It was deep in the night when Sansa had felt a familiar presence, but one that she could not name. She did not understand it. There was something out there that was calling for her, asking her to meet it, or them. She tried to will herself to see it, through her gift of the Greensight, but she was unable to see anything. All she saw were the stars and the desert before Sunspear, and the sea beside it.

"Sansa?" Oberyn asked her, waking after she had risen from their bed. "Sansa, where are you going?"

"Something... someone is calling me," Sansa told him. "I can't explain it but..."

"I will come with you," Oberyn said, immediately getting dressed. They had thrown on simple clothes, but Oberyn had taken his spear with him and Sansa her dagger. They went to the stables together, and went into a steady gallop upon Oberyn's favorite horse. He took the reins while Sansa held the torch. They had no heading, and rode according to where Sansa felt that the presence was. "It is quite romantic, no? A midnight ride, the two of us, under the stars..."

Sansa gave him a half-smile and placed a kiss on his shoulder. "Whatever it was, it knew me..." she said, trying to keep her mind clear and her heart calm. It was still calling her. She still could not see anything, only the stars. Yet, she knew that they were getting close. The call was now louder in her mind, the presence stronger.

Just then, Oberyn's horse reared and whinnied. Before them were two pairs of eyes. One yellow, and the other, dark gold. "Wolves?" Oberyn asked, by the sounds of their snarling. There were no wolves in Dorne, not to his knowledge. If they were wolves, then they were certainly considerably larger than others of their kind. Sansa put the torch forwards and gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. "Sansa? What is the matter?" Without a moment's hesitation, Sansa leaped off the horse and pressed the torch into Oberyn's hand. She ignored him calling out towards her, but walked towards the wolves. By the light of the torch, Oberyn could see that the wolves were so large that they already reached the shoulders of his horse. It was only then did he realize that these were direwolves, the kin of Robb's Grey Wind.

"Lady!" Sansa had called towards the one with yellow eyes. "I can't believe it... I can't believe that you're alive!" It licked her face and nuzzled at Sansa, while the one with gold eyes watched. "Nymeria, come here!" The second direwolf heeded her and went on to replicate Lady's behavior.

"They are your direwolves, my love?" Oberyn asked Sansa after both direwolves had settled down. He approached them with uttermost caution, and he understood that they were examining him. Lady had watched him intently, while Nymeria growled when he carefully made his way to Sansa's side. It was an extraordinary experience, and when Lady had surmised that he was no threat to Sansa, she nuzzled his hand so that he would pet her head. It was that gesture that stopped the other direwolf from pouncing at Oberyn and ripping his arm off.

Sansa nodded. "Lady is mine, and Nymeria is Arya's," she answered. "But I don't understand... Father... Father was forced by Cersei to execute Lady... She shouldn't be alive..." Tears of joy welled in her eyes, to see Lady fully-grown, as large as Grey Wind was, although she had been as tiny as Ghost had been. "Arya... looked up to your ancestor a lot, so..."

"And now, the human Nymeria serves Robb in the North and the direwolf comes to you," Oberyn said. "It is a miracle that they came here all this way, looking for you."

"I'll never let them out of my sight again," she vowed, hugging the two direwolves, who were already giving Oberyn friendly licks. "They seem to like you."

"They know that I will never harm you," Oberyn explained, looking deep into the direwolves' eyes, and back at Sansa. "Come, my love, it is late in the night and our bed beckons us."

Sansa took his outstretched hand and got back onto the horse with his help. Without needing any instruction, Lady and Nymeria followed them, keeping a safe distance away from the horse, which was still unused to their presence. Oberyn remembered in the battle for Casterly Rock, Grey Wind fought beside Robb as though it had been an extension of the King in the North. It was intuitive and was intelligent enough to defend its master if need be.

However, he did have a concern. These two direwolves, one allowed to roam in the wilds, and the other, thought to be dead, could they ever be socialized to live among humans? Sansa might have been able to guide them, but what if she was not there to constantly be by their side?

"Let me be with them for the night," Sansa offered when they returned to the castle. "I need to know what happened to them..."

"Did you allow them in your bedroom when you were in Winterfell?" Oberyn asked his wife, but was not surprised when she gave him an affirmative nod. The Stark direwolves were found when they were newborn pups, and were hand-trained by their owners themselves. They would always sleep by the foot of the beds of their owners, all six of them. "You do know that Ellaria would scream her head off once she sees them."

Sansa giggled, and the direwolves offered a friendly yelp. "Mother was... apprehensive of them when they first came home too, but she trusts them well enough."

Sansa did not sleep when they returned to their chambers. The direwolves took their usual place by the bed, as if they had never even left Winterfell, and she sat on the floor with them, Lady's head resting on her lap. She remembered the day her brothers and Theon brought them all back, six direwolves for the six children of Ned Stark. She remembered how she and Arya squealed in joy and laughter when they saw the pups running and playing among each other. Bran immediately picked Summer up and claimed it as his, and Summer had huddled close to Bran, its ears still floppy.

