The King in the North! The King in the North!

The words still echoed in his ears the next morning after his bannermen proclaimed him a king. The same day, the word of his father's death reached their camp. He tried to appear strong in front of his bannermen, but as soon as he was in his own tent, he broke down. In a spit of grief and anger, he ruined every thing that was in his way.

His mother entered his tent then, surely hearing the sound of shattering from within. She was calling his name, her voice weak, but he only stopped when she put her hand on his shoulder.

"Robb," she said as he turned around. Catelyn quickly embraced him and let him sob into her cloak.

"I will kill them all," he said. "They shall not go unpunished."

"My boy," his mother breathed, "you will soon have the Dornish army. The princess is on her way, together with twenty thousand spears. We have to get Arya and Sansa away from the Lannister claws first. And when we have the girls back, with the help of the Martells, we will kill them all,"

Robb pulled away from her. "I don't want to marry the Dornish princess, mother."

"You must." Catelyn stroked his cheek. "The love will come with time, I assure you. You have to marry her, my son. For the army. And for the promise."

They sailed from Dorne at the end of the 298th year after Aegon's conquest and arrived at the port in Saltpans in the Riverlands at the nearing end of the first moon of the new year. Mellara felt like a ghost on the ship, too angry and too lost in her own thoughts about her fast approaching new life with her betrothed. Through the time, she tried to make a picture of him in her head, but all she could see was an ugly barbarian with cold eyes, who never smiled.

Mellara still could not understand why her father had done such a thing to her - he never wanted a war, yet he was sending her to one. She even damned herself for not marrying sooner, for not marrying of her own choice while she had the chance. Even without Arianne at her side, the boys crawled to her feet. She was the daughter of the ruling prince of Dorne, a princess. She could have married Cletus, Andrey, even the ever-annoying Gerris. She could even picked someone in the Free Cities when her uncle Oberyn took her to Essos on her fourteenth nameday. Dornish nobles used to marry Essosi nobles from time to time - her own father married a Norvoshi woman, though their love had disappeared over the years.

She often wondered how it felt to be in love. She loved her family with all her heart, but she was sure that a love to family and love to someone else must feel different. But now she would never know. Now she was to marry a cold Northerner in an exchange for army, a boy she was sure she would never love, never feel anything but bitter coldness towards. She was sure he would feel the same.

Mellara found it hard to walk on the solid ground when they departed from the ship in the port. Luckily for her, there was a boy to lead her through the abandoned piles of salt to her uncle that was waiting for her.

"My beloved niece." Oberyn kissed her cheeks. "You have finally arrived,"

"Uncle." She forced a smile.

Under any other circumstances she would have been glad to see him and embrace him as tightly as she could. But now, she had to push away the urge to argue with him, yell at him, fight him. He was the one who - on Doran's orders - proposed the marriage. He'd been driven by revenge, she knew, driven by the illusion he could finally avenge the death of his sister and her children who were so grossly butchered in the Sack of King's Landing.

Mellara had always had a close bond with Oberyn, from the time she was a little child, a bond that one would thought that could never be broken. It was Oberyn who had taught her how to fight, how to overcome all her fears, how to never give up. He had made her the woman she was now, but for the first time, she felt the torns in their relationship. She feared that there were only more to come.

Oberyn greeted his four daughters and then turned to her, offering her his arm. "Shall we go?"

She held her head high as she took Oberyn's arm. Her steps became more stable and confident as she made her way. She noticed that the town still seemed to prosper, yet untouched by the war. She tried not to look on the group of men, very well aware that one of them was her intended. But her curiosity betrayed her and her eyes fixed on the group. It consisted of not more than twenty men, all the soldiers standing still with blank expressions on their faces. There were two boys standing a little farther, both looking at her expectantly. One of them was smirking and whispering something to the other, who seemed to be paying little attention to him. He nervously patted the animal next to him - a huge animal, bigger than the regular wolf it resembled. She wasn't sure if it was the animal or her betrothed that made her heart beat a little faster. Perhaps both.

"Your Grace, may I present you my beloved niece, Princess Mellara of House Nymeros Martell." Oberyn stopped before the two boys, letting go of her hand.

