This chapter is little more than fluff, a calm and peaceful time before the storm.
Chapter 32: Reek in the Snow
Winterfell
Arya swung her sword around the practice dummy, her face expressed frustration and anger.
Said anger was because Mya was gone. Because Arthur left to see Jon, leaving her to guard home with Sansa and Lady Ashara. More ever, she hates that she feels less important- Like she is that little girl just aching for adventure and excitement.
She sighed and stopped hitting the dummy, the coldness of winter seen on her breath. Nymeria looked on with a tilted head, she smiled and approached the direwolf and hugged the growing creature. Nymeria and her sibling pups- Well, the surviving ones are nearly as big as ponies, almost big enough to ride.
"Let's go, Nymeria!" She's still a child, she itches for fun and with Nymeria, ran all over and headed for the Godswood.
The memories of hers, Arthur's and Edric's snowball fight rang through her mind. It was the most fun she's had since her first lesson with Syrio Forel, the thought of her former master made her slow her run to a light jog.
She hates reminding herself of all the good memories, they are simply there to show her what happened to them and who killed them.
Her father. Syrio. Septa Mordane. Lady. Her mother. Robb. Maester Luwin. Rickon and Shaggydog. Mya. Her unborn nephew or niece. Bran, too, if he isn't still out there. And Gendry... She misses them all, she would gladly take her own life to bring them all back.
Nymeria running off took her away from herself, she called out and her friend returned but with someone else.
"Hello, my Lady." Edric Dayne greeted her and she smiled and nodded her head. "I came to find you, your sister said you had been late to your lessons?" By the Gods, she remembered why she came out to swing at that practice dummy.
Sansa since coming back home had taken on the role of 'motherly figure' and her first act was to try bringing her back to her lessons, knitting and poetry and the crafts of a 'proper lady'. She didn't fight and kill to become a proper lady. I know my destiny, I am meant to be a warrior. She thought bitterly and excited at the same time, she wants to fight for her home.
There's another King in the North, some Southern Lord from the Stormlands. She told Arthur that he should push him out of the North, tell him to go back South where all Stags, Lions, and Roses should remain.
She's become more of an isolationist, she wants the North and Riverlands to be separate from the talking of the South.
"I'm not going back, I'm not a proper and fancy lady." She said defiantly and Edric cracked a smile at her, she pouted and crossed her arms together. "What's so funny?" She asked the slightly older boy.
"It was the same thing I told Lady Sansa, I said 'Lady Arya is a Lady but not one to sit by a fire and take counsel, she's like a great shield-maiden- Poised and fiery with an eye towards leading men into battle than raising them'." She stood there, shocked by what Edric said and told Sansa, it made her blush a little bit.
He took notice and smiled like a wily wolf, "I dare say I made your Ladyship blush, not very uncommon when it comes to Dornishmen and women." That did it, she huffed and threw a fallen branch at Edric who dodged it, "Haha! Shall we duel, then?" He asked her and she smiled back this time.
Forgetting the loss of losing all her loved ones, she delved into the friendship growing between her and the Lord of Starfall.
Elsewhere
Sansa knew this wasn't a good idea, it was stupid if Arya was here with her.
She hated Theon when she came back, he was still a murderer in her eyes and remembered when word had come of Bran and Rickon's supposed deaths.
Joffrey made a point to hold a celebration for it, parading puppets of her brothers and dripping in pigs' blood. If not for Tyrion stopping it, she would have suffered more humiliation than she could handle.
Not that she hasn't seen Theon since her return, she spotted more than once staring or scuttling around Winterfell, helping the smith or running tools about. He looks so broken... Like she was broken in her captivity to the Lannister's.
Maybe that's why she is here, a knitted blanket in her arms at the door of Theon's room. She took a deep breath and tapped the door twice, then it opened and Theon stared at her with mixed fear and surprise, his hands began to shake a little bit which slightly unnerved her but not enough to deter her from speaking.
