Trials and Tribulations of the Oathkeeper

Chapter 152: Battle of Ice and Fire (Part 4)

"I'm sorry..." Jon said remorsefully. He steeled himself once more and pressed on until he arrived at his destination.

Jorah, Jaehaegon and Daenerys pushed their way through the burning wreckage of Winterfell, the former two cutting down undead Dothraki. Daenerys, gripping the sword she picked up, helped stave off their attackers. Although wounded, Jorah and Jaehaegon cover their blind spots to prevent wights from overwhelming their position.

"Keep pushing! We're almost there!" Jorah points to the godswood.

The trio pushes through multiple wights and eventually spot Daveth and Jon fighting their way to the godswood. But at the same time, however, Daenerys noticed the undead Viserion impeding their pathway. Exhausted and wounded, both Jorah and Jaehaegon stumble a bit and kill their respective wights, charging at them from behind and in front. Daenerys stabs a wight aiming for Jorah, parrying and forcing her blade up into its chest cavity before extending a grateful and comforting touch to her saviors.

Bellowing with a mighty roar, Viserion reared itself up to attack until a dragonglass scorpion blot flew right past them – breaking Viserion's concentration. The undead dragon growled and roared again, turning its head to confront its new attackers: Oberyn Martell and two of the Sand Snakes, Obara and Nymeria. All three had gotten Viserion's attention and jumped down onto the courtyard, spears, daggers and whip ready.

Daenerys, Jorah and Jaehaegon watched as the Red Viper and his bastard daughters moved to attack; although it was clearly a suicide mission, this offered a momentary distraction for the three of them to sneak past and make it to the godswood. "We have to help them," the Dragon Queen recommended.

"No Dany," Jaehaegon shook his head, gripping her arm. "They're doing their job so we can do ours."

"But—"

"Khaleesi, I know you don't want to leave anyone behind but we have to go," Jorah agreed with the Velaryon. "If we can't get to the Godswood before the Night King does, all will be for nothing."

Daenerys tried to say something, but couldn't muster anything. Instead, the Dragon Queen reluctantly chose to follow Daveth and Jon to the Godswood—sneaking past Viserion as the undead dragon proceeded to lay waste to the surrounding area. Turning from one alleyway to another, Daenerys eventually found her way to her destination.

At the Godswood, Theon and Olyvar take a few steps backwards, notching more flaming arrows and firing. As they readied more, more wights continue storming the godswood – whether they came from the crypts or were reanimated outside the gates of Winterfell and inner courtyard; some tackled a few Northerners encroaching on Bran, who remained in a warging state.

"I'm out of arrows!" Olyvar called out, picking up a dragonglass spear.

Theon reaches for an arrow, but realizes his bucket is empty and bats down a wight with his bow. One wight tackles him to the ground, but the ironborn kicks it off and impales the oncoming ghoul with his dragonglass spear. Olyvar grunted as he fought with every fiber of his being against the charging wights, helping Theon leveraging the wights away from Bran – having switched from hand-to-hand combat, they were in their element.

Both young men fight with all they have, slaying wight after wight that fell upon them with Bran continuing to warg – until a moment's pause fell over the godswood and the wights stopped moving and remained motionless, staring at them. Theon and Olyvar panted, looking over their surroundings before realizing it was just the two of them. Gwyn, Alys and Rodrik were overwhelmed by the undead forces, along with the rest of their guards—either they were dead, dying or missing in action. Before they could further process their situation, Theon and Olyvar felt the temperature drop even further to the point where they could literally see their own breath. Olyvar, however, shook slightly and gripped his weapon tighter. He knew what was coming; he had seen this before during the expedition beyond the Wall.