Upon the Kingsroad they ride (Liesel/Open)

[Ser Uther Sand]

Ser Uther Sand was riding the King's Road, his journey would take him further then he had ever traveled. To Winterfel, home of the Lord Paramount of the North, Robb Stark. Now King-in-the-North. The Young Wolf was his cousin, but they had never met. Uther, the Sword of the Morning, had been told Ned saw him once. But that was it, his cousins in the North had been stories.

But now those stories were being mentioned by everyone. Ned was executed by King Joffrey and war was coming to the land. It was inevitable. Robb needed to know he had friends in the South.

Ser Uther was not alone in his journey however, he had become acquainted by another and they decided to make the journey together, for it was not always safe. Her name was Liesel Mormont and she was of Bear Island. The name was not unknown to him. He knew of the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. She was older then he by a little and much too pretty to for a girl who bore the nickname "Little Bear."

Ser Uther was adorned in light clothes for riding, more comfortable then any kind of armour. Although his wolf fur cloak was wrapped firmly around his shoulders. The Stormlands were warm but not so warm as the lands he called home. "I've never been this far North." He didn't know it yet, but he was going to say that a few times during the travel to Winterfel.

[Liesel Mormont]

Liesel Mormont was heading home. It seemed like the best thing to do. As much as she had longed to travel the south, there could be no enjoyment in the expedition now. Any trip that began with the execution of a man who had been, to all Liesel's knowledge, good and fair and blameless, was one that would leave only tainted memories. Besides, it probably wasn't safe to be a northerner wandering about King's Landing at a time such as this.

Politics. She despised the lot of them, save for Lord Stark who had been decent and a man of his word, and look where that had got him! She was going back to Bear Island. She missed her sisters, and if there was a constant threat back home, at least it was a familiar one. You knew what to expect from raiders and wildlings, and that meant you knew how to kill them. Or maybe it was just that being away from the north too long had made her homesick, and Liesel just needed a break from the travel and the tourneys.

The man she was travelling with was decent enough. Uther Sand. Some folk might have thought less of him for being named Sand, mark of a bastard out of Dorne, but Liesel didn't care. Liesel didn't know her own father, why should she care about anyone else's? He was friendly and good-hearted, and she trusted him far enough to know that he wasn't about to turn on her somewhere along the Kingsroad, and that was all she asked in a travel companion. Both safer and a good deal more interesting than riding the road alone, at any rate.

She rode alongside him now, and smiled at his comment. 'And we're not even close to the North yet,' she told him. Liesel knew the feeling of seeing a place for the first time, and it was one that could be appreciated vicariously, too. She looked forward to seeing what he made of the places that were new to him. 'You wait and see,' she told him then, teasingly. 'By the time we get to the North proper, I'll have convinced you to come to see Bear Island with me instead of heading to Winterfell. I think you'd like it there.' She didn't intend the words seriously, as she knew he had a purpose in Winterfell, but it was still an invitation of sorts.

[Ser Uther Sand]

The Little Bear made a fine travelling companion, he had honestly forgotten the.....mating habit...of folk on the Islands she called home but it made most people what the Westeros mainlanders would call a "bastard" and while it wasn't like every single person he met made the effort to make their opinion of bastards known it did tend to hang over a conversation like a rain cloud that refused to move on.

But that wasn't the case today, the two were on a gentle ride in fine weather. Knowing his luck something would ruin that however. Bandits on the road or some such. "Oh I'll travel to Winterfel alright, and I must return to Sunspear soon after but perhaps when this mess is all done I shall travel to Bear Island." That would be nice alright, visit the Isle of Jear Mormont. "Have you ever been to the wall? To visit Lord Commander Jeor? I'll be sure to stay for a small while. Imagine to look off over the edge of the known world and feel that snow on your face." Winter was coming but there was no winter in the South. Snow might as well be an exotic treat to the Bastard of Starfall.

[Liesel Mormont]

Visiting the Wall? Liesel grinned at the thought of it. 'I heard,' she told Ser Uther, 'that if you spend too long staring out over the wall, over the edge of the world? You go quite mad. It's almost worth going there just to see if it's true.' She didn't suppose it was, but it amused her enough to repeat it. 'I wouldn't know, though,' she went on. 'I've never been there. I'd rather like to see Uncle Jeor again, but last I checked women weren't all that welcome at the wall. Apparently we're all irresistible in the eyes of young men with oaths to keep.'

She shook her head, spurring her horse on a little so that he began to pull ahead of Uther's. 'No, my travels have all been in a southerly direction,' she called back over her shoulder. 'For the tourneys. There aren't so many of them in the far north, which is probably why you haven't been there.' He was a knight, he had to have fought in at least as many tourneys as Liesel had, she reckoned. But this was a different sort of travel. 'You probably haven't - wait, have you even seen snow?' Did it ever snow in Dorne? It was hard to imagine that it did.

[Ser Uther Sand]

"Can you imagine that? Looking over the end of the world and being all to see so far you lose your mind. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather not lose my mind if its all the same. But I'll see it alright." His eyes seemed to wonder off somewhere, gazing about everything around them as if he was at the wall already. It was going to be something alright!

