"Ostara... Ostara... Ostara wake up."

Cerys tugs anxiously at her friend's arm and leans in closer so that she might be heard. She isn't supposed to be here, it is not her place to be here nor is it her right to impose upon the young Lady of House Baratheon... But Ostara is her friend. Ostara gives her treats and little trinkets and had insisted that she and the other servants' children be taught to read until Maester Cressen and Lord Baratheon had relented and made room for lessons every sixth day so as not to impose upon the good Maester or to hinder the children's chores.

It had been, perhaps, the kindest thing anyone had ever done for her.

With a sigh Cerys turns to look at the shadowcat sprawled across the bed.

He's a great beast of a thing, all lean muscle and wickedly sharp fangs, but Gods is he beautiful. Cerys bites her lip as she moves to nudge the shadowcat's paw with her finger before stepping back hastily lest she startle the sleeping creature. She doesn't startle him, thank the Gods, and he opens one yellow eye to stare at her through the darkness of Ostara's bedchamber.

"Help me wake your mistress." Cerys whispers once she's found her voice again.

A soft huff and a sharp snap of teeth as the beast yawns follows Cerys' demand but soon enough he's moving to press his nose between Ostara's shoulder and the bed and giving a mighty shove which causes the young Lady to groan loudly.

Cerys moves to shake the girl further into consciousness.

"Ostara, get up."

"Why?"

"Because I have something to give you."

"But it's so late."

"Please, for me?"

One purple eyes opens, then the other, and soon Ostara Baratheon is moving to prop herself up on an arm so that she can look at Cerys properly. She looks tired and worn but Cerys could attribute that to being woken at such a late hour. Guilt settles in her stomach. She hadn't meant to cause Ostara any trouble. She really hadn't. Heat rushes up to her cheeks as Cerys pulls her gift from the pocket of her night dress.

"I... I made this for you... It's not the best and I understand if you don't like it," Gods, she's so stupid. "Go back to bed. I'll, um, I'll give it to you in the morning?"

Turning to move away from the girl's bed and out into the hall where she and her burning cheeks won't be seen proves impossible for Ostara has reached out to wrap her fingers tight around Cerys' wrist.

"You made me a present?" Ostara asks, looking more alert then she had just moments ago.

"Yes."

"Well then, let me see it." Her eyes are soft and her tone happy, Cerys doesn't even realize her fingers are trembling until she's pressed the mass of braided hemp cord and little stone beads her father had helped Cerys carve into the girl's waiting palm. A long silence stretches between them and Cerys begins to fear the worst before Ostara looks up at her with bright eyes and says, "I love it."

"Truly?"

"Of course... Cerys, it's lovely."

Lovely isn't a word Cerys would use to describe the bracelet she'd crafted but her heart sings with the praise. She blushes, glances down at her feet, and pushes back her hair before looking up to find Ostara tying the cord around her wrist. It's a bit big, she has to wrap it twice before it'll sit snugly against her skin but the dark haired girl doesn't seem to mind.

"Thank you." Ostara breathes once the bracelet is secured.

"It was nothing."

"I love it so much, Cerys."

And nothing in her tone tells her that Ostara is lying. Happiness bubbles up to replace the dread and guilt and worry that had eaten at her since leaving the room she shares with her parents and little brother.

"Happy name's day, Ostara." Cerys says after a moment and is rewarded with another, bigger smile that causes Ostara's eyes to scrunch up. It's the sweetest smile Cerys has ever seen the younger girl give anyone and knowing that she is the one who put it there makes Cerys smile as well.

~X~

Seven years old. She's turning seven years old and Ostara isn't sure what to feel. It is supposed to be a good day, a day for celebrating, and Ostara is happy that she is celebrating with her family but... Birthdays are hard for Ostara.

Her parents don't seem to notice. They release her and Stannis from their lessons and take them beyond the walls of Storm's End to visit the Lord of House Fell with whom her father has business to discuss. Ostara doesn't understand why her father is taking her and Stannis but she supposes it would be nice to leave Storm's End. Thankfully her father and mother don't deny her request to bring Rubeus with her.

