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jacaerys:
"All hail Jacaerys of House Velaryon. Prince of Dragonstone." Someone behind him announced as Jacaerys had just landed. Shortly after getting down from Vermax, he stored his black leather gloves in one of his pockets.
Around him, there were stunned faces of astonishment, ones that had clearly never seen a dragon with their own eyes before. The crowd faded the way towards the castle and so he walked as people's eyes were on him, almost suffocating the prince. Jacaerys straightened his back as he got closer to the citadel, and felt his arm hair raise from the shivering cold that The North was.
He continued strutting towards the Winterfell Castle, and narrowed his eyes when he thought he had just seen a man with the exact same physique as Lord Cregan. Tall, brown hair and beard, quite buff... He also had next to him a lady, he assumed that was his infamous bastard half-sister.
"Cregan Stark??" Jacaerys called out the man a few feet from him, who marginally heightened his head.
"Are my eyes deceiving me, or are we in the presence of Prince Jacaerys??" The man asked rhetorically to the lady beside him. She glanced at Jacaerys for a quick moment, and turned her gaze down. "Has anyone ever told you that you are the spitting image of your mother when she was younger??" Cregan interrogated the prince to start small talk and give him a hint of who he was.
"Are you Cregan Stark, yes or no??" Jacaerys asked the Lord of Winterfell aggressively. He wasn't there to chat, to drink or to be folks with Cregan. His only objective was to leave Winterfell alive with the support of House Stark. Successfully doing that, he would be more than The Realm's Delight bastard son, he would one day be King, and people would celebrate him for strengthening the union of two of the most powerful houses in Westeros.
"I am incredibly sorry to hear about King Viserys's passing. He was a good ruler." The Lord stepped forward to Jacaerys and paused for some moments, creating a quiet and very painful atmosphere between the two men and everyone around watching them. "And I'm certain your mother will be one too." He said assuringly, taking Jace's hand and shaking it with his own.
sara:
At dinner, the Stark Lord and Snow girl, were sitting at the table with the Prince of Dragonstone, awaiting their food, and there was again, another moment of silence flooding the room. The silence was so loud, Sara could hear her ears ringing.
She'd never been more relieved to receive her serving of food. Eating kept her mind off of things, and didn't have to concentrate in the present moment, or even acknowledge it.
At the table, she was swallowing whole pieces of meat, as discreetly as she could, to try and leave the quarter of the castle as quickly as possible.
Sara noticed Cregan questioning Jacaerys, but couldn't be arsed to listen to their talk. She continued to ignore the men whilst looking down at her plate as she slid her fork into her mouth and drank the red wine. Wiping the corner of her lips with the napkin placed on her legs, she excused herself and as she was getting up, her half-brother's voice startled her. "Leaving so soon??" Cregan asked. She turned to face him with anxiety rushing through her veins.
"I'm tremendously sorry to leave so soon, Lord Stark" She was able to mutter. "and Prince Jacaerys." Sara said and looked at the Prince who frowned. "I have terrible pains..." Sara lied, with her hands on top of where her uterus was located. "And they've been brutal today, I hope you can understand that..." She lied once more, but in a lower tone, so Cregan was the only one who was able to hear what the girl had said.
"Ah." Her brother muttered, not wanting to know more. "Someone find Sara a hot towel and accompany her to her chambers." Cregan sternly demanded as he slightly nodded in his sister's direction.
"Good night brother." Sara fabricated in a weak tone.
Selsa was the one who brought her to her chambers, and readied the girl for bed. The handmaiden set an embroidered hot towel on her abdominal area and tucked Sara in bed. "Sleep well, my Lady." She whispered on her way out thinking Sara was already asleep.
The maiden closed the door behind her, and Sara's eyes immediately struck open. She tried to make little to no noise, and removed the cloth that was burning her skin. She uncovered her plain blue sheets, got up from bed and opened her window to get some fresh air.
Growing up in The North meant getting used to freezing temperatures, so the slight change of them, made Sara immediately weak and sick. In this case, since she had a boiling cloth on top of her to relieve her 'pains', she quickly had to uncover herself and regulate her body temperature. Bad thing was that she didn't have water with her. She wanted to drain the wine out of her body, which she could feel get to her head, and go out once more before the whole nonsense with being warm hosts for The Prince started the next day, but it was a foolish idea.
After a few minutes, Sara started feeling somewhat better but could also sense that her rest was awaiting her. She climbed onto bed quietly and covered herself lightly with her sheets.
Before falling asleep, she would always think about going hunting the next day, and wonder about the adventures in the woods that called her.
