New Dream Adventures of Raven Knight

2018, 01-24

Game of Dreams – The Unfair Prince

I am Sansa now, and I am with Prince Joffrey. I immediately want to punch him in the face. But for the time being, he’s being nice. We are out riding on horses. We ride around the area quite a bit, following some kind of a wildcat, exploring some ruins, it’s actually kind of fun. We have lunch and then ride some more. We hear some noises up ahead, and I want to leave. But Joffrey is being stubborn and wants to check it out. We go and we find my sister Arya and her friend Mycah playing at swords, using sticks as swords. I tell Joffrey it was just a couple of kids playing, there’s no need to interfere. But Joffrey won’t listen. We watch as Mycah disarms Arya, and then when he sees Joffrey, he drops his own stick. Mycah recognizes Joffrey as the prince and bows.

At this time Joffrey starts being an asshole. He gets off his horse and pulls out his sword. He tells Mycah to pick up his sword and show him how good he is. Mycah says they were just playing, there are no swords, just sticks. I tell Joffrey to knock it off. Joffrey points his sword at Mycah. I go to get off my horse, but my foot gets caught in the stirrup and I fall. No one seems to notice that. Arya attacks Joffrey to keep him from hurting Mycah. Joffrey turns around and attacks her back. Mycah runs off into the trees. Arya throws a rock and misses Joffrey, but hits Joffrey’s horse in the bottom and makes him run away. I get up and go over to try to get between Joffrey and Arya, as it looks like he might hurt her. But before I can get to him, my sister’s wolf tackles him, biting his sword arm.

Joffrey drops his sword, and start trying to get the wolf off of him. My sister calls the wolf off. Joffrey‘s arm is bloody and his clothes are ripped where he’s been bit. Arya picks up Joffrey’s sword, and after pausing to hear Joffrey whimper a bit, she throws it out into the river. Arya then runs off into the trees after Mycah. I am thinking if I hadn’t tripped I could’ve kept this incident from happening at all. But I did. So I will erase the evidence. I go over to Joffrey, who is still whimpering and cradling his hurt arm. I focus healing energy on his arm. His arm heals rather quickly. I see a faint blue glow around it. I also focused healing energy on the back of his head where Arya hit him with the stick. That heals as well, leaving no trace that he was attacked. Except for his ripped and bloody clothes, that is. After seeing the healing, Jeffrey freaks out. He called me a witch and runs away. I can’t help but laugh at his stupidity. I wake up.

2017, 08-28

Game of Dreams – Cats and Monsters

Arya: I am playing a game of virtual reality Assassins Creed, or that's what I think of it as. The current mission is to catch cats. There are a lot of stray cat some various kinds around, and I'm supposed to catch them. The place that I’m at looks kind of like a Medieval castle. There are a lot of outside courtyards, towers, buildings, and it's almost like a maze. I am chasing the final cat. I have taken all of the other cats to see my teacher, and now I am chasing the final cat. A mean looking Tom cat. I have him cornered. I get hissed at. He tries to dart past me, but I am faster. I catch the cat, pick him up in my arms as he struggling and yowling and hissing. I gave him a kiss right on his fuzzy face. He does not appreciate it. There are some people that have found me. There are two guards, a stern looking woman, a little boy, and a young girl who asks what I am doing to the cat. Maybe I have wandered into an area where I shouldn’t be. I tell the truth, or part of it. I say I am cuddling the cat. I let the cat go and he takes off, pausing to give me one more hiss as he goes.

From how they speak to me, these people think I am just a random beggar child. I take advantage of that, and make a break for it. With some tricky moves, I get past the guards and knock the boy down as I am trying to get away. I jump over him and run down the pathway. I hear the guards closing in behind me, so I jump up and grab a windowsill and pull myself in through the window. They cannot follow. I think there may be another way they can follow, so I keep going. I run through courtyards, upstairs, downstairs, and in through a window into a really dark cellar. I am completely lost by now. There are skulls here in the cellar, I see them as my eyes adjust the dark. The skulls are huge and menacing. I have a brief flash of fear when I first see them, but then I remind myself they're already dead. They can't hurt me. But I do need to get out of here.

