126 AC
5 years since the tourney of Casterly Rock.
The growing town of Silverhill.
Jaimie chased her, through the woodlands, through the towering oak trees, across the plentiful grass. The sun melting them in the heat. Jaimie was trying to catch Alyssa; it was one of their games. Jaimie was smitten. He didn't deny it. But by the Seven was he not going to show it. Jaimie knew he was absolutely clueless when it came to love. But she was something else entirely. Ever since he saw her that day, he swore in his heart he would steal her heart. How? Jaimie forgot the fine details about that.
Alyssa was faster than him, of course. She wore the brightest blue and green tunic covering her back, a lion pelt cloak. Her silver hair fluttering in the wind. She wore it in a bobble slicked back to stop the hair infringing on her deep violet eyes. Those eyes. Jaimie lost himself in that ocean many times over. If anybody caught them running like this, there would be hell to pay. A highborn such as himself shouldn't be seen frolicking with a lowborn, even a dragonseed.
Jaimie didn't care. He raged against his father when his father asked him not to spend too much time with Alyssa. Jaimie loved his father and would follow him to wherever he asked and would do it with loyal fervour. Alyssa just made him do stupid stuff and throw away his reason, his logic. How could one have so much hold over his heart? Him and Alyssa were thick as thieves these past few years. The "Blonde and Silver," Alex called them one time. They spent most of their time with Alex.
Alex didn't mind their close proximity, only asking that if anything further developed, they would be smart and marry before acting in lustful endeavours. Jaimie reddened at that thought. He was a bumbling mess when it came to her. Alyssa took him every day at early light to the rocky hills overlooking the now bustling town. It's where they were running to now.
Alyssa was the finest runner in all the Westerlands. Jaimie swore it. She was uncatchable, and for him, the squire of Ser Alex Armstrong, Jaimie could attest to the training Alex put her through. Alex always doing away with societal norms; Alex was funny like that. Alyssa came to a stop at their usual spot. It was a neat little spot, the edge of a huge rolling cliff, and below were his lands, his ancestors' lands, hills and fields of wheat and grass. Smallfolk sparsely cultivating the golden lands, and smackbang in the middle was the town of Silverhill and the Keep, both nestled in a wide flat endless plain flanked by hills and smaller mountains.
Alyssa bade him to sit. Jaimie faithfully followed her instruction. He gulped. She took his hands and nestled her head onto his shoulders.
"Jay, do you think my Father ever loved someone? Like in the romantic sense? I just don't see it." Alyssa frowned.
"I mean, he is bombarded by marriage proposals, yet he contradicts himself by always turning them down? Why is he like that?" Alyssa questioned.
"Alys, I think he's just busy. My own father keeps him churning out public works, for example. He is working on an irrigation system, to which I do hear him moaning about most of the time." Jaimie chuckled.
"A silly man, right?" Alyssa laughed.
"You bet. He keeps pranking my father by hiding his favourite horse from him whenever Father goes for his daily ride." Jaimie smiled.
Alex was the single most prankster of Silverhill. Jaimie was surprised Alex even stayed here for this long. He knew nobody could keep him cooped up long besides Father and the villagers. By the Seven, it's been a while since he came. After the tourney, Alex built many things: another orphanage, a crude theatre, a small little arena, and a football pitch.
Jaimie loved football. He was confused about the rules, but he slowly got used to it. It was incredibly useful for building endurance. The smallfolk couldn't get enough of it. Father loved the theatre more, paying for mummers, to which Alex asked specifically. Alex had one play he showed on opening night that Jaimie adored completely when he was younger: "Mission Impossible."
Alex played the main part, and Father always said, "Alex loves his ego coaxed." Alex did a lot of sweeping movements, flips, and Alex would jump from odd places. One section in the play Jaimie was dazzled by was where a rope tied to Alex lifted him as he was retrieving a dragon egg; he couldn't go on the floor due to it being made of lava. Alex had queer ways of light trickery, lest he believe that he saw actual fire. But by the Seven, was it so real. He felt the heat that day.Jaimie would burst into laughter whenever Alex had other plays, comedies as Alex would like to call them.
Alex changed the very nature of people of Silverhill. Even with Father being as just and fair as he could, he could only work within the confines of the society of Westeros. Jaimie knew his father was the exception to the norm. A rare oddity. Truly. Jaimie saw other lords and how they behaved when he went to the wedding feasts. Society didn't behave like Lord Serret. Society was rigid, fixed, and bolted to a hierarchy of power which put people over others. Jaimie once acted like those other lords, but Alex beat it out of him, as well as his father ordering him to do mandatory Serret actions, such as sleep within a smallfolk home for a few nights, work in the fields when it came time to harvest, and most importantly, help out in the orphanage.
His father telling him that war is terrible for multiple reasons, but this one especially. Orphans, innocent of any malice with eyes full of wonder and awe, lose providers, full bellies, and warm meals because men at the top want a dick-measuring contest. His father made him realise that war isn't glory-filled as he imagined. And it was a duty, a divine purpose to protect those such as his people from the horror that is war.
He turned his mind to the present, Alyssa nestled on his shoulder. He loved her, he really did. But he knew they couldn't marry. Alyssa did as well, so why did they still grow closer? Why was he defying his own brain in this matter?Jaimie was a clueless man. Alyssa took the reins, sensing his inner turmoil.
"Jay, you ever wonder why I spoke to you the most when I came? Was it due to your messy blonde hair and deep blue eyes? No. It was because you saw me. You didn't see the bastard, you actually looked at me. I was in a darkness before my father came and pulled me out. You, though, ever since I came here, showed me a serene future." Alyssa snuggled herself deeper into Jaimie.
Jaimie was reddening.
"I take you here, Jay, so you can see my love for you is like this view. It stretches into a horizon endlessly. My warrior. My Jay."Alyssa grasped his hands with the most gentle care Jaimie has ever felt.
Jaimie gulped and had a sweet smile. Jaimie was overthinking everything. Yes, their lips had never touched. Or has Jaimie ever touched her inappropriately. It was a soft love to Jaimie. An affection born from deep care. However, he saw riders rushing in the distance, hurriedly towards the keep. Banners of a certain golden dragon on a sea of black.
Jaimie got up fast, spooking Alyssa. Why are the royal banners coming here? He grabbed Alyssa and ran for the town and keep.
By the Seven, Jaimie was nervous.