Who| Arya and YOU
What| Multiple week 2 Arena prompts! Arya gets lost in the forest, sees the ghosts of those she's lost in the catacombs, tries to capture a horse, and goes to the banquet.
Where| The forest, catacombs and castle
When| Week 2
Warnings/Notes| Warning for Arya seeing ghosts of her family having died very violent deaths, warning for animal cruelty in that there's a decapitated direwolf ghost too. Skip prompt B if these are a problem, the rest of the prompts come with no warnings. Prose and brackets both welcome.


a) The forest
She hadn't seen Tom since the Arena had started, but no cannon had sounded his passing, and his face hadn't appeared in the sky among the Tributes that had fallen. No, not a Tribute now - working for the Peacekeepers, something that Arya still felt sore about, even as she acknowledged that it would benefit them. At least she knows Molotov is back in the Capitol now, and that was one weight off her mind - she'd been afraid that she wouldn't come back from the Arena at all. She was terrified that she herself wouldn't come back, too - it wasn't the dying that scared Arya, not any more - it was the not existing.

From what little she knows of Tom's powers, she figures that he'd have taken to the forest. It's not somewhere Arya's gone far into yet, but today she ventures deeper inside, treading carefully to soften the sound of her footprints, the daggers she'd received from sponsors gripped tightly in both hands, whirling round sharply when she sees a shadow through the trees or hears a twig snap, uncertain if whoever's out there is friend or foe.


b) The catacombs
Arya had slept down here the last couple of nights. She didn't mind the skeletons; it felt comforting, really, to know that they'd been put to rest where they were supposed to be, that they'd slept for centuries in the tomb of their village. She was reminded of the crypt in Winterfell, and she had to stop herself, distract herself, when she thought about it for too long, knowing that Theon Greyjoy had seized Winterfell and that for all she knew it probably lay in ruins now, the bodies that slept in the crypt unearthed and desecrated, the statues defaced, even the one of her Aunt Lyanna, that always stuck in Arya's mind because her father had always said she looked so much like her. What did it matter? she thought. They're all dead anyway. I'm all that's left and I'm a world away. There aren't any Starks now, why should it matter if Winterfell falls?

She's bedding down to sleep, huddled in a ball feeding pages from the stacks of Celebrus that Peggy had sent her to her tiny fire, feeling consumed by these thoughts, by her bitter loneliness and the ache that came from her vengeance being unfulfilled while she was forced to participate in blood sports for the entertainment of people who knew nothing and cared nothing. She feels completely disillusioned -- and then she hears a voice from behind her, one that's very familiar.

"You are a Stark of Winterfell. You know our words."

She sits bolt upright as she hears her father's voice, certain that this is some sort of cruel trick that the Capitol are playing on her, remembering the jabber jays mocking her with the voices of those she'd lost forever and those she sought to dispense justice. But no, she's sure she sees him disappearing around the corner, the thick cloak in the style worn in the North hanging heavy at his back. Before she can even think about what she's doing she's on her feet, running after him as fast as her feet can carry her, following the sound of Ned Stark's voice and his heavy footstep deeper into the maze of catacombs. The Capitol had brought her back to life, after all. Maybe they'd done the same with her father.

Finally she reaches a dead end, and as she's about to give up and turn back around a figure flickers into focus before her. Her mother. For a second Arya is overjoyed, until she sees how Catelyn Stark is slumped on her knees, blood gushing from a slit to her throat. "No, don’t, don’t cut my hair, Ned loves my hair." Right through a coffin next to her walked a grotesque figure that she recognises instantly as her brother Robb, the head of his direwolf Grey Wind sewn crudely to his back. No, I avenged you-- I got the ones that did that, Robb-- No amount of reassuring both the ghost and herself will give him peace. Then, finally, her father steps between the other two, and Arya realises why she'd only caught glimpses of him - his spirit had been leading her there headless, the body walking by itself around the crypt. Ned Stark's ghostly head emerges from the ground, rolling to a stop just in front of her feet, and Arya screams as it looks up at her with blank, dead eyes.


c) The castle
Arya hadn't dared to spend another night down in the catacombs. The castle had been her ultimate destination and now she makes her way there in earnest, the many gifts she'd received from sponsors bundled under her arm. She'd been wary at first, but when she'd seen an Avox through the window her curiosity had got the best of her and she ventured in, wondering what they could be doing there.

Her mouth waters as soon as she smells the feast, and she gathers as much food up as she can before retreating to a corner and curling up exhausted, eating as much as she can, becoming suddenly alert as soon as anyone else arrives to the banquet, afraid after her ghostly encounter that there are worse things out there than other Tributes trying to kill her.


d) The forest again
Feeling refreshed, Arya heads back into the forest, hoping to score a kill or at the very least find something to hunt, needing not the food but just something on which to take out her frustration. She's not gone very far into the trees when she hears a rumbling up ahead, and then the ground beneath her begins to vibrate as a drove of wild horses heads straight toward her. These are the first horses she's seen since arriving in Panem and she can't help but be a little elated. She sits in a nearby tree, watching them gallop by, wondering if she could ride one.