[Chapter Size: 2700 Words.]
Third Person POV
North, 97 AC.
In the last year, Jon of the common folk had his life, in a way, basically focused on training with his wooden sword.
The boy had completely mastered his book in High Valyrian, to the point of knowing everything in it by heart, and he asked his father to get a book in the common tongue.
He managed to get it a few moons later, knowing that his son would be able to master it, and Jon was even teaching Mari and Sam High Valyrian itself, even if they learned slowly, but still... learning.
With that, even his uncles, Mari's parents, helped. They were now settled on the small farm, with a house large enough to fit all the uncles, Mari, and another child that Sara would have soon.
So, with the help of his parents along with his uncles, they managed to get three books in the common tongue. One talked about economics with the sale of wood, another spoke about legends of the North, and another that was a maester's diary, which they later discovered belonged to House Locke, located in the far south, next to the territory of the Manderlys of White Harbor. The maester Kalorin, as the name was stamped on the book, reported on economics, orders from the lord, but it was quite old, being about more than one hundred and fifty years old, even before the Conquest. There were passages from his childhood and his studies at the Citadel in Oldtown.
Jon devoured the three books in the following months, developing his own understanding of the common tongue. He abandoned the teaching of Valyrian and began to teach Mari and Sam in the common tongue. After all, this could give them opportunities in life beyond living on the farm, and Jon really was good at it.
He still had this behavior of wanting to be alone, while feeling somewhat frustrated with his younger brother always following him like a shadow, but even so he taught well, both to him and to Mari, and perhaps one day to the child who was yet to be born.
Sarra gave birth, and certainly had a very smooth labor, giving birth to a boy, whom Mari immediately grabbed, declaring him to be her little brother and that she would take care of him. Jon and Sam also went to congratulate their mother and see the baby. Jon and the rest of his family had a big celebration on that day.
And the months went by. Jon, besides the books — which were still kept a secret by his family, since no one wanted to say that Jon, who was already being watched, even more so with rumors beginning to spread about him, reaching even the village, but almost no one knew that he lived there, outside the village.
The fact that he was learning to read only with books by himself was something that would also be greatly noticed. His parents certainly did not want other rumors, such as him learning the ancient language and High Valyrian by himself at home, to spread as well.
There was also news that a group of hunters advanced into the area where Garren, Lord Stark, Lord Tallhart, and the others with Jon had once gone. In the event where Ghost almost died protecting Jon.
Only one person survived from that group, saying that the black bear killed them all. After that, that region became practically forbidden. No one wanted to enter there, while the territory was declared off-limits and warned that it would not be wise to try to kill a beast like that...
Rowena was somewhat afraid, wondering to her husband if the bear could attack them, but it was still quite far from their region. Even so, Garren still used to hunt in a region outside the farm area, but not so close to the animals that Jon preserved there.
Jon also found himself extremely connected to more animals: rabbits, squirrels, birds, elk, does and deer, wolves, cats, and wild dogs would come close to Jon.
Jon would stay surrounded by animals in some corner of the farm, and always looked at his parents, who made worried faces when they saw him, suddenly surrounded by a bunch of strange animals behaving strangely, while the other children, Sam and Mari, jumped with joy trying to get closer. And with the two approaching, the animals would simply flee. Although Rowena and Sam could even get close, but nothing like Jon could.
When Jon turned seven name days, he began to have somewhat different habits, becoming a more rebellious and adventurous child, going beyond the limits of the property.
The moment came when Jon also began to go to the village, even if secretly. His parents did not like him going out like that, but he had met a very interesting person in the village some time ago and began to go to him whenever he could. That was what he was doing today.
As he advanced hidden with Ghost, with the wolf carrying him on its back, he moved along the outer part of the village, going around the line of houses so as not to show himself to the people of the village. Otherwise, they would have told his parents, and they would certainly be furious.
