Game of Dragonborn.

Chapter 45 - The Winterfell Banquet 04.

[Chapter Size: 1800 Words.]

Third Person POV.
Winterfell.

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The hall of Winterfell was bustling with festivities. The people, already accustomed to this type of event over the past weeks, having been here multiple times, didn't seem bored; quite the opposite, they always seemed to be laughing as they drank and ate everything available to them.

Bards continued to play their instruments while singing, enchanting many single women who listened to their songs about knights from the south.

Although Lord Stark didn't particularly enjoy this sort of thing, there was a reason for it: many of the artists here were southerners who came with the king's convoy, and the hall was now infested with men seeking coins and nobles looking for favors from the monarch and his family. Ned could do nothing about it, especially when his wife seemed to appreciate it, and his daughter Sansa adored these songs, though the other northerners didn't sympathize with them much, even if they didn't despise them either.

As the music continued playing, filling the crowded hall with sound, the main table was the most prominent, with the king himself sitting at its center, laughing and drinking. A serving girl was filling his wine goblet at that moment, until he surprised her by grabbing her, pulling her openly onto his lap, and caressing her. Perhaps that was why the queen wasn't by his side. In fact, she had chosen to sit next to Catelyn Stark, who watched the king's behavior with a certain anger and disappointment.

"Your Majesty, this behavior is not very appropriate. Your family is here, watching..." Ned Stark commented beside him.

"Don't be such a bore, Ned! I'm the king, and I want to have some fun, come on!" he exclaimed, making the serving girl laugh as he held her inappropriately.

Ned sighed, unable to do anything about it. Catelyn looked at the queen beside her, trying to force a smile, while the queen kept her eyes hard and unyielding. It was a sad sight.

Catelyn left her and looked at Sansa, who, when she wasn't watching the prince at the table, was chatting with her friends—until a meatball flew in her direction, hitting her on the head. Catelyn's eyes widened immediately, seeing Arya do this to her own sister, even in front of her future husband.

"Robb!" she raised her voice, calling her eldest son, who was conversing with Theon and some other northern nobles. Robb didn't seem very comfortable with the southern nobles, which made Catelyn slightly uneasy, as she wished he would draw closer to them. Deep down, she dreamed that Robb might marry a southerner from a great house like the Tyrells, believing the union could strengthen the ties between the north and the south, something her husband disagreed with.

Robb heard the call and broke off his conversation when he saw his mother's look, who was pointing at Arya, laughing while Sansa pleaded for someone to make her sister stop. Robb sighed, rose from the table, left his friends, and went to Arya, who was already preparing another meatball to throw at her sister. He surprised her.

"Hey, don't do that!!" Arya exclaimed as Robb quickly grabbed her in mid-air, pulling her away from the spoon she was using to throw food at Sansa.

"Come with me," Robb said in a serious tone.

"Wait, Nymeria!" Arya exclaimed, pointing at the wolf pup she had insisted on placing on the table.

Robb then also picked up Nymeria, Arya's wolf, while carrying his sister and the wolf away to a corner.

"Arya, you need to behave. You can't humiliate your sister in front of everyone. She will be the future queen..." Robb said in a serious tone.

"You don't even like the prince..." she murmured, and Robb couldn't disagree; after all, the boy was very arrogant.