Sue opens her eyes only to immediately squeeze them together again, blinded by the bright morning light, throwing an arm over her eyes to try and block out the harsh brightness of the sun. A giant headache begins to form across her brows and her body feels as if it has taken a tumble down a big rocky hill, body aching all over. She sits up and opens her eyes once more, forcing them to adjust to the light, all air gets dragged out of her lungs as she takes in the room that she is in. The walls and floor made out of stone, decorated with pelts of dead animals and small windows allowing the morning sun to shine through, a big heavy looking wooden door being the only way out. She leaps from the bed and stands crouching next to it, the bed looking much like the walls, covered in animal pelts and soft cotton fabric. Her naked feet cold on the stone floor and her entire body began to shake from the cold in the air, a big change from the warmth underneath the covers. Her heart beats heavy and fast in her chest, her breathing coming out short and hurriedly, this is not her room, this is not even her house!
Even though the place is new, it seems so familiar. Something about the smell in the air, something akin to a wet old basement, makes her feel oddly at home. She forces herself to calm her heart and along with it her breathing, it would do her nothing good if she starts to panic. Placing her hand over her heart she feels the fabric of her clothes, rough cotten, she looks down and is overcomed by a new wave of dread. These are not her pyjamas, instead of wearing her normal sleeping wear, a tank-top and shorts, she is now wearing a beige cotton nightgown. Whoever kidnapped her also changed her clothes, those creeps! Tears begin to form in her eyes as her throat closes up, they changed her clothes whilst she slept. Disgust overtakes her as adrenaline starts to flood through her veins and she has to take a hold of the bedside so as to not fall over in her terror. A loud creak, from door hinges clearly needing to be oiled, breaks her out of her thoughts, her head snaps towards the sound just in time to watch the old wooden door open slowly. The door reveals three people standing in the doorway, all of them freezing seeing each other. She looks like a baby deer being caught, completely frozen staring at them with big wide eyes. They look almost as shocked as she does. The three adults are the first to break out of the trance, the first to step into the room is a man, he is quite tall and muscular even though he looks to be rather old, maybe in his early 40s. He is wearing a long dark green cape with fur on the edges, and it looks as if most of what he is wearing is made out of leather, he has a scruffy dark beard and dark hair going all the way down to his shoulders, meeting his eyes Sue could tell that he was trying to ease her obvious fear by trying to smile slightly at her. It had the opposite effect though as every step he takes, she takes one backwards, until her back hits the stony wall, her arms coming out behind her and nails digging into the rocks. A woman follows him, only a little bit shorter than the man, her hair a beautiful dark red shade which goes down her back in waves, much like the man she too tries to smile warmly at her, but again it does little to ease Sue's fears. The woman is wearing a dark green dress that looks rather thick, and also medieval, her back straight and head held high, carrying herself very elegantly and proudly. And finally the last one enters, and closes the door behind him, a much older and shorter man, dressed in some sort of brown dress, wearing a heavy looking necklace made out of steel chains around his neck, his skin is wrinkly due to his age and he has lost most of his hair. And once again she is met with what is meant to be a kind and reassuring smile. The first man who had entered her room clears his throat as if to speak, but stops himself, seemingly contemplating his words.
"My name is Lord Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North." He tells her, his voice sounding careful but still carrying a level of authority. Sue's eyes widen at the name and also at what these people are implying. No Lord of Winterfell has been named Eddard since the war of the usurper, Robert Baratheon's rebellion. She stares at him for quite some time, trying to comprehend his meaning and in the meantime also making the other occupants in the room uncomfortable. Did these people really expect her to believe that she was standing in a room with Eddard Stark?
"Are you insane?" The words are out of her mouth before she can stop them, "Because that is impossible so….."
"It is not impossible my lady, we performed a ritual to the old gods to ask for an advisor for the future, and sure enough, you came falling down from the sky." The old man explains carefully, as if he was talking to a frightened child.
"Great, thank you. That explains everything." She says with a deadpan expression, her fear not letting her close her mouth and be quiet. The three in front of her sigh and the one claiming to be Eddard Stark takes a step closer to her.
"I understand that this must be frightening for you… If we would have known that the gods would send us someone so young, we never would have….." he sighs again and drags a hand over his face before sitting down on her bed facing her, "The king is coming to Winterfell, the former hand, Jon Arryn, is dead. I believe he travels here to ask me to be the new hand. We also got a disturbing letter from my lady wifes sister, claiming that the Lannisters are the ones who killed Lord Arryn. I just need a consultant who knows what will happen to my family."
