Chapter 2 The Direwolf, Winter

"The Others," the black brother mumbled. "They are real….they killed Royce….I wasn't there to watch it… I ran but I know the others took him…."

"What is your name?" Torrhen asked from his horse. 

"Gared… my lord.." Gared said. "The gods save us… They are real…. The others they are real."

"Did you see it with your own eyes.?" Torrhen said.

"No…" Gared said. "But the air turned so cold… when we were searching for the wildling tribe…. Will said he saw bodies dead… but they were not there when we went to the place….. I am not lying… You must believe me."

"I believe you Gared." Torrhen lied. 

Questions were asked back and forth by others. And then his father, Eddard Stark gave a command.

Two guardsman held the ragged man down and put his head onto the hard black wood. Eddard Stark dismounted and his ward Theon Greyjoy bought forth the valyrian sword Ice. 

"Tell my family that I died for the Night's Watch, please." Gared said.

"In the name of Robert of the House Baratheon, the First of his Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, by the word of Eddard of the House Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, I do sentence you to die." He lifted the greatsword high above his head.

"Keep the pony well in hand," Torrhen heard Jon say to Bran. "And don't look away. Father will know if you do."

Torrhen said nothing as Ice cleaved the head off Gared's body with a single sure stroke. Blood sprayed across the snow, as red as summerwine. The head bounced and rolled near Greyjoy's feet. He laughed, put his boot on the head, and kicked it away.

Torrhen reigned in his anger. The dead didn't deserve to be treated like that.

"He believed that the others were real Father." Torrhen said, when his father got on his horse.

"A man believes the delusions he sees in the cold to be real things." Ned said. "He was just afraid to fight the wildlings is all."

It was colder on the long ride back to Winterfell, though the wind had died by then and the sun was higher in the sky. Torrhen rode with his brothers, well ahead of the main party, as his brothers talked of courage, bravery and how the deserter took his death.

But all Torrhen could think about was what Gared said. He could feel in his bones that what he said was what he believed to be real. If the Others were real then….

He was thrown back out of his thoughts when Robb spoke, "The Others take his eyes," Robb looked at Torrhen a moment before he looked at Jon and said, "Race you to the bridge."

"Done," Jon said, kicking his horse forward. Robb cursed and followed hooting and laughing.

Torrhen knew when a challenge was issued to his face. They were being cold to him but he could see that they were trying to reconnect with their brother. 

"Wait for Father, Bran." Torrhen said as he set his horse to a gallop. 

He leaned forward as the horse went flying down the road. As they flew like the wind, the horse and Torrhen were of one mind and one body. 

Before a minute had passed, he overtook them both. Torrhen laughed and hooted back at them as they pushed their horses hard to take back the lead from him.

Torrhen stopped his horse to a halt when he saw the massive beast on the riverbank north of the bridge. 

"My god, what's that?" Robb said as he dismounted the horse.

Jon went back to tell the rest of the party what they found. 

Torrhen followed him down the Riverbank, his knees sinking into the deep snow. 

It was a massive beast. Pups suckled on their dead mother's teats . Robb picked one up from the litter and held it to his chest.

By then the rest of the party had joined then and freaked out when they saw her, only relaxing when Robb pointed out that she was dead. They talked about what they had seen.

It was a Direwolf. Torrhen had never seen one in his life before. He searched the ground to see if there were tracks of other creatures like the dead one. Wolves travel in packs, even Direwolves, they are a distant cousin. But he could not find anymore tracks on the ground.

Bran came close to Robb. Robb told to him. "Go on you can touch him." 

Jon gave him a second pup in his arms after Bran gave a nervous stroke to the one in his hand. "There are five of them," Jon said.

"Six." Torrhen said as he noticed a white pup far off in the distance hidden behind brushes. He picked the Albino pup into his hands.

"Direwolves lose in the realm, after so many years," muttered Hullen, the master of horse. "I like it not."

"It is a sign," Jory Cassel said.

