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The girl arrives shivering and sweating. She is not used to the heat; she is not used to being away from home. Ellaria Sand looks at the little lioness that doesn’t know yet she has stepped into a snake pit.
The little lioness is sweet and shy and naïve. Ellaria dreams about blood and poisoned teeth. How the times have changed. Another young girl in a place far from home, betrothed to someone unknown, not knowing that her end might be bloody and nearer than she thinks.
She asks a lot, the little lioness. About their traditions, their days, their lives. Worst of all she comes to watch them train in the courtyard. The snakes don’t welcome her, ignore her and all those stupid questions, but still the little lioness is graceful and sweet. She will learn.
Oberyn is dead. And Ellaria is filled with rage, with hate, with the need to hurt the lions just as much.
Dark wings bring dark words. Though sometimes dark words will spark a light. The news of two deaths arrive in Dorne. The lions got what they deserved, she thinks. They got what they deserved for all the hurt they caused. And: Poor Myrcella, losing a mother. It is a thought that just comes to her, not expected or wanted, but it is there nonetheless.
They are walking the gardens, the future of house Martell and his betrothed little lioness. The lioness has lost most of her family, her death would only hurt the people here. Ellaria would not gain anything by her death. It will not bring Oberyn back; it will not avenge Elia. What justice would another dead girl be for anyone.
Her father uncle comes to take her home and she says no. The little lioness has grown a voice. This is my home now, she says and the lion leaves without her.
Ellaria watches them from above, realising with a shock that she has begun to care and worry for the girl. She does not want to kill the girl. The circle of violence has to end somewhere. They killed Elia, they died. It is no use killing children for the sins of their parents.
The lions got what they deserved. And Ellaria is sure she can turn the lioness to become something more. What better way is there to take revenge, than to turn their own children against them and make them your family instead.