Jaime's mouth pressed against hers, his tongue hard on her tongue. The taste of him was what she imagined heat must taste like: spicy, sweet, salty, addictive. The wet warmth of the kiss reached all the way down into her belly, spreading a blissful sedative that seeped into all her limbs and paralysed them. Around her, the leaves trembled and the insect life hummed; on the road carts rolled by and children yelled, but the girl had no awareness of any of it. Only Jaime's mouth. The taste of him.

Jaime's hands came up between them and she felt the metal of the cuffs digging into her chest. 'Fucking hells,' Jaime swore softly, as he broke their kiss. His breath in her face was delicious. She was intoxicated by it. She leaned forward but he pushed her back. Shifted himself around until he was kneeling beside her. Then he raised his hands and looped them over her head.

The girl knelt up too, as he drew her in towards him. His bound wrists slid down the curve of her spine, his fingers splayed out to hold her steady. She kissed him lightly, he groaned and bit at her neck. 'If I had these cuffs off, you know what I would do?' he muttered. She hoped he wasn't expecting an answer. She didn't feel capable of talking right now. The part of her brain that dealt in coherent speech had completely checked out. So she could only make a small grunting noise as he straightened up, grabbed her hips as far as the restraint on his hands allowed and turned her around so that she faced away from him. His arms tightened to hold her there, and his mouth nipped at her neck.

'I'd fuck you like this,' he said. His hands dropped to her pelvis and he pulled her forcibly towards him, her bottom hitting against his crotch. 'I like it this way. Do you?' He nuzzled her collar bones, bit her skin again. When she didn't answer, just moaned quietly in her throat, he added 'I think you'd like it.'

The girl almost couldn't breath fast enough, her pulse hammered and she felt weak yet electrified at the same time. She reached behind her to pull down her clothing, frantic to feel his skin against hers, his hard flesh pushing into her, filling her up. A sharp sound registered in her dulled brain, but she ignored it. Her fingers fumbled on the waistband of her pants. Fucking clothes, how difficult were they to get off in a hurry? The sound came again, a horse's snort, and the ground under the girl's knees vibrated a little with heavy hoof thuds. She paused, the fog in her mind lifting. Sooty? Was that Sooty? She put her hands on the top of Jaime's forearms as they wrapped around her waist, gripped them. It was like being enclosed by iron bands.

'Stop,' she panted urgently. 'Stop for a... for a second.'

Reluctantly, she thought, Jaime relaxed his hold and raised his head from her neck. They listened. A horse's snort sounded again, in the direction of the trees where Sooty had wandered off to graze. The stamping sound of nervous hooves, and along with that something even more sinister: a strange, low, hissing grumble, a deep, broken rasp. It was loud enough to make the hairs on her arm stand up. Like the malevolent chuckle of a demon. The girl had never seen a demon, or believed in one. But if she did, that's exactly what it would sound like.

'What in gods name...?' Jaime said, and the girl felt him freeze behind her. She herself turned cold with fear. She'd lived nearly her whole life in these parts, and had not once heard a sound like that before.

Slowly, she lifted Jaime's arms and ducked under them, easing herself to her feet as silently as she could. Standing up made her momentarily dizzy. The air on her flushed cheeks was still warm, the trees thick all around her, languidly rustling their leaves. She stared into the darkness of their dense foliage. Beyond a few yards into the bush, everything was just shifting shapes and shadow patterns.

'What was that.. growling?' Jaime asked, also getting to his feet. His voice was still husky with recent lust. He cleared his throat. 'I'm going to take a stab in the dark here and say it wasn't your horse.'

'Sooty's in there, though.'

'Maybe we should... Jaime glanced down at the bridge. 'Relocate ourselves. Post haste.'

'Not without Sooty.' She took a breath.

Jaime knocked one arm into her shoulder with some force. 'Don't fucking whistle for it, girl! Are you mad?'

She glared at him, stepped away and grabbed her bow from the ground. 'Fine. I won't whistle.' She notched one of the two arrows she had in her quiver, lifted the curved weapon and got a good grip on the feathered end of the arrow. She headed towards the trees. 'Are you coming?' she whispered back, harshly.

'You are wholly, irreparably deranged,' Jaime said. 'To think this a good idea. And you are seriously going to need more than two fucking arrows.'

They crept through the bush, placing their steps cautiously, trying not to break twigs or scuff dried leaves. The ground underfoot was spongy and thick with mulch. A ticking of beetles and occasional fluttering of a bird somewhere overhead were the only sounds. The girl controlled her breath; in, out, calm, steady. The fear had left her, replaced with a cold determination. When she felt this way, nothing could sway her. This is how a good hunter must be, she knew. Totally focused, totally ruthless.

In a ditch up ahead, hidden by a tangle of blackberry branches, she could see something moving. She stopped mid stride, sank lower to the ground. Jaime beside her did the same. He had a broken stump of dead wood in his hands. It was riddled with ant holes and looked as if it might crumble to sawdust at any moment. But Jaime's face was as determined as hers, he didn't look trepid or unsure. He looked excited, alive with the thrill of the hunt. And curious.

