The Dragon & The Wolf

The North's purpose

Rhaenyra Targaryen, the Realm's Delight, the Princess of Dragonstone and the Heir to the Iron Throne, felt lonelier than she ever did. Here, in the middle of a clearing, surrounded by knights, servants and nobles, she had no friends. Only subjects she knew nothing about, who bowed to her before going back to their tasks or conversations. Lord Hobert's words had reached her ears despite her still being in the carriage, no one truly saw her as the heir to the Iron Throne and the future Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. If people did, then they would all try to gain her favor and would bow lower than they all did.

She was about to go back inside the Royal tent, when she heard the clash of steel. She turned her head to realize that a small crowd of knights had gathered around the squires' tent. With nothing better to do, she made her away across the knights and noblemen to observe the fight and discover the identities of the fighters.

The first she knew, it was Ser Harwin Strong, known as 'Breakbones', a captain of the City Watch and the son of the Master of Laws, Lord Lyonel. He was rumored to be the strongest knight among the Seven Kingdoms, yet, Rhaenyra could see the sweat pearl on his forehead. An irrefutable proof of his opponent's skills, she looked at said opponent and couldn't help but frown.

That was a man she did not know, he was a little smaller and younger that Ser Harwin, but had black straight hair cut short instead of long brown curls like his sparing partner. His grey eyes were cold, yet determined and dangerous, and his face quite handsome if the Princess was honest with herself.
However, as the spare went on, she was fairly surprised to see the direwolf sewn in the doublet of the smaller combattant. What was a Stark doing here? She had not heard of a Stark in Court, she was almost astonished that one of them had left his frozen wasteland to walk among the noblemen and women of the South.

"Typical of Northern barbarians," a voice she didn't know said next to her. "Already picking fights after being in the civilized world for just a few hours. »

Rhaenyra turned her head to discover a middle-aged blond man with a lion sewn on his doublet, the man gave her a quick bow before introducing himself.

"Jason Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock..."

Another clash of swords interrupted him before he could finish his introduction. Rhaenyra quickly noticed that despite Ser Harwin superior strength, the Stark boy was waster and more precise with his blows. But the Princess supposed that the fact that he wasn't wearing an armor was a reasonable explanation for his superior speed.

"A pleasure, Ser Jason," she said without taking her eyes of the fight. "You said Lord Stark arrived at court today ?"

"Oh, he's no Lord, Princess. Merely the nephew of the Lord of Winterfell."

The disdain in the Lannister's voice was evident to the young heir.

"Though he made quite the impression when he arrived," Lord Jason reluctantly admitted. "He presented himself in front of the Red Keep's Gate with no escort but his Direwolf and asked for the King's permission to allow his beast inside the walls of the castle."

Rhaenyra couldn't believe her ears.

"A Direwolf, truly ?"

"Seems so, Princess, I saw the beast myself when this Stark lad rod with the procession. Large as a poney, but I would advise you not to get to close to it. Despite his master's claim, I doubt the beast is as tamed as he pretends. My hounds were quite nervous around this creature, and they have better instincts than us."

A second after Lord Lannister had shared his thoughts, Rhaenyra saw Ser Harwin grab the Stark's wrist after they had locked their blades in a cross. To prevent himself from being unbalanced, the young man did the same with Ser Harwin wrist and stabilized his legs quickly, but the heir of Harrenhall head butted his opponent violently. A few gasps and cheers erupted from the crowd when they saw the bleeding wound on the Northern's forehead, and Rhaenyra herself thought the fight over. But the Stark lad shocked everyone when he retaliated with a headbutt of his own, breaking Breakbones' nose and silencing all reactions from the crowd. However, Ser Harwin looked more pissed than shocked, and headbutted the Wolf again, but again, the Wolf retaliated, splitting the knight's lower lip.