NOTE: I am sorry this took so long. I have been caught up with other things, and I will make sure it doesn't take four months for another update ever again. On a lighter note, this story is now two thirds done. This story was originally fourteen chapters. However, I realized that the next chapter after this one could be split into two, so there is now fifteen chapters to this story. Without further ado, here is chapter ten.
Chapter Ten:
Puncture (2016)
Being thrashed around in the water, Arya thought she was going to die. She was being swept downstream, heading south for who knew how long. All the while, Arya desperately tried to keep her head above the water. However, after being hit in the head so many times by Rorge, her disoriented state caused her to not be able to stay above the water. This coupled with the powerful currents of the river, Arya didn't see much hope of staying out of the water for very long, if at all.
Arya didn't know how much time was passing. It could have been seconds, minutes, even half an hour. All she knew is that she likely didn't have much time left. Currently underwater, Arya desperately thrashed to get to the surface and made one final hard push to get some air. As she moved upwards, she was yanked down by another powerful current.
I'm dead, Arya thought as she suddenly swallowed a sizable amount of water. She began to thrash around and panic, desperate for air as she took on more water. In some desperate bid to live to see another day, she weakly jerked her right arm upward towards the surface. Still dizzy, she thought she was seeing things when a figure appeared at the side of the river, hurrying over to her.
Arya felt as if she were about to pass out and drown as what looked like something entered the water and neared her arm. She felt something latch on to her forearm. Arya felt surprised as ever as she was suddenly yanked from the water and dragged out on to dry land.
Arya, when she realized she had been saved, rolled over onto all fours, coughing and gagging loudly. She spent the next few minutes coughing violently and vomiting up all of the water she'd swallowed while in the river. She was completely soaked and still bleeding in places from her fight with Rorge, but she was otherwise fine. She had a pounding headache in her skull. Only when she was taking deep, greedy gasps for air did she look over to see who had saved her life. Her eyes widened. It was Jaqen.
"J…Jaqen…?" Arya said weakly, eyeing him.
"A man has saved a girl's life," Jaqen replied. It was then that Arya noticed Jaqen was covered head to toe in wight blood and guts. There must be a lot of them nearby, Arya theorized.
"Jaqen, are there wights nearby?" Arya asked.
"A girl is correct, and she must follow a man."
Arya, despite being soaking wet and slightly disoriented, got up and followed Jaqen into the woods. They walked for a while, and Arya began to wonder where he was taking her. After a while, Jaqen held his arm out to silently tell her to stop walking for a moment. As Arya stopped, she watched as a sole wight staggered by. Jaqen closed in on it from behind and rammed a knife into the back of its head. The wight dropped dead, and Jaqen flipped it over, cutting the front of its torso open.
"A girl needs to approach and apply the insides of the dead to her person," Jaqen explained. "A girl must also refer to a man as 'Alchemist' when she and him arrive to their destination."
"Why, though?" Arya asked as she smeared the wight's intestines and chopped up organs across her body.
Jaqen paused for a moment. "A man does not use his true name within his group, and neither do a man's companions. A man's companions are without proper names, and a man will do the talking."
By that point, Arya had covered herself, and Jaqen got back up. Arya followed him into the woods.
After a short while, Arya and Jaqen came upon a group of people. All of them were covered in wight remains like Jaqen and Arya, and few seemed to notice their arrival. Many of them were either repairing weapons, skinning animals, and doing other work. However, Arya happened to notice three people watching them. The first to approach was a woman around Arya's height with a gown and combat boots spattered with gore. She gripped a knife in either hand, and she looked angry. To Arya, the shape of this individual's face reminded her of Weasel a little.
"Alchemist, who have you brought with you?" she asked.
"A man has saved a girl's life by pulling her from the river as she began to drown," Jaqen explained. As he spoke, two others, one with squinting, focused eyes and the other with a bald head, cuts around his face, and a gaunt look about him. "A man has brought a girl here to join a man's companions."
The woman, who was up front, glowered at Arya before looking back at Jaqen. "You know our protocol, Alchemist," she said. "Take this one to the Kindly Man. He'll sort her out."