"You are more beautiful than I thought you to be, Your Highness," Robb said, kissing the back of her hand as a sign of courtesy. He was nothing like she'd imagined, bearing no resemblance to the cold barbarian of her thoughts. She found some kind of warmth in his piercing blue eyes.

"Mellara, may I present you His Grace, Robb of House Stark, the King in the North,"

"Your Grace," she curtsied before him. When she rose to her feet, the large animal stepped from Robb's side to sniffle at her gown. Her breath hitched. She recalled Oberyn's words - you must overcome all your fears - as she bent down before the animal and hesitantly stroked its fur.

"What kind of animal is this?"

"A direwolf, Your Highness," her betrothed replied. "Greywind, to me!"

Greywind turned away from her and returned to his spot beside his master.

"Like your sigil, Your Grace?" she asked. "I read about them once, but I thought that they were extinct."

"So did all of us until we found six pups in the Wolfswood. Some would call it a miracle, I think."

Oberyn quietly cleared his throat, catching Mellara's attention while she was staring at the strange wolf. Its yellow eyes watched her, promising it would not allow any harm to fall upon its master.

"Mella, may I introduce you Theon Greyjoy, ward of the late Lord Eddard Stark,"

She curtsied once again, eyes fixed on the king while his friend kissed her hand. She noticed that Robb's eyes were filled with sorrow, even when he tried to hide it. It must have been awful for him to lose his father. Mellara couldn't imagine losing hers, no matter the grudge she may have held against him.

Oberyn clapped his hands. "Now, when the introductions are over, we shall go. The time is dear and we shall waste none of it."

They rode until the sun went down and camped at the inn alongside the road. Mellara's thighs had soon became sore from the saddle, but it was nothing she wasn't used to. She rode and raced all the time in Dorne, mostly with her cousins and Oberyn. She almost wanted to race now, but that was childish and would draw unwanted attention. The Brave Companions were still plundering the Riverlands and Lord Tywin was close.

She woke sooner than the others the next morning and quickly dressed to her riding clothes. With a spear in her hand, she headed to the back of the inn. She hadn't had a chance to practice properly for the whole month - practicing on the ship was sloppy and it was always too dark at the camp, her mind too clouded from fatigue.

It was such a good feeling to finally being able to swing her spear again. It felt so natural, more so than the other weapons her cousins had taught her to use. Nymeria had taught her to throw knives, Sarella to shoot a bow. Tyene had tried to share some knowledge of poisons. But even with the sheathed dagger clasped around her thigh, she always preferred the spear. Not that she ever had a chance to use it. She had never taken a human's life.

"Mella, what are you doing?" It was her uncle's voice, husky from sleep.

"Practising," she said, turning to face him. "I wouldn't like to get clumsy."

"I'm sure you would never," Oberyn said. "You have it in your blood. A Martell indeed."

She smiled. "Maybe we could fight," she suggested, noticing the spear in his hand. "Just one spar - it won't take long. If I win, you will give me the answers I wanted."

"Alright - just one."

Mellara smirked and swung for him. Oberyn was quick to react, clashing his spear against hers.

"Are you happy with what you've done?" She jabbed for his belly.

"You don't understand, Mella." He blocked her spear and slashed at her unprotected feet. He raised his spear and the woods of spears met. Oberyn left her a free space on his chest, so that was where she striked.

"I will tell you everything at Riverrun," he promised, dodging the blow.

She twirled her spear in the air and made a move for his groin. Their spears clashed once again.

"You'll tell me when I defeat you."

"Oh, you believe so?" He circled her and with a spin of his spear slashed at her arm. She moved to the side so the weapon hit only the wind.

"I do." She jabbed her spear at all the parts of the body she could, her movements becoming more aggressive. Oberyn faced her blows, blocking almost all of them. Mellara rarely ever won a match against Oberyn.

"You fight recklessly," her uncle noted. "That will get you killed."

Mellara received a few scratches on the parts of her body that were bare, while she was sure she made a bruise on Oberyn's back where she hit him with the wood of the spear when he was turning around.

She jabbed her spear at his abdomen and Oberyn in the same time slashed his at her chest. He was faster, she wasn't. He hit, she didn't. She stumbled backwards, losing her balance and landing hard on her butt. She hissed and was about to rise to her feet, when the tip of Oberyn's spear met the skin under her chin.

