Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me,

The carriage held but just ourselves,

And immortality

-Emily Dickinson

Chapter Six - Broken Wolves

Winterfell

Caryssa awoke with the rising of the sun, her eyes bleary with sleep and a dull ache in her head from the drink she had consumed the previous night. Remembering that she had to speak to her father about her potential betrothals, she hurriedly dressed, pulling on a dark blue gown made of wool and her boots. Before leaving her room, she made sure to braid her hair so that it was out of her face, and quickly left her room.

As it was still quite early, she guessed her parents would still be in their room, so headed there first, smiling politely at all the staff she passed and muttered a few good mornings. After a long process of polite greetings and short conversations, she arrived at her parents' room, and a servant announced her presence. She waited to be let in, her hands clasped together and a passive look on her face.

"Let her in," Her father's voice said, and the servant opened the door for her, and she gave him a small smile in return, which quickly vanished as soon as the door was closed behind her. The room seemed darker, smaller now than it had been when she was a small child, creeping in to her parent's bed after a nightmare had plagued her sleep. "Say what you've come to say, Caryssa. Don't just stand there and leave me in suspense."

"Why did you not come to me? If you had said that it was time to properly discuss betrothals, you know that I would have been willing to listen, but instead you chose to discuss it with the king behind my back, treating me like other men would treat their daughters."

"Your father did not mean to upset you, Caryssa. He is just doing what he thinks is right," Her mother said, before her father could reply to her words. "Besides, you seemed to get along with him enough last night at the feast."

"I was getting along with Theon Greyjoy at the feast last night, but that does not mean I want to marry him!" Caryssa snapped, before she took a deep breath to calm herself down, before muttering an apology. "Why him? Why Jaime Lannister?"

"If we go to King's Landing, I will not be able to be with you all the time with my duties as the King's Hand, but under the protection of the king, myself and Ser Jaime, no harm shall befall you." Her father explained, and Caryssa frowned at his words, disagreement clear on her face.

"I am not a child anymore. I do not need a man hovering around me for protection anymore."

"It would help me sleep better, Caryssa, knowing that you had the protection of not just our house, but that of House Baratheon and House Lannister. I need you to understand that the world is far more dangerous than you know. I have tried to protect you as much as possible from the world…but King's Landing is politics and murder and mysteries and lies and secrets all wrapped into one. I am only trying to do right by you." Caryssa felt her resolve waning at her father's words. Maybe she had been too harsh with her father. She was just angry at the initial betrayal and the Jamie Lannister of it all. She could learn to love or tolerate the Lannister lion, if only for her father's peace of mind, but would it be enough? She didn't know.

There was still time for her father to change his mind, and while she could not pin all her hopes upon him doing so, she could still pray to the Gods for things to work out in her favour. If there was any way for her to stay in Winterfell with Robb, Bran, Rick and her mother, than she would do it.

If not, she would resign herself to trying to make her marriage to Ser Jaime at least a tolerable one if she could not spark any form of romantic feelings between them.

She would find someway to make her life worth living, while appeasing her father and taking one more burden from his shoulders.

She would make it work somehow.

A few days after the feast and her conversation with her father, Caryssa was dressed in one of her riding dresses, her long, dark tresses in a large braid over her shoulder, her cloak draped over her shoulders, her boots laced up to her knees, and was striding purposefully towards her saddled horse. She was joining the men on a hunt. Caryssa loved hunting, and that's why she had left Rhaenyra with Arya and Nymeria, and had quickly gotten ready when her father had informed her that the king had asked her to accompany them, knowing that she was a skilled huntress.

The Southern men watched her as she checked over her newly sharpened arrows in her quiver, counting them to make sure she had a good amount, and she glared down at her weapon, trying to ignore their ignorant stares. Women were not supposed to join the men on hunting trips, but Caryssa had always insisted on joining her brothers when they first started hunting with her father. She had already been learning archery by then, and wanted to join the men.

