An overdue disclaimer. All characters and places referred to in this story are the creation and property of G.R.R. Martin, with the exceptions of the characters of the girl, Sooty, Brodrick, Callem, the poacher, outlaws, various common folk and the town of RedHollow, which are my own creations. I do not profit financially from this story in fact seeing as I write most of it when I'm meant to be working at my actual job it is directly contributing to my poverty. Cheers.

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The man sat on the side of the road with his head down, long strands of greasy hair falling to cover his face. When the girl rode up to him he raised his head and squinted at her. She stopped her horse a safe distance from him and frowned.

'What are you doing here?' she asked. 'Do you need help?' Her gaze roamed around the bush behind them, she didn't want to be ambushed by outlaws. The man looked too tired to be much of a threat to her on his own. It was impossible to tell what colour his clothes had once been, they were now just road-colour, a dingy grey. Dark patches on his pants may have been dry blood. Again, it was hard to say, from where she sat on her horse. But she didn't move any nearer. She hadn't survived this long in the world by being too trusting.

'I do need some help, actually,' the man replied. His accent was well-bred, another mystery. He raised the hands he'd been holding in his lap. Metal glinted dully between his wrists. 'Could you... is there any way you could remove these handcuffs?'

The girl shook her head. 'I only have a bow and some arrows. A small knife. Nothing to break that with.'

The man slumped back against the ditch. 'Never mind,' he said, resigned, almost cheerfully. He raised his grime-encrusted face to the late slanting sun and closed his eyes.

The girl was intrigued. Despite his filthy appearance and the fact he was shackled, he didn't strike her as dangerous. She generally had an instinct for that sort of thing, and nothing was pinging her radar about this stranger. She nudged her horse a little closer to him, and the horse's shadow fell across his face. He opened his eyes. They were green, quite striking.

'Hey. I could maybe... take you to the nearest town or something. A blacksmith could get them off for you.' He stared at her and she wasn't sure what he was thinking, or even if he was in his right mind. 'Look, I don't care what your story is. The handcuffs and...' she gestured generally at his ragged clothes. 'Whatever. Your business. I'm going through the next town though, if you need a ride.'

The man smiled, and his face cracked into many lines. His teeth were surprisingly white against his dirty and sunburnt face. Scars ran across his nose, and they looked fairly recent. 'Where are you going after that?' he asked.

It wasn't the answer she was expecting, and she hesitated. 'I'm on my way to deliver some goods and messages to KingsLanding. I pass through a few towns on the way, usually I stop for the night and - '

The man cut her off mid-sentence, quite casually, as if he were used to cutting people off. He had a sort of natural arrogance that was at odds with his current condition. 'I have an offer for you. Take me to KingsLanding and I'll pay you 500 gold coins. And buy you a new horse. That one looks a bit done in.'

The girl was offended. 'What's wrong with my horse?'

He shrugged. 'Nothing, for a delivery person. Or a trader, or whatever you are. An ugly, slow beast, but good for carrying heavy loads.'

The girl opened her mouth to defend her horse's honour, but then closed it again. Sooty was rather slow. Not her fault, the mare was getting old. And she'd never been an attractive horse.

'What's the catch?' she asked instead.

'Ah,' said the man. 'There must be a catch.'

'For 500 gold coins? Nothing's that easy. Are you a fugitive? A criminal?'

'Hmm. You could say that. I was, but my former prison guard, or more accurately, my companion, has unfortunately...' he looked away, his face clouding over with regret. He swallowed and shook his head. 'Well, anyway. She's not accompanying me any more. So I'm in need of another assistant. As you can see I have no mode of transport, and my boots are fucked.'

The girl laughed a little before she could help herself, then stopped. She peered at him, unconvinced. 'I could ask a lot of questions about that story of yours, but... ' she said.

'But. You won't,' he replied.

'No.'

'Smart girl.'

'So what's this catch, again?'

'Oh yes. That. Well, I might just require you to use less obvious routes to the Capital. Ones that don't... go through all the nearest towns, for instance. Or run into any passing patrols. Or... anyone at all, really.'

She considered this. 'That's the catch? That I keep to the back roads and avoid towns? And other people? Is that all?'

'Pretty much.' He smiled up at the girl charmingly. How anyone could be charming sitting in a muddy ditch, covered in layers of muck and in chains, was beyond her, but somehow he managed it.

'I can camp rough,' she said. 'But I'm not going to be able to get those things off your wrists.'

'That's an inconvenience for me, I must say.'

'Like I said, if we hit the nearest town...'

'No towns. Towns are out. I'll just have to live with these cuffs a while longer.'

She grinned. 'They kind of suit you.'

