actions.

When the two of us were finished I took the bones from her and proceeded to toss all of them into the river, when she asked why I did that, I replied, "Keeps anything...'toothy' from getting too interested in our little campsite," a wry grin appears on my face, "or at least I hope so."

When I sit down, I then turn to her and ask, "What do you plan to do now, milady?"

She pauses at my question and she bows her head and for a moment I thought I had made a mistake, but then she answers me and says in a low voice, "I need to go back home, back to Dragonstone. This entire venture was a terrible mistake, and I need to return as quickly as I can."

I look at her then reply, "Before its common knowledge to the Island Lords that Dragonstone's strength has sunk to the bottom of Blackwater Bay, along with her lord and all three of her dragons?"

Her head snapped back up towards me her eyes popped open and her mouth slightly open. She stared for a moment, a little gobsmacked that I could figure that out, I guess she pegged me as some wanderer of small folk stock, now she was she looked at me with a vague interest. For some reason that bothered me, it bothered me greatly, I had never been one to really care about what others thought of me. But the fact that she seemed to see me as some sort of backwoods yokel who wasn't able to comprehend something beyond three miles from their plot of land nearly sent me into a rage for reasons that made no real sense if I thought about it. I was brought from my fugue when she spoke, "And what are your plans?"

Getting control of myself, I nonchalantly shrugged and replied, "I was planning on accompanying you to Dragonstone, no offense to your ladyship, but I don't much like the odds of you getting back to Dragonstone on your own."

I admit that I took a slight pleasure when she seemed to puff up for a moment in indignation, ready to give this foolish peasant a proper tongue lashing, but logic seemed to win through and she finally nodded curtly, "Very well if you can get me to Drgonstone, I promise to give you your just reward. I trust you can use that blade?"

I placed my hand on the pommel of the sword, "Not really milady, never touched a sword in my life. The only reason I even bothered picking this up was because it was too nice to leave behind and if I had found you before it, this blade would probably be still back... on the beach." Her eyebrows piqued at this turn of events, the slightly positive look she had given me began to fade.

Seeing the look on her face my temper inexplicably peaked again, and without properly thinking about it I made a snap decision which would set in stone the nature of our interactions from then on, "That doesn't mean I'm completely without worth. Allow me to show you something unlike anything you have seen."

She continued to look at me cock-eyed, likely she wondered what this crazy peasant was planning on doing. I then strode to the edge of the river, I took in a deep breath and bellowed out, "YOL TOOR SHUL!!" Instantly a giant jet of flames erupted from my mouth and soared nearly to the other side of the river.

If you haven't used the Thu'um before, then there are no words able to describe the sense of utter power, the elation, the simple joy of roaring to the world your presence and strength. Bellowing out fire, shrieking frost, or simply howling raw force it didn't matter, all of them were a proud cry to the world, "I AM HERE! YOU AIN'T GOT SHIT ON ME!!!" Then there came the simple knowledge that there wasn't a living thing that could fight you head one, that nothing could even get close unless you purposely let them.

Little wonder that I failed to keep a smile from appearing from my face as I took another breath and let out another shout "FO KRAH DIIN!!" This time a huge jet of pure cold erupted from my mouth, this time flash-forming ice floes big enough for a grown man to ride on with perfect comfort.

Finally I turned towards a large rock along the river bank and I bellowed my first and favorite shout. "FUS RO DAH!!" A blue shock-wave shot out and slammed into the boulder and rips it from the ground and blasts it into the river with a gigantic splash.

I stood there panting a bit, slightly out of breath and a strange feeling of slight fatigue like I had exerted myself for a short period of time.

I turned back to Visenya and I couldn't help but grin slightly, "I believe I have proven my worth, wouldn't you agree milady?"

Visenya had nothing to say, in fact, to my concern, she had gone wall-eyed on me, her eyes focused on nothing in particular. I quickly rushed back over to her, cursing myself for that showboating. I asked myself why had I gotten so bothered by here reaction to me, and why had I gone so far over the top when I tried to show my power? A simple FUS or YOL would have been more than enough to show her what I could do. When I got to her side and knelt down by her side, waving a hand in her non-responsive face, finally I resorted to grabbing her shoulder and shook her a bit, saying her name, "Milady? Lady Visenya? Are you alright?"

That seemed to do the trick as she snapped out of whatever state she had been in. When she recovered from her shock, she gave me one of the most intense looks I had ever seen anyone give me. Then in a soft voice I heard, "Yes, I think you will do quite well."

For some odd reason I felt a cold chill go up my spine...

 

[brian boru]

Now here is the re-write.


Looking back at what I have written, I have decided that I need to rewrite the thing, less BADASS right of the bat and more OH FUCK WHAT AM I DOING HERE?

Also I am taking it to third person, it's still based on me but at more of a distance.

I want to thank Psyckosama for helping me here by letting me bounce ideas off and helping with how characters would react.


The Thu'um and the Seven Kingdoms

'Why do I feel sand?' was the first thought that came to Tom Brodie's mind when he left the dark depths of sleep and returned to the land of the wakeful. He closed his hands feeling something small and granular gather up in his hand.

Idly he rubbed his fingers over the substance and felt it sift through his fingers, 'Definitely sand.'

He opened his eyes, expecting the dim light of his college dorm room but was instead by the light of a noon day sun. The molasses of sleep that had been gumming his mind evaporated like the morning dew in a desert. He shot up into a seated position while saying, "Oh Shit! I over slept, oh damn I'm in so much.... what?"

He stopped in mid rant when he saw that he was not in his dorm room in Atlanta Georgia, he was instead sitting on some strange beach, the sun already fairly high in the sky though still rising from the direction of the ocean if he judged correctly.

Confused, disoriented, and wondering just where the hell he was, he got to his feet and noticed that he was not wearing his pajamas either. Instead he was wearing a pair of blue jeans, his black cross-trainers, a black t-shirt and his thick canvass cloth coat, the last he quickly began to take off when he noticed just how hot is was here. That didn't make any sense either for as far as he knew it was the middle of February and still freezing cold. It shouldn't be feeling like high summer. "Just what the hell's going on here and where the hell am I?" he muttered to himself once he got the coat off.

As he placed the coat down he noticed the corner of a piece of paper tucked into one of the pockets of his coat. He quickly took the paper out and began to examine it hoping that there would be some sort of answer on it. To his relief, there was a note written on his in a hand writing that he didn't recognize but was perfectly legible. He only read a few lines though before he stopped, his eyes widened in shock and lost focus as he began to panic, any sense of relief he had previously felt smashed like a rock, not wanting to believe what he just read, hoping that he was just dreaming and that this would all go away if he just woke up. He closed his eyes counted to ten and when he opened them, he was on the same beach and was looking at the same note, the same collection of damning words written on it.

Slowly, haltingly he forced himself to read the entire note, hoping that there was some sort of answer or maybe a 'fooled ya' at the end of it. As he read he muttered the words out loud, not really noticing as he did so.

Good morning pitiful mortal. Stand tall and behold the glorious sights of Westeros, and the beauty of King's Landing and Blackwater Bay... or at least what might eventually be known as Kings Landing. It is important that is that this land be united. Bad things will happen if its not. What those bad things are, I'm not going to say, but I'd like to encourage you to use your imagination. Of course I'm not going to leave you totally out in the cold. After all, you ain't John Carter and this ain't Mars, so I'm doing you two favors. First, I'm removing the greatest threat to your inevitable conquest (no, no need to thank me!). Second, well, you'll just have to find out now won't you? So have fun, enjoy yourself, and remember, it goes Rape, Pillage, then Burn. Oh, and if you're still wondering what the hell I'm talking about, here's a hint, just repeat after me... Fus Ro Dah.

The moment Tom spoke those last three syllables a blue shock-wave of energy erupted from his mouth and ripped the paper out of his hands and flew along the beach.

Tom stated at his hands for a few seconds, unbelieving of what he saw. Then he realized that the note was flying away, "Dammit! Come back!"

He ran after the paper trying his damnedest process what he had read. Blackwater Bay? King's Landing? Westeros? Those were names and place from a book series he'd recently read, a saga of intrigue, war, love, hate, death, life, honor, and the struggle for power and those who won it or lost it and the consequences thereof. But that was fantasy, it couldn't be real, it just couldn't.

As he ran he kept his eyes dead set on the paper in front of him, hell bound and determined not to let the damn slip of paper get away from him, he failed to pay proper attention to where he was going. His chase was brought to an abrupt halt when he tripped over something large and heavy, his face slamming into the wet sand for his troubles.

He couldn't react for a second, his nose hurting and likely bleeding, the sand muffled a flurry of curses as his temper and frustration flared at the ridiculousness of it all. He raised his head from the sand a trickle of blood already begging to come from one of his nostrils. His eyes scanned the beach in front of him, trying to spot the paper. His efforts proved to be futile, the paper was nowhere to be found and likely never found again. His grit his teeth, clenched his right fist and began to pound the ground in front of him. The air was filled with the muffled thuds of his blows as his curses threatened to turn into a scream of frustration.

His tantrum lasted for about half a minute before he was interrupted from his emotional meltdown by a strange sound. "What was that?" he muttered to himself as he raised his head and strained his ears in the hopes of catching that sound again. The frustration he had felt over losing the paper evaporated and was replaced by confusion and a growing apprehension as the sound had seemed hauntingly similar to a masculine groan of agony.

While he would never admit to it, he felt that he was perfectly in his right to be worried he was unarmed, alone, and had absolutely nothing to defend himself other than his hands and fists, the events that had forced him to run after the paper he failed to bring up, it was too soon and it . While he'd had years of football, folk wrestling, and even a long stint in Taekwondo all of which given him a powerful albeit more than a little flabby physic; all of that fell away as unknown terrors began to haunt his mind. Tom was not a soldier, he was not a trained warrior, though he had held his own in the few tussles he'd had in school and had been more than competent on the gridiron or the mats, actual combat for his life was something he had no experience in and an image of armed thugs torturing some hapless victim and who wouldn't mid another warm carcass to kick around wouldn't leave his mind.

But he was no coward even if he was unblooded and he was not going to curl up and cry waiting for the inevitable. Steeling himself he picked himself up, hefting his 13 stone bulk off the ground and tried to spot the source of the sound. About three or four yards further further down the beach, Tom noted a what looked like a large piece of driftwood, but his eyes all but slid right off of it after the first glance and he continued looking for the source of the groan. His fists clenched in preparation for a fight and along with searching for the maker of the sound his eyes scanned fruitlessly for something that he could use as a weapon.

When he heard it again, he managed to decipher where the general direction the sound came from, he turned his head towards the sound and again all he could see was the piece of driftwood, then he took a close look, and his heart leaped into throat as his eyes widened in shock, he then began to run towards the "driftwood" as he finally recognized it for what it really was.

It was a person, more specifically a man, he was soaked to the bone and his body was covered in sand. When Tom got alongside the seemingly dead man, he flinched at the condition he was in. He was battered and bruised as if he had been slammed against a brick wall by some giant petulant child. His hair was an unique silver-blonde and he had somewhat angular features, what was more worrying was that the man's face was deathly pale and blood was oozing out of both corners of his mouth.

When he knelt down to examine them further, the man flickered his eyes open and striking violet colored eyes looked right into Tom's. Tom flinched yet again but recovered quickly enough when he saw that the man was still alive. He grabbed the man under his shoulders and began to drag him away from the surf he'd just been laying in, although the man had to weigh nearly as much as he did, Tom continued to pull with surprising ease, he powerful legs driving into the sand. When Tom had dragged him a good twenty feet, he bent down and tried to get a response from him. "Hey, buddy you alright? Come on speak to me. What happened?"

Tom continued to fire this barrage of questions in the hopes that if nothing else the sound of his voice would keep the man awake. For easily a minute or so no response seemed to come from the man and right before Tom was about to give up he suddenly heard a response, the man began to speak, his voice was low and cracked, the sheer agony that seemed to lace every word the man spoke boggled Tom's mind at the personal strength the man had to of had. He leaned down closer to the man, never breaking eye contact, as the man spoke, telling him what the young man knew to be his eulogy.

