3 Traveling and Thinking

-At the Gold Road-

It was a cloudless day, the sun was shining down causing intense heat while a melodious voice could be heard in the surroundings.

"My heart's a stereo~...It beats for you, so listen close~...uh-oh..."

Diogenes had been walking for at least five hours now. He made sure he was keeping a well distance between him and the caravan to just barely could see it, he was so bored that he started to sing a few hours ago.

Today was the fifth day after Diogenes left the city. His condition remained good; he had not yet experienced much pain in his feet. The caravan had stopped twice daily, one time at the afternoon to check the animals and have lunch and the other one at night to sleep. The night had been kinda uncomfortable but nothing that Diogenes was not used to.

"Mm... they've probably noticed me by now," Diogenes mused, halting his singing and casting a glance toward the distant caravan.

'Although I've been careful not to attract attention or expose myself, it wouldn't be surprising if they noticed a shadow in the distance. Hopefully, it's nothing out of the ordinary for them...'

"Oh well... there's nothing I can do about it now. If someone comes to investigate, I can even try to join them; it's not like everything has to be bad." Diogenes remained relaxed; he had learned to let things roll off his back, a skill he had honed in his previous life, known as "positive impact".

A few seconds later, setting aside that concern, Diogenes started to think about the future, about something that could significantly affect his life and cause more than a few difficulties.

'Ah.... I hate those fucking clairvoyants...'

Whether called fortune-tellers, seers, prophets... Whatever one would like to call them, these individuals may use various methods to stick their noses where they have not been called.

They were a pain on the ass that believed to know everything, especially the one in this world.

'That damn crow is too scary.' It would be a lie if Diogenes said he wasn't worried.

The Three-Eyed Raven possessed certain abilities, among them, some related to time and vision. Abilites that allows him to perceive events across time and space as well as warg into animals and even people, comunicate in long distances and the most dangeorous of all of them, be able to affect the past and future.

'Not counting with the fucking ability to possess people... It doesn't matter how you see it, after the Three-Eyed Raven died, Bran Stark was not Bran Stark anymore... Acting so quiet... almost like trying to say not too much to don't blow his cover.

Someone could try to explain it like if Bran changed so much just because now he had too much memories on his mind about the past and future but at the end he was still the same old Bran... Well, that was not at all.

What would happen when a child of just over ten years old that is barely building his personality receives the memories of a being thousands of years old? I would say that the answer to that is goddamn close to be a possession...'

The Three-Eyed Raven wasn't someone you wanted as an enemy.

Diogenes was aware of this formidable being and had no intention of interfering with him. He was concerned, however, that his presence might make the Three-Eyed Raven hostile or, worse, curious.

That is why all this time Diogenes had been so careful to dont say anything that would give information to the other party or doing anything too big that would expose him in any way.

Even though the possibility of being watched by the three eyed raven would be miniscule right now, since he was not a person of importance. 

Diogenes wouldn't take any unnecessary risks to find out.

'At least he cannot read minds, I can only dont mess with his plans on possess Bran, which I wasn't gonna do it anyway and hope he don't interfere with me. With someone like him around, I cannot be negligent, I need to be smart and extra cautious, now and at the future, my whole life, if he wants me dead it would be easy to him... probably. If not, i will start to see a lot of accidents around me.... and crows of course, then i would know is him.''

Thinking all this, Diogenes' expression slowly began to gain a tint of seriousness for a few seconds before letting out a deep sigh and said resigned:

"....What a pain...."

Sadly with a person like this, that was all Diogenes could do.

Dealing with the Three-Eyed Raven wasn't as "easy" as dealing with the other "clairvoyant" in the game, although the other one wasn't a walk in the park either.

If there was one thing Diogenes had to be more cautious of with Melisandre, it was that her interpretations of prophecies were often inaccurate. She may have been able to see and interpret prophecies, but she was much weaker than the raven, and ironically, that was the most dangerous aspect of her.

Her prophecies were often vague or ambiguous, Melisandre was used to misinterpret or overinterpret these prophecies, leading to these to erroneous conclusions about their significance.

Not counting that Melisandre was deeply committed to her faith in the Lord of Light and her belief in Stannis Baratheon's role as the Azor Ahai reborn. On the show, this partiality influenced her interpretations, causing her to view events and people in accordance with her own preconceived beliefs.

The lack of context on her prophecies was a terrible fact. Melisandre's incorrect interpretations led Stannis and other with her to make decisions based on flawed information that resulted in failed military strategies, incorrect alliances and actions that had negative consequences, one single of them resulted on unfair dead of Stannis' daughter.

All these repeated errors eroded trust in she as an advisor and prophetess. Those who followed her began to question her authority and credibility, weakening her influence, giving to result that at the end of the show, she was almost like a pariah who no one wanted near.