The growling noise came over them again, jagged and threatening and very close by. Also a fetid smell with it. Rotten meat and piss. A musky wild animal smell. Was it a bear? The girl had heard bears before, they didn't sound like this. A big cat? How big did they get, anyway? She jabbed her finger at the spot behind the screen of blackberries, to indicate what they both already knew; that's where it was. Whatever it was.

Jaime rose up from his squatting position and craned his head to see over the hedge. Took a couple of steps forward. Froze again. The girl waited for a moment, and when it didn't appear as though Jaime was destined to be immediately torn limb from limb, she carefully followed his lead. Her bow was held out straight in front of her, the string tightly drawn back. Peering over the spiky twigs and berries, she could see a shape crouching in the shady thicket in front of them, not more than five yards away.

Her first thought was Sooty, because of the size, but then she came to her senses and realised horses don't crouch. It had its head down and there was a crunching, grinding sound like granite being smashed with a roller. Another spine-tingling growl, snarling up from the depths of its being. 'Holy mother of Seven gods,' Jaime whispered in awe. 'Have you ever seen a wolf that big before?'

'It's eating my goat,' she noted. They were mouthing the words at each other, basically lip-reading.

'I think it is its goat, now.'

'Where's Sooty?'

'I don't much know, or care.' Jaime's mouth exaggerated each silently enunciated word. 'Let's go.'

They began to back away. Everything was in high intensity focus to the girl. The pad of their footfalls, the foul smell of the wolf, the streak of sunlight shining along the smooth shaft of her arrow which stuck out of the goat's body as it was lifted up in the wolf's jaws. It must have seen us, smelled us. Lucky it's eating. We might live another day yet, she thought. They backed up for what seemed like eternity, placing each step behind themselves so gently on the ground that sticks bent and didn't break under them. Finally they were far enough distance away that Jaime indicated they turn around. They took off running out of the thick bush and back into the relative clearing of the spot they'd been using as a rest stop.

'Not even Robb Stark's wolf is that size,' Jaime puffed. 'I think our waiting-around-til-night-fall plan has been somewhat compromised.' He picked up the pack on the ground that he'd rested his head on. The remainder of their gear had been strapped to Sooty. 'Come on,' he turned to the girl, where she stood in the clearing. Seeing her face, he rolled his eyes. 'Oh, don't even.'

'Sooty is my horse, she's saved my life before. A lot of times, actually. She was here just now, we heard her. We need to find her!'

'The horse is not stupid, she's seen the size of that wolf and run for it. I'm with her.'

'Think for just a... Jaime, please,' the girl begged. 'It's too early, there's still too much traffic. And Sooty'll come back, I know she will.'

'You don't know anything,' he said, and his eyes looked sad, but hard. 'Nothing.'

She felt herself anger again. 'What is with your reckless bullshit? Patience is a virtue, fool!'

'Oh!' Jaime mocked, pulling a sorry-what-was-I-thinking face. 'Is that up there with silence? Because I have sat alone in a cage, chained to a stake, for seven months; I think I've practised the virtues of patience and silence long enough to make me a damn saint. So, my dear girl,' he adjusted the pack on his shoulder, 'You can stay here and commit suicide waiting for your beloved horse to your heart's content. I have a life to get on with.' He turned and with surprising agility for someone with his hands in chains, ran off lightly down the slope, angling towards the road that led onto the bridge. His boots skidded a little as he negotiated the steep gradient. Within seconds the top of his head was gone from view down the ridge.

Fuck off then! the girl thought bitterly. A pain stabbed in her ribcage. Her chest felt tight. Taking my pack too, what little is in there. You won't get far in daylight, with any luck someone will pick you up and return you to the cage where you belong. You treacherous, blackguarded, fucking arse. She looked back into the trees, half-expecting a monster wolf to prowl forth and rip her to shreds. She'd almost welcome it as an improvement to her day. But all was still. Sooty was nowhere to be seen or heard, either.

She dithered, holding the bow loosely, then took the arrow from it and stuck it back in her belt. She walked further up the hill, searching the ground for hoof prints. Her heart pounded from running and heightened emotion, she couldn't focus. She didn't dare whistle, not so close to that creature in the forest. As she tried to gather her whirling thoughts into some sense of order, the sound of hoof beats came from the road below and she looked over hopefully.

But it wasn't Sooty. Three men in dirty black coats, hoods pulled low over their faces, were riding towards the bridge. She recognised them immediately as outlaws. And not the good kind, the bend-the-rules but still have basic humanity, kind. These men were brutal miscreants who would disembowel a child for a loaf of bread and not even be hungry. She'd crossed paths with them before, and survived to tell the tale, mainly thanks to Sooty. But now Sooty was gone, she was losing her mind, and the one who was going to find himself right dead in the path of these particular felons was Jaime.

'Fuck,' the girl cursed, out loud. 'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!' She took out the arrow again, set it in the bow, and ran down the hill to the bridge.