I promised this one would be up quicker and I deliver! Big shout out to my beta, MSquared79. Please give her love and appreciation for all her help. Just letting you guys know that I will be taking a break for the Holidays (because I won't be near a computer to write). But I will get back to it when I can and the next chapter should be uploaded quicker than usual because it's a short chapter but needed all the same. Enjoy!


Arya

"Damn, that's freezing." Brienne hissed as her fingers accidentally dipped into the cold waters of the creek.

Arya chuckled as she only felt coolness against her skin when it occasionally touched the water's surface as she filled her waterskin. She only wished that it wasn't so cold the day she jumped from Riverrun into the river. That memory made her forget the task she was going and the weight of the water pouches became heavy, indicating they were both nearly full. She corked them both just as Brienne had finished filling the two she had.

Upon leaving the creek, the two of them shuffled through snow almost knee high and past the trees that surrounded them. The light of their campfire was hard enough to find through the thick of the woods, but that only proved to be to their benefit to keep hidden.

Jaime was overseeing their dinner and Sandor was off a ways keeping watch. The smell of cooked rabbit began to fill the cold air almost making it feel warm.

"Ah, just in time," Jaime said. "The rabbits are almost ready, skinned and all."

Brienne handed him one of the water pouches and sat next to him on a cold log as she gave him a smile. She was the only one who tended to be in his close company.

Arya sat on a different log across the fire from the two of them. She drew Needle from its scabbard and took out a cloth from her satchel. She began to run it down the blade. It was yet to spill blood and she wanted to make sure it was perfectly clean before it was to have its first taste of death. She hoped it would be Cersei if she could, but there would be many in between her and Needle's end. Regardless of that, Jaime was tasked to be the one to do it.

Brienne took out a map of the Riverlands and began to go over their plans while the rabbits finished cooking by the fire. "We're about fifteen miles north of a fork in the Kingsroad that leads to the Twins."

"Maybe we should cross the bridge while can. It's toll-free until the new lord sets foot there." Jaime was obviously joking, but Brienne took him seriously.

"That might not be a bad idea," the lady knight said, completely missing Lannister's tone.

"What?" Jaime and Arya both asked in unison.

"We're meant to carry out our duty when the fighting begins, but we're a week ahead of the army and less than a fortnight from the capital at the rate we're going. If we continue this way, we'll be stuck waiting for weeks until the King arrives. If we detour to the Twins, we will arrive only days before."

Jaime objected. "But we don't have the supplies for that long a journey. We barely caught enough food for our rest."

Arya set Needle back into its scabbard and walked over to the both of them, observing the map. "We can stay at Riverrun for a few days and resupply. But I think we should go further south after that and come up to King's Landing where the eyes of Cersei won't be looking."

"Flank from the south," Jaime understood. "If we make for the Mud Gate, I know of a hidden sewer that can get us past the walls of the city. Tyrion used it to flank Stannis Baratheon's men when they attacked. I know a way into the underbelly near there we can use to sneak into Red Keep."

All hands went to the hilts of swords when a bush rustled but the tension eased when it was just Sandor returning from his watch. "Are those rabbits done yet?" Heartsbane clunked on his back as he walked. He was given a new scabbard for it so that he could draw it from that position and be able to have a broadsword at his side.

"Just about-"

Sandor didn't even wait for Jaime to finish when he took one of them from the heat and backed away quickly from the fire despite how small the flames were. He wrapped himself in his thick cloak before sitting next to Arya and tearing into the meat. "Could use some salt."

"Apologies that our pantry is not stocked with seasonings." Jaime retorted.

Arya interjected before the insults would begin, but she almost didn't want to. "We're changing course and making for the Twins." She expected some angry response from Sandor, but all he did was give her a quick glance before resuming eating.

Arya took her share of the rabbit and ate as well. Sandor was right, it could use some salt. "Though I did hope we could've stopped by the Inn at the Crossroads. I have a friend who would have treated us to some kidney pies."

"I remember him," Brienne said, "he gave me and Pod some bread shaped like a direwolf. We meant to give to you but…"

"I ran. I'm sorry I didn't trust you back then."

"You don't need to apologize. I don't think I would've trusted me either."

"It was the sword that put me on edge. I hate Lannister gold and their lions."

Jaime chuckled to himself hearing that, probably used to those kinds of remarks. "I would've had a new hilt made if I knew that was going to happen. But I never would've thought the Hound would be the one protecting you."

"No, you thought she was dead," Brienne reminded.

