Author's note: While this story is largely going to be from Sansa's pov, I am trying to shift perspectives every couple of chapters, I've done 1 from Sandor's pov and this is the first Arya, but so far all the other have been Sansa's
Warning: Arya's pov, language violence, yada
Disclaimer: look at that, everyone and everything in this story is still copywrite to George RR Martin and not to me. Amazing.
A Sword with Wings
The traveling arrangements had to be modified when the Hound's horse threw a fit upon seeing 'Jolee' being led to another mount. It seemed the warhorse played by his own rules, and had become accustomed to carrying both his rider and his companion, thus became irrationally angry when they tried to put her on another horse. He broke loose and kicked a man in the chest, snorting fiercely until Sandor Clegane was able to calm him and it was decided that Jolee should ride with him.
Arya was not at all happy with that arrangement.
She had recognized her sister's voice when the men brought her forward, and had been more that a little surprised to see her hair cut and dyed. Then again, Sansa would surly be in for a shock to see what had happened to her hair.
It had taken all of Arya's will not to call out for her sister.
The Hound had been captured the previous morning. He had identified her as 'the Stark bitch', and after some unnecessary comments were exchanged, the brotherhood had decided to get a move on. Arya had heard them mention something about a female companion seen with him, that a small group had been sent out to search for.
The men had a theory that the Hound was trying to buy her time to escape, but Arya had never expected it to be Sansa. Especially not with the way the group insinuated a relationship between them
It was bad enough that the brotherhood called her sister his whore, or referred to them as 'the Hound and his Bitch', but actually seeing them riding together just infuriated the younger Stark sister. Sansa was placed on Stranger behind Sandor, both were still tied up with bags over their heads, but Sansa had done her best to wrap her arms around his waist- for support Arya told herself, because she could see Sansa shaking, even at this distance.
The Hound reaching up to place his hand on Sansa's with a reassuring grip, however, the younger Stark could not explain though. The men used it as further grounds to mock the Hound's fondness for his whore, though. Arya wanted to scream at them not to talk about her sister that way, but that would only get Sansa in more trouble than she already was. They already had one of the Stark girls, they didn't need them both.
Arya rode with no bag on her head, so far she was not a prisoner, at least not in the same way the Hound and Sansa were. The man she was currently riding with pulled his horse closer to them, getting a disapproving grunt from the warhorse.
She could hear the Hound's muffled voice under his sack, but it was her riding companion that actually caught at least part of what he said. "What did you just call her?" Arya's stomach flipped, terrified that the Hound had exposed Sansa, but the man only laughed and shouted for the whole group to hear "He calls her Little Bird, isn't that sweet? A big Hound and a Little Bird!" The party howled with ridiculing laughter.
Ugh, it made Arya sick.
About mid-day the caravan stopped at a familiar Inn on the roadside. It took Arya a moment to remember why she recognized the place, but when she did her heart stopped for a second. The Brotherhood paid for everyone to have a small meal. Arya tried to sit close to Sansa, but the Hound had already taken the seat directly beside her and men from the Brotherhood beckoned her away from them.
She kept looking over at her sister, who devoured the small bowl of of soup and bread as if it were the first thing she had to eat in days. Sansa looked up only once and caught Arya's eye, the sisters shared only a brief look at each other, but Arya knew that she recognized the inn as well. The Hound, though, ate his soup without giving the place a second glance, talking loudly to his captors about weapons and preferred fighting styles.
As infuriated as Arya was that the Hound was anywhere near her sister, it paled in comparison to how angry she was that he did not acknowledge what he had done here. She wanted to scream and curse at him, to take a sword from one of the brothers and run him through with it.
He killed Myca…!
That thought echoed in her head the whole visit at the inn. Gendry and Hot Pie tried to talk to her, but Arya didn't listen. Hot Pie eventually left their table, she'd heard him say something about the kitchens. After that she and Gendry were pushed around by the brotherhood, made to do chores for them while they packed up to leave. Arya lost sight of Sansa, but she did see the Hound as he was escorted to a cart that the brotherhood had bought. Somehow they were still talking about fighting.
"Hey!" She called, the Hound barely glanced at her, she glared up at him, "Do you remember the last time you were here?"
He killed Myca!
The Hound was tied up again, and looked around obviously not realizing that he had in fact been here before. He shrugged slightly through his binds,"Seems like every other shit inn on the road." He replied gruffly,
The men escorting him yanked the Hound away before say a word on why this place should be familiar to him. Arya hurried after them angrily, about to openly call him out on the murder of her friend when she saw that Sansa had already been put into the same cart that the Hound was being pushed toward.
Sansa's face was uncovered, but still bound up. A sack was placed back over the Hound's head, and he was shoved into the cart beside Arya's sister. Due to his height though, the Hound's head was rammed into a bar of wood covering the top. Arya snorted when she saw it, but her smile faded when he sat down and Sansa's first response was to touch his arm in a concerned fashion. Arya couldn't hear her, but Sansa said something that looked very much like the question 'Are you alright?'.
That was the last she saw before the door was closed behind the prisoners.
"What do we do with his horse?" Someone asked.
"Eh, just leave the beast here, he's not gonna need it." Came the reply. If only it were that easy though, Stranger burst out of the stables and refused to be left behind. No one could get close enough to him to send the horse back or tie him to the others, so the warhorse was left to follow the caravan at a distance.
Arya was sent back to stand with Gendry while final preparations for departure were made. "Where's Hot Pie?"
"There." Gendry pointed toward the inn, the other boy was just coming out with a plateful of bread.
"What are you doing?" Arya asked as she came forward to meet him, "We're about to leave."