As Jaqen walked Arya towards the end of the camp, he told her what everyone there was called. A few moments earlier, Arya had encountered the Waif, Squinter, and Plague Face. Also present at the camp were the Fat Fellow, the Lordling, the Handsome Man, the Starved Man, and Stern Face. Lastly, Arya realized who the Kindly Man was when she saw a tall man wearing gore-spattered robes. The man in question had the gentle, warm face of an older man, like someone's kind grandfather.
"Alchemist, you've gotten a new member for the Faceless Men?" asked the Kindly Man.
Jaqen nodded. "A man has."
"Leave me with her."
Jaqen left, and Arya approached the Kindly Man.
"You are the Kindly Man, correct?" Arya asked, looking up at him. "I'm Arya Stark."
He shook his head disapprovingly. "No, not with us. The Faceless Men do not use their true names. I don't, and neither will you. If you wish to be part of our group, you will be referred to as 'No One' until an alias is issued to you. Do you understand?"
She paused to think for a moment. "I understand," No One answered.
"Very well," the Kindly Man replied. "You will begin hunting duties tomorrow."
That night, No One shared dinner with the others. Sitting next to the Alchemist, No One had something on her mind. Since they were really nowhere near anyone else, she figured it was safe to ask him. "Alchemist?"
He glanced down at her as she kept talking. "This is temporary, right? You'll send me on my way after a while to head back to–"
He raised three fingers of his right hand. "A man has done three favors for a girl," he explained. "Therefore, a girl must do three favors for a man."
After dinner, Arya tried to get some sleep. As she tried to doze off, she thought of Jaqen's words. She would have to do three things for Jaqen before he could help her again. She also thought of the group she'd left behind back in Crossroads. She wondered if any of them were still alive, and she wanted to see them again. Arya fell asleep as she thought of all of them, smelling gore all over the camp.
"WAKE UP!"
The first thing No One felt as she woke up was one of the Waif's boots stamping into her gut. No One coughed and rolled over, climbing to her feet after a few moments.
"Yes?" No One said, looking into the Waif's eyes.
"The Kindly Man has called a meeting."
The Waif turned to walk away, and No One followed her. No One supposed the Waif didn't like her very much, if at all. Regardless of what petty reason the Waif had, No One figured she would try to not provoke her as much as she could. She looked ahead, beyond the Waif, and saw that the whole group was gathering around the Kindly Man. The Waif and No One were among the last to arrive. Shortly after, the meeting began.
"Faceless Men," the Kindly Man began, "this brief meeting as partly been called to introduce No One, a new member of our order. A name has not been provided to her, but it shall in due time."
As the Kindly Man spoke, everyone looked over at No One. No One tried to ignore them, instead opting to focus on the Kindly Man and what he was saying instead. The Kindly Man continued. "No One will receive her new name as time goes on. However, for the time being, we must return to our duties and continue to gather food and supplies. Two hunting parties will gather food. One will consist of No One, Alchemist, Plague Face, and the Waif. The other will consist of Stern Face, Squinter, the Lordling, and the Fat Fellow. Everyone else is relegated to weapon cleaning and weapon crafting. You all have your duties."
The group dispersed then.
In the woods, No One was the first of her hunting party to notice the three wights shambling through the woods. Because they were all covered in gore, the wights did not notice them, even when the Alchemist and No One approached first to drive their knives into the backs of their skulls. The Waif dispatched the third, and Plague Face approached as the corpses were cut open so the four could cover themselves in fresh gore. No One noticed as the others covered themselves quickly to mask themselves faster, so she did the same.
Alchemist seemed to notice. However, he spoke of something else after the Waif and Plague Face walked away from them. "A girl can cover her first favor today," he explained. "A girl can do most of the hunting. A man will do his own work, but a girl can assist us the most."
No One understood. She planned on using the element of surprise rather than charging at an animal they would eat later on. No One and Alchemist followed after the Waif and Plague Face.
"Took you long enough," the Waif said, sounding annoyed about the four of them not going in unison. No One and Alchemist said nothing. No One figured this was a good idea; she figured that the Waif was someone who she didn't want to get angry. Then again, she thought, I think most in the Kindly Man's group would kill someone if they became too angry.
