Well, EEE! I got this chappie done in record time!

Once again: A bazillion thanks to thePatient07, because without her insight, this chapter would not be half done.

R&R please! ;)

Thank you to all who reviewed!

Chapter 4

The gully was littered with bodies, some writhing in agony, others so horribly still. Out of a new found hatred, the savage people and the soldiers separated from another, one group on one side, the other on the opposite. However, it was very clear in the air that one of them were now prisoners. It was not difficult to tell which.

The strangers' wounded were tended to with the few supplies the bitter and angry northerners had given them at Robb's behest, and the gully was a symphony of cries, heavy breathing, an odd scream and angry mutterings. Robb could not remember anymore why he had opted to enter the forest with the lesser half of his army.

Robb had long since had his injuries looked after, relieved they were only bad bruises and shallow cuts. From his place at the southern end of the furrow, he looked to the side of the strange and savage enemy. But they weren't savage...at least they didn't look the part. They did not resemble any wildling he'd ever seen, their clothing wasn't thick enough, their hair not matted enough.

So what were they? A band of raiders, slave traders or mummers. Southern common folk hoping to end the war and Robb's rebellion with a single strike? His men had done a fine job of disarming them, but as he looked around, seeing members of his own army laying unmoving and bloody, he felt another bout of bitter defeat rise in his chest, along with the heavy feeling of guilt and wounded pride.

Why had they done this! The girl had been well treated, no hand laid upon her (save for when Grey Wind pinned her to the cold ground), and on top of that she would not say where she was from and where her family was. It wasn't as if he could leave her in the forest, alone and defenceless.

She was a child. Anger steadily began to build up in Robb's chest.

"Scream, girl. Scream if it helps." Luna whispered, remembering all the times her aunt had told her mother that when she gave birth to one of her many siblings. Adriena panted and braced herself against Luna's arm as Goliath's hands drew closer to her injured side.

Her wound was worse than she had thought. Poison red thorns had grown below the tree where she had landed, the small sharp rock that dug itself deep into the soft flesh beneath her ribs, had allowed the thorns prick into the wound and stay embedded there. Small, almost numbing, stings pulsed from the thorns rooted in the wound, and she could already feel a cold sweat lining her brow. The poison thorns wouldn't kill her, but it if they were not taken out quickly, they would make her sick for days. Her fever would all but boil her from the inside as the veins where the thorns had pricked forever stained red.

Adriena's arms curled around the one Luna wound around her front, a small cry tearing from her throat as Goliath quickly plucked the thorns from her side. It hurt much more coming out than it did going in. Next, without waiting for Adriena to catch her breath, Goliath took the small sharp poker to dig the three inch long rock out.

Compared to that, the thorns were the easy part.

Eyes, cold northern eyes, looked where the pain filled wail had come from. The woman was red faced and screaming, her arms clutching the arm of her friend to her chest as the big, ginger haired man worked her wound. From where they stood, Robb and Theon could only see her bare and pale back and her wavy dark hair, her dress having been pushed away to better dress her lesion.

"Think she's giving birth." Theon scoffed. He'd been in the castle when Catelyn gave birth to the younger counterparts of her brood. Robb only shook his head; the screams of the green eyed girl making him flinch and his heart fill with unwanted sympathy.

By the time the rock was finally out, Adriena's throat was raw feeling, her jaw aching from clenching so hard. There was so much relief when Goliath began to clean and bind the wound, the dull sting barely registering in her mind.

Goliath stood. Adriena was still slumped against Luna's outstretched arm, tears wetting her cheeks. Luna's legs were beginning to cramp from her crouched position beside Adriena, but she still continued to rub her back in soothing circles.

"I'll...leave you to it." Goliath grunted, turning to limp away. His right leg was bandaged in linens, courtesy of angry militia men.

Luna sighed as she watched him leave to tend to other Hoff villagers, and carefully laid Adriena back. Adriena moaned at the movement, her arms were still weakly clutching her clothing to her chest. When Goliath finally got to Adriena after tending to Vyncent's hand, they had to untie her dress and doe skin under shirt but Adriena flat refused to let it go. Luna couldn't blame her. When she began to tug the stings on her dress, men—both northern and Hoff-born—looked up in sudden interest.

Adriena's eyes fluttered shut, and her thoughts began to dim away, but she forced herself awake. But soon, she felt her cloak draped over her and she couldn't resist the abyss of sleep anymore, even if her back was beginning to go numb on the rocky, uneven floor.

Vyncent couldn't stop staring at the bandaged part of his hand. Two little fingers...gone...who knew how light and empty his hand could feel without them. The pain was there, shooting, stabbing and burning. But he could not feel it. He could only see it, like an outsider looking in, with the horrible burden of knowing it was his hand he was looking down at.

"What the hell were you thinking?" an angry voice suddenly demanded. Looking up, he met the eyes of the red haired prick that'd done this to him...the one everyone else in the goddamned militia fallowed.

"You stole a girl yesterday. We wanted her back." Vyncent spat shortly, glaring at the younger man without fear. Robb glared right back, and Vyncent was the first to break the staring contest.

"We didn't steal her. We found her, out there alone in the middle of nowhere. What kind of man leaves a child alone like that?" Robb spat. After the little dark haired girl pried herself away from the woman—Adriena—she looked right at the fair haired man still on the ground and called out "Vyncent!" Robb knew then that the little girl was attached to this Vyncent in some way, just as the green eyed Adriena was.