She knew it had to stop, of course. She had to make a good impression of House Stark, despite not being one. Her brother could've fed her to the wolves the day he was named Lord of Winterfell, but he resolved to be merciful with her. From that point on, Sara made an oath to herself that she'd do anything to please her brother. He was difficult to love, but she couldn't help but call him 'brother' with such warmth.
So that night, instead of dreaming about going out, she planned on finding ways to make Cregan proud of his little bastard half-sister.
If she hadn't heard a sound come from outside the castle just near her chambers, she would've done that, but chose to make her brother proud another time. Sara got up in a whim and looked out her window carefully, in case there was a person outside. She narrowed her blue eyes precisely only to see a man with a rock trying to break into the castle. On melting snow, there were a few dead ravens and some already escaping their cages.
He had set them off.
Sara lifted her floor board and took out her bow and arrows. She didn't have time to get her quiver or anything else, she would just go in her long black nightgown and braided hair, and hope nobody would recognize her.
She delicately opened the door and closed it successfully without it creaking.
Sara took her preferable route to the short roof near the guests' chambers to get a better look and aim of her target. She strutted down the dark hallway, taking steps very gently, to not wake anyone. At the end of it, she saw her own reflexion in the gigantic window she used to to get onto the roof.
Only one foot was out when she felt a shiver go down her spine that sent signals to her whole organism to not go. Her brain and heart were yelling at her to stay put, but her gut begged Sara to do something. There was no turning back now, once she'd made her decision, she followed it through.
She was now exposed to the cold that would very likely sicken her, but she didn't care, all she thought was catching the murderer.
Her fingers brushed her hair off her face and rapidly nocked her arrow into the bow. She crouched down and slightly tightened the string in search for the man that had been seen just a few minutes earlier.
The back of her neck tingled.
She thought that meant the man was nearby, but it was only when she walked towards the end of the roof that she had seen a pool of blood coming out of a man who had been stabbed multiple times in the neck and torso.
Sara tiptoed backwards in hopes of not catching the attention of the person who had killed the man who was meters beneath her. Her breath got heavier as she took those small steps backwards and almost collapsed when she felt her back suddenly crash against a body.
In that same exact moment, a blade was pointed at her neck. She didn't have time or strength to move, she was in the hands of a murderous man, and Sara was about to be his next victim.
"Do not move." He said in a strange yet familiar voice. "You're going to pay for what you did here." The man spat out. Sara's eyebrows furrowed and was only able to pronounce the beginning of the word 'what' out of pure confusion, before his grip on her got tighter.
She didn't know if he had seriously considered that Sara had killed the man and the ravens, but also didn't know how to escape her current situation.
Her brain was racing, trying to think of options to knock down the man behind her, whilst still thinking of a way to get back into the castle to beg for help.
Sara was already getting ready to accept her fate when she remembered she had stocked a few arrows inside her boots. In a whim, she was able to reach one, and swiftly took a chance at stabbing the man in the leg. He cried out, whilst still holding onto one hand of hers that was already escaping, and managed to bludgeon it, making her also cry out for a brief second.
Sara jumped off of the roof, not looking back, and fell onto the cold hard grounds outside of the castle. She quickly took a run for it and fled with her head down in the direction of the back door of the citadel.
She pushed open the rusted door with her trembling hands and entered the castle anxiously.
Sara bolted to her chambers and once in them, her back crashed onto the bed's surface and let a gasp out, immediately shutting her mouth with both her hands afterwards.
A few seconds later, she regretted doing that. Blood from her cut streamed onto her lips and into her mouth, and was suddenly reminded of the wound she had gotten from the stabbing.
Getting up quickly, Sara aimlessly grabbed a cloth beneath her bed and tightened it around her cut to stop the bleeding. 'Gods, how will I hide this??'
She was lucky she didn't need stitches, thankfully the wound wasn't deep enough to need them, but it hurt tremendously, she guessed that was what she deserved for not following her half-brother's orders.
Just before her eyes succumbed to the darkness of the night, Sara remembered her beloved bow left in the snow with the murderous man, her cut, and attempted to find ways to explain the wound to anyone who asked about it. She would perhaps say it was a wolf, but that'd be too gruesome and not believable. Maybe she could say she broke a mirror and cut herself on a shard. That sounded more believable.
Sara would worry about the other things the next day. After almost getting caught twice in a day, her goal was to not go to sleep as stressed as she was in those moments.
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author's note:
i legitimately hate this chapter LOL so i do not blame you if you do too.
i've been terrible the last few days so please forgive my bad writing, bad description, bad everything 💀💀
i also want to say that i'll try my best for this story to be a slowburn!! so please don't expect romance too soon, i'm trying to build up the story first and then the characters, and then their relationships...
also who do you guys think was the guy who had sara by the neck?? i'm so interested in what you guys think of the story, it's absurd!! but please let me know haha
see you next time :))