Hello to all.
Dentists, urgh... I have that tomorrow, yay. :(
But for today I shall be updating my fics! Rejoice, my followers! :D

Arya stayed in Starfall and sat her husband's seat as best she could. She did not want to, of course - and she was pretty sure most others didn't want her to either - Allyria would sit it much better, she thought.

Arya had to manage the accounts, figure where each of the guards would go, though that was all but done for her by Ned before he left.

She let out a sigh and buried her fingers in Nymeria's fur; Arya missed his company. She sat near the pools, it was an unruly hot day and she was not needed at court, so she saw no reason to be around people. But she did see reason to sulk.

He father was dead, and only now was that fact starting to catch up with her. Arya found herself missing Eddard Stark fiercely, missing when she was younger and he would pull her into a warm hug that chased away her bad moods.

She missed Winterfell and Bran's climbing. She missed Sansa's sweet singing voice and - when Arya did something she approved of, which was far and few between, but still there - her sweet and warm smiles. Arya missed the way Catelyn would fuss over her hair. Missed the way Rickon used to come tumbling towards her and latch onto her leg when he was little, how they used to get into mischief with Bran.
She missed silly little things that she shouldn't - because she was a woman grown and Arya hadn't been to Winterfell in nearly five years to boot.

But she did.

And it hurt.

-x-x-

When a raven came almost a year after The War of the North began, saying that the Starks had lost and that the Boltens controlled Winterfell, Arya fell into a rage.

She mourned Ned, for true she did.

But she loved Winterfell, it was her home, no matter where she went it always would be. Arya was no longer Lady of Starfall, that title passed to Allyria the moment Ned had breathed his last, and now Arya Dayne had no place in the world.

Arya Stark. She reminded herself as she packed a knapsack full of clothes for running away.

Nymeria watched her curiously, seeming to know in her own way that the castle was no longer her home.

"Nymeria: gloves." Arya commanded, and the direwolf walked to the small chair, took the gloves between her jaws and brought them to her mistress. "Good girl," Arya praised, fondly touching the wolf's snout.

"We will leave soon," she said softly. "And I will go and find the Faceless Men, because I cannot be myself, and you can be wild as your mother was." She looked out the window of her chambers, a wistful look upon her long face. If I snuck aboard a ship I could go to the free city of Braavos or even Volantis. I would be able to start over in a place where not a soul has heard of Arya Stark or Arya Dayne and be whoever I wanted to be.

And Arya did just that.

She left Starfall in the dead of night on a sand steed with a star on it's fore, Nymeria running along side her; her tongue lolling from her mouth.

She came to Storms End nearly a moon later, Arya Dayne having been reported missing almost as long, the Baratheon stronghold not seeming as splendid as tales told.

Arya turned her horse away, and aimed for the coast, she would sell the horse for passage, or if need be, sneak in with the cargo.

She missed Nymeria like a cripple would a phantom limb - it felt wrong not having her now, even though Arya had lived nearly thirteen years without her. But it would be easier getting to Braavos without her. Arya told herself. I left her in The Riverlands, there is plenty of game there, she will live and breed direwolf pups and be happy.

So, as Arya traded passage onto a ship bound for the free city of Braavos, introducing herself as Nan - short for Nymeria - no one knew who she really was or where she came from - only that she was from the North of Westoros and carried a rapier she'd named Needle that she never let out of her sight and that she desperately sought something in Braavos - she was content.

They did not know what it was she sought in the free cities, and when the son of the captain asked, Nan simply responded with; "Freedom."

D.P~Reviewing is helpful, very much so. I'll let you think on that one.