3 A Little Sparring

"Hey there," I gave a short wave as the two stopped their sparring. Both looked over to me with curious eyes, Jon quickly seeing the Umber coat of arms emblazoned over my right pectoral area, while the other two didn't seem to see it. Either due to the low lighting or simple ignorance...I don't know which.

Theon was the first to speak up, "Hello? Who're you?" he roughly asked, his smirk taking on a slightly disdainful look as he looked me up and down inquisitively.

"Hm?" I gave him a confused look before walking up to him, "I didn't know squids could be this far inland," my confusion disappeared as I stood in front of the youth with an equally disdainful smirk to the one he was showing me.

Surprised by the insult, Theon's eyebrow shot up a little before he looked to my chest where he saw the sigil of House Umber. Scoffing, Theon looked back up at me, meeting my eyes, "Neither did I know dumb brutes could appear this far south of the Wall," he laughed and my smirk turned into a smile as I poked at his chest, easily moving him back a few steps.

"Tough words for a Ward," I quipped and Theon's smirk quickly disappeared as the audible sound of his teeth grinding was heard. Knowing you had to strike while the iron was hot, I felt my smile spread fully so it was showing off my pearly whites, "You wanna find out what'll win? Between a squid and a dumb brute? I'll bet a few Copper Stars I can hand you your own ass," I confidently boasted, knowing I could full well beat the shit out of the Greyjoy in front of me.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Theon. I don't care about what he did in the books or the show - he hasn't done it yet, and to judge someone for something they haven't done yet...is a bit too Terminator-y for me.

Doesn't mean I like him or that I'll put up with his shit. Just means I won't enact some sort of misguided 'justice'.

This thing I'm doing right now is, oddly enough, fitting in with the people my age.

11-year-old boys*. Pretty much just started puberty, so the hormones are really flowing. Which means butting heads is the norm. If I were to go out of my way to be polite and just accept their shit, I'd probably be seen as some sort of pillow-biter and not one of 'them'. By 'them', I mean as a fellow Northerner.

(*A/N - I've changed Theon's age. Instead of being four-ish years older than Robb, he's now the same age as Robb, Jon and the MC.)

So, acting like this is really just me saying 'I'm one of the boys, let's get along'. Of course, for now I'm just gonna have to beat the crap out of Theon - but that'll at least show the other two I'm not some sort of weak-armed twat who can't fight.

"You wanna bet?" Theon spoke a bit breathless from either anger or pure annoyance at being insulted the way he was perceiving this whole thing, "I'll take the bet. Five Copper Stars that I'll show you being big just makes you a bigger target to hit," he scoffed, spitting to the ground before looking defiantly up at me as if to say 'I'm not scared of you just because you're bigger than me'.

Seeing him not shrink at the challenge actually caused me to laugh out loud and I gestured over at the rack of training weapons, "You wanna use those things? Or these things?" I lifted a hand curled into a fist.

"We'll use swords," Theon scoffed - he was doing that a lot, huh? - and walked over to the rack of weapons before picking up a wooden short sword suited to his size.

Following after him with a shrug of my shoulders, I picked up a wooden short sword that was of similar length to Theon's. Theon looked as if he wanted to complain about something but he shut his mouth when he looked over to see Robb and Jon eagerly watching the prospective match unfold.

Looking around, I quickly saw Lady Catelyn standing a few meters off from us along with Bran and Arya who both looked at the unfolding match with sparkling eyes. The Lady herself was speaking to a tall older man in armor who had neatly kept mutton chops which he was pulling at as he watched the two of us while occasionally replying to Lady Catelyn.

Meanwhile, Theon got into a sort of stance that was reminiscent of a fencer and I casually rested the wooden sword on my shoulder, "Come at me, squid," I taunted him with a smirk and without disappointing me, Theon charged forward with a lunging thrust.

He moved quite agilely yet in my eyes, he was unbelievably slow.

So, with practiced ease, I sidestepped his thrust and moved to his inside before holding my sword with the tip facing toward the ground. Then, with the sword in the right position, I placed my free hand on the flat of the blade before pushing Theon's sword to the side. Along with the sword, Theon's balance was completely pushed off and as he was wide-eyed and trying to recover his balance, I flicked my sword back up and drove the tip right into Theon's solar plexus.

Gasping with a wide mouth, Theon was pushed back and fell on his ass. He let go of his sword and grasped at his stomach as he struggled to force air into his lungs while his diaphragm spasmed from the hit.

Walking over to his prone figure, I squatted down next to him, planting my wooden sword firmly into the hard dirt below us, "You should've taken the option to settle this with fists. It would've been a little less painful," I laughed before standing up and leaving my sword stuck into ground. Outstretching my hand to the downed Greyjoy who was slowing recovering his breath, I offered him a hand in the sense of good sportsmanship.

Thankfully, he took my hand and I easily hoisted him up onto his feet. After such a casual display of strength, Theon looked up at me with slightly wide eyes before gnashing his teeth in annoyance, "Bloody hell...now I owe five bloody stars to an Umber," despite looking annoyed, he was obviously joking around with me. Obviously, my route to fit in with these guys had worked as I thought it would.

Slapping him on the back and sending him a few clumsy steps forward, I laughed heartily, "Pay it back at your own leisure, Greyjoy. I'll be around here for a while," I joked back at him before turning to Robb and Jon with a provocative glint in my eye, "Either of you two wanna have a spar? I wanna see how you Starks fight."

