Okay, so I've been working on this since 2012 and even though I keep coming back to it now and again and think…*Yes, this feels a lot better this time* …I still get the feeling that this is a terrible sequel chapter to the last because I found quite hard to make it satisfactory and I know full well that I've failed at that. :(
Jaqen is in this short story chapter but he's not exactly involved in this at all. I wanted to focus mainly upon the developing friendship between Arya, Hot Pie and Lommy before the Lannister soldiers arrived at their camp to kill Gendry and take the rest of them to Castle Black.
The free city Lorath is mentioned in this chapter but since there is so little information regarding the city in the Game of Thrones I couldn't exactly further a part of the story that I really wanted to do.
Well, hopefully you'll enjoy this. The high chances are that you won't.
"Come on you lazy sons of whores! Start marching!" Arya Stark heard Yoren, a man of the Nightswatch, say loudly from the top of his horse to every single one of them that was ready to move on. Everything was packed up from camp the previous night and they were all prepared to continue they're way northwards across the Riverlands to the Wall before the Lannister soldiers returned with more men after Yoren had threatened one of them who were ordering him and everyone else to hand Gendry over to them.
The young Stark girl as it happened was with that very boy, although Arya knew the word boy didn't seem to fit him. A young man seemed more appropriate given how tall and filled out he was. His arms for one thing, after spending many years as a blacksmiths apprentice. They're friendship and trust for one another had grown when they had questioned each other on why the Lannister soldiers would've wanted them.
Gendry had no idea why they had wanted him and that was the truth. Arya of course didn't believe him though, but told him about herself, coming clean once he had said that he knew she was girl. Gendry had been shocked to learn that she had been a lady of house Stark, the daughter of the previous hand of King Robert before his death who was then killed by the new King, Joffery, by cutting off his head.
As of now however, Gendry had been assigned by Yoren to pull one of the wagons along with another boy and she stood along beside him. The horse that was previously being used to pull it had been needed to pull up front with another horse to carry a heavy load that was meant for two instead of one. The only thing was however, is that it was the very same wagon carrying the three caged prisoner's, one of whom Arya knew by name as Jaqen H'ghar.
Arya could fairly say that Jaqen, unlike the other two in the cage, had fairly good features along with his red hair, with white streaks interspaced throughout it on the left side of his face. Out of the three, he had been kind to her, they're first conversation involving him asking her for a drink, which she brought to him later and had learned from him that he had been confined to the Black Cells in the King's Landing dungeons, which were well known for holding the worst of criminals.
He had told her that he had been betrayed and was caught by the people he was going to kill, but he wouldn't tell her who betrayed him, or who it was he was going to kill. He had only said "We all have secrets to keep" and he had said it in a way that had made her uneasy, making her depart rather quickly, worrying that he saw through her disguise as a boy.
As they departed the young Stark girl saw him gaze at her from time to tome but didn't look or make any eye contact with him and focused mainly on the boy that was helping Gendry pull the wagon with the caged prisoners. It was Hot Pie, the boy that had bullied her to the ground along with the other boy with blonde hair, who she found out to be called Lommy. He too was with them, on his friends left as he pulled the wagon alongside with Gendry.
Arya looked at them thoughtfully as they moved. She had seen them as nothing more than bullies at first when she had encountered them. Pinheaded stupid idiots even that needed to be eradicated from the earth they stood upon. Now however, they had gained a steady friendship between each other, though she still saw them as fools, Hot Pie especially when she thought back about him knowing about what a battle was.
Hot Pie suddenly took notice that Arya had been staring at her because he turned his head in her direction and she quickly turned her head, looking forward. "What are you staring at?" he asked.
"Nothing in particular," she replied her voice rather curt and saw him frown out of the corner of her left eye.
"Hey," Gendry said to her making her look up and he leaned down a bit to her so he could whisper something into her ear. "Got a fancy for one of them, do you?" he asked with a smirk. Arya immediately pulled a face and swung at him with a fist, hitting him on his side as he stood back up straight again as he laughed at her reaction.
Gendry had been making a few jokes like this now and again just to piss her off.
"What's funny?" Hot Pie asked Gendy, and they both saw Lommy and him looking at them in confusion.
"Just a joke," Gendry answered, giving him a sharp look, but was unable to keep the remaining sound of his laughter from his voice when he said it.
