Hello and welcome this chapter! Great response to the story so far, so please, continue to enjoy it!
Steffon and Arya wandered out to the tourney grounds as the day began. Steffon had registered himself for both the archery was never that much into jousting. To him, it was basically a test of who cold hold a pointed stick on target the longest. The archery contest was a proper test of skill and strength, as the standard Westerosi composite bow had an immense draw weight, but Steffon instead preferred the longbow. The longbow was used by Northern and Westerlands archers, and was more powerful and longer ranged than a composite bow, but the draw weight was even heavier. This was partly due to the fact that a composite bow was about half the size of a man, while a longbow was often around the size of man (or bigger, in some cases), which in turn led to the draw weight of 150 pounds. Steffon had improved his arm strength over the years, and only recently had been able to move a longbow to full draw.
The melee was more like an actual battle than anything else. The chaos, the sound of metal grinding against metal, the feel of accomplishment when doing well, all of it had sounded attractive to Steffon. Not as attractive as Arya was to him, but still. The two walked into the tent that Robert had ordered set up for his son. Arya gaped in amazement at the weapons and armour inside.
"Steffon, this is amazing!" She said.
"That's not even half of it, Arya. I had a new shield made for me last night. Here, I'll show you." Steffon said, walking over to a bag in the corner of the tent. He pulled his new shield out and showed Arya, causing her jaw to drop. The shield was made out of tough, hard oak, and was well-curved so that it could protect most of Steffon effectively. What had Arya in awe though, was the pattern painted on the front. The background of the shield was gold, with the black crowned stag facing left, and a black direwolf facing right.
"T-that's amazing, Steffon!" She gushed.
"I thought so too. My brother will be King one day, not me. So I figured I should develop my own personal sigil. And lo and behold, I did."
"I can see that. Why are the stag and the direwolf face outward though?" She asked, a bit puzzled.
"There's symbolism in that, Arya. It's meant to symbolise the stag and the wolf protecting each other. Fitting, seeing as I'm a stag, you're a wolf, and we always have each others' backs, don't you think?" He asked.
"Yeah. Though isn't that armour standard for Stormlands nobles?" She asked, pointing towards the bronze coloured armour on a stand in the corner opposite them. From what she had seen, it had been the typical armour of the knights and lords of the Stormlands. Most of the Stormalnds knights and lords she had seen were encased ina similar bronze-painted armour, albeit with much more decration than this. Many of them had the sigil of their houses emblazoned on the breastplate, or even incorporated into the design of the armour itself, and was a little disappointed to see that Steffon hadn't done the same with the stag-and-direwolf sigil he had taken for his own.
"Yes, but like I say, I'm not fond of decoration."
"But wouldn't that make things confusing on a battlefield?" She asked.
"That's why I had this made as well" He said, gesturing to the helmet. It had no decoration on it, save for the stag antlers on the front "Most Stormlands soldiers have kettle helms. Knights usually wear ones like those over there. This is my personal design. I based it on the helms of the soldiers who serve uncle Stannis. All I did was have it painted bronze and stick a pair of antlers on the front. My longbow's nothing special either; it's essentially a standard Westerlands longbow." he said. Arya was still slightly shocked by the fact that a Prince could be so humble.
"You really don't like fanfare, do you?" She asked, smirking.
"No. It seems a bit pointless to me. Why spend money on pointless feasts and tourneys when there's people starving in the streets?" He shook his head. "I remember I once suggested making the Great Council permanent when i was younger, to make decisions that affected the whole country. Or at least attach a common-born advisor to the Small Council to represent them." The idea had come to him when he had been reading on the laws of the Free Cities, how the people of Braavos elected their Sealord, or how the Volantenes elected their ruling Triarchs. There were advantages to that sort of system, though even he had to admit, it was more likely that coin ruled most things in the Free Cities, as it did in Westeros. Still, it also meant that a person had the incentive to do the best job that they possibly could, instead of simply passing the title on to their son, who might prove to be hopelessly incompetent.
"Seems a bit unneccessary." Arya shrugged. Her father had impressed on her the need to look after the smallfolk, as he had done with her siblings as well, but they didn;t have much of the knowledge needed for leadership like the highborns did. There was a reason they ruled; the Starks had been the Kings of Winter long before Torrhen Stark knelt to Aegon the Conqueror at the Trident, and they had been Lords of Winterfell for the near-three hundred years since. That long tradition was needed to ensure astability.
"Perhaps, but you must at least create the illusion that peasants have control over their lives. They outnumber us, you know." Steffon said. She supposed that was true as well. For every noble family in Westeros, there were a hundred common ones, and not all of Westeros had the same culture of the North, she reminded herself. It had after all been starving, desperate people that had been part of the reason for the fall of Rhaenyra Targaryen during the Dance of the Dragons.
"What did the King and Small Council say?" She asked.
"Varys and uncle Stannis spoke in support of it, Varys because he believed that the common people have a right to voice their ideas, and Stannis because to him, birth counts for little."
"And the others?"
"They laughed. Right in my face." He said sadly.
"Well that wasn't very nice of them." Arya said, sourly.
"I can't really blame them. I'm a forward-thinking person. They're afraid that if commoners get too much power, they'll start getting ideas over their heads."
"It's not a bad idea, I admit. Even if they're too stupid to see it." Arya deadpanned. Steffon laughed. The young couple always knew how to make each other laugh. A servant stuck his head inside the tent.
"My Prince, the archery contest is about to begin." He said.
"Well that's my cue." Said Steffon, grabbing his longbow and a quiver of arrows. "You coming to watch, Arya?"
"Of course I am, stag boy."
"Glad to hear it, wolf girl" Steffon responded. She then kissed him, their lips melding effortlessly.
"For luck" She said after they broke apart.
"Thanks, Arya." He said, smiling. The couple walked out over to the archery field. I'll win this, Steffon thought, for Arya.
And chapter complete! I know, I know, it's been awhile, but Uni has been a bit of a pain in my arse, but now I'm on my break, I intend to update as much as possible.
As always, auf wiedersehen mein fruends!