Beginning Months of 282 A.C. Stormlands/ Reach
Lord Robert Baratheon
Everything was happening too quickly for him to comprehend, one moment news had come of Lyanna's disappearance and the rumours of that dragonspawn taking her. The next moment, news had come that Ned's brother Brandon had been burnt alive alongside his companions by King Aerys and that the king had called for his and Ned's heads. Their mentor Jon Arryn had refused to obey the king's demands and had allowed Ned to return back home, whilst Robert had gone with Jon to Gulltown where they had fought a fierce battle with the lords who had remained with the dragonspawn. Robert had won that battle, he knew he had, slaying Marq Grafton and being the first one over the wall at Gulltown. Once victory had been achieved, Robert had boarded a ship to return to the Stormlands and Storm's End.
He had returned to Storm's End, and that was where he was now, sitting in his father's solar discussing the matter of the war with his brother and maester Cressen. "I will not sit here, and wait for Aerys to send his men and die without a fight. I want to put up a fight and make sure that the Targaryens remember what it was that made them fear the laughing storm."
His brother Stannis a moody bastard if ever there was one responds. "And how will you do that brother? The lords of the Stormlands do not know you as they did father, and as such there are those who harbour loyalties to the Targaryens. Connington, Grandison, Fell and Cafferen are those who I can name off the top of my head. How will you fight their combined might and still rally the rest of the lords to our cause?"
Robert groans, and says. "By the gods, man I do not know. I was merely hoping they would remember who it was who aided them when the king imposed higher taxes on them. But if it should come down to it, I would fight them and end them."
"That might be for the best, after all the lords of the Stormlands are somewhat more prone to following martial lords. But then what are you going to do, and whom are you going to call?" his brother asks.
Robert looks at the maester and Cressen goes on and says. "Well, the Tarths, the Estermonts, the Donadarrions and some of the marcher lords are firmly loyal to Storm's End, and to the memory of your father. So they will most definitely come when the ravens are sent out. As to the rest, well Boiling and Buckler have long held grudges against the Targaryens for things that have gone awry, so they are likely to side with you as well my lord. As to the others, I believe it would be safe to say that they will continue fighting for the dragons."
His brother speaks then and his voice is hard as iron. "They would be following the way of their king and their oaths. Which is something of the right thing to do, but then again, with the king showing himself as the mad man that he clearly is, I do not know why they would. However, there is the issue of your betrothal brother. If the Lady Lyanna has indeed been taken by Rhaegar Targaryen, should you succeed, there will be questions over whether or not the lords of the Stormlands would wish for her to be lady of the Stormlands."
Robert feels something inside clench. "She will remain my betrothed and I will marry her. This betrothal was made before Rhaegar Targaryen lost his senses, and became an arse. I will honour the betrothal and make her my wife, and when this is all said and done we shall have more power to do what we wish than to have to listen to the whims of lords who might well side with my enemy."
His brother grits his teeth and says. "That, that is something that might be very risky when considering all that is to come brother. After all this is a war, an alliances are made and won by marriages as much as by a hammer or a sword. Lady Lyanna, might be of questionable legitimacy as a bride, after all with the time she might have spent with Rhaegar could raise questions of her children by you."
Robert begins to seethe. "She will be my bride, end of story. And when this is all said and done the Targaryens will not sit the throne."
His brother looks at him somewhat aghast and asks in a whisper. "You mean to remove the Targaryens from power completely? What has prompted this?"
Robert looks at him then and says harshly. "Aerys is a madman, it would be more prudent to remove him from power. And Rhaegar, Rhaegar is a fool and a rapist, I will not want him on the throne. Furthermore, his children still carry the same taint as him, I will not allow the man or further dragonspawn to continue." His brother and the maester look at him somewhat surprised, and Robert snorts and says. "Well don't look at me like that, send out the ravens Cressen and let us see what happens, and who comes and who does not."
The man nods and later that day the ravens are sent out, and over the next few days most of the lords answer the call and come with their men. Estermont, Tarth, Boiling, Buckler, Dondarrion, Selmy, Swann and Caron and various others come bringing him some 10,000 men to fight. Lady Ester Dondarrion brings word of movement from the lords who have not turned up, Grandison, Fell, Cafferen Lonmouth all working together for the Targaryens. Robert seethes and rages and orders the march. They arrive in Summerhall some four days later, tired and exhausted but ready to fight. Robert commanding the vanguard, bellows and roars, having left Stannis to hold Storm's End, swinging his hammer and bellowing commands and crunching through the enemy who come calling.
