Chapter 3: Blade and Flesh and Blood
Sally tested using the Hound or Clegane, he paid more attention with Clegane. She tried Nan and Arya and found it did not make any deference.
She asked Arya " Why did you pick Nan for a name?"
"You never heard of Queen Nymeria of Dorne?" she responded.
"No tell me."
Over the next few days Arya told of Queen Nymeria. As the trip continued, Sally would tell of the folk lore of the Riverlands, and Arya started on Old Nan's stories.
One morning Sally went in to brush to for privacy. Squatting someone jumped her from behind "What do we have here?" it he asked his friends. By reflex she grabbed one of the knives Clegane had her hide and found skin. "You bitch," he yelled but let go, she turned around and drove the knife into his heart. Clegane and Arya came running swords drawn, and found her facing down two others with a work knife, and quickly finished them.
The hound barked "Good work! No telling what else is around let's load the horses and ride!""
She spent that night curled up and shaking while Arya held her.
Arya always mumbled something, prayers?, before sleeping. It sounded like a list of names.
The Hound barked "Are you going to name every fucker in Westeros? I want to go to sleep."
Arya answered, "No, just the ones I am going to kill."
"Hate is a way keep you going, there are worse. If we meet my brother maybe both of us can cross a name off our lists. Are you finished?"
Just one more name to go. . . . iThe Hound/i"
The next day Sally asked Nan. "Are you really going to kill the Hound?"
"I don't know. Most nights I forget his name. He killed my friend Mycah because Joffory told him to. But I charged him with murder when we were with the Brotherhood and he won a trial by combat. And he has been decent since he captured me."
"Arya, two favors, if I do something stupid talk to me, don't put me on your list. And don't kill The Hound until we find someplace safe."
Arya laughed, "Sally you are my friend, I don't know if being my friend is a good thing , but you are."
The rest of that ride and into the evening, Sally wrestled in her mind with killing. She had killed two people herself. Arya keeps a list of those she wants to kill. She had never seen Clegane kill anyone who wasn't a bandit, except the old wounded farmer who was begging for "mercy", but he forced the issue several times when he didn't have to. But there was no doubt - he enjoyed killing. Their Septon had said murder was a serious offense against man and the Seven. Was all killing murder. she knew, sooner or later, the question would come back with blade and flesh and blood. Back and forth, she argued with herself.
Finely she decided. "Sally will not be a killer. She will kill to protect herself, and others if need be. She will not look to kill, she will not keep a list, she will not enjoy it. When this is over I will look at the reflection in a pond and like the girl I see." And she settled off to a quieter sleep than usual.
