121 AC
A few moons after the fateful conversation between Lord Serret and Alex Armstrong.
The Kingsroad towards Casterly Rock.
Cadwyn swore he understood his friend. He swore up and down that spending many moons this past year allowed him to understand Alex more than anyone else. Cadwyn knew how Alex would operate. Alex takes no nonsense. He just only seeks a resolution, good and bad. And now here he is, begging a smallfolk grandma in the clearing for her to give him her necklace.
Cadwyn and the whole party around them were dumbfounded. Cadwyn didn't understand. Alex doesn't beg for no one. So what is going on? Lord Serret and his son quickly rushed to see what the commotion was. Their trusty steeds coming to a screeching stop as they came to the back of the convoy.
"Cadwyn, what is happening?" Lord Serret asked.
"My lord, he is asking the old lady for a necklace? Her necklace, I think," Cadwyn remarked.
"A necklace? Why would Alex want for a necklace? Nevertheless, I'll just order the-" Lord Serret was about to continue, but Alex swiftly cut in.
"Lord Serret, I would've asked if I needed you to order. Cheers for the help, I do appreciate it, but she has to give it to me of her own will," Alex firmly stated.
"Perhaps, Alex, but we can't wait all day. Make sure your pleading is even more heartfelt. I don't want to reside around here any longer," Lord Serret chuckled.
Alex threw a cheeky middle finger to the lord. Whatever was that supposed to mean? Cadwyn never really got it. Alex was just Alex.
Alex now on his knees was making soppy hound eyes to the old lady. Her face slowly breaking to the constant barrage of pleading from the needy towering man.
"Rite', fine, but promise me ya will visit me, sweet Beth, when ya return, ya silly todger," the old lady growled.
"Who's Bet- Yeah, you got it, grandma. Beth will be my first stop." Alex got up, his back straighter with his mission achieved.
Cadwyn didn't mind it. He just moved on as soon as Alex got into the position ahead of him, riding his trusty destrier. Roger wasn't with them. Roger was on a task by Alex to find a certain man in the Reach and bring him to Silverhill by the year's end. Whoever could it be? Cadwyn was deeply curious about that.
Now the convoy was moving again. Cadwyn could set his mind on his destination. Casterly Rock, seat of the richest land and richest house of all Westeros.
He was but a walking, talking mess a year ago, enveloped by a darkness so vast, and now here he was accompanying his friend to the Lord Paramount's seat of power. Even the queen was visiting.
The queen? Seven hells? What would sweet Evelyn be thinking of him now? Evelyn, God, every time he thought of her now, she was radiant, not the hellish image he had dominating his thoughts. Evelyn would be his for all time. Immortalised so long as he breathed. Her kindness would now radiate from him, his sweet form of penance for his mistakes.
The day passed on. It was getting darker, but the sun was not low as it should be when Cadwyn heard a quick shout from ahead of the convoy. "B-b-andits!!!" a scout screamed as he raced back to the convoy.
Lord Serret quickly unsheathed his blade and told Jaimie to ride by his side. "Alex! I need you now!" Lord Serret ordered, eyes darting for Alex.
Anybody else other than Lord Serret ordering Alex would've destroyed them right there.
Alex was readily alert and covered head to toe in lion pelts, but this time his bare chest was replaced with a peafowl livery signalling his newfound partnership with Lord Serret. His trousers were still mismatched, but this time not as noticeable.
Alex got off his horse and everybody held their breath. Cadwyn unsheathed his sword. It wasn't a big thing. His sword was given to him by one of the men at arms of the keep. They trusted Cadwyn because he was already Alex's sworn man. Yet Cadwyn never swore to Alex. He swore it in his heart, though they just didn't say the words.
Cadwyn was ready. All the many moons of gruelling training trying to keep up with a freak like Alex had changed Cadwyn into a sort of monster, with and without the sword. Cadwyn was also dressed head to toe in lion pelts.
Cadwyn stayed on his horse. He didn't have Alex's sheer speed. Seven hells, Cadwyn remembered the first time Alex showed him his true speed. He was sure Alex was the warrior reborn and in disguise, lest any human had that speed and strength.
The scout was stumbling. "My lord, the bandits. They have too much numbers. Seven and ten, and I swore I saw more hidden along the woodlands. My lord, we must turn back. We only have two and ten men at arms." The scout sweat drenching him.
"I am no craven. We will either meet our end here or we won't, and frankly they don't realise who we have," Lord Serret laughed, his sheer infectious energy raising the morale of the group.
"Well said, Lord Serret. Now where are the fuckers that are gonna make me late?" Alex said as he simply strolled beside the horses of the lord and the scout.
"Well, Alex, you were already making us late. Least you could do is gut the fools blocking our path?" Lord Serret guffawed.
"Ah, jokes today, Lord Serret, jokes. Well, funny man, I'm gonna poo in your room later," Alex smirked.
"What is it with you and poo, Lion Slayer?" Lord Serret looked confused.
"I get the shits and constipation sometimes. Ah, who cares? Show me the enemy and let my sword do the rest," Alex remarked.
Jaimie looked on with a weird face of disgust at Alex as well as Lord Serret. Cadwyn was just used to this.
The bandits appeared seemingly following the tracks of the scout. By the Seven, there were a lot. Why is there so many?
Cadwyn steeled himself. He had a thought, a dangerous thought. God, why did he have these thoughts? He then grit his teeth and let his mind do the rest. He kicked his horse, surprising every single person in the convoy. Yes, Cadwyn was charging without gauging if they had archers, if they had any traps. No, Cadwyn was just being sheer stupid, he thought to himself. But in his heart, he hoped for more.
Alex smiled and followed his lead, sprinting to follow Cadwyn. Lord Serret and company all looked on as these two madmen charged against a force of nearly a hundred men.
Cadwyn readied himself for the first volley of arrows, but when it came he was faster. The arrows whizzed by. What poor shots, he thought. Cadwyn, remembering the sheer insanity that was training with Alex, hopped on his horse and leapt. His sword flying with him as he readily crashed into the foes.
Lucky for Cadwyn, his lion pelt armour was hardened by Alex many times over. When stabbed at by the bandits, they would simply bounce off. "What was he doing in that smithy?" Cadwyn thought to himself as he was swiveling around, cutting down foes with ease. Cadwyn was in shock. How was it this easy? It couldn't be. His sword feasting on the bowels of tens of men. Cadwyn danced around the bandits.
His sheer endurance and speed were on another level. He trained, ate, and shat whatever Alex preached. Yet when Cadwyn glanced over in the heat of the battle, he saw otherworldly terror. Every man was being cut down. No man was escaping.
Men were pleading with Alex on their knees as they saw their brothers in banditry dying to the last hair on their head. If Cadwyn was in a thick group of the bandits, Alex had the whole weight of their force upon him, and he was holding them back? Cadwyn thanked profusely the Seven that Alex was a kind man. No man should see what he saw here today.
A horn blasted and Lord Serret's men charged into the fray. Horses trampling men as they came to the aid of Cadwyn and Alex. It was an utter rout, the bandits scattering away. Lord Serret looked around for Cadwyn and rushed to him.
"Cadwyn, by the Seven, what was that?" Lord Serret was wide eyed as he eyed around Cadwyn and his surroundings, seeing the dead men by the heaps.
"Cadwyn the bloody bold!" Alex shouted as he picked Cadwyn up and lifted him onto his shoulders. Men all around them were shouting and howling like mad. "Cadwyn the bold!" the men shouted again and again, their hearts and eyes laid upon him.
Cadwyn swore he saw a peafowl in the distance and his sweet Evelyn next to it. Cadwyn's eyes were misty.