The Children of Spring

Rickon V - Last Stand

Rickon had started to loose a bit of hope everyday since the battles had begun again. The enemy was starting to cut them down again. At least, everyone was up to fight and by then they had a cure for the poison. Still, their forces were getting down and they were running out of replacements. They had indeed gotten the advantage in the first fights, however, as the fights continued and the warlocks started to use Unsulied, the advantage was lost. And the storm came, Rickon and Brandon thought when everything started to crumble down. The tension started to rise again and everyone knew it. They knew they had to win that war, one way or another. After everything, they had to. They had to get to Winterfell and they could not bring the war to the South. The option to ask for help was opened for some time by then, still it was the last option, because the adults knew that the others would not just send men, they would come too. It was a risk, a huge risk. Rickon and Brandon did not understand why they had not asked for help yet. It worried them, they trusted their uncles and aunts more than anyone, still things were getting really bad. Most of the battles were quick, still the majority of the soldiers were wounded, by the end and had to take the cure as soon as they got to camp and rest. Besides, they could not use the dragons, they had tried and the battle had ended even before the dragons had gotten there. Every Son of the Harpy and Unsulied started to flee as they saw them. And the worst was that it was not because that they were afraid, it was part of a plan. Daenerys knew that they were trying to get the dragons, like they had tried before. The problem was that the warlocks did not even show up at the fights, neither did the Golden Company. Also, they did not know how they still had soldiers, for they lost men in the battles, it was true, however they killed twice of the enemy's, therefore how on hell did they still have that many? The cloak spell was up again, so they could not see the Golden Company again. Everything was falling down, day by day.
One day, Rickon and Brandon were talking in their tent. They had been in the Wolfswood for months by then, it had it's ups and downs, lately more downs than ups, but after all that time they had some dificulty to imagine how everything would be after it was all over. Both knew it would never be the same, everything was or would be changed by the end of the war. Maybe then they would understand why the adults never talked about what had happened in the past.
Rickon missed everyone, he missed his parents, he missed his sister and brother, he missed his cousins. He just wanted for it all to be over, so he could go home and also had a bit of peace and quiet without a horn blowing every dawn. That had started to get really anoying after the first times... Rickon missed Winterfell too and he hoped that the castle was intact. He wanted to see the Great Hall again, he wanted to see the library again, he wanted to see his room again, he wanted to see the Godswood again, he wanted to see everything. On the other hand, Brandon wanted to see his parents, brother and sister more than anything. He missed the trips they used to do across the 14 seas. Due to all of that, Rickon and Brandon wanted to end the war at all costs, not just for them, but for their uncles and aunts, their cousins, their siblings, their parents, their homes and their people. Everything had to go back the way it was. Therefore, everyday, Rickon and Brandon would came up with an idea to stop the war, the only problem was that all of them involved them going to the enemy's camp and setting it on fire, which was impossible because of the cloak spell. Their only option was to wait.
"I hate this waiting!" Brandon said that day at the tent. It was night and they had been presuaded not to be on guard duty, for much that Rickon hated that, he had ended up admiting that they had to rest. Not that he would sleep anyway, Brandon might, but Rickon had not slept proper in a very long time, he just could not.
"You and me, both." Rickon said.
"Why can't we just attack them right now?" Brandon asked anoyed.
"Because we have no idea where they are... That's always the problem." Rickon answered anoyed and a bit angry too. It was infuriating, they had a plan for that, made months ago, but, just when they were going to use it, the warlocks got their magic back. They had not even known how they had lost it. Sam said it must have been something related to the Wall or that something had happened in their temple, however there was no certainty.
"Then what are we going to do? Don't say wait." Brandon said.
"What do you want me to say? I don't know. Me and uncle Sam read every book he brought and there's nothing about cloak spells." Rickon said.
"Drogon and Rhaegal could burn the woods..." Brandon shotted the idea.
"You're forgeting that aren't only warlocks out there. The armies must have left Winterfell by now, I hope. Besides, you can't just burn half of the woods." Rickon rebutted.
"I'm out of ideas then." Brandon said as he pet Black Storm. The direwolves were there with them.
"We have to wait and we have to trust uncles and aunts." Rickon said as he pet Silver too.
