Rich and Happy

I ran in the vast and dark crypts with only a torch at my hand. The faces of the statutes were flashing one after another each time I passed them. The more I ran, the more statues became unrecognizable. Time wasn't merciful on them.

I felt like I run for thirty minutes and only then did I reach an end. I was out of breath and the air was suffocating. Nevertheless, I looked around to find the statue I saw in the sight.

I found it but the words written on it were foreign to me. I think I need to learn the Old Tongue from Styr or every time I was going to be forced to consult with him.

I grabbed its head and took it out with a forceful pull. I waited, waited and waited but nothing happened. Then suddenly the statue moved and a door was revealed. I could see dirt everywhere. It was obvious this place wasn't visited for years.

I opened the door slowly but surely and entered inside with a torch in my hand. At first, I didn't see anything but avast darkness. Then, I came upon the stairs and descended from it with great care.

I felt like I was going towards the core of the world. However, my journey ended after two minutes. This place was really deep and by this point, I was sure that this was a treasure trove because the first I saw after the stairs ended was a big pile of gold coins.

I picked one of them and looked at it. It was different from the golden dragons we were using. They had nothing but a word on it. I looked around and saw many piles of gold with golden dragons, golden hands, golden wolves. Of course, there were also silver and copper coins.

However, what caught my eye was a sword embedded on a big rock. What is this, an Arthur movie? Am I going to find my Merlin?

I went deep into the treasure trove and coins began to change from gold to copper. Now, there were only copper coins in my sight. I even found hundreds of stone books that were eroding. These were valuable knowledge and needed to be handed down to the next generations.

I think I can give them to Styr to translate. Of course, I won't hand them Luwin as they would be sent to the Citadel as information. I was not going to share them because there might be records of magic in these books and Citadel was the number one enemy of any magic-user.

When I came to the end of the big cave, I saw a throne made from iron. There were snarling wolves engraved on it. However, the most shocking thing was the man sitting on it.

Although he was only bones, it was most shocking because this was the first statue which meant this was the first Stark king. I wonder if it is Brandon the Builder or his mythic father Brandon of the Bloody Blade.

This place was huge and there were many trinkets in it. O saw a big diamond necklace amongst the pile and took it. I was going to give this to Catelyn. Better stay in her slender neck than this pile.

I even saw a morningstar made from black material. I think it was dragonglass. There were probably millions of gold coins here and I intended to use them to their full extent.

However, there was a small problem. Most of them were not golden dragons, but golden wolves. I need to mint them into golden dragons somehow. Of course, I can't go to King's Landing to mint them as that would raise questions and the cost to mint them would be very heavy.

Wait a minute, I remember about reading in the books Maderly's having somewhere called Old Mint. That place was once owned by the Crown. Maybe I can have them mint the coins secretly.

There are still many parts of this place I didn't explore but that is something for later as I was here for two or three hours and my missing must have been noticed already. Although I can't hide this place forever if I'm going to use the golds, it needs to be secret, at least for now.

I left through the secret door and sealed the treasury again. The dinner must have already been served so I went to the great hall and sat at the head of the table, right beside Catelyn and Benjen.

"Where were you? I looked for you all day." Catelyn asked with worry in her voice.

Should I tell the truth? However, her opinion of me was lower than my vassals and I still didn't trust her to keep the secret. But she was my wife, not some commoner. After all, this would also benefit her children.

"I will tell you after dinner," I said.

She nodded her head and continued eating. I ate ten servings of lamb to the shock of many. Then, I told Catelyn and Benjen to meet me at my solar. I guess I ate too quickly because they were still eating their first plate when I first left.

Half an hour later, while I was skimming over the tax documents, they arrived. Looks like we were really poor because the tax we were sending was not even near to the spending of the Crown in a month.

They both sat down in a chair after I told them but confusion was apparent in their eyes.

"Ned, why did you call us? Besides, where were you today..." Catelyn's questions grazed my ears as I looked at Benjen for him to save me but he wasn't even looking at us but just whistling to the air.

"Okay, okay, just stop," I said and raised my hand to stop her mouth.

"I will tell you everything but first…" I turned to Benjen, "You will take an additional forty men with you on your journey to the Night's Watch. Also, send a scout before you. You should be careful on the way, I heard wildling bands are roaming close to the Last Heart."

"Where did you learn that?" he asked.

Damn, how am I going to explain it? I can't say I dreamed about his death. I can't tell him about this in front of Catelyn. What if I tell him that a raven came carrying a message from the Night's Watch… hmm, this could be a good lie.

"A raven came from the Eastwatch-by-the-Sea mentioning two small boats of raiders passing through the Wall. They might be roaming close to the Umber lands so you should take some extra men with you." I said.

Benjen nodded his head sceptically and told me if there wasn't anything else he was going to choose the men he was to travel and inform the kitchen for new rations for the journey. I motioned him to leave and he left the room.

I took out three empty small scrolls which can be tied to a raven's leg. I wrote one of them to Karhold, asking for Arnolf Karstark to visit Winterfell with his heir. The second one was written to Bear Island as an offer of a marriage between Dacey Mormont and my brother Benjen Stark. As for the last, I wrote to Manderlys offering a betrothal between Wynafryd Manderly and Robb Stark. Although it was still too early for a betrothal, I needed a Stark for every runestone.

