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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 20, 2017 12:07:57 GMT -7
Jeyne had to snort and then sit back in her seat. "I must admit that you are probably right" she admitted. She came over on a ship and it wasn't the best time especially when she was the only female on there. She was sure that if Katherine had gone over to Rohan then it might've been easier and now she understands just why the Queen is so cool because they were on her territory and why Jeyne felt so scared but if it was the other way around then she would so much more easier but if she was ever as cool as Katherine then she really wouldn't have anything to worry about.
Katherine raises an eyebrow at Adrian when he says about Edric turning into a wolf and of course the two men that were sat with them would find something like that cool and announce it to the people around the table. Then Sansa speaks about Edric and then leaves the room and for a moment she watches her. "I do apologise for Sansa leaving like that" she said after a moment and she then bites on her lip.
"It's fine, the affections of the heart can sometimes catch up with us" Jeyne said and smiled before looking over at Katherine before she went back to her food.
"So, Jon said you were going to be staying for a few days, we can have some of the beds made up for all three of you unless of course Jeyne you are going to be leaving any time soon?"
"I don't think it will be"
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Post by Ray on Nov 20, 2017 12:25:46 GMT -7
Tristan watches after Sansa for a moment, until she disappears through the doors of the Great Hall in a flurry of fiery red hair and grey furs, a little bit of disappointment sinking in his chest. But he expresses none of it, turning back to his meal and the conversation around him with ease as if he hadn't been enjoying the company of the Lady of Winterfell. Or her smile.
But Adrian's brows are sky-high, realization swimming across his face in stages of confusion and then absolute disbelief as Sansa's sudden exit and Jeyne's astute words add up into an unexpected picture within the man's head. "Wait," he blurts out, looking towards Jeyne quickly. "That little, pretty thing and the big..." Adrian pantomimes Edric's stature, puffing out his chest and holding a hand high over his head and making his face go all serious as his upper lip curls in a silent snarl. As he drops the act slightly, turning his head back towards Tristan, he mutters, "How does he not break--"
"Beds would be wonderful," Tristan comments loudly over anything else Adrian might have to say with a thankful nod of his head towards Katherine. "Though we have been sleeping rough for most of our lives, so just about anything would suffice. You could stick us in the kennels if you like. He certainly belongs there." Tristan adds on, jabbing his thumb towards his brother.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 20, 2017 13:36:24 GMT -7
Both Katherine and Jeyne look over at Adrian when he blurts out and Katherine huffs out a breath. Everyone in Winterfell knew that she wasn't pleased with Sansa and Edric but there was nothing that she could do. Jeyne had caught a glimpse of who she guessed was Edric earlier when he was being taken away by the ginger man and she couldn't help but wonder if he would get on with Dwalin and Bofur and she knew that it could very well be a possibility that they all would get on but if the relations between Rohan and Westeros was going to form then they were going to have to sit down and talk everything through, even if they had done a lot of talking the last couple of days.
Katherine heard what Adrian was muttering and she almost coughed. That was the worst thing about her hearing, listening to things that she really didn't want to hear. She looked over at Tristan when he spoke and then smiled softly "We definitely do have kennels" she said in a soft tease to which Jeyne snorted.
"Well I did say that Adrian reminded me of a very cute puppy" she then looked down at him and then bit on her lip "Now he just reminds me of a very grumpy dog" she said and then gave him a grin. It felt like it had been a very long time since she had teased him but even she knew that he had changed since almost dying on that day that Durinhall had been taken back from Godwin.
"We have enough room for all of you" Katherine said with another soft smile and nodded.
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Post by Ray on Nov 20, 2017 14:06:09 GMT -7
Adrian shrugs off his brother's well-timed interruption to take a bite off of the thigh bone of his roasted chicken, his mouth full when Jeyne teases him. He frowns deeply and comically, looking precisely like the grumpy dog Jeyne called him, but the inability to speak allows Tristan to do the talking instead. A very rare occurrence that he is not going to waste.
