She talked, a lot. It had started soon after he had told her about her sister. She had been silent at first, her eyes avoiding his again the way they did back in King's Landing. He thought she'd be grateful to hear about her sister being alive from him. Apparently things had not changed as much in his time away that people would suddenly be thankful for the things he did to help others out. No, everything he did must have a dark reasoning behind it. He would never outrun the ugly looks people gave him behind his back.

He had almost snarled at her for the injustice, but right at that moment she had begun chirping, and she hadn't stopped since it seemed.

As soon as she woke she started pestering him with her chirps. He had never been a man of much words and his stay at the Quiet Isle had not improved that. The sound of her voice was a sweet one but the endless stories of her siblings were beginning to repeat themselves and Sandor found himself listening with only half an ear in the end. They were all stories from her time back at Winterfell. He wondered if it wasn't just to keep any awkward silences away or if she truly wanted him to get an interest in the place. For him the whole thing had turned into one big awkward conversation on her part, if that even existed. When he had truly had enough at last he sighed. "Little bird, you need to stop your chirping for a while. Might be there's other besides us here and I don't feel like getting into a fight today." That was pretty new to him. He had always channeled whatever was bothering him by killing some poor bugger. That was his way. But after his time at the Quiet Isle that had seemingly changed. It was just because his leg was bothering him and he didn't want to put it under any unnecessary pressure, he told himself.

At least the girl's mouth stopped running overtime now. And the silence soothed his mind considerately.

They had left the forest three days ago and he expected to reach the cottage by nightfall. It wouldn't do for anything to go wrong now and so he made sure the both of them kept silent.

He felt a bit of easiness return in his bones as nature's murmuring sounds seemed to swell at the opportunity. He liked riding like this the most, though he didn't get the chance for it often. The only other sound to be heard was the clopping of Stranger's hooves against the earth, it's rhythm like a lullaby to his ears.

There was a light snow this day, but there was no wind and for the most part it melted right away when it hit the ground.

He made sure to turn Stranger a little bit closer to the line of trees so that they might turn there for shelter whenever the weather decided to take a turn for the worst. They kept on like that for a while and the snow kept falling in the same lazy pace. Sandor felt his head getting more drowsy by the minute. He had kept watch most of the nights and it was finally beginning to exhaust him, it seemed. If they kept going a little longer they would reach the cottage. He would be able to rest plenty once they reached that. He would just have to stay sharp for a short while more.

He could hear a bird singing somewhere deeper in the forest and the soft sound of branches breaking only a little further ahead. A deer most likely. Although, didn't they usually keep to the denser part of the woods? The fogginess of sleep cleared fast from his mind and he stopped Stranger right in their tracks. The little bird turned her head to look up at him. He motioned at her to keep quiet and she seemed to understand the situation immediately.

It was only a second after that that the voices could be heard. They were soft but very close and getting even closer. It was hard to hear what the voices were saying and Sandor strained his ears to catch more of the voices so as better to identify the intruders of his moment of peace. They were still getting closer and even though he still couldn't make out what they were saying it was clear by now that they were feminine voices.

It all happened real quick then. The little bird tensed and not a second later she wriggled out under his arms as she swung off Stranger.

"What in the seven hells-?!" he hissed under his breath, careful not to let the new people known to their location.

What in the God's names would make the little bird want to run off at a moment like this? She hesitated a moment and Sandor went to grab for her, reaching out from up on Stranger, but just in that instance Sansa dashed forward. His arms grabbed at thin air as she flew away from him and towards the still unknown people. Sandor was dumbstruck for a moment before he set his heels hard in Stranger's flanks and chased after her. Overhanging twigs snapping in his face as he raced alongside the trees in a last attempt to stay hidden. She was almost at the person's location and he heard her shouting but through his own adrenaline he couldn't make out what it was. The people were now into view and Sansa was already beginning to slow down her running when the two women noticed her. He had to stop Stranger hard in his tracks to avoid running them over all together. There was confusion written plain on the faces of the women but the little bird clutched to them like she was chased by death itself.

Unfortunately the two ladies seemed to think exactly that. And no wonder, even though he wasn't wearing any armor his size atop of his huge warhorse was enough to send anyone running. Not to mention his face was full in view and he was still known throughout all seven kingdoms for his scars. As soon as he pulled up right in front of them the pair of women shoved Sansa protectively behind them. It was only then that he got a full good look on them. Both of them had stern long faces. But otherwise they were very different looking. The first looked somewhat younger than the other and despite a look that dripped with venom, her overall look was soft. The other was taller and looked more like a stick to him. A broken stick at that since she was obviously injured. She was barely standing straight and looked like she could topple over at any given moment. Slowly it dawned on him that the only possible explanation for two women coming out of a dark and dangerous forest like this could only mean that they had belonged to the group that had accompanied the little bird when she fled the Vale. By that time it was already too late for him to correct his defensive stance and a face set ready for war.

The uninjured of the pair hissed defensively at him. "You stay away from her!"

Sandor raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her. The woman had some guts but she was all the more foolish for it. He could've killed them all in a blow if only he had his longsword. Of course he would've never done that to begin with so he turned to the little bird instead. She was obviously torn between all the possible turns of the situation. "Little bird-" he began, but he was cut short by the bird's personal talking shield again.

"No talking to her," she snapped at him. "If you've got something to say then you say it to me. But I'm warning you, I'm not patient with tugs like you."

He was beginning to feel irritated by now but luckily just then the little bird seemed to regain some of her senses.

"Mea, it's okay," her voice was thin and feeble but clear enough for all of them to hear.

"Don't worry Sylene I've got this. We'll all get out of this alive," she added more like an afterthought.

Sandor turned to Sansa again and cocked his head. "Sylene?" he voiced questionably, not sure when this alias came into the story.

She fixed him with those bright blue eyes in return, telling him that this was indeed another necessary disguise. Suddenly he'd had enough. Of course she had only talked to him out of courtesy, so that it wouldn't sound so harsh when she would leave him behind. Give the dog a bone now and he won't mind your actions later. But he was determined to not go back to those ways again. He had hoped she would've appreciated how he was trying to change. He fluidly jumped off of Stranger and took a step towards the closely put together women.

"Not a step closer!" the defensive one annoyingly said as she held out her arms wide as to literary form a shield. Sandor's temper only rose with that. He grabbed one of the outstretched arms and yanked it upward to clear the path to the little bird. "I'm just trying to make things clear for two seconds over here and then I'll be gone. So quit our useless defenses and let me through or I'll let myself through, believe that." The eyes staring back at them grew wider and filled themselves with fear. He harshly let her arm go and at last stood in front of the little bird.

"Look, if you want to continue on with these two here I can understand. I won't try to follow you. But you could've just bleeding well have told me when you'd had enough of me and planned your path to freedom. I could've saved you the running," he icily told her. Her blue eyes still fixed upon him. "Just know that I would've kept you safe this time." And then he turned and stomped off, he desperately needed to smash something to pieces. Every ounce of self-taught restrain quickly unraveling at the foolish things he went through for a buggering girl that had never wanted him around after all.

He was going to need to sit this one out at the Quiet Isle, before he would fall into old habits again.

Hey guys! I survived project week so things will get a little easier from now on. During this time I've been stuck for a really long time on this chapter and I really hadn't had any time to write next to all the other stuff I had to do. Luckily though, inspiration decided to hit this weekend and I've already set out the next chapters so the weekly updates will continue on as they always do for now.
I hope you enjoy this chapter and please review if you feel like it :)