Some much needed explanations

Jon chuckled as he stared at the absolutely stunned expressions of his family members and the trusted, senior members of the Keep's Household that accompanied then like Master-at-arms Rodrik Cassel and his nephew Jory, who is the Captain of the Winterfell Guards. Even Maester Luwin's jaw dropped to the floor when he saw him caress his familiar's dangerous beak, such was the learned man's shock.

"You seem surprised," Jon said, smirking as his amusement grew. "Do you have anything to ask?"

There was a slight pause but then everyone started talking chaotically.

"...the hell did you manage to tame one of those beasts?!"

"...rider? So, you have a flying mount like the Dragonlords of old?!"

"...incredible! Can it breathe fire as dragons could???"

"... could something so fierce look so beautiful! She is magnificent!!!"

"...sure it is under your control? I have a duty to protect the Stark family and this thing is HUGE!"

"...succeeded in taming one of the so-called Tyrants of the Southern Skies?! I will have to check with the Citadel's archives one day but I am fairly certain such a thing is unprecedented! What's your secret?"

"...too damn old to be eaten. Please tell me it truly is friendly."

"....should we bow so it doesn't see us as a threat? I feel like we should bow..."

"ENOUGH!" The Lord of Winterfell yelled to silence them, and it was a testament to his authority that it worked, immediately.

Then, his father turned to him, a puzzled and...somewhat calculating expression on his face. As if he was wondering what to make of the development but didn't find it as implausible as the rest. Captain Snow raised an eyebrow at that, curious.

"Jon, I think I speak for everyone here when I say we could all use some explanations after this enormous surprise," Ned Stark admitted. "So, could you please tell us how exactly did you make this possible?"

"Of course," Jon replied, his tone smooth. "It's a bit of a long story though, so for now, I think it would be best if just skip to the most important bits."

He took a deep breath and placed a hand on the left side of Khūra's neck, scratching her just the way she likes it.

"As you all know, once I departed Winterfell after the...incident that involved the Ironborn raiders on Bear Island," He began, noticing the sudden look of guilt on Sansa's face at the worded reminder, "I headed first to White Harbor and ended up competing in the Grand Melee Tournament that was made in honor of Lady Wynafryd Manderly's 18th nameday, hoping to gain some additional gold before crossing the Narrow Sea. My good friend Lyra Mormont, who decided to accompany me, ended up lending me her family's Valyrian Steel Sword known as Longclaw to give me a better fighting chance in the competition. And as I am sure you must have heard by now, the blade of legendary quality paired well enough with my swordsmanship skills, helping me to win the grand melee, which allowed me to crown Lady Wynafryd as the Queen of Love and Beauty and gain 35,000 gold dragons. And trust me, that additional, large amount of gold to start my journey with was extremely important as far as initial investments were concerned."

"At any rate," Jon went on, "Once that was done, I paid passage to Braavos, hoping to find some work and opportunities there. Besides, I needed a safe and reliable bank for all that extra gold and knew that the Iron Bank would have done nicely."

"But then, I came across the actual sorceress I told you about," He explained. "Her name is Yna and while her powers are not particularly grand, she does have a couple of magical talents; one of which involves the capacity to predict a portion of the near future of the person before her by tasting a bit of the blood of the client."

He paused at that, giving them a moment to let them digest such a fact. Then he continued.

"That's how I came into the idea of taming a wyvern," He remarked. "Yna saw it in my future and shared the vision with me. More importantly, however, was something that neither of us expected: during the reading, she managed to detect magical potential in my blood as well, that came from my First Men ancestry.

The eyes of his siblings widened at that but it was Bran who opened his mouth first.

"Then, you are a warg!" He said, sounding excited. "Just like me!"

"Huh," Jon muttered tilting his head in surprise. "And here I thought I was going to have to give a long explanation for that part. So, you can skinchange too?"

"Yes," His brother replied, sounding proud of himself as he puffed his chest and stood on straighter. "Discovered it one day while riding my horse and noticing that I could see from its eyes. It took some convincing but I managed to prove it to everyone here eventually, although it's still mostly a secret in the castle. According to the old legends that Maester Luwin has researched for us since, it's apparently a rare talent that sometimes blooms in people that descend from the First Men"

"That's the conclusion I reached from my own sources as well," The Bastard of Winterfell responded. "Well, good on you, Bran. Maybe we can compare notes later on. But moving on, once I unlocked my magical heritage, I must admit I was...filled with ambition," He confessed. "Between the vision I saw and my capacity to establish a familiar bond with beasts due to my newly discovered skinchanging abilities, the idea of becoming the first man in the history of the known world to tame one of the ferocious, winged wyverns and soar through the skies was just too tempting to pass up."