Hot pie looked at Lommy who waved his eyes and shrugged at the fat boy before asking, "What's the joke?"
Arya was about to answer that it wasn't any of his business when a cold deep gruff voice spoke from behind them.
"He was saying that the little boy likes you."
They all turned their heads and saw Rorge, his face pressed up against the bars of the cage as he held them, giving Hot Pie a dirty smile, his mouth open, revealing his rotted teeth. "He wants you to fuck him," he continued, a laugh breaking out of him and Biter behind him smirked along with him.
Arya saw Hot Pie and Lommy looking absolutely revolted and then Hot Pie turned his head in her direction, stopping dead in his tracks, and she looked back at him, stopping too as Gendry had too because of the other boy pulling the wagon with him.
"You're one of those people!?" he said loudly, his voice sickening.
Arya thought quickly, her eyes meeting Jaqen's in the cage for a mere moment as he had his full attention on her now.
"I am not!" she shot back fiercely at the fat boy and looked back at Rorge, "He's a liar. I like girls! Plus, are you seriously going to believe anything a man says to you who's locked up in a cage?" she finished looking back at Hot Pie but not before seeing Jaqen arching an eyebrow at those words.
"She's right," Gendry said to Hot Pie, making them all look at him. "It's best to ignore what any of them say. It's just going to be lies."
"HEY!" someone suddenly roared furiously behind them, making them all turn, including the three men in the cage, and they saw the young scruffy looking man that had shouted at them, as well as the line that they were holding up.
"WILL YOU PLEASE MOVE THE FUCKING CART!" the man roared again, almost hysterical.
"Come on," Gendry said to Hot Pie, issuing him to start pulling the wagon again and he complied, the four of them moving to catch up with the others.
"So what was the joke then if wasn't that," Lommy asked Gendry. Once again, Arya, was about to say to him that it wasn't any of his business but Gendry had answered before she had a chance to open her mouth.
"It was about Hot Pie never going to be with a girl, that's all," he answered.
Arya looked from Gendry to Hot Pie who frowned at them, seeing that he had been offended.
"I've been with a girl! I've been with loads of girls! I've been–"
"Liar," Arya called him, cutting across him, looking forward again.
"I've been inside a girl," Hot Pie finished firmly. There was silence as all three of them had their heads trained on him and he nodded his head proudly.
Arya made a face and the sound of disgust escaped her mouth as she looked away from the boy and couldn't help but feel like she was going to be sick and Gendry looked from Hot Pie to her. Why did he have to make that stupid joke? It had now escalated to this! She didn't want talk or listen anything like this!
"No you haven't," Lommy then said to his friend, his voice full of absolutely certainty.
"I have," Hot Pie said without any doubt about what he had told all of them.
"Hot Pie, after all these year's we've known each other, I'm pretty sure you have bragged about that into my face that you got there before I did."
"Because I didn't want to insult you about something like that," Hot Pie chastised.
Lommy let out a cold laugh. "Sure," he drawled, "–because that's so unlike you..."
Hot Pie had been about to snap back at him when another voice came from behind them making Arya, Hot Pie and Lommy look back at him to see that it was Biter. Gendry on the other hand kept his eyes forward on the road.
"A porky bastard like you managed to stick that fat cock of yours into someone's cunt?" he said nodding his head slowly, almost thoughtfully, "The poor thing..."
"Hey, isn't it true that fat boys like him have tiny cocks?" Rorge asked Biter and he smiled gleefully, nodding in response to that. "Therefore–" Rorge said, looking back out of the cage at Hot Pie "–you wouldn't have anything long enough to stick into her!" the two men laughed cold heartedly at Hot Pie.
Arya took her eyes off the two men that were insulting Hot Pie and focused them on Jaqen. He had made no crack of a smile of the insults that two he was imprisoned with were making and kept the same dull expression she'd always seen him with on his face.
"Just ignore them will you," Gendry said him, exasperated. "The girl," he then said, "–what was her name?"
"Dunno," Hot Pie said simply with a shrug, "She was a whore."
"Where did you get the gold for whore?" Lommy questioned dubiously.
"I told her she'd get it after we did it and afterwards I ran away from her before she could stop me."
"As fast as your fat ass could carry you," Arya uttered, making Gendry, along with the two greasy haired men in the cage behind them, laugh.
