Sticks & Stones.

-28-

Renly was not someone who gave up, she fought.

She survived against all odds.

Bedevere did not doubt that if she wanted to, she could fight fate itself.

So why had she accepted the prophecy she'd been given?

'Your death will make the true-born heir, a king'

That was why.

Becuse if her death meant winning this war, then Renly would gladly walk into the next life.

Goosefat sank into one of the chairs that surrounded the wooden table.

Unlike Bedevere who paced with angry frantic steps, he sat eerily still.

The loss that he felt consumed his entire being was inescapable.

No.

Goosefat scolded himself.

No, she is not dead yet, we have not lost her yet.

Determination replaced the hopelessness and his jaw clenched violently.

"Then we will just have to fight it for her." He said feeling like a traitor not only to the cause, but to the girl he had helped raise.

Bedevere stopped in his tracks, spinning around to face the other man.

Both of them could feel it in the air, the danger of the statement.

Fighting fate could lose them this war, but letting Renly die, it would lose them everything.

Bedevere swallowed as he stared back into Goosefat Bill's steady gaze.

"We will swear it, that whatever it takes, she will live to see the end of this war." He agreed.

And just like that, a vow was made.

A vow that they both knew deep within their hearts that they could not keep.

✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧⋄⋆⋅⋆⋄✧

Bedevere watched as Renly's body crumpled to the ground. Behind her stood a blackleg seargent with a triumphant expression, his sword dripping with her blood.

He raised his sword again, aiming for a killing blow but Bedevere let out a rage-filled scream and charged at the blackleg. Before Bedevere reached him, an arrow whipped through the air and pierced the blackleg's heart.

Bedevere spun around to find who had taken the shot only to find Goosefat Bill standing a few paces behind him, he was covered in blood and his eyes were filled with tears.

Alive.

Bedevere had no time to feel relief at the sight of him alive, He rushed over to the crumpled body of the girl he considered his daughter.

Goosefat not far behind him.

The blackleg Seargent lay dead on top of her body and Bedevere shoved him off of her, revealing Renly's lifeless form underneath.

Her chest was still moving, fighting for shallow breaths.

Blood pulsed out of the wounds mirrored on the lower left side of her back and stomach.

She was so deathly pale that had Bedevere not seen her chest rise and fall he would have believed all was lost.

But she was still alive.

She was still alive.

Bedevere surged forward pressing his hands to the wound on her lower stomach trying to staunch the bleeding. Goosefat moved to her other side, pulling off his jacket and tipping her to the side before using it to do the same on the wound on her back.