'Do they? It's my general Up To No Good vibe, I imagine. Always been blessed with that. At least now I look the part.'

She nodded.

'So, do we have a deal?'

'How do I know you're good for it?'

'I guess you don't. I guess you're just going to have to trust me.'

The girl smiled. She didn't trust anyone, it was her one motto in life. Trust no-one. But he didn't have to know that.

'Alright then. We have a deal.'

'Excellent. I would shake on it but...' the man lifted up his hands, shrugged again.

'Let's start by getting you off this road,' the girl suggested. 'Before someone comes along who recognises you, Ser NoGood.' She jumped down off her horse, and reached over to grab the man's hands and haul him to his feet. He was quite a bit taller than her, and thin. 'Can you jump on a horse with those things on? Because I have to make up a lot of ground if I'm going to go the back way to KingsLanding and still be on time for my deliveries. It might be best if we travel right through the night to get some distance between you and... whoever it is you don't want catching up with you, and quite frankly, it looks like you're about to fall over.'

They rode double with the man sitting behind her, going off-road for the rest of the evening and on into the night. The girl recognised some landmarks from having travelled through here with her mother some time ago; the gnarled curve of an old white tree trunk, the particular angle of a lone branch. The trees grew closely together and the scrub was thick. She let her mount negotiate her way through the undergrowth. Finally the bush thinned out somewhat and grass grew underfoot. Steam rose from Sooty's back as the sun finally emerged below the horizon and lightened the sky to pinkish-grey. The girl stopped as soon as she could hear the rush of the river.

'We'll rest here', she said, sliding off the horse. Her voice croaked. She hadn't slept since... when was it again? She stood in the dawn light resting a hand on the horses' damp shoulder, staring at dust motes spinning slowly in the air in front of her. She felt a little dizzy. How long should we sleep for? How many days will this add to my trip?

'Are we going to eat, too?' said the the man, 'Only, I'm starving,'

'Yeah', was all the girl could manage to say. What had she got herself in for with this stray? He could be anyone. But 500 gold coins was a hard offer to turn down. She could retire from delivery work, for one. That is, presuming he came good on his promise.

'Jump down,' she instructed.

The man swung his right leg over Sooty's back and slipped off clumsily. Without his hands to balance he stumbled on landing and fell over. The girl watched as he sat up, looked as if he might try to get to his feet, but then changed his mind and just rested his cuffed hands on his knees. His wrists were thin, the tunic hung loose on his frame. It was impossible to tell what colour his hair was. She considered offering him a hand up, but it seemed too much effort. Besides, he looked quite content sitting there.

He glanced up at Sooty beside him. His eyes narrowed in the dusty light as he considered the animal. Sooty laid back her ears.

'Soooo... your horse doesn't seem very friendly. What does it do, bite?'

'Why don't you try something and see?' the girl said. She yawned. Her hood fell off as her face tipped up. When she talked there was a lag between her brain and her words. Sleep. Need.

'You look rather nice in the daylight,' the man said, looking at her. 'How old are you?' She stared dumbly at him. 'I'm Jaime by the way. And who do I have the pleasure of travelling with?' He seemed perfectly at ease to the girl, as if sitting on the ground in shackles, and talking to an uncommunicative delivery girl suffering sleep deprivation, was all quite normal.

'My name is not your concern,' the girl replied. 'I never give out my name to strangers. Standard protocol.' She yawned again, ears popping. Conversation seemed way too difficult. 'We'll sleep for a while,' she said, her words running together slightly. Gods but I'm tired. She turned to Sooty. 'I'm sorry... you want to graze,' she mumbled, then gave up any pretence of being able to speak coherently.

'Grazing is all well and good,' Jaime said. 'Anything else on the menu though? Meat, maybe?'

'Later,' the girl said, irritated. This stray didn't seem to be able to keep his mouth shut. She was going to regret this deal, she just knew it. She took off Sooty's bridle, put on her overnight hobbles. The horse wandered a few steps and started picking the grass. The girl then must have unpacked her sleeping furs and lain down, but she didn't remember doing that, or anything else, for the next ten hours.

Late afternoon sun on her face. The air already starting to chill. The girl rolled over and sat up too quickly, her head taking a disorienting second to catch up.

She felt for the knife in its holster strapped to her waist, out of habit, then looked over and was relieved to see Jaime still in the same spot, lying on his back. Sooty stood beside him with one hind hoof cocked on its toe, lip drooping. She lifted her head at the girl's movement and made a small whuffly sound.

'Hey you,' smiled the girl. 'Time to get our friend here up and go, I think.'

