How To Kill a Flower

Chapter 34

Sansa fell into her role as Lady of Winterfell very gracefully, i was thankful because i knew she would be the better ruler while Jon was gone. Instead of helping her with the majority of the tasks she needed to do, she put me in charge of hunting and gathering food. With Jon going South to gather more allies, we also needed food to last the winter. 

Luckily i had some volunteers to help me hunt instead of having me hunt for people to join me. They were all archers and great shots. We were just unlucky because a lot of animals were traveling South. They could feel danger coming. 

We were gone for hours hunting as much as we could, Shadow and Ghost traveled with us. They were quiet and knew how to blend in with the woods.

I sighed as i looked around. "That's it boys, lets head home. I don't think we're going to find anything else today." I mounted Meraxes and lead the hunting party home.

We did get lucky and had caught a deer, lots of birds and a good amount of rabbits.

We came in the side gates closest to the meat rooms. After we dropped off our spoils we lead out horses to the barn to unpacked them. I spent extra time brushing and taking care of Meraxes. Once he was happily munching away in his stall on hay, i walked out of the barn.

I looked around before seeing Sansa and Baelish walking through the courtyard. I sighed, when will this creep leave my sister alone.

I walked towards them, catching the end of their conversation.

"...Command suits you. The Northerners are all facing north worried about the threat beyond the wall."

I cut in, "So they should be."

Baelish ignored me and looked at Sansa, "I know Cersei better than anyone here. If you turn your back on her-"

Sansa cut him off, "-You don't know Cersei better than anyone here."

Baelish began speaking again, trying to save himself, "I only meant to say-"

I glared at him as i cut him off this time, "That the woman who murdered our mother, father and brother is dangerous? Thank you for your wise council." I finished sarcastically. 

"One of two things will happen. Either the dead will defeat the living, in which case," Baelish sighed, "all our troubles come to an end. Or life will win out. And what then?"

He walked in front of us, making us stop in our tracks. He spoke lowly, "Don't fight in the North or the South. Fight every battle everywhere always in your mind. Everyone is your enemy, everyone is your friend, every possible series of events is happening all at once. Live that way and nothing will surprise you. Everything that happens will be something that you've seen before."

Before we could respond a guard came up from behind us, "Lady Cirilla, Lady Sansa, at the gate."

Sansa glances back at Baelish before walking with me to the front gates to see what had everyone gathered.

A large wagon was in the middle of the front courtyard, Sansa and I walked faster to see what the commotion was about.

We reached the end of the wagon to see Bran sitting in it. We stared at him without saying anything.

He stares back before saying, "Hello Cirilla, Sansa."

With that Sansa began crying and launched herself up into the cart to hug Bran. I followed her lead without crying, i threw my arms around them both.

An hour later we found ourselves in the Godswood.

Shadow had joined us, laying his head in my lap as we sat in silence.