The Queen's Hound

Prologue.

"Sandor, stop fidgeting, now." His mother hissed at him and the youngest Clegane sighed, the silk collar around his throat ached and he knew how expensive it was because his mother had not stopped telling him so ever since they had gotten it.

They had to make a good impression mother said, their family had been risen from commoners when his father's father had saved the old Lord Lannister by unleashing his hounds to protect him from a lioness and losing his leg because of it and mother had always been certain that if they did more then Lord Tywin would raise them higher still.

And so when invitations had been sent out to all corners of the west to invite the houses of landed knights and nobles to the Rock for the eighth nameday celebrations of Lord Tywin's golden twins, well. House Clegane had to attend.

At least he wasn't suffering alone, Gregor was frowning heavily as he was dressed in a new doublet that had to be special made for him because of how big he was and he looked, like he always did, like he wanted to punch someone in the face.

Oriana looked terrified, she looked pretty in a green silk dress with ribbons in her hair but she looked like she wanted to run as far away from the hall as she could and their father looked almost exactly the same.

They didn't belong here.

Only mother had been the one who wanted to come, she had practically cheered when she saw the raven's scroll that had come when they were breaking their fast and when Sandor's father suggest that it might be better for them to go she had called him a fool and set to making the arrangements without another word.

The doors to the great hall opened and Lord Tywin and Lady Joanna strode through the hall, not stopping for a moment. They climbed the steps to the high chairs and sat down together and neither said a word, the air was so thick that Sandor felt for a moment like he would choke on it.

Moments later the reason they were even here walked the same path as their father had.

They really did look the same, were it not for their different clothes Sandor wasn't sure how you would be able to tell them apart, they both had the same bright green eyes, both had the same mane of golden curls and both even smiled the same as they came to a stop in front of the dais.

Lady Joanna smiled warmly at her children and Lord Tywin rose to his feet and began to speak, though he did not smile. "My lords and ladies, my good knights and loyal men, I welcome you all to Casterly Rock on this momentous day to celebrate the nameday of my children, and the future of House Lannister, so celebrate my lords and ladies and be welcome within my hall."

Once Lord Tywin sat back down the hall was filled with noise and Sandor had to move to avoid getting crushed as most of the assembled guests made their way over to the dais, either to pay their respects to their liege lord or to offer their congratulations to his children and give them gifts, Sandor meanwhile decided to make his way over to the trestle tables that had been set up on either side of the hall.

Sandor's father had told him plenty of tales of how, even when his father had been the kennel master of the Rock, he had still gone to bed hungry to make certain that Sandor appreciated how lucky he was.

And he was grateful for that, truly, but he had never seen food like this before in his entire life! A dozen suckling pigs that had been roasted and stuffed with apples shoved in their mouths, hundreds upon hundreds of pies all with different fillings inside of them, soups and stews, hams studded with olives, cakes and fruits, mushrooms and nuts and Sandor had no idea where to start!

There were flagons of wine and beer as well but he knew his mother would be angry with him if he got drunk and so he poured himself a cup of chilled milk with honey and cut himself a piece of pork pie and did his best to stay out of everyone's way.

It was harder than it sounded in truth, there were so many people and it was loud and it was hard not to get knocked around by people who were bigger than you and seemed to be in their own worlds.

Once someone nearly made him spill his cup he decided to leave the hall, if he stained the new doublet then mother would be angry with him and when mother was angry with him she would let Gregor whip him.

And Gregor whipped him till he bled.

He finished his piece of pie and the rest of his cup outside the hall and Sandor knew that he should probably head back inside but he could not deny a bit of curiosity, when he had seen Casterly Rock for the first time Sandor had thought that it was like something out of a song, it was a mountain but it was also a castle and he had wondered what wonders it could hold.

So, a little exploring wouldn't hurt, would it? He would be back before mother noticed he was gone.

And so Sandor began to slowly walk down the hall, terrified that he would hear his mother's voice calling out his name or that he would turn a corner and walk straight into his older brother.

But he was alone with only the sound of footsteps echoing in his ears as company.

A pair of large double doors at the end of one corridor caught his attention as they were slightly open and Sandor could hear sounds coming from the other side of it, like something wooden hitting something made out of stone, and so he walked over to the doors and slipped through them.

