josephb — Roleplayer Guild

Castle Black

The wall had been on the horizon for a week or two now, slowly getting bigger and bigger. Jamie had never truly believed the stories of the size of the wall, but day after day the wall continued to get bigger and still they didn't seem like they was making any progress. It was about mid day and the actual buildings of Castle Black had finally come into view, Jamie never thought he would have been so happy to see it. All he wanted to do was get close to a fire and never leave it alone. There hadn't been blue skies since they'd passed Winterfell and one day a blizzard had hit them, Jamie had never experienced anything like it. One particular skinny man, had frozen to death sat in one of the cages, Anders made a quick pyre for him and after lighting the fire, moved on straight away. That was the basically the only thing of note that had happened since the bust up between Jamie and one of the guards.

The first thing Jamie had noticed about the actual castle was that it didn't have any wooden walls protecting itself from attacks coming from anywhere expect from the north. They did have one gate though with two guards posted either side of it to let the rest of the black brothers know of anyone approaching. Anders was still at the front of the group, as they reached the door, Anders simply shouted up to them, "New recruits from the Reach. Open the bloody gates now." There was a muffled discussion quickly before the gates opened. He spat out a load of phlegm before he continued to head inside on top of his horse. The gates opened up into a massive courtyard with loads of people going about there business. "Bring the wagons inside and get everyone out." He shouted back to group as he moved his horse towards the stables. "Lad." Anders shouted down to someone who looked around the age of fourteen who was wondering around. "Go and tell the Lord Commander that the new recruits are 'ere and be quick about it!" He bluntly shouted to the boy, who ran off straight away clearly not wanting to have a conversation with him.

"Get out the wagons now!" The weasley guard who had his nose broken by Jamie, had shouted clearly not happy to be here. His nose had finally healed and the bruises around his eyes had finally disappeared. Jamie was the last person to get out of his wagon and stared at the guard as he got out. The guard kept his head down and had a look on his face that he'd tasted something vile. Everyone was huddled up in a group, with Jamie joining them waiting for there first orders.

A crow in a feathered cloak stood before the recruits, one foot raised upon a barrel, presumably full of foods or water. He clapped his gloved hands together with a muffled thump, nose turned up like he had smelt something foul. "Oi! Recruits! Line up in front of me, shortest to tallest!" He moved his foot from the barrel and walked towards the party, crossing his arms and waiting for them to follow his orders. He had a hooked nose, bald head and round face, missing one of his ears from frostbite. "Don't gawk at my ear either, or I'll tear yours off with my teeth." He chuckled, placing a hand upon his sheathed blade.

The Lord Commander himself was ambling over by the training rangers, the white wolf of Longclaw's pommel standing out amongst his mostly black apparel. The eunuch gripped the valryian steel blade, drawing it from it's hilt and throwing it to the ground, grabbing a practice sword from the rack, and walking towards the others to join them in practice. He tapped the First Ranger on the back, twirling the dull blade in his hand. Once the man had looked at him, Forrester held the sword up to eye level, stepping back and planting it in the snow. The ranger pulled his sword loose as well. The two slowly approached each other, circling ever closer, eventually it was the Lord Commander that took the first swing, a one handed overhand chop, but as it began to fall towards the man, he was interrupted by the arrival of a messenger. Frustratedly, he bowed, placing the blade back where it belonged, and looked over the recruits with a frown, waiting for the Master-at-Arms to deal with them.

The Master-at-Arms himself gathered the recruits quickly, with a raised voice and a firm hand to the shoulder. Shoving them into position, he looked every one of them up and down, teeth clenching his upper lip. "Rapists up front, murderers behind, anyone else can stand in the middle, I want to know what I'm dealing with." He sighed, seeing that quite a few had begun taking steps forwards. "Looks like I'm dealing with some future Lord Commanders here, raise your hands if you still have balls." Around three of the rapists kept their hands down, slinking silently into themselves like a turtle without a shell. The Master-at-Arms groaned, before walking down the line of future Watchmen. Upon reaching one of the recruits, who had a surcoat of House Osgrey and a jewel encrusted sword, he took a large sniff, and spat upon his boots. The man looked at him in shock, before screeching and planting a finger upon the man's chest. "Don't you dare spit on me! I am the third son of Lord Osgrey, and I will not take this nonsense!" The Master-at-Arms looked at the man in confusion before beginning to laugh with a whistling inhale. His face then crunched in as he laid a punch into the man's abdomen. "Take your fancy shit and go clean the stables with it, don't return until your sword is stained brown with shit." He turned away from the kneeling lordling with a smile, coming upon Jaime, looking him up and down, before again spitting upon his boot, and looking into his eyes, as if he were daring him to respond.