"I am Aegon Targaryen...of Dragonstone....fleet was lost....was a storm..." He stopped as he began to cough fitfully and blood spattered the front of Tom shirt.

Tom flinched in animalistic revulsion nearly vomiting. But he forced his bile down and told Aegon, "Easy now, you'll kill yourself if you keep this up."

That seemed to amuse the man somewhat as a slight smile appeared on his face before he answered, "Already dying... no need to save my strength now...why did this happen....where are Visenya, Rhaenys, Orys...." His speech began to fragment even more so and he started to cough again his entire body shaking this time and his face was wracked with pain, his face became even paler.

"Stop! I get it! Just rest! Please!" Tom's voices grew higher as panic tried to rob him of his calm. White surrounded his usually sedate eyes as he tried to get the man to stop talking and rest, all the while a niggling bit of information gnawed at the back of his head like he was forgetting something incredibly important, but he was so confused by everything that had happened to him that he failed to piece it all together.

Suddenly Aegon's hand shot out and grabbed Tom's in a horrifying death grip and with a shocking burst of strength he bore his fevered eyes into Tom's and said with unbelievable strength, "Find them! Find Visenya! Find Rhaenys! Give you my sword ….please find them! ….swear you do it.... swear!" He used his other hand to pull out the huge hand-and-a-half sword that was still cinched to his waist.

Tom tried to snatch his arm out of the other man's grip, panic overriding his calm. But the blonde man's grip was terrifying in its strength and Tom couldn't break free from his grip. Fear driving him, he said, "OK! OK! I'll do it! I'll do it!"

Apparently it wasn't quite enough, "SWEAR!!" His eyes where near bulging while his pupils had turned into tiny black pinpricks.

Mind rushing at a thousand miles an hour Tom half shouted out what he hoped would satisfy the man, "I, T-tom Brodie, swear to find Visenya and Rhaenys! May God strike me down if I don't!! There is that good?" He asked as he tentatively took the sword, being lighter than he thought it would have been.

All the spirit seemed to leave the man, and the demon strength left his grip as he let go and seemed to collapse in on himself, he took in a deep breath and then spoke one last time, "Thank-you." Then, just like that, he stopped breathing and died.

Tom knelt there in shock for who knew how long, his mind was a confused maelstrom of what he had just seen. Then the pieces snapped together as he finally recognized why the man's name seemed so familiar. This was Aegon Targaryen! The man who, with his dragons would have united the continent of Westeros under a single banner and forged a throne out of the swords of his foes.

His mind flashed back to the note that he'd found on his person and with shocked horror he realized what the note had meant by 'removing your greatest threat'. The entity that had sent him to Westeros had also removed the one who should have done it along with at least two thousand of his followers, as a favor to him! What sick monster would do this? Why do this? Why him?

The only word that could encapsulate this entire situation was a forceful, "Shit!"

 

[brian boru]

For over an hour Tom just knelt there, the sand becoming uncomfortable under his knees, the sun burned the back of his neck, sweat trickled down the center of his back and his thick brown hair began to turn dark from the sweat, yet still he knelt in a stunned vigil for the fallen lord of Dragonstone. His mind was in too much turmoil to notice the discomfort as he tried in vain to comprehend what had just happened.

His impromptu vigil was finally put to an end when sweat trickled into his eyes and forced him to move, his arm wiping the sweat from his face. With that movement, Tom finally noticed the heat and the discomfort of his knees, with slow aching movement, he got to his feet and, facing the sea, he gave his surroundings a proper survey.

To his left, as far as the eye could see, was an endless stretch of beach with woodlands further inland. To his right, the beach continued for a long distance as well until interrupted about a mile away by a mighty river which emptied into the bay. On his side of the river, he could spot several hills adjacent to the river with one of them forming a cliff that jutted out towards the sea. He realized quickly enough that the river was Blackwater Rush, which flowed into the bay of the same name. Those hills were the clincher for him as he remembered from the books he'd read that was where the city of King's Landing would one day stand.

Or rather would have, he thought, grimly remembering what lay nearby. He turned back to the body that lay near where he stood, then he looked at the sheathed great-sword in his hands, he remembered the oath he had given a dying man. "I don't have a choice do I?" He muttered out loud, "I gave the man my word that I would find his sisters, but I don't even know where to look." Then he remembered that Aegon had not gone alone when he went on his conquest, he'd been with a army, albeit a tiny one, but an army none the less, that Aegon himself had survived long enough to make it to shore gave him hope that other had as well. He had to find them if he could, and even if nothing could be found, it was better than sitting here doing nothing.

Deciding on a direction, he turned and walked towards the river and began to scan the beach, looking for anything that even vaguely resembled a person. He strode slowly, his eyes darting back and forth, occasionally examining ocean flotsam with more focus than he should have, terrified of accidentally missing someone and leaving them to die of exposure. By the time he was nearing the river, he was about to panic, so far he'd had two false alarms of what he thought was a person was only driftwood, and the ghastly remain of six members of Aegon's fleet. He had recoiled in horror at their drowned bodies, cheese white skin, and features bloated by the sea with bits and pieces of them already torn off by scavengers. He was about to give up hope of finding anyone alive when he spotted a shape near the mouth of the river.

As he approached the shape, his heart jumped into his throat when he saw the long silver-blonde hair and the rich but soaked clothing that the shape wore. He broke into a run, hoping that he hadn't already failed his promise to Aegon. As he finally came upon the person, he saw that the woman, as only a blind man could have missed those curves, was likely one of Aegon's sisters, given the silver-blonde hair and her features which were strikingly similar to the drowned man's.

At first glance it seemed that she was dead as well, but excitement flashed through him when he examined her more closely and found that there was a pulse as well as shallow and somewhat labored breathing. He then turned her onto her back and tried to wake her, however his attempts all ended in failure and when he checked her breathing again he felt to his horror that her breathing was beginning to grow even more shallow and her heart beat was beginning to fade.

Panic filled him and he scrambled to try and save the woman. After throwing his coat on her, he scrambled for the trees growing further in from the beach and scoured the forest floor looking for branches and twigs, the wood scratched his arm and more than once nearly blinded him but he never even noticed. When he felt he had enough he sprinted back to the woman with the awkward bundle of wood when he reached her side he quickly began to stack the wood the best he could. When the wood was stacked to his satisfaction, he realized that her soaking wet clothes needed to be removed to prevent the onset of hypothermia.

He proceeded to turn her on side and searched for the laces that kept the dress on. He fought with two of the total of thirty laces before giving up on untying each one. He dug into his pants pocket and pulled out a pocket knife he always kept on him. He then proceed to slice five of the top laces and then peeled the dress off of the woman as if he were skinning a snake, the entire time he was cursing how the black and scarlet dress seemed to refuse to let go of the woman.

Once that was off he then quickly removed the rest of her clothing which consisted of a shift she wore beneath her dress, as well as her shoes and stockings. When he was finished he was left with the woman's body bare and exposed for the entire world to see. Tom failed to recognize this other than to throw his coat back on her as he turned his focus back to the wood he'd gathered. His plans to save this woman now hit a snag, to his horror, he realized that he had no matches or any other means to start a fire. He turned back to the woman fading before him. She was dieing right in front of him and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

Or was there? His mind wandered back to what the lost note had said, and what he'd done when he'd spoken those words. His voice now had a power to it that much was certain, but was there anything that he could do for this woman? Was there a word that could light this fire? Yes there was. A word came to mind, one that meant fire in the tongue of a race that had never existed in this world. He bent down to the pile of wood and spoke in as calm a voice as he could, praying to God that this would work. "YOL"

The moment that he spoke, a small jet of fire erupted from his mouth and struck the wood, immediately catching it on fire. Tom now had a warming fire crackling merrily in front of him. He then picked the woman up, never noticing her bare skin or her exposed body as he lay her next to the fire and covered her with his coat.

As he examined her he tried to think of anything else he could do he remembered how if someone had suffered hypothermia that he was supposed to try and warm the victim up with his own body heat after removing his clothes. Not even thinking about the implications he proceeded to strip himself down to his underwear and then quickly shifted himself under the woman, acting as a heat source and a means of getting her off of the cold wet sand and then draped his coat back over the two of them, taking care that she was covered as much as possible. It was about this time that he realized just what the hell he was doing. He flushed a bright red, despite being twenty-two years old, he'd had barely any experience with women outside of his own family and now he was all but spooning a naked woman while he had nothing but his underwear on.

But he did not try and extricate himself from his position, despite his misgivings, he knew that this was the best way to keep her warm and prevent hypothermia, so he grit his teeth, focused his gaze on the river, and did his best to control certain aspects of his body, with middling success.

After a while Tom grew concerned that Aegon's sister seemed to refuse to warm despite all of his efforts. He knew that he was doing everything right, but she still refused to warm up and Tom was beginning to panic, what else could he do? It wasn't like he could make a healing shout. Or could he? His mind went into overdrive and he delved into his limited vocabulary of dragon words. He eventually pieced together what he hoped would work as a healing shout and after extricating himself from under the woman and getting to his knees, he took a deep breath and shouted the words for "Life", "Spirit", and "Force."

"LAAS ZII FUS!!" A flash of golden energy enveloped the woman and at the same time Tom had nearly all the strength he had in him evaporate for a moment and he collapsed to a seated position. Panting slightly he got back to his feet and watched the woman carefully as her body seemed to absorb the golden energy. As the energy did its work, he prayed that his cobbled together Thu'um or shout had actually worked.

The reaction was actually quite immediate and severe. The moment the gold energy faded into her body, her skin lost the pale pallor and she all but flew to a seated position. She then hunched over as she began to cough and vomit water and she was soon forced to her hands and knees as she shook from the force of her body trying to expel the water that had been in her lungs and stomach. Tom took a step back in surprise at the forcefulness of his shout. When her coughs seemed to subside, Tom inched back over to her and in a low voice asked, "Are you alright?"

The Targaryen woman didn't seem to notice him and he was about to try again when she surprised him yet again by leaping away from him and scrambled for his pile of clothes and the sword lay.

The Sword!

Tom instantly realized what she was going for and he knowing that she was likely his superior if she got that blade he bolted after her. He all but body slammed the woman then while she was stunned he tried to pin her to the ground in order to stop her. She shrieked like a banshee and fought like a wildcat as she struggled to escape his grip. But Tom had several advantages over her, one he was over 180 pounds compared to her at most 120 pounds, two she had only just awoken after barely surviving a storm that had destroyed an entire fleet and then proceeded to slam the debris of said fleet all along the coast and no magic shout was going to change that. Finally Tom was no pushover, he'd been a high school athlete, playing football, and competing in wrestling tournaments for all four years of his high school career and had kept himself in shape since them. The countless hours of conditioning, games, and bouts had given him both strength and endurance, and while he was not the absolute strongest, or fastest, or the most skilled, he had an endurance and toughness that allowed him to keep plowing on when others would collapse from exhaustion. As long as the fight remained on the ground, he had the advantage.

With some effort, Tom managed to pin the woman to the ground by straddling her stomach, he also had one of her arms pressed into her chest above her breasts while his other hand kept her arm pinned to the sand of the beach. Meanwhile, Tom used his legs to keep his captive from using hers to espcape. Her struggling became even fiercer and Tom had to shift his position several times when she tried to bite him, but through the entire melee he held on and after what seemed like an eternity, she finally gave up and slumped to the sand, panting, her eyes wide open and her pupils narrowed to pinpricks.

She stared into his eyes with incredible intensity then after a minute she mustered the strength to give the young man a truly stunning sneer as she spat out in a bitter tone, her voice laced with the venom she obviously felt, "Well, what are you waiting for?"

Tom immediately answered in as a calm a voice as he could muster, "I'm waiting until you stop trying to run for that sword."

The woman's eyes momentarily widened in stunned disbelief, the quickly narrowed as she glared at him before saying in sarcasm laced tones, "If you truly believe that I will simply lie down and allow you to rape me, then you are an even greater fool than I thought!"

Tom eyes widened in shock and he managed to sputter out, "It's not like that! I wasn't going to do anything that! I found you have drowned and I was trying to keep you from freezing to death!"

"Really? And I suppose that is the hilt of your dagger grinding into my hip just now?" The sarcasm never left her voice.

