"Oh, are we not going through the main street?" Daenerys asked curiously, as she leaned her head out of the window behind the driver's seat, and looked at the scenery passing by.
It had been no more than five minutes since their carriage had taken off from outside Illyrio's mansion, and in this time, the girl had already gotten acquainted with the male from Westeros who looked so muscular from the outside but was actually a boy not much older than her.
By now, the streets, which had been almost completely empty, had begun to fill with the traffic of people, mostly men, walking to and fro, carrying all sorts of luggage and goods either on their backs or in their carts.
"No, that route would probably be too crowded at the moment to let us easily pass through," Sam replied as he skillfully drove their carriage down onto the left, less-trodden path, instead of the one everyone else seemed to be taking. "The temple street may be the longer route, but we will pass through much faster without getting stuck in the mid-day crowd."
"Oh," Daenerys let out understandingly but in a disappointed tone.
"Why do you ask? Did you want to buy something in the market?"
"No, no," Daenerys said, shaking her head, "I did not, it's just... I wanted to take a quick look at it before we left Pentos."
"Huh? But haven't you been to the market before?' Sam asked, confusedly, "After all, it's only ten minutes from the mansion, isn't it?"
Jon had not been very clear about the young girl's identity to Sam, only telling the boy that she was a relative of his who was not very happy with her living condition in the Magister's mansion and wanted to get away from there, but how much of an unwilling resident she was, Sam had no idea.
"I have been there, just... not in a while," Daenerys said in a small voice, as a forced smile appeared on her face, her mind conjuring up her brother's cruel face when he had slapped her and banned her from going out to the market. But then that image got abruptly replaced by the red, swollen pig-like face of his that she had left behind at the mansion, unconsciously making her giggle out loud.
"Huh? What happened?"
"No, Nothing," Daenerys said, shaking her head with a small smile, "Anyway, I just wanted to see all the hustle and bustle of the big market one last time before leaving... but it's not a big deal."
"Oh," Sam let out with an understanding look on his face.
The young boy knew, because of his father, what it was like to live in a household where you were forced to stay inside all day long, so he could sympathise with the girl. "If you are talking about a bustling market, then the one in Pentosh is really nothing to write home about. There are much bigger and livelier markets out there, such as the one in Volantis, or in Braavos, and even in Westerosi cities. You will probably get to see them all in the future, so don't worry."
Though Sam had no idea what Jon's plan for the girl's future was, he knew that with how kind Jon was, he would let her go wherever she wanted as long as it was not too dangerous, so he wasn't too worried about painting her too beautiful a dream.
"Really? Are you telling the truth?" Daenerys asked with a look of awe on her face, as she imagined going to the places he was describing.
"Of course, and besides, there is no reason you can't come back here in the future. You will just have to be a bit... sneaky about it," he said with an exaggerated look of mischief on his face.
"You are right," Daenerys chuckled at the silly face he was making, "I will definitely come back here in the future. And at that time, there will be no guards minding me, stopping me from going to this and that shop, and I can stay as long as I want, and buy whatever I want, right?"
"Er, sure," Sam replied with a shrug, "As long as you have the money, you can buy the whole market if you want, haha,"
The girl chuckled along with him, feeling as if a heavy weight had been relieved from her shoulder. Though she had not yet completely escaped from Pentos, she could already taste the freedom, the feeling of liberation, of having no one there to dictate her life.
She could now do anything she wanted or had dreamed of; the whole world was her oyster...
"Oh, that reminds me, I need to find a job to earn money, right?" Daenerys exclaimed with a surprised look as if she had just realised it.
"Um, probably no—"
"But what am I even going to do? I don't know any good skills," Daenerys said with a troubled look as she ignored Sam and began asking herself, "What can I do?" again and again as if trying to remember any skills she had learned and forgotten, but sadly she came up completely empty, "Ah, maybe I will just be a merchant," she finally said despondently in the end, "But, I am not very good at haggling either,"
Sam had to force himself not to laugh out loud as he could see that the girl was thinking very deeply about this, and he did not want to break her fantasy by telling her about how rich Jon was.
