Game of Thrones: The Storm

S1E2 - The Kingsroad

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The next day, two hunting parties left the gates of Winterfell that morning.

One hunting party had your father, Ned Stark, Robb Stark, Theon Greyjoy, and a hoard of Kings guard following after them. It would have been a miracle if they were actually capable of sneaking up on anything with that many people just in one hunting party.

The other hunting party was the one that you were in. Joffrey was supposed to be leading it, but he didn't know the first thing about hunting other than bits and pieces father had told him. Following after Joffrey was Clegane, and a tracker from Winterfell. Ned Stark swore up and down that the man was the best tracker in the North, but he looked like a feeble old man who could barely ride and had a harder time walking.

"Laramie, how many times have you been to the North?" Joffrey asked as you all walked through the forest in the opposite direction that your father's hunting party went.

"Once, when I was training on Bear Island for a year," you told him as you ducked under a tree branch before holding it up so that the rest of them could walk under it.

"Bear Island," Joffrey scoffed. "Nothing there besides brutish men and arrogant women pretending to know how to fight."

"Obviously those men and women made a big enough impact during father's rebellion that he thought it would do me good to train there for a year," you reminded him before coming to a small opening in the woods.

"Training in Astapor was what made you a better fighter," he commented. You simply nodded as an answer, not really wanting to contribute to much more to the conversation. He wasn't wrong for once though, Astapor was tough on you, but you were definitely better after training there for two years.

"You never talk about your training. I hear that they start training the Unsullied in Astapor before they can even talk properly," he paused as you all got off of your horses to continue on foot as you grabbed your bow. "I hear that they are eunuchs, cut the moment they are taken from their mother's breast, and that their master's can cut and remove any part of their body without them flinching."

"All are true," you told him as he loaded his crossbow.

"So, what did they do to you?" He asked with a slight smirk as you turned away from him to tie your horse to a tree. You rolled your eyes a bit before turning back to your younger half-brother.

"I might have trained with the Unsullied, but they didn't treat me like one... much."

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A few hours into the hunt, Joffrey insisted that he and the trapper should go into the brush to track a stag by himself. His reasoning being that the stag would have heard the Hound's armor before they got close enough, and he told you that he didn't need his bastard sister's help.

He was doing you a kindness though, you didn't like being around the boy as much as you did when you were younger. He wasn't as bad to you as he was to most other people, but there were always three things he would always bring up around you. Your training, your servitude to the crown which will one day be his, and your mother. He knew you hated talking about all three.

"He's not acting like as big a prick as he usually is," Sandor commented as you were grabbing a bow and a few arrows from your saddle.

You merely hummed as a response.

"You don't talk much," he added as you stayed silent, fiddling with some arrow points that were in your saddle bag.

"I don't have anything interesting to talk about. Besides, the last time I was in King's Landing, I was 7, and since then there have been a lot of new faces arrive that I don't know," you paused before looking over at him, a lightly amused look present on your face. "You included."