Not The Plan
I don't know much about fighting or fighting techniques so any inaccuracies in that regard I do apologize for sincerely.
I actually really loved writing this chapter especially the interactions between the siblings, hope you guys enjoy it as well!
I do not own any of the characters or the TV show, this is merely my interpretation on it. No copyright infringement intended.
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After a tour of the city Yara started to actually see the city as more than just the heated pile of shit she had seen it as before. The people seemed to tolerate her presence more now that she had been out in the city together with their Queen. Perhaps they needed to see that to realize their ruler actually wished to have her around and they in turn then also needed to be receptive of her. This then also led her to be out and about in the city more, also without her blonde companion.
It was just a few days after her tour that she was walking around the city with her little brother – but this time without her trusted guide – and they went to see a bunch of the sights. She could especially appreciate the harbour that in turn made her think of her home and left her with a pleasant feeling in the pit of her stomach. Walking around there for a bit talking to a few of her men did make her realize that a city like this could never truly be home.
"Enjoying the city more?" her little brother asked her.
"As much as I'll ever enjoy it."
"Does you tolerating the city at least now have anything to do with a particular female?" he asked with a suggestive smirk plastered on his face.
"I should have left you as you were before, at least you were quiet than."
It would have been a bit of a harsh statement, but since she said it with a smile they both knew she didn't mean it as more than just a bit a jest.
"You're avoiding the question." he simply replied still wearing his annoying little smirk.
She gave him a stomp to the shoulder and put him slightly off balance making Theon stumble a bit. "Hey! That isn't nice!" he called out to her wearing a look of fake-hurt, before putting on a pout. She rolled her eyes at her little brother's antics, but loved that he was becoming more of his own person again. Not the cowering mess that he had been when he arrived back at Pyke all those weeks ago. He laughed and so did she, both in a good mood.
Moving on from the harbour they came upon some of the training grounds. At first it merely looked like a wide spread open area with sand and dirt coating the ground instead of the stone paved streets she had seen until then. But after another look she could see the different circle that had been slightly set out with small grey stones. Fighting rings, she concluded. Looking around to see if anyone dared to train in this unbearable heat she noticed a small congregation of men near the back of the area. Ever the curious warrior she walked towards the group, Theon following hot on her heels.
Stirring the dirt they left a cloud of dust in their wake when they walked through it, before they finally reached the group of men that were circled around one of the fighting rings. Pushing forward through the crowd she could see two males fighting each other with some sort of rounded swords, which she didn't know the name of. Their clothes also set them apart from most of the citizens and merchants she had seen until then or even any of the Queens soldiers. She quickly assumed these were some of the Horse Men or whatever they were called that were fighting for Daenerys. The weird curve of the weapons or the clothes however were not what peaked her interest though.
It was the edge of the blades. As she had assumed these were training grounds she frowned at the fact they were using actual sharpened steel. Who would train with sharpened steel? You could only injure each other if you weren't careful. She knew that the men were probably highly skilled, but still that didn't deter her from her opinion that it was an unnecessary risk to take. Maybe it was part of their culture? Whatever the reason she still mentally rolled her eyes at the situation. Damn men and their fragile masculinity.
Turning her head to the left to look over to her brother whose right shoulder was pressed into her left, because of the many men who were all crowding around the ring, she realized he was completely engrossed in the fight. For the first time actually looking at the fighting instead of the blades or the clothing, she realized why so many people were crowding around. It appeared that the men in the ring were not merely training, seeing the ferocity they were fighting with. There seemed to be some sort of bet going on.
Yara looked more closely to see how both were fighting to make her own judgement on who would come out as the winner. Their bodies while one more muscular than the other both moved freely and with grace without any sort of heavy armour on their bodies. Merely some leathers to protect major weak points of the bodies, such as the wrists and part of the abdomen or the entire chest area.
The slightly more muscular one seemed to have a braid of black hair going down his back that reached to about the middle of his shoulder blades. He seemed to favour his right side a bit more and sometimes he left his left flank unprotected. He also tensed the muscles of his calves and slightly twitched his fingers around his blade whenever he was about to lunge. He seemed to have the upper hand, mainly because of his slightly more aggressive and strength based attacks.
The other man wasn't as muscular as his opponent, but he still had a good amount of muscles on his bones. He had a leaner figure and in that way moved quicker than his opponent who favoured strong and big sweeping arches of his weapon. In turn this slightly smaller man danced out of the way of each of the fatal strikes of the man with the braid. Now that she looked around, almost all of the men around the circle had their hair braided, expect this smaller man who was fighting. The man with the unbraided shorter dark brown hair might move with quicker motions, but his opponent wasn't as heavy on his feet as some of the men Yara had seen fight in her life.
Many deadly slashes kept coming in rapid fire and Yara could barely keep up while watching. Having gotten tired of the dangerous dance, the bigger of the two seemed to be getting sloppier in his movement. She saw the bigger man tense his calve muscles and a second later lunge for his opponent. But she was not the only one that had noticed the slight tells that the man had, for the smaller of the two quickly blocked the strike before picking up his knee and bringing it up to the others unprotected left side. The bigger man slightly lost his balance, having been stunned by the blow. But that second of respite was all the smaller of the two needed for he lunged on the opportunity and he brought his blade up so quickly that the other could not even react. The lean brown haired male hit the black haired man hard with the flat of his blade against the left side of his face. The blow knocked the man out cold and made him crumple to the floor instantly.
