Sandor and Sansa left the small inn and headed in the direction of the sea where there should be any number of harbors in which to secure passage to the Free Cities. The air was crisp but warming up fast under the rising sun.

Sansa pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders, she was going to leave the Lannister squire clothes behind but Sandor thought they could always come in handy. She had packed them and changed into a simple grey and dark blue dress before they had departed.

Sandor let an arm fall to embrace her waist after he switched the reins to one hand. She leaned back against him, grateful for his love, company and affection and at the moment the heat that radiated from his broad chest and powerful arms.

While they rode together in a shared contented silence Cersei slept in the soothing stranglehold of the sweet poppy elixir. No eyes saw her cry in her sleep, her swollen tears sliding down her flushed cheeks to vanish into the silken bed linen. No one heard her cry as her dreams replayed Joffrey's last moments over and over, sometimes in deliberate slowness or blurred until all she saw was red. She couldn't turn her head or close her eyes, she had to watch him die and be reborn in a constant cycle.

Out in the halls word was spreading fast that Lady Sansa was missing, no one could be certain of when exactly they had last seen her. Shae was obtuse with her answers and deflected when possible when asked about Sansa and if there had been much deviation from the normal routine.

Shae headed down the hall towards Sansa's empty chambers, Tyrion had suggested finding a gown of Sansa's and he would procure some limbs from the dead. He stated to put the amputated limbs in one of the ornate trunks in Sansa's chambers along with her gown, a healthy splash of dark blood would plant the idea of a violent and gruesome death.

Shae had wrinkled her nose but gone along with the plan and bought a jar full of pig's blood and poured it over Sansa's light blue silk gown. The blood from the butchered swine soaked into the woven fibers of the smooth gown. Tyrion had appeared quietly with Bronn hauling a sack with severed limbs who in life had belonged to a woman with fiery colored hair.

"My lion" she purred as they both watched Bronn unload the content's from the sack into an ornate trunk in what were once Sansa's chambers. "Have you given any more thought to who should be discovered with the prick king's ring?"

Tyrion smirked and looked up at her, "I thought perhaps we could always hold onto it in case we ever need leverage during future conflicts or allies."

While Bronn arranged the pale and lifeless limbs into the trunk, Sandor and Sansa crossed through a landscape that ebbed and flow in variation from flecked shale pathways to thick groves of trees which lent the air a sweet citrus aroma. Sansa inhaled and leaned back against Sandor's strong chest, "tell me again of how our life will be in the Free Cities."

The low tone of Sandor's chuckle made Sansa bite her lip and he trailed his hand up her side, his fingertips tracing the curve of her breast and eventually brushed across her cheekbones.

"I will find us a fine home that you can fill with fresh flowers and trays of lemon cakes."

She smiled as she thought of a new life with renewed purpose and meaning. A wife and lover, and maybe even a mother she thought as she settled a hand low on her belly.

While Sandor and Sansa rode the entirety of the daylight hours until night leeched the light from the sky and they were left with their shadow as a silent and constant companion, Cersei was just beginning to awaken from her drug induced sleep. She licked her lips and could taste the sweet aftertaste that Milk of the Poppy left in its wake, just a reminder so that you'll hurry back to a place you are beginning to think of as home.

She rolled onto her side and looked over at her son's small hand that lay in posed perfection on its floral woven bed. She sat up and yawned, her neck popping as she looked down at her wrinkled gown from waking up in the same position as she had fallen asleep.

Cersei rubbed a hand down her smooth neck and yelled for a handmaiden, the door flew open and several girls scurried inside. While they attended to her every need they were careful to avert their eyes and not mention the severed hand that smelled of lavender and sage.

While the handmaidens moved around Cersei in seamless and silent symmetry, Sandor secured Stranger in a clean barn stall while Sansa settled herself in the inn's room they rented for the night.

He trudged up the rickety wooden staircase that led to their room, he groaned as his aching muscles began another chorus of protesting any weight bearing movement. He found Sansa sitting on the edge of the plain linen covered bed examining her fingertips with a frown creasing her porcelain skin.

"What has happened?" he asked as he secured and latched the door before moving to her side in the dimly lit room. The bed creaked under his added weight and she turned to him with worry in her eyes.

"My hands" she said and held them up in front of his face.

He shook his head as he looked over her slim fingers, he saw nothing bleeding or broken.

"They're ugly" she said and dropped her eyes, "my hair is tangled and dirty and I smell bad."

He chuckled when he saw there was no threat to her life and stopped the noise when she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Little bird you could never be ugly."