Tom nearly leaped off of her as if she was on fire his face had now turned a beet red and he could feel his ears burning. The woman took advantages of this and tried to scramble for the sword. When Tom saw what she had done he leaped back after her and after grinding her face into the sand. He did not even try to hide his physical reaction this time and to be honest it was starting to fade especially after his arm got too close to her mouth and she bit down actually drawing blood. Under his breath he muttered, "You know you are really making me wish I hadn't made that oath."

But before she could respond that he continued, "Now, I told you. I am not going to do anything to you! Just relax, stop going for the sword and let's talk about this!" She was silent for a moment then she gave a quick silent nod.

Tom then let go of her and backed away from her, allowing her to get back up on her own. She promptly did so spitting sand all the while, while he tried not to notice how the sand clung to her bare skin.

When she seemed to have spat out enough sand to her satisfaction, she then turned to him, still naked and said in an accusatory voice, "Assuming that you are telling me the truth, where did you get my husband's sword and what oath do you speak of?"

"I swore an oath to your husband to find you and your sister" He replied, not liking where this conversation was going. Meanwhile he grabbed his coat which had been laying on the beach where it had been forgotten after her violent awakening. When he offered it to he she stared at it for a moment before snatching it, slipping her arms into the sleeves, and then held it tightly to preserve at least some illusion of modesty.

"Then how did you get his sword?" The accusation in her voice growing.

He continued to keep his voice as level as possible, "It was payment for giving my oath."

She smirked derisively at Tom and retorted, "That's a likely story, my husband would never give up his sword unless...unless." Both confidence and color drained from her face as her voice started to give hint to her growing apprehension. "Where is my husband?"

Tom was no longer able to look her in the eye, he bowed his head and looked away for a moment before looking back at her, saying, "I'm sorry."

The woman stood dumbfounded for a moment not quite able to process what he was telling, but she was far from a fool and realization struck her like a bolt of lighting, she staggered for a moment before she spoke, her voice thick with emotion, "Your lying! Where is he? Where is my Aegon?" The more she spoke, the more frantic her voice became.

"Um" Tom began weakly, not really sure how to articulate what he was about to say, "I found him on the beach..." He dumbly pointed in Aegon's direction as he spoke, but got no further as the Targaryen woman literally streaked down the beach.

With a deep sigh, Tom slipped his pants on before grabbing the sword and giving chase.

 

[brian boru]

Tom stared after the fleet footed woman, amazed at how fast she dashed across the sand. By the time he had started after her, she was already a good thirty yards away and that distance was quickly growing.


Tom muttered a curse and decided to follow her though he kept his distance from her not wanting to get in the way of her search. She darted down the beach stopping to check each body she came across before darting away from the body yet again. They kept this zigzagging chase up for a good two or three minutes before the Targaryen woman reached a uncomfortably familiar shape a distance away from the water. His companion had come to a complete stop and was standing next the shape, her head was angled towards the body of Aegon Targaryen. When Tom saw this he came to a complete stop, not wanting to intrude.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when the woman suddenly threw herself onto the man and clutched his body then began to shake him, begging him to wake up and not leave her. She repeated this over and over until it became and almost endless barrage of sound as she seemed to descend into madness then she went silent for a moment before she snapped her head up to face the sky and emitted one of the most piercing, bone-chilling, and pain laden shrieks of despair he had ever heard in his entire life. To call it a scream would be to belittle the primal grief and agony contained within her deafening cry. He almost hated himself for thinking it, but The Princess Bride was right. Ultimate Suffering really did have its own sound.

She held her wail for what felt like an eternity, long enough that Tom was left idly wondering about her lung capacity. When finally she seemed to have exhausted herself, she hunching over the body of the dead man and simply wept, her body shaking with every one of her sobs.

Tom stood, unsure as what to do before he finally marshaled the resolve to bridge the distance. He knelt beside and, expecting her to strike him for doing this, wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a one armed hug. She flinched as his touch at first, but after a moment she turn into his side and continued to cry into his chest clinging to him like a drowning man to a lifeline. He proceeded to run his hand up and down her back in an instinctive attempt at comforting her.

She simply wept for at least ten minutes before her sobs finally subsided and she continued to cling to Tom, exhausted from her crying and her early misadventures. When Tom was sure she would hear it, he cleared his throat and said, "If it is any consolation M-Lady Targaryen," He tripped over using a prefix that she would actually recognize, "I was here when he passed on, the only thing that was on his mind was of you and your sister. He... refused to let go until I made an oath that I would do everything I could to find you and your sister."

She was silent for a moment, then muttered, "Thank-you, for saving me and for holding to your oath. As for Rhaenys, I fear that she may be dead. My memory is not that clear but one thing I do remember during storm was that she was thrown overboard before the ship capsized." She shuddered at the memory of that horrible experience.

Tom grimaced, thrown overboard in a storm? While people may survive that in stories all the time, there is a reason you only hear of that happening in stories. She was likely dead at the bottom of the ocean or somewhere miles away rotting on a lonely beach. But he looked to the blade at his waist and recalled the mad desperation in a dying man's eyes."Even if she is dead, there is always a chance. And I made an oath to him to find both of you."

Talks of oaths reminded him that his own oath was only half fulfilled and also their current location while picturesque sans the grounds, were not conducive for long term residence so to speak. "Lady Visenya," He ventured, "we need to be going. We still need to find your sister and you need something beyond a coat that barely covers your hips. You may have missed it earlier but your clothes are drying by the fire I made back that way" He jerked his thumb back towards the fire behind him.

Visenya looked down at herself and blushed slightly in embarrassment, but nodded in agreement, "You are correct Ser...?" She gave him a inquisitive look.

"Oh right!" He shook is head then gave a slight bow at his waste with own arm across his chest like he had seen in a hundred period pieces. "Tom Brodie at your service."

"Ser Tom Brodie..." Visenya seemed to test the name as she spoke it, though for what Tom couldn't tell. "Tell me Ser Tom where are you from? I have never seen such clothing before. Is that what the Nightwatch wears when they travel to the South?" She indicated the black t-shirt with a small pocket over the left breast Tom had slipped on when he had gone after her.

He looked down, and had to laugh at bit at it, "Oh no I'm not part of the Nightswatch, as to where I am from," He paused to think of something to tell her that wouldn't convince her that she had been saved by a lunatic. "I am from far away, you would likely never have heard of it. I am something of a wanderer, I've only just come into the region." He left it at that, hoping that she would accept it.

She looked at him long and hard before nodding, "Very well, I will not pry into the affairs of the man who saved my life without his leave."

She then turned back to the body and said, "I agree we do need to go but first," and she paused as a sad look reappeared on her face, "We need to bury my husband, and see if there was anything he had we could use for our journey."

Tom was somewhat surprised at how she seemed willing to search her only now cold husband's body but he acknowledged the logic behind it, he would no longer need it and anything they could find on him would be essential for the future. But the thought of a woman having to search her own husbands corpse seemed abhorrent to him. "Here let me do it, you can go and dress yourself I should be done and ready with a grave by the time you get back."

She looked at him again, her emotions clouded in his eyes but she nodded and said, "Thank you Ser Tom." She then, after giving Aegon's body one last look, turned back towards the fire and walked away from Tom. She took a few steps then stopped and turned back to where Tom had stood watching her walk and made a final comment, "We Targaryens burn our dead, it is not the way of Dragons to be laid into the ground to rot. *Aegon was a dragon he deserves better than this."*

Tom looked at her, the pained look in her face made his guts twist and he wished there was something he could do. Then a thought flashed through his mind, yes that could work but he needed a bit more time. "Lady Visenya, this might take a while why don't you check the other bodies for anything we could use. My coat has plenty of pockets you could use to keep them in."

She nodded and turn back on her way to her clothing.

Tom sighed then turned to the dead lord of Dragonstone and said, "Well let's see what you had on you Mr. Targaryen."

After a few minutes of searching he found a gold and ruby amulet in the shape of a three headed dragon, much similar to the Targaryen family heraldry, a pair of rings one gold with a red stone, and the other silver with a black stone. Then on the man's hip was a small money pouch with three gold coins with a dragon on one side, and about forty silver coins with a stag shaped emblem on one side. A fair amount of money and enough to get whatever supplies they needed in any larger settlement, though that raised the question of where a larger settlement was located.

Once he'd found everything he could from the man's body, he strode towards the forest again and began to gather as many sticks and branches as he could find, making several trips. He then proceeded to make a large mat of wood on the beach. Then he grabbed the dead Targaryen lord under his shoulders and dragged him over the mat of wood. Making a Sign of the Cross he then said a short prayer, "May you be with your loved ones who have gone before you, Aegon Targaryen, Lord of Dragonstone."

He then took a glance down to check for Visenya, then when was sure that she wasn't there, he took a deep breath and concentrating on the shout for fire he bellowed out, "YOL!" A ball of flame half as tall as he was shot from his mouth and enveloped the pyre. While the wood burn he was cooking the man more than turning him to ash. He was on the right path but he needed something more to get this job done. Concentrating on the flames another two words bubbled up from the depths of his mind. Standing up he took a few steps back and then taking a deep breath he bellowed the words at the top of his lungs, "YOL TOOR SHUL!!!!" This time instead of a fire ball, his rewards was a gigantic stream of scarlet flames that consumed the pyre and left only red hot embers behind of what was the earthly remains of the lord of Dragonstone. He was standing there watching the embers burn when Visenya returned with her dress on, his coat draped over her shoulders like a shawl, and with prizes wrestled from the broken ships and broken men from up and down the beach.

She stopped and stared in wonder at the embers that burned in front of her and she turned to Tom who was flushing a little at the intensity of that look.

"How did you...?"

"I gathered up some wood, and as you said, he was a Dragon, he deserved to go out like one."

Her eyes glistened with unshed tears, then she took a deep breath and said, "Thank-you I am grateful for the gesture and I am sure Aegon is as well."

She turned back to the pyre and stood incredibly close to it, closer than Tom would ever had before she spoke some chant in a language which Tom guessed was Old Valyrian. She then stepped back and stood by Tom as the two of them watched the pyre burn.

The flames burned down to ashes after several hours leaving little but the occasional bones fragments which Visenya took and scattered them into the sea, all the while muttering some prayer in the same language as before. When Tom asked her about it she told him that is was an old traditional send off for the dead that had been passed down in the Targaryen line since the ancient days of Valyria. The tradition was to toss the remains in the direction of Valyria, that the soul of the dead might find its way to their ancestral homeland to be with their ancestors.

Tom didn't know what to say to that so only nodded in acknowledgment, he then looked up at the sky and noted that it was beginning to set into the West hidded behind the hills and forests further inland. Making a decision he turned to Visenya and said, "Well, it seems that night will coming soon, I'm sure your exhausted, and hungry," he grimaced himself when he realized that he hadn't eaten anything all day himself.

As the two of them walked to his earlier fire he turned and asked, "And what were you able to find?"

She dug her hands into the coat pockets and pulled out two copper-wire rings with semi-precious stones set in them as well as about six pieces of silver and easily forty copper stars and pennies. "There were also a pair of chain mail hauberks we might be able to use, though there will be rust if they aren't dried quickly, as well as a few knifes."

Tom nodded and the two continued on in silence. When the two of them reached the fire, Tom saw, to his relief, that the fire was still hot enough to keep going, he tossed a few more pieces of wood and blew on the embers until they caught the new logs. When he was sure that it would remain burning for a while, he made sure that his pocket knife was in his jeans pocket, grabbed one of the larger knives Visenya had found, and proceeded to head into the forest telling Visenya that he was going to try and bag a few rabbits for a spit.

When he'd left Visenya's line of sight, he turned to the late afternoon forest and wracked his brain as to how he was going to find anything, he was no hunter, he'd had only one experience in hunting which had resulted in absolute failure, with nothing found. How could he even track anything down?

His thoughts went back to the different powers he'd exhibited today, he'd fired a blast of kinetic energy within minutes of arriving here, and over the course of the day he'd breathed fire no less than twice with one word. While those words seemed to be familiar to him, in more ways than one, he couldn't tell why exactly they seemed so. But that conundrum paled compared to how was he supposed to locate any animal in this forest. As he stood there more words appeared in his head, three of them, organized into a certain order.

