Gendry had brought Hayley, Jeff and Roger to a forest clearing somewhere in the Riverlands, where Lois and the rest of the Brotherhood were gathered.
"Hayley!" Lois exclaimed. "Did you find Meg?"
Hayley shook her head. "Not yet. I thought I knew where she was, but it turned out I was following a false lead. But I did find Gendry."
"Well, that's good," said Lois. "I've been worried about him too. The red woman didn't hurt ya, did she, Gendry?"
"No," said Gendry. "She was quite nice, actually."
"Well, I find that hard to believe, but I'm just glad you're back in one piece."
Then Hayley noticed three men standing on blocks with nooses around their necks. "Who are those guys?"
"They're our men," said Lois. "Or they were. Without my permission, they attacked a nearby sept an' murdered the villagers. We can't have that. We're supposed to be protectin' the smallfolk. So, I'm goin' to hang these three."
Just then, the Hound came charging into the clearing with his axe!
"Clegane?" said Thoros of Myr. "What are you doing here?"
The Hound indicated the three guys strung up on ropes. "Chasin' them."
"What did they do to you?" Lois asked.
"They killed a friend of mine."
"Didn't know you had any friends," said Lois. "Aren't you King Joffrey's hound dog? What are you doin' so far from King's Landin'?"
The Hound laughed mirthlessly. "I abandoned Joffrey long ago. Ain't you Peter Griffin's wife? What are you doin' with this bunch?"
"I'm their leader now," said Lois. "Lem and his friends attacked that village against my orders, and we're goin' to execute them."
"I want to kill them myself!" said the Hound. "They deserve a harsher death than hanging!"
"I'll let you kill two of them," said Lois. "But I'm not gonna let you butcher them."
Reluctantly, the Hound agreed to this. He kicked the blocks out from under the feet of Lem and one of the other men, and Lois kicked the block of the third.
"I can tell you're a real fighter," the Hound said to Lois. "Just like your daughter."
"You know Meg?" said Lois.
The Hound nodded. "I've spent some time with her."
Thoros pointed at the Hound. "I bet he was the one who stole Meg away from us!"
"Guilty," the Hound admitted. "But I only took her so I could bring her back to you, Lady Griffin."
"You expect us to believe that?" said Thoros.
"Whether you believe it or not, it's true. I heard you were at the Twins, so Meg and I headed there. But when we arrived, we found a little surprise waitin' for us."
"The Red Wedding," Lois whispered angrily. The memory of Walder Frey's betrayal still rankled.
"That's right. We saw the Freys carryin' your son's head around on a stick. Meg wanted to go in there and look for you, but I stopped her." He didn't mention that he had stopped her by hitting her with an axe.
"Well, that was probably good thinkin'," said Lois. "What happened next?"
"We thought you were dead, so I decided to take Meg to her aunt in the Vale," the Hound said. "But we got in a fight with some Lannister soldiers and I was wounded. Your precious daughter left me to die, and I would have died if I hadn't been rescued by a septon. He's the friend I was tellin' you about, the one that got killed. I don't know what happened to Meg after that."
"Well, thanks for lookin' after her for me," said Lois. "And thanks for tellin' me your story. At least now I know a little more than I did before. What are ya gonna do now?"
"I don't know," he said.
"Maybe you should join up with us," Lois suggested.
"I don't know about that," the Hound said. "I don't have a very good history with this group."
"Well, that's all in the past now," said Lois. "We're fightin' for a cause greater than ourselves, and we need every man we can get. It's not too late for you to help us."
The Hound thought this over. "All right," he said at last. "I'm in."
Then a boy and a girl came into the clearing. "Are you Lois Griffin?" the girl asked.
"Yes, I am," said Lois. "Who are you?"
"I'm Dipper Pines and this is my sister Mabel," said the boy. "We're friends with your son Stewie."
"Oh, you must be Stan's niece an' nephew!" said Lois. "You're the ones who were stayin' at Winterfell!"
"That's right," said Dipper. "We were there when the ironmen attacked."
"But we escaped, and we took Stewie with us," said Mabel.
Hope rushed through Lois. "Does that mean he's still alive?"
"As far as we know," said Mabel. "When we left him, he was with Brian, and they were planning to take back Winterfell."
"I can't believe it!" Lois was crying tears of joy. "My little Stewie! I can't wait to see him again!"
She ran to the twins and enveloped them both in a hug. "Thank you so much for takin' care of my baby! Is there anything I can do for you in return?"
"Actually, there is," said Dipper. "Our Grunkle Stan is a prisoner at Riverrun. We need to rescue him, but we can't do it alone."
Lois's expression turned serious. "I'll help you. My daughter in law Pam is in there too."
"Count me in too," said Hayley. "I've got experience rescuing people from castles."
