Dance Away My Broken Heart / Podrick Payne (2.3)

12. Brienne the Beauty

'I won't force you to do anything." Petyr assured as he cupped Sansa's cheek wiping at a stray tear. "Don't you know by now how much I care for you? Say the word and we turn the horses round, but listen to me." Petyr begged. "Listen. You've been running all your life.  Terrible things happened to your family and you weep. You sit alone in a dark room, mourning their fates." Petyr egged her on and her lips pursed. ''There's no justice in the world. Not unless we make it. You loved your family. Avenge them." Sansa nodded. 

"How do we get through there?" Podrick questioned. Rieka stared down at sansa and Petyr. Petyr, Gods what had he said or done to make Sansa believe he was the good guy?

"We don't. We go around.' Brienne answered.

"It sets miles out of the way. We'll lose sight of them." Podrick corrected staring back at Petyrs riding party from afar. 

"Doesn't matter. I know where they're going." Rieka whispered. 

"Where?" Podrick countered. 

"Petyr is bringing Sansa home." Rieka answered softly. 

"Home... winterfell." Podrick realized. 

"Only the Starks are not in control of winterfell anymore." Rieka remarked. "The Bolton's are." 

+

"Aren't you getting a bit old to be a squire? How did you end up squiring for the Imp?" Brienne questioned.

" He hates that nickname." Podrick and Rieka said simultaneously.

"Well, he's not here to complain about it, is he?" Brienne countered, Podrick focused on the boot he was scrubbing and looked to her handing it over. She shoved her boot back on her foot.

"Do you always have to be such a bitch?" Rieka questioned. 

"yes." Brienne agreed. 

"Glad we established that. I will stop waiting for you to grow a heart." Rieka sassed. 

"I'm trying to get your sister back-" Brienne remarked. 

"You wanted to give up. Podrick wanted to keep going." Rieka corrected. 

"How did you come to serve the imp?" Brienne repeated glaring back at Rieka. 

"Your funeral." RIeka murmured. 

" I squired for a knight name Ser Lorimer during the War of the Five Kings. One night, he had a bit too much to drink. And he was famished, so he borrowed a ham." Podrick remarked. 

"He borrowed it?" Brienne countered.

"You think you would have asked him this already, we have been travelling together for moons." Rieka remarked. 

"I have been busy." 

"Losing starks, yes." Rieka agreed. Podrick cleared his throat. Rieka tipped her head into him. She didnt know why he was such a kiss ass to Brienne she was always mean to him. 

"He wasn't a thief. He was drunk and hungry and he wasn't thinking. I was drunk too. He gave me half the ham. Next morning, one of the guards saw him passed out, under a wagon, with the ham bone still in his hand. They hanged the man afternoon. They tied the noose for me too, but, Lord Tywin heard my family name was Payne. So he pardoned me, and sent me to King's Landing to squire for his son." Podrick remarked.

"As punishment. For both of you."

"It didn't seem that way. Lord Tyrion was always very good to me." Podrick countered. Brienne shook her head moving to get more firewood.

"Tyrion cared for Podrick." Rieka corrected. "Appreciated him." 

"Yes, all of your lords were very kind to you. All except me. Sorry you have to squire such a nasty person." Brienne agreed.

"Finally an apology but you didnt mean it." RIeka countered. "You have to look him in the eyes when you say it."

"I'm not sorry. You're the best fighter I've ever seen. You beat The Hou..." Podrick stopped himself.  "I'm proud to be your squire."

"I'm sorry I'm always snapping at you." Brienne whispered.

"What was that?" Rieka demanded lifting a hand to her ear. 

"If you wouldn't snap at me I wouldn't learn anything." Podrick offered.

"You want to be a knight, Pod?"

"Yes." He admitted.

"You do?" Rieka questioned. He nodded embarrassed. He wasnt a good fighter, he wasnt a fighter. But he wanted to be a knight, he wanted to be the hero to save the girl, to be someones knight in shining armor. 

"Starting tomorrow, we'll train with the sword twice a day, before we ride in the morning and after we camp for the evening." Brienne decided. "And I'm going to show you how to ride properly."

"Thank you." Podrick agreed. Rieka tipped her head silently back at Brienne. 

"I can't knight you, but I can teach you how to fight."

"I suppose that's more important." Podrick agreed.

"Yes it is." RIeka agreed. Brienne waited for the sassy comment but none came. 

Podrick leaned over the campfire with some rocks. He struck them together until he got a spark, and blew until the fire starts going. He wiped himself off and stood up, walking over to Brienne. He began taking her armor off.

" You weren't a knight, but you were a Kingsguard to Renly Baratheon, weren't you?" Podrick recalled.

"I was."

" Lord Tyrion said he was a good man." Podrick added.

"He was." Brienne agreed. Rieka stared up at the stars, Avalon ran off she heard her howl through the woods and wondered if Sansa could hear her too. 

"But how did you end up serving Renly?" Podrick questioned. Brienne hesitated the memory flooding her.

"When I was a girl, my father held a ball. I'm his only living child, so he wants to make a good match for me. He invited dozens of young lords to Tarth. I didn't want to go, but he dragged me to the ballroom." Brienne remarked. "And it was wonderful. None of the boys noticed how mulish and tall I was. The shoved each other, and threatened to duel if they thought it was their turn to dance." RIeka looked over Brienne again, was she every boys dream girl? Probably not, she knew this story wasnt going to end well. "And whispered in my ear how they wanted to marry me and take me back to their castles." Brienne smiled to herself.

  "My father smiled at me and I smiled at him. I'd never been so happy." But her smile dropped. "Till I saw a few of the boys sniggering. And then they all started to laugh, they couldn't keep the game going any longer. They were toying with me. 'Brienne the Beauty', they called me. Great joke. And I realized I was the ugliest girl alive. A great lumbering beast. I tried to run away, but Renly Baratheon took me in his arms. 'Don't let them see your tears,' he told me. 'They're nasty little shits. The nasty little shits aren't worth crying over.' He danced with me and none of the other boys could say a word. And he was the king's brother after all." Brienne remarked.

"But wasn't he... Lord Tyrion said he was..."

"Innocent little Podrick." Rieka whispered extending her arm and touching his leg as he sat beside her. 

"Yes, Pod, he liked men, I'm not an idiot. He didn't love me, he didn't want me, he danced with me because he was kind and he wouldn't see me hurt. He saved me from being a joke. From that day until his last day. And I couldn't save him in return. Nothing's more hateful than failing to protect the one you love. One day, I will avenge King Renly." Brienne assured.

"But you said a shadow murdered him. How do you fight a shadow?" Podrick corrected.

"A shadow with the face of Stannis Baratheon. I know it was Stannis. I know it in my heart. Stannis is a man, not a shadow."

" And a man can be killed."  Rieka agreed. 

"Get some sleep. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow."