The sun goes down on me.
The sun has set but the sky is not yet dark when Robb makes his way to the godswood, the shadows of the trees stretching long and grey over the ground. With the arrival of spring the plant life has burst into bloom again as if they were only waiting, nearly dressed, for the thaw, and the air is thick with the scent of night-blooming flowers. The moon is barely visible, a thin silver crescent, and the evening star is hanging, glittering, just above the horizon.
Robb sinks to his knees in front of the heart tree, a prayer on his lips. His right knee bumps against something, too hard and smooth to be a tree-root, and he rocks back on his heels to get a better look.
Jutting out from where it rests half under the roots of the heart tree is a sword. Robb grasps the hilt and scabbard and tugs it free, moving it back into the dim greying light. The blade is black, with ripples of blood-red colouring the dark metal, the gleaming crossguard ornamented with gold. It is the weight that he notices, though; only one metal is so strong and so light, but Robb has never seen it in this colour before.
Valyrian steel.
The scabbard is carved cherrywood, and here he flinches; it is bound in red leather and set with the heads of small golden lions. Lannister lions.
He has never seen the sword before, but cannot shake the idea that it is here waiting for him.
But why?
[Robb finds his second item: a Valyrian steel sword that he has never seen before. Arya doesn't recogise it either, and drags him off to work on making lances for the tourney they still have to hold. Theon doesn't know it either, but tries to hold to their fragile peace, and leaves only after a promise of hunting. Catelyn wonders if it is a Lannister blade, which Sansa, who has seen it before, confirms...sort of. Finally Ned sees, and Robb relates the story Sansa told about the origins of the beautiful but disturbing blade, before they head back to Summerfell and he gets a little freaked.]
Robb sinks to his knees in front of the heart tree, a prayer on his lips. His right knee bumps against something, too hard and smooth to be a tree-root, and he rocks back on his heels to get a better look.
Jutting out from where it rests half under the roots of the heart tree is a sword. Robb grasps the hilt and scabbard and tugs it free, moving it back into the dim greying light. The blade is black, with ripples of blood-red colouring the dark metal, the gleaming crossguard ornamented with gold. It is the weight that he notices, though; only one metal is so strong and so light, but Robb has never seen it in this colour before.
Valyrian steel.
The scabbard is carved cherrywood, and here he flinches; it is bound in red leather and set with the heads of small golden lions. Lannister lions.
He has never seen the sword before, but cannot shake the idea that it is here waiting for him.
But why?
[Robb finds his second item: a Valyrian steel sword that he has never seen before. Arya doesn't recogise it either, and drags him off to work on making lances for the tourney they still have to hold. Theon doesn't know it either, but tries to hold to their fragile peace, and leaves only after a promise of hunting. Catelyn wonders if it is a Lannister blade, which Sansa, who has seen it before, confirms...sort of. Finally Ned sees, and Robb relates the story Sansa told about the origins of the beautiful but disturbing blade, before they head back to Summerfell and he gets a little freaked.]