"A hunt is not the place for a woman, my lady." One of the southern guards said to her, just as Robb and her Uncle Benjen approached her. Her father had already mounted his steed, along with King Robert, Ser Jaime and a mix of the Baratheon, Stark and Lannister house guards.

The man that had spoken to her was tossing an apple up into the air, and Caryssa smirked at him, before quickly stringing an arrow to her bow and letting it fly in his direction. The Lannister guard cried out, thinking that she had tried to kill him, only to see that his apple was pinned against the stable wall by her arrow.

"Neat trick, my lady, but hunting is an often bloody sport. Women should not see such a sight." Ser Jaime said as he pushed his horse into a walk towards her.

She rolled her eyes at him, a dark glint in them as she looked upon her betrothed. Her father had made the announcement to their family at dinner two nights past, and Caryssa had frowned at her dinner, before leaving with Robb on her heels. She hadn't cried, nor did she speak any words, but her brother just held her in his arms. She knew that it was going to happen, but she had hoped that her father would change his mind, so she wouldn't have to leave the North and her brothers.

"While it is true that most women are unaccustomed to the sight of death, blood is something we see plenty of, Ser. Besides, I am not an ordinary woman. Here in the North, we are made of stronger stuff than your southern women," Caryssa smirked as she stowed her bow into her quiver, checked that her riding dagger was tucked away in her saddle bag. She mounted Snow, and shared an irritated glance with her father who was beside the king, as the men began to grumble at her presence. "Does anyone else have any objections with my going on this hunting trip, because I'd be happy to leave you all behind and go by myself."

"The Lady Caryssa will be joining us, have you all got that?" The King's voice boomed, and the men silenced themselves for fear of angering their king. Caryssa smiled, and realised that it was, in this instance, a rather handy thing that she looked so much like her aunt. The King would be more willing to come to her aid against the stubbornness of his men. "Kingslayer! You're guarding Lady Caryssa today."

"My pleasure, Your Grace." Jaime replied, smirking at the woman with a strange satisfaction.

Caryssa sighed, but didn't fight the king's decision the way she would have if it was her father. She didn't need protection from any man, she had learned to protect herself. Yet what the king wanted, he got. The Lannister lion would be following her around like a hawk now, and she would have to deal with his attentions.

"Come on, boys, girl, let's go kill some boar!" The king said, as he turned his horse towards the gates, but he turned his head back towards them, and gestured towards Caryssa with his hand. "Lady Caryssa, come, ride next to me."

Caryssa plastered on a smile, but her eyes darted to her brother. She always rode next to Robb unless she was upset, and Robb was giving her the same sad look. It was these moments where Ned Stark realised just how lost his two eldest children would be without each other. They were both young adults, yet in some aspects they still seemed like children. They needed each other, and Ned knew he was going to hate himself for splitting them up.

He had accepted the King's offer of the title of Hand of the King, and he was taking his three girls with him to King's Landing. Caryssa would be marrying Jaime Lannister, Sansa would be marrying Prince Joffrey, and Arya would be learning the ways of the court in the hopes it would turn her into a lady. It meant separating the wolves before winter, but they would have to deal with that as it came.

Caryssa turned her eyes away from her brother, and took her place at the king's side, ignoring the look the prince gave her, one that was a mixture of pleased and lust. The boy prince was an idiot. Her sister was far more beautiful than she, and yet here he was staring at her with a familiar hunger in his eyes that she had gotten used to seeing in men's eyes. Caryssa knew she was beautiful, but she never understood why that was all men could see. There was far more to her than just her beauty.

"So, your father tells me that before the Kingslayer, you had refused to marry any other suitor. Why was that, girl?" King Robert questioned, and Caryssa smiled, though kept her eyes focused forwards.

"The truth, Your Grace, or the white lie I tell to keep people happy?" Caryssa asked, and King Robert chuckled at her.

"The truth, girl. It's a crime to lie to your king."

