❅ Fifteen (Video)

[stonebird]

(Her eyes are red rimmed and she looks like she has been forgoing sleep. There is a bunch of bound paper, neatly tied with pieces of leather, before her and she is using a quill to write. Yet the tip on the writing utensil has broken and so she is having to make another, sharpening it with a small knife.)

If it isn't asking for too much, will you please tell me your best memories? You needn't go into detail; you can even change some details if you wish. All I want to hear are good stories; stories that end with happiness.

(Some warmth to drive out the chill of Winter and loss.)

Comments

[stonebird]

I urge you to not forget the other two. I've encountered Kings and Queens who were without an ounce of kindness and their kingdoms suffered for it.

(Poor Bran. His fate is just another reason the Lannisters must be annihilated. Sansa is angry for him, but at the same time, he seems to have a found a path that is beyond anything she could ever understand.)

We weren't sure he would make it at first, yet Summer, his wolf, never gave up on him. It was thanks to him and my mother that an assassin was killed before he could finish Bran off.

[ragnarsson]

I will try to remember.

[There was no guarantee he'd take the advice, but Ivar at least knows the wisdom of listening to people, even if he so often did what he wanted anyway.]

Your mother must be a very fierce woman. But then mothers always seem to be.

[His own was no warrior, but she'd had an inner strength of a different kind, one that allowed her to defy everyone when they told her to leave her crippled son in the woods as a mercy.

Something also catches his attention.]

You have pet wolves?

[Well, that's just cool.]

[stonebird]

She was. (Her smile is sad, but proud.) She took hold of the assassin's blade with her bare hands. It was made of Valyrian steel, which can cut through anything. I don't think her hands were ever the same.

(Not that Catelyn cared since her son survived.)

There was one for each of the Stark children. Grey Wind belonged to my eldest brother, Lady belonged to me, Nymeria belonged to my sister, Summer belonged to Bran, Shaggydog belonged to my youngest brother and Ghost belongs to Jon.

Ghost is the only one that still survives as far as I know. They were Direwolves; not just regular wolves. That basically means they are more intelligent and far larger.

[ragnarsson]

['Was'. Ouch. He knows that smile, he's worn one himself. He'd never gotten to say goodbye to his mother, shot dead by the woman who wanted her throne. All he had left was his revenge.]

Amazing, the courage that must have taken. Mine saved my life by not letting me die when I was born. My father, their servants, all counseled her to leave me to the elements and give me a merciful death. She refused.

[Though sometimes in his worst moments he wish she had, for he had not had an easy life.]

This Ghost. Is he a giant white wolf with red eyes?

[He's seen the beast with Jon before.]

[stonebird]

I would not have been able to leave you behind either. A mother has a natural affection for their child; to ask her to give up on them is...cruel.

(Sansa is the sort who would run herself ragged for her children. Like Catelyn had.)

Indeed. Isn't he handsome? (She has honest, open affection for the Direwolf and Ghost knows it.)

[ragnarsson]

It was a good act or so she thought. But a lifetime of pity and cruelty to endure is not so easy.

[Still, he'd turned out tougher than most, so he can't complain for too long about his life. He'd been luckier than most, being born into a royal family, and the son of the most famous Norseman who ever lived.]

Such an amazing beast. That only there were such back home.

[stonebird]

I imagine the pity and cruelty have made you harder and smarter than most.

(Those are the emotions that mold a person the quickest in her experience.)

There are so few left in my world. I had hoped we could encourage them to mate with regular wolves if nothing else.

[ragnarsson]

Of course. A cripple doesn't survive long among the Norse without growing very tough and very clever.

[Put both together and it made for one of the most feared Viking warlords the world would ever know.]

Why are there so few? Did something kill them all?

[He wonders exactly what could take down a wolf as big as a good-sized horse.]

[stonebird]

You are remarkable, my lord.

(Those aren't sugared words, either. Sansa deeply respects those that learn to stand by themselves amidst a den of predators.)

Men. They hunted them and killed them.