Jon followed to a house, while Ghost took the initiative to jump over the fence, quite high, but nothing compared to what a giant wolf the size of a horse could do.
Jon even looked too small on the wolf's back, which had grown a lot in the last year, to the point of going from the size of a pony to looking like a horse.
Jon heard the sound of a hammer and quickly moved through the grounds of the house, until he found a man fixing some wood on the side of the house. Seeing Ghost, the man looked at him and narrowed his eyes at his back.
"You are here," he said with a certain bad mood.
"Uncle Borok, how are you?", Jon opened a smile and said cheerfully, on top of the wolf.
The man only nodded slowly and went back to hammering in silence, while Jon watched.
"So, boy. Do your parents know you're here?", he asked, but the answer was already expected even before Jon opened his mouth.
"Well... I think not. I don't know, I didn't tell them," Jon said with some embarrassment.
"Just be careful, boy. Your parents care a lot about you. Now, tell me, what did you come to do in my humble dwelling?", said the man, suddenly opening a more welcoming smile.
"I... I wanted to learn archery. Could you teach me?", he asked with some shyness.
This man had been a soldier of the Umbers many years ago, now retired and tired of living in the North, he got this house from his late aunt and lives on his savings.
He had fought against several wildlings who managed to pass the Wall. So Jon liked to go to his house; at least once a week, he would come to talk and show his sword movements. The man always gave some tips, but the interest in archery was the first time he had heard it from the boy.
"I thought you wanted to show a new move, like you always do," the man mocked, but opening an unexpected smile.
"And who said I don't have one?", Jon said, while Ghost lowered himself so he could get off his back with some difficulty. He crossed his arms in front of the former soldier with a tone too pompous for a child, making Borok call Jon an arrogant child at times.
Jon liked to hear so many stories and receive training. Jon considered him his friend since he had said that he had fought and that he could teach him some things when Jon was with his father and brother in the village. Since then, the boy took the initiative to go to his house, as he was doing now.
"It's clear that you would," the old man mocked and Jon laughed, losing his composure. "Why archery?"
"But I'm also interested in archery. I saw it in a book," he said.
In fact, it was the diary of maester Kalorin. Jon read, at some point, the Lockes entered into conflict with neighbors and had some battles on the castle wall, so the maester talked about it from his point of view. Jon began to see value in long-range attacks since then.
"In a book?", the man raised his brows.
Jon knew he had said too much, but kept his serious gaze.
"I saw it in an illustration. I saw a man drawn with a bow aiming, while the arrow struck a man at a distance. I liked it," he said in his childish way.
The old man, despite being surprised that the boy had some book at home, said nothing more about it. He only observed the boy's eyes — strange eyes since the first time he saw them — but he also knew that that boy was not common, that was already clear.
"Very well, come with me. But I only have a short bow with me, and it will still be quite large for you. You will have difficulty."
"I am already seven name days old!", Jon replied in a firm tone.
"And that is the problem, my boy. You just stopped drinking your mother's milk.", said the old man, starting to laugh.
"That's not true!" Jon pouted.
Anyway, the man went into his storage, took a bow and some arrows. There was a bundle of hay tied up in his yard.
Jon analyzed the bow in the man's hand as he took an arrow and began to draw it. He seemed to feel some kind of pain — to pull the bowstring, since he was a bit old. Even so, he released it, and the arrow struck the hay, going halfway in.
Jon watched the movement, imagining himself doing that.
"I want you to start by pulling the string without shooting, but pull it the right way, like I did with the arrow," the man said, handing the bow to Jon, as he trained archery for the first time.
Jon made the movement and felt the pain immediately in his arms and back, his body was no longer so used to exertion and the muscle contraction required.
Some time later...
"So you faced the wildlings in the North alone!?", Jon asked, excited, sitting in a corner.
He was certainly sore all over from having spent the last few hours pulling the bow. Jon didn't even manage to demonstrate his new spinning movement with the sword, capable of decapitating a man in a single motion — according to him — to Borok, since the archery training had consumed all his energy.
