Chapter 34 Arya

The clack of the wooden swords beating together drew a crowd of onlookers soon after Arya started teaching Sansa and Jeyne how to fight. They were both quite hopeless, Arya soon decided, neither of them holding the sword right, standing wrong, moving too slowly, laughing too much, and acting like it was a game. After a while she grew angry. Gendry was standing nearby with Robb, and both of them were laughing with several off duty soldiers, and that made her even angrier.

"Stop! Stop!" Arya yelled as Jeyne grabbed Sansa's wooden sword by the blade and the two starting giggling and fighting over it. They stopped and looked at Arya.

"Is it wrong?" Jeyne asked and both Gendry and Robb burst out laughing even harder. Arya gave them a dirty look which quickly silenced Gendry but not Robb. She glared at him and finally he stopped as well.

"Help me teach them or go away," Arya told her brother and stared at him with her lips pursed tight. He nodded and stepped forward.

"You'd cut your hand badly," Robb told Jeyne as he took her hand off the wooden blade. She smiled at him and stepped back clumsily. "Never grab a sword by the blade unless you are wearing an armored gauntlet."

"Yes, my lord," she said, her cheeks turning a bit pink and her eyes glowing as she looked at Robb as he backed away again. Oh, brother, Arya thought, she still has a crush on him. Doesn't she know he's married now? Arya stepped towards them. She took Sansa's hand and moved it into the right position to hold the sword. Then she moved Sansa's body into the right position as well.

"Like this, side face, so you present a smaller target."

Sansa nodded, and then tried to look serious but giggled again and Arya scowled. "Oh, Arya, I'm sorry." Sansa said and then she stood like Arya had shown her and tried to be serious again and then made a scary face at Jeyne who burst out laughing and then Sansa laughed as well.

"You asked me to teach you!" Arya said in anger to the two of them. "If you don't want to learn what Syrio taught me, then forget about it!"

"Who's Syrio?" Jeyne asked.

"My dancing master…I mean, my sword fighting teacher. At King's Landing," Arya told her and then thinking of Syrio made her remember all he had taught her and how it had saved her life more than once. It also made her sad, thinking he was dead now.

"A good man, he was," said Eddard Stark, as he came from behind some men. They all dipped their heads to him and he nodded in return. He looked at Sansa and Jeyne. "You would do well to listen to Arya, girls. What Syrio taught her came in good use this last while."

"Oh, Father, we are safe now, aren't we?" Sansa asked. "There will be no more fighting, will there?"

"Not today," Ned Stark told his eldest daughter. "But no one knows what the morrow may bring."

Arya knew he was right. No one knew what the morrow would bring, ever. The Battle for Moat Cailin was behind them and they were heading home, but they were still a good week's marched from Winterfell. And the realm was still at war.

They were encamped in a barren hilly area off the west side of the Kingsroad and it was getting near nightfall. The days were growing shorter and the air was getting colder as well. They had a few days of heavy rain already and more would come her father warned them. Winter was coming, and there was no doubt about that now.

After they thanked and said goodbye to Howland Reed and his people, they marched north and the army started to go its separate ways. First the men of Barrowton and the western lands began to head home. With them went some of the ironmen prisoners who had surrendered at Moat Cailin. Her father had decided to break them up to forestall any insurrection. Each great house would take two or three prisoners, and hold them until Balon Greyjoy bent the knee once more.

Then the day after the march started they met the very fat Lord Manderly, riding in a luxurious wagon, with a strong escort of knights and men, and with many supply wagons behind them. The knights and men were for the three towers of Moat Cailin as was some of the food, and they continued south after a short rest. The rest of the food was for the fat lord and the remains of the Stark army and they were glad to have it. That night they had a nice feast, but during it there was some tension between lords Bolton and Manderly. Arya had heard something about Bolton's base born son and the Hornwood lands, but did not understand it all. They stayed put for two days as her father tried to settle this issue, and eventually both Bolton and Manderly seemed satisfied with what her father told them and Manderly returned to White Harbor.

It was during this pause in their journey that Gendry finally got around to asking her about what she had said to him back when he went off north to help them take Moat Cailin. They were walking through some tall grass just outside camp, near nightfall, trying to find Nymeria, who had wandered off. Arya could sense she was nearby and was calling to her but she didn't come.

"Where are you?" she shouted in frustration.

"Can you feel her?" Gendry asked.

Suddenly Arya felt her, strongly, in her mind and then she knew Nymeria was hunting. She had the scent of a deer, in a far off forest and she was stalking it. For a few moments Arya felt the rush of the scent of the deer and her whole body felt like bounding off through the forest to chase it. Then she came back to herself and she was falling in the grass. Gendry was by her side in an instant.

"Arya!"

She sat up, smiled at him. "I'm fine. Just…went away for a bit. She's hunting a deer."

He sat on the grass by her side. "You have to be more careful when you go away like that. If you were in a tree or climbing something…it could be bad."

She nodded. "You're right. But sometimes it just happens. I can't control it."

"Maybe you can learn how."

"Could be. Maybe Maester Luwin knows all about it. He's the smartest man I know."

"He's in Winterfell, yes?"

"Yes," she said, excitement in her voice. "Soon we'll be home."

"Good. I'm so tired of traveling."

"Me, too," Arya said. Then she looked at him, and she couldn't help but smile, knowing he was coming with her and would be there every day. She reached out and took his hand and for once he didn't tell her to stop. They were sitting in the tall grass and no one was nearby that could see them for a change. He squeezed her hand back and they looked at each other for a long moment.

