Hone Sweet Home

Onboard the Merciless Maiden

"We have another day before we arrive, you can rest."

His blue eyes turned to his uncle, and then back to the seas, imagining the same scene in his head for what seemed like the hundredth time.

Behind his flagship was a total of fifty others, carrying men and enough steel and supplies. Its a contingent against the event that his father wins the kingsmoot, his men will surround the man and he will bury his ax in his skull, maybe he will carve out that last eye of his too. He is bringing 5000 men to bear down on his father and any that stands by him. He doesn't know about Aeron or Asha, he hasn't seen them since he was a boy.

He knows what this will do. To the lords present it will seem like he is invading, and if his father is chosen then that's what will happen. He has been waiting for this moment for so many years, his revenge won't be swift, first, his father's last eye will be torn out, his tongue will be cut off, then tortured before being laid and chained at the shores, to suffer by drowning until he breathes no more.

They raided a small ship off the coast of Dorne beforehand and he took on one more Salt Wife, her name is Elena and she was honestly unshaken from her capture, even after he took her the first night she got into the rhythm rather than fighting and screaming, its a reason he loves taking Dornish women to any other. She has his eye for now until he drops her off at the nearest town or village.

"No. I don't want to rest, I will rest when my father is gone from this world." He swore and his uncle grunted before turning around, his back is all that is in sight.

"I won't have bloodshed at the kingsmoot, kill him once I've become the new King." He doesn't care about what he wants, he is Iron-Born and his blood is salt and iron, he is a wild and unpredictable person whose ambitions and desires are kept hidden beside his clear hatred towards the man who sired him. He is going to have his father on his knees the moment he gets the chance.

Perhaps he will put his own vote to be the next monarch of the Iron Islands.

The next day he saw the great island of his home, it looked like shite. It used to be a thriving island until his uncle declared himself King of the Iron Islands, Robert Baratheon had destroyed the Targaryen Dynasty a few years before that and his uncle had thought the Stag King wouldn't have the support of the Kingdoms. It was supposed to be the great resurfacing of the old ways.

Sadly that's not how fate treated it. First, his cousin was defeated at Seagard, tossed from its walls and fell to the seas, next was the battle off Fair Isle where Stannis Baratheon destroyed the bulk of the Iron Fleet and then it became a ground war. One by one the isles fell and towns were put to the sword until Robert came to his home's doorstep and knocked it down with his other cousin. The fight ended with his uncle kneeling to Robert and surrendering his crown, he was a true coward that day, he would have fought tooth and nail even if he were to die because of it.

His ships docked on the western side of Pyke, causing a stir on the small port where he saw his father's ships were docked. He followed his way to the castle and rode through its gates. His cousin, Asha was waiting and by her side was quite a surprise. His other cousin, Theon has come home after all and looked like a shaken dog rather than a Greyjoy of Pyke. Asha is much more different than before, the ugly little boy with low cut hair is now a fine looking woman with a pretty face, a fine physical appearance and kept the short hair.

"You returned uncle, and brought a stray dog." He smiled amusingly at the woman's quip retort to him, she still keeps to that smart mouth over the years.

"No ones sewed that mouth up yet?" He said after dismounting and embraced his cousin, then he turned to Theon. "Didn't know you returned home, uncle Victarion said otherwise, what happened to ya?" He asked and the younger Greyjoy remained silent, he remembers a brash and willful child before the rebellion. Asha answered his question in place of the man he was talking to.

"During the early parts of the war, he took Winterfell and held it, with twenty men. I attempted to rescue him but the Bastard Ramsey stopped me. He returned three days ago." He nodded and scoffed at that, he didn't bother with what went on in Westeros while taking the Stepstones and consolidating his rule there, but it is impressive that he took the mighty home of the Starks with what he had, given three hundred men he would have still held it. "I suppose you want to rest?, we all leave for the kingsmoot tomorrow." She added and he nodded, Let's get it done.

He was writing a letter to his daughter when his door opened and in came his cousin, she was dressed in leather trousers and a shirt, a coat untied on her shoulders. "What is it?" He asked, it is late in the night and he has much to do. She sighed and grabbed a chair and sat down.

"Vickon, I'll get to the point, I want your support tomorrow. I understand that's why you're here, besides to kill Euron." He laid back and smirked, he should've known this was going to happen, she has been groomed by her father to rule the isles since the two older boys had been killed and Theon was taken by the Greenlander Stark, she wants to be Queen though such a thing has never happened, ever.

"I hadn't seen father, I assume he is in his ship. I swore to support uncle Victarion in the kingsmoot, although I can be persuaded." He countered and sipped from his cup, his cousin looked at him weirdly and she misunderstood his meaning, "I don't mean that we're not Targaryens. I want my father dead, if you can do this I might be persuaded to support you." He added and she looked at him like he was crazy.

"That's kinslaying, father forbids that- "

"He did forbid it. Maybe he should have let Victarion gut him back then, it's not too late. I was left on Sothoryos to die, I want justice for all these years, and don't care if I have to do it tonight yet." He threatened and his cousin stood from her seat and left him alone, those negotiations fell through quite fast. A decision was made with tonight.

He knows what to do.

That morning his cousins and uncle found themselves sealed in their rooms, they don't need to die for what is going to happen next. He called for his men and rose two hundred warriors from their beds and crept on the small town where his fathers four ships were docked. He nodded for Zolar to lead a hundred men to the left and waved for the rest to follow himself. They scoured the port nice and slowly, killing his father's men, eunuchs with no tongues as his father liked to do to his men when recruiting, the advantage being they cant go and alert other through voice.

He gutted one man with his dirk and buried his ax into another. The dawn came and the street ran red with the blood of his fathers minions, now came the ships where they openly slaughtered the men defending them until every single one was slain, he was going to the captains quarters and broke down the door and charged in, piercing the sleeping bastard in the back with a pike. His smile was bright as he thought he had achieved his vengeance, but when he turned the bastard over to see his face he was greeted with a horrid sight.

It wasn't his father but a man wearing red, his anger built up and he grabbed the man by the scruff of his redshirt and brought his face close to his own, glaring daggers into the dying man's eyes.

"Where. Is. He?!" He demanded and the man choked out blood but answered him.

"He... Left before dawn... To the kingsmoot... " He dropped the corpse to the ground when he died and quickly ran up to look into the open sea.

Two lone ships followed another, bearing the sigil of his father and he roared aloud, he failed to catch him and now the kingsmoot has to take place. He has to become king to kill him.

He let his family go and set sail to Old Wyk, on Nagga's Hill was where they held the Kingsmoot for centuries beyond counting. Today a new King will be chosen and he will ensure it is him that sits upon the Seastone Chair of his forefathers. Asha and Victarion swore that no more bloodshed will be carried out over there and he swore it too, it would be in bad taste to do such a thing when it is the lords he needs the support from. He came only to kill his father and getting the Iron Islands is simply a perk of the conquest because he is already a King in his own right.

The Stepstones belongs to him, and soon the Iron Islands too.