"Shut up, Arry," Hot Pie told her irritably, not at all happy with the comment she had made about him.
"Lommy, the girls that Hot Pie says he's been with, what were their names?" Gendry then asked the blonde boy.
"I've actually never seen any girls with him," Lommy told him, looking from the older boy to his friend.
"That's because you were never around when I was talking to one," Hot Pie pointed out to him.
"So you haven't actually been with a girl then, you were speaking to them," Gendry said, exasperated, raising his eyes to the heavens as he did so. "You know what, forget it. I'm not buying it. Keep lying to us if it makes you feel better about yourself."
"I'm not ly–"
"Liar," Arya called him yet again, cutting across him for a second time. Even though she didn't want to listen to the conversation that they were having she decided to stay anyway and hear what Hot Pie had to say. "Is there even anything true that comes out of that mouth of yours?"
Arya watched as Hot Pie glared at her. "How do you know that I'm a liar?" he shot back offensively.
"Because I just do," she said callously as she looked forward, a gall laugh escaping her as she said it.
"Alright, fine then, I haven't been with any girls at all. Happy?"
"What about the wench," Gendry probed, looking back at him and he let out a loud reluctant sigh, sounding more like a growl than anything else.
"I didn't fuck any wench either," he conceded to them.
"Thought as much," Lommy uttered.
"Well at least you're being honest about it," Arya stated.
"So the fat boy didn't get his cock wrapped around a woman after all then," Rorge said gaining Arya, Hot Pie and Lommy's attention once again and seeing him grinning coldly at Hot Pie.
"From the looks of him, there wouldn't have been much to wrap around with anyway," Biter said and the two of them let another cold hearted laugh.
Arya saw Hot Pie open his mouth to say something back at them. But he didn't. The faces of the two caged men staring gleefully back at him making him turn his head forward again instead.
Arya saw the fear on his face though. It was the same look she had made him make once she had pointed her sword, Needle, at him when he and Lommy had been bullying her. He was too scared of Rorge and Biter to say anything back at them, Lommy too by the looks of it, as he made no attempt to stick up for his friend.
Arya thought that she should've felt some satisfaction from that given how the two boys had treated her when they had left Kings Landing but instead she couldn't help but feel sorry for Hot Pie more than anything else. He may talk big, but he was nothing more but a scaredy-cat when someone bigger than him came along.
What's more, even though she had enjoyed seeing the look of fear on his face when she had, Needle, pressed up against him she relished the thought of seeing it once again. But this time she wasn't enjoying it, she hated seeing it and it annoyed her that Rorge and Biter were making him feel that way. She then did something she didn't think she'd be doing for him. She pulled, Needle, out from around her side and turned on the cage as Gendry and Hot Pie walked passed her with the wagon and stuck Rorge with the point of her blade into his arm. The man let out a cry of pain getting everyone's attention and Arya withdrew and jabbed into Biters side getting a howl out of him.
"You little fuck! What are you doing!?" Rorge shouted down at her, grasping his arm, blood dribbling over the ragged clothing he was wearing.
The wounds she had inflicted on him and Biker weren't life threatening. Just a needle sized poke, just only bigger.
"Arry!" Gendry exclaimed, letting go of the handle of the cart and coming over to drag her forward away from the two men.
"You two leave Hot Pie alone," she told them firmly, ignoring Jaqen's silent tittering as he watched her speak to the two men that were three or four times her age.
"When I get outa here I'm going to ram that fucking sword of yours up your little fucking ass!" Biter barked at her, clasping his side, a bit more blood oozing out from his wound than Rorge's, the red blotches dripping down onto the floor of the cage.
Gendry grabbed Arya by the arm and pulled her to the front of the cart.
"What are you doing?" he chastised, maddened and Arya wrenched her arm from his grasp.
"They had coming," she snapped.
"I SWEAR TO THE GODS ABOVE, IF YOU DON'T MOVE IT I'M–!"
"OH SHUT UP!" Gendry shouted just as loudly back at the same man that had been yelling earlier from behind them, but he joined Hot Pie and they started to pull the wagon once again.
Hot Pie however had been looking at Arya with disbelief. He hadn't expected the girl that he thought was a boy to stick them with her sword for what they were saying to him after how he and Lommy had treated her when they had first met.
