Solace {A Game of Thrones Fanfiction}

Chapter 49

"You're sister's dead."

"She's not dead."

"She's dead. Even if Euron hasn't cut her throat yet, she's dead." It was Harrag. 

"She's our queen." Theon stayed strong.

"She's your sister and you left her to die." He was menacing in his tone. Theon didn't let it affect him. 

"I did." Theon was honest, "I ran from my uncle. I was a coward."

"So why in fuck's name should we listen to you?" Harrag retorted, "They say the dead can't swim. We're gonna sail east, find a nice, quiet island, kill all the men and take their wives for ourselves."

"We're done with all that." Theon was still confident. 

"Who says we are?"

"Yara did. She made a pledge." Harrag looked back at Theon angrily. 

"We're going to find her and we're going to set her free."

Harrag's face twisted into an ugly scowl. He spit onto Theon's face. Some of the men behind him laughed. As Theon wiped the spit from his cheek, he pushed his tendencies out of his mind. He refused to be a coward this time. 

"Run away little Theon. It's what you do best." Harrag teased him. 

Theon didn't move. He stayed in the exact same spot. 

That's when Harrag threw a punch across his face. As the men cheered, Theon stumbled back. He tried to throw a punch back at Harrag but Harrag dodged it. Harrag swiftly kicked him in the face while Theon was disoriented. His cheeks stung but he kept going. 

Theon tried to hit him once again but Harrag grabbed him and threw him to the sand. Theon didn't let himself stay down for long. He stumbled back up and tried yet again to hit Harrag. Harrag grabbed both his arms and held him there before he headbutted him hard. 

Theon could hear the men encouraging Harrag, but he pushed it out of his head. As he stumbled back from the hit, Harrag hit him yet again. Theon met the sand once more. His head was spinning but he made himself stand. He didn't waste any time and ran towards Harrag.

He grabbed his torso and tried to push him back but Harrag didn't budge. Harrag brought down a strike onto his back and then kneed him in the face. Theon could feel blood trickling down his mouth. Harrag grabbed him by the shirt and punched him across the face. Theon was knocked down to the ground. 

Theon let out grunts of pain into the sand. His face was battered badly but he knew he had felt much worse pain. 

Tara watched from the cliffs. Her heart hurt to watch Theon struggle but she knew there was nothing she could do at the moment. A part of her hoped he would not stand back up. 

"Stay down!"Harrag yelled at Theon, "Or I'll kill you."

Theon didn't listen. He wobbled to his feet. Compared to Ramsay's torture, this was minimal. Harrag struck him yet again. 

Theon landed on the sand on his back. The throbbing was spreading to all over his body. He laid there for a moment, looking to the sky. 

"I said stay down or I'll kill you!" Harrag said through heavy breaths. He was tiring out. 

His legs were still wobbling beneath him, but Theon pushed himself up to stand. The pain made time feel like it was slowing. 

The pain he felt was all too familiar. 

The night Tara helped him escape flooded into his mind. The screws in his feet, the blood gathering in a pool beneath him, the wooden x. 

Tara helped him stumble through that sewer. He remembered the excruciating pain sending its way down his legs. He remembered how foggy his brain was. He was so close to passing out but he knew they would never escape if he did. 

Mostly, he remembered looking through the sewer grate to the outside. That's when he saw the night sky again. He was so sure that he would never see the stars ever again. It was feeling he knew he would never forget for the rest of his life. 

Theon wish he didn't but now his mind was moving to Ramsay. That terrible grin he had. 

Theon looked down at his hands. Each piece had been flayed and peeled. His hand was so mangled that he didn't even recognize it as his own. The pain shot up numbly through his whole body. 

Now, it was Tara. He remembered her bruised and bloody face looking up at him. Her hair was matted and her clothes were ripped but Theon focused on her eyes. Her soft eyes were the only thing he recognized. 

And it was Ramsay who did all of this. The pain he felt shooting through him he had known before. The flaying and peeling and pain and carving. It was all coming from Ramsay's grin.

Theon saw Ramsay's smile plastered on Harrag's face. Before, it would have terrified him. It was the same feeling that caused him to jump overboard into the cold sea water. But not this time. 

The smile looked back at him and instead he felt strong. The pain wasn't throbbing anymore, his legs weren't wobbling. This was all pain he had survived before. 

Theon now threw himself at the grin. Harrag was thrown off guard and now he was the one buried in the sand. 

Theon climbed onto of him and that's when he started hitting. 

He threw punches across that stupid grin until it was no more. All that was left was a bloodied mess. 

Theon fell back into the sand from exhaustion. He had a moment of strength but now most of it had dissipated. Theon could feel the Ironborn's eyes on him though so he pushed himself to stand one last time. He lost his balance but an Ironborn caught him and kept him standing. 

"Not for me." Theon breathed, "For Yara!" The men called her name in agreement. 

Theon stumbled towards the waves crashing on the sand. He let himself get on one knee in the salt water. Blood was dripping from his face and meeting in the sea foam. He watched the two colors swirl and combine before he splashed the water on his face. 

It stung, but in the best possible way. 

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Thank you all for 1k votes on this story! That's amazing

I think we are all caught up now with the show (I can't believe I have written this much) so I'll see you all in the next season :)

As always thanks for reading!