The nerves that came from leaving the city were far more prevalent than they had been upon arrival. She should've been relieved knowing she would be returning home, but they weren't out of the city just yet. "You expect a fight," she observed, watching Willas as he and Loras both put on armor that looked as if it had never seen battle.
Willas flashed her an easy smile and it looked nearly sincere. "Expect the worst and you'll never be caught off guard."
His smile did little to alleviate the rampant beasts thrashing about her belly. Sansa did not seem nearly so worried; mostly she was angry that her father was so selfishly tearing her away from her one true love Prince Joffrey. It was enough to make Arya want to knock her in the head, but she refrained, choosing instead to focus her nervous energy on twirling her dagger around her fingers as she watched her father's men finish loading their things on the back of a wagon. It was far less than what they had come with, but her father promised to replace the things they were leaving behind.
Sansa looked positively despondent as they sat atop their horses, marching through the city. Arya couldn't be entirely sure why. Perhaps she was sad to leave King's Landing, or perhaps she was dreading spending a very long journey atop a horse instead of in a sheltered, comfortable carriage. Father had told them a carriage would meet them somewhere along the way, but for now, they must be able to move swiftly and a carriage would only serve to hinder them. It almost made Arya feel excited, as if she were going off to war.
They traveled from the Red Keep down River Row, along the Street of Steel, past Tobho Mott's shop. Arya willed for Gendry to peek his head out as they passed, as anyone in their right mind would upon feeling the earth shake beneath their feet. Two hundred horses stormed through the streets of King's Landing, making their way to Gate of the Gods. The most logical exit of the city, least likely to be guarded, Renly had told them.
But that wasn't entirely true. Red and gold lined the streets ahead, blocking their escape, the goldest figure of all at their helm. "Such a small pack of wolves," Jaime noted from atop a strong, white mare. Arya had never suspected anyone would find two hundred to be a small number, but the combined forces of the Lannister guards and gold cloaks was more. "Was this all you could assemble for your daring escape from the city?"
She watched as her father led his horse to the front of their assembly, and she willed her horse to trail as closely behind him as she dared. "You've left your king's side prematurely, Ser Jaime," her father observed. "The second to die under your guard."
Arya watched as the mirth left Jaime's eyes. "Come, Lord Stark," he said. "Your life and the lives of your daughters are not forfeit yet. Turn your horse around, bend the knee to your king and you will be allowed to live out the rest of your years in that grey waste you call home."
"Your son has no claim to the throne," said Ned. "To swear him loyalty would be treason."
Son? wondered Arya, her stomach plummeting into her shoes, her mouth as dry as a Dornish desert. Jaime's son, not Robert's? The reason her father had gone to visit Gendry, and Jon Arryn before him. He had seen Robert Baratheon's true son and knew Joffrey was not it. Sansa had often said Joffrey looked a bit like his uncle Jaime … "I would rather you die with sword in hand," was Jaime's reply, as he drew his own blade.
"If you threaten my father again-"
"Threaten?" Jaime interrupted, his eyes finding hers amongst the hundreds. "As in I'm going to open your father from balls to brains and see what Starks are made of?"
The sound of two hundred swords being drawn deafened her and chaos soon consumed her. She had always dreamt of going off to war, but she had never imagined war to be so … congested. There was no where for her horse to move, not forward, not backwards. "Arya!" she heard Willas call to her, but she could not find him among the clashing soldiers. How did men even know who was friend or foe upon the field? She couldn't tell. The only man she could focus on was Jaime, bright and golden and easy to spot as he crossed blades with her father. He was better, far better than her father, and sent the older man stumbling backwards into her horse. A horse that reared its head in response, sending her toppling off the back of it and into the dirt below.
The wind knocked out of her, she had no time to collect it again before dodging out of the way of heavy hooves nearly trampling her. She scrambled to her feet, weaving in and out of clashing blades and horse's legs until she found them again. Her father was slower than when she'd last seen him moments before, already covered in cuts along his arms and legs while Jaime didn't have a scratch on him.
"Stop it!" she shouted, hurling herself between them and knocking Jaime's sword out of the way with her own. Fingers tangled in her hair again as they had done a few days before, but it hurt much more now as Jaime threw her out of the way.
"Arya! Find your sister," her father commanded, blocking blow after blow from Jaime as he advanced with a vigor that Ned could not match. "Find Willas, get out of here!"
Asking her to abandon him was like asking her to abandon everything she was. She charged again, in perfect sync with her father. Jaime swung his sword into hers, knocking it out of her hand and into the swarm that surrounded them. He deflected Ned's next strike, as well, but was less forgiving of her father's mistakes as he had been of hers, capitalizing on the opening, stabbing his sword through the meaty part of Ned's thigh.
Arya watched as her father dropped to his knee, the sword slipping from his grasp. The world seemed to move in slow motion now, the sounds of clashing steel and screams disappeared as Jaime raise his sword again, leveled to her father's neck. Her body moved absent thought, finding the dagger at her hip and raising it over head, swinging it down at the man who had taught her how.
Jaime dropped his sword in favor of her wrist, catching it before she could lodge that damn dagger of hers into his neck. Her brought his other hand to her jaw, gripping it so tightly he could hear it crack. "Go while you still can, you stupid g-" The word caught in his throat as his belly grew warm and wet. How? he wondered. She had lost her sword and the dagger-ah, he realized, looking to her empty hand still in his grasp and then down to where the dagger now rested, lodged between his ribs. "Well done," he complimented, glancing over her head before back down to her. "This is going to hurt."
