𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 | Wildfire

{ Joffrey }

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𝕿he continuous tolling of the bells rung through Joffrey's mind, as his stomach twisted into knots. The last straps on his armor was being buckled up, the weight of it slowly pushing him down as he thought. Finally, Rolan, his personal steward stepped away and passed Joffrey his sword and helmet.

Strapping the belt around his waist, Joffrey took little comfort in the familiar weight of his sword on his waist. In fact, it still did little to ease his nerves. Chewing on his lips, Joffrey left the room and began down the stairs towards the throne room, where he was sure that he was going to meet Tyrion.

Entering from the back doors of the hall, he saw that Tyrion was already there, talking to Lyra and her sister. She seemed to have a sixth sense for when he entered rooms, as Lyra looked up almost immediately and smiled. It calmed his nerves momentarily, but it hit him again full force as invasive thoughts began to enter his mind.

Lyra seemed to have noticed once more, excusing herself from the conversation as she swept over to Joffrey. He reached out, threading his hands through hers as she smiled.

"Stay safe," She murmured, as Joffrey nodded, tightening his grip on her hands. "Come back in one piece to me."

"For you, I'd cheat death," Joffrey replied, as more guards began to filter into the room, preparing to leave. "You also have to promise me that you'll stay safe."

"The only threat to me in this castle is your mother, but I doubt she will kill me in front of all the ladies in the court," Joffrey shook his head, before Lyra smiled up at him. "I'll be fine and if it comes to the worst, I'll call for Elia."

"I'll see you when this is all over," Joffrey grinned, before Lyra stood on her tip toes to place a kiss on the teenager's cheek, which flushed under her touch as he shot her a half-smile. She nodded, before Joffrey turned and walked away towards his uncle, who was watching him with narrowed eyes. "Let's go."

Tyrion nodded, before they left the safety of the keep and began to storm down towards the Mud Gate, where the remainder of the battle preparations were underway. The streets were filled with soldiers and panicked civilians, all trying to push through one and other. Joffrey sighed, before catching sight of someone from the corner of his eye. He did a double take, before his eyes narrowed at who it was.

"Stop here," Tyrion looked at the teenager in confusion, as the boy pushed through his soldiers to come to a stop in front of Drew. The smaller boy was watching the soldiers in awe, and it took him a moment to notice Joffrey, who crouched down in front of him. "What are you doing here, Drew? You should be getting to a safe place."

"Joffrey!" The king raised an eyebrow, as he waited for Drew to answer the question. "I...I can't find my mother."

Joffrey nodded, licking his lips as he thought. Drew needed to be out of this area of the city, that was for sure. In the next few hours, this was going to be one of the most heavily affected areas and it was no place for a child.

"You can't stay here. We're about to be attacked, so you have to go. Is there anywhere else that you can stay?" Drew shook his head, causing the blond man to sigh again, before he caught sight of the keep in his peripheral vision. "All right. Drew, I'm going to sent you to Lyra, my betrothed. She's going to look after you in the keep and then after the battle is over, we're going to find your mother."

"Okay," Drew murmured, before wrapping his arms around Joffrey's neck as the teenager picked him up and carried the smaller boy back over to the group of soldiers. Tyrion's jaw had dropped at this point in time.

"Sandor, do you know where Tylar is?" The Hound nodded, before Joffrey passed Drew over to the man. "Take him to Lyra and then bring Tylar back here. We're going to need all the able bodied men that we can."

Sandor nodded again, turning around and storming back towards the castle with the small boy in his arms. Joffrey sent Drew a reassuring look, before the pair disappeared out of sight and he turned around to continue to the Mud Gate.

"That was nice, what you did for that boy," Tyrion commented, watching his nephew with a raised eyebrow. This was a different side of the teenager, that Tyrion wasn't sure he had ever seen before. "Do you know him?"

"Yes, he's called Drew," Tyrion waited for Joffrey to elaborate as they got closer to the battlements. There was a moment of pause, before Joffrey continued to talk. "Lyra and I met him a couple of months ago and we check up on him whenever we're in the city. His mother is ill."

"You think his mother has already died?" Tyrion seemed to read his mind, as Joffrey nodded his head. It was a morbid thought, but these were morbid times.

"I wouldn't be surprised, not with the conditions they live in," Joffrey looked out across the fog ridden harbor, his eyes narrowing before Lancel scurried up to stand next to him, horror in his eyes as he began to shake.

"Where's our fleet?"

"On it's way," Tyrion replied. Sandor and Tylar appeared next to the two of them, moving to stand behind Joffrey.

"Did Drew get to Lyra?" Joffrey asked, looking over towards the other knights. They both nodded at that, before they all turned back around once more. Joffrey narrowed his eyes, before making out the outline of ships in the fog.

"There they are," Tyrion nodded, before turning towards the soldiers on either side of him.

"Archers to their marks." Further down the line, the command was repeated by other leading officers. The sound of bows being notched was heard in the silence of the nights and Joffrey swore that his heart was going to beat out of his chest whilst they waited for the ships.

"Hold fast," Tyrion called and Joffrey leant forward to check over the battlements, to see where their own ship was.

