Chapter Text
To say that the fighting the Unsullied was hard would be a huge understatement. Arya could not remember the last time she had such difficulty besting her opponents. More than once she knew she had been seconds from meeting her end, if she had been even half a step slower all would have been lost.
She was victorious but it was hard earned and tasted bitter in her mouth, she had not wanted these men to die any more than she wished for her charges to perish but they had made their choice and she had been forced to make hers.
It was not an easy decision to make but she would stand by it until the day she died.
As the last of the Unsullied fell Arya became aware that she had not escaped unharmed. Both her right arm and leg ached, she vaguely remembered that one of the Unsullied had slammed his body into hers in an effort to overpower her. She was also bleeding from her left side, the result of a near miss, had the spear been moving just slightly quicker she may have survived the blow but she defiantly wouldn’t have lasted long after that.
Arya didn’t have much time to think about her wounds, Jon it seemed had followed her instructions and most of the citizens were already thought the breached wall by the time her fight was done. Stealing herself for the pain that she knew was to come Arya took off after them at a run.
The group of escapees clearly didn’t feel any safer outside the walls than they had inside the city. They clung together and hugged the wall, which honestly was not a bad idea, at least no one could sneak up on them that way.
Arya knew she needed to find a place for them all to hide, the plans were safer than the city but they were still controlled by Daenerys’s troops and if a group of runaways were found they would probably be killed on sight.
Huddled against the city wall as they were the people were exposed and in danger, they could not stay there but to find them somewhere to go Arya would need to leave them defenceless and that did not sit well with her.
For a moment she was unsure of what the right course of action was but then she remembered Jon saying there were men there that would fight for or with her. Searching the group with her eyes Arya was relieved to see that there were a number of young health looking people among them, some of them were armed others weren’t but perhaps she could change that.
“Those of you that are armed come forward” Arya said doing her best to imitate her lady sister. She spoke quietly enough that she wouldn’t draw any unwanted attention but with enough authority that those before her had no choice but to listen. “If you are not armed get as close to the wall as you can and stay there” she added as those with weapons came forward.
“Do any of you not know how to use the weapon that you have with you?” Arya ask the people in front of her. There was a risk that she may insult some of them by asking but it seemed a safe assumption that some of them may have grabbed anything they could to defend themselves even if they didn’t know how to use it. That was very much something a younger, untrained version of her would have done.
To their credit those who were in that position confessed quickly and Arya took the swords and daggers that they had held off them and sent the back to the wall with the others.
Arya then turned her attention to those that were unarmed “if any of you know how to use these” she said pointing to the small collection of weapons she had gathered “come forward and take them".
Almost instantly all of the weapons were taken up by able hands. One young man who had been disarmed was clearly unhappy to see an older woman pick up the sword he had dropped. “That was my fathers” he protested.
Arya could understand his dismay but she didn’t have time to deal with it now, they had already been exposed for to long. “When this is all over, you will get your fathers sword back” she promised “but right now we need it in the hands of someone who can use it if needs be” she told him firmly. Surprisingly the young man excepted what she told him without any further complaints.
“I need to find us some cover” Arya announced in the same firm quiet tone she had used before. “All of you stay as close to the wall as you can, if you stay quiet and still you shouldn’t draw any attention to yourselves, I will be back as soon as I have found somewhere safe for us all to go” she promised hoping it was not a lie.
Arya was not surprised to find that Jon was one of the people that had taken up arms when she asked for volunteers and in truth, she was glad he had. Trust was not something Arya Stark gave easily and while she may not completely trust Jon, she did believe he would do all he could to protect the people who had gathered together and followed her in hopes of finding safety.
“Jon” she called to him softly as she walked a few steps away from the others, he followed her without question. “If you are discovered before I get back, fighting will be your only hope of survival” she told him sadly.
Jon just looked at her with knowing eyes “if we are discovered there won’t be no survivor’s girl, you and me both know that” he sighed “but we won’t go down with out a fight” he added determinedly.
Arya refused to insult him by lying to him so she gave him some advice instead. “If they come on horse’s get them off, they are most dangerous while mounted, once they are on foot you stand a chance against them” she said about the Dothraki.
“Those like the ones I just fought are fast and lethal” she went on to explain about the Unsullied “slowing them down is the only chance you have, aim for the neck and the armpits of their uninforms if you can, that is where their armour is at it thinnest” imparting this wisdom was probably a waste of valuable time but Arya had give Jon and his people any and all chances she could.
Jon just smiled at Arya, knowing full well what she was doing, it was a sad yet hopeful smile that reminded Arya so much of Sandor that she turned and fled without even returning it. She needed to find these people somewhere safe to go but she had to leave them in order to do so and if she had stayed standing with Jon any longer, she would not have been able to go.
Arya Stark didn’t trust many outside her pack but it seemed that without even choosing to she had taken Jon of Kings Landing into her confidence. She was trusting him to protect the innocents in her care when she could not and he was trusting her to come back to them with news of a safe haven.
As Arya forged on doing her best to ignore the pain from the injuries the Unsullied had inflicted on her she swore she would do all she could to be worthy of the faith that Jon and his people had in her.