The King's Road

00:29 Juh 0 Comments

He found the youngest Stark girl playing "swords" with a boy, by the river. Sticks in hand, they attacked each other with little skill, but that was part of the fun. Lady Arya had some talent, though. Her blows hit the boy more than his hit her and despite his size, she had some advantage.

Before he could ask to join them (because in his mind, four-and-ten wasn't too old to play), he heard loud, angry voices in the camp. Some guards didn't have much to do, but had a lot of wine to drink, what was never a good combination. He walked to them, his presence enough to cease the fight and create silence. He called some servants and ordered them to take the wine away.

"Since you can't control your actions, you'll have no more wine until we reach King's Landing. And if I hear that any of you got into another fight, you won't reach the town!"

The guards, two Lannister men, were clearly displeased, but they nodded and bowed to their prince. Gendry walked away, back to the river to play with the kids that were not much younger than him. He wanted to forget he was prince, even for a few moments. Just play and laugh and not think that  he was almost five-and-ten. He could be married in a few months.

When he found out that Lord Stark was bringing his daughters to King's Landing, he thought his father had arranged his marriage with Sansa Stark. It didn't look like that was the plan, though. The girl had an obvious preference for Joffrey, only the Gods knew why. And the youngest Stark, well, was too young. Arya couldn't be more than 10 or 11 while he was almost 15. He would be nine-and-ten when she reached proper age. No, Lord Eddard had brought her for another reason, to keep her sister company, probably. A failed mission, for what he knew. Arya and Sansa didn't seem to spend much time together.


Gendry saw Mycah, the boy who was playing with Arya running towards him, scared like he was being chased by the Stranger himself. He didn't stop next to Gendry, didn't even pay attention to him, just kept running, heading to the camp.

He was about to call him and ask what was wrong when he thought of Arya. What if she was hurt or worse? Gendry ran to the river as fast as he could thinking of what could have gone wrong. Maybe the boy was running because he had hit Arya really hard and was afraid of being punished. He tried not to think of thieves. They had guards and knights all around the camp, but maybe... He shook his head, moving his hand to his belt, trying to find the hilt of a sword that wasn't there. Damn!

Finally reaching the river, he saw what was the problem. Joffrey. Arya was on the floor and Joffrey was threatening her with his sword, but before he could do anything - like punch his idiotic brother - a direwolf attacked.

The animal bit Joffrey's wrist while Arya and Sansa yelled: Sansa, at her sister; Arya, at the wolf (Nymeria was the name). The younger girl grabbed Joffrey's sword and threw it in the river, then ran into the woods, along with the wolf.

Gendry almost went after her, but his brother's whines stopped him. He turned around and walked until Joffrey and Sansa. The girl said she would call help, got up and ran to the camp. Joffrey was holding his bleeding hand close to his chest.

"Let me see it."

"You'll hurt me."

"Don't be stupid! Let me see it!", He pulled Joffrey's arm carefully and looked at the wound. It didn't look too bad. His brother would probably carry a scar, nothing much worse than that. "You'll live. Get up, come on." He helped to get Joffrey on his feet.

"That little cunt! I'll have her whipped! I'll whip her myself! I'll kill that fucking wolf of her!"

"With what sword? The one she threw in the river? Go find Lady Sansa, you need to get this treated."

"Where are you going?"

"I need to find her. Lady Arya. She ran into the woods and might get lost."

"I'll send the guards after her." He said that with an evil smile. Gendry needed to find the girl first.

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It was dark and Arya were nowhere to be found. Guards carrying torches were calling her name and getting no answer. He was hoping to find her before the Lannister guards did, but the hope was severely small by now. Maybe she already have been found, he thought. Maybe she's safe with her father and I don't know... He decided to come back.

He was sneaking out the woods, trying to avoid the Lannister men when he found the wolf. Or the wolf found him, who could know? Gendry froze, afraid to even breathe. Maybe the wolf knew where Arya were.

"N-Nymeria?"

The animal tilted her head and just stared at him. Gendry relaxed a bit. He raised his hand slowly, trying to not startle the wolf, but Nymeria turn her head, saw the guards coming in that direction and started running, passing through Gendry and disappearing into the darkness.

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He tried to convince his father, but the Queen demanded some punishment. Lady Sansa's wolf was killed to appease Joffrey's blood thirst. He hated his brother for that. Joffrey always used his mother to get what he wanted. And what he always wanted was to cause harm. He was a menace to everyone!

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Few days later, he was training with some guards in an improvised arena, more to get rid of the tension than to actually get better with the sword. Joffrey had been bragging about the death of the direwolf like he had hunted the animal. Fucking Joffrey! Fucking Cersei! They always win! Everything has to go their way!, he thought. He wouldn't forget easily the pain in Lady Sansa's eyes and the pure hatred in Arya's. He had apologised to Lord Stark, told him he was sorry and that his father had been unfair. Lord Eddard told him it wasn't his fault, but the king's words were final. He took those words to his heart. He would be king one day.

Joffrey showed up with his smug smile, making all the guards bow to him. Gendry knew he was about to do something really stupid, but, for the Seven, he needed to do it. Asking for another training sword, he looked at Joffrey.

"Come here." He knew the Lannister prince couldn't say no in front of the guards. He saw some of them hiding smiles when the blonde boy walked to the center of the arena. Gendry handed him a sword. "Fight me."

"My wrist-"

"It's better, I know." He stood in front of his brother, waiting. "Attack, come on!"

They started fighting, Gendry's blows getting heavier and heavier until he made Joffrey drop his sword. He threw his own sword away and grabbed his brother by the collar. The punch he gave Joffrey made him fall on the ground, lip split. He pulled the other prince back to his feet, ignoring his crying face and shook him.

"Run, now. Run to your mother, go hide behind her skirts! Tell her who did this to you. Who gave you another scar to bear. And don't tell her any lies! Let's see if she can poison my father against me! Run! Go!" He pushed his brother, that almost tripped in his own feet in his way out. The silent in the improvised arena was palpable. The queen could demand those men's heads, accuse them of not protecting her precious son. He picked both of the training swords from the ground and handed them to the man in charge.

"Listen, all of you. What I did-"

"We won't tell, Your Grace!", said one of the guards. The others started to agree. Gendry felt a great wave of sympathy for them.

"No. The queen can turn against any of you and I won't have that. If she or the king ask you what happened here today, you'll tell exactly what happened: I punched Prince Joffrey to the ground. And I gave you all an order to stay out of this. You were obeying me by not interfering."

"But, Your Grace-"

"Didn't you hear me telling you to not interfere?"

"He heard, Your Grace", said another man. "We all did. We didn't defend prince Joffrey because you ordered us to not interfere. We were just obeying."

Gendry looked around and saw all the men nodding. He had punched Joffrey, he'd handle Queen Cersei's rage the best way he could, But he also would do anything to defend those men, innocent like Lady Sansa's wolf, from her claws.

He thanked the men and went to find his father. He would get to the king first. He'd make sure no innocent would be punished this time.