[Chapter Size: 2500 Words.]
Third Person POV
North, 96 AC.
"The summer has already ended a moon ago... We have to start gathering the harvest. We heard that winter will arrive in 4 moons..."
Jon approached the table, a week after his birthday, grabbing a chair, while listening to his father and his uncle talking about the harvest.
"Jon, look!", Sam called.
As Jon settled at the table, looking at his brother, Sam seemed to prepare himself, as if building something up in his throat, before letting out a burp and starting to laugh quietly.
"Sam!", Rowena, who was serving the table, exclaimed at her son's lack of manners, while the boy shrank a little, but still laughing.
"Good morning, good morning!", Mari came along with her mother to the table right after, as everyone prepared for the first meal of the day, with bread and fried eggs.
"Mom, Jon won't stop reading that book, you know!", Mari said, starting to eat.
"Leave him", Sarra said.
"But he stays up late!", Mari insisted.
Jon didn't care, shrugging.
"It even looks like he's actually reading", she added, while Sam ate watching Jon.
The adults didn't really care much about the children's conversation. Only Sarra exchanged a glance, with a silent request for Mari to stop, while Rowena just smiled.
Jon kept chewing until he swallowed everything, then looked at his cousin with a triumphant expression. "But who said I wasn't reading?", he said.
"Oh, sure, you liar. Tell another one! Staring at pages until late isn't reading", Mari rolled her eyes.
"I'm telling you I'm reading the book. I've already learned several words from it!", Jon insisted.
Mari made a face at him. "Oh yeah? Then tell me what the book is about", she stared at him while eating, waiting for an answer.
Jon took the opportunity to make another bread with eggs and began to speak without looking at anyone else. "It's a book about Valyria. It's not in the Common Tongue, from what I realized. That language in the book is High Valyrian. It talks about how the 40 families of Dragonlords were organized throughout the island. The Targaryens were also among them. I think the Targaryens are the kings of Westeros, aren't they? Did you know they were minor nobles among the dragonlords in ancient Valyria. The Velaryons didn't even have dragons. I don't know what happened, but the book must be around four hundred years old, older than everyone I know!", he said, laughing while continuing to prepare his bread.
"They also worshipped fourteen main gods... I only remember some. Balerion, Vhagar, Meraxes, Syrax and Caraxes! And their culture was entirely centered around dragons. Cool, right? But they also had slaves... a lot of them..." Jon said with a certain regret in the last part.
When he raised his gaze, Mari was staring at him with her mouth open. Sam too. As well as Sarra and Rowena seemed to stop breathing.
Garren and Ronan had also stopped talking about the winter and the house construction, looking at Jon, stunned.
"What's wrong?", Jon shrank a little at the reaction of the whole family.
"Jon... where did you get that from?", Garren asked carefully.
Asshai might be a strange name to them, but Valyria was certainly something mentioned in legends — like the homeland of the Targaryens, the greatest empire the world had ever seen, with more dragons than at any other time.
The Doom of Valyria was a tale the entire world knew, just like the legends of the Long Night.
"I read it in the book", Jon said with some caution.
He didn't understand the reaction. To him, it was normal. He had simply started looking at the words written on the page, decoding them and gradually understanding what they meant. Soon, he began to form his first words. The symbolism became a pattern in Jon's mind.
Even though he still didn't know everything, a week of reading every day had already begun to make him understand many entire paragraphs. And the words he couldn't identify, he deduced himself through the context of the information the book provided.
"Jon, are you saying you're learning to read the book in a week?", Rowena broke the silence.
"Yes. It wasn't difficult, mother. Why do you think I spend the whole morning and after dinner reading the book?", he replied.
She nodded, but cautiously. Still trying to understand what kind of logic this was when Jon had never had any contact with any kind of education in his long 6 namedays.
"I don't believe you. To me, you're lying", Mari said immediately. "This so-called Valyria... to me, you're making all of this up", she retorted, with childish stubbornness.
"Actually, Valyria exists, or rather, existed...", Ronan murmured, looking at Jon without taking his eyes off him. "It's an ancient land, and dragons really lived there. We've all heard about it, it's where our kings came from."