Tom was wondering just how many of these phrases he knew and as to how he knew them in the first place? But in a situation like this he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Putting his musings to the back of his mind he took another breath and spoke the three words, "Lass Yah Nir." When the shout did its work, Tom was nearly floored by the sensory overload, he had heard in fiction about those who 'became one with nature' being able to detect living things with an almost supernatural ability. But this? Words failed to describe how he could now sense not just the sounds, the sights, or the smells, he could sense through some sixth super sense the very being of every living animal within a quarter of a mile of him. Insects, birds, smalls animals, their sheer number nearly overwhelmed him. He could have just stood their in awe of the sheer amount of LIFE that was in just such a short distance from him.

He had to force himself to get a grip on his senses and zero in on specific signatures, he zeroed in on each larger signature, marking what they were then moving on trying to spot something easy to bag and had plenty of meat on it.

Bird
Bird
Bird
Squirrel
Rabbit
Bug
Boar
Bir...

Boar!

Tom, still using the the senses granted him by the shout zeroed in on the largest life signature he could sense in his range. It was a wild pig alright, not a large one, fifty pounds at the most. It was also only about sixty yards away snuffling through the woods, most likely digging for mushrooms, acorns and the like.

Tom stalked his way towards the pig, his senses never leaving the thing until he was around a good forty feet from the thing, he held his breath, scared of breathing too hard and giving away his position. The power of his most recent shout faded away at that point but he was close enough to track it with his eyes. When he tried to take another few steps, the pig suddenly snapped its hairy head in Tom's direction before squealing in rage and charging the stunned man.

"Shit!", he shouted, he was unarmed save for a knife and now he had an enraged pig charging down on him. What should he do? He wracked his brain and then he remembered the first shout he'd done. He smiled that should do it. He took a breath and shouted, "FUS RO...cough!" he didn't manage to finish the shout but the first two shouts proved more than enough for the job, the pig was knocked clean off its feet and was slammed into a tree where Tom could hear the crunch of bone as it slammed into the wood.

The pig crashed to the ground and lay there unmoving. Tom stood there for a few minutes, expecting the pig to get up and charge him again at any moment. When it failed to do so, he inched closer and closer to the pig, he finally took the new knife and pricked the thing. When it failed to move again he pricked again. Yet again the pig didn't move. A large silly smile spread across his face and he couldn't help but feel like he had achieved a great accomplishment. He'd taken down a pig that had to be forty pounds. Now how was he going to drag this thing back to Visenya and the camp?

Vesenya's look of stunned shock as Tom walked back to the fire with a forty pig draped over his shoulders would remain in Tom's memory for years. When he dropped the pig to the ground only half an hour after walking into the forest, armed with one side knife, she started to sputter, "How did you...?"

Tom couldn't help but grin at her awe and tease her a bit, "I guess I have a way with animals."

She continued to stare but she didn't comment further.

Tom went back into the forest and a few minute he came back with a trio of long pieces of wood which he tied together into a tripod shape using one of his shoe laces. Then he took the pig by the feet and tied its ankles to the center of the tripod so that he could hang the pig off of the ground.

He took the knife, took a deep breath, and began to carefully and somewhat haltingly prepped the pig, then he made another two tripods using some strips of cloth borrowed from a few of the bodies from the beach. He then set the pig on the impromptu spit and sat back and watched it roast.

As they sat by the fire Tom turned to Visenya and asked her, "Well where do we intend to go tomorrow?"

Visenya was silent for a moment before she replied, "You intend to go with me?"

"Of course," He answered as if it was the simplest thing in the world, "I swore and oath to Aegon that I would find both you and your sister, and to help you in anyway I could. The way I see it, I've only fulfilled part of that oath."

Visenya, stared at Tom and replied, "You truly are going to fulfill your oath?" When Tom nodded in answer, she seemed surprised and somewhat impressed, "There are many men, born into great and noble houses who would never have held to an oath given under such circumstances. Maybe my husband found the best man to entrust Blackfyre to. But do remember that it is only a loan though I promise that this will not be forgotten and House Targaryen will reward you for your services."

Tom shrugged and said, "If a man's word is no good than what good is that man?" He then picked himself up and while helping her to her feet he continued, "I gave an oath and I will fulfill that oath come hell or high water."

She made a slight smile and said, "I am truly in the hands of a proper knight then." Her features then hardened as her eyes glazed over in thought. "I need to get back to Dragonstone. With the fleet, our dragons, and Aegon gone, it won't be long before a raven brings word to the coastal and island lords, especially Driftmark, that Dragonstone has lost it defenders and is open to attack. I need to get back so I can marshal our defenses." She looked to Tom, "You seem to be a strong fellow, I am sure that we could make great use of your services.."

Tom smiled at the complement and bowed saying, "It would be an honor to serve your house, Lady Visenya." All the will Tom was somewhat apprehensive, while it would secure himself a means to support himself, he was worried about what sort of forces would array themselves against the house that must have only until just recently held all of Blackwater Bay in terror of their dragons.

About then the first bit of roasted pig was ready to eat. Tom took his knife and sliced a piece of pig and after allowing it to cool he passed it over to Visenya.

She smiled and said, "Thank-you Ser Tom." She took the meat into her hands and began to eat it with surprising decorum. Tom shrugged his shoulders and sliced a piece for himself. The two of them stuffed themselves on roasted pig and after washing themselves off at the river and getting a drink as well the two them hunkered down for the night and Visenya went to sleep with Tom volunteering to take the first watch. He sat watching the fire crackle for several hours before, the events of the long day finally getting to him, he dropped off to sleep with Blackfyre in his hands.

 

[brian boru]

He was awoken with a start when he head the sounds of the morning birds chirping and the cries of the seagulls. He had slept with the sword next to him the entire night. Looking over at the other side of the low burning embers he saw Visenya still sleeping. With a full belly and a full night's rest she had lost much of the haggard look she'd had the day before and combined with the innocence of sleep, Tom couldn't help but notice that she was actually quite a beautiful woman.

He shook his head and drove the thought from him mind as quickly as it came to his mind, the woman had just lost her husband the day before.

Hating to wake her, he moved over to her and shook her awake, she woke with a start but when she saw Tom's face she relaxed, "Good Morning, Ser Tom." she said cordially.

"Good Morning, my lady." Tom replied with equal cordiality, which was technically true as while the sun was already high in the sky, it hadn't reached its noonday zenith yet.

The two of them ate more of the roasted pig and after taking another drink of water from the river, they then packed the rest of the meat using Tom's t-shirt and a stick they made a knapsack which Tom would could carry on his shoulder. Visenya had worn Tom's coat the entire night and while they ate and readied themselves to leave she made no move to offer his coat back and Tom made no comment on the matter. He didn't really need it in this heat and wasn't a man supposed to offer his coat to a woman if she wanted it?

But with giving the coat to Visenya and using his Shirt as a knapsack for the roasted pork, he noticed that he needed something to wear on his upper body. Thinking on for a while, he decided that he might as well use one of those chain mail hauberks, but he didn't want to wear those things right next to his bare skin. So what was he to do?

Thinking on it, he decided to raid the dead one last time. A short walk up the beach brought him to one of the drowned men who had been found wearing one of the hauberks. Tom knelt down and after muttering, "excuse me," slipped the padded shirt the man had worn underneath his armor and after examining the thing for any noticeable tears or vermin.

When he found neither, he took a sniff of it and was repulsed by the foul stink that came off of it. Chivalry would have to be put on the back-burner for the moment, he'd need his coat after all.

As he was leaving he noticed a few extra sets of footprints around the body. He knelt down to examine them further but Tom's tracking abilities were woefully insufficient and he was forced to give up trying to identify the tracks. But he didn't worry too much about them, if their owners had any ill intentions, then he and Visenya would not have awoken as pleasantly as they had. In fact he was fairly sure that they would have woken up with either being held captive or having their throats slits. So he put what he saw away for later and headed his way back to the fire.

He went back to their campsite and looked over to Visenya, who, after finishing her meal, had begun to undo her long thick sliver braid, then proceeded to use her fingers to comb out any knots she founds. She looked up and nodded to Tom. He pointed to the coat she had by her side, "I'm afraid I need that back, I tried to find a padded shirt elsewhere and the thing was so foul smelling it near killed me from the stink alone. At least with my coat I'll be able to breath," He explained.

Visenya nodded after a moment and, handed the coat over to Tom who took it with a muttered thanks then slipped it on, when he had the coat on he then slid the chain mail over it. When he was finished with the hauberk, he then girded the sword to his waist. Then he began to examine his new appearance somewhat liking what he saw though he felt the crosstrainers and the blue jeans were a littl anachronistic. Visenya couldn't help but smirk at the man who was acting like a boy given his first suit of chain-mail, which was a relatively accurate description. The armor, not the boy part.

Tom noticed her smirk and stopped his self examination, he held his arms out angled down and to the side. He pivoted side to side to give her a panoramic view of his new getup and asked, "Well do I look like a proper knight of Dragonstone?"

Visenya cocked her head to the side and seemed to examine him for a moment before saying, "Well you certainly look like you are of Dragonstone at least. Though we shall rectify that when I get home."

Tom snorted at that but shrugged his shoulders and after making sure the fire had died down and everything, including the jewelry, the knives, and the coins were secured. By the time he was finished Visenya had braided her hair back into its long braid, Tom couldn't stop himself from letting his eyes linger for a moment as she flicked the braid back behind her, her back arched a bit and her... 'assets' pressed against her black and scarlet dress. While the dress covered most of her body save her hands and head, was fairly form fitting and was also cut so that the upper half of her breast were visible and what nice breast they were.

Tom shook his head and set his face into an amiable smile, hoping that she didn't notice his discrepancy, "Well, off to Dragonstone then?"

"Yes, off we go." She replied. As the two of them went on their way Northward along the coast, Visenya continued to explain her plans, "There is a fishing village about five miles up the coast from the river. We can purchase supplies there. After that we can ask for directions for the way to Rosby, then we follow the main road to the port of Duskendale, where we can find a ship that will take us to Duskendale."

"Sounds like a plan," Tom agreed, he then gestured forward, "Lead the way," and so the did.

They made fair progress as they made their way down the beach, the sun was high in the sky and the wind off the bay made the walk relatively pleasant. Neither Tom nor Visenya spoke much as they made their way down the beach. The bulk of their conversation was noting birds, shells, or the clouds. Tom started whistling a nameless tune after half and hour and serenaded the two of them. To which Visenya applauded, commenting how she'd have to have him whistle for her later. Tom smiled and said that he would be happy to oblige. He then continued to whistle some simple and not so simple tunes, even honestly impressing her a couple of times. This carried them for several hours as they continued their journey.

Tom was about to start his another tune when the smell of smoke hit their senses. Tom forgot about his song and looked up to see a great pillar of smoke rising inland from the beach. Tom brought his hand to his brow to get a better look at the smoke, then he turned to Visenya and said in a slightly strained voice, "Uh Lady Visenya, is that about where that village you were speaking of was at?" and pointed to the cloud of black smoke.

Visenya was also more than a little surprised, "Yes, yes it was?"

Tom turned inland and ran into the scrub and trees that grew inland from the shore. Visenya dashed after him not saying a word. The two of them did their best to follow through the forest towards the smoke, as they got closer, the smell of smoke grew stronger and now they could hear the sound of men fighting and women screaming. Tom slowed his pace but continued to get closer and closer, a numb fear began to build in him.

When he finally reached the edge of the forest his stomach sank into his feet. The fishing village Visenya had spoken of was there alright but it was under attack. He could see that a single ship, similar in shape to a Norse longship, was beached along the shore and its owners, men armed with swords, axes, spears, and large shields, and wearing either chain mail or leather armor, were attacking the apparent inhabitants of the village. While the villagers were putting up a brave fight, there were just as many raiders who were all much better equipped than they.

Most of the women and children seemed to be pouring out of the village into the forest beyond the village while the men, armed with fishing spears, clubs, wood axes, and the occasional wicker or plank shield were acting as a rearguard, though they were quickly falling and more than one simply dropped his spear or club and ran.

