ooc: hey guys, sorry I’ve been traveling for work this week and today is my birthday so I won’t be very active until Thursday evening or Friday. But I am mobile if you want to plot!!

“Not the first, by any means. I spent my childhood being beaten into the dust by my older sisters.” Jaeyi laughed, taking her hand and getting to her feet. “But the first for a very long while. There are not many I have met in the Reach or King’s Landing who are willing to take me on.” At least not in the sparring ring.

“It’s an honour to meet you, Ygritte the spear-wife.” She said, flicking one of her dark braids over her shoulder as she pushed the door to the nearby tavern open and signalled to the barmaid to bring them a round of ale to a table in the corner. “My name is Jaeyi, but folks around here know me as Redscale.”

Ygritte raised an eyebrow. “You have sisters?” She asked curiously. Ygritte had a brother but the free folk were different. They were born very far apart that when she was learning to fight he was already a warrior and off doing his own this. It wasn’t like it was in the other Kingdoms. People didn’t always stick together like they should. However, Ygritte had always been a loyal being. If she was loyal to someone, she’d be loyal until her dying breath. 

“Lucky for you, I’m not from King’s Landing.” She said with a tease in her voice. Once they were both on her feet she turned to head back into the bar but not before grabbing her bow and arrows. “Redscale?” She asked curiously. “Where’d that come from?” 

Another accusatory look, another echo of traitor, and instead of regret and remorse, there was a tremor of anger. This was not deserved–and if he had thought he could have saved her, he would have most certainly turned back. That arrow was still trained on him, bow pulled taut, and Theon felt himself brace defiantly. “I saw you go down.” He said, his voice tight. “I saw the dogs on you, jaws snapping like rabid animals. I heard your screams and saw a splash of blood against the snow.” Those beasts were trained to maim and kill, and the only way they could be stopped was by Ramsay’s own hand.

“Unarmed….what could I have done to aid you? I believed you to be lost, and if I had been the one to be caught between teeth, I would hope you would have the sense to keep running.” What might have been a rejoiceful reunion left him feeling that same tinge of bitterness, what softness had been in his gaze hardening with an edge like steel. Theon had grown accustomed to old friends becoming enemies, and if she was another to add to the list, so be it.

Ygritte could feel her nostrils flaring as she stared down her arrow at Theon. AS he spoke, she knew he was right. The if the roles had been reversed she knew he was a goner and not only that, but she knew Theon would have wanted her to run away. Save herself. It was just the initial anger that really took her over. The grip on her bow wavered and she slowly lowered it. After it was lowered, she strutted forward in a hard motion towards Theon and his horse. Once only feet away from it and him she stopped. “Get down.” She said firmly. “Get. Down.” 

Jaeyi let herself celebrate the small victory of the sword hitting the floor, she was once step closer to victory. Her mistake, however, was being distracted for even a moment, and she realised that almost immediately as the spear-wife took her chance to lash out in a well-aimed movement that knocked her to the floor.

Lying face up in the dirt, she did not feel the usual hit to her pride that she might have felt if it had been some pompous knight or entitled mercenary who had bested her. Instead, she grinned up at the wildling woman with adrenaline flowing through her veins and the thrill of battle against a worthy opponent sparking joy in her eyes. “You read my mind.” She grinned, picking herself up off the ground and dusting herself off. “First drink is on me, spear-wife. May I know the name of the woman who bested me?”

Ygritte couldn’t help but feel a smile tug at her lips. She grinned as the woman offered to buy the first round. The red head extended her hand and offered to help the woman up to pull her to her feet. The fiery woman tilted her head and said, “I can’t be the only woman who has bested you?” She questioned, wondering if Ygritte was the only one who had. “Do you have name?” She asked.

ooc: if anyone is thinking about bringing in a Jon Snow, hit me up. Let’s plot :)

My discord is jillbeans11#8555

“Good for you.” Sansa didn’t know what to say when she talked of being free beyond the wall. “I very recently became free too.” Images of the Eyrie and King’s Landing came into her mind for a split second, but it was easy for her to ignore them. “Jon’s my brother, half-brother, but brother all the same.” Her eyes slightly narrowed. “How do you know Jon?” She asked as she picked up her dress to avoid stepping in a puddle.