After a while, the Waif and Plague Face turned to face No One and Alchemist. The Waif spoke. "Plague Face and I will go off on our own. We'll meet back at the Kindly Man's camp around nightfall. We can spread out and find more food this way."
Plague Face glanced down at her. "Do you have anything else you'd like to add?"
The Waif responded, glaring up at Plague Face while sounding irritated. "No. My statements are easily understandable."
After a few more words, each of the two small pairs parted ways. The Waif and Plague Face went one way deeper into the woods, and No One and Alchemist went the other. As No One turned to walk with Alchemist, she got a glance at the knife in the Waif's hand. It seemed to be shaking due to the Waif's hand shaking with rage.
No One and Alchemist walked for a long while before Alchemist held an arm out to stop No One. He pointed forward. "There."
No One looked. Standing before them both was a big buck which had just poked its head out from behind a cluster of large trees.
"Observe." Alchemist said, pulling a throwing knife from his side. No One watched as Alchemist took aim, then threw. It landed right in the buck's neck. Blood spurted out as it began running, and the two who had spotted it gave chase. After a few minutes of running, the buck slipped and fell, landing on its side and pressing the knife deeper into itself as soon as it hit the ground. No One and Alchemist reached the fallen buck, the latter pulling out a second knife in the process.
"A girl should go and hunt as I take meat from our fallen buck," Alchemist said to No One as he drove the knife into the buck's neck, right where the base of the skull met with its spine. "Gathering more than a man would assist with the repayment of a girl's debt to a man and her agreement with his."
No One, understanding, turned to leave and regroup with him, the Waif, and Plague Face later on.
It was night when No One returned to the Faceless Men's camp with her sack of hunted animals, which consisted of six rabbits and slabs of meat cut from a deer. She took a look around. Everyone except the Lordling were there. However, he reappeared from the woods after a short while, carrying his own sack of hunted animals. Arya approached the large bonfire the group had made and quickly located the Fat Fellow, who was the cook of the Faceless Men.
"Dump them all here," he said. No One spilled the contents of her sack in front of him, and he got to work with preparing the food. No One observed him work for a moment, and almost at once, Arya's thoughts flickered to Hot Pie. I need to get out of here and see if everyone else is alive–
No One's train of thought was pushed off to the side as the Lordling approached to drop off his own supply of hunted animals.
The group ate in silence save for the sounds of chewing and swallowing. After the meal was done, the Kindly Man called a meeting of the group. He stood aside the bonfire, and his subordinates were half-wreathed in darkness further away.
"I call No One to stand before me," the Kindly Man spoke. No One approached, and she stopped when she was a yard away from the Kindly Man. The Kindly Man spoke to her again, saying, "From here on, you will no longer be named No One. You are now to be called 'Canal'."
Now it was official; Canal was one of them.
That night, Canal went to bed, her thoughts pulled back to the Fat Fellow. Again, Arya thought that the fat cook among the Faceless Men reminded her of Hot Pie. Right as she began to drift off to sleep, she thought of her group and whether they were still alive. Willow might be dead, Arya thought, beginning to drift off, but I don't know about Lommy or…
She fell asleep before finishing the sentence in her mind.
Arya found herself, in the middle of the day, finding the house again. However, it didn't look like before. It looked burned out, smoke billowing from the various windows. Concerned, Arya hurried, shouting for someone, anyone, regardless if any wights in the area would be attracted by the noise.
"Willow! Hot Pie!"
No answer.
"Jeyne! Lommy!"
No answer.
"WEASEL?!"
Still, no one answered.
Arya slowed her run to a walk when she got close to the front door. It creaked, and someone on the other side opened. It was Lommy, only it wasn't. His throat had been torn open, but he was alive somehow. He grinned when he saw her. "Hi, Arya."
Arya didn't know how he could still speak. When he did, blood spilled out of his mouth. She responded. "Lommy, what happened? Where is everyone?"
