THE LITTLE PUP (EDITING AND REWRITING)

Chapter 23 | Right here right now

Lilia got out of her chambers after mourning King Robert's death. She knew things were about to change and she knew that war was coming. Word had spread that Renly Baratheon had fled the city, leaving her father to deal with the mess. He had been absent for the few past hours and Lilia decided that it would be better for her to roam through the castle. Something didn't feel right to her, Sansa wasn't in the Tower, Arya wasn't in the Tower and she was alone with Winter Rose.

She decided to go for a walk with Winter Rose while trying not to be noticed around the castle. As she passed through the throne room, she noticed the doors were open, revealing a whole assembly of people gathered inside it, including Sansa. Ser Barristan left the room without his white cloak and his sword, and Lilia became alarmed, especially once she noticed the Queen's look on her, and Joffrey Baratheon with a crown on his head.

"Ser Barristan, wait!" she screamed as she ran after the man, struggling due to her long dress. Winter Rose was acting weird and she knew something was definitely wrong. She had never seen her direwolf so violent and depressed, it felt like she wanted to stay behind. 'Perhaps she's fallen ill', Lilia thought. "Ser Barristan! Where are you going? What happened?"

"Lady Lilia, what are you still doing here? I thought you had already fled!" he says a bit shocked. Lilia's defences fell as she furrowed her eyebrows together out of confusion and frustration. She didn't know what was happening and she feared for the worse. "You have to leave! They will be looking for you in no time!"

"What? Why? Ser Barristan, what happened to you? Where are your cloak and your sword?" the girl asked out of concern and fear. Her father had been telling her that Winter was coming, what if it had come for their family at last?

"The King decided that I'm not able to keep on being a King's Guard and has stripped me of my post and given it to Jamie Lannister, the Oathbreaker, the Kingslayer!" he furiously explained. She became even more scared for what was happening, Robert had died but the country had yet to mourn his death. The succession was a process that needed its time, it couldn't be something like that...

"But... the King is dead..." she said and then another point came into her head. "Where is my father?"

"I fear to tell you that your father has been arrested for treason" she fell on her knees right there. She knew what the punishment for treason was and she knew that her father had been betrayed by those who surrounded him. He had been right all along, she could not trust anyone in King's Landing, ANYONE. "King Robert decided before his death that your Lord Father should be Regent while Prince Joffrey didn't come of age, but he crowned himself and arrested your father on charges of treason. I'm very sorry, My Lady"

"What about my sisters, Sir Barristan? I cannot leave them alone, not now!" she said out of desperation and the knight helped her on her feet, hugging her to comfort her.

"Lady Sansa is in the throne room, I believe she's there to bow to the King and plead for Lord Eddard's life. Lady Arya... she's nowhere to be found..." he explained shortly. "You have to go, My Lady. If you stay here, they'll find you and the Gods know what they'll do to you"

"I can't leave Sansa, she's my sister. If I leave without her, I'll never be able to forgive myself" she says. She knew Sansa was going to be massacred if Lilia was there for her. She knew that Sansa would most likely get killed off pretty quickly.

"She will be fine, My Lady. She is betrothed to the King, she's going to be Queen sooner or later!" he tried to convince her. "You are a piece way too important to the game, you must leave! They mustn't lay a hand on you!"

"Why am I so important? What is happening?!" she yells in the middle of the hallways. Tears were streaming down her face. She knew that she couldn't leave on her own. After all, the lone wolf died, but the pack survived.

"Your brother is marching on King Joffrey, if he shall fall, you will be the key to the North!" then it hit her like a carriage. Ser Barristan was right, if they laid a hand on her, they would make her life and leaving hell and control her out of convenience, and she couldn't let that happen! "You must leave, now!"

Lilia didn't know where to go, so she just ran and ran until she could find a place with no guards, that would allow her to escape to the city. And she kept on running until she felt that she was far enough the Red Keep. She had to think about where she could go. She was too far from the North so she couldn't go to Winterfell. She couldn't count on anyone but family and crossing to the Riverlands would mean go through much danger. She could go to the Eyrie, she just had to find a horse. If only she had a horse... she would have been faster than any Lannister man. She decided that she couldn't stop, so she kept on running. Winter Rose was getting tired and unable to keep up, and Lilia herself was starting to lose her energy. 'I shall stop and think later', she decided to walk along with the crowd, to avoid being spotted by any Lannister.

Her plan, even if clever, didn't succeed though. As she took a turn to a less crowded street, she found Lannister guards. Everything would be fine if it weren't for the fact that the one leading what seemed like a search party, was no one but Jamie Lannister, who stood there along with the Mountain and the Hound. She tried to discreetly make her way through but as they noticed a presence in the street, they saw the direwolf and they knew that it was Lilia Stark for sure.

She noticed and she ran into corners and corners, in order to make sure that not even their horses could reach her. She was making it since the horses couldn't turn quickly in streets that were so tight. She was then reminded of a dagger that she always kept, one that she had taken from Winterfell, but she decided to use it only as the last option. Then, she stopped listening to horses and she sighed in relief until she heard large footsteps after her. She had a good advantage over them though, which made her able to still escape.

Her desperation intensified when she came across a blind alley, limiting her space to escape. She was by then feeling the adrenaline rush through her veins as tears threatened to stream down her face once again. But her fear for what was to come didn't get stronger until she saw Jamie Lannister pointing his sword at her.

She pointed his dagger at him, making him laugh at her. 'I must be ridiculous', she thought to herself.

"What are you going to do, fight me with a dagger?" he mocked her. Jamie had never seen a girl with as much fire as Lilia Stark. He knew that her sister could never come up with something like that and, up until that moment, he thought that she couldn't even imagine it either. The truth was that he knew that all her actions were made out of impulse, that's why she would threaten him with a dagger,

"No, but I swear I'll kill myself right here, right now, if you dare to take another step closer to me!" Lilia did something that scared her own self, something risky that could have a disastrous outcome. She put the dagger next to her throat, ready to slash it if needed. Jamie's eyes widened at the sight, Lilia Stark was definitely someone unpredictable and there was no other word to describe her. "Step back and let me leave!"

"Fine" he put his sword on the floor and kicked towards her as she sighed in relief. Yet, she hadn't thought how she would escape that alley and she knew that all her hopes for an escape were clearly gone. Then, she grabbed the sword and pointed it at him, letting the dagger go because she was safe at last.

She didn't even have to blink, all she realized was her back against a whole and Jamie Lannister pressing his body to hers, with her hands on top of her head, making her unable to move.

"Let me go!" she tried to hit him but he just smirked evilly. She tried to free herself but it was no use, she knew that she was lost and that her destiny was now Joffrey's to decide.