Sonara had just cut herself a slice of bread when Bran burst into the dining hall. In his arms was a small grey wolf pup whining softly.
"Come quick, we've brought back a surprise for you!" he exclaimed.
The Stark children looked at each other with surprise. Arya quickly pushed aside her chair and took off at Bran's heels. Rickon ran after her and after another hesitant look to Sansa, Sonara took off after them with a polite 'Would you excuse me?' to Septa Mordane. Sansa looked at her siblings retreating forms and decided to follow them before they were out of sight.
"Excuse me" She said to Septa Mordane. Then called out "Wait for me!".
Sonara waited impatiently until Sansa had come within a metre of her and they both took off running after Arya and Rickon while Septa Mordane stared at them with a shocked expression.
Bran led all of them to the door of the stables. When he got to the door he signaled for the rest of the children to stop. Once all of them had caught up to him he signaled again for them to be quiet and slowly opened the door. The sharp smell of hay and dung hit their noses. They walked silently through the door and in a pile of hay lay a litter of wolf pups.
"One for each of us" Bran whispered. "Sonara, this one is meant for you. Your eyes are the exact same shade as hers!"
He grabbed hold of her hand and led her to a dark grey pup nestled in the hay sleeping. She extended her hand and used one finger to stroke a line from his head down to his nose. The pup blinked his eyes a few times before he could open his eyes properly and she could see that he was right. The pup had the same grey-green eyes that she did. She tensed her small body for a moment but relaxed after a few strokes and went back to sleep.
"Rickon, not that one!" Sansa whisper-shouted.
Sonara turned her head around and saw Rickon hugging a huge black pup tightly around the neck. He was intimidating but she could see that he was harmless.
"Oh please Sansa, he's the biggest softie of the litter. We need a big, strong wolf to protect our baby brother." she said grinning at her brother who was obviously already in love with him.
"I was thinking he could be Arya's pup. Rickon's the baby at the moment but he'll be able to protect himself when he's older. Arya is only a girl, she can't fight" Robb explained and after a second he said "now that I think about it the next biggest should go to Sansa then you"
Arya looked extremely offended by his logic and opened her mouth to protest but Jon spoke up before she could.
"You better watch out now Robb, Arya's going to show you just how well she can defend herself." he said smirking.
"I think I can defend myself against Arya" Robb said.
"There's no point trying to tear Rickon away from him or Arya away from her pup. Besides if I am correct these are direwolves and if a litter of them with the exact number of pups as there Stark children show up after centuries then there is no bigger sign from the gods that we need their protection now. Not when Rickon is old enough to fight for himself." Sonara said.
Robb nodded his head in reluctant agreement. Now that they all knew which pup was who's Sonara took the moment to look around at them. Sansa had of course chosen the most delicate, poised wolf of them all. Her's was the second smallest besides Jon's white wolf. The colour of him set him apart from the rest just like Jon amongst his siblings. Bran's was medium sized and grey with yellow eyes. Robb had a rather large wolf that's size was only beat by Rickon's massive pup.
It was a lovely moment between the siblings. With the arrival of the wolves and the promise of winter soon coming Sonara had an unsettling feeling that they weren't going to have such a nice moment between all of them for a very long time if ever. She pushed away the feeling and instead focused on the pup she was stroking.
His dark grey fur matched the colour of the Winterfell sky when night was approaching. Her name came to her then. The wolf would be named Dusk.