When Sansa heard her stutter, she turned her attention back to her. “You’re right, I don’t, what’s your name?” Her head tilted to the side as she looked her up and down, wondering if all wildling woman dressed in the same fashion as her. “Jon is a fierce fighter. I don’t think that you would bring him any danger..” Sansa began to wonder if she was wrong. “But, there’s a ceasefire right now.”

“Free of what?” Ygritte asked. To her, Sansa looked like what she would picture as a princess. Beautiful, proper, well dressed, everything Ygritte wasn’t. Sansa didn’t have to tell Ygritte that Jon was her brother, she already knew. But she let her go on as if she didn’t. Ygritte knew that question was coming and she didn’t know quite how to answer it. 

Ygritte noticed Sansa look her up and down, probably taking in how she was dressed. The thick fur covering her body and armor was different than the elegant dress on the other. Ygritte had to hold back a smirk when Sansa said she didn’t think Ygritte could bring him any danger. Little did she know she had shot Jon Snow 3 times with arrows and could have killed him if she wanted. But something had stopped her. “I think it’s best you don’t know.” Ygritte responded honestly about how she knew Jon.

“I will be the first to admit that you are right.” This was as much a spar as it was a learning experience, with Jaeyi’s well-trained eye following every move her fiery opponent made to try and learn the ways of fighting taught in a world completely different from the one she knew. Before she had come to Westeros three years ago, she had never even seen snow, and here she was going head-to-head with a woman born of it, shaped by it.

Redscale, they called her in this land, clad in her Yi Tish armour and silent at the side of the would-be queen of Westeros, with her hand constantly resting on the hilt of her sword. The Redscale was not here now, this was just Jaeyi fighting - unarmoured, unconcerned, eyes flashing with contentment. Clearly the spear-wife knew how to counter surprise, so Jaeyi gave that strategy up, searching again for a chink in her proverbial armour. The wildling fought with strength, and expected what came from the unknown, so Jaeyi choreographed her next move to counter that. With the rigid sequences taught to her back home, and the fluid movements that reflected Yi Tish elegance, she aimed low, sweeping her body under the wildling’s sword-bearing arm like a silk snake, landing a blow to the woman’s side with the blunt handle of her own blade. Coming out the other side, she realised it had not hit home hard enough to fell her opponent, and she squared up again to reattack.

Ygritte watched her opponent. She was skilled, Ygritte could see that clearly. So was Ygritte, but they had been raised to fight in such different places. In such different styles. Ygritte was raised in the wild, with no rules, no one to tell her she took a fight too far or hit someone too hard. This woman probably grew up with trainers or someone who taught her the proper way to fight. Calculated moves and proper footwork. Ygritte didn’t know any of that. 

Ygritte felt the blow from the woman even though she tried to deflect it. Ygritte lost her sword with the blow, the handle having slipped from her hand. However, she was quicker and nimbler without a sword. In one quick motion she swung her leg low in hopes to throw off the woman’s balance, hit a pressure point on the leg that she knew would shoot weakness through her leg and really lose her balance, grabbed the woman’s arm to twist it behind her body so Ygritte was now behind her and finally thrust her forward onto the ground and on her back. Ygritte’s foot was on the woman’s chest to pin her down and she stopped. “Most people don’t make me drop my sword.” She said to her with a small smirk. The red head looked from the woman to the tavern and back down at the woman. “Care for some ale?” She asked. She had many questions for the woman and respected her as a fighter. 

erion had chased a pup into the trees of the forest, and Aelinor had no choice but to pick up her dress and ran after him. Aerion never found the pup, but Aelinor had found Aerion. After the attack, Aelinor’s worries for her son nephew had only increased, and this was nearly enough to push her over the edge. After she was done scolding him in a harsher than she ever had before- partly due to the stress of current events, she couldn’t help but feel bad. Aerion’s face was red and puffy from his crying, which only made her feel worse.