"We understand that this is difficult to believe," the woman cuts in, Catelyn Stark Sue's brain supplies the name for her, "just look out the window sweetling." Catelyn smiles at her, gesturing to the small window on the wall. Hesitantly Sue begins to make her way over, careful as to not turn her back on the three. Outside, she does indeed see that she is inside of a castle, Winterfell, the place that she had so often visited as a child. Everyone outside was wearing the same type of clothes as the people in this room with her, people with horses walking by, others with dogs, some walking around in armor and carrying a sword at their side. Not a car, a pair of jeans or cellphone in sight. Her body freezes and she can't move, her throat begins to hurt and vision becomes blurry.
"Gods," she whispers, taking a step backwards and placing a hand over her mouth. She swirls around facing them again. In her panicked state she can't help but let out a teary laugh.
"So you're Eddard Stark, Catelyn Stark and… Maester Luwin then?" Her voice coming out scratchy from holding back sobbs, but letting the tears fall down her cheek. The feeling of helplessness filling her body, she, out of all people, was now stuck back in time, where women hold no value whatsoever and she will most likely die in childbirth only after being stuck in a loveless marriage to a man who will most likely beat her. Her sadness quickly turns into rage as she glares at the people in front of her, tears still streaming down her face.
"You motherfuckers! What is wrong with you?" she spits out venomously.
"My lady please-" Luwin tries to calm her as he and both of the Stark look scandalized at her choice of words.
"No! You have brought me to a time where I, as a woman, holds no importance or value! I will probably die in childbirth, being married off to some swine, most likely being beaten and definitely raped by my new so-called husband. I will never be able to amount to anything because I don't have a dick." Her hands are now clawing at her long hair, a pained expression on her face mirroring that of the others.
"Child." Eddard steps forward, and before she has time to react, he is in front of her and having taken her hands in his, holding them gently yet hard enough that she can't get away from him. "Look at me," he bids, she forces herself to look up at the bigger man, sniffling pathetically as she does so. "I will never force you to marry any Lord that you do not choose, do you understand? I am terribly sorry for forcing you here, but I swear on my honor as Lord of Winterfell, that the fate you just described shall not befall you. Won't you tell us a little about yourself child, hmm?" he tells her gently, his hands now cupping her face and taking away her tears with his thumbs. She tries to nod her head as best as she can with his hands holding her face and swallows thickly before trying to answer.
"Uhm, my name is Sue, Sue Stark. I am ten and five, but I'll soon turn ten and six. My da- father is named Reginald," Lord Stark had guided her back to the bed where she now sat, and as she spoke the words she realized that she shall never see her family again. "Oh gods, my father, I'll never see him again, will I?" she asks, looking wildly between the three of them. All of which looks extremely guilty as they shake their heads no.
"You can't just do this. I have never done anything to you." she mutters as she brings her hand up to her mouth and begins to bite on her thumb nail to quiet the sobs threatening to spill out. Catelyn Stark comes to sit next to her on the bed, throwing an arm over Sue's shoulder, holding back her own tears. Eddard crouches down in front of Sue, to try and be more eye level with her.
"Listen, Sue. Here is what we are going to do." he whispers to her, "you are my daughter, my oldest daughter, who has been away studying in Dorne."
"It won't work." she whispers back, the fight all but leaving her. Feeling empty but scared at the same time, just having woken up but so tired that she could sleep for an entire week, go to sleep and never wake up.
"Yes it will. You look just like my sister, Lyanna, do you know her?" Sue nods her head slowly as she recalls the late lady Lyanna Stark, the woman who was the cause of the rebellion. "Well, when you fell down from the sky, into the water, I got so scared, because I thought that we had accidentally summoned my sister back to life. The only real difference is your height and your hair being a lighter color." he tells her smiling and had she not been so scared she would have smiled back.
"They'll know. The northern lords, they'll know."
"No need to worry. If Lord Eddard says that you are his daughter, no one will question it. We will all back him up on it as well. No one will dare say that they forgot his first true born daughter, and the likeness only serves as further proof. " Maester Luwin supplies. She nodded her head and began to clean her face of tears with the palm of her hands, she let out a laugh, startling the others in the room.
