Chapter 8

I was in my room packing when there was a small nock at the door. I put down the dress in my hands and went to answer it. I opened to find myself face to face with Jaime Lannister. "Ser Jaime, what a surprise, can I help you with something?" He chuckled slightly at me, "I just wanted to see if the rumours that you would be joining us in Kings Landing were true." he started to whisper "And I was wondering if I could meet those wonderful dragons of yours" I smiled politely at him, "Of course Ser Jaime, please come in." He nodded his thanks and followed me inside, gently shutting the door behind him. "Oh and please just call me Jaime, all this Ser is making me feel old." I smiled and giggled slightly moving over to the window where my dragons were practicing their flying skills, I sang a little tune and they all flew over quickly, trying to be the first to get to me. "Your sources were correct Jaime I have decided to come with you to Kings Landing." he smiled at me again and said "Good, oh I forgot to tell you how sorry I am about hearing that your Jon Snow is leaving you, personally I think he's stupid leaving such a beautiful young women alone where someone else could easily take her for their own." I chuckled slightly at that, "Thank you Jaime, and don't worry about Jon, I obviously wasn't good enough for him anyway. Not that he's going to be able to get anyone better now that he's joining the Watch." Jaime let out a hearty laugh and his face lit up, I have to say, when he smiled he did look rather attractive. "Believe me princess he could never, ever find anyone better than you." I blushed at that and it seemed to make his grin grow. He walked over to where my dragons had sat down on my bed. He perched on the edge of my bed and started to play with Shiala, the other dragons still looked a little bit wary so I sat down on the opposite side of the bed, pulling my legs up underneath me and I too started to play with the other dragons. I smiled as Thorn decided to jump up on Jaime, this made Jaime laugh loudly and a large grin spread across his face. Thorn made his way up Jaime's shoulder and started to lick his cheek. I laughed at them both and picked up Draco who looked a bit sad. I brought him up to my face and kissed his nose. He looked up at me and snuggled close to my neck, letting out a purr like noise as he did so. I smiled and realised how quiet it had gotten in the room. I looked up to see Jaime sat with Thorn in his arms staring at me with something I couldn't quite recognise in his eyes. I smiled even more and said "See anything you like Ser?" the grin spread even further across his face and he nodded to himself. "Haha, well you never know an old man still likes to see pretty things." My cheeks blushed a deep shade of red as I looked back at him. "Oh you seem to have misunderstood me my princess, I was talking about your dragons." A smirk spread across his face and I mock gasped. "You wound me great Ser." I grabbed a pillow off of my bed and hurled it at him, it hit him square in the face. He stopped and grinned at me, picking up a pillow of his own and throwing it back at me. I squealed and laughed loudly, before I could get him back there was a knock at the door. I smoothed down my hair before I opened the door. "Can I help you?" the servant blushed slightly, she had obviously heard us attacking each other. She suddenly seemed to realise where she was and said "Yes Princess, it is time to go." my smile left my face "Thank you, I'll be down in a minute. Could you tell someone to come and get my chest please?" she bowed and said "Of course my princess." With that she scurried off. I sighed and walked back into my room, Jaime saw my face and he frowned slightly. "What's wrong?" he walked up to me and put a hand on my waist. I looked up at him and said, "It's time to leave." His mouth formed a slight 'o' and he kissed my hand and said "Then I shall leave you to say your goodbyes, I'll see you later." He bowed and left the room. I collected my things and walked out of the room, my dragons following close behind me.

I made my way into the courtyard and saw everybody already on their horses, ready to go. I took a deep breath and walked over to where Shadow Fax stood, trying to avoid eye contact with the people that I would be leaving behind. There was suddenly a large, warm hand on my waist, I turned around and there stood Robb looking so much older. Just seeing him made me want to cry. "Hey, you can't expect to leave without saying goodbye to everyone." He took me in his arms and I threw my arms around his neck, burying my face there. "I'm going to miss you so much Kay." his voice rumbled through his chest, I sniffed loudly and this seemed to get his attention, "Hey, hey it's okay, you'll see us again soon. Don't worry." The tears were running freely down my face now but I still didn't make a noise. Robb wiped away a tear from my cheek and let his hand rest on the side of my face. "You make sure you look after yourself Kay, it's not like here down in the south. They'll happily stab you in the back if it will get them a few coins." I nodded and hugged him again, that was when I saw Rickon and Bran stood behind Robb, "I'll be back in a second." He followed my eyes to the boys and he nodded his head. I started to walk towards them, but found myself running to meet them. I wrapped my arms around both of them and put my head between them. "I need you both to be strong while I'm gone, especially you Bran, you have to look after your brother, he needs you even more than ever now. And you need to keep training, get those arm and leg muscles strong for when you become a knight." he nodded and Rickon snuffled slightly, "And Rickon I need you to be a big boy now and to help your brothers, and make sure you work hard at your studies and look after Shaggy." I looked down at the ground for a second and took a deep breath. "I love you both and I'll see you soon okay?" They hugged me even harder and I hugged them back, feeling like I was losing my family all over again. I reluctantly let them and I walked back over to Robb who had now been joined by Theon. I walked up to them and smiled slightly. Theon said "Don't I get a hug, just for being the best looking person around here?" for a change he didn't wear a smirk on his face instead he had a look of sadness. I stepped up to him and wrapped my arms around him, he wrapped his arms around my back and let his hands rest on my waist. I looked up at him with a serious expression and said "You look after yourself Theo, don't go doing anything stupid." He smiled, a genuine smile and pulled me even closer, "I promise Kay." I smiled at him, "Oh, and keep an eye out for the others, especially Robb. He may act like he's unstoppable but he really isn't." He rubbed my back and nodded his head, "Don't worry Kay I'll make sure he's alright, I'll protect him no matter what." I sighed again and said "Thanks Theo. Well I guess I best be off then, I think I'm keeping everyone waiting." I gave Robb another hug and just as I was about to turn around he kissed me. It was only the slightest of touches but it was still a kiss. I turned a bright shade of red, still with his lips inches from mine he said "Be safe Kayla." Before I could answer him he turned around and stalked off his shoulders a tense line. There was a cough beside me and I turned round to see Theon there looking at me, "Come on get on your horse before you keep everyone waiting any longer." He helped me up into the saddle and checked to make sure all of my dragons were accounted for. He nodded his head to himself and looked at me, "It seems like the Stark boys really have a thing for you huh?" He looked over to where Jon was seated on his mare, he had a murderous look on his face. "Well Theon one of them could have been with me but he decided the Night's Watch was more important." He patted my leg and started adjusting things on my saddle, "Yes, well he's a fool then isn't he?!" I laughed at that which caused him to look over at me, his eyes seemed to soften slightly but he quickly lowered his head so that he wasn't looking at me. The horses ahead of me started to move off through the gates to Winterfell and onto the road. Shadow started to move forward with the others. Theon let go of my leg and smiled at me before shouting: "BE SAFE PRINCESS!" I smiled and waved at him before turning around fully in my saddle and calling my dragons to follow me. Most of them flew ahead of the procession but Draco and Emrys stayed with me, almost as if they were there to protect me.