The Little Bird and The Red Viper

The Departure

Sansa had packed away all of her belongings old and new, even a tunic and cloak that had been her sisters, they would never fit her but she could not bring herself to discard them so she packed them along with the doll that was all that remained to her of Lord Eddard Stark. He had given it to her just after they had come to Kingslanding. I hurt him when I turned my nose up at it, I wish I could go back. The memory hurt but Sansa had put it at the bottom of the chest to protect it at all cost, she hoped to give it to her daughters so they may know where they came from and who they are.

Sansa sits on the windowseat in the chambers that had housed her since the death of her father. She hopes to never see it again. Servants have taken her things away a while ago. She wears a golden silk dress from Dorne that Oberyn had gifted her, the direwolf pendant around her neck, her hair is down and glowing in the sun. She looks at herself in the mirror, seeing both beauty and grief written across her face. Sansa hears a knock upon the door. "Enter." She says in a voice full of nerves. Tyrion enters on his stunted legs with his sellsword at his side. She curtsies. "Lady Stark, you look beautiful today." She blushes lightly and replies. "Thank you, my lord."

She sees his sellswords eyes are settled on her chest. She blushes. "I will be escorting you to the dock. We will keep my darling nephew away from you." She was relieved of that. The sooner we leave the sooner I will be away from Joff. "Shall we set off then." She says with hope in her voice. His scarred, ugly face examines her for a moment. "You will soon be away from here soon enough. We are preparing to leave." She looks into his mismatched little eyes. "I am sad to leave. I will miss His Grace with all my heart." She says in a voice devoid of all emotion. "Aye and I am Aemon The Dragonknight." He said with a chuckle. His sellsword laughs loudly.

She looks at Tyrions sellsword one wore a tunic the crimson of his house the other wore hard brown leathers. An odd pair. She thinks as they share a glance. "When I first saw you in The Red Keep I swore to protect you. Now you are almost away and I will have done my duty." Tyrion says to her. She thinks on that for a moment, back at Winterfell she had been a silly little girl with a head full of songs and stories, here in The Red Keep she was a woman flowered with bruises and cuts covering her body. That innocent girl died with Father. She thinks with tears filling her eyes, she refuses to let them fall.

She smiles and says. "You have done your duty well, my lord." Tyrion laughs a humourless laugh and says. "I couldn't keep His Grace away from you. I have just found out that he tried to force himself on you." She looks at the floor anywhere but his eyes. "You will be free of him soon. Now come we must leave now to avoid disappointing your betrothed. I believe I will like it in Dorne." Sansa stops dead in her tracks. "You're accompanying me to Dorne?" He smiles a gruesome smile and knods. "I will see Myrcella and make sure they treating you both good." Having him around will not be so bad. She thinks as they walk through the door in to the long hallway.

Sansa never wants to see these halls again, they were her prison and her home for two long terrible years. Full of beatings, terror, agony and tears, how many tears she had shed in this room she would never know. But those days were gone she will remember all she has lost. I must be as strong as Robb was when he faced battle, Bran when climbing the tall towers of Winterfell, Rickon running through the Crypts in complete darkness, Arya when they were at the Trident with Joff swinging his sword at her and even Jon when her mother would give him cold hard questioning looks. I am a Stark I am strong. She, Tyrion and his sellsword walk through the halls sharing the tale of Nymeria and her ten thousand ships.

Sansa could see why Arya had named her wolf Nymeria. She had been a warrior and a princess who had saved her people. I will need to be careful when there, they want only Winterfell. I am a means to an end. The thought saddens her as they walk through The Red Keep and to the stables. Cersei and Tommon are climbing in to a litter both dressed in Lannister colours. Sansa can't see Joff and for a moment she thought herself lucky but then she spots him atop of a stallion. Her heart drops at his horrible little grin. He is planning something. She can see it in his terrible green eyes.