"Do you yield?"

"Yield?" She laughed. "Martells do not yield,"

With those words and with all the strength she could muster in her, she kicked her feet at Oberyn's, sending him to the ground with a thud. The spear scratched her skin as Oberyn moved and when she touched the spot, she felt a hot liquid on her fingers. Just a little scratch, one of many, she told herself as she stood up. She pointed her spear under Oberyn's chin just as he did a few moments earlier.

"Do you want to tell me now?"

Oberyn was angry, she could see it in his black eyes. Angry that she tricked him like this. We are snakes, the tricks are ours, she thought.

Oberyn tightly gripped the wood of her spear and tossed it away from her hand, sending it to the ground. He got to his feet.

"You were promised, Mellara!"

For a few moments, she was paralysed. When she came to herself and before Oberyn could even register what was happening, she slapped him hard across the cheek, scratching his skin with her nails.

"Promised?! To a Stark?! Why was I never told of it?!" she screamed at him. "Gods, this is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!"

"It was better for you if you didn't know," Oberyn said, rubbing his cheek.

"I- I don't understand." The feelings were floating in her: anger, confusion, frustration. "All my life, I have been told that I will marry for love, that I will marry the man I will want. If you really wanted that for me, with this Stark boy, maybe you should have let him to be fostered at Sunspear or me at Winterfell, or at least arrange a meeting!"

"It was to happen only under the circumstances of a war," Oberyn explained. "Doran knew that with the Lannisters grasping for the Iron Throne, the war would take place sooner or later. And now, we are in a midst of one."

"Why me? Why not Arianne?"

"Arianne was-" Oberyn's words were cut by a clash of steel and the screams of men.

"Stay here," Oberyn said, stopping her when she reached for her spear. "Do as I say."

The sound of steel ringing on steel followed as Oberyn left her. Her heart was stammering hard in her chest. She gripped her spear tightly in her hand, closing her eyes, forcing her body to stay where it was and trying to calm down her stammering heart.

"Oh, look who's hiding in here." The voice forced her to open her eyes. "The lovely Dornish princess."

Someone grabbed her by her hair, causing her to drop her spear to the ground in surprise.

"Now I got you," he hissed into her ear, the stench from his mouth reaching her nostrils. She felt the cold steel on the skin of her neck.

"Do you have any idea how many men we have here?" She asked. "More than you could imagine, and every one of them willing to give up their lives to protect the princess."

"But there is no one to stop me now, is there?" She heard him chuckle. "Tywin Lannister sends his regards, you bitch."

Mellara's elbow connected with the man's nose, forcing him back. Mellara grabbed his fallen dagger, but he threw himself at her before she could make another move. She gasped as she was thrown to the ground, the breath knocked out of her. His body was right on top of her. She tried to kick him wherever she could, but he barely reacted. They both wrestled over the dagger in her hand, but it was him who got it first.

"Any last words?" he asked.

She saw a flash of something grey running towards them and in the next second, she felt as if someone pulled a great weight from her body. She heard terrible screams, the ripping of flesh. She sat down, looking to her left, seeing the man being torn to pieces by Grey Wind. The screams soon faded and the direwolf scurried to her, fresh blood on his mouth. He had just saved her life.

"Mellara!" Oberyn ran to her, closely followed by Robb. They both squatted in front of her, faces covered in blood and sweat. "Are you okay?"

"I am," she assured him.

"You are bleeding, Your Highness," Robb touched her chin.

"It's just a scratch, Your Grace," she said, turning her head away to look at the corpse. "He said that Tywin Lannister sends his regards and then almost slashed my throat. Who were those men?"

"Likely the Brave Companions," Oberyn said.

"They wanted me dead,"

"Without you, the Dornish army will not support the Northern King,"

She looked back at him. "There are more attacks to come, aren't there?"

"Yes. Yes, there are."

I'm not even going to try to apologize for not updating sooner. It would only be petty excuces. Honestly, I just wanted to give it story a try and see how the first chapter will fare in here. I never thought that it will get so many favorites/follows and reviews. I thought that it would most likely get a little to no response. So, I want to thank all of you who read the first chapter! :) I really hope you enjoyed this one as well.

Special thanks to Emma - SurprisinglyOdd for being my beta.