Game of Thrones: King of Magic

Chapter 22

Robb Stark. Winterfell.

At the dawn of the next day, the royal family, along with their attendants, and the Stark family gathered in the castle courtyard for the duel. A crowd of gawkers had also joined in, seating themselves wherever they could, even though it was so early in the day.

I looked around with my hand on the hilt of my sword, Lord Solomon's gift lying close to my heart, waiting for its moment.

The king, who had gotten up after a night of drinking, was standing not far from us with an obviously displeased look on his face. Next to him were the queen with a stoic face, her two brothers whispering about something, and her son looking smugly at Arya. And the prince's bodyguard, nicknamed "The Hound," was staring glumly into nowhere.

Father and mother waited silently for the start. Sansa played the concerned damsel in love, Bran and Rickon stood behind their parents under Sir Rodrik's supervision, and Arya...

She was still sulking that she wasn't allowed to go to the duel herself. She was giving me a resentful look, aggressively stroking Fou as if it were my fault. And to that I could only shake my head, simply resigning myself to her behavior.

Speaking of "White Eater," as we dubbed Fou because of the amount of food he eats. I can tell you that he is a very smart animal. Frighteningly smart, to be exact. He definitely knows how to get what he wants. At the past feast, Fou, who is usually pampered by Arya, took advantage of his looks and charmed Princess Myrcella and Prince Tommen, taking all their attention for himself. Everyone who saw it and asked what kind of beast it was had no answers, as we don't know that either. So everyone agreed that it was some kind of rare species.

Back to the king's youngest children. They too arrived with the king and proved to be very nice people. During the feast, the princess didn't hide her sympathy towards me. At the same time, her younger brother was having quite a bit of fun with Arya. And of course, we had one dance each, as it is our duty as nobles. I danced with Princess Myrcella, Arya with her younger brother, and Sansa with her older brother, obviously not thrilled about it.

After the feast, Sansa and Arya decided to organize a "girl talk" with Princess Myrcella. As Sansa told me, she enjoyed the time with her, and so did Arya. Of course, they took Fou with them.

At the same time, myself, Bran and Rickon did the same thing they did, calling Prince Tommen. It went similarly to the girls, as we liked him too. At first the prince didn't open up to us, only occasionally engaging in conversation and giving one-word answers, but later things went his way.

As it turned out, he was very simple. In a good way, of course. He really liked tournaments because of the fights and of course the girls that were usually there. Bran and Rickon quickly found common ground with him when I was feeling a bit separated. Maybe because of age? Who knows.

To summarize, both Princess Myrcella and Prince Tommen were shy, good-natured, and... not like their older brother. While those two were playing with Fou and spoiling him as best they could, the Crown Prince wanted to gut Arya's favorite and make a stuffed animal out of him. Obviously, my little sister took it negatively.

It almost started another conflict, which thankfully didn't happen. Fou quickly realized what was going on and just disappeared, seemingly vanishing into thin air. Again, he's very clever, and the conflict was hushed up before it even started.

- Quicker we start, quicker we finish, - said the king, looking around the audience - Will you fight by yourselves or will you choose champions?

- Hound! - Prince Joffrey reacted instantly, glaring at his bodyguard. Sir Clegane silently walked out to the area we used for training, throwing off his cloak and maintaining a frown.