As per Aulix's request, Arya stayed near or beside Taron the rest of the day. Taron was too busy to really care. Aulix was busy following up on the whole theft of poison thing. At night, even though it wasn't raining, Arya chose to sleep inside. She did so, two nights in a row.
Sarra noticed the deviance in habbit and asked, "do you think it's going to rain tonight?"
"Not really," Arya replied without explaining her presence.
Taking the hint, Sarra didn't probe any further. Instead she shrugged and went to find Byt, who was still upset about the theft. Arya saw Kit and went to talk to him for a while, but kept an eye on Taron. When Aulix returned, he signed to Arya that she didn't have to watch Taron anymore that night. Still, she had a strange feeling that there was still danger lurking and so stayed inside. Everyone went to sleep early, except for Arya, Aulix and Taron. However, she fell asleep before them.
Arya's dream seemed so real and it's what gave her alarm, before anything happened. She bolted awake and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. Her neck hair stood on end and Arya's heart was racing, making it hard to hear. Glancing to where she'd last recalled seeing Taron and Aulix, relief flowed through her that they were both still there. Standing, quietly Arya made her way towards them, careful not to make a noise and wake others. Seeing them breathing and no one around, she took a deep breath and calmed down. Aulix woke up and looked at her. He motioned for her to wait and not make a noise. They went out on to the street.
"What did you see?" Aulix asked, already knowing she'd had another premonition.
Arya quietly relayed the dream and watched Aulix's face for his reaction. "And you saw it like it was happening right now?"
She nodded. "But it was like everything was overly big. So not like through a dog or cat's eyes, but maybe something smaller." Arya frowned and tapped her finger on her chin.
"What? You seem to know more," he pushed for information.
"Well … I had a dream the night before the Red Wedding, where it seemed like I was my brother's wolf. I saw through it's eyes. So could this mean, I'm seeing something before it's about to happen?"
"Maybe. Tell me again what you saw, right before you woke up."
They analyzed the dream, step by step. So deep in conversation were they, that neither heard Taron.
"What are you two whispering about?" He asked, grinning when they both jumped in surprise.
"I saw you in my dream," Arya explained and rolled her eyes when he smirked. "I'm serious, you're in danger."
"If you're that worried, just sleep with me. And relax, I won't hit on you or anything." Taron reassured seeing her eyes widen. "Is there any reason why Ari's been seeing like this, so much lately?" He directed his question to Aulix.
"Well it seems she's had this ability for a while now. But now that I'm working with her and opening Ari's eyes to the potential of what can happen…." He didn't finish, just patted Arya's shoulder.
"Anyway, you should sleep with a knife or something. Are you sleeping with us Aulix?" Arya asked innocently.
Taron exchanged a look with Aulix, but neither said what they truly wanted to reply to her. "No, I've had enough sleep, I'm going to roam." He pointed to his head.
The three of them returned to Taron's sleeping area. Aulix sat down, with his back against the wall and his eyes went white. Taron lay back down, noticing how nervous Arya was. Part of him was annoyed since he'd already said he wouldn't make any sexual moves towards her. The other part of him was secretly pleased that his presence effected her that much. He rolled over on his side, so his face was to the wall and his back was to Arya. She lay down beside him, her back to his. He closed his eyes and listened to her breathing, not falling asleep again until he was sure she was.
It felt like only minutes, but it was at least an hour, when Arya woke up suddenly and realized there was a rat tugging on her hair. She looked at Aulix and saw he was not mentally in his own body. She looked at the rat and talked with her hands to stop it or she'd kick it across the room. The rat stopped, but remained looking at her, flicking it's tail in agitation. Arya listened and heard something moving towards them.
She rolled over and put a hand on Taron's mouth, then whispered in his ear. "Wake up, we have unwanted company."
His hand covered hers and he kissed her palm. Slowly he rolled over. He saw the rat shake it's head at them, meaning they shouldn't move and just wait, but be ready. If the rat, being Aulix, knew that Taron's life was in danger, he'd be in his own body already. To a stranger, it would look like Taron and Arya were just spooning in their sleep. But Arya could feel the cold of the blade he held, hidden by his arm. She too had a small star shaped blade in her hand. The rat scurried away for five minutes and then Aulix, put his hand on Taron's head.
Signalling to get ready to fight.
Suddenly all hell broke loose. Arya instinctively went low, while Aulix and Taron went high, with their attacks. There were three or four people assaulting Taron. Still, it was done quietly, other than their grunts. Taron too remained quiet, both not wanting to alarm his street guild members and not wanting them to interfere. He was confident that they could handled the intrusion. But in the end, it was Arya who saved his life. It was like she was back in her dream, she could see it all unfolding the same way. Taron shifted his body to avoid a swung blade, but in doing so, exposed himself to a thrown dagger. Arya leaped at the right moment, knocking him out of the way. The blade caught her in the arm and she was unable to restrain the scream of pain. That woke everyone up in confusion and gave the attackers the chance to escape.
"Stupid girl, why did you do that?" Taron scolded her, while picking Arya up.
Aulix, Kit and Benn, went after the fleeing intruders. The remaining guild members, lighted up the room as Taron carried Arya to a table. Byt disappeared and returned quickly, to clean the wound.
"This is gonna hurt, when I pull the dagger out. Here bite on this stick, I don't know why, but it helps." She yanked the blade out quickly, but poured rum on the open wound.
Since it was her first time experiencing this type of injury and the searing pain of the rum, Arya bit down so hard, the wood broke into three pieces. It was too much pain and she passed out.
"I would have screamed and threatened lives, but she held it all in!" Byt observed, as she dressed the wound.
Taron nodded, "the only sound Ari made was when the blade went in."
Byt handed him the bottle, "she'll want some of this when she wakes up. What happened?"
"Three or four guys tried to jump us in our sleep. Aulix warned us and then the fight was on. Ari saved my life, by risking hers. That blade would've ended up close to my heart, if not in it, had she not pushed me out of the way…. Stupid girl," he sighed affectionately.
Arya heard him and groaned, "my life is not as important as yours."
"Stupid girl, you know that 'all men must die' and your life is important!" Byt scolded her too.
Being too weak to argue, Arya just rolled her eyes. For now she'd let them win that argument. Sitting up on the table, she swung her legs to dangle over the side. Byt bandaged her arm, while Taron gave Arya the bottle of booze.
"Stupid girl… thank you," Taron said. To Byt he added, "any more incidents with your stuff getting stolen?"
"Nope. I've been sleeping in there."
He nodded. Aulix and the guys returned. "Catch them?"
"Yes. They won't be doing that to anyone ever again," Benn answered.
Kit added, "I recognized one of the guys. He's from that wharf crew, that steals from the inbound ships."
"Why would they attack Taron?" Arya asked.
Aulix replied, "they have a long standing grudge against us… but the timing is odd." He touched Arya's arm. "You okay, Stupid Girl?"
"Yup…that is, if everyone would stop calling me a Stupid Girl. This could've been a blade in Taron's chest. I'm not stupid, I knew what was going to happen…"
Taron stopped her from explaining how she knew. "Alright, the excitement's over. I'm hungry, let's do an early breakfast, the sun is just about to crest the horizon."
Aulix whispered to Arya, "after you've done eating, meet me on the roof."