Gone.
It was gone.
Everybody had been so happy when I awoke, but I wasn't. Well, of course I was. I got to hold Ned and Catelyn again, but it felt as though half of me was gone.
My coma was miserable, too, with so much pain, but I had lost my advantage.
It shocked me as well when I noticed my eyes were blue, swirling with grey. They had always been green, ever since I was a baby. Now, every time I looked into the mirror, it felt as though an imposter had taken the place of Annablyth.
News had arrived though. The Greyjoys, except Asha, died, and with their armies scattered, Robb easily recaptured the North. All was well, at the moment at least.
So Robb and the entirety of his army was returning home.
That excited me, for I couldn't wait for Robb to meet our children for the first time.
Though everyday I woke up, it felt as if I lost something of me. A limb, and eye, perhaps? Yes, an eye, because now I could see so little.
I still had Eva, and all her girls, but... It wasn't the same.
Did the gods switch my sight for my life? Or was it Lady Catelyn, like in my dream? Or did the gods take the form of Catelyn?
I huffed and put down my quill. "Mama?" Ned asked from his spot on the rug. His vocabulary started to expand rabidly while I was asleep, and it made me smile every time he said something. "Mama's fine," I told him, smiling as gently as possible. "Being queen is just a stressful job." That was an understatement.
Ned probably barely understood me, but he continued to prance around his red toy. Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was a lion.
I immediately snatched it from him, and analyzed it. A red lion. Which was very strange for two reasons. One, who would give a lion to as Stark boy in the middle of a war between the Lannisters? Two, I had personally picked every single toy in that nursery, and there was never a lion.
I picked him up, and went to the nursery, where Catelyn was sleeping. Dread started to fill me, suffocating me. No, no, no...
I opened the door to find Catelyn sleeping peacefully.
Was it a sign?
No.
I was being ridiculous.
But what if?
I posted a guard in front of the nursery door, and burned the little toy.
• • •
A week after I awoke, a young man named Clifton arrived.
He rode into Winterfell's courtyard at dawn, just as we had expected. Behind him rode a figure clad in a robe and hood. "Welcome to Winterfell," I said, smiling. He dismounted, strode up to me, and kissed my hand. "It is my honor, your grace," he said, beaming.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
Clifton stepped aside as the figure strode forward. I could see her red hair, and it made me smile.
Princess Sansa Stark put down her hood and took in the the courtyard of Winterfell, before smiling at me. She raced forward and I hugged her. I could feel her crying slightly. "It's alright now," I whisper into her hair. "You're home,"
Sansa was then shown to my solar, where her siblings and my children awaited. She started really crying when she hugged Arya and apologized for everything.
She immediately took to Ned and Catelyn, and for the first time in a long time, the four children were together.
• • •
Sooner than I would have thought did Robb arrive. I stood in the courtyard, wearing a dark green velvet dresss, holding Catelyn while Sansa held Ned.
Robb was at the front of his army, and dismounted the second he was through the gates. His face broke out into a smile, and he went to me first, kissing me and while holding my face. Then he stepped back and looked at our baby. "Hey Catelyn," he said. She clenched her little fists and he giggled. "Papa!" Ned called from Sansa. Robb went to his son and held him. I had made sure that Ned would know his father's name.
"My my," Robb mused, but I could see tears of mirth in his eyes, "aren't you a big boy?"
"Papa!" Ned screeched. Still holding him, Robb greeted all his siblings, looking especially happy with his two sisters. Then Robb retreated to the nursery, which he switched playing with Ned or holding Catelyn.
The next weeks seem to be a flurry of love and happiness.
Ned took his first steps, Catelyn started gaining weight, Sansa and Arya went back to their bickering, Arya became a master at sword fighting, and the war seemed to stop. No more battles, or anything.
Perra Frey arrived from the Freys, and immediately became Rickon's best friend. Juliana ate with the family at dinner, Rorin and Ned became inseparable, and Dimia snd Catelyn stared sharing a nursery.
Peace reigned over Westeros for about two months.
Then the dragons came.