>>5964701The host had been eager and hungry for battle when they had descended on the mainland with a ruthless appetite for violence, every castle and holdfast in reach had fallen with such ease and brutality that it shocked you to hear of the old man speak of it, the old man recounted with no small remorse of the pillage the host had set to all who had resisted their lord, it had only been at the concession of the high septon that the Crab king had turned from the city of King’s landing with his fleet full of plunder and set his eyes upon the one house who dared to still openly call him foe.
Much history had passed between Dragonstone and Crab isle during your Grandsires run it seemed, though the old man knew much less of it than you had hoped though it seemed to have been a deep enmity and hatred that ran deeper than the cold silence of your Fathers reign, despite time and the silence of your Father it felt only right to think of the house of Sandworth as your foe, they, after all had no real claim to Dragonstone being of foreign blood and of no real distinction, in fact it was only by dint of time that they could even be called Westerosi.
The host had descended upon dragonstone on a black and moonless night, few guards had been hosted that the host had been in the castle before the castle had stirred, the house of Sandworth had suffered greatly, the lord and his son’s had been slain near to a man and their wives and daughters taken hostage and a great plunder of their wealth had occurred, you suspected the old man had not told you everything of it though, for his voice had seemed sadder for the recollection of it.
It took a time for him to speak again and the lapse only sharpened your suspicion of his obfuscation.
‘’Have ye ever fought a battle before lad?’’ he asked.
You had fought mock melee and with real steel before in the square of Crab Castle, Ser Duncan had even organized a skirmish between the boys training when you were younger but your Father had never deigned to take you or Corlys when battle had threatened your lands, Blonde Jon and even brown Ben had seen battle before you, though you had heard from your uncle that brown Ben had been kept safe above the fighting at your fathers orders, still the thought that either had seen true battle before his rightful heirs embittered you and your affirmation could not help but carry that.
‘’I thought not, killing and death changes a man and ye don’t have that on you’’ the old man replied sagely, your father had said similar you thought distantly, It felt hollow to think of killing as such a necessary thing after his story but countless stories and legends were filled with it as though it was necessary to the turning of the world of men.
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