373 STARK REALITY

I woke up and felt like a new man. Well, a new kid. I had my whole life ahead of me again and I wondered if it was worth it to be stuck as a preteen again. When I thought about all the things I could change with my personal situation, I realized I had a golden opportunity to make Catelyn's daughters see me in a much different light, assuming I could convince Sansa to not emulate her bitch of a mother.

Why did Lady Catelyn hate me so much? I was apparently Stark's bastard son that was born a few months before his legitimate son, Robb Stark. If I pressed for it, I could inherit all of Winterfell and rule the North instead of the named son. What no one but myself and Ned knew, was that I was his sister's son, born in wedlock and legitimized, and I couldn't legally inherit Winterfell at all.

I was actually the unacknowledged rightful king of the seven kingdoms, Aegon Targaryen, since my father Rhaegar was the prince and rightful ruler after his father, the Mad King Aerys II Targaryen. He had been murdered by his sworn sword, Jaime Lannister, and that threw the entire realm into a war that was eventually called Robert's Rebellion.

Why was it called that? The idiot waged war against the entire family that had a son that stole the love of his life, Lyanna Stark. That she legitimately fell in love with Rhaegar, didn't matter. Of course, it wasn't that simple, either. Rhaegar had been married at the time to Elia Martell of Dorne and had their marriage annulled in Dorne to marry Lyanna, secretly of course, and no one but a select few knew about it.

That had the Starks and the Barantheons up in arms over the insult of having a Stark daughter, essentially a princess, being kidnapped by the married prince and she was raped continuously while she was imprisoned in a tower, sarcastically known as the Tower of Joy.

Lyanna had given birth to me there and she begged her brother, Ned Stark, to protect me and hide me, or his best friend Robert would put me to death for being a Targaryen. He agreed, renamed me Jon Snow, and claimed I was his bastard with some unnamed woman. The funny thing was, this had supposedly happened before he was wed to his brother Brandon's betrothed, Catelyn Tully.

Brandon and his father had been murdered by the Mad King and sparked off the rebellion that would seat Robert Barantheon upon the throne of the Seven Kingdoms as its king. Catelyn's betrothal had been shuffled onto Eddard Stark, because he was now the Lord of Winterfell, and was obligated to carry out the betrothal. No other candidates were available and he married her, sight unseen for the both of them.

That had been a huge mess and Catelyn conceived Robb on her wedding night, then didn't see her husband again until a year later when the rebellion finally ended. She moved to Winterfell to assume her Lady duties, only to find me already there and in a better position politically than a bastard should be. She hated that and felt like she had been personally insulted.

Her anger over that, and about my general existence, had lasted for all these years and I doubted that any talking to that Ned gave her would change her mind or her attitude. I was a bastard and that was all I could ever be.

I climbed off of the bed and changed my clothes, then used a bit of magic to clean myself and the clothes I was going to wear. I repaired them to make them look like new, transfigured them to look more expensive, and dressed as if I was the son of the Lord of Winterfell. There was no better way I could use to make Catelyn regret treating me so badly.

I left my room and walked across the main courtyard to the dining hall where the family ate meals. I was a little early, so I sat in my designated spot and one of the serving girls brought out some bread and meat for me to break my fast.

“Thank you, Gretchel.” I said and she looked surprised, then she blushed and placed a hand on my shoulder, as if she needed the support.

I tried to ignore her trying to compose herself as she came to grips that I knew who she was and had thanked her for something no one else had before. Gretchel had only just started serving food in the Great Hall and had earned the promotion the hard way, by being competent in the kitchen since she had been a child.

When she finally pulled herself together, she gave me a warm smile. “You're welcome.”

I lifted my head from the bread I was eating and smiled at her. “Tell Mikken she did a good job kneading the bread today. It's quite good.”

Gretchel's face flushed red again and she nodded, then pretty much ran away from my spot at the far table and back into the kitchens.

I held in my chuckle at her reactions and ate quickly, because I didn't want to be there when Catelyn entered the room. I didn't need to see her glare at me this early in the morning. In fact, I could do without seeing it ever again, thanks to what happened yesterday.

I was also sure that after Lord Stark had talked to her, she would take it out on me, because it was my fault. In her biased opinion, it always was and always will be my fault. There wasn't really anything I could say or do to change her mind, either.

I finished just in time as I heard several sets of shuffling feet approaching the Great Hall. It was the way Southerners walked in the mornings, because they didn't want to make much noise to disrupt anyone that might still be sleeping. It was a foolish thing to do here in the North, because the floors were solid stone, as were the walls.