So she sits in the wheelhouse and strokes the top of her beloved familiar's head as they amble down the King's Road to Felwood Keep. It's not a terribly long trip but it would go far quicker if they weren't always stopping but eventually the wheelhouse rolls into the courtyard and Cassana ushers her two children out into the mid-morning light to greet their hosts.

Lord and Lady Fell wait for them at the far end of the courtyard, smiling politely at them as their little party unloads from the wheelhouse to approach them. Steffon smiles and kisses Lady Fell's hand before moving to speak with Lord Fell, the two of them disappear after Lord Fell has been introduced to both of Steffon's children and said his customary greetings to Lady Cassana.

Soon after the Lady of Felwood shows them to the chambers they will be occupying during their say.

Ostara and Stannis have been given separate chambers connected by a small solar where they might take their meals or spend their off time together. It's incredibly sweet of the older woman to arrange such a thing for the two children. Ostara makes sure to thank her for her efforts before directing one of the servants to place her trunk against the wall.

"Such sweet children, Lady Baratheon." Lady Fell says when she overhears Ostara thanking her servants. "You're truly very lucky."

She doesn't hear her mother's reply, she doesn't want to hear her mother's reply. The politics of this world are similar enough to pureblood wizard politics that ostara doesn't need to pay so much attention to them that she's forced to listen to her mother and some woman make polite small talk. Instead she slips off with Rubeus to find Stannis and the three of them go to explore the grounds while their parents go about their business.

~X~

"Ostara, look at this!" Stannis calls, his voice ripping through the odd silence of the Kingswood.

Wiping her hands on the front of her play clothes Ostara makes her way over to where Stannis is crouching before the gnarled roots of an oak tree. Ostara kneels beside him, pressing close so that the two of them can stare into the small spaces hidden between the oddly growing roots and the ground. There's a family of hedgehogs curled in the shade.

"Hedgehogs."

"What?"

"That's what they are," Ostara whispers so as not to wake the sleeping family. "They mostly come out during the night and they eat bugs or frogs or snakes... Fruits too, and mushrooms, and carrion."

"Oh."

"How did you find them?"

Her brother looks rather proud of himself as he says, "I was following tracks."

Ostara highly doubts that the tracks he was following came from a hedgehog or two but she's never been very good at following such things, Stannis and Robert had both tried to teach her but Ostara hadn't been able to pick up on the fine art of hunting. Which is perfectly fine with her. Let Stannis do the hunting and the tracking, he's surprisingly good at both, Ostara just doubts the trail he'd been following came from a hedgehog.

Maybe whatever predator had been trying to eat them... But she could be wrong. She probably is wrong. What does she know about hunting and tracking?

It's impressive either way.

"You've an incredibly good eye on you then, Stannis." She says, and her reward is a bright smile full of pearly white teeth.

She'd have been mildly jealous of all the Baratheon children's teeth in her past life. All ridiculously straight and white. Her father's teeth are slightly crooked, not terribly so but enough that it had been one of the first things Ostara had noticed. Cassana's teeth on the other hand? That's where her children get their good genetics apparently. Because Cassana's teeth are pearly white and straight as well, almost impossibly.

Personally, Ostara thinks Stannis has the nicest smile of the lot. Probably because he offers genuine smiles so rarely where Robert offers them like candies to strangers. Stannis' smiles are softer, less polished, and reveal the barest hint of a dimple in his left cheek.

Every hair on the back of Ostara's neck stands on end, forcing her to go still and rigid beside Stannis who rambles on happily about showing their father the hedgehogs he's found. Ostara gives him half an ear, less really, most of her attention is on trying to figure out what's in the forest near them and where Rubeus is. He'd been with them when they'd slipped away from Felwood Keep and into the southern portion of the Kingswood.

"Stannis." She whispers, soft and low but smiling in the case that whoever's in the forest with them can see her face. "Stannis you need to listen to me."

"What's wrong?"

"There's something watching us. I need you to act like nothing's the matter but we need to go." She whispers, fingers drifting to the the pockets she'd spelled into all of her dresses so that she could store her wand more conveniently.

"Where's Rubeus?" Stannis asks.

"I don't know... But it's not him so we need to go. Now."

Stannis nods once, makes a show about saying how he wants to show their father the hedgehogs, and helps Ostara to her feet. But when they turn around theirs a grubby looking man in torn clothes staring at them and smiling with a mouth full of crooked teeth. Without thinking Ostara curls her fingers around her wand and watches, terrified, as more men bleed out of the trees.

