Winter Is Coming

Heart pounding, breath heavy, paws digging in the soft muddy ground. Cynthia and I pushed our bodies way passed our limits to travel all the way back to Winterfell. I was a few strides in front of Cynthia, growling as I continued to push myself, going over in my head what I was going to do when we reached Winterfell, when we reached Theon.

I skidded to a stop, Cynthia came up behind me, I sniffed the air, looking on ahead, I could see the tip of the Winterfell castle. I looked at her and then looked around, I shifted back and bent to the ground, Cynthia followed my actions and we moved off of the roads.

“What are we doing?” she asked and I sniffed the air.

“It’s the middle of the night, we attack in the morning, we both need rest for running a day and a half straight,” I said and she nodded her head and we both changed back and huddle close together to acquire of few hours of sleep, planning to move at the break of dawn.

It seemed that as soon as our eyes had closed, they were open again. I picked my head up from my paws and looked at the sun starting to shine through the trees. I looked back towards Cynthia and saw her head on my back, she was still asleep. Movement from my body made her eyes shoot open and she looked at me, following my actions and standing up. We didn’t need to change back, we knew what we needed to do; find Theon and bring him back to Robb alive, kill his men and find the boys.

Cynthia and I sprinted towards Winterfell, slowing our pace once we got closer and decided to take a more subtle approach. We ran around Winterfell twice getting a feel for what was going on and how many guards we’ll need to deal with.

‘…Theon doesn’t have a lot of guards, why?...’ I thought as Cynthia and I hid in the trees, looking at the few guards at the main gate. I looked back towards Cynthia and growled, rocking back and forth on my front paws before jumping forward. I snarled and charged towards the four men standing guard at the front gate, Cynthia taking two and I taking the other two.

I leaped onto the first guard and wrapped my fangs around his throat, moving away from him as quickly as I jumped on him, moving to the next guard and repeating the same actions. I knew more would come, hearing what Cynthia and I had started at the front gate. The gates opened and guards ran out, we ran in, fangs and claws bare, snapping and slashing.

We fought our way through the men and then entered the center of Winterfell, I looked around, more guards were coming towards us. My eyes caught onto items hanging from the inside of the gates, my eyes widened and I snarled.

‘…No!...’ I saw two little boys hanging, burnt to a crisp, ‘…Bran, Rickon!...’

Cynthia saw where I was looking and I heard her whine, I snarled, looking for the man responsible for this, I didn’t see him. I took off, attacking the closest man and trying to pick up on Theon’s scent, I found it, I headed for it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Tell me it isn’t true?!” I ordered as I ran into the tent to see my mother looking guilty in front of her desk, “Why?”

“For the girls,” she stated and I gave her a hard look.

“You betrayed me-“

“Robb-“

“NO!” I yelled and she looked at me surprised, “Cynthia and Jess are back home trying to find my brothers- You’re sons! They’re going to bring me Theon’s head and as soon as they get back, I have to seen them to find the Kingslayer- The same person who you set free! You knew I would not allow it and you did it anyway.”

“Bran and Rickon are captives in Winterfell,” she said and I glared at her, “Sansa and Arya are captives in King’s Landing. I have five children and only one of them is free.”

“I lost one son fighting by your son’s side,” Lord Karstark stated next to me, “I lost another to the Kingslayer, strangled with a chain. You commit treason because your children are prisoners? I would carve out my heat and offer it to the Father, if he would let my sons wake from their graves and step into a prison cell.”

“I grieve for your sons, my lords,” mother said and I heard Lord Karstark scoff.

“I don’t want your grief- I want my vengeance! And you stole it from me”

I had left to take the surrendering of Carg, and to acquire some medical supplies from the Maester for the nurse that I had befriended, Talisa. During our adventure, some of my men caught up to us and explained to me that the previous night, the Kingslayer had killed his cousin, the boy that was delivering messages to and from King’s Landing, and he also killed Lord Karstark’s son. He escaped, but then was recaptured, I learned then that my mother had set Jaime Lannister free and was sending her female knight to take the Kingslayer to King’s Landing in exchange for my sisters.

“Killing Jaime Lannister would not buy like for your children, but returning him to King’s Landing may buy life for mine,” she said and I shook my head.