"Why have you two come here?" she asked Lady and Nymeria. "Lady... how did Father let you go? Cersei saw your pelt..."

Lady whimpered as Sansa petted her head. There was eye contact and Sansa began to feel a familiar sensation returning to her. She knew that she was given the opportunity to look into Lady's mind and she took it.

"What did Jon say about you pups, Lady?" the head of her human's pack said. He had a kind face and she was not too afraid of him. "The direwolf is the sigil of our House, that all of you were meant to be together... The thing that killed your mum, it was a stag... I wonder if it means anything..."

She did not remember how her mother had died. She only remembering being in the cold with her siblings. She remembered her human, her hair the color of the setting sun. She remembered that her human liked to give her treats when she was good. Her sister had left, and they left their brothers in the home of the humans. She missed them.

"I'm sorry, Lady," the human pack leader continued. He had brandished a sharp blade, she whimpered, hoping that he would not use it on her, and for whatever reason, he stopped. "If your mum was killed by a stag... you can't die by my hand. It's not right. Stay here, Lady." The human pack leader left and when he returned, it was with another human, carrying a dead wolf which was more or less her color.

"We're lucky to find it, my lord," the lesser human said. "Lady can go free now."

The pack leader bowed his head. She was not so sure of human gestures yet, but she took it as a sign of agreement. "The guards?"

"Sound asleep, my lord. I made sure that they had too much ale tonight."

The pack leader then turned towards her. "Go, Lady. You go out and find your sister Nymeria. Don't ever come looking for Sansa and Arya until you know that it's safe, alright?" Sansa... she knew that name. It was her human's name. Arya, she was that small human female that was her human's litter-mate.

"Do you think that Lady understands, my lord?"

"She has to, Jory," the pack leader answered, removing her chains. "Now run along, and don't come back!"

She ran, following the pack leader's orders, she ran and looked for her sister for days. She found her soon enough, and they formed a pack of their own with the smaller wolves. There was plenty of food to eat, but there were other times when they had so little to eat that they had to feast on humans. Some humans had tough skins that could not really be eaten though, and those were most often the young ones with juicy, tender fingers. It was the old ones with stringy meat that were easiest to hunt, but... they could not choose.

They lived like this for many moons. Since the pack leader said not to find them, they didn't, but one morning they realized that the scent of the pack leader went cold, as if he had disappeared from the world. Something had happened and they decided to go against his word. They went down south but Nymeria said that her human was coming back up north. The humans lived in packs, she told Nymeria. Sisters from the same pack would never leave one another, she reasoned, although Nymeria reminded her that they left their brothers behind too.

Lady didn't care what Nymeria thought. For whatever reason, her human's scent was more prominent and she decided to follow it. She was older, they went where she said to go, and they went south. The south was not like the north. The south was warm and hot, and when they went through the center of the south, it was hot and wet. They didn't like it at all, and continued moving south until they passed some mountains and found a terrain which they had never encountered before.

It was sand. Sand that stretched for miles and miles, seared by the sun, burning their paws. But in the night, it was so cold that they huddled against each other for warmth. They were not really comfortable, but at least her human's scent was more and more prominent...

"Oh, you poor, brave things," Sansa said when she exited Lady's mind. "It's alright now, I won't let anyone harm you again. I swear it."

True to Oberyn's prediction, Ellaria did utter a great scream when she saw Lady and Nymeria on the carpet in their chamber, some distance away from the fireplace. Sansa immediately bolted awake, and held the direwolves, in case they would react to Ellaria's reaction to their presence. "What... what are they?" Ellaria demanded. "They're as big as ponies!" Ellaria had not seen direwolves before. When Oberyn, Obara and Nymeria took Casterly Rock with Robb, she was already in Lannisport, waiting for the battle to start and to end, so she had not seen Grey Wind before. Grey Wind was also absent from the little family reunion at Bitterbridge, so she could not have guessed their sheer size.

"They're direwolves," Sansa explained. "They... followed me here. I can't explain how, but they did."

"They are your direwolves?" Ellaria continued.

"You don't have to worry, they're well-behaved, sweet girls," Sansa reassured her, before turning towards the direwolves. "Lady, Nymeria... down!"

"You named a direwolf after Nym?"

"No, that's Arya's direwolf," Sansa explained. "She named it after Nymeria Martell."

"Are you seriously going to keep them here?"

"They have nowhere else to go," Sansa pleaded Ellaria.

"That is not your choice to make, my love," Ellaria pleaded in return. "This is not even Oberyn's choice to make, and you know it well."

"Ellaria..."

"These are direwolves, Sansa!"

"They are our direwolves..."

"But direwolves nonetheless!"

"No buts," Ellaria said. "You will march them to Doran and you will await his decision on them."

Sansa knew that this was a battle that she would lose before she even fought it. She was surprised that Oberyn did not stop her at all. Something deep inside of her knew that he would be standing at the door, watching the entire exchange as though it was an entertaining play.

True enough, it was the case.

Oberyn did stand by the door, watching the entire exchange with a wide smirk on his face, but he was not the only one. To Sansa's convenience, Doran was beside him.

