A Time for Wolves

Arya V

"Arya, could you bring me a glass of water, please?" Sansa asked when she woke up.

Arya nodded, filled the glass that was on her sister's bedside table with water and handed it to Sansa, who drank a long gulp.

Arya had been given the task of 'taking care of Lady Alayne', which consisted mainly in helping her to get dressed, preparing her hot bathes, brushing her hair and calling Clydas or master Pylos when the girl's health seemed to get worse. Fortunately, she was not freezing anymore: on the contrary, now she had a fever. She also had a cough and seemed to have trouble breathing, but that had also started to heal and Sansa was feeling much better now, after almost a week of illness.

Arya also had to clean her room, make her bed and try to make her as comfortable as possible, but that did not bother her: it had been Arya herself who offered to do the job, because as there were yet no battles to fight, looking after her sister seemed to be as good a job as any other. And Arya wanted to talk to her again, and to know what had happened to Sansa during those two years in which they had not seen each other. Besides, she figured that Sansa would probably feel more comfortable with someone who knew her and with whom she did not have to pretend to be someone else.

"Arya, I need to talk to Jon. I want him to know that I am fine and that I want to help him. I want to ask him what I should do. I had never thought I would want his advice before," she said, sighing. "But I'm lost now, and he is the only one left."

"You are wrong, Sansa. I am alive to, and I'm right in front of you. And even though you have not seen him yet, Rickon is also here at the Wall. And I think Bran is alive too, in a hidden and safe place, far away from here. I feel him sometimes, in my wolf dreams." Then Arya remembered that her sister's direwolf had been murdered because of her, and that she would never have a wolf dream. Fortunately, Sansa did not say anything on that matter.

"I know that, but Rickon is a little boy and, forgive me for saying this, but I think you would be even more lost than me if you were in my situation. Besides, I want to see them all. I'm happy to have you again, but I would like to see our brothers too."

"I'll speak with Jon, if you want. I will tell him you want to see him. Pylos said you are almost cured, so I think you can have a visit," Arya said, pretending not to notice that Sansa had referred to Jon as her 'brother' for the first time in her life.

"Thank you very much, Arya," her sister said. Arya stood up and started walking toward the door, but Sansa stopped her. "Arya, can you tell me how you got here? And how you escaped the Red Keep?"

"It is a pretty long story. Do you really want to know?"

"Yes. I want to know what happened to you in those years in which you were alone and unprotected. I want to know how much you have changed, and if you will ever be the same girl you were before the war."

"Sansa, all of us have been alone and unprotected. We all have suffered, and we all have changed. We have grown up, and the war has made us harder. But we are still a pack, even if we are not the children we were when we lived together at Winterfell in the summer. If you want, though, I will tell you my story," she answered, sitting on Sansa's bed.

Arya proceeded to tell her sister of her 'adventures', from her last lesson with Syrio Forel to her unexpected arrival at Castle Black, skipping the parts in which she had killed someone. She also avoided mentioning Jaqen H'gar, because she did not want to terrify her. Sansa interrupted her once in a while to ask some questions, but most of the time she remained silent, listening.

"I am so sorry, Arya!" Sansa exclaimed when Arya had finished telling her story.

"Why do you say that? It was not your fault that Joffrey had Father beheaded," Arya asked.

"You are right: I'm not to blame for that. But I am to blame for what happened to you. If it wasn't because of me, we could have boarded that ship Father had told us about, and we would have been delivered safely to Winterfell, with Bran and Rickon."

Now it was Sansa's time to tell her story. As she did that, Arya went from the anger of finding out about Sansa's betrayal to the compassion for all the abuses she had suffered in King's Landing, and in the end she forgave her, when she realized how much she had changed and how ashamed she was of the naive and selfish girl she had been before. By the time she got to tell her about what had happened to her at the Vale, Arya had already forgotten her initial displeasure.

"So, you are betrothed again, to a man you hardly know," Arya commented.

"Yes, and I don't know whether I should go back and get married, as Petyr wants me to, or stay here and ask Jon to help me, as he did with Alys Karstark. Besides, I am supposed to be married to Tyrion, and I can't remarry until he dies, because the High Septon would never nullify my marriage without taking me to the Lannisters first."

"You are right, Sansa: I have no idea of what I would do if I were you. I don't even know if I could have survived so long in King's Landing, holding my tongue and pretending not to hate them all. I think they would have killed me."

"Well, I don't think I would have survived to Ser Amory Lorch's attack, either," Sansa replied, smiling.

Arya was relieved to hear that Sansa seemed to be proud of her. Now they understood that each of them, in their way, had fought to survive. Neither of them was better than the other, and they both deserved the other one's respect.

