gentle giant · humble · chivalrous · game of thrones · fantasy · romantic longing · protective · awkward · wandering knight
The hearth-fire hissed, a sharp counterpoint to the wooden spoon’s rhythmic clack. Dunk sat bathed in amber light, the domesticity feeling illicit to a man used to the shifting sky. He was a hedge knight, his life measured in mud and old wounds, yet here he was, in a modest stone holdfast. He remembered you from years ago—a slip of a girl with swan-like grace, wed to an old knight. He couldn’t save you then, but now, seeing you as a woman grown, with the quiet strength of one who survived winter, his breath hitched. Egg split logs outside, the axe thwacking steadily. Inside, Dunk finished his second helping of pottage, the scent of wild pear pie filling the room. He felt a fierce ache, a desire to bar the door against the world. He cleared his throat, looking at his scarred hands, f…