Unfortunately, not all the women seemed to have escaped as there was one woman, a girl really as she couldn't have been older than Tom's little sister, was being dragged out of one of the huts by a trio of the raiders one of them better dressed than any of the others and holding a shield with a complicated sigil emblazoned on it. When they threw her to the ground and proceed to rip her rough dress off of her, revealing her breasts for all to see, Tom realized what was about to happen, and something deep within him snapped.

Tom was not a passionate individual, while he could be considered stubborn as an ox, he was not the type to be lead to great rages or rash decisions, he would at least look at the situation before he would leap in. But there were some things that would trigger his temper and his temper would be terrible to behold. The rape that was occurring before him was one such thing.

Tom strode out of the forest into the village, his eyes were as hard as flint and an emerald fire seemed to burn in their green depths. His lips curled back into a bestial grimace and he actually began to growl. Visenya saw what he was going to do and grabbed his arm to stop him, "What in the seven hells are you doing? Stay here!" Her voice a harsh low whisper.

Tom snapped his arm out of her grasp and continued his way towards the trio trying to have their way with the girl, ignoring any more attempts by Visenya to stop him.

When Tom drew closer, his eyes never left the trio as their leader grabbed her hair and proceeded to fondle one of the girls breasts he could hear the man speak to the woman, "Now, now, don't cry girl, if you do well I'll take you home with me. You would make a good salt wife for me back on Harlaw."

Her answer was more screaming and pleas for help, "No! No! Help me! Someone help me! Seven save me please!"

The Ironborne seemed to become annoyed by her screams as he snarled and hurled her to the ground, "Scream all you want wench, your Seven won't help you now," he snarled as he dropped to his knees then began to undo his belt.

Tom's only reaction to all of this was to get angrier and pick up his pace. When he drew within a dozen paces of the trio he took deep breath and swore that if nothing else, these three died today.

Just as the leader got to his knees, Tom drew the sword and with a swing like a lumberjack swinging at a tree, he swung his sword of Valyrian steel. While he had almost no experience with the blade, he was strong, angry, and knew how to swing for maximum effect. The blade all but cut the man in half from the navel up, and he went down with a gurgled scream.

The two men snapped their heads up and spotted Tom for the first time. The lordling's, for that was what Tom assumed he had to be, companion's fight or flight instinct, kicked into gear and he charged the stranger with sword ready to bring down on his bare head, poor fool.

Tom's answer to the charging man, was a short look of contempt, before he took another breath and shouted, "FUS RO DAH!" A gigantic ball of blue energy slammed into Tom's attacker and blasted him away like a pebble in a hurricane. The man was already dead when he struck one of the huts behind them. His bones crunching like twigs when they made impact on the hut's wall.

Tom then turned on the lordling and slowly strode his way to the man, his face turned a bright red, his lips peeled back from his teeth in what some might loosely refer to as a smile or just a snarl, and fire danced in his pupils, red as the flames of hell, or maybe dragonfire.

The final man, the leader of the trio and likely the leader of the entire raiding party, fell to his bottom and started to crab walk away from Tom, all the while echoing his former victim's platitudes, "No! I yield! Don't kill me, I'm worth a heavy ransom! My father is Lord Harlaw! He'll make you a rich man if you spare me!" Tom ignored his cries as he hefted the greatsword and began to bring it over his head to strike, the blood of his earlier kill still dripping off of it. The lordling screamed in terror, "Oh god! Oh Drowned God save me! Please have mercy."

He ran out of room to flee when he ran into the wall of the same hut he had just come out of with the girl in tow. Tom now towered over the openly weeping man, looking like some great doom out of legend, "Please have mercy!" The man sobbed out one last time, his face a caricature of terror.

Tom stopped his advance and lowered his sword. He looked curiously at the man, as if he were examining something bizarre and disgusting. 'Mercy?' he thought, almost bemused by the concept. 'You mean like the mercy you were going to give her?' and glanced back to the girl, who was watching the entire thing with her eyes bulged wide open and her mouth agape in shocked awe at what she saw.

Tom then turned back to the lordling sitting at his feet and a wave of disgust ran through him. "Where I'm from, we have a saying. 'Mercy is the mark of a great man'."

The lordling all but passed out at that, he sat there, panting and giving thanks to the Drowned God repeatedly under his breath.

Tom continued, "Unfortunately for you, I am not a great man."

The other man's head snapped up in shock and comprehension which turned to even greater terror.

He then took one of the deepest breaths he had ever taken then he roared as loud as he could, all the while the lordling scream a "Wait!" one final time before all sound was drowned out by a "FUS RO DAH!" The hut and the man leaning in front of it disappeared into a giant cloud of dust and a spray of red that hid Tom, the raider, and the hut. When the dust settled there was only a pile of straw and dirt remaining of the hut sitting in a large depression. As for the raider, there was little more than a crater full of shredded wire, tattered leather, and what looked like extra chunky salsa where a man had been just moments prior.

Tom spat one last time as the pile of debris and then turned to the girl. She flinched when he walked back over to her, but seemed surprised when instead of grabbing her he leaned down and with incredible tenderness in his features asked in a low, soothing voice, "Are you alright?"

She stared for moment before she suddenly flung herself around Tom's neck muttering thanks over and over again, referring him as 'Ser' in her thanks.

Tom managed to pry her arms from around his neck. "Wait here," he told her and then stood up. Tom looked her over for a moment before he nodded and then stood up and walked towards the closest fight. A trio of villagers were cornered by an equal number of raiders. Tom blew all three of the raiders away with a FUS RO DAH which left the fishermen staring gobsmacked right in front of them. Tom strode by and seeing their stunned features, he turned to them and said, "What are you waiting for? Follow me!" He then continued onto the next fight, not even bothering to give them a second glance. He did note to his satisfaction that they were quickly catching up to him a minute later.

Before they could ask who he was, Tom spotted another fight two raiders about to kill a downed villager, with a YOL one man was set on fire and before the other raider could react, the three men accompanying Tom swarmed him and he went under their rain of blows. Tom continued on his way though he noting that the trio of fishermen helped their fellow up and followed him. He continued his way through the village, killing the raiders he came across with fire and force and letting the men who were following him deal with any he missed. Soon he had nearly two dozen villagers following him and the raiders were beginning to realize the changed situation and were leaving the village in two and threes back to the boat.

Soon a mass of well over a dozen men were fleeing the village and pounding across the sand toward the single ship on the beach. The few men stationed to guard the ship saw their companions running from the village and while ignorant of what the cause of it was, knew a bad situation and started to push the ship off the sand and out into the water.

Tom saw this, "Oh you won't get away that easily," and without even needing to think about what he wanted to accomplish, he bellowed out a new trio of words, "WULD NAH KEST!"

He shot like a bullet out of the village and past the crowed of fleeing raiders, before coming to a stop between them and their ship. They stumbled to a halt at how suddenly he had appeared and before they could react, he turned towards the ship, "FUS RO DAH!" With that the mast of the ship was snapped off like a twig torn from a tree in a storm. The mast flew through the air like a giant kite before it splashed into the bay with a huge spray of water a good twenty yards into the bay where it bobbed innocuously in and out of the water. The ship effectively going nowhere, the guards took one look at their ship, then at the young man who had done so much damage, and tore down either direction along the shore. The entire time they were screaming in terror of the Storm God having come.

He then turned towards the remaining raiders who had formed a shield wall in an attempt to protect themselves. Tom took one look at that mass of men and only smirked before taking in another breath and bellowing out, "YOL TOOR SHUL!" The resulting inferno consumed half of the remaining raiders, who dropped to the ground screaming or silent in death. Of the survivors, or at least those who could still run, most tore after their fellows up and down the beach while a few turned around and ran towards the village, right into the vengeful arms of the villagers and their oh so tender mercies.

Tom's rage began to fade as he watched the villagers rain blow after blow on the surviving raiders and when blood began to spurt, he decided enough was enough and he walked towards the beating shouting, "Enough! Stop! I want to ask them a few questions, and I need at least one of them for that."

To his amazement, the villagers not only heard him, but actually backed off from the raiders, of whom several were noticeably still alive and might be able to answer a few questions.

When Tom had made sure of the survivors, he noticed Visenya walking down the beach towards him. A numb and awed look on her face that Tom had never seen of her before. When she reached him she stared at him with such intensity began to bizarrely blush. She finally open her mouth, her eyes never leaving his, and asked him in a small voice, "What are you?"

Tom was caught off guard by this question and at first he couldn't answer, then he really thought back to not only the fight, but to all he had done since he had come here. He remembered why this all seemed so familiar, at the same time a name he already had heard of bubbled to the fore and he gave Visenya an honest look. "I am a Dovahkiin," he answered her as if it was the most natural answer in the world.

Visenya's grew even more bewildered, "And what is a 'Dovahkiin'?"

Tom's answer was a single word that would one day be heard across all of Westeros, "Dragonborne."

 

[brian boru]

A/N: Guess what's come back from the dead? If I crossed the line here I apologize, also I want to thank Psyckosama for his incredible patience, grammar, and brainstorming. (Yes I will be thanking the guy every time I post this so sue me.)



The day when Tom told Visenya that he was a "Dovahkiin" was one of the most interesting of Tom's life. The villagers surrounded their savior and led him back into the village chanting Dovahkiin at the top of their lungs.

Visenya walked with several of the women of the village after the main press of cheering men her eyes following the young man surrounded by the cheering villagers. She barely gave any attention to the other young woman, the one who had been saved by Tom when he'd begun his rampage.

Tom eventually can to the center of the village while the villagers continued to surround him cheering his name.

Tom just stood there, a bit shocked but what he felt mostly was excited elation, and proceeded to soak in the praise. While he he had not been ignored back home, this sort of mad cheering solely for him was new, and he quite liked it. It was a heady experience for him and a small part of his psyche, something he did not notice at the time, also reveled in how he had proven his power to these peasants.

After a few minutes of the applause, something moved through the crowd and a handful of the bigger villagers dragged a pair of the raiders that had unfortunately run right back into the arms of the villagers in their attempt to flee from him. "Here's the bastards you wanted t' question m'lord." One of the villagers, a bigger man with a bushy red beard and a large cudgel in one hand, asked him before shoving the Ironborn to his knees in front of Tom.

Tom glared down on the two surviving raiders, the two unfortunate saps had blindly fled right back into the arms of the villagers when they broke and ran after he had shattered their final shield wall. The both of them were battered and bruised and one of them was openly bleeding from a wound over his right eye. He was constantly trying to blink the small stream of blood that trickled into his brown eyes. Those brown eyes were half glazed in terror it was obvious that the young man, who couldn't have been older than Tom with his brown scraggly beard, was only holding onto his self-control by a very tenuous thread. The other younger man with jet black hair and eyes, couldn't have been more than sixteen years of age, his hairless cheeks being the best indicator. This younger man was even more terrified, there was no sign of anything other than blind panic. He could hear the black-haired boy whimpering under his breath and Tom was sure that if he tried to pressure him too hard he'd likely faint.

It was the look of utter terror on the prisoners' faces that kept Tom from simply killing the two of them, their fear humanizing them in Tom's eyes. Calmed enough so as not to outright murder anyone, he knelt down to look the two young men in the eye and he then he asked in a calm voice but one that promised pain if he was trifled with, "Alright lads, I want to ask you a few questions. If you answer them and I like what I hear then I'll make sure that you get to live."

The older man stared for a moment seemingly uncomprehending of what he was told, but after a few seconds it got through to him and he nodded his head in a rapid movement. Meanwhile his younger companion didn't seem to even notice what was said. His eyes bulged in fear and darting back and forth as if looking for some means of escape.

Tom nodded, "Smart choice," he remarked before continuing, "I promise that if you answer my questions to the best of you ability, then I'll make sure you stay alive." He took a deep breath and then continued, "Alright first question, who are you and who was leading you. Don't lie, if you lie well I might lose any interest in keeping you safe here." He happened to grin unpleasantly towards the disgruntled villagers surrounding him.

The older man was again the one to answer, "I am Triston," his voice trembling with barely controlled terror, he then jerked his head towards the other young man, "This is my cousin Tregg."