"S- Sansa?" Theon whispered but she returned a kindly smile, reaching out and showing Theon the blanket.
"I was working on this since I saw you shivering a few nights ago, this Winter feels like it will be a cold one so I made you this." She unfolded it and it had colors both grey and gold, one from her own House and Theon's.
Theon was very hesitant to accept her gift, he reached out his hand twice and pulled it right back twice.
Eventually, she put it into his hands and locked eyes with his own, "I know what you went through, Theon. You were beaten, humiliated and tortured. You don't need to feel that way, you're home." She said confidently and he shook his head no to her.
"What I did, who I killed, I deserved it- But not you, not Sansa." Theon went quiet and silence encircled them both, Theon finally sighed heavily and took her gift and looked her in the eye, "Thank you, Sansa... " After a moment he closed the door and she remained another few minutes before turning and walking away, she wiped away some tears but some had successfully left her cheeks and dropped to the floor.
Elsewhere
Arthur drank his ale as he sat in the great hall, the Maester called and said that the company of men transporting the former invader now captive Asha Greyjoy was nearing Winterfell.
He'd rather be out doing something more productive than speaking to an invader, perhaps going back to Castle Black or scouting his unreliable neighbor at the Dreadfort. Lord Karstark said his best men would be patrolling the hills with Greatjon Umbers men, a measure to keep the peace especially between his people, the Wildlings and Stannis's army.
Good news from the North does brighten his day, Jon was named the new Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Apparently, Samwell Tarly spoke of his cousin's bravery during the Battle of the Wall, of how he went to Mance's tent to either stop the fighting or assassinate the King-Beyond-the-Wall.
It made him chuckle in appreciating Jon's resilience to protect his people, even at the cost of his own life.
Arthur felt his thoughts torn from him when he heard the doors open, his purple eyes darted at the shackled Greyjoy Princess who was being escorted by Lord Glover and Asher Forrester.
From what Theon used to tell him and Robb and Jon, Asha was supposed to be skinny with knob knees and a face full of pimples. Much exaggerated. Arthur thought as the woman standing before him was a young woman, lean and longlegged and dark eyes with short black hair. Her face is thin, with a big sharp nose though with that defiant smirk it made her look pleasing for an Iron Islander.
Raising from his seat, shaking his cloak off he stepped down to embrace both men and part quickly. "Deepwood Motte is ours once more!" The room burst with cries of victory, "I hear it was you who charged in and opened the Motte's gates to Galbert's men, Asher Forrester- A Hero of the North!" It was his way of welcoming the man back from his banishment.
Now, time to sentence the invader. "I killed dozens of Greyjoy soldiers at Moat Cailin, put their heads on the coast as Theon the Hungry Wolf would have done." She showed no fear in his threatening gloat, it made him tense. "What would your father do to someone like me, I wonder? A bastard of a Great Lord." She smirked snidely and raised her head.
"If you weren't of any value, he'd had let the waves take you to the Drowned God." True, none out of the North ever looked at a Bastard with naught but disdain. Well, Dorne being the exception. His mother's homeland coming into his mind.
"... Then you should be glad I am not your father, I have your brother, Asha Greyjoy." He saw it, the surprise in the woman's voice. "Ramsey Snow kept him as a toy, he would have died if I didn't kill the bastard. I still might unless you tell me one thing." She remained silent for a long moment, then nodded to hearing him out. "Your father is dead, killed by Euron Greyjoy, you're going to tell me everything I need to know about him and his intentions... " He and Asha glared at one another.
"You think the fighting the Lannister's little tricks were bad, you've never met my uncle... If he ever isolates you, he'll make sure you wished he'd killed you outright." The room was quiet, the veterans of the last two wars know what Euron is capable of, they know how dangerous the raider can be.
He's heard stories, mostly from captured Grejoys who threatened him before he had killed them and once when Theon used to give Bran a scary story to sleep on.
It unnerved him a slight bit but then he brushed it off, turning from Asha and walking back to the high table. "Your uncle doesn't know me, I can be just as crafty, and I don't need a tongueless mute to keep my secrets."
