Gendry

Lord Stark then stared at him. Just blank, like a stupid confused fisherman. Not even thanks for distracting the Mountain so his Lordship could kill him. Now he was probably going to have a hand removed for his trouble. He knew dealing with Lords always ended bad. But it was for little Arry. If they were to be brothers, they'd need to help each other. But Arry wasn't fucking moving. Maybe he was soft in the head from Shitmouth hitting him so often.

"Please m'lord, if you could kindly give Arry to me I'll see that he won't bother you like that again m'lord." There, it was always best to humble yourself before Lords, you were more like to keep body parts that way, everyone knew that.

But stupid little Arry still wasn't moving, he just grabbed tighter to Lord Stark, who looked like he didn't know what was said to him. Usually Gendry would've just grabbed the boy and that would be it. But even he knew that grabbing something from a Lord was a sure death. And Lord Stark hadn't pushed Arry away. Well Lords thought too far above Gendry's mind, Master Mott used to say, so Gendry knew he'd never figure why Lord Stark did what he did. Instead, he tried get through to Arry

"Arry, I know you're scared-"

Then the stupid whore started crying, probably noticing she was covered in blood, making Lord Stark turn away, but Arry's face was hidden by Lordly shoulders and his own skinny arms so Gendry couldn't see his reaction either. The whore just kept on crying. And that just set of the littlest ones. Then the pigs in the cart started going. Suddenly the forest was as loud as any market day Gendry could recall. The other girls went over to try and shut her up. They couldn't draw more attention to themselves, especially with the Mountain lying there. Lord Stark then looked queerly about them and at the noises. And motioned everyone to move – where they would move was anyone's guess. But he supposed it was smart in case more Lannister soldiers came back this way. The rest of the villagers began coming to them. One of the girls even went to the whore to get her up/Even the whore joined them after another one of the girls helped her cut away her bloodied shift. Gendry didn't know if it were her blood or the blood of the dead men – she bled enough after they had her that he wasn't sure.

Some of the stronger girls and old men grabbed the cart with the supplies, and began moving it toward the group. Lord Stark looked at Gendry again, and then did that music-speaking thing. Gendry had no idea, Lord Stark could speak the common tongue well enough when he last saw him, mayhap all northerners spoke queer and lord stark had to practice with the common tongue, like the maesters did with foreign speech? And lord stark forgot no one not in the North spoke northern? Gendry knew he looked confused, and lord stark's face grew angry, making one of the girls flinch away. Lord stark then looked calmer gain, and gestured at Gendry, then at the road, then at the trees. Gendry. Road. Trees.

Oh he wanted Gendry to lead everyone away. There was no use arguing with a Lord. The villagers began stripping the dead of weapons. Hot Pie went to Chiswyck and got little Arry's bravo sword from the dead man's belt.

So they all set off, Gendry tried to remember the way they came, but the 'road' of the forest was an overgrown dirt path at best, and he was no poacher. It took them a few hours, but finally Gendry, at the front of their column with the cart just behind him, and Lord Stark at the rear, finally knew where he was going, helped by one of the girls pointing him in the direction to her village. It was slow, barely faster than with Yoren, and Gendry knew they would be attacked by more Lannisters. They had horses after all. And were knights. Then lord stark did that queer music voice of his, Gendry turned around, and thank the Gods Arry was no longer clinging to him like a babe. The small boy walked beside Lord Stark like it were the most natural thing in the world. And Lord Stark let him. Maybe Arry was his whore after all. Or his squire, who were given a castle forged blade like he said it was. That made more sense, he looked something sad after the execution after all, and a whore wouldn't carry a blade.

Lord Stark spoke again, and gestured to the trees. At the cart. To the tree- Oh he wanted them off the road. The old women grumbled about aches and joints and climbing, but quietly so the Lord couldn't hear. Slowly everyone got off the road, but still sort of followed the direction of the village. Then Gendry heard someone come up to him. It sounded like one of the girls. He turned and saw little Arry – well he was small like the girls were. And Gendry never was a tracker. Arry looked queerly happy. Happier for his master than many squires Gendry knew of anyway, and he knew a lot of squires. Maybe Arry was more that a squire to the Lord Stark.