Turning back to his captor he finished, "We were lead by Harren Harlaw."

Tom nodded that name seemed familiar to him but he didn't dwell on it, he could feel the adrenaline and the fury of the battle beginning to seep away and his legs were starting to shake in weariness, "Who is Harren Harlaw?"

Triston, still the only one seemingly at all there, answered again, "He's Harrick Harlaw's son and heir."

"I am afraid that Harrick is going to need a new heir." Tom gestured to where the crowd was less thick, and the crater where young lord Harren met his end was located. Triston and amazingly Tregg looked over at the crater and after a moment the truth reached their fear hazed minds and Triston turned pale as a ghost, Tregg on the other hand slumped over in a dead faint. Triston yelped and begged his cousin to wake up, "Please don't leave me alone here!"

When Triston turned back to Tom the terror in his eyes intensified and Tom realized that he was going to have to remind the man what he needed to do if he was going to get anything else out of him.

"Someone get a bucket of water for that one please?" Then he turned back to his conscious prisoner, "Yes, that was me. And if you don't want to join him than answer my questions." Tom replied, a grimace was hidden as now his arms were about to shake as his adrenaline levels continued to drop. He fought down his exhaustion and continued the interrogation sweat starting to appear at his forehead. "Alright, what was young Harren doing here? Isn't rather close to the Stormlands here? Do Harlaw and King Harren intend to start a fight with Argilac?" Tom asked, wrenching his mind to recall the names of the various lords that ruled at this time, privately he thanked the fact that he had read that wiki so thoroughly before he was sent here.

Triston shook his head and stammered out, "I don't know anything about that? I'm just a simple warrior, me and my cousin wouldn't know a thing about the plans of Kings and Great Lords."

Tom looked Triston dead in the eye and said, "I honestly doubt that. Harren there didn't seem the type to hide anything from his companions, as for you being simple warriors. You were the personal companions of Harren Harlaw, heir to house Harlaw and great lands I'm sure. I doubt simple nobodies would be with him, more likely the two of you are the sons of some houses loyal to Harlaw, and even if you weren't I'm sure that you would have heard something about any plans that King Harren and lord Harrick might have had. So I'll ask again, what are King Harren's intentions here?" Tom's features turned hard, he hoped that this would crack at least one of them because if neither did, he couldn't justify letting them live and would need to leave them to the mercy of the villagers.

Triston just knelt there and Tom was wondering if he'd pushed him a little too far when the man suddenly shouted, "King Harren is going to war!"

Tom nodded and urged him on, "Go on?"

"I...I don't know anything else, I just know that we'll be fighting soon."

"Now how did you know that?" He never left his gaze from the young man's eyes as he waited for an answer.

"I...I don't know it was just rumors." Triston finally admitted

Tom processed the information he'd learned and did his best to recall what he remembered about this world.

What he remembered was not good at all. The raiders, Triston and Tregg included, were a group belonging to a people called the ironborn. The ironborn were from the imaginatively named Iron Islands off the West coast of Westeros. The land there was harsh and live was harsher, the only metal to be mined there was iron hence the name. These rough conditions produced a rough and hardy people, and a cruel one as well. Having so little to live off of on the islands, much of their livelihood was made raiding the coasts and up the rivers of Westeros. In fact if he remembered correctly, the ironborn at the time had been so successful that their current king, Harren Hoare ruled not only his Iron Islands, but formed a powerful kingdom in the center of the continent ruling over the Riverlands, named so by the large river system that flowed through it.

The ironborn were some of the most terrifying raiders that lived in Westeros and now he'd killed the son of one of the most powerful houses among the ironborn, second only to the Royal House itself.

"And here I am right in the dead center of it. Joy...." Tom thought ruefully to himself and was about to have them taken away when Tregg, who'd come to just a moment ago with a splash of water to the face, saw that the villagers were closing in on them and started shrieking over and over again, "Me and Triston here aren't nobodies, Triston's father is lord Volmark under Lord Harlaw, and I'm the nephew of Lord Drumm, my father's Lord Drumms brother and my mother is Triston's aunt. We're good for ransom! Please Don't Kill Us!"

Tom's eyes widened in surprise and then a little suspicious asked, "Then why are the two of you so in the dark about what is going on? Considering your companion was the heir to one of the strongest of the ironborn house that seems a little odd. You wouldn't be hiding something from me would you?"

"No no! We're not hiding anything me and Tregg we weren't told much anyway, it was our fathers that were told everything, and we were just.... a little too excited about our first raid without our older relatives watching us....and our first chance to win ourselves a salt wife, and we didn't pay attention."

The villagers didn't like the sound of that, their faces darkened and their knuckles turned white as they gripped harder on the handles of their weapons

Tom raised his hands to calm them down as he thought, well this was certainly an interesting bit of information here. While he'd been here for only a few days he was certainly savvy enough to spot an opportunity when he saw. Still, there was no reason not to traumatize these fucks now that he didn't need to question them any further. "Well no one likes hearing bad news..."

The two of them began to shake at the sound of that.

Then Tom continued, "But only a fool kills its bearer. You held up your end now I'll hold mine. I'm not going have to crucify the two of you."

Looks of confusion and terror spread across their faces at the apparently unfamiliar name, "C...crucify?" Triston managed to squeak out.

A nasty grin spread across Tom's face at this opportunity, "Well since you asked so nicely..." He then threw himself into an extremely lurid and exhaustive description of the crucifixion process how a man was nailed to a T-shape of wood and left to suffocate or die from exposure. Those who lived for three days were allowed to be cut down. Then with a flair he then mentioned that even strong men rarely lasted longer than two and a half days. If the two men had been scared before, they were utterly terrified now, their skin turned the color of clean snow. The villagers and Visenya heard the entire description, interestingly enough, the villagers didn't turn pale themselves but instead had thoughtful looks on their faces and were making glances over towards the thick forest that grew behind the village. Visenya nodded, slightly impressed at the implied brutality that Tom spoke of.

Tom noticed the thoughtful looks and decided that he needed to speak up before they actually tried it. "Well since we seem to be done here. Have their ankles bound, just enough that they can hobble around if needed, have their wounds looked over and set a guard over them. If you behave yourselves then I'll make sure that you can walk around the village with several guards. But if you do anything that I don't want you to." I gesture over to where Harren's remain still lay, "I'll send what's left of you back to your father's and uncles in a bucket. Do we understand each other?" The two nodded their heads so fast that Tom wondered idly if they would get whiplash.

The two young ironborn were dragged off, the older one silent as the tomb while the younger one was still shrieking about how they were good for ransom. Tom on the other hand simply fell to a seated position, exhausted and shaky from the adrenaline finally leaving his system. A villagers handed him a ladle of well water which he guzzled down. As he watched the ironborn being dragged off he couldn't help but mutter to himself, "You know, for the most terrifying people this side of the Narrow Sea, you'd think they'd be a little harder to crack."

"You dealt with them with as definitively as if you were mounted on the back of a dragon." A female voice rang out. Tom turned his head towards Visenya, whom he'd noticed but had not acknowledged until now.

He smiled at her, "I thank you for the praise my lady."

Before either of them could say anything else, the big redheaded man came to their side and knelt in front of Tom, "Thank you Ser Dovahkiin, without yer help, our village would have been burnt to the ground and we would have been killed...or worse, his eyes drifted over to the girl Tom had rescued. Tom looked to where she stoop a little way from where he stood, her eyes held one of the most obvious looks of adoration that Tom had ever seen in his life. He was amazed that any gave him such a look and he was unsure as how to react to it so instead he turned his focus back to the kneeling man who was all but planting his face into the mud at this point.

He placed his hand on the man's shoulder, "It was only the right thing to do, any man who had a shred of courage and honor in him would have done so without having to think about it."

The look of surprise on those who heard his words was a bit stronger than what he'd expected but a smile spread across the man's face when he stood back up and smiled, "Well now that the pleasantries are all over, the only thing left is to clean up this mess and then celebrate!"

The other villagers, both men and women, cheered in agreement. They then went to work with a surprising gusto considering the hell that had been their situation only minutes before. When Tom rolled up his sleeves, and attempted to grab a piece of debris, the village leader raised his hand and waved him away from the cleanup, "Oh don't worry yourself, Ser. Let us handle this, you've done so much for us already."

Tom looked at him somewhat confused, "Are you sure? I mean I helped to make this mess, it's the least I could do to help clean up."

He shook his head in slight wonder before he bowed his head again, "m'lord is too kind, but please let us handle this mess." Visenya was also more then a little stunned though she hid it well.

Tom would have tried to argue further but before he could answer he was elbowed by Visenya who shook her head when he turned to face her. He looked at her for a moment before he finally nodded his head then turned back to the man and replied, "Alright, if you insist but if you need any help I'll be happy to help."

He walked away from the villagers, who watched him in confusion, and sat down on a roughly hewn bench that had been brought out at some point earlier. When he sat down he turned to Visenya who sat down with him. "Why did you do that?"

"Because if you had tried to stand much longer you would have collapsed, I could see how much you were shaking." She answered, as if she were talking to a idiot child.

Before Tom could answer he tried to shift his legs and the sheer exhaustion he'd been holding back slammed back to the fore and he was glad that she'd stopped him before he'd made a fool of himself and likely disillusioned the villagers of their hero worship. "Ah, thank you m'lady."

She nodded then turned to the young girl who had continued to follow them. "You, girl, bring my lord something to drink, he is parched from the battle."

The girl scuttled from the two of them without a word.

"Was that necessary? She wasn't doing anything wrong." Tom asked Visenya once the girl was out of earshot.

"She was beginning to irk me." Visenya replied, her face relatively blank any emotion. "Besides, if she insists on following you around like a lost pup then at least she should be of use.

Tom raised an eyebrow in confusion but let it go. The girl returned quickly enough with a wooden mug of what Tom assumed was some sort of weak beer. He contemplated the brew in front of him for a moment, wondering whether he should drink it or not. Back home his only experience with any brew had only been with a single sip of his dad's tri-monthly can of beer and the experience had driven him away from the stuff and alcohol in general. But he also remembered that trying to drink water straight up was asking for stomach problems and it would have been worse to hurt the girl's feeling who'd gotten it for him. So taking a breath he took a pull of the beer, and it tasted better than he'd expected. He smiled and took another pull from it, then he turned to the girl who'd barely moved since he'd taken the mug from her and smiled, "Thank you, it certainly quenched my thirst."

The girl blushed and stammered out "m'lord's too kind." She then offered a wooden plate with a piece of brown bread and some sort of cheese. "H...here is some food, I thought you might be hungry."

Tom smiled and took the plate from the girls hand, never taking his eyes of here as he made a quick glance over. She was a petite girl, only 5'1'' at the tallest and with a slight build to match it though she had a perfectly feminine build to go along with it. Her hair was in a simple braid that went to between her shoulder blades her which was a brilliant orange color while her eyes were an almond brown. She had some dirt on her and she was more than a little bruised but overall she was cute in a pixieish kind of way which was only multiplied by the way that she was blushing like a neon light at this point.

"I'm no lord, just a knight who saw something that needed to be done er... What is your name?"

"My name? I'm...I'm Mya, m'lord. My uncle Rolf is the man you spoke to earlier." The blush on her face was if anything even stronger now.

Tom failed to notice this and smiled again, then dipped his head, "Well thank-you Mya, your very kind to a vagabond like me."

Tom was a little surprised when the girl all but squealed and ran off. When Tom turned back to Visenya, he saw to his consternation that she was giving him a glare as strong as a basilisk. "What?"

She didn't let up the glare but muttered, "Her groveling is beginning to irk me."

Tom raised his eyebrows at that, "Why do you care? Sure she's a little eager but I just saved her from rape." He then gave her a look, "Besides, I thought you great noble types loved that sort of thing."

She didn't let up her frown and just said, "I've seen dockside prostitutes with more subtlety and grace. It's really quite pathetic."