"Arya…about what you said…"

She knew what he was referring to. It had been more than two days since she had come back to him and he hadn't said anything yet about this, but they hadn't been alone yet either.

"I meant it," she quickly told him.

He gulped and blushed a bit. "I…I couldn't say anything, not when your family was there."

"I know."

"But…I feel the same."

Arya felt her heart pounding and she gulped as well. She also felt like crying but held back her tears. "Then say it. Say it like I said it to you."

He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed them and looked at her, his blues eyes piercing her very soul. "I love you, Arya Stark."

She let out a small gasp and then flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tight and he held her for a long time. "Don't ever leave me again," she gasped.

"Never," he replied. And then she looked at him, and kissed him once, quickly, on the lips, and he didn't pulled back or tell her to stop, and then she hugged him again.

Gendry stood and held out his hand and she took it and he helped her up and she stood as well. Arya sighed deeply, feeling so happy.

"What do we do now?" Gendry asked her.

She knew what he meant. "We wait," she said. "Until I am a woman. And then…then…"

"Then we have a heap of trouble," he said and she sighed, a sigh of deflation from her earlier elation.

"Yes…a heap of trouble. But I don't care."

"Neither do I."

She looked at him again, standing there so tall and strong. "Gendry…I'd run half way around the world with you if it comes to it."

He shook his head. "No…we won't do that. Your parents would never forgive you and only the gods know what they would do to me."

She knew he was right. Robb had pretty much said the same thing. "Then what do we do?"

His face screwed up like when it did he was thinking hard and Arya let him be for a moment, keeping silent, and finally he spoke.

"We face them, and we do it right," Gendry said. "Or we will never have peace."

She took his hand and squeezed it again and knew he was right, and felt a thrill because she knew that this stubborn bullheaded fool she loved would stay and fight for her and confront her parents and the Freys and anyone else. But she fretted on what would happen. Her father was on her side, she knew, and her mother was slowly coming around, but Arya still had no idea if they would ever let her choose Gendry as the man she wanted to spend her life with. And then there were the Freys. They would be so angry and only the gods knew what they would do. "What if they all say no?" she asked him in a worried voice.

"We find a way to make them say yes," he told her and then she remembered her mother's words at the Twins, describing the kind of man she wanted her daughter to marry, and she knew Gendry was all of those things she had said. She knew she was not yet a woman, was still a girl in many ways, but she also felt something so strong for him she could not explain it. It had to be love, didn't it? She cried when he left her, she nearly died with fear when he had been hurt by the ironmen, and she had stood by his side at the holdfast and on the forest trail as men tried to kill them both and they had fought and had lived.

As they stood there Arya got another powerful feeling of Nymeria. She had made the kill and was eating deer flesh. It was just for a second and her eyes rolled back in her head and Gendry was grabbing her and holding her tight.

"She is feasting," Arya said as she came back to herself. "I think she will be fine. She will eat for a while yet. Let's go back to camp."

That had been two days ago. Now the army was growing smaller and Winterfell was growing nearer and it would soon be all over. But the war still went on in the south and they had had no more word of what had happened. Lord Manderly had told them some more news, about the battle, and the fire cause by the wildfire explosion, and how Joffrey had fallen from the Red Keep into the sea and had died, but that was all they knew and that news was already old by the time it reached White Harbor and then their ears.

"It's getting late," Arya's father was saying, looking to where the sun was hanging just above the horizon to the west under a low cloud bank. "Practice again tomorrow."

Robb took the two practice swords from Sansa and Jeyne and then they started to head back towards their tents. Arya looked at Gendry, standing nearby. "See you in the morning."

"Yes," he said with a smile. "Sleep well."

"You, too," she said and smiled at him too and then he turned and went off towards his forge and his tent.

Sansa and Jeyne ran ahead of them, running and laughing and Arya scowled again.

"They aren't serious," she said to her father and brother as they walked beside her.

"No," said her father in his grim way. "They have had some trouble but have not known it like you have my child, and I hope they never do."

"Some day they might," Robb said and he was getting as grim as their father, Arya thought for a second.

"Then it is our job, my son, to keep the peace and make sure that never happens."

"And what's my job?" Arya asked and then her father laughed and ruffled her hair just like Jon used to do.

"My warrior lady, your job is to make sure your sister and Jeyne learn how to defend themselves."

"They're hopeless!"

"Today was just the first day," Robb told her. "Did Syrio give up on you after the first day?"

"No, but I wanted to learn."

"Then you must make them want to learn as well," her father said. They soon reached Robb's tent and Roslin was waiting for him and he bid them good night after handing Arya the practice swords. Up ahead Sansa and Jeyne found Catelyn Stark outside the tents and by the big table set up for the family under a pavilion. They sat at the table and the girls were talking to Lady Stark and eating some bread and cheese. Arya felt a bit hungry, not having eaten much for supper. As she was about to run to the table her father asked her a question.

"Did Jon have Mikken make Needle for you?"

The question surprised her. He had asked her once in King's Landing where she had gotten the sword and she had avoided the question. She felt that telling him would betray Jon.

"I…I can't say."

"Arya, I'm not going to be mad at Jon. I just want to know the truth of this and you know Mikken will tell me when we get to Winterfell."

"Oh. Well…then yes…he did."

"Why?"

