Back To Winterfell || Arya Stark

I Never Much Liked Sewing

      "We should get going." Arya said sternly after having eaten breakfast. Although it wasn't really eating, it was more forcing food down her throat because she had to. Neither of them were very good cooks. She thought about the cooks at Winterfell as she saddled her horse. She was always skulking around the kitchens when she was hiding from Sansa, Sansa never went down there because she said it was too messy.
      She looked over at Jaek who was stomping out the fire and sifting dirt over the top until the flames surrendered to smoke. She wore a thoughtful expression and looked at the saddle on the horse. She looked back at Jaek.
      "Come on." She said, taking the reigns in her hands and walking alongside the horse.
      "Oh!" Said Jaek when he saw her begin to walk away. "I see you have humbled yourself and have come down from your high place to my lowly peasants' stature." He said jokingly.
      "Well you always look lonely, so I am keeping you company." She was not good with people, she was good at working people out, but not how to interact with them very well, for she had learned to become no one. For a time the only sound to be heard was the horse's steady hooves on the dirt road. Arya stared at the frosted tree branches framing the clear blue sky. She looked across at Jaek and spotted him staring at needle.
"My brother gave it to me." She said calmly. Jaek's head snapped up, his eyebrows raised in confusion.
"Er, yes...um. Sorry what?" He replied immediately.
"My sword. My brother gave it to me as a present the last time we met."
"Oh, well—"
"I saw you looking at it."
"Ah." Jaek pursed his lips. "It looks wonderful."
"It's called Needle." She said beaming at it.
"Hmph." Jaek said smiling and nodding. "Appropriately named."
"I never much liked sewing." She said take it out of her belt and handing it to Jaek. Jaek took it gently with both his hands carefully rotating it round and eyeing it from different angles. Arya watched and nostalgia washed her mind. A tear collected in her eye but luckily Jaek was to preoccupied to be looking at her.
"It's very well made and very well looked after too." He said handing it back. "It seems a very delicate weapon."
"It is." Arya said, "But I've had a long time to practice."
"I believe you. You must be quite a swordsman now after years of training from a dancing master." Arya's heart sank and her face became stony. "Or...not." Jaek quickly added after seeing her facial expression drop. Arya tensed, she had killed Ser Meryn and at the time she felt better but the feeling of grief for her old teacher would not leave her.
"He was killed." She said quietly. "A long time ago." Jaek's face changed from uneasy to understanding.
"I'm sorry." He thought that he shouldn't ask any further. Arya looked at her feet, usually something like that wouldn't help and she would just get annoyed. But somehow the way he said it made it real. Like he actually meant it, and she knew he wasn't lying.
"It's alright." She said, "I'm fine." That was the only response she could come up with. But strangely, she did feel fine. Her eyes focused on the track, fallen leaves scattered the forest floor, carpeting it in a deep brown blanket, winding it's way home.