Arya rides into Town

Night Raid

The huge storehouse had four guards, demonstrating the importance of its contents. The structure itself consisted of low stone walls into which wooden planks had been driven vertically to form the more significant walls of the building. Stone columns at each corner gave added strength and took the weight of the colossal wooden beams used to hold up the roof.

When Arya had scouted the place during the day, she'd noted it was in a better state of repair than many of the dwellings in the town. She'd briefly watched two stonemasons at work that afternoon before Elsa had dragged her away, insisting they'd draw attention to themselves if they hung around.

There had been more guards during the day, and they had been more alert than the lackadaisical group who'd taken over the night watch. A broken barrel had been rolled in front of the main double doors. They used it as a table for their card game, only patrolling the building between games. There were even some bottles of wine they'd managed to smuggle onto their night shift. Not the actions of those expecting trouble.

By the looks of two of them, they were not part of a town with a food shortage. If Arya had been in charge of the lazy louts, she'd have had them doing hard training through the day after making sure they were through the night. Though she'd have probably banished them from any castle she ruled a long time ago.

As it was, their attitude was provided Arya with an opportunity.

She waited until two of them decided to take their turn marching, or more accurately strolling, around the edge of the storehouse. As soon as they began their patrol, Arya used the shadows of the building opposite and swiftly ran ahead of them before climbing up the outside of one of the stone columns. When she reached a flat area still being worked by the masons Arya crouched as low as she could. Taking measured breaths to slow her heartbeat, Arya listened as the guards tramped around the outside of the walls. One was muttering about his bad luck and how he was going to win his money back before the night was over. It seemed the other was already in enough debt he didn't want to gamble any more.

"Then you just take some more off the travellers." The first one laughed, scratching under his flabby arms. "They aren't going to do fuck all about it."

"I suppose." The other nodded. "Or the Lord of light will provide."

"The Lord of fucking light my arse." The fat guard growled and moved his scratching to his backside as if to emphasise the point. "Fucking lunatic if you ask me. Just an excuse to act like a sick fuck and get all the good girls to himself."

"Shh, if anyone hears you they'll burn you next."

"Fuck off, look I don't care what he fucks or turns the people into as long as I've got a full belly, a bottle of wine and my quota of bitches."

"Well, the walls have ears. Look what happened to Franco and the others."

"Fucking idiots they were, probably killed themselves fighting over a pie."

"Some say it was the Lord of Light."

"Fuck the Lord of light."

"Shh." The voiced hissed again.

"Oh, fuck off Jared, there's no one to hear."

As the two bickering guards were directly below her, Arya dropped from the wall. Landing behind the smaller of the two men, she wrapped her arm around his face, covering the open mouth before slitting an exposed throat. The instant she let go Arya span to see the fat guard had turned towards his colleague in a state of shock. There was only a moment to register the appearance of the girl in his eyes before she drove her dagger through his windpipe.