Winterfell was too quiet. Robb and Theon had just left with the Northern army to free Lord Stark from the treachery of the Lannisters. How could they think Winterfell would not raise an army up to free their Lord? Robb would bring back their father and sisters, he had to win.

Lady Stark was gone as well. She had left shortly after Lord Stark and the girls, when an assassin tried to kill Bran. She went in order to bring news of Bran's would be assassin to Lord Stark. Last news of Lady Stark had been from the Eyrie, where she was holding Tyrion Lannister for the attempt on Bran's life. Tyrion couldn't be the one who hired the assassin, not when he had given them a way for Bran to ride a horse. Rosalyn said nothing though, there was no way the news would reach them fast enough to make a difference.

Now it was just Bran, acting as Lord of Winterfell in place of his father and brother, Rickon, and Rosalyn left of all the Starks. Even Summer and Shaggydog were lonely, they whimpered at the gates to Winterfell, missing their kin as much as their owners did. Sansa's pup Lady had been laid in the crypts with the Kings and Queens of the past, a fitting end for such a gentle creature.

Winterfell had been happy not so many months past. Now there was too much dread and fear and loneliness.

Rosalyn missed her sisters bickering. She missed helping them with their hair. She missed Arya play fighting with her brothers. She missed Sansa dreaming of a beautiful knight who would love her. She had adored being betrothed to a Prince. Now her sisters lives were in danger and Robb was their hope of rescue.

She missed Bran walking and running and climbing. She missed his easy smile and laugh. They were gone with the use of his legs.

She missed her father's gentle strength and the way he found time to be a Lord and yet gave each of his children attention. The way he listened to everyone, great or small, and his children most of all. Now he was in a dungeon for something he could not have done.

She missed Jon most of all. He wrote often enough but he was her twin, half of her being from the womb, and he was gone. Now with father's life in danger as well as the lives of her sisters, Rosalyn felt only dread and she wanted her brother back. She had never wanted him to leave to take the black. She had cried at him, at uncle Benjen, and at their father that Jon might stay. All three told her that Jon had to go and wanted to go. She had been angry with him up until the day he left, but that day she broke down and spent most of it with him. They talked and laughed and cried. He told her that he had given Arya a sword which their little sister named Needle. She got to see her sister with the sword shortly before she went south.

She tried to keep Bran and Rickon happy, yet that seemed to be increasingly difficult with each passing day. How could she keep Bran happy when he couldn't walk? How could she keep Rickon, a child of four years, happy when his mother and father and brothers and sisters were gone? Her family was at war. Robb leading his host to join the Tully's in their fight against the Lannisters in Riverrun. Father was imprisoned in King's Landing. Sansa and Arya were imprisoned there as well. How could Rosalyn possibly keep her young brothers happy when all three missed and feared for the safety of their family?

Rosalyn went to the tree to say her prayers shortly after her brother rode south. She never prayed to the new gods, only to the old as her father did. Osha, the strange wildling woman, was praying at weirwood when Rosalyn arrived.

The older woman looked at her when she arrived and bowed her head politely. "I will leave if you wish milady."

She laughed. "I'm no lady, just the Lord's bastard girl."

"Bastard?" The word was apparently foreign to the wilding from the look on her face.

"My father, Lord Eddard Stark, was not married to my mother when I was conceived and born. I know not who she is or was, but she was most certainly not Lady Catelyn Stark." She spoke with some bitterness.

Osha snorted a laugh. "You southerners are all strange. In the north a man takes a woman from another village and she becomes his woman. There's no need of titles or ceremonies, everyone knows who is whose. You are the child of the same man as the little Lord, so you are a Lady, at least that's how I see it."

Rosalyn smiled. "Thank you. I was wondering... Bran told me that you him that the war should go north instead of south?"

She nodded solemnly. "The trees don't live in the south so the gods can't help there. Besides which the dangers are north not south even if your Lord father's life is in danger it's north you need to go or all our lives are in danger. But the army went south because you southerners don't understand the danger. You all think it's safe behind that wall of ice but it's not big enough to stop the evil that's coming."


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