The consequences for the Individuals that attracted her attention from the prophecies were terrible. Their faced unrealistic and dangerous expectations. This endangered their lives and led them into difficult situations due to actions taken based on these mistaken interpretations, this was why she was extremely dangerous for Diogenes.

'What a fucking disgrace of a vident...'For a second, Diogenes almost felt pitiful for her but quickly he reminded himself to don't underestimate her or anyone from this world.

Especially the discreet ones, those who likes to manipulate all behind the scene and consider themself as strategic masterminds.

Such arrogant people, there were two very well known: Varys, the Spider: the master of disguise and espionage with motives always mysterious and enigmatics and Petyr Baelish, Littlefinger: the master manipulator and political schemer who seeks power, wealth, and influence above all else, willing to betray allies, start wars, and orchestrate assassinations to achieve his ambitions.

Thinking about all the intrigues this two will commit in the future, a shiver ran down Diogenes's spine.

'To live in this world, with all these people, it is impossible to act as a naive fool and go around yelling at everybody that you are special.'

'This is real life... I'm not special... people will kill me if I mess with them... here, life is cheaper than a cent... here someone will try to kill me for fun... her-'

At this moment, while Diogenes was trying to hypnotize himself to plant this in his unconscious and make sure that in the future he would be ready for everything, the caravan began to stop slowly.

"...*Sigh*... Is it finally lunch time?" Diogenes then saw movement around the caravan, some people started to rest on the rocks or on the ground while some others got busy doing other stuff.

Although he said it was lunch time, Diogenes was not hungry at all. During these days, while walking, everytime he felt hungry, he grabbed dried meat from his bag. At this point, Diogenes believed he had lost his sense of taste, he felt like he was eating wood,

"..."

Looking around, Diogenes look for a good place to rest, soon, he walked up to a big rock that was close and sat there while watching the people from the caravan.

"Typically, they take about two hours of rest before setting off again."

While watching them, he took out a canteen from his bag and drank two small sips of water before he put it away and started to gently massage his feet...

-A few minutes later-

In the caravan, four people moved away from the group, two of them carrying two barrels. They disappeared into the distance and returned ten minutes later with the same barrels, now with the four people carrying them. They left the barrels with the caravan and grabbed two more before heading off in the same direction again.

They repeated this process three times.

Meanwhile, Diogenes continued massaging his feet and waited ten minutes more. When he was sure that no one was gonna leave the group anymore, he stood up and gave a gaze to east—The people carrying the barrels went on that direction before.—

"..."

Diogenes did some stretches and walked towards the east...

____________

-That same night.

As the moon hung high in the sky, casting a pale silver glow over the desolate landscape of the Gold Road, a cold wind swept through the night air, chilling travelers to the bone.

As everyday, the caravan had come to a halt for the night.

Near the center of the camp, a wet group of travelers gathered around a flickering campfire, huddling close for warmth. Just a few were awake, doing guard.

Only the peaceful crackling of the fire broke the silence, and no one was in the mood for conversation. Rain had fallen one hour after the caravan stopped, continuing for another hour before finally ceasing. Fortunately, the merchants had dry wood stored in the caravan, allowing them to light a fire once the rain stopped.

Far from the camp, unnoticed for the people from the caravan, there was a not so lucky figure who lay trembling on the ground, curled up in a fetal position as if seeking refuge from the cold.

Diogenes's ragged cloak offered little protection against the cold, he was kinda worrying, getting sick was not an option for him, the thought of sleep already disappeared from his mind, the idea of waking up already sick was one of the reasons, of course, there was also the cold that made his bones tremble...

'This is harder than i thought'

"..."

Trying to distract himself so time would pass faster, Diogenes turned his head up to the sky and saw the moon, then he saw the stars.

"...It is so beautiful..."On the sky, countless stars beautifully adorned the sky, looking like precious jewels, all of them shining prettily around the moon, making the landscape look like a mysterious fantasy painting.

'Although I had already noticed it, it still surprises me, such beauty... nothing compared to where I come from...'Almost like intoxicated, the time passed and Diogenes kept looking the sky fascinated.

"..."

'when I look it, I feel I can do whatever.'Diogenes suddenly pulled on a cheerful smile as he said looking at the moon:"I could be a bard... or perhaps a nomad, a master, a merchant, or even scammer... Maybe all of them!!...Puft!.... Hahaha!!"Unexpectedly, Diogenes felt fortunate to be here...

And like that, the night wore on and the darkness deepened, the only sound that echoed through the stillness was the haunting melody of the wind as it whistled through the barren trees, carrying with it the whispered secrets of the night.