Hot Pie's eyes drifted downward to the plate he carried, "I'm staying." he said. Both Arya and Gendry's jaws dropped slightly, but it was Gendry that asked why. Hot Pie explained how he had baked bread for the innkeeper and was sold to her in exchange for the free meals she gave the brotherhood. "Besides, it's not me the brotherhood wants, my brother's no king."
"Oi! Get a move on!" One of the brother's called out, Arya looked back only for a moment, but Hot Pie grabbed her hand to make her turn again.
"I made you something." He said and handed her the bread on the plate he had brought. It was an odd shape to be sure, but it wasn't until Hot Pie identified it that she realized it was supposed to be a wolf.
Arya wished they had more time to say good bye, but before long she was being pulled away to get back on the horse. She took a bite of the bread, it tasted wonderful. "Hey Hot Pie!" She called back, "It's really good!" They had already covered some distance between them and the inn, but Arya could see Hot Pie smile. She remained with her back turned as long as she could, watching Hot Pie turn around and return inside.
Tears stung at her eyes, but she refused to cry. It seemed that no matter what, Arya always lost her friends.
They stopped again hours later because a wheel on the wagon had broken while going over a rock. While a few worked at getting it fixed, while others started pass out small portions of food amongst each other, Arya and Gendry helped distribute it. Without explaining why, Arya told Gendry to allow her to take a small bag of dried fruit to the prisoners in the Wagon. She could see the question in Gendry's eyes, but just made a 'shhing' motion. "I'll tell you later." She mouthed.
Arya made a show of avoiding going to the cart, making sure all the brothers had gotten their share first before she opened the cart and slipped inside. The Hound's sack was still on his head, leaned back presumably asleep, Sansa obviously was. She was slumped over, head resting on the big man's arm her face was red, like she had been crying recently.
The door clicked shut behind her, Sansa jumped awake looking terrified, but her expression shifted when she saw who it was. "Arya!" She gasped, and fresh tears spilled over her eyes. Arya hushed her like she had Gendry, but came over to embrace her sister, accepting a hug as tight as Sansa's binds would allow.
"How did you get here? What happened to you?" Sansa whispered.
"That's a long story and there isn't time to tell it." Arya replied, wiping tears out of her own eyes, "What about you, how long have you been away from King's Landing?"
Sansa's smile dropped as she answered, "Only a few days. Stannis's army attacked," she nodded to the Hound, "he came to get me before the war was over and we escaped during the battle."
wanted to ask how she could possibly trust him, but that would have to wait. "They're probably going to kill him." She said, talking about the Brotherhood, she wouldn't mind that, but she worried about Sansa "Maybe you too, seeing as they think you're his…you know…"
Sansa shook her head, "No, if they try, he'll kill them first." She said.
"You need to get out of here." Arya said, "I don't know where they're taking us, but when it gets dark I'll see if I can get a knife or something to cut those ropes-"
Her sister surprised her when she suddenly shifted and lifted her skirt a little to reveal a knife strapped to Sansa's leg. "-we've already got a plan." She said, "When night falls, he's going to cut me loose, we'll come get you and we can escape together."
Arya's eyes widened, partly at the sight of Sansa with a knife, and partly at the realization that getting her ropes cut would involve the Hound's hand going between her legs. She couldn't stop herself, "No, wait for me to get you!" She hissed.
"Why?" Sansa asked.
Se was speechless for a second, trying to come up with a reason to wait, "I…have a friend, Gendry. He'll come with us, we can keep a look out. If you are on your own you might accidentally open the door right as a nightwatchmen looks at you."
"And you might wake up the lot of them just sneaking around." This answer came from under the sack, apparently Arya was wrong in assuming that the Hound was asleep. "Like how you just woke me up." Or not.
"I won't." Arya said angrily, she wanted nothing more than to sneak in here in the night, grab Sansa and leave him to the Brotherhood.
The Hound chuckled under his sack, but said nothing more.
"Is Stranger still following us?" Sansa asked.
"Yes."
"Doesn't matter, he's a strong horse, but even Stranger can't carry four people." The Hound said.
"We'll steal another one." Arya snapped back.
Before another word could get put in from anyone there was a knock on the door to the cart that made Sansa squeak. "Girl, are you done giving them that fruit, or did the Hound eat you?"
"We'll see you tonight." Sansa whispered as Arya set the sack of fruit down for them, she uncovered the Hound's face to see him glaring at her. She returned his look, and made a silent promise that while she would come for Sansa, the Hound was on his own.
When she left the cart, Arya was taken by surprise when she had a sack put over her head. It seemed bad luck was Arya's only constant companion, because the Brotherhood announced they would be arriving at their destination within a few hours. Arya's face was covered so that she would not know exactly where they had been taken.
After a time, Arya was taken off the horse and led forward. She heard the sound of water, and the ground beneath her feet felt rocky, the air itself smelt damp and earthy. Be aware of your surroundings, use the environment, her sword master had taught her that. They had to be in a cave, either behind a waterfall, or at least near one.
The bag was taken off Arya's head, in front of her, the Hound's had been removed at Well, Sansa was beside him with a man at her side in the process of taking hers off. Arya stepped forward, wanting to go to her sister, but Sansa's back was to her, and she stepped closer to the Hound.
Gendry called her over just as the Hound spoke up, she didn't catch the beginning of the exchange, but when Arya was listening again the Hound was saying "You think carrying a crooked spear makes you a soldier?"
"No," A new voice replied,"Fighting in a war makes you a soldier."
"Beric Dondarrion," The Hound identified the newcomer, Arya's gaze shifted between him and the approaching figure identified as 'Beric'. "You've seen better days…"