B L O O M

Flying High

"Are you all right?" Rose asked Gendry, her tangled locks swirling in the wind as she trudged through the snow. Leading her party around the jagged rocks that surround them. Gendry grunts in response, making Rose furrow her brows.

"Ever been north before?" Rose asked, looking back at him as the cold bit her pink nose.

"Never seen snow before." Gendry responded, making Rose laugh at the man who desperately pleaded to go on this trip into the freezing cold beyond the Wall.

"Beautiful, eh? I can breathe again. Down south the air smells like pig shit." Tormund interjected, stepping past Rose as he took a deep breath. Turning around to give Rose a lopsided grin while she raised her eyebrows with a smile.

"You've never been down south." Rose informed him as she laughed, his big stupid grin making her turn around as he raised a finger.

"I've been to Winterfell." Tormund told her, wagging his finger as Rose laughed.

"That's the north." Oberyn informed him, the southern man's interruption made Rose giggle louder as a wildling scout passed them

"How do you live up here? How do you keep your balls from freezing off?" Oberyn asked Tormund and Rose, his olive skin currently drained of color as the snow covered his coat and exposed flesh.

"You have to keep moving. That's the secret. Walking is good, fighting is better, fucking is best." Tormund told them all, glancing back at Rose with a smirk that showed his teeth, making her roll her eyes.

"There's not another woman within a hundred miles of here." Gendry spoke loudly, making all members of the party look at him in disbelief. Rose's large grin broadened at his words and the looks all the men gave her, save Jorah and Gendry.

"You'll make due." Rose turned back to stare up the snowy cliff, listening to Gendry's boots scuff away until the crunch of snow lessened.

"This one is maybe not so smart." Tormund announced to Oberyn and Rose as the three continued, making Oberyn nod solemnly in agreement.

"Davos says he is a strong fighter." Rose answered, not stopping her movement as she slowed to pass Oberyn her spare cloak. Receiving a nod of thanks as Oberyn wrapped the warm cloth around his shaking body, Rose's hardly affected by the familiar frost.

"Good. That's more important than being smart." Tormund looked at Rose, making the hair on her neck stand up at the feeling of his eyes. "Smart people don't come up here looking for the dead. So, you met this Dragon Queen, huh? And?"

"She wants her family's power and right, but none of its sin. She'll only fight beside us if I bend the knee on behalf of the North." Rose told Tormund, Oberyn's breathing lessening with the added warmth of Rose's cloak.

"You spent too much time with the free folk and now you don't like kneeling." Tormund said with a smile, remembering the stories he heard of the southern maiden with fire in her veins. "Mance Rayder was a great man, a proud man. The king beyond the wall never bent the knee. How many of his people died for his pride?"

"Too many." Rose answered, lifting her head to meet Tormund's eyes. The two slow their pace as they walk, leaving Oberyn, simply enjoying the view of the icy tundra that surrounds them.

Rose continued alone, falling behind everyone else as she enjoyed the frosty kiss of snow against her cheek, comforted by the soft whisperings of words carried off by the wind. Until she heard a loud voice bellow from behind her.

"Do you want to suck my dick? Is that it?" Sandor's gruff voice made Rose turn around, smiling when she noticed Tormund and Sandor face to face with each other.