Arya carefully let the cool clean water rush over the injured man's neck. The bite site would get infected but his fear of fire meant that burning away the infected area was out of the question and washing it out was the only option she was left with.
The towering man winced and cursed under his breath as the curved needle pieced into his torn flesh.
"Son of a cunt whore!" He growled.
Arya rolled her eyes, if he kept tensing up like this she wouldn't be able to tend his wound.
"Tell me about her." Maybe she could distract him long enough to sew the ragged skin back together.
Another scar he would have to bear.
Sandor Clegane sat staring at his large clasped hands.
How long had it been since he last saw her?
The cool afternoon breeze blew strands of his dark brown hair across the ruined side of his face, he absently brushed his hand against the burn scars and for the first time since his brother gifted those scars to him he wasn't filled with rage and anger. He was done with his life being driven by hate.
He was tired.
"What'd you want to know girl?" He sighed heavily as he felt the sharp point of the needle pierce the tender flesh of his neck, feeling blood trickle down past his collar bone.
Arya thought for a moment, she only meant to distract him from the pain but now presented with the opportunity her curiosity got the best of her. Hundreds of questions raced through her mind and she knew that if asked The Hound would be honest in his own brutal fashion.
"How could Nora love someone like you?" She blurted out angrily think of Mycah the butcher's boy.
The Hound shrugged his massive shoulders causing Arya to stab the needle almost to the bone.
"Be careful where you stick that girl!" He grumbled.
"Sorry." She said surprising the smallest smile.
He sighed again.
"I don't know." He said almost to himself.
"What'd mean you don't know?"
He laughed, that harsh laugh of his but there was no cruelty in it. To Arya he seemed almost defeated, that hatred he had inside of him, that had consumed him, the mask he wore seemed to fall away and for a moment The Hound was gone and in his place sat Sandor Clegane.
"You think your the first person to ever ask that, girl?" He asked bitterly.
Arya remained silent for a moment.
"Sansa said that during The Hands tourney that she had never seen so much love than she did when Nora looked at you." She said quietly.
She could only see the undamaged side of his face, the corner of his mouth twitch into a small smile and for a split second she seen his inner light, the light that Nora had always seen when she looked upon his face and in that light he was as handsome as The Knight of Flowers.
"Nora was the only one... She saw me as a whole man, not ruined..."
The light had once again been replaced by the surly look of contempt.
"Love is a curse, never forget that. If I teach you anything, girl it's that. Once your enemies know that you have a weakness they will use it against you. The things I've done, the people I've killed where to keep Nora safe. Joffrey the little cunt knew that, if I questioned him in any way he would threatened my wife's life!"
"Your wife?" She asked, slightly confused as she let the needle slip again.
He nodded, this time unfazed by the pain.
"Aye. Before the Battle of The Blackwater, Nora and I married in secret. Not until my dying day will I forget how beautiful she looked that night, the way the thousands of candles in the Sept made her eyes look like the colour of Wildfire."
Arya had finished stitching him up, she tied the thread and poured fresh water over it cleaning off the dried blood as he talked.
"No one knew?" She asked, wrapping the cleanest cloth she could find around the bite site.
He barked out another laugh. "Can you imagine if Joffrey knew? Her pretty head would be on a spike in Kings Landing if that little shit knew anything. In his twisted little mind his dog wouldn't be completely loyal anymore."
The young Stark girl took in all that Sandor Clegane had said. Being on this journey with him, she had started to understand why he was the way he was. She watched him now as he stood staring off into the distance, they were alike she realised. They were both left in this world with no one.
"Where is she now?" Arya asked as he re joined her by the fire, keeping his distance from the blaze he handed her some strips of dried beef, black bread crusts and hard cheese.
"As soon as we got word that Stannis was marching on Kings Landing, I booked her passage on a ship to take her across the Narrow Sea. I don't know where she is now, if she's alive or dead. I don't know if the child she carried in her belly..."
"She was pregnant?" She interrupted, almost choking on a piece of bread that went down the wrong way.
He nodded as he silently ate, it didn't go unnoticed by the girl that he had given her a bigger portion of their meagre supplies than he took for himself.
There is kindness in him. She thought to herself.
"That surprise you? That someone like Nora would take a monster like me into her bed?"
Arya shook her head no.
"Aye, she was carrying my child, a child I never met. A son or daughter I never held in my arms, a child I will never know. I'll tell you this, girl if the Gods are real they are cruel fuckers! They give you something to live for only to take it away. My time with Nora was the only time in my miserable life I ever felt happy. It was the first time I wasn't alone."
He is human after all. Arya thought to herself.
"How did you meet?" She asked curiously. Where would a beast like The Hound come across someone like Nora?
"It's a long story." He said almost softly.
"It's a long way to The Eerie." She retorted.
He laughed as he drank deeply from his water skin. "Aye, that it is."