Bandits.

"Hello there, lovely day." The man with the white but crooked teeth says.

"Leave us be." Stannis snaps, stepping between him and Ostara and she pulls her wand from her pocket when his back covers her movement.

"I'm afraid I can't do that son."

"You can, you will. I am Stannis Baratheon and you will leave. Now."

"Here that lads, he's a Stag," the man chortles and Ostara takes his distraction as an oppertunity to fire a stupify at the man.

Everyone watches as his body drops like a puppet cut from its strings and silence reigns down upon them for but a moment before the men roar and dart forward.

Ostara grabs hold of Stannis' hand and pulls him deeper into the forest as fast as her legs can carry her. Going back to Felwood is not an option, a great many of the bandits who'd come to rob them, and likely leave them dead for her parents to find, block the way and Ostara's not equipped to deal with such a large group of men and keep an eye on Stannis.

So she runs.

Deeper and deeper into the forest, only stopping when her foot catches in a hole and pitches her forward into the mud. Stannis drops down beside her, grasping at her arms and her hands in an attempt to pull her up, but by the time he's helped her to her feet they're surrounded and he's being dragged off of her and he's screaming at them to let her go and at Ostara to run but she can't do much of anything to help him because one man's trying to get his hands around her neck and Ostara's only just managed to fend him off enough that she can jab her want into his ribs long enough for her to throw him off.

Before his body even hits the ground she's rolling to send a stupify at the men holding Stannis.

She only gets one spell out before a man's heel comes down on the side of her face.

They, because it's two now instead of just the one, roll her over and bind her ankles and wrists with heavy rope. Her wand is lost in the mud but one of the men grabs it once he thinks she's bound up tight. Ostara watches the man say something but the ringing in her ears makes it impossible for her to hear what he's just said. Her head hurts something fierce but she doesn't think he kicked her hard enough to do any serious damage.

So instead of worrying about it the young witch focuses on trying to find something to cut her ropes with as she's unable to focus her mind enough to attempt a wandless severing charm. She sees a rock not far away on the ground but she'd need to roll or crawl to it, so she looks to see if anyone's watching her. They aren't.

They're too busy threatening Stannis.

Ostara groans as she forces herself up onto her knees, the new position causes the world to spin dangerously but Ostara sucks in a deep breath before closing her eyes and focusing on her magic.

It pools in her belly, not as powerful as she's used to but growing with her body, and Ostara calls for it. All of it. Every last bit of magic she's got in her until it's filling the air with the smell of burnt ozone and causing every last one of the bandits to look over at her. One of the men swallows thickly and begins muttering about witches, her wand rolls from the limp fingers of another, Ostara doesn't care.

Breath escapes her in a steady exhale and so too does her magic, ripping through the air and sending the men flying into trees and up into the air. They all come down in a series of crunches and snaps and Ostara notes that most don't utter a sound after they've hit the ground. Instead there's silence peppered with pained moans and curses.

Ostara's body crumples just as something sleek and silver bursts from the trees with a mighty yowl. And then there's so much screaming and the ominous resulting crunch of bones breaking beneath the pressure of Rubeus' jaw. Ostara turns her head so that she doesn't suffocate in the mud and, unfortunately, looses consciousness.

~X~

When she wakes up Stannis is gone but she's been dragged away from the blood and mess Rubeus has made. Her arms and legs have been cut free, her wand is in her pocket, and Rubeus has spread one leg and his head across Ostara's body. The young witch groans loudly when she notices that her familiar is munching happily on what appears to be the remains of an upper arm.

"You're so gross." Ostara mutters, shoving the shadowcat off so she can rise to her feet and survey her surroundings.

Stannis must have gone to get help. From the looks of it he'd tried to drag her out of the clearing but with her dead weight and his shaken nerves Ostara isn't necessarily surprised that he'd been unable to do so.

It's probably a good thing Stannis went to get their father... Rubeus made quite a mess of the bandits that attacked them for which Ostara is eternally grateful seeing as no one will know that most of the men were killed by a seven year old girl instead of a ferocious apex predator hell-bent on protecting his witch. But even with all of the blood someone's going to have to come out and report what happened to the King.