She tried not to let her smile peek through and dropped her head until the veil of her hair fell forward to cover her face.

She looked up with a start when she felt him stand, "you're not leaving are you?"

She hoped her voice was not actually as high-pitched as it sounded.

He gave her a rare and warm smile and walked back and placed a light kiss on the tip of her nose.

"I'll never leave you Sansa, but I need to fetch something from the innkeeper."

She nodded thinking he was going in search of a stretched and bloated wine skin or mug of ale. She smiled at his absence, enjoying the way her name sounded as it spilled from between his lips.

While he descended the stairs to find the innkeeper, Sansa shrugged out of her plain dress and pulled a stiff blanket around her shoulders. She looked out a small carved window at the forested scenery that was blanketed in moonlight, all the colors were distorted from the caress of moonbeams as Sandor returned to the overpriced inn room with the fresh taste of wine on his lips.

Sansa heard the door creak open when he returned but she didn't move her attention from the landscape outside the window. She let her eyes close when his hands fell to her shoulders and massaged with a wordless comfort. She heard an odd noise but before she could figure out what she had heard, Sandor pulled the thin blanket from her shoulders which left her standing in her pale yellow small clothes.

He didn't leave her a moment to ask a question when a warm cloth touched the back of her neck. She caught the aroma of geraniums in the air and turned to see Sandor holding a small folded cloth that he dipped into a large copper basin of warm water. She saw a small sliver of glycerin that had been infused with the earthy scent of the ruffled edged geranium plant.

He caught her smile as she turned back to the window and let him move the cloth along her skin. Her breath caught in her throat when he dipped the cloth under her small clothes and returned her skin to pale smoothness. She stood still as he dried off her clean skin, she was surprised when she felt the stiff bristles of a brush start to move through her hair untangling snarls of hair and returning it to a brilliant gleam.

She felt tears threaten to spill down her cheeks when she looked down and saw how thorough he had been at removing all evidence of dirt from under her rounded fingernails. The threatening tears evaporated instantly when she felt his hands settle on her waist, one hand smoothed up the bare skin of her abdomen and closed on her fabric covered breast. He teased the cloth away from her breast and kneaded the soft flesh with the kiss of dark pink on her nipple that stiffened under his caress.

She felt a warmth spread low in her belly when his other hand moved lower to rest over her small clothes that provided a thin barrier over her place of femininity. She moaned low in her throat when he moved his fingertips over the fabric that began to wick away the growing moisture from her body.

He answered with his own groan and ripped away her small clothes, exposing her delicate skin to his touch. She gasped when she heard the sound of the cloth tearing and the cool air left in the wake of the fabric falling away. She shivered with the anticipation of his touch and sank back into his chest as his fingertips found her naked and slick folds.

He rubbed a calloused fingertip across the bundle of nerves nestled in her pink slit. She felt a deep blush start to fill her face when she thrust her hips against his hand in a very unladylike and wanton gesture.

He felt her embarrassment in her slowed movements, "don't ever feel shame at my touch" he whispered against her ear as he slid a finger inside her hot center.

It seemed almost at once she was on the edge of the bottomless chasm of pleasure and he tightened his grip around her waist as she let a low and steady moan fall from her lips as she gave in to her body's desire.

She felt him lift her and bring her to the room's plain bed. He laid her back, her hair fanning around her head in a fiery halo and freed his cock from his breeches that had been straining with discomfort behind the rough laces.

He smoothed his hands down her naked skin and joined her on the bed, he put a large hand on the inside of her bare thighs and insinuated his body between them. She saw the promise of delicious ecstasy in his eyes he raked over her breasts and to her exposed body that was open to him.

"You are so beautiful" he groaned as he pushed his entire length into her in one swift movement. She felt the sudden fullness as her body tried to accommodate him, she felt his strength and power as he shifted and started to move in a slow and even rhythm supporting his weight on his elbows.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down to meet her lips in an urgent kiss, "tell me again of our life together my love."

He chuckled and traced a hand down the bare expanse of her belly and to the bundle of nerves that came alive again under his fingertips.

While he moved his cock in and out of her body with restrained control he teased more gasps from her as he flicked his fingers across her swelling need. He wanted to bury himself in her pink cunt as long as he was capable, while she plummeted head first into a culminating spasm he whispered to her stories of their new life that waited across the water.

He finally let himself succumb to his staggering release and spilled his seed inside her as he imagined making love to his little bird as citizens of the Free Cities.

~A/N~ A special thank you to every beautiful reader, I hope you enjoyed this journey, xoxo