She got up, feeling worse than before she'd slept. Her whole body was heavy, slow. She shook her head to clear the fuzz, stretched her arms. Evening already? How did that happen? Ugh.

'Come on,' she nudged the man with one foot. 'Up.'

He rubbed his face, stretched his elbows apart. His eyes cracked open and he peered at her. In the fading light under the mask of dirt, his skin looked pale. Thin scars criss-crossed not only his nose but ran across his cheeks. His eyebrows were straight and dark, the eyes beneath them that startling green. 'Thought you'd never wake up,' he said.

'I'm awake now.'

'Thank the gods. It was rather a boring day. I think I dropped off myself, the horse isn't much of a conversationalist, I hate to tell you. Can we eat?'

'We'll eat as we walk.' The girl gathered up her furs and tied them into a roll, which she hung off Sooty's saddle. She pulled some bread out of a side pocket and handed half to the man. He turned it over hopefully.

'Is that it?'

'We can catch fish for tonight.'

'I think I may die without some kind of meat product.'

'Well that will save me some trouble,' she muttered.

'If we could find a way of getting these handcuffs off, I'm a good shot with an arrow. We could have a rabbit in ten minutes.'

'Yeah I bet.' The girl finished packing, and they started off on foot downhill through the sparse trees towards the burble of the river, Sooty following.

'I just think we'd have a better chance of making it to KingsLanding if I could help out a bit. Without, you know. These on.' Jaime walked besides Sooty, the chain hanging from his handcuffs clanking lightly. 'They're rather restricting.'

'I'm rather liking them on you,' the girl said, mimicking his accent. In truth she found it reassuring he was still cuffed. She had no intentions of finding any way to get them off.

They walked through the evening and long after the light had gone. The girl thought sleeping all day would've given her the energy to keep going most of the next night, but that wasn't the case. She couldn't stop yawning and felt achy and dull. Plus travelling in pitch blackness meant they had to walk slowly or risk tripping over logs and slipping down ditches. Sometime after midnight she gave up.

'This is crap' she said, as yet another unseen shrub smacked her in the face. She stopped. 'I can't see shit.'

'I guess that's why we're not nocturnal,' Jaime remarked.

'Yeah.' She yawned, again. 'We'll stick to daytime travelling from here on in.'

She walked on ahead until she felt out a reasonably flat patch of ground, and crouching, lit a small fire with the fire-lighter and dried wood shavings she kept in the pouch on her belt. Then with the area illuminated, she unpacked the food from Sooty's saddle bags. Jaime stood and watched what she was doing without comment. She felt as though he was assessing her, which was an unnerving sensation. She unlocked the D-ring clip on the back of Sooty's harness that she tied drag poles to, and threw the excess loops next to the tree where they fell in a heap, the links clattering. 'I won't need them any more,' she explained. 'If we're not travelling by road, I can't drag stuff.'

'Makes sense.' Jaime inspected the ground for a moment, then lowered himself to a sitting position.

'I'm cooking some dinner in a minute, after I tend to the horse. Seeing as you can't really help, maybe just sit there and rest.'

'Thank you,' he replied. He sounded sarcastic, but the girl was unsure if she was reading too much into what was just his natural tone of voice. She said nothing. Instead she turned and unhooked Sooty's harness, then scrounged around for a brush in her backpack. The horse butted her with her head. 'Oy, quit it.' The girl pushed her away fondly. Sooty's coat was rough with dry sweat and she groomed away as much as she could. Sooty grunted and extended her upper lip in appreciation. 'Is that good? Do you like that, huh?' The girl rubbed the big horse's neck and behind her ears, trying to find all the itchiest spots. Sooty's lip stretched out even more and waggled back and forth, making the girl chuckle. 'You funny,' she murmured. Tending to her horse, her constant companion, cheered her up and relaxed her.

'As much as I loathe to interrupt a touching moment,' Jaime said from behind, 'but any time you feel like cooking food...? I fear dying of hunger is a real possibility.'

The girl finished brushing her horse, then gestured for her to go. Sooty swished her tail and walked off between the trees, vanishing from sight. The girl knocked the brush on the heel of her boot to clean it, then chucked it back into her pack.

'How do you make it come back?' Jaime asked, intrigued.

'Who?'

'The horse.'

'She always comes back. She comes when I whistle. We're far enough in the bush here that no-one will see her.'

Taking the food bag from the saddle, she laid out some folded up packets of dried beans, strips of smoked dry meat, eggs, bread and two flasks, which on sniffing evidently didn't contain water but some kind of juice. Someone in the last town she'd stopped at had given her extra supplies in return for a favour she'd done them, delivering some contraband goods. She didn't drink alcohol, but this smelled a bit fermented. She considered her options, put some things back, then took out a pot and stood up.