The only sound reaching people ears would be through the spaces around the doorways and through the windows. I took advantage of this by running and not slapping my boot heels on the stone and slipped out the side servant's entrance just as the main door was opened by a servant girl showing Lady Stark and her two daughters into the room.

I relaxed and walked normally once I was out of the building and I nodded at the smallfolk I passed as they worked at their jobs. Despite it being early, Winterfell was alive with people as they went about their chores and duties necessary for the running and upkeep of such a huge place as Winterfell.

The sheer size of the place was something that they didn't really touch on in the show. There were thousands of people living in the main keep's town and they needed a lot of room and things done to survive in the North. Everything was hardier here, especially the people.

A few of the younger girls giggled when I passed them and I gave them a crooked smile before I nodded with respect at their mother, whom was washing a large bundle of clothes in a huge tub. The woman blushed slightly, then she tittered at me and mumbled something about why a young man shouldn't look at a woman in such a way.

That comment made me give her one of my better Gilderoy Lockhart smiles and she really blushed at seeing it. I waved at her and moved on towards the stables, leaving behind a few wagging tongues with questions about what I was going to get up to with a smile like that. I had to laugh and stifled it before more people started sharing that opinion.

The stable master saw me enter and he nodded to me, letting me know he would allow me to take one of the younger mounts. I nodded back and went over to the group of stableboys and helped them with the hay and the food for the horses. My extra hands made the work go a little faster and then I claimed a saddle near my size and one of the horses.

Another boy helped me put the saddle on the horse and added the bit and reins, then he offered his cupped hands as a foothold for me. I thanked him and used it as a step to hop up onto the saddle. I settled down and made sure everything was taught, for good control of the mount, then I reached into my pocket and pulled out one of the copper half-penny coins I had.

The boy looked shocked when I tossed it to him and he didn't react until I trotted the house out of the stable. He shouted that he would be waiting for me to return and would take care of the upkeep of the horse for me. I waved over my shoulder and rode the horse along the designated street to take me to the outer wall.

The guards there waved as I approached and I held out another half-penny, making them laugh. They ignored my offer and opened the gate to let me out of the keep and I rode out of Winterfell with little more than an idea about what I could do with some of the knowledge I had.

Most people ignored me as I rode past them and the houses and homesteads spread out before me with more distance from the main keep. I rode for nearly half an hour before reaching the hill I was looking for and brought the trotting horse to a stop at the top. The horse was barely breathing hard after the long ride, since I had only trotted it the whole way.

I stayed in the saddle and let my eyes roam over the countryside. There were a lot of rocky outcroppings, various grasses, bushes, occasional trees, and was just a wide expanse of harshness. The lands were difficult to farm, difficult to dig up, and difficult to harvest crops from.

The lands had just come through a particularly harsh winter and the season had recently entered spring, which I knew would only last for a short time, barely half a year, then the season would enter an exceedingly long summer that would last for nearly a decade and then autumn would start.

This was not a land designed for large farms and it definitely couldn't grow anything that wasn't adapted to harsher and colder weather. That gave me my first inkling on what to ask about, so I turned the horse to the right and trotted down the hill and let it slow down and sauntered over to the homestead where they grew a small variety of crops and had many animals used for wool and milk.

Winterfell had some greenhouses, known as glasshouses, and they grew a small amount of crops needed for the keep and to provide for the smallfolk during the worst parts of the winter seasons, that could last for years before breaking into spring.

The woman was the first to see me approach and she called out to her husband for help. I didn't try to counter her or told her that I only wanted to talk. It was too late for that and I stayed mounted to prove I wasn't going to be aggressive or would endanger her before her husband came over from behind the house.

“You're a bit far from the keep, boy.” The large gruff man commented. “What do ya want?”

I tied the reins on the horn of the saddle and lifted my left leg and turned in the right stirrup, then I hopped slightly and dropped down to the ground on one foot and took a step to keep my balance. Both the man and the woman looked shocked at the smooth move that didn't disturb the horse or caused me to fall.

“I want to talk to you about real farming and not what they do back at the keep.” I said, honestly.

Neither the man nor the woman reacted for a few seconds, then the man barked a laugh and the woman smiled. He patted her shoulder and she went back to the house without being told to do so.

“I'll talk to ya fer as long as you work.” He said with a stern look.

I had to smile at that. “Are you tilling the soil or using a pick and shovel to clear out the rocks the last heavy snowfall pushed into your fields?”

The man huffed and waved for me to follow him as he turned around. “I swear the last few snowstorms were worse than the river fer carrying little rocks all over the damn place!”