Arya didn't have the time to wonder what he meant before a hammer hit her on the side of her head, sending her flying away from Jaime and towards her father. Every inch of her body hurt. Her head the epicenter of the pain, feeling as if her brain had grown too large and was trying to force itself out of her skull. But it also felt warm and wet. She flopped a heavy hand to the side of her ears, feeling something hot and sticky pouring out of it. "Leave her be," she heard her father plead. A sound she had never heard before, not from him. The pain and desperation and helplessness - it hurt nearly as much as her body. The same body that urged her to sleep, to close her eyes and drift off to a quiet place where things were safe, but she fought against it, trembling hands pressing into the dirt as she tried to pushed herself back up.
The world around her spun, the figure her approaching her too fuzzy to make out. She nearly got to her knees before her hand slipped out from beneath her again, the world going blissfully dark once more. No, she pleaded herself. Not here, not now. This couldn't be how it ended. She forced her eyes open again, the light made everything hurt all the more, but she would suffer through it. Her vision had cleared enough to recognize the Hound as he grew near. It had not been a hammer to hit her.
It had taken every ounce of strength her tiny body possessed to stand again before the man. She had lost her dagger to Jaime's stomach, and her sword to the crowd. She had nothing left to fight him with, save for her father's sword, discarded at her feet. Her body wobbled as she reached down, wrapping both hands around its hilt. She put all her might into lifting it, but it wouldn't budge. The Hound chuckling was the last thing she heard before her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed, this time for good.
Her world was blood. It was all she smelled. All she saw was red. The metallic flavor coated her tongue, invigorating her, body and soul. She wanted more, she wanted his. The big man, the one who'd hurt her. She could smell him, he was near, his sword raised high above her father's head.
She wrapped her mouth around his leg, teeth into the juiciest bits. He screamed as she snapped her jaw shut, sweet liquid rushing down her throat. She wanted more, she wanted all of him. She opened wide again, biting down on the hand that had been poised to strike her.
An arrow sailed past her ear, lodging itself neatly in the big man's shoulder. A familiar voice rang out, and its source smelled familiar too. She watched with muted interest as he reached down and scooped a girl up off the ground. Just beyond them, a more familiar scent waited. Father, she thought, and lunged for him, her teeth biting into his arm as she dragged him through the dirt. He shouted at her, angry and in pain, but she kept tugging until his fingers tangled in her hair and his weight rested upon her back.
Then she ran.
A/N: Hey guys, I am so sorry this took so long to update. I very recently moved to Thailand and started a new job and it took much longer to adjust to things than I thought it would. I haven't lost interest in writing this story at all, so please don't worry about that. Hopefully I'll be able to get on a fairly regular updating schedule now, with one to two chapters posted per month. Thanks for sticking with me. :)
Special thanks to:
Bella-swann11: Jaime definitely acted a bit too slow, didn't he? :P Thanks for your review!
Basker: Ooohh I think I've heard that suggested before that Arya would take King's Landing down with her. I can totally see it, but I'm not sure if I would like it. You'll have to stick around just a bit longer if you want to see Willas and Arya marry. :) Thanks for reviewing!
Helen: Hopefully this chapter was enough action for you! There will certainly be more to come. I'm glad you appreciate me including Tyrion in this. I hadn't felt any particular way about him before I started writing this story, but I really ship with Arya now. Thank you for the review!
FavFan: I totally agree with you about needing more ships than just Gendrya. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love them … but Arya has so much shipping potential. I could see her working with just about anyone. Thanks for the review!
Indigo Cain: I'm laughing at your king dumbass comment, but also hurting. I always loved Bobby B, as demonstrated in my other GOT fic dedicated to him. But yes, he does need to die for the fun things to start happening. I agree that I can't see Arya as an adult for some reason, but I hope we're both wrong. And look - Ned didn't do anything stupid. For once. :P Thanks for your continued support, it means a lot!
Emma3Mikan: Thanks for another review! I always appreciate your support and hearing your thoughts on the story. :)
Lauren Bull: I totally agree with you about the previous chapter nine. I definitely had a problem where I was getting so many reviews I felt so much pressure to put out new chapters quickly, and they weren't coming out great. Fortunately, after … er … three months … I am pretty happy with chapter 10.
Arya's presence was absolutely the deciding factor in Ned agreeing to the plan, and Willas knew she would be. You're making me super depressed thinking about how all of this will hurt Tyrion in the long run. I never loved Tyrion before this fic, god damn it! It's reviewers like you that are making me sympathize with him! :(
It's probably a spoiler alert, but Arya and Sansa won't be getting separated like they do in canon, so don't worry - I will definitely be adding some bonding scenes to make up for the one I deleted. Thank you again, as always, for the review! I hope you're still with me after my … excessively long siesta. :P
372259: You know what, I have never considered a Shireen/Rickon ship before but now that you mentioned it, I am totally on board. I am still not entirely sure on where the Baratheon bros are going to take me, but I will definitely try to work that in if the stars will align for it.
As for the rest of your review, thank you so much! It's comments like these that have brought me back to this fic after going so long without it. I hope you're still here to enjoy this chapter! :)
Everybody else: Thank you so so so much for all of your kind reviews! All of the support on this fic has been baffling and overwhelming. I'll do my best to start updating more regularly for you. :)