The naked girl's feet caught onto a root of a tree as she ran in the forest. Her breath was punched out of her lungs when she crashed into the snow covered ground bruising her naked body. But she could not feel the pain, her body had been numbed from the freezing cold of the North after running from the bastard the whole night.
"No no no." The girl scrambled to her feet and started to run again, her life depended on it.
She could hear the hounds barking far off in the distance getting closer.
She was released into the forest in the hour of the wolf after they tore her clothes away and given a head start to run from the bastard. Now the sun appeared on the horizon, reflecting off the water from the stream. She had half a mind to cross the stream to lose her scent to the hounds. But the water was freezing cold that she would die halfway and the summer snow from the previous night covered the ground white.
Her legs begged for her to rest but she can't stop now even if she had broken her leg from the fall. The bastard will be upon her any moment.
She needed to run to a village, some stranger might take pity on her and hide her from the bastard until he got bored.
The girl turned her head sharply to see if they already caught up to her when she thought she heard the hounds bark closer to her.
Hands grappled her out of nowhere, she screamed, beating at the one who catched her. They killed father. She wouldn't go quietly.
"Shh." The man said, cutting off her scream with his hand. "It's going to be okay. Look at me."
The girl looked into his dark grey eyes.
"You are safe." The grey eyed man said. "He won't hurt you. Nod if you understand me girl."
The girl nodded.
"What is your name?" The man asked, releasing her mouth.
"Rose." The girl replied, desperate to keep running. "Please he is coming for me. We have to run. Don't leave me alone."
The hounds were closing in on her she could hear their excited barks more clearly. The grey-eyed man looked up on the horizon and pulled her with him as he hid behind a tree. The man whistled sharply into the air.
"What are you doing?" Rose said. "He is going to kill us like the ones when they were caught. Please we need to run, he has hounds that have my scent and men that ride with him."
"Who is he?" the man said calmly without a care to the danger that they were facing.
"The bastard," Rose said, her eyes tearing finally for the first time since she was releases, "of the Dreadfort. He.. He.. He killed my father when he tried to stop him from taking me, in front of the whole village. They did nothing. They only kept watching. Why didn't they do something."
The man's grey eyes set stronger, she could see the anger contained in them even as he acted calmly. The man breathed slowly exhaling and inhaling with his mouth.
"You can't hurt him," Rose said. "His father's Lord Roose Bolton. He will kill us if we hurt his son, don't you see we need to run."
Rose pulled him with her as she tried to run but the man didn't budge. The man moved her so that her back was to the tree and covered her naked body with his cloak
"Listen to me, carefully." The grey-eyed man said. "I want you to stay still okay. Do not move from this place. Do you understand?"
Rose nodded.
The man took his Axe from his belt and stepped out into the open as the hounds appeared, running towards them. He threw his Axe, and unsheathed his sword so quickly that she heard a hound's dying moan when his sword was in a defensive stance.
The air filled with the sound of the hounds barking furiously upon the scent of blood from its fellow companion and the man disappeared from her sight as he advanced towards the hounds.
Woosh. Something flew from the woods surrounding her. She peeked her head out and watched as arrows pierced the hounds. A hound lay with it's body in two pieces. Only two were left alive. The grey-eyed man was grappling with one and the another ran towards her after it caught her scent from the ground once again, abandoning its companion.
Rose ran from the place behind the tree and stumbled onto her back when her leg didn't respond to what she wanted it to do. She clutched onto the grey-eyed man's cloak. She knew the hound would kill her now.
The black hound stopped on its heels to gaze its rabid eyes upon her for a hopeful moment before it went into a mad dash towards her.
The hound sprang into the air towards her as she tried to move her body away from the hound but her body stayed still as a rock.
A brown shadow smashed into the black hound mid jump throwing it away from her.
The black hound growled and tried to attack the brown hound that crashed into her.
The black hound bit upon the brown hound's face when she attacked.
"Kill her Whitefoot," the man said, pain seeping through his voice as he fought with the other hound to stop it from biting into his neck.
Whitefoot shook off the bastard's black hound and lunged onto the hound's neck clenching its jaw so tight that it broke the hound's neck.
Rose scrambled away from the fighting hounds and got on her feet to help the grey-eyed man from the hound that was an inch away from tearing his throat out.
"Jax!" The grey- eyed man scrambled to his knees as he held onto the hound's neck struggling to keep it from using its paws to claw him bloody.
Rose ran to help him.
The grey-eyed man struggled to lift the hound above him into the air as an arrow from nowhere stuck the hound's head. The hound fell lifelessly onto the grey-eyed man as he settled onto the ground with his body heaving from exhaustion. Blood from the hound covered his face.