Jamie stared down looking at the bit of spit that covered his shoes for a few seconds, debating what to do. He then looked across to the Osgrey lad who was still hunched over holding his stomach struggling to breath. Jamie looked back towards to the crow who was sorting everybody out. A demented smile covered the black brothers face waiting for Jamie to respond to the spit. Words were about to leave Jamie's lips that would have insulted him and caused some sort of attack. He thought better of it though, remaining silent and wiping the spit on the back of his pants, all the while doing an overly fake smile at the bald man. 

The Master-at-Arms smirked, clapping a hand over Jaime's shoulder. "Well, looks like I've found my favourite, now go take off those bawdy things, get on your cloak, and rejoin us post-haste." He chuckled before moving on. The recruit who had been punched earlier glared angrily at Jaime, and he couldn't help but feel like that was the man's intent.

The smile stayed on Jamie's face but it had clearly soured at the thought that he couldn't keep his own clothes. He didn't acknowledge the crow, but knew better not to confront him. As soon as he turned around and walked off breaking the eye contact an annoyed look covered his face as he stepped over the other Lords son and went off to get changed.

As Jamie walked off, Anders appeared behind the Master-At-Arms and slapped him on the back laughing. "Whipping them into shape already?" He said in his usual raspy voice looking down at one of the Lords sons. The lad held out an hand to help get picked up from the floor and Anders shouted at him, "Get up by yourself you woman!"

The Master-at-Arms looked at Anders with a smirk, coughing once or twice as some smoke from a nearby fire drifted their way. "Alright you lot, everyone who I sent off will join us shortly, lordlings or soldiers with me, rest of you lot just follow them." He motioned for these people to join with him, as he did so, he drew his blade, walking over to the barrel and rolling it at them. One of the recruits looked down at it, leading to the Master-at-Arms throwing him to the ground and placing the blade at his throat. "Dead, wildling spear to the throat. Don't look at the object, look where it came from." He sheathed his sword, pointing the man to the recruits who had no formal training. He walked up and down the line, before drawing his sword and running at one of them. This one was smarter, and he managed to get his sword out, placing it at an awkward position that defended his face only, the Master-at-Arms pointed the sword into his gut. "Dead. You're better though, you'll lead the training for now, but work on your guards." He sheathed his blade again, walking over to the third trained fighter, drawing his blade again and jabbing it forth, this one managed to knock the blade away, getting only a nick on his shoulder. The Master-at-Arms looked unimpressed. "Dead." The recruit looked dumbfounded. "What? I stopped the blow!" "No, you stopped it from going through your eye, but wildlings have the habit of dunking their spears in their shit, you'd die on ranging of infection, but you're the best one we have so far, I don't have the time to test the other lot, so take them and do a little sparring, I'll come around and give it a look over, just don't kill anyone, we'll need live arrow sponges." He pointed towards the training grounds, making way for the recruits to go.

Anders had stood back for a while watching the Master-At-Arms named Davett testing out some of the new recruits. He was one of the first friends that Anders had made when he was sent to Castle Black, they both had started out at the same time and had no idea what to expect. After Davett had sent the recruits away, Anders went over to him and started to so speak, "So Brother, what's happened since I've been away?" 

Davett scowled in the cold. He tilted his head and pointed to the hole that resided where his ear used to be.
"That happened, damn cold up here." He returned his head to it's position, cracking his knuckles together.
"Lord Lannister kicked the bucket as well, daft bastard thought that going off on his own was a good idea." He spat into the snow, creating a hole around a finger in depth that was quickly filled by the continuing snowfall.
"How about these recruits?" He cracked his neck.
"What merits do you have in this bunch of rapists and murderers?"

A dark chuckle escaped Anders' lips as he listened to Davett talking about the loss of his ear. The smile left his face when he found out about the Lord Commander. "Unlucky bastard." That was all that he could say about the deceased Lord. "Well, the only reason we got all of them was because of Jamie Stanton. The fool paid somebody to kill his Father but he was caught before anything could happen. Not a clue what he's like though, he's hardly said a word since we left the Reach. The guards who came up with him said he's damn good with a blade though." Anders stopped talking for a moment and scanned around to look at the new recruits. "Then you have the fat one." He pointed across the yard to where all the recruits were sparring. A middle aged man with a bald head and a bright red face was breathing heavily, with a sword in hand. "That's Addam Appleton, he planned the assassination with Jamie. You can tell by the frightened look on his face that he's a coward, he's smart though and can easily manipulate people. Keep an eye out for him." Anders covered his mouth and coughed up a load of phlegm. "Another is the Osgrey lad, he's the same as any other southern Knight, stuck up his own arse." A smile covered his face thinking about the Osgrey lad. It's going to take him a long time to get used to the wall, Anders thought. "No one else really stands out, you have all the usual lot. You've got your thieves, poachers, rapers, the lot. Lord Stanton was generous enough to give us a bit of equipment though. Might be best to get the new Lord Commander to send a letter thanking him." 

