Wonderland // Ned Stark // Petyr Baelish (1)

44. RABBIT!

Dancing with our hands tied // Jon Snow out now!!

Lannister red tents filled the camp, lion banners blowing in the wind.

'Gregor Clegane, the mountain will ride within a fortnight or be branded an enemy of the crown,' Jaime said 'Ned stark... brave man terrible judgment.'

'Attacking him was stupid,' Tywin said 'Lannister's don't act like fools' he went on as he gutted the beast in front of him. 'You're going to say something clever?' Tywin questioned his son, 'go on say something clever.'

'Catelyn Stark took my brother.'

'Why is he still alive?' Tywin asked

'Tyrion?'

'Ned stark.' Tywin corrected

'One of our men interfered speared him through the leg before I could finish him,' Jaime informed him.

'Why is he still alive?' he questioned again

'It wouldn't have been clean.' Jaime told him

'You spend too much time worrying about what other people think of you.' Tywin muttered.

'I could care less what anyone else thinks of me.' Jaime assured him

'No that's what you want people to think,' Tywin told him.

'That's the truth' Jaime protested.

'When you hear them whispering king slayer behind your back, that doesn't bother you?' Tywin questioned

'Of course it bothers me,' Jaime told him

'But a Lion doesn't concern yourself with the opinions of sheep,' Tywin told him 'I suppose I should be grateful that your vanity got in the way of your recklessness. I'm giving you half of our forces you will bring Catelyn Starks girls home and you will remind her That Lannister's pay their debts.' Tywin said through clenched teeth.

'I didn't realize you based such high value on my brothers life.' Jaimie said

'He's a Lannister, might be the lowest of the lowest but he is one of us and every day that he remains a prisoner the less our name demands respect.' Tywin told him.

'So the lion does concern himself with the opinions of-' Jaime began.

'It's not an opinion, it's a fact.' Tywin corrected. 'If another house can seize one of our own and hold him captive we are no longer a house to be feared.' Tywin informed him. 'Your mother is dead before long I will be dead and then you and your brother and your sister and all of her children all of us dead all of us rotting in the ground, it's the family name that lives on, it's the war that lives on not your personal glory, not your family, but your name. Do you understand?' Tywin questioned Jaime.

'You are blessed with skills that few men possess you are blessed to belong to one of the most powerful families in the kingdoms and you're still blessed with youth and what have you done with these blessings? Do you have served as a glorified bodyguard for two kings one a madman and one a drunk,' Tywin reminded him, 'The future of our family will be determined within the next few months what we do now will either last us 4000 years or will crumble us to nothing. I need you to become the man you were always meant to be.' He said turning his attention back to his son. 'Not next year, not tomorrow, now.' Tywin told Jaime.

++

"RABBIT!" Alice shouted. "I'm the right Alice, I swear. I have a questioned for you!"

"Alice?" she spun around but she should have known that the voice wasn't right, too deep to be the rabbit.