"Very well, my king," Caryssa said, pausing as she decided how to word her thoughts. "Before now, I saw marriage as a cage, confining me to a life of misery. I would have to leave my home, everything I have ever known and loved, for the sake of marrying a stranger who couldn't love me as he wouldn't know me and would take away what little freedom my father gives me. I would have to give up my own hobbies and pursuits for running a household and bearing children. What part of that sounds even remotely appealing to a young lady, Your Grace?"

"It's the way the world works, my lady. Don't you want to be looked after? Don't you want children?" Prince Joffrey questioned, and Caryssa nodded a couple of times, before explaining.

"I want children, my prince, like any woman, but when I was younger, I had my siblings to help raise. In my eyes, I already had my children and I always used the excuse that my family needed me and that's why I didn't want to leave, but I suppose that it was more that I needed them. I didn't want to be the lone wolf out on her own when the winter came," Caryssa mused, her smile turning a little wistful, before she shook her head to block out any of her more morose thoughts and feelings. She plastered on a new grin, and looked at the prince. "Now what of you, my prince, what was it like to grow up in the Red Keep?"

Joffrey and the King kept her entertained with stories of King's Landing, and of childhood stories and of battles and wars. The king made her laugh, and Joffrey was only mildly annoying that morning. He seemed to be on his best behaviour, or as close to good behaviour as the prince got, which made it easier for her to listen to his lies (the tales of his victories over the other younger men in court were truly lies because Caryssa had seen him spar with Robb and he was not very skilled with a sword).

When they were deeper into the Wolfswood, Caryssa excused herself and let her horse drop backwards a little bit, until she turned Snow to the left and cantered into the forest away from them. She knew the forest like the back of her hand, knew where the boars were and where the largest stags grazed, and she knew how to herd them to wherever the other hunters were. She had always done this on hunting trips with her father, brothers, Jory and Theon, ridden on alone and herded their prey, but this time she found that she had her own follower. She pulled the reigns back, getting Snow to slowly come to a stop.

"Is there any reason that you broke out of line, Lady Caryssa?"

She turned her head back at the sound of the lion that had been commissioned to 'protect' her, and blinked her eyes at him innocently, something he saw right through.

"Maybe I was seeing who would chase after me. What a pleasant surprise," Caryssa teased, before continuing before he could open his mouth to speak. "I know a watering hole where the animals go to drink, which is where they are at this time of day, which also happens to be a little north of where the hunting caravan was going, so I was going to…herd the animals in the right direction."

"And you thought you'd accomplish that alone?" Jaime questioned, and Caryssa arched a brow at him as his horse came to a stop right beside hers.

"I'm not incapable," Caryssa stated, before narrowing her eyes at the disbelief on his face. "I hope that you don't plan to try to control me, Ser Jaime. I'm only marrying you because I believe it will help my house and because you are the most…attractive offer I've received since my father started to take marriage proposals seriously."

"So you only agreed because of my dashing good looks. I suppose they had to come in handy someday," Jaime smirked at her, and she rolled her eyes, exasperated by his inability to take any of their conversations seriously. "And I don't plan on controlling you, Lady Stark. It's rather attractive…that fire in you, that defiance. They do not make women like you, my lady."

Caryssa grinned at him, before it turned into a smirk.

"If they did, men like you would be left very frustrated," Caryssa teased him, before turning her mind back to the hunt. "Now, Jaime Lannister, how fast is your horse?"

Without waiting for his answer, Caryssa clicked her tongue and Snow galloped off into the trees, his rider expertly manoeuvring them through the trees. She heard the pounding of hooves behind her, indicating that Jaime was following her, obeying the king's orders. Caryssa quickly found the watering hole the animals frequented, and pulled out her bow and a single arrow.

The deer were already standing to attention, having heard her approach, but as she had slowed Snow down to a trot, they had yet to bolt. She strung her arrow to her bowstring, and pulled it taut. She enjoyed archery simply because when she was like this, bowstring taut and her arrow almost seeming to come to life underneath her fingers, it felt like she was in her own world, and there was nothing but her, her weapon, and her prey.

