[Chapter Size: 1800 Words.]
Third Person POV.
Winterfell.
...
...
The hall of Winterfell was bustling with festivities. The people, already accustomed to this type of event over the past weeks, having been here multiple times, didn't seem bored; quite the opposite, they always seemed to be laughing as they drank and ate everything available to them.
Bards continued to play their instruments while singing, enchanting many single women who listened to their songs about knights from the south.
Although Lord Stark didn't particularly enjoy this sort of thing, there was a reason for it: many of the artists here were southerners who came with the king's convoy, and the hall was now infested with men seeking coins and nobles looking for favors from the monarch and his family. Ned could do nothing about it, especially when his wife seemed to appreciate it, and his daughter Sansa adored these songs, though the other northerners didn't sympathize with them much, even if they didn't despise them either.
As the music continued playing, filling the crowded hall with sound, the main table was the most prominent, with the king himself sitting at its center, laughing and drinking. A serving girl was filling his wine goblet at that moment, until he surprised her by grabbing her, pulling her openly onto his lap, and caressing her. Perhaps that was why the queen wasn't by his side. In fact, she had chosen to sit next to Catelyn Stark, who watched the king's behavior with a certain anger and disappointment.
"Your Majesty, this behavior is not very appropriate. Your family is here, watching…" Ned Stark commented beside him.
"Don't be such a bore, Ned! I'm the king, and I want to have some fun, come on!" he exclaimed, making the serving girl laugh as he held her inappropriately.
Ned sighed, unable to do anything about it. Catelyn looked at the queen beside her, trying to force a smile, while the queen kept her eyes hard and unyielding. It was a sad sight.
Catelyn left her and looked at Sansa, who, when she wasn't watching the prince at the table, was chatting with her friends—until a meatball flew in her direction, hitting her on the head. Catelyn's eyes widened immediately, seeing Arya do this to her own sister, even in front of her future husband.
"Robb!" she raised her voice, calling her eldest son, who was conversing with Theon and some other northern nobles. Robb didn't seem very comfortable with the southern nobles, which made Catelyn slightly uneasy, as she wished he would draw closer to them. Deep down, she dreamed that Robb might marry a southerner from a great house like the Tyrells, believing the union could strengthen the ties between the north and the south, something her husband disagreed with.
Robb heard the call and broke off his conversation when he saw his mother's look, who was pointing at Arya, laughing while Sansa pleaded for someone to make her sister stop. Robb sighed, rose from the table, left his friends, and went to Arya, who was already preparing another meatball to throw at her sister. He surprised her.
"Hey, don't do that!!" Arya exclaimed as Robb quickly grabbed her in mid-air, pulling her away from the spoon she was using to throw food at Sansa.
"Come with me," Robb said in a serious tone.
"Wait, Nymeria!" Arya exclaimed, pointing at the wolf pup she had insisted on placing on the table.
Robb then also picked up Nymeria, Arya's wolf, while carrying his sister and the wolf away to a corner.
"Arya, you need to behave. You can't humiliate your sister in front of everyone. She will be the future queen…" Robb said in a serious tone.
"You don't even like the prince…" she murmured, and Robb couldn't disagree; after all, the boy was very arrogant.
"Even so…" Robb commented.
"But she's so stupid! She deserves it!" Arya exclaimed, grabbing Nymeria from Robb's hands, while Robb's own wolf, Grey Wind, was now at his feet as he lifted him into his arms.
Robb just sighed as he turned back to his sister. "Arya, your sister is leaving. And you will go to King's Landing along with her and father. Please, behave yourself at least today. This is a farewell party," he said, trying to instill some sense into his sister, who sighed and nodded carefully at her brother.
Deep down, Arya knew she wouldn't see some family members like Rickon and Robb, and her mother, for a long time, as they would all stay in Winterfell, while she, Sansa, Bran, and her father would head south.
In the end, Arya promised she would behave, and Robb nodded, returning to the table with his friends, where Theon Greyjoy, Benfred Tallhart, and other young men from northern families were seated.
"Took care of your little sister, did you?" Theon mocked.
"Yes, she'll be fine..." Robb replied, not giving it much thought, but noticing Arya talking to some guards who were familiar with her fiery temperament and laughing along with her. Theon continued to tease.
"Well, anyway, I noticed one of the girls from House Manderly watching you the whole time. Could it be that our Robb will soon be a committed man?" he said, drawing laughter from the young men around the table.
"What?" Robb looked at his friend in surprise.
"There she is," Theon pointed, and Robb looked toward the Manderly family table with the two sisters. One of them, Wylla Manderly, was glancing at him, occasionally looking away and then back when he looked her way, practically staring at him with a hint of shyness.
