Calm. Such a drastic change from the battle. There were no more trumpets or the sound of steel rings clinking together. Only an eerie silence remained. Though deep down he could still hear, still feel, the battle that had raged.
Drage Lanyon had awoken two days in a row to the sounds of trumpets calling men to arms. Once was reality, but the second time was only an echo of the first. He had always been told that the eyes would be the worst part killing, but the screams and murmurs of the nearly dead were what haunted his dreams. On the outside, he was hard granite and steel though. These past two war filled years had taught him nothing good comes from showing your emotions.
His thoughts went back to Norrdir and the winter snow. The young children would be riding down frozen hills right now. Their fathers would be in search of deer or fishing to sustain their families through this trying time. He almost missed that hard desolate life.
Almost. For, through it all, Drage had come to learn that he loved Aurvandil. He loved the chivalry and the Capital City. Candiel’s metropolitan feel was much more attractive than the rustic, almost squalorly feel of Nifelheim. He loved the weather and the people. The military precision awed him and had become ingrained in him in the year he had lived here. His leaders seemed infallible and he would nearly follow them to the Ruins of Walfurgisnacht and expect to make it back.
Though most of all, he loved the battles. The primal fear and physical exertion melded into one feeling that was a cross between terror and excitement. He started to remember it now: the ladders at the wall and the fighting when it spilled over into the bailey. Here the High Sovereigns unit striking down men left and right, capturing noble after noble. There the fierce charge of Magistrate Perth’s cavalry and their beating back. Then he remembered his own fight. Arrows struck down his soldiers and several we killed or wounded in the melee but finally surrounding the enemy knight and his capturing him. That was when the feeling was the highest, after he had bested an equal in a primordial death duel and took him hostage. No amount of nightmares or screams of men could ruin that.
I think I've decided to model Drage after victarion greyjoy. Just because victarion is my favorite character in the ASOIAF books and I feel I can do a lot with that role
