𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 || 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑾𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝑪𝒓𝒚 𝑶𝒖𝒕

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐗: 𝐁𝐲 𝐒𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝

[ CHAPTER X ]

"BY SWORD"
301 AFTER CONQUEST

SANSA

"It's been two weeks, Tormund.."

The Wildling man, big and gruff as he was, seemed relaxed, yet tense at the same time in his corner of the tent. She sat at the edge of her bed, the furs laid out unused as she couldn't find it within herself to sleep yet.

"Two fucking weeks, and what? He's just going to come back like a ghost and pretend nothing happened?"

"He's.."

Tormund hesitated, and Sansa saw it so clearly. The Wildling stopped his actions of sharpening his blade, his eyes turning away from hers as they looked into the brazier and flame.

"Ya brother is working through some shit.."

"Aren't we all, Tormund?"

Sansa scoffed as she stood, and began to pace the expanse of her tent, as large as it was. A winter wind gust through the entrance of the tent, despite the flaps being tied down for the night, it still got through. Sansa took her white fur cloak, the one she had taken to wearing at Castle Black, and wrapped it around herself as she sat herself down in a chair, huffing with frustration.

"He could be dead and we wouldn't even know it."

"I know he's not."

She shot him a look at that. A dangerous one.

"Tell me."

Tormund, it seemed, was short of words, and that hesitation was oh so clear to her.

"Tell me right now."

Sighing, he shook his head.

"That Glover lord sent men to Winterfell. Ben took them out."

"And? I know my brother is capable. He left camp the same night we stopped from leaving Deepwood Motte, I know because I asked around, so why isn't he back yet?"

"I found him, okay?"

His words cut off her rambling in her head as she stared at the man across from her with surprise. But that surprise soon turned to anger as her eyes narrowed at him.

"And you didn't bring him back?"

"It's hard to bring something, or someone back when so much of 'em is gone."

"And what in Seven Hells is that supposed to mean?"

Sansa scoffed at the simple man's riddles, but then she noticed the anger fleeting in and out of Tormund's eyes. The anger, frustration and..pain. Pain, she realized then with near astonishment. Hurt.

"You ever wonder where that cloak came from?"

The turn in conversation both confused and annoyed Sansa as she looked down at the white as snow fur cloak, thick but surprisingly light in its weight. Looking back, she shook her head.