Now, they were sitting, talking, while Jon asked more questions about his stories and ate a citrus fruit that Borok picked from a tree in his yard and gave to Jon to rest beside Ghost, left nearby.
He was telling about an ambush of wildlings more than twenty years ago. Jon couldn't stop looking at the man as if he were a hero, while the man just let out a sigh.
"You have a fertile imagination, boy. You think too much of me. I was just a common soldier. We managed to win that battle, but that was because I had more than twenty companions with me. We had been hunting those damned wildlings since they started raiding some villages. Even the old Lord Commander of Castle Black had asked for help in the search, since they were entering Umber territory, and it was our duty to defend it."
"I see... but did you kill any wildling?", Jon asked, still excited.
"I did. I managed to kill one, and I was wounded by another. A damn woman with a knife cut my shoulder," said Borok, as he showed the scar by pulling aside a bit of the furs he wore, even with the weather still cold, despite it not being winter.
Jon saw the scar.
"Let me tell you something: men are not easy to kill. You can fantasize that you are a powerful and strong warrior, but you can also fall the way I did, like many have fallen. That is a lesson," said Borok, something he always told Jon.
"One day, boy, you will fight your own battles. You will have to deal with your first death, deal with companions dying by your side. Life is not easy or a fairy tale, as people like to think in heroic stories. It is harsh, full of death and injustice, even more so for those of us who are common folk. The lords can trample over us and nothing will happen to them, especially those from the south," he continued.
There seemed to be some bitterness there that Jon could not identify, but he still shrank at the speech. Borok was a bit harsh, too realistic. Jon knew that none of the other children liked this man because he had always been grumpy; Mari, for example, was very afraid when Jon brought her there once and heard some of Borok's stories.
But Jon did not know why. Despite his heroic fantasies, he preferred to hear a harsh truth rather than a comfortable lie or fantasy. He knew he could not win every battle, nor save everyone.
Jon hesitated a little and looked at Borok. "Do you think I can be a warrior one day? A warrior who can win his battles and protect his friends?", he murmured carefully.
He wanted to protect his family, his friends, his animals.
"It is too early to say anything, boy. You show a lot of persistence in training, even though I am only a soldier and not a specialist. Not even a master-at-arms of a great castle could say whether a boy of seven name days will be good or not in the future. But something tells me you will have your own name in the future. I believe that even those lords see that in you."
"But I am just a person of the common folk!", Jon murmured, shrinking. He did not know why he was receiving so much attention. A Tallhart guard came every moon to check on them, and even Lord Tallhart himself appeared twice since that conflict with the bear. He took his father to hunt and greeted Jon.
"Not all great men came with a famous surname. And you know that the North already whispers your name, right? Although they have no idea how stubborn you can be... and how annoying you are sometimes," he said, smiling.
Jon could not help but pout again at that. "They talk because they say that my mother and I are Stark bastards!", Jon said.
"Perhaps it is no wonder that you have a giant wolf, when not even the Starks in Winterfell have one, and one your size is unprecedented, everyone would recognize it... Look at this wolf of yours, the size of a horse. I would be scared to death if I were not here with you to contain it," said the man, laughing.
Jon also let out a small laugh at that.
"Jon! Are you there?"
His father's voice suddenly appeared, interrupting the conversation between the child and the old man. Jon's eyes widened. His father had come to look for him there.
"Well, boy, it seems your father is here...", said the man, standing up with a smile.
Jon shivered a little. He knew he would not have a good reception, but had no choice but to follow with Ghost to the entrance of the house, on the village side. There, he found his father with his arms crossed. He already knew that his parents would be quite furious for him coming to the village alone.
"Goodbye, boy. Well, if your father lets you come back here, we can continue training with the bow," said the man.
With those words, Jon went to his father.
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