The wheeling of the van smashes into Cafferen and Fell hosts, men fall and die to their deaths and Robert roars on. Blood pumping in his veins and making the adrenaline course through his veins. He has never felt so alive, the Cafferen and Fell men are fighting for their lives, and as such Robert knows something will give eventually, he crushes his hammer into one man and then another, and roars and laughs. On they go, the host pushing through, Robert leading the charge, slaying one man after another with a swing of his hammer, covered in blood, and roaring and laughing as he goes on. Men fall and rise, and fall again, his hammer is a heavy weight, but it is a good weight, and so he pushes on. There are scores of bodies lying on the ground in the ruins of the place that was where the cunt was born, and so he pushes forward.
The battle rages like some sort of song, a tavern song the ones Robert likes best, and he hums a tune or two as he crushes his hammer against one lad and then another. His hammer is completely covered in blood and soot now, and his armour is dirt and mud but still he continues. They are winning this battle, already he has killed Richard Lonmouth the cunt's former squire, and Silveraxe Fell a man of good repute and a fierce fighter. They push on and Robert continues swinging his hammer, laughing all the while. The ground is littered in bodies and bones now, blood, and mud cover the ground and still Robert and his men fight on knowing that it will be a long hard fight before the traitors surrender.
On they go, Robert can hear the sound of spears and swords and men fighting and dying with light and dark, their loves names on their lips. Good men, strong men, having to die because one man could not keep to his own wife. Robert growls in frustration and pushes on, the fighting continues on for some more time, before eventually the men left throw down their swords and the lords who betrayed Storm's End are brought forward. Robert looks at them Lord Cafferen, Lord Fell and Ser Harlon Grandison and he feels something light inside of him, a bond, they are all fighting for what they believe to be right and so he pardons them and they swear fealty to him and recognise him as their liege and their king, and they move on. Plans are made for protecting their border, and so they move onto Ashford, dealing with whatever men Lord Ashford has with him before the Tyrell vanguard comes calling.
Ashford is hollow and a bitter fight, the men under Randyll Tarly's command are somewhat bold and precise, and as such Robert and his men are tired and hard pushed to keep going, and yet they do. It is a fierce fight, and yet their numbers are nothing compared to the strength and the precision of the Tyrell vanguard, he wonders if they will be overwhelmed before shaking the thought from his head. He will not get Lyanna back by thinking like a scared old hag, and so he swings his hammer and bellows challenge after challenge, meeting all those who come to meet him and he kills them all. His armour and hammer, stained from Summerhall grow more and more stained but he laughs all the same. The laughing storm was his great grandfather, a fierce fighter by all accounts, and Robert wonders how he felt when he was fighting, and he thinks he would've liked the man. He swings his hammer once more crushing some ponce with an apple on his armour.
The fighting goes on and Robert continues leading the charge even as his own men fall around him, broken and torn, their armour crushed, and bleeding there is so much blood, Robert wonders if Ashford and the meadows around it will be renamed after the battle. Still he has to go on, for Lya and for the men who have fought and died today for him. The tide of battle brings him face to face with Ser Devon Tarly, the man is older than him more experienced, but also more tired, his swings which are precise in the beginning of their fight begin to waver, and still Robert finds himself struggling in the beginning his hammer weighed down by the sword Tarly wields. Their dance continues with both of them having their fair share of success though it is hard to tell through the dirt and blood already present.
They fight for a bit longer, steel and hammer clashing and sparks flying there is nothing else in Robert's view but Tarly, and as they fight he notices some slight weaknesses in the man's defence. The way his left arm bends slightly and how he often leaves his chest exposed for brief moments of time, Robert sensing that such a thing will be his only chance for victory in this fight, begins a relentless stream of pounding attacks on Tarly and as the man continues blocking his sword begins loosening in his hand and soon enough it goes flying from his hands. Robert roars in triumph and swings his hammer and crushes the hammer into Tarly's chest making the man crumple into death.
He roars his triumph for all to hear and the remaining men of the Tyrell vanguard look to break, and he allows them do so, marvelling in his victory, but knowing all the while that it will not last long. Still there is one moment he can saver, Lord Selwyn Tarth comes to him in the aftermath of the Tyrell vanguard running presenting a boy with brown hair and hazel eyes with the Tyrell rose on his armour. "Tarly's squire Your Grace. The boy was found next to his body."
Robert looks at the lad who is clearly shaking in his armour and his boots. "Your name lad?"
"Willas Tyrell my lord." The lad replies.
Robert feels something akin to surprise bloom, but keeping his voice calm he says. "Tyrell is it? Very well, Selwyn I want you to see to the lad here, we ride for the Stoney Sept. I do not want the Tyrells catching us now." The man nods and heads off with Tyrell, and Robert wonders how the gods could think to shine so kindly on him, they have the Tyrell heir now.