A couple days go by and I get more comfortable with the soldiers around me. I continue to spar with Bronn to keep each other fit for battle. But I can tell that Little Lord Lannister was getting restless. He probably hadn't gone this ling without a woman to bed in years. He's tried to convince me to help him with that a few times, and I almost took him up on his offer once. I have survived many battles the way I am. To change the way I am for one night would be unlucky in my eyes. I can hold out a little longer.
Bronn took it upon himself to get the Tiny Man someone for him to let off steam. I see him walking through the camp with a beautiful woman. She has black hair and a body I am jealous of.
"And whom is this, Bronn?" I ask with a smile.
"Well, I think Tyrion needs to let off some steam." Bronn winks at me. I roll my eyes and sigh in irritation. Why do I care so much? I have denied Tyrion's advances so far. I could have been the one to help him let off steam. I storm off and start sparring some of the soldiers trying to get ready for the coming battle. That's how I let off steam. It seems like I've only been sparring a few minutes when I see Bronn walk up and tell the other soldiers to take a break as he takes their place. "Jealousy looks ugly on you, Trixie." He tells me as I swipe at him.
"Fuck off!" I swipe again, but he dodges out of the way.
"If you want the dwarf, maybe you should say so." I kick my leg out in anger to trip him. It only gives him an opening to trip me instead. I fall to the ground and he straddles my waist, pointing his own sword into my chest.
"Why would I care if he knows?" I whisper as I try to catch my breath. "He can pay any beautiful whore to bed him. Why would he care?" I feel a stinging in my eyes. I blink a few times to get rid of the feeling only to let tears fall from the corners of my eyes. I feel them run down the side of my head and meet my hairline. Bronn pulls his sword away from my chest.
"We'll be at the vanguard tomorrow." He tells me. My anger and jealousy turn into fear at the realization that we could die tomorrow. Bronn leans forward and plants a kiss on my forehead. "Make peace with your Gods." He says when he pulls back and stands up. He offers me a hand to help me up. "Tell him, don't tell him, I don't care. But wouldn't you rather die with no burdens? No words left unsaid?" I take his hand and he pulls me to a standing position. "I'm off to find me a girl to help me get something off my chest." He says as he winks. That brings a smirk to my face as I wipe at my eyes.
The rest of the day I pray to my Gods, any Gods, to help me make my decision? Should tell him? What if I don't tell him and we die? What if do tell him and we don't die? What will happen then? Will he return my affections? I know he finds me attractive enough to try and bed on more than one occasion. There's no way we could end up being a married couple. His father would never allow it. What would be the point of telling him if nothing will come of it? The happiness of the rich is certainly more important than my own. Ugh! What should I do? I sit at a table in the food tent, staring off, thinking, as I drink from my mug.
"Decided yet?" I hear Bronn say from behind me as he slaps me on the back. It startles me enough to spill some of my ale.
"Don't do that!" I yell at him. "And no! There are good and bad reasons to do anything at this point." I look down into my mug.
"Well, Tyrion has invited us to spend time with him and Shae tonight." I snap up and look at him in confusion?
"She has a name now?" I ask in growing anger.
"She's not you. Of course she has a name." Bronn says. He takes my mug and downs the rest of the liquid before continuing. "So, you coming?" He asks. I think about it. This could be the last night I get to spend with my friends.
"How could I turn down the invitation?" I answer as I stand from the table. Bronn smiles and puts his arm around my shoulders as we walk to Tyrion's tent.
"Dear Trixie!" I hear as we enter the tent. "I haven't seen you all day. Where have you been?" Tyrion and the whore are sitting on the ground with drinks in their hands. She's wearing his top and I have to stop myself from rolling my eyes.
"Getting ready for tomorrow." I answer. Bronn walks over and sits with them. He's handed a cup. I decide to sit on the bed instead.
"Ah yes." He notices where I've sat and waves me over. "Why are you over there? come sit with us." I look over to Bronn whom shrugs. I can't stop my eye roll this time. Tyrion pats the ground to his left, but I decide to go to his right to sit between him and Bronn. The whore decides to play a game of pain endurance. I stay quiet and try to hide my distaste for her presence. Her and Tyrion play this endurance game by holding a lit candle sideways. It was resting on the valley between their two arms against each other. They both lasted longer than I thought they would. But I know I could've lasted longer. I have burn scars from the one time I was captured. They tortured me for weeks. Bronn and Shae laugh as Tyrion pulls his arm away from the flame. I stay straight faced. "Damn you, woman. Are you immune to pain?"
"Just used to it." She answers him.
"Drink." Bronn says pouring Tyrion a cup of wine. He offers me one, but I shake my head in refusal.
"Let's play a new game." Tyrion says.
