I was given a small open shop in Winterfell to make the dresses, thanks to the Starks and their generosity on me. They also gave me material to use for the dresses, leaving me with a open shop and plenty of room to work. The Baratheons were already on their way from Kings Landing, but they were going to be awhile until they reached the North, so I had time to make the dresses and try them on Sansa and Arya.

The days were getting colder as Winter was approaching, and I worked for hours on end, but I didn't mind. Working on dresses was almost like therapy to me, working with the embroideries and having the sleeves made carefully, it was like making music on the harp or singing in courts. Dress making was art, it was in my mind.

Arya would come by and watch, Nymeria at her feet and sitting at the front of the shop and watching in case someone would come in and burst our moment together. The more I was with Arya and her coming through my doors into my shop, the more that we were bonding. We talked about what we both liked to do that was common: riding horses and off exploring what has yet to be seen. She was always adventurous, getting her clothes dirty and running around with the younger servants boys with wooden sticks and pretending they were knights. It made me jealous of her, jealous that I didn't have that kind of childhood when I was younger. Then again I was living with Sophia and we were lowborns, and the highborns in Thedra Ascent weren't as loving to the lowborns as the Starks were.

I also had the chance to meet Rickon, the youngest Stark child and his dire wolf, whom was jet black and a bit more wild than Nymeria was with me. But his direwolf was connected to Rickon by the hip as Rickon was curious about me making dresses and wanted to know sillier things about me, like what I wanted to eat and my favorite color. I would indulge him, seeing him look at me with utter fascination as I finished one dress and moved to another.

"What's the sea like?" He asked me one time, sitting on one of my counters and watching me as I sewed into Arya's dress. Arya was outside near the opening of the shop, playing with one of the wooden sticks she had and swinging it around with a small smile on her face. The Baraethons would arrive in days time, and Sansa's dress was already finished for her.

"It's beautiful some times in the summer, when we have a few days of sun." I explained to him as I had the dress on my lap, seeing his eyes go wide from fascination.

"Really?" He asked me, leaning up against the counter.

"Yes, but it's mostly black and barren. Thedra is known for it's fishing in the sea, we know the ways of the water. It was also required that we all know how to swim, since most of us were going to be fishermen." I said to him some more, a bit of enthusiasm in my tone of voice. I knew that he was a mere child, wanting to hear about my stories and where I came from, and I had to say it in such a way that would drive his imagination. He mere a child, a child with a wild drive like a wolf.

"You know how to swim!" He said in a gleeful tone, having me laugh from my spot in the shop.

"Yes, though I'm not very good." I reminded him. He sighed and ruffled his hair with his tiny hands.

"I wish I could swim!" He said in a thoughtful tone, having me finish the last stitching and then hold it out in front of me. I looked from the dress over to Arya, seeing her use her wooden sword one more with a invisible opponent.

"I finished it!" I called out to her, seeing her look and rush into the shop with her wooden sword in hand. I held it out for her to see, watching her as she handed her sword to Rickon. Rickon played with it on the counter, his direwolf watching him with intensity and wagging his tail as Nymeria trotted over to me, sitting next to me and watching me interact with her master. Arya looked at the dress with a small bit of fascination in her eyes, but I can still tell she wasn't happy about wearing a dress in general. She looked over at me, seeing the uneasiness in her eyes.

"I promise, it's going to be comfortable. I make this kind of dress for myself loads of times." I said to her with hope in my voice, seeing a small glimmer behind her gray eyes.

"But you're a servant." Rickon said aloud with confusion in his voice. Arya immediately looked over at him with a snap of her neck and a fist at her side.

"Rickon, don't say that!" She said in a authoritative tone to him, being the older sister that she was. I looked from her to the younger Stark child, seeing him coil in his spot and look defeated, as if his spite was broken and fragile. I shook my head at the remark, feeling terrible that he was told off for say something true.

"It's find, Arya. No need." I said to her as I handed her the dress to see her look at it.

