"Even if you went to Winterfell, what could you accomplish? You might as well come and stay with me. At this moment, there is no place safer than the Eyrie in the Vale," Sansa urged.
"I'm not the same as you. I'm a fighter," the Great Raven replied calmly.
"You're a fool!" Sansa grew angry as well. "Have you ever seen a White Walker? I'm afraid you don't even know that only Valyrian steel and dragonglass weapons can kill them. Your Needle is just a sewing needle."
"I heard Daenerys is in Winterfell. Can I borrow a dragonglass dagger from her?" the Great Raven asked.
"She alone is worth ten thousand of you. Don't go back to throw your life away. It's not terrifying if Winterfell is destroyed. As long as you, I, Rickon, and Jon survive, there will always be a day when we rebuild our home."
At this point, a trace of weariness appeared on Sansa's beautiful face. She sighed deeply. "These years of wandering have finally taught me one truth. A home is made of family. Without people, Winterfell is only a castle.
"So what if the castle falls? As long as we siblings are reunited, anywhere can be Winterfell."
"So that's why, before the great battle, you took Rickon away from Winterfell? What about Jon?" the Great Raven asked angrily.
"Do you think Rickon and I can help Jon?" Sansa said bitterly. "If it were possible, I would even lend him my wyvern.
Daenerys and Stannis both have large numbers of wyverns. If things truly reach the point of no return, there will always be a seat for the King in the North."
"You can't help Jon, but I can," the Great Raven said confidently.
"You can't…" The bitter smile on Sansa's face froze. A scene flashed through her mind like lightning: Arya was lifted high by the Night King's grip on her throat. Then she switched the dagger from her right hand to her left and plunged it into the Night King's throat.
"Can a Faceless Man even assassinate the Night King?" she asked in shock.
"If you don't try, how would you know?"
Sansa's expression struggled. After a long moment, the way she looked at the raven suddenly became bright and fervent, making the Great Raven instinctively shrink its neck.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Arya said uncomfortably.
Sansa grabbed the Great Raven in a tight embrace and said fervently, "Arya, you must swear loyalty to me! I'll give you a dragonbone dagger."
"What?" Arya was stunned.
"I'll send you to Winterfell, but before that, you must swear loyalty to me," Sansa repeated, still highly emotional.
"Are you out of your mind? Why should I swear loyalty to you? The fake prince is dead. You're not a queen anymore," the Great Raven shrieked.
Bang. Sansa slammed the Great Raven heavily onto the tea table and shouted, "Arya, he was your brother-in-law!"
"Why are you getting so worked up? I never said he wasn't. But that doesn't change the fact that he was a fake prince.
"Stop dreaming about being queen. He's dead. Your short-lived dynasty has ended," the Great Raven shot back loudly.
Sansa rose in fury, but before her temper could erupt, she deflated like a punctured balloon and sat back down on the couch. After adjusting her mood and expression, she spoke gently, "You're still just as annoying as before. But you're right. I refuse to admit defeat. I still want to be queen. No, as long as you're willing to help me, I can become queen."
"You've gone mad." The Great Raven shook its head repeatedly.
"Listen to me." Sansa concealed nothing and told her everything about how the Dragon Queen acknowledged her child as a Targaryen, and about the Dragon Queen's vow that whoever ended the Long Night would be king.
"I've also heard Daenerys's oath that whoever ends the Long Night will be king. But will she truly keep it? It seems the nobles of the Seven Kingdoms aren't very enthusiastic," Arya said doubtfully.
"A Targaryen's word is as solid as a mountain," Sansa said confidently. "Daenerys has never broken an oath or failed a promise in her life."
"The Iron Throne is worth anyone breaking an oath for," the Great Raven said.
"She is not included among 'anyone.' I've dealt with her several times and have some understanding of her character. She is a traditional knight, like her father and like Barristan. Honor, integrity, fairness, mercy.
"Think about it. If she were the same as Cersei or the Mad King, would she have taken the initiative to aid Winterfell?" Sansa spoke firmly, without the slightest hesitation.
"Fine. Since I'm going to kill the Night King anyway, I might as well let you benefit from it," the Great Raven said after a moment of hesitation, nodding in agreement.
If they traveled by land, the roads through the Mountains of the Moon were rugged and winding. It was nearly a thousand kilometers from the Eyrie to the Crossroads Inn. But Sansa had a wyvern. Only a few hours later, she found her sister at the confluence of the Trident.
"By the Seven, are you the Hound?"
On a hill near the riverbank, Sansa saw two people and a direwolf as large as a pony.
The silver-gray direwolf lay on a pile of withered grass. A girl in black leather armor lay beside it, while a tall man with half-long hair covering his face stood nearby, looking up at the descending wyvern.
Caw, caw. The raven flew out of Sansa's arms, and the black-haired girl on the grass immediately awoke.
"Little sister, you've really become a dragonrider? Can your dragon breathe fire?" The tall man took a few steps back, eyeing the wyvern's beak with some fear.
"Lady is a wyvern. She won't breathe fire and burn you. Why are you here? Everyone said you were dead." Seeing her "old lover" again, Sansa's expression was complicated.
"Lady? That's not a very lucky name." Hearing that the creature would not breathe fire, the Hound let out a sigh of relief. "The Hound is indeed dead. The man standing before you now is the 'Mother's Hound.'"
"The Mother's Hound?" With Brienne supporting her as she climbed down from the wyvern's back, Sansa finally saw the Hound's attire clearly.
