Gill was bored...
He was alone in a foreign land sitting inside an absurdly expensive shop that was empty and had no merchandise to sell at the moment.
His only job at the moment was to sit on a chair behind the counter and answer the same query about when their shipping company was going to go on their next excursion.
During the first few days after Merchant Sam and the rest had left for the North, the shop had been crammed with Merchants from all over Braavos for the whole day, and Gill hadn't even been able to catch a break.
But now, after weeks of hearing the same answer, the visits from the various merchants or their retainers had become a lot less frequent, but it didn't mean that they had given up...
Oh, no, no, it just meant that most of them wizened up and decided to go the smart way and use the strongest hidden weapon in a Merchant's arsenal... bribery.
They came up all kinds of ways to give him different kinds of under-the-table incentives so that he would be inclined to inform them earliest when they decided on their next excursion...
Gill, being a commoner from the North, was obviously quite scared at first to accept money for doing something that was essentially his Job. But then, Jon's letter arrived answering his hesitant question with a nonchalant approval saying that 'it' was his just reward for staying behind alone in Braavos while the rest got to go home, so he could take the money without any hesitation.
But it wasn't like Gill had any family back home who was waiting for him so he didn't really feel like he was sacrificing much by staying back here in Braavos so he still didn't feel too comfortable taking the money.
Regardless, after a few persuasions, Gill had given in and begun accepting the little 'bribes' that the Merchants liked to give... but even after accepting it he didn't spend a single copper from it instead he had just decided to keep it all safe inside a secure pouch.
He had decided after some thought that when all of his friends came back, he was going to use of all of this money to throw them a big feast at the nearby tavern...
'That should put a smile on their grim faces...' He thought with a satisfied smile on his face.
He knew that some people would call him naive and stupid for this decision but Gill didn't care as he had never been one to put much worth in gold and didn't mind not saving the money for himself.
Besides, before he left, Merchant Sam had given him more than enough funds to live here comfortably so it wasn't like he needed the money anyway.
Especially since with time, the amount had become big enough to the point of making him uncomfortable.
Even though each merchant only gave him a small amount, when added together it became sum, and that sum had almost doubled following the week when the disastrous news spread of what had happened with the Merchant fleet that Braavosi warships were protecting during their recent bi-yearly excursion.
A lot of people began to get disillusioned by the Braavosi warship's capability after that and they began to think that if they could get killed even under the warship's protection then wasn't it much better for them to contract the Northern Wolf Company not only had good track but were also a lot cheaper and their trips were frequent too... before they took their break.
So safe to say that, Gill couldn't have even imagined a few years ago that he could in the future one day be able to sit on such a sum of gold under him...
A few years ago, he was just an orphan runt in the only orphanage in White Harbour. An orphan who wandered the streets of White Harbour day and night in search of work.
He had no prospect for the future and the most he could have achieved with his life was to become a labourer at the Port and live a life of hand-to-mouth while sleeping hungry on days when there was no work.
But then it all changed on the day that that bulky sailor came into the orphanage with an offer to the Septa in charge. He wanted to take all the orphans who were willing to train them to become sailors in a Shipping company.
The caretaker was obviously a bit sceptical about it all especially when she was told that all the orphans would get a place to sleep and be able to eat good food three times a day until they managed to pass the training.
But all her worries were put to rest when she found out that Lord Manderly was backing this endeavour and that the owner of the company was none other the son of Lord Stark.
But unlike his other friends, Gill hadn't been too enthusiastic about the prospect of becoming a sailor in the beginning...
He knew of course, that it was a privilege in the North to have someone not only give you filling meals every single day but also give you training in a valuable skill. But what could he do when his heart set on something else... when his childhood dream had been to become someone else...
Like every other child in the orphanage in White Harbor, Gill had also grown up hearing a lot of Knightly tales... of their grandeur, their bravery, their adventures and their romances.
Not only the caretaker but even the Manderly Grandaughters during their occasional visits to the Orphanage spun a lot of those wonderous tales filling their heads with fantasies.
Like all the others Gill had also been very fascinated with all of the stories about how brave the knights were and how they travelled the world and how they always honourably managed to save the damsel in distress.
And he wanted that life for himself so much...
But then he grew up and realised that they were just fictional tales and that the reality was a lot different.
Not only were the real knights not as honourable as the tales made them out to be, but in most cases you needed to be a noble first before you could even get the chance to become a knight.
So he could only bury his desires, give up his dream and join the training to become a sailor, no matter his disappointment.
And that turned out to be the best decision in his life.
At first, he had been a bit scared because, after all, there were a lot of scary stories out there of how most sailors die young either because of storms, or pirates or even of starvation.
But then he found out that they would also be trained in the way of swords and he couldn't contain his excitement.
Even when the training got harsh, and the other kids cried and began giving up, Gill never did... because he realised halfway through that this could also be a good alternative as he could become a warrior, travel the world, kill evil pirates, fight in war, and do all the things he had ever wanted...
So in a way, he was already living his dream...
And when Merchant Sam had said that someone needed to remain behind to watch over the shop as well as coordinate the letters as they came between Darrio the Banker, Jon and the Company, he had immediately volunteered himself as he felt that it would be very adventurous.
