Prologue: The Memory of Spring

Cregan Stark, third of his name, second son of Lord Eddard Stark, twin brother to lady Sansa Stark. The Demon of The North as much of The North called him. Unlike his brothers and sisters Cregan did not value Honor and Justice above all else. He was a cold person, almost all of his life he has shown no emotion, most of the time he will be training alone whether it be the moment the sun rises or the middle of the night.

Even his family had become distant to him, whenever they would eat together Cregan will take a loaf of bread and a flask of water to eat alone, sometimes he would not speak to anyone for days but when he does it will either be in a single sentence or just a simple Yes or No reply and even when he does his voice will be just above a whisper.

Today Cregan's father was going to execute a deserter from The Night's Watch and had told his 3 eldest sons and his bastard Jon to come with him.

"Do I have to go?" Bran, the second youngest son whimpered trying to avoid the execution.

"Yes" a simple reply came from his brother Cregan who was busy saddling his horse and putting on his bear fur coat.

"But why?" the boy continued to whimper to Cregan's annoyance.

"Sooner or later your going to have witness death if you want to become a man" the Greyjoy boy behind Bran said with a small smile.

Soon the three heard Lord Stark speak "Let's go you two" he looked towards his younger sons as Robb was standing beside him.

1 hour later...

As they arrived Cregan saw the deserter, beaten and bruised, but not sure if the guardsmen had done that or something else did. The deserter let out a sigh as he saw lord Eddard holding the ancestral sword of House Stark.

"Ice..." Cregan murmured to himself as his eyes widened a bit to observe the blade. It was a massive greatsword with an equally great hilt to hold it up. Of course Valyrian Steel is notoriously light, even for a giant weapon such as Eddard's sword. The blade had a blue tint to it making it's color almost the same as the skies, if the sky in The North wasn't always dreary and lifeless.

"Do you have any last words?" the boy looked up to Lord Eddard as he murmured those words to him. "Please... tell my family that I'm sorry for being a coward..." after that he then put his head down on the chopping block and accepted death.

Lord Eddard lifted up his greatsword "In the name of Robert Baratheon, first of his name, Protector of the Realm and ruler of The Andals and The First Men, I Lord Eddard Stark, lord of Winterfell and Warden of The North hereby sentence you to death" and with one swing Eddard decapitated the deserter. During all of this Cregan and Robb observed their little brother to see how he would react to the execution and to their suprise the boy didn't even flinch. Eddard then walked towards Bran, "The one who gives the order must also swing the sword, remember that Bran". And with that they all mounted their horses and began to go back home.

Before they completely left the small little hill where Eddard executed the deserter Cregan took one last look at the bloodied chopping block as the Stark bannermen dragged away the decapitated corpse of the deserter. 'At least you died with your honor intact friend, even if it was a pointless death...' he thought to himself before turning back and rejoining with his father and siblings.

On the way home Jon noticed the large corpse of a bloodied buck, it's rotting flesh covered in worms and other maggots. Everyone immediately dismounted their horses and went to inspect the corpse of the buck.

"Gods, what could have done this?" Theon asked looking around trying to find the beast that had commited the crime.

Out of everyone Ser Rodrick Cassel saw a blood trail leading to a small stream and near that stream was something nobody expected to see. A massive corpse covered in fur which was mostly covered in blood. It was clear this was the corpse of a wolf, or at least something resembling a wolf. In it's torso a massive antler was stabbed into it and the blood spilling from the wound still seemed to be quite fresh.

"Good Gods that's a..." out of everyone Theon seemed to be the first to snap out of the shock of seeing what was in front of them.
"A direwolf" Cregan finished Theon's sentence with the same emotionless face he always has, seemingly not affected like everyone else.

"There aren't supposed to be any direwolves south of the wall" Ser Rodrik said, still in shock.

"Well now there are six of them Ser Cassel" Cregan said in an almost mocking tone that is if he could display any other tone than bored or irritated.

"They won't survive without their mother, killing them now is a mercy" Lord Eddard gave two pups to Theon and they pulled out daggers to put them out of their misery, but before they could finish the job they were stopped by Bran.

"Father, please no... don't do this." the little Stark wolf cried "Please Father we can take care of them, we can feed them, we can - " before Bran could continued his pleading he was also interrupted by his father.

"I'm sorry Bran, there's no other way" as Eddard started to grab one of the pups Jon intervened

"My Lord Stark... there are six pups here... one for each of your children..." as Jon continued Eddards grip on one of the pups loosened, he turned toward his 3 sons with a somewhat stern expression. "You will feed them yourselves, you will train them yourselves and when the time comes you will bury them yourselves", Brans face lit up as a large smile appeared on his lips. As each of the older boys took two of the pups in their arms Bran turned towards Jon.

"But what about you?" as Bran asked that Jon let out a small and somewhat sad smirk.

"I'm not a Stark" as he said that however, a cry was heard around a small stump, when he saw what was making the cries his eyes widened as Jon pulled out a small, red-eyed and white-fured direwolf who was seperated from the litter.

"The runt of the litter, that one belongs to you Snow" Theon said mockingly and with that they all returned home.

The Next Day...

When they returned home all the Stark children choose a direwolf and named them. Robb had named his direwolf Greywind, a name fitting due to the wolfs grey coloured fur and supposed swiftness. Cregan named his direwolf Sif, a name he had gotten from a story he heard long ago, a story about the great direwolf Beyond The Wall. Sansa named her direwolf Lady due to her being the more elegant and clean of the litter. Arya named her direwolf Nymerya, inherited after the great queen of Dorne who some would argue forged that realm. Bran named his direwolf Summer after a long period of thinking. And finally Rickon named his direwolf Shaggy Dog, almost immediately after he had gotten him.

Cregan's wolf, Sif, was a silverish grey coloured wolf with green sapphire eyes almost like a cat's. While everyone was playing with their new pets Sansa saw her twin brother slowly caressing Sif on his little head as she saw him do something she thought she would never see her brother do again... she saw Cregan smilling.

Note:
Alright so just so we are clear this is a rewrite of the first chapter where I format everything a bit better and I generally try to just a bit more of writing. The main reason I have done this is because I've been reading some of my old chapters and god almighty do I have trouble reading them. I will eventually rewrite all of the old chapters to make them all match a bit better so yeah expect this being a regular thing. And now, here are all of The Stark children's ages:

Robb Stark - 17 years old

Cregan & Sansa Stark - 15 years old

Arya Stark - 12 years old

Bran Stark - 9 years old

Rickon Stark - 5 years old

Eddard & Catelyn Stark - 35 years old