“Jaime Lannister has played you for a fool. You’ve weakened our position. You’ve brought discord into our camp. And you did it all behind my back,” I stated and then took a deep breath, really not wanting to do what I was about to do, “Make sure she’s guarded day and night-“

“Robb!” she stood and I turned to one of my men at the door.

“How many men did we send in pursuit of the Kingslayer?” I asked and then headed for the door.

“Forty, Your Grace,” he said and I looked out towards the camp for a few moments and then looked back towards the guard.

“Send another forty with our fastest horses,” I ordered as I left the tent with two of my men guarding my mother. I angrily walked towards my tent and just as I was about to enter, I heard men yell that the wolves were back, ‘…They’re back! Jess!...’ I hurried over towards where the men were rushing, “Where are they?!” I yelled and the men moved out of the way so that I could make my way to the front. I saw two wolves rushing towards us, but that’s all I saw, ‘…Where are the boys?...’

I looked at both Jessica and Cynthia and saw that they were bloody, Jessica looked up at me and then walked passed me and I followed her to my tent. I walked in and saw that she had changed, flinching and groaning as her bones and joints moved back into place. I stared at the cuts that were turning into scars; she had dried blood on her skin and an angry and sad look on her face.

“What is it? Where are the boys? Where’s Theon?” I asked quickly and Jessica grabbed her loose white shirt and threw it on, the material ending just above her knees.

“We-“ she looked down and then took a deep breath.

“Jess?” I asked, confused as to why she wasn’t answering me.

“We got there too late,” she said barely louder than a whisper, “Theon, he-“ I gulped and looked at her sad face, her eyes starting to water, “He killed them,” my eyes widened and I backed up and my legs seemed to give out and I fell to the ground, “Robb!”

“You saw?” I asked, looking up and seeing her claiming a spot in front of me. She nodded her head and I ran my fingers through my hair, “How? Did they suffer?”

“I’m not sure, when Cyn and I got there,” she seemed to zoon out, looking at the ground, some tears coming down her face. I brought my hand up and wiped them away with my thumb and cupped her neck.

“How Jess?”

“They were hanging from the gates,” she said ad I gulped, “And they were burnt.”

“He burned them?” I asked shocked and she nodded her head.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I held Robb against me, my arms around his head; he was grieving for the death of his two younger brothers. I explained to him that by the time that Cynthia and I had gotten there, Theon was gone, we had missed him by a few hours. Some of his men had knocked Theon unconscious and left, finding that taking over Winterfell was a stupid idea. The men that I had fought were just the remaining men that were going to leave soon before Cynthia and I had shown up.

“I’m sorry Robb,” I breathed against his head, I felt that I had failed him, “I’m sorry.”

“Jess.”

“I feel like I can’t help you at all,” I said and he looked up towards me, “I couldn’t save your father, your sisters,” I closed my eyes looked down, “I couldn’t even save your brothers.”

“I’m sorry,” he said and I looked at him shocked, “I shouldn’t have sent you, this is getting to be too much.”

“Robb,” I breathed and he cupped my face.

“Maybe you and Cynthia should go and try to find the brother of the witch that cursed you,” he said and I looked surprised, “Try to find a way back to your home.”

“I’m not leaving,” I saw strongly, so strong that I even surprised myself.

“Jess, I’ve lost my father, I have no idea where or how my sisters are, and now you tell me my brothers are dead,” he said and then brought his face close to mine, “I’m not going to lose you too.”

“I told you I was going to fight with you, fight for you,” I said and then cupped his face, “I’m not leaving you. The men that you sent word to should be at Winterfell, or close, they’ll help your people. Cynthia and I needed to come back to tell you.”

“Where is Cynthia?”

“Probably went to tell Lady Stark the news,” I said and he sighed and looked down sadly, “What is it?”

“My mother left Jaime Lannister free in hopes of getting Sansa and Arya back,” he said and my eyes widened.

“Why would she do that?”

“I don’t know,” he sighed and rubbed his face, “I had to arrest my own mother.”

I didn’t know what to say, everything was happening so fast, I didn’t know how this was all going to turn out, but I did know that I was going to stay with Robb for as long as I could. I ran my fingers down Robb’s face, feeling his forming beard under my skin. We were just looking each other in the eyes, I leaned in and pressed my lips against his and felt him pull me closer to him.

“I’m not going to leave you, Robb.”