Rose searched the forest to know, from where the arrow came from but all she could see was the silent trees of the forest.
The grey-eyed man pushed the hound aside and rose to his feet taking the fallen sword on the ground. The hound, Whitefoot sat next to him and looked up to him. He petted her, "You did good, Whitefoot. Good girl."
"Get behind the tree, Rose." The grey-eyed man said with his bloody face. "This isn't done yet."
A horn pierced the air just as he finished speaking. The bastard was almost upon them. She could feel the rhythm of the galloping horses from her feet.
The grey-eyed man turned from her to face the approaching monster.
"Steady now." The grey-eyed man said to the forest. "Look after her Whitefoot."
Rose was startled as the brown hound came next to her as she hid behind a tree. The hound snarled towards the direction of the bastard.
The bastard, Ramsay stopped his men when he noticed the man with the grey- eyes.
"Who are you?" The bastard frowned as he shouted from the distance. "My girls, what have you done to them?"
"I butchered them all." The grey-eyed man said as he pointed his sword at a dead hound. /
"I killed them all." The grey-eyed man said.
"I am going to flay you alive." The bastard said as he flew into a rage and charged his horse, Blood towards the grey-eyed man.
The seven men behind the bastard, the Bastard's Boys followed him on their horses.
Rose wanted to run but the grey-eyed man would be alone to face against them. She could run but they would hunt her down after they killed the him. She didn't want to die hunted like an animal.
Rose ran to the hound with the Axe in it's head and tried to pull it free. Whitefoot followed on her feet.
But the Axe wouldn't budge from the hound's skull. She looked up to see an arrow hit the bastard's horse, Blood, toppling him to the ground. More arrows took to the air from the forest to pierce into three of the bastard's men's body, throwing them to the ground from the impact of the arrows.
"Now," the grey-eyed man said.
Figures emerged from the forest armed with spears, axes, and swords, as they charged the bastard and his men.
One wheeled his horse away from the conflict and tried to run away when an arrow took out his horse. The horse fell but the man was on his feet in seconds, running on a sprint away from the fight.
The other three rode on towards the grey-eyed man to find spears pointed into their throats from the figures that had attacked them.
Two were pierced with the spears, and hacked from their saddles with an Axe.
The only one left on his horse was still charging with his sword held high to strike down the grey-eyed man.
The grey-eyed man deflected the sword blow away from his head and turned towards his back to face the horseman as he charged on towards horse.
"No!" The grey-eyed man said when he saw Rose in the open with the bastard's man charging towards her.
Rose pulled free the Axe from the hound's skull and lifted it to defend herself when the horse legs gave away as an arrow pierced its eye.
Whitefoot was upon him the moment he hit the ground. The man screamed in terror trying to drive off the hound as Whitefoot tore his throat out.
The figure who was in knight's armor moved towards the ones that were taken down with the arrows.
"Please," the fallen man who was still conscious said. "Mercy. It was the bastard. I was told to look after…."
The knight pierced the man's throat with his spear in a flash. He died as blood filled his throat.
The knight killed the other two in seconds and advanced towards the bastard.
"I want him alive Cleyton." The grey-eyed man said.
"It is best to put down a rabid dog as soon as possible." Cleyton said. He had a spear trained on the bastard's back with his foot pressing the bastard's head to the ground. "You never know when they try to take a desperate last bite."
"Tie him up." The grey-eyed man said. Turning towards the white bearded man. "Catch the horses Will, before they run away. And make sure that they are dead, Owen."
Will, the one with the Axe took after the horses, catching their reins and tying them to the trees.
"I was a guard for a great house once." Owen said moving towards her as he used his sword to pierce the throats of the bodies fallen on the ground. "Now I am traveling with the likes of a wildling, a septon, an ironborn, a hedge knight and a girl who fancies herself a knight."
"Come on old man," the one with a bow in his hands said as he came next to Rose from the forest, "you are free to leave whenever you want like the others left. It's not like we have chained you to the Pack."
The old man, Owen gave a bitter laugh. "It has been more than five years since we ran from Winterfell and my lord, Jax. I was put in charge to look after the young lord instead I ran with him and stayed with him from the start. If I were to return without our young lord, the lady herself will strangle me for taking her precious boy away from her."
Rose looked at the grey-eyed man closely to see that he was merely a boy. If what the old man was saying was true then he was a son of the lord Stark. Rose had heard of the Starks, the house that ruled the North since the time of the first men.
Owen approached Rose with his bloody hand held towards her. She stepped backwards away from him until she hit a tree.
"Your face is scaring her, old man." Jax said. "He wants the Axe in your hand girl. He's afraid you are going to cut off your head with it when you trip onto it."
