Trying to Grow Strong

Heavy breathing filled the room.

It struggled passed the lips of Lord Hoster Tully who lay in the large bed in his chambers. It sounded almost like the moan of a ship struggling against the tide. He did not even notice Elodie as she entered the room and silently went over to the window to let some air in, he only noticed her when she took her usual seat next to his bed with a book in hand and let her small soft hands grip his limp hand at his side.

“Minisa?” he breathed out, dull eyes searching the young girl’s face before his blurred vision turned clearer and he tried to smile “Elodie.”

He smiled fondly as he raised a hand to place on her cheek. Elodie felt her heart clench when he breathed out his late wife’s name, she brought disappointment to him when she wished to bring him a friend. He is dying, Elodie thought as she struggled to smile and nod her head at him. “Yes Grandfather, it is me.”

If Edmure was her father than Hoster was her grandfather.

She remembered the days when she first came here and Lord Hoster health was in good condition and when her child lips would fumble as she called him ‘Lord Hoster’ that he began to laugh and said to call him grandfather as she was a Tully in all but name. He had said that she reminds him of his late wife, that she had her beauty to which Elodie denied being anything close to beauty and that to say that would be offensive to his wife’s memory. Hoster only laughed and pinched her cheek before sending her off to her classes, and Elodie could still hear his sad tone when he though she had left the room saying, “What have those Tyrell’s done to you?”

Elodie opened the book and began reading aloud to him where she left of but was, after some time, interrupted by the Lord himself. She had always read to him after he found out about her love for books.

Lord Hoster looked at the young girl but then turned to look out of the window that brought in a breeze of summer, it filled his nose and then consumed his lungs until what was left flowed out and became forgotten. Summer burned his lungs but he knew that soon winter would come to possess his lungs. “I heard that your dreams have started again”

His voice shook and it made Elodie feel cold right to her core, she slowly turned her head to see out of the corner of her eye the fireplace and she felt old scar burn and the memories burn at her skull begging to spread and destroy her.

For the night is dark and full of terrors.

“Yes the lavender has stopped working, the dreams are usually the same but not anymore.” She whispered the last part before standing and walking to the open window to stare out at the river that surrounded the castle.

“You could not hide from them forever.”

But I can try.

“It always ends the same lately, I don’t know what it means.” she let the breeze curl a lock of escaped hair around its invisible finger. She closed her eyes briefly and flinched when she saw the eyes.

“What do you see?” Lord Hoster seemed to forget his ill health and put his attention to the girl, he was always taken back by her plain face that held something that could compare to anyone else’s, her eyes held such emotion such torment that shone through her blue and yellow gem eyes. it found it so mesmerised by the fact that they were hidden in something that no one paid any particular attention to.

“I see death and purple eyes.”

Always purple eyes. Always watching. Always waiting.

Hoster nodded his head, his Tully eyes never leaving her figure as she wrapped her arms closer around her body as if in an attempt to comfort herself.

“What did you dream last night?”

There was no movement in the room only words which would burn into Elodie’s head and stay there until her death.

“I dreamed of running to the statue, covered in blood,” she bit the nail of her thumb, “I still don’t know if I killed someone or not and then there was the man and children.”

“Man and children?”

“It did not look far in the future so they could not be my children and the man was familiar but his face is blurred,” she furrowed her brow and turned to stare at him, “why am I dreaming of children who are not mine?”

And they had purple eyes.

Elodie’s hand shook but it did not shake due to the dream but for the arrival of the Starks, which was why she stood by the window where she could see them when they arrive and be prepare herself. She did not know why she feared the arrival of Robb Stark but it make her stomach turn at the thought, maybe it was because she was more afraid than she was when she last time they saw each other and she had been through a lot since then as well.

She would always remember how Edmure and Lord Hoster looked at her when she had arrived back after being found on the King’s Road by Ser Daniel who at the time was not a knight and it was Edmure who helped him in his training as a thank you for finding Elodie. But she was not returned in good condition; she was covered in blood and dirt and her dreams had become worse. She was broken.

She would mostly dream of the Red Woman who cursed her dreams.

For the night is dark and full of terrors.

“Maybe the Gods are trying to tell you something?”

