No matter what you think this takes place after she wakes up in chains. This will probably remind you of the scene with Reek or not. KidWinTinker helped create this chapter and I was the one who posted it onto my story. Please read and review.

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Elva woke up to a haze of sunlight gently forcing their ways past her shut eyelids. She was doing her best to stay asleep, as if she somehow knew that the world she was currently thinking of was a lot happier than the inevitable cruelty of the world that awaited her on the other side.

Nonetheless, it was inevitable after all and Elva found herself waking up, the realization of where she was and what she was taking hold all too quickly for her to stop.

She looked around and realized she was one of the early ones to wake up and therefore one of the luckier ones. The last memories she had had was of riding away to freedom before….

It didn't matter now. She was here. She had heard the tales, the true tales told by Roran and she had no doubt what lay in store for her. She would be sold as a kitchen wench. She would subjugated to doing household chores and pleasing her owner in other ways whenever they required. That part frightened her the most. She knew what they did in Winterfell to those who assaulted children, but that still didn't deter all of them. Who knew what it would be like here, wherever here actually was.

As if to vanquish whatever doubts she harbored over what she knew, the rest of the children were awakened with blows to the backs of their heads by a masked man with a wooden cudgel in his hand. She knew Lord Eddard had once beheaded a man who had engaged in slaving children. She had tried asking her father about it, but he had been cryptic about it. Roran had been more forthright as always, but he honestly didn't know. What a grim time for her to find out.

The man walked around and Elva noticed that he was better armed than most of the soldiers she had seen in Winterfell and even more so than the band that she had spied back in the inn on the road. For some reason Elva searched for a bag of potions around, but to her dismay did not find any. Odd since he seemed just like the kind of person to carry around many bottles which would be strangely colored and often mislabeled.

"Get on your feet, you lot. Don't make me repeat myself. Daddy's going to be very angry if you don't listen." The man was yelling at the top of his voice and he had a higher pitch than what Elva had expected. The children found themselves inching forward out of the cellar in two neat lines.

Elva hadn't been interested in the tales of the maester's. None of those present in the north were. But she had heard of stories, stories of children with the green dreams and stories of other men, who could tell a number of things from the books that they read. Men who could look at a building and name the person who designed it. Men who could listen to a person's voice and tell where the person was born and where he grew up. Other men, who knew things in other ways.

Maybe that was why men were so brave. Because they knew things about the world and they knew what to do when they had problems. Maybe that's why they never taught little girls anything at all. They were scared that the girls would become smarter than they were.

As she reflected on the idea, she looked at her captor. It felt ridiculous that these were the actions of a man who wasn't afraid. He continued whipping the children, as they slowly made their way up a staircase. Elva wondered what the backgrounds of these children were.

Were they all like her? What families did they come from? And what kind of a ruler allowed men like this to roam free? Was this the doing of King Joffrey? She couldn't imagine what her father would do to this man if he ever set foot in Winterfell. Even scarier she realized was what Brom Stronghammer would do. Aggressive man though he was, he was still a man of the North. And it seemed undeniably true that there was something in the air – a tangible sense of righteousness that existed more and more as you went north. Idly, Elva wondered whether the free folk thought that way about the dwellers in Winterfell.

As she reached the end of the stairs she realized she was in an alleyway somewhere. Rats moved around her freely and without a care, and she got the feeling that she wouldn't be given treatment much better than the rats in any case.

Their captor forced them to line up against a wall, in preparation for someone's arrival without a doubt.

A single person entered the alleyway. As Elva turned out towards the road, she saw that it was much brighter than the relatively dimly lit alleyway and it made her head hurt. She quickly looked away and found that she saw spots which didn't go away even when she closed her eyes.

The man approached and most of the children in the line went a little stiff. There were a few murmurings amongst the children and Elva thought she heard the name 'The tickler' mixed up amongst them, but she couldn't be sure. It didn't last long as their captor brandished his disciplinary weapon at them once again, and they quickly returned to their silent, still and stiff state.

Their captor was apparently familiar with the newcomer enough when he removed his mask to reveal a small round face. When he spoke to the newcomer, his high pitched voice sounded even more queer.

"Thought you were off to Harrenhall, you little cunt."

"Been called there by Vargo Hoat himself, believe it or not. What you got here? Bunch of kids that you want to pawn off? You're going to be killed by one of their parents one of these days, my friend."

There was a palpable sense of good news in the row of enslaved children, but none of them were bold enough to make a noise.

"Littlefinger got his start doing all sorts of unholy things. He's well and alive. And it's not like you're doing god's work. You enjoy picking people off and I bet you'd be doing it whether Lord Tywin paid you or not. They should call you the scratcher instead. There really ain't nothing funny about you, ya know."

"I don't do anything. These little fellows do." The newcomer stooped down and with practiced ease picked up a rat and dropped it into a little pouch. "They're always hungry in this part of the world. It's funny how you find hungry rats and hungry people in the same place so often."

Elva shuddered as she thought of what he might use the little rodent for.

"Well, I better be off. Need to get riding. You never want to keep the Mountain waiting any longer than is necessary" said the Tickler, as he moved away from the scene.

"Yeah, good timing. My customer will be along any second."

"Any chance that I'd know the fucker?"

"Yeah, you would. Everyone would. He's the High Septon."