Weeks had passed, and she had refused to talk to him.

He drank more than he ever had in his life, breaking his vow to the Elder Brother. Instead of falling asleep sated, he now was more commonly found passed out in Stranger's stall in the stable, with what would look to be tear tracks down his scarred face.

She was forcing him into a hole, and he didn't know how to climb out of it.

She looked over him as if he were a rat, no longer her dog. No longer fit to be petted or fed bones from her table.

The way he say it, he only had limited options.

Stay, and continue to have that aching feeling in his chest persist, or leave with his tail between his legs. Leave the place that after so long he had found to be able to call home.


He was found most commonly in the Godswood now, the old gods seemed to like him enough to give him a place in the north.

Better than what the bleeding Seven had pulled off.

An abusive and monstrous brother, who killed his own twin sister, who had adored baby Sandor, a father that overlooked the brutality of his first-born son, and a mother who had died birthing him.

Such mercy the Seven had showed him from day one.


He fell asleep in the Godswood, which was where she found him, waking him from his sweet dream of his little wife and birdling named for his sister Clove.

She is kinder than what she has been in months, and maybe, just maybe, she lets him see the strain that she has been suffering.

Winter is deadly, and even the Ice Queen is feeling it's effects.

She is naturally petite, but she is the Lady of Winterfell, and the skin over her cheekbones look to be stretched taut. There are dark circles under her eyes, and her hair, which always appears so luscious, is brittle as the cold.

But yet she is no less beautiful to him, and he vows quietly to himself that she will need not go hungry again as she will have his share of rations.

He would do anything, even die, for his lady love.


She has started smiling at him once more, and soon after a false spring arrives.

She is ruled by the seasons.

And she is beginning to thaw.

Now is his time.