Winter Is Coming

“This is where the men were found, my lady,” one of the guards said as we came to the spot where I smelled nothing but death.

I growled and climbed down from my horse and sniffed around the area, trying to find Cynthia’s scent, I looked at the ground and then knelt and closed my eyes. One of the men asked what I was doing, but I ignored him and sniffed the ground, finding Cynthia’s scent and then standing up and pointing in the direction she and unfamiliar scents had gone in.

“They’re heading south,” one man said and I climbed back onto my horse and ushered it to move.

We rode for a long while before I had all forty men behind me stop, they asked what I was doing and I climbed off of my horse, “I smell smoke,” I said and I heard some men sniff the air, saying they didn’t smell anything, “It’s a little ways up- Leave the horses here, we go on foot.”

“My Lady, can you tell how many men there are?” one asked and I looked back at him, he didn’t look much older than myself.

“No, but their fire isn’t big, there isn’t a lot of smoke in the air,” I said and the men nodded their heads and armed themselves as we continued on foot to find Cynthia.
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I was in a wooden cage in the middle of a small Lannister group, there were no more than thirty or so men and I wondered why they were so far from the Lannister army. I couldn’t believe that I had not sensed them coming and I was angry that I was taken so easily, even as a wolf. The men knew who I was and forced me to change back and then wrapped an iron collar around me, saying that if I changed to a wolf the collar would strangle me. One of the men were decent enough to throw their fur cloak over me so that I didn’t walk naked.

I growled and glared at the men as they laughed at me and said how tough the thought I would be, they teased and threw bones at me asking if I was hungry, ‘…Just wait until I get out of here…’ I growled and looked down at the chains on my wrists, ‘…Jess, I got myself in a bind again…’

“Just wait until Lord Tywin hears that we caught one of the wolf girls,” a man laughed and then the rest of the men cheered.

“We’ll be rewarded!”

“She’s not so tough, everyone said that the wolf girls were monsters!” the man said and others laughed.

“Oh, they weren’t talking about me,” I said and the men stopped laughing and looked at me, “I’m just the brains.”

“If you’re the brains, why are you in there?” one asked and I growled as the men laughed.

“You haven’t met my sister,” I said and the men looked at me, “She’s going to slaughter the lot of you.”

“I’d like to see your sister try, is she a dumb cunt like you,” the man laughed and at that moment there was a wolf howl off in the distance and I smirked, knowing it to be Jessica’s howl.

“She’s here,” I breathed and the men looked at me as I smirked, “You’re all going to die now.”

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I sat with my mother in her tent, waiting for Jessica and Cynthia to come back to me. I was angry about the situation and upset that I wasn’t able to go with my love to get her friend back. I prayed that everyone would come back to us and impatiently waited for their return.

I ended up telling my mother my plans to marry Jessica and she was not pleased, but not upset either, she ended up needing a glass, or more, of wine, “Walder Frey is a dangerous man to cross,” she told me as she sat back down, getting her third glass of wine.

“I know that,” I said and she sighed.

“And you mean to do it anyway?” she asked and I looked at me mother, she had mixed emotions on her face.

I bit my lip and nodded my head, “I love her.”

“I know that seems important to you-“

“It is important to me,” I said quickly.

“Your father didn’t love me when we married,” she said and I just looked at her, “He hardly knew me, or I him. Love didn’t just happen to us,” mother said and I just sat there, “We built it slowly over the years, stone by stone- For you, for your brothers and sister, for all of us. It’s not as exciting as secret passion in the woods with some girl that is from another land, another time, but it is stronger. It lasts longer.”

“And that is what would be in store for me with one of Walder Frey’s daughters, what you and father had?” I asked and she gave me a confused look.

“Why not?” mother asked, “Because she’s not beautiful? Because she’s not exotic and exciting? Because she doesn’t have the ability to change into a beast and fight beside you-“

“Now you’re arguing just to argue because you arranged it,” I said, not wanting to listen to anymore.

