Seeking...

While Uller went to a roamers' campsite nearby -allegdly seeking out prostitutes- the others went into town to buy and sell. New weapons, better armor, the works. Uller found himself surrounded by two lovely women, sisters to add to the flavor. But it turned out the man wanted nothing else but a warm and friendly chat.

Returning from their morning spree, the others found Urek in Berthold's tent, trying to scribble down a coat of arms. Symon recognised it immediately as that of House Longheart, the House Eddard claimed to hail from. A quick round of questions and answers later, the suspicion on Eddard as a culprit in the poisoning of the little lord rose to a peek. Urek had stumbled across a pile during his strolls in the forest, and upon his search, had seen that device on a tunique. Amongst the clothes he also had found a rolled-up tent and some weaponry. As soon as Uller returned, he saw the Maester of Cider Hall standing partly covered by a tent receiving something. He reached his neck to see what exactly was going, but at that time the Maester was already returning to the Hall.

The men decided to round up and go after Eddard. Leading them towards the spot where he thought he saw a man looking at him and then running away, Urek found one of his arrows again, but no sign that there had indeed been someone running through the woods. Symon and Arys stayed behind on the look-out, while Berthold and the others went to seek the pile.

Not long after Symon and Arys had hidden themselves, they saw movement on the hill top. A shadowy figure of an animal, black with white stripes crossing its large body. Arys recognised the creature being a shadowcat and found himself puzzled why these mountain animals were roaming in the Reach. They decided to let the animal go unharmed and later joined up with Berthold's crew again.

At the site of the pile they found the clothes gone and some of the weaponry missing. Berthold tracked two set of feet, one coming to the pile and another one leaving it. They set out after the tracks. These quickly led them to a main road. A search left and right ruled out the direction this mysterious man was heading... back to the village, apparentlty.

Topping a hill, the search party was riding towards a group of Night's Watchmen, who were heading away from the town with a few prisoners to be taken to the Wall. It did not strike them at first but while they were riding towards these Brothers, Urek had sneaked away. The Brothers, interests peaked with the mentioning of Urek's name, asked to be received at Berthold's tent later that evening. Ser Yronwood agreed, puzzled by the black man's sudden eloping.

The tracks they were following were hidden under dozens of other footsteps, so the band returned empty-handed to their tents. Urek was already there, and soon found himself subject of a genuine crossfire of questions. He turned out to be a Brother of the Night's Watch on the run. If he were to be catched, death would await. Berthold offered him protection in exchange for an oath of allegiance and Urek joined the Yronwood Household as Parak, just another ordinary servant. The men would hide the black clothes and discard of any other sign pointing to Urek's true identity.

Meanwhile, not wanting anything to do with these brawly talks, Alanys went to see the horse trainer. He had agreed to assist her in her further development as a horse trainer. After a few exercises, they both withdrew themselves to a shed where a steed was kept. Alanys, confident by earlier successes, was to ease the animal and come out with it, either riding or leading it. That seemed not such a succes. The horse trainer had to step in to avoid Alanys being kicked to the death.

The horse trainer returned the wounded Alanys to the camp site, arriving at the same time with a soldier bearing a message. Alanys' wounds were tended to, while Berthold allowed Symon to take the message. In it, The Grey Sisters apologised profusely for the fact that Mollos' body had vanished: the lid of the coffin had been broken apart, and there was no sign of the dead knight.

White ravens flew over...