Chapter Four

Thank you all for the responses to this story. Wow. Just amazing! And thank you to those who are reading and enjoying, but not reviewing. I feel like you silent readers don't get enough love. I appreciate each person reading this! Loves to everyone! Okay, enough of that. On with the story! Enjoy!

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Roanya awoke in a panic at not feeling Sher in her arms. She got up as quick as her aching body could, elbowing Sandor in the process. He pulled a knife in response to his quick awakening.

"Sher? Oh, Gods, Sher." She was in such a panic because she couldn't see her son that she didn't bother trying to hear for him or feel for him either. She didn't have to wait long for his answer, since the boy merely sat at her feet.

"Yes, Mama?" She fell to the ground next to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She felt the wetness of her tears sliding down her cheek. They were tears of relief that he son had not been hurt or taken in the night. Gods, I'm foolish for sleeping. Anything could have happened to him. She pulled back and spoke to him, more out of anger at herself than at him.

"Why would you do that to me? You should have woken me up or stayed by me." The Hound saw the boy look away from his mother in shame. Sandor had sheathed his knife once he became fully awake. He rubbed the spot on his stomach that Roanya had assaulted in her hurry to stand. He was almost relieved at how they had awoken. He didn't know what to do if he would have woken and had to deal with holding a woman in his arms. It had been easy last night, in the dark with his eyes shut, because he could picture Sansa. But now, in the light with his eyes open, he only saw the whore that had meant to be a gift to him. But this gift comes with a price. Sandor spoke, surprising the woman that knelt at his feet.

"You can't coddle the boy forever. Let him go off alone or he'll be stuck to your teat until you die." Sandor paused but spoke again once a thought hit him. That boy can't learn to survive from his blind mother. These two are doomed. "Or he does." Roanya stood and faced the man, seeing only the shadows cast by his body. She could tell he was a large man, large than most, and knew that one strike from him and she would be dead. But she would not stand for a stranger telling her how to raise her son.

"Oh? Coddle him, do I? And how many sons have you fathered to know how it should be done?"

"Haven't fathered any, Gods aren't cruel enough to allow that." She held a triumphant look on her face, but Sandor was not done speaking. "But I did stand by and watch one boy be raised into a man. His mother coddled him, too. And that boy allowed it and he was a spoilt child, but that child became a man. A cruel, sick twisted man, with a need to hurt anyone who made him feel like his mother had once made him." Sandor thought of the way Joffrey had ordered Sansa to be beat. He knew that the boy held some sick obsession with her and once the power went to his head she had been the only one to make him feel weak. It only takes a fucking woman to make any man feel weak. Joffrey may not have felt affection towards Sansa, but she still pulled emotions from him that the fucked up boy-king couldn't handle.

"Are you speaking of yourself?" Roanya's triumphant looked had turned to one of fear as Sandor spoke. She wondered if he was the boy in the tale and that he would hurt her if she made him feel anything. Her body ached were Matthar's painful blows had landed, and she could only imagine the strength that the man in front of her could possess. She didn't want to find out just how long his patience would last and vowed to herself to keep her temper in check.

"No." He gave her no more explanation and the two stood in silence. Roanya could hear only the sounds of the forest around her. The sway of the leaves on the trees, sounding almost like a gentle stream of water. The crunch of the twigs under her feet on the forest floor, like the popping of wood in a fire. She felt her son put his small hand into hers. She gave his hand a squeeze, reassuring the boy that his mother was there for him. His small voice broke the silence in their small camp.

"I'm sorry, Mama. I'm just so hungry." She started walking but Sandor saw that it was the boy who truly led her to him.

"Ser, I know you've done too much for us already, but could you spare some food for my son? Just a few bites, he doesn't eat much."

"I'm no cook, wench. And I'm no 'Ser' either." Roanya tried to remember the vow she had just made moments before to control her temper. But the man before her was beyond infuriating. One minute he holds me in the night and the next he calls me a wench and refuses us food. Gods help me so that I do not kill him. Roanya knew she never could follow through with the empty threat and kill a man. Without her sight she would be struck down once her body was in range of his sword.

"Fine, Ser. We will just find our own food." She gave Sher a small tug on his hand to indicate to him that he should start to follow the path back to the main road they traveled. Roanya knew from the Maetser than had raised her how to identify wild berries without relying on her sight. He made her feel them and he described them with such immense detail that Roanya had been able to tell him which were poisonous and which were safe. Berries would have to do for the pair until she could get to a Sept or a town where she would be taken in. Until then, she would have to rely on the stubborn and intriguing and slightly terrifying man who had saved her. "And you can call by my name instead of 'wench'. It's Roanya."

Sandor turned and gathered the supplies in anger. He tied his bedroll and the blanket to his saddle and roughly untied Stranger's reins from the tree. He stormed after her, Stranger trotting beside him. No one, man or woman, had been so…so…insolent towards him. To Sandor, women were good for two things: fucking and cooking. And she had yet to provide him with either. He caught up to the pair standing near a bush full of black berries. His eyes widened in recognition when he spotted the familiar poisonous fruit just before the boy put them in his mouth. He lounged for the boy's hand that traveled to his mouth, pushing Roanya to the ground in the process and made it in time to smack the berries away. If the boy would have put them in his mouth, he would have been dead within the day. Fuck. Was I too late? Did he ingest any? He turned to the fallen girl.