"I suppose they wouldn't have many tourney's in the North would they? Its a Knights thing really....isn't it? There's not many Knights in the North....Old Gods and all that." That was what Ser Uther had heard anyway and it made a lot of sense to him, if they worship the Old Gods in the North and Knights are sworn in under the Seven, there wouldn't be very many Knights in the land of the Old Gods.

"Not even once. There's no winter in the South." Even looking at Liesel one could tell she was from a very different place then Uther, the hot sun of Dorne had made his skin darker and just about everyone had dark hair in the south, on account of it being so hot all the time.

[Liesel Mormont]

'No winter? It's a wonder anyone ever leaves Dorne, then.' Liesel grinned. 'Perhaps when winter has come again to the North, we shall all go south to the land of perpetual summer.' She wouldn't, of course. Winter was part of what made the north - well, the North. She believed him well enough, though, having travelled far enough to note the change in climate as one got closer to his homeland. It made sense that they had no winter there, or at least not one worth mentioning.

'I object, though,' she said suddenly, a moment later, 'to the notion that one has to be a knight to care about tourneys. Really, Ser Uther.' There was a teasing lilt to her voice as she called him by title. 'I reckon I've fought in more tourneys than you have, and I'm not ever going to be even mistaken for a knight. We have them in the North too,' she added more seriously, 'although you're right, not as many. That's why I've been travelling, not enough of them close to home for my liking.' Alright, so it wasn't as if she went around winning all of them, but that wasn't the point. She held her own against some of the best fighters in the Seven Kingdoms, and that meant something.

[catelyntully]

Further up the kings road a woman riding at a slow pace a woman wearing dark clothing looking rather drab and under her station.
With her retainers already have gone ahead to Winterfel to support her son Catelyn Stark was riding alone lost in her thoughts.

Faintly she could hear the sound of talking behind her, but the Kingsroad was one of the most well traveled roads in Westeros, so there was little need to duck off to the side and hide, at least until she heard a sound of threat.
Slowing down her pace a little Cat waited to see who was behind her on the King's road.

[Ser Uther Sand]

"I didn't mean to say one must be a Knight, but Knights are the ones who take most interest. Especially in the main event, the archery and melee perhaps not so much." he pondered it for a moment, he was rather sure it was generally Knights who took up their lances and rode against each other. "Mayhap we'll face each other in a melee some day, I reckon the crowds will get a show then." that would be a great fight to see, a great one indeed.

Up ahead a lone traveler became visible, a woman no less! "By the Seven, is she riding the King's Road alone? If she's not luring us into a bandit attack then she'll find herself a victim of one before the the sun sets I'd imagine." Bandits out here were terrible indeed, they'd rape, rob and murder you as quickly as they'd look at you. But local bandits were no match for the Sword of Morning! "Come, let us investigate. If she is a lone traveler we can help her along until she reaches her destination, if she's luring us into a bandit trap, well we can remove some bandits from the road." One should always run into trap, because you were sure to find the enemy there.

[Liesel Mormont]

'Aye. It was the melée I meant,' replied Liesel casually. 'You'll forgive me if it's a particular love of yours, but I never did take much interest in the tilting.' That aspect of tourney fighting was much more suited to knights, those who had trained specifically for the joust. It wasn't that Liesel didn't see the merit in it; it obviously took skill to do well. The trouble was that the practical application was that bit more limited and, as Uther had rightly pointed out, it was for knights and those with aspirations in that direction. Not Bear Islanders who had only trained to fight raiders.

She was about to tell Uther so, explain herself more clearly, when she too spotted the figure up ahead. 'We're not going too far out of our way for her, either way,' she told him. Most people didn't travel alone unless they were confident they could handle the situation should trouble arrive. So far as Liesel could tell from a distance, the woman didn't look like a fighter. Not even the slightest sun-reflected glint of armour from her direction - which meant, more likely than not, that she was the trouble. Riding into a bandit trap wasn't exactly on Liesel's list of things to do on the way back to Bear Island, but Uther had that look about him, the one that made her think that if she didn't go with him he'd ride into the trap by himself anyway.

That was even less sensible. Liesel decided she'd give the woman riding ahead the benefit of the doubt, for now.

'I'll go and talk to her,' she offered. It was less likely to startle her, another woman approaching. 'Any sign of bandits, you'd better not be too far behind me.' She grinned at Uther reassuringly, then spurred her horse on ahead to draw near level with the stranger, who seemed to have slowed a little, as if expecting their approach.

'Hail!' she called out to her, her tone bright and friendly. 'You're heading northward?'

[catelyntully]

Catelyn slowed down when she heard the horses approaching, they didn't seem to be bandits, but they themselves seemed to think she was. She took a deep breath and sighed. Of course they did, she was a woman traveling alone on the kings road, even if she making haste it wasn't very smart, but what choice did she have? Her men were all at her son's side or trapped or killed in Kingslanding.

Overhearing that the woman was moving forward first Catelyn stopped her horse and reached for the dagger she kept at her side- she really wasn't even sure she knew how to use it.

The lady of Winterfel waited for the girl to get closer and then drew the dagger keeping her hand concealed beneath her cloak.
"Aye, I am headed northward." She said, turning the horse to face the girl, she kept her hood up for now. Who knew if these travelers were friend or foe.