I go out the door in the far side of the room, and it's even darker in the hall. I make feel my way down the hall until I hear voices. I see a light coming out of a hole in the ground. There's a stairway there that leads deep beneath the castle. Two men come out of the hole, and I make sure I'm flat against the wall so they won't see me. They are talking. One of them is a really fat guy and I think I know who he is. I don’t recognize the other. The fat guy wants to stall for time before there is a war. The other tells him to just speed things up, he should be able to, he is a wizard. They start talking about a murder. I hear them talk about the Kings Hand dying... that’s my father! They want to kill my father. They head off down the hall, missing me completely, now talking about what sounds like slave children. I need to find a way out, so I follow them. I stay too far back to hear their voices. Eventually I lose them completely. I keep following the tunnel, and it turns into a sewer. I'm wading in sewage when I finally find my way to the outside. I stink worse than anything I can think of. So I take off my clothes and try to wash up in the river near the exit. I don't want to alert everyone 10 miles away that I'm coming. I am swimming when I wake.

2017, 08-17

Game of Dreams – Tears Falling

I am having dinner with my family. My dad and sister are there. It is a large table and there's a lot of food on it. My teacher is here. I remember her trying to teach me needlework. It was not very effective. So I'm sitting there and looking at mine, but I'm not really feeling very hungry. My sister is sitting several seats from me and she isn’t paying any attention to me. She is with her friend. I have the feeling that her friend is an asshole. My father says there's going to be a big tournament in his honor. He says he really doesn't want to have anything to do with it. It's just a big expense that the kingdom can't afford. My sister and her friend find the idea of the tournament exciting. She asks father if she will be able to go. Father considers and then says he will get both my sister and me good seats. I think it sounds stupid. I say I don't want to go. My sister says the tournament will be an amazing event, I'm not welcome there. Father is annoyed. He says he is getting sick of my sister and me fighting. He says we are sisters, and we should start acting like it. I'm angry at my sister. But for now I don't show it.

Father announces that he has no appetite, and then gets up and leaves. I look at my food, and it does not look tasty. I decide I have no appetite either. I get up. My teacher asks me where am I going. I realize that maybe I should be polite, so I politely ask if I may be excused. She says no. She tells me to clean my plate. I tell her to clean it herself. I get up to leave. As I go passed my sister, I pause to tell her off. I tell her that we both lost our wolves, but at least she knows hers back home and safe in Winterfell. My wolf is somewhere out in the wilderness and I don't know if she is dead or alive. Talking about that makes me feel like crying. I hurry from the room before my tears fall. I don't want anyone in there to see me cry. I hear my teacher behind me yelling at me to come back. I ignore her. I go running upstairs to my room. I go through the door and slam it behind me. It’s a heavy wooden door with a very satisfying to slam. There is no lock but there is a bar that I can slide down to keep the door from being opened. So I do.

Once I am safe in my room I feel safe to cry. And I do. While I am crying, someone comes up and knocks at my door. It is a hard and angry knock. And it is a not very friendly voice is speaking out there. A woman, my teacher, tells me to come out there in mediately. She says if I don’t come out immediately my lord father will hear about this. I don't care. I tell her to go ahead and tell him whatever she wants. She goes away. I open my clothing chest, and dig through it until I find a sward buried on the bottom. I think the sword out, I remember it is named Needle, and I start practicing with it. I am shit. I am in the middle of practicing with it but I am thinking about other things. I briefly considered going out the window and running away. Maybe I can find my wolf in the wild. I am thinking about that when there is a knock at the door. This time it is a gentler knock. And it is also a gentle voice that speaks. It is my father. He does not sound angry, he just sounds sad. That makes me feel kind of bad about my behavior. Anger I can handle, but disappointment not so much. He says he wants to come in. I raise the bar blocking the door, and open it. He comes in.