I chuckled and pulled a feed bag from the saddlebag, loosened he bit in its mouth, and placed the bag over the horse's muzzle to keep it occupied. I followed the man around the house and had called the situation right.

He had a shovel, a pick, and a couple of hoes to dig through the field behind the house. The little rocks were everywhere, too. There might have been more and probably bigger ones if he hadn't put up a few fences that looked like they had taken a beating.

“I'll pick, you shovel, then we'll both hoe to make sure there'll be a good chance the grains will take after the first planting.” The man ordered and I nodded.

As we worked over the soil and cleared out the many rocks that would impede growing crops, I asked about where he found the seeds, what else he grew when he had the chance, and if the animals were enough to keep him and his family fed and how much did he have to sell or trade to his neighbors.

The man only looked slightly surprised as I kept up with him and answered all of my questions. He first bought seeds from the main port at White Harbour, then grew his own with part of the crops and then sold or traded the rest to be able to plant the next season. Sometimes they didn't take and he would need more seeds, which his larder would suffer for as he traded some of his essential supplies for them.

I stayed there for half of the morning and we finished the field. The man's wife came out of the house with two small bowls of stew. I didn't want to insult them by refusing, even if I knew they couldn't afford to feed me. A light touch of the woman's mind told me it was actually her bowl and she was going hungry to be a proper host for a visitor. So, I cheated when she handed me the bowl.

“I filled up with bread and a bit of meat when I broke my fast, so please don't be insulted if I can only eat a little.” I said and patted my stomach. “There's not a lot of room down here to fill.”

The man chuckled and knew what I was doing. He didn't call me on it, though. However, his wife looked pleased at my excuse and I only took a few spoonfuls of broth and one of the chunks of off-white vegetables that looked like potato.

“Ah, that was delicious.” I said and licked my lips as I handed the bowl back to her. “Thank you for the hospitality, ma'am.”

The woman blushed prettily and the man reached over and flicked my ear.

“None of that now. She be my wife and not some trollop yer pretty words will sway.”

“Jacks!” She gasped and her face went to a deeper red.

The man laughed and finished off his bowl. “Get back inside 'afore he promises to return on the morrow to tackle the other field, just so he can see ya blush again.”

The woman huffed at him and put her still mostly full bowl into his. She gave me a warm smile, gave him a glare, and did as he asked and went back inside.

“I would if I wasn't busy.” I whispered to him and smiled.

“I know ya would.” He said and motioned to the front of the house. “Ya need to git back to the keep 'afore anyone thinks yer missing.”

I looked up at the sky and where the sun was. “I do need to be there for the midday meal, if only to keep the serving girls company in the kitchens.”

The man gave me a knowing look and started walking over to a small shed. He didn't say anything about wanting my help to plant the wheat and barley, so I walked around the house and over to where the horse was. He had finished the feed a while ago and didn't try to shake the bag off.

“You're a great horse.” I said and patted the neck to let it know I was there, and I slipped the empty bag off and put it back in the saddlebag. I led the horse over to a large rock at the side of the road, carefully positioned myself and braced a hand on the saddlehorn, and hopped up o easily sit in the saddle and slipped both feet into the stirrups. “Let's go! Hee-yah!”

The horse took off at the command, thanks to a mental nudge from me, and we raced down the road and I felt two sets of eyes watch me until I was out of their sight. I knew I had impressed the both of them with my behavior and my work ethic, and I was sure that word about it would spread fairly quickly.

I made it back to the keep's side entrance well before lunchtime and the guards let me through without stopping me. I trotted the horse all the way back to the stables and it was panting heavily after such a great run. The stableboy eagerly ran over when he saw me and the stable master nodded to the both of us. I hopped off the horse and we stripped it of equipment and then groomed and cleaned it.

I thanked the boy and the stable master, then went to the main building and entered. I had enough time to wash up from a hard morning of work before I would have to show up to eat with the family. It wasn't strictly necessary, except I wanted to show off that I was going to keep my word and would never look at Sansa Stark ever again.

Why would that be significant? Because the stuck up child loved berating me constantly for being a bastard and never doing anything right, despite me never giving her a reason to say such things. Since I would be ignoring her from now on, she would grow frustrated and would complain to her mother.

With luck, Sansa would do it in front of her father and would made Lady Catelyn look like a fool for raising her daughter to behave that way to anyone, let alone to someone that was supposed to be her family. Sansa and Joffrey had a lot in common by enjoying the suffering of others, didn't they?