"I…I don't know really. He said he wanted me to have it, a present. I guess it's because Jon understands me, Father. He knows I don't want to be a lady and that I love horses and swords and all that. So…he gave it to me."

"A good thing he did. Show me Needle."

She dropped the practice swords to the ground and took Needle out without hesitation and handed it to him hilt first, the proper way Syrio had showed her. He took it and held it and looked at Needle in the dying sunlight. "A fine blade, a worthy blade for a name. When I see Jon again I must thank him much for this. It saved your life."

Arya was glad he was not mad at Jon. "Will we see him again? Soon?"

He sighed and handed back Needle. "I know not my child. The Night's Watch does not give its men leave to see their families. Otherwise few would come back. And the penalty for desertion is death."

"Then we can go to the Wall to see Jon, can't we? I really want to see the Wall!"

He nodded. "Maybe someday. When we are settled and if we have time before winter comes."

Arya smiled and said she'd like that and put Needle in her belt. Then she took the practice swords and placed them by her tent and then joined her father again. They went to the table and joined the others. They had some bread and cheese, and he had some ale and Arya drank a cup of water. Sansa was telling their mother about sword practice.

"And then Jeyne grabbed the blade!" Sansa said with a laugh.

"It's only wood," Jeyne said.

"You should practice as if they were real swords," Arya told them. Her mother looked at her sharply.

"Was this your idea, sword practice?"

"It was mine," Sansa said quickly. "I asked her to show us."

"Ladies do not carry swords," Catelyn Stark said with a shake of her head.

"Let them learn," her husband told her. "If Arya had not learned how to defend herself she would not be here now."

"Yes," Catelyn replied, her tone softening. "I know. But the war is over for us and we are going home. Arya, when we get to Winterfell you will put away that sword and start dressing properly."

Arya wanted to say no, but knew that would cause a fight and the last thing she needed was to get her mother mad at her, especially since she wanted her mother to grow to like the idea of Arya and Gendry being together in the future. "Yes, Mother," she said like a dutiful daughter and her mother looked at her suspiciously, as if expecting a fight, but then just nodded once.

"Good," she said. "Girls, we have a long march again tomorrow. Eat up and off to bed with you."

Ten minutes later Sansa and Jeyne and Arya were in their tent, huddling down under their blankets. There was the beginnings of a chill in the air as it grew darker and outside it started to get windy. Arya lay on her back for a while, thinking about what her mother said about putting away Needle and dressing like a girl again. She did not like that one bit, but would do it if it meant keeping on her mother's good side.

"What's it like to kill a man?" Sansa suddenly asked from the growing darkness and nothing could have shocked Arya more. Jeyne also seemed surprised and gave a little gasp.

"Sansa! What a question!" Jeyne said in obvious shock.

"Does it seem so strange?" Sansa asked. "We have all seen dead men, more than our share in these last weeks, haven't we?"

"Yes, and I never want to see one again!" Jeyne told them.

"Why do you want to know?" Arya asked her sister.

Sansa sat up and then Arya and Jeyne did as well and they could just see each other in the gloom. "I just want to know," Sansa said. "Tell me, Arya."

"I…don't know. I mean…I don't know how to describe it."

"Oh," said Sansa, sounding disappointed.

"I mean…I was scared, at first," Arya told them. "But Syrio says fear cuts deeper than swords, so I learned to master my fear."

"How?" Jeyne asked.

"You breathe slowly, and remember that they are scared, too," Arya said. "And you remember that you have steel in your hand, and then you feel strong and you say, 'Not today. I will not die today'."

"Not today," Sansa repeated.

"And then…sometimes the battle madness comes. That's what Robb called it. He knows."

"Battle madness?" Jeyne asked, in puzzlement.

"Time stands still," Arya told them, thinking about it and trying to put it into words. "Every little movement seems like it is in slow motion. The blood rushes through your body and you feel so strong. When I stabbed the gold cloak that was trying to kill Gendry at the holdfast, I felt as if I had the strength of twenty men and that I could kill every gold cloak in King's Landing. That's the battle madness, I guess."

"You saved his life," Jeyne said.

"He saved mine as well," Arya told them. "From the ironmen."

"It all sounds so romantic," Sansa said with a sigh of longing in her voice. "I wish some noble knight would save me some day."

As Arya rolled her eyes, Jeyne laughed. "Gendry's no knight. Besides, didn't the Hound save you on the Kingsroad?"

Arya growled. "He's no knight, either. He's a murderer."

"He saved me, Arya," Sansa said sharply, and Arya knew she would never agree with her hatred of the Hound. Arya also wanted to say Nymeria and I saved you too but knew not to say anything about their warg powers in front of Jeyne.

"He did save you," Arya finally conceded. " I still hate him, though."

Sansa sighed again. "Yes, he has done many terrible things. I wonder where he is now."

"Still at Harrenhal, I am sure," Jeyne said. "Guarding the Princess."

"I bet they will go to Casterly Rock," Sansa said. She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "I heard Father and Robb and Lord Bolton and the others talking about it this morning. They said Tommen declared himself king and is now at Casterly Rock and that Myrcella will go there too because Stannis wants to kill her!"

"Poor Myrcella!" Jeyne said in a worried voice.

"Tommen is king?" Arya said in surprise with a shake of her head, trying to remember the chubby little boy who had walked beside her when they entered the great hall at Winterfell during the feast for King Robert. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

"Now Stannis and the Lannisters will fight again for King's Landing," Sansa told them next.

