The Maid - Aemond Targaryen

Twenty Eight - The Prince She Loved

He loved her. Aemond Targaryen loved her. She prayed for this moment, she yearned for this moment since she accepted her feelings for him. Since the moment that he first touched her. So why was she running? Why did she run so far?

Elyana had been kneeling in the freezing ground of some random forest near the Winterfell castle for what seemed like hours. Her fingers were purple from the cold, and she felt as if soon they would fall off from her body like an ice cube.

Aemond told her that he loved her and all she did was run away, out of the Great Hall and out of the gates of the castle. He did not expect it, and he could not catch her this time. She had never moved so fast, never had fled someplace as quick as she did whenever she heard the words leave his sinful lips. The words she had awaited for all along.

The sun was threatening to hide in the gloomy forest, and she was scared of wolves and of the Northern moon yet she did not stand from her stance. Because she simply did not know where in the hells she had gone. Her mind was so fuzzy since his confession that she ran until she didn't recognize anything, not that she ever did anyways. She had barely set foot in Winterfell before Aemond came and ruined her life, again.

Elyana loved him, she loved him so much. And knowing that he loved her too was electrifying in a sense, yet even though she should be jumping up and down with glee, all she felt was doom.

She did not understand her heart or her mind. All she did understand was that she was sure that he did not love her. Not really. She was sure that he did not. He could not. How could he? All he had ever shown her was rage and hate.

She was shivering and her purple frozen hands found their way to grip her cloak tightly around her body. No amount of fur could keep her warm here. She wondered if he was worried, if he cared that she had ran into an unknown forest where deadly creatures could lurk. She hoped he felt guilty, she really did.

She heard voices calling her name, voices that seemed far away from her. They were out looking for her.

Maybe she was being dramatic, maybe she was being too much. Maybe she should just run to his arms and surrender. But she didn't want to. Not after all the Seven Hells he made her walk through just to get an 'I love you.'

All she could hug herself to try and keep warm, and hope that whoever was looking for her came quick. And he did. "Fucking ells'..." She looked up through her frosted eyelashes to Cregan Stark. He approached her with four guards trailing after him, he was staring at her with pitiful eyes as he kneeled down to meet her level.

"This forest ain't no place for a future princess, my lady." He muttered under his breath as he took off his own fur coat and draped it over her shivering frame. She looked up at him and whimpered, breaking the man's heart.

"Can you stand, Lady Elyana? Come up." He helped her slowly to her feet, but he worried for herself and her baby so without thinking much of it, he scooped her off the ground and into his arms. Second time being carried around Winterfell in a day, was she just a big nuisance? Why was she like this?

Lord Cregan Stark easily carried her all the way back to the castle, and he made haste to the chambers where she was staying. He ordered his guards to get the maester and inside the chambers was a freezing Aemond sitting by the fireplace.

Elyana averted her gaze from him when he looked to her eagerly, and she turned on her side and away from him whenever Cregan Stark set her down on the bed. She heard his footsteps but he also heard Cregan say. "Perhaps we should let the lady rest, see to it that she is well and let her sleep." She heard him tell Aemond.