How About No? 2 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Darkhorse331

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How About No?

Chapter 2

-VB-

Eventually, I found my out of the snowing forest and onto a road with a village in viewing distance.

Seeing as I wouldn’t lose anything by visiting the village and a lot of to lose by not visiting the village and not knowing where I was specifically, I grunted and dragged my ass over there.

The villagers whispered when they saw me, and I ignored them until a large crowd of them stood waiting for me at the center of the village square.

“Who are you, stranger?” an elderly man asked as he stepped forward. “And why do you carry the bear with you?”

I looked over my shoulder and glanced at the bear who chased me out of its den but got killed when I used my own blood to make a strength potion. It had taken only a single jump and then a twist to break the neck.

Yeah, my blood was something wild if mixing a few other magical things and regular herbs gave me a strength potion capable of breaking bear necks on the fly.

That’s what the bear got after hunting me for a full day. Aren’t animals supposed to give up when they realize that their prey isn’t worth the calorie spent hunting it?

“It tried to eat me,” I replied easily. “So I killed it.” I paused. “I am willing to trade some of its meat and fur for some information and coin.”

That brought some smiles to the villagers.

-VB-

“So we’re at the edge of House Hornwood’s lands, which is east of the Starks, which means that House Stark’s lands are to our west,” I repeated after the village chief, who nodded while the two of us watched the men butcher the bear.

I also noticed that most of the people here were thin, but couldn’t tell if that was the natural state of the people here or because they were starving.

Considering that most of the people who were out watching us right now looked more at the bear than me, a stranger, I assumed that there was some sort of famine… or because it was a long winter and their food storage was close to running out.

“Yes,” he replied. “And the Kingsroad is within Stark lands.”

I hummed.

During the day I spent getting by and then hunting the bear, I thought a lot about what I wanted to do now that I found myself in Westeros. I wanted to live a life of luxury. I wanted … to be debaucherous. I wanted power and strength, and I knew that all of it depended solely on what I could do.

At the same time, there wasn’t a set route for me to take because I didn’t even know when I was in Westeros. Was I here before the invasion of the dragon lords? Was I here after that? Was it during the War of Ninepenny Kings? Was it during the rule of Aerys the Mad?

“And the current king would be…?” I asked. It wasn’t likely that some random village up in the north would know that, but it didn’t hurt to ask.

“He would be King Daeron the Second.”

Daeron the Second…

I knew nothing about him. Of course, I didn’t know. I wasn’t a big Game of Thrones - sorry, A song of ice and fire - fan and only watched a couple of seasons. I didn’t even have the TV show’s canon down pat!

“And … how long has it been since the Targaryeons came over and conquered us all?”

The chief shrugged.

I supposed that was the extent of my luck right now. Still, I learned more than I feared but less than I hoped for.

“So where are you from?” the chief asked me, nursing his trembling hands. “Wearing clothes that thin yet not bothered by the snow at all.”

I looked down and … yeah, this was my American Southwest outfit: a white t-shirt, a black jacket during fall and winter, and a pair of white, thin sweatpants. There was a bit of dirt and blood on it, both of which were bear-related.

“Do I look weird?” I asked.

He didn’t answer for a while, looking at me underneath his bushy hair and equally bushy eyebrows. He decided something, and I must not have looked like a threat because his response was a burn. “... About as weird as a man wanting to die the slow way, yes?”

Oof, this chief was brutal. He called me a weirdo and questionable in one go, not that I could refute either accusation considering that I wore weird clothes and walked into town dragging in a bear.

“Are you looking to stay?” he asked.

“... No. I think I’ll go travel the world. See everything there is to see. The good, beautiful, ugly, and bad.”

He sighed. “It’s wonderful to be young and brave.”

“Some would call that foolish and immature,” I replied with a grin. “But I have something most people don’t.”

He didn’t say anything for a while. “Well, considering that you killed a bear by yourself while looking only a little worse than most bannermen, I think you really do have something most don’t.” He paused. “But be careful out there, young man. This world… It is not a kind place.”

“I think I know that better than most,” I hummed quietly to myself. I have, after all, seen men and women kill each other over immaterial things on this continent.

What use was a crown if you died getting it?

-VB-

“...”

“What is it?”

“Something’s changed, but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is.”

“Are one of our brothers doing something again?”

“No, it’s not quite that.”

“Then?”

“It’s … it’s coming from the North.”

“The place or the direction?’

He gave her a glare and she tittered with giggles.

“You make it too easy, Brynden!”

He rolled his eyes. “But it is still concerning.”

“You don’t think it’s just another greenseer like you?”

“Another greenseer like myself wouldn’t make me clench up like I’m about to see a dragon, dear sister.”

“... So something serious.”

“Very.”

“Very well, then. I shall go check upon it on your behalf. You are, after all, too busy with your work here.”

“... Thank you Shiera.”