'I'm going to get some water, for cooking. Do you think you'll survive 'til I get back?'

Jaime put both index fingers to his lips as if considering this seriously.

She walked off before he could answer. She carefully negotiated her way down the slippery bank to the river in the dark, scooped some water into the pot, re-filled her drinking flask, then headed back up.

'Why don't we try and catch some fresh meat?' Jaime wanted to know as she returned.

'Because we needed to make good time. And that means I didn't have time to hunt.'

'Can you... hunt?' he asked, a bit sceptically.

'I'm a delivery person, I live on the road,' she snapped. 'Of course I can hunt.'

Jaime raised his eyebrows. 'Here I thought you were a smuggler.'

She grinned. 'That too.'

'Multi-talented girl.' Again the tone of insolence.

She started cooking up the ingredients for their dinner. She used the beans, dried meat and vegetables, and added some salt and other seasonings. The smell rose up in the steam; she felt her stomach clench with hunger. As soon as the bubbling liquid had thickened up enough, she poured it out into two wooden bowls and took one over to Jaime, pausing to consider the cuffs and then placing the bowl into his cupped hands.

'Careful, it's hot.'

He blew on the surface and sipped. 'Mmmm.' He gulped down a mouthful. 'This is delicious.'

'Thank you,' she said, inexplicably pleased. Although, why do I care if he likes my cooking?

'What is in this?'

'Herbs, spices. Various... um, shit.'

'Well. It's good shit.'

She smiled. The food, and his apparent sincere appreciation of it, gave her a warm feeling inside. She didn't know why, and couldn't think about it any more at the moment, because, she realised, she was completely exhausted.

They finished off the pot of soup, shared her water flask, and then she took the dishes down to the river to rinse them. As she got back, Jaime was coming out from behind the tree.

'Had to take a piss,' he explained.

'Oh.' She paused. 'Do... do you need help to...?'

'No, I'm good. If I do though, I'll let you know.'

'Alright. Because if it's tricky I can... undo things. And... um. Not look,' she said, awkwardly.

He grinned at her, amused by her discomfort. 'Sounds fun.'

Oh gods get a grip. You're both humans. Humans eat, sleep, piss, shit. It's never worried you before. She busied herself by unrolling the sleeping things and Jaime got into her spare blanket. She heaved a thick branch onto the fire to keep it going until morning, sending up a shower of sparks, then curled into her own furs. As soon as her eyes closed she felt sleep falling on her like a heavy weight.

'G'night, girl,' Jaime said in the quietness.

She started awake, surprised. No-one had said goodnight to her since her mother.

'Goodnight,' she answered, after a pause.

Then, she slept.

The sun was already up by the time she woke, but it was worth the late start to feel nearly normal again. It took about an hour to have a quick wash in the river, eat, call up Sooty, and reload everything into the packs and saddle bags. The girl led Sooty down to the water's edge to drink, and Jaime came along too. She left them both there while she went back to finish clearing the camp. Even criminals on the run deserved some privacy and the opportunity to clean themselves a bit in the river, she figured, and she was hardly Lady Law-Abiding herself, so who was she to judge him?

She'd just finished covering up the signs of their camp when a sound caught her attention. It sounded almost like a horse's warning snort. Had something alarmed Sooty? The girl picked up her bow and arrows from where she'd rested them near the campsite, and crept back down the way she'd come, moving as quietly as she could. Through the trees she could see Sooty spinning in a circle, agitated. The horse snorted again. On the other side of her Jaime hopped around, trying to hold the animal still enough for him to mount. That fucker, the girl thought, he's trying to steal my horse and go on alone. Leave me here with no supplies. So much for 500 gold coins.

She whistled, a piercing shriek that made Jaime look over at her and Sooty prick up her ears. The man still had hold of the reins. He made a last ditch effort to throw himself on Sooty's back, but the horse bucked as his weight fell across her, and reared up. Jaime clung on gamely for a few seconds, before tumbling onto the ground. Sooty snaked her head at him, and the girl ran out from the trees, gesturing at the horse to get back.

'Looks like my horse doesn't like you,' the girl said, grimly. She had her bow drawn, an arrow notched and pointed at Jaime's head. He gave her a disarming smiled, as if it were all a joke. She didn't smile back.

'I was going to ride her back up to the camp, save you the trouble,' he said. He sounded so innocent she almost believed him.

'Sure you were.'

'Turns out, the horse is a bitch.'

'Of course she is, she's my horse.'

Jaime opened his fingers in a conciliatory manner. 'If I only had these cuffs off I could help out more around here '

'I have a better idea,' the girl said.