Running Through The Woods - Sandor Clegane

Chapter 28

The night of the battle was finally here, the Unsullied from phalanxes, while catapults started to shoot flaming barrels into the night. By the light of the fires, the true size of the undead horde could be seen. They rushed down from the north and slammed into the defenders around Winterfell.

They were quickly overrun by the wights, who swarmed over, on top of each other, and moved like a tidal wave. The Dothraki were killing wights with their dragonglass weapons, but not nearly enough, as the living dead dragged down and overwhelmed the defenders through sheer numbers.

Viewing the battle from the west, Daenerys was upset at the slaughter of her Dothraki and wanted to strafe the wights. Jon tried to stop her because the plan was to locate the Night King, at which point Jon and Daenerys could attack the Night King, but the Night King would not appear if they revealed themselves riding the dragons. Daenerys shake off Jon's arm and told him." The dead are already here," She took off on Drogon. Jon followed Daenerys on Rhaegal.

The two dragon-riders made strafing runs on the undead army, just behind the faltering human forces. Thousands of wights were incinerated, for a short time stemmed their tide, but more kept coming. The White Walkers do not engage and instead threw wave after wave of undead pawns at the castle.

Jon saw the White Walkers and tried to make a bombing run at them, they weren't the Night King, but any of the hundreds of undead wights each of them had raised would instantly die again if he could kill them. Before he could reach their line, a massive cold blast of air forced him back. The White Walkers had magically summoned a huge snowstorm. Both dragons could barely stay in the air and nearly flew into each other during the storm.

The only infantry that still held up at that point was the lockstep legions of the Unsullied, trained to strip away all fear and follow the command. They held in their phalanxes but they were slowly and steadily consumed by the scrambling mass of wights. A full retreat into the castle was ordered, and Grey Worm commanded the Unsullied to form up a rearguard to protect the withdrawal of their few remaining forces. Sam was nearly killed in the retreat, but Edd saved him, and then he was stabbed from behind and was killed. The wights forced their way forward in slaughter, even as Unsullied reinforcements step forward to take the place of each that fell.

The Unsullied were on the verge of being overwhelmed when the last of the main wights got through the gates. Grey Worm ordered that the entrenchments around the castle be set on fire. Arya, the other archers, and I shot the pitch with flaming arrows and were blown away by severe winds, the snowstorm prevented Jon and Daenerys from seeing their signal to light it.

Melisandre appeared, laying her hands on the trenchworks, and repeated her prayers to the Lord of Light. The entire trench burst into flames. Many wights burned, but then they all halted, instead of mindlessly charging ahead to their destruction.

I managed to pick off many wights with my dragonstone sword. Sandor was left frozen, hiding behind a wall. "Sandor, please!" I yelled, kneeling in front of him and shaking his shoulders. I was not getting through to him, sighing I stood up and continued to fight.

"Clegane we need you. Do not give up on us." Beric tried to urge Sandor back to reality as he burned wights. "Fuck off! We can not beat them, can you not see them you stupid whore? We are fighting death. I can't beat death." Sandor said, closing his eyes and trying to picture his happy place.

"But it looks like she is trying." Beric pointed at me as I killed the living death. "Die you motherfuckers!" As I was killing one, another grabbed my sword hand and bit my arm. I dropped my sword and they dragged me away, I screamed as tears fell.

This is how I die.

The wights dropped me as they were smashed in half by Sandor's hammer. "I told you I will not let you die." He pulled me up and handed me my sword. I smiled, giving him a quick kiss and we headed inside the castle. Arya ran into us and Beric, she was fleeing from wights. We made a running retreat through the narrow hallways. Beric was stabbed multiple times and barely managed to drag himself after us into the great hall. Sandor closed the heavy doors and that seemed to hold the dead back, for now.