"Thank you, your Grace. It's much appreciated." He says with another warm smile towards Katherine. "I can't promise that we'll stay out of the way or be completely invisible, but...we'll try our best to behave. Or...rather," he gives a sideways glance towards his brother as he rests his elbow upon the surface of the table and rubs a little at his bearded jaw, "I'll try to make him behave."
"I'm right here." Adrian says in a muffled garble through the chicken still in his mouth.
"A fact no one has missed." Tristan replies sardonically.
She trudges through the snow even though it soaks into her boots and clings to the hem of her black dress, carrying herself towards the Maester's tower on the other side of the courtyard, her cloak forgotten inside the Great Hall. Sansa hears Tormund before she even reaches the top of the stairs, his booming voice echoing down through the stone well as she climbs upwards, teeth chattering at the cold.
"Do you think I've survived this long by drinking milk of the puppy," the wildling shouts, his voice turning mocking near the end.
"Milk of the poppy, ser," the Maester corrects with a hint of exasperation as Sansa reaches the open doorway, a little out of breath.
"Whatever the fuck it is. I don't trust it."
"Just drink it." Edric huffs, and Sansa's eyes find him. He stands just to the side of where Tormund sits with a heavily splinted arm. His black hair hands around his face in thick strands, his arms crossed over his chest, his stance steady and firm and fine. He does not limp, does not favor a side, does not look winded or hurt or hiding pain. And that makes Sansa's heart leap happily into her throat.
"Edric," she breathes out in a rushed exhale, and all the eyes within the room turn towards her in the doorway. But Edric relaxes, a flicker of relief crossing his grey eyes, a twitch of a smile tugging at his lips. She rushes in and pulls Edric into a tight hug, her face burying into his chest, her hands grabbing at his back.
"Oh for fuck's sake," Tormund grunts before snatching the bottle from the Maester's hand. "Everyone gets a girl 'xept me." He grumbles before chugging it down.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 20, 2017 14:22:54 GMT -7
Katherine laughs softly "I'm sure that no one wants you to stay out the way or even be invisible, we wouldn't be good hosts if that's what we wanted" she admitted. If she was honest Katherine actually liked the two of them. They brought something of a change to the place, it had been hard work in the weeks that Jon and the others had gone North so these two would actually make a refreshing change.
"That's impossible" Jeyne muttered and looked over at Tristan when he said that the would try to get Adrian to behave. A grin pulled at her lips once more and she went back to her food, if she was honest she didn't feel that much hungry anymore but rather than being rude she decided to continue eating even if it looked like Katherine was having a hard time keeping the food down.
Katherine looked up and saw one of the servants passing "Excuse me" she said to her guests and stood up before heading to the door, she gave the servant the instructions to make up two more rooms for their new guests. She wasn't sure how long these three would be here and seeing as Jeyne had already been here a couple more days before Adrian and Tristan turned up she was sure that Jeyne would be staying a few more days too. She thanked the servant before heading back into the hall. "The rooms will be ready for you shortly" she said to the two new men "And you can stay as long as you want, we don't throw people out here"
Jeyne couldn't understand why people said that Katherine was ruthless, that she was a war Queen and was out for blood because she's been nothing but kind since she came here two days previous.
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Post by Ray on Nov 20, 2017 14:52:47 GMT -7
Katherine excuses herself suddenly, rising to her feet and crossing towards the doors. Tristan finds himself watching after her, a strange sort of hopeful feeling that Lady Sansa had returned flitting through his mind. But Katherine speaks to a servant instead, and Tristan lets that idle thought drift away once more.
"Oh don't tell us that," Tristan laughs a little when Katherine returns with good news of a warm bed dedicated to each of them, "You'll never get us to leave."
"Eh..." Adrian comments, dropping the chicken bone to the plate unceremoniously, "It's a bit cold for my tastes." Tristan, pulling in a slow breath, stomps his heel down upon the top of his brother's foot beneath the cover of the table, making the younger jump in his seat and clench his teeth tightly around a swear that threatens to break loose. But, taking the very forward advice, he manages a terse smile. "I mean..." he says, shifting his annoyed eyes away from Tristan towards the Queen standing before them. "Thank you."