"We need to be faster, they'll find us if we're so slow." Arry said, looking around at everyone like it were their fault they were all starved and tired from the Lannisters. He looked like a squire then.

Gendry was about to reply with something – what he didn't quite know yet, but it was sure to be cutting and witty like Old Sally would say – but Arry twitched his head, and looked back to the road where they left and went pale. Turning around, Gendry knew why.

Horses. With mounted knights in red. Four of them. Getting louder and closer, so now they could be heard by the group around the cart. A few of the old men paled, and one of the women started shaking. The horses couldn't run like Gendry remembered from the Hand's Tourney, and they didn't need to, why would knights charge at some small folk when they didn't need to. One of the girls screamed once she heard the horses, that set the whore crying. And the babes started screaming as well. Even the old men and women just stood there. They were going to die, you couldn't beat knights on foot. Well Lord Stark didn't know that. He turned and stood like he were going to fight horsemen when he was on foot. Gendry was about to say something to Arry about stupid northerners, but the boy was already running towards Lord Stark. Arry was definitely touched in the head.

The horsemen each went their own way, one charging Lord Stark straight, two others circling round one way, the fourth going to the cart. The first knight got to Lord Stark, who scrambled to the side and swung at the horse, not the knight, cutting through the horse's legs and throwing the knight so he landed just in front of Arry. Touched in the head or not, the boy was quick, grabbing the sword that the knight was still holding, and stabbing his exposed neck. A shit death, Gendry knew, it would take ages die that way. Arry quickly ran away from the coughing knight, and was nearly killed by the second as he [scrambled] away, the sword coming down to cut through his thick skull. Gendry was already running to the screaming rider.

Thank The Seven, the knight wasn't expecting his kill to move away from the sword, so instead of being buried in the boy's thick skull, the tip of the sword streaked with blood as it cut across Arry's face. As anyone would, the boy screamed. Lord Stark, already fighting with the second rider, glanced over, seeing Gendry running towards the third knight, and a bleeding Arry. Gendry didn't see what happened next, running too close to the knight, who stupidly didn't see the larger boy coming, too busy trying to cut the smaller one in revenge.

Gendry was larger than other boys, and stronger too. He pulled the rider off his horse – which stupidly ran to the fourth man who was already cutting through the old men and girls. The rider swung his arms around, trying to hit Gendry, who already grabbed a rock. The knight's head cracked like an egg. The noise around him, crashing steel, screaming girls, and a sobbing Arry, was so loud that he was sure Master Mott could hear it all. He crawled over to Arry, who was lying on the ground, whimpering and crying, salty tears mixing with blood, making him squirm, trying to hold his bloodied face.

"Arry, Arry, stay still, don't rub shit into your blood."

He didn't know a lot about wounds, but he knew that shit mixed in wounds usually killed men twice as quick. Arry was stupid though, and kept trying to squirm and twist. The bigger boy had to force Arry's scrabbling hands away from his face covered in mud and blood both, eventually pinning the smaller boy down. This just made Arry struggle all the harder. While this was going on, the clashing suddenly stopped, but the screaming didn't. Gendry chanced a look over, he knew he could hold the little boy down without much thought anyway. Lord Stark had somehow killed the second rider, and was now running toward the screaming. The girls and women were covered in blood, and Gendry couldn't see the three old men that were with them on the road, nor the fourth rider. Gendry then felt Arry try to kick between his legs, whipping his head back to the struggling boy. That was uncalled for, he was trying to stop the stupid boy rubbing shit into an open wound. Gendry squeezed the thin wrists harder, if Arry was stupid enough to not listen to words and tried to hurt him, then he'd be hurt back. That just made Arry cry and struggle even more.