Lommy didn't answer. Instead, he stepped out of the house, followed by Jeyne. She looked even worse. Her body, head to toe, was covered in places where flesh had been ripped out, likely by bites. Her abdomen and bottom half of her torso had been split open, and her intestines were spilling out. They left a blood trail coming from inside the house as they dragged across the floor and grass.
"You weren't there…" said Jeyne, somehow still able to speak. "You could've been the difference…"
"What happened?!" Arya shouted, concerned.
Lommy and Jeyne didn't say anything. Instead, they led her inside. The smoke began to clear as Arya stepped into the house, and Lommy and Jeyne parted ways to let Arya walk forward to see what they wanted to show her.
They were all dead.
Hot Pie, Willow, and Nymeria were lying dead in a pile. All of them were in various stages of decay. Arya's eyes widened as she looked over her dead friends.
She took a few steps to the side to get another angle, and she began to sob as she saw a smaller, younger form in the back of the pile.
"No…" Arya cried, trying not to break down and fall to the floor.
"Rorge and them killed us all…" Lommy growled. "You could've been there. You could've saved us…"
"Now we're dead…" Jeyne hissed. "And now you'll join us…"
Arya looked over to Lommy and Jeyne and saw that they each now had the blue eyes of the wights. Growling, they charged for her. Arya screamed as Jeyne took a bite out of her left shoulder and as Lommy clawed at her eyes.
Then she woke up with a gasp. It took Arya a little to realize what'd been going on.
A dream.
It had only been a dream.
Canal had no time to sit and ponder this. She noticed that the Faceless Men were beginning to gather for another meeting. Quickly scrambling to her feet, Canal hurried over to everyone else. When everyone was gathered, the Kindly Man began his announcements for the day.
It was decided that Canal was to go hunting with Alchemist and the Waif. As they made their way into the woods, they had found a few wights and had killed them to slather themselves in additional gore. They smelled worse than before, but Canal didn't mind. As soon as she finished slathering her face in the gore, she looked and saw more wights appearing.
"We've got company," she announced. Alchemist and the Waif looked over and saw more wights begin to emerge from the woods. Three became ten, then ten became sixteen. It looked to Canal that a swarm of wights were in the area. Based on where they were going, they were headed in the direction of the Faceless Men's camp.
"It seems something needs to be done," Alchemist spoke.
Canal nodded. "Yes, that's right."
"Idiots!" the Waif snapped. "It means nothing! The Faceless Men have no home. If this encampment is destroyed, we'll find someplace else. We can scavenge for more food–"
Some of the wights had turned their heads in the Waif's direction when she shouted at the others. Canal realized that besides the loud sounds, the swarm of wights couldn't detect them due to the fresh gore covering their bodies. Wanting to make sure the Faceless Men's supplies were kept undisturbed, Canal then got an idea. She ran over to the wights, cupped her hands on either side of her mouth, and started yelling.
"HEY! OVER HERE! HEY! HERE!"
Alchemist and the Waif watched for a moment, confused. It then seemed to dawn on the both of them that Canal was intending to play bait in order to lead the wights away from the camp. Canal began to run around as she continued to scream loudly and make a variety of weird noises. All the while, Alchemist watched from the side, a proud look on his face. The Waif looked like she wanted to stab someone.
Regardless, Canal began to realize that her plan was working as she continued to scream at the wights, clap her hands, make as much noise as possible to draw them away from the camp. And it seemed to be working; most of the wights were beginning to notice and follow Canal. Canal continued to cheer, clap, scream, and yell, and the wights continued following her. In the distance, she noticed that some of the wights near the back of the crowd were beginning to notice the others moving away from their original route and followed them.
Just need to get them far away, Canal thought. Then I'll go back to the others.
Go back to the oth–
Canal shut the thought out of her mind before it could be finished.
The group of three wound up collecting ten animals for food after the situation with the wights was settled. They ate with the rest and went to bed. Canal awoke to the feeling of someone shaking her awake. Canal blinked a few times, and she saw the Waif staring down at her.
"Yes?" Canal said quietly to avoid waking up anyone.
