Kissed by Fire ~ Kissed by Steel (MAINSTORY 1) by ReginaRubie

Chapter 26 - Sansa

SANSA

Sansa didn't realize they had arrived North until Aemond patted her hand across his waist, rousing her attention. They had barely spoken during the voyage that had brought them from Storm's End to Winterfell, Sansa had been too lost in her own thoughts to converse and Aemond had seemed to be the same.

She glanced up to his purple eye and he motioned from below them, they had flown slowly lower as the hours are passed, especially the most since the pale sun had appeared across the horizon. The air was chillier around them, to the point that Aemond had become stiff for the cold. He was not equipped for how cold it was up in the air.

It was nothing to the cold of the night of the battle, but Sansa could admit it was pretty cold up air as well. She looked at him questioningly.

He smiled, then turned around and commanded something in high valyrian to the dragon. Sansa had been afraid to face the dragon once again, and in fact that beast had been wary of her, going even as far as to threaten to burn her to the crisp and Sansa had never been quite so afraid before. She had faced all kind of monsters, and all kind of nightmares, but the dragon had been a feat all of its own.

Aemond had stood in between and only when Sansa had shown her subservience had the dragon relented, though Sansa doubted she would forget quite so easily. She had always had a way with animals and it was pretty clear to her that the dragon was like a wary direwolf, staring at you and deciding if you were worth eating now, or later.

The dragon dove down the pale blanket of clouds, thick, so thick it almost made her breathless, but what really took the breath away from her lungs was the keep.

Winterfell rose with the pale colors of grey and azure of the iced walls and roofs, the Broken Tower was still standing proud and the small sept her Father had, had built for her lady Mother was nowhere to be seen. It was a stark realization the one by which she came to the conclusion that despite the rest of the Realm looking different, Winterfell looked much more of the same, though Winter Town at its feet, seemed smaller if not quite. The Wolfswood beneath them looked as vigorous and beautiful as it always had and the Heart Tree towered over the rest of the fronds of the trees of the Godswood, making her heart-ache. 

Home.

Sansa was home.

She breathed her fill of the northern crisp air and felt her own body relax despite its precarious situation.

Home.

Sansa was home. 

The Wolfswood was so big and gorgeous that Aemond had to fly Vhagar in several circles before he found a spot where the biggest dragon of the world could land. They hadn't had that problem with Daenerys Targaryen' dragons, they had been — both of them — much smaller than Vhagar was, and the Wolfswood had suffered at the hand of men during the almost two centuries that had passed.

The bells had already rung, Sansa could hear them from where they had landed, quite a few miles outside of the keep, so Vhagar had been spotted up in the air — which didn't surprise her in the slightest — she knew that before arriving to Winterfell prince Jacaerys had first went to the Vale, and then he had stopped several times in the North, before reaching Winterfell, so she had hope they might have beaten him there.