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She woke with a sharp gasp, her chest burning at the effort of breathing once more. She hears the quickening pace of her heart in her ears, as her eyes slowly open. The girl loosens her grip on the sword frozen between with milk white fingers, she pushes herself up to a seated position despite her bodies protests and lifts up the skinny blade to the the beam of light chocked by dust. The girl lowers the blade and looks around, she was on a raised marble slap covered with with cream velvet trimmed with the gold scattered with dead winter roses. She pushes herself up and off the platform, the girl falls forward and hits the floor hard , her sword clattering down beside her.
The girl whimpers in pain, pushing herself up so she was seated on her kneeling legs and picks up the blade. She looks up at the beautiful but faded painting of a girl cloaked in sun light and inscribed underneath was 'Sankta Arya, Sun of the World and Dear Little Sister' The girl did not know what it meant fully but she was sure that whoever this girl was,she must be her. Though this girl had healthy lustreless brown hair and her own was brittle and white, reaching far past her slender shoulders.
She stumbled to her feet as clumsy as a baby deer, then steps gingerly towards the door and grits her teeth to stop herself from crying out from the pain and heaviness of her corpse like body, that is all flesh and brittle bones. Arya tried to pull the door open but it was stuck but not locked to her surprise. She wedges her sword threw the gap in the door, using her all her strength to pry it open. The cold air hit her like a slap but she forces herself to stumble out into the abandoned grave yard using her blade as a crutch. Even so her legs gave out multiple times as she tries to find her way out of the maze of forgotten graves intertwined with the frozen trees of an overgrown forest.
She remembered finding her way to a clearing then darkness. She dreamed of being carried on a mans shoulders, clutching a ragged bunch of flowers and then a flash of a boys smile. Arya woke swaddled in a few threadbare blankets and a mans fur cloak judging by the size. She pushes herself up to a seated position, she looks around the small shell of of a cottage with a roof that was no one than kindling. Arya realises her sword was missing and was about to get up to find it when she sees a man enter. He had shaggy black hair kissed with snow, piercing sullen blue eyes, broad shoulders and was quite tall dressed in tattered purple kefta.
She had a sudden gut feeling that he reminded her of someone but she didn't remember who. "Hey!, lay down your still too weak for that" he tone was harsh but softened when he sees her eyes turned wide with fright. He looked quite in pain as he..thinks she presumes then he says. "What's your name?, why were you out here all alone?"he asks with concern as he crouches down to stoke the fire. She groped for a girls name since she wasn't sure she trusted this man with whoever she had been. "..Nymeria but my mother called me Nan and so are you" she says defensively her voice hoarse and small. He exhales threw his nose looking like a bull. "I am but I asked you, Nymeria"he says as he busies himself by skinning a rabbit. "...I was going to my friends home"she lies badly and chews her lip. "You must have hit your head harder than I thought, there are no villages near here" he says as he methodologically skins the second rabbit.
He cooked the first and second rabbit in silence and she held close to the fur cloak, trying to make sense of all of this but it was hard to when she only had one piece of the puzzle. Once he was done they shared the food in relative silence. She wolves down the meat once she gets a bite realising how incredibly hungry she was. He ate more slowly and kept on eye on her. He brushes his ink black hair from his brow before grabbing the canteen from his belt. Arya took it without hesitation it was a relief to her dried throat, it was heavily watered down kvas. She grimaced slightly at the unexpected taste which makes him chuckle and she scowls at that before handing it back. He takes a gulp or two before putting it back on his belt and they continued with their meal.
After they were done he lays out a mat out of the floor before the fire and goes to curl up for sleep. Her dark grey eyes watch him and her brows knit together as she realises that he'd given her the only bed. "You'll freeze to death when the fire goes out, there is still space enough for you on the bed"she says shuffling across so she was sat on the right side of the bed then pulls up the covers so he can climb in. For a moment he looked like he was going to refuse but he sighs, pulling off his cracked boots and ruined kefta.
He gets into bed as far from her as he could get on this small bed and turns away from her. A bubble of laughter escapes her but it ends in a coughing fit. "I don't bite much, you know"she jokes her voice cracked and raw. "We both need our warmth"she says after a moment when he doesn't move. The only reply she got was a grunt before she heard his snoring. Arya lay awake for hours just listening to his snores and the whistle of the wind that rattles the cottage.
She must have fallen asleep for when she woke she was alone in the dappled rays of sun made by the broken roof. Arya reached up to touch the beams of light and smiled at the warmth on her fingers.
