Wow I haven't gone back 2 ASOS in a long time so I hope I'm on the right chapter. Let's try, at least, 2 get this read fired up again and mayb we can finish b4 AFFC comes out. (By the way: I will be attending Bubonicon in 2 weeks so I will report back here on Martin's latest AFFC reading--and also any answers 2 pertinent questions raised.)
Well if chapter 24 really is Bran--it immediately raises a big question that's been asked in chat here and on the ASOIAF board: Where did Rickon and Osha end up?
Quote:The blue star in the dragon's eye pointed the way north, as Osha told him once. Thinking of Osha made Bran wonder where she was. He pictured her safe in White Harbor with Rickon and Shaggydog, eating eels and fish and hot crab pie with fat Lord Manderly. [That's where I originally thought they went...BUT:] Or maybe they were warming themselves at the Last Hearth before the Greatjon's fires. But Bran's life had turned into endless chilly days on Hodor's back, riding his basket up and down the slopes of the mountians.
minor spoiler alert In the ongoing debate as to Rickon and Osha's whereabouts many pundits believe that their venturing to either of those locations would place them, and Bran ,in too much danger and that they possibly ended up in the care of Howland Reed, Meera and Jojen's dad, hidden in The Neck. I'm not spoiling too much here as we still don't kno their location by the end of ASOS...
what can I remember off the top of my head? As you remember Theon couldn't find this brave little troop consisting of Bran, Rickon, Hodor, Meera, Jojen and Osha so in order to save what's left of his pitiful face he kills 2 boys matching the Stark's bodybuilds. The company hides with the dead Lords under Winterfell..and finally emerge after the Bastard of Bolton torches the place (if indeed it was him). Osha and Rickon go off on their own as Jojen, Bran, Hodor and Meera head north in search of Bran's three-eyed crow. Trapped between the Bastard and the Ironmen it is, at first very slow going as Jojen works to refine Bran's greendreams and "warging" talents. They musn't be found, they must hide constantly...
ok onto the chapter Having, finally, left the tower a good deal of traveling takes place here as they continually walk in rough terrain near the mountains, doubling back on switchbacks and are forced to take much more time on their journey, as opposed to the kingsroad. They encounter no one except for a lone Liddle (loyal to House Stark) in a cave during a rainstorm, who shares his food with them and offers some news.
Quote:"When there was a Stark in Winterfell, a maiden girl could walk the kingsroad in her name-day gown and still go unmolested, and travelers could find fire, bread, and salt at many an inn and holdfast. But the nights are colder now, and doors are closed. There's squids in the wolfswood and flayed men ride the kingsroad asking after strangers." *The Reeds exchanged a look. "Flayed men?" said Jojen. *"The Bastard's boys, aye. He was dead, but now he's not. And paying good silver for wolfskins, a man hears, and maybe gold for word of other walking dead." He looked at Bran when he said that, and at Summer stretched out beside him. "As to the Wall," the man went on, "It's not a place I'd be going. The Old Bear took the Watch into the haunted woods, and all that come back was his ravens, with hardly a message between them..."
The Liddle disapears at daybreak and as they resume their walk northward they spot an eagle and Bran imagines flying, as it does (tho I've wondered if it was the wilding-warg). As they breach a saddle between two peaks Bran wheedles a story out of Meera about the "Knight of the Laughing Tree". It is a story Bran has not heard before that involves a crannogman (one of the Reed's people) venturing out in the world to seek magic on the Isle of Faces in God's Eye. On his way home he is accosted by three Freys near the Red Dragon's famous tourney at Harrenhall. It is a wonderful story, which I'll leave you to discuss. But I'll roughly say that this is the tourney in which Jamie becomes a White Sword and is sent to the Red Keep by the Dragon to undermine Tywin. Rheagar (the singing dragon), Lyanna (the shewolf) Ned (the quiet one), his brother (soon to be bethrothed to Catelynn, backthen) and Robert (the stormlord) are all present. Prehaps the last tourney before the last great war of Westeros and the Battle of the Trident begins--so some very interesting historical tidbits here...
(coming soon: Davos) And now Danlo looked in that direction, too. He remembered that snowy owls mate in the darkest part of deep winter, and so along with this beautiful white bird perched in a tree a hundred feet away, he turned to face the sea as he watched and waited.
Ahira, Ahira, he called out silently to the sky. Ahira, Ahira<i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 8/10/03 7:02 pm </i>
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