"I will go to talk to Jon. Wait for me here. I will be back soon," Arya said then, withdrawing from the room.

She went to Jon's chambers and told Satin that she wanted to speak to Jon. The steward apologized, saying that the Lord Commander was busy at that moment, but Arya decided to wait for him. She sat on the ground and built a snowman while she waited, and she remembered the afternoons she had spent playing in the snow with her siblings at Winterfell, back when they were all children, and all alive. She did not think they would ever play a snowball fight again. Jon was now too old for that. And Sansa was about to get married and she would probably think that playing was for children; not for maidens or married women. And even if they did, she knew it would never be the same. Robb and Bran would not be there, and pretending that everything was like before would only make their absence worse.

She had not finished her snowman when the First Builder and the First Steward came out and Satin told her she could come in. She walked directly to Jon's room and entered without knocking, announcing her presence with a "Good morning, Jon!"

"Arya! How are you?"

"I'm fine. Sansa is getting better, and she wants to see you. She says she needs your help. She wants to see Rickon too. She missed all of us very much, she says," Arya reported. She noticed that Jon seemed surprised by the fact that Sansa required his help.

"Well, I will go see her today. And I will bring Rickon with me, if his guardian allows it," he sighed.

Arya bit her lip. She was completely against that stupid queen being Rickon's guardian. As far as she knew, all queens were mean, stupid, or a combination of both. And they believed themselves to be too important, more so than everyone else. She did not like this one any better than Cersei, even though she had not yet given her many reasons to hate her.

She said goodbye to Jon, telling him that she would wait for him in Sansa's room, and then went back to her job. When Sansa asked her what Jon had said, she told her he had agreed to visit her later that day. Sansa asked Arya to help her change her nightgown for a more appropriate dress, and then she sat in front of the mirror to comb her hair until it was shiny and neat. After that they talked for a while about their different trips and adventures.

"Do you think the Hound is dead?" Sansa asked her.

"Yes, I do. The last time I saw him he was wounded, feverish and alone. He could not even stand up. Unless somebody found him and saved him, he is dead."

"Poor Sandor! It must have been terrible to die that way, in pain and all alone," Sansa said, sighing.

Thar surprised Arya, but it also reminded her of something the Hound had said. She decided to ask Sansa about it.

"He told me he had kissed you. Is that true?"

Sansa blushed, but she nodded slightly. When she saw her sister's perplexed expression she tried to tell her how the confessed kiss had taken place. But Sansa could not finish her story because she was soon interrupted by Jon, who had come with Rickon to see her.

"Jon! I'm so glad to see you!" Sansa exclaimed, to Jon's bewilderment. She stood up and approached her half-brother to give him a hug. "I'm sorry if I have ever been unkind to you! Can you forgive me?"

"Settle down, Sansa, everything is all right. You have nothing to apologize for," Jon reassured her, hugging her back. When they broke their embrace Sansa's cheeks were wet with tears. She hugged Rickon too and then sat down on her bed again, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. Arya wondered if it was her fever or the long-expected family reunion what made her so emotional and agitated.

"Jon, my dear brother: you are my only hope now, and the only person I would dare to ask for advice. I beg you to listen to me, and to help me. Please, I need you!"

Jon promised her that he would listen and try to help her, and Sansa told him her problem. In the end, she asked him what she should do.

"Well, I would not like you to do as Littlefinger told you, because that would mean stealing Rickon's birthright to Winterfell and our father's titles. But if you wish you can marry Harry and tell him that your brother is alive, and that it is to him that should go the lordship of Winterfell. As to your marriage to Tyrion, I think you can consider it devoid of validity, because it was not consummated and also because none of you wished to marry the other. Besides, if he was to be found in Westeros, he would be immediately beheaded. And in the future, when the war is over, you may get an official annulment for your marriage. But it is your decision, and I won't be the one who makes it."

Sansa thought for a minute before she answered. "I shall write to Harry," she said at last. "I will tell him I will marry him. I will ask him to come to the Wall to get me, with all the strength of the Vale that he can gather and with many provisions. I will inform him that there is an important battle to fight, but that I cannot reveal anything until the moment we are together. I will tell him that if he respects me enough to trust me and do as I bid him without needing an explanation, he will be worthy of all my love as his wife and all the trust I have left. And if he comes, I will ask him to defend the Wall with the forces of the Vale. What do you think about my plan?"

Jon thanked Sansa for her promise of help, said that it seemed like a good idea to him and that he would support her. Rickon remained silent; he surely did not even know what they were talking about. But Arya smiled, happy that they were going to join forces to fight together, as a real pack would.