"It's all burnt," Jeyne reminded them.

"Wildfire," Arya said and all the camp had heard the story from the White Harbor people of how King's Landing had burnt.

"They both want the Iron Throne," Sansa said after that and then Arya remembered something that made her laugh.

"What's so funny?" Sansa asked her.

"Something Gendry said, when we were at Harrenhal. He said that all the kings were stupid, even his father. He said that at least one of them should have taken the Iron Throne to a smith a long time ago and beaten all the sharp edges and barbs off of it."

"But…it's the Iron Throne," Sansa said in bewilderment. "You couldn't do that to it!"

"It's just a chair," Arya replied calmly and both Sansa and Jeyne gasped.

"It is not!" Jeyne said. "It's the symbol of power!"

"Yes!" Sansa said strongly. "Whoever sits on it commands the Seven Kingdoms."

"How many of those Kings have cut themselves on it?" Arya asked. "A lot, I bet."

"Did King Robert ever cut himself?" Jeyne asked.

"I don't know," Arya answered. "I think he hardly ever went near it."

"It's so terrible he never said Gendry was his son," Jeyne said quietly.

"No, it's not," Arya replied. "The Lannisters would have killed him if they had known."

"Why?" Jeyne asked.

"To protect Joffrey's claim," Sansa told her. "But that doesn't matter now. He's dead, too."

"Thank the gods," Arya said with undisguised joy in her voice.

"Arya!" Jeyne said in shock. "Your sister was going to marry him!"

"No…she's right," Sansa told her friend. "I know we should not speak ill of the dead but I am glad he is dead as well. I thought I loved him and I thought I wanted to be his queen…but he was cruel and evil."

"Yes, he was," Arya said, feeling bad for Sansa. "Mother and Father will find you a good man for a husband, a true man, brave and strong."

"I can only hope, " said Sansa in a sad voice.

"Like they picked Elmar Frey for you?" Jeyne teased Arya.

"Seven hells!" Arya said. "I hope not. He's just a boy."

"He will be a man some day," Sansa told her. "And he will come looking for you."

"That's what I am afraid of," Arya replied in a downcast voice. Then she cheered up a bit. "But that is a long way off."

"Go on ask her!" Jeyne suddenly said to Sansa, as if they wanted to know something. Sansa and Jeyne both wiggled across the ground on the blankets laid on the grass, while still under their top blankets. They came closer to Arya, soon right by her side.

They giggled a bit and then Arya got mad. "What? What do you want?"

"You must tell us true, Arya," Sansa said in a very low whisper. "Did Gendry kiss you yet?"

"NO!" she said, a little too loudly and startled them. "I…I kissed him. Twice." Well, it was three times but once was on the cheek so Arya didn't count that.

They gasped in shock and then started laughing and then Jeyne was trying to ask another question but couldn't stop giggling. "Tell…tell us…what…what …what did you say to him when they left for the attack? He turned so red!"

Arya had enough of their silliness. "Nothing! Go to sleep!"

She rolled over in her blankets, turning her back on them. "I'm sure she said she loved him!" Sansa whispered with a sigh. "Why else would he turn so red?"

"Go to sleep," Arya grumbled, burying herself in her blankets. Then for a long time Sansa and Jeyne lay awake whispering and giggling and then finally Arya fell asleep.

The next morning was very cold and a bit windy and as Arya climbed out of their tent she felt the biting chill of the air. She pulled her arms tight around herself and then in the predawn gloom she saw a nearby fire with a figure huddled next to it. It was her father, standing wrapped in a heavy cloak and staring off towards the north. She walked over to him, feeling the heat of the fire as she got closer. He saw her coming and smiled, and his smile was warm and genuine and Arya always liked it. She had not seen it often since they left Winterfell some months back and now that they were getting closer to home maybe her father would let go of some of his grimness.

"Good morning," he said as she stood with her arms wrapped around herself. Arya tried to reply but her teeth chattered and Eddard Stark immediately took off his cloak and wrapped it around his daughter's shoulders. It was so big it surrounded her short thin frame with ease and she immediately felt better.

"Winter is here, isn't it?" Arya asked. She had never seen a winter, or at least remembered it, having been born near the end of the last one.

"No, my daughter," Ned Stark replied. "This is just the fall winds. The rains will come, and the leaves will turn colorful, and then they fall, and then the frosts come at night and finally the light snows and then the heavy snows. When they come, winter will truly be here. And may the gods give us time to set our house and lands in order before that happens or we will be lost."

"Winterfell has plenty of food, doesn't it?" she asked.

"Aye, for certain, but no man or woman knows how long winter will last. The smallfolk say a long winter oft follows a long summer. And this summer has been so very long."

"What was winter like when you were my age?"

He grunted. "Very cold and snowy but they were short winters, none more than two years as I recall. My father always prepared us well and the north people are better adapted to winter than the rest of the realm."

"What was he like?" she asked. "Your father. My grandfather, I mean."

He was silent for a long moment and Arya wondered if she shouldn't have asked him about his father. "I'm sorry…"

"No. It's fine. It is good you should know about your family. He was a good man, a strong, proud man, who was cruelly murdered by the Mad King."

"I know the story." She had heard it often enough while growing up from her older brothers and from Septa Mordane.

"My brother died the same day," her father went on, his grimness now settling over him again like the cloak she wore. "In one moment I went from being second in line to Winterfell to being Lord of Winterfell. I was but a few years older than Robb is now."