Father frowned as they discovered the wound caused by the Stag's antler in its throat. The group tensed in fear as if the sign foretold the future itself, Torrhen couldn't believe them. They argued about how the pups were born when the mother was dead and the bad luck they would bring.

Torrhen stayed silent to the whole conversation until Theon took out his sword, "The sooner the better. Give the beast here, Bran."

"No!" Bran cried "It's mine."

"Sheath the sword before it finds itself in your thick skull." Torrhen said with his Father's cold voice.

Robb asked to keep the pups. Harwin and Hullen, his son disagreed with him and back and forth they argued and told their opinions on it to father. 

But Torrhen could not follow their words. His mind was a bit foggy as he eyed the pups, they hadn't yet opened their eyes. He could not describe what he was feeling right now. He felt like he was floating in the sky and yet his fleet were planted on the ground. He felt as if his mind weren't in his body. One thing he understood was the primal need he felt at protecting them from anything that might harm them.

"Lord Stark," Jon's voice cut through the fog. "There are six pups. Four male and two female."

Torrhen tried to think what was going on in Jon's mind right now. Would he have given one up if he were in Jon's shoes. 

Torrhen looked at Robb, Once he had hated his twin brother with his every breath because he was the eldest twin by mere seconds and he would be father's heir and Torrhen would have to kneel to his brother. Oh how much he hated that. The hate had gone from him now. Mostly. 

But his hate for kneeling to someone had never gone away. In fact he had made an oath to the old gods in the Godswood on his father's honor that he would never kneel to someone in submission in a fit of rage years ago, before he left home for his adventure to travel the world. 

"What of it, Jon?" Father said.

"You have six true born children." Jon said. "Four sons, two daughters. The direwolf is the sigil of your House. Your children were meant to have these pups, my lord."

"You want no pup for yourself Jon?"

"The direwolf graces the banners of House Stark. I am no Stark, Father."

Robb and Bran promised to Nurse the pups. 

Father looked at his direction, to get the promise that Torrhen would take care of his pup. 

Torrhen looked at Jon once, and handed him the albino pup in his hand. "I don't want one. Take good care of him, Jon."

Jon's eyes were wide open as he took the pup from his hands.

Torrhen Stark got back on the road without a word more. His head started to hurt as he climbed the bank to the road. 

Whitefoot barked and ran down the road.

Torrhen clutched his head as he felt a spasm of pain, like someone was tearing his head apart into two pieces with an Axe. The others were alarmed when he almost fell to the ground after losing his footing. He could not hear the words they spoke to him.

Something called him to follow in the direction of Whitefoot. His vision was turning black at the edges. He pushed off at the hands that tried to steady him and half walked and half stumbled to Whitefoot. He could hear her barks pounding in his head.

Torrhen lost his balance and fell to the ground. He crawled desperately to Whitefoot. He felt like he was dying, the pain kept on increasing, he could not breathe the air into his lungs. The hound barked at a small black figure with its back to a tree. 

Torrhen snatched it into his hands and clutched the struggling black figure tightly to his chest as he rested his back to the tree. 

And the pain vanished in an instant, his eyes started to clear and he saw his father, brothers and the others huddling over him. Terror was carved into their faces. 

Torrhen couldn't understand what was happening right now.

But when Torrhen looked at the black figure fighting desperately to escape from his grip, he laughed and cackled maniacally making them scared even more. Bran was a breath away from sobbing. But Torrhen couldn't stop himself even as he no doubt looked like a mad man to them.

And that was how Torrhen Stark first met his Direwolf, Winter.

Next Chapter: 

A feast in honor of the King from the South who had come all the way to the North to make Torrhen's father his Hand and his sister Sansa, daughter by marriage to Prince Joffrey. Will Eddard Stark agree to either? Will Torrhen Stark be able dissuade his father from going to the corrupt Kingslanding and decline the proposal? And will Torrhen kneel to Robert alongside the others when everyone will greet the King in the yard.

But when he catches an uninvited King from beyond the wall in the feast among the Bards and a mysterious letter delivered to his parents by Maester Luwin, late at night all his plans change.

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