Nieva was unsure exactly how long she'd been walking for when she finally got to a stream. It was now day light giving her a much clearer view of her surroundings. Her stomach growled in hunger as she passed a bundle full of berries hanging shoulder height from a tree, but she knew she couldn't take the chance of eating them.
She didn't know Riverlands berries as well as she knew the ones in the North, she couldn't be sure which were poisonous and which were edible.
She crouched down at the stream and gathered a handful of the water before she took a long much needed gulp. She wiped the excess from her chin with the back of her hand before she grabbed the wineskin she'd taken from the Twins and filled it with water. She drained half the wineskin before filling it up again. She washed her face and neck in the river before she got to her feet.
She could tell by the difference in the way the trees clustered together and the amount of green they held that she was now closer to the Neck than she was to the Riverlands, a thought which made her smile widely.
'If I'm at the Neck then I'm almost home' she thought as she began to make her way up river.
She continued to walk until the pains of hunger within her stomach were enough to make her feel dizzy and nauseous.
She quickly set one of the traps that her Uncle Ned had shown her how to make and waited within a tree until a small, unknowing animal came along.
She had been half asleep in the tree when she heard her trap go off. She looked down to see a now lifeless rabbit laying there. Nieva's heart felt sorry for the poor thing but the noise and pains in her stomach outweighed those in her heart as she scaled down the tree and ran over.
It had taken her a while and a few botched attempts to remember how to skin a rabbit the way Ser Roderick had taught her but she finally managed to strip it of it's fur and had used bark from the tree she'd climbed to light a fire to roast it over.
As she was happily munching away at her food, she tried to think of the last time she'd had to spit roast something over an open fire.
She smiled slightly when she remembered that it had been when she was around eight or nine and her Uncle Ned had taken her, Robb and Jon on a trip up to Last Hearth to the Umbers who her Uncle Ned said needed him to settle some disputes between it's occupants. Little did the three of them know it was a surprise for them as their Uncle Benjen was waiting to greet them the moment they arrived.
She remembered the five of them camping outside under the stars, that was the first night she really understood why her uncle was away for so long and found out exactly what it was he did up at the wall.
She remembered sitting upon her Uncle Benjens lap as she fell asleep, it felt strange hearing them talking about her grandfather, Uncle Brandon and her aunt Lyanna.
Her eyes widened as she remembered the conversation between her Uncle Robert and her Uncle Ned on the Kings road, the one concerning Jon's mother.
"Why did you blame Wylla?" Her Uncle Benjens voice rang through her ears.
"She offered, and it made sense at the time" Was all she had heard her Uncle reply before she drifted off to sleep.
Nieva felt her heart pounding in her chest as she realised where she had heard that name before. She had known Jons name years ago and she didn't even know it.
The sound of approaching hoof beats stirred Nieva awake and caused her to sit up with her back against the tree as she saw some unmarked riders coming towards her.
She quickly hid her dagger back into the sheath upon her thigh and stood to her feet.
"Good day to you my lady" the head rider smiled bowing his head towards her, Nieva felt a small pit of panic filling her as she heard his southern accent.
"Good day to you too my Lord" Nieva smiled with a small curtsy.
"Tell me, what is a lovely lady such as yourself doing sleeping out in the open all alone?" He asked.
"Was thrown from my horse my Lord, I did not know where I was so instead of stumbling around in the dark where I would likely meet my death I decided to sleep until it was light enough to find my way again" Nieva lied with a sweet smile.
"Smart girl" a man behind the lead rider laughed.
"Tell me where were you hoping to head to?" The rider asked.
"Last Hearth my Lord" she lied
"Ah so you're Northern?" The men grinned as Nieva nodded in reply. "That explains the accent. What's your name?"
"Lyanna Umber my lord" she replied. She knew Great Jon did not have a daughter named Lyanna but she couldn't remember any of his actual daughters names and panicked so she used her aunts.
"Liar!" A harsh voice snapped from behind the lead rider causing her to panic slightly as the man rode forward.
Nieva's heart stalled in panic when she saw the Bolton sigil upon his breast plate. She remembered seeing him in council meeting with Roose, he'd been one of the few the Lord had chosen to go and help Ramsey reclaim Winterfell from the Ironborn.
"This girl is Nieva Stark...sorry Nieva Frey" he sneered. "She's the one the Freys are looking for"
The lead rider grinned sinister as he dismounted his horse and made his way towards her. He lifted her dress up slightly and grabbed the dagger she'd strapped to her thigh. He inspected the direwolf upon the pommell with a grin
"She's a Stark alright. What should we do with her? Take her back up to Ramsey" He grinned as he walked towards her .
"Her face is too pretty to go through Ramsey's torture, besides Lord Bolton has been waiting to wet his cock with her for a while" the Bolton soldier sniggered. "Don't think he'd be too happy to hear that we gave her to his son before he got his chance to stick his dick in her"
"if I remember correctly she's part Baratheon...we could ransom her to Stannis" one of the men still on horse back smirked.
"Or we could hand her back to her husbands family, I hear Lord Frey has been dying to get his hands upon the woman who murdered his son and he'll pay a hell of a lot more than Stannis will" the man in front of her sneered
"Lord Frey it is then" the Bolton soldier said throwing down a pair of iron shackles towards their leader who roughly grabbed Nieva's wrists making her wince slightly
"What are these then?" the man asked noticing the bandages which he quickly began to unravel, a small look of horror and shock crossed his face before he covered them with a chuckle. "Gods no wonder you killed your husband"