Pack Animals |Game of Thrones|

Chapter XVIII - Winterfell

Silver was standing outside on top of one of the walls of Winterfell, and she leaned against the battlement nearest to where she had climbed up onto the wall and she sighed quietly, taking the only time to think.

"You all right?" Silver turned to look over her right shoulder and she saw Theon not too far away, as Winter let out a low rumble of a growl at him. It wasn't an angry growl though, it was more of a questioning one.

"Bran was nearly killed tonight Greyjoy, and so was my mother. What do you think?" Silver asked and there was anger, fury like a thousand devils in her voice, but below it was pain.

Theon didn't know how to respond to that, and as he stood next to her, she'd sigh quietly. "I'm sorry. I am not angry at you." She murmured and he looked at her, as he shook his head and she'd stare out at the woods.

"I know you aren't. Your mother was almost nearly killed, and... your little brother also was nearly killed. You are currently trying to help your twin keep the peace in the North, you are doing a man's job at 16... you are also trying to keep yourself away from all things that have to do, with womanly shit." Theon pointed out and Silver was ignoring that last part pointedly as he knew she would. "Meanwhile, your lord father is over a thousand leagues away to the South with your sisters and your elder bastard brother is over a hundred leagues north at the Wall with the Night's Watch. Did I miss anything?" Theon asked and she looked at him for a moment or two, before she was shaking her head slightly.

"I am trying to do a man's job like my father would, but my brother has the real power." She said and he nodded a bit, as he reached out and his hand was gently resting on top of hers.

"The people of Winterfell, they will follow you. The northmen and their women, they would follow a Stark. If you asked, they would go." Theon said and she looked at him with eyebrows raised. "The Northmen tend to be loyal to their own, don't they?" He questioned and she nodded at his words and she heard Winter howling from the courtyard.

"Did my mother want to see me? Is that why you were all of the way out here, in the freezing cold?" She asked and he scoffed.

"You don't think it's cold." Theon countered and she chuckled a bit at that, as she inclined her head in a bit of a nod.

"True enough." Silver admitted as he looked back at her, only for the Stark to drop her gaze back out and into the woods.

"Joffrey is a little shit. Do you think that your sister has noticed that part of him yet?" Theon asked and Silver's eyes were narrowed slightly.

"Arya? Definitely. She is way too similar to me, to have not--" At his meaningful look, Silver felt stupid at his meaning. "You meant Sansa." She said stupidly and he shrugged, as she nodded. "I really don't think so, to be completely honest with you. She is so clearly caught up in the story of it all, still. She wants to be married to a bloody Prince and she has got her bloody wish." She muttered and Theon chuckled.

"He is truly a little shit, isn't he?" He asked softly and she nodded, as she shut her eyes and listened to the fast-growing direwolves, as they were howling. "I understand refusing to marry Joffrey, but your parents will marry you off some day. Wouldn't you rather just get it over with?" It was a legitimate question and she shook her head slightly.

"I have known the North my entire life. I have been to the wall. I've been all around the North. I belong up here and I know that. But if my father and my mother were smart, which they are... they would be smart to marry me into the family of a Southern lord." She said and he looked at her with a nod.

"Are you simply scared of the possibility?" He questioned as she looked at him with a small shake of her head.

"No. Not of the possibility of being married into the South. What I am scared of however, is losing myself if I do." Silver murmured and she looked back down at the worn-down stones that made up the battlements of their wall. "It's stupid." She said and he was shaking his head.

"It's not stupid at all. You are just scared to lose, what makes you into who you are. It isn't exactly a fear that people would see as a normal sort of fear, admittedly, however... why did you tell me?" Theon asked and she looked at him, as she shrugged.

"Because you were the only person who asked me, Theon. At this rate, my mother would probably have me try to marry another Lannister by now or arguably even worse, a Frey." She said and Theon scoffed.

"Have you told Robb?" He asked and she looked at him with the same look on her face, as the very same one that he looked at her with after her briefly clear misunderstanding with question pertaining to Joffrey's personality. "Oh right. I forget that you two practically have the same brain." Theon said and she was nodding slightly.

"Is there anything else that you feel like you have forgotten?" Silver was only half-joking and he looked at her with a shrug.

"Why did you keep me from tearing into Joffrey Baratheon, when he came and started insulting my family?" The question was brutal and she looked at where their hands were resting on the battlement, as she briefly was shaking her head at his words.

"Because you know as well as I do that the Queen would have your head for it, Theon. That or the wall and you do not have protection afforded with being a child anymore." Silver pointed out and Theon scoffed.

"As if I ever did in the first place, you mean." He snapped suddenly angry at something and Silver looked at him as she seemed confused.

"What?" It was a simple one, but it was still a question.

"Ward is just a fancy way of saying hostage. Your father would kill me if mine ever rebelled again." Theon spat out and Silver shook her head slightly.

"We wouldn't let him." Silver murmured and Theon looked at her with a very confused expression on his face at her words, as she shook her head. "You are a Greyjoy, yes, but we saw you as a Stark as well. Even Jon did." She said as she thought that she saw tears gathering in his eyes.

"I thought that you all hated me." He muttered and she tilted her head a bit at him, as she looked to be somewhat close to laughing.

"Hated you? Have you been living under a bloody rock?" She asked and he looked insulted. "We never hated you. We just didn't understand some of the things that you found funny or amusing, so it may have come off as a bit of annoyance." She said as his face switched from close to tears to pissed off and she shook her head. "Of course. I get too close to emotions and the facial expression changes. As usual, I never understood that either." She murmured and for a while, they simply stood in silence on the wall, as if they were on watch.