Thank you to everyone who commented on the previous chapter, and who commented on the ones before it. Special thanks to my fandom BFF Princess Rosalind of Underland , who is the majority of the reason why I haven't completely given up on this or my other stories, and RhaenaTargaryen who has beta'd and reviewed all the chapters posted on this site.
FranQuel, I know it's been a while. I haven't given up on this story, but I see little point in posting more of it here. I'll send you a PM too later or tomorrow. But anyway, most of the reviews (all on last chapter, save for yours, and ones from my friends come from reddit fiction review exchanges.) And I find a lot of what I had posted on ao3 needs editing/betaing (my writing has improved a lot in the past year or so). So I've been sending all the chapters that were on ao3 to RhaenaTargaryen (who beta'd this and all the previous chapters of this fic that published on this site).
Anyway, It's obvious I won't likely have this caught up to what it was on ao3 anytime soon...
So since September 15th is Rosalind's birthday and she's my fav person in fandom and my most loyal commenter, I'll post chapter 27 of this fic to my blog as an invite only entry then. I'll eventually post chapter 28 and even some of 29 I have rough drafted too. I'm inviting her and also anybody else who commented on either of the last 2 chapters back when it was on ao3. If this fits you, get in touch with me here via PM or email me at lannicestfanfiction at gmail dot com
For people who didn't review and still want to read chapter 27- I will invite you if you review all chapters currently posted on this site.
She couldn't let Jaqio catch up to them. She hadn't trained with a sword since her girlhood, and in his current state Jaime would be of no use. She glanced around, eager to find somebody or something that could help them. Finally, she came up with an idea that would hopefully at least slow him while they got away. She opened the gate to the farm's chickens, then walked a bit more, and opened the next gate full of sheep, followed by the gate with the pigs. She hesitated a bit before the gate of cows. Those things were big and ugly and as her thoughts turned towards Brienne she hesitated, she had enough bad luck with cows lately, and these things looked big enough to trample her.
She then remembered that she had heard cows were relatively calm, unless harmed or startled; and even more importantly they needed to keep Jaqio as busy as possible. Reluctantly, she released them.
Jaqio yelled curse words after them as he quickly turned his attention towards capturing his numerous escaping animals. Cersei could hear as he called his wife and daughter for help.
She ran through the herd of cows, Jaime drunkenly following her. She got to the end of the gate and looked around in confusion. There was no gate on this end!
Shit.
She looked back to see that Jaqio was shutting the sheep's gate. It seemed he was concentrating on closing all of the gates to prevent more of his animals from escaping. When he got to the cow's gate, he would surely notice their predicament.
The wooden fence only had four sections, so to run back would cost them more time then it would take to climb. Without further hesitation, she began to do so, ordering Jaime to do the same.
She stood on the other end, waiting for Jaime. Jaqio was now just past the pig's gate and quickly gaining on them. "Hurry up! Climb the fence!" She commanded Jaime.
"I…hic…betttttttthhhhher idea," he replied, drawing his sword. He walked a few feet and slashed the biggest cow in the herd.
"Betty!" Jaqio yelled.
"That was my prized cow! You'll pay for this you filthy beggars!" Jaqio cursed.
Upon seeing their comrade fall, the other cows went ballistic, rushing away from the murderous scene.
Luckily for them, the herd of cattle headed away from them, and straight towards Jaqio.
"What the fuck!" Yelled Jaqio, followed by a string of more profanities.
She stood next to the gate's opening waiting for Jaime as Jaqio ran from the mad herd of cows headed towards him. She turned around and watched as Jaime threw his sword over the fence and slowly, in his drunken state, climbed the fence. She sighed as she retrieved Widow's Wail while watching a very angry Jaqio run off to the side to avoid the herd.
Having spotted a house not so far in the distance, she hoped that they could make it there while Jaqio was preoccupied, and that he would not want to risk causing a further scene.
She took off running, ordering Jaime to do the same, which he did, though not very well in his drunken state.
They'd been running for a good five minutes when she turned to look behind them. She breathed a huge sigh of relief when she saw no signs of Jaqio. It was a good thing, because Jaime, the fool, had slowed his pace to an unsteady trot. She leaned against a nearby tree and caught her breath as she waited for him.
Once he caught up to her, she returned Widow's Wail to him and they continued on their way. They saw the occasional house, and sometimes the occasional person, and definitely lots of animals, though of course no elephants, to her dismay. They even saw a wagon pass by but it was heading back from the city.
