A Time for Wolves

Rickon V

Maestre Pylos was giving Princess Shireen, Devan Seaworth, Lyra and Rickon a history lesson about the reign of one of the Targaryen kings, but Rickon was not paying attention to him. He was not at all interested in knowing what had happened centuries ago with people he did not know met and would never meet. Besides, he could not understand the reason why they had to study about the kings: as far as Rickon knew, the only thing monarchs did was to make excuses to start wars. Surely there had been better men and women in the history of Westeros than those kings. Honorable and good people, worthy of being remembered. But maester Pylos insisted in making them study the royalty instead.

"Lord Rickon, can you tell me why Aegon the Conqueror could not conquer Dorne?" The maester asked him, bringing out Rickon's lack of attention.

"I don't know, maester, but I think it was for the best that he couldn't. When a King conquers a place he burns it, destroys it and kills its people. Why do we have to study the lives of the kings? Can't we learn about better people?" The boy answered, showing openly his disinterest in the studied topic.

"Who would you like to learn about, Rickon?" Pylos asked, somewhere between surprised and irritated by the boy's answer.

"About someone who was not a King, but who has done something good and important. Someone like Lord Davos, maybe. Or, if we must study about kings, I would like to know of one that did something good, like ending a conflict, saving people and things like that. But I don't want to learn about drunken kings that went around the world starting wars and leaving orphan children throughout the Seven Kingdoms."

"So you want to study about my father?" Devan asked, proud and thrilled.

"Lord Davos is a loyal and honest man, but as he is alive, thank the gods, we can't study his life in a history class. But if you wish, I can teach you about other kings, who advocated for peace. Do you want to study about Jhaehaerys the Conciliator?

The four students nodded and the class started again. Rickon tried hard to pay as much attention as he could, and he was able to follow the lesson. Devan and Shireen seemed happy with the change, but as far as Rickon knew, they never had problems with the maester's lessons. And Lyra was always happy when she studied. She was the most curious girl he had ever known.

"Well, my little lords and ladies, I think it was enough history for today. Shireen and Devan, I will give you some mathematics problems to solve. I suppose you remember how to make divisions, don't you?" They both nodded and the maester beckoned to Rickon. "To you I shall give a writing lesson. A lord can always have a steward to deal with the numbers, but he must know how to write. Lady Lyra, do you want to learn how to read too?" The girl nodded, because though Keyllie had taught her to speak in the Common Tongue perfectly, the letters had not been part of those lessons.

Rickon had already learned to write his name and they had taught him the first letters of the alphabet, but this time Pylos made him study all the letters and write them down. He would not remember them all now, but with some time he would, he told him. When they finished the maester corrected Devan and Shireen's exercises and told them to go and have lunch, because it was past midday.

Devan sat at a small table with his father, far away from the 'Queen's men', who sat all together with Melisandre, the queen and her family. Rickon noticed that Osha and Keit were with Davos too, so he approached them to take a seat and eat with them.

"Good afternoon, Rickon," they greeted him, and he greeted them back as he sat down on a vacant chair.

"Lord Rickon, won't you come with me to the great table?" Shireen asked, disappointed.

Rickon knew that, as King Stannis's daughter, she had no choice but to seat with her mother and the only other child who could sit there was Rickon, because he was the queen's ward. Lyra was Selyse's ward too, but the queen was not interested in the girl and had only taken her under her wing because Rickon was not willing to part from her.

"I will go with you, if Lyra can come too," Rickon answered.

"Of course. You can come both." And the three children went to the table in which the queen sat with her family, her ladies in waiting and, of course, with Melisandre. Sansa was there too, because though they all thought her to be a bastard, she was the only representative of the Vale, and they respected her for that.

Selyse, Melisandre and the queen's relatives all greeted Rickon and Shireen, but all of them, except from Sansa, purposefully ignored Lyra. This annoyed Rickon, but the girl did not seem offended. As they ate their meal, which consisted in chicken and cooked vegetables, the children discussed what they should do during the afternoon, which was the time in which they had no lessons and could play freely, without responsibilities. Shireen leaned more towards a quiet game, like "come-into-my castle", while Rickon preferred "monsters and maidens". Lyra did not know any of those games, but when Shireen explained the rules of each one to her, she said that she would like to start with 'come-into-my-castle', because she thought Rickon needed to learn about the noble houses of Westeros. Defeated, he had to accept their choice.

They sat together to play in a yard. Shireen and Rickon had their own houses to play with, but Lyra did not, so Shireen told her to play as if she was of a noble house of Skagos. She chose House Magnar, which was the best known and most important of them. Devan joined them soon after, and Keit approached them to watch the game, but he did not play because he hardly knew some words in the common tongue and he did not really understand the game. Rickon was playing and having fun with his new friends when they were interrupted.

