The Bow Of The Vale

The travel north has been quite nice. Spending time playing cyvesse with Liza and Sofy was quite fun even if I couldn't nap as much as I would like, we also talked about the knowledge I have acquired and we played war, proposing ideas of how we could win this war or that war if we were the commanders and then discussing about what those changes would make to the Realm. It was much more fun than being quiet the whole time or talking to the knights that would either praise everything I do or go on in long speeches about honor and about their feats to impress me.

If half of those were true we of the Vale would still be our own Kingdom, have long since turned into rulers of the whole realm with everyone bowing to our greatness. That and we would be surrounded by giant monsters as at least a third of the stories were about how this knight or that knight had slain a bear, tiger, lion, or some other animal using just their swords when the said beast was at least twice his size.

Yeah, it was a shameless boasting that still was more believable than when Joffrey said he was a master swordsman, now THAT is a shameless lie, not to mention a pathetic one.

"Tigre, Tigre, it is time to get out." Sofy said as she poked my face, I was currently sitting straight as Liza's head was laying calmly on my l.a.p. She wanted to do that and asked me embarrassingly so I let her without an issue. I didn't mind it, running my hands through her hair was nice. It was soft.

"Did we arrive at the Twins?" I asked. The Twins is a bridge commanded by the Frey family, the bridge is the best way to go through to the North but the lord there is, from what I heard, a terrible old weasel who only thinks of money and doesn't have a single shred of honor.

Basically, most of the knights surrounding me and the rest of the Realm looks down on him. Personally, from what I heard, he looks like most nobles back in my previous world, just more obvious in his intent and less smart. He is greedy, simple as that.

Liza straightened herself, looking presentable as if she wasn't laying in my l.a.p just a second ago, but on her face a small scowl appeared.

"I will tell you two this, let's get out of the Twins as soon as possible. Lord Walder Frey will try to push us into taking some of his kids or bastards with us and I don't want one of those weasels anywhere near me. Once was enough, especially when the said one time was when the weasel was 15 and tried to force himself on me last year." She said.

Sofya looked shocked and I clenched my fists in anger at that information even as a snarl of disgust formed on my face.

"How did you escape him?" Sofy asked, she probably means due to the fact that we are still kids. We have limited range and power due to the size of our bodies after all.

"Kicked him down there and when he was down I punched his face a few times before kicking him down there again for good measure and talked with my grandfather about it, he hates the Freys so he banished the boy and told Walder that no Frey weasel will marry me or any other Tully as long as he lives." Liza said with a bit of arrogance that fit her perfectly.

I relaxed my hands as I heard that, Liza was Liza after all. She can handle herself well enough, I don't even doubt that, had she had a weapon, she would have killed the man without an issue. Sofy, meanwhile, put a hand to her face.

"Oh my, you really are lenient Liza." Sofy said. "I thought for sure you'd kill the person and throw his body into the river for doing that."

"I would have liked that, true, but my position would have made it that it was only my words against whatever the others would say and I am not loved in Riverrun. Had I killed him it is more likely that the tale would be that I am unstable or homicidal and I'd be punished for that, I prefer not to risk it when the only benefit is the sensation of a good result." Elizaveta said as if this means nothing much. If people who did not know of our past life saw someone so young thinking like her they'd be shocked.

For us? It was quite normal really. Impressive, but normal for her to do such a thing.

Not wanting to think of that anymore I looked out of the window towards the castle. It was massive and the bridge was impressive. The Twins consist of two identical stone castles standing on a margin of the Green Fork of the Trident. They have high curtain walls, deep moats, and a barbican and portcullis in what I see channels can be dug to form moats, turning each castle into an island and thus making it all the harder to take if during a war.

A stone bridge arches between the castles, with the bridge footings rising from within the inner keeps. This bridge is wide enough for two wagons to cross ab.r.e.a.s.t. The bridge is guarded in the middle by the... I guess the name was Water Tower, Liza explained the most unique features of the Riverlands to me during this trip so I heard of that one. This structure has arrow slits, murder holes, and portcullises for defense from what I see.

Overall, it is a tough castle to breach but not really impossible. It would just take a lot of planning and some good workers to do so.

Besides all that, the castle looks bleak and lifeless, honestly speaking it just can't match most other castles in terms of 'aura'. Probably this one would be better called a military outpost instead of a proper castle to rule lands.

///////////////////

Arriving at the castle we were invited inside and soon I was called to the meeting room to talk with Lord Walder. A 'feast' was being prepared for me and my companions, but that was the last thing in my mind as I gazed upon Lord Walder Frey.

I heard that once he was a decent enough man in terms of appearance, never handsome, dashing, or even good looking, but decent and normal looking.

That is not how he looks anymore.

Lord Walder Frey has turned bald, his head has spotted with age in many places. He looks a little like a vulture, but mostly like a weasel. His shoulders are scrawny and his long neck pink. He has a receding chin, under which loose skin dangles. He has runny and clouded eyes, and a toothless mouth, which constantly moves about as he eats with his mouth open. I heard that he is troubled with gout, and can no longer stand without assistance which explains why he is on a litter that he probably never bothered having cleaned for him.

Honestly speaking he looks terrible, bad enough that I can bet someone like Tommen, gentle and innocent as he is, would think him a monster of some sort.

