Chapter 3

Arcania

*Last Time*

All of a sudden the hand withdrew and I saw Bran relax a little of his hold on the wall. Then the hand was back and it shoved Bran out the window, hurtling him to towards the ground.

"NOOOOO!" I screamed in my mind, and as I did something inside shattered.

*Now*

I don't know how it happened but as I watched Bran's descent to the earth, he started slowing bit by bit, and the more he slowed the more exhausted I became, but somehow I instinctively knew that I could not break eye contact with him, or he would continue falling too fast.

There was a thud as he finally hit the ground and he looked to be unconscious, whether from the fall or from the fright I couldn't tell. My eyelids were getting heavier and I knew I wasn't going to last much longer. Looking over at whimpering Summer I barked at him to go and get help, right before collapsing.

*Inner World*

I awoke to a myriad of colors everywhere. Some were bright and some dull, it seemed to encompass the entire spectrum, I had never seen so much color in one place before and just lay there looking around.

Then I heard the sound of someone walking up to me. Turning around I saw a girl that looked just like Arya coming towards me. The only thing that made her different was her eyes which kept rapidly changing colors. As I stood up I noticed for the first time that I was back to being a human. My body it seemed agreed with being a wolf as I could see and feel muscles on my body I knew I didn't have the last time I was human.

Looking up from myself inspection I noticed the Arya look alike was watching me with a smile.

"Hello my chosen." She said.

"What? Who are you? Where are we? Why do you look like Arya? What happened?" I asked rapid fire as my brain started kicking in.

She giggled at me. "My name is Arcania and I am the Goddess of Magic, and I look like this because I felt that this form would make you more at ease."

My mind was sent reeling, but the one thing that registered right away that if this wasn't a dream then this person must be a god for there to be so much color around me. I quickly prostrated myself on the floor before her.

"Now, now, none of that my chosen." She said, and I looked up with a confused expression on my face.

"You have a great destiny my chosen. Not only in this world but in the world I took you from." With that my eyebrows shot up into my hair as I realized that she was the one to save me and gave me my new family. In a small burst of pure childishness I lunged forward and hugged her legs all the while thanking her for saving me from my Uncle and his family. She smiled down at me and petted my head.

"I sent you to this world because it is headed for turmoil and destruction. The very god's are fighting and each is calling upon a chosen one to help them. I am one of the old gods and knew that the Starks would need help if they were to escape the coming conflict unscathed. The Lord of Light in the south is growing in power, so I reached out to the one that I knew could do something."

"You have magic inside of you, but it was stuck behind a wall, which is what stopped you from being able to meet with me. For no being that does not have the right amount of magic can stand in my presence."

"But why me?" I asked looking up at her.

"In your original world there is a man that you are destined to kill. You and he have the same pure strength of magic but the difference is that he has years of experience on you. So to even that out, I took you away to a world that would help prepare you for your destiny in that world. Know that while you are here though it will only get harder from this point on and your Arya is going to be in the center of this mess."

"What!" I yelped, worry coursing through my whole body.

"Do not worry my chosen, you will be there to help her all you must do his focus your will. All magic is , is; intent, concentration, and power. There is no good magic or bad magic, morality is a human concept." She said

"You're about to awaken back into your wolf form my chosen, but there is one last piece of information I will leave you with. If you concentrate hard enough and work at it, you should be able to change back into your human form. Be sure to work on this because Arya is going to need you as more than just her wolf and best friend very soon. Prepare yourself, the journey is just beginning."

At the end of the sentence I felt something pulling me away. "Wait, when will I be forced back to the other world?" I asked hurriedly.

"You will know when it is time, but don't worry she'll be with you?" she responded.

"Who?"

"Your destined one." She responded vaguely.

*Consciousness*

I awoke and looked up to find Arya looking at me worriedly with tears in her eyes as she slowly stroked my fur. As she saw my head rise, she threw her arms around me squeezing tightly. "Don't you ever do that to me ever again. We got there to find you lying next to Bran both of you unconscious, I was so scared."

I whined at her a little nuzzling her face to try and comfort her. After a while she pulled away and looked at me with concern.

"We are leaving to Kingslanding tomorrow, are you going to be ok?" she asked. I nodded and licked her face to show her it would be fine. She then pulled me back with her to her bed and laid down and curled up next to me.

"Bran still hasn't woken up." She whispered. "It seems he didn't break anything but Maester is afraid he might have a concussion from the fall."

I sighed with a relief, and Arya noticed. "Did you do something?" I nodded. "Thank you." She held me tighter until she drifted off to sleep.

After a while I got up and dropped down to the floor. Lady Arcania had said this was going to be the beginning and my Arya was going to be in the thick of the trouble. I needed to be able to protect her more than I could in this form. So with that I sat down and started concentrating on wanting to be human.

# # # # # #

By the next morning I hadn't made any progress so I went back to bed with Arya and fell asleep.

After a couple of hours Arya awoke and started getting ready for the day. I left the room and headed down to Bran's room, to check in on him. I got to the door but didn't enter as I could see Cat asleep in the chair next to the bed, most likely having stayed vigil all night. Looking around making sure no one was watching I entered the room and closed the door.