"Aye, I see, hopefully he sends some soldiers soon, about ten of them can actually hold a blade, and..." He looked over his shoulder to see a recruit attacking another with a crossbow, and winning.
"The others are less than exceptional, if Lord Stenn was still here he'd smack them, harder than he would me. Well, at least the one with the crossbow can fight, don't know why he isn't shooting it though. The good ones fight like Lords, man-to-man, worthless in a brawl, gonna need at least another year of training, beat down everything they know, replace it with something new. Speaking of lords, which one of 'em is Jaime?"

"I remember when I was first here, I was worth nothing, I just used to swat at people with a sword. We'll make men out of them soon enough." Anders took a few seconds to speak, he smiled thinking back to when he first came to Castle Black. Anders continued on to talk about Jamie. 

"Well he's your favourite!" Anders let out a chuckle, over emphasising what he said in a very sarcastic tone. "There he is, he's walking back over to the rest of 'um." Jamie was slowly walking across the courtyard adjusting all of his clothes, that he was forced to put on. You could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't best pleased about his new set of clothes. "Want me to get him over? You can have a little chat with him." A dark smile covered his face. "Or do you want him to test his skills?"

As Anders spoke his second sentence, Davett began to chuckle, by the end of his statement, he had begun to laugh, a loud and overstated thing that seemed near a scream at the beginning. It was unsettlingly loud, to the point where the recruits' movement slowed, and they turned slowly and looked at him. The more veteran brothers continued in their actions. Davett's laugh deteriorated into a cough as his head tilted down from it's bent back position.
"Ahem, aye, aye. Bring the lad over, I'd like to speak to him."

Anders just smiled as he watched Davett laughing. He just nodded to him and let out a massive whistle looking at Jamie. "Stanton!" Anders shouted, making it sound like a growl, most of the people turned around to see what the commotion was about. "Get your arse over here lad!" Everyone was looking towards the two veterans now and Anders was looking back at them. "What the fuck are you lot looking at? Get back to work!" Straight away everyone went back to their jobs. "Run Stanton." He didn't shout it as loud this time.

From the look of it to Jamie, everyone was basically too scared to go against the two men. His slow walk turned into a quick jog over to them both, he really didn't want to get on the wrong side of both of these men and make this living that he was already in worse. It didn't take him that long to get over to the two men. "Is everything okay?" He looked at Anders straight in the eyes.

All that Anders said back was, "Well we just want a little chat with you, that's all." A slight grin could be seen coming from his lips.

Davett looked Jaime up and down, his arm resting on the edge of his firm leather crotch-guard. His other arm pulled his sword, flipping it in his hand, then pushing it back in.
"You tried to kill your father did you? Couldn't just wait for him to die could you?" He chuckled.
"You're still my favourite, but you'd better not pull this shit on anyone up here, we're brothers, we fail, everyone dies, contain yourself, I'm being very nice here, but do not fuck with us, you will be executed, no question." He rubbed his brow, then turned to the others.
"You'd have to be trained right? I've heard you can handle a sword, that's good, but you need to be taught how to brawl, go join the others, I'm going to speak to the Lord Commander."

Jamie could feel a bit of rage building up in him as he listened to the Master-At-Arms speak about his Father. But he managed to keep his feelings buried down, Jamie looked down not managing to look at him in his eyes. All he could do was nod in acceptance. He walked off through the snow without saying anything leaving Anders and the other black brother behind. Jamie spat as he walked off, a sour look covered his face.

The rest of the new recruits were deep in training as Jamie got to them, the rage still inside him. Addam Appleton was stood there leaning on a sword that was stuck into the ground, he spotted Jamie and smiled, the two men hadn't spoken to each other since they'd been caught. Jamie despised the man who had destroyed his life, he would slaughter him if he got the chance. "You're up." Someone shouted to Jamie, whilst passing him a sword. Jamie snapped out of his thoughts and grabbed the weapon, he swirled the blunted iron blade slowly through the air, feeling the balance of it. A skinny man who didn't look older than twenty stood in front of him. Jamie got into a defensive stance that he'd been taught since he learned to fight. The opponent clearly had no clue how to hold a sword. A few seconds later the boy just ran at Jamie with his sword flying through the air and tried to bring it down on Jamie's head, he lazily stepped to the side of the blade and hit the mans blade away with his own, going with the momentum he swirled the blade above his head grabbing it with both hands and brought it down on the back of the recruits knee with an immense amount of speed. The fight was already over as the young man was on his knees screaming in pain, but Jamie was seeing red now, he kept the motion and smashed the blade into his arm. A loud shriek left the boys mouth as he flew to the ground grabbing his arm. Jamie was breathing heavily as he dropped the blade to the side of the now injured recruit. He knew that he'd made a massive mistake.

(A collab with @bluetommy2)
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