-Authors note

Happy New Year

Sorry for the delay! I wanted to check my timelines with the show and had to wait for the DVD release!

There are some brilliant stories in here that write the destruction of Kings Landing perfectly and I wasn't happy with my version so have sidestepped it furthe time being

It will be brought back though

Anywhere back to our favourite Wolf and Bullheaded Stag

When asked to recall it later on, whether for the trial of Jon Snow or the records of Sam Tarly, Arya's memories of the Burning of Kings Landing were hazy at best. It was if the smoke and dust hadn't just corrupted her longs, but her mind as well.

She remembered the crowds, the pushing to get inside the walls of the Keep. The smell of the sewers replaced with the smell of burning flesh. Cowering in door ways, running, must keep running. When she had truly lost all hope, it had appeared. A fine white horse, seemingly untouched my the blood, dust and destruction.

She would never ask him but the nod she received from Bran when he was carried from the Stark Litter weeks later confirmed in was Bran who sent it. The debt repaid for her saving him.

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The three Stark siblings sat for dinner together alone the night before Jon's trial having arrived the day before.

Arya relayed to Sansa all that she had witnessed, Bran had already seen it and could fill in the gaps. She spoke to them of her plan to free Jon

"Jon will never be free if his actions. Whether in a cell or free. He had an impossible choice to make. Duty or love. Honour or justice. Her life or thousands of others. His life or guilt. We must allow the trial to go ahead or risk Kingslanding being a battlefield once more."

They drank silently until Brienne cleared her throat outside.

"Lady Sansa, May I beg an audience?" She called through

"Come in Lady Brienne."

Arya's hand shifted to Needle's pommel in an instant.

"You can be at ease, sister." Bran murmured. "Lady Brienne is no risk to our sister." Arya narrowed her eyes, she wondered fleeting if she would ever trust another again.

Brienne entered and bowed in front of them.

"My lady, I have a request to be make if I may be so bold."

"Brienne, enough of the flannel. You may ask of me anything." Sansa smiled sweetly at her. Arya looked away, she reminded her so much of her mother it threatened to bring the grief she had long buried to the surface. She could not protect them if she was weak with emotion.

"I would like to make Podrick a knight, more specifically, of the North, for his services and assistance in your care and for his bravery at the Long Knight."

Sansa lent forward "Why the North specifically?"

"I had hoped that if anything were to happen to me tomorrow, you would keep him in your service and I would die knowing my service had been discharged as far as I was able."

Sansa smiled again and leaned back into the wooden chair they had scavaged from the wreckage of the town.

"Why, Brienne, would you be in danger of death tomorrow. She lent her head to one side and closed her hands in her lap.

Brienne look to the floor as she spoke

"My lady, I pledged to Queen Daenerys that I would trust Jamie Lannister with my life. He defected and care back here. My honour is worthless."

Sansa puckered her lips before addressing Brienne, who's cheeks had reddened.

"We can never know why Ser Jaime returned to Kings Landing. Perhaps he did defect. Perhaps he cane to reason with Cersei. Perhaps he planned something with Lord Tyrion. None of this was your fault, we cannot make those we care for do what we believe is the best for them, no matter how hard we will it." She gave Arya a sideways glance. "I agree to your request to make Podrick a knight and would be glad to have him in the North. He has proved himself worthy of the elevation and I will promise he will always have a home whilst I'm alive. He is also a fantastic dice player as I found on our travels down. Please, summon him here so I may witness his knighting."

Arya rolled her eyes and pushed herself from the ground, carelessly brushing any dirt that may have stuck to her. "Going for a walk." She mumbled and set off into the night. She didn't want to see more people than she had to. When she closed her eyes she could still see the panic as people were crushed to death as they tried to escape.

Other tents had been pitched close to theirs, for Kings Landing was a pile of rubble and from time to time a wall or roof would collapse. They had congregated near the Iron Gate as they arrived.

Ravens had been sent to the remaining Great Houses that the trials of Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister were to be held at the next full moon. The moonturn allowed those from Winterfell to travel down and the Arbour to travel across.

Arya kept to the shadows and surveyed the different flags hanging in the still air. What difference would it make? These High lords and ladies, always bickering amongst themselves. She couldn't wait to be free of it all.

She stayed away from the smoke and the fires that had been lit in the camps,the smell reminding her too much of the moon before.

Arya walked up to what remained of Flea Bottom. Some buildings still remained on the outskirts, but the more you crunched your way in, the worse it became.

Whole streets had been destroyed. All that remailed were piles of rubble and dust.

Arya continues throughout the night to walk in and out of the remains of the city. She had long given up home of finding the Hounds body but carried out her nightly ritual. She couldn't sleep at night. She had hideous nightmares of people clawing at her, wifhts clinging at her. Fire and Ice. Choking on smoke and being strangled by an icy grip.

She gave in to her need for sleep only in the day for a few hours at a time, when the white horse could guard her. She had hoped Nymeria might appear, but what use was hope? A fool's wish. She was not a fool.

When she wasn't sleeping, she took on a face from her bag and began to help clear the city as Nan the orphan. She could keep herself safe and informed as she plotted how to free Jon and what she planned to do once she had freed him.

They couldn't stay in Westeros, it wouldn't be safe for him.

The sun was beginning to crawl into the sky.

Soon it would be time to attend the trial at the Dragon Pit. Soon she would have to face Him.

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