"I know. I just don't get why they won't ask for help." Brandon said concerned.
"First time, they told us to stay in KingsLanding, what did we do?" Rickon asked.
"Come anyway." Brandon said shrugging.
"So, if they ask for troops, which is what we need, our cousins, my sister and your brother will come too. It's bad enough that we are here. I don't want them here, honestly, I don't want them going through this too. I don't want Jeyne in the battlefield. But sooner or later, it'll happen." Rickon said. He knew why they had not send for help yet and he kind of got it, but he also knew that sooner or later, it would have to be done.
"You don't know that. I mean Ned will come for sure. Maybe Mary and Lya will come too, I don't know if Jeyne and Jo will come. But maybe none of them will. You don't know, no one knows." Brandon said.
"Ned and Mary will for sure. Jo and Jeyne, I don't know. But Lya will too, have you ever known Lya not to come to a battle?" Rickon asked.
"No, but I know she will protect the Kingdoms, even if that means she has to stay down this time. My point is that maybe they all come, but they just stopped a rebellion, they can do this. I know it. And so do you. Besides, Mary is almost 17. Jo, Jeyne and you are almost 16. Lya will be 14 in months, so will I." Brandon said.
"So what? What do you want me to do?" Rickon asked confused, he understood what his cousin was saying, still what could they do? It was not up to them.
"We'll talk to them." Brandon said simply.
"Do you think that'll work?" Rickon asked surprised.
"I don't know, but we can try." Brandon answered.
"Alright. Give it two more days, then we'll talk to them." Rickon said and Brandon nodded.
The next two days, the battles continued and they were worst than before, the enemy was attacking with more men everyday. If it continued that way, then they would have to start to defend the camp, instead of going to the field.
Therefore, Rickon had decided to listen to Brandon and, after the battle of the third day, in the afternoon they left their tent, after resting a bit for the battle had been exhaustive, and were ready to talk to any of their uncles or aunts, whoever they found first. They knew that the adults would listen to them and, whatever the solution was, they would explain to them why it had to be that way. They were family and they needed each other, all of them knew that. They were searching the camp, when they saw that Jon and Podrick were on watch. Jon was the King of the Six Kingdoms, still sometimes it felt good to do something less kingly, therefore he did watches sometimes. Besides, it was good for both of them to distract their minds a bit out of the battle plans. The battle plans had started to be a torture to plan lately and were getting more and more dificult.
"Hey." Rickon and Brandon said.
"Hey." Their uncles said.
"What are you doing here?" Jon asked surprised.
"We were just taking a walk around, when we saw you." Brandon said as if it was the truth. It's not going to work, Rickon thought.
"Really? We thought you were resting after the battle." Pod said. He and Jon knew that he was lying, they had seen him and Rickon growing up, they knew them. Besides, Rickon did not even try to lie, he knew he was terrible at it, so what was the point?
"We were but we're good now." Brandon explained. And we were caught, Rickon thought.
"Bran, what are you two really doing here?" Jon asked.
"We just wanted to talk to you." Rickon said at last.
"About what?" Pod asked.
"Well, we know things are getting really hard over here, more than they have ever been, and we just want to know-" Rickon was saying, when, as he had suspected, Brandon interupted him, because he could not control it,
"Why don't you ask for help?" Rickon knew that Brandon would do that, his cousin had never been very patient. Their uncles looked at each other and then at them.
"It's complicated." Jon said.
"Why? We need help or else things are going to get worse and worse. We may actually loose and die all here!" Brandon said confused.
"We know that maybe everyone that is at the Capital will come too, but maybe none of them will. We have no way to know that." Rickon said.
"We need help, it's true, and we'll ask for it, we're just trying to see if there is other option, before we do that." Jon explained.
"We know that if we ask for men from the Capital, your cousins and sister and brother will come too. This battlefield has been the worst place in the world lately. We don't want any more of you to come here. You two are here, you know how hard it is. You two are doing great, you've prooven to be great strategists and amazing fighters, if it weren't for you everything would be much worse by now. But it's our duty to protect all of you. We're family and you two, your cousins, sisters and brothers are the most important people in our lives. If every one of you is here, we can't protect you all. And we can't let anything happen to you, more than what has already happened." Podrick explained. Rickon understood all of that, it just sucked that it had to be that way.