The first thing that Sandor was the tree, he didn't think that he had ever ever seen any tree as big as that one and it was grey and it's roots were spiralling over the ground and they looked as rough as stone.

And the noise that he had been hearing was coming from the other side of the tree and when Sandor turned around the tree what he saw shocked him, it was Lord Tywin's daughter and she had a wooden sword in her hand and she was hammering at the tree viciously. "What are you doing?" Sandor asked and Lady Cersei jumped spinning to face him.

"Who are you!? What are you doing here!?" Lady Cersei cried out, holding her wooden sword out in front of her and suddenly Sandor felt his mouth go dry as he realised what he had actually done, how stupid he had been.

He had been wandering around his liege lord's castle and this was Lord Tywin's daughter, what right did he have to question her? If Lord Tywin found out, if his mother found out, there would be hell for him to pay.

"I-I'm sorry my lady, I didn't mean to frighten you." Sandor swallowed roughly and tried to think of the right things to say. "My name is Sandor Clegane, my father is Ser Wilfred Clegane of Clegane's Keep and my family was invited for you and your brother's nameday but it was noisy in the hall and I wanted to be alone and then I stared to wander, please don't tell my mother or your father."

Cersei Lannister narrowed his eyes at him before she slowly lowered her wooden sword. "I won't tell, but you better not tell that I was playing with my brother's sword."

"I won't," Sandor swore and then kicked his foot back and forth, not sure what to say now. "You like playing with swords? Most girls don't."

"Well I do, but father won't let me, all my nameday gifts have been dolls or dresses and I don't want any of them, I wanted what Jaime got." Cersei pouted and started to whack the tree again, the air of the garden being filled with the sounds of her sparring.

Sandor had never really thought that maybe some girls would like to play with swords, he and Gregor had both been given wooden swords when they were old enough and Oriana had been given dolls and Sandor had never asked if she wanted a sword as well.

He would ask later.

"Um," he began and Cersei turned to look at him. "Our keep's master-at-arms started training my big brother how to use his sword properly and I watch them sometimes from my chamber, if you want I could show you how to use a sword properly."

Cersei stared at him, and then spoke, "My Uncle Tygett tried to show me how, but it was a secret and my lord father sent him away and we still don't know where or when he'll be back."

Sandor swallowed roughly, if Lord Tywin would do that to his brother then what would he do to him?

He tried to think of what to say then when the doors to the garden were thrown open and when Sandor turned to look, oh, it was his every nightmare come to life.

It was his mother, with a dark cloud on her face that would make the stranger run away in terror.

"Sandor Clegane, what do you think you are doing?" his mother hissed at him like she was a snake, her voice turned sweeter than honey when her gaze turned to Cersei. "Oh my lady, I pray that my little beast of a son didn't frighten you and on your nameday as well, I'll make certain that his much disciplined you can be sure of that, you will not need to inform your lord father."

"He didn't frighten me," Cersei said with a frown but whatever else she was going to say Sandor didn't hear as his mother grabbed hold of his ear and began to drag him towards the doors.

But they didn't get outside. "Halt!"

His mother stopped and turned to look at the young girl who had given her a command. "Your son is going to show me how to use a sword, he will not leave unless I give him my leave to go."

Sandor tilted his head to look at his mother's face, she looked torn between anger and surprise that a young girl had given her a command but Cersei did not let up. "And if you don't let him go right now, and don't keep quiet about this, then when my brother is Lord of Casterly Rock I'll have him take all your lands away from you and leave you a beggar."

His mother let him go then and stalked out of the hall and Sandor turned to look at the older girl, this time a little bit in awe. "Thank you, my lady."

Cersei hummed and then held out the wooden sword for him to take. "Show your thanks Ser for showing me how to use this properly, and don't tell!"

End of Prologue


I am so sorry for spamming you with new stories, I promise I do plan to update every story I have going but this idea got into my head and it would not let go until I wrote it down.

The ages are slightly tweaked, I would say Sandor's six on the cusp of turning seven here and Cersei has, obviously, just turned eight.

Anywho, I hope you liked this as a start.

With warmest regards,

DiscordantSymphony