6

Chapter 6: New Student

Chapter Text

My eyes shot open abruptly and I looked around wildly for a few seconds, what came into my view was my room at Winterfell and not my apartment in my previous life, which made me fall back onto my bed in relief. I had a really absurd dream that I went back to my normal life in my previous world. It was not a dream but a nightmare, the past few years in this new life had been so invigorating that even the thought of going back to my mundane life makes me scrunch up my face in disgust.

I had stayed up late last night so I was a little tired and a bit sleep-deprived. Robb and I were in Sansa's nursery playing with her as she refused to go to sleep.

I flicked the blanket away and got up from my bed, there was a bucket of water placed before the now unlit fireplace. I took a piece of cloth, soaked it in water, and then washed my hands and face with it. When my eyes were properly opened, I found my way to the window and opened them, instantly the frigid wind of the north hit my face and scared away any traces of sleep from my body.

The box with a nest made of blankets in it sat empty on my desk. Frost had started flying about a week ago and since then every evening she would go out to hunt in the wolfswood nearby and return sometime during the day. I was worried for the first few days but after that, I was reassured that she could take care of herself.

I took a couple of breaths of fresh air and then went back to my bed and sat on it cross-legged. I took a moment to calm down and then started to breathe according to the instructions in the journal of the maester I found in the Library. Two deep breaths inside and five quick exhale, and then repeat it until my mind is clear of every thought.

Every few seconds a stray thought will pop up inside my head like what would be for breakfast today, and from there it would lead to the face of the one who cooks our food and if he washes his hands. And every time that happened I would have to open my eyes, take a couple of seconds to calm down and then start over.

I didn't know how much time had passed but my mind suddenly emptied of every thought and I was as calm as still water. I could feel as if I was not inside my body but inside my mind and my mind was not a physical organ like a brain instead it was a wobbly sphere of consciousness and its surface was undulating with every wave of thought inside my brain and the excitement of achieving this state of mind immediately made the surface of sphere get washed with tsunamis of my stray thoughts and I was brought off my mind. I was breathing heavily in excitement and I could not keep the wide grin off my face.

It's been two months since Sansa was born and I've been practicing according to the journal every day. Every morning I try to wake up a bit early and try to meditate. It's incredibly difficult to rid yourself of every thought, and only once before I was able to achieve this state of being where I could feel my sphere of mind. It was said to be the first step of techniques inside the journal. When I could dive into that state at the drop of a hat, only then would I be ready to start proper warging.

And every night before I go to sleep, I try to remember every single thing that I've experienced that day, this was a lot harder than just emptying my mind because it involves a lot of introspection, going through every emotion you felt and why you felt them, that was so emotionally draining that for the first month I could only go halfway through my day before giving up.

The thing is that you are only supposed to start these exercises when you turn 11 because by then you have a somewhat developed personality and these exercises won't hinder it. But because I already have an adult soul, I could practice them and that is also the reason I've not told Robb about these exercises.

There still hasn't been much progress in having complete control over my emotion but I didn't want to give it up, so I still persisted to try and process all the memories of the day.

When I looked outside the window I found out that the sun was already rising on the horizon, so I stood up from my bed and went out of my room after changing into some proper clothes.

I went to Robb's room and found him already awake and waiting for me, we both went toward the kitchens together. We passed by the mostly empty great hall to the high table where Ned and Catelyn were sitting together with Sansa in Catelyn's hands.

"Hello Sansa," Robb said while going toward our baby sister. I was feeling particularly mischievous today so I came up behind him and stuck my tongue out to make a scary face, but I faced the baby in such a way so that from Catelyn's point of view it seemed as if I was sticking my tongue at her.

"Look, Ned," Catelyn said while pointing her finger at me, "He is mocking me again, by sticking his tongue at me. I told you he always does that,"

"I don't know what you mean by that, Lady Stark," I said with a perfectly innocent face, "I was only playing with my baby sister. Wasn't I Robb,"

Robb looked at me for a moment considering something before turning toward his parents, "I think you might have been mistaken, Mother. Jon always makes that face at Sansa,"

"But... But..." Catelyn shot a betrayed look toward her son.

