Hear me Roar - English version

CHAPTER 48 - "Seize her!"

               Lady Brienne tells me about her encounter with Arya and the Hound, during which she defeated him, and that the little girl didn't seem to want to follow her. I'm not surprised to hear that from my sister, although I would have preferred her to be safe with Brienne and Podrick. Perhaps then we could have found each other. Would she have stayed with them if she'd known?

               The fact that Arya is alive rekindles a flame of hope that the stories of Theon's tragic fate had extinguished. I'm not surprised she managed to survive this long, even if the odds were against her.

"Do you have any idea where she might have gone?" I ask Brienne.

"None, my lady. Podrick and I looked for her for days, until..."

               The great lady glanced at the squire, as if reluctant to go any further. If they'd found my little sister's body, they wouldn't have kept us talking.

"As far as?"

"Lady Brienne and I ran into Lady Sansa at an inn, my lady" explained Podrick.

               That sounds like good news. Sansa is alive, most likely accompanied by Baelish, who... Oh yes, I see the problem.

"When I bent the knee, she refused my protection and sent me away" continues Brienne. "She preferred the company of that rat Littlefinger."

"Her hair was dyed black" adds Pod.

"Where were they going?" I ask.

"North."

               What's in the North that would interest Littlefinger? The poor little castle he must have inherited is in the Vale, as is his new wife, my Aunt Lysa. And I'd be surprised if that old witch got rid of him. If I'm to believe Varys' tales, she would have killed her own husband if it had brought her any closer to Lord Baelish.

"He may have family in the North" says Robin, trying as hard as I am to find a rational explanation for all this.

"None" I reply.

"Not even a distant cousin?"

"He has no family, he's the only one of his name and his mother was a commoner."

♐︎

               At least, that's how our company was formed. We had a common goal, to go North and save my family. Brienne wanted to rescue Sansa from Littlefinger's clutches, and I was thinking bigger, freeing the North from the Boltons.

               Podrick followed Brienne wherever she went, obeying his master's orders to the letter. Tyrion had given him a new assignment and the least he could do was respect his wishes.

               Arrow spent all her time hunting and lounging around and I'd never seen her so happy. The fresh air was a radical change from the dark cave of the Brotherhood Without Banners. Even though I had to admit, like her, that I missed Thoros and Beric. Those men looked after me as if I were their own daughter. This was probably due to the respect they had for my father, but I was no less grateful to them.

               We were making slow progress northwards, partly because of my injuries. Podrick had learned from the best in the capital, but he wasn't a Maester, so I was still weak. Every time I let out a cry of pain, Robin rushed to my side, so I ended up just screaming in my head. There was no point in worrying him, we already had enough problems.

               The second reason was the cold. The further we climbed up the map, the deeper the snow became. Winter was well and truly here. Soon, we were discovering a snow-covered Winterfell.