"Something feels... odd about this all," Eddard murmured with an uncertain frown on his face. His eyes kept looking left and right, trying and failing to find any sign of the coast that had not been visible for days.
"What feels odd, My Lord?" Catelyn asked distractedly, her eyes focused on the big, beautiful ocean in front of her. Because, unlike her husband, this view was something that she had not seen since that one trip she took with her father to Maidenpool in her childhood.
The Stark couple were at the moment standing on the deck of a mighty galleon. With their hands gently placed on the railing, they were enjoying the swaying waves and the mild sea breeze ruffling their hair.
A few feet behind them stood Ser Rodrick, standing guard. Not that there was any need for his protection out here in the middle of nowhere with all the crews abroad being loyal Northerners who would die before betraying the Starks, but the man would not be comfortable with the idea of them being without protection, so they let him be.
"It is just the timing of it all," Eddard replied with a mildly frustrated sigh, "Jon's letter barely gave us a week to prepare, and do you not remember how insistent Robb was that we go on this trip... I would bet my sword that there is something strange going on with those two... as if they are hiding something."
"You are just thinking too much, my lord. Robb knows how busy you have been with work, especially over these last few years, with the repairing of the Kingsroad and improving trade both inside and outside the North, so I believe he just wanted you to take a few months off and unwind," Catelyn said while gently rubbing his shoulder with her palm, "Besides were you not the one who was eager to meet your son and ask him questions?"
"Oh, do not even try to lay this all on me, my lady," Eddard said back with an amused smile on his face, "After all, there was someone who was even more eager than I for this trip."
"W-What does that mean?" Catelyn retorted flusteredly as she looked away, "I do not know who you are talking about."
When Jon's letter had arrived with an invitation for them to come to Essos to tour the free cities and visit his company, there were mixed reactions from the people of the Stark Family.
Eddard had been left stumped, Robb looked as if he had expected it, and the girls, well, they had been, as expected, very much over the moon and nigh intolerable... they just had to go, and would not take no for an answer.
Thankfully, Bran, the one she had been most worried about, was surprisingly the calmest about the letter, especially considering the fact that he had not been named amongst the ones invited. She did not know what that boy had told his son in that separate letter sent to him, but whatever it was, it seemed to have been enough for him to accept being left behind in Winterfell.
And Catelyn, well, she had been... hesitant.
On one hand, this was a gift given to them by Jon Snow, her husband's bastard, and even though, over the years, her hate for him had been mellowed down to something akin to irritation, it still made her uncomfortable to accept something this big from him, and not to mention go and stay under his roof in Essos.
But on the other hand, this was a rare chance for her to leave the North after more than a decade, so while she was nervous, she was not as averse to this trip as she had initially expected.
And as days passed, her excitement for the trip only increased, and in her exuberance, she felt she may have taken things a bit too far and given herself away.
"What am I talking about?" Eddard said with an amused smile, "Need I remind you about a certain someone who was so excited about this trip that they spent two whole days locked in their room packing up three chests full of dresses for themselves, and not to mention the long list of paper you filled with the time and place you will wear each dress..." his eyes looked haunted as if he was recalling something horrifying... Eddard had never seen this side of his wife in the years he had known her. "You and Sansa would not even let me or Arya walk into the room," he finished while shaking his head with a sigh.
"What is wrong with that?" she replied defensively, but could not stop a faint flush of embarrassment from appearing on her face. "After all, we can not all be like you and just pack three pairs of clothes and be done with it."
"Because that is all one needs... You have one pair to wear for the day, you can wash the second pair, and the third one will be a backup," he said with a confident shrug as if he were explaining the simplest thing in the world.
"..." Catelyn had a speechless look at that, "I am going to pretend I did not hear that, My Lord," she murmured while shaking her head, "But even if I did pack a few extra dresses—"
"A Few!" Eddard exclaimed with an incredulous look on his face, "You would not be done with those dresses even if you wore a different one every single day."
"And so?" she asked back with a raised eyebrow, "After all, it is not like I can wear those summer dresses in the North. So, is it not better to take them all with me than to let them stay locked up and never see the light of day?"
