good dirt | arya stark

two: the kings road

THE PRESENT

Irene stayed at the Crossroad Inn for much longer than she expected to. She expected to leave the next morning, but she realized that she needed money to eat along the way, and she preferred to ride a horse over walking. She stayed two months at the Inn, working enough day and night to buy a horse, and to have enough left over for little bursts of food here and there. That was something Irene wasn't used to, working.

It was the day that Irene was set to leave, and Hot Pie was walking her to her black horse, who wasn't as big as she usually would ride, but just right for her. Hot Pie looked sad, something he usually wasn't at all.

"You're really leaving?" He asked, scratching his hair by his ear. "I mean, you have to?"

"Yes," She said to the boy that had been her family for a short time. The boy talked a lot, but he loved and cared even more than he ran his mouth. "I have to."

"Well," he sighed. "How was your first job? I reckon that being highborn that you didn't have a job."

"I'm not highborn," she responded instantly. "I'm a Waters, remember?"

"If you were a bastard, you'd probably be a Flowers." Irene's mouth dropped open. "I know accents, I've heard them from all around. You're from the Reach, and I knew it from the start. And you're definitely not lowborn."

"What else do you know?" She asked, stepping forward and closer to him. He kept his bright smile on, one that Irene had found harder and harder to ignore and not return. "And how do you know that?"

"You were really demanding when we met. Usually soldiers are that type, the ones who serve Kings and Queens. Mean peasants are usually just plain mean, but you had an aura about you. I've always been good about picking that stuff up, you see."

"What else do you know?" She repeated wearily.

"I've been waiting for you to tell me, but you never did. I get why, though." Hot Pie explained, his smile never dimming. "I realized it when you took your ring off to scoop the horse shit." She remembered that day. It was the grossest day of her life, and she felt like she stank for days afterward.

"You saw it."

"Growing Strong, it said." He confirmed. "I didn't care. I still don't care, I would never care. You lied to protect yourself." He stepped even closer. "You're not Leilani Waters."

She begged her eyes not to burn with tears. Saying her old name would only mean bringing back the sorrows of her old life that she had tried so hard to bury and leave behind. "I'm not." She said, confirming it. "You can't tell anyone, not a soul. Please."

"I wouldn't, never." He said, putting a hand over his heart. "Trust me, this isn't the first time I've stumbled upon a noble lady pretending to be someone else."

"It must happen often," she mused nervously.

"You and another are the most notable." He said, grinning again.

"Who was it?" She asked curiously, wanting to see which lady of a noble house asked him to keep her secret.

"I swore secrecy." He said playfully, but he was serious all the same. "I can't tell."

    "That's fair," She said, her mind going elsewhere. "Are you sure you're going to be fine here without me?"

    He grinned, a smile that was turning sadder by the second. "I was fine without you before, I'll be fine now. Don't feel bad for leaving."

   "How could I not?" She asked, her cold, broken heart turning into a much more malleable rock. "You've been my family, I hate leaving you."

   "You'll be safest in the North, Leilani." He said, patting her on the back gently before she jumped onto her black horse. "If you can get ravens down here, try it, at least?"