"It's just another reason you're giving them to kill you," he said to Arya as she followed along beside him, putting, Needle, back into place on her side.
"It's more than likely that they'd still kill me even if I hadn't done it," Arya pointed out to him.
"Got that right," Rorge muttered ominously to them and Arya turned to look at him, placing her hand back on the hilt of Needle and he growled, recoiling a bit back into the small cage and the young Stark smirked darkly at him.
"Arry…" Hot Pie then said to her, and Arya looked at him. "Thanks…" he said, his voice rather sheepish and she gave him a somewhat small smile.
"You're welcome."
"Friends?" he then asked her, surprising the young Stark girl. Gendry and Lommy looked at the boy in between them also baffled by what he had just asked.
Arya thought about it. Yes, he was an idiot at times, Lommy, not so much. But overall the both of them were alright. "Only if you don't tell anymore lies," she then said him.
"Fine…" Hot Pie muttered. "Baking," he then said, getting curious looks from her and Gendry.
"I'm good at baking things."
"You…can bake?" Arya questioned, smirking in disbelief, guessing that it was another lie he was coming up with.
"You asked me if anything true comes out of my mouth," he reminded her. "I can bake."
"He actually can," Lommy told them, sounding practically genuine about it. "He's not lying about it."
Arya stared at Hot Pie bemused. He didn't strike her as the type that would be into baking things. But if it was true he had definitely surprised her for once.
.
.
After spending almost the entire day marching across the Riverlands, Yoren finally called out for them as they were approaching a very old stone building which Arya could only guess as a night shelter for people traveling long distances to hold up for the night.
"We rest here for the evening! Get some food in those bellies and then get to sleep! It's going to be another long day of marching tomorrow!"
"Finally," Hot Pie said, who had been complaining about how hungry he was for the past number of hours. It hadn't been to any help to the rest of them, who were trying to ignore the growling sounds of their empty stomachs as they craved for something to eat.
"You two get going on getting some meat before all the good bits are taken. We'll join once we leave this lot aside," Gendry told Arya and Lommy as those that were parking up the carts made their way to the one that carried the food supplies.
"Got it," Lommy said and started making his way over to the cart and Arya followed along behind him the strong scent of the salted preservatives to keep the meat fresh so that it would last waffling from it.
Once they finally reached the front of all the other boys that were surrounding the young man giving out the food. He wasn't very tall, but his muscular form made up for it and he looked more than capable to knock down anyone who took intended to try and steal any of it.
"There you go," he muttered handing over some the meat that was wrapped around in brown leather to Lommy and then doing the same to Arya.
"There are two others with us that we're getting food for as well. They're over there with those men in the cages," Arya told him, looking in the direction of where Gendry and Hot Pie were as they set aside the wagon from the rest of the camp before looking back at the man providing the food.
He had followed her gaze and then looked back down at her, his eyes narrowing somewhat in suspicion, but then he gave her something else that was somewhat bigger than what she and Lommy had gotten.
"Get those two to share that," the man told her with a scowl and brushed her away with a hand and the others behind them shouldered them aside as they moved forward for food. The both of them then made their way over to Gendry and Hot Pie as they were coming there way.
"So?" Gendry asked.
"Take this one. It's for you and Hot Pie to share," Arya told him handing out the meat to him.
Gendry lifted the large lump of meat from Arya's arms and folded back the leather to look at what it was and he smiled.
"Hare," he said to Hot Pie whose face fell.
"You think if we give it back to him he'll give us something better?" he asked.
"I'll have your share then since you don't like them," Gendry replied.
"Oh, no, no, it's fine. I like hair," he said rather quickly.
"What about you two?" Gendry asked Arya and Lommy.
Arya removed the leather from around the meat of the small animal and saw that she had gotten the ribs of a small animal and Lommy had gotten the same.
"Better than nothing I suppose," Lommy said, somewhat disappointed.
Once the four of them had gotten some tankards and enough water to share they found a spot and started to put together a fire to cook the meat like all the rest of them were doing. After putting a ring of rocks together they then tossed what little they could get to use for firewood into the stone circle and Gendry began to light it by knocking two stones against one another. It had taken a while for the flames to build, but once they had made what they could of a wooden stand to put over the fire to cook their meat on it had formed into a neat blaze and their meat began to slowly cook.