"I make dresses for myself Rickon, but they're simple ones. I was never one to wear extravagant dresses, in fact I have no intention of wearing them for awhile." I explained to him as he watched me, wooden sword in hand.

"That's kind of silly though. You hate dresses but you make them." He pointed out to me with his childish voice and mind. It was true, and I was glad a child pointed it out to me with nothing but good intuitions in his voice,

"It is rather silly, isn't it?" I asked him aloud, seeing him giggle as I looked back at Arya. She was still looking at the dress, having me see the wheels turning in her head. Nymeria was looking up at me, no longer threatened by me since Arya would visit constantly. Nymeria was warming up to me, even to the point of having me pet her lightly on the head behind her ears. I stroked her nose as Arya was looking at her dress, seeing Nymeria's tail wag as I did this as a sign of respect for her.

"It is beautiful." Arya said aloud in a matter-of-fact tone, having me see that she was warming up to it, only slightly. The again, she was still technically a child and that was making her uncomfortable, wearing a dress to look more like a adult. It was something I saw in myself when I was her age, hating that I had to wear dresses in order to be impressive. It meant giving up childhood; turning in your innocence for adulthood.

"And you will be able to run in it." I reassured her as I walked back to my tools, hearing nothing at first as I placed the tools away.

"Like a wolf?" I looked behind me as she asked me this, seeing her hold the dress and looking at me with hope in her eyes. She was a wolf, A Stark Wolf with nothing but adventure in her. I have only been here for mere days, and she felt more like a close friend or younger sister to me than ever before. I wished I was her sister, I wished even that I had a sibling like her, or even like Rickon or Rob for that matter. Seven Hells, all of the children were nothing but kind of me, even the Lord and Lady Stark.

I envied them.

"Yes." I replied to her with a small smile on my face, "Like a wolf."

Eddard Stark approached me the next morning, having me have a sense of fear that I was in trouble for some reason. But he reassured me that I had nothing wrong going on against me, but he told me of the future plans of himself and his daughters. Apparently he was invited to go to Kings Landing with the Baratheons and he wanted to take his daughters with him. Having him leave Winterfell meant that Lady Stark, Robb, Bran and Rickon were going to stay here at Winterfell, it made me think that my services were over and I might of needed to head back to Thedra Ascent, but he said something to me that threw me through a loop.

He wanted me to go to Kings Landing with them.

I was floored, not thinking as to why I was needed with them. It didn't make sense to me as he asked me, but he explained to me that he would need me to make more dresses for his daughters. Something about them needed to be dressed up for the Baratheon House made me think that he was more afraid of the family than I gave him credit for. A part of me wanted to refuse him and go back home, go back to familiarity and to my normal life. But a small part of me, the adventurous part that made me wish for something more in my life, made me want to go with them. Who was I to refuse him, since I saw him as more of a King than the King himself. How was I special in his eyes? As I saw him waiting for my answer in my shop, he smiled at me and stop me something that made me really reconsider my refusal to him.

"Arya speaks highly of you." He explained to me aloud, having me watch him as he paced around in my shop with his hands behind his back, "She finds you to be both fascinating and entertaining, and she was one who is very hard to entertain. Sansa also appreciates your gentleness and kindness to her." I felt a wave of relief coming over me, since his two daughters approved of me and thought of me as a friend. However, I stayed silent as he continued with the conversation.

"I want you to come personally to be a companion to my daughters, both on the trip South and in King's Landing. They won't know anyone and it could be lonely there." He explained to me some more, having me understand where he was coming from. He was worried about his kin, and I would be too going to be that kind of place. King's Landing may be the capital, but it was also a place where bad things could happen within a blink of an eye. I felt torn, wanting to both go home and be safe once more, or to be with the Stark family and see where this would take me. Would Sophia want me home? What was she thinking about all of this, did she even know what was going on? But I pushed those thought to the side when I saw Eddard Stark look at me as if he was desperate for me to come, not as a Lord, but as someone who was on the same level as me.