"Besides, it's a King's and Queen's, lord's and lady's duty to protect the men they brought to war, who fought for them. We're responsible for these men and we're responsible for you. Too many people died already. We don't want the nexts ones to be any of you." Jon explained.
"We know that. But they stopped a rebellion, all by themselves. If they come, they'll be fine, just like us. We learnt from the best, so did they." Brandon said and Rickon nodded.
"We know that too. However, 18 years ago, we all made a vow. We have to keep it, in the best possible terms." Pod said.
"What did you swear to?" Rickon asked confused and a bit afraid to know too.
"We swore this time would be different. 18 years ago we swore that. It was the first meeting, the war had ended, we had Kingdoms to rule, we were trying to adjust to reality. Jenny and Galladon had been born three months ago?" Jon said and looked at Pod and he nodded, "We all knew that in Westeros, peace would never last forever. So, we made a vow. We said that we'd do everything we could to make sure that none of you had to see all of this. None of you had to go through all that we had to. By now, it's all crumbling down, we can't let it all go down." Jon explained. Rickon and Brandon were not waiting for that. They swore..., Rickon thought surprised.
However, before anyone could say something more, Joanna came to them and said softly,
"Bran, you have someone waiting for you in the council tent."
"Really? Who?" Brandon asked curiously.
"Go see for youself." Joanna said and then Brandon went to the tent.
"You three, come on. Let's go after him." Joanna said, they nodded and all of them went after Brandon.
When they got there, Rickon was so happy to see his aunt Arya and uncle Gendry. Brandon was happier than ever to see his parents, he had thought that he would never see them again. Rickon went to where his cousin and aunt and uncle were. Everyone greeted each other and Rickon and Brandon started to think that things might turn around. What they did not know was that Daenerys had already written to Lyanna asking for help, for they knew that there was no other way. They could never hope to defeat the enemy only with the men they had. Arya and Gendry realized that the moment they arrived. However, it was a good thing they had more men by then, it was not enough, but it helped.
Seeing his cousin and uncle and aunt together, made Rickon think of his parents, he did not know anything about them, he did not know where they were or how they were. He hoped they were alright.
"Hey, are you alright?" Rickon heard his aunt Joanna saying.
"I am. I just miss my parents." Rickon answered.
"They're alright, don't worry." Joanna said.
"How do you know?" Rickon asked confused.
"Well, they're too stuborn to die. They'll be fine. Your parents, your brother and your uncle, all of them." Joanna said and he nodded.
"She's right, Rickon. We've both watch them cheat death more times than we can count. Besides, Tormund is with them." Arya said as she approached them.
"Giantsbane is in Winterfell?" Joanna asked surprised.
"It was what Ger wrote to your daugther." Arya answered.
"Are you talking about the King Beyond the Wall?" Rickon asked confused.
"Yes, but when you meet him, don't call him 'Your Grace'. He hates it." Arya said with a chuckle and Rickon laughed a little.
"I've never thought he'd come south again." Joanna said.
"But Winterfell is North." Rickon said confused.
"Not the real North from what Tormund says. Beyond the Wall is north, this side is south. I told him to come to KingsLanding once." Joanna said and Rickon laughed.
At night, Brandon was catching up with his parents, for they had to know about Ser Davos's death and all of the rest, and Rickon had gone to his tent to try to get some sleep. After a few moments laying in bed looking at the ceilling, Rickon realized that he would not be able to sleep. He could not stop the state of awareness and of the imminent danger, it was like his mind could not shut down. Not even with Silver by his side. Silver was asleep. Why can my direwolf sleep and I can't?, Rickon thought. However, at that, Rickon got up, without waking up his direwolf, and went outside the tent. Time to see who's on the watch, Rickon thought walking through the camp. He was out of ideas, bored and honestly he just did not want to be alone.
Rickon was glad to see that Brienne and Joanna were on the watch. He went to them and said, as casually as possible,
"Hey."
"Hey, Rickon." They said.
"Is everything alright?" Brienne asked.
"Yes, I just couldn't sleep. Can I stay here with you?" Rickon answered asking and they nodded. Therefore, Rickon pulled another log and sat there with his aunts.
"Why can't you sleep?" Joanna asked.
