The Snow Keep

Heavy metal music was blaring at the highest volume the sound system could go in the Mountain's professional gym room, while expensive soundproofing kept the ear pounding decibels from beating down the hallways throughout the rest of the estate. Instead the loud, vibrating, soul crushing sound poured over Gregor Clegane has he pumped large volume free weights, losing himself in the rhythm of flexing muscles, heavy sweat and numbing pain. For weeks now, it had been the same ritual every morning, trying to purge himself of sleepless nights, thoughts over his injured brother, Sandor, and broken friendship with his boss, Ramsay Bolton, and now a new strained intimacy with his beloved wife, Melly. Everything had changed for all of them, flipped upside down over the course of a single night and Gregor was angered and confused how to deal with his sense of loss on so many different levels. He dropped the enormous curling weight and glared towards the entrance, waiting for th...

It had been several weeks since Sandor had been discharged from the hospital and returned to Petyr Baelish's penthouse to continue his recuperation. The beating at the hands of his older brother Gregor had wounded his pride and had left the Hound will horrible nightmares. Night after night, he relived not the savage fight, but a terrible dread at first then a deep welled suffering. Cold sweat beaded the Hound's skin, his heart raced and he suffocated for breath. Sandor's night terrors ended with horrifying screams, the feeling of flesh burning off his face like melted butter, the charred smell in his nostrils and the looming shadow of the Mountain towering over him. It was a memory he could not place and wished to purge from his mind, yet the splinter of pained torment was always there now. Even the Little Bird's treasured songs did little to ease his current condition and Alayne, herself, grew more depressed and worried as his mood only worsened. That...