"It's too early in the morning for this," Eddard said with a groan, "Boys take a seat, and Cat, you don't need to create new things to have a fight with Jon."

"Thank you, Robb. I owe you one," I said in a whisper to Robb.

"Oh Don't worry, I got the perfect thing for you to make it up to me," Robb whispered back to me before he suddenly turned to Father and asked, "Father when do we get to start training in the yard,"

"It's too early for you boys, your bones and muscles haven't properly grown yet," Lord Stark gave the same answer he gives whenever Robb brought up that particular topic over the last year.

"But Father," Robb said, "Jon is already training to be a hunter, why can't I start too,"

"What is he talking about Jon," Ned said while turning toward me. I shot a shocked look toward Robb who silently reminded me about the favor I just owed him and I groaned internally before turning to face Lord Stark.

"Old Mark is just teaching me stuff like how to identify an animal or how to quickly climb a tree to run away, he is not teaching me any of the heavy stuff like archery or something," I said while omitting a lot of things, "And he only does it because I teach his granddaughter how to read and write,"

"As if you are smart enough to teach anyone," Catelyn said in a fake whisper while not looking at me.

"Did you say something Lady Stark," I asked sweetly and when she did not reply to me, I continued, "Say Lady Stark, If a tree has 5 birds on it and Robb shoots an arrow which misses obviously," "HEY!" "So how many birds are left on the tree,"

Catelyn looked like she didn't want to answer but couldn't stop herself and said, "Obviously 5 birds because he didn't shoot any of them,"

"See, that's why I can teach someone and not you," I said smugly while looking at her, and before she could say something I turned toward Father and asked, "Why don't you answer Father,"

"There are no birds because all of them were scared away from the arrow," Father answered while not looking up from his food. Catelyn turned red for a moment, from embarrassment or anger I didn't know.

"Don't Wowwy Sansa," I said in a baby voice to my sister, "You won't have to learn from your mother, your big bwother will teach you,"

And Sansa immediately started giggling cutely, which made the situation even more hilarious, even Father cracked a smile at her. The rest of our meal passed like that with me and Lady Stark and taking a pass at each other mostly me winning at the end, while Robb continued to pester Father for starting in the yard early. So by the end of Breakfast Lord Stark was quite done with everything so he immediately took Robb by his arms and after reaching the Courtyard told him to run five laps.

"Do you want early training too, Jon," Father said while looking toward me. Looking at his face I understood the only training he will give us will be just to run us until we are tired.

"No, I am alright, I need to go into Wintertown anyway," I said while slowly backing away and running away before he could call me back.

'Sorry Robb, but you asked for it, so you will have to endure it alone,' I thought while going out of the gates of Winterfell.

I looked toward the beautiful sky and sighed with a grin on my face, Spring had arrived last month so the temperature had risen a bit.

"Oh shit," I was suddenly startled out of my thoughts by a blue football-sized object suddenly appearing in front of me out of nowhere, "Come on, Frost don't scare me like that,"

I caught Frost in my hand and she immediately started chirping excitedly. Ever since she had learned to fly, she started getting delighted every time she caught me off guard. I brushed along her feathers just the way she liked it, while she closed her eyes in pleasure.

She had grown to the size of my head in the two months since the day of the hunt. For a month or so I had thought that she was a snow eagle that is said to be quite common here in the north. But as she started to grow up, I realized that while the colors of a snow eagle were white feathers with a dash of blue, Frost had her feathers completely sky blue with just a dash of white along her head.

So I went back to the library and after searching for about two weeks, I finally found what kind of species she was. She was one of the rarest birds in the north, The Ice Eagle, also known as the Queen of Skies. This creature was said to have no competition in the air before the dragons arrived in Westeros and even then it was recorded to be the only creature to escape a dragon's hunt with her speed.

