Highgarden

Warily, Brienne kept a tight grip on the handle of her blade as she rode beside Lady Stark. Her eyes panning over the various Tyrell soldiers, led by Ser Garlan the Galant who had found them nought but a few hours ago. She was extremely untrusting of them, especially considering their decision of suddenly deciding to stop supporting Renly early on in the war.

However, Lady Stark had been willing to believe in Ser Garlan's words and followed them. No doubt in order to try and convince them to join her sons side, eighty thousand men plus the riches of the Reach would give Robb the overwhelming advantage in the war.

The Lannisters would be done for in the face of such an alliance.

Brienne doubted it would work.

They had already backed out of their arrangement to follow Renly despite Lord Tyrell's daughter being engaged to the young King. They had called off the arrangement and stopped their support of Renly, only allowing him to camp at Bitterbridge and starve Kings Landing.

A partly offer of aid, enough that Renly couldn't refuse and would still be indebted to them, without the Reach having to fully commit to the war.

Even so, Brienne was sworn to protect Lady Stark and if it meant marching into the middle of enemy territory to do it, she would. Besides, she wasn't alone. Ser Robar Royce and what remained of his men from the Vale that had joined Renly had expressed their desires to fight for Robb Stark.

They'd need to protect the Kings mother in order to do so. After all, what King would allow warriors that allowed his mother to be harmed to fight for him?

"You must be proud of your son, Lady Stark." Garlan said, slowing his horse to ride beside them. "I admit, he surprised many of us with how masterfully he has conducted himself, despite his age. Many had imagined he would be beaten early on."

"My son is full of surprises." Catelyn admitted, keeping her face straight as to not give away anything.

"Indeed." Garlan agreed with a nod of his head. "Are you aware that he legitimised your late husbands bastard? He is now leading a host in the North to fight against the Greyjoy's." There was a momentary twist in Catelyn's face, the first flash of anger that Brienne had ever seen from the usually kind if not distant woman.

"No, I did not know that." Catelyn answered sourly.

Garlan could understand why, not many highborn women north of Dorne liked their husbands bastards as it was a constant reminder of their unfaithfulness. Highborn women liked it even less when said bastards were legitimised.

Yet, from a purely tactical standpoint, the Young Wolf's decision to legitimise his brother was an excellent one. His army had never lost a battle, even the Battle of the Green Fork which had seen the northern army retreat back north was seen as a victory for the Northmen. This meant that their morale was incredibly high and the constant string of victories that followed only served to bolster that.

The Greyjoy Invasion had no doubt damaged that morale and would continue to demoralise the soldiers from the North the longer the Ironborn went unchecked. This in turn would have a domino-like effect, even weakening the morale of the men from the Riverland.

But it seemed, either by the favour of the Gods or because the King in the North had foreseen the Greyjoy's Invasion – Garlan wouldn't put it past the young King to have done so – a large host of four thousand men was there to meet the invaders. Legitimising his bastard brother and giving him the name Stark would only further to boost morale. There would not only be a Stark beating back the Lannisters in the south, but a Stark defending the North from the Ironborn.

Garlan would admit, he was impressed.

After news of Eddard Stark's and his daughters escape from Kings Landing there had been questions as to the truth of the letter. His father, Mace had refused to believe it was true and decided to go ahead with his plan to marry Margaery to Renly and secure the Iron Throne.

Olenna had other ideas, using her considerable influence to force the houses of the Reach to withdraw their support to Renly and instead remain neutral. They had then adopted a wait and see approach, or his grandmother and brothers Willas had. His brother, Loras had raged and his father had sulked. Both Willas and Olenna studying the various leaders in the war to see which was most useful.

Mace of course had been furious initially, then upon realising he would not get his way, he sulked. Well, not actually sulk as that was unbefitting of a lord, but it was close to it. But at the end of the day, despite being Lord Paramount of the Mander and Warden of the South, the true ruler of the Reach was actually Olenna Tyrell, the Queen of Thorns.

Since then Garlan had learned that both his grandmother and brother were leaning towards an alliance with the Stark's. It was the most suitable choice, Stannis was apparently burning his followers alive as sacrifices to his new God. The other meant allying with their longtime political rivals, the Lannisters, who also happened to be losing the war against the Stark's,

And then there was the Stark's themselves. Led by a reportedly charismatic, skilful warrior King in the Young Wolf. The crowing of Robb Stark was shocking, but it also opened more opportunities to them if they allied with the Stark's.

But still, despite leaning towards an alliance with them, Olenna had still hesitated on fully committing just yet. It was just as well when the Greyjoy's invaded the North many had thought this the beginning of the end for Robb Stark. It was an obvious conclusion to come to after all, Robb Stark didn't have any men in the south to spare. If he did march north, he'd be spreading his forces too thin and for Tywin Lannister, it would be a simple task to finish the Young Wolf off.

Then, Robb had revealed that he had another, small host of four thousand men waiting in the North.

The war, despite popular belief for many, was not over for the Starks just yet.

And right now was the time to make a decision. Join Robb Stark and open up the path to the throne for a new King to ascend or not. Considering the Starks were the only that didn't have a bad relation with their family it was very simple choice to make.

As they reached the top of the hill on a well-trodden path they looked down upon the bustling and beautiful castle of Highgarden.

Catelyn would admit that it was beautiful, but her eyes were not focused on the castle.

No, they were instead focused on the large army camped outside.