"-and fuck you bloody!"

Riddick had been content to just relax, take it easy, but he could smell the man meant it when he said that, and he might be a killer, but he had a code of his own. He surged forward in their nice little cage, and snapped the man's neck.

"Jaqen, switch out," Riddick ordered shortly.

"Of course, Richard," Jaqen agreed, and shuffled around into the corner where Riddick had previously been resting.

"Richard B. Riddick, convict, murderer," he introduced himself to the kid as he snapped the lock on the cage, opened the door, and kicked out the fresh corpse. "But I don't hold with rapists or folks who hurt on kids."

The kid stared down at the corpse that had just been dumped at her feet, then looked back up at Riddick.

"Can you teach me to do that?" she asked – and whatever else the kid was, a boy was not one of them. Still, wasn't the first kid Riddick had seen pretending to be a boy for the sake of protecting themselves when in unsavoury company.

Riddick and Jaqen both smiled at that.

"Sure, kid," Riddick agreed, and hopped down from the cart. "Jaqen, door's open. Go get your own damn drink o' water, and get me one too while I start teaching the kid how to kill a man."

Jaqen chuckled, but slipped out of the cart all the same, cup in hand.

"Mm. My thanks, Richard," the Lorathi man said with a smile as he wandered over towards the river.

"Now, you're gonna have to build up some muscle if you want to be able to just wrench a man's head around like I just did, but there's ways even a skinny thing like you can do it," Riddick explained, and hauled up the fresh corpse to use for demonstration purposes. "You just got to know the right places and ways to hit it. Now, my favourite, I call it the sweet spot, is the abdominal aorta. It's a gusher, and you find it just to the left of the spine, fourth lumbar down," Riddick instructed, and pressed the shiv he'd carved back when he was in the Black Cells to the spot in question.

"I've never seen a knife like that before," the kid said. "Where did you even get it?"

"Made it. I make shivs out of whatever is to hand. It's always good to have even the smallest of blades tucked into your clothing. You never know when they might come in useful. I'll show you how to make your own shivs in a different lesson," Riddick promised with a smile.

The kid smiled back.

"Eyes up," Jaqen said as he returned to them, and offered his cup of water to Riddick. "Goldcloaks on the road and approaching."

"What are goldcloaks doing away from King's Landing?" the kid asked.

As he took Jaqen's cup and slowly drained it, Riddick could smell a spike of fear that hadn't been there before. Not when the asswipe had threatened to rape her, and not even when Riddick had broken the lock on their cage.

"Not takin' you, if that's what you're worried about, kid," Riddick offered. "We ain't even finished this lesson yet."

The kid smiled gratefully at that, and the fear smell faded.

Riddick outlined the many easy gushers to be found – joints and soft parts, the inner thigh, the inner forearm and the under arm, backs of knees and insides of elbows – and it was better to cut along, rather than across, as that meant more blood.

"Nothing wrong with stabbing," he allowed, "but the thinner your blade, the more accurate you've got to be. You miss, and your target is either going to die very slowly, or they walk away mostly fine, be able to recover with a little medical attention."

"Stab them more then," the kid suggested.

"A waste of energy," Jaqen denied with a shake of his head. "Better to do it right the first time. Or else, coat your blade with poison of some kind."

"What he said," Riddick agreed. "Don't worry kid, we'll teach you how to win at a game of who's the better killer against most anyone."

The kid grinned in gleeful, if perhaps slightly bloodthirsty, anticipation.

~oOo~

The goldcloaks were sent away, and everybody was looking at each other just a little suspiciously – especially as the goldcloak who'd done the talking had said that there was a reward for a boy called Gendry. A boy called Gendry who carried a bull's head helmet. A description which... matched one of the lads travelling with them.

But Yoren had already demonstrated that he wasn't going to give anybody up to the goldcloaks for any reason, even before it had been made clear who they were looking for. No one was quite sure if speaking up would be a good or bad thing.

Then Yoren noticed something a bit different from how it should have been, by his reckoning.

"What's goin' on here?" Yoren demanded, just a little incredulous, as he strode over to where Riddick and Jaqen were showing the kid different ways to grip a weapon and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.

"We're teaching the kid how to play who's the better killer," Riddick answered with a smile. "He's a quick study."

"That's very thoughtful of you, I'm sure, but how did you even get out?" Yoren asked. "And where's the third one?"

Riddick's pleasant smile became a less friendly grin as he pulled on the greasy hair of the dead body so that the face was visible.

"Well, that answers one question," Yoren allowed.

Jaqen smirked, and held up the broken lock. It dangled from one finger.

"And that answers the other one," Yoren agreed with a frustrated sigh. "Are you two going to go on a killing spree if I leave you out? Can I trust you to not run off?"

"Not too interested in joining the Night's Watch," Riddick said with a shrug, "but it's not like I got anything better to do right now. 'Sides from teaching the kid better ways to kill people."

"Agreed," Jaqen said softly. "Our lessons are far from complete. The lovely boy has much to learn before he can compete with either of us in a game of who is the better killer."

"Alright," Yoren agreed with a sigh. "Can I ask what inspired this little bit of murder and lock-breaking?"

"This fucker threatened the kid with rape," Riddick answered. "Don't care for that. Do care about kids."

Yoren nodded slowly as he considered that.

"If you two are serious about looking out for Arry's safety and best interests, then I've no objections," he decided. "Just so long as there'll be no murdering anybody while we sleep."

"Naw," Riddick denied. "I only kill people if they give me a reason to. Reason usually being that they tried to kill me first."