"As did the rest of the country." Jaime bit into his rabbit after that. "I am curious though, what would you have done if Arya went with you?"

"I'd like to know too," Sandor admitted. "What did a woman and her squire plan to do to keep a girl safe?"

Arya never thought about that until now either.

"I would have taken her to Tarth. My House hasn't been bothered by the war and politics until

recently."

Arya heard about her father's supposed accident leading to his death. He hadn't actually done anything, he only planned to. Knowing enough about Cersei, she would most definitely kill the child of an idea in its crib. "But if I did go with you, Sansa would never have escaped the Boltons." She didn't want to begin imagining what that would have been like for her.

"I suppose it all worked out for the best it could then," Jaime commented as he ate.

"Aye. Suppose it did."

They fed the fire one last time before they went to sleep. Even with the furs they had the nights were still colder than they have been for years and they would only get colder until summer would return.

Arya's face tingled with the cold as she gazed all around at what she could. The skies were clear and there were no winds. The moon was near full and it lit the forest as much as it could. But there was always an occasional shift in the shadows. Probably a small animal like a fox or a raccoon.

She constantly shifted on her furs and tried to sleep, but she felt as restless as she had been since they all left. She couldn't stop thinking about her desires to finally wipe her list clean. "Cersei," she whispered in breaths, "the Mountain, Cersei, the Mountain."

Saying their names felt empty now. She wasn't going to be the one to kill Cersei and the only one of them who had the strength and even the desire than her to kill the Mountain was Sandor. What good was having a list if she wouldn't be the one to cross the names off? She tried to think of any new name she could add, someone who wronged her or her family enough that she might have the chance to kill.

"Can't sleep?" Jaime's voice asked quietly.

Arya turned her head over her shoulder and hadn't realized until now that Jaime was resting near her. He was gazing straight up at the night sky. "I find it hard to when a Lannister is awake behind my back."

"I wouldn't say the same for a Stark, but I would about you." He turned his head to look at her barely. "How old are you? Fifteen? Sixteen?"

"Eighteen." Arya corrected. She turned her body so she wasn't looking behind herself any longer.

"Eighteen. And how old were you when you made your first kill?"

Her first kill was the stable boy in King's Landing. She didn't mean to stick him with Needle, he just was in the sword's path when she turned. "I was almost twelve. I stuck a boy trying to turn me over to Cersei."

"Twelve years old when you first drew blood." He sounded impressed. "I was sixteen, only a squire. I decapitated an outlaw who was a part of the Kingswood Brotherhood. I saw some of the greatest fightings that day from some of the greatest knights of the Kingsguard. Ser Arthur and the Smiling Knight, Ser Barristan and Simon Toyne… Is that what you wanted when you came to King's Landing? To become a knight instead of a lady of the court like your sister?"

"Why do you care?"

"How long was it until your hopes were destroyed? When they changed from becoming a knight into an assassin who mumbles the names of who she wants to kill?" He began to laugh quietly. "I don't think Ned Stark would've ever imagined you to turn as you are-"

"Don't speak about my father."

"Why not? Is it too dishonorable to, or does it pain you to think that he would be ashamed of you for once?"

"Be quiet."

"I know what it's like to have a father disappointed in what you have become. Tywin Lannister had it in his mind from the moment I was born that I would one day be Lord of Casterly Rock. Yet, the day I was given the White Cloak was my proudest day. It was fulfilling my childhood dreams. But Tywin, no, he took it was an insult."

"Your father was a cunt," Arya spat. She wasn't even referring to the moment Jaime said.

Jaime actually laughed at that. "Yes, he was. But he was a proud man who had his beliefs in the way his child should be. And Ned Stark was the same way." Jaime began to stare off into the distance as if caught in a memory. "Twenty-five or so years ago so was Lord Eddard Stark. The biggest cunt in Westeros the day he entered the Red Keep. He called me Man without Honor when he saw Aerys lying dead on the ground. I saved an entire city from destruction and death and he thinks a vow is more important than that. And then he goes and lies to the entire country about having a bastard to save the babe's life. How was that any different?"

The difference was that Jaime saved hundreds of thousands of lives while Ned Stark only saved one. But the price paid was the same. Honor for life.

"Do you want congratulations then? Or maybe some applause for your moment of great valor?"

"If I'm entertaining you, go right ahead."

"Then what do you want? A reward? Valor? Something that will glorify you enough to cover the shit you've done?" Things like pushing her brother from a tower window or fucking his own sister. It didn't matter if Jon stripped Jaime of his titles like Kingslayer. Ser Jaime Lannister would never be able to erase those names from his life.

