The Stag and The Frog - (GendryxMeera GOT fanfic) Part 1: Alone

10: Let me try

"I am Lord Gendry Baratheon. The bastard son of Robert Baratheon. Legitimized by the Dragon Queen."

He noticed whispers among his audience as he said that. He noticed looks of disbelief but also looks of amazement. The name Robert Baratheon meant something to these men. It meant honor and glory.

"I've come here to take back the castle that belongs to my family from the Lannisters. I bring with me my father's armies. They have chosen to follow me instead of Queen Cersei."

One more deep breath. If he just kept breathing he would get through this. Or at least he wouldn't pass out right there on the stage.

"I understand that my arrival, and my existence, is startling to you. I know you have been trying to take back the castle for years. I know many of you wish to rule it. I know you have no reason to trust that I am who I say I am. But I hope you trust me when I say that I am here to try to once again bring peace to the Stormlands. To unite it under the Baratheon banner just like my father Robert and my uncle Renly did. Like their forefathers did before them."

The whispering among the audience continued, he didn't know if it was good or bad. But he continued to recite the speech that Davos had prepared for him.

"I'm not asking anyone to bend the knee to me. I've bent my knee to too many masters to ask anyone to do that. I only ask of you to not dismiss me outright, to at least consider my proposal. And what I propose is a parlay with the Lannisters, to convince them to give the castle to me. After all, they are holding it for House Baratheon. And I am a Baratheon. If they give it to me the Dragon Queen has promised to spare them, to not use her dragons on their armies as she will in King's Landing. There needs to be no more siege, no more fighting. The castle will belong to the Stormlands again. It will belong to House Baratheon. That is the proposal I ask you to consider."

Tyrion Lannister had helped him and Davos with this part of the plan. Tyrion had asked the Dragon Queen to spare his cousin Tyrek if she could if Tyrek surrendered. There was also one more part to the plan that Gendry would save for the parlay. The Stormlords didn't need to know about that part.

Devan stepped up and addressed the crowd. Most of the men here knew him and trusted him since he himself had participated in the siege.

"I am Devan Seaworth, son of Davos Seaworth. I will vouch for this man, that his claim is true. He is Gendry Baratheon, son of Robert Baratheon. My father has assured me of that, he fought beside Lord Baratheon up north. I think many of you can see it too, you recognize his father and his uncle in him."

He saw men in the audience nodding in agreement with this. Gendry did look like Robert and Renly, there was no denying that.

"Let it be known that House Seaworth has chosen to follow him, to follow house Baratheon." Devan continued. "We won't bend the knee, as that is against the lord's wishes, but we will stand behind him as he tries to get back the castle that is rightfully his."

A man stepped forward from the audience. He was completely bald with a red beard. He was tall, even standing below the stage he reached about as tall as Gendry.

"I am Ser Cortnay Penrose. I held this castle for your uncle Renly when he went to war. And I do believe he was your uncle, I do believe Robert was your father. I can see the resemblance. I believe you are who you say you are. And that might excite younger men like this one, men from lesser houses."

He looked in Devan's direction with contempt in his eyes. Clearly he saw himself as better than house Seaworth, a newly minted house headed by a former commoner.

"But that doesn't excite me. It doesn't mean I will follow you. It doesn't give you the right to rule these lands. I don't know where you're from, but I know you are not from here. I know you don't love the Stormlands as I do. I know you wouldn't sacrifice your life to take that castle as I would. You might look like your father and your uncle, but you are not them. You're just a bastard trying to claim their name."