Chapter 2

Apparently I am being ignored now.

Stark shook himself out of the trance he found himself in I guess. The second he heard the girls voice his gaze snapped to her shivering form. He got up with great effort from his lying position. And with little more than an absent-minded pat on the snout he went over to her.

It's just a tiny bit humiliating that I'm being treated as interesting as a houseplant when I'm a massive fuckoff wolf. I'm as large as a fully grown deer man! And you didn't even see the arrow! Help me dammit!

"I don't see the city nearby. We should get ourselves dry before anything else first." Stark said, and he was most certainly right.

The both of them looked far too pale for it to be their natural complexion, and the shivering wasn't going anywhere while their clothes were as wet as that either.

"Are… are we going to be… safe with it still around?" The girl asked, finally acknowledging my presence. Being called an It is somehow less insulting than pretending that I didn't exist. I don't know what that says about me but I'll just pretend I didn't let a little girl hurt my feelings.

Stark looked at me fully for the first time since waking up, sizing me up. He looked awfully calm for being in front of a monster straight out of the stories he heard growing up. He better not think that just because he has a direwolf as his sigil he is somehow a wolf whisperer.

"No… He seems tame to me, he didn't eat us when we were unconscious." His eyes finally moved over to the arrow stuck in my shoulder, and narrowed slightly. "He is injured. Likely scared too, he must have been hoping for help."

"A beast isn't so smart, to look for help from man. Especially when we look the same as a hunter that got it." She shot me another wary look, making sure that she was as far away from me as possible. Smart, but considering that I don't see any weapons on them, it's kind of useless.

"We might look the same, but we don't smell the same." Stark said with confidence. Okay buddy, you are not gonna last too long if you rely on animals to use human logic. And not even all humans think like that! At least half of Westeros is gonna take advantage of you like that, you little numbskull! And take the arrow out already!

"But to be safe, slowly go and get my sword. And make sure he doesn't see it." Yeah, because im stupid. You better not fucking try to kill me Stark, im the one with sharp teeth here.

He turned to me again and approached me slowly again, holding out his hand for me to sniff at again. "Hello there friend, I mean you no harm." When I gave no visible reaction he continued on. He was now directly in front of me, and we stood face to face. As we stood so close together our size difference became apparent, I was just much larger and heavier than him. Yet he didn't not wilt or show an ounce of fear or uncertainty, he was stone cold and almost as if he was going on instinct.

His eyes never strayed from the arrow in my shoulder, he was focused on it unnervingly intently. Wait, how did I know that?

He placed a hand on my head, lightly scratching me between the ears, he wrapped his other hand firmly around the shaft of the arrow. Then he finally moved his eyes to meet my own.

This is gonna hurt. Stark thought.

Wait wha-

Ow, bitch, fuck, fuckfuckfuck!

I trashed around and yowled as the arrowhead ripped and tore the flesh around the entry wound.

"Lord Stark! It's going to kill us!" Yelled the girl from behind the Lord.

Stark, I'm going to kill you!

She held out the sword for him to take but he did nothing but grip the arrow tightly and wait for me to calm down.

"He isn't." Stark said confidently.

I most certainly am!

"Come here friend." Stark called out to me. He ripped a part of his cloak off and gestured for me to come closer.

If you don't bandage me up immediately i'll bite your balls off.

I stumbled through the few steps between us and fell to the ground. My breaths felt heavy and labored, and I could feel my heart trying to pound its way out of my ribcage. My tongue lolled out of my mouth, trying to get the sweet, cool air into my lungs. My shoulder burned alongside the rest of my body as I laid there defenseless.

A hand then came up to my head, providing what little comfort it could. At least Stark was trying not to be a cunt.

Then he took my head in both hands and painfully flipped me to my other side. I will remember this, you little weasel. But now that I wasn't lying on my injured shoulder the pain lessened somewhat. And Stark started gingerly bandaging my wound. It seemed to be a tricky thing, or he just wasn't used to tending to animal wounds. But to his credit he did manage it without me bleeding out in his lap. Huh, lap. When did I get here? Jesus, please let this not be a fever messing with my head. I already don't fancy my chances of survival, I don't need an infection.

"You will be fine now, friend." Stark said reassuringly. He even kept scratching that amazing spot behind my ears. How he knew to scratch there I have no clue. And going by his confused expression, neither did he.

The lovely scratching comes to a sudden halt as the teenage girl just can't stand being ignored.

"Uhmm… my Lord? What now?" Far from a stupid question, still a terrible time to ask.

"Hmm… Do you think that the storm has blown us very far off course?" Asked Stark.

"Not much, we should still have landed firmly in the North. We passed the Three Sisters and sailed far enough that we must be close to White Harbour." She was sure of herself.