"There's a Braavosi knife game I could teach you." Bronn suggests.
"I've won a lot of money off of that game before." I say. It's the first thing I've said since I entered the tent.
"Does it involve the potential for losing fingers?" Tyrion asks looking in my direction.
"Not if you win." I answer as I smirk, and Bronn chuckles from across the room. He's gone over to the table to get something small to eat.
"No." Tyrion rejects the game, as I thought he would. "No more fire games, no knife games." Bronn comes back over and sits down once again. "Let's do something I'm good at."
"What are you good at?" Shae asks.
"I happen to be a great judge of character." Tyrion says as if the whore had offended him.
"This sounds like a boring game." Bronn says, and I nod my head in agreement.
"It's not." The Little Lannister defends. "Here's how it works: I make a statement about your past. If I'm right, you drink. If I'm wrong, I drink. And no lying. I'll know if you're lying."
"I don't want to play this game." Shae says. Why doesn't she want to play? What does she have to hide?
"Fine. Bronn first." Tyrion turns to the man and begins the game. Bronn gets ready by toping off Tyrion's cup. "Your father beat you." He says. Bronn smirks and drinks the wine in his cup.
"But my mother hit harder." He comments as he pours himself some more wine.
"You killed your first man before you were twelve." Tyrion continues the game.
"It was a woman." Bronn corrects. Tyrion drinks as I look to my friend in slight shock. "She swung an axe at me." He defends his actions.
"You've been north of the Wall." Tyrion says. Bronn drinks, and again I'm in slight shock.
"What brought you up there?" Shae asks.
"Work." Bronn answers simply. I roll my eyes and smirk at him.
"And..." Tyrion says. "You once loved a woman many years ago, but it turned out badly so you've never let yourself love again." That was fairly specific. I look to Tyrion in curiosity. "Oh, wait, that's me." And he drinks from his cup. Tyrion then turns to Shae. "Your turn my mysterious foreign beauty."
"She said she didn't want to play." I tell him.
"Very well, then it's your turn." He turns to me.
"Whom said I wanted to play?" I ask.
"No, no, no." He rejects my words. "I love a challenge, and you are the most challenging in the room." He pauses as I let him do as he pleases. Bronn pours me a cup of wine and hands it to me. "Hmm. This is so hard. Okay, you were really a bastard child of a high ranking Lord and the mute woman whom raised you."
"I don't truly know whom I come from, drink." I tell him. He does so as he decides what he will guess next about me and Bronn pours more wine in his cup.
"You were molested by men from your village." He says.
"I'm not that damaged, drink Tiny Man." I stare at him with no emotion on my face. Reluctantly he drinks and Bronn refills his cup again.
"Well, I guess I'll not guess correctly about your past. Perhaps something not so in the past." He thinks as he watches my face. "I think you have feelings for me, and you are jealous of Shae for being able to do things with me that you won't let yourself do." He says with a chuckle as my face falls. He takes my pause as a rejection of what he just said and starts to raise his cup to his mouth. Before I even know what I'm doing, I slap the cup from his hand and gulp down the contents of my own cup. As he looks at me in shock I stand up and storm out of the tent, throwing my cup on the floor. I feel the stinging in my eyes again as I make my way out to the sparring area. I sit on the ground then lay back on the ground. I look up at the stars and continue to cry.
"At least he knows now." I hear Bronn say as he lays on his back next to me.
"Didn't make a difference." I say with a wavering voice. "He's still in his tent with Shae, and I'm out here laying in the dirt, with you." I hear him chuckle.
"True, but you missed him telling the story about that first woman who broke his little dwarf heart." Bronn tells me.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I guess the Kingslayer decided to pay a whore to pretend to be chased by men. She told them she was raped by the men." Bronn starts. "Tyrion took her somewhere to calm down. They talked and got along well. After a night of ale they decided to get married, which they did."
"After one night of drink and conversation?" I chuckle.
"I suppose." Bronn answered me. "I guess his father found out and had Jaime confess what had really happened. Then the woman was brought in and given to the guards."
"What?" I look over at him in shock.
"She was paid a silver for each of them." Bronn said. "And the sick thing is. Tyrion was forced to watch." This new information made my tears fall more.
"That's vile." I say, trying not to let my voice waver so much. "What kind of father would do that?"
"Apparently Tywin Lannister." Bronn says. I look backup at the stars. They're so beautiful. I don't know how much time goes by, but I end up falling asleep.
Suddenly I'm shaken awake by Bronn. My eyes snap open and I see his face. He's slightly panicked, so I decide to actually listen to what he's yelling at me.
"We gotta get going!" He yells.
"What why?" I ask as I hold a hand up for Bronn to take and help me to my feet.
