Five years later
"Levvy, come on! Hurry it up!" Nikla turned, eyes bright. "We have to get home or Nurse will eat us alive!" Levail let out a squeal, and raced forward as fast as her short legs would carry her, careful not to spill the berries she had in her basket. She had an idea that her father would like them, if they weren't poisonous. The last ones had been.
She topped the rise and froze, eyes wide, staring at what she saw before her. Her home, Castamere Hall, awash in flames. She was not so close that she could see the bodies, but she knew they must be there. Father had been speaking angrily for weeks, but she had ignored his words. A rider turned from the mass and rode towards them, she on the hilltop and Nikla on the final descent, both standing halted with shock. Levail waited just long enough to see the man's sword sever her friend's head from her body, before turning and running through the trees, staggering over roots and falling in the mud, picking the ways she hoped a horse would have the hardest time following. She ran, ducking under branches, until finally she spotted a cavern deep under the rocks. She could have sworn there were hoofbeats right behind her as she dove for it, curling into a tight ball over her knees, bowed and invisible underneath the stone face of the cliff. That was how she spent the night, legs going numb beneath her as she hid from the people who killed her family. As she hid from the Lannisters.