They place her heartstree in the backyard. In the middle of the wide space.

She reaches for it in truth on her fifth birthday.

More then to move it, more then to lock its roots to the ground of UA.

It is then that she has enough strength to evoke her full Spring for something this large. Her delicate hands on its roots. It feels like an embrace as light pours from her skin, and wind whispers through her long, long hair, through the empty branches.

For the first time since she knew of her power, of this life, Sansa pours Spring into her heartstree, where she had been found, in its roots. It is a flowering tree, the symbol of Japan. The sakura, the cherry blossoms of the realm.

Leaves unfurl.

Flowers, delicate and like the softest blush, bloom.

Spring. Rejuvenation. Renewal. The transience of life.

She breathed.

Fitting she would be found cradled in its roots as a babe.

She watches with light glimmering from her skin, Spring thrumming through her, as the sakura tree sways with the favor of the gods, feels sakura bloom along her brow, white and blush and full petals unwinding-

Lady crawls from under the roots.

Largest of all the wolves she has seen, comparable to the size of Nemuri-Oba's truck, Sansa gaps. Her Lady is covered in red wirewood leaves, sakura blossoms woven through her grey fur-

Sansa feels her heart stop.

Lady gives a sweet little yip, so familiar, so comforting. Sansa cannot breathe.

"Hello Sansa," Lady's voice is a sweet melody, and Sansa blinks at the Common Tongue, "I have waited many years for you to bring me to you."

Sansa bursts into tears.

"Lady?"

"It is good to see you. I have missed you, so much."

The she-wolf stumbles out of the tree's roots. Sansa stumbles to her.

And feels whole for the first time since that horrible day at the Trident when she falls atop her, sobbing. Lady presses back, her whine soft and warm.

"Our new den is new and strange," says Lady, simply.

"My sweet, sweet, Lady. Forgive me. Forgive me. You were slain for my foolishness- I just wanted- I just wanted them to love me-"

"Always. Think not of then, Sansa. You had no need of me then. You had to hide the North deep in your heart to survive the Autumn to come. When the time came, you were better for it. But no more. I will not leave you again. Never again."