His hairstyle had not changed. It was still long enough to cover the entire burned left side of his face. He still wore black steel plate armor, but now there was a large white seven-pointed star on his chest.
"You joined the Warriors' Sons?" Sansa asked in astonishment.
She knew very well that the Hound had once scorned the gods just as he scorned a knight's honor.
"I told you, I am the 'Mother's Hound'! I am a hound, a hound destined by nature, but serving as someone's hound, even if he is a king, always means doing things I don't want to do.
Hmm, if I were a dog to villains and bastards, I would surely become a villainous dog or a wretched bastard myself.
But the Mother is different. She certainly isn't some villain or bastard. Being Her dog puts my heart at ease. I am proud of it, delighted. Hahaha!" The Hound let out a strange laugh.
Though he laughed heartily, the look he gave Sansa was complicated. When his gaze fell upon her swollen belly, his eyes grew even darker and more unreadable.
A trace of regret passed through his heart.
"He was rescued by the monks on the Quiet Isle. Now he has become a monk himself, a priest of the Seven who serves the Mother," Arya said as she walked over.
Sansa's full attention was immediately drawn to her sister. She was thin, with long limbs, but just over five feet tall, a head shorter than herself; a long horse-like face, gray eyes, and black hair combed back into a single ponytail.
A very Stark appearance.
If not for the overly cold expression, she would actually resemble Aunt Lyanna in the portrait to some degree.
As Arya noticed her sister staring and gradually frowning, she could not help but touch her face and ask curiously, "What's wrong?"
"You haven't changed much. You didn't grow up crooked!" Sansa said gloomily.
"What do you mean?" Arya's expression turned even colder.
Sansa froze for a moment, then came back to herself and said awkwardly, "Didn't I tell you before? In the glass candle, I saw a scene where you stabbed the Other King to death with a knife.
That you was broad and burly, somewhat bloated, no longer clever and cute like when you were little. You had completely grown out of shape."
"Do you really think I could ever grow bloated?" Arya sneered.
Sansa fell silent. In this world, being plump was a privilege reserved for noble ladies and cooks. Her sister had lived a hard life in the House of Black and White. Looking slightly underdeveloped now was only natural.
"Why are you with the Hound?" she changed the subject.
"When you flew over, didn't you see the people on the River Road and the Kingsroad?" Arya asked.
Sansa nodded. "The roads were packed with people."
"The Hound and I ran into each other on the road two days ago."
After that, Arya and the Hound took turns recounting what they had experienced recently.
News of the Wall's collapse and the southward march of the Others had spread through the Riverlands. The lesser nobles, believing they could not withstand a siege by the Others, fled their family castles with their households.
They either sought refuge in great strongholds like Riverrun and Harrenhal, or went to the Vale, or took ships along the Trident to the Whispers on the Crackclaw Peninsula.
When the nobles fled, what could the common folk of their lands do?
No one cared whether they lived or died.
So Septon Meribald stepped forward, calling upon septons and church knights across the Trident to enter the villages and towns within the lands where septs stood, organizing the people to migrate to the Vale and the Crackclaw Peninsula.
Meribald first received high praise from the Dragon Queen, then used the large quantities of grain she provided to carry out extensive relief efforts.
When the Mother descended, he was also among the first batch of septons to receive divine spells granted by Her.
Thus, the former wandering septon had become a prominent figure throughout the Trident.
The Quiet Isle, where the Hound stayed, belonged to the Faith. There was no lord's oppression, no military conscription. Located at the mouth where the Trident flowed into the Bay of Crabs, it was an alluvial plain with fertile land, dotted with farms. The people lived in great prosperity.
Therefore, the Quiet Isle also became a place that took in refugees.
Under the leadership of the Elder Brother, the Hound left the Quiet Isle with a group of monks. These past few days, they had been receiving and guiding migrating Riverlanders near the Trident.
As it happened, Arya was hiding among the commoners, and the two ran into each other.
Originally, the last time they parted, it had been on bad terms. When they met again, they should not have ended up together once more.
But after Arya declared that she was returning to Winterfell to fight the Others, the Hound seemed to suddenly find his ultimate goal as a warrior.
So he bid farewell to the Elder and that led to the scene today.
"Enough talk. Let's hurry to Winterfell!" The Hound looked up at the sky and cursed loudly. "This damned Long Night has dragged on so long I can barely remember what the sun looks like. Now I can't even tell morning from afternoon or dusk."
Arya looked the dragon over and frowned. "Your dragon is much smaller than Deathwing. Can it carry all of us?"
"Don't worry. Lady is a brindled long-winged dragon with broad membranes. She can carry four or five hundred kilograms. You three are no problem at all."
"Plus Nymeria?" Arya asked again.
"Nymeria…" Sansa looked at the direwolf beside them, about the size of a small pony, and her gaze dimmed as she stared blankly for a moment.
If her own Lady were still alive, she would probably be about this size by now.
All her siblings had direwolves and were skinchangers. She alone was the exception.
"Nymeria is too big to put on the back. We can tie ropes around her and have Lady carry her in her claws."
"Hang her from the claws? Isn't that too dangerous? What if she falls…"
Sansa looked at her sister's face and suddenly frowned. Even as she voiced concern, Arya's tone and expression remained so flat.
"It's fine. Rickon's Shaggydog was airlifted to the Eyrie the same way."
While the Hound went off to a nearby grove to strip bark and twist hemp rope, Sansa pulled her sister aside into a corner and asked in a low voice, "Something is very wrong with you. You're like a block of ice without any feelings. What's going on?"
(End of Chapter)
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