"Um—"
"And besides, you do remember where these dresses came from, do you not?" Catelyn asked with a sly smile on her face, "So do you really want me to rudely discard them..."
"I guess... not," Eddard sighed helplessly, because he knew that his wife had got him there.
After all, the only one who could have sent his wife these dresses was Jon, as it was almost a tradition by now for Jon to send gifts from Essos every few months to his family members, especially the female ones.
It is just... he had not expected her to have stockpiled so many that they filled three full chests.
It made Eddard feel as if he was a spoiled southerner...
He had already been feeling uncomfortable with all the 'privileges' that Jon had prepared for them along the way, from sending a big carriage to Wintefell to pick up Catelyn and the girls (minus Arya, who refused to come down from her horse) to getting the biggest cabin that Eddard had ever seen.
It was just too much for the frugal Lord of the North.
With the Kingsroad along the way either repaired or made anew, and with trade caravans frequently running through the route they had taken, their progress through land had been unbelievably smooth, very much unlike the gruelling journeys Eddard had taken during his youth.
And he could not even complain about the carriage, as it was somehow made bump-free using a strange swing-like contraption, and had strong horses that were able to somewhat keep up with their horses even while pulling the heavy weight.
This meant that even with all the excess luggage and the addition of their retinue of guards and maids, their journey had been unbelievingly cut in half, and it would have been even shorter if they were not forced to feast and stay the night at every Lord's house along the way.
And once they had reached Bear Island, they had been immediately picked up by Dacey Mormont, who had delayed her fleet's regular trade trip by more than a week and a half just for them, which gave Eddard even more of a headache.
And the worst thing was that he could not even scold him... as the boy was too far away for him to reach.
"Now, stop brooding and just enjoy the view," Catelyn said with a little slap on his shoulder, "It won't be long before Rickon wakes up, and then I will have to go back. You do not know how much trouble it is to put up with a child on a ship."
She had been quite nervous about taking her youngest son on this trip, where they would travel through wilderness and spend more than half of their time in a cramped cabin with no maester on hand if he somehow got sick.
But fortunately, most of her worries were put to rest after she saw how big, comfortable and especially clean the ship and the cabin room they were allotted was. It seems the boy had taken special care to send them his best ship, at least according to Dacey.
And Rickon had thankfully not made too much of a fuss and acclimated surprisingly well to the swaying ship.
In fact, none of her children was suffering from any of the usual symptoms of sea sickness that she had heard about in her youth, 'I guess the Northern blood really begets tough children...'
"I do know, My lady," Eddard replied back reflexively, "After all, I take care of the boy when—"
"Picking up your son once a day, when he is all smiling and gigling, does not mean you know my suffering, My Lord," Catelyn immediately whispered with a sharp smile on her face, "Do you even know how many times during the night I have to wake up, and not to mention... and do you know..."
Eddard had known almost as soon as he said those words that it was a blunder, but sadly, there was no cure for regrets, and now he could do nothing but listen as his wife went on a rant about all the mistakes he had made in the past going as far back as two weeks while referencing specific events that he had forgotten long ago.
'Ugh, why did you have to talk back, you fool...' Eddard sighed with sagging shoulders as he listened to her lay out all of her grievances in the open.
He was just thankful that she was whispering instead of shouting, and that no one else could hear her; otherwise, he would not know how to show himself in front of his guards in the future.
A few meters away from the arguing(flirting) couple stood the stark girls, having a completely different kind of conversation.
"See the one in the lead, yes, that one, she is my friend Cory," Dacey said while pointing at the playful orca leading the pod, swimming in front of their ship, "And the one right next to her, that is her Mother, and then there is her aunt, her cousin, her brother and..."
"Where is her father, then?" Arya asked curiously, hanging on the railing with her toes barely touching the deck, while looking at the fish that were more than ten times her size but were still able to cut through water as if it was not even there.
"Er, him, he sadly passed away years ago during a hunt... even before I had met her,"
"Huh? How come?" Arya asked, her head tilting in confusion, "Didn't you say that they are the most powerful hunters in the sea, so how was anyone able to kill him?"