"I just can't. It's like I can't shut down my mind. Because of the battle's axienty, I think." Rickon said.
"It's normal. I can't sleep either." Joanna said.
"So it's from that side of the family?" Rickon asked.
"I suppose. My uncle Gery couldn't sleep either." Joanna said and Rickon nodded.
"But it's still normal in the middle of a war." Brienne said.
"Has it ever happened to you, aunt?" Rickon asked Brienne.
"Once, in the Long Night, before the battle." Brienne answered.
"No one slept that night." Joanna said.
"Really?" Rickon asked curiously.
"I think only Sam, Gilly, Gendry and Arya slept." Brienne said.
"Me and Pod didn't. You, Jaime and Tyrion, I don't know what you did after we left, but I don't think you slept." Joanna said.
"We just talked." Brienne said.
"What did you do until the battle then?" Rickon asked.
"Well, we, your father, your uncles, Ser Davos and Tormund stayed in one of the halls, just sharing stories. We all thought we'd die, all but your father." Joanna said.
"Why?" Rickon asked.
"He said that after everything we had been through and all the battles, it was not impossible." Brienne said.
"He was right, I guess." Rickon said.
"He was." Joanna said.
"And after that?" Rickon asked.
"After that, I was knighted by Jaime." Brienne said with a small smile, she did not know how Jaime was, she did not know how they were going to move on from their son's death. But she had chosen to have hope, because she knew that it was what Galladon would have wished for.
"They made history. And they gave me courage too." Joanna said.
"For the battle?" Rickon asked.
"Yes, Rickon, for the battle." Joanna said with a small chuckle. Brienne looked at her with a look that said 'Really? The battle?'. Not that Rickon noticed, he was too excited thinking about the Battle for the Dawn.
"Was it right away?" Rickon asked.
"No. Your aunt was knighted and your father raised a toast. However, after sometime, we were out of wine." Joanna said.
"So, your father suggested a song." Brienne said.
"Of course that, when he asked who wanted to sing, everyone said no. Some people wanted to leave to try to sleep, but your father did not want it to be over. I'm pretty sure he thought it was the end. But then Pod started to sing." Joanna said smiling a bit.
"No one knew he could sing that way, everyone got surprised. Still, after about 2 years of traveling together, me and your aunt knew that he had these secrets." Brienne explained.
"Which song did uncle sing?" Rickon asked curiously.
"Jenny of Oldstones." Joanna answered and Rickon smiled.
"And that was the end of everything that happened before the battle." Brienne said.
"It sounded good. Can I ask a question?" Rickon asked.
"Sure." His aunts said.
"After this is all over. I know things will never be the way they were before, but how will everything go back to... whatever normal will be at the time?" Rickon asked concerned.
"One thing you need to know is that sooner or later everything will be alright. But you'll never forget what you saw here and what happened. It'll always be on your mind..." Joanna said.
"But you'll learn how to live with it. Sometimes, it's hard. As long as, you focus on the good things that happened or on what the people you care about and that care about you would want you to do, it'll all be fine." Brienne said and Rickon nodded. That night Rickon stood there talking with his aunts and, for a moment, it seemed that there were no more battles. Then dawn came.
Few weeks later, their army was done, they had a small number of troops only. It felt like judgement day, it was even raining. Rickon was more anxious than ever, so was Brandon. However, the game had changed, with the Golden Company and the enemy's camp appearing on the other edge of the woods. There was a war meeting. Rickon was freaking out inside, he was pretty sure that Brandon was too. In that meeting, Rickon did not know what to think. Everyone was surprised and worried and, if Rickon was right, everyone was freaking out without showing it. They were so close, it could be a trap, however it was their last chance and only option, for the help had not arrived yet. Rickon had his father's judgement of characters, which meant every single person in that room was freaking out. That scared him a little. I'm a Stark of Winterfell and a Lannister of Casterly Rock. I can be brave. I will be brave, Rickon thought for the thousandth time, when the meeting ended. They would attack their camp, with the dragons.