That silenced Mari.
"Is that in the book, brother?", Sam asked, more excited than the others.
Jon nodded.
"Can you show me later?" He looked at Jon with a gleam full of interest, and that made Jon smile at him.
"Yes, of course." Jon said.
"Cool!", Sam exclaimed.
Jon nodded once more.
After that, they ate more in silence, exchanging a few glances, while Jon didn't understand why there was so much fuss over a book he had received as a birthday gift. Did they expect him to make his parents spend money just to leave it aside afterward?
Jon liked the book a lot.
He was learning about this Valyria and didn't know why, but he had a certain fascination with that place... with dragons... and even with the magic that appeared in some pages of the book.
Magic.
Jon left the house after they finished eating. He didn't go to read the book this time. He wanted to train more with his wooden sword that day.
He realized he couldn't properly lift the steel sword he had received and would have to train to get stronger for it. His father said he should practice basic movements, because without someone to supervise his training, he could end up getting hurt.
Jon picked up the wooden sword and went to a tree in the forest. He knew Mari and Sam would look for him, but he wanted to be alone.
It didn't take long for Ghost to appear from somewhere in the forest, covered in blood. He had gone hunting early in the morning.
"Don't come near me with that blood!", Jon protested.
The wolf started sniffing him anyway, and Jon made a disgusted face, trying to push him away before he got dirty with whatever animal Ghost had decided to eat that morning. But Ghost was too big now.
"Stay back. I need to train, Ghost. I will be a warrior who won't fear even that giant bear", Jon declared, raising the sword.
He advanced toward the tree full of marks, where he had been secretly training.
He felt a certain pleasure in every movement he made with the wooden sword.
It was as if he already knew how to do it.
With each strike, something awakened in his mind. Sounds of screams, of metal clashing against metal... Horses neighing and men shouting in rage and pain... It was as if he were in the middle of a war, like the stories he heard from old Borok, an elderly man who lives in the village, who claimed to have served as a soldier of Lord Umber, and fought against the wildlings to the north near the Wall.
Jon felt his body become euphoric.
He moved better and better. Each time he raised the sword, he began to strike faster against the tree trunk, tearing off pieces of bark.
He didn't understand what it meant, but it was addictive. He felt like he liked fighting... as much as reading.
He kept repeating movements, some even repetitive, but that his body was beginning to memorize. Sometimes he felt pain, but he didn't stop.
"Maybe I should try that... a spin here again", he murmured, thinking about the strange memories in his mind of movements he had never made, but were there moving the sword...
He began to visualize his posture. He didn't know how, but he felt where he should adjust and how to execute the right movement.
It was almost as if he were a war veteran.
Jon didn't understand, but he loved that feeling.
He stayed there for a while, until midday arrived and he began to hear Sam shouting his name.
"Jon! Ghost!", Sam shouted in the distance.
Jon looked at his wolf, who was lying nearby, letting out only a low sound.
"Let's go back", he decided.
He left the place and returned home, with Ghost right behind him. Jon found his brother and Mari, who was holding a wooden sword in her hand.
"You were training!", she accused, raising the sword. "Now let's test that. Face me!", she demanded, with a mischievous smile.
Jon accepted. It wasn't such an unfair fight. He was only one year older than her, and they were still children. There wasn't that much difference.
Mari moved first, raising her sword.
Jon quickly defended, and she almost lost her balance. "Careful not to fall", he mocked.
She pouted and advanced again, while Sam jumped with excitement beside Ghost. Jon defended himself easily, noticing that she was starting to get frustrated.
He decided to end it.
With a quick movement, he disarmed her and swept her legs, not using enough force to hurt her. Then, he held her by the waist and gently brought her down to the ground, placing the sword near her neck.
"Looks like you lost, Mari." She looked at him in surprise. Even Sam had shining eyes.
"My brother is the best!", Sam shouted.
Jon helped Mari get up.
"That was amazing, Jon", she said. "Damn... you spend the whole day reading that book and still get skilled with a sword?"
