The Kingsroad

[Ollie]

The longest road in Westeros, stretching up from King's Landing, across the Trident, through the Neck and Moat Cailin, past Winterfell, and to Castle Black at the Wall.

[Horas]

Lucas sketches a similar bow, then cannot resist an informal wave good-bye. "I'll send him your best, m'lord."

Lucas turns, then hurries to catch up with Olander. Once he is in step with him again, he says, "I had another dream last night, Lord Olander. The green kind."

[Ollie]

Before the boy had finished, Lord Olander was nodded, having expected him to mention the dreams sooner or later. "As did I," he spoke. Olander could feel the white and red shaft of Gods' Sight incessantly pressing against his back. The tiny red faces he had carved years ago still watching with open eyes and silent mouthes.

"And what did the gods wish to show you?" the Lord Reed asked his charge with a glance, studying the Riverland boy as he explained.

[Horas]

Lucas' brown eyes take on a glassy appearance, as if remembering something from a very long time ago. "There was a lion... a laughing lion, in his den. He was laughing because a forest was burning down, but I don't know why." Lucas purses his lips. "And then, it all went away, and someone was shaking a hearth rug, and hundreds of insects ran out from under it, running away from the fire."

Lucas frowns in obvious frustration. "I don't understand it, Lord Olander. What use are messages from the Gods if I can't even understand what they mean? I don't know any lions or insects or burning forests."

[Ollie]

The dream of the lion had concerned him, but the unease disappeared when Lucas spoke of the insects under the hearth rug. Olander was always pleased when the Old Gods would show them the same visions. It somehow reassured his trust in the Gods' will, and that there was a path that greenseers shared.

"It is not for us to understand the minds of the Old Gods, but simply for us to heed the gifts we are granted as we can. If the gods wanted us to know that we would receive a dagger in our backs the next morrow, they would tell us so."

The tall, dangling trees and boggy swampland of the Neck began to slowly fade away around them, to be replaced by grassy fields, stoic oaks and cedars, and swift running waters of the Riverlands.

"Tell me, what do you make of the dreams, Lucas?" he asked, arching a brow.

[Horas]

Lucas chews on his lip. "Well, the sigil of House Lannister is a lion, right? So maybe that's the laughing lion, and his den is Casterly Rock? And he's safe in Casterly Rock while something bad happens, while the forest burns outside. There are a lot of forests in the Riverlands..." Lucas trails off, obviously unhappy with his own interpretation.

He shakes his head, then continues. "And the insects, uh... Does any house have a bug as its sigil, Lord Olander? I think they were fleas."

[Ollie]

''Don't be discouraged. That was very good," he said, frowning after the Blackwood boy began to trail off. "A lion in his den certainly seems like a Lannister in the Rock, dosen't it? And whose den is it now?" he asked rhetorically.

"Lord Cedric's, no?" Olander continued. "And what do you remember about him, from your lessons?"

[Horas]

"He used to be Hand, when it was Rickon who was King, but then he retired. They say he doesn't like Rodrick much. He pays his taxes, but almost never leaves the West. The Westerlords like him a lot, but most of the other lords don't, but everyone says he's very cunning."

[Ollie]

Olander nodded interestedly, clearly impressed with the weight of the knowledge the boy had provided.

"Very good. And though I wouldn't advise speaking of a lords's business in the presence of other men, it's not unknown that Lord Cedric disagreed with King Rodrick taking the throne. Perhaps he feels safe in his den -- the West, Casterly Rock. Mayhaps that is why he is laughing?" he suggested.

[Horas]

"Mayhaps," Lucas nods. "Or mayhaps he's laughing at the king. I've heard a lot of people say he's not a very good king, unless there's a battle to be had."

[Ollie]

Olander nodded. "Why not both? Laughing, because he believes His Grace is burning down the forest, and laughing, because he feels safe in his home?"

[Horas]

"Yeah... yeah, that sounds right," Lucas says. "What about the other one, with the fire and the bugs?"

[Ollie]

The Lord Reed had already spent a great deal of time examining their shared dream, and had come up with a handful of meanings behind it already. Absentmindedly reaching up to stroke his grey-and-brown covered chin, Olander offered his opinion.

"They were more than just common insects under the hearth rug, weren't there? No. There were fleas, the tiniest of pests, lowliest of creatures. They go unseen, but what they do is always felt by larger things." Olander's mind drifted back to the end of winter, to the visitor he had received in Winterfell, and the warning he had brought. "What sort of man does that remind you of?"

[Horas]

"The smallfolk, maybe?" Lucas ventures, "No one pays them too much attention, but they're the ones who grow all the food and fight in all the wars. We don't see them, but we feel the results of their actions."

[Ollie]

"Possibly..." Olander mused over the boy's thought. "But are the smallfolk pests? Do the do more harm than they do good? No. The smallfolk work loyally for their lords, they toil the earth and serve their masters. The flea is a self serving pest, unseen and feeding off greater creatures. No Lucas, the flea represents a less than reputable man."