Chapter 3

Sansa moaned as she felt someone shaking her awake. She was dreaming of Lady and she doesn't want to open her eyes yet. Seeing her dead direwolf made her feel uncomfortable and right now she was so light headed and sleepy that she wanted to stay on her bed as much as possible. Who needs her anyway? It's not as if everyone expects her to wake up early, everyone in the court hated her because her family were traitors so what's the use of showing up?

So she turned her body to her side and covered her face with a pillow before mumbling, "Later Shae. Let me sleep."

"Lady Sansa…."

Voice… It sounded wrong. When did Shae's voice appear soft and masculine? And the touch, it wasn't Shae's gentle small hands; the limbs touching her are large and calloused, not a lady's hand.

Her eyes sprang open and she was welcomed by the light seeping through the edge of the pillow, she didn't dare take it off her face yet. Her mind was still working on where she was, she remembered escaping with the Tyrell men.

Was she already in the Reach?

Her eyes widen as memories of last night's incident returned to her mind.

Attack, they were attacked by some unknown man and she remembered falling from her horse.

No… her mind screamed.

She was captured by those men and now they are trying to wake her up and knowing that they recognized her name, she can predict that the men were Lannister men. No one aside from the red cloaks know her, they would, thanks to her obvious auburn hair.

Somehow she felt disappointed, she already thought that she was dead, was the gods that cruel to let her live and suffer more?

Now she was waiting for a shout, a kick and jeer, she wanted for Joffrey's voice to be heard. She knew that he would be her anytime and hurt her again. She supposed that she can't really escape him. No matter where she goes, Joffrey's ghost and violence will follow her.

But her mind processed something else.

She remembered seeing a pair of warm indigo eyes before losing her consciousness. It was unusual though for she started dreaming about those indigo eyes a few weeks before her escape from King's Landing.

In her dreams she was always running but she was not herself, she was a wolf, no she was Lady, she knew because she can hear Lady's consciousness. She knew that it sounded crazy but she doesn't care those dreams were far better than seeing her Father's head rotting on the spike. And those dreams end everytime she sees those eyes.

They looked familiar; she knew that she have seen those eyes before but she can't remember if she had meet the person with those eyes. No one in Westeros those of Targaryen blood have indigo eyes and she had never met one because the remaining Targaryens have been driven out of the realm after Robert's Rebellion.

"Lady Sansa? Are you awake?" The man again asked.

Sansa sighed and removed the pillow that was covering her head, there was no use sleep acting, Joffrey would be here anytime so she should ready her body for brutality.

When she finally turned around to see her captor she felt her heart jumped to her throat, her eyes widen and her mouth agape.

Standing in front of her was the most beautiful man she ever saw in her life. He was even more handsome than Ser Jaime, Ser Loras and Joffrey. He was older than them but he had a youthful glow in him that would confuse people of his true age.

He wasn't wearing normal Westerosi clothing, his tunic was more like a robe and his muscled chest was visible through its design.

But what alarmed her was his silver hair that reached his shoulders and his indigo eyes. The same set of eyes she saw when she fell last night.

Then, another memory repeated in her mind….

She remembered roaming around the Red Keep during the time that King Robert was still alive and Joffrey still haven't shown her his mad side. Her Septa was giving her lessons about the history of Westeros and the two of them were given access to a room which held the portraits of the past Targaryen royal families that ruled the Seven Kingdoms.

And the faces from the last portrait hanging in the very room were still fresh in her mind and though she knew that the young man in the portrait was still in his teens, she remembered his features well. He had intrigued her ever since she was young; she had always wondered why he took her Lady Aunt. Rumours say that he kidnapped and raped her but she believed otherwise.

She was sure that she was alive as she was still breathing and her heart was still pumping hard on her chest. So she screamed on top of her lungs the moment she realized who was standing in front of him.

If she was still sentient and he was here with her, it only means that she was seeing a ghost. Rhaegar Targaryen had already been dead for eighteen years; King Robert killed him during the battle of the Trident, his chest smashed by the late King's war hammer causing the rubies on his breast plate to scatter to the place which was now known as the Ruby Ford.

So the idea of seeing the ghost of the late Prince scared her, she can feel the hairs behind her neck standing in fear. Why was he with her? Why was she seeing his apparition? Did Joffrey put her in some haunted room in the Red Keep to punish her from escaping?

"No… No… No… you're dead; you're supposed to be dead!? Why are you haunting me? My aunt's already dead because of you! Please stop haunting me!" She pleaded to the ghost.

It was absurd she knew and Joffrey must have been watching her right now, laughing at her fright and helplessness, maybe he wanted her to lose her mind.

But ghost Rhaegar didn't even move from his place, he stared at her incredulously, his brows almost arching.

A soft whine caught her attention and she moved her eyes to the furry thing behind Rhaegar Targaryen's ghost, she sobbed as she recognized the creature.

"Lady!" She cried.

The direwolf immediately turned its head towards her and quickly jumped on her bed. She hugged the beast and for a moment forgot that her Father was ordered to kill it two years ago. Like Prince Rhaegar, Lady should be a form of apparition but it didn't stop her from reaching out her beloved pet.

