A Tale of Ice and Fire

Disclaimer: All rights belong to George R.R. Martin

01. The She-Wolf

Eddard Stark had been searching most of the morning. He had been to every room in the castle, he had searched the training yard, and he had visited the stable to see if a certain horse was missing, But around midday is when he finally located his sister in the godswood, kneeling before the weirwood tree.

"I should have checked here first," Ned said by way of greeting, walking forward to stand beside Lyanna.

"Don't tell me I give people the impression that I'm an overly religious fool," Lyanna replied.

"No, just a slightly religious one."

Lyanna finally glanced up to her brother, a smile slipping onto her face. The sun was shining through the normally gray skies of the north today, hitting Lyanna'a face in such a way that she appeared older than her age of one and two. Or maybe it was due to the news that had been announced today.

"I thought maybe I'd find you here, praying to the gods for patience," Ned quipped.

"Oh Ned, I don't think the gods can help me," Lyanna replied with a weak chuckle. Ned was unsure whether or not she was joking.

"Lyanna..."

"I'm fine Ned," Lyanna assured, rising to her feet. She was shorter than Ned, but he knew how quick she was, and strong when provoked enough. "This didn't come as a surprise."

Ned nodded. "Robert has loved you for some time."

Lyanna rolled her silver-shaded eyes.

"He does-"

Lyanna cut Ned off. "Robert loves me in his definition of what love means. And we all know what that looks like."

Ned was very aware of what Lyanna was referring to. Despite the fact that Robert was not much older than Lyanna, he had already fathered a bastard in the Vale. Robert was tall, handsome and strong, and he knew it, frequently using it to his advantage with the young ladies.

"That was before the betrothal," Ned tried. It was not so much in defense of his long-time friend, but in hopes of comforting Lyanna. She seemed to be taking her betrothal to Robert Baratheon well enough, but Ned knew some of her opinions of Robbert were less than positive.

Lyanna smirked at Ned. "Marriage does not change men, Ned."

Ned didn't have a response. He had known Robert for many years now, having grown up together, and he knew Lyanna might be correct. Although Ned was holding out hope that his friend could be bettered. With his father's passing, he was a lord now and he was hoping that settling down with a bride and ruling would help Robert mature.

When Ned remained silent, Lyanna continued. She seemed to be musing to herself, rather than addressing Ned. "I don't think he really loves me. I think he more loves the idea of me."

"Do you think you'll ever grow to love him?" Ned finally asked.

Lyanna sighed with endearment. "Oh Ned...women don't marry for love."

Once again, Ned had no comment. Lyanna nodded to herself, seemingly agreeing with something she was silently thinking and smoothed down the gray, woolen dress she was wearing.

"I think I'll go for a ride; it's such a beautiful day. Would you like to join me?" Lyanna asked, slipping her arm through her brother and steering him away from the godswood.

"I can't," Ned replied regrettably. "I have a meeting Father wants me to attend."

Lyanna shrugged, smiling over to Ned. "Your loss."

When they reached the center of Winterfell, Lyanna released Ned. He made his way up to the castle and Lyanna made her way to the stables.

"Ah, Lady Lyanna," the stable master greeted as she approached. He was outside, enjoying the sun as he brushed down one of the horses. "Are you here for your horse?"

Lyanna nodded with a smile. "I thought I'd take advantage of this beautiful day and go for a ride.

"Let me get her ready for you," the stable master said quickly, setting down his brush and moving to get Lyanna's horse saddled.

"Oh, no need," Lyanna quickly replied. "I can get her ready."

Before, the stable master would have protested, but he knew Lyanna better these days and only smiled, nodding.

Lyanna opened the gate to her horse's stall. It wasn't really her horse, but it was the horse she favored and always chose to take on rides. The horse had taken a liking to her as well. She was a beautiful horse, with a cream-colored coat and soft brown mane. She had a single white splotch on her back.

"Hi there," Lyanna cooed as she approached the horse. It whinnied and stomped its hooves in anticipation of the ride.

Lyanna quickly set to work readying the horse. Being a lady of a great house, there wasn't much Lyanna had to do for herself. She didn't have to cook, draw her own bath or even dress herself. And she most certainly didn'T have to saddle her own horse. But Lyanna liked to do things on her own. She was perfectly able, so why have someone do it for her?

Once Lyanna finished, she swung herself up on her horse with ease. She'd been riding horses since she was a little girl and could outride most anyone. Her family made jokes about Lyanna's skills, although secretly she was sure it bothered her father. A she rode out of the gates of Winterfell and into the forest surrounding it, her thoughts drifted to her father.