"While it is mostly true... There are still some that even Orcas can't match," Dacey replied amusedly.
"What? Who is it? Who can hurt an orca in the ocean?" Arya questioned excitedly as if the idea of such a dangerous creature was wonderful.
"Hm, let's see... well, there are the big whales, such as the humpback that grows larger than the largest ship in the world, a single slam of their tail is enough to crush an Orca's organ, and of course, then there is Jon's friend Inky. You know, the one with all those scary tentacles,"
"Oh, oh, Jon told me about her," Arya bounced with elation, "But I have not seen it yet,"
"I am sure you will in the future," Dacey said with a smile while patting her head, "Other than that, the most likely ones to hunt them are humans, especially those big Ibbenese whaler ships; they have the knack of hunting whales down to an art."
"Oh... Will we see those whales then?"
"Um..."
"Oh, yes, I am sure Dacey will be thrilled to take us to see a whale many times the size of her ship just so you can see it hunt her friends," Sansa interrupted with a roll of her eyes.
"Shut up! I didn't mean it like that!" Arya retorted with a flushed look before she snorted and went back to Orca-watching with a pout on her face.
Dacey and Sansa shared a silent chuckle behind Arya's back before Sansa asked, "So where are we?"
It had been almost five days since they had left Bear Island, and since then, there had been no sign of coast anywhere, so it was hard for even veteran sailors to estimate the distance they had covered, let alone them, who were sailing through the ocean for the first time.
"Hm, let me check," Dacey said as she closed her eyes for a few seconds and just as her body was starting to sway, she opened them once again, "According to Cory, we are already halfway through the sea near Iron Islands."
"What? But is that not dangerous?" Sansa asked in a nervous whisper, her eyes checking left and right as if expecting those raider ships to come at them at any moment.
"Ah, don't worry too much! We are at least two days west of their farthest Island, and since their ships usually sail hugging the coast, there is little chance of them happening upon us and even if some few ships were unfortunate enough to come near us, we have more than enough strength to take care of them," she smirked while gesturing towards the ten fully armed ships behind them.
"So we won't see the Iron Islands, then?" asked Arya, who had been sneakily listening to their whispered conversation.
"No, we won't... unless you want to go there," Dacey said with a teasing expression on her face, "But you have to know that those Ironborn are very scary people who like to capture wild children and take them to work in their mines."
"I-I am not afraid," she said bravely, her hand on the dagger at her waist, "I will just fight them off, Hmph!"
"Sure you will," Sansa murmured with a roll of her eyes that thankfully her little sister did not see, or they would have a fight on their hands, "So will we be making a stop in the Westerlands then?"
"No, sadly, we won't," Dacey said apologetically, "We are on a tight schedule this time, so except for short necessary stops to procure supplies, we will not dock in any of the Westerosi ports."
"Oh," The Stark girls let out disappointedly as they had both been looking forward to seeing the various port cities such as Lannisport, Old Town, and even other famous castles such as High Garden along the way.
"But do not worry, we can stop for as long as we want on the way back, so it is not like you won't get to see them," Dacey said with a smile, 'I just can't let you set foot in Westeros right now."
According to the time, the news should have long spread throughout the towns and villages near major cities. So even a short leisurely walk through a port city would be a danger.
'After all, we can't let them know about the Tourney, or else all of Jon's well-laid plan would go to waste.' Dacey thought with a sigh, 'Though I still don't understand why he is so reluctant to let his father go to King's Landing,'
"It is not too bad," Sansa consoled Arya with a pat on her head, "After all, the faster we leave Westeros, the sooner we get to meet Jon. Isn't that much better?" she asked, to which Arya immediately nodded her head.
'Sadly, your wish will probably not be fulfilled this time. Because while you sail towards Essos, your brother is coming back to Westeros.' Dacey thought before she turned towards the direction of Lannisport with a peculiar smile on her face, wondering what their expression would look like if they knew that they would pass their brother in just a matter of days.
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