Lady Arcania said that everything was about intent, concentration, and power. So looking to the top of the cabinet and seeing an extra set of furs, I focused solely on them falling to the ground. Picturing the entire process in my head and wanting nothing more than for the furs to be on the ground. Slowly but surely the furs inched off of the cabinet and fell to the floor. Once on the ground I stopped concentrating and let out an exhausted sigh, it had been harder than I thought.

Moving over I grabbed the furs in my mouth and brought them over to Cat and put them over her the best I could. Satisfied I went over to Bran to check him. His breathing was regular and I couldn't hear any problems with his heart. His head was still wrapped but that was to be expected. Nodding to myself that he would be okay I gave him a light lick before leaving the room.

# # # # # #

We had been on the road for about two weeks now. Arya and I had been sneaking out early in the mornings and late at night to practice. She had showed me her new sword and I had suggested practicing hitting trees like what her brothers did. While she focused on that I would discreetly work on trying to move the rocks in the area.

By the end of the first week I had gotten it down enough that it was coming easier so I started making it do more and more complex movements, changing speed and direction as fast as thought, which turned out to be harder than an anticipated and I had a feeling that Arya was beginning to suspect that I was doing something. I hadn't told her about it yet because I wanted it to be a surprise for when I could do it perfectly.

This time we had made camp in a small town and Arya decided it was time to practice against another person so she went to ask someone. The first person we came across was a boy named Mycah, who was the butcher's boy. He had time off for an hour and agreed readily agreed to do something fun.

We went away from the camp to a clearing by the river. I settled in under a bush to watch from a distance because Mycah was a little afraid of me. They picked up sticks and started taking swings at each other. The boy was doing better because of his size but I could see that Arya was having fun.

After 30 minutes I heard the sound of a couple coming our way. When I heard Sansa's voice I relaxed knowing that Arya was safe.

"Arya?!" Sansa exclaimed

Arya looked up, distracted by the intrusion and received a blow for her inattentiveness. Turning to Sansa she asked, "What are you doing here? Go away!"

"Your sister?" asked Joffrey as if he didn't already know and sauntered toward them. "And who are you boy?"

"Mycah milord."

"He's the butcher's boy." Sansa explained.

"He's my friend!" Arya exclaimed strongly.

"A butcher's boy who wants to be a knight, eh? Pick up your sword butcher's boy." Joffrey said as he drew his sword. "Let's see how good you are?"

"She asked me to milord, she asked me to." Mycah exclaimed quickly.

"I'm your prince, I'm not your lord, and I said pick up your sword." Joffrey said testily.

"It's not a sword my prince, it's only a stick." Mycah quickly stated.

"And you're not a knight, only a butcher's boy." Joffrey retaliated, while raising his sword to Mycah's face. "That was my ladies sister you were hitting, did you know that?"

"Stop it!" Arya asserted.

"Arya, stay out of this." Sansa commanded. Arya looked at her sister with disbelief and disgust.

"I won't hurt him, much." Joffrey said and applied pressure to his sword to place a cut on his face.

With that Arya lost all semblance of reasoning and used her stick to whack the Prince across the back to allow Mycah the chance to get away. I got up in preparation, in case things went bad for her.

"Arya!" Sansa called out.

"Filthy little bitch." Joffrey called out as he started swinging his sword at Arya with intent to harm. I started moving forward.

"No stop it both of you, you're spoiling it, you're spoiling everything." Sansa cried out. I didn't care all that much as I had just seen Arya fall to the ground and just like that I was off like a shot towards the prince.

"I'll gut you, you little cunt." Was all Joffrey had time to say before I was on him and tearing into his arm.

"Arya!" "Rickard!" both Sansa and Arya exclaimed. I didn't care, he had threatened my Arya and I was going to leave him with a lasting reminder. With a sharp twist of my head I heard his forearm break underneath my teeth. With that done I let go of him and backed up as he screamed in pain.

Arya reached down and picked up the princes dropped weapon and pointed it at him.

"No, no, please don't." Joffrey pleaded pitifully.

"Arya don't!" Sansa said trying to get control of the situation.

With a final look of disgust at Joffrey she tossed his sword into the river and we ran off.

# # # # # #

After running for a while we finally stopped and hid in some underbrush near a large tree.

Arya turned to me with tears in her eyes. "You've got to go, they'll kill you for what you did to Joffrey."

Looking at her I knew as well as she did that she was probably right. Reaching out with a paw I wrote I B BACK out on the ground before giving her a final lick and running off.

I ran for quite a ways before doubling back. Arya needed me where she was going and I could no longer stay by her side as a wolf. Focusing all of my intent on being there for her I slowly morphed back into a human figure.

It was hugely uncomfortable and took 5 minutes to complete, and another 30 to reorientate myself with my movements.

Once I was collected I made it back to the camp and stole some fresh clothes that hadn't been put away yet that would fit me.

With that set I made my way looking for Arya.

AN: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up but I'm sure you all understand that life sometimes gets in the way. Keep reviewing and what not.