It was late at night when Lynd returned to the camp; his late return was entirely due to him getting lost in the Forest.
Logically, with his abilities, it should have been impossible for him to get lost in the Forest, yet he genuinely was lost, and the process of getting lost was somewhat inexplicable, as if the entire woods were moving with him; this made him wonder if Spark, a Forest Children, was playing tricks on him.
As for why she would play tricks on him, he surmised it might be because he had previously coveted Spark's potion, and Spark had sensed it through some means, so Spark wanted to give him a small lesson.
However, no matter what, Lynd suffered no harm, only a slight depletion of his stamina, and on the way, he also hunted a few wild rabbits to feed the little one in his arms.
Throughout the journey, the little one in his arms was very well-behaved, not moving around, seemingly treating Lynd's clothes as a sleeping bag.
Having nothing else to do, Lynd also took the opportunity to name this little one Honor.
"You're finally back! I was about to send someone into the Forest to look for you." The scout captain, having learned from the night watch guard that Lynd had returned, hurried over, scolding Lynd for his late return while also scrutinizing him to ensure he was unharmed, only then did his tense expression relax slightly.
In his opinion, Lynd should not have hunted the Shadowcat; otherwise, he would have been more or less injured and would have carried the Shadowcat's corpse back.
"It was too dark, and I got lost in the Forest," Lynd explained simply.
The scout captain did not question the reasonableness of this explanation; he patted Lynd on the shoulder and said, "Lord Garlan and Vortimer are waiting for you in the hall tent; you'd best go immediately."
Lynd paused upon hearing this, and without asking the reason for their wait, he followed the scout captain's lead to the hall of the inn's building.
Because there were several bonfires in the hall, the dampness and chill of the rainy weather were completely dispelled; nobles and knights had found clean spots to sleep, with only a few attendants remaining awake, ready to answer their masters' calls at any moment.
Additionally, inside the very conspicuous tent in the hall, there was also flickering firelight, and silhouettes could be seen projected onto the tent fabric, indicating that the people inside had not yet rested.
Upon seeing Lynd, the attendant sitting beside the tent immediately stood up, then motioned for Lynd to wait a moment, turned and ducked into the tent, and quietly woke Garlan and Vortimer, who were dozing.
"Lynd, come in!" After clearing his head a bit, Vortimer spoke for Garlan.
Hearing this, Lynd lifted the curtain and stepped inside; however, the tent was carpeted, and the rainwater from his clothes dripped onto the floor, leaving puddles on the carpet, which made him involuntarily stop at the edge of the carpet to avoid making it wetter.
"Don't worry, I didn't want this carpet laid in the first place; those fellows insisted on it, so it's fine if it gets dirty," Garlan rubbed his somewhat sleepy eyes, then looked at Lynd's condition, saying with a hint of disappointment, "By the looks of you, you probably didn't catch that Shadowcat."
"No, I caught up," Lynd replied, "but I didn't kill it."
"Didn't kill it?" Garlan was stunned.
At this moment, Vortimer noticed something in Lynd's arms, seemingly a living creature moving about, so he pointed at Lynd's embrace and asked, "Is this what you gained from tracking the Shadowcat?"
"Yes," Lynd nodded, then brought out the albino Shadowcat cub, Honor, that was sleeping in his arms, saying, "This little one was given to me by its mother, the Shadowcat I was tracking."
Garlan and Vortimer were both stunned by this, looking at the Lynx cub, Honor, that Lynd had produced, and remained silent for a long time.
The next morning, the rain had stopped; although the ground was still muddy, it was much easier to traverse than the day before, and as usual, the scout team went ahead to check the situation, but unlike before, Lynd, as the core of the scout team, was accompanied by a Shadowcat cub, and this cub was an extremely rare albino cub.
Last night, the people who had gone hunting with Lynd, upon returning to their respective squads, informed others about Lynd tracking the Shadowcat and also spread the misunderstanding about the ten hunting trials.
