Pain and Fear and Rage (Arya & Rickon)

When Arya returns to Winterfell, she is not the same wild and mischievous girl who left all those years ago.

She has blood on her hands and demons to haunt her.

She can't go back to the girl she was but she can pretend.

When she comes home she finds that her baby brother is no longer a baby.

He has grown into a wild and feral boy shrouded in mystery and anger.

She hears the whispers and gossip. They call him a cannibal, a savage, little more than an animal. Every one of them finds themselves faced with the pointy end of Needle and threat of what she will do should she ever hear those insults again.

Shaggydog is much the same, untamed and violent. It takes both Nymeria and Ghost to stop him when he goes into a rage.

She sees a wolf-blooded child so full of pain and fear and rage that he is lost inside himself.

She sees herself.

And so she gives what she lacked for all those years.

Understanding.

And slowly, they heal.