Four
Carina hurried down the corridor, she wouldn't be helpless like she had been last time there was an attack. It seemed just as they were going to meet at Harrenhal to speak to her brother that Tywin decided to attack before his son, even one he hated, could be put on trial. Didn't seem to matter to him that his daughter and grandchildren were dead; he was determined to have the throne for himself, something he had done even years ago when the rebellion happened. She would not be the scared girl, she was Stark raised as a north woman and she was a wolf, she would not cower.
"Lady Stark you should not be," Davos starts upon seeing her but is interrupted.
"I am not going to cower like a scared girl. I am a Stark of Winterfell," she says a sword strapped to her back and dressed like a man.
Before Davos could say anything he is called away and Carina is left to herself. She starts to move when she sees something out of the corner of her eye, a cloaked man who has the princess with him. She immediately feels suspicion fill her and she quietly follows them and she realizes that Shireen is being dragged through hidden walls until finally they are in the forest.
"Let the princess go," she orders.
"This doesn't have to be your fight, Lady Stark. Lord Baelish has promised to return you home safe," the man says and two more come out behind him.
"The day I trust Lord Baelish is a day that will never come," she tells them.
The man holding the princess waves his hand and they come towards her. Carina takes a deep breath remembering her lessons, remembering when she had briefly fostered at Bear Island and watched her brothers. The two men must not have thought her much of a threat because only one man attacked her but everyone is surprised by what happens next. First she is able to get the upper hand on the man attacking and when she hears the second man step behind her and then growls.
Carina isn't sure how she knows but she knows it's Freya and Nymeria, the wolves Arya and her had to release. She throws herself down on the ground and sees Nymeria take down the man holding Shireen which means Freya got the one attacking her. Carina scrambles up, moving towards the princess and grabbing her hand.
"Stay beside me. I'm not sure if they will recognize me," she tells the girl.
Carina puts the child behind her as she turns to look at the scene. Nymeria is still chomping down on her target but a big black direwolf is slowly creeping towards them, her blue eyes staring into her soul. Maybe it's the magic in her blood that tells her everything is okay or instinct from having raised the wolf since she was a pup but Carina finds herself kneeling down never breaking eye contact with her direwolf and she sees Nymeria come closer to her as well out of the corner of her eye.
"Shireen don't move," she tells the child again who seems to be gripping her shoulder tightly.
Carina hears cheering which she hopes means that Stannis has won but it's when she sees guards run towards them that she holds her hand up signaling them to stop. She doesn't look to see if they listen instead taking that hand to hold it out towards the wolves holding her breath. Carina laughs when Freya licks her hand and then like when she was a puppy the direwolf nudges her head till it is on her shoulder and tries to play with her hair.
"Lady Stark," Ser Foxglove says, "You and the princess must come with us."
"The direwolves are with me," she tells him standing up.
Carina lets Shireen clutch her as the two big direwolves come to stand on either side of them. She uses her free hand to hold on to the black fur of her direwolf and follows the guards, and when she gets to the throne room she freezes. Standing before her with his own direwolf is her twin brother and there as a prisoner is Kevin Lannister and his forces. Carina moves a second later, throwing herself at her brother who catches her.
"Stark's!" Is chanted by the northmen over and over again but all she cares about is that she finally has family here.
"Took you long enough," she tells him.
"I had a few bumps in the road," he tells her, setting her down.
Carina laughs when Greywind, not one to be outdone and an attention whore jumps tackling her to the ground and licking her. She runs her hands over his fur, frowning when she feels that he is missing part of his ear and has a scar on his side but is reunited with the wolf. He finally lets her up and she sits up to cradle his head and kisses him on the head.
"Good boy," she whispers.
"Don't do that, you might make his head too big," Robb jokes, pulling her up.
"He deserves it for protecting you. Don't think I didn't notice his scars," Carina says.
A giggle seems to break the silence that Carina hadn't noticed spread through the room and she looks over to see Greywind and Freya playing with Shireen while Nymeria watches like she was bored. The wolves were bigger than the child but they let her pull on them and in return she let them lick her face. Stannis speaks and she meets her brother's eyes conveying that they need to talk alone and then looks at Stannis.
"How are you really?" Robb asks when they are finally alone in her rooms.
"I think that's a more complicated question to answer than you think but if what you are really asking is if Stannis is kind then yes," Carina explains sitting down on her bed.
"You've been hurt," Robb states, already knowing the answer.
"Yes I endured because I would not let them win and I am a wolf. Brother you need to make peace with Stannis," Carina tells him.
"Why?" Robb asks.
Robb knows his twin like he knows himself. He knows that she is smart, she is strong and he knows that she wouldn't be suggesting peace with Stannis if there wasn't a good reason. He knew that Stannis plans on marrying her and if the way the man looked at his sister and she looked at him was any indication then the decision had already been made and he would have no say.
Robb hadn't left home seeking a crown, he had only wanted his family safe and when the Lannisters betrayed them his people declared him king. As he listens to his sister's tale he wants to call her mad but she isn't and the dreams he has had of being Greywind indicate there is magic in their blood. Plus there were the stories Jon and the Wildlings told that he had put off because he had more pressing issues but now he was beginning to think there was more to the threat than he thought of. The one thing he could tell from these stories was that his sister played a big part as did Jon and that scared him more than anything.