"There is nothing I can do about it, right?" she asks, standing up, looking at Maester Luwin who shakes his head solemnly. "Right, right." she mumbles as she now drags her hand over her face, "what do we do now?"
"We change your clothes and go down to the big hall where we will break our fast with the rest of our children, we will tell them that you arrived late last night from Dorne." Catelyn tells her smiling as the two men walk out of the door, each sending her a small smile.
Catelyn helps Sue into a beautiful, thick, dark blue dress. It's a little bit tight, but still beautiful. Sue is still terrified, but knows now that these people at least, are not going to kill her and pretty much has to protect her now. Her only worry is to remember to call Catelyn mother and Eddard father. Catelyn places Sue in a chair in front of a mirror as she begins to comb through her long hair. Her hair is long, holding a golden brown color that sometimes in the right light shines with a rusty bronze, her face is truly northern. Her features are harsh with sharp lines, eyes a storm grey colour. Catelyn did her hair in a simple northern style, half up and half down, letting the remainder of her hair fall down in waves over her shoulders.
"And remember my sweet, the oldest is Robb, then there is Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon." Catelyn tells her as they begin to walk arm in arm towards the big hall, where her new family waits for her. It is first now that Sue notices the height difference between herself and Lady Stark, barely reaching the womens shoulder, standing at a whooping 152 cm (5 feet), she had always thought that people in ancient times were supposed to be shorter. She just hopes that she will be able to tell which child has what name and also be able to speak as they do here. No swear words and to try and be as formal as possible. Her nerves are not in the slightest soothed by the fact that she keeps tripping on her long skirt, and were it not for Catelyn holding her by the arm, she would have fallen over by now. Walking into the great hall she is greeted by five children seated alongside a big rectangular wooden table.
"Children," Eddard Stark stands up from his place in the middle of the table, addressing his children and holding out his hand towards Sue, "I trust that you all remember Sue. She arrived late last night from Dorne." Sue walks over and stands next to Ned on his left side, where a chair is left empty for her, whilst Catelyn goes over and takes a seat to his right. Before she can sit down the boy who has the chair to her left stands up and hugs her.
"I am glad that you're home, dear sister, although I don't really remember you that well." He tells her and smiles, looking a bit embarrassed that he doesn't remember her. Sue smiles back at him, realizing that this must be Robb Stark, the future king in the north.
"I have missed you too, it's fine if you don't remember me that well. We haven't seen each other in years." she answers back, lying through her teeth with a smile as she sits down. She feels bad for lying to him, especially since he looks sad that he can't remember his own sister. On the table there is a little bit of everything laid out and food that Sue has never seen before. The bread is hard and the cheese is white instead of yellow, the bacon is burned almost completely black. But she supposes that she has to get used to all of this so she might as well eat it, even though it looks so very unappetizing. A slightly younger girl is seated on the other side of the table, facing Sue, she figures that the girl must be Sansa, Sansa turns to Sue and starts asking her questions about her supposed time in Dorne, when Sue start to tell her that she mostly spent her time studying history, philosophy, mathematics and tactics and that she did not really have time for any boys the girl quickly loses interest, but instead Sue gains Arya's attention who starts asking all kinds of questions and Sue tries her best to answer every single one of them. During the remainder of the breakfast Sue had Rickon, Bran and Arya asking her all sorts of things. Bran and Rickon wanted her to tell them stories and made her promise that she would tell him all the stories she knows tomorrow instead. Robb was also interested in some things, like war tactics and some history.
Once breakfast is finished Sue and the other Stark girls are taken away by the septa to start their lessons on becoming ladies. Worst hours of Sue's entire life. She had never been this bored before, not even in math had to sew some flowers on some fabric, although Arya sewed a direwolf, they did some lessons on how to be proper and how to speak. Sue's back had to be painfully straight the entire time, her head never dropping and a smile always gracing her lips. She was even worse than Arya, much to Arya's delight. When Arya cracked a joke, Septa Mordane got angry and told an entire speech about how ladies don't act like that. But Sue found it impossible to not laugh and was quick to start joking alongside Arya, making both septa Mordane and Sansa rather angry at the two. Sue did not care, she did not even believe in the seven, she was brought up strictly on the beliefs of the old gods only. They never got a break, even dinner was part of the lesson, how to eat in a ladylike way. Sue thanked the gods when it was all over, it was late in the evening and the sun was long set when she returned to her bedchamber to sleep.