"You fucking idiot! You are feeding him Nightshade!" He could tell by the look on her face that she understood the significance of what he had just done. He had saved her and her son, once again. She hated herself and her inability to see, just as she did whenever Sher suffered from her disability.

"He said they were blue. He said the berries were blue!" He heard the pain in her voice as she was hit with the full weight of what could have been. Her son would have died and she would have never forgiven herself for it. Sandor turned towards the confused boy and saw so sign of the juices on his lips, but had to be sure. He lifted the boy and held him eye to eye.

"Did you eat any? Fucking TELL ME!" Sandor would not have this child's death on his head. If only he would have shown them another kindness and spared a bit of food, the child's life wouldn't hang in the balance. Even just one or two berries ingested and the boy would die. The small boy shook in fear, unable to speak. Sandor felt Roanya's hands on him, trying to get her son back from the large man who held him. Who had saved them, once again. He nearly shook the boy to try and force an answer out of him when the soft voice of Roanya met his ears.

"Sweetling, did you eat any of those berries? Please tell me you did not." The boy began crying and Roanya felt her world crash down around her. She took his tears as a sign that he had eaten some. "Oh, Gods, I've killed him. I've killed my baby."

"No…Mama. I...didn't eat…any." His words were spoken between sobs, but the adults were still able to get the message Sher tried to speak. A relief settled over the pair, realizing that the boy was crying from fear rather than knowing what he had almost done. The boy didn't understand why he was being yelled at by the man. He was only hungry and wanted to eat and the berries had been there and he told his mother what they looked like and she said they were safe. Did his mother lie to him?

Sandor thrust the boy into his mother's arms and walked back to where he left Stranger. The horse was used to Sandor's loud voice and had not shied away. He tore open the pack where he kept his provisions and took out a few pieces of bread. He led his horse over to them and put the bread into the hand that Roanya was not using to support the boy in her arms. She felt the smooth texture of the bread in her hands, feeling crumbs falling through her fingers, and knew that he had given her the gift of food. Instead of a single morsel, he had given her more than enough for both her and her son to be full for the day. Before she could thank him, his deep voice washed over her.

"I didn't waste my time saving you just for you to kill yourselves. You can't fucking see the dangers in front of you, yet you think you can survive? How have you made it this long without killing yourself?" She wanted to tell him that she had tried to take her own life, shortly after the Maester that raised her had died. She wanted to tell him so that he would take pity on her and feel the need to be kind to her. She realized that he had, in his own way, been more than kind. He had saved her from the place where she would have been beaten until she was dead, then he kept her warm in the night, and now he had saved her son from death, both by giving him food and knocking the berries from the boy's hand. The very berries that she had told him to eat. She did not hide her tears from the man before her, seeing no need to. He already thought her stupid and weak, what did it matter if he saw her tears. He couldn't think any less of her. She didn't know just what Sandor thought of her. Sandor truly could not believe that despite her blindness, she had adapted and survived when others with her same circumstances had perished. And to be able to raise a boy like Sher, who seemed obedient and well-mannered enough, alone despite having no sight was something he had never heard of being done. Cersei fucking Lannister couldn't even raise a normal child, and she had every resource available to her.

"Thank you. For everything you've done. You say you are no 'Ser', but your actions are that of a Knight." He ignored her, not wanting to hear words of praise. He didn't deserve words of praise after all of the deaths and things that he had caused. He saw that this girl, and her son, could be sent from the Gods to him to make him redeem himself in their eyes for what he had done. She may have been a gift to him from the innkeeper, but in that moment, Sandor saw her for what she truly was to him. A gift from the Gods to lead him on a trail of repentance.

"Can you walk today?" Roanya couldn't believe that he had asked her that. She had expected him to storm off and expect her to follow him. He had surprised her very much since she had first run from his room that night, after she had tried to touch his face.

"I'd prefer to ride…but only if you don't mind." He nodded his head, even knowing that she couldn't see him, but he was so used to being silent. The sniffling boy in her arms spoke to her but too softly for Sandor to hear. "Sher would like to walk, though." She set the boy down at her feet and let out a gasp of surprise when Sandor lifted her in his arms. She felt the strength that he contained under his fingertips. She knew that if he would offer it, he could keep her safe. He set her onto his horse and she shifted so that she was balanced. She grabbed his hand in hers before he could pull away. She knew that he would not accept her spoken thanks, but wanted to show him just what his actions meant to her. She brought his hand to her mouth and placed a soft kiss on the inside of his wrist. He didn't realize the pleasure that a woman could bring by touching him there. It was an intimate gesture, and Sandor had never felt the feelings that intimacy could bring. He only had felt what a woman felt like as he fucked her. He didn't pull his hand away, enjoying the feel of her soft skin on his. He stood on her left side, and could not see the bruises that colored the right side of her face. Being so close, he saw the beauty that she held and felt unworthy of her attentions. Just as he was unworthy of his Little Bird.

"Thank you." She spoke her thanks against the sensitive skin of his wrist and he had to resist shuddering from the feeling of her breath ghosting across. He thought of the innkeeper's words and knew that he spoke the truth about this girl. It would be worth every coin spent just for a night of pleasure with her. She released his hand and Sandor turned from her to see her son looking at him. He brushed passed the boy who was alive because of Sandor's actions. The boy didn't need to be told to follow, as Sandor heard the small footsteps following his own. He kept his eyes trained on the path before him, not knowing where it would take him.

If he would have looked back, he would have seen Sher stepping only in the footprints that Sandor left in the soil, mimicking the man step by step.

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