Thud Thump Thunk

Suddenly Lord Stark was right next to him, the strange words now shorter, and sounding less like music. It didn't take a Maester to figure out what he wanted Gendry to do. The apprentice let go. And Arry thumped right back into Lord Stark's chest, burying his bloody face onto the man's strange covering. It was all green and brown like a poacher would wear, but it was far too fine for mere wool, and looked strange at that. There looked like a faded tree over the heart, before Arry got his blood all over it. Lord Stark began almost singing in that strange voice, gently getting Arry to look at him, which the small boy did, without kicking Gendry thought, strangely annoyed. Then Lord Stark pulled a small water pouch and began dripping it over Arry's wound. The boy, closed his eyes when he realised what was happening and was clearly forcing himself not to flinch. Then a piece of cloth was pulled out by Lord Stark, and he gently pushed Arry off his chest to work. He pulled out some herbs out of more strange pouches on his belt, then wrapped the cloth around the herbs to make a strip, speaking in that strange voice as he did this, then tied it around Arry's face, covering near half of it. Suddenly Arry stopped squirmint, and his eyes didn;t look half so pained.

What strange northern magic can Lord Stark do?! Gendry wondered, now fearing what would happen to him. He still remembered some of the childish horror stories the apprentices would tell each other. It didn't matter for the moment. Arry was already back to gripping Lord Stark's hand like a babe to a mother. Lord Stark looked over, the sun were getting lower now, and you didn't ride horses at night. Master Mott told him that. Besides, they only had a scarce half dozen, including the ones from the riders they killed. Lord Stark gestured with one hand, the other being held by Arry, and Gendry thought it meant 'Get everyone and the cart further in the trees and hidden'. Arry told him to do the same thing a moment later, obviously the squire was used to understanding his master. And now Gendry was starting to as well.

It took some time, the crying girls weren't hurt, but both the old men were cut down by the fourth rider before the women pulled him down and beat him bloody. Three of them died also. Now they were barely a score, but when Lord Stark appeared they had been double that. That meant less mouths to feed. When they finally set up a fire, and Lord Stark himself helped them do it, one of the chickens was chosen and killed. Draya, one of the old women, used to cook for her village. She said her husband loved chicken, but she cried when she told them.

When they were cooking, everyone grouped themselves. Gendry was by two of the girls, the other three were together chatting like hens. Some of the women were gathered around the fire, others were removign the leaves from the branches to be burned. The girls were talking to Gendry, saying how big and strong he was, and that next time they were attacked, they would very much like him to defend them. The women removing the greens then got whispering with the other girls about the king, and Lord Stark.

"I tell you Holly, he's a Riverlands lord true as day" one of the girls told a middling aged woman who said she was a farmer's wife in the village.

"Don't be stupid Minsa, he's Essos is what he is. Who else could face the giant and not flinch, or kill the Tickler so quick?"

"He didn't kill the Tickler, your eyes gone saggy like your teats?" this was from a third woman, but said laughing, like she were friends with Holly

"My eyes work just fine, and my teats are a damn site finer then yours. T'was the Tickler he killed, and he is an Essos sellsword. Essos is a horrible place, so the giant was less than nothing to an Essosi."

"He's a Reachman, like the hand used to be." one of the girls decided to add her thoughts

"The last hand wasn't a Reachman you air-head, he was a northerner, or a Vale-man, I can't remember"

"No he was a Reachman. The Reachmen hated Old King Robert for his rebellion, so the hand killed him to take the throne back for the dragons. That's why he did it my nuncle said."

"Your nuncle is a fool. The last hand wasn't a Reachman, King Robert was too clever for them. And why do you think our Warrior is a Reachman anyway Dolly?"

"He saved us, like a knight is supposed to, and the Reach are full of knights, and good fighters."

But now the other women were openly laughing, saying how of many girls lost their maidenheads to Reachmen worth less than a Dornish shit.

One of the girls next to Gendry, annoyed that he wasn't paying her attention, started pushing her chest on him, and moved her hands to his manhood.

"You're ever so brave and strong Gendry." She moved so that she was nearly covering his body with her own. "Can you be extra strong for me Gendry?" she tried to purr on that last part. But she was just a scared village girl, not a high class city whore. And Gendry knew that they would both rather go for Lord Stark, who was braver and stronger than Gendry. But he wasn't a Lord, he didn't need to bed a girl to protect her.