Winter In My Heart | ROBB STARK.

V. The Pack Leader

She left the tent before they could object, debating internally whether she should find Robb to offer her condolences, or leave him alone to grieve with his loss with his mother.

Fianna stood for a moment, her eyes scanning the tree line, searching for any sight of her liege lord. Perhaps he had wanted to be alone, and that's why he went into the trees - where no one else was stationed.

She jumped at the sight of Lady Catelyn appearing from the forest, her hands crossed in front of her in a grave manner. Fianna stayed put, intending to leave the woman to grieve but it had been Catelyn who approached her.

Catelyn eyed the younger girl for a moment, the secret she had been keeping would surely affect Fianna too. The reasons she had been keeping them seemed so irrelevant to her now, now Robb was doomed to live with the pain of his father's death and being married to a girl he wasn't supposed to wed.

She had seen the bond between the two, it developed in the blink of an eye and when it began, it blossomed daily. She heard the story of her attack, knew that Fianna was a warrior. She hoped the secret glances her son threw towards the Lady were nothing but a boy's attraction to a strong, independent woman, one he had no hope of getting with.

If Robb had been told of the betrothal, he would doubtlessly marry the girl in an instant. Nothing a Frey girl could offer would withstand what Fianna could give him, because Catelyn doubted there was any woman in Westeros that was anywhere close to Fianna Bua.

Catelyn tried to convince herself that she was doing the right thing. They needed the Frey men to fight for Robb and to get them Robb needed to be betrothed, to keep them, he needed to stay betrothed.

Yet she couldn't deny the guilt that overcame her. And now that Ned was gone - she prayed for forgiveness from the Gods, as well as praying for Ned.

"Go to him," she told her quietly. Catelyn placed a hand on Fianna's forearm. She sensed the worry in Fianna's expression and knew that, as much as she wished they wouldn't have the bond that they did, Robb needed her.

That was all Fianna needed to hear.

The entire situation was all too familiar for her, surrounded by people mourning a man only she had a true bond with. Now, it was Robb and Catelyn in her position.

She suddenly longed for a mother of her own, to be able to share in her grief and pain when her father passed. But alas, having a parent was not a luxury the Gods deemed Fianna fit to have.

She sauntered quickly through the trees, her head whipping around quickly trying to find Robb.

She stopped in her step, silencing the sound of her feet crunching on the leaves when she heard the sound of sobbing.

Fianna followed the sound, her pace slower now so as not to startle him by approaching him too quick.

Her heart completely broke at the sight, Robb was crumpled on the ground. His back against the tree, a battered and destroyed sword by his side, his hands gripping his head as he sobbed freely.

"Robb," she called softly, walking closer. His head snapped up in surprise. He frantically began to rub his cheeks with his hands, trying to eliminate the proof of his anguish.

Fianna rushed forward immediately and dropped to her knees at his side, ripping his hands away from his face. When he tried to stand, she tugged him down roughly to stop him from standing up.

"No, don't you do that," she said, gripping his forearms tightly and looking him in the eye with a fierce look in her own. "Don't you dare hide what you are feeling from me. Everything you are feeling, I have felt. You cannot expect to hold your pride above grieving your loss."