Game of Thrones
Iwayal has always cared about honour. She allowed Catelyn Tully to touch her at her wedding to Ned because of honour. She came to King's Landing because of her duty to Robert and Anige and her honour as a servant to the crown. She knows Ned has just as much honour, has just as much pride in doing his duty to the people he serves.
As Ned speaks, pledging false vows in vain hopes to save his skin, she looks around the court. They will go to the Wall, she will see Zina and explain everything. They might even stop off at Winterfell and see Denii and Nahda and Volpha and their boys. The husky dog doesn't know how her life ended like this but she can deal with it, deal with living her life with her sister and bastard daughter.
Then Joffrey is shouting and Sansa and Cersei are screaming at him. Sarki jumps up and down on the King's shoulder and Iwayal presses closer to Ned, even as he is forced to his knees. Ned rests a hand on her neck as Payne swings the sword.
She doesn't really care for honour in those seconds. Just for Ned.
Daenerys glances around the pavilion, watching the Dothraki fight and feast. One hand rests on the bump in the belly, while the other waves to the Dothraki women who smile at her in the middle of their dance. Manman crawls around her feet, watching the dæmons that approach with care. Drogo's horse dæmon barely looks at him, happy that the salamander can protect himself.
'Viserys is not happy.' Manman whispers, crawling up to rest on the arm of his chair.
'He doesn't see why we should stop and celebrate.' Dany mutters back, resting her free hand on his back to sooth him. They both look over at her brother, sweating and dirty, fly dæmon weak on his shoulder.
'He does not see anything beside his future crown.' Manman hisses, glaring at the fly that buzzes around Viserys' head. The 'dragon' doesn't allow them to address his dæmon by name anymore, saying that a King's dæmon was not named by the wife of a horse lord. 'Idiot.'
Dany smiles, watching the Dothraki continue to celebrate her pregnancy. Four men are already dead but she just smiles along. 'He's not a dragon, Manman.'
'No.' The salamander smiles, breathing steam. 'But we are.'
Sarki flies around Joffrey's head, laughing at the display in front of them. A young Stark bannerman has been captured and the young boy has been put up against the King's finest knights, to show the Seven Kingdoms what happens to traitors. The wasp lands on Joffrey's shoulder, still giggling to herself.
'Look at him run.' She hisses, watching the smile tug at Joff's lips. The boy had dropped his sword instantaneously, having decided to flee from his opponents instead.
'Look at Sansa.' He whispers back, both their eyes flickering to the redhead.
Sansa is watching the fight, too scared to look away. Her eyes are brimming with tears but she has managed to stop the tears from flowing. Every so often, her eyes glance towards the direwolf banner, discarded by the boy.
'We should have kept her wolf's head. Shown it off to the Starks.'
Joffrey laughs, watching as a his knights step forward as one, drilling their spears into the bannerman. Sansa gasps but doesn't look away, Nainen on her shoulder trembling. The dove's wings flutter and Sarki buzzes, flying into the air, spinning circles around her man.
'Oh well.' Joff mutters. 'There are more wolves to kill.'
Jon watches Ghost and Zina tumble around on the floor, the direwolf teaching the albino dæmon how to fight. Most of the other Watch dæmons could be trained by Ser Alliser but Jon's wolf was just bigger than Thorne's bobcat.
'How's training going?'
Jon looks up at Sam, wincing slightly when Ghost catches Zina's shoulder. 'Fine. Zi used to practice with Volpha and Nahda all the time. She used to this.'
'Used to rolling around in the hay with a monster?'
Jon sighs as Ser Alliser's voice travels across the courtyard, from where his dæmon is fighting Pyp's. Tears are streaming down the younger man's face but he says nothing, watching his dæmon get hurt.
'Tell me, Bastard, can dæmons get pregnant?'
Ghost has frozen on the floor. Zina is pinning him down, forcing him not to attack as Thorne walks off, laughing.
'Ignore him, ignore him.' Zina is whispering as she lets Ghost up, biting down on his ear.
'I don't think Ghost understand you.' Jon says, placing a hand on each of their heads.
'He does, Jon.' Zina smiles, Ghost nodding along. 'Don't be stupid.'
For a moment, Ned Stark's Bastard feels as if he has two dæmons.
'Adha.' Tyrion hisses, watching his lion cub dæmon creep closer and closer to the window ledge. He is still on the bed, bandages covering his face and cannot from it but his dæmon is tugging on their bond as much as she can. 'Adha stop.'
'I just want to see.' She mutters back, tail swishing.
'See what?' Tyrion mutters, more to himself than her. 'Some knights that almost had me killed?'
'One knight.' Adha smirks, turning to face him. 'And Pod took him out easily, not much of a knight.'
Tyrion glares, eyes narrowing slightly. 'That's not the point. Now would you come here.'
Adha shrugs, jumping back towards him. Unharmed and non-stunted as usual, Adha's agility makes up for Tyrion's lack of. Still, she's no good in a fight agains a bigger dæmon, so it doesn't mean anything. 'Aww, is the big bad dwarf angry.'
He tugs on her whiskers weakly, ignoring the twinge in his own face. 'Shut up, would you? I'm not exactly feeling well.'
She tilts her head, lying down next to him. 'I know, Tyrion, I know. But it'll get better I promise.'