There were cheers from some of the men around the circle and curses from others. Yara smiled at the mixture of outcries from the males in the circle, knowing she would have bet on the brown haired male. Speaking of said man she realized he had turned his back to the crowd and now looked towards the opening that had been made in the circle. Why did they part?, was what went through Yara's mind. The answer came soon enough in the form of a bunch of murmured Khaleesi's. Daenerys, she thought. The thought alone made her heart speed up and she internally rolled her eyes at how head over heels she was for this girl.
Turning back to the conversation that was happening she caught part of the last words of the sentence spoken in the soft lilt of the blonde haired female that had caught her attention:
"…-constantly taking unnecessary risks. What if you had gotten injured? This is not the time for such folly, Daario."
Daenerys sounded exasperated and slightly annoyed when speaking the name. Daario, better remember that name, Yara silently thought to herself.
"It was just a bit of sparring, my Queen." the male named Daario said, but with a hint of flirtation in his voice. She waited for the Queen to punish him for his insolence and dare to talk to her in such a manner, but a chastise never came. Strange.
Daenerys spoke a string of words which sounded harsh to her ears even with the Queens soft lilt, but quickly made her realize it was not the Common Tongue. Looking around she saw some of the men mumbling in complaint, but all of them slowly started to leave. Two of the men stepped forward to pick the still knocked-out warrior up from the ground and both slung one of the limp arms across their shoulders, while a third stepped forward to pick up the sharp blade the man had dropped. Realizing that Daenerys had probably told everyone to leave in the language that was unknown to her, she quickly turned to walk away while grabbing her brother's arm in her harsh grasp to drag him along with her.
"Yara?" she heard from behind her, which made the brunette stop walking immediately.
It was a voice she knew all too well. Soft and rhythmic with a slight jingle to it that made it sound like a bunch of beautiful bells blowing in the wind. That voice that could sound soft, but could be harsh and sharp as ice. Luckily she had never been on the receiving end of one of those harsh tones.
"Me and my brother were just leaving, your Grace. We did not mean to intrude on your conversation." the Greyjoy quickly said, having turned around to speak. With a slight nod to the blonde she turned to leave again.
"No, stay. I wish to introduce you to someone." Daenerys said without a hint of hesitation, but with slight trepidation in her voice.
Turning back to the source of the voice she let her harsh grasp on her brother's arm loosen before dropping her hand back to her side and beginning to bridge the short distance to the Queen and the man named Daario. Stopping a few feet away from the pair she felt the presence of her brother standing slightly behind her to her left side. Studying the blonde – which had become one of her favourite pastimes – she realized the slight tension in the other's shoulders, her ramrod straight back and her face that was in a mask of stoic indifference.
"This is Daario Naharis, one of the men in my Queensguard." the dragonborn girl said simply, before continuing, "Daario, this is Yara Greyjoy, rightful Queen to the Iron Islands, and her brother Theon."
"Pleasure to meet you." the Ironborn girl said as a matter of curtesy, but really not wishing to be around the man. If he made her Queen uncomfortable, then he couldn't be any good. Even if he was still part of her Queensguard, which confused the brunette.
"Good to meet you." the man said, but he seemed to be more interested in Daenerys than Yara herself.
Daenerys seeming to grow more weary the longer this conversation carried on.
"Daenerys." Daario said before being cut off with a glare.
"We are not having a conversation like that here in public." the blonde hissed at the man, her entire face set in a scowl and eyes which normally reminded Yara of the sky on a clear day, now looked as if turned to ice.
"Of course, let's go somewhere more private then." the lean man implored, seeming intent on having some sort of a conversation that the girl before her did not wish to have in public. She could only guess as to the content of such a conversation.
"We'll leave you to have your conversation then, it is no trouble at all." Yara simply replied, not having been prompted to speak, but doing so anyway. "Your Grace." she said in a manner of saying goodbye, giving a slight bow, before giving a reluctant nod to the man next to her Queen.
"Yara, wait. Come to my quarters later, I wish to speak to you further on the alliance we have formed, to work out some of the details." Daenerys said.
To anyone else that might have sounded like a demand, but she could hear the subtle undertones of doubt in the other's voice and knew that it was more of a request than a demand. Since the blonde seemed unable to demand anything of the brunette. Yara nodded in agreement before making eye-contact with the blonde. She tried to make her gaze seem reassuring to make sure that the other understood that she wasn't just agreeing, because other people were around. Giving a small smile she said her final goodbyes and started backing up slowly, turning around finally when she got a small smile in return from Dany. With the knowledge that Daenerys had understood the meaning of her eye-contact she could leave without her heart being plagued by doubt.
So deep in thought over the beautiful young female she almost walked into a wall and she stumbled back just in time. In the process however she lost her balance and this caused her to land on her behind with a slight humph leaving her lips. She was brought out of her slight shock by the voice of her little brother making one of his not-at-all-funny-to-anyone-else-but-him quips: "Who would have thought we'd see the day that my tough warrior sister would be so hopelessly in love with a girl, that she almost walked into a wall." he spoke before letting out a guffaw.
Not at all amused by his comment she gave him a harsh glare which only caused him to laugh more loudly. Sighing she slowly got up, patting the dirt off of her behind before strutting away from her little brother in a blaze of irritation. She heard the pattering of footsteps behind her, which indicated that Theon was still following her. She didn't bother waiting for him to catch up.
He is right though, you know? You literally almost walked into a wall, because you were thinking about a girl.
A very attractive and fierce girl who was also a Queen, she corrected her mind. But still there was a hint of truth in the words her treacherous mind whispered to her. She really should get her thoughts under control she decided, wishing to save herself the embarrassment of walking into a wall. How she was going to do that she didn't know quite yet, but Yara knew she needed to do it quickly for she was meeting with Daenerys again tonight. She sighed softly to herself.
Seven hells, how had she gotten herself into this predicament?
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Xoxo
Vera