GOT: The Arcanine of the North

"You're doing it again."

I paused at the edge of the tree line, keeping my frame hidden behind a curtain of hanging moss, as I let my ears swivel forward, listening to the two sisters in the clearing.

Sansa blinked, pulling her gaze away from the canopy of weirwoods. "Doing what?"

Arya stood a few paces away, her dark hair a tangled bird's nest, looking entirely out of place in the castle garden. She kicked a pebble into the patch of wild mint near Sansa's stone bench.

"Looking over your shoulder."

Sansa frowned. "I wasn't."

"You were."

Sansa let out a soft sigh, smoothing the fabric of her dark grey wool dress.

Arya shrugged, "You do. Every time someone passes by, you look."

For a moment, Sansa said nothing. She sat perfectly still, her hands folded tightly in her lap. The wind stirred the leaves overhead, casting moving shadows across her pale, exhausted face.

"After a while, you learn."

Arya snorted, crossing her arms over her mud-stained tunic, "Learn what?"

The answer did not come immediately.

Sansa lowered her eyes to her hands. Her fingers tightened together until her knuckles turned white.

"When to keep your mouth shut."

Arya's expression softened slightly.

Sansa swallowed hard, "You'd hear them coming."

"Who?"

The question hung in the air.

In a quivering voice Sansa continued "Sometimes it was Joffrey."

Arya's jaw tightened.

"Sometimes it was Ser Meryn."

A faint tremor shook Sansa's shoulders. Turning away in a lower voice, "Sometimes it wasn't either of them."

Arya fell silent.

The conversation frightened the fierce little girl more than she cared to admit. Sansa had always been cheerful, before the Red Keep had broken her.

"They can't hurt you here."

Sansa laughed softly, but it wasn't a happy sound. " I know" she sounded brittle and exhausted.

"No, you don't."

Arya stood stubbornly, planting her boots in the dirt.

She pointed back through the trees toward the sandstone walls of the castle.

"Father's here. Robb too."

Then she jabbed a thumb toward the woods.

"And Red scares everybody."

Against all reason, the tension in Sansa's shoulders finally broke. A smile tugged at her lips. A small, fragile, hesitant, but entirely real smile.

Arya noted the shift instantly.

"There she is."

Sansa rolled her eyes, a flicker of her older self. "What?" 

Arya shrugged.

"You looked half-dead before."

Before Sansa could answer, a low rumble vibrated through the brush across the clearing.

Nymeria and Grey Wind lay in the shade of a massive elm tree. The two direwolves were growing fast, their heads already reaching a grown man's waist. Grey Wind lifted his head, his ears pricking up. Nymeria stood, her yellow eyes fixing on a dense thicket of blackberry bushes near the eastern wall of the garden.

She didn't bare her teeth, and the hackles along her neck lay still. Instead, Nymeria let out a high, questioning whine.

Sansa tensed, pulling her feet back beneath the bench. Arya stepped cleanly between her sister and the bushes.

The leaves rustled. A shadow moved within the thorns, hesitant and terrified. Then, a wet black nose pushed through the leaves, followed by a pair of golden eyes that were painfully familiar.

Sansa froze. The blood completely drained from her face.

The wolf that stepped out of the thicket was thin, her ribs showing clearly through a matted, dirty coat of silver and white. A jagged scar ran across the side of her neck, perhaps a wound from the wilderness she had simply refused to die from. She limped slightly on her left front paw, her head lowered in absolute submission.

She had followed the scent of the Northern army. She had crossed to the north in this war-torn times, a ghost crawling back from the dead.

"Lady?" Sansa whispered, the word breaking in her throat.

The silver direwolf stopped. Her ears flicked forward at the sound of the name. She let out a soft, whimpering cry and took a limping step forward, her tail tucked firmly between her legs, her entire body shaking.

Sansa dropped to her knees in the wet grass, ignoring the mud soaking into her wool dress, and threw her arms open.

Lady broke into a clumsy run. She slammed into Sansa's chest, knocking the girl backward into the mint patch. Sansa buried her face in the wolf's filthy neck, weeping. Her hands ran over the silver fur, tracing the terrible scar, assuring herself that it was real flesh and bone.

Lady whined, licking the tears from Sansa's cheeks, her tail thumping frantically.

Arya wiped at her eyes and looked Lady over properly for the first time.

"Gods...", Sansa exclaimed and glanced down.

Beneath the mud and tangled fur, Lady's ribs stood out sharply.

Arya clicked her tongue,"She's starving."

"She crossed half the Riverlands," Sansa whispered, her hand stroking the silver wolf's neck.

Arya backing away from them. "Don't let her run off."

"Arya?"

"I'm getting food."she declared, then turned and ran toward the castle.

Nymeria trotted over, sniffing Lady's scarred neck before giving her sister a rough, welcoming lick on the ear. The pack was closer to becoming whole again. 

A short while later, Arya returned carrying a bundle wrapped in cloth from the kitchens.

Lady's ears perked up instantly.

"Gods, she's worse than Nymeria," Arya muttered.

The silver direwolf devoured the strips of cooked meat in moments, barely pausing to breathe before licking the last traces of grease from the cloth.

Sansa ran a hand through Lady's fur as the wolf pressed against her side, looking more at ease than she had since emerging from the thicket.

Arya tossed the empty cloth aside and wiped her hands on her trousers. 

I decided it was time to step out of the shade.

I pushed through the hanging moss entering the clearing. The air in godswood instantly grew warmer, the damp chill retreating before the heat burning inside my chest.

Grey Wind immediately lowered his head in respect, yielding the space. Nymeria trotted toward me, bumping her wet snout against my front leg. I gave her a low, quiet rumble in return.

Sansa looked up from Lady's fur. She didn't flinch. She didn't see the monster that scared off big men; she saw a friend that had saved her from misery.

I walked onto a patch of soft, mossy earth surrounded by the redwoods. I turned in a tight circle, flattening the tall grass, before dropping my heavy weight down. I let out a long, rumbling sigh, resting my massive chin on my front paws. 

Sansa wiped her eyes. She looked at Arya, then back at me. Without a word, she crawled through the grass, Lady limping at her side.

Sansa curled her body directly against my thick side. She pulled her knees up to her chest, her breathing finally peacefully. Lady curled up over Sansa's feet, laying her scarred chin on its paws with an exhausted sigh.

Arya watched them for a moment before dropping down on the other side of me. She leaned her back against my opposite shoulder, pulling her knees up to rest her arms on them. Nymeria immediately circled around, laying her heavy head across Arya's lap. Grey Wind padded over a moment later, resting near Arya..

The godswood grew completely silent, save for the soft rumble of Greywind. The trauma of King's Landing and the bloody reality of the war raging outside couldn't reach them here. Surrounded by the direwolves and the ambient heat of my body, the two girls finally closed their eyes and slept.

I kept my amber eyes open, watching the shadows of the redwood stretch as the afternoon faded into evening. I would hold this peace for them as long as I could.

Then, a pale blue light flickered at the very edge of my vision.

The transparent, floating text of the system materialized in the air in front me, a reminder that the squabbles of lions and wolves were only the beginning.

[Main Quest: The Long Night Approaches.]

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