Sapphire

Arya took Gendry up on his offer to join his guild to Winterfell the next morning. She originally wanted to say 'no' and that she preferred to go along, like she had been for the past few years. But she was nervous about going "Home" as it was and decided that having him with her would ease her anxiety.

It was odd to be traveling with a group that large. Though only a total of 13, including herself and Gendry. She had taken to riding in the back behind the guild's supplies wagon. Gendry was riding some ways ahead, parallel to Madden; whom she was sure the guild's leader and possibly the founder. He was a strange man, acting like a parent to his members; watching over them. It seemed to be working, they were a well put together group, at least of what she had witnessed.

She found herself reminiscing through the trees and pathway of her childhood. This was the road she had taken many times with her mother or father to Winter Town. Normally for reasons of high command, for which she only had interest if it were business of her father's. Looking back, she wished she would have taken more of an interest in her mother's doing's. Maybe she would have had more to hold onto of her mother than just her constant mutterings of Arya being "The beast of a daughter".

"Nearly there! Just up this hill." Madden shouted from up ahead. Arya was too far in her thoughts to notice how close they had come to their destination.

She was scared. It had been about four years since she had been to Winterfell, her home. She barley wanted to look, she had half a mind to turn around and forget the whole thing. Her family wouldn't be there and as far as she knew, it would be a ghost town. There had been rumors across Westros, about the shell of a place it used to be.

Above her, a few meters away, Gendry had stopped his mare and was looking back at her. A look of comfort read on his tanned face.

"Oh seven," Arya mumbled. 'He must be able to see it.' She held her breath and stopped her own stallion up next to him. She wanted to close her eyes, not wanting to look in the correct direction below them. "How bad is it?"

"Not as I would have imagined. But that's not saying much, first time being here and all." He reached his rough hand out and bulled aside her hood to look at her face. "It will be ok, I promise, Arya. I'm here for you, whatever happens."

Her body warmed as he touched her face. She knew that if this turned out to be a shit show, she at least could walk away and he wouldn't hesitate to leave her side. Arya trusted him, sometimes more than she could trust herself. Slowly, she gazed down at the town below.

"Oh…" She whispered breathily. It by far wasn't the way she had left it. The sight reminded her of their time in Harrenhall, minus the smell of rotten death. No, it was too cold for that. The stone entrance had been reduced to rubble, and what looked like two small burned bodies lay half under the remains.

"Arya…"

"Gen," She wanted to gaze at anything else but what was. "I don't know if I'll be able to continue." Arya refused to cry, again, out in the open like that. "My family isn't there anyways."

"I feel like you wouldn't have travel all this way if you were just looking for them, you knew that before." She knew that Gendry never had a home, or anyone he could call family. Unless one were to count the smith's guild. He had a hard time understanding what she was going through. But he wasn't in the place to push her to continue if she didn't want too. "Would you like to go somewhere else instead?"

"I…" She honestly didn't know. There were only a couple people left on her list; the red wench and Cersie. Everyone else was either dead or pardoned in her eyes. She didn't have anywhere else to go. "I guess I should at least look around?" Maybeshe could find something to hold on to, to remember them by. To remember Jon, Rob, Sansa, Bran, father, Mother, or even little Rickon. He little brother's soft, baby-like features flashed into her mind. 'No' she told herself, 'save that for later'.

Gendry nodded, not wanting to say anything to sway her decision. He knew she needed this, if only it was for the closure. They rode forward to where the rest of the guild was setting up camp next to the old smithy, which looked as if it hadn't been used in years.

"How are we looking?" Gendry asked Crutis, whom was exiting the building.

"It's usable, if that's what you're on about." He clapped the dust from his dirty, black hands.

"Fantastic"

It was the same smith where Jon had her sword, needle, forged. She clung her hand to the hilt of it at the memory of the moment: "First lesion, stick 'em with the pointy end." She smiled whole heartedly at the thought.

"I'm going to look around." Arya said, clasping Gendry's wrist briefly before letting go.

He wanted to tag along, not wanting to leave her alone. However, he knew that this was something she had to do on her own. He stayed put, watching her walk away, worrying about her as she entered the ruins of the old castle.

Arya

She held her breath. The massive front door of her childhood home was unhinged, allowing the cold winter air to blow inside. Otherwise, the exterior looked as if it was untouched. Arya could almost feel her siblings' former presence as she walked through.

Dust covered nearly every square inch of surface. The servant's quarters were the only place that looked even remotely used, only the beds though. The massive kitchen and dining areas were the worst. There were so many places for spiders to crawl in and make their homes. And that was exactly what she had found. Cobwebs sealed off nearly every nook and hole available.

Arya had briefly stopped in front of her parents' bed chamber door. Debating if she should venture inside. 'But what would I find? Mother's old sewing things I would imagine.' Deciding against going further, it was too soon for empty memories, she ventured up the stairs. She be-lined strait to her old bed quarters, going past her siblings' in a blur. She hesitated for a moment at her door. Would it feel the same? Would it smell the same? Had it been ransacked by thieves? The anxiety was making her head spin.

Arya pushed open the large wooden door, revealing the life that had since been taken. It remained the same. The bed was made, with Nymeria's sheep skin bed at the foot of it. Even the silver combs her mother had gifted her on her tenth name-day had not moved. She walked carefully over to the bed and perched herself at the end. She reached over for one of the hair pieces and held it to her chest. If one paid close enough attention, the smell of Sansa's bottle musk still wafted in the air.

There was a certain was a certain peace in the air. Her bed was still soft, and the feeling was warm. She eventually lulled herself to a peaceful sleep, her head resting on her old feather pillow.