"You know, sometimes I hate you so very much," Ryssa said to Aidan with a look of disdain on her face. The large crimson bird simply looked at her with a deadpan look in her golden eyes. Ryssa swore, sometimes, the bird was just too human. Sighing, she opened the window and Aidan immediately flew out and into the woods, probably to hunt some more before they have to leave.
Ryssa closed the window and went to her vanity. Most of her thing were already all packed away in her trunk or in her saddle bags and not much was left. Brushing her scarlet hair, Ryssa styled it into a waterfall braid before putting a small traveling amount of kohl around her eyes. Putting her brush and kohl back into her trunk and locking its lock, she turned to her bed to put on the clothes she put out the night before.
Quickly slipping into a pair of brown leather breeches and black leather boots, Ryssa carefully stepped into her light blue traveling dress with a high neckline, tight sleeves and a flowing skirt that enabled her to straddle a horse without showing her legs. Packing away her nightgown, she strapped her daggers on a belt around her hips and proceeded to lug her trunk all the way to the wagons in the yard.
Somewhere, half way to the yard, she was stopped by a, yet again, brooding Jon. He was just coming downstairs from what seemed to be the direction to Bran's room. He must have been saying his goodbye to his little brother and that could not have ended well considering Lady Stark was still in her son's room as she had been ever since the boy feel off that blasted tower.
"What are you doing with that?" he asked looking at the large trunk she had just hauled down the stairs, very narrow stairs, mind you.
Ryssa shot him a sarcastic look. "Oh, you know, picking wildflowers. What the hell does it look like I'm doing?!"
"Trying to throw out your back would be my best guess."
Narrowing her eyes she gave a sarcastic laugh. "Very funny. Now, make yourself useful and help me with this." She gestured to the other handle of the trunk and he listened. Pulling up the heavy trunk, the two slowly made their way to the wagons.
There was noise and people everywhere you looked, wagons getting loaded, horses getting harnessed and saddled. A light snow had begun to fall. Ryssa could feel it caressing the skin of her face. Everyone was in an uproar to be off.
Hefting the trunk onto one of the wagons, Rysa turned to thank Jon for his help when she saw a dark look cross his eyes.
"Are you alright?" she asked feeling a little worried about her friend.
Jon just shook his head and told her it was nothing when Robb approached them, Grey Wind at his heels, looking every bit the Lord he would become once his father and sisters left Winterfell. It seemed that Bran's accident and his mother's depression had made him grow up a lot and become stronger.
"Uncle Benjen is looking for you," he told Jon. "He wanted to be gone an hour ago."
"I know," Jon said. "Soon." He looked around at all the noise and confusion. "Leaving is harder than I thought," he said.
"For me too," Robb said. He looked at Ryssa. "What about you, Ryssa?"
She shrugged. "It never gets any easier," she admitted. "No matter how many times you leave, it still hurts like the first time. There's no place like home." She hugged her arms even though she wasn0t the least bit cold in her light clothes and the light snow. Forgehammer was still much colder that the yard she was standing in. "Well, I am going to get my horse ready and I'll see you," she gestured at Robb. "later to say 'Goodbye'." She walked away and into the stable.
Wynter was inside his stall, patiently waiting for Ryssa when she came in. In a matter of minutes, she had the humongous beast saddled and was leading him into the yard. The large stallion stomped his feet a little at all the noise but calmed down immediately as Ryssa put her hand on his neck.
"You and I," she told the black stallion. "We have a long way from home to go." Wynter huffed and nuzzled the junction between her neck and shoulder. She was about to go and find Robb to say goodbye when a voice called out to her.
"Good morning, Lady Ryssa," the voice of Tyrion Lannister said from behind her.
Turning around, Ryssa dropped into a quick courtsey and gave the little lord a smile. "Good morning to you as well, Lord Tyrion." He was already seated on his horse so she didn't need to look down to speak to him. Ryssa preferred to maintain eye contact with the person she was speaking to. "Are you excited about returning to the South?" she asked sincerely. All she had heard from the Southerners was how cold they were and how they missed the sun and its warmth.
"I am not going to the South," he said. "I thought of paying a visit to the Wall first. What do you think?"
"I think it is a wonderful idea. The Wall is, after all, the greatest structure ever built in this world and is most certainly worth seeing. The view from the top is like no other in the world." A smile spread on her face as she spoke. The Wall only served to remind her of home which was not so far from it.
"You have been there once, my lady?"
Ryssa nodded. "As a matter of fact, yes, I have, more than once to be exact. The first time I had gone to the Wall, I was merely six and it looked enormous. Later, I grew up and it stayed the same." From the corner of her eye she spotted Robb, he must have finished his conversation with Jon, so she excused herself from Tyrion and made her way through the crowd to Robb.
"Hello again," she said when she stopped behind him.
"Oh, hey." Grey Wind started wagging his tail like a dog.
Ryssa smiled and put her free hand, she was holding Wynter's reins with the other one, on her hip. "Hay is for horses," she taunted. Wynter snorted which earned him a small slap on his muzzle. "Oh, hush you!" Ryssa told the black horse.
Robb laughed a little at her 'conversation' with the horse. "Sometimes I believe you think that horse is a human," he told her.
"You'd be surprised," she retorted. "The more time I spend with him, the more I believe he is just jealous of the attention I don't give him when I'm talking to other people." She looked at the huge horse that was sniffing Grey Wind while the lupine did the same.
"Who knows," Robb said. "Perhaps he is in love with you." She raised one of her black eyebrows at him.
