An Inconvenient Flame [Sandor Clegane]

Chapter 39 - The Consequences

Surprisingly it wasn't hard convincing Sandor to stay with the Brotherhood. He had wanted a purpose for a while now. I had seen it in him when we stayed with Brother Ray and the villagers. For each day that passed it was as if something vanished in him, and he became someone else.

The Brotherhood had quickly proven better this time. They were a lot fairer towards Sandor, me even. Beric and Thoros had backed off quite a bit even though I saw the looks they gave Sandor sometimes, as if they knew something. I allowed my eyes to travel to Sandor again when the thought emerged. He was seated on a fallen tree not far from me. We had taken yet another break, however, my momentarily lapse of ignorance gained me another hit from Elric.

I cried out and stumbled forward when the blunt side of his sword hit the back of my legs. "Come on milady, focus." Elric yelled at me. I grunted in frustration and spun around to face him again. Then I lounged at him, but he redirected my swing elsewhere and placed his leg behind mine. It made me trip. I braced myself with both hands and soft layer of snow rose around me. "Don't lounge!" He yelled at me, but I ignored him.

I was up in an instant and grabbed my sword with both hands again. I swung it at him, but he blocked it and redirected me forwards. Once again, he hit me on the back of my legs with the blunt side of his sword. "Don't go where the enemy leads you!" Elric continued. It had been a few weeks since the Sept. Elric had taken it upon himself to teach me to fight properly with a sword.

I clearly remembered the way Sandor had looked when Elric insulted whoever had taught me in the first place. I'd had a hard time keeping myself from laughing. Elric was luckily much better at teaching than Sandor had been. And I was getting better and better by the day as we slowly moved further north.

The way the Brotherhood worked, had quickly proven difficult to adjust to. The peaceful village life had agreed a little too much with me, and with Sandor even, though he wouldn't admit it. He had quickly revoked back to his old grumpy self, and especially when there were others around. The only thing that had stayed the same was our nightly agreement, we still slept beside each other. Elric had opposed to it, but Sandor had just told him to shut up and mind his own business, or else he wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

"Focus Lyra!" Elric yelled at me again and spun me around. He had grabbed my arm in the process and disarmed me. I stumbled forward in the direction he had guided me into. I stumbled directly into Sandor, who caught me and pulled me back up to my feet before he pushed me back to Elric with an annoyed grunt.

Elric carried the biggest smile I had seen on him for a long time. I watched him waridly before reaching down for my sword on the ground, but before my fingers could even touch the handle, Elric had already stomped on it. It was then I saw my opening.

Instead of reaching for the sword, I grabbed his ankle and yanked his leg up, pushing my shoulder into his gut and making him fall onto his back. I kicked his sword away before reaching for the dagger on my back. I drew it when I crouched down above him and held the knife at his neck and my other had wrapped around the fabric of his cloak. "Not bad milady." Elric congratulated before I took my dagger away. I reached out my hand to him and helped him up, to the laugher of the others behind us.