And then he jabs his elbow straight into Tristan's ribs.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 20, 2017 15:08:46 GMT -7
Katherine laughs and looks down. It had been a while since this place had guests, she wasn't sure what had happened after she had left for King's Landing all those years before but she was sure that Winterfell didn't have another guest so there was a lot of rooms that were left over and they had gone around one by one to make sure that there wasn't anything of the Bolton family left over in them so now the rooms were being made up for whenever guests came and stayed which wasn't often because there wasn't many people left in Westeros after the wars.
"I think what he means is thank you" Jeyne said quickly after Adrian said that it was too cold. Then Adrian thanked the Queen.
Katherine looks over at the dark haired younger brother. "It was cold for me too when I first came here" she admitted. "Having been used to the warmer South it did take a bit of getting used too but even when I went to the wall.. that was so much more colder than even my husband had said about so I don't actually blame you for not wanting to stay longer" she nodded and then bit on her lip. It took a very long time for her to get used to the cold and now she really didn't feel it anymore so all of that shivering was for nothing really.
In the end she ended up becoming a vampire.
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Post by Ray on Nov 20, 2017 15:35:47 GMT -7
Tristan takes the jab without so much as a whimper -- only a muscle tightening in his jaw and his hand momentarily stilling to press his fist against his mouth subtly. But Adrian's grin turns less forced and more satisfied, his back straightening as he listens to Katherine's next words. They'd both heard about the dreariness of the north, even in summer. Growing up, talking to traders and sailors and men who've ventured across the seas, Winterfell had always seemed like a terrible place. Cold, sunless, serious. To say the very least, two of those things seemed to be very true. With winter descending rapidly, the whole of the north seemed frosted with ice and snow and thrown into a bleak grayness, a perpetual blizzard hitting this small city from every direction while the sun remains completely absent.
"Rohan has its winters but...nothing like this," Tristan admits once he's regained his composure, lowering his hand back to the table. "Ours is once a year and fairly mild compared to what's outside. The mountains get the worst of it."
"Otherwise it's sunshine and rainbows," Adrian says with a hint of sarcasm, before turning his head towards Tristan and letting loose a full-bodied shiver, "Mahal, I miss sunshine."
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 20, 2017 15:56:43 GMT -7
Katherine takes a seat but this time she's sat on the table below the high table so that she can look at them better. "I've heard a little bit about Rohan but it's mostly about the old ruler" she admitted before looking down at her hands. "But I do envy the whole once a year winter because that is one thing we could deal with and not the ones that can last for years" She wasn't sure how she was going to deal with the fact that this one was going to go on for years and this would be the first one that Amelia would experience even if at the moment she was still a bit too young to even know what was going on around her right now.
That was a good thing.
"Seeing the colour changing on the leaves from the towers of Durinhall is actually really beautiful and I hope that you get to see it one day" Jeyne gave a warm smile at Katherine because she was sure that if the two were going to be working together then they would see a little bit of each other whether it be coming over to Winterfell or Katherine going over to Durinhall, she was sure that they would come face to face again. Plus she was sure that she had found a new friend and if she was honest that was a hard thing to do these days. Even though she didn't have any in Nightsong and had happily left it behind for adventures and Eoin.
"Durinhall sounds pretty" Katherine nodded and looked over at the three of them. She really wanted to see it now.
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Post by Ray on Nov 20, 2017 16:18:37 GMT -7
Adrian shrugs his shoulders a little, nudging his now empty plate away from himself towards the center of the table. "It's a castle," he says as if it were a shoe, seemingly unimpressed with the whole thing though he hadn't been a year ago when they first took it back from Godwin's clutches. "Big, white, full of politicians. And a throne, of course, but apparently we don't like thrones," he says, the remark clearly pointed at Tristan though he does not look his brother's way. Tristan rolls his eyes slowly, glancing away as he pops a piece of bread into his mouth. "So we sit ourselves elsewhere. We usually find prettier things that way," Adrian finishes, but not without a less than subtle wink in Katherine's direction.