"Children, the Lord Commander Stark requires his brother's presence immediately," Osha told them. "He says that, if they wish, his friends Devan and Keit are invited to come too," she added, looking at the aforementioned boys.

"Why is Jon calling us?" Rickon asked, intrigued. He usually did not spend much time with his brother, and when he called him it was mainly because of important family matters, and his friends were never invited to those 'meetings'.

"Lord Stark says that the future Lord of Winterfell must know how to use a sword and that, as your guardian and her family are not dealing with that educational need, it will be him who teaches you how to fight. Jon said that your friends are welcome in his classes, if they wish to participate."

Devan and Keit accepted the invitation, thrilled to be instructed by the young man who had defended the Wall successfully despite the adverse situations and who had been named Lord Commander at only sixteen.

Jon made them practice in couples and he participated too, correcting the ones who fought against him. Rickon was getting better at it, but his friends were bigger and older, and Devan had had years of training, so they always beat him. He liked fighting Jon better, because he moved more slowly and predictably, allowing Rickon to respond to his blows and block them. Of course, the child knew that if he wanted, Jon could leave him on the floor and unarmed in a second. But Jon, unlike the others, did not want to win: he only wanted Rickon to learn.

Finally, when the sun was almost completely gone, Jon put an end to the class. He asked Rickon to go to his private chambers for dinner and he left them. Rickon went with the boys to look for the girls. They wanted to see if their friends wanted to have a snowball fight. As they were not in any of the common rooms, Rikon suggested looking for them in Shireen's room.

"I don't think that is a good idea," Devan said, looking out a window. The sun was setting, almost gone, and there was snow in the yard. "It is getting late, and it's too cold outside. We should leave the snowball fight for tomorrow."

"We could play something inside," Rickon suggested. "Maybe they will want to play monsters-and-maidens now. If Shireen's room is big enough, we can even play in there."

"Are you out of your mind? We can't play monsters and maidens in the princess' room! And at this hour, too!"

Rickon did not understand why his friend refused to go, but Devan was not much willing to explain. He just said that doing that would be improper and disrespectful, and that if they wished, Rickon and Keit could go and look for them by themselves, but he was not coming. So Rickon went with Keit to find the girls. He could hear them talk from outside the princess' room. They were chatting in hushed voices and giggling excitedly, but he could not make out their words.

"Aren't you going to open the door?" Keit asked him. There were no guards there, so they were alone in front of the closed door. Rickon knocked and waited until Shireen opened it.

"Rickon? What are you doing here?" She asked him nervously when she saw him. Rickon noticed that her right cheek, the one that was not affected by the greyscale, was blushed. Maybe I should have heeded Devan, he thought, unsure.

"I came to look for you. I wanted to invite you and Lyra to play a snowball fight," he answered.

"It's almost the night now, Rickon. We can't play outside today. But if you want, we can do it tomorrow." Now she seemed more relaxed.

"Alright. Then, do you want to play something in here?" He asked, hopeful.

"Something like what?"

"I don't know; anything. But it would be better if it was not 'come-into-my-castle'. Keit wants to play with us, and he doesn't understand that game."

"We can play 'monsters and maidens.' But you have to be quiet and keep it secret. My mother would get really angry if she found out about this."

They played together for a while and Rickon had a lot of fun, but he kept wondering what could be wrong about a group of friends gathering together in the room of one of them to play. After a while it grew late and they had to stop playing and go to have dinner. Shireen joined her mother in the King's tower, Keit and Lyra went to the common hall and Rickon went to the tower in which Jon resided.

There, Satin guided him to a small room that had a table and four chairs. One of them was free, reserved for him. In the other ones were Jon, Sansa and Arya. "Hi," Rickon greeted them shyly. "May I ask why you called me?"

"Yes, you may, Rickon," Jon answered kindly. "Some time ago, (a very long one, it seems now) we were part of a family. That family, as it was before, doesn't exist anymore. We are the ones left, and each of us has walked a different path. I have other brothers now: my Sworn Brothers. Sansa has assumed a new identity, and now she has a new father, a step-brother and a betrothed. Arya has spent a long time traveling, and you have been living in Skagos, where you found people who loved you and cared for you. But first and foremost we were, and still are, Starks of Winterfell. I have invited you to this table, Rickon, so that we can be a family again."

After that he asked Rickon how his day had been, and he told them about the incident in his morning lesson. Arya laughed at his bold answer to the maester's question and asked him about the practice session with Jon. And slowly, their conversation became more relaxed and natural. In the end it felt as though they were a true family, used to sharing meals and being together.