This was something Lord Hoster would always ask and Elodie would always nod and return to her seat and began reading to him until the maester would come to check on Lord Hoster and Elodie would leave to find Wynn and Rosa to go and see the statue.

But as they were stopped at the door resulting in Wynn groaning with her olive coloured skin crying for the sun that was gleaming through the castle doors. She was the most rebellious of the three and she was a blacksmith’s daughter so she knew her way around a sword, she had made her father fashion a dagger for Elodie after what had happened on the King’s Road. Everyone knew of what had happened but it was a secret in Riverrun and the people would do anything for their Lord. Rosa was a shy and quiet thing who liked to make dresses and had captured the heart of a stable hand named Gerard.

Rosa bowed shyly before Lord Edmure and discreetly kicked Wynn to do the same who rolled her eyes and put a sarcastic smile on her face to which Edmure chuckled at, “Ah I see that you, Lady Wynn, have still not outgrown your boldness,”

Wynn scoffed “I know how much you enjoy it and who am I to deny the future Lord of Riverrun?”
Edmure gave her a subtle wink before turning to Elodie and gave her smiled that no one ever saw apart from when he was with his ‘foster daughter’. “You do remember that my Lady sister is to arrive and that she is currently making her way to us for us to greet her like you promised me you would?” he spoke out of the corner of his mouth and moved beside her to stand.

Elodie looked straight ahead and could make of the shape of the carriage and horses, the corners of her lips turned up and she said quietly to him, “If I didn’t know any better I would think that you are afraid of your elder sister.”

It was Edmure’s turn to scoff now before coughing and speaking to her again through the corner of his mouth as the figure f his sister came toward them with a smaller figure by her side, “Just shut up and be nice!” he pinched her arm making her yelp quietly before laughing.

“I see that my little brother encourages childish behaviour.” The voice could only be known as stern and motherly and definitely belonged to the Lady of Winterfell. Elodie had not seen Catelyn Stark since she was a young girl and she was taken aback by the beauty of the woman, her Tully hair tumbled past her shoulders which were cloaked with fur trimmings, her lips were set in a firm line but her Tully eyes held humour and happiness in them.

Edmure kissed his sister’s cheek fondly “Cat,” and she hugged him before he stared down at the smaller figure beside her who looked like his sister when growing up “This must be Sansa!”

The rest of the conversation was lost as Elodie stared at the young stark child who was not many years younger than herself and already her beauty outshone her own. Her beauty could nearly beat the beauty of Queen Cersei but she would not say that out loud for the fear of losing her head.

Elodie bowed and made formalities with them before Catelyn linked her arm with her younger brother and dragged him with her to see her father while Sansa wished to go to her chambers to rest. “I am sorry that my son Robb is not here, he wished to venture around the place, I hope you can forgive him.” Lady Catelyn said before pulling her brother away and this made Elodie feel a slight ease in her chest.

The three girls carried on their way to the forest and to the statue, on the way Wynn spoke of the eldest Stark son and of his said handsomeness and other things of that sort but Elodie didn’t care to listen as she knelt in front of the statue who had wept blood in her dream the night before. She prayed for Lord Hoster’s health, for the tourney to go well for Edmure’s sake and for there to be no bloodshed or death.

The other girls were somewhere behind her talking of Rosa’s impending marriage and did not hear the rustle of leaves and footsteps of a man coming toward their Lady who had stood ridged hand at the dagger hidden in her skirts. She pulled it out when the man came into view and he eyes the hilt which was in the shape of a fish the sigil of House Tully, he felt his hands up in mock surrender and Elodie noticed his blue eyes and auburn hair.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said, his voice was deep and smooth like water. His eyes looked her up and down, deciding that she was lowborn but it did not make sense with the expensive looking dagger. She had a plain face, a common face that was associated with lowborns.

She seemed to know what he was thinking and took a step back, “I think you should take your own advice, sir, for she knows these lands more than you ever will, her blood and veins are in the ground and river. I think you forget yourself sir for you are speaking to a Lady of Riverrun!” it was Wynn who growled this at him and placed herself in front of the girl. Rosa stood trembling at the thought of the man hurting them, and Wynn glared at the man with such heat that Elodie thought he might burst into flames before her eyes.

She had still not said anything and none of the girls there knew that they were speaking to Robb Stark, Elodie did not recognise him and gods how she wished she had.