"Being a skilled killer does not automatically make a man an undiscriminating one," Jaqen said coolly. "The lovely boy is quite safe with us."

Yoren looked a bit unhappy about it, but nodded and walked off all the same.

~oOo~

"You've... you've seen horrible things, haven't you?" Arya asked softly as she shaped a shiv under Richard's instruction.

"Some of the worst," Richard agreed. "Held a girl I considered my little sister as she died. For helping me."

"How do you sleep with things like that in your head?" Arya asked.

"What kinda nightmares are haunting you, kid?" Richard asked. "Heard you killed a boy, before you joined up with this lot. But that's not all, is it?"

Arya ducked her head.

"Only us to hear, lovely one," Jaqen assured her from where he was driving the cart. The same one that had previously held him and Richard prisoner, and which they now rode in some semblance of comfort, with her, while others drove other carts, rode horses, or walked. "Every other man is focused on putting one foot in front of the other, and you are under our protection besides."

"Not gonna sell you out, if that's what you're worried about," Richard agreed solemnly. "Not a merc."

"Merc?" Arya repeated, confused.

"Mercenary," Richard elaborated. "Men and women for whom the creed is greed, and other people are just a pay day."

"When I close my eyes, try to go to sleep, I see them up there. Joffrey, Cersei, Illyn Payne... my sister and my father," Arya said softly. "And Sansa just stood there in her pretty dress when they took my father's head."

"Shit kid," Richard swore.

"Would you like me to turn this cart around, and we can go back to King's Landing and kill these people for you?" Jaqen asked.

"A little," Arya admitted, "but I want to go home to Winterfell just as much."

"Winterfell," Richard said, nearly purred the word his tone was so thoughtful. "Kid, I think it might be an idea to tell us the whole story, if you can."

"I'm not even sure where it starts," Arya admitted.

"In a mummer's play, there is a cast of characters. Tell us yours," Jaqen suggested. "Go from there."

Arya nodded, and told these two killers about her family. Her father, mother, her brothers and sister, about the direwolves, the king, the queen, Joffrey and the Hound and Micah, Syrio Forel and Jory... And the story followed and wove through it all.

"If you want revenge, you're gonna need a plan," Richard said.

"If you want revenge on everybody who is at fault, then you're going to need information," Jaqen followed up with immediately.

"Not wrong," Richard agreed with a nod to Jaqen, before he turned back to Arya. "And maybe, since we're in the Riverlands anyway, you could find that wolf of yours again."

Arya felt her heart lighten just a little at the prospect of possibly reconnecting with Nymeria.

~oOo~

"Wake up! Up! All of you! There's men out there want to fuck your corpses!" Yoren yelled, and then he found Arry and Gendry. "You two hide. You stay out of sight. If this goes bad, then you run north and you don't look back."

"Don't worry about these two," Riddick said from behind them. "I'll make sure they get to safety."

Yoren nodded in tight acceptance, if not quite belief, and then marched out the front door of the barn where they'd been sleeping.

"Come on," Riddick instructed the kids, and shuffled them out the back door. For once, the dark lenses that usually covered his eyes hung down around his neck. "Out, and out of sight."

"Up is usually a good pick for that," Jaqen offered as he fell in with them. "People look down more often than they look up. These men may search the bushes, but they will not check the upper branches of the trees."

"Good thought," Riddick agreed. "Tend to not check rafters either. Get a good perch there, can drop down on a man and break somethin' a his with your weight while you gut his buddies. Well," he added thoughtfully in Arry's direction, "you got some growin' to do before you can do more than wind a man you land on."

"If they are smart enough to set fire to the building, we don't want to be caught in the rafters," Arry countered.

"Don't chance it," Jaqen advised. "They don't have to be smart to be lucky."

"Good point," Riddick agreed.

They slipped through the darkness away from where Yoren could be heard talking to someone, and Riddick boosted Gendry up into the tree while Jaqen did the same for their little Arry, then Riddick boosted Jaqen up as well before leaping up himself and settling into the shadows.

~oOo~

"You don't have to stay with us if you don't want to, kid," Riddick offered to the boy, Gendry, when dawn broke and they climbed down from the tree where they'd hid from the goldcloaks. "I know we frighten you."

"And there will always be work of a blacksmith," Jaqen added, "where ever he goes."

"But... what about...?" Gendry hesitated.

"If you're worried about me, don't be," Arry said firmly.

Riddick grinned. Jaqen smirked. Both stood at ease with Arry between them, under their combined wings, as it were.

Gendry sighed.

"I'll stay with you until we find a place where I can find work, and then we'll part ways," he said, specifically to Arry, but then he glanced up nervously at the two men. "If that's alright," the boy amended.

Jaqen inclined his head in regal acceptance.

"It's fine," Riddick agreed. "Now let's get moving. We've got a wolf to find, among other things."

Arry beamed at the reminder.

~oOo~

They found the wolf first.

Which, really, between the apparently still-growing wolf and the two killers, just motivated Gendry to find himself some other blacksmithy to settle himself in at as soon as possible. Which, as Riddick wasn't a complete arsehole and Hagar preferred less hangers-on than more, became a priority for them. One that was easily fulfilled, even.

Every settlement needed someone who could work a forge. Sharpening chisels, fixing plough-shears, making knives, all that sort of thing. Gendry was swiftly employed and farewelled Arry with some concern. His farewell to Riddick and Jaqen was much more timid and with a badly hidden undercurrent of "I hope I never see you again."

~The End~