"So, I bought a new ship, freshly produced on the fabled Arsenal of Braavos, managed to...persuade a crew to come with me to the dangerous continent of Sothoryos and filled the holds with most of the gold I had, after following the suggestion of a merchant I encountered on the Free city so that I could start buying luxurious items to sell later on after the initial stop on the coastal frontier of the southern continent," Jon explained. "Took a few weeks but eventually, we arrived on the fast ship near the peninsula known as Wyvern Point, named such for obvious and infamous reasons. "

The now very wealthy bastard paused for a moment, letting them bask in the feeling of anticipation for a bit.

"It didn't take long to find a wyvern but it took longer to find the kind I wanted," He remarked. "I didn't want a Swamp Wyvern because while they are the largest, physically speaking, they don't like to fly much or for long. Even if I wanted a Brownbelly Wyvern, that race wasn't practical because their biggest strength comes from hunting in packs of up to 100, not from their monkey-sized forms. And I was not interested in a Shadow-wing wyvern because those are completely nocturnal and as they melt their pitch-black shapes with the dark night, they tend to be feared the most among the sailors from southern Essos, Sothoryi, and anyone that knows anything worth knowing about wyverns."

"But eventually, I found the grown yet young Brindled Wyvern I was looking for," Jon said with a wide smile as he turned to look at his winged mount. "Took some effort to calm her down the first time, even after I established a bond with her once our minds merged initially. But before the sun set on the horizon, she let me take to the skies on her back. And let me tell you, the view from high above never gets old!" He declared with a chuckle.

His siblings looked amazed at the tale. "And then?" Robb asked, sounding fascinated.

"Then, we followed the Braavosi merchant's suggestion and headed to the eastern city of Qarth," The Bastard of Winterfell informed them. "Once there, we used most of the gold from my tournament winnings to buy valuable silk and spices and filled the holds with it. Eventually, we managed to sell it all along the way and made a huge return on my investments, with the majority of the luxurious goods being sold in Sunspear, the capital of Dorne," He added, smiling fondly as he remembered that he also managed to claim the clever Sarella Sand, her Summer Islander Captain of a mother and their excellently built and fast Swan ship; which in turn opened up his opportunities to later expand his trade network to the Summer Islands and the Princess therein he had come to know intimately well.

"I am also keeping to myself the fact that I arrived at Qarth several days earlier upon the wings of my wyvern so that I could take advantage of the suggestions the ancient Valyrian God of Dominance and Ownership, Meraxes, sent my way during his short visit," He thought to himself. "And in doing so, I managed to find the increasingly notorious Daenerys Targaryen before she left the city. But oh well, I still need to keep some mysteries to myself, don't I?"

"At any rate," Jon said aloud after shaking his head as if to clear it. "By claiming Khūra, I managed to establish a monopoly on a new business I created that proved to be my most consistently profitable one," He said with a grin. "To put it shortly, eventually, I managed to convince rich and influential people across Essos to pay me huge fees to deliver important and secretive messages or packages from one far-flung city of Essos to another in a few days at most. That's especially useful between, say, a Free city from the coast like Myr to a distant inland one like Qohor. And in time, my biggest and most reliable clients on that front ended up becoming highly ranked personnel that worked for the Iron Bank of Braavos. After all, a network of messaging ravens doesn't exist in Essos but this works even better by enabling me to transport larger objects by soaring through the clouds. And so many wealthy people could take advantage of such an airborne service, which works 10 to 30 times faster than traveling the same distance by land. So, yes, you could say that all of this has highly increased my wealth and contacts."

Ned Stark couldn't help but clap at that after a while. "I am so proud of you, my boy," His father said with a warm smile, which made him incredibly glad. "You have truly made a path for yourself outside of Westeros and left your mark wherever you traveled. I am so pleased to know that for sure now."

Jon smiled back. "And I am so glad you approve, father. Still don't worry too much about King Robert's hatred for dragons and the Targaryens. I have an idea to make him look at my wyvern and consider the opportunity Khūra could represent in a more reasonable manner."

The Lord of Winterfell chuckled. "You know, yesterday I would have said that what you propose would be tempting fate quite dangerously. But now, I am so proud of your accomplishments that I am inclined to believe you. So, I am looking forward to that conversation. That said, perhaps you should keep your familiar outside the walls for now. We don't want the king to panic, especially so soon after he arrives."

Captain Snow nodded in agreement. "Very well then. But before we head back to the castle, do you have any other questions?"

"Yes," Arya said as she raised her hand with a very determined look. "When can you take me flying?"

And just like that, everyone around her started chuckling fondly.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed the explanations and the implications therein. And now that Jon's first major set of explanations are out of the way, we are approaching the moment where he makes his first Written Ownership claim inside Winterfell itself. Who do you think will be Jon's highest priority, to begin with? Sansa? Arya? Heck, Catelyn as a form of ****? None of the above? Feel free to comment on your theories over here :D

Until next time guys. And as always, you know what to do to keep me extra invested in writing more and as fast as I can.