"Follow," the Waif replied, grabbing Canal by the left wrist and forcefully yanking her upwards. Canal, in her tired state, tried to hurry along as the Waif practically dragged her by the wrist to the tree line away from the camp. When they were almost in the woods, the Waif spoke.
"I don't know what you're trying to accomplish, but if you think you're going to truly commit to our order, you are mistaken."
Canal looked her over for a moment incredulously before speaking again. "What do you mean? I've done nothing wrong–"
The Waif slapped her. Canal recoiled, and before she could say anything, the Waif spoke again. "I could tell from the moment you stepped into our camp. You do not care about us. You do not care about our practices. You do not care about our way of living. Despite what Alchemist and the Kindly Man might say, you will never be part of us, and I may have to make sure you understand that very well."
Canal glared at her in annoyance. "Don't threaten me. I'm just as much a member of this group as you are."
The Waif's eyes narrowed. "You'd best sleep with one eye open if you cross me. And if you even anticipate leaving us for a moment to go back to wherever you came from, I will not hesitate to cut your throat."
"And you wouldn't return to your own? Like you have no attachment to your life before?"
"I was born when the dead rose."
Arya briefly did the math in her head. There was no way the Waif was around the age of someone like Weasel. "I don't believe y–"
Before she could finish, the Waif grabbed her by the front of her shirt and shoved her back towards the Faceless Men's camp. "Go," she ordered.
Getting the message, Canal turned to leave, and she looked back only once. The Waif was still standing by the tree line, glaring at her. They locked eyes for a brief moment. The Waif, with sheer rage in her eyes, made a slow slicing motion across her throat with her right index finger.
The following morning, Canal sat with the other Faceless Men at breakfast and shared food with them. She sat in a square shape with the Starved Man, Squinter, and Plague Face. She expected any of them to speak, but none did. After eating, Canal decided to walk around and explore the camp. Not a whole lot of people there were much for talking, so she decided to explore instead.
Very quickly, she found the Handsome Man and the Lordling beginning to gather supplies from the camp and stuff them into large backpacks. Curious, Canal approached. "What are you doing?"
The Handsome Man looked over to her. "Packing. We're going to make a new encampment elsewhere. We do this every three weeks."
Nomads, Arya realized. Joining them in their trek will result in me being separated from the others, if they're still alive.
Canal walked away from them, and she soon found herself in the company of the Kindly Man. The two struck up a brief discussion as they walked away from the group. Canal recalled the Waif and thought back to her threatening behavior from the night before. Canal figured that the Kindly Man would know something about her, so she decided to ask.
"Could you tell me about the Waif?" Canal asked.
"What would you like to know about her?" the Kindly Man replied.
"Recently, she told me that she was 'born when the dead rose'. Is she serious? I thought she looked too old to be a young child–"
The Kindly Man chuckled. "She did not lie. We were all born when the dead rose. The blood of the dead which covers our faces and bodies shows that we have become one with the dead; all of the lives we could have lived, all of what we have been or ever will be, has been given to the dead. Death is a gift, and it must be respected. Several members of our order have been bitten and left to turn. Some may say these events were tragic mishaps, but we know the truth."
Canal inwardly frowned. She would in no way be getting answers about the Waif and where she came from like this. So she decided to ask again, but word a few things differently. "How did your organization form?"
The Kindly Man paused. At first, Canal thought he would give her a cryptic answer, but instead, he explained a few things to her about the Faceless Men.
"Out of all of us, I found her first. In truth, she is thirty-six years old. I was up north, and I found her staggering around the streets of the city I was in. We stayed together for a while, and we decided to work together, also abandoning our old names from the old times so we could embrace a new life in the new times, the times of the living dead. At one time, all of us were No One. As I say, 'Faceless'."
Canal found this interesting. It explained where the Faceless Men had come from, but it did not explain the Waif's mentality of "with us or against us". She decided to ask more.
"Where does she stand in the group?"
"The Waif, alongside Alchemist, are both second to me."
The memory of the threats from the previous night flooded back to Canal. She asked something else.
"Has she ever had problems with anyone else in the group?"
The Kindly Man paused, stopped walking, and pointed to Plague Face as he skinned a rabbit while the Fat Fellow watched closely. Canal looked to where he was pointing, and the Kindly Man spoke again. "Do you see his weeping sores?"
