Hi guys! Just a quick little Gendry and Arya thing I couldn't get out of my head! This will be a short multi chapter fic (I think) and will focus mainly on Arya and Gendry's relationship progression after reuniting! For those of you that read my other fic A Song of Wolves and Dragons fear not! The next chapter will be updated SOON. Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!
Much love,
Rin xoxo
The cold of the North bit into Gendry's form, numbing him and making him feel alive all at once. His horse had died the day before. It hadn't been able to handle the cutting winds of winter and the stamina it took to gallop with a man as big as Gendry sitting atop its saddle. Gendry had been too cold, too hungry to be sad. He had been almost sickened to feel relieved at the horses passing. Its death meant his survival. He cooked as much of its meat as he could carry and had moved along desperate to reach her home.
Gendry had heard over two moon cycles ago. At first he hadn't let himself hope, but then he became curious and began asking questions and gathering information from passersby. Before he could change his mind and pull himself back curiosity turned to hope then hope laid waste to Gendry and he became sick with thoughts of her. He thought of her while forging, while eating, while fighting bandits and while drifting off to sleep. The thought of her being alive, of her heart beating hundreds of miles from him entranced his whole being.
He fought it for weeks. He fought the ache in his hands that still searched for her beside him in the middle of the night. As if it were still five years ago and they were still on the King's Road. As if she still spent every night curled into his back, her hand curled over his shoulder and her forehead rested against his back. He fought the souring of his stomach every time he heard wolves howl in the distance. He even fought the dreams of grey eyes and M'Ladys for some time.
When the second month had ended and the third began Gendry found he could no longer run away from his subconscious. He had fallen asleep the moment his body hit the straw mattress. He left the waking world finding himself staring into the yellow eyes of a large beast. The moonlight shone down through the trees surrounding them. Gendry felt fear coil and creep through his blood as the wolf, no direwolf, sat back on its haunches and bared its teeth.
Gendry flinched ready for ripping and fangs and the painful death that he was sure would befall him. He closed his eyes tensed his body and waited.
"I'm sorry Arya" He thought to himself.
Seconds passed and nothing had happened. He took a chance and opened his eyes. The direwolf had sat down not too far away from him and had taken to studying him. Its yellow eyes piercing his blue ones. It sniffed at him and drew itself closer and he resisted the urge to run away screaming. It circled him curiously though not in a threatening manner. After a few minutes of their one sided standoff the wolf stopped inches from Gendry. He held his breath as the wolf moved its head towards his own. He once again readied himself for teeth and pain, but the wolf just stopped centimeters from him, bowed its head towards his and gazed at him expectantly.
Gendry stood unsure of what to do. He went to move a step back and the wolf growled. Ok not that then. He thought. He reached a hand towards its grey fur unsure of this move as well. The wolf bared its teeth a bit but didn't growl this time. He withdrew his hand and sighed.
"What is it you want me to do then?" He groaned at the wolf and it yipped at him annoyed and bent its head towards him again looking at him expectantly before closing its yellow eyes waiting for him to figure it out. Something clicked in his head and he felt hesitant.
Although the wolf could easily tear him in two it didn't seem set on doing anything of the sort. It gave him guidance and warning but had yet to harm him. What did he have left to lose? Gendry took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and leaned forward closing the small gap between man and beast and the wolf sighed as their foreheads met. Suddenly a searing pain ripped through Gendry and he cried out. The wolf was trying to show him something but he couldn't focus past the pain. He couldn't do anything but groan and try to gain the strength to move away from the beast.
Until he heard her voice. Then all at once it was like his world came into focus and all he could see was her. The last time he had seen her she had been one and three, all skin and bones and knobby knees. The last time he had seen her he had felt sick at his longing to run his hand through her knotted up hair that had just begun to touch her shoulders. The last time he had seen her she had been a young princess and he had been a lowborn bastard boy.
Now as he stared at her through this wolf's vision he could hardly breathe. She was still Arya, still had the noticeable features. Her eyes were still the same color and still had the same fire inside them even if it had dulled a bit. Her nose was the same and her smile had the same brilliance he had missed. But there were more changes than he had counted on. Her lips were pinker and plumper than he remembered and her hair although still dark had grown to reach the middle of her back. She was no longer skin and bones and all gangly and boyish. She had gained womanly curves that made Gendry's heart speed up. Her legs were longer, her hips wider, her chest more pronounced.
She stood facing him, her feet buried in snow. The trees behind her disconcerted him a bit, their eyes bleeding with red sap and staring at him leaving him feeling a cold that had nothing to do with the winter winds.
Her eye's stared into his, or the wolves, he couldn't tell. She had only uttered a few words but they were swimming far away from him as he held his breath at the sight of her alive. Arya's alive. His heart pounded. His hands shook. He stared at her lips trying to make out her words. She reached out towards him and once again his world snapped back into focus. He listened this time aching to hear her voice, trembling with the need to hear her melodic, high voice with her Northern lilt. She smiled at him and his heart nearly stopped.
"Nymeria" She breathed and he was confused. He looked down and was shocked to see paws and fur. Her hands finally reached him but he could only feel her hands tugging at his (the wolf's?) fur.
"Nymeria find Gendry. Bring him to me. Find my Bull." She whispered and just like that he was falling back away from her, losing her all over again.