I gave the last two letters to Catelyn and asked for her opinion. Though her opinion did not matter, if I consult with her she would be more inclined to my ideas in the future.

She read the one about Benjen's marriage offer. "This is a good idea, House Stark does not have any marital relations with his vassals due to your mother and father being a Stark. Northern houses would appreciate it. But I thought Benjen was going to join Night's Watch, why did he change his plans?"

"The reason might be Moat Cailin. I offered it to him when he said he wanted to join the Night's Watch." I said.

"What?!" Her eyes widened, she stood up and yelled. "You told me one of our children would take Moat Cailin when we were in Riverrun."

Did I really promise something like that? However, that doesn't change her attitude. This can't be accepted, or else she would ruin my reputation in public. I looked at her sternly and told her to sit.

"There will be many places for our children to take. Besides, Benjen accepted this only after I told him Jon can foster with him. Whether they will go to Moat Cailin or not will be up to his bride." The mention of Jon going away from here shut her up. "I will tell you this only once, Cat. You can say whatever you want in private but if you continue to talk like this in public, we will have a great problem."

Catelyn's face visibly paled at my words. Apparently, she expected me to be a coy man who she can order around. However, even the old Ned would have been angered by her attitude.

She nodded her head and continued to read the second letter. "Wouldn't Robb have more prospects in the South? Manderlys are already loyal to Starks and Benjen is marrying a Northerner so I don't think it is necessary to marry him with a vassal."

Her voice was meeker this time but she still stated her opinion. This was what I was expecting from him. "I will fund a new fleet in the White Harbour so even if I have their loyalty, to bind them to us wouldn't be a bad idea. Besides, I need something from our cadet branch that resides in White Harbour. I will talk with Lord Manderly about granting the empty castle close to the eastern shore to them."

Catelyn frowned, "I think I heard it wrong. You are going to betroth our child to your vassal to take something from a cadet branch of yours?"

"The thing I'm going to 'ask' for is not something that can be bought by money or can be demanded. I think you didn't realize but I'm not Brandon." Catelyn is taken aback. Oh shit, that wasn't good. "I meant to say that I was raised in Vale, not in the North. Until the rebellion, they only knew me as the Stark who was raised in Vale. Do you think Umbers, Glovers, Skagosii or mountain clans will trust me just because I fought in a war? I need to be bound to the North by my children. They need to marry Northern houses." Though there was one thing I didn't say and that was my marriage to Catelyn. She was an Andal through and through, her entire being screamed South.

Catelyn stayed silent for a few minutes and I felt the tension in the air growing. However, the tension was broken when she nodded her head. "You are right, after all, you also married me…" Her eyes began watering.

Ohh, shit. OHHH SHIT!! She is going to cry! I think I need to soothe her but the only thing I know that makes a woman happy is chocolate and that is something I don't have. Wait a minute, I still didn't give her the necklace. Yes, maybe that could work.

I left my chair and went behind her while she was sobbing. I pulled out the necklace and pulled her auburn hair to the side and whispered to her ear, "Don't cry, Everything will be okay."

I put the necklace on her slender neck and kissed her temple. Her hand went to her neck as her eyes widened. She suddenly left her chair. She turned around and threw herself into my arms. We hugged each other and kissed passionately. She went down to my breeches but I pulled myself away. "I need to give the letters to Maester Luwin before the sun disappears."

"It will be quick," she said. Damn, this woman is really tempting.

************ALARM************R-18************ALARM************

I slipped off her lips and roamed down her neck as my hands brought pleasure to her wet cunt. I tore off her gown as she lowered my pants. I grabbed her from her legs and pulled her up. Her legs parted and her cunt dripped with her love juice.

I slowly went in to her as she squirmed and squeezed my cock. The feel of her tight and lovely pussy hitting my balls was heavenly. She wrapped her legs around me and refused to let go.

I pounded into her and smacking sounds echoed around the room. Each thrust made her bountiful breasts rise up. I slammed her back onto a stone wall and pistoned into her like a beast.

Her nails grazed my back as she moaned out my name in pleasure. Her cunt tightened around me and wetness flooded my cock as she squirted but I wasn't done. I put her to the ground and turned her around.

I slammed my cock into her cunt but more fiercely this time and began pistoning like a horny rabbit. As I increased my pace and pounded deep into her, she screamed for mercy but I didn't stop.

Her ass was wiggling with each thrust and her eyes were already showing its white. I felt a pleasure piling up inside me as I loaded my seed deep into her and fell on her back. Both of us were spent and heavily breathing.

************ALARM************END OF R-18************ALARM************

We laid on the ground for a while then I raised myself from her back. She also got up but there was nothing for her to wear as I tore her gown. She looked at me grudgingly but I can see a smile hidden in there.

"By the way, who did you write the first letter?" she asked while trying to clean herself.

"Ohh, that one… Well, I wrote it to Arnolf Karstark, I'm going to offer Sea Dragon Point to him." I said.

She suddenly turned around and looked at me. Her eyes were spewing fire and her hand was already on my face with a red mark forming on my cheek.

Well, I shouldn't have said that I guess...