"Yes."
"He didn't have those before he joined our order."
"What did she do?"
"Canal, it is best not to pry about her further."
"I understand."
Canal said nothing else about the Waif and parted ways with the Kindly Man.
Later in the day, Canal was by the river alongside Alchemist, the Waif, and Plague Face. They had been sent down there by the Kindly Man, and each had a fishing spear and a bucket to store the fish they caught. Nearby was a wheelbarrow to dump all of the caught fish they had when the buckets got full. Back at the encampment of the Faceless Men, those who weren't hunting were busy gathering up the rest of the camp to begin migrating to someplace else the next day.
A while off, the Waif and Plague Face were busy with spearing as many fish as they could. Where Canal and Alchemist were located, it was much more difficult; fish were scarce in their part of the river, and Alchemist seemed to be missing many of the fish he was trying to spear.
On the other hand, Canal knew she would do a better job if she weren't thinking of something else. Arya could not stop thinking about her friends. The act of using the spears to fish reminded her of how she would do the same thing with Lommy, Weasel, and Hot Pie. She had to hold back tears when she thought of them so Alchemist would not see. Even if they had held off the Brave Companions, it was likely that Rorge would get more people and come back. She figured that at least Willow and maybe Nymeria were dead. She hoped Weasel was okay.
Then she noticed something in the river: a fish. Canal impaled it with her spear, dropped it into the bucket, and focused back on the river, still trying to hide her tears. She noticed how Alchemist missed spearing a fish, and Canal was quick to act, impaling the fish he missed and dropping it into her own bucket. Alchemist seemed to notice this.
For the next hour, every time Alchemist missed a fish, Canal speared it for him. In total, Canal caught ten of Alchemist's missed fish. Including these, Canal had caught twenty-six. As they worked during this time, Canal got a few glances at the Waif and Plague Face. They seemed to be having a much easier time with this than them.
Every time they filled a bucket, they had to move over to the wheelbarrow to fill it with their catches. In total, the entire group of four had caught seventy-two fish. As they began their trek back to the encampment, the four remained silent. Canal hoped that no wights would be attracted to them because of the fresh fish, but none did. They took their food to the Fat Fellow, who began to prepare it.
Before going to sleep for the night, Alchemist took Canal off to the side. Quickly and covertly, he whispered something into her ear.
"A girl's three debts to a man have been paid."
The next day, the group left to go somewhere else. In the morning, the Kindly Man announced that they would be following the river southward, and Arya inwardly frowned. She wanted to leave and find her original group before she wound up over the hills and far away. She was not carrying anything, and the Kindly Man led the way for the others.
They walked for a few hours, only pausing to take a break every now and then. Eventually, they came upon a hill adjacent to the river. While walking, Canal looked over at the others around her. Aside from the sounds of people walking and wheelbarrows being carted, there was no noise that came from their group. Canal was near the front of the group, and ahead of her were the Kindly Man and Alchemist. She did not see the Waif anywhere, which concerned her.
If I don't get away from here, she's going to kill me, she realized. The Waif had made far too many threatening gestures directed at Canal, and the latter wanted nothing to do with whatever the Waif had planned. Canal tried to dwell on other things, but she could not get the memory of the Waif's act of making a slicing motion across her throat.
As they climbed the hill, Canal kept a close watch on her surroundings. She kept a close eye on what was on her sides and in front of her, but not what was behind her. This proved to be bad for Arya when she felt someone grab her in a tight headlock.
Immediately, Arya pried at her attacker's grip, jerking around wildly, then fell backwards as she felt something sharp graze her right cheek. She let out a yelp and fell down the hill, landing in the riverbank at the bottom of the hill. Arya quickly staggered to her feet and turned around to see her attacker: the Waif. She had a large knife in hand, and she was charging right towards her.