"It would be easier to say what I don't want instead of what I do want." Jaime was silent for a moment. "I want nothing, and at the same time, I want something. I want a purpose again. That was one of the reasons I was so proud to have been named to the Kingsguard. It gave me a purpose, something that was larger than I was. I didn't give a shit about Casterly Rock, being the Warden of the West. To me, Tyrion was better suited for those roles. But I, I wanted to serve."

That gave Arya pause. Why had she wanted to be a knight? For the adventure, surely. But there was something of the ideal that enticed her more. The belief in the nobility of her life called to mind the honor her father had ingrained in all his children. It was living a life that Ned Stark would have wanted for her.

Jaime said nothing after that, and neither did Arya. They both just let silence take place of words and drifted into a cold sleep. But Arya didn't feel tired, she felt hungry and alert.

Through eyes that were not hers she was surrounded by wolves, running swiftly through the snow. She towered over them all and outpaced them greatly as a direwolf as Nymeria would.

The stink of meat was clear in the air, a beast that fill the bellies of the wolfpack. There were others nearby that would be easy to kill, but they were not to be touched. Those animals belonged to the resting humans. The pack wasn't far from them, in fact, they had been following them ever since the one important to Nymeria left the giant stone home.

Together with her pack, Nymeria tracked a lone doe that strayed from its herd and got lost. It was old and slow, but the flesh smelled savory.

Arya had never experienced such a sensation before as Nymeria. She could feel the hunger of her wolf, the way the muscles moved and contracted, the smells of the trees and so much more.

The light of the sun hadn't even started to peak over the horizon when they all had woken from their slumber. The moon was gone and there were only stars in the darkness of the sky. They packed their gear and kicked snow over their fire to cover their tracks. An approaching snowstorm would do the rest for them and they mounted and rode their horses to their new destination, the Twins.

By the time the suns had risen and clouds filled the sky, they had made it to the fork in the Kingsroad and were on their way to the crossing. If everything went well and the weather did not worsen then they would arrive at the castle by nightfall. They would stop and rest at the nearby inn that Arya visited before she worked to liberate House Tully from Cersei's grip.

By midday, they had slowed their pace. The snows were light but long and the path they chose was becoming difficult to traverse. They had no choice but to take to the roads. They weren't cleared but there were marks of travel making it easier to go about.

Still, the horses were cold and tired and needed to rest from their endless riding since before first light.

Brienne kept to the rear with Jaime. The two of them were speaking quietly to each other that most wouldn't be able to hear but Arya could. Jaime spoke of things related to what he spoke with her about last night, but he didn't say directly to Brienne that they did. While they passed a caravan traveling in the opposite direction on the road, the sounds became muffled. After the caravan passed, Brienne was laughing heartily for all of them to hear.

Arya respected Brienne and considered her a good and loyal friend but couldn't understand why she took to Jaime Lannister's company. He was changing himself to be a better man, but it wouldn't erase the things he did. The people he killed and hurt.

The whole time she rode that day, she couldn't stop thinking about what Jaime had said to her the night before.

Those words stuck to her like a curse. Her father was dead and couldn't come back. She wished many times that he could. But those words made her wish that he couldn't. What would her father see her as if he was alive, knowing that she was an assassin, a girl who murdered an entire House and committed many gruesome and painful deaths? That she reveled in the moments that she did?

She liked to kill, but only those who deserved it. Even if it was not what a Stark was, even if that was not how she was raised or taught by her father, it had its advantages in a time of war. But after that? What would she do then? Was there anything for her after that?

She had wanted to be a knight, once. Her mother had hoped she would calm down and become a lady. Could she really? Lady Arya of House Baratheon. She would be one of the most unconventional ladies of the realm. But maybe that did fit in well with her husband. Gendry was as far from a lord as she from a noble lady, so they fit there. And for certain, none of their bannermen would dare stand against them, not with a known assassin as their liege's wife. She may even be a feared as Visenya. That appealed to her.

Sandor halted his horse forcing everyone else to do the same.

"What is it?" Brienne called out.

"Listen," Sandor growled. Everything fell silent except for something quiet but growing. Through the snow and the trees, a low rumble was rising. It was quick and repetitive, like horses galloping from behind and ahead of them.

Arya glanced around the trees and spotted a falcon in the trees staring at them oddly, like animals Bran was warging would. Now that she thought about it, she had seen that falcon before when they took to the road hours ago. It had been following them.