"What are you doing? We need to attack them," Lancel sounded like he was on the verge of tears and Joffrey rolled his eyes, battling his own panic down. This was no time to be getting scared. Not when battle was almost upon them.

"Hold fast," Tyrion reminded the rest of the archers again, as all the men on the battlements stared at the one, lone ship sailing into the harbor.

"There's only one ship," Lancel began to panic and Joffrey took another deep breath, and closed his eyes to try and regain his composure. "Where are the rest of them? Where are the rest of them?"

The ship got closer to the Baratheon fleet and Joffrey nodded towards Tyrion, opening his eyes to watch the carnage that was about to ensue. The boat sailed past the first of Stannis's fleet before Tyrion dropped the torch. There was a pause, an arrow whistled in the distance, and all hell broke loose.

The whole ship went up in flames, green fire engulfing half of Stannis's fleet as it swept through the bay and out to sea. Covering his eyes, against the brilliance of the green, Joffrey couldn't believe that the plan had actually worked.

✧✦✧

There was a pause before ships started emerging from the fog and towards the shore. Joffrey checked to make sure that he still had his sword and a dagger.

"He's a serious man, Stannis Baratheon." Tyrion commented as he stared at one of the men in the boats. The last time Joffrey had seen his uncle, was at one of his father's many gatherings. Stannis had looked at him with distaste, which Joffrey had mirrored back at him, before turning away to talk to Tommen and Myrcella. He hadn't stuck around at that celebration much, choosing instead to slip away before it got too rowdy and go back to his chambers. "Rain fire on them,"

Joffrey snapped out of his thoughts at Tyrion's words, watching as flaming arrows were shot over the battlements, embedding into Baratheon soldiers that were coming to shore.

"There are too many," Lancel whimpered, rushing down the stairs as he did so. Licking his lips, Joffrey followed at a slower pace, the two other soldiers following him slowly.

"Sandor, you, Tylar and I are going to form a party to take out any Baratheon troop that manages to touch solid ground," Joffrey stated, as the two soldiers ran off to go and gather some troops to head out the front gate. It gave the king a moment or two to take a deep breath and regain his thoughts.

"Let's go." Sandor pushed the king forward, and Joffrey miraculously managed to stay on his feet as he followed the older knight. Tylar appeared, drawing his own sword, as the others around him took a step back. It seemed that the Stark crest still struck some fear into others hearts.

They waited until they could begin to hear the sound of the men trying to climb the side of the walls, before the doors swung open and they charged out. Sandor was screaming something at the front of the group, but the blood rushing past Joffrey's ears made it impossible to hear.

He managed to see a sword swinging towards him, and he quickly ducked under the incoming blow, slicing his own sword upwards. Blood fell into his mouth, and Joffrey spat it out in disgust, before looking for his next victim.

It was a bloodbath on the sands, people coming out of the water screaming and burning, many more lying dead on the floor around them and some in ashes. Another Baratheon soldier ran at him, causing Joffrey to bring his sword up to avoid getting beheaded by the swing. His shoulders jarred as steel hit steel, and he grunted, before pushing the swing away. Feinting towards the man's legs, Joffrey instead struck upwards, stabbing through the stomach and watching as the life left the soldier's eyes.

"Fall back! Fall back!" Joffrey shouted, following others back and into the courtyard, as the doors slammed shut and the archers began to fire at will into the soldiers below.

"Someone bring me a drink," Sandor called as Joffrey pulled off his helm to look at the older man. One of the Lannister guardsmen handed him a skin, which Sandor immediately spat out, looking disgusted."Fuck the water. Bring me wine."

"Can I get you some iced milk and a nice bowl of raspberries, too?"

"Eat shit, dwarf," Joffrey and Tylar shared a look with one and other, as the pair continued to argue in front of them as more screams echoed around the small courtyard.

"Enough," The older men all turned to look at Joffrey, who was rubbing his forehead in annoyance. Tyrion stormed off, leaving Joffrey with the two older knights. "Go."

Sandor gave him a confused look, staring at the young king with wild eyes.

"What are you on about, boy?" Joffrey looked around, before leading Sandor to a quieter back street.

"The place is on fire. Get away from here," Joffrey said, motioning for the man to disappear. "I can handle it, we do have a plan."

"I'm a member of the Kings guard, I can't leave unless I'm dead. I took an oath."

"Fuck the oath. You're dismissed. Leave," Joffrey shook his head, before walking off once more and not looking back.

Sandor looked after the retreating form of the blond-king with narrowed eyes, still trying to work out whether or not he was lying.

"He means it," The knight looked back at Tylar, who was holding his horse out to him, a pensive look on his face. "He and Lyra talked about it, thought you'd probably want to leave after the fire."

"How do you know this?" Tylar raised an eyebrow and shook his head, his brow hair flopping around on his head.

"I'm Lyra's guard, she tells me most things," Sandor shook his head in Tylar's direction, before shaking his hand. "Look out for the other Stark girl if you can."

"Farewell, Cassel." Sandor said as he stormed off, the horse in tow and Tylar nodded.

"And you, Clegane."

Hiya,

Here's the first part of Battle of the Blackwater. Other parts are coming on Saturday and thank you, we're almost at 5k reads which is seriously amazing.

Anyhow, stay safe.

Love Li xx