While they walked back in the direction that Aelinor thought they had came in, she started to realize that they were lost. She took a deep breath, placing her fingers on her temples as she looking around seeing nothing but trees in their midst. “Mummy!” She heard Aerion attempt to get her attention while she had her back to him. “Be quiet, Aerion!” Aelinor was still trying to think of how to get back to the keep before the sun set. Then, she heard an unfamiliar accent and voice call out to her. Aelinor turned around quickly, gasping when she saw the woman pointing an arrow at them. Her eyes glanced down to Aerion, who had wet his pants in fear. Aelinor grabbed Aerion by his shoulder, quickly pushing him behind her. “Have you lost your mind?!” Aelinor snarled at the fire-haired woman.

“How dare you point an arrow at a mother and child?” Aelinor took a few steps closer to her with nothing but rage in her green and violet mismatched eyes. “Put the bow down, or I will see to it that you’re punished with dragon fire for threatening the future Lord of Claw Isle’s life!” Aelinor had no idea if Queen Daenerys would take such brash actions, but Aelinor had no weapons or poisons. The only thing she had to protect herself were verbal threats.

Ygritte hadn’t drew her bow knowing that the person in front of her had a child in hand. If she had, she might had hesitated. But she had the arrow pointed at the woman and the child, as a threat, before she knew who it was. The woman in front of her looked like a royal and she wondered if she was queen or something close to it. But it wasn’t until the woman spoke that Ygritte realized the girl in front of her wasn’t queen. 

“You clearly haven’t met someone beyond the wall.” She responded when the woman accused her of pointing an arrow at her and her son. Ygritte didn’t lower the bow but she tilted her head. “I don’t want to hurt you.” She clarified. “I don’t know who you are or who’s around. Lord’s mean nothing to me..”

Sansa was beginning to wonder if she was a wildling, perhaps one that had been late to join Jon and his forces. “Are you a wildling-” She stopped, realizing that if she was a wildling, she would possibly not know that people of the Seven Kingdoms called those beyond the wall wildlings. “I mean, from beyond the wall?”

She tilted her head as Ygritte explained. “No, I haven’t. I quite like it. My mother’s family members all have red hair.. or are kissed by fire.” There was a twinge of a smile on the corners of her lips, but it faded when she said her half-brother’s name. “Jon?” She asked. “You’re looking for Jon, the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch?”

Sansa started walking in a direction towards the keep, but her walking slowed as she called over her shoulder. “I’ll take you to him. It’s good thing you didn’t put that arrow through me. Jon wouldn’t have been happy.”

Ygritte continued to look the red head up and down and when she questioned where she was from the other red head nodded. “I’m a free woman.” She was part of the free folk. She always wanted to be free. “I’ve lived my whole life..” Ygritte paused. “Most of my life, beyond the wall. Seen things commanders and solider never dreamed of seeing in their nightmares.” She spoke. 

She watched her take in the saying of being kissed by fire and she couldn’t help but feel a small smile tug at her lips. It reminded her of being young again. “Yes.” She replied “Jon Snow.” She confirmed. 

“You-..” Ygritte stuttered which was very unusual for Ygritte. “You’re gonna take me to him?” It was too easy. Wasn’t it. “You don’t even know who I am.”

he’d never thought of that question ;  why osha had raised him.  why had she taken the spoiled and stubborn little lord under her wing ?  love ?  a potential hostage should the situation arise ?  he didn’t truly know , and found he’d taken her presense for granted.  he doesn’t portray such a conundrum on his features , however , and simply gives ygritte a shrug.  

he found a little pride in the reaction she had from shaggy , but also thought it best not to push her too far.  too much fang and he could end up stuck with an arrow.  and shaggy was maddening to deal with when he was injured.  so rickon gave a hush and the wolf backed down , silencing himself , and went to lick at the boy’s dirtied hand.

Ygritte waited for an answer from Rickon but he never answered. She watched his body language and if she interrupted it correctly, he didn’t even know why the Free Folk had raised him. This only made her more interested. Why did a free folk raised him? Why was one even south of the wall?

Ygritte keeps her composure as the wolf growls at her but she can’t help but hide a flicker of fear. It wasn’t until Rickon  shushed the wolf and it become submissive that she felt a relief flow through her body. She took a deep breath and felt her teeth unclench. Her grip loosened from her bow  and she took another breath. “You have a wolf?” She asked raising an eyebrow and couldn’t help but feel a smirk come on. She respected it.