However, when Lynd did not return for a long time afterward, many people speculated whether something had happened to him, as their current location was Kingswood, and no matter how skilled Lynd's swordsmanship was, it could not be fully utilized in such an environment; furthermore, the danger of a Shadowcat in the Forest was far greater than elsewhere, as it could silently approach its prey concealed by trees and bushes, tearing out the prey's throat with its sharp claws and teeth, killing it in one blow; even a sworn knight might not be able to evade a Shadowcat's ambush, so as time wore on into the night, more and more people felt that Bear Hunter might perish in Kingswood this time.
However, Lynd did return, and he returned unharmed, without any signs of a struggle on him, so everyone in the camp thought Lynd must not have tracked the Shadowcat this time.
But not long after, new information spread from the inn's hall: it turned out that Lynd had tracked the Shadowcat and defeated it completely without injury, then captured it alive; however, when Lynd was about to bring the Shadowcat back to the inn, he discovered that the Shadowcat was a female with several cubs.
When Lynd was a hunter, there was an unwritten rule: never capture a female beast with cubs, so he released that Shadowcat then; and as he was preparing to leave, the Shadowcat blocked his path and brought him an albino cub as a gift.
Initially, when the people in the camp heard this news, they all thought that whoever spread it must be talking nonsense, because they had never heard of a Shadowcat being tamed, let alone being intelligent enough to repay a kindness.
However, when Lynd emerged from the inn's hall, cradling an albino Shadowcat cub, everyone's expressions were filled with shock, and their gazes towards Lynd became increasingly awestruck, because such things were only seen in legends and only happened to legendary heroes, so much so that Lynd also took on some of the aura of a legendary hero in their minds.
In fact, this was also the effect Lynd hoped to achieve; he deliberately concealed the matters of the Forest Children and the Faceless Men, slightly altering the process of obtaining the cub, Honor; in his opinion, killing a Shadowcat would only make people think he was a powerful hunter, but having a Shadowcat willingly offer its cub would make people think this was something that would only happen to a legendary hero.
Moreover, and more importantly, he didn't need to publicize it himself; others would actively publicize it for him, and stories recounted by others were far more convincing than those told by oneself.
Thus, by the next morning, the entire House Tyrell contingent knew about the Shadowcat incident; many curious individuals even rushed to the scout team's encampment before Lynd departed to see the albino Shadowcat cub from the story, and those who still harbored doubts about the rumors had their suspicions completely dispelled upon seeing the Lynx cub, Honor, clinging to Lynd and growling at others.
However, even so, there were not a few envious people among them, mostly the Highgarden nobles and knights who were accompanying the team on this journey; in their view, someone of Lynd's low status was unworthy of such a legendary experience.
Yet, due to Vortimer, they dared not overtly belittle Lynd in Garlan's presence, only daring to slightly question the veracity of Lynd's story, but when Garlan asked them for their reasons for doubting, they were at a loss for words; all these things made them feel as if Lynd was a hedgehog, impossible to approach.
Ultimately, they could only attack Lynd by using Honor's albino appearance, because in Westeros, albino beasts were never considered auspicious; they were discriminated against much like human deformities, and in many folk legends, albino beasts were even described as evil creatures that devoured human souls; people who died by the mouth of an albino beast would not be received by the Stranger and would forever wander between life and death, eventually transforming into evil Others.
Although Garlan did not believe such absurd legends, and he held no prejudice against either animal deformities or human deformities, he nonetheless had to consider the opinions of others around him.
However, he did not want to do anything to Lynd because of these people's jealousy, so when they rested that evening, he had a servant give Lynd a collar fashioned from a bridle, as a way of showing his stance.
Lynd had already planned to make a collar to restrain Honor, because Honor, besides being especially affectionate towards him, maintained a wild beast's nature towards everyone else; even Raul was inadvertently bitten by it, losing a small piece of flesh, so Lynd had to put the plan of training the Shadowcat on the agenda, and until Honor was trained to a satisfactory degree, he would restrain it with a collar and leash to prevent further injuries to people.
Honor, on the other hand, was unaware that its days of hardship were fast approaching; it instead thought the collar Lynd put on it was a gift, a toy, and played with it gleefully.