He decided not to kill Asha or her brother, not that he was going to, it was the only way to tell him the truth.
Elsewhere
Jon Snow. Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. A Bastard of Winterfell.
It still hadn't settled in, being in charge of so many and being the line between not two but three armies from fighting one another.
The memory of the day Stannis came had bothered him, Stannis had offered him legitimization if he were to get the Free Folk and Mance to march in his army to take the other Six Kingdoms. He said no, that the Night's Watch vows keep him from supporting Kings and Queens, that, and he worried if he had then this army wouldn't be marching South but on Winterfell.
Arthur made a similar offer but he rejected it, he has a duty to fulfill here and cannot neglect it anymore.
He has yet to write his brother a warning raven, to let him know.
The only way for the living to defeat the dead is to stand together, it aggravates him that none of Westeros's leaders want to accept that. Not even Arthur, at least not completely though the King of the North sends his support while readying for either Winter or another war.
By the Old Gods, he hopes it's not for war.
"They're in there, Lord Commander." Olly, his Steward said as he approached the room where Tormund and Ygritte are waiting.
Olly looked at him with anger, sighing, he placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "It's for the best, Olly, Winter is Coming and that isn't a word but a fact. We need them." The younger boy shrugged his hand away and walked away.
He'll understand, they all have to or the entire Kingdom will suffer for it.
Jon tightened his cloak and stepped inside of the room where his former lover and Tormund were standing, they both looked irritated.
"Thank you for coming, I mean it." He said encouragingly but Tormund only scoffed and turned away.
"Mance should be here. Not us." True but his brother said it would be a good idea to hold the King-Beyond-the-Wall within Winterfell, a topic of tension within the Free Folk territory given by Arthur.
"We don't have time to argue who should be here, Ygritte, your people need assistance and the White Walkers only get stronger the more we squabble." Both representatives of the Free Folk were silenced by his truthful comment, "My brother asked me to find proof of the dead, he's also given be approval to send a group of your people North to find the remaining arm of the Great Army." They waste time when they should act.
Tormund took a deep breath, "The rest of them would be at Hardhome, it's the only place." He nodded and went ahead to tell them to get some horses but the man stopped him, "Jon, they won't go by my say so, if Mance was here but he isn't... You'll need to go with us." Go beyond the Wall? Hesitation took hold of him until Ygritte stepped in.
"They need to hear it from you, Jon, they need to know Stannis or Arthur isn't going to slaughter them the moment they get passed the Wall." If that's what it takes, then so be it.
"Fine, we go in force with the ships lent to me by Stannis, we have to move with haste or else all hope is lost."
It took only three hours and Jon rode towards Eastwatch with forty men of both Free Folk and Watchmen, give or take five Northmen.
A/N: So ends Chapter 32, sorry for the long wait. So, Hardhome is next. Darkstar inches closer to the Neck and the Sand Snakes aren't far behind. Selyse and Axell plot further and a surprise lands on the Stoney Shore.
Silver Crow, Whether it comes to armed conflict is still in the ringer, it might. Yeah, I try to keep to Dany's personality as much as possible, Book Dany anyways. Sand Snakes joining is also a possibilty, we'll see. The Free Folk are dense but not foolish, well, not too foolish. Jaime taught and guided Arthur for months upon coming to the South, the friendship might be fading but the respect remains.
CEW, It'll break his already broken heart, I hate making him suffer. Very much so but we still have a ways to go before that point. Yes they are, it won't be an ironclad alliance, unless Jon finds proof. Taking the North always seemed to be something the High Sparrow wanted to do, his heretical mind accepts no gods but the Seven. Capturing Gerold is a possibility, yet the man isn't the type to be captive.
Guest, On the upside, Arya is still taking lessons in martial arts, skills to have when the War comes.
Shyraii, Well, it might but not BranXSansa, that would be completely AU unless you mean JonXSansa, if so then... Maybe? I wouldn't count on it.