When Alysanne Targayrean arrived in the north, Lord Stark at the time took her on a hunt where they saw an Ice Eagle and the Lord of Winterfell, said to the Queen of Westeros that it was the faster creature in the sky, which the Good Queen took as a challenge and immediately saddled Silverwing to try and catch it but alas after an hour she returned empty-handed.

The Ice eagle took the queen's pursuit as a game and toyed around with her by flying circles around her Silverwing while she tried her hardest to hunt it. She was the one who named the Eagle, Queen of Skies, before then it was called the silent death by the people of North. The sightings of Ice Eagles are as rare as of Direwolfs but there have been legends of Commoners having spotted a fully grown Ice Eagle hunting creatures of massive size like bears, wolfs, and stags with ease.

"Did you have a good hunt, Frost?" I asked my friend while placing her on my shoulder. I listened to her squeak while occasionally understanding what she was trying to convey, she was quite intelligent and had an uncanny grasp of human language.

My feet automatically took me through the dwindling population of Wintertown toward the house of my unofficial mentor. I found Old Mark outside his home in his usual attire already waiting for me, and when he saw me coming, he stood up and without saying anything started walking away into the trees. I looked at frost in confusion, who actually shrugged with her tiny shoulders.

'Looks like it will finally be time for a more practical lesson,' I thought while following the old hunter through roots and thick bushes under the dense canopy of trees while trying to create as little noise as possible. Over the last two months, we've only had theoretical lessons about how to behave while on a hunt, like how to always try to stay downwind, identify all kinds of animals in the wolfswood, or walk with absolute silence.

We walked without much interaction for about an hour before he suddenly stopped behind a bush and told me to stay there with his eyes and hands. He turned around and started walking into a clearing in front of the bush. I looked at the spot he was moving toward and found a rabbit chewing on the grass while occasionally looking up warily.

Old mark slowly but steadily approached the rabbit while staying out of its line of sight with ease and after he got unnaturally close to the rabbit he looked toward me to check and make sure that I was watching before he turned back and came back toward me while taking a roundabout way.

"Now, you do it," he grunted while pointing toward the rabbit.

I nodded and placed Frost on the ground, taking a couple of deep breaths to calm myself down, I started walking toward the rabbit while trying to apply all the stuff I'd learned over the last month.

I was still ways away from it, taking all the time in the world to approach it, and was looking toward the ground every few seconds, to make sure that I didn't step on any twigs when the rabbit suddenly looked up straight toward me and quickly sprang away. I didn't know what I did wrong.

I looked toward my teacher with a sigh, expecting him to look disappointed but he didn't say anything. Just turned around and waved his hand, silently telling me to follow him, he found another rabbit about 15 minutes later and told me all the mistakes I made the last time before telling me to have another go.

For a few hours, that was the only thing we did, the old hunter would find a small skittish animal like a rabbit and I would try to approach it without alerting it. About an hour into my training, frost seemed to get bored of just being a spectator, and just as I was about to approach another rabbit, she silently and gracefully glided toward the rabbit and landed just behind it before she turned and looked toward me with a triumphant look.

My bird was actually mocking me, and the worst thing was that I suddenly heard a snort behind me and when I turned around I found my teacher's face which was usually a block of ice actually sporting a small smile. 'Oh it is on,' I thought while looking toward Frost with resolution in my eyes.

About three hours later we were walking back to the cabin, with my shoulders slumped in disappointment, while frost was trying to cheer me up. I didn't even come close to approaching a single rabbit, the second I would go out of our hiding place the rabbit would run away.

When we arrived at the cabin it was to find Emilia sitting along with a girl outside. The new kid was the same age as Emilia but instead of brown hair and green eyes, she had blond hair and blue eyes. When Emilia saw us coming from the trees she immediately ran towards us and took her grandpa's tools from his hand while he patted her head gratefully.

"Hello Mr. Jon," Emilia said while turning toward me.

"Hey, Emy, who is this?" I asked Emilia while pointing toward the blonde kid who was following behind her.