It was delightful to feel as though she had a place where she could be alone. She loved her family dearly, but she never had any time alone. If she wasn't with her mother learning how to run a household, she was with her father discussing how to run the North and various other important things, or with Robb, Jon, Theon, Rodrick, and Jory training, or with Sansa and Arya in a needlework class, or with Bran in his lessons, or looking after Rickon. She never had a moments peace, but she usually didn't mind. Yet, since the announcement of her impending marriage, she had begun to crave her time alone. Though it probably didn't count as alone time now as her betrothed was just a few paces back, watching her intently.

She took her shot, missing the animals to make them dart into the right direction, and then began her pursuit, the Kingslayer right behind her. Every so often, Caryssa would have to make Snow go off course so she could herd the animals in the right direction again, but eventually she heard the cheers of the men as the first stag had been taken down. Caryssa and Snow, with Jaime and his own horse following, bounded into a small clearing where the king, the prince, her father, her brother, her uncle, Lord Tyrion and the household men of both houses were circled around a couple of fallen stags.

Caryssa spotted a larger stag that had yet to flee, but was heading towards the king, who had dismounted his horse to inspect his kill. She quickly strung an arrow to her bow and let it fly, watching as it buried itself into the stag's eye killing it instantly.

It dropped to the ground right at the king's feet, and King Robert stared at the fallen animal before raising his eyes to the young woman still perched atop her snow white horse, and he immediately thought of his Lyanna. She had always wanted to join him and her brothers on their hunting trips, but they had never allowed her, which was one of the reasons that the king had been so insistent on the lady's attendance.

Caryssa smiled at her kill, before putting her arrow away. Her brother was laughing at the victory in her eyes, along with Jory, her uncle and Theon, the king was chuckling and her father was beaming with pride, and Caryssa did not know how that moment could have gotten better.

It was a shame that she never found out.

A rider burst through the tree line, as Caryssa had moments before, with a frantic look on his face.

"Lord Stark! My lord! I bring a message from Maester Luwin, my lord! It's Lord Bran. He fell from a tower-" The messenger started, but the sound of a galloping horse cut off his speech.

The men of the North and South watched as the only woman of their hunting party, turned her horse around and galloped away in the direction of Winterfell, pushing her snowy white horse to go as fast as he could. The other Stark's followed closely behind, with the king and Jaime Lannister close on their tails. They chased after the woman, who had clearly forgotten the existence of reason and logic, and whose only thought was of her brother who may or may not be dead.

Caryssa ignored the riders behind her, having a head start and no desire to slow down for them, and found herself riding through the gates of Winterfell in moments. She didn't stop until she reached the courtyard of the castle, and quickly dismounted her horse, leaving the poor creature for a waiting stable hand to take back to the stables.

She ran through the castle to the healing rooms, where the rest of her family was waiting outside, clearly not allowed into the room.

"What has happened?" Caryssa questioned, her voice sounding breathless, but still managed to maintain a hint of authority. She wanted answers and she was going to get them.

Her mother looked up at her with tears in her eyes, a clear look of despair and desperation in the usually calm blue that sent a stab of fear into the heart of her daughter. Only once before had she seen that look in her mother's eyes. The day that her father brought home his son from the war. The day her mother's heart had been broken.

"He's not dead, is he? He can't be dead. Someone say something!" Caryssa yelled, startling her younger siblings at the harshness of her voice. Sansa's slim resolve crumbled at the fear in her elder sister's voice, something that she had never heard before in her thirteen years of life, and she burst into tears again.

Caryssa's anger quickly ebbed away, and she pulled her sister into her arms, kissing her auburn hair, whispering soft comforting words she had no idea whether they were true or not. It was then that the men arrived, the king demanding to be kept up to date on Bran's health status, before muttering apologies to his friend and disappearing, Robb pulling a sobbing Rickon into his arms and Ned comforting his wife and youngest daughter. Caryssa pulled Jon into her and Sansa's embrace, and he squeezed them to him tightly, giving as much comfort as he needed himself.

