Anythingdrabble Challenge 81 - Reversal of fortune

[m_findlow]

Title: Reversal of fortune
Fandom: Game of Thrones
Characters/Pairings: Grenn, Edd
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: M (language)
Notes: Written for Challenge 81 - Watch at anythingdrabble
Summary: Grenn isn't enjoying his first night on watch duty.

'It’s fucking cold up here,' Grenn complained, shoving his thick-gloved hands under his armpits and pulling his shabby black cloak tighter around him.

'Of course it’s fucking cold,' Edd replied. 'It’s the bloody Wall. Even a great aurochs like you shouldn’t be that stupid.'

'I just thought,' Grenn began, casting a look over the darkened vista north of the Wall.

'Thought what?' Edd replied. 'That it’d be a bit of a holiday? Ends of the fucking earth up here,' he muttered, pulling his own cloak tighter around him.

Grenn stepped back and leaned himself toward the small brazier, its coals glowing a dull orange in their struggle to stay alight whilst the northern winds whipped between the snowy ramparts. He dare not not take off his gloves, even to try and get his hands closer to the heat from the coals. He’d been told too many tales already over bowls of stew and heels of bread that a man who thought to take a piss outside would relieve himself of more than his waters.

He shouldn’t have gotten involved with the farmer's daughter. If he hadn’t maybe he wouldn’t be here now. She’d been a pretty thing, though plain, with hair the colour of fresh straw, and which often smelled of it after a day out in the fields.

He’d been working on the farm as a favour. Having been abandoned as a child, he’d grown up on a neighbouring farm, and his strength and size made him useful. When the two farmers had been sharing an ale and discussing how much longer the summer might last, Grenn had been offered as a spare pair of hands to help harvest the remaining barely before the frosts rotted it.

She made the first move on Grenn, cornering him in the barn, leaning over him so that he could see the swell of her breasts spilling out of her dress. Before he knew what was what, the pair of them were kissing, and Grenn found his hands dipping into her dress to sample that soft skin.

No matter how hard he worked, he found energy afresh at the end of each day when she came looking for him. Perhaps he could ask if there was a permanent job going. Somewhere in his fanciful dreams he imagined marrying her and inheriting her father’s lands. Farming was all he knew but he could be good at it.

When the farmer caught them though, he was livid. His daughter very quickly changed her story, accusing him of rape. It wasn’t long after that he was stood before the local lord, offered two choices –death or the Wall. It was no choice. The Night’s Watch was the only option, far from sunny barley fields and the warm touch of a woman.

Edd came over and stoked the coals, warming his own hands. 'First watch is always the hardest.'

'I hate it up here,' Grenn said.

'D’you know what I’d hate more?' Edd asked.

'What?'

'Being dead.'