My father sees the sword in my hand. I had even thought to try to hide it before he came in. Yes it's me who's short is that, and I just see at night. He asked where I got it, but I don't want to rack out my brother so I say nothing. He says it doesn't really matter. He takes it and is looking at it. I have the feeling I'll never get it back. He wants to talk about things that of been happening lately. He says he doesn't like it when my sister and I are fighting. I tell him I don't really want to fight with her, but then I trail off. We talk about different things and I am close to tears again. And then it just all comes out, I don't even know what I'm about say untill I say it. I am crying as I tell my father that I had to throw rocks at my wolf to make her leave because I knew if she came back with me, they would have killed. The queen and the king. And I couldn't stand the idea of seeing that. I told her to leave and when she wouldn't leave I threw rocks at her. There be plenty of wild game out there for her to eat, and I do even heard other wolves out there, so she might even find a pack. My father seems to agree with my theory that she'll be OK out there. He says she was born to be in the wild, and she will surely adapt to it quickly. And she will certainly be the leader of any pack she joins. I am in my father’s arms still crying but it's stopping. My father asks me about the sword again. He asked if I really want to learn. He says I've got a wild streak, like a lot of others in our family. He says he will ask around and see about someone to train me. And then he hands the sword back to me. That comes as a surprise. He hugs me before leaving the room. And then I wake up.

2017, 08-17

Game of Dreams – A Knife in the Dark

Catelyn: I am in a room that looks like a bedroom in a castle. I am sitting in a chair beside a bed. There is a boy lying unconscious in the bed, I know he is my son, Bran. I am carefully feeding him a mixture of honey and water in a desperate attempt to get some hydration and nutrients into his body in a time long before intravenous drips have been invented. But this is too little I know, and if he doesn't wake up soon he'll... but I don't let myself think the word. I stop the feeding and hold his hand, little more than a skeletal hand now but still warm to the touch, focusing on healing him. I don't know if it's doing anything. A man comes into the room and starts talking finances. I don't care about money. He is also talking about positions that need to be filled because of people who have left town. I don't care about that, either. All I care about is Bran... I tell him to leave.

A boy comes in... this is my older son, Rob. He tells the man he will discuss the finances and positions to be filled tomorrow. After handing my son a piece of paper, the other man leaves. Rob is now talking to me about other responsibilities I'm ignoring. My younger son is crying for me, he's only 3 and he needs me, especially with dad away. He pauses and then says he needs me, too. He says he can’t handle everything all on his own. I want to turn to him and be there for him, but I have the persistent thought that if I let go of Bran's hand he will die. There is a commotion outside. Rob says the library tower is on fire, he will take care of it. He rushes out and takes a guard by the door with him.

Shortly later a man enters the room. I don't recognize him, but he is holding a dagger. He starts towards Bran and then sees me. He says I wasn't supposed to be here. I say that's too bad, because I am. Just what was he intending to do with that dagger? He looks at Bran and says he would be doing the boy a mercy, really. I tell him there's no way he is killing my son! He comes at me with the dagger. I change my right arm into an Alex Mercer blade and block his blow... but then I realize my arm didn't transform! Of course not... Catelyn Stark is not infected with the Mercer Virus! The blade cuts painfully into my arm. I grab his wrist with my left hand and twist it until he lets go and then I push him away, he falls onto his back. I am about to move in when there is a blur and then there's a wolf on top of the man ripping his throat out. Rob comes back and asks what happened. I tell him that the dead man tried to murder Bran with the dagger. Rob sees my arm and says someone should take care of that. I agree to that, starting to notice the pain more with the incident being over. I leave the room with Rob and then I wake.