Arya didn't know what to say so kept silent and warmed her hands over the fire. She knew what had happened next. Robert Baratheon raised his banners and her father raised the North to join him and they went to war against the Targaryens.

They were silent for several minutes, looking at the fire as the sky grew lighter. Then her father touched her shoulder. "Come, let us break our fast."

He walked over to the table in the pavilion where a servant had already laid out bread, meat, cheese, boiled eggs, dried fish, ale and water. Two coal braziers within were lit and glowing hot and it made the pavilion warm and cozy. They sat opposite each other and her father poured her some water in a wooden cup and put meat and bread and cheese on a pewter plate and handed it to her. Arya drank her water and then she placed the yellow cheese on the bread and put a slab of cold beef on top and ate it with gusto.

"We will ride in two hours," her father told her as they ate.

"How long till we reach Winterfell?"

"Another week, maybe less," he replied.

Arya could not help but sigh. "I wish we had never left."

"Aye," her father replied. "A fool's errand I went on and dragged you and Sansa with me."

"It's not your fault." She could see it bothered him still that they had all been placed in so much danger.

"It is kind of you to say so my child, but when a lord makes a decision then he must accept the consequences of that decision, whether good or bad."

"The Lannisters are to blame."

"Aye, and so are many others."

"Who?" she asked eagerly. "Baelish, you mean?" She had heard how Lord Baelish had blamed Tyrion Lannister for the dagger that the man had used to attack Bran and her mother.

"Him especially," her father said, and there was anger in his eyes now. But then his face softened a bit. "But enough of that. Are you going to practice today?"

"Yes. First I'll go to the forge."

He smiled when she said that. "How is Gendry?"

Arya couldn't help but blush a little thinking on him. "He's well."

"Good. He did us a great service when he built that shield shell. We would never have taken the Moat without it. Or would at least have suffered many more losses."

"Maybe you can reward him," Arya said in an offhanded way, and then she drank some more water.

"Aye, I've thought on this. What would he like do you think?"

"I don't know," Arya replied. Then she had an idea. "I'm sure he would like a new set of tools when we reach Winterfell. He had to leave most of his behind in King's Landing."

"Very well, he shall have them if a set can be found. If not, I will have Mikken make him some tools. Also, I was thinking he should apprentice to Mikken for a while."

"He'd like that."

"Then he will live in the main castle."

Arya liked that idea and smiled but said nothing. He father looked at her steadily and she suddenly realized he wanted to talk about her and Gendry and her smile fell from her face as she waited for him to continue.

"My daughter," he began. "Tell me true. Does your heart truly belong to him?"

She felt her face grow a bit hot and she hesitated, wondering what he would say, but she knew she couldn't lie to him. "It does, Father."

He nodded once and there was a slight grin on his face. "Very well. But you know my rules until you become a woman and are married."

Now Arya really blushed, knowing he meant they should have no physical contact until marriage. At the same time she felt very excited. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? "Married? You mean…you will let me marry Gendry?"

He grinned. "If he asks for your hand when you are the proper age I will not refuse him."

Now Arya felt a burst of joy flow through her body that warmed her more than any fire or brazier or cloak could. Then something worrisome made her feel the chill again. "And Mother?" she asked.

"If she refused, what would you do?"

She remembered what Gendry said a few days ago. "Make her say yes. Somehow."

"Good," her father told her. "Because I know you are strong willed, my wolf child. And running away with your man would cause a lot of anger and trouble."

"He already said he would never do that."

"I knew he was a smart lad. As for your mother, she is slowing coming to agree with me."

Once more Arya felt excited but then she remembered something else. "And what about Elmar Frey?"

Now her father looked a bit troubled. "This is a problem. But his father has counted ninety name days and by the time winter is over and you are ready for marriage, perhaps the gods will take him for his final rest. Then I will find a way to break your betrothal. Stevron Frey will become lord of the Twins after his father passes. He is a reasonable man, more so than his father."

As he spoke Arya saw that all she wished for might come to pass and she wanted to leap and jump for joy and cry at the same time. She came from around the table and hugged him tight and said thank you over and over and told him she loved him and he laughed and grinned at her and told her the same.

After that her father went to rouse the army and Arya went off to the forge, leaving behind the cloak as the rising sun made it warmer. As she made her way through the tents Nymeria came loping into view from near the edges of the camp, two wide eyed guards looking at the large animal with their spears gripped tight in their hands. All of the soldiers knew that Nymeria and Grey Wind were not to be harmed and would not hurt them but that still did not help calm their fears when they sighted the two large direwolves.

"Good girl," Arya said to her pet as she bent and ruffled her fur and Nymeria growled in appreciation. Arya closed her eyes and for just a second slipped from her skin and entered Nymeria and with a small shock she saw she was looking at herself. Her still short hair was sticking out and was matted and greasy. Her long face had some streaks of dirt on it, most likely soot from the fire. Her boy's clothes were also a bit dirty and looked kind of ugly now that she thought of it. Gods, she was off to see the man she loved looking a frightful mess! Wait. I'm not one of those girly girls, Arya thought. I don't want to dress like Sansa and be a lady. Do I?

Then Arya slipped back into her own body and with another shock realized she hadn't collapsed this time. It had only been for a second or two, but she had stayed on her feet and had not fallen at all. She ruffled Nymeria's fur again and then he was there beside her.

"Morning," Gendry asked as he bent to her side and also ruffled Nymeria's fur. His hand accidentally touched Arya's and she looked at him and smiled and then remembered her face was dirty and her smile fell.