That seemed to strike a nerve because in a second, Vyncent was up, staring Robb down. "You don't know nothing; about me, my family or my home." Vyncent's eyes darted as some men shifted behind Robb, their gloved hands resting on the hilts of their swords in clear warning. Seeing imminent danger if he continued to run his mouth, Vyncent stepped back and turned away, stalking toward Symon, who had taken a stab to his shoulder.

Robb knew he should go and demand all the information from him, but his feet remained planted on the ground. It was too late in the day, and it wasn't as if Vyncent or anyone in his gang was going anywhere, Robb thought as he eyed the guards lined up along the walls of the trench. If any of these people tried to escape, his men would cut them down.

Robb knew they needed get moving, but they couldn't now. Not for at least another three nights. And now with these people, these people who'd ambushed them so suddenly with no warning, it was clear they would not make it in time to meet the other half of the host. As they nursed their wounded, a messenger was running back to the last town they'd passed though, and from there, he'd send a raven to Lord Bolton (the man commanding the other half of his army), informing him of the snag they found themselves caught in.

The sky had darkened to a dark blue and the night was growing colder. The sharp cries of pain were staring to quieten.

"Robb," the familiar voice of his mother sounded from behind him. He turned his body and saw her watching him. Catelyn and the girl had miraculously found a safe haven in all the confusion, the only hurt they had obtained was the bruised knees from kneeling so long and scraped palms from falling and landing so hard.

From the look on her face, he knew she had seen the interaction between him and Vyncent, and by the look on her face he knew she wanted him to do something more. Robb only looked at her with his hard face and she knew her silent advice would not be heeded. He was a king now after all, and it seems that it is not fitting for king's to have mothers or take their words to heart.

There would be no sleep tonight, at least not for Robb.

Lydia lay curled up against her sleeping sister, her little fingers curling and twisting into her long hair. All she wanted at that moment was to disappear. She was in so much trouble. Even though Adriena held onto her until Goliath pulled her away to inspect her cut, she had seen Vyncent's eyes when she called to him. He looked so angry with her.

Luna, from her perch on a boulder, had even looked at Lydia with annoyed eyes.

At least she was safe! Addry was with her now and so were Vyncent and almost all of their village! Now that they saw she was with them, the beast-master-man would let them go...right? He had to, he couldn't keep them. Yes, surely he'd let them go when they were all well and able enough for travel.

Even though she was still scared of the punishment she would receive when she got back home, she was very happy to be back in the arms of her family. Well...Adriena wasn't in any condition to have her arms around her, but Lydia could fix that!

Laying her head against the arm behind her head, Lydia carefully curved her short arm over her sister's midriff and closed her eyes, willing sleep to come.

It was almost light when Robb heard the loud exclaim of shock and fear.

He was sitting on a large over turn tree that had fallen in the gully, what must have been years ago, when the cry slashed through the night air. Grey Wind's ears perked up, his large head darting to where the cry had come, before getting to his paws and trotting off toward the sound. Robb went along side him.

Adriena jumped awake, startling her sister beside her and jostling her injured side. She hissed and slumped back down, whimpering when the deep gouge in her side moved once again. Vyncent, from his seat against the gully wall, about six feet from his sisters, snapped his head up at the sound.

The scrape of steel unsheathing from the scabbard resounded in the air, making those who had been lingering on the edge of sleep jump up in fear.

"No, wait! Wait!" a deep voice pleaded. Vyncent shot to his feet and rushed toward the commotion, north of the gully, where Robb and a few of his men were running now.

Slumped at the base of the slanted wall of the channel, was a man. A large man, obviously just pushed over the lip of the gully by the men up top. Absently, Robb wondered how his men could've gotten such a fat man such as him over the edge...

"Da!" Vyncent exclaimed in clear happiness and surprise. Vyncent's father was fat, aforementioned, with shoulder length pale yellow hair and blue eyes, and his features matched Vyncent's. There was no doubt that the man was Vyncent's father.

"Get him up." Robb ordered his men. Vyncent didn't even protest, he just helped the other two men get his father to his feet. "What's your name?"

For a moment he looked startled, but when the large man's eyes darted to the large animal at the younger man's feet, his face visibly paled. A wolf...a huge wolf! He had never seen one, nor had his father or his great grandfather...but the dark omens surrounding their presence had lived through the ages. Hoff's forest had not seen a dire wolf prowling their lands in a thousand years, not since...the White Walkers roamed about, killing all that was warm, freezing the world over. A dire wolf, here again, his children missing, his village missing... the signs the gods were sending him were not good ones. Gods have mercy.

"Arwin, Lord Chief of the Hoff people." It was by sheer luck Arwin didn't stutter and disgrace himself when he spoke.

"These are your people then." Robb said. It was more of a statement than a question. Arwin paused at the look on the boy's face, so full of anger and annoyance. Then he took a quick look back at the wolf, seeing its ears twitch and its big yellow eyes blink.

"Yes."

When I wrote about Lydia, I had a little flashback on my nephew. He used to play with our hair when we napped. He's almost in the double digits now :( time flies

Okay, now that my 'aw' moment is over, please click the button, or Grey Wind will come after you and growl at you until you do...