2017, 08-10

Game of Dreams – Innocence Saved, Innocence Lost

Eddard: I am in what looks like a living area in a castle. I am pacing, worried. My daughter is missing. A man tells me my daughter has been found. I ask where she is then. The man says she is in the throne room seeing the king and queen. This pisses me off. She’s been missing for four days and that’s the first place they take her?! I go out the door, heading for the throne room. I know where to go and I get there to find my daughter surrounded by a bunch of hostile faces, I see them as assholes. The king and the queen are there with the prince. I go over and put my arms around my little girl, asking if she is ok. She says she’s hungry and tired, but not hurt. I am pissed, I demand to know why my daughter wasn’t brought straight to me and been given a chance to rest and have something to eat before being dragged in here. The king, a fat man I know to be named Robert, says he thought it was best to get this business over with.

I am still annoyed, but I let things go on. The Queen claims Arya and her friend attacked Prince Joffrey and then her wolf bit him. Arya and Joffrey both tell different accounts of the event. I ask how serious Joffrey’s injury was. They seem hesitant to discuss the injury. A man comes into the room with Sansa, she claims she doesn’t remember what happened. Arya calls Sansa a liar and attacks her. I hold Arya back and tell her that is not productive. The Queen wants Arya punished, but Robert says sometimes children will fight. He says I should take care of disciplining Arya and he will take care of Joffrey. He gets up to leave, he has clearly had enough of this whole affair.

The Queen isn’t done yet. She says there is still the matter of the wolf. I say I have yet to see any evidence that Nymeria has done anything. The Queen holds up a shirt with a shredded and bloody sleeve. Nymeria chewed Joffrey’s shirt? She said Joffrey’s arm was in it. Joffrey says his arm was almost chewed off but there’s no injury because Sansa is a sorceress and healed it. I ask if I’m seriously expected to entertain that notion. If Sansa has healing powers then we’d better get her back to Winterfell to heal her injured brother! The Queen says she will not have a vicious beast in her castle. I tell her it wouldn’t be right to throw Joffrey out, he’s only 12. She gets red with anger and says she meant the wolf! Robert reminds her that the wolf got away. She said she wants both wolves put down. I tell her no one is going to hurt those wolves. I am thinking to keep protesting until the wolves can stay with Sansa and Arya but then I am thinking the Queen might arrange something to happen to them just out of spite… so I think better of it and say fine, I’ll have Lady, and Nymeria if we can find her, taken back to Winterfell. The Queen says she wants them dead. I tell her that’s not going to happen. I’ll send them back to Winterfell… for their protection, not hers.

I take my daughters from the room before the Queen can protest any further. Once outside Sansa is saying it isn’t fair to have to send Lady away, she didn’t do anything. I tell her I agree, but the only way to keep Lady safe from the Queen is to send her away. If Lady stays, then the Queen could fabricate another attack or just order her guards to get rid of Lady and I might not be in a position to stop her. Sansa looks sad about it but finally agrees. I tell her that Lady will be waiting for her at Winterfell when she comes to visit or if circumstances in Kings Landing changes enough that we can safely bring her back. Arya asks what about Nymeria. I tell her I’ll get some people to look for the wolf, and if we can find her, she will go north with Lady to be safe, too. I tell Sansa we should go say our farewells to Lady and get the wolf beyond the reach of the Queen as soon as we can. Lady is tied up outside and I leave Sansa to have time to say goodbye to her wolf before she is escorted back home.

