The year is 286 AC. King Jaehaerys II has just passed, leaving the throne without a rightful ruler. While his three children fight for the crown, Winter creeps closer, and unimaginable darkness looms.
Not all alliances will be so typical this time. In fact, many people have a crucial effect on the way this story is told. As for the ending, we only hope there are enough people left alive to tell it after its passed.
Events
Join us for our first event, the wake of recently deceased King Jaehaerys II.
Updates
AUG. 19: So we are now officially open to the public. We have a mini-event flashback thread going on, and our main event just began. Feel free to make a second canon if you can keep both of them active enough.
Don't hesitate in pestering staff with questions; it's what we're here for! Let's raise a glass and make a cheer toward a successful launch of Winds of Winter.
Whereas most boys were taught how to wield the blade and the bow, girls were taught how to sew and cook, but instead of sewing and cooking, Ashe was at the stables, helping groom the ponies without the knowledge of her caretaker...
The sky had been overcast for several days as cold winds blew over the north. Men, women and children walked, dressed in the thick furs, with little care for the gloomy weather. To them, it was just another normal day in Winterfell.
To Ashe however, it meant staying in doors to avoid getting sick- or sicker than she'd already been. As far back as she could remember, she was quick to catch a cold, feeling pain and high fever after finding herself exposed to the chilly breeze. It irked her so as she watched others play and frolic from her window whilst she had to be in bed, resting. She wasn't too jealous though. She was never really fond of other children.
Over the past few days since the skies turned grey, the seven year old spent all her time in her room, rereading books and listening to old wives' tales from her elderly maid for the hundredth time. Swearing in her mind she'd go daft should she listen any longer. It wasn't so much that she hated the stories, but more the fact she'd been in her room for far too long without anything new to do. So when the skies had cleared for the first time in days, Ashe went ahead and snuck out at the most opportune moment.
That's how the girl came to be at the stables, stroking a gentle pony's head as she watched some adults ride away. Where were they going today? Maybe a hunt? She didn't know, and she couldn't care. All she wanted was to stay here until her caretaker took her back to her chambers to rest.
If the paler of the two took sights to the heavens, she’d notice a blanket of black descending upon her, its shadow growing in breadth with each passing second. Stowed away along the support beams that held the barn steady, Jeren stalked all intruders who dared enter his castle (yes, he deemed the stables so) . The moment Ashe felt the slightest morsel of comfort, the young lad readied himself to pierce her calm, as she had illicitly entered his chambers. There wasn’t time to react and his attack came so sudden, seconds felt eternal as the larger body soared down, only to strike gold. Flesh collided as Jeren rolled on the ground, his body tumbling from the momentum alone before he rolled into a bed of hay. Fortunately, his younger sister would fall over as well.
Spit out a mouth full of grain, Jeren sat up. “Who dare enters my castle without notice!?” Quickly jumping to full height, the adventurous nine year old modelled himself in his fieriest battle stance. Arm extended, holding air, the Stark’s indiscernible sword craved the blood of his opponents while his equally fictional armor safeguarded his weaknesses.
“You have one chance to surrender before my trusted companion, Scarlett ends you!” Ignorant to who he knocked over, Jeren looked on with passionate hues at the pile of hay, steadily awaiting the identity of the toppled soul to reveal themselves for certain combat.
Another day of cold sprouted across the reddened cheeks of a younger Ayden. Having just left his mother's side, for he was quite the mama's boy at this age, did he flee in search of his younger and elder siblings. The sound of laughter and talk of a "castle" cried through the wooden walls of a barn; thus did the young Ayden take his curious mind on in.
Through the doors he entered, poking his head in only to see Jeren, and whom he believed to be with him within the hay, Ashe. The innocent, frail child entered only to say the next, "We're not aloud to mess around in here you guys!" Ayden cried about entering the palace, "And Jeren you can't be so rough with Ashe, she isn't even suppose to be here!" The young Ayden spoke. Ashe was someone he cared for a lot, and though he wasn't as tough as Jeren, he did his best to make sure she was alright.
Running over to the haystack where they both resided, he would ask, "Ashe are you okay?" Worried eyes would ask.
She felt relatively calm here in the stables surrounded by animals that spoke no harsh words. Ashe had just about guided the pony away when the shadow caught her unaware. The little pup rolled beneath the weight that caught her, landing upon the hay with an oomf. Ashe coughed and wheezed as she sat up, straw sticking out from her clothes and her hair, calling out her eldest brother's name with an angered whine. She'd look at him with eyes glared and would have gotten up had she not heard Ayden speak and rush to her side.
