The Stag and The Frog - (GendryxMeera GOT fanfic) Part 1: Alone

41: Broken and disarmed

In the Westerlands, in the castle of Casterly Rock, a broken young lord was trying to make his way through his castle. Casterly Rock was not so much a castle as a cliff that rose high over the horizon, overlooking the ocean and the city of Lannisport. It was said that the cliff looked like a roaring lion when you looked upon it at sunset from the west. Over time rooms, tunnels, and stairs had been carved out inside out of it, and towers and walls had been built atop, making the whole cliff a castle in itself. This was the place House Lannisters called theirs. This was the place Tyrek Lannister was now the reigning lord of.

The young lord should be in bed, letting his injuries from the battle at Highgarden heal. But Tyrek couldn't sleep. When he tried he just saw blood in front of him and heard the screams of men dying. So instead he hobbled out of his bedroom on his crutches. He needed to get used to using them anyway because the maesters had not been able to save his injured left leg. The wound had become infected and the leg had to be amputated right below the knee.

Tyrek was so tired of being in his room at this point. Looking at a leg that wasn't there anymore. Having his wife look at him like he was broke beyond repair. Which he in fact was. So even though he was still weak from the fever that had come with the infection, he wanted to try to get up to the garden in the courtyard of the castle. Because he needed to see something else than the walls of his room.

There was one massive obstacle in his way though, the stairs leading up from the tunnels where his bedroom was located to the garden in the upper courtyard. Tyrek had never even thought of these stairs before when he made his way through the castle. But now they seemed impossible to conquer.

He realized suddenly how many damn stairs his castle had, the place was riddled with them. Stairs, narrow tunnels, and uneven rock paths, none which were made to be traversed on crutches. It made him feel trapped, to know that for the rest of his life just getting around his own castle would be a challenge. Although since almost all of his armies had been annihilated at the battle at Highgarden he might not be able to hold Casterly Rock anyway.

But right now Tyrek just needed to get up those stairs. He needed to get out of the dark tunnels, he needed to be able to breathe, he needed to see the sky above him. So he put first one crutch and then the other up on the first step, then moved his remaining leg up as well. This method worked for quite a few steps, he could almost see the sky above him. Then he must have placed the crutch wrong and it fell as he leaned on it. And Tyrek fell too. His crutches slid down to the bottom of the stairs again. He managed to stop his fall with his right leg after a few steps and was left sitting in the middle of the stairs. Not really knowing how to get up or down.

Tyrek cried. Because he hated being so helpless and crippled. Knowing that he would be for the rest of his life.

His wife Talla must have heard the commotion from his crutches rattling down the stairs because she was suddenly standing down below.

"What are you doing up, Tyrek?" Talla asked.

"Being useless..." was heard in a trembling voice from halfway up the stairs.

Talla picked up his crutches and made her way up the stairs and sat down next to her young husband. Who was currently crying uncontrollably. She put her arm around his shoulder and pulled him in close to her, kissing the blonde curls on the top of his head.

"You're not useless," she said.

"I'm a boy, pretending to be a lord, who just lost all my forces and my leg because I walked into a trap. I would say I'm pretty darn useless."

"It was your cousin who sent you there, it wasn't your choice. If anyone is useless it's him. You fought as well as you could."

He looked up at his wife. Her hair was in a messy braid instead of in an intricate hairstyle and her face was without any makeup. She was still so pretty. And so confident and assured. Even when her teenage husband was crying in her arms about his life-changing battle injury. Even when they had basically no armies left to defend themselves and their castle. Even when the world was shattering around them.