a/n: Set in muted modern world of North Winter High School, where gender equality is just coming into fruition, where The Starks live in a humble home in the City of Winterfell in the Country of Westeros, and the Wall is a military training depot/academy. And Jon is not related to the Starks... or is he?
The Ages are listed as the following:
Robb - 18
Sansa - 16
Arya - 16
Bran - 13
Rickon - 10
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Jon - 17
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Fic Summary: Arya was sick of standing on the sidelines, so when females were finally allowed, she didn't miss her chance to join The Wall Military Academy. She never expected it to be easy, in fact, she relished the challenge. Excelling in her first-year class unit, she's moved up with the third-year recruits and partnered with a boy named Jon who reminds her of home. But being the best-of-the-best doesn't always mean you'll be liked.
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The Wall Academy:
Elite Military Training Depot
Chapter Ten: —
It was mandatory for all the cadets to learn the inner workings at the Eastwatch-by-the-Sea Port and Shipyard for the Wall, even it they were going to become Crows. It was in your forth year that you specialized, becoming a Crow out of Castle Black, a Gull out of Eastwatch, or a Hawk out of Shadow Tower—all cadets needed to learn all the basics for each special unit.
So at Arya's ninth month at the Wall, Captain Cotter Pyke took over the third-years tutelage. They learned the comings and goings of the shipyard, studied the sea-going vessels in lessons, and at the end of the month, like with the Beyond, they were given a sailing test on the real waters. Out of the safety of the calmer waters of the Bay of Seals, going south out around the island of Skagos and into the rough and unpredictable waters of the Narrow Sea. They were to circle around Skagos and dock back at Eastwatch in the Bay of Seals after navigating their way through a brief stretch of the Shivering Sea and weaved through the isles of Skane.
Tenth month at the Wall had her and Jon, and the rest of the third-years units under the command of Ranger Denys Mallister. It was him who showed them the ins and outs of being truly stealthy, the ways of camouflage, and how to do some proper recon that got accurate information. Of course, this was followed by a test in the Beyond at the end of the month, but it was different then pure survival.
And then the third-years were back with Thorne for the remaining two months of their lives as third-years cadets. It was back to the regular marches, drills, Hell's Lane, lessons, close combat, wake-up calls, shooting lessons, explosive ordinance lessons, and of course, frequent hands-on survival lessons in the Beyond.
It was never the same each time they went into the Beyond. Thorne never dropped of the partners in the same place twice—it was radically different each trip. One, Arya and Jon were in the Frost Fangs, for another they ended up in the tundra at the farthest Eastern side of the Beyond, right on a icy cliff that overlooked the Shivering Sea with crashing waves constantly bashing up against jagged rocks. The closer their final days as third-year cadets drew near, there was always less and less supplies in their packs—until finally, for their final test, Thorne had left them with nothing but their winter gear, one water canteen, a rope (shortened to ten feet after their twenty feet in their first run), pack of matches, and a machete—leaving Arya and Jon in the middle of their most favourite place, the tundra on the Eastern side, maybe 50 miles from the Shivering Sea.
Their first trip into the Beyond as partners had nearly ended up in their death if it hadn't been for the hot spring that was hidden in that small cave in the Frost Fangs that had been pure luck they happened upon it. And this last adventure in the Beyond was a whole different kind of death game.
They had to hunt for their own food, which was next near to impossible in the white waste land. They had spent two days in the white wasteland, starving, exhausted, near collapse when they caught a winter hare by the purest luck out there in the known world; happening upon it just as a blue fox took it down. Arya took the rope and made a lasso out of it, and Jon kept the machete, and they converged on the small beast from two angles. Arya had managed to noose it just as it caught their scents on the rushing wind, and Jon rushed in and finished it off. They ate the fox, drinking the blood still hot in its body before eating what meat their bodies could take.
They ate it raw, half frozen, unable to light a fire in the constant wind and always snow but they didn't care because it was something in their bellies. They left the fox carcass to be covered by snow and scavenged by other wild animals who would eventually catch the scent, and took the dead hare to eat later.
When they finally reached the edge of the Haunted Forest, they were attacked by another team who was wanting for their supplies. There water, what was left of it, was near frozen in the insulated canteen, the rope, full book of matches and machete were of more value—but it was the hare that the cadets truly wanted. They were able to fend off the attack and escape without permanent damage or blood loss, and hid themselves away in the forest using the camouflage skills learned under Mallister, leading Ranger at Shadow Tower.
