The Dance of the Ocean and Moon [Book One]

Chapter Nine | Brienne

BRIENNE

Brienne's chin and bottom lip quivered as she watched Saga ride away. Podrick walked toward her and stood next to her. He raised his hand to wave at Saga. She, seemingly, smiled then raised her hand to wave back. Brienne did not wave. She was done waving goodbye at her friends. This was twice now she was forced to part ways and did not want to. Not that she thought of Saga as a friend but...who was she kidding? Saga was her friend. Brienne, in her own way, cared for her. "We didn't even get to say goodbye," Podrick said as the gate doors slammed shut. "Goodbyes are for children," Brienne snapped and stormed off to her room.

When she got to her room, she slammed the door and threw Oathkeeper on her bed. She proceeded to take off her armor angrily and throw it to the ground. When she was finally free of it, she sat down on her bed in a huff. Brienne glanced down at the sword Jaime Lannister had given her. After a moment of feeling sorry for herself she got up to rejoin her lady. She had a duty to perform and no matter how mad she was that she didn't have a chance to say goodbye to Saga-she needed to keep her oath.

Grudgingly, Brienne went to join her Lady, who was sitting in her room. Brienne stood outside, to give her privacy. Sansa spent a lot of time sewing, a skill Brienne had never acquired, nor had any interest in. After an hour or two of standing in the frigid air, Sansa emerged and went to meet with Jon Snow in the Lord Commander's study. Brienne followed her and, again, waited outside. This was less than what the perks of being a sworn sword were. She enjoyed it, more than anything she would be doing in Tarth, but on the days where she sat around and waited were the most boring.

Her mind began to wander back to Saga. She didn't realize until then that in the past month Saga had been a great source of entertainment for her during the boring days. Saga noticed when Brienne got bored and she would try to tell her jokes; the funniest part not being the joke, but that all the jokes she knew, she couldn't translate very well. Brienne tried to teach Saga new words, or at least correct her when she was wrong. She spent a lot of time with Sam, the sorry excuse for a maester, and he taught her as well; Podrick pitched in when he could. Saga also enjoyed writing things and drawing things for her; she had a stack of them in her chambers.

Though sometimes Saga could certainly be annoying. It was no secret that Saga liked Brienne, she didn't really hide her emotions very well-although Brienne was sure at this point that Saga didn't even care to hide her emotions-and Saga spent a lot of time complimenting Brienne. She told her how beautiful she thought she was and when she couldn't put it into words in the common tongue, she went around serenading her in her own language; none of which Brienne understood, but it was easy to tell what sort of things Saga was saying. It made Podrick laugh and it made Brienne annoyed.

She had served Renly Baratheon, who was often in the company of men, and none of that mattered to Brienne. It didn't matter who anyone was attracted to; in her book, Renly was an honorable man, and he should have been on the Iron Throne. Who Saga preferred-presumably women-did not matter to Brienne as far as her honor went. But it was annoying having her follow her around all day saying romantic things to her. It wasn't that she disliked being...liked. It was just her past experiences that prevented her from trusting the sincerity of anyone's word when they called her beautiful.

Brienne recalled the ball her father made her go to when she was a teenager and she shivered with disgust. Though there was no reason for Brienne to disbelieve it, she just couldn't allow herself to believe it either; it was a weakness if ever there were. The way she saw it, people were only made weak by two things: greed and love. She wasn't going to fall for it again, that was for sure. But Saga was strong and she was a warrior, like Brienne. She never considered how beautiful Saga was besides the exact moment in which they met but she considered it now.