A Game of Love

King's Landing

When Katerina woke up, she was excited because she knew that today she would arrive in King's Landing; the long tiring journey would soon be over. Katerina was most excited to see the waters of the Narrow Sea, she had read plenty about Blackwater Bay in books, so she was looking forward to seeing it in real life.

Katerina and Arya both got ready and Arya begged Katerina to braid her hair. After some arguing Katerina persuaded Arya to put on one of her best dresses. Katerina herself wore one of her favourite dresses which was deep green. Katerina had just finished braiding Arya's hair but Arya interrupted her.

"Katerina I have to show you something," she spoke as she padded over to her trunk. She carefully opened it and pulled out a slim, perfectly crafted sword.

"Arya where did you get that?" Katerina asked in awe.

"Just before we left Winterfell, Jon gave it to me as a goodbye present. He had it specially forged just for me."

"It's amazing, that was so kind of him." Katerina said as she wondered over to gaze at the sword.

"I'm so happy- I've called it needle, I'm going to use it someday." Arya said while putting away with a big grin on her face.

"Well Maybe you should get lessons so you know how to use it. Wait, does your father know you've got it?" Katerina asked.

"No you must keep it a secret- please!"

"It's okay little wolf, I will never tell a soul," she replied.

"Jon gave you that necklace didn't he?" Arya giggled.

"Yes... Did he tell you?" Katerina blushed.

"Honestly he wouldn't stop talking about it. After he gave me my sword, he asked me if you would like it. It was funny he was so nervous."

"Oh," Katerina giggled.

There was a knock on the bedroom door, so Katerina went to open it. Sansa and Jeyne were standing there looking very tired.

"Hello, Sansa, Jeyne." Katerina smiled.

"My father says you need to get ready to leave soon." Sansa said.

"Thank you." Katerina said as the two girls walked away.

Katerina shut the door which resulted in a loud echo that boomed around the room. Rapidly, Arya and Katerina cleaned up their room and packed up their trunks. Both of the girls were feeling fed up of travelling and all they wanted was to arrive in King's Landing.

Everyone was ready to leave by late morning, however it took a while making sure everyone was in their own carts. When they started making their way onto the Kings Road, Katerina knew everyone was feeling excited to arrive in the capital. As they were getting closer towards the final destination, Katerina noticed that the countryside was getting more populated. It was also harder getting around as it was more busy, this frustrated everyone especially Sansa who would not stop complaining the whole journey.

The note that they had received troubled Katerina, she hadn't a clue who it was from. The men dressed in armour must have been a clue, however. Katerina didn't recognise the sigil on their cloaks.

Green hills turned into busy villages and Katerina could see King's Landing in the distance. It was much larger than Winterfell, it was the largest city Katerina had ever seen. The round bright sun in the clear sky was warming Katerina- it was much nicer than the iciness in Winterfell. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky- which made everything seem to glisten like jewels.

As the massive group turned into the great capital, there was a small crowd watching. Most were commoners, eager to see the King and Queen, but there was some wealthy-looking men and women standing too. Some of the crowd were cheering and clapping as the carriages went past but it quickly died out when they left. There were only small roads leading up to the red keep and the smell of faeces and urine was filling the air.

Eventually, everyone arrived in the red keep and they were shown to their bedchambers. Katerina and Arya were sharing which made Katerina happy, she liked sharing because Arya was good at telling stories. Once everyone had sorted out their bedchambers, they were allowed to come into the Throne room.

Ned had to go and do some important work, so all of the children were left with Cersei. Katerina didn't like Cersei, she always looked grumpy and she never seemed to smile. On the other hand, Sansa was desperately trying to get the Queen to like her. Katerina thought it was pathetic how she was so determined to be liked by Joffrey's family.

The Throne room was magnificent, the giant throne was made of melted swords and it was over 8ft tall! Although it looked impressive, it didn't look comfortable at all. The roof was so high up it was difficult to see any detail on it and the floor was hard and shiny- it echoed when anyone walked on it.

Arya was manically running about, keen to see every single inch of the hall; the Queen didn't look too impressed. So Katerina discreetly beckoned Arya to come over and with every footstep followed the booming echo.

"It's very impressive, isn't it?" Cersei said as she paced the length before the throne.

"Yes it most certainly is, your Grace." Sansa answered happily.

"What do you think Katerina?" The Queen said slowly while she cocked her head to one side.

"Yes it's wonderful, your grace." Katerina replied cautiously.

Once they had seen the Throne room, Sansa and Myrcella were having a walk around the palace gardens. Arya didn't want to, so Katerina had to look after her. They decided to explore the red keep. It was quieter than the rest of the capital, but you could still smell the strong smell of waste from the city.

The two girls heard a strange wailing sound coming from somewhere behind them. It kept on getting louder and Katerina couldn't identify what it was. They slowly turned around to confront the noise. It was a stray ginger cat and it hissed at them. Arya had a mischievous look on her face and she ran straight towards the cat in order to catch it.

She spent a long time chasing the cat, it was very comical. The small cat was too quick for Arya but that didn't seem to bother her. However, Arya finally gave up and she was covered in dirt and her hair was extremely messy.

"You look awful!" Katerina laughed. "We need to get you cleaned up before anyone sees you."

Arya and Katerina laughed all the way up to their room. It took an extremely long time to brush out every knot of Arya's hair, but eventually Katerina did it. Unfortunately, the dress that Arya was wearing was ruined and it would take ages to wash out the dirt and dust. For now, Katerina shoved it to the bottom of Arya's trunk.

The room that they were sharing was quite large. The walls and the floor were made of a light grey stone and there were two beds next to each other. Between the beds was a small table with a candle on top of it. Next to Katerina's bed there was a big dressing table with a large mirror and next to Arya's bed there was a small desk. Beside the door there was a hearth to provide warmth although it was not needed in the sweating summer heat  of the South. The room was nice and it had a good view of the city as they were near the top of the tower.

Arya and Katerina thought they both deserved some rest before they went to dinner so they relaxed on the beds for a while.