- valar morghulis. - valar dohaeris.
“i’m not stupid,” he hissed. the sight of the bloodied face disgusted him, but it had been his fists which butchered the boy until his nose broke. he deserved it, he tried to convince himself in vain, until the black brother roared through the curious crowd and separated them.
the sun gleamed above, wistfully announcing the last months of summer. stubbornly, he refused to move from his place, pained fists still clenched tightly, the flow of warm blood unable to reach the tip of his fingers. the wall. shudders fell heavily down his arms and his spine, hot tears welling up at his eyes, but before they could flow down, he wiped them away with the sleeve of his ragged shirt. just a boy of sixteen, dumbly caught stealing bread from a merchant in the flea bottom and the choice he had to make had been painful --- his hands or the black. resentfully, he thought how he had never even been with a girl. he didn’t know why his mind ran there however; the warmth of a woman had been unknown to him. too scrawny, too dirty, and too poor for even the lowest of whores.
the pack of boys and men trudged forward, towards the far north, and he had to go with them, pledge his life to the night’s watch, pelt himself in black and go beyond the wall to be killed by a blood-thirsty wildling. maybe, after all, having his hands cut off wouldn’t have been so bad. if they had been useful, he would have successfully acquired his meal for that day. turning on his heels, alike a stubborn mule, he paced at the back of the line, head lowered to the ground, with fingers anxiously peeling the skin around his muddy nails. the collision came too suddenly for him to react, although as skinny as he was, he was barely knocked away. narrow-shouldered, plump of lips and with smiling eyes, the smaller boy almost fell down because of jae’s clumsiness.
“watch where you’re going!” the glint of confidence was noticeable; always in front of the weak. “i’ve beaten that boy, and i can beat you too if you don’t move. do you hear me?” he spat, fighting the urge to grab the tiny boy by its collar and land a punch in his stomach.
@sullei