Tom tried to get anything else out of the young woman but she clammed up after that last retort. Tom was still confused but let it go as the coming up celebrations made it seem to fade in the background. The villagers quickly gathered all of the bodies and after stripping them of anything valuable tied rocks to their feet and tossed them into the ocean. They then sent a few boats to drag the raiders ship back to the shore and cleaned the entire thing out for anything valuable, what they found was an astonishing amount of rich clothes, gold, silver, and other expensive valuables. The cheering that rose up from that was almost deafening.

The during the cleanup and the preparations for the feast, Mya tailed Tom like a duckling with its mother, whenever Visenya was gone she promptly sidled up to Tom's side and occasionally tried to touch him. Tom, having almost no experience whatsoever with women, not only didn't know what she was trying to do but he likely wouldn't have known what to do if he had noticed.

Visenya, while she wasn't with Tom the entire time, she did keep occasionally spot him and watching the peasant girl irked her to no end, and it wasn't only because that she was acting, in her opinion, like a bitch in heat, but it was also just who she was acting so clingy towards that irritated her. That shaggy haired lummox was simply too useful to lose on account of some ginger tart from an insignificant fishing village that had no value whatsoever. It would have been a tragedy to have someone with such power stuck here simply blowing away the occasional Ironborn and siring ginger brat upon ginger brat. She also knew that Tom would do something so stupid, as strong as his sense of honor was, if that silly little hayseed decided to spread her thighs then he'd actually feel obliged to stay the morning afterwards.

About an hour before the sun was setting over the inland forest, preparations were put to a halt for the day as a meal was set out for everyone. There was big bonfire ready to light that would officially start the meal. Rolf stepped to the side of the bonfire and went into a rough but heartfelt speech his voice slightly thickened by the emotion in his voice. "Today we almost lost our homes, our livelihoods, and our lives, but thanks to our hero here," He gestured to Tom, who raised his hand in acknowledgment from a trestle table in the center of a semi-circle of tables laden down with a simple fare of fish, and plenty of bread and cheese along with some vegetables as well. Rolf had apologized for the lack of meat though Tom had said it was nothing to worry about and if they had wanted to do so, they could make use of the Boar meat he had wrapped in his shirt. The look of surprise in their faces when the boar meat was presented had been priceless. Tom was seated at the dead center of this in a place of honor, Visenya sat to his left while to his right a space was reserved for Rolf to sit when he was finished. "our lives were spared and the bastards who tried to take everything away from us are either dead or long gone. So, to Ser Dovahkinn!"

"To Ser Dovahkiin!" Was the answering cry, Rolf then took a torch and threw it into the giant pile of wood which quickly caught and soon a great bonfire was roaring in front of them.

Tom, to whom the bread and cheese was nothing more than a faded memory tore into the food with a great gusto, piling his plate high and eating quickly.

Rolf soon sat by him and struck a conversation meanwhile one of the girl took the cask of wine that had been pilfered from the Ironborn ship and had poured wine into their cups. Rolf to a deep pull while Tom took a smaller sip, actually liking the taste to this one though he tried to make sure not to drink too much. Rolf had finished the cup when he turned back to Tom and asked him. "So where are you planning to do now m'lord?"

That made Tom sputter for a moment, but he recovered and did his best to answer, "Well we need to head on North eventually. The two of us need to find a way to get to Rosby, any chance you could give us directions?"

Rolf seemed to have a worried look on his face. "Are you sure you can't stay? We're supposed to be beholden to Lord Rosby, but considering the bugger all he's done for us, he might as well be auctioning our daughters to the raiders himself. Now you come along, saving us singlehandedly." The obvious bitterness in his voice was tangible.

Tom wasn't sure what to say, one the one hand he'd made promise to protect and escort home Visenya back to Dragonstone, on the other hand the look of hope on Rolf's face, he wasn't sure how to answer the man though he wished he could do both.

He took a deep pull of the wine, deeper than he'd taken before and decided to use stalling tactics. "Well either way we can give it a little while before I make a decision. For now let's just enjoy being alive."

Rolf nodded and raised his own mug, "I'll drink to that m'lord. But please at least stay at least another day m'lord, come tomorrow we could have a proper feast in your honer, fish of every kind, roasts, sausages, and meat pies of all kinds."

"Well, when you put it that way, how could I turn down you hospitality." Tom answered mouth already watering at the thought of all that food, having never turned down the offer of food in his life.

Rolf laughed and took a drink from his mug. After he finished his drink, he then rose, muttering about needing to relieve himself. While Rolf was gone Tom turned back to his meal wondering what he was going to do about this situation. He eventually decided that there wasn't anything he could really do about it right at this moment so he chose to let it go for the moment. As he sat he spotted in the corner of his eyes that Rolf and Mya were talking with each other but he didn't make any note of it.

When Rolf returned, he seemed to have lost that worried look to his face, a new happy demeanor had replaced it. He looked over to Visenya and then said, "If you wish m'lady, we can draw you a bath and get you some dry cloths until your own are cleaned and mended."

Visenya's face immediately melted into one of relief as she then muttered, "Thank the Seven."

Tom's surprise at the sudden change in her attitude that he nearly had mental whiplash and only managed a lame, "What?"

Visenya sighed and leaned in to talk to him, "I've been uncomfortable all day, but I had not planned to talk of it as we had more important matters at hand." A smile spread across her face, "That said, I refuse to let the opportunity to wash all this sand and salt off of me go to waste. I thank you and I bid you good night." She then turned and left the table towards one of the huts were a fire was being lit.

Tom followed her walking away, feeling somewhat guilty about not even thinking about asking whether she had been uncomfortable.

When Tom turned back to the fire and his food he saw that his cup had been filled with the same wine. When he looked up he saw that Mya was standing behind him with a wine jar and a glowing smile, "I'll be attending you for the night m'lord."

Not wanting to waste it and beginning to enjoy it, he drained the cup in three pulls. At this point he began to feel a buzz in his brain pan and he felt quite relaxed.

"More wine, m'lord?" Mya asked, moving to refill his goblet the moment it was removed from his lips. He moved his head and studied her more a moment, he knew that getting drunk now might be a bad idea, having never been drunk before he had no idea what might have happened if he had.

On the other hand, the smile on her face was cute and he didn't want to hurt her feelings, that world be bad. He smirked to himself, and besides, he was the mighty Dovahkiin, not like a little booze could really get to him."O'course Mya."

Mya smiled and poured him another cup and he took a deep pull of it, enjoying the fruity taste of it. He decided that he rather liked wine and had several more cups of wine before the night was over. He looked at Mya through slightly crossed eyes and said, "You know Mya, you're a real pretty girl, y'know that? And sweet too, yer gonna make some lucky man the happiest man alive y'know that?"

Mya flushed like a neon light, and stuttered a bit, "M'lord's too kind."

"Oh no, 'm serious. You are a real prize Mya!" Tom then countered somewhat forcefully. "I'd be a happy man with a girl like you."

An odd smile spread across Mya and Rolf's faces when he said that, though Tom, sloshed with more cups of wine than he should have had in one sitting, failed to spot it. Then Mya handed the jar off to one of the other women and took Tom's hand saying, "M'lord, could you come with me please, I want to show you something."

A dopey guileless smile spread across Tom's face, "Sure thing Mya, sounds like fun."

He was about to leave when Rolf spoke up, "You left some wine behind m'lord."

Tom noted that in the time that he had looked away Mya had filled the cup, again, which he quickly dealt with.

Mya then helped the man to his somewhat wobbly feet and led him away from the fire. They walked through the mostly empty village, Tom not saying much.

Mya guiding him along towards a storage hut with a large haystack in the center, while was shutting the door behind her, Tom turned back and asked her now more than a little slurred, "So Mya wazzit you wanned t'show me?"

Mya smiled gently, looking Tom in the eyes, and without a word, proceeded to shrug out of her dress, letting it fall to the ground, leaving her standing before him clad only in a smile and her own natural glory.

Tom's brain ground to a shrieking halt when he took in the female form in front of him.

While he was stunned and stammering like an idiot, Mya smiled and said, "Do you like what you see, m'lord?"

Eventually his brain managed to force its way through a combination of alcohol, hormones, and shock, prompting him to sputter out, "Um... uh huh."

She smiled and then walked closer to him to where he could reach out and touch her, "Do you want me, m'lord?"

"Uh huh." was her answer accompanied by a slow and dumbfounded nod.

She then leaned close into him and said, "Then take me."

Tom, his brain addled by alcohol and hormones reached one conclusion, "Okay...." He then fell back into the hay, and into a world of soft ruby lips and silk smooth skin.

 

[brian boru]

The first sensation that Tom felt when he woke that morning was a warm soft something draped across his torso. The next was the glare of the sun, burning into his eyes through his closed eyelids. Deciding to brave it, he cracked his right eye for an instant before clamping it shut again. To his shock, it was Mya the girl from yesterday, who was not only draped across him and dozing contentedly, but was also as naked as the day she was born!

Tom lay there for a moment, unsure of what to make of this new situation, as his higher mental faculties tried to form a response to this, he idly noted the rest of the situation. He was also naked, his clothes in a pile not far from where the two of them lay. With his skull feeling like it had a pulse of its own, it took him a moment before he remembered what had happened the night before. A slight smile spread across his face as the memories of the previous evening began to return to him as well as feeling of relief as he confirmed that he'd not forced himself on the girl when he'd gotten drunk the night before.

Braving the sun once more, he decided to open his eyes, and before he come to any other conclusions or make any other action, he saw that he and Mya were not alone in the hut.

Standing in the doorway with the sun shining in over her shoulder was an extremely irritated looking Visenya, wearing a clean peasant dress. and looking much cleaner than she had the night before. But all of that was barely acknowledged by Tom's hangover addled brain when he saw the wrathful look on the woman's face as she all but burned holes into him.

"Good morning. Did you have a good time?" The sickly sweet tone of her voice set off warning klaxons in his mind even stronger than the look in her eyes, and considering that her gaze currently could be classified as something between 'terrifying' and 'demonic', that said something.

A weak smile spread across his face and he tried to hold off the approaching doom that was coming for him for as long a he could, "Good Morning Visenya, I think I did. H-how was your night?"

She didn't answer his question though her face grew a large toothy smile that was less a grin then her baring her teeth, before she turned to Mya, who was now wide awake, and resumed her basilisk-like stare, this time at the other girl before biting out three words. "You. Girl. Out!"

Mya didn't have to be told twice, she immediately grabbed her clothing and after one last longing glance back towards Tom, she dashed out of the hut leaving Tom to face the avatar of feminine rage that was Visenya.

Visenya sighed and crossed her arms under her breasts, which Tom noticed were much more pronounced and visible in her peasant's garb, shame that raw terror sucked all the allure of the situation. "This complicates matters," Were the first words that escaped Visenya's lips after Mya was long gone. Tom had by this point dashed for his clothes and was rapidly pulling them on, waiting for the explosion that was bound to come from the silver-haired woman. Her actual response confused him for a moment.

Unsure as how to respond he simply asked, "Erm, why?"

Her eyes bore into Tom with such incredible intensity, that Tom felt he now knew how the rabbit felt when spotted by the hawk. She then formed a disturbing facsimile of a smile that chilled Tom to his core for a moment. "Because the villagers have just seen one of their girls return under questionable circumstances with my 'lord husband'.

All thought in Tom's mind screeched to a full stop, with all the grace of a car trying to avoid a deer. He stared there shell-shocked for a while, until he finally managed to croak out, "What."

That facsimile never left her face, "Oh, it's really quite the tale of dashing romantic heroism. You were the son of a sworn-sword in the Riverlands to a lord who could barely pay for the knights he already had. That and the cruelty of the Ironborn meant that you left to be a hedge knight. You then entered the Stormlands in the hope to find a lord to serve. You then decided to enter a tournament at Bronzegate, where you saw me, Renna." She paused to preen somewhat before she continued, "It was love at first sight," she sighed with a sarcastic tone. "But my father, a sworn sword and an important house vassal guard for Lord Buckler had no desire to wed his daughter to a scruffy hedge knight who'd fled from the Riverlands. But we refused to listen and we fled back North one dark night. Regretfully we lost your horse in our flight. Which now brings us here." The entire time she told her tale her voice rose and fell with all the dramatics of a Shakespearean actor, obviously to drive home the point of his idiocy.

