The bright rays of the morning sun merrily shone through the small window of Jon's room, making him aware that his plan of leaving before the first light had already failed. Knowing that it may be a while until they see him again, his siblings hadn't let him leave until very late into the night, which resulted in him not being able to wake up at his intended time since there were no alarm clocks in this world. It wasn't too bad though as the warmth of his brothers and sisters made the few extra hours in the sun more than worth it.
Jon was kneeling on the floor beside his bed with a small leather backpack in front of him, doing some last-minute packing. He had always had the habit of packing light since his first trip and only ever carried the essentials with him, things such as a few pairs of clothes, a cooking pan, some salt, a water pouch, some knives, and most importantly a handmade hard soap.
Even with all its magic, this was still a relatively primitive world, so people needed to plan a lot of things in advance before travelling anywhere if they valued their lives. They always need to make sure that the path they are taking is a well-trodden one, that there's always a source of water such as a flowing river nearby, and to avoid forests as much as they can even if it takes them longer if they don't want to run into predators or worse... bandits.
Thankfully, one of the best perks of being a warg was that Jon never needed to worry about any of those things. He never had to stress about getting lost no matter how deep inside the forest he was, and he never gave a second thought before taking untrodden shortcuts. And even if there were no sources of clear water in his vicinity, he had no need to panic as his trusty friend, Frost, could travel miles of distance to any stream in a matter of minutes and fill his water pouch for him.
He didn't even need to mention food. From the moment that he was barely more than a toddler, there hadn't been a single instance when Jon hadn't been able to find a game. Even if there was only a single alive animal in a forest, it was going to be on his dinner plate no matter how fast it ran.
So as a lone wolf, he didn't need a lot of things after his basic necessities of food, and water had been met.
Just as Jon was closing the final straps on his bag, he heard a knock behind him, "Come in!" he shouted while turning his head around to see Sam entering his room while carrying a not-so-small sack in his arms.
"What is that?" Jon asked with wide eyes while pointing towards the leather sack.
"Huh? Didn't you ask me to bring some warm bread from the kitchen?" Sam answered with a confused tilt of his head.
"I did." Jon slowly nodded his head, "But that can't all be just bread, Could it?" he said while sceptically looking at the sack that was almost spilling out of his hands.
"Of course not," Sam answered proudly while placing the sack beside two similarly packed bags that contained his stuff, "There are other necessary things such as spices, herbs, some vegetables, a pot—"
"Wait, a Pot? But why? I already got a pan in here..."
"How can that be? They're completely different things," he shook his head as if he was disappointed with Jon, "The taste completely changes depending on how you cook it and what you use to cook so we definitely need both of them for different things," he said as if he was explaining something extremely simple.
Jon shook his head helplessly at that as it seemed that the chubby kid was still a foodie even though he wasn't so chubby anymore.
Months of regulated diet, regular exercises and sparring, had quite a profound effect on the boy. His face had lost most of its plumpness, his stomach also shrank a lot and while he may still be in a phase which people here considered to be fat, there was now a firm layer of muscles underneath that fat.
"And pray tell how exactly are you going carry all of them? Because I can tell you right now, you will get no help from me..."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Sam asked while scratching his head in confusion, "Aren't we going on horses?"
"We are. But not all the way, there will obviously be times when we will need to carry our own stuff," Jon explained with an amused expression, "So choose. Which is more important, your legs or satisfying your tongue?"
A pained expression appeared on Sam's face as he agonised over the dilemma placed in front of him. It took quite a while for him to choose between the two equally valuable things but eventually, he raised his head, "I-I will do it," he said while putting on a brave face as if about to infiltrate a castle alone.
"Fine. Do as you wish," Jon said with an amused smile before a sudden realization crossed his mind. "But, leave that axe here," he pointed towards the axe on the boy's back, "I don't think you'll be needing that anymore..."
"What? Why?" Sam asked in a bewildered tone, his hand instinctively going towards the worn-out handle of the axe that had been his constant companion for months, "I-I know that I am not very good with it and that I am still very weak... but I-I swear I am trying very hard and I-I know that I'll get better soon, so please—"
"Ah! I think you're misunderstanding something here," Jon replied with a raised eyebrow while looking at Sam's flustered expression, "I am not asking you to give up your weapon... I am telling you to let go of that old one since you'll be getting a new one."
After all, how could he ask him to give up his axe? Considering the amount of work it had taken for him to go from being deathly scared of that weapon to becoming fond of it.
Jon could still remember the time during their journey to Winterfell when he had tried to teach Sam the art of fighting and killing... and it safe to say, that it was a complete disaster. The boy was so scared of weapons that it was almost absurd... he would start shuddering uncontrollably even if someone with a dagger just stood still in front of him. Shivering, shaking hands, flinching, stumbling back, crying, screaming, cowering, you could think of any adjective that would describe a coward and it would apply to him.
After fruitlessly trying for a few more days, Jon could understand Lord Tarly's frustration with his son, and somewhat empathised with him... just a little bit though. But Jon didn't give up just yet and decided that if conventional methods didn't work for Sam, he would try unconventional ones.
Over the course of a few days, Jon concluded that Sam's mind and his habit of overthinking were his greatest enemies. The first thing he needed to do was take it away from him. So he devised a simple routine for Sam with the main goal of completely draining his mind so that he wouldn't even have an iota of it left to think, let alone be scared.
The routine went something like this...
Instead of the usual exercise of this world that mostly involved sparring and swinging weapons. Jon had him start with modern-day exercises that focused on completely consuming his stamina, from running to push-ups to sit-ups to burpees and everything else he could think of.
And after he was finished with all that, it would be time for the second part which involved mindlessly swinging a weapon that he liked (which turned out to be an axe,) with repeating patterns, such as hacking, and slashing, as well a sufficient dose of footwork until his body remembered them completely.
Jon didn't give the boy a single moment of rest except for a few five-minute breaks in between and he made him continue like this until he felt that he was sufficiently dazed and his mind was entirely blank... and that would be when the third and most important part of this routine would begin... Sparring.
And his hard work actually paid off, Sam neither flinched nor shivered even when Jon stood in front of him with a sword, and when he aggressively attacked the boy, his sluggish mind was too slow to respond, making his bodily instincts take over and little by little he actually began to swing and dodge like a... Beginner fighter, which was quite an accomplishment.
And that was how Jon was able to help the boy so much in just a few months when his father was completely helpless even with years at his disposal. Thankfully, Becca took over after he was gone and didn't let him slack and lose all the progress, which would have been very disheartening.
"What? Really!!" Sam's exclamation suddenly brought Jon out from his internal musings, "Are you really just getting me a new Axe?"
"Yes," Jon nodded with a smile before he caught sight of the position of the sun through the window, "But we need to hurry otherwise, we won't be able to leave before nightfall," he said while quickly going out the door.
"I am coming," Sam said excitedly and followed Jon after placing the worn-out Axe on the floor.