"My face?" Owen said. Turning to the girl in breeches. "Why would it scare her, I am as fair as the Heros in the songs. Tell them Alys, don't you think I am handsome."
Rose looked at Alys, the only other girl with them. She wore breeches and used her spear as a crutch to rest.
"Don't listen to Jax, Owen." Alys said, sleepily, with her eyes half closed. "You are handsome. The girl is scared is all.
"Look at her, gods," Alys said when she opened her eyes to look at Rose. "She is shaking from the cold with only that that cloak in this winter cold."
"Ha. This is no winter," Jax said, as the grey-eyed man approached Rose. "This is only summer snow. In the true North we have much harsher summer snows than your winter snows in your south."
The man knelt in front of Rose and put his hand to her head.
"You have a fever." The man said. He took out the rest of the bloody clothes covering his chest and gave it to her. "We need to get you out of this cold. Wear this for now. Alys keep an eye on her."
The grey-eyed man rose to leave but Rose held his hand. "Please. Don't. Leave me."
"I won't leave you." The grey-eyed man said. "Let me take care of the bastard."
Rose nodded. After she wore her dress behind the tree she joined the rest of them. Alys always stayed within a foot's distance from her.
"How are you not feeling the cold." Alys said.
"Winter blood/ The blood of the first men flows in my veins." The grey-eyed man said.
"One ran away." Cleyton the knight said.
"I know." The grey-eyed man said. "We need to be on our way quickly."
"You don't want to see this, girl." Owen said as Rose approached the group who stood around the bastard tied to the tree. Cleyton took out the bindings on the bastard's mouth.
Rose saw two other men who were not introduced. One kept to himself with a woodcutter's Axe. The other in what looked to be a septon's clothing kept muttering to himself.
"My sister. Ella." The one with the woodcutter's Axe said. His hand clutched so tight on the Axe that his hand had turned white. "What have you done to her."
"Ella… I remember her." The bastard said laughing. "She was a lot of fun when I hunted her that I named one of my hounds after her. You bastards killed her."
Eric let out a scream of rage as he swinged his Axe at the bastard's head.
Owen stopped him before he could kill him. "Now. Now. He will die, lad be sure of it. He will suffer far greater than Ella did. Calm yourself. We are not done with him yet." Owen pulled him away from the group.
"You will free me." Ramsay said with a wet-lipped smile. "If you care for your lives. I will let you live, if you let me go. Otherwise Lord Bolton will hunt you down when he hears from Ben of what happened here. I am his only son."
"A bastard," the grey-eyed man said.
Ramsay's face morphed into anger at the word bastard.
"When I am free, I will spend more time playing with you."
The grey-eyed man smiled. "How will you get free, bastard."
"My father will pay gold to the rest of you if you all free me." Ramsay said. Turning towards the grey-eyed man he said. "Though I won't let him leave alive."
Jax laughed. He pulled an arrow from his quill and put it in his leg.
The bastard screamed in pain. And raged at Jax. "I changed my mind. I won't let you leave either."
Jax took out another arrow but stopped when the grey-eyed man spoke with clenched teeth. "How many girls did you kill before today, bastard."
"Why do you care?" the bastard said with his mouth held closed from the pain. "Was your mother one of them."
Jax let another arrow loose on the bastard's knee socket.
The bastard's scream hurt Rose's hears.
"Did you poison Domeric, bastard?" The grey-eyed man said.
"Who was he to you?"
"He was a friend."
"I'll tell you who killed him if you let me go." The bastard said.
"I know who killed him." The gray eyed man said. "Get the horses ready I will be done with him by then."
"My father won't let you leave." The bastard said. "He will hunt you down wherever you go. No one can protect you or your friends."
"My father is Lord Eddard Stark, warden of the North." The Grey-ed man said. "I wonder what he will do to your father when he hears what you have done to the girls you killed in his lands."
"What is your name?"
"Torrhen Stark." The Grey-eyed man said as he took the bastard's bone hilt dagger from him.
The rest of the group moved away from the bastard. Some going to get the horses. Some turned away from Ramsay and Torrhen looking at anything but them. Alys pulled Rose along with her. But Rose resisted a bit before being pulled away. She wanted to see what will happen to Ramsay. None of the others watched.
"I wouldn't watch it if I were you." Cleyton said. "Sometimes its best to leave the punishing to those who can stomach it."
Rose watched on along with Eric who was crying with his back to a tree.
When the bastard's screams finally died down, Eric had threw up his dinner on the ground. Rose had her face pressed tightly onto Alys's waist, Alys's hands shielding her ears, as she tried to expel what she saw from her mind.
And Rose wondered, who was the bigger monster of them. Ramsay Snow, the bastard who was going to kill her or Torrhen Stark the one who saved her from him.