As a comrade. That was my answer.

I was given my own horse and I followed closely with both Sansa and Arya while we traveled along the road South in Kingsroad, having me look back once or twice towards home and wonder if I made the right choice. The travel itself was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but then again we had a huge party of both the Stark house and the Baratheon House. King Robert and Eddard were together, talking and conversing with one another, while I saw Sansa getting smitten with Joffrey Baratheon, the eldest son and Heir to the throne. With his golden hair in the sun as we traveled and his smile with Sansa, I could tell she was feeling something towards him, it was in her nature as a Lady. Arya, on the other hand, stayed with me with Nymeria in tow and we would talk together about other matters, one of them being both Joffrey and Sansa.

"Those two are sickening together, so in love!"

"Lady Arya, you sound as if you hate love."

"I don't want to be in love, it's not me."

Arya befriended the butcher's son, Mycah, and they would play together as I would patch up some of the dresses I has stored with me for the trip that I would wear. I made a few more for myself, thinking that I too needed to be more presentable and less of a barren waste of space. I too was growing attached to Nymeria, whom was spending some time with me as I would sit and watch both Mycah and Arya play in open grass areas when we would take a break from the trek. Nymeria would be laying with me, her head near my legs and watching her master with her tail wagging in the process. Sometimes, I woudl feel her lay against my body, her fur touching me and showing me that I was fine in her mind. When I would sit, I would think back to when I was a young girl, a bit younger than Arya, and remember how I too thirsted for adventure beyond the walls of Thedra Ascent. But I realized that this was the adventure that I wanted to go on, traveling with a Noble Royal House and another House that was just as powerful in my mind, being paid to make dresses for them and to be a playmate to the daughters. If my mother and father were alive, would they be proud of me?

Would they want this for me?

One day we stopped at Crossroads Inn, a popular stop on Kingsroad and that's when things took a bad turn for the Stark House. I was not a witness to it, but I saw the after affect it had on Arya, whom ran from the small clearing that was closeby the Crossroads Inn to where I was, up against a tree near the building to have some shade and some alone time. Sure I like being on the road with the Stark daughters, but I needed my own space from time to time. I sat against the tree, sewing up a patch from a leather jerkin worn by one of the Baratheon footmen when I saw her running towards me, wide eyed and looking as though she has just seen a ghost. Sweat was on her face and she was wearing a tunic and pants, no longer in her dress but in her regular attire with her braids flying in the wind behind her.

"Lady Arya?" I asked her aloud, placing the jerkin aside and she collapsed in front of me, her face was broken in tears and sadness. I have never seen her like this before, not in this kind of state. She looked up at me, as if her own heart just broke in a million pieces.

"Joffrey...I hate him!" She said aloud in a sob and growl, having me push my own body up against the tree trunk when she mentioned the Prince.

"What happened?" I asked her aloud with both concern and curiosity.

"I was playing with Mycah and Joffrey pushed him down. So...I hit him." She explained, my eyes going wide as she went on.

"Before he could hurt me with him own sword, Nymeria defended me and ...she attacked him on the arm." She explained to me, having me feel my own heart dropping. Nymeria was now in trouble, I knew that for certain, but the look on Arya's face made it seem like Nymeria died...oh no.

"Where is your Direwolf, Arya?" I asked her aloud in a cautious tone. She then looked down, having me see fresh tears in her eyes as she clutched the dirt under her fingertips and sighed. She looked back at me. her gray eyes were now brighter from the sadness and what looked like the pit of despair.

"I had to send her away, I had to make her run away." she said aloud as I saw two soldiers from the Kinsguard approach us behind Arya. I looked up in horror at their shining armor and their look on the both of us. But no, they weren't look at me, they were looking at Arya. I froze, feeling my blood freeze with them towering over us.

"Arya, you are needed in the Great Hall by His Majesty." She looked at me with wide eyes. Oh no.

This was not good.