The Forest Child {Sandor Clegane Story}

Guilt

Natari and Sandor continued on their journey towards Winterfell. Natari had not told Sandor any more of what happened to her in the free cities, but told him what Lady Stark had said with her dying breath. They could not trust the Boltons. This only urged on their quest more, thinking of Arya and praying she had not returned home.

The pair had been sleeping and camping outside, but the further north they travelled the harder this became. Finally they had no choice but to search out Inns which would be safe enough for them to try. They were still several weeks away from reaching Winterfell when they stopped for the night at small village Inn. The duo had pretended to be a married couple, travelling to see family. The Landlord as shown them a room and arranged for a bath to be filled.

"You take it?" Sandor grumbled referring to the hot steaming bath which sat in the middle of their small room.

"You need to clean as well. Do not think I have not noticed those scars. You are still healing and need to make sure they are kept clean>"

"I'll go in after you then," he grunted and flopped down on the bed.

Natari sighed at his stubbornness and turned to the bath. As she began to undress she nervously looked back at Sandor and their eyes met.

"It's not like it's nothing I ain't seen before," he scoffed.

"But still," she groaned.

Sandor shook his head and moved his arm to cover his eyes. Finally, when Natari was sure he was not watching, she quickly stripped and stepped into the warm water. Gradually, she began to feel the aches in her body melt away, but when the heat became too much she quickly jumped out and wrapped herself in a towel.

"All yours," she shrugged.

Sandor didn't seem to care about using her water or undressing in front of her. Natari couldn't help watch the muscles in his body move as he stepped in the deep tub.

"Don't think I didn't see you looking," he chuckled in a husky voice.

As Natari sat on a stool and slowly dried, she watched as Sandor tried to use a sponge to scrub his shoulders. The bath was too thin for him to move freely through and finally, Natari stood up to help.

"Give it," she grumbled.

With a sigh, he passed her the sponge and watched as she moved her stool to the side of the bath. Gently, Natari began to rub the warm water of his muscular shoulders, paying extra attention as to not mess up his stitches.

"The other man you met. In the free cities, do you love him now?" Sandor asked after a moment of silence.

"No" she replied in a flat tone.

"But you fucked him?"

"I did what I needed to do. To move on and survive."

"And now you are a different woman, no longer in love with a dog?"

Natari slammed the sponge back into the water. "Why must you talk like that? Do we not have bigger problems ahead of us? What is it that you want Sandor?"

"I wanted you," he shot back.

"Yeah, well you left me. I mean, let's even say if you hadn't, and we had found safety at the towers. What did you think was going to happen? That we would marry and I would give you children and live happily ever after?".

"Aye, that's it woman. Get it all off your chest. Beat me with your words like the many times before!"

"Fucking prick," she hissed and stormed back to the bed.