This is totally AU. I just wanted to explore the possibility of Rhaenys surviving.
It's dark outside. Rhaenys doesn't like the darkness, but she does not come out of her hiding space between her father's clothes. She remembers what her mother told her. Hide, my sweet girl, you must hide well. I know you don't understand this, but please, hide, and no matter what you hear, only come out for someone you know well. Listen to me: You must promise me that you will live. Promise me that, my sweet girl. Live! Live and never give up.
Rhaenys had not understood, but done what her mother wanted. There had been screams from the city some time ago, and once a scary looking man came into the room to search for somebody. Rhaenys had been very scared then, but he had only looked under her father's bed and behind the books. It had taken a long time until her breathing had returned to normal after her. She missed her mother. And her father as well. She had not seen her father in a long time. But most of all, she was hungry and thirsty. She had not eaten or drunken anything in at least three days. She was just debating whether or not she should leave her hiding space even though her mother had told her not to when a man came into the room. He had dark brown hair and gray eyes and he looked really angry.
Rhaenys tried to be as quiet as possible. She didn't know the man, and she didn't like it when people were angry. She watched him sit down on the bed – her father's bed! - and put his head in his hand. He didn't even look furious anymore, he actually seemed sad. She thought she saw tears in his eyes. Rhaenys didn't understand, but she remembered her mother's words. Hide, my sweet girl, you must hide well. I know you don't understand this, but please, hide, and no matter what you hear, only come out for someone you know well.
Suddenly, Balerion, her black cat, came through the door. He walked around the man's legs, so long until the man took note and looked at him. Then, Balerion walked towards her hiding space. She shook her head, wishing for him to turn away, but he didn't. The man looked straight at her, and then he walked to her. He looked shocked. He got down on his knees and pulled her fathers shirt that she had draped over herself away.
"Princess Rhaenys?" He whispered. Rhaenys wasn't sure how to answer, her mother had told her to hide, but the man had already found her. He didn't look scary anymore, actually he looked worried. She nodded tentatively. Suddenly, the man embaraced her. Rhaenys stiffened a moment, but then she put her arms around the man's neck.
"Are you hungry, princess? Do you want something to eat?" He asked, and now there were definitively tears in her eyes.
"Mama said to hide." She murmured. The man looked pained.
"Your mother was a wise woman. But I will not harm you, never. You will have to hide, though, nobody is allowed to know who you are. Do you understand that?"
Rhaenys didn't, but the man looked at her expectantly, so she nodded and took the hand he offered.
Rhaenys was with a man that Uncle Ned, the man that found her hiding in her father's room, introduced to her as Lord Reed. Lord Reed was a nice man, even though he did look grim sometimes. Not as grim as Uncle Ned though, and Uncle Ned was really nice. Sometimes Rhaenys still thought he looked scary, but she knew he would never hurt her.
Now Uncle Ned was gone. He was gone before, when he went he left her with Lady Ashara to search his sister Lyanna. If she was Uncle Ned sister, that made her her aunt, Rhaenys supposed. She was dead though. Uncle Ned had cried a lot when he came back from where ever his sister had been. He had brought Jon with him, though. Jon was a baby, even younger than her brother Aegon had been. She missed Aegon, and she missed her mother, and her father. Sometimes it was difficult to remember their faces, especially her father's. He had been gone for so long. When she had asked Uncle Ned, he had looked sad and told her that her father wasn't coming back, and her mother and Aegon weren't going to be back, either. Rhaenys didn't understand, but she had cried. Uncle Ned had taken her in his arms then and held her through the whole night.
"Mariya? Are you hungry?" Lord Reed asked. Mariya. It had been difficult in the beginning, to react when somebody called her that name, but by now she had gotten used to it. Uncle Ned had told her it was necessary. Hide, my sweet girl, you must hide well. She hoped her mother was okay wherever she was.
There was snow everywhere. Mariya loved it. She had never seen snow before she had come to Winterfell, and it fascinated her. She loved to play with it, to dance in the snow, to catch snowflakes with her tongue. She had arrived here a few weeks before, with Wylla and Jon. Lord Reed had brought them there, and then he had left. He had disappeared into a room with Uncle Benjen for a few hours before he had gone. Mariya didn't know what they had talked about, but she didn't really care.
