Hake

Hake was playing with his brother by the river, it was dawn, and the sun was showing from across the Blue Fork. Ben wanted to play before they fed their father's sheep and pigs. Hake loved his brother dearly, so even if he didn't find the games as fun as he had once had, he still had agreed to play for a while before they went to do their duties. They played rats and cats, as usual. Ben played the rat and ran away from Hake, laughing and screaming with his red hair waving in the wind, and Hake ran behind him. Slower than he could have run so that his brother could enjoy the game for longer.

Suddenly Ben tripped and disappeared beneath the tall green grass and made no sound. Hake ran towards him, worried. "Ben!" He shouted, running towards where his brother fell.

Then he heard his little brother laugh. "I'm alright! Didn't hurt meself." Said Ben between laughs while he stood up. He smiled and walked back to see what he had tripped with, then his smile faded. "Hake! There is a dead boy there!" He pointed to where he had looked and felled on his back. As he walked backwards, he fell and disappeared again, his laughter gone replaced by an unbelieving silence.

Hake arrived at where the corpse rested. He had to struggle not to look away. It was a kid his brother age, his upper body was bare and riddled with nasty wounds. His skin was pale, and his eyes were covered by black ringlets. Hake moved the kid's hair to see his eyes and his hand grazed the boy's forehead. It was way too hot for a dead body, way too hot for a living body too.

Hake was huge for a lad of ten and four namedays, as big as his father, so he took the dying kid and carried him over his shoulders. "Ben, come on, we have to take him to father. He'll know what to do." He told his brother while holding the boy on his shoulders and already walking towards his house.

"Look, Hake! A sword!" He yelled while he strugglingly lifted a black sword with both his hands. His voice trembling with excitement and trepidation, more trepidation than excitement really. The sword was relatively clean, but Hake could see a few blood stains under the morning sun.

"Well bring it, but don't dawdle, or I'll leave you behind!" He told his brother, turning his head forward and focusing on walking, the kid was heavy, and it would take all his strength and endurance to carry him to the house.

The trip home was long, Ben didn't make a sound and that worried Hake terribly, but he had more urgent matters to attend to. He wanted to save the kid and walked as fast as he could. It must have been an hour after they had set off to the house before they arrived. Neither had spoken a word in the whole time. While they were approaching, Hake could see his mother hanging the wet clothes outside the house and his father chopping the wood they would use that night.

His mother had bright red hair, which shinned under the morning sun. His father instead had the same dirty blond hair as himself. They looked his way and waved for a moment until they realized what it was that he was carrying on his shoulder or maybe what it was that Ben was dragging through the ground. His father dropped the hatchet and ran towards him. He didn't say a word. He just helped Hake carry the boy into the house while their mother took the sword from Ben and made sure that he was unhurt.

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Hake helped his father take the boy into the house and on the table. "Go fetch water, Hake." His father commanded without taking his eyes from the boy, his voice was calm and firm. Hake took a bucket and ran to the river to get some water. It only took him around ten minutes to get the water and return, since his home was near the blue fork. He left the filled bucket on the floor next to the table and took a step back to let his father heal the boy. He watched as his father cleaned the boy's wounds. "Will he be fine, dad?" Hake asked while watching nervously.

"When I went to the war, I met a Maester, and he told me that if I was cut I should clean the wound." He threw some water on the boy's chest and wiped it with his hand. "I'm doing that, so all that's left to do is pray to the mother to have mercy," he said, briefly turning his head to look at him before throwing some more water on the boy's wounds.

The day went by with Hake's parents taking care of the boy while Hake and Ben herded the sheep and fed the pigs. They would have had supper in silence if not for Ben, who was very excited to meet the boy when he woke up. He had already decided to ask him to teach him how to fight. Hake wasn't sure if a boy of age with Ben could even know how to fight regardless of if they owned a sword or not. Ben disagreed.

The sunset came, and everyone went to sleep. Ben came to sleep on the same bed as Hake because they had left the boy on Ben's bed so he could rest and recover. Ben fell asleep easily enough, but Hake had more trouble getting to sleep. He was finally falling into the realm of sleep when he heard something coming from Ben's room. It was a soft voice, it seemed like the boy had finally woken up, but Hake didn't want his brother to wake up. He slowly got out of bed and went towards the voice.

As Hake slowly approached, he heard the boy's whispers. He carefully opened the door and saw the boy twisting. It seemed as if he had a bad dream. Hake took a step forward but stopped immediately, as the boy's eyes opened up wide and sat up abruptly. He turned his head towards Hake, and Hake could see his muscles tensing. He raised his opened hands so that the boy could see he wasn't a threat. Much like he would have done if he was dealing with a frightened animal. "Are yeh okay?" Hake asked.

The boy's eyes widened even more if that was even possible, but he nodded. He seemed to calm down a little but still looked around warily. He stopped for a moment as if thinking and then looked back at Hake. "Sword?" He spoke with a thick, strange accent.

"Me father is keeping it, don't worry, we will give it back to you when you get better" Hake paused for a moment and looked at the boy in the eyes. "How are yeh feeling? Yeh had a bad fever," he told the boy, but he didn't seem to pay much attention to Hake now that he realized that he was not in danger, and just shrugged. Then he lay down again, ignoring Hake. Hake decided that the boy must be a bit stupid, so he left him alone and went back to sleep.