"Um. Shouldn't we have discussed this?" He tried to ask lamely.

"Yes. We should have, but you were busy." She curtly replied.

Tom could only stare, he had no clue how to respond to that for a moment. When he connected the dots and he responded with a groan of frustration, "And now I've ruined your ruse because I got too sloshed last night and one girl was too eager to thank me for saving her."

"Oh don't be a fool 'husband'. You're hardly the first married knight to take a comely peasant wench to his chambers. Why, you even had the uncommon courtesy to give her a say in the matter." The sarcasm in her voice was tangible, "The only reason that little ginger tart spread her legs for you was because her uncle told her to do so. I saw him talking with her when he left after you told him that we would be departing soon."

That brutal honesty hit Tom like a blow in the gut, but thinking about it, it made a cruel sense in his mind. Back home Tom had never been that skilled with women, he stuttered, he goggled, he was a blithering moron. The sole time he had tried to ask a girl out she'd verbally berated him while amongst their fellow high school students. It had crushed him and for the last five years he hadn't tried again since, settling for admiring women from afar but never communicating with them, convinced for years he had nothing to offer a girl in a relationship.

Tom was growling in the depths of his throat. He was not just hurt about being used, he was furiously angry. Did they really think so little of him to believe they could guilt trip him into remaining here for the rest of his life? Before he left, he was determined to have a few choice words with Rolf and Mya about their pathetic little ruse. He pulled on his clothing, girded his sword, and then stormed out of the hut, intent on looking for either Rolf or Mya or hopefully both.

After a few minutes of looking, Tom spotted Mya sitting at the door of a larger hut, brushing her hair with a wooden comb. When he saw her bright orange hair and that wistful look on her face, Tom wanted to believe for second that Visenya was wrong and that it was an honest mistake. But then he remembered how it had been Mya who had been refilling his cup every time he put it down, keeping him from being able to judge how much he'd drunk. The anger returned and he stormed towards Mya again, intent on getting the truth from her as well as giving her a piece of his mind in the process.

Before he opened his mouth, Rolf happened to cross his path and started to go into a warm greeting, "Good-morning m'lord, I hope that …." Tom cut him of by raising his hand and turned back to Mya, who'd spotted Tom walking towards her. She all but jumped up and nearly skipped her way towards Tom, a smile on her face. "Good-Morning, m'lord."

"Good-morning." Tom replied his voice flat though his eyes began to bore into her.

"Is there something wrong m'lord?" Rolf interjected, his face beginning to show concern.

"Oh nothing much, just a question I wanted to ask the two of you." Tom answered nonchalantly. He turned back to the man and asked, "I must know, why are you so indignant about the Ironborn stealing your women when you're so anxious to give them away? I mean, it's not like I don't appreciate a good gift, but my very own peasant girl was somewhat unexpected but not entirely unwelcome, though I do wish you hadn't gotten me so drunk in the process."

Before Rolf could sputter a reply, Tom then turned back towards Mya, who began to wilt under the angered gaze the younger man gave her. "Now, Mya, I have a question. Did last night mean anything or were you prostituting yourself for your uncle's benefit like a common dockside whore? I have to wonder was it Tom you wanted, or was it the Dovahkiin?" His eyes were actually were blazing at this point, small sparks of red could be spotted in his pupils and they only grew stronger as he continued his gaze.

Mya stared in horror for a moment before she broke into a tearful cry and turned, fleeing from the two of them as fast as her legs could carry her.

Tom stared after her for a moment, then snorted and was about to leave when he looked at Rolf and was taken aback at the pained and frantic look on his face.

"M'lord, please don't be angry with her, I was the one who thought up the entire scheme. You're from the Riverlands, you know what it's like living with those godsdamn Ironborn. You know what it's like living everyday wondering if they'll show up on those longships of theirs and burn or steal everything you ever knew or loved." He had a pained look on his face, like one who'd gone through horrible things in his life, things that were threatening to force themselves back to the forefront. "Mya, she's the only kin I have left. Her mother, my sister died when she but a babe and her father, some wandering lout ran off months before, me and my wife, we decided to take her in. After my wife died a few years ago she's all I have left, none of my sons lived to manhood and we never had a daughter ourselves. When I saw how smitten she was and when I heard you were leaving, I... I didn't know what to do. So I told her my plan and I hoped that you'd stay or at least take her with you when you left. Please I know you don't owe me or her anything, but I beg you please find her. Those Ironborn bastards might still be skulking around out there and if anything happened to her...." The big man trailed off and he all but collapsed into himself.

Tom stood there, his burning anger turning inward. He was such a big damned hero, wasn't he? He'd shattered a girl's heart and he'd crushed the mad dream of a man who was trying to do what he could to ensure his home's safety and if he couldn't at the least the safety of his niece. He idly wonder what he'd do to next to fuck things up next. He wished Visenya hadn't said that he was a Riverlander, he didn't know what it was like to live in fear everyday wondering if some band of Cthulhu-worshiping thugs would crash into their lives and proceed to rape, pillage, and burn everything they had.

"I'm still upset with you, but I can understand why you did what you did. I'll find her." Tom finally said.

The other man nearly collapsed and thanked Tom repeatedly before Tom finally got him off. He then walked into the forest. As soon as he was out of sight of the village, he started shouting her name, trying to think of what he was going to tell her. He felt like a heel for what he'd said to her after Visenya had talked to to him.

When he didn't get an answer after a few minutes, he took a breath and shouted "Laas Yah Niir!" Instantly the entire forest lit up with the various living creatures that were within a half-mile radius. He found, that the it was far easier to keep control of his senses. He scanned the forest for several minutes then, right at the very edge of his scan he spotted a small human female, 'Mya' but he also spotted a larger male form right on top of her.

His eyes widened in horror and he tore towards Mya where she and the stranger were still standing. After a few minute he tore through a wall of bushes and found Mya and a thin man maybe a few inches taller than him wiry build and looked like he could move quickly when he wanted to. His hair and he eyes were dark and he wore what appeared to be a noble's clothing but had been somewhat dirty and torn, most likely from a night spent in the forest. He was using Mya as a shield and he held a small dagger to her neck effectively holding the girl hostage.

Tom had drawn out the sword, the dark Valerian steel glinting in the dappled light of the forest, and kept his eyes locked onto Ironborn.

"Let. Her. Go." He ground out each word as cold and harsh as if it had been carved from ice. His grip on the sword grew tighter and his knuckles cracked and whitened with the pressure.

The other man smiled jovially and, as if talking to an old friend, said, "Good tidings to you on this fine day! Ser Dovahkiin was it? I must apologize for the trouble but, I needed to make sure you were open to converse, hence the insurance." As if to make his point, he pressed the tip of his blade into the skin of her neck, causing the girl to let out a small cry.

Tom was taken aback for a moment before he forced down his rage, and replied as calmly as he could,"And what makes you think she means anything to me?"

The Ironborn gave a hearty and bemused laugh before giving Tom a look that seemed to say, 'do you think I am that stupid?' "I can see the concern in your eyes and I can smell the stench of sex upon her. I have no desire to harm to your pretty little Saltwife, but right now, she's the only thing shielding me from your magics. So I think for the moment she's looks best standing between us." Mya looked at Tom with huge fear filled eyes, pleading him to save her.

Tom looked at her for a moment before he turned back towards the Ironborn, his eyes hardened to green stone, though in the center of his pupils fire seemed to spark and blaze even in the dark under the forest canopy,"If you hurt her, I will show you there are things far worse than death..." He ground those words out with the finality of a headsman's ax. Only a fool could tell that he was giving no threat, but a statement of fact.

The other man answered with surprising calm, "I am Ironborn. Believe me when I say that, I am well aware that there are many things in this world far worse than death."

The two of them stared each other down before Tom said, "So. What is it you want Ironborn?"

The Ironborn looked at Tom for a moment, "Why, to serve you as your sworn man, of course." The smile on the man's face as he told him this couldn't have been larger.

When he saw Tom's incredulous look on his face he continued, "I'm Bannon Harlaw of house Harlaw, my cousin Harren was the unfortunate fool leading this ill-conceived expedition. I'd give a bow, but for obvious reasons I must refrain."

Tom thought back for a moment and remembered how the two Ironborn had said that their commander, the one that Tom had turned into paste the day before, had been the son of the lord of Harlaw. "Your cousin? Why would you want to serve your cousin's killer? I would've thought that you want revenge."

Bannon merely snorted with contempt. "My cousin was an idiot who refused to take council, and who's main concern in life was the next moist, lukewarm hole he could cram his dick into. I told him that raiding this village was a waste of time, but he refused to go home without first engaging in some 'merry sport'." Tom could all but hear the scornful quotations wrapped around those last words. "He wanted a woman, and nothing I nor anyone else said would have changed his mind."

Tom was a little stunned at that sort of callousness towards one's kin but that still didn't answer all of his questions. "Alright then," he replied. "I can understand if you didn't want revenge. But why do you want to serve me? Why not go home to your uncle and father, raise an army and put my head on a pike?"

Bannon had an answer for that as well, "First, that would involve being able to separate your head from your shoulders, a feat to which I have few delusions as to my ability to accomplish. Besides, even on the most pacific of days my Uncle Harrick is not exactly a mellow individual. To be blunt, he has the gentle temperament of a badger with its arse on fire. Even if I were to bring your head home, there is an uncomfortable possibility that mine would be hung right next to it for failing to save his half-wit spawn from his own stupidity."

Tom looked at Bannon long and hard, much as he wanted to blast the bastard, he couldn't while he still had Mya held hostage. He finally made a choice, "Alright, if I did decide to take you in, what would you have to offer?"

A spark seemed to light up in Bannon's eyes for a moment, before he answered, "For one I could teach you to actually use that fine weapon. You look like you're chopping wood."

Tom flushed and sheathed the sword while muttering, "Not that I really need it."

Bannon continued, "For another, unlike my idiot cousin, I actually paid attention during my uncle's meal-time conversation. I can safely assume that I know everything worth knowing. For example, were you aware that the king is planning a war?"

Tom shook his head, "I know that too. Got anything else?"

Bannon raised his eyebrows for a moment before he answered as confidently as before, "My, you are certainly well informed. Well then. I am at a bit of an impasse. I guess the wealth of information I have on their numbers, positions, and possible targets would be completely superfluous then."

Tom nodded his head, "Alright. You're in. Let Mya go."

Bannon nodded and released the girl who dashed to Tom before bearhugging him and weeping saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry...."

Tom returned the hug and kissed her on the crown of her head before saying, "It's alright, your uncle told me the whole story, I'm not mad at you anymore. It's alright."

When she calmed down enough to disengage from him, Tom then strode over to the Ironborn before grabbing him by the front of his tunic and snarling out, "If I come to regret this, you will not live to regret this. Am I clear?"

Bannon never dropped his insufferable grin when he answered in a confident voice, "As clear as crystal m'lord."

Tom shook his head as he let go of the man, "Were you this sarcastic back among your people?"

Bannon smirked, "Certainly."

Tom raised an eyebrow, "And you're still alive?"

"One of the advantages of always being right." He replied with a shrug.

Tom snorted at that being saying, "That and being the fastest runner in all of the Iron Islands no doubt."

Bannon stared at him for a moment before he laughed and said, "Oh, I like you! I think I will enjoy working with you m'lord. You have a sense of humor!"

"Before we head back to the village there is one more thing that we need to deal with." Tom drew his sword and turned to the Ironborn. "Kneel."

Bannon gave him a look then he knelt.

Tom nodded then said, "Do you Bannon Harlaw of house Harlaw swear to make an oath of loyalty to me Thomas Brodie 'the Dovahkiin' of house Brodie?"

"I do."

"Do you swear to follow and aid me in all of my endeavors to the best of your abilities?"

"I do."

"Do you swear never to harm me or my own through action or inaction, through words, spoken or written, or deeds as well as those whom I call ally should they mean no harm to me or my own?"

"I do."

Tom then tapped the flat of his blade across both of Bannon's shoulders, "Then I call you the first of my vassals and the first forever more for as long as our blood remains in this world."

With that Bannon rose and then the three of them walked back towards the village, Tom idly wondered how Visenya would react to this new turn of events.