"Yes, and pigs can fly and dragons are not extinct," she said.
"I am completely serious!" Robb defended himself.
"Anyhow," Ryssa continued. "I'm going to miss you and your odd comments." She hugged him and felt his arms wrap around her waist. "You better learn how to dance properly by the time I come back," she threatened. "I won't be tolerating you stepping on my feet no more."
Ryssa felt him smile against her covered neck. "Is that a promise, Lady Phoenix?" She tightened her arm around his neck a little before letting him go and, in one fluid motion, mounting her horse before looking down at him with a smirk.
"Perhaps it is, Young Wolf," she said before urging Wynter into a slow canter to catch up with Lord Starks horse that was at the head of the colon. Still, before she exited the gates Ryssa turned to looked over her shoulder to see Robb still standing in the yard with Grey Wind at his feet like a faithful shadow, waving at them in goodbye. With a smile, Ryssa waved back at him. She was truly going to miss him and his clumsy feet, she thought to herself.
...
Saying goodbye to Jon was more difficult than saying goodbye to Robb. She was close to both boys but she and Jon had always been closer than she and Robb. With Robb, mostly everything was a joke and fun, Ryssa teaching him to dance, albeit with little to no success, Robb trying to teach her to wield a sword before realizing she was more adept with the blade than he was... It was always fun, games and laughs. Not even Theon's sexist comments could dampen the mood and she always had a witty answer ready for the Ironborn.
Jon was different. True, he was ready for the occasional joke and they had done some pranks on the other members of Stark household, but Jon had always been more serious and grown up than Robb. The conversations he and Ryssa led were mostly serious and deep themes. Half the time, Ryssa was left confused about what they were talking. Often Jon asked her about the Wall, the Night's Watch, her home, but, mostly, the Wall and the Black Brothers. It must have been so because he was on his way, now, to join them.
Ryssa was riding next to Jon, Ghost ever so faithfully following his master while Aidan flew high in the air above them, only a small shadow on the ground as any indication of the bird's presence.
"I'm going to miss you and our conversations in King's Landing," she told him suddenly. She kept her fingers buried in Wynter's luscious black mane since her fingers started to ache a little from gripping the reins too tight in hopes they would stop the tears from flowing down her cheeks and leaving trails of kohl on her pale skin.
She heard Jon sigh from her side. "I'll miss them too, Ryssa. Who's going to tell me to stop brooding when I get to Castle Black," he said with a small smile making her crack one of her own.
"Ture," she agreed. "You can be extremely annoying with the way you brood."
"Yes, you told me so once before. What was it that you called me that one time? That I am worse..." he started.
"... than a woman on her moon's blood!" they finished at the same time before laughing.
"You are incorrigible, you know that?" Jon told her when they had stopped laughing, a smile still on his face.
"I know," she said with pride. "It's all a part of my charm." She jutted her chin up with a smirk on her lips.
"If you say so," Jon teased her. Ryssa knew he was teasing. She wasn't blind; she could see the small smile on his lips and hear the teasing in his voice.
...
It was finally up to Ryssa to say farewell to Jon. He had already said his goodbyes with his father; all that was left was her.
They were at a crossroads, one road led South to King's Landing, the other led North to the Wall. Ryssa was still on Wynter, the top of her head only half an inch above Jon's due to Wynter's sheer size.
They stood there in silence for a few moments before Ryssa let out a small sigh and leaned down in her saddle taking Jon's face in her hands kissing him deeply without warning. She tried not to think of the feeling of his lips against hers and the feel of the small stubble that was growing on his cheeks under the soft skin of her bare hands. After a minute or so, she let go of him and straightened in her saddle, a small blush playing at her pale cheeks while his face was the colour of a ripe tomato.
"W-Wh-what was that for?" he stuttered.
With a small smirk, Ryssa shrugged and proceeded to ride back to the rest of her party. As an afterthought, she waved to Jon over her shoulder and yelled back: "See you soon! Don't anything I wouldn't do!" She rode to Tyrion's side trying hard not to think about the way her lips were still tingling. When Tyrion smiled at her and looked like he was about to comment on her actions before she cut him off.
"Say one word," she threatened. "and I'll make a eunuch of you, savvy?" Tyrion feigned innocence and pretended to lock his mouth as to not say anything.
AN: So, I managed to get over the writer's block somehow and finished this chapter. Just a small FYI, I suck a little when writing anything that resembles fluff remotely so, please do forgive me for my embarrassment a little earlier.
I decided not to write the scene where Lady gets killed purely because Ryssa can be a very unpredictable character and I honestly have no idea how to incorporate her into that part of the story so I'll just have to skip over it and go back to it via small and random flashbacks.
In the next chapter, they should already be in King's Landing and I was thinking of finally throwing in Ryssa's parents into the whole mix. They don't make an actual appearance but Ryssa is going to get a letter or two (haven't really decided yet) from them so we can get to know them a little more than just mention them as we go by.
As for Ryssa's parents' physical appearance, all I can really pitcure in my head is that Ryssa's dad is this tall man with black eyes, scarlet hair, an auburn beard who wears all black with touches of red and has the voice of Liam Neeson (no idea why, he just does) while Ryssa's mom is this shotere woman with dark brown hair, light blue eyes that are a little too big for her face and who wears earthly colours like browns and greens.
Hope you have a great summer and liked the chapter (please, please, please, PLEASE leave ma some reviews, without them I don't know if you liked what I wrote or not so that I may improve my writing)!
Love you all, angel! :*