25 The Sun and the Lion
The Tarbeck boy falls to the ground and screams in pain.
"My balls!"
The Frey snaps out of his shock and approaches Doran, going to grab him by the neck when Tywin crashes into him, hitting him square in the jaw.
Doran gets up and kicks the downed Tarbeck in the side a couple of times. The Westerling goes and grabs Doran by the doublet and throws him to the ground away from the fallen Tarbeck. Doran lands and winces but quickly turns and kicks Westerling's foot with all his might. The boy falls to the ground and Doran jumps on top of him, hitting him.
Both children struggle for a while on the ground until they feel pairs of arms grabbing and separating them.
Guards came upon hearing the commotion and separated the children.
"Stop! What is this madness?!"
"Those bastards attacked us!" The Tarbeck boy yells still writhing in pain.
"You started it!" Doran yells at him trying to get out of the guard's grip.
"Enough!" A deep voice yells, they all turn to see Ser Duncan the Tall walking towards them with a scowl on his face.
**
Doran and Tywin are escorted to a room, Ser Duncan tells them to wait there until a maester comes to treat their injuries. After that they will be escorted to the Throne room, where their parents and the parents of the other three children will wait for them.
"I've never gotten into a fist fight before." Tywin comments touching his split lip.
"It was fun, right?" Doran smiles widely, his mouth bloody. At some point during his fight against the Westerling boy, his front tooth fell out. Other than that he just has a few scratches. Tywin has a split lip and a noticeable bruise on his right cheekbone.
"Fun?" Tywin looks at him like he's crazy, "Now we will face the king and our parents-"
"We're screwed," Doran cuts him off with a twinkle in his eye. "That's what you were going to say." The lion cub nods. "Don't worry Tywin, I have a plan."
The Lannister raises an eyebrow and Doran waves him over. He whispers his plan in his ear and a smile appears on Tywin's normally stoic face.
"That will work, prince Doran" He looks at the prince who in the last two days has not stopped surprising him.
"By the way, call me Doran. After getting into a fight together we are beyond titles."
***
Through the tall, narrow windows of the huge throne room in the Red Keep, late-afternoon light streamed in, spilling across the floor, drawing long red streaks on the walls where two rows of dragon skulls stood.
Doran had read about the size of the dragons in this world but he was still a little incredulous, in his world the dragons reached a certain size and then stopped growing but in this world they kept growing until the day of their death. Seeing the skulls of Balerion, Vhagar and so many other monstrous beasts took away all the doubts he had after reading those books.
Vhagar's skull is so big that a man on horseback could ride into its monstrous mouth while Balerion's skull is even more gigantic, that monster could have swallowed a mammoth whole when he was alive!
`The color of their bones is very interesting,` observes the prince. The bones are dark in color, almost completely black in some cases. `The smaller skulls have a whitish color while the larger skulls have darker colors.`
"Let's settle this matter." The king's voice resounds in the room.
Aegon V Targaryen sits on the massive ancient chair of Aegon the Conqueror, a monstrosity of spiked wrought iron, jagged edges, and twisted metal. The throne, with its many sharp edges, looks like the most uncomfortable chair Doran has ever seen. "A king must never sit at ease," Aegon the Conqueror had said as he commanded his armorers to forge a throne from the swords of his fallen enemies. Doran thinks it's stupid, a king has to spend hours on that throne holding court. One could get tired, stumble and end up falling on one of the many protruding swords.
In front of the throne are two white cloaks, Ser Duncan and another whom Doran does not recognize.
"Those brats attacked our children!" Yells Lord Tarbeck.
"Watch your tongue Tarbeck," Obella glares at him.
"It is clear that the cub and the snake were not educated by their parents." Lord Frey's voice screeches in Doran's ears, and he looks at the man who reminds him too much of Janitor Filch.
"Enough!" The king yells, interrupting the arguments. "Let's hear what happened, Lord Tywin tell us what happened in the gardens."
Tarbeck and Frey were going to protest but a glare from Ser Duncan silenced them.
"Yes, your grace." Tywin bows to the king. "Prince Doran and I were strolling through the gardens when we heard three boys, whom we identify by the coat of arms on their clothes as a Tarbeck, a Frey, and a Westerling, insult Prince Arthur, Prince Daeron, and my father."
The children tried to intervene.
"Lord Tarbeck, Lord Frey, Lord Westerling it seems that you are the ones who did not properly educate your children." the king coldly comments. Aegon turns his gaze to Tywin and asks, "What insults?"
Tywin squirms a bit but an encouraging look from the king gives him the confidence to speak.
"They called my father a spineless coward, they called him the Coward Lion." he says with a face. Lord Tytos narrows his gaze and his cheeks redden with either anger or embarrassment Doran doesn't know. "Prince Arthur was called the broken prince. They said he's a grotesque being, that's when Prince Doran hit Tarbeck."
Obella looks like she's fuming smoke from her ears, her face is red with anger and her hands move to a weapon that isn't there. Trystanne places a hand on his wife's shoulder trying to calm her down to no avail.
`If my mother had her spear handy those idiots would be dead`
"And what did they say about my son?" The king's voice is colder than ice.
Tywin is reluctant to say the words so Doran intervenes.
"They called Prince Daeron something I don't understand, I asked Lord Tywin what it means but he didn't answer me," the prince says with a pout.
"Oh? What did they call him?" asks the king with a softer voice.
"A sword swallower." The atmosphere of the Throne room seems to freeze and heat up at the same time.
"Ser Orys, escort Prince Doran and Lord Tywin to their quarters," the king says in an emotionless voice.
**
After leaving the throne room they convince the kingsguard that they can walk alone. With some reluctance Ser Orys escorts them to the stairs that go up to the floors where the members of the Great Houses are staying and lets them go alone from there.
The two walk in silence to Doran's quarters.
Upon entering, they both look at each other and burst into laughter.
"Did you see the faces of those idiots?" Doran manages to say between laughs.
"I have never seen Tarbeck so terrified!" Tywin flashes a predatory grin before bursting out laughing again.
