The Dargon Cub

Chapter 7

The last few moons had flown in for Jon, he'd been kept busy with lessons, sparring and with his work as a page for Jaime, surprisingly he found that most of this included attending Jaime in meetings and while he occasionally filled glasses of wine or got refreshments for the guests he usually spent the meeting standing by Jaime's shoulder while Jaime held court. Today though he was given a free day, Jaime would do this every so often just give him a day to explore the rock, speak to people, read or whatever he wanted, Jaime said he needed to enjoy things as much as he needed his lessons.

The lessons he took were completely different than the one's he had taken in Winterfell, here he learned about running a castle, about trade, he learned about the houses of the kingdoms and their relationships to each other and who their banner men where, the lessons which confused him the most were when Jaime instructed him to learn High Valyrian and the harp.

"Why do I need these my lord?"

"You need to be well rounded Jon, it can't all be facts and figures or warfare and fighting, a man needs to be cultured also."

"But the harp my lord?"

"What's wrong with the harp Jon? A good bard would have all the ladies of the land swooning."

"I'm a bastard my lord, no lady will swoon for a bastard."

"Jon, if only you knew, let me let you in on a little secret, while some will care which side of the sheets your born on, others will not, your deeds, your accomplishments that'll be what defines you, not whether your noble or trueborn."

"Do you understand Jon?" Jaime asked

"I think so my lord."

"Good then the harp it'll be my young friend and I expect good things from you."

So Jon had taken his lessons and found to his shock that the harp came as easy to him as swordplay, now just a few moons into the lessons and he could play most of the songs he knew and some he hadn't ever heard of, he'd even started messing around with notes and making his own songs up, none were any good he thought but he felt relaxed when playing almost as if a sense of peace came over him.

He walked down the hall hoping to find Tyrion, they had become fast friends, the older mans wit and intelligence sparking something in Jon, it was because of Tyrion that he found himself taking books from the Rock's library and reading at night, something he had never done in north.

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone, if it's to keep it's edge, that is why I read so much" Tyrion had said and Jon couldn't help agree with him, he found that he enjoyed reading and the discussions and debates he had with Tyrion about some of what he read had brought the two even closer. As he reached Tyrion's room though he was disappointed to find it empty, he thought about going looking for him but he heard a muffled sound of crying and headed in that direction instead.

The room he entered was some sort of a nursery, there on the ground was a little blond girl, she couldn't have been more than two name days old and she was sitting on her own sobbing, Jon moved over to the girl and sat down beside her, she looked at him her green eyes filled with tears but her sobbing had stopped.

"Hello."

"My name is Jon."

"Yon," she said softly through her sniffles.

"Yes Jon, are you hungry?"

"No, play, Yon Play."

"You want me to play with you?"