5 Chapter 5

Now he just had to wait for his work to yield fruit.

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Taking a break from working Richard heads for the gardens, he instructs the servants to bring him the new Wine and relaxes on the chair, slowly sipping the wine and enjoying the peace. He manages to enjoy it for half an hour when Elia, Lyanna, and Ashara walked through the entrance they are without the little ones so Richard guesses that Kingsguard is again on babysitting duty, poor sods.

"Oh Richard, enjoying yourself?"

"Very much so" Richard doesn't move a muscle as he responds. Now normally this would be taken as an insult but after few weeks in his company, the girls get used to the lack of any etiquette in the House Trant.

"Should we leave?"

"Ah, no join me I just finished one of my projects and want to relax a bit. So what were you up to?"

"We were showing Ashara the castle and near land"

"Oh yes, it's amazing what you build here. "Ashara was really impressed by the work of Richard. They visited a marketplace and she talked with a few merchants and smallfolk, they described life before Richard was born. It was horrible, but after when he blessed the first field of wheat and nature awoken Island started to recover. At first, the only noticeable difference was the lack of bandits and raids of slavers. Then forest started to expand, new types of trees started growing and the first sights of Guardians, that is how smallfolk calls Treant.

At first, they were afraid that Old Gods come to life, and when they started destroying Tempels of Seven they thought they were doomed but when the last Temple fell and all Priest and Septas were sent away or killed the guardians returned to their forest and only smallfolk that were hurt were those that tried to fight them in name of Seven.

After the faith of Seven was no more than whispers of old, most of the population converted to Old Gods when they saw Treants destroying temples and dragon-sized crows in the sky, more changes followed. With a surplus of food, smallfolk was no longer starving, and with the blessing of Old Gods, with was in reality only their new diet nourishment values thanks to modified plants, the population grew strong and healthy.

Then came the new jobs, Richard taught a few how to work with steelwood, how to make better tools from it, how to build better houses, etc... The Island slowly year by year transformed into what it is today.

"It's hard to believe that one man can do all that, even if he is Blesses by the Gods"

Richard nearly snorted when he heard 'blessed by the gods'

yea if they knew that he was only 'blessed' because he met bored R.O.B they would react differently.

"What can I say, I'm amazing!"

"Yes, you are" Ahara responded, coming closer to him. Richard was quite a catch and Ashara had no competition so far, she had a suspicion that Elia and Lyanna were more interested in each other than their savior, she just hoped that he didn't hear any rumors about her. Jealous bitches of King Landing, it's true that she is not a virgin but she is also not a slut. She

was in love once, with a knight while serving Elia as a lady-in-waiting, he used her and threw her away that's when the rumors started.

(yeah AU Ashara)

"A-ah, Ashara *cough cough* I would like to ask if you would be willing to go on a date with me"

"What is a date?

"Oh, I forgot you don't use that term here," Richard muttered just loud enough for Ashara to hear, Intriguing. "It means that I would like to take you out just two of us, like courting I guess"

"Like courting you say?" Ashara let out a giggle "what would my brother say if he knew Lord Trant wants to court me?" She teased

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that!" Richard exclaimed triumphantly " I had a chat with him a while back he would not mind."

Alia and Lyanna watched the interaction in silence, only an occasional giggle was heard from them. They were rooting for Ashara, she deserved her happiness.

"Well, I guess it's alright to go on a 'date' as you called it, where would we go?"

"I would like you to introduce me to my companion, he is big grumpy but lovely to be around, he lives close to the caste."

Walking tough the forest Ashara expected to come across a small cabin where his friend lived, but Richard was pulling her towards the cave entrance. She knew Richard was a good man and would not try anything inappropriate without her permission so she was intrigued what sort of person would live in a cave.

"Ripmaw, buddy you got a visitors!" Richard yelled into the cave.

'Ripmaw? what a strange name' Ashara thought. She was not prepared that from the cave appeared a 6m tall massive black bear. The bear growled and the only thing preventing her from running creaming was the soothing presence of Richards's hand.

"Hey, grumpy! Stop scaring my friend!" Richard bumped his fist into the bear's nose. "This is Ashara, Ashara this is Ripmaw. We met a long way back when the Treants didn't already guard the forest. His mother was killed by the poachers and he was taken to be sold. When I killed the poachers and rescued him he bonded with me, the same bond I have with Velka the dragon-sized crow you saw when we landed."

Ashara managed to get out "Nice to meet you". she was still in fight-or-flight mode. "I know he looks scary, but he is a sweetheart. He will not hurt I promise" That surprisingly got Ashara to relax a little.

"Are you up to take us for a little outing?" Richard asked while using his bond to communicate. The communication wasn't in words as human use but in feelings and impressions. Ashara watched as the bear grunted like he understood, and lowered himself to the ground.

"Cmon, I want to show you few places." Richard pulled her arm. Ashara didn't have time to even comprehend the turn of events when they were already treading through between the trees.

As they sat on the back of Ripmaw he took them to the most interesting sights. Ashara was stricken by the sights she saw, it was magical.

They returned to the castle a few hours later.

"So, how was it?" Richard asked nervously

Ashara didn't respond to the question right away, stepping closer to him she gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

"Thank you" and ran to find her friends. They had a lot to gossip about after all.

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