"Then we will trek north, follow the water and we should find the city. There you will receive both your payment and supplies enough for you to return home. Another boat too if this one is too damaged." Honorable Lord Stark promised. And both of us knew he would keep his word.

"We will leave immediately, and find some firewood along the way." He declared again. And leave we did.

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Alright so good news and bad news. Good news is that Stark managed to make a fire shockingly quickly. The warmth wasn't really much to my liking with my already high body temperature but at least the teens wouldn't freeze to death. And the girl even stopped looking at me like I would eat her. She was still staying far away from me but its the little things that count. And that's all the good that there is.

The bad news is that their rations had fallen off the boat during the storm that hit them, and Stark only brought with him his sword. And while a sword would absolutely kill an animal, hunting with it was practically a fool's errand. And with the pace that we were going and the already late afternoon sun getting dimmer, we wouldn't make it into the city until sometime tomorrow.

But it wasn't all bad, I just had to pay good old Starky back for the lovely bandages. And the wolf already had enough hunting instincts for me to know what to do.

I stalked a nearby snow hare through the forest to its burrow. I had to make sure that it didn't even get a whiff of me. With my injured leg I couldn't run very far or fast at all, so I have to corner the thing in its own home. Hopefully there'll be more hares inside, three should be enough for me and the young ones to get through the night and morning.

I slammed my snout and stomach down into the snow as the hare sharply turned to me. It must have heard the crunch of icy ground beneath my foot. But as my predatory gaze followed every one of its movements I could see it turn away and dismiss the danger when it saw nothing. Good, makes it easier for me.

A little further ahead I saw it enter into a little hole in the ground. My queue to get on with it. A jammed my snout inside and saw me with the overwhelming scent of delicious prey animals and panicked squeaks throughout their tunnels. My paws frantically dug at the hole, trying to make the entrance fit my much larger side. The hares had no other exits dug out, they were without any means of escape. A cornered animal was the most dangerous, as I experienced as many little teeth started scratching at my invading nose. It did little but mildly inconvenience and frustrate me.

Once the hole was large enough I bit one of the more aggressive hares. Its whole head fit easily into my mouth. With a little force from my powerful jaws I crushed its windpipe with my teeth and spit it out beside the hole. Then I dove in again.

After I was done, all of the young hares remained, along with a combination of males and females that I didn't need. They were still frozen in fear when I withdrew my head from their ruined home for the final time.

With my three treasures securely within my jaws I made my way back to camp. Well, hopefully camp. My departure was kind of sudden. I'd kind of feel stupid if they just left me.

Sniff* *Sniff*

Nah, they're still there. And they better be assured of my fiercely friendly nature by now. What animal shares food with you man? That's right, me, the bestest boy. I accept payment in behind the ear scratches.

They were oddly quiet when I got closer. Stark had a thoughtful look on his face, probably thinking of how far White Harbour was and how to hunt for food without a bow. The girl looked a bit down to me, though she is somehow far harder to read than Stark. Well she did get stranded on a beach, got her (probably expensive) boat damaged and scared half to death by a direwolf. Not an ideal day by any means.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, surprised by my sudden appearance out of the darkening forest. This managed to draw Stark out of his thoughts as well.

I wagged my tail at them, showing off the absolutely lovely dinner and breakfast we were going to have. I got at least happier than neutral reactions.

"Found us food, have you friend?" Stark got out with the tiniest smile I have ever seen.

"You are one fiercely smart boy." He scratched the heavenly spot as he said it.

I am the best, yes.

Stark took some of the sticks they found for kindling and sharpened them with the knife at his belt. The he went to skinning the hares and gutting them. It was gruesome and dirty work, but at least there was plenty of snow to clean oneself off.

Speaking off, I must look like a living nightmare. A bloody mouth on a pitch black body, no wonder the girl is as silent as she is. Well, we can't have that now can't we.

I stuck my snout into some deeper snow, trying to wash off as much blood as I could while Stark worked on dinner. After my tenth dunk into the ice cold layers of snow I judged myself clean enough and moved over between the two teens.

Surprisingly the girl didn't shy away, she just sort of froze in place and tried not to look at me. I placed my head on her lap, trying to make myself as friendly as possible. And after what felt like minutes to me, and probably hours to the poor girl, I felt her fingers rake through my thick coat of fur. Petting me on my forehead, behind the ears and along my spine as fat as she could reach. She kept her fingers plenty far from my teeth though, which was fair. But as I completely went slack in her lap when she touched a particularly wonderful spot on my side she seemed to relax a significant amount.

"You might just be the cutest flesh eating beast I have ever seen." She giggled.

Laugh all you like girl, I'm the one getting pampered here.