Instinctively, Arya's hand went to Needle's hilt. "I think someone's been watching us." She drew Needle completely and in the distance through trees that covered the road at a bend, she could see a group of riders approaching fast and steel glinting. "Into the trees!" They all guided their horses off the road but the snows were thicker here than before forcing the horses to move slowly. But as long as they weren't in the open they would stand a chance.

Once they were deep enough in, Brienne and Jaime drew their Valyrian swords but Sandor dismounted his horse before drawing Heartsbane. "Tarth, with me. You two handle whatever's coming from behind." He told Arya and Jaime.

Arya didn't argue with it when she saw that just as many riders were appearing from their rear flank with swords and spears drawn. She could make out an image on a small flag attached to one of the spears, a black sword crossed with a winter rose. To her knowledge, there wasn't a House with such a sigil, but she had seen it before in Essos. Men from the Company of the Rose, descendants of Northerners that refused to bow to Aegon the Conqueror, when Torrhen Stark did so at the Trident.

Ten men from behind and ten men in the front, against four experienced fighters with one of them being a cripple.

Arya wasn't skilled as a mounted fighter and her sword wasn't made for such combat. She dismounted her horse and took her position at the van with Jaime behind.

"What are doing?" Jaime demanded as the riders reached the trees. They were following the path the two of them paved and were coming faster than expected.

Arya's free hand snuck behind her body and grasped her Valyrian dagger. "What I do best."

When the lead rider was close enough and had nothing between him and Arya's path, she drew her dagger and threw it in one motion. The dagger twirled cleanly through the falling snow and struck deep into the sellsword's head. He toppled backward of his horse and blocked the way for those behind him, forcing them to make their way through the deep snow at slow speeds.

"Keep close to the trees " Jaime advised and was correct too. The sellswords were slowed down but some of them still had spears to throw. Not only that, but the snow was much thinner around the trunks, allowing her to move faster and be more fluid in her water dancing.

A spear came flying from the opposite direction and sank into the leg of Jaime's horse. The beast cried out as it fell and threw Jaime off. He dropped Widow's Wail into the snow and was in a daze.

Arya gave a quick look from behind and saw four of the men that were making for Sandor and Brienne break off to trap Arya and Jaime.

Against strategy and her own desire, Arya rushed from the cover of the trees to Jaime out of harm's path. It was a foolish thing to do but if she didn't then the sellswords would surround and kill him.

Arya found Jaime's arm and lifted him out of the snow. "I die saving your arse, I'm going to kill you."

Jaime's shook his dizziness away and found his strength to flee from being cornered. Widow's Wail was lost in the snow, show he drew the spear from his horse, ignoring the animal's cries of pain, and followed Arya to a better spot.

One of the men made it to them and swung his sword down at Jaime, but didn't expect to have the blade be caught by Jaime's false hand. Jaime took this chance to stick the spear under the sellsword's armpit making him bleed heavily. Moments after freeing the spear, the sellswords fell off his horse from a great loss of blood.

Arya fought against another one that got close and instead of attacking him, she cut his horse along the neck making it rear back and throwing its rider off. Before he could even get up, Arya rushed over and stuck Needle in his throat. Blood spurted from his wound and his mouth as he looked at her with surprise and anger.

Three were dead, but the other eleven had surrounded them close enough that escaping their line would be near impossible.

"Any ideas?" Jaime asked openly.

"Not this time." Arya's attention shifted to blurs in the trees behind the sellswords. She couldn't help but grin when one of the men looked where she was and nearly shit himself when Nymeria leaped from behind and taken him off his horse, her teeth tearing through his neck and decapitating him.

"Fuckin wolves!" One of the other sellswords shouted as the horses started to shift and jerk at the presence of Nymeria and her pack.

One of the men swung his sword down at one of the wolves but was met with sharp teeth around his arm before being pulled off his horse and torn into by another wolf.

"Come on!" Arya charged into the fight and attacked one of the men who dismounted. He was rather large for his age and packed great strength as he swung his sword at Arya. She parried it gracefully with Needle and practically toyed with him. He relied too much on brute strength aside from his actual skill. But she underestimated him just as he brought his boot to her chest and kicked her into the snow on her back. The air was knocked out of her lungs, but she had no time to focus on breathing when the man's sword came stabbed down at her fast. She rolled to the side, the cold steel barely missing her head.

With a quick stab, Arya stuck the pointy end of her sword into the man's knee before sticking him again where his heart was as he buckled. The Valyrian steel stuck clean through his boiled leather armor and he fell limply into the snow when she retracted her sword.

