The Wars to Come - J.S.

28 - SILENCE

— winterfell —

All that Aurora can hear is her own heartbeat pounding in her ears, the rest of the battlefield is eerily silent. She looks up at the sky as she hears the dragons screeching and watches as they both fly overhead.

Her hand reaches across the gap between her and Jorah and he takes it and squeezes it softly. They speak with their eyes as they have done many times before when words aren't enough, and with one last squeeze they release their hold on each other and turn their attention to the vast darkness in front of them once more.

When a figure approaches in the darkness, Aurora's hand goes to the hilt of her sword, ready to attack if she needs to. But the approaching person is not an enemy, but instead a woman dressed in red. Aurora recognizes her as a red priestess, like the ones that helped restore peace to Meereen during Daenerys' rule there. And like the one that brought the man that she loves back from the dead. She rides up to the Mormonts and Aurora watches her. 

"Do you speak their tongue?" she asks Jorah, referring to the Dothraki army behind them.

Jorah nods and the woman tells him to have the Dothraki raise their swords. Jorah shares a skeptical glance with his sister but turns and does as she says. 

The woman then rides up to the man at the end of the line and places her hand on his arakh.

The Dothraki and the Mormonts watch her with curiosity as she begins to chant in Valyrian. As she speaks the last word, the arakh becomes covered in fire. The tiny bursts of fire continue until every single Dothraki weapon is aflame. 

Aurora watches with wide eyes as the flames light up the entire horde.  And for a moment, she smiles, the flames reflecting in her eyes and the sight filling her with hope.

She and Jorah nod gratefully to the red woman and she rides off towards the castle. 

Then Jorah pulls out his borrowed weapon, the Tarly family sword, and raises it into the air.

Aurora follows suit and pulls out her beautifully crafted dragonglass sword, and with a battle cry she urges her horse forward with the Dothraki right behind her.

Ghost keeps pace beside her as they run, but Aurora loses Jorah in the commotion. She doesn't think about that though, too focused on the battle she is riding into. 

As they approach, the catapults begin firing behind them, balls of fire flying through the air and hopefully hitting the wights ahead of them. 

The dark hides them until they are a few feet away, then a wall of dead men appears in front of her. She swings her blade wildly, slicing through as many wights as are in her reach. Ghost is beside her, tearing wights apart with his teeth at the same pace as she is tearing them apart with her sword. She keeps slicing and cutting until she happens to glance to her right, and sees that all of the flaming swords have now gone out and the battle cries of her Dothraki comrades have ceased.

"Ghost, come on!" she yells as she slices through one last wight and begins to gallop away with Ghost by her side.

She looks around frantically, searching for any other living soul as she rides back towards the army. She finally spots one Dothraki running back, she rides over and calls out to him as she does. He turns and grabs her outstretched hand as she approaches, she pulls him up onto the back of her horse and continues to gallop back. 

As the army comes into her sight, she sees a few of her friends standing on the front line and stops her horse. She speaks in Dothraki to tell the man to take the horse and ride back to the castle. He nods and she walks over to her friends.