Tyrion Lannister and Penny become companions

Tyrion Lannister and Penny, a dwarf mummer, become reluctant companions after being enslaved together in Yunkai. Their bond, forged in shared captivity and loss, is marked by Tyrion's protective cruelty and Penny's desperate need for attachment, culminating in a fragile partnership that survives the chaos of war.

Origins in Enslavement and Loss

Penny and her brother Oppo, known as Groat, were dwarf mummers who performed comic jousts with a pig and a dog. After Joffrey Baratheon's wedding, where they had performed, they fled King's Landing fearing reprisal. In Volantis, drunken sailors mistook Oppo for Tyrion and beheaded him, leaving Penny alone and grief-stricken. Tyrion, himself a fugitive, felt a pang of responsibility. When the widow of the waterfront helped them escape Volantis aboard the cog Selaesori Qhoran, Tyrion insisted they bring Penny along, despite Jorah Mormont's objections. "I said we could not abandon her in Volantis," Tyrion explained. "That does not mean I want to fuck her." Penny, for her part, initially blamed Tyrion for her brother's death, throwing wine in his face and accusing him: "He died for you. His blood is on your hands."

A Fragile Alliance Forged at Sea

On the voyage, the two dwarfs were thrown together by circumstance. Penny, emerging from her cabin after days of weeping, found Tyrion a constant, if abrasive, presence. He taught her to play cyvasse, though she proved a hopeless student, and they began to take meals together. When the ship was becalmed and the crew grew hostile, Penny proposed they perform their joust to win favor. Tyrion, clad in Groat's old wooden armor, reluctantly agreed. "The thing is not to joust well, Hugor," Penny told him. "The thing is to make them laugh and throw coins." Their performance, though clumsy, momentarily distracted the sailors. After a storm wrecked the ship, they drifted for nineteen days, and Tyrion brought her food, limping on a bandaged calf. When a slaver galley rescued them, they were sold on the auction block in Yunkai, still together.

Shared Captivity Under Yezzan zo Qaggaz

Bought by the grotesquely obese Yunkish lord Yezzan zo Qaggaz, Tyrion and Penny became part of his "grotesquerie," a collection of freaks and oddities. They were forced to perform their joust for Yezzan's guests, and Tyrion, ever calculating, used his wit to navigate their new reality. Penny, however, clung to the hope that their master was kind. "We were his special slaves, though," she insisted. "Just like Sweets. His treasures." Tyrion, knowing Yezzan had intended to feed them to lions in the fighting pits, kept the truth from her, offering hollow reassurances. When the pale mare, a deadly flux, swept through the camp, Yezzan fell ill. Tyrion, seeing an opportunity, convinced Penny to help him escape, lying that their animals were dead to spur her into action. "The mummer show is over," he told her, slapping her to break her reverie. "Fight or hide or shit yourself, as you like, but whatever you decide to do, you'll do it clad in steel."

Joining the Second Sons

Tyrion led Penny and the captive Jorah Mormont to the camp of the Second Sons, a sellsword company. There, he negotiated their freedom by signing promissory notes and joining the company. Penny, still dazed, was given armor and a new identity as a boy. Tyrion, now a Second Son, took on the role of her protector and taskmaster, forcing her to confront the reality of their situation. "If you want to dream, go back to sleep," he told her. "When you wake up, we'll still be escaped slaves in the middle of a siege." Their relationship, born of tragedy and necessity, had become a partnership of survival, with Tyrion's cynical pragmatism balanced by Penny's fragile, persistent hope.