When the meat was finally ready to eat, they gorged it down, including Arya, putting aside the manners that she had been taught while eating, glad to finally get something down into her tummy from all the long hours of marching that they had been doing that day.
"So what's that you got?" Lommy then asked Gendry as they ate.
Arya followed the blonde boys gaze down to the ground beside Gendry and they came to rest upon the dark bull shaped helm that he had crafted at the Forge before he was cast off to the Nightswatch.
"A helmet," Gendry answered picking it up with a free hand and passing it over to Lommy, who starred at it in awe, "Made it just before my master threw me out here with you lot."
"You made this?" Lommy asked incredulously, taking the helmet from him with a hand and started looking over the forgery of his helm from the horns, to the eyes and snout of the bulls face. Arya didn't know much about forging but she thought Gendry's helm was a fine piece of craftsmanship.
"This is one nice helmet," Lommy said, handing it back to Gendry once he was finished observing it.
Arya saw however that he seemed almost reluctant too. His eyes almost seemed to gleam at the sight of it, as though he had been holding one of the greatest treasures in all of Westeros. He really loved that helmet...
Once full, Arya still had some ribs left over. She was under the thought of wrapping it up and saving it for tomorrow, but then she looked in the direction of the caged prisoners, her eyes on Jaqen.
Even though their last conversation had ended leaving her with a feeling that he saw through her disguise, she couldn't help but wonder about the man. One thing that drove her interest in him was that he had been from the free cities just like her dancing master, Syrio Forel.
Syrio hadn't told her much about the nine powerful, independent city-states that were across the Narrow Sea to the east of Westeros on the western coast of Essos. He had told her about his home, Braavos, however.
Braavos was the most powerful and northerly of the Free Cities, a set of islands in a lagoon. The city was the home to the influential Iron Bank and the home of the secretive assassins' guild of the Faceless Men. It also had a religious tolerance and hatred of slavery.
Arya hadn't heard much of anything about the city that Jaqen had said he was from, Lorath. Maybe, perhaps, she'd be able to coax him into telling her about his home city if she were to bring him something to eat. Food for information was always a good tactic to use after all if a person was starving and she bet that he was. Rorge and Biter though… The young Stark girl grimaced. She guessed that she had better share the food with those two as well. As much as she despised the two men she knew she would have to share the food with them if she was going to be giving some to Jaqen. They were after all bound to attack him if the food was going only to him.
After placing the ribs in the leather wrapping and folding them up Arya got to her feet and started to head over to the water supplies to bring some water along.
"Where are you going?" Gendry asked, calling after her and Arya turned to look back at her friends seeing them all staring at her.
"I want to talk to someone in the cage," she told him and turned back to continue on her way over to the supplies. Arya heard the running footsteps behind her and looked to see Gendry come up beside her.
"What for?" he questioned.
"I want to find out something," she answered as they reached the supplies. Placing the ribs to the side, on the top of a crate she got out three tankards.
"Of?" Gendry questioned again, more profoundly, annoyed as Arya got out a jug and proceeded to fill it water.
"Doesn't matter," she told him, "Go back to the Hare before Hot Pie eats all of it."
"While you're with those three? Um…yeah, I don't think so. I'm going with you."
Arya frowned up at him. She could manage perfectly well by herself. She was about to say this, but seeing the look on his face she knew that there was no point to it and rolled her eyes. She knew that Gendry was only looking out for her, but she didn't need some guy coming to her rescue, or rescuing a Lady for that matter either.
"Fine," she then said, picking up the three tankards that were stacked on top of one another with her free hand and putting them and the jug of water in her other hand out in front of her. "You can carry these."
Arya picked up the ribs once Gendry had taken the tankards and the jug of water and the both of them made their way across the camp to the prisoners that were in their cages.
"So are you going to tell me why you want to speak to the quite one?" Gendry asked Arya and she looked up at him, perplexed. She was about to ask how he had known that it was him when continued. "What? It was unlikely that it was going to be the other two you were going to be talking to. So what's this all about?"
"He's from Lorath. I want to find out about it. In exchange I'll give him and the others food and water," Arya told him, looking forward again.
"You're giving him food just to get some information about a city? Why not just ask Yoren about it instead?" Gendry questioned, bewildered.
"Because I want to hear it from him," the Stark girl replied impudently, making Gendry sigh in exasperation.
