The Dragon Cub| Game Of Thrones

LIONS ROAD, DRAGONS BURN, WOLVES STALKS

Riverrun 294 AC.

The Blackfish.

It didn't take him long to hate this, not more than a day after his niece and nephew had left and he was already regretting the decision he'd made, why he'd agreed to it he knew, but he also knew nothing was worth it. Having Frey's come to him, listening to them make complaints about minor issues while also trying to push brides on him, on his nephew, even on his grandnephew, as if he could tell Ned Stark who his son should marry, all of it was tiring.

Having to sit with them at dinner, to entertain them, to listen to their stupid stories, that was he had no doubt, one of the seven hells. He knew had his brother lived to see him do this, then they'd have never been able to remove the smile from Hoster's face, never been able to stop him laughing. As he struggled to act the lord he was pretending to be, as he struggled to keep a jovial outlook if not attitude, he hoped they'd be gone on the morrow, if they were not, then he may very well be.

In the end, it took them more than a week to leave and had it not been for a raven from old Walder himself, then Brynden had no doubt they'd have stayed for as long as he would have to. With that headache gone he moved onto the next ones, the first being coin, he was surprised by just how much of it they'd spent, just how much it cost to run the keep.

"These figures are right Maester?" he said asking Vyman.

"They are my lord, that's last year's expenditure."

"Why is so much higher than the year before?" he asked looking at the two figures.

"We had more problems to deal with last year my lord, some one-off events." the Maester said and he nodded, though found the answer unsatisfying.

"The store's Maester?" he said changing the subject.

"We have enough for three moons my lord." The Maester said and he looked at him stunned.

They had always kept two years worth of stores in the keep, both for the winters and should they ever find themselves besieged, so for them to have only three months was unbelievable to him.

"We must order more Maester, how come we have so little?"

"Lord Edmure felt we were spending excessively on the stocks my lord."

"Order more Maester, more flower and more grain, do it now, I want at least a years worth by the time my nephew returns."

"As you say my lord." the Maester said leaving.

He shook his head, his nephew really was an idiot, he doubted there was a keep in the Riverlands who carried less stores than Riverrun, had their bannermen known of this then they'd fall even lower in their favor. He began to look around the keep even more over the next few days, the defenses that he'd once been so proud of, that he once bragged to Yohn about, seemed to be missing, or worse in disrepair.

He watched their guard's work, watched their training and once again it was below standard, it was in fact incredibly substandard and it bothered him greatly. Hoster was a military men, he had led men, he had fought in battles, he knew how to prepare men to fight, was he really this lax?. Asking around he found the same answer he had with the stores, Hoster it seemed had passed responsibility for this to Edmure too and so Brynden resolved to fix this also.