"DIE!" the Waif screamed, driving the knife towards Arya. Arya reacted by snapping into action by grabbing her arm with the knife, pushing it back as much as possible. In retaliation, the Waif kicked one of Arya's legs, causing the latter to crumple to the ground. Upon making contact with the muddy riverbank, the Waif's knife drove a little into Arya's chest, not far enough to puncture any organs, but enough to make her bleed. Arya pulled back as much as possible, trying to wrestle the Waif off of herself. In her peripheral vision, Arya could see something much larger than a fish moving around in the river water close to the riverbank. And then there were several more somethings as Arya saw a few of the Faceless Men begin to break away from the group to come to the bottom of the hill to see what was going on, Jaqen included.
Using one hand to keep the knife away from herself, Arya used the other to claw at the Waif's face. Arya jammed her fingers into her eyes, her thumb into her mouth, and smashing her nose shut. Arya began to climb to her feet as the Waif growled, biting down on Arya's thumb. Arya jerked back just as the Waif swung the knife in a wide arc to try and slash her throat open, but she missed by a few inches.
Jaqen was the first to reach. "A woman must stop!" Jaqen demanded of the Waif. "A girl is an ally not to be discarded like–"
The Waif, a look in her eyes similar to the look Rorge had given Arya a few days before, screamed in sheer, inhuman rage and charged at Jaqen, tackling him and driving the knife upwards. Before she could swing downward, Arya ran, grabbed the Waif's arm by wrapping herself around it, and yanked backwards with as much strength as she could muster. The Waif growled, grunted, and jerked around wildly as this happened, and it wound up with Arya on her stomach facing the river, noticing the things emerging from the river: four rotted wights. It appeared that somewhere along the way, they had gotten stuck in the river and were now pulling themselves loose as they got close to the land.
The Waif, growling, wrapped Arya in a tight headlock with her right arm. In the scuffle, she had dropped her knife, but now she had it again. And she used it to drive directly into Arya's left eye. There was a burst of white light in that eye, then blackness. The pain was excruciating, and Arya had never screamed as loud as she did then than ever before. The Waif said nothing. Instead, she twisted the knife and violently ripped it out of Arya's ruined eye.
Arya, continuing to scream loudly, drew the attention of the river wights towards them, who began to head over to the source of the noise. The Waif, evidently noticing this, slammed Arya's face into the mud in an attempt to shut her up. Arya swiveled to her right just before the Waif drove her knife downwards again. She had been aiming at the back of Arya's head, but it wound up getting stuck in the mud instead.
Arya, though heavily wounded, climbed to her feet and observed the Waif and the approaching four wights, who were getting close to the land. Arya decided to use this to her advantage and charged at the Waif as the rest of the Faceless Men made it to the bottom of the hill. Arya made contact, and the Waif grunted as she was knocked into the river, hitting the four wights.
"GET OFF!" the Waif screamed as they grabbed her, stabbing one in the head and killing it as another bit deep into her shoulder. Before she could stab another, another grabbed her arm and bit into it. The Waif dropped the knife and thrashed around violently. Arya and the others watched as all three wights and the Waif fell backwards into the river and were soon swept away beneath the water in its strong currents.
All were silent for a moment before Arya felt a firm hand on her shoulder. She turned around and saw Jaqen standing there.
"A man will return after he has dealt with a girl."
Jaqen ushered Arya up the hill. No one followed them. Arya felt dread at what could be coming.
Arya and Jaqen walked for a long while. Arya's ruined left eye still bled (though not as much as before), and it had a painful throb every second. It didn't hurt as badly as in the beginning, but it was still horrible. Neither Arya nor Jaqen said any words until they found a dead wight. Jaqen stopped and began to drive his knife into the body.
"What are you doing?" Arya asked.
"A man must make it look like he has killed a girl," Jaqen explained.
He's letting me go?
After Jaqen was done, they walked for a bit until they emerged from the woods and came upon a town. Arya thought it was familiar, but she soon recognized it: Harroway. At least I'm close to Crossroads, she thought. I can make it back now.
"A girl had three debts to a man," Jaqen began to explain, "and a girl has paid her debts to a man. And now a man must pay his debt to a girl."
Arya was confused. "What have I done for you?"
"A girl has saved a man's life, and now a man has allowed a girl to leave the Faceless Men. All of a girl's debts have been paid, and so has a man's own sole debt."