"They stole a night's march on us." He says as I get my bearings. "They're a mile north."
"Shit." I say. I look at camp and see many soldiers, knights, and hill tribesmen and women, getting ready for the fight. "I have to get to my horse. He has my shield." He nods to me and we run off. I get to my horse and mount him before turning to Bronn. "Where's Tyrion?" He shrugs his shoulders and I ride through camp with Bronn following. We see him walking out of his tent and almost getting trampled by other horses galloping through camp. Bronn starts to walk next to him as I walk behind them both.
"Stay low." Bronn says to him. I would laugh at that but for the serious situation we're in right now.
"Stay low?" Tyrion asks.
"If you're lucky, no one will notice you." I say. I urge my steed between them and trot ahead of them.
"I was born lucky." I hear Tyrion say before I'm out of hearing range. I stay as far away from the hill tribe troops as I can. I watch as Tyrion gives them quite an inspirational speech. At the end they rush forward and I can't see Tyrion anymore. I wait for the mob of people to leave before looking for the Little Lannister. The only thing I can see are his locks of golden blonde hair sticking out against the dark color of the dirt. I chuckle a little only to have an arrow rush by my head. I carefully turn around and see that the fight has been brought to the camp. I see men rush the camp and I charge at them on my horse. Another arrow is shot, but this one hits my steed right between the eyes. I'm flung to the ground.
"Damn it." I curse as I shake off the slight pain and shock of losing my horse and being thrown from him. I grab my sword and shield and start to keep myself from dying. I slash at everyone that get's close enough and I kill over twenty before the battle ends. It does seem like the battle was not as bad as I believed it would be. My legs give out and I fall to a sitting position on the ground. I try to catch my breath and calm my racing heartbeat.
"Good. You're alive." I hear Bronn's voice. I look up at him and smile.
"Unlike my horse." I look down at my lap. "I've had him since I left my home village."
"I'm sure you'll get another one." He offers a hand. "You should try not to be on the ground so much. I'm always the one that has to help you up." I laugh as he pulls me to my feet, but I almost fall back down again. He grabs me around the middle to keep me from falling all the way to the ground.
"My legs just gave out." I tell him. "This is the first time I've been in a real battle like this."
"I guess you can ride the wagon with the dwarf on it." He says. At that moment I realize that there is a wagon being pulled by a man. The only thing on the back of the wagon is Tyrion. He's clearly knocked out from the beginning of the battle. Bronn brings me over and helps me sit with my legs dangling off the back. Bronn tells the man pulling the wagon to continue on his path and the wagon jolts forward. I look down at Tyrion. His head is to my right. He looks like he's in pain, probably from being trampled. I reach my right hand out and stroke his hair. As I run my fingers through his golden locks his face turns to a more content expression. I smile and start to hum the tune I always do. Slowly he starts to wake up and I stop humming. "You're a shit warrior." I hear Bronn say to Tyrion. He looks around and up at me.
"I'm alive?" He asks.
"You're alive." I answer him as I lean back on my elbows. This day has been exhausting.
"Did we win?" He asks another question. Bronn answers this time.
"We wouldn't be having this conversation if we didn't." The wagon comes to a stop and Bronn helps Tyrion sit up.
"How did our tribesmen do?" The Little Lannister asks yet another question.
"Yeah, good." Bronn replies.
"It's nice to see them getting along." Tyrion says as he look around at all the tribesmen killing the opposing men whom were still alive.
"You're wounded." A deep voice I despise says from over my shoulder. I only tilt my head backwards to confirm whom it is.
"Good of you to notice." Tyrion says to him. "I hear we won." I snap my head back to it's rightful position and go back to sitting upright with my back to one of the worst men I've ever known.
"Hmph. The scouts were wrong." Tywin starts. "There were 2,000 Stark bannermen, not 20."
"Did we get the Stark boy, at least?" Tyrion asks.
"He wasn't here." Came the answer.
"Where was he, my Lord?" I ask through clenched teeth.
"With his other 18,000 men." With that answer, Tywin rides away.
"And where are they?" Tyrion asks as he looks over his shoulder to his father.
"Probably went to attack Jaime's army." I suggest. Tyrion whips around to look at me with a worried expression. I match his expression. I don't really like Jaime, but he's Tyrion's brother. At some point I had been attracted to him, but it seemed to be a phase. Recent rumors, around camp, about him and Cersei have made me think twice about why I had been attracted to such a man in the first place. I mean he's a very handsome man, but if the rumors are true the relationship he has with Cersei is just wrong.
A/N: So, what do you think about the reveal of my OCs feelings for Tyrion? I didn't know how I would fit it in, but I had totally forgotten about the little game they play. He didn't think he would be correct, so he put it out there. What do you think so far? I love reading the reviews.