"Oh hello, I am Becca," Becca answered before Emilia could even open her mouth, "I am Emilia's cousin,"

Becca was the daughter of Old Mark's nephew, who was a merchant who regularly buys every animal that Old mark hunts. He travels around a lot so he usually leaves Becca to stay at Old Mark's house.

"Do you really live in the big castle? Have you ever seen lord stark? Emy brags about you all the time but I didn't believe her at all," Becca said all in one breath.

"I don't brag," Emilia said while blushing and pushing her cousin a little.

Teaching Emilia was a little hard that day as Becca kept interrupting us and asking about one thing or the other curiously. By the time I went back to Winterfell, I was absolutely tired. In my previous life, I was an extreme case introvert so dealing with an extrovert who is not family was a little exhausting.

As the days continued to pass, my progress with the morning meditation was a bit slow but steady. But as I got better at entering the state that I have started to call 'the zone' one thing I've noticed is that whenever I found the time to do image training, my mind power gets absolutely used up and when I wake up the next day my mind sphere grows up just a tiny bit bigger.

I experimented with it by not doing any image training for a week and doing a lot of image training the next one and the result was very stark. So I've incorporated image training into my daily regimen instead of doing it whenever I felt like it so that it may hopefully turn my mind into a powerhouse.

At the breakfast today they served Lemoncakes so I thought about taking some for Emilia but Catelyn got to the last of it before I could take them all the while smirking at me. I went toward the kitchen while thinking how she could have the role of a typical evil stepmother in any movie.

"I need some Lemoncakes, Please," I said to the chef in the kitchen who was sitting and keeping a watch on the rest of the workers.

"They are none left," he said while taking a fleeting glance at me.

"Oh come on," I said, "I know you always keep some for yourself,"

"I don't know what you are talking about," he huffed, "Now go away, I am busy," before he went back to staring at young maids.

"Oh so you want to play it like that," I whispered to myself while narrowing my eyes. I had heard a saying in my world about if you can't be friends with them use them so I applied that with Catelyn, I spoke loudly, "Oh I wonder how Lady Stark will react when she finds out that her favorite maid is playing hide and seek with the chef,"

The cook immediately look around wildly at that and after making sure that no one was too close to us, leaned down and said to me in a whisper "I don't know what you're talking about,"

"Lady Stark will surely be wroth to know that the maid she brought all the way from Riverland was playing with a northern savage..."

"Alright, Alright I will get them for you," he hastily said before he stood up and went toward the cupboard and brought back two lemon cakes. I quickly took them out of his hands and wrapped them in a napkin before placing them in my pocket.

"Don't come back here," I heard the cook say from behind me.

I just looked at him with an evil smile and went out of the kitchen. I suddenly paused in my step and wondered, 'Is this how Baelish started,'... before I dismissed it as nonsense.

There was a skip in my step as I went toward Old marks place. 'I will give one of the cakes to Emy because she was really brilliant in the last class and the other one will be for me because I don't think that Old mark ever ate anything sweet,'

But when I reached the cabin it was to find that there were some extra people there. There was Emy's cousin Becca along with a man in his mid-thirties who looked like a relative of hers.

The middle-aged man, Sam was indeed Becca's father and Old Mark's Nephew. It turned out that he was trying to teach his daughter numbers the last few months but she was not very good at it, but instead of admitting her mistake, she said that he was just not a good teacher and that Emilia's teacher is way better than him.

So he arrived here to discuss if I could also teach Emilia's cousin along with her. He also generously agreed to pay a handsome sum of 10 silver stags a month, almost the amount the maid who works at Winterfell gets. So while I was not able to refuse such a mouth-watering offer, I did haggle and made him agree that he would buy all the prey I would hunt in the future just like he did for Old Mark.

"Oh are those cakes for us? You are so generous Mr. Jon," Becca said while taking the cakes sticking out of my pocket and giving one to Emy. Looking at the face of Becca happily eating the cake that was supposed to be mine, I immediately felt that I had made a very wrong decision, but I was too late by then and made the ultimate sacrifice of my desserts.