The Forest Child {Sandor Clegane Story}

Prophecy

"I want to come with you!" Rickon cried once Bran had finished speaking and they made camp at the edge of the wall.

"You can't little brother. Where we are going is not safe for you. Osha will keep you safe though" Bran sighed.

"I'm not leaving you. I'm your brother, I have to protect you!" Rickon continued to protest.

"You will head to the Umbers, they are our bannerman and they will protect you."

Rickon began to cry harder now as Osha pulled the small boy into her chest. "Come on, me and you are going to have some adventures of our own. We'll be fine, you and me".

Slowly, Osha stood up and sighed. "Now say your goodbyes little man."

Rickon quickly fell to knees by his old brother and hugged him tightly.

As the brother continued their goodbye, Osha turned to Jojen "Keep this one safe. He means the world to me."

Two weeks later, Bran, Hodor, Jojen and Meera were beyond the wall. They had been trekking non-stop and soon starvation pulled at all their tempers. Stopping for the night, they find an old heart tree and Hodor moved Bran to the bottom of its trunk. Bran did not know why, but he felt an overwhelming urge to touch the tree. As he closed his eyes, he placed his hand on the cold trunk and saw a vision.

Suddenly Bran could see another heart tree on a hill, the three eye raven then appeared and opened its wings, when the bird flew away Bran was at the execution of his father. Again Bran was pulled into another vision, this time white walkers, led by the night king, they were marching towards the wall. Again the image changed, this time he was in the throne room in Kings Landing, but the throne was empty, slowly the room began to spin and the sound of a woman crying filled his ears. It's sounded like his sister, Natari, but he couldn't be sure as he was pulled upwards and saw a dragon flying over the city. Suddenly another voice filled his eyes, this time an old man which he did not recognise. Beneath the tree, north. It repeated over and over until finally Bran shot open his eyes and moved his hand from the tree.

"What did you see?" Jojen asked him as he tried to slow down his breathing.

"I know where we have to go," he replied.

Cersei had become madder over the past months, grieving for her child Joffrey as she was forced to watch her next baby boy marry that whore Maegrary. After her father had been killed by the brother she hated, she had put out word of a great prize to anyone that brought her his head. Every day for a month, Cersei would examine the heads of dwarfs which people had brought her, but none of them belonged to her disgusting brother.

Word had spread across the castle of Cersei's madness. She would no longer speak to her brother and kept only the company of her new Maester, who was in fact disbarred from the council from conduction of dark experiments, and her bodyguard, the now even more monstrous Clegane, once referred by men as the mountain.

Cersei had tried to speak with her son, the Kingdoms newest King, but he had only threatened to send her to Castlyrock. Scared by the power the Tryells now held in the capital, Cersi began a put together a new plan to take back control.

Over the next week, Cersei met with the high sparrow and named him the new High Septon, allowing him to reinstate the faith militant, a military order dedicated to defending the faith of the seven. The day after the reinstatement, Loras Tryell was quickly arrested for rumoured relationships with men.

"How could you mother? He is my brother by marriage and I am the King!" Tommen raged the next morning.

"I had no idea they would do this sweet child. I have no control over the faith," she smiled.

"Your grace, you address me as your grace!" he spat before storming back out of the room.

At the hearing for Loras Tyrell, his secret lover was pulled forward to testify. Cersei had, of course, engineered the entire thing, promising the other boy freedom if he did as told. Loras was quickly found guilty and at the end of the trial, Maergary was arrested for lying under oath of the seven. The day would not be Cersei's though, as when she returned to her royal apartment after the trial, she found a golden box on her dresser. Inside, there was the necklace her daughter had worn as she was shipped off to Dorne, and wrapped around it was a viper snake. 

"Look at this. Look at it! They have our daughter!" she screamed at Jamie.

"I will go and bring her back. They will not harm her. I promise," he sighed.

"The promise from a one-handed knight. What use is that to me?" she scoffed.

Despite Cersei's insults, Jamie left the next day for Dorne, leaving Cersei to her to wicked plans in taking back the kingdom. 

"I promise my sweet. I will do whatever it takes to get you out of this awful place. It is no fit for such a Queen as yourself," Cersei smiled sweetly as she visted Maergary in the faiths prison. 

"I know you did this!" Maergary hissed back.

Cersei sat back and smugly smiled at the once graceful and pretty girl.

"Oh, I wouldn't seem too smug. You're no innocent either. And they know," Maergary smiled as suddenly a nun came charging into the cell and grabbed Cersei by the arms.

"Lance told us all about you too," the high Septon announced behind her as she was dragged, kicking and screaming into another cell.

Over the next few days, she was visited by Qyburn, who informed her that the charges against her were treason, incest and regicide.

"What about Jamie, is there any news? And Tommen?" Cersei almost begged.

"There is still no word from Jamie and Tommen had fallen into a deep depression. If you were to confess my grace, I am sure you would be set free..."

"Never!" she hissed.

Sometime later, Cersei was brought before the High Sparrow to confess her sins. Broken, she confessed to adultery with Ser Lancel Lannister, but denied her incestuous relationship with her brother Jaime.

"Please allow me to go back to the Red Keep, to be with my son," she begged on her knees in front of the man.

"You will be allowed home, but you shall still stand trial for your crimes."

The next day Cersei was brought to another cell where she was stripped naked and washed before they chopped roughly at her hair. She was then brought outside and forced to walk naked through the streets of Kings Landing. All around, the people of the city threw shit and food at her as they screamed and yelled.

"Brother fucker!" they chanted.

Cersei never cried, not until she reached the gates of the Keep and her monstrous guard Clegane picked her brushed and bloodied body up.

Over the next few days, Qyburm tended to the injuries on Cersei. She never spoke a word the entire time, despite the great deal of pain she was in both physically and emotionally. On her third day back into the castle, Jamie finally returned from Dorne. Despite her still bandaged feet, she had run to the dock to greet her daughter, finally find cause to smile for the first time in many moons. The happy reunion was not to be though and as the boat pulled closer to land, Cersei could see Jamie stood next to the lifeless body of their sweet girl. 

"This is all my fault. That old witch told me when I was a child. She said one day I would have three yellow-haired children, but I would watch them all die. There was nothing you could have done to stop it. Its prophecy, its fate," she sobbed once Jamie had stepped back on land and went to hold his sobbing sister and lover.

"You... we... we still have Tommen. Look at me Cersei" he commanded as he cupped her face and moved it towards him. "I promise, I will seek revenge on all that our enemies have taken from us. Fuck prophesy, fuck fate, fuck everyone who isn't us. We are the only ones that matter, the only ones in this world. And we will take everything back, everything and more."