"I…I have to go," she said as she stood.

He stood swiftly and was puzzled. "Arya? What's wrong?"

She was halfway to turning around and stopped. She couldn't look at him and wanted to kick herself for feeling this way but suddenly she wanted to be beautiful and look like a lady for him and she didn't know why. "I'm…I'm a mess," was all she could say in a quiet voice.

"No, you aren't," he said. His voice dropped to a whisper. "You're beautiful."

She gulped and was sure her face was red. "I'm dirty. These clothes…they're boys clothes. I'm not very pretty."

"You are to me."

She looked up at him and smiled and he smiled back and it made her feel warm inside. He was just as dirty as she was, maybe more so. He had soot on his cheeks and his hair was matted and greasy as well. His beard was growing again and made his face and strong square jaw look very manly. His clothes were also a mess and as she looked around at the soldiers waking up and getting ready to eat and break camp she saw that the whole army was in rough shape, months on the march and in battle making them all a little worse for wear. She had been silly, she realized.

"Sorry…just feel like I need a bath. For about a week."

Gendry laughed and she liked his laugh. "We all do. When we get to Winterfell I will soak for a week as well."

"There's lots of hot water in the castle. There are some springs under it and Winterfell is always warm. You'll like living in the castle."

He stared at her. "Me? Living in the castle?"

"My father said you will apprentice with Mikken, the Winterfell smith, so you will live in the castle with him."

"Oh. Right."

"We can see each other every day."

He grinned. "Good. Be like old times. Back at Harrenhal."

"Well…a bit different," Arya said. "Winterfell is big but not that big. And it's not all in ruins."

"That's good."

"Come on. Let's go to the forge." They walked over to where it was set up and Nymeria followed them. Tim and Duncan were eating their breakfast of bread and dried fish off the back of the forge wagon. Tim gave a little start as he saw Nymeria.

"Nymeria won't hurt you," Arya told him, for the tenth time it seemed.

"I know, my lady, but he still scares me."

"She," Arya said. "Nymeria is a girl. And don't call me a lady."

"Yes, my…yes," Tim said, and Arya knew he was a bit confused by this lady of Winterfell acting like smallfolk. She hated being a lady, but for a few moments back there with Gendry she had wanted to be one, to be clean, and dressed like a lady and smelling nice and then…what was happening to her? Was…was she finally becoming like Sansa? Seven hells!

And then she had a sudden urge to tell Gendry what her father said about marriage. But…wasn't he supposed to ask her? Was it too soon? Was she still too young? No, that wasn't true. She was already betrothed. And that was the problem. Maybe Gendry would never ask for her hand because he knew she was promised to another. It was too confusing and when Arya got confused only one thing would calm her: Needle work.

As Gendry joined the others in eating breakfast, Arya took out Needle and stood off to the side and practiced. She moved in all the ways Syrio taught her and moved like a cat and a water dancer and in her mind she kept repeating his words and found a calm center as she shut out the world around her and forgot about all the thoughts raging inside her heart and mind. Fear cuts deeper than swords she repeated in her head and then with a certain clarity she knew she was afraid, very afraid, of the future, afraid that what her father had promised might never come to pass, that somehow in someway they would force her to marry the Frey boy and she knew her heart would break in two if that happened.

Try as she might the fear would not go away and she stopped practicing and stood still and then she looked over at the forge wagon where Gendry was talking to Duncan as they looked at the wagon's wheels, checking the spokes. What in seven hells has he done to me? Arya thought. It had to be love. It just had to be.

She quit practicing just as a messenger from her father came to tell them to get ready and for her to return to the family tents. She said goodbye and with Nymeria at her side she raced back to her tent. Sansa and Jeyne were already saddling their horses and Arya started to do the same.

Sansa finished saddling her horse and came over to help Arya. "Arya...I'm sorry about yesterday," Sansa said, surprising Arya.

"Sorry about what?"

"About being silly when you were trying to teach us."

"Oh."

"It's just...I know we should learn. I know the world is dangerous. I learned that on the Kingsroad. And in King's Landing. But...I don't think I could kill anyone."

"You would if you had to."

"It seems so unreal. I still have nightmares about that man grabbing me in the woods. How...how do you sleep after the things you have seen and done?"

"I sleep very well," Arya said as she adjusted a strap on her saddle. "Just remember that they are trying to hurt you and your family and friends. Then you will have no trouble hurting them first."

Sansa seemed to think on this and finally nodded. "Yes...I could do that. If I had to. Please teach us again. I really want to learn. And if Jeyne is being silly, then just teach me. Alone."

Arya grinned, glad Sansa was starting to see it was necessary to learn how to defend herself. "Good. You can't learn properly if you don't want to. We'll start again when we get to Winterfell."

All around them the tents were coming down and the wagons being loaded and in another thirty minutes they started to move out. After a while Arya went and found the forge wagon and Nymeria crawled up inside with Tim and she rode beside Gendry as usual.

And this is what they did for the next five days, as the army slowly grew smaller as men and horses and wagons went off to different villages and small towns and to the bigger seats of the lords of the North. It rained on the second day and they all got wet and some sickness started in the army. The cold winds were blowing across the land and then it rained again and again and after the fourth night as the army huddled around fires and tried to get dry her father announced that fall was truly here.

