Game Of Thrones... With A Twist

A Game of Thrones - Chapter 9

<The next day, The Hand's Tourney Grounds, King's Landing, The Crownlands...>

Ned walked stoically in the morning sun, donning his customary armor with his badge of office pinned to it. 

He walked by the servants who cleaned up the tourney grounds to prepare it for the joust the next day until he found a tent... a tent that held the body of Ser Hugh of the Vale.

"Does Ser Hugh have any family in the capital?" Ned asked Ser Barristan Selmy, the Kingsguard knight watching over the dead body as Ser Hugh's horrifying neck wound was being stitched painstakingly by a sister from the Sisters.

"No. I stood vigil for him myself last night. He had no one else." Was the great knight's reply. 

Ned looked at the armour of the dead knight before speaking, "He'd never worn this armor before."

"Bad luck for him – going against the Mountain." Ser Barristan remarked. 

"Who determines the draw?" Ned asked. 

"All the knights draw straws, Lord Stark." Ser Barristan answered. 

"Aye. But who holds the straws?" Ned asked once more before he looked at the body and spoke, "You've done good work, Sisters."

Stepping out of the tent with Ser Barristan the Bold at his side, Ned paused for a bit as the man took his helmet from a servant as his white cape was attached to his armour.

"Life is strange. Not so many years ago we fought as enemies at the Trident." Ser Barristan remarked to their different allegiances during the Rebellion. 

"I'm glad we never met on the field, Ser Barristan. As is my wife. I don't think a widow's life would suit her." Ned remarked with a bit of a smile.

Ser Barristan chuckled before he spoke, "You're too modest. I've seen you cut down a dozen great knights." 

"My father once told me you were the best he'd ever seen. I never knew the man to be wrong about matters of combat." Ned replied with praise to the somewhat legendary knight walking next to him, sworn into the service of the King.

"He was a fine man, your father. What the Mad King did to him was a terrible crime." Ser Barristan offered his sympathies to the crime that made the fate of House Stark hang in the balance of Robert Baratheon's rebellion against the Iron Throne.

"And that lad – he was a squire until a few months ago. How could he afford a new suit of armor?" Ned asked, bringing the topic back towards the dead knight.

"Perhaps Lord Arryn left him some money? I hear the King wants to joust today." Ser Barristan said in a light tone. 

"Yes, that will never happen." The Lord Hand stated calmly. 

Ser Barristan chuckled as he replied, "Robert tends to do what he wants." 

"If the King got what he wanted all the time, he'd still be fighting a damned rebellion." Ned remarked at Robert's particular choice of favorite past times.

<Moments later, King Robert's tent, The Hand's Tourney Grounds, King's Landing, The Crownlands...>

Lancel Lannister attempted to get the golden breastplate to close around the fat girth of King Robert Baratheon... but that was a feat that was most definitely impossible. And it was this scene that Ned walked into.

"It's made too small, Your Grace. It won't go." The squire of the King complained with a quiver of fear in his voice.

Robert looked at him with a long suffering expression before he spoke scathingly, "Your mother was a dumb whore with a fat arse. Did you know that?"