1.09 - Aelyx

Aelyx – 09 ​

I rode beside Borros Baratheon at the head of a small column of hunters. We were ten miles from Storm's End, picking our way through an increasingly dense forest. A few dozen feet ahead of us a group of men tramped forward, each holding a dog on a lead. A half mile ahead of them another line of men and dogs advanced through the brush. We were on the hunt for a boar that had been spotted near our location, several days prior.

This was my sixth day at Storm's End, and to my surprise, I was enjoying my stay. Storm's End itself was and I was very much enjoying the opportunity to explore one of the oldest castles in Westeros. It was clear that the fortress had not been designed to awe or flaunt its owner's wealth in the same manner as High Tide or the Red Keep, no this was a castle built to command to landscape and withstand a siege. But there was a certain beauty in that pragmatic functionality. As for the lord of the castle, Borros was not someone whom I would have normally sought out to spend time with, but he was fairly tolerable in small doses especially if you had earned his respect, which saving your cousin from a rampaging dragon was apparently enough to do. To put it bluntly, he was an egotistical asshole, but a lifetime of experience with Daemon Targaryen had taught me how to manage such people. As for his wife Elenda Baratheon, she was what I imagined my mother would have been like if she had been born a noble of Westeros rather than a Lysenni slave. Which meant she scared the shit out of me. Every time we talked, I had the uncomfortable feeling that she was weighing exactly how much I could benefit her family.

As we rode Borros and I conversed.

"What was it like growing up on Bloodstone?" He asked.

"It was chaotic," I responded. "My father was constantly flying off to deal with one crisis or another. If it wasn't Tetrarchy backed pirates it was one of his lords refusing to hand over taxes, and if it wasn't that, the Dornish could always be counted on to make trouble."

Borros snorted "Making trouble is the only thing the Dornish are good for." He paused. "You said he had trouble getting his lords to hand over taxes. My lords know exactly what would happen to them if they try and cheat me and I don't even need a dragon to make them obey."

I was somewhat skeptical of that claim. Tax evasion was the national hobby of the Westerosi nobility. But I was hardly going to contradict my host.

"The thing to understand about the Kingdom of the Stepstones is that it was not a particularly stable entity. My father and Lord Velaryon showed up with an army and seized the islands, they controlled them, but they never really ruled them in the same manner you rule Stormlands."

"Oh?" Lord Borros arched his eyebrow.

"My father is a man of action at heart." I continued. "He has little patience with the day-to-day minutia of governance. That would have been fine if the systems to rule were already in place, but when it came to building an entire administration brick by brick," I snorted. "In the end, he found it easier to just appoint his favorite sell sword commanders to control different islands and let them do as they pleased."

"Let them do as they pleased?" Borros questioned; his interest sparked. It was not hard to see why, as many in Westeros now believed that if Rhaenyra ascended it would be the Rogue Prince who ruled in truth.

I shrugged "So long as they provided money and men for war, he cared naught what they did in their lands." I doubted a single conversation insinuating that he might have a large degree of autonomy under Rhaenyra would be enough to tip the proud Stormlander into the Black camp, but it couldn't possibly hurt to plant those seeds.

Before we could continue our conversation, a hunting horn rang out.

"They've spotted it," Borros exclaimed his eyes alight with excitement.

A great howling arose from the forest as the first line of men released the bay dogs to corner boar. We quickly dismounted and continued forward on foot. The forest was too dense to make out what was happening so far in front of us, but the howls of the dogs were easy to follow.

"We got him cornered." Came the shout from up ahead. After a few more minutes of jogging, we caught up to the bay dogs and saw they had trapped the boar in a hollow. The beast was massive, two hundred pounds easily, covered with bristle and sporting a pair of razor-sharp tusks. The dogs were not attacking it directly, but instead were harrying and corralling it. At a sharp command from Borros, the catch dogs were let slip and dashed into the fray. They shoved their way past the smaller bay dogs and attacked to boar. One came in from the side and leaped up behind the boar's head grabbing it by its ear and dragging its head down toward the ground.

The moment he saw the boar go down Borros dashed forward, while I followed closely behind. He drew his boar knife with the ease of long practice. He came to a stop just behind the struggling dog and boar, bringing his arm up. But, before he could drive the dagger home, the boar bucked to the side, shaking the dog off.

"Oh no, you don't" Borros snarled. Dropping his knife, the Baratheon grabbed the boar's hind leg. He yanked the leg up, throwing the boar off balance, it twisted unsteadily in his grip trying to escape.

"Aelyx now!" he shouted, arms straining with the effort of keeping the pig from escaping. Moving around his side, I gripped my knife and brought it down into the boar's back between the shoulder blades. The metal slid smoothly through flesh until it was halted by the cross-guard. Hot blood spurted over my hand and forearm. The boar collapsed as the steel punctured its heart. I went down with the animal, yanked by my death grip on the knife embedded in its back. It was only when the boar ceased thrashing that I released my grip on the hilt and got shakily to my feet. Borros slapped me on the shoulder and laughed.

"That's a big one Ser Aelyx." He leaned over and pulled the dagger from the boar with a mighty tug. He pressed the blade into my hands.

"You'll want to keep this, a memento of your first hunt." I looked from the knife to Borros Baratheon's smiling face. I gave him a grin of my own. The rest of the party crowded around me offering similar congratulations. While I doubted hunting would ever be my favorite activity, I couldn't deny that I was enjoying the friendly atmosphere and sense of camaraderie. On our way back to the horses I received several invitations to the holdfasts of various lords throughout the Stormlands. It appeared as though my voyage would last for longer than I had anticipated.