Rickard Stark was an honorable man. He was a dutiful warden of the north and was training his sons to one day be the same. Lyanna's eldest brother Brandon was next in line to become warden, but Rickard thought all of his sons should know the ability to rule. She wondered if all lords did this, or if it was driven by her father's paranoia of King Aerys Targaryen. As a lady, Lyanna wasn't thoroughly educated on all of the troubles of Westeros, but she had gathered enough that there was some unease over the king of Westeros. Some believed he was slowly going mad. She wondered if her father thought this could cause a war; Lyanna was skeptical herself. Even if the current King was going mad, Prince Rhaegar was next to rule the Iron Throne and, although she had never even seen the Prince, she had heard stories that he was as kind as he was beautiful.

But none of that mattered to Lyanna. As in, it wasn't supposed to matter to Lyanna. She was a lady. She was meant to learn sewing and how to host events. She was expected to marry and be a proper wife. And she was doing that, or she would be soon.

Lyanna accepted her lot in life. Sewing was mind numbing, but it was expected of her. Sipping tea and gossiping was equally boring, but it was expected of her. And Lyanna was expected to marry a lord and bear his children. And Lyanna would do all of that, because it was her duty, it was her place. But that didn't mean she wasn't allowed to dream.

Lyanna didn't mind to wear pretty dresses, but she also liked to slip into a pair of breeches to go riding or to defend herself in the training yard. Lyanna liked to practice with the wooden swords they had there, and every so often, when she was alone, Lyanna would try her hand with real, steel swords. She thought she was quite good. At the very least she could hold her own. She imagined she'd be quite talented if her father would let her train.

As much as Lyanna adored her father, he was quite traditional. While he begrudgingly allowed Lyanna to occasionally join her brothers in the training yard, he'd never let Lyanna carry a sword of her own. So sometimes, when the training yard was deserted and the sun was beginning to set, Lyanna would sneak out to the training yard and practice, and pretend. Pretend that she could spar along side of her brothers. She'd pretend that Winterfell's gates were being overrun with enemies and she could slash them down; defend herself and her home.

But it was a a silly dream. In all fairness, Lyanna should be grateful she'd ever been allowed to hold a sword. But Lyanna was a wolf. She liked to race her horse and feel the cool wind blow through her long, brown hair. She liked the sound of metal striking metal and the rush of adrenalin when you struck towards an opponent or stepped out of the way of a very well placed stab. She didn't mind dirt on her hands or face or bruises on her arms or knuckles.

If Lyanna was to do her duty and marry, Lyanna wanted to marry a man who loved her for her pretty dresses, and her breaches. She wanted to be loved for her fierceness, and her sweet words. She wanted someone to love all of her; not just her face and her body.

But Lyanna was not a fool. There were not many highborn men out there who would appreciate any type of fierceness in a woman. And Robert Baratheon was certainly no exception. She doubted her would ever accept her holding a sword or speaking her opinion. But that meant she'd have to be strong in other ways. She wouldn't be able to be strong with a sword, but she could be strong by pushing away who she was in order to do her duty. Of course, the problem with that was Lyanna didn't know if she could be that strong.

She would have time to practice though. It was likely that Robert and her wouldn't marry soon. But Robert would be visiting Winterfell within the coming months, or so her father told her. She knew her brother would be happy to see him.

Lyanna sighed, steering her horse off of the worn, dirt path and into the deeper regions of the forest. She wished there was someone out there who would love her for her, aside from her brothers. A person who would hold her close at night and let her argue her opinions with him during the day. But wishes were for girls. Lyanna was not a girl. She was a wolf.

Author's Notes

I wasn't sure whether or not I wanted to post this. It's just something I'm working on in my spare time. But I posted it anyway. I've never worked with RheagarXLyanna so I do hope this doesn't disappoint.

There are a lot of theories that circulate around the whole Rheagar/Lyanna business. This story is my idea of what happened. If you'll check online, you'll find that a lot of things I theorized, so have a lot of people.

As far as Rheagar's and Lyanna's personalities go, I only have the vague mentions of them in the books to work with. Ned Stark always compares Arya to Lyanna so I will be adapting a lot of that to my Lyanna. Except I tend to think that Lyanna would feel more duty bound than Arya and not running away from being a lady, but embracing it and trying to be her own type of woman. Gosh I hope that sounded sane. Trying to write while listening to a baby cry is a little distracting.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Please, please tell me what you think! This is obviously just the opening so nothing real exciting has taken place. This is just to show you where we are at in the timeline and show you a little of Lyanna's personality and thoughts. We'll get into the more exciting stuff, trust me!