Rivers of Fire and Blood

Arya II

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Ice and Fire Novels, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon TV shows. However, I decided to have a little play around with the characters. I do not earn any money from writing these stories, it is for my entertainment and is something I like to share.

In the training yard at Storm's End, Arya had been practising with one of the squires to see if she thought he was suitable for Gendry. Usually she would have a greater advantage, but she had spent the entire night with Gendry fucking in every way imaginable. This had left her tired, aching and sore, which lowered her fighting abilities somewhat, giving any opponent at least one swipe at her before she knocked them down. Arya had also been up early, although Gendry hadn't noticed. She wrote a note and slipped it under the door of Ser Davos hoping he'd gotten it before he left to return to watch Dragonstone. After that she'd returned to Gendry's chambers and pretended to fall asleep until they got up.

Arya had decided the practice yard was the best place to await the arrival of Maester Tarly and Lord Bronn, so she could find out what plots were being hatched. Although she trusted her brother, she knew he wasn't the same boy as before his accident. She couldn't put her finger on what was wrong, other than he seemed completely emotionless, the opposite to the boy she once knew, her gut instinct told her not to trust him. He claimed to know everything, which was another reason she was suspicious of Lord Bronn visiting Gendry. She had disclosed most of what she knew, or as much as she was prepared to tell Gendry, about the dagger, which would be about as much as she would reveal to Sam. Arya often worked on her gut instinct, and today it was telling her the politics of Westeros were changing, whether it was for the better or worse, she wasn't sure if she wanted to stick around and find out, however, curiosity ensured she was at least going to stay and then decide what to do with the knowledge, especially if it was going to affect any other members of her family.

A commotion came from around the front courtyard, distracting Arya sufficiently from her fighting for her to receive a whack on her arm from her opponent. She snapped her head towards the poor young lad, spun around, gave a flick with her wrist on the practice sword, and the squire was on the floor laying on his back and Arya stood over him, the blade at his neck.

"Your dead. You need to do better." she said in her deadliest voice before walking off to see whether the guests had arrived. "And don't bother getting back up to have a run at me, I can hear you." she added, turning around, holding the sword out, stopping the quire in his tracks." Arya grinned and continued on her way to find out who had arrived.

Arya hid behind a barrel to watch the visitors descend from the carriage. Firstly was the grey-robed, large bearded man who had been Jon's friend in the Night's Watch called Samwell Tarly, he was now the Grand Maester of Westeros after Bran had somehow managed to get his Maester education fast-tracked through the Citadel. For this, Sam had given up all of his lands and claims to his homeland and although he had a growing family, they lived on the wages he earned from his job, which clearly wasn't a great deal because Gilly was also working in the Red Keep looking after the small children.

After Samwell, Bronn emerged from the carriage, looking every bit the shifty man he was. Although he'd been promoted Master of Coin, he was also one of the best fighters in Westeros. He had risen from nothing to being one of the most powerful men in the country which was nothing short of miraculous Arya pondered as she watched him unload Sam's things. In fact, after Daenerys had torched most of the Lords of the Reach and the Westerlands when she attacked their food train. Bronn was now the only person there who was ranked a Lord in the Reach, all of the other highborn families had been wiped out. The same applied to the Westerlands, where only Tyrion Lannister was the only highborn Lord to survive. Neither one needed to raise their bannermen to call to arms, as there were none left, all of the people in those Kingdoms were sworn to their high Lord and nobody else. Arya began to feel very suspicious of Bronn's presence, so she decided to follow him in the only way she knew how, with a different face.