"Alright…" Arya said, waving to Jaqen. "Goodbye, Jaqen."
Arya walked forward into Harroway. It was almost dusk. Arya looked back to see if Jaqen was still there, but he was gone. She figured she would never see him again, and she seemed oddly fine with it. Now aside from getting back to her group, Arya had another concern to take care of: her eye. It was still bleeding, and Arya knew she needed to find something to patch it up, or else it was like to get infected.
She figured that Harroway had to have a pharmacy somewhere. Her group had spent so much time searching through the neighborhoods for food and other supplies that they hadn't thought to check deeper in town. Now realizing that this would be her chance, Arya began to break out in a light sprint to head into town before it really started to get dark out. She recalled the wights which had been through the town, but she hoped that after a year, their large numbers had dwindled.
She came upon a gas station and, nearby it, she saw a pharmacy. Relieved, Arya began to hurry over, but had to slow her pace when she saw a few wights nearby. What wound up happening was that Arya had to hide behind a few cars to get to where she needed to go so the wights wouldn't see her (though she figured that the blood and dried gore covering her would help), but she still made it to the pharmacy.
Heading in through one of the broken glass doors of the pharmacy, Arya expected the building to be completely ransacked, but to her surprise, there were still some things left on shelves. There were two wights in the building, so Arya did the same inside the pharmacy like what she'd done outside with the cars, instead using the shelves to hide herself. There were six aisles in the pharmacy, and she found next to nothing useful because most of them had been stripped bare. She found some unused washcloths in a bag, which she hastily opened and pressed to her face, intending to clean her eye. She figured that it wouldn't help much, but it would have to do.
Going through the other aisles, she found nothing that could be of use to her. However, on her last go around, she found something that had been mostly untouched: a box containing black eyepatches. Arya, realizing she would need to use an eyepatch from now on, ripped the box open and placed the black eyepatch over what was remained of her left eye.
Getting up to leave the pharmacy, Arya was noticed by one of the two wights. It growled, then gave chase. Arya hurried out of the pharmacy, quickly making her way though the glass door. The wight, however, was not cautious like her and wound up with various spots on its rotting skin being shredded by the glass. It face planted on the ground. Arya hurried away, trying to recall where the road to Crossroads was located.
As night began to roll in, Arya found the road where a year before, Lommy's leg had been severed to save his life after a bite. Arya actually found the skeletal remains of Lommy's leg, and it was in a few pieces after the tendons had rotted away. She figured that wights had done most of the work.
Arya, understanding the walk she'd have to make back to Crossroads, debated with herself about ducking into one of the nearby houses to sleep during the night. She had lost her machete to Rorge, and she was unarmed as night was creeping in. It didn't help that there were likely a lot of wights still in the area, and the fresh blood coming from her ruined eye would likely attract some to her. She figured that this was the case with the one wight back in the pharmacy.
Much to Arya's misfortune, three wights emerged from the adjacent woods as she walked to leave Harroway. One of them turned its half-skeletal head to face her, growling lowly. Arya felt her heart lurch into her throat. She began to hear the sound of a motorcycle off in the distance.
Arya, not sure if the wights would target her or not, slowly took a few steps back as she kept her eye trained on the wights. As the motorcycle and its rider got closer, Arya watched in horror as all of the wights, not just the one, began growling.
The motorcycle was incredibly close now. The wights growled loudly and charged at Arya. Before Arya could turn to run, the closest wight, the first which had spotted her, was shot dead, the top half of its head exploding before it made contact with the asphalt. The other two were gunned down in quick succession just as the motorcycle was turned off.
Arya looked off to the side to see who had saved her life. At first, she suspected that it was a Brotherhood Without Banners member atop the large, black motorcycle, but it turned out to be a man she had never seen before.
He was the tallest man Arya had ever seen. He was muscular, and by far his most notable feature aside from his height was that the left side of his face was severely burned, the severe scars extending down to his throat. Surprisingly, his left eye had not been harmed by what had happened to him.
The man with the burned face spat on the asphalt before he spoke. "What are you looking at?"