Arrows Through a Bastard

Chapter One

Ygritte pulled the arrow and pointed it at her lover. He turned, smiling through a grimace. There was blood all over his face; wounds from Orell, threatening to become infected. His corkscrew black hair that she had run her fingers through so many times was matted, but somehow still beautiful. He was tired, she could see; drained, both emotionally and physically. His horse waited patiently beside the brook.

He said some words. Words that meant only one thing to Ygritte: betrayal. She said the only thing she could, words that held such a deep meaning to them both.

"You know nothing Jon Snow." It was meant to come out strong and powerful, as she was. But it was full of hurt. He said he loved her. And that she loved him. Jon Snow was right, for once. So instead of telling him he was wrong, like she normally would, she choked back her tears and pulled her bow tighter.

"I have to go home now," he said, in that beautifully rough voice of his. She wanted to kill him so badly, and yet couldn't obey her orders.

"You're going to be loyal to your woman," she had said what felt like an age ago. He had promised never to betray her. And yet here he was, scampering back to that god forsaken Wall of his.

But as much as she hated him for betraying her, she could never forget the way he loved her, and the way he held her under their piles of furs in the night.

Why couldn't he have just killed me, she thought. Instead of stealing me, you should have just killed me, bastard.

Jon Snow, her lover, her best friend and her means of escape turned to climb onto his horse. She loosed the arrow.

The cry of pain it earned her made her wish she could summon the arrow back, but her feet remained planted. The anger drowned her love for him and she pulled another arrow on him as he got into the saddle. He clutched his thigh in agony as he started to ride. The third arrow got him in the back, sending him into the horse's neck.

Ygritte pictured a thousand times how he would ride, slouched over his horse, over the horizon. Never to be seen again. She prayed for it to be over quickly, for the moors to swallow him up and leave her to her tears.

Ygritte's sobs came loose from her throat as she watched Jon Snow disappear. Her lip began to tremble and the tears filling her eyes fell at such an alarming rate that she almost thought she wasn't seeing properly. The pain must have brought him down, because Jon Snow was no longer on his horse. He was writhing on the grass, looking rather like a hedgehog.

Let them think I'm dead, Ygritte thought. I'm not going back without him, and he's determined not to come back, so I'm not going back at all. She ran across the moor, Jon's sobs of pain rolling through her as it were her with the arrows projecting from her.

"You bastard," Ygritte half sobbed half yelled as she approached him."You promised not to betray me."

"You... gods... you shot me..." said Jon through the pain.

"Yes I bloody well did. And I intend t' do i' again if you run off on me." Ygritte's speech became harsher and more run together as she approached. Why, she could not have said.

He tried to move, tried to roll onto his side, but cried out in a very unmanly groan.

"Gods," she said. "Have I taught you nothing? You're still a maid."

"Ygritte! I'm stuck like a pig and you're telling me to shut up? I'd like to see you try being stuck with arrows and not scream a bit. I'll be fine in few minutes."

"You would bloody hope so. If you're still crying like a babe in a bit, I'll leave you right where you are. I could have left you. I could still leave you. But you were right. You do know some things. I do love you."

"Course you do-" before he could say something to ruin the moment, Ygritte pressed her lips against his, the fire she felt within her matching that of her hair. They stayed like that, Jon being awfully still and Ygritte pressing her lips all over his broken face.

"Shall we go find that cave, Jon Snow?"

His eyes were glazed over, and he appeared to be somewhere between consciousness and a paroxysm induced sleep. Yet he smiled, seeming to remember the cave and all that had come between them there, which wasn't much, because they were both naked.

"Gods, Ygritte... yes. If you promise not to shoot me again. And if you get these bloody arrows out of me." Jon Snow looked at her, a gaze so loyal and tender she forgot that she was the one who shot him several times. Because no one could look at someone who had just stuck them like a pig, like they loved them. "Then yes, we'll go back to the cave. We'll join the children down there for awhile." Ygritte was very concious of his use of 'for a while.' If she was doing this, she wouldn't be able to join up with Tormund fever again.

"I will raise you a son. We can have a family. Just don't go back to the Wall. You promised to bee loyal. Be loyal t' me, not your crows." One of Ygritte's tears ran down her chin and landed in Jon's talon wound. He winced. They sat there for a long while, Jon on his side, with his head in her lap, her stroking the curls away from his face like the mother he never had. Jon had never had anyone to kiss him good night, stroke his hair and murmur sweet nothings in his ear. Neither had she. Wildlings were cold. Free, but not devoted to their children. Ygritte tried to imagine herself as a mother, and vowed to be as loving a parent as her child needed her to be.

With a smile, Ygritte remembered something Jon had once said to her. "I thought only girls fainted," she whispered to his sleeping form. He didn't look so sad, asleep. His worries and everything he carried around with him fell away, so he was peaceful.

While he slept, Ygritte carfully washed the wounds on his face with water from the brook, but didn't dare looking at his back until they had better options. She debated pulling the arrow from his leg, thinking it would hurt, but it would allow them to ride, wherever they were going. She kissed his nose and before she lost her nerve, yanked the arrow from his leg.

He screamed.

The wound was washed and wrapped, and there was nothing Ygritte could do, other than comfort her lover. At some point Ygritte must have lost all track of time, but she got Jon to his feet when she saw the sun well above her head. She had found him at dawn.

By now, Jon was able to put on the brave face Ygritte knew so well and limped his way over to he horse, pushing through his evident agony.

"I'm going to kill you one day," Ygritte whispered back to him from their horse. She smiled at the weight against her back; for once, he was completely reliant on her, and she loved all the more

"No you're not. You love me, remember."

"Yes. I do. That's why I'm going to kill you."

Hello! I love this ship and I hate that we didn't get more from it. Thank you for taking the time to read this, it means so much.

Like I always say, you guys are the best. Please core and comment your thoughts, because I love to hear from you.

I love you all so so much!!!!!

Ophelia