Chapter 8.2- The Seadragon's Roar

“Is something the matter, Ser Borros?” I asked next.

“No. Nothing. Get going” He said, and that was it, he turned away to talk to some knight or the other about some thing or the other and I was left to watch the approaching island on my own. As he left, I turned my thoughts to him. To be honest, a lot of the time it felt like there were two versions of Borros. There was Borros who was sarcastic but kind, and the one that was cruel. It just seemed like the version of him I met more often these days were the cruel ones.

I still remembered the first days after he returned from hunting Dornish raiders in the marshlands— he hadn’t been able to find a single one and got outsmarted at every turn. His father, Boremund, had not even organised an official reception but still he had shown up to the yard early that morning and helped me out with a few things before Manfred’s next chosen opponent for me showed up and I had to leave him. The next day he hadn’t shown up but he’d been nice enough the few times I ran into him in the hallways and then he had switched up on me like it was a coin being flipped or whatever.

“Are you ready, my lord?” Ser Ben asked leaving his position at the back of my shoulder to step to my side, ever the watchful shadow.

“To meet Lord Tarth? No offense to him but I ride a dragon. The question should be if he’s ready to meet me” I said so quietly that only the two of us could hear and he released a quick laugh that died out quickly.

“No. I didn’t mean that. Lord Tarth is only a step on the way. From there its to the Stepstones. To war” He said.

“They’re pirates. It’s not going to be much of war” I said repeating the words I’d heard the Baratheon men-at-arms say to themselves while on a journey to dig themselves into their cups as deep as they could get.

“You’re not stupid enough to think that. They might be pirates, but they can kill a man just as surely as a Knight could, and trust me when I say they’ll shit themselves when they die just like all men do. Are you ready to do that? To look a man in his eyes and know that either you will end his life or he will end yours. To know that a woman somewhere will starve and die without that man to bring food home. To know that a child will grow up without a father because of your actions. Many children, many women. That is the reality of war, young Lord. They will cry, they will beg, they will rage, and you must kill them all the same. It will be unfair. You have been raised since you could walk to be a killer of men. These men turned to piracy for nothing else could sustain them. And you will kill them for it. Not for survival, not for your peace of ind because they do little to yours, but because you want them dead and that is it” He said, giving me a grave look.

“Have you been at war before, Ser Ben? Is the realm not at peace?” I asked, watching him turn to me before he released a harsh laugh that echoed and drew attention towards us.