Hera's family was murdered in cold blood by their enemies. Hera got away and went to Winterfell, where the Starks lived. She knew she would be safe there, because Ned Stark and her father were close friends. Now, years later, she still live there...
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - BATTLE OF OXCROSS
Word had gotten to Robb that a Lannister army had started forming in the west under the command of Ser Stafford Lannister. It wasn't a big army, but it was enough to worry him. He feared that they would attack, and therefore decided to go and deal with it himself. So that's what he did, and Hera accompanied him in the battle.
The small army had sat down their camp near Oxcross, and many of the soldiers were unexperienced and still being trained. Grey Wind had earlier that day found an unknown path into their camp, which Robb's men would use to surprise attack the army. By using that path, they wouldn't see them coming. They had the advantage.
It was night when they attacked. The rain was pouring down, soaking everyone and everything in its path. The rain made Hera's dark hair stick to her forehead, and her dark war makeup smudged down her cheeks. It made her look even more intimidating. She adjusted in her seat on her horse, letting her emerald eyes roam their dark surroundings.
Robb had set Grey Wind free, and the direwolf roamed around the camp. The horses had grown uneasy, clearly noticing that a predator was near. The Lannister men had grown suspicious, but none of them had known what was coming for them. Hera, Robb and the cavalry had waited until they heard the men start screaming. Then they attacked.
They won the battle. The Lannister men had been shitting their pants when they charged at them, and it didn't take long until the Stark army won. It was a great victory, which were added to a list of many others.
*
Hera walked beside Robb and Roose Bolton through the battlefield when morning came and it were light outside. Dead and wounded men were lying all around her. They were screaming in pain or grief, and some were pleading to be killed to escape the heavy pains of their wounds. The metallic smell of blood clung to Hera's nose, but she hardly noticed it.
"Five Lannisters dead for every one of ours," Lord Bolton boasted. "We've got nowhere to keep all these prisoners. We barely have food to feed all our own." Robb had decided to take some of the Lannister soldiers as prisoners, to send a message to the King and Queen mother, and also to try and get information from them that they could use to their advantage.
"We're not executing prisoners, Lord Bolton" Robb spoke with finalty.
Roose sighed. "Of course, your grace. The officers will be useful, some of them may be privy to Tywin Lannister's plans."
Hera let her eyes wander to a man who had his stomach torn open, his guts and blood spilled out on the ground beside him. That's a gruesome way to die, she thought. She swallowed down the lump that formed in her throat, and instead moved her attention to the conversation going on beside her.
"I doubt it." Robb answered.
"Well, we'll learn soon enough. In my family we say 'A naked man has few secrets, a flayed man none." Hera narrowed her eyes at Lord Bolton. She had always thought of his family's interest in flaying men as bizarre and horrific.
"My father outlawed flaying in the North."
"We're not in the North."
Again, Hera's attention turned somewhere else. She spotted a woman kneeling next to a Lannister man whose leg looked to be hurt badly. She hushed him as she took off his boot. Her dark hair was tied back in a messy braid, and her dark skin and light dress were covered in dirt, sweat and blood. She realised that the woman was a nurse.
"No, no please!" The man plead as the woman fully removed the boot, to reveal a foot covered in blood and gore. The skin had many wounds, and some of it had even been torn off the bones.
"The rot's set in" the woman spoke suddenly, her voice grave. The man started panicking and tried shoving her and the other woman helping her away. "The rot will spread!"
Hera hadn't noticed how Robb had noticed them as well, not until he had walked over to them. Hera furrowed her eyebrows, but she followed after him. "If we don't take the foot now-" the woman started to say, but the man interrupted her.
"No, you can't!" he wailed hysterically, his arms continuing to shove them away from himself.
Hera grew annoyed, and she shoved past Robb and plopped unlady like to her knees beside the man. She grabbed his shoulders and held him still, all while giving him a harsh glare. "She's trying to save your life, so shut up and let her do her job."
The woman looked at her in shock for a couple of seconds, before her gaze moved to Robb who still stood behind Hera. She quickly adverted her eyes and looked back at the man who was still panicking. "I don't want to be a cripple! Please!" he nearly sobbed.
Robb appeared at Hera's other side and helped hold the man down. "If she doesn't cut away the rot, you'll die" he told the man.
"Surely one of our men needs your attention more than this cub" Lord Bolton spoke from behind them.
"Your men are not my men, my Lord." The woman spoke, while narrowing her eyes at him. She moved her attention back to the wounded man, and continued doing the preparations on his leg.
Hera gave the man a piece of cloth, which she shoved towards his mouth. "Bite on this!" she commanded him. The man was full on sobbing now, and it grew even worse as the woman brought a saw into his sight. It looked like he was about to faint, but that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. When he didn't listen to her, she opened his mouth and shoved the cloth in between his teeth.
The woman brought the saw down to his leg and started sawing through his flesh and bone. The man screamed into the cloth, and bit down so hard that his face turned red. The sight of the leg being cut off didn't disgust Hera as much as she thought it would, but it wasn't something she enjoyed watching.
When the woman had cut off the man's leg, a couple of soldiers came over and helped hoist him onto a cart. The woman stood up and wiped the blood from her hands on a cloth as she walked over to the cart. Hera had to admit that she admired how the woman didn't seem to care about the blood on her hands, and how she had no problem cutting a man's leg off. Most girls wouldn't have done that without fainting or weeping.
She saw Robb walking over to the woman, and she saw how he talked to her with a flirtatious smirk on his face. Hera narrowed her eyes as her stomach dropped. He was intrigued with the nurse, you would have to be blind to not see it. And as Robb completely forgot about Hera standing there, she stalked off in the other direction. Damn him, she thought bitterly.
