The Mountain of Ice and Fire

This was destined to be a sleepless night.

Many people would lose sleep this night.

Queen Cersei, who had been slapped in the face, Prince Joffrey, who had been threatened by his cheap father, the Hound, who had been knocked away by the Mountain's sword, Mikken, the butcher's son and apprentice who had escaped death, Arya, who hated Sansa and Joffrey to the bone, and the Riverlands people who had been awakened from their sleep by a great fire.

Many people were destined to have a sleepless night!

As the Hound rode his horse through the streets of the town, Arya was talking to her father, Eddard Stark, inside the three-story stone fortress where the Northmen lived.

This conversation would have a profound impact on the trajectory of the world in the future.

The conversation began with Sansa apologizing to Arya.

After the guards, Septa Mordane, the servants, and her close friend Jeyne Poole had all gone to rest, Sansa knocked on the door of Arya's room, accompanied by her father.

Arya opened the door and saw Sansa. Her eyes immediately turned cold and sharp. She slammed the door shut, but the door was held back by a large hand next to it. Only then did Arya see that her father had also come.

So, Arya turned around and walked away. Sansa and her father entered, and Duke Eddard gently closed the door.

"Arya!" Sansa said, her eyes pitiful.

"Don't talk to me!" Arya shouted. Although the matter had passed, she was still very agitated. If Bernie hadn't suddenly jumped out, her good friend Mikken would have been beheaded.

That was a life, a life from the Stark family of the North. How could Sansa be so indifferent, just to marry Joffrey and become a queen like Cersei.

Arya had disliked Prince Joffrey and Queen Cersei since she was in Winterfell, but Sansa liked them very much, and even showed her embroidery to the queen, taking pride in receiving the queen's praise.

Sansa was disgusting, of course, Prince Joffrey and Queen Cersei were even more disgusting!

In Winterfell, Arya had witnessed Joffrey humiliate her older brother Robb Stark. Robb was practicing swordsmanship in the training yard when Joffrey saw him and mocked him. Robb suggested a sword fight with Joffrey, but Joffrey drew his sword and threw it on the ground, ordering Robb to pick it up and hand it to him. Robb swallowed his anger and picked up the sword, but Joffrey suddenly kicked the sword away and, in the name of the prince, ordered Robb to pick it up.

When Robb angrily demanded a duel with Prince Joffrey, the prince triumphantly called for his Hound, Sandor Clegane. He told Robb that Robb would only be qualified to challenge him to a duel after he defeated his dog.

Robb did not fight the Hound. Jon Snow, who had the deepest brother-sister relationship with Arya, arrived and dissuaded Robb. Joffrey then loudly mocked Jon for being a despicable bastard.

From that day on, Arya had no more goodwill towards Joffrey, and she also harbored a deep hostility towards Queen Cersei, who spoke in a condescending manner.

But Sansa tried everything to please Joffrey and Cersei, and after the king proposed a marriage alliance between the two great families, she repeatedly asked her father to agree to her marriage to Joffrey.

What happened today was that Sansa, regardless of the facts, once again chose to stand on Joffrey's side, showing no pity for Mikken's life, which made Arya hate Sansa very much.

Sansa stood with her hands clasped together, tall and slender, with a gentle and beautiful temperament.

"I'm sorry!" Sansa said.

"I don't have a sister like you. I hate you." Arya stared at Sansa, not hiding her disgust for Sansa.

Eddard signaled Sansa to go and rest first. So, Sansa left the room looking helpless. Her demeanor was dignified and elegant. The Stark family's education of Sansa in terms of 'noble temperament and elegant manners' was still very successful.

"Arya, come here!" Eddard said gently. He sat down and reached out his hands to his daughter.

Arya threw herself into her father's arms, and her eyes instantly became wet.

"The matter is over. No matter what, you are sisters. I hope you love each other like sisters, understand?"

"But she lied!"

"No, Arya, Sansa didn't lie. She just didn't tell the truth, which may not be a real lie."

"If she had told the truth, Mikken wouldn't have been executed. And my direwolf… I drove her away… my Nymeria… is gone forever."

