Songs-The Maiden and The Dwarf (Sansa/Tyrion)
Sansa/Tyrion, songs--750 words)
(Throneland Challenge 11--These characters belong to GRRM)
She has always loved songs and stories--the tales of Aemon the Dragonknight and his sister, Queen Naerys; Duncan the Small, Prince of Dragonflies and Jenny of Oldstones; Florian and Jonquil...she knows all the songs, which she learned from an old bard who once visited Winterfell. She even longed to play the high harps once--her father promised he would find someone to teach her when they went to King's Landing. This was when she thought her song had begun; when she was first betrothed to Joffrey; when she lived in a world of dreams; when she trusted the queen and loved her prince; before she lost Lady and Septa Mordane and her father; before they took Jeyne Poole away; before the Lannisters killed her father's men and took her prisoner; before Arya ran away.
She dreamed, once upon a time, that she would marry a hero out of a song, a brave and honourable knight, who would rescue her from monsters, love her and keep her safe. Instead, she is betrothed to a cruel and despotic king, who appears handsome, with his gold hair and green eyes, but isn't--he has Septa Mordane and her father put to death and he gets the knights of his Kingsguard to beat her up.
She is married off to his dwarf uncle, with his bulging brow, mismatched eyes and stumpy legs, a man who is reviled as evil and cunning. And yet, this man who looks like a monster is kind to her. He tells her he wants her, but he wants her to love him first, which she cannot do. So they do not consummate the marriage. Her brother and mother are brutally murdered because his father is able to get two of her brother's allies to play traitor. Which makes it even more unlikely that their marriage will ever be consummated. She plots her escape with a drunk knight, her Florian--the Hound, who always told her the bitter truth, has fled after the Battle of the Blackwater, when the sky and the very air around them, was green with wildfire!
He does not believe in songs or stories, but he does want love. He will do anything for it--even wed a crofter's daughter, because she tells him she loves him. They're happy together for a short while before his father's men find him and his little bubble of joy bursts disastrously for them both. He can never forget her, although his brother assures him she was a whore he paid to lie with him, Tyrion. He searches for her ceaselessly, in all the whorehouses in Westeros.
He will do anything to win the regard of his father--including shoring up the throne of a cruel boy-king, his nephew--Jaime and Cersei's first-born. He does all he can to win the war against Stannis--the chain across the mouth of the harbour, the wildfire, leading a charge, getting badly wounded and damn near killed in the process. And what does he get out of it?He is now Master of Coin, instead of being Hand of the King!
And he cannot help but be moved by beauty and suffering, and angered by cruelty. So when his nephew tries to get knights of the Kingsguard to strip and beat up his betrothed, or when his father talks of marrying this girl off to just about anyone in their family for her claim, he has to step up. He rescues her from the Kingsguard and he agrees to marry her, although he knows she would rather dream about tall, blond knights than a badly scarred dwarf. And yes, although he wants to bed her, he wants her to love him--so their marriage is not consummated. And the deaths of her brother and mother in the Red Wedding don't help either.
So should he be so shocked when she disappears after Joffrey's death? Should he not realise that for her those words spoken in the sept could mean nothing, because those who forced her to enter the sept and utter those words wanted to claim her home? Does he not realise that his family's intentions were never good, when he finds himself in a cell, accused of a crime neither he nor she committed?
They write songs about knights and their ladies, about true love--how about a song of broken hopes and dreams that were destined to die because they were never based on reality?
(Throneland Challenge 11--These characters belong to GRRM)
She has always loved songs and stories--the tales of Aemon the Dragonknight and his sister, Queen Naerys; Duncan the Small, Prince of Dragonflies and Jenny of Oldstones; Florian and Jonquil...she knows all the songs, which she learned from an old bard who once visited Winterfell. She even longed to play the high harps once--her father promised he would find someone to teach her when they went to King's Landing. This was when she thought her song had begun; when she was first betrothed to Joffrey; when she lived in a world of dreams; when she trusted the queen and loved her prince; before she lost Lady and Septa Mordane and her father; before they took Jeyne Poole away; before the Lannisters killed her father's men and took her prisoner; before Arya ran away.
She dreamed, once upon a time, that she would marry a hero out of a song, a brave and honourable knight, who would rescue her from monsters, love her and keep her safe. Instead, she is betrothed to a cruel and despotic king, who appears handsome, with his gold hair and green eyes, but isn't--he has Septa Mordane and her father put to death and he gets the knights of his Kingsguard to beat her up.
She is married off to his dwarf uncle, with his bulging brow, mismatched eyes and stumpy legs, a man who is reviled as evil and cunning. And yet, this man who looks like a monster is kind to her. He tells her he wants her, but he wants her to love him first, which she cannot do. So they do not consummate the marriage. Her brother and mother are brutally murdered because his father is able to get two of her brother's allies to play traitor. Which makes it even more unlikely that their marriage will ever be consummated. She plots her escape with a drunk knight, her Florian--the Hound, who always told her the bitter truth, has fled after the Battle of the Blackwater, when the sky and the very air around them, was green with wildfire!
He does not believe in songs or stories, but he does want love. He will do anything for it--even wed a crofter's daughter, because she tells him she loves him. They're happy together for a short while before his father's men find him and his little bubble of joy bursts disastrously for them both. He can never forget her, although his brother assures him she was a whore he paid to lie with him, Tyrion. He searches for her ceaselessly, in all the whorehouses in Westeros.
He will do anything to win the regard of his father--including shoring up the throne of a cruel boy-king, his nephew--Jaime and Cersei's first-born. He does all he can to win the war against Stannis--the chain across the mouth of the harbour, the wildfire, leading a charge, getting badly wounded and damn near killed in the process. And what does he get out of it?He is now Master of Coin, instead of being Hand of the King!
And he cannot help but be moved by beauty and suffering, and angered by cruelty. So when his nephew tries to get knights of the Kingsguard to strip and beat up his betrothed, or when his father talks of marrying this girl off to just about anyone in their family for her claim, he has to step up. He rescues her from the Kingsguard and he agrees to marry her, although he knows she would rather dream about tall, blond knights than a badly scarred dwarf. And yes, although he wants to bed her, he wants her to love him--so their marriage is not consummated. And the deaths of her brother and mother in the Red Wedding don't help either.
So should he be so shocked when she disappears after Joffrey's death? Should he not realise that for her those words spoken in the sept could mean nothing, because those who forced her to enter the sept and utter those words wanted to claim her home? Does he not realise that his family's intentions were never good, when he finds himself in a cell, accused of a crime neither he nor she committed?
They write songs about knights and their ladies, about true love--how about a song of broken hopes and dreams that were destined to die because they were never based on reality?