Jaime was handling himself alright, for a one-handed fighter. He bashed his golden hand into the face of his opponent and then beat him with the butt of his spear. The wolves did the rest of the work.

It was over fairly quickly after that. The sellswords were no match for a pack of wolves, led by a direwolf. They were savaged, their blood soaking the snows around the woods. Sandor and Brienne trudged through the snow to where the fight had been. Sandor's face was covered in blood that wasn't his and he was wielding Heartsbane in one hand and assisting Brienne with his free arm. She was limping slightly because of a cut she had received on her leg below the knee.

Jaime rushed over to them to assist Brienne while Arya cleaned Needle's blade of blood. She looked around at the bodies that littered the snow and checked for any signs of life. But there were none.

With the men dead, Nymeria trotted over Arya and stood face to face with her. Blood was staining the fur around Nymeria's mouth and her neck. Her large golden eyes stared directly at Arya's brown ones. But her tongue lolled out of her mouth as she took panting breaths as if offering Arya a smile.

"Thanks again, girl." Arya reached out and scratched her direwolf under her chin, gaining some favor from her. After that, Nymeria went to one of the dead horses and dragged it away in her mouth and left with the rest of her pack.

The day was near dark by the time they had gathered all the bodies and laid them to the side of the road. Brienne had bandaged a cut she took on her leg and Sandor was searching through what the sellswords had. He found some money from various regions, mostly from the Free Cities but there was some Westeros coin among what they had.

They wouldn't be leaving for a while and riding would be slowed by Brienne's injury, making their arrival for the Twins postponed.

Arya felt frustrated at herself for her lack of ability she showed today. She was a Northerner but fought like a child of summer. These men may have been exiles but they knew winter combat. It only showed how much more learning she had to become even better. Had it not been for the wolves, she and Jaime would have died.

"How the fuck did they find us?" Sandor grumbled as he ate some dry beef he looted from one of the sellswords.

"I think they had a warg among them." Arya guessed.

"Like your brothers?" Brienne asked.

"Yes. There was a falcon following us when we got on the road. I think it was keeping track of where we were." The falcon disappeared after the battle, however. Whether or not the warg was killed in the fighting was still in question.

The sound of fluttering wings got everyone's attention and made them all alert. They thought it was the falcon but it was actually a lone raven. It landed in the snow right next to Arya and cawed at her. She noticed a scroll attached to its leg and retried it. There was nothing stamped in the wax seal making it unknown as to who it was from, but Arya could guess given that a messenger raven found exactly where they were.

Arya broke the seal and unraveled it and read what was written.

"Thirteen? He's short seven." Sandor pointed out.

"He must have sent this days ago. We're far ahead of his location. Considering how many we ran into, I'd say we were lucky it was only twenty."

"But now we may have lost the element of surprise," Jaime said. "If Qyburn manages to get whispers of us, Cersei will be prepared when we get there."

"Maybe." Arya pondered about what to do. Her attention drifted over to the raven that was still standing next to her in the snow. "We won't know that for sure, but we can find out." She looked straight into the eyes of the bird. "Are you in there, Bran?"

The eyes of the raven flashed cloud white before returning to their original color. He was watching them.

"Don't worry about scouts. Make sure that Cersei or Qyburn or anyone in King's Landing doesn't know that we're coming. Can you do that?"

The raven cawed at her before taking flight into the evening sky.

"Was that a yes?" Brienne asked, just as confused as everyone else was.

"Well, it wasn't a no," Jaime said.

"Bran will watch out for us," Arya told them confidently. "Bran and his own little birds." Then she looked to Jaime. "We need to keeping moving. There's probably more sellswords out there and with the mess we have here, word is bound to reach King's Landing that the enemy is coming for them." Arya got to her feet. "But we need to get moving. Can you ride?" She asked Brienne.

"I can ride." With help from Jaime, Brienne stood up but kept herself leaning on her good leg.

Arya was the first to mount her horse. While the others did, she rode over to were Nymeria and her pack was feasting. The horse was skeptical to go any further when she got close.

"Nymeria!"

The great direwolf perked her head up at the call of her name and came over to Arya's horse.

"Let's go, girl."

Nymeria craned her head back and howled beautifully for all around to hear her. Her packed ceased eating and joined in the howl, creating a melody of the night. When they finished, Nymeria led her pack ahead of Arya and the others.

Arya whipped the reins of her horse and galloped after them. Sandor followed behind her closely while Jaime stayed with Brienne as the set out for the Twins.