Especially if there are more bandits in the Kingswood.

You did well.

Ostara crosses her arms, pointedly ignores the lukewarm blood seeping into her front where Rubeus had decided to use her as a dinner table, and stares at the being hovering in the shadows of a spruce tree.

"You did well, he says as if I haven't just killed several men."

Better them then you.

"As much as I agree with that," Ostara replies stonily, "it doesn't make me feel any better."

Shadowy robes flutter as the being tilts its head to the side, seeming all too confused by Ostara's statement. Whatever. He wouldn't get it anyway. Not when his entire purpose is to create death and claim souls and meddle in other people's lives where he doesn't have any right meddling in the first place. Ostara sucks in a breath.

"Why are you here?"

I've a gift for you.

"Oh? Where is it then?"

Later, Phil turns to point in the general direction of Felwood, they are coming.

Ostara isn't even upset to see him gone... Well, maybe a little upset. She's grown surprisingly comfortable with Death's presence and it's unfortunate but inevitable all things considered.

With a huff the seven year old turns and makes her way over to Rubeus who's stuck his face into the torn open stomach of one of the bandits in an attempt to get at one of his organs. It's disgusting. Ostara pulls him off and attempts to wipe his face down with her skirts. Using magic right now isn't a good idea. The stunt she pulled earlier has drained a good portion of her core.

What she really needs right now is a bath and a nice bed to sleep in.

"Ostara!"

Her father's voice startles her and causes her to jerk away from Rubeus, who turns back to his task of rooting through the man's stomach, but before she can turn to look at her father he's scooping her up and pulling her against his chest, fingers carding through her hair as he murmurs about how happy he is to see that she's safe and how brave she'd been. Ostara isn't aware that she's crying until her father sets her down so he can wipe her tears away.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She manages to choke out around the lump forming in her throat.

Something in her father deflates.

He kisses her temple, the one not coated in bruises, and stands to speak with some of the guards who'd come with him into the Kingswood. While he's distracted Ostara looks for Stannis and finds him hovering near the back of the clearing. In a matter of seconds Ostara has made it across the clearing and to her brother where she pulls the older boy into a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry." She whispers against his shoulder which causes his grip to tighten around her ribs.

The shaking of Stannis' body tells her that he's crying too and so Ostara just pulls him closer and stifles her own sobs against his neck.

~X~

Ostara is seven the first time she kills a man.

Felwood fades into the horizon and Ostara watches it go with a great deal of conflict.

Killing those men isn't what's bothering her. It's the fact that she'd killed them and hadn't regretted it, hadn't wondered if they'd had wives or children, that she'd cried but not for those men. They would have killed her and Stannis, of course, so Ostara can't really be upset for killing them but she'd expected to feel something. Anything.

All she feels now is numbness.

At this point she'd love to feel the worry her parents must be feeling for her and Stannis.

Stannis because he's refused to talk to anyone about what exactly happened, save Ostara who went through that dreadful experience with him and doesn't actually have to talk to him about it to understand, and Ostara because she hasn't spilled a single tear since her father found her in the clearing, because she's been acting like what happened isn't something a normal child would consider traumatizing. But she's had so many traumatizing things happen to her throughout her past live that at this point it's going to take more then a couple of bandits to truly terrorize her.

It was horrible, yes, but Hermione and Renaehra and all of her lives before them have faced so much worse then a handful of bandits squatting in the forest.

Ostara sighs, presses her forehead against the wall, and closes her eyes.

King Aerys sent a raven soon after the attack demanding that Steffon and his family come to King's Landing to discuss what happened with him. Her father had outright refused to take either his wife or his children to the capital as he hadn't wanted anything happening to them should there be more bandits in the Kingswood. Shockingly, or perhaps no so shockingly, King Aerys had relented and Steffon sent his family back to Storm's End.

She still hasn't opened the letters Queen Rhaella and Rhaegar sent her. She'll have to, of course, it would be rude not to send them a letter in reply thanking them for their concern and assuring them both that she's quite fine. But the letters are safe enough in her trunk and her mother hasn't pushed her to open them, which probably means she's already received a letter from the Queen and has replied in turn.

Either way, she'll deal with it when she gets to Storm's End.