To Heal A Broken Bird

The Wolves Will Come Again

Sansa knew that her decision to stay quiet had doomed thousands of men. She could only hope that Jon wasn't one of them. She urged her horse to go faster as her and Littlefinger rode towards the battle with the Vale of Arryn. When they reached the battlefield, her heart was racing. From her safe distance, she couldn't make out the figures on the battlefield. But she still strained her eyes, searching for a sign that Jon was okay.

Sansa watched in satisfaction as the Vale army charged in and knocked down a circular formation of men with the Bolton colors on their shields. A smirked formed on her face as she pictured Ramsay's shock. If only she was close enough to witness it in person. As the Vale army wrought havoc on the Bolton forces, she saw a figure riding away in the distance, racing back towards Winterfell. The figure was only a speck in her vision, but she knew it was Ramsay.

Ramsay realized that he had lost the fight on the battlefield and would most likely resort to a siege.

Sansa's heart fluttered in panic at the thought. Then her eyes were drawn to the towering figure of Wun Wun the giant dwarfing the other figures on the battlefield. He started racing towards Winterfell with two smaller figures at his side. And Sansa's heart soared because it knew deep down that one of the figures was Jon.

The desire to race after him was strong, but she resisted the urge. She would only put him in danger if she distracted him. Time seemed to drag slowly as she waited on her horse, allowing Jon the time that he needed to hopefully defeat Ramsay. When an appropriate amount of time had elapsed, Sansa took off on her horse, charging towards Winterfell.

The sight that met her nearly left her weeping. A bloodied Ramsay lay defenseless on the ground as Jon rained blows down on his face. Nothing had ever looked more beautiful to Sansa. Still, each blow although satisfying, didn't come close to making up for Ramsay's mountain of crimes. It didn't erase his abuse of her, his abuse of Theon, his murder of her Northern friends, his terrorizing of the North and especially his murder of Rickon. There was so much for him to pay for and Sansa was so willing to make him pay.

Jon looked up, his rage freezing on his face as he became aware of her presence. He glanced down at Ramsay then back up at her before getting to his feet and walking away.

Sansa would be the one to end Ramsay's life, but first there were other matters to attend to. Rickon had to be prepared for burial in the crypts, Winterfell needed to be immediately cleansed of all evidence of the Bolton's infestation. Every Bolton flag and anything with its vile sigil needed to be burned. That nightmare chamber needed to be torn apart and then completely rebuilt. Sansa's mind was buzzing with the first course of action to take as she took off at a brisk, purposeful stride.

She found some guards to go collect her brother's body from the field. As the men hurried off to do so, Sansa searched out Melisandre and requested for her to prepare Rickon's body for burial. To Sansa's relief, the Red Woman agreed and Sansa thanked her before taking a deep breath and entering the castle. She made quick work of rounding up the household and instructing them to strip the Castle and pile any Bolton related objects, material, or furniture in a pile to be dealt with.

Sansa then found servants to deal with the chamber where she had been imprisoned during those horrific months. Burn it, she wanted to say. Burn it all. But she settled on having everything in the chamber thrown out and the wall torn down. It would be reconstructed into an entirely different chamber. Once finished issuing those orders, Sansa hurried back outside to deal with Ramsay. He wasn't lying on the spot that Jon had left him so she went to find Jon.

Rickon's body was carried in through the gatehouse just as she reached Jon. Sansa might have wept, but there was a numbness spreading through her that prevented her from weeping. The numbness blocked the pain, reducing it to little more than a dull throb as she took in the sight of the boy that she barely knew lying broken on the stretcher. She quickly averted her eyes and looked to Jon. Rickon was doomed as soon as Ramsay got a hold of him. He couldn't have been saved, she wanted to tell him.

"Jon," Sansa said, as Jon started to walk away.

He stopped and turned to her, his eyes haunted.

"Where is he?" she demanded.

Jon sighed. "I ordered for him to be placed in the dog kennel with his hounds. He boasted to us that he hadn't fed them in seven days because he wanted them to be ravenous. I figured that it's only right if he is their first meal."

Sansa nodded satisfied. "Good." Was her ominous reply. She turned without another word and headed towards the kennels. That curious, cold calm took over her body again as she stared at the bloodied man in front of her who had haunted her every waking moment and caused nightmares in her sleep. There was a sort of peace as she realized that he would never ever ever hurt her again. No longer would she have the lingering fear in the back of her mind that she would end up back in his hands to endure his merciless torture until he broke her. She was really and truly free.

As if sensing another presence, his head lifted and his eyes met hers. "Sansa," he greeted. "Hello, Sansa."

She stayed quiet as he continued to speak, reveling in the fact that she was now the one with the power.

"I'm part of you now." His confident statement tainted the air.

Every fiber of her being rejected that statement.

"Your words will disappear. Your house will disappear. Your name will disappear. All memory of you will disappear." Sansa let her words fill the kennel and then sink in before she let out a low whistle, as her eyes remained on him, piercing into him.

The growls of hungry hounds soon filled the kennel as they stepped out of their cages, alerted by the sound of her whistle. The smell of the blood that Ramsay was caked in, called to them, increasing their hunger and bloodlust.

"My hounds will never harm me." He was still overly confident.

"You haven't fed them in seven days. You said it yourself," Sansa replied dispassionately.

"They're loyal beasts," Ramsay maintained. But the growls and crowding of the hounds were starting to affect him.

She watched as he swallowed nervously. "They were," she allowed. "Now they're starving."

The hounds attacked, as if to prove her words and his panicked commands rose in volume. The beasts failed to heed him and the commands soon turned to screams.

Sansa turned away as the hounds devoured their master who had taught them to love the taste of human flesh.

This was a victory for House Stark. But so much had been lost to the Boltons before the victory was won. Her last shred of innocence. Her home. Her brothers.

In life, the monsters win...But not this time.

Not this time, she realized, as a ghost of a smile played across her lips.