THE LITTLE PUP (EDITING AND REWRITING)

Chapter 17 | The Knight of the Flowers

Lord Baelish left eventually, to Lilia's relief. The man was creepy and she wanted to keep her distance from him. Let's say they didn't start well... On the other hand, her Lord Father had shown up and sat next to her, which made her happier but also very surprised. Arya had left like an arrow and flew somewhere else since she got bored. Lilia didn't blame her, she envied her, actually. Only the Gods knew how much she was eager to stand up and walk out of that stupid tournament. Unfortunately, it was expected of her to remain in the crowd as the eldest daughter of the King's Hand. Bullshit, if you'd ask her.

The truth was that she had never been to a tournament before. Northern people never organized one since they never really cared about that kind of competitions. Of course, she knew they were one of the main entertainments for elitists and that she had heard many stories about knights who competed. Some were real, some were not.

When she was young, Lilia would secretly flee her room and go to the library to read books about knights and maiden fairs. Her mother would always find out because she would fall asleep and wake up in the mourning to a candle completely melted and Maester Luwin telling her it was time for her to start a new day. Her mother would then tell her how much she appreciated that her daughter was a literate girl, but that she had to understand that she had to rest at night, not spend it reading books.

For some time, Ned told Maester Luwin to read her a story for her to sleep, but Lilia didn't like it that much, in fact, she hated it. Not because of Maester Luwin, since he had always been very kind to her, but because of her ideals. Unlike the rest of her siblings, Lilia didn't like when people would read her stories, she liked to read them. She believed that stories could either be written, and they would have to be read for the person herself, or they could be told. The best stories were the ones the Old Nana would tell her and her siblings. Usually, they were real, at least the ones she would tell them... partially, the other part of the story came as a result of her age and her imagination, which she often confused with reality.

Although the stories she would tell Lilia and Sansa, and even Robb and Jon, were mostly true – about nights, and Lords and Ladies and maidens, – the ones she would tell Bran seemed invented.

Bran... how he liked to hear the scary stories about White Walkers and the Long Night. Old Nana was old, but she wasn't old enough to know about White Walkers and Children of the Forest and how the First Men defeated them... if they ever defeated them. But Bran didn't care if it was true or just a made-up story, he would just spend hours listening to every single word with the same attention and fascination at the end as he had started at the beginning. He was such a curious young fellow, a skilled climber who had an accident no one could have seen coming. He was brave and strong... so strong he was still holding onto his short life.

She hoped Bran would wake up soon enough and travel all the way South to be with them. That would make Lilia so happy... to have the pack reunited. They would never be whole, not again, not after Robb becoming the Stark in Winterfell, not after Jon left for the Wall.

"Where is Arya?" her father asked sort of confused. Sansa remained quiet, most of it because of the past events but also because she was still upset at her father. Lilia thought it was childish and ridiculous. All the girl could think of right now was Joffrey, Joffrey, Joffrey and the Queen. Lilia didn't have the patience to listen to her speaking a word more about her 'beloved Joffrey'.

"In her dancing lessons" Lilia knew that those dancing lessons weren't true dancing lessons. She was aware of the fact that her sister was learning how to manage her needle. But she was also aware of the fact that the dancing lessons were just an excuse to be dismissed from the tourney.

"The Knight of the Flowers..." Sansa excitingly acknowledged. Lilia looked at the man who was riding his horse with a red flower in his hand. He was handsome, there was no doubt in that. His light brown curls, his beautiful brown eyes, his muscular body covered by the armour and his gallant presence, in general, made him very appealing to every woman in the crowd. His armour had flowers all over it – the sigil of his House, the golden rose in the green field. The Knight of the Flowers was one of the four children born to Mace Tyrell and Alerie Hightower, the youngest.

She had heard about many things in that region. How green and full of nature it was. It was the garden and the farm to the rest of Westeros. She read that although the Riverlands were very fertile, the Reach was the one place which would flourish because, even though it didn't have a large river bathing it, the Reach didn't have half the war the Riverlands had and, therefore, they were a prosperous region. Maester Luwin even told her, during one of her lessons, that everything one planted in that region would grow and prosper.

Another thing she had heard about the Reach was their infamous Knight who managed to beat Jamie Lannister once – the Knight of the Flowers. It was shocking for the Realm, but it definitely happened. People said that he was talented but, in Lilia's eyes, he was so important that she wasn't even able to know his name true name. It had some irony to it since she knew who his parents were, but the only reason for that was because she would often read books about Robert's Rebellion.

Books were written by Maesters and copied by Maesters, they were nothing but simple reports of things Maesters saw, but they were often influenced by what they defended. That's why she would read many of them so that she could learn different prospects to the same thing. However, there wasn't many books about the Rebellion at Winterfell, and she only knew what Maester Luwin would tell them since her father would never say a word about anything at all. That was something she thought books lacked too – true testimonies.

The Maesters wrote the books with the information they were given, without trying to take sides – even if they would fail sometimes – but they never had testimonies of people who were there.

So, since her father wouldn't tell her anything which differed with what Maester Luwin said, she only knew that Mace Tyrell took the credit for defeating Robert Baratheon at the Battle of Ashford, – that battle being his first and only defeat – even though Lord Randyl Tarly was the one who defeated Robert since Mace's troops weren't even there when Robert lost. But another important thing that he actually did was holding a Siege on Storm's End for almost a year!

So, the Tyrells seemed to be quite an impressive family, with military success, prosperity, gold, resources, and respect.

Eventually, the infamous Knight of the Flowers stopped in front of them and handed them a rose. At first, Lilia thought it was for Sansa, but she was proven wrong once he handed HER the flower. She smiled thankfully.

"Thank you, Ser" she thanked him, to which he gave her a quiet smirk. He didn't say a word and took off almost as immediately as he had delivered the flower for her. Sansa looked over at her sister with a huge smile. "What?"

"Lilia, that's Ser Loras Tyrell! The most desired bachelor in all the Seven Kingdoms!" she pointed out and, as she looked at Septa Mordaine, the woman looked extremely happy.

"Word has it that he's the most likely to become your husband!" the Septa pointed out. "You would be the Lady of Highgarden and Queen in the South, isn't that wonderful?"

"Word has it ridiculously" Lilia states, catching the both of them out of surprise. Then, she realized she had an audience, having Renly Baratheon among them. However, she turned her head back to the Septa and her sister, before looking ahead. "Ser Loras Tyrell isn't Mace Tyrell's heir. He's the youngest of four children, and given only one of those children is a daughter, he still has two brothers before him"

"Willas Tyrell is the heir to Highgarden and the future Warden of the South" Renly cleared out quickly. "Ser Loras must have learnt about the rumours that you might become his sister by law in a near future"

'Near future?', she asked herself. Her eyes were on her father's who didn't say a thing about it. So it was already arranged? He didn't even consult her... Was he about to ship her off to Highgarden without even warning her?