I Could Keep You Safe | Leanor Clegane | ASOIAF/GOT Fanfiction

Leanor

She went out into the village as much as possible, simply to get away from home. Though Leanor was their friend, the village children often teased her for being richer than them, for her height, scar and large hooked nose, for how much everyone hated her brother. All of those things were true of course, but the idea of being afraid of them was laughable after her own family, so it was easy to stand up for herself and respond in kind.

"You look like a witch, Leah," One of the boys she was friends with laughed at her the first time she ventured outside with her crooked nose. Coupled with the rather gaunt, sharp-boned face that she shared with her father and brothers, no doubt it was true. She rolled her eyes but grinned.

"I'd take that over looking like a weasel, Evan Hill. Was your long-lost Da actually a Frey?" Evan just laughed as the other boys jeered, as unable to deny her insult as she was to deny his. Though the average smallfolk child in the Westerlands wouldn't ordinarily know of House Frey, a party of several members of that family had stayed the night once in Clegane Keep on their way to a tourney in the Reach, and their chinless faces had been the cause of much (secret) hilarity in the village.

Leanor noticed that a few girls were giggling behind their hands several feet away, no doubt mocking her and not to her face. One of them was Melessa, the blacksmith's daughter, who everyone said was the most beautiful young girl in the village. She boasted that her grandmother had been a Lannister bastard (although her hair was sandy rather than gold and her eyes were plain hazel).

"I should've been born to a knightly father in the towerhouse," Leanor heard her saying, none too quietly. "I'd make a better lady than Beaky over there," There were titters from the other girls as she nodded her way. "I'm much prettier and far more dainty,"

"You're right, Melessa," Leanor made sure to smile. "You are prettier than me, and smaller, and I always liked your curly hair," The girl looked perplexed, trying to work out if she was being mocked or not, given there was not a hint of sarcasm in Leanor's tone.

Ordinarily she would've left it at that, content with the knowledge that she'd unnerved the girl and showed that she truly didn't care, but her broken nose was still throbbing unpleasantly and she had been in a rather bad mood since it happened. She continued.

"Although I'm not sure your dainty little nose wouldn't be as crooked as mine, if you'd been born to my family. Perhaps it would be a smaller target for Gregor, but I'm sure he'd manage to break it eventually,"

As usual, any mention of her eldest brother was met with anxious glances around to check he wasn't there, looming out of the shadows. Leanor remained still; she had already checked behind her before she spoke.

Completely unrelated to that small row, a month later Melessa did not come out to play near as much and could often be seen crying with her mother; her equally pretty elder sister, a maid in the towerhouse, had gone missing one day. Her corpse was later found in the woods, half-naked, beaten and bleeding between the legs. The whole village knew who had done it.

The girl's father had stormed up to the keep in a rage, demanding justice for his raped and murdered daughter. Despite their own father's protests, Gregor had lumbered forward and punched him so hard in the neck that his spine snapped. He was dead before he hit the floor; Leanor had seen the light leave his eyes after the fist collided with his neck.

No one came to protest either death after that.

Her eldest brother was knighted by Prince Rhaegar Targaryen himself when he was fifteen. She and Sandor watched mutely, both furious as he swore to be brave, to be just and true, to protect the innocent. The prince raised him up a knight, and their father clapped him on the back.