Perhaps it was Lord Manderly who had encouraged this, after all. It wasn't surprising to Robb, as the Manderlys had already proposed a marriage a few times. Recently, he had brought it up again, but Robb's father always said they should wait.
"Anyway, let's get back to the subject," Robb tried to end the topic, blushing slightly. After all, he was inexperienced in these matters, and unlike Theon, he wasn't libertine, visiting Winterfell's brothels or sleeping with one of the castle maids.
"We're talking again about the king, leaving his own queen alone while she sits there by herself, like some maiden..." a northern nobleman muttered quietly, also changing the subject.
"True! The queen isn't bad at all… actually, she's quite the beauty. I'd love to challenge her tonight," Theon said with a mischievous smile.
"You're insane, Theon! If anyone hears you say that, they'll cut your tongue out," Robb warned him seriously.
"It's just between us, anyway. Maybe I'm not as interested in the queen as I was before," he continued, "after all, there's someone quite intriguing here." Theon said, pointing to Lord Reed's eldest daughter, sitting with her family in a corner of the hall.
Robb's father had asked him to befriend them, as Howland was a trusted and loyal friend who had saved his life. However, his heir was a bit strange, often speaking in cryptic terms. Nevertheless, Robb planned to invite him over for a conversation later.
"You're such an idiot, Theon. The Reeds aren't known for allowing that kind of thing," Bran commented, irritated.
Bran was at Robb's table after his brother brought him over. He glanced discreetly at the Reed family's table, set in an isolated corner, keeping to themselves, as expected. The Reeds had a reputation in the south for being reserved and rarely leaving their territory. Still, they seemed attentive to the movements in the hall, as if looking for someone.
"Look at that, our Bran is interested in Lady Reed! Do you think your father will arrange a marriage?" Theon teased, noticing how Bran seemed eager to defend the girl he, too, was interested in.
"That's not true!" Bran exclaimed, as shy as he could be, his face turning redder than Robb's.
"Theon, stop teasing him," Robb immediately defended his brother, while some other nobles chuckled quietly. Theon just shrugged and dropped the subject.
The banquet continued, while Rickon, the youngest Stark, was held by a maid. She brought him over to Catelyn, as he insisted on staying a bit longer before being put to bed.
It was at that moment that Lord Stark's brother, Benjen, entered the hall, dressed in black, as always, to enjoy a bit of the evening. Lord Stark noticed his presence and stood up, leaving his friend, the king—who continued flirting with all the maids he could—resigned, as Robert always behaved like this at any feast in his hall.
As he left the table and stepped down into the hall, Ned's gaze passed over Jaime Lannister, who stood guarding the royal family at the table, arms crossed, showing none of the composure a Kingsguard should have.
Ned continued forward, ignoring him, although Jaime looked at him with a disdainful glare. Ned might be the Lord of Winterfell, and the rift between them might be significant, but he had his brother to see right now and didn't want to waste time on Jaime.
Benjen approached Ned, greeting him, and the two began chatting about trivial matters, as they had already discussed the more serious topics during Benjen's previous nights in Winterfell.
The banquet carried on as the bards constantly rotated on stage to meet the king's demands, who kept asking for more music and drink while caressing the Winterfell serving girls.
"Your friend is drinking too much, as always, huh?" Benjen remarked, observing Robert's behavior.
Ned sighed. "Yes, I'd better go over there and try to calm him down before he drains all the alcohol we have for tonight," Ned said, smiling faintly, resigned to Robert's ways, no longer the man he had once known in the past.
Then, he left Benjen, who glanced around at some of the nobles, noticing the mysterious Reeds seated at one of the tables for the first time. He decided to approach them to chat, as they had greatly assisted his brother during the war, and it was rare to see them in Winterfell. He had also been a close friend of Lyanna—it might even have been the first time they'd come north since all the turmoil in the south sixteen years ago.
At that moment, Benjen passed by one of the side entrances to the hall—not the main door, as this was one of the entrances commonly used by those who weren't nobles. He noticed a Stark guard entering with a young man, which made Benjen narrow his eyes as he looked back, observing them from behind as they entered the hall.
He wondered who that man was, feeling something strange about him. But he simply ignored the feeling and continued, until he spotted Lord Reed in the direction he was heading, also keeping his gaze fixed on the same man that Benjen had just observed.
---
Raccoon Here:
Apologies if I made this entire introductory chapter for the feast, but I wanted to set the scene properly, as I plan to make around four chapters within this feast.
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