Jon shrugged, but that made him remember something.
"Did they say anything after I left?", Jon asked.
"Oh... about you simply picking up a book and starting to read a foreign language in a week? Of course they're talking, cousin", Mari replied with a serious look.
"Ah, it's not that outrageous...", Jon murmured.
Mari looked at him as if he were an idiot. "Are you joking, Jon? No one can do that. Your dreams, Ghost's healing, the wolf itself... they're worried about you", Mari said, now serious.
"But I'm just being myself", Jon muttered. He didn't think he was doing anything wrong.
"That's the problem, Jon. The problem is that you're not normal at all. My parents know it, yours know it... those nobles already knew it. It's no wonder a soldier came a few days ago to check on how you were doing, by order of Lord Tallhart. This isn't small, Jon. This isn't normal at all. The village knows too... don't you see the way they treat you?", Mari said.
Jon shrank as she spoke. He had no answer. He didn't know what he was doing wrong. He just acted on instinct, he was just himself...
"Anyway... let's go back home. Can you help me get on Ghost?", Mari returned to her childish tone from before.
Jon nodded. He asked Ghost to lower himself, and Mari climbed onto the wolf. Ghost didn't let anyone ride him except Jon, unless he asked the wolf and was with them.
They were about to head back, but Jon stopped.
"Wait. Take the sword", Jon said to Sam.
Sam picked it up and hugged the two wooden swords, while everyone looked at Jon, who was staring at a corner of the forest.
An elk appeared with long antlers.
"Look, it's the Horned One!!", Sam exclaimed and jumped with excitement, while Mari watched from atop Ghost in surprise.
She had already heard about that elk, but had never actually seen it when visiting her cousins.
Jon approached carefully, extending his hand. The animal didn't run away and simply touched Jon with its head, as if it were a friend.
Sam dropped the swords on the ground and approached as well. Ghost only watched, to Mari's disappointment, who also wanted to get down, but had to remain mounted.
Jon had known that elk for years, since it was a calf. It was one of the animals he had encountered since he began attracting creatures around him with his mother since his 2 namedays.
He befriended some of them and forbade his father from hunting them near the farm. Because of that, Garren never hunted in that area. Ghost didn't hunt there either, always going to farther areas. Nor did the villagers hunt there, because Ghost could attack, according to what Jon's father warned in the village.
Jon knew many of those animals and had named them. Horned One was one of them, and he would never let anyone eat his friends.
"It's good to see you, I hope you're doing well here, I'll be going now, see you next time, Horned One!", Jon said, giving a light pat on the elk's rear.
The animal let out a cheerful sound before entering the woods and disappearing.
Mari pouted. She also wanted to be there petting the animal, but Ghost didn't obey her.
"Let's go. Horned One was in a hurry too, he only stopped because he was close to us...", Jon said, heading back home with Sam right behind him, shouting to Jon about the Horned One, how big he had gotten.
The house for Ronan's family was built in the following months. Winter arrived, and they had already harvested all the grains.
Months passed.
Jon continued reading the book. About three months later, he had already finished it, having read everything in the book without missing anything, fully translated. He began talking about its contents to his family, leaving everyone quite surprised.
Meanwhile, from time to time, a soldier from House Tallhart came to the farm to ask how they were doing and if they needed anything.
Jon's father always said everything was fine. He didn't want to owe any favors to lords, even if Lord Tallhart didn't seem to be a bad person.
Jon didn't know how, but his fame began to spread across the North.
The boy with the giant white wolf the size of a horse. They said he was a boy with lost Stark blood born among the common folk, the people of the North liked stories, so they spread quickly everywhere.
That's how they spoke.
Some merchants saw the wolf personally, when Jon went to the village riding it as if it were a horse. Ghost was gentle near the boy, but didn't let anyone approach with bad intentions. And he bared his teeth...
The wolf was extremely perceptive.
And the entire North was beginning to hear about him.
When Jon completed his seven namedays, some of these stories even began to leave the North, going south.
Reaching the ears of people no one could imagine.
Even reaching the ears of King Jaehaerys.
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