"Hm, how about a healer... but then I don't know anything about that, and will have to learn, which will take years. Ah! Damn it! I knew I should have just taken some gold when I was in the vault," Daenerys muttered to herself in frustration as she glared at the rat, Gan, who had promptly fallen asleep shortly after entering the carriage, "Ugh! Maybe I will just become a pirate queen and just sail around the world, looting all the wealthy merchant ships," she said as she imagined herself standing at the deck ordering around her crew to board the enemy ship, "Yes, that would be quite wonderful, wouldn't it? Hehe,"
"Please don't," Sam said with a nervous chuckle, trying to stop her from going down a bad road. After all, they had barely gotten rid of a Pirate King a few weeks ago, there was no need for a new one to be born so soon.
"Don't worry, I was just kidding," Daenerys said with a light chuckle, "But that reminds me, what kind of job do you have, Master Sam? Wait, should I call you Ser since you are from Westeros? But are you a knight, though?"
"No, I am not a knight, so you can just call me Sam," he said with a friendly smile, "And as for my job, well, I don't think I have one right now," he said with a somewhat embarrassed look on his face.
"What? How come?"
"Well, I usually just sit in our shipping company's shop in Braavos, handle some accounts, and read books or train in our backyard. Oh, and of course, if someone in our company needs healing, then I could do that adequately," Sam said with a thinking expression on his face, "And once in a while, when Jon needs someone trustworthy to do some secret job, like the one of escorting you today, then I would be the one he would call upon," he said with a hint of pride in his tone, "So all in all, I just do what Jon tells me to do." he finished with a shrug.
"You can do so many things," she said with a hint of wonder in her voice, "That is so incredible... and here I am, someone with no skill at all. Ugh! I can't even stitch prettily, like all the noblewomen in Westeros are said to be good at," she said dejectedly.
"Um, I am sure you will find something you like and are good at," Sam said consolingly, "After all, you are still so young, there is plenty of time, so don't worry too much."
"You are right," she said, shaking her head with a smile. "I guess I was just being silly," she said sheepishly, "But do you know how many—" the girl was about to ask about the number of people in the shipping company, when her eyes saw something that confused her, "Sam, was that not the road that leads to the city gate?" she asked pointing towards the diverging path that they had left behind, "Are we not leaving through there?"
"No, we will be travelling through the sea as it is not only faster but also much safer for us," Sam replied as he slowly manoeuvred their carriage through the now much more crowded path. "Our ship is already docked at the port, just waiting for us to arrive to set off."
"Really? But would it not create trouble for your shipping company?" Daenerys asked with a worried look, "I know your company trades primarily in the free cities, so what if they recognise you the next time your ships arrive here? Because I don't know if you realise this, but Illyrio is a very powerful man here in Pentos, so he could probably make things very difficult."
"Ah, we already thought of that, don't worry, as we prepared an unremarkable ship especially for this trip. This ship was acquired through, er, special methods, so it has no connections to our company, so even if they find out which ship you escaped upon after we are gone, they would not be able to do anything, and besides—Argh! Shit!" Sam loudly cursed mid-sentence as he abruptly pulled the reins of the horse as hard as he could to force the carriage to a sudden halt, all because some idiot decided to jump in front of their carriage.
"What the hell are—" Sam was just about to swear at the stupid man who had decided that the front of their carriage was a perfect place to commit suicide, when he suddenly caught sight of the man's face through his cowl, and realised who he was, "Uncle Sam? W-What are you doing here? Weren't we supposed to meet at the ship—"
"Change of plans, boy," The portly merchant Sam cut him off with an urgent whisper while looking around vigilantly, "You need to ditch the carriage immediately— we are walking the rest of the way from here."
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