“And you agreed to it, you gave him your word,” she reminded, “Treat your oaths recklessly, and your people will do the same. If your father lived his life for one thing-“

“My father is dead,” I said and gave my mother a hard look, “And the only parent I have left has no right to call anyone reckless.”

I remembered that she was the one who set the Kingslayer free, she was giving him back to the Lannisters in hope that my sisters would be set free, I knew, my men knew, Jessica and Cynthia knew, it wasn’t going to happen. My mother was played by the Lannisters and I didn’t even know when the next time I was going to see my sisters again.

I had enough talking to my mother, I stood up and left her tent, it was near sun rise when I hear the sound of howling and looked towards the sound of men speaking loudly. I walked over towards the large group of men looking towards the end of camp to the men that I had sent out with Jessica early in the evening coming back.

‘…Jess…’ I rushed to the front of the ground and saw the men coming towards us, but Jessica wasn’t in the front like I thought she would be, in fact I did not see Jessica or Cynthia in the group, “Where are they?”

“Who, Your Grace?” I heard one of my men asked, but I ignored him and scanned the group that was climbing off of their horses.

“Your Grace,” one solider called as he walked over towards me, he was one who went with Jessica, “We lost no men and everyone is all right.”

“Where are the girls?” I asked and he looked back and pointed towards the one cliff that was east of our camp, I could see two wolves standing side by side just looking at the sun rise, “Anyone hurt?”

“Just cuts and scrapes- Nothing major, Your Grace,” he said and I was happy about that.

“Good, have the men get some rest,” I ordered and they were happy to follow that, “Ready my horse!”

“Aye, Your Grace!”

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“How’s your shoulder?” Cynthia asked as she sat next to me on the cliff and we watched the sun rise together.

“It stings- Nothing to worry about,” I said and looked at the small cut in my shoulder from where I was shot with an arrow. I heard Cynthia sigh and then watched her look down, looking at the ground sadly, “What is it?”

“I’m sorry- It’s my fault you got hurt-“

“Shut up, Cyn,” I said and she looked at me, “You were taken and I came to get you- It’s not your fault- It’s the Lannisters. They were stupid enough to try and take you.”

“They didn’t believe me when I told them that you were the vicious one,” she said and I laughed, “I warned them.”

“Apparently not well enough,” I smirked.

“Was it a good idea to leave that one alive?” she asked and I shrugged my shoulders, “Why only one?”

“He needed to tell this great almighty Tywin Lannister, that if you mess with me,” I smiled brightly towards her, “You’re going to die.”

Cynthia laughed and then leaned against me and then sighed, “Jess.”

“Hmm?”

“Do you ever think of home?” she asked and I sighed and looked at the sun rising high in the sky, “New York?”

“It seems like just a dream,” I said and could feel her confused eyes, “Like a distant memory.”

“What do you mean?”

“I know we’ve been here for only- What? Six, seven months?” I asked and she nodded her head, “It seems like this was our home all along and everything we lived through in New York was just a dream.”

“I barely remember home,” Cynthia said and I nodded my head, remembering the words I told Robb early in the night, “Do you think we’ll ever make it home?”

“Don’t know.”

“Do you even want to go home, Jess?” she asked and I bit my lip, “Don’t you miss your little sister, and your parents-“

“Robb asked me to marry him,” I said and then looked towards Cynthia, her eyes were wide, “And I said yes.”

“So what does this mean?” she asked and I sighed, “We’re never going home, are we?”

“We never even started the search on how to even get home,” I said, “Why bother start now?”

“You don’t want to leave, do you?”

“At one point, you didn’t either,” I said and she nodded her head, “What changed?”

“This war, all the death, I just-“

“I’m glad to see you well, Cynthia,” we heard and turned our heads to see Robb climbing off of his horse and walking over towards us.

“You and me both, Your Grace,” she said and I smiled as Robb opened the fur cloak that he had and draped it over Cynthia’s shoulders and then took his fur cloak off and draped around me.

“I’m glad that you’re both safe,” he said and I nodded my head.

“So,” Cynthia said and we looked at her, “I hear we’re going to be having a wedding.”