"Of course," came the enthusiastic reply of Robb Stark who stepped toward me, but not with his wooden sword stretched toward. Instead, his hand was put out and gesturing for a handshake, "The name's Robb Stark...you must be the new page, right?"

Smiling, I took his hand with my free one, "Yep, that's me," I shook his hand firmly and he winced a little at the force but powered through it, "The name's Alaric Umber. Let's get along, yeah?"

"Aye," he nodded with a smile before looking at Theon who was still rubbing at his injured stomach, "You should get the maester to look at that. Looked like a nasty blow to your stomach...and to your pride, Theon," he burst out laughing as his ribbed at his Theon who was very obviously a close friend of his.

Theon just flicked his finger up at him before bending down and picking up his training sword. Before he left to go put it back on the rack, he looked over at me, "Good fight, Umber."

"It was a valiant effort on your part, Greyjoy," I said this and left it at that, just as Theon did before he walked to the weapon rack before sitting down - he obviously wanted to see the spar that was about to happen.

"So, should we get to the sparring, Alaric?" Robb asked me, almost seeming giddy with the prospect of a fight. Not that I can really fault him for it - I get pretty worked up about fighting as well. But that's only when it's against worthy opponents like adult knights or actual warriors. Fighting a kid...well, it ain't the most fun thing in the world.

...So how about I spice it up?

Smiling, I pointed over at Jon, "No, no, no - I'm not just fighting you, Stark. I'll take the two of you on," I gave a confident look to Robb who looked somewhat aggravated by my words.

"That's a little...arrogant, isn't it?" he questioned me, trying to seem polite but not really succeeding because of his feelings of what seemed like annoyance at having his abilities questioned.

Shrugging, I gave my answer, "Arrogant or not, you'll soon find out when you two fight me. If I'm just an arrogant highborn, you two will make short work of me, right? So what's there to lose?" I questioned him with a smile and after a few seconds of thinking, he nodded before looking to Jon who quickly came over with his wooden sword.

I took a few steps back and lifted my sword, which I'd pulled from the ground before I stepped back, and put it in the same casual pose I had when I went up against Theon: just resting it on my shoulder.

Surprisingly, however, neither Robb nor Jon got annoyed by this like Theon had. Instead, they just began to slowly move to either side of me as they tried to spot any chances to attack. What they were doing...is clever. Or rather, it's the right way to fight a 2v1. If they attack from different directions, I'll be forced to block one of their attacks and take the other or just dodge entirely - which would give up the tempo of the fight to them to set.

...A clever way of fighting. They've obviously been trained since they were young but I knew that anyway, so it's nothing too surprising.

Plus, this tactic only works if they're somewhat near my level if the two of them work together.

The easy answer is this: even with both of their strengths combined...I'm well above them in terms of combat prowess. Even if we just look at it from a physical point of view I have them both stumped. I'm taller and bigger, which means I have longer reach and I have more physical strength than either of them. Plus, my reaction time is insanely high - much higher than theirs.

But still, I'll give it to them. They've got the foundations practiced up to a decent level, at least.

Not wanting to be on the defense, I shot forward at Robb and lifted my sword high before slamming it down more like a blunt weapon than a sword. I kept my stance balanced and didn't commit too much to the strike, just in case Jon appeared but he didn't react in time.

My blow slammed into Robb's guard and our wooden swords both splintered a little at the impact. Robb groaned at the force and his arms shook as he resisted but it wasn't enough and his arms were slammed down, leaving him defenseless.

A slight whistle behind me was picked up by my ears and with practiced ease, I sidestepped the lunge coming at me from behind.

As the hit slammed into Robb's stomach, I sent a backhand slash at Jon's sword arm. The wooden sword hit his arm and his hissed in pain before he withdrew his sword and lashed out at me with a surprisingly fast slash.

I easily blocked it however, my sword not even budging as I took the hit. Dropping my guard, I took a step back and watched as Jon's sword slashed where I'd been and he stumbled forward. He hadn't been expecting me to suddenly stop pushing back against him and he'd lost his balance on account of his lack of preparedness.

Taking a step forward back to my original place, I sent a vicious thrust at Jon's neck. I wasn't aiming for his life...I was just testing out his reflexes. They seemed quite quick, so I wanted to see the limit.

Obviously, the casual (from my perspective at least) thrust wasn't his limit as he easily ducked to dodge the thrust. He even had the battle sense to send a thrust up at my face with the same surprising speed as earlier.

Sadly, it wouldn't work.

I tilted my head back, dodging the thrust which missed by mere millimeters. I also counter-attacked, slamming my knee into Jon's face and sending him tumbling back with a bloodied nose. Before I could even gather any thoughts, my body acted on it's on and I switched my grip on my sword into a reverse grip before parrying Robb's slash. He looked stunned at the speed at which I'd reacted - I hadn't even been looking in his direction when he'd started the slash - but him being stunned allowed me to take a step toward him and slam a fist into his face.

I didn't go all out - if I had, he'd have a few broken bones and a VERY stiff neck - but I didn't hold back too much and it thoroughly rattled his brain. Before he could fall, I grabbed his training gear's collar and hoisted him into the air before throwing him toward Jon.

He fell on Jon's collapsed form, eliciting a groan from the downed boy and the boy who'd been thrown.

Dropping my sword, I brushed my hands together before smiling to myself, "Man, I've really worked up an appetite this morning, haven't I?" I said and as if to back up my claims, my stomach rumbled very audibly.

...I should get that promised breakfast off of Lady Catelyn.