That's how Jaime Lannister found the Stark family a few moments later, holding desperately onto each other, as they all silently prayed to the gods to spare their son or brother. Caryssa looked over Sansa's head and spied him, standing almost awkwardly as he watched her family. His green eyes had an odd hint of sympathy in them, and hers unshed tears that her family would never see.

In that moment, Jaime saw a crack in the ice around the North woman's heart, a vulnerability that he had not yet seen in her, and then he knew that they were more similar than he had originally believed.

Her family was her life, just as his family was his.

A/N:

Hello good people!

I am so incredibly sorry for the seventy years (or so it feels like) in between uploads! My computer crashed and wiped my memory drive, including this story, which means that I'm currently re-writing everything, and usually before I upload a new chapter, I make sure I'm a few chapters ahead, so I don't feel too much pressure.

Anyway, so we had a daddy-daughter confrontation, a little bit more Caryssa/Jaime, and Bran's fall! I hope you guys liked it! I also hope that there was enough fluff and light in this chapter to make up for the next one which will not be very happy (it's going to be concentrating on Caryssa's coping mechanisms when faced with grief). So that's a sneak peak for the next chapter there.

Okay so a big thank you to everybody who has favourited and followed since the last chapter, and a big shout out to the reviewers too:

MarinasDiamond, Befham, Hand of the Alex, shipwreck321, StarkStruckk11, LittleNK, Soaring Hawk1, XxXLIFEafterDeathXxX, MissLaufeyson, lepursmeow, rene, 0netflixme0, Sparky She-Demon (I hope this chapter answered the question in your review), lilo23 (so you want M rated sex scenes? I'll see what I can do, but warning, I don't usually write sex scenes - I get scared that some kid is going to stumble on it and I'll traumatise them), harpermill (read the previous reply), Lucy Greenhill, alexceasar, jedi-stark (respect to the jedi), xenocanaan, Guest (I'm going to reply to your review below so please read), aorangeinboston (are there not many oranges in boston then?), AND My mother is a koala (dude, I love your username! I laughed for about five minutes at it)!

Okay to address a few concerns brought up by a Guest reviewer that though Caryssa was a pretty terrible Mary Sue (I read up on what a Mary Sue was, and thought that it was pretty ridiculous tbh) and I've come to the conclusion that a Mary Sue is literally just a female character who is deemed too strong. Like for instance, Caryssa is considered a Mary Sue because she's beautiful and smart and can fight (though she only uses a bow and a knife - she can't really wield a sword, she just carries one around as a deterrent) and studies healing. Yet Tolkein's character, Aragorn, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy is a great swordsman, archer, and healer, as well as romantic interest of two women and the heir to the greatest kingdom of Men in Middle Earth...yet he is not considered a 'Mary Sue'. It seems to me that even in writing we've created a sort of cage to confine female characters. I say that we should write our female characters however we want! If we want them to ride into war, they should! If we want them to make men fall at their feet, they should! If we want them to be both beautiful and incredibly intelligent, they should!

So to conclude that massive ramble, I'm going to continue writing Caryssa the way she is. She's going to be able to defend herself, she's going to be beautiful than most other women in Westeros, she's going to make Jaime fall madly in love with her and she's going to be smart. I'm sorry if that makes her seem 'too perfect' or whatever. Caryssa has flaws. She's cold to pretty much everyone who isn't someone she trusts, she's stubborn and a little self-destructive and there'll be more flaws that will come apparent in later chapters, but I don't want to make her too flawed either.

So I'm sorry for the large rant, and congratulations to all who read it all, you are my kind of people!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and that you look forward to the next,

SophStratt.

P.S, for any French readers, a reader of this story, eva2410, has translated She Runs With Wolves and Lions into French for you, so go check that out and review it!