I wasn't going to post this because I was thinking of actually just writing the fic, but I want to get it out of my head for now so I can get back to my wild and unrealistic goal of finishing Griselda Grue this month (it's wild and unrealistic because it's probably going to be more than 100,000 words, and I can't always get myself to sit down and write every single day ANYWAY).
So there's something that crops up in fairytales where women get pregnant by eating a plant -- usually a thistle or a rose. My favorite example of this is Tattercloak, but I believe Prince Lyndwyrm was also a thistle baby. I was thinking the Westerosi equivalent of this would be to eat a Weirwood nut.
Dunk's mother doesn't want a husband or to even really have sex but she does want a baby. So she goes to the Isle of Faces, picks out a weirwood she likes the look of and eats one of the nuts. Forty weeks later, she gives birth to Dunk. She and Dunk somehow get separated when Dunk is very young (I'm imagining that he falls in the blackwater rush and she can't get to him in time and he floats to King's Landing, and only being half tree keeps him from drowning and/or hypothermia). Dunk's mom, I've been thinking of her as Ursula, prays to the gods about how to get him back because she has no idea where he's going to end up for sure and the gods are like, "Hang out with Brynden Rivers long enough, and he'll come back to you." She goes to Brynden is like, I hear you have this hype squad -- I want to join, I brought everyone weirwood bows. Brynden allows this.
Dunk ends up in a KL orphanage run by the faith, but ends up getting kicked out because he can't pray if there are no trees and of course you should give the occasional blood sacrifice? How else do the gods know you're serious? Septa, it just has to be a squirrel or a rat, I'm not gonna kill another kid (or however he would talk since he's like three or four at the time). Dunk ends up falling in with Rafe, Pudding and Ferret, who teach him the ways of the street orphan and like that he's big and tall. In the wake of the Blackfyre Rebellion ending, there's a sore need for hands in all trades, so the kids all end up getting apprenticeships around the time Ser Arlan and Dunk meet for the first time and Arlan takes Dunk to squire.
A selling point from Arlan is that Dunk gets to sleep under trees again. He doesn't really know WHY that's important, but he knows that it is.
Anyway, Dunk is Arlan's squire, he learns the ways of the hedge and whatever martial arts Dunk can teach him. Around the time of Ashford Tourney, Dunk and Ursula both have dreams about it, prompting Dunk and Arlan to set out toward Ashford and for Ursula to ask to be apart of Prince Baelor's retinue. Baelor doesn't understand the request made by Brynden, but knows Brynden has his ways and thinks it prudent to agree. Maekar complains about it (privately, he's not that rude), until Daeron and Aegon go missing and she offers to go ferret them out.
Ursula finds the inn by the wayside and catches Aegon playing with Thunder, chiding him about running away before Dunk comes in to snatch the boy off the horse. Ursula and Dunk recognize each other and have a tearful reunion. Dunk helps Ursula corral Daeron and Aegon, and they all set off for Ashford together.
Dunk learns all about his family -- his father's father was one of the northmen who settled in the Riverlands after the end of the Dance, and his grandparents knew about each other in advance of meeting due to some green dreams they had had. Ursula had been particularly devout to the old gods and explains the whole "I ate a nut and got pregnant thing" despite the fact that she know it sounds mad. Egg thinks it's no stranger than dragons and Daeron is passed out so he doesn't have an opinion. Dunk doesn't quite know what to think, but feels like his mother would have picked something different if she was telling a lie. He asks why she called him Dunk, and it was a milk name all along because he liked being Dunked in the water as a baby and a toddler. Egg suggests the name Duncan, and Ursula likes it because it's a good, Northern name like her father has. Dunk likes the idea of having some connection to his family.
The Targs arrive in Ashford, and Ursula seeks Baelor's council on finding a knight master for her son to finish his training, since Duncan is like fifteen nearly sixteen at this point. Old enough to be a knight, but likely young enough to need some further experience. Baelor points out that Dunk technically has to follow the Seven to be a knight, and Ursula is just like, "Really? I thought that was just something people said." And Baelor shrugs and is like, yeah, it is just something people say, but don't make too loud a noise about it. But if Duncan is coming back to court with her, there are likely any number of knights who would be happy to finish out his squiring. For now, he can shadow his mother and assist Valarr to get an idea for how Tourneys go. While Dunk wanted to participate as a knight, he supposes that getting some more training and maybe not losing his only worldly possessions to a bad joust is probably a better time than agonizing (also he has no armor! Duncan, are you going to make your mother watch you joust without armor! The answer is no.) He DOES get a turn at shooting the weirwood bow, though he is very unpracticed. Ursula wins the archery competition if there is one.
Does Aerion ruin everything? I'm unclear, I was mostly just trying to make a story about Dunk being half tree. So that's all I have for now. Byeeeeeee.
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