The Death of Duty

Chapter 6

JON

The ship given to them wasn't in the best condition but all it needed to do was sail. It's not like he was here to make a new home. All he needed to do was get across the Narrow Sea, find Daenerys, and he either takes her somewhere safe or she kills him. The latter was far the more likely but when has he ever really cared about his life even before Daenerys.

He had grown to like his crew. They weren't a talkative bunch. They seemed intimidated by Jon and he decided to remedy that. If he could learn about them maybe when the time came he could convince them to turn around and walk because if he was being honest, he didn't really want to kill them.

As the beaming light of the sun settled beyond the horizon and the only evidence of sea was the sound of waves crashing against the hull of the boat and the sway beneath his feet. Jon made his way to the upper deck to join his crew in their nightly dinners.

They were gathered around a brazier to for small fires around the boat. They talked amongst themselves for the most part until Jon took a seat, they instantly became quiet. They'd done this multiple times and he just assumed that it was due to past leaders of their crew. But tonight he would put a stop to it.

"How about cut we rid of this silence and you all tell me about yourselves," Jon said as he wiped his mouth of remnants of chicken.

They all looked around confused before someone he didn't know spoke up. "Why?"

"I like to know about the men I'm fighting alongside. So how about you first?"

"Um well my name is Braeden ser," he said.

He looked down at his food and seemed to want to stop talking but Jon wasn't having it. "Well I'm sure there's more to you than just your name. Come on, speak."

Braeden looked at Jon perplexed, as if no one had ever taken an interest in his life stories. "About what Ser?"

"How about why you're a soldier, that should be easy enough."

He seemed to be slipping back into his silence and Jon was getting ready to admit defeat before he heard him speaking. "Well I fell in love with a girl back in Winter Town. I thought she loved me too but then I found her with a soldier," he said. He received a sympathetic pat on the shoulders from the man sitting next to him. "I was young and stupid. Thought that if I became a soldier I could have all the girls I wanted."

"And have you had many girls?" someone asked.

"All of them paid for," Braeden responded before chugging the rest of his ale while the rest of the crew quietly laughed.

"What about you Ser?" Grennan asked.

"What about me?" Jon responded.

"Why did you become a soldier?" Jon mulled over the question. It had been so very long since he'd become a brother of the Night's Watch that he barely remembered why he even ran off the that wretched place.

"I never really had a purpose back home, never fit right in there. I thought I could leave and become a soldier, maybe find out where I fit."

"And did you?"

"No, it just got worse. Soon all I knew was fighting and there was no running from it. At some point I just started waiting for that sword to pierce me and put me out for good. Though, eventually I did find something to fight for."

"What was it?" Grennan asked as he tilted his head in questioning.

"A woman you dumb cunt," the man next to him said as he shoved his head, nearly knocking him off his seat. "It is a woman, right?"

Jon didn't answer but his smile was enough of an answer. "Beautiful?" Braeden asked.

"Most beautiful in all the land," Jon said as he closed his eyes. Picturing Dany's silver hair and purple eyes.

"Loyal unlike mine?" Braeden laughed.

"Of course." Unlike me.

"What does she look like?" Grennan asked.

Shit. He can't just describe Daenerys that would completely give him away. "Uh, golden hair, blue eyes," Jon said quickly.

"Queen Cersei?" Braeden asked sarcastically.

"Not in a million centuries," Jon laughed.

He was beginning to enjoy this crew. They seemed kind and not like the soldiers he was used to. It was a slim chance but maybe he could convince them to turn around and walk away once the found Daenerys. "What about you Grennan? Why are you a soldier?" Jon asked.

He seemed to freeze up and averted his gaze to his cup. His foot tapped away on the hard wooden deck nervously as he rose and turned in the other direction and headed below deck. Jon furrowed his brows in confusion and looked to the other crew members for some sort of explanation but they looked just as confused.

Jon decided he wasn't going to leave him like that and rose to find him and discover what has him running away the way he did. The chatter and laughter of the crew became drowned out once he descended below deck. When he began walking down the hall he heard crying coming from behind the stairs he had just descended. When he turned he saw Grennan curled around himself and hiding. He approached him cautiously, not wanting to spook him. "Grennan?" he said lightly.

He looked up and wiped his tears away before composing himself. "Sorry Ser."

"No please, it's alright," Jon said as he slumped down beside him. "And just call me Jeor. So what's the problem?"

"It's just," he said. He seemed hesitant to answer Jon's question from earlier. "The reason I joined was my family. We were severely poor and had no way out of King's Landing. After the Great Sept of Baelor we just couldn't stay there with the threat of death looming around every corner. So I decided that I was going to fight for the North to make enough gold to get my family out of that city. I would have taken them North with me but they never would have made the trip only surviving off of the amount of food I was eating every day."

His eyes glistened with unshed tears as he told more of his story. "And I heard of Jon Snow. Never saw him, well not really. Only brief glimpses and I can't really remember his face at all. But he inspired me to become more, to take my family back myself. I had heard of Daenerys Targaryen in Meereen. How she treated the people and I thought that taking back King's Landing and having them under her rule would be best for my family. They wouldn't be scrounging for food day in and day out. So then came the battle of King's Landing."

Jon immediately knew where the story was going after that but didn't interrupt him, he let him put all his emotions out. "When the battle came and we charged the gates I remember the feeling of triumph and happiness at the feeling of a new beginning for my family. And then she burned the city." Jon swallowed the lump in his throat as he continued his story. "When the dust settled I awoke, unconscious with bodies strewn everywhere. I remember running and running to the house I knew my family would be hiding in. It was destroyed but I still held out hope. And then I found them, my baby sister being held in the arms of my mother in the corner. The toy I gifted her the day I left for the North still clutched tightly in her hands." His voice broke on the last word and Jon did his best not to break down himself. Jon had known the destruction of King's Landing, he was there. But he never heard from another about the horrors of what had happened to them that day.

There was nothing he could do to console him and he felt he didn't even deserve to listen to him. He's going to save the woman that killed his family and the woman he still loved. All he really knew was that when he finally reunited with Daenerys was that they would need to have a serious talk.