The rest of the journey proceeded very smoothly; it did not rain again, and after departing from the inn, it took another three days to finally exit Kingswood and arrive at the end of the Rose Road, which was also the terminus of the Coppergate Road and King's Road, where the three roads converged.
It is interesting that this place, being the junction of three major roads and also at the exit of Kingswood, with the Blackwater Bridge connecting the South and the Crownlands behind it, should logically be a crucial military stronghold; not to mention building a fortress here, at least a military camp should have been erected and some troops stationed to guard the vital point.
However, in reality, there was only an abandoned military camp here, and this camp was only temporarily built during the campaign to suppress the Kingswood Brotherhood; after the Kingswood Brotherhood was dealt with, it was completely abandoned, and now that Robert Baratheon sits on the Iron Throne, he has not built a military fortress here either, but instead continues to let the former temporary camp lie in ruins.
As for the reason, it is very likely that he believes the Coppergate Road leads to Storm's End, and Storm's End is his Baratheon territory, so there is no need for him to waste manpower and resources garrisoning here.
However, as the House Tyrell contingent arrived at this intersection, a troop emerged from the abandoned temporary military camp; this troop was not large, only about a hundred men, dressed in black armor with golden cloaks draped over their backs, which looked both striking and impractical; the only practical items were the iron hammers hanging at their waists and the iron-tipped long spears held in their hands.
"They must be the Gold Cloaks of King's Landing," Raul whispered, sidling up to Lynd at this moment.
Lynd listened to Raul's tip, his gaze sweeping over the Gold Cloaks and finally settling on the person leading them.
This man was tall and handsome, with a thick mane of golden hair, a pair of emerald green eyes full of confidence, and slightly upturned, blade-like lips that made him appear extremely proud; in addition to his appearance, his attire was also very striking, a very ornate suit of armor worn over his body, a white cloak draped from his shoulders, and a beautifully decorated longsword wrapped by the cloak, subtly swaying beneath it with the movement of his body.
"Jaime Lannister the Kingslayer." Such a distinguished appearance, coupled with the obvious lion emblem on his armor, made it easy for Lynd to identify the man's identity.
Not only Lynd recognized the man's identity, but everyone else in the contingent also recognized him; however, upon recognizing the Kingslayer, they all involuntarily showed expressions of disdain and disgust; even Garlan, who had undergone special training, could not hide his disdain.
In the past, who was the most disgraced knight in all Seven Kingdoms was uncertain, as everyone had their own standards of judgment, making uniformity impossible; but after the War of the Usurper, this most disgraced knight was deservedly attributed to Jaime Lannister the Kingslayer, because he betrayed his oath and killed Aerys, the Mad King, whom he was sworn to protect.
As the person in question, Jaime Lannister seemed to have grown accustomed to such contemptuous and disdainful gazes; a year ago, he might have been angered by them, but now he was utterly unperturbed, for he knew very well that no matter how he explained himself, no one would believe him, nor would anyone quietly listen to him; the only thing he could do was to always hold his head high, so as not to let the crown on his head fall.
However, as Jaime's gaze swept over the soldiers of House Tyrell before him, he noticed that amidst countless looks of scorn and disdain, one person's gaze was unusually calm, showing no negative emotions directed at him whatsoever; this made him pause on that person for a moment, then quickly shift his gaze to Garlan Tyrell, who had already walked to the front of the contingent accompanied by Vortimer.
"I've heard of you, Garlan the Gallant," Jaime said, riding his horse up to Garlan, looking him up and down on horseback with a somewhat impertinent and very flippant tone, "I don't know if you're truly gallant, but from your physique, you don't seem to fit the part."
Jaime Lannister's casual taunting tone towards Garlan displeased the knights and nobles of House Tyrell, and Vortimer subtly rested his hand on his sword hilt.
Yet, Jaime seemed oblivious to House Tyrell's displeasure, his scornful smile becoming even more pronounced, and he paid no mind to the threat Vortimer displayed.