He rubs her back gently. 'How could it get any worse?'
Cersei let's out a scream the second she enters her room. Jaime looks up for a second, concerned, but Saundaryus growls, jumping towards Tutana. Jaime pulls her back towards him and the two of them turn, leaving the room as quickly as possible. Cersei falls, landing face down on the bed and crying into the covers. He's dead, he's gone, her poor baby boy.
'I want that cub dead.' Her tiger dæmon rumbles, pacing around the room, just barely stretching their bond. 'I want her pulled from her man until...until...'
Cersei nods, sitting up, tears still steaming down her face. Saundaryus jumps upwards, landing next to her and allowing her to bury her face in his neck.
'Father won't let him get away with this. Even if Joff wasn't mine, he killed the king! He'll burn in all seven Hells for this, Daryus.'
Saundaryus turns his head, trying to provide her with some comfort, but she pushes him away, still shaking. Daryus, feeling her anger, begins to growl, the noise causing the wooden bed to tremble slightly.
'We'll get them, Cersei. I promise you, on every god this side of the Wall, we'll get Tyrion and we'll kill him.'
Volpha flies into the sky, watching her armies spread out across the encampment. The Karstarks departure is easily noticed and she sighs, spiralling back down to Robb, landing on his shoulder and nuzzling close to his ear.
'Numbers are growing small but we're still good. We can last this journey.'
Robb nods, raising one hand to stroke the eagle's feathers and lowering the other one to Grey Wind's head. The direwolf looks up, eyes lidded.
'Go hunt, boy.' Robb says, nudging him away. 'Just clean up before you come back.'
Grey Wind yips, running into the surrounding forests. Volpha wishes she could go with him, fly along and catch some mice but she is needed here, with Robb and Talisa and Spleran.
'We're needed at the main tent.' She mutters, seeing a squire running out of the centre tent. Their mother stares after him, shaking her head with her falcon dæmon sighing. Robb nods, heading towards that direction.
'Do you think we can win this war?' He whispers as they walk through the camp.
'Of course, we can.' Volpha caws, batting one wing against the side of his head. He laughs. 'We just have to get to the Twins first.'
Ihalas settles when Arya watches her father have his head removed. Well, she doesn't watch, but she hears. She hears the crowd yelling, a mix of cheer and screams. She hears Sansa and Cersei shouting for Payne to stop, to let Arya's father go. But, worse of all, she hears Ihalas howling, trying to push past Yoren's dæmon to reach the executioner.
As the crowd disperses, bored now the King and Queen Regent have left, Yoren shouts some orders at her, pushing her to the ground and walking off. She glares after him and Ihalas jumps next to her, snarling across at Yoren. She turns her head and watches him.
'Couldn't you get bigger? Take him out.'
'Can't get any bigger.' Ihalas mutters. 'Can't smaller, or wider, or nothing.'
Arya's drops, looking at her dæmon. Looking at her wolf dæmon. He's big, bigger than a regular wolf, and looks like Nymeria and Ghost and Zina.
'Well, that's good.' She smiles despite herself, pushing herself to her feet. 'We're gonna need that, up at the Wall.'
'You never know, we might find Nymeria along the way.'
Arya laughs, running through the streets of King's Landing, desperate to forget what just happened.
Nainen flies through King's Landing, keeping slightly ahead of Sansa and Ser Dontos. Dontos' pug dæmon is running behind him, constantly looking back down the street to check they aren't being followed. Nainen spirals down, landing on Sansa's shoulder and nuzzling up to her cheek, like he had seen Volpha do hundred of times with Robb. Now, with his sister-dæmon faded, it brings him even more comfort than normal.
'You need to cover up.' Dontos whispers, glancing around.
'How do you expect me to do that?' The dove hisses back, too confused to be polite, both joyous and terrified by Joffrey's death. He doubts anyone who hates the King would wish Sansa harm but that doesn't mean the Queen or anyone else would be happy with her running away from the Wedding. It doesn't exactly look very innocent.
Sansa raises her free hand to Nainen's neck, attempting to calm her dæmon slightly. 'It's alright.'
'How is it alright?' Nainen says, looking around as they come to a boat, expecting guards to appear and drag them back to the citadel. 'We are going to be hunted, outlawed for a crime we didn't commit.'
Sansa smiles, shaking her head. 'We're free.'
Bran never wanted Nahda to settle. He had seen Volpha, Zina and Nainen settle and he and Rickon had privately decided they didn't want Nahda and Denii settling. He liked Nahda flying around him as he climbed, sticking to the walls or clinging to his back.
Then he gets pushed off the tower and he doesn't see her for a while.
Bran dreams. Dreams of flying, of falling, of ravens with three eyes. He dreams of Nahda and she dreams of him, the two of them unable to interact, unable to touch each other or comfort the other.
Bran blinks awake with such a strange feeling in his legs. He tries to move them, to swing out of his bed and almost screams aloud when he finds he can't. Instead, trying to calm himself, he looks for Nahda knowing she will have woken with him.
She is watching him from the bedpost, perched on it easily. She is a raven and Bran knows, in his heart, she won't ever change from thank.
'I can't move my legs.' He mutters, stirring the person sat next to his bed.
'I can't move my wings.' She whispers back, hoping towards him.
Bran cries.