Surviving

Chapter 9: The Boy Who Noticed The Strong

"Give it back, Jace!" Little 8 year old Naerys whined as she chased after her brother in the yard while he ran with little Luke, tossing her brown journal from each other as they laughed.

When Jace had the book, he flipped the pages open and started reading out loud.

"Mother says I'm to marry one day. I wonder what the ceremony will be like. Will there be dancing? Will my father..." Jace stopped his running when he read on, seeing all the little details Naerys wrote about Ser Harwin's involvement in her future wedding. It made the young prince clench his jaw and throw the book across the training yard into the mud.

Naerys took after the book, salvaging it as best as she could, but the pages were ruined by the mud seeping into the parchment. When she stood, Jace tackled her into the mud as she squealed and tried her best to shove him off of her.

"Jace, stop it! Get off of me!" She cried as they wrestled around in the filth, not paying attention to their laughing uncles off to the side with Ser Cole, who was smirking at the two Velaryon children. Though only one of her uncles stopped laughing quickly when she started screaming for help.

Jace managed to pin her down and execute his favorite form of ridicule for his older sister. He sat on her chest and leaned his head high above hers, letting a string of his spit start to drop from his lips.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Naerys screamed through her tears as the spit sank closer and closer to her face.

"Prince Jacerys!" A booming voice came from behind them and the spit was sucked back into his mouth as he turned to see Ser Harwin giving him a rageful warning look. "That's enough from you."

Jace scoffed, but reluctantly got off of his sister and rejoined his brother in their sword training. Harwin marched over to Naerys and helped her to her feet as she wiped her tears away. He knelt down in front of her, brushing the dirt off her shoulders.

"You're alright, little one. I'm here now." Harwin whispered soothingly to the girl as she tried composing herself. Her hands trembled as she held the book at her side.

"He...He...r-r-ruined m-my j-j-journal." Naerys blubbered as snot dribbled from her nose.

"I see that." He sighed, taking the book from her. "Let me see what I can do, and I will have this fixed for you, princess. There is no need to cry over what is not broken just yet."

"He's evil...all he does is pick on me." Naerys shot a glare out of the side of her eye towards her eldest brother, who was playfully dueling Luke with their wooden swords. "I didn't do anything to him, yet he's horrible to me."

"I will speak with your mother about this, I promise. For now, just finish your lessons and then you can meet my father for tea. He's been asking where you've been." Harwin gave a dazzling smile that made the little girl cheer up finally. She always loved seeing Lord Lyonel for their usual tea. She'd hoped today they would discuss the conquest.

Naerys nodded her head and went back to her wooden sword on the ground, but stayed over by one of the practice dummies. She swung the sword aimlessly, hitting the dummy as hard as she could or even lazily as her arm began to tire out. How did people regularly do this? Her arm was killing her doing this.

"If you keep swinging like that, you'll throw your arm out of place." A voice mumbled to her from the side, making her head turn to see her uncle Aemond at the dummy next to her, but he wasn't even looking at her as he swung. The corner of her mouth twitched into a smile at first, but then she looked away when she saw the scowl growing on his face for her. It was probably the only non-insult he'd ever spoken to her.