Tristan just looks towards Jeyne with an unsurprised expression.
"Perhaps," the elder says before Kili can dig himself further into a hole he can't climb back out of, a grin finding its way to the young man's mouth, "We should go rest for a moment. Get some of the snow out of our bones. Leave you to your business." He says pointedly, nudging Adrian a little.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 20, 2017 16:33:05 GMT -7
Adrian started to talk about Durinhall and she couldn't help but look good when he says it as if there wasn't anything pretty about their old home. She couldn't help but wonder just what he had against Eoin and was about to ask when she looked up and he winked at her. She had to admit that there was something about him that was refreshing from the men that actually asked her over notes whether or not she wanted to marry them. She was still waiting for the next one from Glover. It was very overwhelming when man after man wanted to have her hand in marriage but mostly it was down to the fact that they would become her King.
Even if she had found one, one that didn't want to be King and definitely didn't want to marry her.
Katherine couldn't help the smile that pulled at her lips at his wink and honestly she wondered why he actually wanted to flirt with her but she guessed that he didn't have anything against flirting with royalty as long as they were pretty. She looked down at the ground and cleared her throat.
"Rest would be a good thing" Katherine said and then slowly looked up at them both, "But maybe enough of business talk for now and we can rest too, after all I have someone to check up on" she admitted.
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Post by Ray on Nov 20, 2017 16:47:19 GMT -7
Adrian's ego is not helped by Katherine's sudden yet subtle bashfulness as she lets slip a smile of her own and looks to the ground for just a moment after his flirt. His grin grows an inch on either side, turning wry and mischievous, and Tristan knows that he has a good thirty seconds before this gets any worse. Just as his brother is about to say something else, he rises to his feet despite the sore protest of his legs and tugs at the sleeve of Adrian's heavy coat as a clear signal to shut it and move.
"Yes, of course, I'm sure Jon," he says, looking down to his brother to remind the stupid lad about the man who was kind enough to bring them here and who is, conveniently, attached to the very woman he's trying to flirt with, "Would appreciate seeing your face after a few weeks of only seeing ours. So we'll leave you to that." He yanks on Adrian's coat once more to get the man to move, and he finally and reluctantly does with a roll of his eyes, moving to follow.
But he doesn't do so before sweeping low into another bow in Katherine's direction, a cheeky smile on his lips as he says "Until next time, your Grace."
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 20, 2017 17:09:09 GMT -7
Katherine watches Adrian and couldn't help but shake her head, honestly she's had enough men falling over her but there was something cheeky about Adrian and she wasn't sure she could put her finger on it. She liked him there was no denying that, he could be grumpy and then teasing and she actually found him funny. But she had to admit that he was definitely different than the men that she had come across in King's Landing, he seemed to have this air around him.
Tristan spoke about Jon and she nodded, she wanted to see Jon to see if he was truly alright and would only do that once her guests had gone and rest and not before. She watched as he yanked on Adrian's coat and then before leaving he took a low bow and smiled at her before speaking. "Until next time" she said and then watched as they left.
Katherine couldn't believe what sort of day that this had turned out to be, the last thing she had expected was for Jon to come through the gates but she was so glad that he had finally come home because she was starting to worry so much about him, he had said that he would be coming home but one never knows. Jeyne excused herself after a moment and she moved out of the hall and moved in the direction of the room she shared with Jon. There was a man that she hadn't seen for a while and she wanted to make sure that he was truly alright and now that the others had gone for a rest she could do that. If he wasn't sleeping then she would tell him how crazy things had been in the hall but for now she would be happy to just see his face.
"Did you really have to flirt with the Queen of the North?" Jeyne asked Adrian as she came up to his side.
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Post by Ray on Nov 20, 2017 17:38:38 GMT -7
As soon as they're away from the Great Hall and in the snow, out of sight of Jeyne and the Queen, Tristan lets go of Adrian's coat sleeve only to smack his palm right across the back of the man's head. With no audience, Adrian releases a loud "Ow, you ass," as his head juts forward at the impact, strands of his dark hair falling into his face. He halts to rub his own hand at the throbbing spot on his skull, his face twisting into annoyance and irritation. "You're getting crotchety in your old age." He grunts sorely.