"So, these are direwolves," Doran said. "They are... magnificent."

"Lady, Nymeria, up," Sansa told the direwolves, and they stood on their legs. "They're well-trained and..."

"If they are direwolves then Nymeria must join your sister in the North," Doran said. "Lady may stay with you."

"How are you going to send Nymeria to Arya, brother?" Sansa asked Doran. The Volantene ships that had been loaned to bring the Northern armies from Lannisport to Deepwood Motte were halfway back to Volantis. It would be impossible to impose upon Triach Maegyr to ask one of his ships to make the trip again.

"An honor guard will bring her to Winterfell" Doran said. "You and Oberyn being the victims of an assassination attempt in Lys, clearly by the hand of the Lannisters. You, dear sister, you have been shot by Cersei's dogs in the City Watch in King's Landing itself... Dorne will not tolerate the atrocities they have committed to our family any longer. Your direwolves are a sign that the time is now ripe."

"It would seem that... Ned Stark was not as honest as we thought he was," Varys told the Small Council. "Two direwolves were spotted in Sunspear, both of them incredibly attached to Princess Sansa."

"Direwolves... in Dorne?" Mace Tyrell asked.

"Lord Tyrell, the direwolves were left to roam in the Riverlands, so it would be conceivable that they would have made it to Dorne after so long," Varys added. "It is strange, isn't it? For whatever reason, Ned Stark decided to go against King Robert's wishes..."

"The Northerners are superstitious," Tywin Lannister said. Direwolves were the sigil of House Stark. "It is no wonder that Lord Eddard Stark would have second thoughts on killing one."

"A Martell honor guard was also spotted moving up the Prince's Pass," Varys added. "My little birds tell of a rumor that Princess Sansa is bringing the direwolves back to Winterfell..."

Grand Maester Pycelle did not quite believe that report at all. "Princess Sansa was a Lannister ward who was given to the Martells as a bride for peace between those two Houses," he said. "How can it be possible that the Martells allow her to travel back to her homeland?"

"That's because the Martells might not be our friends any more," Tyrion concluded, his eyes wider than a saucer. All the signs were already pointed towards it. If Gregor Clegane's confession was not good enough, Cersei's failed attempts to have Sansa and Oberyn killed could have pushed the Martells from seeking the Starks. Now that Robb Stark's popularity had soared into such great heights, loved by the smallfolk and his own bannermen, the possibility of a Stark and Martell alliance was not immediately out of reach.

However, Tywin remained calm as usual. "Lord Varys, can you verify the validity of what you've heard?" he asked Varys, who shook his head.

"As it stands, no," Varys said. "However, the direwolves are a confirmed sight."

"Then we must send an ambassador to Dorne, and confirm Sansa's presence there," Tywin simply concluded. "If she really is not there, then it would be valid reason to see Dorne as another enemy of the crown."

"Lord Tyrion, the combined Lannister and Tyrell armies number to 80000, and with Robb Stark returning to the North, we can easily crush them," Mace Tyrell added with utter confidence.

"Dorne has never been taken by an invader," Tyrion cautioned. "Not with dragons or sheer force." No one else but the Dornish could conquer Dorne by itself. Dorne was married into the Seven Kingdoms, and with Myrcella already promised to their Prince Trystane, they were running out of options. If the Starks and Martells did band together, with a strength of almost a million soldiers, and march against King's Landing, simple arithmetic would already count for a loss on their side.

"There is... some good news though," Varys spoke again. "Stannis Baratheon is now racing Robb Stark to the Wall. It seems that he wants a bit of glory against the wildlings."

Tywin broke into a little smile, one that told those who knew him that he had some devious plot in his head already. "Perhaps we should let our friends finish each other off at the Wall," he suggested. "Then we would have all the time in the world to deal with Dorne if it proves... unruly."

"Thank you, Lord Tyrion for volunteering to be the Realm's representative to Dorne," Varys said, already anticipating Tywin's next move.

"Good man, Lord Tyrion," Grand Maester Pycelle added.

"I wish you all the best on your journey south," Mace Tyrell continued.

Tyrion looked at all three of them in utter disgust, but could not do anything, since his father seemed set upon sending him to Dorne. "When am I leaving then?" he asked Tywin.

"As soon as a ship can be readied for the voyage," he said. "It would also be a good time to... ascertain what other strengths Dorne has. That claim that they have 50000 spears has stood of centuries. I want you to report everything that goes on there."

Tyrion nodded. "It will be one, Father," he said. "If I get swallowed by snakes, do have some form of rescue plan ready."

"That would depend on the manner of your report," Tywin barked.

HAN: Lady and Nymeria are back, yay! Don't ask me why I brought the direwolves back, in all honesty I was running out of ideas and decided to try it out. I hope you don't kill me.

I thoroughly enjoyed that bit with Sansa and Ellaria.

Tyrion in Dorne? OOOOO...

Enjoy!

P.S: Today's pop culture reference is from LOTR: Return of the King.