"I'm fine Ayden." As fine as she could be. She'd stand, letting Ayden help her up should he ever do so, and pat the straw free of her clothes, pulling out a piece from her hair before frowning at Ayden. "If you tell anyone I'm here I'll be really mad at you Ayden. And you! Ashe huffed in a way only a child would, turning to face Jeren. "How dare you attack the lady of the castle! You should be punished!" Her lips cracked into a smile. Both her brothers were here and it would be a shame not to play. She only hoped Ayden would join in and that neither of them would take her back to her room, it's not always that they get to be alone like this after all.
Last Edit: Aug 31, 2017 11:23:30 GMT by Ashe Tully
Lifting from the haystack, twigs, straw and debris followed the young pup as citrine eyes circled around. A head on a swivel, Cassius’s eldest searched for the opponent who dared infiltrated his dominion, only to find another intruder amongst him. Focusing on the new invasion, a long, depressed sigh erupted from his mouth as his new opponent revealed himself to be an embarrassment.
“I didn’t know it was Ashe at first!” he called out, finally fixating sights on the fragile one who sat at the smallest table of Stark’s litter. His favorite (and only) sister and the crown jewel of their family, Jeren locked eyes with Ashe before showing a more concerned look.
“I’m sorry……. You shouldn’t sneak up on me like that, though!” despite the rules being reversed, his tone articulated accuracy of opinion. From what transpired, the young cub was still in-character and truly felt his home threatened by the invaders.
“And yeah, Ayden…. If you tell, I’ll have Scarlett eat you!” the threat of the large direwolf spooked the common folk of Winterfell; maybe the middle child would feel the same impression of fear they did.
Last Edit: Aug 26, 2017 16:25:30 GMT by JEREN STARK
"Shut up, Jeren!" Ayden exclaimed, "Ashe is really sick and she shouldn't be outside of her room––she can get in trouble, we can get in trouble!" Ayden cried out. "And you're being too rough, mom said we have to look out for her!" And then came the word "mom", a word he was frivolously tossing around without missing a day of referring to, talking to, or thinking of his mother. You could say he was a true "mama's boy," but Ayden wasn't like Jeren––far from it to be honest, you could even say, if it isn't obvious, that he is the weakest of the two. But what he lacked in strength he made up with heart.
For such a young boy he, too, worried over too much while trying to maintain a carefree attitude the same as Jeren. Envied his brother he did, it made him a bit jealous that he never got a direwolf due to being too afraid of them at the time, but now he ever so wished for one; though he still held a tiny bit of fear. "A-And you don't have to threaten me...I'll tell mum on you if you do it again...!" he threatened.
Rushing to help Ashe upon her feet, he'd say, once again, "Ashe, be careful!" Repetitively did the worrisome middle-child told the younger one.
Ashe's lips curled into a frown as Ayden voiced his opinion. The youngest ran and hid behind the eldest, grasping his sleeve tight as she glared daggers at the middleborn child. "I don't want to go back!" Moving to obscure even more of her behind her brother to hide her dismay, she continued, "It's boring..."
Her room was a haven. A place where she could hide and be safe from murmurs. A place where she could rest and be surrounded by people she loved, but when it becomes a place empty of anyone save the same old stories from the old servant who took care of her, it became more akin to a prison.
Ashe, ever the one who loved the beasts in the keep, looked at Ayden in confusion as he expressed some of his fears of the direwolf their father owned, as to Jeren's threat, looking back and forth between her brothers, finding herself giggling at how silly it sounded. "But Scarlett only eats bad people. Ayden's not a bad person-" She stopped and immediately took back her words hiding behind Jeren completely. "But he is if he tells on me!" With how close she pressed against her brother's back it wouldn't be so easy to miss that the little girl was still running a fever, and was in danger of it getting worse if she didn't rest.
“Yeah! Listen to Lady Ashe!” Disregarding everything Ayden said, the warning went beneath deaf ears as he lunged before in front of his younger brother. Arms expanded and fingers stiffened, the boy entered into his most fearsome pose as he began to howl. While not as accurate of menacing as the wolves that watched him, the eldest child could only assume it was enough to move Ayden.
“You don’t want her to call Scarlett on you,” a single push off was all it took. In a single motion, the eldest stark found himself directly behind Ayden. With nothing more than a foot separating his chest from the boy’s rear, Jeren would reach around with his arms, allowing his hands to touch his brother’s face. “Would you tell on her!?” pulling at the corners of the boy’s mouth with his fingers, Jeren smiled widely as he stretched Ayden’s skin in a playful, though slightly aggressive manner.
In the midst of his torture---As Ayden usually called it--- the eldest Stark Cub looked across, peering towards his sister with soft eyes. So was the smallest, and most fragile of the three despite Ayden’s weak character, and yet her spirit was stronger than steel. All the boy ever wanted to do was protect her, and saving her from Ayden’s attempts to confine here would be a good start for the day.
Last Edit: Sept 12, 2017 21:28:39 GMT by JEREN STARK
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