As the fifth day dawned the sky was clear and all said a silent prayer to the gods. The Kingsroad was very muddy and progress was slow but spirits rose as the sun came out and warmed their faces and bodies. The cold winds kept blowing, however, and by late afternoon the skies darkened again, and just as they stopped and started to set up camp the rain came and soon it was a raging downpour. Everyone got wet as they struggled to set up tents in the rain.

Arya and Nymeria skipped across the camp in the rain and they entered the pavilion where her family stood around hot braziers. All were wet and miserable and Sansa had the sniffles and Robb's wife Roslin looked like a drown cat, her hair all wet. Arya's mother entered the pavilion and was carrying a large bundle in a canvas bag. She took out dry towels and handed them to everyone and soon they were all drying their hair. Two servants entered carrying two more bags and Arya's mother thanked them and after they left she started to take out drier clothes from the two bags.

"Out of your wet clothes, now, girls first," Catelyn Stark said and Robb and Ned stood by the entrance and made sure it was closed and looked away as the women stripped out of their wet clothes.

Arya had been naked many times in front of her mother and sister but now suddenly she felt very self conscious. They were both women, Jeyne and Roslin as well, and she was still a girl. They all had women's bodies and she was still as skinny and as flat as a boy. She knew Sansa hadn't had her moon's blood yet but she was tall and getting more womanly every day and she had heard mother say Sansa's moon's blood would come on her soon. Arya had one time hoped she would never get her moon's blood and would remain a girl all her life but now she had the strong feeling she wanted to be a woman and even felt some jealousy as she looked at the others.

As Arya pulled on dry small clothes and slipped on the blue dressed she had worn at Robb's wedding, a shout came from outside their tent and then Nymeria rose from where she had been sitting by Arya's side and she growled and Arya suddenly slipped inside Nymeria without even thinking about it.

She smelled blood, strong and sharp and then she sensed Grey Wind outside and Grey Wind was growling at something and Nymeria ran out of the tent and was outside in the rain. Arya felt the heavy rain drops hit Nymeria's fur and then through her eyes Arya saw a man on a horse and the horse was bloody and so was the man. Robb and her father were there and they were helping the man off the horse. Then with a shock Arya knew who he was. It was Mikken, the Winterfell smith.

"Get him to the maester's tent!" her father was shouting and then Arya felt someone slap her face and she came back to her own body.

She was lying on the wet ground, her back wet, and her mother and the other's were kneeling over her, her mother's face full of worry, Sansa's eyes wide with fear, shaking her head as if to tell Arya 'no'. Jeyne and Roslin were both looking very confused and worried.

"What's wrong with her?" Roslin asked.

"Are you ill?" Catelyn Stark said to Arya, worry filling her eyes.

"No," Arya said as she sat up and they helped her to the table. "I…I…just fell."

Her mother stared at her sharply. "You didn't just fall. Nymeria growled and ran from the pavilion and then your eyes rolled back in your head and you fell and were growling as well. What in all of the Seven Kingdoms is going on?"

Arya shot a quick look to her sister who shook her head once again and this time her mother saw it. "What's this?" she said in anger. "Sansa. Tell me what is happening. This instant."

Sansa gulped and looked down. "Nothing is happening. She's just clumsy. She just fell."

Then Arya remembered what she had seen outside. "It's Mikken!" she said as she stood and then she tried to run outside but her mother grabbed her.

"What did you say?" her mother asked, fear in her eyes.

"It was Mikken! He was on a bloody horse and he is hurt. Father took him to the maester!"

"How do you know that?" Jeyne asked.

"You never left the pavilion," Roslin added.

But Catelyn Stark ignored what they said. "Mikken! Here? And he's hurt?"

"Yes!" Arya shouted and she tried to run again but her mother stopped her.

"Stay here! All of you!" Then with fear in her eyes she left the pavilion and went out into the rain. By the sounds of the rain hitting the canvas roof over their heads the rain was letting up a bit.

"Gods!" Sansa yelled at Arya as soon as her mother left. "Can't you control it?"

"No!" Arya shouted back.

Jeyne and Roslin looked at each other in confusion. "What's happening?" Roslin asked in worry. "Who's Mikken?"

"The Winterfell smith," Sansa told her. Then she gasped and Arya knew she realized what her mother and Arya had already realized.

"Why is he here? What's happening at Winterfell?" Jeyne asked, understanding as well, voicing all their fears in words.

"I'll find out," Arya said as she sat at the table. Then she looked at Sansa. "Make sure I don't fall again."

Sansa looked like she was about to protest but then she just nodded and sat swiftly bedside her sister. Arya reached out with her mind and found Nymeria and then she slipped inside her skin.

The smell of blood came again and she was sitting beside Grey Wind next to some men tending a horse. The horse had blood on its left side and Arya could see two small wounds there. The rain was less now, and was just a steady drizzle. It was washing away the blood but a small bit still came out. Two soldiers were looking at the wound.

"Nasty, looks like arrows," said one.

"Not too bad," said the other. "She'll live. Looks exhausted. He rode her hard. Let's get her some oats."

As they walked away Nymeria and Grey Wind both growled at the horse and Arya sensed they both wanted to eat the horse. She quietly told Nymeria 'no, no, no, this horse saved Mikken, leave it alone' and the feeling of hunger remained but Nymeria's desire to eat the horse lessened somewhat.

Arya looked around and realized they were near the maester's tent. Suddenly it opened and Robb and her father came out with Lord Bolton and the Greatjon and the four men stood in the drizzle and spoke on what had happened.

