𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐬 Podrick Payne

The Rose Bush

♔

( LANGUAGE OF THORNS )

The youngest stag had fallen, and there he was right in front of her. It hadn't felt real, the moment she found out. She may not have been his wife, but she knew him. He was good, he was gentle, and he knew right from wrong. Renly Baratheon had definitely come out as the good stag of the pack, and it was a shame the same couldn't be said about his brothers. Drunk and arrogant fools, who only fought for themselves.

She could do nothing but stare at his face, his eyes closed while his face had gone pale, no longer holding the tan shade it once did. She pulled her shawl tighter around her shoulders, before reaching out a hand and as gently as she could, she grazed the stag horns on the crown that rested on the fallen king.

Shuffling was heard from beside her and her hazel eyes moved towards the entrance of the silent tent to see the wife of the fallen king. She had been informed immediately of course, after all she was his wife and his queen, but she had yet to see his body. Her face held sadness but her eyes were telling a different story, and as good as she was at reading emotions, there were none there to be read.

"Leave us" the wife had told the girl in the corner of the room. A simple hand maiden who served the queens sister, a girl she grew up with but in this moment it did not matter. The girl didn't need to be told twice, as she bent her knees in a small courtesy before rushing out of the tent, to wait for her lady "What of our brother?"

"I saw him just before the sun set" she replied to the queen in the room. The rose nodded her head, moving closer into the tent and towards her sibling as her eyes never left her husbands body. The two were now peering down at him, as he lay stone cold. The queen had took a deep breath in, now standing shoulder to shoulder with her sibling before placing her hand on the fallen kings leg, not as gentle as her sister.

"Such a shame" the wife mumbled, staring at her kings face "Another good king has fallen, which means that there are less in the world to rule as good as they should"

"You cannot avoid death, it is sure to happen to you one way or another" her sister had replied, their eyes not leaving the dead body in front of them.

It was silent between them from then on, the queen somewhat mourning her king and her sister there to offer support, although they did not exchange any comfort. The shouts and orders from outside the tent were loud. The last stag brother would surely be riding towards them after the news of this death had gotten out, and they were no longer as safe as they once were.

She thought of the stag in front of her, and how he would have been a good and respectful leader. She was clever, and she knew a leader when she saw one. She remembered the bedtime stories of a Prince that was promised. Azor Ahai. There were treacherous doubts in her head, that the stag in front of her was not that. As much as he would have been a good ruler, he was not the prince that was promised.

More shuffling was heard and now there were two people staring at the entrance of the tent, to see the last sibling with them at that time. His face and his eyes held more emotion than the queens did, and it was obvious as to why. A secret that only they knew. The Knight of the Flowers didn't waste any time in rushing towards the fallen king, sitting beside him and training his eyes onto him. His lip trembled, not managing to find any words to stutter out. He was being watched by his siblings but he did not care, right now all that mattered was the king in front of him.