THE QUEEN BEYOND THE WALL

Story the Second: A Young Heir and a Young Maiden

There is a sapphire in the middle of Shipbreaker Bay, a lovely isle with fresh azure waters within and salty azure waters without. Rainbows form where the springs and streams fall from the heights onto lower ground, and these many sources of freshwater, like the lakes that are perfectly clear liquid looking-glasses in the meadows and heathlands, are the tears that the Maiden herself once wept for Ser Galladon, a dashing mortal knight from the once barren island of Tarth and the only lover she ever knew, or so Stormlanders still believe in our days.
It's a pleasant and modest spot, rising from the azure tides of Shipbreaker Bay, on the Stormland coast of the vast and diverse continent of Westeros. Tarth itself is not densely populated, a harsh yet beautiful island of brave and honest people ruled by the Tarths of Evenfall Hall, a middling noble family now dwindled to a widowed lord of middling rank and his only daughter.
At Evenfall Hall, a lonely and tomboyish child Brienne (having lost her mother and siblings) is excited about the prospect of a visitor mentioned in a letter sent by carrier raven all the way from Casterly Rock in the Westerlands: for Lord Tywin Lannister himself, the most powerful and wealthiest man in all Westeros, has sent his eldest son to be squired at Evenfall (omitting the real reason, id est, Jaime's more than innocent sharing of bed with his twin sister). When the young Lannister lands, an elated girl with short hair fairer than his and freckled cheeks, taller than any girl he has ever seen before, has already sauntered before her stalwart father to welcome the dashing, golden-haired, green-eyed Jaime, and to introduce herself. The people of the village below the Hall are modest, they do put up a celebration but not a grand one in honour of the Lannister boy, and he gets to live at Evenfall with the Tarths. The septa, Roelle, is losing her patience with Brienne's needlework, and Lord Selwyn, called the Evenstar, finally convinces her to let him raise his only daughter as a male heir.
Jaime has got issues of his own: with the letters dancing and scrambling before his eyes, he finds it hard to read and write. However, with enough love and patience (especially with encouragement from his new-found friend Brienne), he soon overcomes this hurdle, little by little, though not taking a liking to reading, preferring more active pursuits.
Soon, Lord Tywin's heir has nearly forgotten his siblings, and sees Cersei as a sister once more, because of the freckled, blue-eyed girl. Though they aren't brother and sister, Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth bond to love each other as if they were, by sharing experiences (both have lost their mothers, both like stories and sword fighting).
Jaime and Brienne explore the sights of the Sapphire Isle together, help each other with their homework, get into scrapes, play games like monsters-and-maidens, listen to Roelle's stories together at night, and even Selwyn Tarth, a hot-headed yet merry bear of a veteran warrior, opens up to Jaime and lets him spar with Brienne.
And he always loses to his good friend.

It is during such a fight with wooden swords that it happens. Their childhood days are full of love and innocence, so who could say that they are finite after all? Running across meadows rife with wildflowers, bathing and drinking in waterfalls to cool themselves after sparring, wooden swords held in their little hands, the bright summer sun beating upon their fair hair, both children cannot be happier. For a while, they stop by a waterfall spring, as the tankard is soon detached from the blue-eyed girl's belt and both lindenwood shortswords are quickly pulled from their scabbards.
Right when he's determined not to lower his guard or waver, the blond boy gets what appears to be an eyelash or a speck of dust in his left eye. Brienne casts off her sword, worried, and then Jaime gets up, calming her with the words that he's all right, though he's visibly heated up by the sun above and by the struggle of the swordfight against a worthy opponent; and, having wiped the perspiration from his brow, plunging his face and both arms down to his elbows into the pool to fill the tankard, then drinking his fill of cool spring water, eagerly at a deep draught, to quench his thirst... but then, he feels a searing, stabbing pain in his chest, like a heart attack. Clutching the left side of his chest and reeling, he complains about feeling stabbed in the heart with an icicle before collapsing unconscious, breathing heavily; already seeming to struggle against impending death.