FOREWORD:

Hello lovely readers,

I know it has been a long time, and you probably have given up on 'She Who Runs With Wolves and Lions', but do not fear, my sweet summer children. I lost inspiration, that's true, and I can't get my words and ideas written down, despite them being in my brain, but I think I've found a way to get my mojo back.

So, here is the beginning of 'The Caryssa Stark Outtakes'. These are the scenes that have been mentioned in passing, but I've not written extensively about. For example, when Ned leaves Winterfell for Robert's rebellion and he says goodbye to a surprisingly understanding two-year-old Caryssa or moments from Jory and Caryssa's life-long friendship that will explain why she was impacted so much by his death. They most likely won't be put in chronological order, but I'll put a timeline at the front so you can refer to it, if necessary.

I hope you will enjoy them. I won't be updating this regularly, just when I'm inspired, and hopefully it'll get the creative juices flowing enough for me to get back to the main story!

Please leave a review if you want to read more of these and I'll attempt to oblige.

With much love,

SALStratton.

"This was what love meant after all: sacrifice and selflessness.

It did not mean hearts and flowers and a happy ending,

but the knowledge that another's well-being is more important than one's own."

-Melissa de la Cruz, Lost in Time

CHAPTER ONE – A Father Saying Goodbye

Ned sat alone in the Godswood, praying for the strength to do what he knew must be done as he cleaned his sword.

His father and brother were dead, and his sister was being held against her will. Robert had brought together a large army to save her, and to avenge the dead, but Robert had no real responsibilities.

The Baratheon Stag may have been betrothed to Lyanna, but they were not married and his best friend had no trueborn children and had not claimed any of his bastards as his own. His heirs were his brothers, Stannis and Renly, not a sweet, beloved daughter whom had no idea why her grandfather, aunt and uncle had all gone away and why her father was about to leave himself.

"Ned."

The new Lord of Winterfell turned a weary head towards his wife, surprised to find her carrying Caryssa in her arms.

"Papa." The babe held her chubby arms out towards him as Catelyn moved closer, and Ned couldn't refuse her.

He placed Ice upon the grass at his feet, and plucked his daughter out of her mother's arms, settling her on his knee. Impossibly large, blue eyes stared up at him, filled with unshed tears, far too intelligent for a girl of only two, and Ned sighed, looking to his wife for guidance.

"She knows you're leaving, I think." Catelyn explained, watching as her daughter's bottom lip wobbled, a sure sign of an impending tantrum.

Ned rubbed his free hand over his jaw, wondering what words he could scrape together to reassure a two-year-old that he would return, even though he knew that they might be a lie. He could easily die in this war. He could leave his wife a widow, his daughter without a father and the heir to Winterfell. His brother, Benjen, would never take the role of Warden of the North. It would be a burden placed upon wife and babe, and Ned would curse himself to whatever hells the Old Gods had waiting for him if that were to happen.

Still, the man tried to still the wolf pup's trembling lip with his thumb and wiped her face of the stray tears that fell down her pale, ample cheeks.

"I am leaving. I'm going to war, Caryssa, and I don't know how long I will be gone, but I go only to save your Aunt Lyanna," Ned explained, his voice as steady as he could manage it, even as he caught sight of the necklace his sister had placed around his babe's neck on her first namesday. It was a beautiful thing, almost too beautiful to be from the North, but it was an heirloom of the Stark family, supposedly all the way back to the Kings of old. "You miss your Aunt Lyanna, don't you?"

"'Un' Lanna." Caryssa nodded solemnly, dark curls bobbing around her fair face.

Ned almost cracked a smile at the way his daughter spoke her aunt's name, but he couldn't. He hadn't been able to smile since the raven came to tell him of his father and brother's deaths.

"A man took her from us, and I have to go and get her back."

"No go, Papa."

He look at Catelyn, who was silently weeping, as his little wolf buried herself into his chest and tried to attach herself to him like a leech. It was going to be more difficult than he realised to leave her behind.

But he had to. For Lyanna.

"We protect each other, Caryssa, remember? Remember what your grandfather told you? When Winter comes, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Well, Aunt Lyanna is out there all on her own, and she needs me to go protect her, and your mother needs you to protect her," Ned claimed, feeling a spark of hope fill him when her little raven head tilted back to gaze up at him at his words. "You'll look after your mother while I'm away, won't you?"

"Yes!" Caryssa jerked her head up and down so violently, Ned grabbed her chin to halt the movement. "I pwomise, Papa."

"You're a brave girl, Caryssa. I know you'll make me proud."

His daughter nuzzled back into his embrace, and Ned was content to stay that way for a while. Catelyn sat on the log beside his, and he took one of her cold hands in his, keeping his other arm wrapped around their little wolf pup.

The small family of three stayed that way until Ser Rodrik came to collect his lord, when the men were ready to leave and his best friend had demanded for him to stop delaying.

And then only wife and daughter were left in front of the Heart Tree, praying that he would come home to them, as he'd said he would.

A/N:

It's me again, dear readers!

So, this is the first drabble, I guess that's what it would be called, of The Caryssa Stark Outtakes. And I realise that Caryssa is only two and most two year old's probably don't have the understanding shown here or the verbal skills, but I spoke in broken sentences when I was two, or so my mother tells me, so using a little personal experience and some creative license here.

Hope you liked the little snippet between Ned, Catelyn and Caryssa. I've tried to paint the strong, loving relationship that Ned and Caryssa had in SRWWAL's, but I'm not always sure I've gotten it across as well as I liked, which is why I chose this scene to be the first one I wrote.

Anyway please leave a review if you liked,

S.A.L. Stratton.