Only A Northern Song ~ Game of Thrones / Willas Tyrell ~

Chapter Seventy Nine: Dornish Nights

Dorne was as stiflingly hot as ever, even if his ship did arrive into the dock in the early evening, and Willas was glad for the seabreeze he wouldn't have gotten had he had his way and travelled by horseback.

It was his grandmother who'd told him to sail, stating that it was quicker, and easier to hide himself and his intentions. He knew though that she had been in cahoots with his mother, who was so determined for him to not strain his leg and make his knee worse than it already was, because as much as she tried not to, his grandmother had glanced to his cane when giving him his travel instructions. Normally it would have bothered him, even a few weeks prior it would have had his temper on a knife's edge, but he'd decided to let it go. There was enough on his mind without adding stubborn pride and resentment for an old injury into the mix.

Uther, for one, had barely left his thoughts. He'd so desperately wanted to take his son with him to Dorne. He might be little, but Willas wanted him to experience as much of the world as he could, as many cultures as possible. Life was not always long, one should strive to thrive in any opportunity. Thst had been his logic anyway, but then he saw the fear in his mother's eyes when he mentioned taking Uther to Dorne. He saw the tears she tried not to shed, saw the way she tried not to let him see her hands shake, saw how she quietly dismissed herself from his office to spend time with her grandson as if she wanted to practice saying goodbye, and he knew his logic didn't matter. Separating from his son was agony, but his mother needed him too.

He missed Uther desperately, and felt a similar way about Honour too. The direwolf had been acknowledging him a little more in the days leading up to his journey, to the point that the night before he left for the docks the wolf was curled up in bed with him. It had reminded him of all the nights he had shared with his wife in Winterfell, or in their war tent, or in Riverrun, where her wolf had bedded down between them, and it made him think that Honour's arrival into their lives had been the addition to make them a true family. He supposed that they would never be a true family again, but then he supposed that was why he had left them both for Dorne.

It had taken a week to iron out details. He wrote notes in code to Oberyn to inform him of his visit, he wrote to the Wall in the hopes that it would reach Jon or Sansa, he made sure everything was right and in place for him to go, and of course, he had to see his sister and Grandmother off to the capitol. He'd refused for Loras to go with them, stating he needed to stay home and look after their mother who could not be abandoned by all her children, and though it threw him into a fit of frustration, he accepted it, and waved them off at the docks without a grumble. They were seeing them off to danger, but none of them could really be upset. They were going for revenge, after all.

Willas was in Dorne for revenge too, something he spent a great deal thinking about when he travelled from the docks by carriage to Sunspear. It was only a short journey and one he was far more used to enduring on horseback, but at least the carriage meant he had time to think, time to prepare for what he was to face, and time to figure out what it was that he wanted. He wanted to see his old friends, see if they could make him feel a little more alive, and he wanted to see the guests Oberyn had written about vaguely. He had no clue who they could be, but if they brought the opportunity of setting the wrongs his family had endured right, then he was more than content with meeting anyone. By the time he arrived, his mind was set on the potentials of revenge, and he almost had to remind himself of the nature of his visit when he felt a rare surge of joy upon getting out of the carriage and seeing the welcoming party awaiting him at the gates of Sunspear.

Oberyn had not come himself, but he had sent some of his beloved Sand Snakes, and they were escorted by their elder cousin, who beamed at him and practically knocked him off his feet she ran to embrace him so quickly. In the split second that she hugged him, Willas recalled the letter he recieved once from Oberyn detailing how his eldest daughters and Arianne had fled Dorne so that Arianne could run away to Highgarden, and had he not caught them and foiled their plans, his niece was hellbent on seducing him and making herself Lady of the Reach. She was an attractive woman, dark-eyed with sunkissed skin, though she was fairly short with her head barely reaching his shoulders as she had to stand on tip-toe to hold him. She was attractive, and would have made a beautiful wife. A clever one too, and funny. She would be a prize for any man.