Tristan rolls his eyes, making a move to leave his brother to freeze his cheekiness off, as Jeyne joins them at their side, halting the both of them.
Adrian's grin finds its way back. "Have to? No. Want to? Yes." He replies. Tristan is half tempted to smack him again. "Oh don't give me that look, brother." Adrian says as soon as he catches sight of Tristan's disapproving head shake, "I like you." He mimics, pretending to twist a beaded mustache that he does not have as he repeats the words Tristan had spoken to Sansa at the start of their meal. He gives Tristan a knowing eye as he drops his hand back down to his side, "You're worse than I am."
"I was being polite, unlike you." Tristan retorts.
Adrian laughs out loud, one hearty guffaw, "Right," he says and gives a dramatic wink, "Polite."
Jon holds his breath beneath the surface of the hot water, his eyes closed, his black hair swirling around his head. His lungs begin to burn, starved of oxygen, sore from tumbles and hits and sleeping rough. When he can hold it no more, he pulls himself upwards, head breaking through into the cold air, water streaming down his face. He sucks in a breath deep into his lungs, feeling the rush of it down his throat. Blinking the water out of his eyes, he's forced to lift a palm to wipe away the rest. And as his hand lowers from his face, back settling against the edge of the tub, breathing returning to its regular rhythm, he sees a flicker of shadow.
He turns his head sharply, looking towards the frosted window overlooking the castle walls. It hangs open when it had not before, the wind catching the glass pane and rocking it back and forth. And upon the sill, a black raven sits.
It's large. Larger than the ones they keep in the Maester's tower. It watches him with a cocked head, a red ribbon dangling from its foot, glossy eyes staring straight back.
"Snow," it croaks suddenly, wings fluttering at its side. "Snow, snow, snow."
The door behind him creaks softly as its opened, and Jon looks away from the raven just long enough to glance back and see Katherine entering, a startled breath sucking into his lungs. Sitting forward slightly, hands gripping tight to the edge of the tub, he swivels his head quickly back towards the window.
Only to see the sill empty. Window closed. Glass foggy from the steam of the hot water. He exhales shakily, shoulders relaxing only slightly.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Nov 20, 2017 17:56:29 GMT -7
"Well if it helps then I think Sansa liked you too" Jeyne said looking over at Tristan before then settling back on Adrian "As for you the woman is practically married again, plus I don't think Westeros could handle you" she teased softly at him before pulling the cloak around herself a bit more to keep herself warm but she wasn't going to get used to this cold and thankfully she wasn't going to have too.
In the end she hoped that Rohan and Westeros would be able to help each other out or at least the North of Westeros and Rohan because those two would make great partners in the end. Jeyne watches the two of them and then reaches out and grabs hold of Tristan before then pulling him in and putting her other arm around Adrian "My two boys" she said and hugged them both at the same time. "You do know I have missed you both" she said with a grin before she let them go and dropping her arms back down to her sides. It had felt a long time since she had come face to face with these two but in fact it had been a few or more weeks since they came to Durinhall to get her to come on the adventure with her and she had said no but ended up here anyway.
So she might as well have come with them.
Katherine moves into the room and sees Jon is still in the tub and that the room is warm, even if it doesn't really feel any different to her. She neither gets cold or warm but she's sure that whoever touches her would feel her skin a bit colder than theirs. She sees the shakiness of Jon's exhale and she looks over at him. She wants to ask him if he's alright but she knew he would only say that she was fine.
Instead she moves over to the back of the tub and not caring that she could get wet she puts her arms around his shoulders and puts her chin there too. Her hands settle against his chest. "I missed you" she said softly and then glances over at him, she sinks to her knees behind the tub and keeps her arms around him and her chin on his shoulder. Katherine didn't know what had happened out there but she's not sure if he would even tell her if she did ask. So she would keep the questions to herself for now and maybe ask him, later.
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