Some soldiers on horses ride into the area. They have a bloody sack on one of the horses. A man, the name Sandor Clegane, The Hound, comes to mind, comes over and looks pleased with himself. He says they haven’t found Arya but they got her little pet. I think they already killed Nymeria and I am pissed. The Hound dumps the bloody sack on the ground and laughs. He opens the bag and I react quickly, turning Arya away from the horror. It’s not Nymeria, it’s a boy, no doubt Arya’s friend, practically cut in two. I want to kick The Hound’s ass. I ask if he really had to cut down a child?! He smiles and says the kid ran. I ask if he’s trying to tell me he’s so incompetent that he can’t capture an unarmed fleeing child without cutting him in two?! We’d better hope Joffrey never gets distraught and runs away! You’ll come back to the King and Queen saying, “I have good news and bad news, your Graces. The good news is we brought the Prince back. The bad news is he’s in two pieces.” Sandor says no one dares say that to him! I ask him then which is it? Is he too incompetent to capture an unarmed child without cutting him in half, or is he a sick and pathetic fuck who takes pleasure in murdering defenseless children?! I notice Arya is holding on to me and crying. I immediately feel bad about making that scene in front of her, making a painful moment even worse. I put my arms around her and tell her how sorry I am about what happened to her friend. Sansa comes back with Lady, she is also crying. I want someone to pay for making my daughters cry. Sansa wants Lady in her bed with her just one more night. I am walking with them back to our quarters when I wake.

2017, 08-05

Game of Dreams

John: I am in a large room full of tables and a lot of people. There is a procession of what look like VIPs going down the center aisle towards a raised table at the front of the room. First a stressed looking man with a distracted looking woman, then another woman with a really fat man, followed by a little kid on his own then two more pairs of kids, two boys and two girls. Next comes a nice looking man standing alongside a short guy that looks more like a dwarf than a human. But I don’t see any other races around so I assume he is a short human. And then a feast begins. I am eating various meats and breads and drinking a sweet wine when something brushes my leg. There is a wolf pup down there so I give the pup some of the meats. A man comes over and we start chatting about various details we have noticed. The name Uncle Ben comes to mind. He says they can use observational skills like mine in the Knight’s Watch. This idea immediately appeals to me, but in spite of the fact Ben is the one who brought it up, he keeps saying I can’t do it because I am just a boy. If I am too young then why did he suggest it in the first place? I get mad and then realize I’m making a scene and that gets me even more upset so I run outside. I see the short man from the procession earlier and he says he drank too much wine and it’s considered rude to vomit on your brother. I don’t want to talk to anyone right now so I keep going and then everything fades.

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Catelyn: I am in a bedroom of what looks like it might be a medieval period. I am a woman, and I spot that immediately because I am naked. I am lying in bed naked while a man in the room is standing by an open window and apparently enjoying a cool breeze that is blowing in. He says he doesn’t want to leave Winterfell. I tell him if he doesn’t want to go just say so. A man knocks on the door with an urgent message, or so he says. The message is for me. I open it and at first it looks like gibberish, but when I look at it in a slightly different way I can see what it means. Ned’s (my husband) friend is dead, but he was murdered by the Lannisters. I tell Ned that is another reason not to go. He says this letter changes everything, now he has to go south with Robert to find out the truth of what happened to his friend. He says Robert may even be in danger. There is a bit more talk about where the kids will stay, he is expecting I will stay behind to run Winterfell while he’s away. I’m not feeling good about the conclusions we reach, but then everything fades to black.

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Arya: I am in a classroom working on arts and crafts. I look at my work I am not pleased. For some reason I have been sewing a very crooked line of stitches. I hear a group of girls not far from me whispering… about me? They say they were talking about a Prince who is so handsome and gallant. There is another group of girls with the teacher. I am sitting by myself as happened throughout my actual school years. The teacher comes over and looks at my stitching. She says it will never do. She says I have the hands of a blacksmith. The other girls are all staring, some are laughing… even my sister looks amused. I am embarrassed. I want to leave. I get up and head for the door. The teacher asks where I think I’m going. I’m mad about the blacksmith comment and I tell her I have to shoe a horse. I leave the room and slam the door behind me. I go down some stairs and find my wolf pup at the bottom of the stairs tied up. I untie her and decide to look around. I walk for a while and find a covered bridge with a boy gazing through a window into the combat training yard. I look there and see some kids practicing with wooden swords. One boy is saying he wants to use live steel, and another boy is saying to bring it on, but the instructor won’t allow it. I am still watching when everything fades.