Author's Note
I do not own Game of Thrones.
Both a relieving answer and a concerning one. Jon grinned. "Except me, of course! She's still my sister!" He turned to Cregan. "Come on, you should ride! It's fun!"
"Jon, I'm too big–"
"Cregan's plenty big. Look, I'll show you." Jon grabbed the straps at Cregan's shoulder. "You have to sort of pull yourself up, like this. Like with a horse, 'cept not really." He hooked his foot into one of the other straps and struggled to climb up. And that explained the extra straps. Ned hooked his hands together and boosted them under Jon's foot, lifting him onto the wolf. Jon grinned, kicking his feet back to find the stirrups. "See?" He slid to the ground at Cregan's other side. "Now you!"
"Jon, I really don't think…"
Cregan whined softly, shoving him with a large, impatient shoulder. And it was tempting, to ride a direwolf as the Starks of old. A childish endeavour.
Jon folded his arms. "I think you're scared."
Oh, he knew this tactic.
"I just wouldn't want to hurt your friend, Jon."
"You won't hurt him! And it's fun!" Jon looked at him. "And you could probably mount from the ground."
Ned sighed and curled his fingers around Cregan's straps. "Don't let him move until we're sure he can hold me."
Being bigger than Jon, he had an easier time mounting, though that size then brought a new problem, as Jon's stirrups were too small for his boots. Ned was forced to hook his feet into the straps themselves, which was not a particularly easy task. Cregan snorted and shifted beneath him.
"He can hold you," Jon said. "It doesn't look like his back's bowing." He grinned. "See, he's strong!"
Ned laughed in spite of himself, patting Cregan's side. Cregan lurched forward and trotted across the stableyard. It was a different gait to a horse, and Ned grabbed for the straps across his shoulders. "Halt!"
Jon laughed. "You did tell him to go!"
"I did?"
Oh, the touch. Evidently Jon had taught him some commands.
"Do you want to race?" Jon asked.
"You're forgetting you don't have a steed."
Jon looked at the dragon still occupying the Winterfell stableyard.
"No, no flying," Ned said.
"I wasn't going to," Jon protested, and the dragon became a second direwolf, this one silver, with yellow eyes to match Cregan's. Unlike Cregan, Sara wore no straps except a thin leather band around her neck. It seemed Jon had a favoured steed. Or perhaps he preferred Cregan as the wolf and Sara as the dragon. Had Jon not once said Sara preferred being a dragon?
Jon struggled to mount with no straps to aid, and Sara grumbled and laid down to allow him to climb on. He gripped the leather band around her neck. "Where do you want to go?"
"Out to the Godwood," Ned called.