They weren't making as good of progress as she had hoped for, thanks to Jaime being too drunk to keep to a brisk pace. She hoped the inns in Pentos would not be full by the time they arrived. She wanted to yell at him, scold him for getting so drunk. Surely he may have been thirsty with nothing else to drink, but he didn't have to have drunk so much!
After some time, they passed by a small house with a lovely garden and a wonderful aroma emitting from the house. She glanced and could see a pie cooling in the window. She could not help herself. She hadn't eaten anything that tasted as good as that pie smelled since she had been brought back. She told Jaime to continue on, knowing that in the state he was in, she could quickly catch up to him.
She ran back with the pie as fast as she could. She glanced back nervously several times, but nobody was giving chase, or even yelling. If they had been, Jaime would have been of no help, for he was busy taking a piss in their garden. Too bad, those tomatoes had looked ripe and she would have rather liked one of them before he had pissed all over them. Oh well, at least she had the pie, and with any luck, by the time her thievery was noticed they would be far away.
Once she made her way back to Jaime with the pie, she thought to offer him some of it, but she was so hungry, and she really didn't want to share. She was eating for two, and besides, in his state, he would probably just vomit it up.
Examining the pie more closely, she could see now that it was a strawberry pie, with a crisis-crossed shaped golden crust on top of it. It looked just as appetizing as something one of her cooks would have made for her back in King's Landing. Greedily, she dug in as they continued to walk. As she ate, she wished that she had something other than her hands to eat with, she felt like some savage eating in such an uncivilized manner, and she truly was starting to feel like a poor beggar type person now.
It wasn't long before she had her fill of pie. About a third of it was left when she offered Jaime the remainder. If he ended up vomiting it up, it would serve him right for getting them into this situation.
As Jaime finished the pie, the houses started slowly becoming less spread out. She took this as a good sign. It meant they must be getting closer to the city. The sun was also now starting to set. She was thankful that they weren't seeing any more people, they would certainly look suspicious walking to the city dressed as they were so late in the evening.
Sunset finally came, but they continued to walk. In the darkness, it was difficult to see where they were going. Perhaps because he was drunk, or perhaps because it was so dark, it wasn't long before Jaime stumbled and tripped on a rock. He yelped in pain, stumbling and falling down as he did so.
She almost wanted to lay down right next to him and sleep, her pride be damned, but Jaqio had probably secured his animals by now and might be in search of them. She looked and noticed blood gushing from the bottom of Jaime's pant leg. Was he injured? She hoped it wasn't too serious. It would be quite ironic if they made it this far only for Jaime to die on the side of the road from a wound. No, she wouldn't let that happen. They would get to Pentos. Hopefully, a maester would still be available by the time they arrived.
She helped Jaime up, which took several attempts. "Is it broken?" She asked, concerned.
He slurred out that it wasn't, though how he could be certain in his state, she didn't know. He seemed able to bear weight on it regardless, so she supposed it probably wasn't.
He winced in pain as he started to walk. After a few moments, he slurred out that he was still bleeding and they should stop the bleeding somehow.
She swore back that she was no maester and even if she could, it's not like they had any spare clothes to do such a thing. Besides that, she couldn't even see in front of her, how was she supposed to bandage his ankle?
"My...hic...shirt," he suggested.
She rolled her eyes, not that he could see, but instructed him to sit down on the path next to her. He took off his shirt and the next several moments were spent fumbling around, with only the faint glow of moonlight to help her. She finally managed to find and bandage Jaime's ankle by tying the shirt tightly around it several times. To her surprise, he didn't complain or even move while she did so. If it was a sprain he had, it would certainly be difficult to walk with. She supposed she would have to help him and their pace would be slowed even more. She moved to help him up but he wouldn't budge. She scolded him but he did not respond. She shook him and again told him to get up. She wanted to get to Pentos already. Still, he did not respond. Was he...
No. He couldn't be! She felt around and finally, her hands found his pulse. He was alive! He'd just passed out apparently. She breathed a huge sigh of relief. She would rest her eyes for just a moment and then would take great pleasure in slapping him awake.
Short chapter I know...I might have another out in a week or two. Depends on if this gets any unsolicited feedback or just the usual of reddit users and friends commenting.
Also, if you want you can rate the chapter on things like dialogue, etc. Link on my blog at lionsescaped . dreamwidth .
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