Arya's conflict with Joffrey

Arya Stark, nine years old and fiercely willful, had spent the morning of the fateful day on the banks of the Trident with Mycah, the butcher's boy, practicing swordplay with wooden sticks. When Sansa arrived to summon her sister to ride in the queen's wheelhouse with Princess Myrcella, Arya refused, preferring the freedom of the riverbank to the confinement of silk cushions. The two sisters parted in anger, Sansa to the royal party and Arya to her rough games. Later that afternoon, Prince Joffrey, bored and wine-fueled, led Sansa on a ride that brought them to the clearing where Arya and Mycah were still sparring. Joffrey, seeing the butcher's boy as easy prey, dismounted and drew his sword Lion's Tooth, demanding that Mycah fight him. When the terrified boy refused, Joffrey pressed the point of his blade into Mycah's cheek, drawing blood. Arya screamed at him to stop, then struck Joffrey across the back of the head with her wooden sword. Mycah fled into the trees. Joffrey, enraged, turned on Arya, slashing at her with his sword and backing her against a tree. At that moment Nymeria, Arya's direwolf, burst from the undergrowth, seized Joffrey's sword arm in her jaws, and knocked him to the ground. The wolf released him only when Arya commanded her. Joffrey lay whimpering, his arm mangled and his shirt soaked in blood. Arya picked up Lion's Tooth and threw it into the river. Sansa, who had watched in horror, knelt beside the wounded prince and offered to fetch help. Joffrey's response was cold and contemptuous: "Then go," he spat. "And don't touch me." The incident set in motion a chain of official retribution. When the case was brought before King Robert, Arya told the truth, but Sansa—fearful and desperate to please her betrothed—claimed she could not remember what had happened. Arya, enraged by her sister's lie, attacked her physically. The queen demanded punishment, and Robert, weary of the quarrel, ordered Lady, Sansa's direwolf, executed in place of the missing Nymeria. Ned Stark, unable to prevent the injustice, performed the killing himself. That same day, Sandor Clegane returned from his hunt with Mycah's body, cut almost in half. The butcher's boy had run, but not fast enough. Arya's conflict with Joffrey thus cost two innocent lives—Mycah and Lady—and deepened the rift between the Starks and the Lannisters beyond repair. The memory of Joffrey's cruelty and Sansa's betrayal would haunt Arya through the dark months ahead, shaping her into a girl who trusted no one and carried a blade named Needle as her only companion.