Game of Thrones: A Wolf Comes Home

Chapter 3 of my Game of Thrones story, enjoy.

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Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: Game of Thrones belongs to George R.R. Martin.


Arya

Arya grimaced as she left the room; glancing over her should she watched as Hodor carried Bran away. She thought about what her brother said and knew he was right.

'I'm here to protect my family; I should have guessed. Bran's right, Robb wouldn't just leave me behind for no good reason; not after everything that's happened.'

She winced again and clutched her stomach; shaking her head. 'Besides, maybe going with them wouldn't have been a good idea; not like this.'

Still cringing she continued her walk around the castle. The Twins was huge, but then, she supposed it would have to be, given the size of the Frey family, even if that family now found itself reduced in size. Her sense were alert to any potential dangers, there could still be Frey's hidden in the castle that were against her brother. She had to be sure they didn't do anything. However she was concerned, mainly since she was actually afraid of something, even if she didn't like to admit it. While checking around the castle for potential threats she found her mother and Sansa, sitting together, talking quietly. They looked up as she entered and smiled.

"Arya; what a surprise." Sansa said. "We didn't expect to see you here?"

Arya smiled back and nodded. "I was just, making sure everything was safe."

Catelyn nodded; smiling wider; relieved at least that Arya had finally worked out why Robb wanted her to stay at Twins.

There was silence for a moment; then finally Arya spoke up.

"Um, mother, Sansa, I'm sorry about earlier; I didn't…" She shook her head. "I was wrong."

Catelyn nodded. "It's okay Arya; at least you seem to understand now."

Arya nodded; Sansa however looked concerned and asked. "Are you really okay, how are you doing, after…?"

She trailed off but Arya knew what she meant and blushed. It had happened that morning and had caught Arya off-guard. She had suffered another nightmare, it was now a regular occurrence in her life; so many bad things had happened for her not to suffer nightmares and occasionally sleepless nights. She had woken up with a scream, feeling as if she was surrounded by blood, the smell of it strong. This had happened before too and she willed herself to calm down, constantly reminding herself that it wasn't real. That usually worked but this time, while she didn't feel it anymore, the smell lingered. Nervous she pulled back the furs, preparing to get up, only to freeze as she felt something wet and sticky on her thighs. She pulled back her shift and froze as she saw the blood on her thighs and on the bed. Startled she quickly checked herself for cuts or any other injuries, but finds nothing. She almost leapt from the bed, letting out a startled yelp. She stared at the blood in disbelief, wondering if she's seeing things when the door opens. She spun around and saw that it was Sansa.

Sansa had took one look at the whole scene and strangely, smiled.

"What are you smiling for?" Arya had asked her. "I'm bleeding, I…

Sansa had shaken her head and explained. "It's nothing to worry about Arya, it's normal, at your age."

It then sunk in and Arya groaned as she realized the truth. She was a woman now, she had just had her first flowering; her first blood. She recalled her mother and Septa Mordane briefly mentioning it to her, but they hadn't explained any details. It then struck her that Sansa had also gone through this. She looked to her sister; Sansa smiled and nodded.

"We better get you cleaned up and go let Mother know." She had said.

Arya had agreed, they had cleaned her up and then, after ensuring Arya knew what to do to avoid ruining her clothes, especially at an inopportune moment, they had left the room to find their mother. Standing here now, Arya felt calmer about the whole thing and slightly embarrassed at how silly it seemed for her to react the way she had.

Catelyn then asked. "Are you sure you are okay now; I know it came as a bit of shock to you."

Arya nodded. "I'm fine now mother, just…"

She winced and clutched at her stomach again; Catelyn and Sansa shared an understanding look before nodding sympathetically to her.

"Cramps?" Sansa asked; Arya nodded and she then explained. "It's okay, they'll pass in time."

Arya nodded, relieved and, after some more conversation, left and headed towards the training grounds.

She stopped at the edge of the training ground, her hand resting on Needle's pommel. She watched as she noticed Bran, seated on the back of a stationary horse, aiming a bow and firing at a target, he struck home and Arya couldn't help but smile; even if the moderately large, now cheering, crowd around Bran made her nervous.

'He really has improved quite a bit.' She thought to herself, remembering Bran's archery in Winterfell two years ago, back when he could walk. 'Maybe losing his ability to walk is improving his accuracy somehow; didn't a Maester once say that weakness in a limb is compensated for by the others? Losing the use of his legs, surely that means Bran's arms are at least twice as strong as they normally are now.'

She noticed Bran blushing as the men cheered for him and smiled; noting Bran had, thankfully, not changed that much, He was still as humble as ever. Still she hesitated; she had originally come to work on her Water Dancing but something was holding her back.

'How can I possibly retain my effectiveness as a fighter; I'm blind in my right eye, I can't; I've lost one of the means of sensing danger, reducing what I'm capable of.' She lamented. 'I can fight, take on single threats, but I'm no good in a real battle now, not with this…weakness.'

Shaking her head sadly she changed her mind and headed for the castle forge.

As she expected Gendry was inside; she saw that he actually looked frustrated as he picked up various tools. Eventually after seeing him do this a few times before shaking his head and sighing she decided to announce her presence.
"Having problems?"

He turned startled but smiled when he saw her. "Arya, I wasn't expecting to see you here."

Arya shrugged. "I felt like talking to you and I knew you'd be here."

Gendry nodded and then sighed again.

"As a matter of fact, I am having problems, look at this mess." He said, gesturing to the shambles of the workshop. "This isn't from the chaos of the battle; this is how it was normally laid out. How did the previous smith here get anything done; it's completely unorganized, it's a miracle he found any of his tools or…anything."

Arya smiled at that. "Typical; should've guessed you'd be worried about something like that."

He turned to look at her but she shook her head.

"Never mind; well, do you want some help."

Gendry started at that and shook his head. "Arry, no, you really shouldn't…"

"I don't mind; besides, gives us more time to talk." She replied calmly.

Gendry sighed; knowing that, if it came to an argument, she would win, and so he gave in and allowed her to help.


End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.