Once they knew they were safe, they built a small fire and cooked the hare, eating the entire animal, their bellies completely filled, and continued on towards the Wall on high alert, ready for any other surprise attacks.
The last quarter mile of free space between the Haunted Forest and Wall was another guessing game, one that they discovering from the pained shouts of another pair of cadets that was a quarter through the field. One of the boys had stepped into a bear trap. Of course, it wasn't as gruesome as it sounded. These traps were altered, the edge of the clamps weren't teethed, but cut smooth so it didn't tear the limb off, but that didn't mean the experience of stepping into one was any more pleasurable. It hurt just as bad, most of the time, the pressure breaking the ankle and cut off blood flow. It made you scream and panic, making the pain worse, and sometimes you think it would be better off it if actually did take off your foot.
They concealed themselves a little ways into the Haunted Forest, ignoring the cries of the other partners and conversed on a game plan based upon what they saw happen to the other team almost forty-feet from their current position. It seemed the field was littered with traps hidden beneath the snow.
They searched around and found a rock about the size of a person's head, and tied one end of the rope around it. Standing at the edge, Jon hefted the rock and tossed it across into the field as far as he could. And then Arya pulled on the rope, dragging the rock through the deep snow, dredging up snow and activating any traps it its path—clearing the way for the two of them to the Eastern gate on the Wall, the Rimegate.
Once they knew that ten feet had been cleared of traps, they would carefully move along the narrow groove cut into the snow, resetting an sprung traps and covering them up again. If someone happened upon their trail when the two of them were through, they would think it clear, but would be in for a painful surprise. When the reached the end of the cleared groove, the repeated the process until they finally came upon the Rimegate—and Arya and Jon finally completed their final test as a third-year.
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It was two weeks until their promotion to fourth-years, and though there was no more trips into the Beyond, Thorne wasn't going to let them just slack off for the time being so there were still marches, drills, lesson on paper and in the field, sudden wake-up calls, and Hell's Lane—but he allowed for longer square-away periods and extended periods for eating and showering and laundry.
Arya was happy, and she wasn't afraid to write all about it in her letters back home. She noticed that Jon never wrote, and remember what he had told her in the cave their first time in the Beyond together. His mother had died from cancer a few months after he joined the Wall, he was an only child and had no other relatives. It reminded her of something, but she couldn't quiet remember what it was, she knew that pushing for it would only drive it away, and if she let it, in time the memory would float to the surface.
It came back to her when it was lights out, the night on that same day, on the cusp of sleep—just like it had been when the thought had first occurred to her.
"Oh my Gods!" she gasped, jerking upright in bed, the top of her head grazing the underside of the mattress above her that bulged under Jon's weight sleeping above her. There were a few coughs and bedsprings sounding in the darkened barracks filled with sleeping boys and single awakened girl.
Slowly, she laid back down, but was wide awake, her mind racing with the single thought.
Could her Uncle Benjen be Jon's true father?
She laughed to herself. "That's just insane," she whispered, looking up at the mattress above her, at Jon sleeping soundly above her, oblivious of the thought going through her head, "Right, Jon?"
Of course there was no reply from the older boy. She sighed, shifting under the blanket onto her side, one arm tucked under her pillow, the other hanging over her stomach. It was an insane thought, but it was a cool idea, if highly improbable. She closed her eyes a willed herself to sleep, but it was hard to come by.
This probably wasn't going to end well.
-tbc-
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Note:
Not sure if you can really eat fox, the thought never even occured to me before until I put it in this chapter.
The Key:
Crow = The Night's Watch special ground forces stationed out of Castle Black, drilled by Drill Sergeant Alliser Thorne, but commanded by Colonel Benjen Stark.
Gull = The Night's Watch sea-going sailors out of the Wall's Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, lead and commanded by Captain Cotter Pyke.
Hawk = The Night's Watch camouflage and reconnaissance unit commanded out of the Shadow Tower, lead and commanded Ranger Denys Mallister.
Becoming A 4th-Year = In order to become a forth-year and specialize, a cadet must pass all the final tests in each of the main Wall Military Units, such as camouflage and recon at the Shadow Tower, survival at Castle Black, and ship command at Eastwatch.
Stark Notes:
-Is Arya drawing to a startling conclusion, or a absurd thought filled with dreams.
Thanks for Reading!
y