A new destiny

Chapter 13 | Jon

"Let's hope everything will go well" I mentally prayed as I rode on top of Rhaegal, our army following suit. With some difficulty, I had managed to convince Daenerys to leave Missandei at Winterfell and to let both her children wear the armor we had forged for them again. To my surprise, Tormundud had decided to sail with us towards King's Landing. "You saved my people twice little crow. Let me show you our gratitude to both you and the Dragoon Queen" he had told me when I asked him why he had decided to come with us instead of remaining in the North. My gaze fell on Daenerys and I saw her riding on Drogon at the other side of the river, her gaze fixed on the landscape around us. Neither of us felt the path we had chose to reach King's Landing in secret was secure enough so we kept checking the fleet in order to make sure we would be able to identify any sort of danger before it could have a chance to cause damage to our fleet. "Once Cercei Lannister has been defeated and Daenerys sits on the Iron Throne, I can return to the Nights Watch" I reflected "That is the only place I can call hom....". A noise, a terrible one, suddenly interrupted my ruminations. I immediately focused my attention back to reality and I realized in horror that a crossbow placed in a hidden spot of the river was firing arrows on our fleet. "NOOOOO!!!!" I shouted and launched Rhaegal towards the dangerous weapon in order to destroy it. "JON BE CAREFUL!" I heard Daenerys' voice from behind. I was confused by her warning at first but when I saw other crossbows pointed directly on Rhaegal, I realized why Daenerys was worried for me. "RHAEGAL, OUT OF THE WAY!" I yelled and the dragon managed to fly away just a few seconds before an enormous arrow raced towards the point in the air where we had stood. Once we were distant enough for the crossbow to reach us, I analyzed the path in front of me and I realized in horror we were in trap: on both sides of the river stood a large number of crossbows and catapults aimed on our fleet; each weapon was protected by a crossbow of larger dimensions aimed at the sky in order to prevent Drogon and Rhaegal from destroying the weapons and the soldiers who were working on them. I heard Daenerys giving orders to her armies and soon I saw the soldiers on each fleet protecting themselves with their shield; this however was a futile attempt because we were dealing with firing material which inevitably set on fire everything they managed to hit. Deciding to do my part in saving our army, I launched Rhaegal again towards the catapults and we managed to destroy some of the firing machines. Form the corner of my eyes, I saw Daenerys attempting to do the same with Drogon but she was less lucky than us and soon she was forced to retreat. "No, we can't give up, not now!" I desperately thought as I was busy at making Rhaegal avoiding all the arrows the enemy was launching on us whenever we got near to a catapult or a crossbow. With great difficulty, Rhaegal managed to destroy other machines of the enemy but our efforts were vane and soon I saw in horror several of our ships on fire. "JON, STAY IN FRONT OF THE CATAPULTS!" Daenerys yelled to me as she let Drogon do the same on the other side of the river "WE HAVE TO KEEP THEM BUSY AT ATTACKING US IF WE WANT TO SAVE OUR SHIPS AND ARMIES!". Knowing Daenerys was right, I did as she instructed and directed Rhaegal again towards my side of the river; whenever we got too close to the river bank, we immediately flew back in order to avoid the arrows fired on us. Our plan seemed to work because we managed to force the enemy's forces to focus their attention only on me and Daenerys. From the corner of my eye, I saw most of our ships had managed to pass the banks of the river occupied by the Lannister forces. "Jon we can retreat now" Daenerys told me some minutes later when the last of our ships managed to pass the enemy. I nodded in understanding and without wasting time, I let Rhaegal flew away from the enemy, as fast as he could, Drogon and Daenerys following suit.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SIR DAVOS AND TORMUNDUD ARE MISSING???" I yelled in anger to one of my generals two hours later. After the incident of the river, we had managed to reach King's Landing and now our troops stood in front of the city's entrance, waiting for our orders. Before we would start the attack, I decided along with Daenerys to let Sir Davos and Tyrion speak to Cercei Lannister in an attempt to solve the war in a peaceful way. Now that I discovered he was missing along with my friend Tormundud, I was angry my solders who hadn't alerted me immediately and more importantly myself because I hadn't checked on them immediately after the attack. "THEY CAN'T HAVE DISAPPEARED!" I continued shouting in anger "THEY MUST BE SOMEWHERE AND...". "Jon...." Daenerys interrupted me in a sad voice "They were....they were on one of the ships which.....". My eyes went wide when I heard Daenery's voice and realized what she was trying to tell me. "No, no, that's not true. THEY CAN'T BE DEAD!!!" I mentally shouted, tears filling my eyes immediately. "Jon...." Daenerys' soft voice called me again but I couldn't listen such was the pain I was feeling in that moment. After what had seemed an eternity, I forced myself to held my tears and focused my attention back to reality. "Let's go" I simply said and marched till I stood in front of our soldiers, Daenerys, Tyrion, Grey Worm and Varys at my side. Once we were close enough to see who stood at the top of the walls, my breath didn't work properly: Cercei Lannister stood alongside Davos and Tormundud who were both in chains; a menacing huge soldiers stood behind them, a sword pointed to Tormundud's neck. The doors of King's landing opened and a man got out, advancing towards us. Deciding to stand for diplomacy till the end, Tyrion marched forward to meet the old man. I saw them conferring and judging by Tyrion's raising voice, the negotiations weren't going well. With a sigh, Tyrion passed the old man and kept walking towards the city. The archers who stood at the top of the walls immediately prepared themselves to attack Tyrion but they were stopped by Cercei. "I know you don't care about your people" Tyrion started, looking his sister straight in the eyes "But you should. They hate you, you hate them". He paused to choose his words carefully "You are not a monster" he started again "I know this because I saw it just as I know you love your children more than you love yourself, more than Jaimie, more than anything. I beg you: stop for yourself and for your child; the game its over but this doesn't mean your life must end, nor it doesn't mean your baby has to die". Silence followed those words and I saw Cercei looking down at her feet. I than saw her coming towards Sir Davos and Tormundud and whispering them something. Refusing to let that monster touch my friends, I immediately started to run, my hand reaching for my sword. Davos and Tormundud looked at their feets while Cercei walked a bit further from him to collect something from Euron Greygoy who stood behind my friends. Davos than rose his eyes again and fixed his gaze on me. "Firewall Jon Snow" he said in saddened voice "It was an honor to serve you". "LITTLE CROW" Tormundud yelled to me "TELL MY PEOPLE, I DIED ATTEMPTING TO HELP YOU WINNING THIS WAR. AS YOUR ADVISOR SAID, IT WAS AN HONOR TO MEET YOU!". I stopped breathing as I saw Cercei Lannister pointing a dagger on Davos' neck and the huge soldier aiming his sword towards Tormundud. "PLEASE NO!" I mentally yelled but it was useless and in the next moment, I saw Tormundud's severed head and body falling from the wall, Davos' lifeless body following suit. My eyes fell on the ground, refusing to accept what I had just seen. "WHY???" I asked myself "WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME WHO HAS TO LOSE IN FRONT OF HIM THE PEOPLE HE LOVES???". Refusing to make a scene in front of everyone, I turned my back on King's Landing and marched towards our armies, sadness printed once more on my face.