Lady felt real and alive under her hands, her fur was a soft as it was in the past but she noticed that she grew bigger and heavier and she can feel Lady's heart pumping on her chest.

It was eerie, she doesn't really know what happens after people and animals die but she knew that they ceased growing and they don't breath and their hearts stopped pumping…..

She froze when she realized that Lady wasn't dead but living and panting. It was also the time that she looked around the room she was in, the walls wasn't made of marble or cement but of wood, she can also feel the soft rocking of the small cabin and hear the sound of the waves from the outside. She was inside a ship!

Her eyes went back to the man standing in front of her, if Lady was alive and if she wasn't inside Red Keep, then it only means one thing….

Prince Rhaegar Targaryen was still living as well.

"You're alive…" The words spilled from her lips but she doesn't know who she was addressing, if she was talking to Lady or to Prince Rhaegar.

"I'm afraid, I am, my lady." Prince Rhaegar replied with a hint of soft smile playing on his lips.

His melancholic eyes seemed to twinkle as he looked at her, his gaze caused her to shiver. She placed a hand on her head and closed her eyes, there were so many questions inside her mind right now, so many questions that she wanted to ask him and she doesn't even know if she should addressed him by his title or not.

"How?" was the only word she can manage to say.

Prince Rhaegar sighed and started to tale his tale and as he spoke his indigo eyes were fixed on her, never leaving her face as if she was the only thing that exists in the world worth watching. It sent pleasant chills to her heart and she can feel it beating fast as she listened to what the Prince has to say.

"And that's how I was able to survive." Prince Rhaegar said to wrap up his long tale.

Sansa nodded, satisfied that some of her questions were already answered. If earlier she feared him, now she felt alarmingly comfortable with her saviour, she didn't know if it was right to consider him that after he took her from the Tyrells but still her decision of marrying Willas was also her excuse to escape the capitol so perhaps Prince Rhaegar indeed saved her not only from entering a possible loveless union (though she had hoped that she'll fall in love with Willas after Margaery's beautiful tales about her brother fascinated her) and from the Lannisters grasp.

She knew she should thank him but his actions didn't stop her from wondering where he was taking her, with them on a ship it was impossible that he plans to take her back to her brother and mother.

"I hope you don't mind me asking my prince, but where are you taking me?" She asked curiously as her hand reached Lady's fur.

The Prince also told her how Lady was still alive. She was so happy that her father spared her wolf but felt sorry that she acted sourly at him after what happened in the Darrys, she knew that she lied but it was necessary, she was to be Joffrey's wife and she can't act against him that was why she told otherwise.

Arya was so angry at her that time and she wanted to apologize to her sister for her actions but she doesn't even know if Arya was still alive or not.

"I'm taking you to Dorne." The Prince answered as he too played with Lady's fur.

"Why?" She asked again.

The Prince seemed hesitant to speak but took a deep breath before continuing, "We plan to use you as leverage to the Young Wolf, we need his backing to place my sister on the Iron Throne." He explained.

That wasn't new, she had always been a tool for everyone but at least he plan to give her back to her brother, a thing that the Tyrells obviously doesn't want to do.

"But why would you put your sister on the throne if you are still alive? Shouldn't you be the King first before her?"

Rhaegar sighed and seemed to look pained by her question; she bit her cheek regretting asking it. It made him uncomfortable but before she can take it back, he already replied to her.

"I can't. I don't want to be King after everything that happened; the deaths I've caused and I don't see myself marrying again after my wife and children's death."

The Prince sounded so sad that Sansa involuntarily reached for his hand and squeezed it. Rhaegar's face lightened and he smiled at her; she stared at him and studied his face quietly as his gaze now focused on Lady.

She stopped believing in songs and stories a long time ago, she learned a bitter life lesson from Joffrey and Cersei's hands but now while she was staying inside the same room as Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, she felt that she had found the Prince that she had always dreamed of.

When she was young, she was able to hear songs and praises about him, a lot of people admired him and talked about his kindness, intelligence, prowess in battle and knowledge in politics. They say that if the rebellion didn't happen, Prince Rhaegar should have been one of the greatest rulers that realm could ever have. People from the small folk and noble houses commended him; they wanted to crown him King.

A long silence passed between them before she spoke up again, this time, she wanted to ask him about her Aunt Lyanna. She badly wanted to know why, why he took her.

She cleared her throat, "My aunt Lyanna… people say you kidnapped her, they also say that you raped her. Is it true?" She whispered softly that she doubt he heard her.

She was afraid of what he has to answer. She may have only met her now but she had been fascinated of the rare tales she heard about him in the past that she had come to admire him (but stopped because she thought him dead).

His face was stern and crumpled, "No, it wasn't what happened. I didn't kidnap her, we ran away. She didn't want to marry Robert Baratheon and we were in love with each other." He said, his eyes looked away from her and to the window.

This time, it wasn't her squeezing the Prince's hand; instead it was him clinging to hers as though she was his lifeline.

"Father always told me about Aunt Lyanna, what was she like?" She asked again, Rhaegar turned and stared at her.

"She was a wild she-wolf, headstrong and brave but with a gentle nature."

Sansa smiled, that was what her father told her whenever she asked him about her Aunt Lyanna.

"She was also beautiful and kind, just like you."