Author's Note: This is my first time, so please be gentle.

Arya

They're going to kill each other, Arya thought, and on the heels of that thought was the realization that she cared. It was enough to make her want push her way into the fight and kill the Hound herself. Because she couldn't care. Not again.

She slipped on rocks in her haste, fell on her arse and began the long, painful slide down to the battleground where the two warriors were bellowing war cries and trading vicious blows. Above her, the big woman's squire cried out at her escape and started to follow, more carefully than she had. He'd never reach her. The fighters were on the ground now, and the Hound had the upper hand, raising himself up to strike the woman. Arya found her feet and charged, colliding with him in a tackle that threw him back. He grabbed her around the waist and took her with him as he rolled, his great weight crushing her before they turned again and she came to a stop on top of him.

The woman was already on her feet, sword in hand, leveled at them. "Yield," she commanded, in a voice as rough as the rocks around them.

"Never!" the Hound growled, slinging Arya off as he started to rise, but throwing her behind him. As Arya scrambled to grab him about the shoulders, she saw how the warrior maiden raised her brow, saw the thoughts that flitted across her face.

"Very well," said the Maid of Tarth, lowering her weapon. "I yield."

"What trick is this?" The Hound got to his feet, slowly and warily. He shrugged Arya from his shoulders, but she felt the way he used his hand on her shoulder to assist his rise, under the guise of pushing her away from him.

"'Tis no trick, ser. You would go to your death to protect the child I'm sworn to see to safety. I can have no quarrel with you."

"You bit a chunk off me, you fucking cunt!"

She shrugged. "I see now that you're dedicated to protecting her."

"Oh, you see that now," he mocked in his sarcastic way, staggering a few feet to reach his fallen sword.

"Well you didn't expect me to take your word for it."

"If you're done trying to kill each other," Arya drawled, "what now?"

"Where were you headed?" the Maid asked.

"The Wall."

"That's your idea of safety?" The words exploded from the boy, Podrick, who looked shocked to hear his own voice and desperate to swallow the words back. He looked afraid of his own shadow.

"My brother's there. Jon Snow."

"Jon Snow?" Podrick repeated, as if the name meant something to him. "That's right, Jon Snow is the bastard of Winterfell."

"What's it to you?" Arya snapped.

"He's been named Lord Commander of the Night's Watch."

"Is there anyone in the Seven Kingdoms you don't know about, boy?" the Hound sneered.

"He's terribly useful that way," Brienne said with a smile that Arya thought made her look not half so ugly. Not that Arya thought ugly was a bad thing. She never saw beauty do a woman a bit of good. But here was an ugly woman, a lady even, and she wore armor, and knew how to use a sword, and almost bested the Hound.

"Then tell us about Sansa Stark," the Hound rasped. "You say Littlefinger's got her at the Eyrie?"

"We heard the rumor that Littlefinger helped her flee from King's Landing, after she helped Tyrion poison the king."

"That's not true!"Arya snapped. "I wish it were, but my sister wouldn't kill anyone, even that sniveling little weasel with a crown."

"You'd be surprised what living in the Red Keep can do to you, child," the Hound muttered.

"Aye," Brienne agreed, just as softly.

"It's not true," Podrick agreed, bringing the conversation back to topic. "My lord Tyrion might have had reason, but he would never have acted so foolishly. Most of King's Landing knows that and pretends they don't. And his lady, um, your sister, she bore no love for the Lannisters, but I don't believe it was in her to do something like that, nor to let her husband take the blame."

There was some sort of grumbling from the Hound, but Arya couldn't make it out and he went ignored.

"The next we heard was that Littlefinger presented himself at the Bloody Gate in the company of a girl named Alayne. And then we heard that Littlefinger married your Aunt Lysa."

"And now Aunt Lysa's dead. They told us that when we reached the gate yesterday. We might have known sooner if we could stop at inns to eat and hear the gossip, without this one being recognized everywhere we go." She jerked her thumb at the Hound, who grunted again. He had settled himself on a rock behind her and when she looked back, he was pawing at his neck. She went to go look. "Do you think she's still there, my sister?" she asked Podrick. To the Hound she said, "You've gone and ripped the stitches."

"I didn't do it, that bloody bitch tried to tear my head from my shoulders."

Brienne rolled her eyes, but didn't respond to the jibe.

"We need to clean this again."

"I'll boil some wine," Podrick offered.

"If you've got wine, bring it here, boy."

"Boil it, Pod," Brienne ordered.

While Podrick and Brienne went about gathering brush to start a small fire, Arya poured water over the Hound's latest injuries. "I want to find my sister," she said quietly.

"Aye," he replied. She wasn't sure what that meant.

"My brother, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. I don't know what he'd think of us showing up there. But I can't leave the South if Sansa's still here somewhere. I can't leave her with a worm like Littlefinger."

"Aye."

"So we'll look for her. Find out where Littlefinger's gone and if she's with him."

"Aye."

She was getting annoyed by him, wondering if he was even listening. His skin was hot to the touch, and she knew he was still fevered from the foul wound on his neck.

"And we'll let these two go with us if they want."

"Aye."

"I thought you would argue."

"I told you I'd see you safely to your family. Haven't done it yet. And your sister's out there somewhere, in the clutches of that slimy, flesh-peddling pervert. She's a good girl, and I'd see her separated from him if I could. But I may be about all used up."

"Don't say that." There it was again. That flare of something that felt like giving a damn.

He ignored her. "And if I am, this great beast of a woman will see you and your sister to the Wall. If she gave her word to your mother, she'll keep it, no matter the lady's not around to care anymore. I know the type. All honor and duty. Like your father. She'll see you to the Wall, if she doesn't get herself killed first. She might have bested me if you hadn't stopped us, so-"

"You're not yourself."

"Making excuses for me now, little wolf?"

Arya shrugged, even though he wasn't looking at her. "It's true enough."

"Aye, it's true enough," the Hound agreed.