They had ridden for hours before it had started to rain, causing Sandor to curse out loud. Sansa couldn't help but let out a small giggle when he did so. "Find this funny do ya little bird?" He glanced over at her.

She shook her head with a frown, "not particularly, but you need not get so angry over something we cannot control." She then looked away from him, turning her attention to their surroundings, they both had been looking for anything that could be used as shelter from the rain. It had been coming down hard and they both were already completely soaked.

Suddenly Sandor grabbed the reigns of Sansa's horse causing her to gasp slightly. She turned her attention to him as he halted both of their horses. "A cave little bird." He then pointed, but Sansa did not see the cave, she looked at him in confusion. He quickly dismounted from Stranger and moved to her, placing his hands to her hips he helped her dismount as well. "Follow me, and stay close"

He then took the reins of both horses into one of his hands, his sword in the other as he led her through a large group of trees. Sansa staying close as they walked, her hand instinctively had moved to the dagger hidden beneath her cloak. Once they had moved through the trees she finally saw the cave entrance that he had seen before. "How did you see this from the road?" She looked up at him curiously.

"Hush little bird." He then grabbed her waist again, this time placing her on top of Stranger. "I'm going to make sure there is no one in there, Stranger will protect you if anyone comes, but keep that dagger ready until I return." He then moved quickly into the cave as Sansa started looking around nervously.

She only had to wait a couple of minutes before he reappeared from inside the cave. "It seems clear, but very dark so it is hard to see in there." He then placed his hands on her waist again, helping her off of Stranger.

"I can make us a fire." She smiled up at him then moved to the entrance of the cave. Quickly she was able to find a large enough branch that seemed to have stayed dry. Using her dagger, she ripped the bottom part of her dress which had somehow managed to stay mostly dry. She quickly wrapped it around the branch then gathered up some dry leaves and smaller twigs that were in the entrance of the cave. Once she was finished with the makeshift torch she handed it to him for a moment. She then looked around a moment, moving into the cave a bit more before finding two large enough rocks. She then took the torch from Sandor again and laid it on a dry spot in the cave. After multiple attempts, Sansa was able to get a spark large enough to ignite the dry leafs on the torch. She quickly lifted it from the ground with a smile. "And people think I'm useless!" She giggled a bit and looked to Sandor who seemed frozen to the spot.

He stared at the flames as they grew on the torch his little bird had made, his greatest fear now being held by what he considered his greatest weakness. Slowly he nodded, taking the reins of both the horses again to lead them into the cave as well. Sansa now leading the way until they reached a large cavern. Sandor found a place he could tie down both horses, keeping them a safe distance from each other before he moved towards Sansa. He saw her eyeing something in the center of the large cavern.

"Looks as if we are not the first to have discovered this cave." She pointed towards the remains of a long ago discarded fire pit. Still holding the makeshift torch, she moved towards it, letting out a small sigh as she noticed it still had a large amount of wood in it. "And such luck for us, as any wood outside will be too wet." She smiled over at him as she moved the torch down into the wood, letting it slowly catch fire." With a sigh again, she then removed her cloak, laying it out on some rocks near the fire to let it dry.

Sandor couldn't help but watch her in amazement, the spoiled girl from Kings Landing truly had grown up. He had no idea she knew how to light a fire, yet alone how to build a torch. His eyes then raking over her body as she removed her cloak, her dress which was also soaked had been clinging to her body, showing every curve, proving that she was indeed a growing woman. He quickly shook his head and turned away, grabbing their packs from the horses so that they could find some dry clothes for themselves, though his armor had protected most of his clothing.

"Here little bird, go on and change." He handed her the pack that held all of her clothing then moved to sit, his back to her so that he could give her the privacy she needed to change.

She smiled taking the pack and setting it down. Rummaging through it she pulled out a plain grey dress from it. She then looked to him, seeing he still had his back to her she quickly removed her soaked dress and replaced it with her dry one. Thankful that the laces were on the side of this one so that she could tie it quickly. Once she was dressed, she placed her wet dress next to her cloak to dry. "You can turn around now." She smiled at him as she sat down next to the fire. "You should probably change as well." She looked at him a moment before giving him the same respect and turned her back to him.

Sandor quickly pulled a dry tunic and breeches from his pack, realizing that his armor would be difficult to remove without some assistance. "Little bird…" he turned to her and waited for her to look up to him. "Could you?" He looked down to his armor.

Sansa quickly stood with a laugh, "oh yes, of course." She quickly moved to his side and helped him with his armor, again remembering back to when she would help her brother Robb with his back in Winterfell.

With the help of his little bird, Sandor was quick to remove his armor. And once she had returned to sit by the fire with her back to him, he quickly changed into dry clothes before moving to sit next to her. Once she heard him move to her, she turned again with a smile but did not say anything.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" He nodded towards the fire.

"My father…" She looked to the flames sadly, "Winterfell is colder than Kings Landing. And though we had the hot spring water flowing through the walls, there were nights that it was not enough to keep us warm. We could not always depend on our servants to build our fires, so our father taught each of us how to do it on our own." Her eyes never left the fire as she spoke, there were times that she missed her father more than anything, sometimes in the night she would relive his execution, and she would watch him die before her eyes all over again.

Sandor could see the sadness in her eyes, he wanted nothing more than to take her into his arms and hold her right then. "Good man…" he looked to her, "he didn't keep ya completely useless."

Sansa shot a look of anger at him, "useless? If it wasn't for me you would be dead right now!" She was infuriated with him, after everything she had done for him, he still looked at her as the spoiled brat in Kings Landing. "You judge me just because of who I am and how I was raised, but you know nothing of me. And the girl you knew in Kings Landing is long dead, she died with her mother." She then looked away from him, gazing into the flames once again.

Sandor let out a long sigh, he hadn't meant to insult her, and now she was angry with him. "I didn't mean it that way little bird." He reached out, taking her chin into his large hand to turn her head to face him. "You're a survivor, I knew that. If you weren't you would have died in Kings Landing, you would have given into that lil' shit Joffrey. But you fought back." His thumb moved to wipe away a stray tear that had fallen down her cheek.

She looked up at him as he had made her face him, the look in his eyes was unreadable. She didn't understand him at times, even after all the time they had spent together. She nodded slightly, letting out a small sigh as he released her chin. He then pulled out some bread and cheese for them as well as a skin of wine. They both then ate in complete silence, each letting their minds wander on each other.

"Damn this rain!" Ser Lothor cursed to the skies but continued riding, though his paced had slowed. He had been following fresh horse tracks but the rain was quickly washing them away. But he wasn't going to let the rain stop him. He would find Sansa Stark and kill anyone who stopped him, but he would not be taking her back to Baelish. "Don't worry my Lady, you'll be where you belong soon."

(((I wanted to say thank you to all my readers and thank you for all the reviews! I hope you guys keep enjoying and I will do my best to keep chapters coming each night!)))

~~HUGGLES~~