"Seven hells!" Robb said and he looked mad and that really worried Arya.

"Send a force at once!" her father commanded the Greatjon.

"Lord Stark, we must wait until morning," Lord Bolton was saying and Arya could barely hear his quiet voice. "The men are tired, the horses as well. In the dark and the rain, with the mud and potholes on the Kingsroad, we will lose many to accidents."

"Aye," said her father in frustration. He turned to the Greatjon. "How is your leg?" Arya remembered the Greatjon had been badly wounded not more than a week past and still limped on his injured leg.

The Greatjon grunted. "Ned, I can ride from the Arbor to the Wall if I get to kill ironmen at the end."

"Good," Arya's father said. "You leave at dawn, two thousand cavalry. Surround them, but don't attack. Wait for us. Make sure none escape. I want all their heads, every last one of them!"

"I'll deliver them personally on pikes!" the Greatjon promised.

"I'm going as well!" Robb said and his father agreed, and then Robb looked at the Greatjon. "Leave Theon Greyjoy for me! He has betrayed our family and he will pay in blood!"

Arya was confused. Theon? What was happening?

"They can hold Winterfell for a long time with only a few men," Lord Bolton was saying.

"We will take back Winterfell and kill every last ironmen if it takes all winter," Ned Stark told him. "My lords, get some rest. We will have little chance to get more in the next few days."

With that Bolton and the Greatjon left them and then Arya heard her mother's voice as she came up at a run to the tent. "Ned? Robb? What is happening? Is it really Mikken?"

"Aye," said Robb.

Ned Stark looked at his wife and put a hand on her shoulder. "The ironmen under Theon Greyjoy have taken Winterfell."

For a second she stood looking at him and Arya could not see her face but knew she must be in shock as Arya was herself. Then her mother gasped. "Bran? Rickon?"

"They are still alive," Ned Star told his wife. "Mikken escaped at dawn three days ago but took an arrow wound. They took the castle ten days ago, he said, and many were slain and they cut off all communications. But he said Bran and Rickon are still well. As is Maester Luwin."

"Thank the gods," his wife said and then he hugged her tight.

"Theon is calling himself the Prince of Winterfell," Robb told her and Catelyn Stark shook her head in disgust.

"After treating him like one of our own for ten years, how could he?"

"He was our hostage," Arya's father reminded her mother. "And we killed his two brothers. No doubt his father put him up to this madness."

Just then Arya felt a slap and she shook her head and was back in the pavilion with Sansa, Jeyne, and Roslin all looking at her with wide eyes.

"Who hit me?" Arya demanded to know at once.

"I did!" Sansa said boldly. "You were gone a long time. What's happening?"

Arya took a deep breath and told them. "The ironmen have attacked Winterfell. They have taken it."

The shock of this news ran through the army in the morning and all were up and on the road again in no time, with Robb and Lord Umber leading the last of their cavalry forces swiftly up the road ahead of the remaining infantry and supply wagons. Arya stayed with her family for the most part, seeing Gendry briefly to tell him what she knew. Her father pushed the army to move fast, with them taking few rests for food, camping late in the day and getting on the road again before dawn. All were very tired and ragged and footsore, but many had family and friends in Winterfell and they all worried. The sooner they got there the better.

Mikken was recovering from his wound, an arrow that had hit him in the back of the left shoulder. He had been pursued by some ironmen but he knew the land and they did not and he had escaped. He told them all he knew, about how the ironmen had attacked Torrhen's Square, leading Ser Rodrik to lead a force there to raise the siege. Meanwhile another force of ironmen under Theon Greyjoy had marched on Winterfell and used grappling hooks and ropes to climb the walls and take the badly undermanned castle.

Two days later on a sunny clear day in the afternoon they rode over a rise in the Kingsroad and suddenly the remains of the army halted. Off in the distance they could see Winterfell, and there was home at last, the thing Arya had been dreaming about for days and weeks and months. But now the dream was shattered and a collective groan escaped from the remains of the army. They could see columns of dark black smoke rising above the great castle and the town outside it. Winterfell was burning.

As she rode beside her family in the middle of the column they all stared in shock at this visage and her father voiced what they were all thinking. "Bran. Rickon."

Sansa let out a cry and so did Jeyne and Arya looked at her mother and tears were pooling in her eyes and her lips were trembling. Her father never looked so grim and angry and Arya knew that Theon Greyjoy and those with him would pay with their blood and die in pain before this was all over.

Then a rider came racing back and halted beside her father. It was the Greatjon Umber.

"What news, Lord Umber?" her father shouted to him as he rode up.

"We arrived at dawn yesterday. They set the fires in the night," the Greatjon said, out of breath. "Then they tried to break away in the confusion. We killed many of them, but some escaped, including Greyjoy. When the dawn came at least we could not see his body among those we killed. Robb and some men went after those that escaped and they'll catch them soon I am certain. We entered the castle and most of my men and the people are there now still fighting the fires and are in sore need of help. But…but…"

And then his voice faltered and he couldn't speak and that was such an odd thing from the Greatjon that they all knew something bad had happened. Arya felt her heart constrict and tears formed in her eyes and then her mother asked in a quiet voice what they all feared. "Bran and Rickon are dead?"

The Greatjon spoke swiftly to allay their fears. "No, my lady! We just…we can't find them! Nor Maester Luwin, or a woman the others say is called Osha. Even Howland Reed's two whelps are gone. They are all gone from Winterfell!"