He had fantasised a lot about all the wonderful things he could do in Braavos during this break, from visiting famous places like the Titan or spectating the nightly duels between water dancers or maybe even paying a visit to the famous courtesans.
But it turns out that he was thinking too simply because none of the things he had imagined felt any fun without any of his friends from the Company to keep him company. Even something as simple as going to a nearby tavern for a drink felt too lonely and depressing without anyone from the North around him.
So he was now counting the remaining days until the crew arrived back from their trip to the North.
And thankfully, according to their last letter, it should take them no more than two to three days to arrive in Essos.
The clanging sound of a large bell broke Gill out of his musings and a single look at the light outside the shop told him that it was time to leave.
He immediately jumped off his chair and started putting things inside for closure, which didn't take him too long. And only a few minutes later he was leaving the shopping street of the port while saying farewells to the nearby local shop owners.
He was on his way towards the big mansion that Jon had bought for the Company to stay in while they were in Braavos and at the moment he was the only one who was staying in it.
On the way, he decided to take the shortcut through a dark alley that he always took... but the moment he stepped his foot inside, he knew that something was wrong...
A massive black man was standing with his back against the alley wall and the second he caught sight of Gill a massive grin appeared on his face as he immediately walked to the middle of the street to bar his way.
His hair standing on end, Gill immediately thought to run but before he could even turn his head he felt a hard blow to his head making him see darkness around him as he fell to the floor.
"...Quickly... put him in the carriage..."
That was the last thing he heard before Gill lost consciousness.
...
With a loud bang, Sam slammed into the ground with his shield falling sideways and his blunted axe slipping out of his hand.
"I win..." Obara announced while breathing heavily as she held a somewhat shaky stick at Sam's throat as if it were a spear.
"Y-You... did. I... concede," Sam let out in a relieved tone.
If Obara was exhausted then Sam could barely move any of his limbs and was on the verge of fainting. He was almost swimming in his sweat and could barely breathe after the repeated bouts he had had with the monster of a fighter that this woman was.
If it weren't for the shield in his hand having an advantage against a spear and the countless hours he had spent training his stamina and his skills under Jon, Sam didn't think that he could have even made this woman sweat given how strong, nimble and skilled she was with the blunted spear.
"Good," Obara replied as she caught her breath just a few minutes later, "Now, why don't you get that Northerner out here anc—"
"Obara!!" shouted a familiar voice making Obara's eyes widen and she immediately swirled her head to see her father standing outside the ring along with the Northerner brat, as if he had been spectating their bout for a while.
"Father!" She immediately beamed as she ran towards him, "Did you see? I won all the bouts. So according to the bet, we are now free to leave," she said with a proud smirk, "Isn't that right, Boy?" she asked while turning to Jon with a fierce expression on her face. It seems she was still miffed about the way she had lost to him the last time.
"Yes. Of course, you are free to leave..." Jon replied with an amused smile on his face, "That is if you want to..."
"What? What kind of nonsense is that? Of course, we want to—"
"Obrara!" Oberyn interrupted her with an exasperated look on his face. It was unknown whether he was embarrassed by his daughter's nativity or if he was apologetic because he was about to ruin all her hard work, "It seems that we are going to be joining this sellswords company for a while..."
That was the compromise both of them came to. Oberyn couldn't easily place his life in the hands of Jon so easily so it was decided that he would stay with the company for a year watching Jon and evaluating whether he had the capabilities to accomplish the task he had been boasting about.
And since Jon already needed that amount of time to put all his affairs in Essos in order he easily.
"W-What the fuck are you talking about, Father?"
"Ahem! You see..."
Jon was having the time of his life watching the Viper try and explain to his daughter why they were they were staying with their enemy even after all her hard work in the bouts when his expression changed abruptly as he looked towards the sky behind him to see an unfamiliar black raven flying towards him from the direction of the sea.
A frown instantly came upon his face when he noticed that the bird was a Warg's animal.
It didn't take him more than a second to realise that this bird must have belonged to one of the new wargs that Robb was going to send from Winterfell along with Merchant Sam.
But what he couldn't understand was why they were suddenly sending him a letter without waiting for him to contact them first at their regular time...
It must have taken the bird quite a while to find him going just by his last known location and he knew that Merchant Sam wouldn't put a warg through something so exhausting unless there was an emergency.
'Could something have gone wrong...' Jon's stomach immediately dropped as an uneasy feeling came over him.
Because of the battle against the Company of the Cats, he had to keep both Tweety and Frost beside him for an extended period of time, which meant that for a while he had lost both his eyes and ears around Braavos.
At that time, he hadn't thought that it would matter too much but now it seems...
The bird reached him and landed on his arms while he was analysing in his mind. Then without wasting a single moment, Jon tore apart the letter and began reading it.
A few moments later his expression turned sour as he crushed the letter in his hand.
His worst fear had been realised as the letter came bearing dark news.
"What happened?" Oberyn asked curiously after the grim look on his face.
"It seems that you'll get to participate in a battle to practice your skills much sooner than we had thought prince," Jon replied with an icy look in his eyes.
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