Uncle Benjen was great. He played with her whenever he had time. Mariya liked him a lot more than Lady Stark. Lady Stark had come to Winterfell some time after Mariya and she always acted as if Mariya had done something to her. Mariya didn't understand. She was always especially polite to Lady Stark, but she always looked at her with disdain, the same as she looked at Jon. She had a son of her own, this Lady Stark, a little boy, a bit older than Jon, with red hair. His name was Robb. Sometimes, when Lady Stark had Robb in her arms, Mariya tried to remember her own mother. It grew increasingly difficult. There were days when she could not see her face in her mind. But she always remembered what her mother had said. Hide, my sweet girl, you must hide well. I know you don't understand this, but please, hide, and no matter what you hear, only come out for someone you know well. Listen to me: You must promise me that you will live. Promise me that, my sweet girl. Live! Live and never give up.
"I'm scared." Sansa whimpered. The two year old girl had tears in her eyes. Mariya took a deep breath, then she patted on the bed beside her. Sansa had nightmares quite often, and now that Lady Stark was so heavily pregnant she came to Mariya's bed more often than not. Mariya loved her little cousin, she really did, but she would love to sleep a night through sometimes.
Still, she took Sansa in her arms when the girl crawled into her bed.
"Do you think Papa will come home soon?" Sansa whispered.
"Yes." Mariya really hoped Uncle Ned would come home soon. Lady Stark was even less nice than usual when Uncle Ned wasn't home, and Uncle Benjen was at the Wall. Mariya didn't understand why Lady Stark hated her. She knew that she wasn't a Stark, her name was Snow, like Jon's, but while Jon was Uncle Ned's son with some other woman Mariya was the daughter of Brandon Stark, Uncle Ned's brother. Uncle Ned had told her about her father. Mariya wished she could remember him, but whenever she tried to pull his face before her inner eye there was nothing. She didn't remember her mother either. Only a voice that told her to hide. Hide, my sweet girl, you must hide well. I know you don't understand this, but please, hide, and no matter what you hear, only come out for someone you know well. Mariya didn't remember why she had had to hide, but she knew that she was safe here at her home. No monsters could reach her here, and that was what she told Sansa whenever the girl had nightmares.
"It's going to be fine, Sansa. Uncle Ned is going to come home, soon. He misses us as much as we miss him, I'm sure."
"It's not fair." There was a feast and Jon and Mariya had to sit with the peasants because Lady Stark thought it was not fitting for the two bastards to sit with the Lord's family.
"It's not." Mariya agreed. On any other day, they belonged to the family, but not today. Even Theon Greyjoy was allowed to sit with the rest of the family, only the two Snows weren't.
Mariya didn't like Theon. Before he arrived, it had only been Lady Stark who treated them differently, but Theon seemed to think they were worth less because they were bastards. Bastards. Theon had been the first one to call them that into their faces.
"I want Theon to leave." Jon said, as if he had read her thoughts. That happened quite often, that he said something she had thought or she said something that he had thought. They were close, and now that Theon was here they had grown even closer. Jon was still closest with Robb, but as the two Snows of Winterfell, Mariya and Jon couldn't not be close, Mariya supposed. They were two motherless children. Robb, Sansa and little Arya all had Lady Stark, but Mariya and Jon did not even know their mother's name. Uncle Ned had said Mariya's mother had been from Dorne, and considering how she looked like with her dark skin, dark hair and eyes, it was obvious. Jon however looked like Uncle Ned, and her uncle had never lost a word about Jon's mother. Sometimes Mariya tried to be Jon's mother, but she didn't know how. The only thing she remembered of her mother was her voice. Hide, my sweet girl, you must hide well. I know you don't understand this, but please, hide, and no matter what you hear, only come out for someone you know well. Listen to me: You must promise me that you will live. Promise me that, my sweet girl. Live! Live and never give up. Sometimes she thought this was a dream, for why should she have to hide?
AN: So, I hope you liked this. If it wasn't clear, Ned took Rhaenys home with him and told everyone that she is Brandon's daughter with an undisclosed dornish woman. He renamed her Mariya, because the name Rhaenys would have been a bit obvious. She doesn't remember anything from before she arrived in Winterfell safe for what her mother said. I chose the name Mariya because that was the name of the ruling princess of Dorne under whose guidance the conquest of Aegon and his sisters was stopped in Dorne (Dorne joined the 7K some time later.)
I might expand this, if there are people who want to read it, but for the moment it is a one shot.