As he woke he knew she was alive. That this dream was his purpose to believe the rumors that had haunted his ears for three months. Arya Stark had returned to Winterfell. He left Hollow Hill the next morning with a horse, supplies, and a gift for his M'Lady he had forged over the past three months.
Now a little over a month later as he struggled through snow and the feeling left his fingers and toes he began to doubt his hope. He had not met with a direwolf, he had not heard travelers speak of her. He had begun to think he had imagined the whole situation, had fooled himself into more heartbreak. He was no less than three days on foot from Winter Town with less than a day and a half's worth of food.
Had he come all this way for nothing? Had he come all this way to die? He asked himself that night as he huddled under a tree with all the firs and cloaks he had wrapped tightly around him. He shook with cold and longed for a fire. All of the wood he could use to make a fire was wet with snow and therefor useless. He stared at the moon for what felt like hours sitting as one by one his body parts lost feeling, his blood started to run cold. He knew he wouldn't make it through the night. He knew it would be time soon. It was almost over, soon the cold would give way to sleepiness and he would drift off to an eternal sleep.
His blue eyes glistened with tears that would not be shed. He had been so sure, he had hoped beyond all hope. But no amount of hope, no amount of wishing could make her be alive. He had yearned for her so much he had run towards his grave. At least if he was wrong he would see her soon. At that he smiled and it was the first time he'd been happy in five years.
He felt tired now and he couldn't feel anything except the smile on his face. He closed his eyes. Then a sound came from the trees to the left. His eyes opened slowly, curiously. A howl broke the night's silence and that was all it took. His eyes flew open fully, his heart stopped and he used what little strength he had left to sit up, alert and on edge.
He could hear something moving through the snow. He could hear heavy, deep breaths and he could smell blood. Then he saw eyes peer through the darkness from the tree line and he almost passed out. The eyes were yellow and as she revealed herself the fur was grey and he'd never felt such joy.
As soon as her eyes found him she was running at him and his joy gave way to fear as he flinched away. But Nymeria slowed when she got near him and sniffed over him looking for signs of illness. She had found what she had been looking for and lowered herself near him looking back at him.
Her eyes spoke what she couldn't say "you don't have much time". And so he did all he knew to do and gathered his gift in one hand and his cloak in the other and dragged himself onto the back of the huge wolf. He threw the cloak over himself with all the energy he could muster and threaded his fingers through Nymeria's fur. She stood up quickly, checked to make sure he was secure, and pounced forward.
And he held on for so long. He couldn't feel the cold wind nipping at his face anymore and his fingers gripping the wolf's fur struggled to hold on. Thirty minutes into the jaunting ride and Gendry was back to fighting the tiredness creeping over him. His blood was pounding in his ears, his heart was slowing with cold, his breathing was beginning to get shallower with every breath and a deep rattle settled into his lungs.
He fought every second to keep his fingers in Nymeria's fur. He could feel the wolf pushing herself faster and faster, sensing his weak state. She whimpered at him as if to say "Just a little longer", but he knew he couldn't hang on much longer. His eyes stayed closed longer and longer every time they closed. His breathing was almost nonexistent and just when he thought he was going to fall off Nymeria stopped and howled.
At first he thought it was despair making her howl, that she had realized he wasn't going to make it. But then he heard rushed footsteps and loud voices. He noticed a change in position and realized he had fallen off Nymeria, his fingers had finally faltered and released her fur. The snow beneath him was body temperature to his freezing form but he could stare up at the moon again and that's all he wanted in his last moments.
The footsteps were getting nearer, Nymeria's howls louder. He had no more will to care what was coming this time. He just stared at the sky waiting for death to take him. And it was like Déjà vu. He heard her voice calling for him. Those few seconds were the worst torture, hearing her voice and not having the strength to find her form, to see if she was there at all. He could feel his heart, mind, body scream her name. In those few seconds he was a dry wasteland and her visage was the rain he had missed for so long.
And then she was there, touching him, calling for him, her face swimming in front of his eyes. The wasteland he had fallen into since he had lost her was suddenly quenched of every thirst with just one look at her. The storm he had become in her absence was calmed with one touch. And he thought for sure that he was dying. She was too beautiful to be here, she had to be an angel, and he had to have been wrong.
But her hands were on his face and she was calling his name and she was so warm. Warm enough for him to want to hope again and he tried to focus, he tried to sense her pulse as her fingers pushed his hair back from his eyes. He looked at her then and it was her grey on his blue for the first time in years. Their eyes locked and hers flared up with determination and fire and his showed the relief of finally knowing she was alive and he whispered her name like a prayer.
He could feel the blackness looming over him, could feel himself losing the battle to stay conscious. His breath was coming fast and short, his sight was crossing and fading. He could see her starting to panic could hear her yelling commands at someone. He felt the panic rise within him scared to leave her. Protesting that he had just found her and now he was dying.
Arya was yelling again, this time at him and he welcomed the familiarity of it all. "You stupid stubborn bull! Gendry you better fight it or I swear to Gods I will-"Her breath hitched as she trailed off and he could feel her shake. On the cusp of blacking out he smiled and whispered "As you wish M'Lady" and then there was nothing but darkness.
So that's the first chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it and I hope I did justice to the characters. Thanks again for reading and don't forget to leave a review and tell me what you think! Thanks again
Much love,
Rin xoxo