"Mikken is fine, Arya, he's fine. If you want to keep a pet, I'll buy you a cat or a dog in King's Landing!"

"No, I don't want cats or dogs. I only want Nymeria. Father—I hate Sansa, really! It wasn't you who saved Mikken, Father, it was the Mountain."

"Arya!" Father Eddard said sternly, "Listen to me, Joffrey is Sansa's fiancé. She will live with Joffrey for the rest of her life. As a qualified wife, she cannot betray her husband. Although she hasn't married Joffrey yet, she is already Joffrey's fiancée, do you understand? Sansa has her current difficulties. You are more responsible than her, so you should be more considerate of her. In the future, you will also have a fiancé and your own husband. At that time, you can't be so willful. A qualified wife would rather wrong herself than betray her husband."

"What if he's wrong?"

"Advise him behind closed doors, but in public, give him enough face and protect his honor and dignity."

Arya still felt very aggrieved in her heart, and she tried hard to hold back her tears. Marrying someone meant having to wrong herself. Arya couldn't accept this: "I won't get married, Father!"

Eddard smiled slightly and gently stroked his daughter's hair, not 'entangling' with his daughter on this issue.

"Arya, you just said that it was the Mountain who saved Mikken? What happened?"

"It wasn't Bernie who was putting the horses behind the bushes, it was the Mountain," Arya said.

Eddard was shocked.

Arya's words were beyond his imagination.

"Did the Mountain see you fighting on the Ruby Ford?"

"Yes, when I jumped over the bushes with Nymeria, I saw the Mountain. He even told me to go with him, saying he would bring me back at night and might be willing to testify for me."

"You didn't agree to him?"

"I asked his name. After I knew he was the great villain, the Mountain, I refused his invitation and ran away along the river with Nymeria. I was afraid that Nymeria would be killed by the king because she bit Joffrey, so I drove her away in a forest. I threw stones at her, but she refused to leave. Finally, I drew my Needle to drive her away, and she finally ran away…" Arya's tears finally couldn't be controlled and flowed down. She wiped them with her sleeve, making her face full of tears.

Eddard gently wiped away his daughter's tears, but Arya's tears burst again. As soon as he wiped them away, more tears flowed down, and her snot also started to flow. She missed her direwolf Nymeria!

"Don't cry, you should go to sleep too. Tomorrow morning, we'll go to that forest to find Nymeria." Eddard touched his daughter's hair and wiped away her tears again.

"Really?" Arya's eyes were full of hope.

"Really!" Eddard promised.

So, Arya's little face immediately showed a bright smile.

Eddard also smiled.

Children are children. With one sentence that scratches her heart, she immediately smiles, even though her eyes are still teary!

*

Eddard walked out of Arya's room and gently closed the door. He stood outside his daughter's room for a while, and when he heard that his daughter was no longer tossing and turning and was quiet, he gently pushed the door open again, listening to his daughter's even breathing. Eddard silently closed the door again and left with peace of mind.

Eddard didn't go back to his room to sleep, but went to the roof. Today's ruckus with Queen Cersei and Prince Joffrey made him feel very bad and unable to sleep. Joffrey was his future son-in-law, and he would spend his life with Sansa. This marriage made him feel very upset.

The Mountain saved Mikken's life today and helped Arya clarify the facts. Why did he do this? Eddard couldn't figure it out and felt confused. Regardless of the Mountain's purpose, Eddard Stark knew that he owed the great villain, the Mountain, a favor.

Eddard was upright and fair, with clear grudges and gratitude. He didn't necessarily have to repay the evil that others did to him, but he always had to repay the favors that others did for him.

The Mountain invisibly planted a small seed. When, in the future, these 'seeds' become more and more numerous, once they take root and sprout, they will grow into a green field.

Eddard Stark was thinking on the roof, unable to calm down. Unintentionally, he saw the western sky, which had become red and bright at some point.

There was a fire in the west!

And below that sky was the grain territory of Eddard Stark's father-in-law, Duke Hoster Tully.