'That's great she's never going to let me live this one down,'
Catelyn's been very jealous ever since Jon turned out to be so good in the yard, and because of that every time Jon makes even the smallest of mistakes while training. She exaggerates it while making a funny tale out of it and tells it to Sansa at their meals, usually making Jon into a particularly dull character.
It wasn't like Jon didn't give it back as good as he got. They had quite the prank war going between them. It all started when Sansa was a bit clumsy with a lemon cake and ruined Catelyn's favorite dress. She obviously went to Jon for help in tears and was very scared that her mother will be angry with her, so Jon took a fall for it.
So Catelyn obviously assumed that Jon had done it intentionally and took revenge. Jon woke up the next day to find his shoes missing and when he found them after searching all over Winterfell, they were stuck in horse shit. She didn't need to say that it was her, the smirk on her face was enough for Jon.
Jon got back at her by making her favorite dress disappear and when Catelyn made a big commotion accusing Jon, who immediately presented Eddard Stark as his witness who swore that Jon had been with him all along. In the end, the dress magically reappeared in her room, which made her look stupid. Frost got a small feast as a reward from Jon that night.
Stuff like that kept on happening, sometimes only her portion of food would become incredibly salty, and when she would complain, it would feel like she was whining since every one of us would say that it tasted good. Jon couldn't control his grin throughout the meal which made Catelyn retaliate the very next day.
It had been going like that for quite a while, and at the start, Lord Stark and Robb tried to intervene but when they became the unintentional victim due to picking the wrong side, they ultimately left the two of them alone.
The reason Catelyn had been particularly antsy toward Jon at that moment was due to the incident that happened two weeks. Some time ago she had given birth to Arya, but unlike Sansa, she wasn't a fan of her mother, she would always cry whenever Catelyn carried her and even refused to drink her milk.
Two weeks ago, during a visit from the whole Stark family, to meet the newest wolf, halfway through, Arya suddenly started crying uncontrollably. So Catelyn had gotten really flustered, so they had all taken turns trying to calm her down. At the end of the visit, it was concluded that baby Arya red-haired part of her family and only sleeps soundly when held by either Jon or Eddard which made Catelyn as a mother pretty jealous.
"JON! Come here," Eddard said firmly.
Jon stood up while patting his pants, and walked toward his father. Catelyn turned away in a huff and went toward where Robb had started sparring with young recruits.
"Yes, Father," Jon said while looking at his shoes.
"Are you alright?" Eddard asked worriedly while looking down at him.
"I am fine," Jon nodded sulkily.
"Jon look at me!" Eddard said while putting a hand on his shoulder and when Jon looked up continued softly, "You need to slow down, Jon. You are not going to become proficient at dual wielding in just a few months, maybe not even in a decade,"
Jon looked at his Father in disbelief, if he was trying to cheer him up, then he was doing a very shit job of it, telling Jon that he can't do it even if he worked hard for 10 years was a low blow.
"But... if you persist in it until the end. Then you could become the greatest swordsman of your age, the best of the best," Eddard said before his eyes suddenly gained a nostalgic look, "There was only one dual wielder I met in my whole life and he was a... monster."
"He would be defending with his left hand and attacking with his right one moment, and in the next suddenly both hands would start attacking you. Fighting him was like fighting multiple people with multiple hands at the same time."
"There were five of us and only him alone, but it still felt like he was ganging up on us..." Eddard said while remembering the memory of that day.
In the beginning, there were five of them against him but when Ser Mark Ryswell had killed the old Lord Commander Ser Gerold, it had been six against him alone, but he still cut through them like they were a bunch of unruly young squires and not the best warriors north had to offer, who had been trained in the art of combat since a young age.
"Anyway..." Eddard said while shaking his head and coming back to the present, "You need to take it slow and not rush into it, it shall take a lot of time and effort but I promise you if you ever reach mastery then you would be like that Man,"
"Can you tell me more—" Jon started to say, but was interrupted midway through.
"Hey, Jon! Are you alright," Robb said in concern while coming to a stop before them, "I saw the fall and it looked bad,"
"I am fine, Nothing's broken," Jon smiled reassuringly while moving both his arms to show him.
"Well if you are fine then..." Robb said before his face suddenly puffed up, "You looked so stupid flailing around like that..." and he started laughing while pointing towards Jon, "Even Sansa isn't that clumsy! You should have seen your face... HAHA,"
"Oh, you find my face stupid do you?" Jon said while smiling evilly before suddenly jumping on his brother and started pulling his face, "Let me make your face stupid too,"
Eddard looked at the sky while asking Old Gods to give him some strength before he looked at his son's wrestling before him with a sigh of exhaustion and immediately broke them up, "Enough!" he sternly said while holding one unruly child in each hand, "go get cleaned up and remove you pads you are done for the day. And after that, you are to head straight for the Great Hall,"
Eddard put them back on the floor only after they had nodded. He looked at them running away still bickering with each, before leaving the courtyard with Catelyn toward Great Hall, watching them practice had suddenly made him hungry.
Both the boy's completed their cool-down stretches and put back their swords and pads on the stand, before immediately racing toward the Great Hall.
The entire meal passed with Robb telling Jon about his various bouts and how very soon he would be ready to join him. Jon only kept nodding along unconsciously all the while frequently yawing. He was so tired that by the time the meal was done Jon was half asleep.
The day since Jon had started training in the yard, his daily schedule had become fully packed and he suddenly found himself with very little free time.
After Jon's usual morning meditation, he broke his fast before he had to go to Maester Luwin's lesson. The Maester usually taught them about Geography, History, various Noble Houses of Westeros, etc. And Jon had recently started taking lessons in the Valyrian language, so the usual free time he had when Robb learned the intricacies common tongue was also filled.
"Hey!" Robb said while clicking his fingers in front of Jon and he was immediately startled awake, "You were about to walk into that pillar. Why are you sleepwalking? "
"It's nothing," Jon said airily while moving around the pillar, "Frost woke me up early in the morning, so I wasn't able to have much sleep,"
While Frost was the reason Jon was feeling sleep-deprived. It was not the way Robb probably imagined. About a month ago, Jon started to have occasional dreams about flying and hunting in the wolfswood at night.
At first, Jon thought that they were just regular dreams occurring due to his intense desire to become a warg, but when Frost confirmed that the prey she had hunted the night before was exactly the prey from his dream, he concluded that he had already started having warg dreams. So Jon multiplied his efforts at trying to warg into Frost before going to bed.
Jon ate too much during lunch, which along with his intense morning exercise meant that he was dead tired by the time he reached his room.
'I'll just take a quick nap and...' Jon thought while falling on his bed and instantly fell asleep.
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