37 Alliances broken

**Big thanks to Charlie Puente-Duany**

The tide of men seemingly had no end as they continuously pressed down on Benjen and his group.

Their numbers had been reduced to the extent were they had gone from one on one battles to one on two battles. Benjen looked to his friend Locke who was dripping with the the blood of his enemies, his swings were slow and heavy though, telling Benjen that he didn't have long left.

"It would seem the brats are worth something after all." The white tusk chief spoke his tone doing little to hide how impressed he was by the fact they held on so long.

The red bone chief parted his lips ready to speak when a man rushed up to him, the man had symbols painted on his face to form intricate patterns. His identity was clear to all, a warg under the red bone tribe.

"Chief! Chief! Chief! we have bad news... the village..huff...the village."

"What is it man? out with it!" The red bone chief turned to his warg with eyes filled with impatience. "The village was raided"

All the chief's snapped their heads towards the warg with their disbelief clear for every observer. Raided, the three chief's thought they had heard wrong.

Raided, they did the raiding. It had always been them raiding never the other way and yet.

"Who? who did this?!" The red bone chief grabbed his warg by their throat and lifted them up to stare them in the eye. The madness in his eyes caused the warg to tremble uncontrollably as he stuttered out, "Arthor".

"Arthor" The strong arm chief looked to the tide of men who kept rushing into the pass, and began to think back to everything that led to this moment.

"bait, they're bait."

"This is a trap" The white tusk chief spoke up before withdrawing his men and turning away.

"what are you doing? where are you going?!" Strong arm chief immediately asked.

"Where am I going?" The boy has raided the red bone territory for all we know what is here is all that remains of the red bone tribe. "The brat was ruthless enough to sacrifice his own brother. I may not be the smartest person but I know for a fact that such a person would have no need of prisoners."

The ones around went numb with those words, "we should have realized that someone who could take down Ulfric wasn't normal". Leaving those words the white tusk chief left with his men.

The red bone chief was quick to follow withdrawing his men and rushing back to his territory with the impossible belief, that he would be able to salvage his territory.

What was once an insurmountable tide of men had been reduced to at most a slightly larger mob. The strong arm chief wanted so badly to vent his anger but ending the lives of the remnants hiding in the pass.

However, the thought of Arthor silently raiding his territory whilst he remained here took over his mind. It was like a never ending nightmare that got more and more realistic with each passing more.

Gritting his teeth, he struggled but inevitably called for his men to retreat and reinforce his territory.

*****

In the pass; Benjen looked to Locke who was panting heavily with his sweat mixing with the blood on his person. He wore a look that was a mixture of confusion and relief as he stared at the backs of the retreating army.

Looking to the others Benjen realized that they all had the same expression. Benjen silently stared at the other survivors, "what the fuck just happened?"

Locke broke the silence with his question, *sigh*thud* Benjen fell bum first with a loud sigh of relief. "It would seem the old gods decided we all will live another day"

"Hah, have they? well they have some timing the gods because I swear ya, if that went on a minute longer I would have been feasting with my nan. Trust me she's a pain in the add that one."

The survivors all broke out in laughter at Locke's words.

*********

Benjen and his group made it back to the their village, after resting and regaining their energy. The group of let out sighs of relief as they were overcome with joy seeing the familiar walls.

The journey back was quick and peaceful, but that peace simply created a tense atmosphere as all their nerves were now taut. The unexplained retreat of the enemy who clearly had the advantage and were minutes away from victory, left them confused and suspicious the whole journey back.

The group was thinking the worst, so finally seeing their home filled them with joy. A group walked out to receive the brave warriors, they remained silent however when they saw just how few they were, and the states they were in.

Arthor made his way through the crowd, the signs of battle were still on him as he had rushed back and had yet to clean himself.

"Benjen" Arthor was only able to mutter his brother's name before he rushed in to give him a hug. No more words were uttered as the two hugged one another.