However, for as unpleasant as his appearance was, he was still a generous host. His servants had prepared a decent meal for me and my friends, along with the Vale guards who had accompanied us. It had consisted of water, a type of potato with shreds of onion, a plate with beef that had a nice seasoning on it, and a small bowl of stew. It wasn't the best food I've ever tasted, but it was a nice meal all the same.

But honestly, I can't help but think that, after leaving Riverrun, I won't want to eat fish for a while. Honestly, there should be a point where it is just too much and that point went by a few days ago. I have to have fish on the breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. It honestly is close to making me nauseous.

It was a kind of heavy silence that we all ate in as I felt more than one set of eyes settle on me, but there was one that had stayed on me for nearly the entire feast, and when I tried pinpointing it, the gaze slipped off me before I could locate the person staring at me.

It was another several minutes before most of us had finished eating. When we were done, servants arrived and took the various dishes back to the kitchens.

Walder had had one of the servants pour him a cup of wine as he waited for all the dishes to be cleared out, which only took a few moments as the various servants moved with a speed and efficiency that no doubt came from long practice. I felt it again, as the servants were doing that that one of the people here is gazing a me with a bit more fervor than the others, it is a sixth sense of sorts that I have to detect when others are looking at me intensely, I got that after many hunts when growing up on my previous life. Once the servants were finished, Walder Frey raised his cup in a toast for me.

"To Tigrevurmund Arryn, Heir of the Vale. May he live a long and prosperous life." The man declared in a harsh and gravelly sounding voice. The various Frey offspring, from his sons and daughters and bastards to his grandsons, granddaughters, and grand-bastards raised their own various drinking implements in response, offering their own toasts. This done Walder drank deep of his wine before setting his cup aside.

"Now, it is a welcome surprise to welcome such an esteemed guest." He began, the words sounding harsh and grating from his voice. I noticed that he was, for the moment holding his tongue on any sort of inappropriate words. Perhaps he was of the belief that children even as young as I was should be spared any of the profanity he was fairly renowned for. "However, as always, I'm aware just why you would visit my home. It's not a pleasant place, I can acknowledge that without issue. But I know that you wish to cross, so let us talk terms for passage." He declared, getting right to the point. That wasn't something that surprised me, given his old age.

I narrowed my eyes a hair, knowing his usual 'price' for crossing his bridge from tales I heard from Father. I stood up and walked towards the elderly man, getting ready to negotiate for passage through the Twins. The man blinked in slight surprise at my nonverbal statement that I would speak for myself, but he likely understood that from that, he could not demand anything too extravagant from me or it would reflect very poorly on him, as a lord who attempted to extort a heavy toll from a child was something that would cause considerable damage to his reputation. After a moment he smirked lightly, although I am pretty sure it is less of him thinking it good as it is him looking at me as if an idiot.

Well, it is not like I will sell my hand in marriage or anything that big, worst comes to worst we will just have to travel through some other means even if it takes much longer.

It was a few minutes later that the agreement was struck, which is why I was staring out across his considerable amount of daughters and granddaughters. The agreed-upon 'toll' was that I take at least one of his female children as a servant in my household. I could tell his thought process. He wanted the girl to essentially have one of my children one day, so that his bloodline could spread to the Vale or for the girl to catch the eye of some noble there and be married off somewhere else. I had grimaced at the agreement but I knew that a grown man would have been roped into taking on much more. He had sweetened the deal by also throwing in the offer of compensating me by way of paying for half the chosen girl's weight in silver. "To help with feeding for a time until you arrive at Winterfell and the expenses for her until her work pays off her life in the Eyrie or Kingslanding, depending of where you go from Winterfell." He had stated. It was obvious that he expected me to choose one of the heavier girls as a result.

Pushing the thoughts to the side, I looked among them, trying to find someone I felt I could stomach having along with me.

There it was again! That same feeling, that same gaze was locked onto me, and I turned in the direction of the gaze, stopping on a young girl that was perhaps a year or so younger than me. She wasn't all that impressive to look at. In fact, she was fairly unpleasant in appearance. But I was still surprised, as that appearance was one I remembered very well, and how could I not as it is the looks of the person I could trust the most in my previous life. The hazel hair in the twin tails, the warm brown eyes, and despite the slight pimples, I recognized her almost instantly, and when I walked to her, managing to keep my composure as she shyly looks at me. She beckoned me to lean in, so I did, placing my ear at her lips. No one could hear what she said but after I leaned away, I turned to Walder Frey, placed my right hand on the girl's shoulder, and spoke. "I'll take this one with me, Lord Frey." I spoke calmly.

Walder nodded at my choice, no doubt glad that he didn't have to part with too much silver in the end.

It was later that day that I, Liza, Sofy, and the newest member of our little group clambered back into the carriage, and had set off again on the trip North to Winterfell. I was smiling in fondness at the girl across from me who smiled back.

"I will always be with you, Tigre-sama." She stated once more in the carriage, out loud for all of us to hear.

"And I will always accept you by my side, Tita." I replied back to her, happy to have my closest friend and companion of Alsace again.

My knowledge that my friends from back then are here just let me be all the happier. Besides, no one can cook better than Tita in my opinion and if I am to trust in someone to help take care of me it would be her, the girl who I see as a little sister more than anything else.

And it also fills me with worry. No way I will bring her to kingslanding, nor will I want her to live there. I guess I should really try and convince father to send me to the Eyrie after this war, I still have some work that I will have to do there anyway so it is a win win scenario.

I need to start preparations for the war against the dead as soon as possible. Otherwise there is every chance that life as a whole in this world may end.