Few minutes after that, the battle began. Rickon and Brandon were fighting with all they had in their hearts, minds and souls. They had to win that battle no matter what, it had to end there! No one else could get hurt. Rickon was fighting, his mind was blank, his instincts were taking over, his sword going up and cutting down, there was nothing else in the world but him and his sword and the falling enemy. The more he cut down, the more would come for him to cut down. He was fighting only to survive. The enemy's soldiers were Sons of the Harpy and a few Unsulied, the Golden Company was unmoving. The rain did not help anything, everything was wet and sometimes they could barely see. The time to strike was then, though. Still, the army was being slaughtered and the adults could not let it happen, they could not let Rickon and Brandon stay there, they had to go back. It was too dangerous, everything was going down. They had to fall back. The hard part was that they would not want to.
Suddenly, Rickon and Brandon heard,
"Go back to camp! Now!" It was Arya.
"No! We're not leaving you!" Brandon said right away. The fighting never stopped, neither did the rain.
"You have to go now!" Joanna said.
"No! We can't let you alone!" Rickon said.
"Listen to me, this here is more dangerous than ever, you two have to go back to camp! Now!" Arya said more seriously than they had ever heard.
"No, I'm not leaving you and father again." Brandon said seriously.
"We'll be alright, I promise, sweety." Arya said and Brandon nodded. Rickon did not know what to do, he was lost.
"Rickon!" Joanna called him and he looked at her, "Get your cousin and go!"
"But-" Rickon was saying.
"That's an order! Go get back up! Now! We'll be alright, all of us." Joanna said, still they would not leave.
"You are our future! Someone must survive to fight another day! Go now." Joanna said and Rickon realized that they had no other choice. So, he finished fighting the last enemy next to him and grabbed Brandon's arm and said,
"Come on, let's go!" And then they went back to camp almost running. We have to get back up. We have to help them, Rickon thought over and over again, however what back ups? There were no back ups. When they got to camp, they were out of breath from the running. The camp seemed deserted. However, they heard,
"Bran!" It were Mia and Eddard.
"Rickon!" It was Jeyne.
They looked up and saw their cousins and siblings. All of them. They could not believe it. As they went to them, Jeyne went to her twin brother and hugged him tightly. Rickon hugged his sister back and sighed with relief.
"Are you hurt?" Jeyne asked after the hug.
"I'm fine, Jeyne. I'm fine." Rickon said after the hug, looking at her. After that, Rickon looked around to see everyone else and Mia went to him and hugged him. She was so relieved to see that he was alright as he was to see her too. They had kept their secret, but it did not matter anymore. So, after the hug, Mia looked at him and he at her and then she kissed him and he kissed her back.
"I've missed you so much." She whispered after the kiss.
"I've missed you too. So much." Rickon whispered back, smiling a bit. Everything is going to be alright, Rickon thought at last.
Finaly they noticed that Gal was also there and they could not believe their eyes.
However, the moment was of urgency and soon the family's reunion became an accelerated war council.
Meanwhile, in the battlefield, the battle was more dificult than ever. Everyone kept fighting the best they could, the soldiers were falling, however they could not fall back, it was too risky. For a moment, all of them remembered the Long Night, it was just as terrifying as then. This time was worst, though. This time, they had someone who was counting on them. They had kids that needed their parents alive. They had to make it back. It was time, the dragons had to attack. The first try failled, at the second could not fail. Jon and Daenerys went down and Drogon and Rhaegal were getting ready to breath fire, when suddenly, the dragons lost all their strenghts and fell down with a cry. Jon and Daenerys fell with them. At the dragons' cried out, everyone looked at that direction, to make sure the dragons were alright, to make sure their King and Queen were alright. However, it was a trap. The enemy that was fighting fled. The small part left of their army was surrounded. Jon, Daenerys and the dragons were also surrounded. And the commanders could not move, or else the warlocks that were with their daggers at their necks or swords at their backs would kill them. They never let go of their weapons, though. Everyone looked at each other. It was the end, at least, it was what it seemed to be. We're doomed. They are our last hope, Joanna thought worried and furstrated. They had fought so hard and had lost. However, all of them, except for Gendry, Jon and Daenerys, still had their daggers hidden. They just had to use them without the warlocks seeing it. The armours were getting heavier with the rain, if they waited too long, they would not be able to move. The mud was saging beneath their feet. They had to act quickly.
At last, from the other side of the battlefield, the supreme sorcerer appeared to rejoice his victory.
"Well, well, well..." Pyat Pree started.