The Dangers of Westeros

Part 1- Chapter 1

Part 1- For the First Time in Seven Years

"Your brother's in the tourney today," Renly says to me, "you should go."

I sigh to myself and roll my eyes. Of course my brother would be in the Hand's jousting tourney today, it's expected of him.

I didn't like attending jousting tourneys. I always worried for my brother's safety, but mostly because of all the unwed men who would try to win my affections. It never worked; my pursuers were always too prideful for my liking.

It also didn't help that my affections had already been given to someone else. They had been happily given away seven years ago, whether I had known it or not. But that is a story for a different time.

One of my best friends, Renly, is sitting in a chair in my chambers, drinking wine. I'm standing in front of my mirror, making sure my dress is perfect.

Renly is King Robert's youngest brother. After the end of Robert's rebellion against the Targaryens, Robert had given Storm's End to Renly.

Stannis, Robert's younger brother, had been given Dragonstone, the Targaryen's home on this side of the Narrow Sea, but that had been a mistake. Stannis held Storm's End during a siege for a year, without supplies, and Robert had given it to Renly. Stannis is the best military commander in all of Westeros, but he has his flaws. He showed no mercy and is known to have a cold heart.

Renly isn't like his two older brothers. While Robert and Stannis played with swords, Renly was off avoiding them.

When I first arrived in King's Landing with my brother, Renly had immediately become my friend. He was easy to talk to and he didn't judge me. He is the only person I had told about my secret infatuation. He hadn't scolded me for it; he had simply smiled and said, "We don't get to choose who we love." That had made me instantly love him. Since then, we've become very close.

I suspected there was something going on between him and my brother, but it didn't matter to me. Like Renly had said, we don't get to choose who we love.

"If I go to the tourney, you're coming with me," I say to him as I turn.

He smiles, putting down his cup of wine, before getting up to stand next to me. He takes the clip out of my hair, making it fall to my shoulders. He sets the clip down before situating my hair how he likes it- natural, half of it in front of my shoulders, the other half behind.

This is how I usually wore my hair at home, but this is the capital. It is expected of me to wear my hair like a southerner while in King's Landing, but both my brother and Renly hated how I looked with it.

My hair is golden brown like my twin sister, but unlike her blue eyes, I have emerald green ones. Our hair is really the only similarity between us, despite being twins. Our faces don't look the same. I have rosy cheeks and bright red lips while she has high cheekbones and a slightly pointy nose. I'm shorter than my sister, but I make up for it in speed and strength.

Ever since the incident seven years ago, I had taken it upon myself to learn how to defend myself. I trained with my brother and he taught me how to use a sword. My father understood my desire to be able to protect myself. After what had happened, he knew he would sleep better at night if he knew one of his daughters could protect herself.

It wasn't something I liked to talk about, even though it had happened seven years ago. The scene was still fresh in my mind, as if it happened yesterday. For weeks after the incident, I often awoke in the middle of the night, screaming and sweating profusely. Nightmares plagued me for what seemed like a lifetime. It was always the same; the scene would play out like it had, but there wasn't a hero to save me. The people that had saved me never appeared in my dreams and that is what made them nightmares.