"What happened to don't believe anything a man says to you who's locked up in a cage?"
Arya ignored the reminder of her own words and from her silence Gendry raised his eyes. It didn't make any sense to him at all on why Arya wanted to learn about one of the free cities. But if she wanted to ask a man from the place in a cage about it he wasn't going to do anything to stop her.
"Hey! You two had better be bringing us some food! I'm fucking starving in here!" Rorge shouted up against the bars as the young Stark girl and blacksmith approached the wagon that he and the two others were caged in.
"We do, now shut up if still want it," Gendry told him firmly.
While Gendry was filling up the tankards with water Arya made her way around to the wagon where Jaqen sat, resting against the bars, one leg hunched up while the other lied stretched out.
"The brave boy returns again. Has courage while the other lacks it," Jaqen said to her, his voice as before when she heard it was full of humbleness.
Arya frowned at him, not liking how he was depicting Gendry as a coward. Even though he had said that the men had scared him she couldn't see that as a term of weakness. Everyone got scared of something. Courage came in many different forms after all.
She unwrapped the meat and showed it to Jaqen. "I will give you and the others this to eat and in exchange I want you to tell me about your home city," she explained to Jaqen.
"You want us to listen to some piece of shit coming out from his mouth to get ourselves something to food!?" Rorge yelled, non-too pleased.
Arya watched as Jaqen turned his head to look at Rorge. Even though he stayed silent and seemed perfectly calm and collective she could tell from his stillness that there was a strong murderous intent behind it.
"This man is afraid to tell the boy that if he were to speak of the city from where he was raised then we would be here until the next new full moons passing," Jaqen told the young Stark when he had looked back to her.
"We have plenty of time from here to the wall," Arya reminded him. Jaqen smiled at her, the left corner of his mouth curving and nodded in agreement.
"If this man were to tell you the tale of his home city it would be preferred to have the hunger within him diminished before taking on a deed such as this," Jaqen said to her.
Arya looked at him suspiciously as she thought about giving him and the others the food to eat while he told her about Lorath. "How do I know that won't just stay silent once I give you this like you did the last time I asked you something?" she questioned.
"A man gives his word that no deceit shall follow from this, lovely boy," he replied.
Arya gazed at Jaqen for a long moment until she finally took a rib in her hand and placed it out in front of her, just far enough for Jaqen to reach out for. Once Jaqen had pulled the bone of meat back in however Rorge and Biter made a grab for it. Jaqen however threw it behind him and the two men scuffled between each other as they tried to get it.
"Pigs…" Gendry mouthed as he took back the tankards before they were knocked over by the two men scrambling for the meat where had Biter succeeded in getting.
Rorge eventually got one once more of the ribs had been distributed inside the cage and when Jaqen had finished his fill he kept to his word and began the long tale of the city of his birth, beginning with the history of the first Lorathean people to have settled there.
.
.
"Where the hell did the both of you go off too?" Hot Pie questioned once Arya and Gendry had returned from the caged wagon, after listening to Jaqen telling them of the first settlers of Lorath. Once he had finished on the subject night had started to fall and Jaqen left it at that for the evening.
"She wanted to talk to one of the prisoners," Gendry informed him as they both sat back down by their fire.
"What? For about an hour?" Lommy asked in bewilderment.
"More of a history lesson than talking," Arya told him, looking at Gendry's bull helmet that was back in the blonde boy's hands.
She had found what Jaqen had shared with her about the birth of Lorath quite intriguing. Like all great cities, to have started out from nothing and to see what they have achieved hundreds of years later.
"So where's the hair?" Gendry questioned Hot Pie who looked at him, seeing the accusation coming from the blacksmith. Arya smiled as she watched him make a face to maintain his innocence and looked from Gendry to her and then to Lommy, who then looked away from him to stare at the helmet.
"You lot will never believe me," he said.
"Enlighten us," Arya mused.
Hot Pie smiled. "I ate it," he said happily with a shrug and then looked at Gendry who had let out a long heavy sigh. "I'm not even sorry."
Arya laughed.
"That my friend, I believe," Gendry said dully.
And that's it. I actually planned on different ending where Hot Pie finds out Arya's secret before Castle Black, but I prefer continuations that are linked into a series so I decided not to do it. I will do it if interested though…