The she-wolf and the lion

Chapter 125 - in the woods at Winterfell

Jaime, Lyra and Daemon are at Winterfell together with Bronn and Will, visiting lord Benjen and lady Ariella, Lyra's mother and father. Lord Eddard and lady Catelyn and their three sons, Lyra's 17 year old cousin Robb, 9 years old Bran and 6 year old Rickon also live at Winterfell, in their own part of the castle.
"Join us in tomorrow's hunt, Jaime, bring Daemon, Bronn and Will with you", Benjen tells his son in-law. "And bring my daughter."
"Who will be going on tomorrow's hunt, m'lord?" Jaime asks.
"Me, Lyra's uncle Eddard, Lyra's brothers Daeron, Willem and Jon and Lyra's cousin Robb, and like I said, I would like you, Daemon, Bronn, Will and my daughter to join us, I know it's not exactly tradition to bring women on a hunt, but you know what kind of woman my daughter is, she's an excellent horsewoman, she's also, don't tell my sons I said this, a better hunter than the lot of them, and she's the one who will rule the north after me, I think it's only fitting that she joins us", Benjen says.
"I know very well what kind of woman she is, I've seen how well she handles her weapons and her horse", Jaime says with a proud smile. "And we trained our son together when he started his training, we did that with both our sons."
"Where are my other grandchildren?" Benjen asks. "And my great grandchildren?"
"Gerion is in King's Landing with his aunt, your daughter Queen Brianna, and his uncle, my brother lord Tyrion, Tyrion is acting as hand of the king to king Rhaegar, Gerion is in his cousin's prince guard", Jaime says. "Daemon's wife is at Casterly Rock with their children and with our little twins and with Bronn's lady wife and son."
"We are planning a betrothal for my nephew Robb, the youth over there, the one with the red-brown curls", Benjen says, nodding his head towards the youth in question.
"Who does lord Eddard plan to marry his son off to?" Jaime asks.
"My brother plans to marry his son off to the king's younger sister, princess Daenerys", Benjen says.
"The old king wanted my body and seed for the princess when she wasn't more than 9 or 10 years old", Jaime says.
"I remember, I sold one of my daughters to the old king as bride to the new king", Benjen says. "So I could buy your blood and seed for my eldest daughter."
"And I'm glad you did, m'lord", Jaime says.
"As am I, my daughter's happiness is worth everything to me, even though I may not have been overjoyed about it in the beginning", Benjen says.
"Now tell me more about tomorrow's hunt, lord Stark, what are we hunting and what can we expect?" Jaime asks.
"Elk, boar, any sort of game we can find, basically", Benjen says. "I would suggest you bring all kinds of weapons, and please, we are family now, Jaime, say Benjen."

The next morning, Jaime and Lyra wake in her old rooms while Daemon and Bronn share the rooms that Lyra and Brianna shared in their youth. Lyra summons servants to tend to them and tell them to bring food to break the fast.

When they are washed, dressed and done, Jaime and Lyra go to the great hall where their heir, their guard captain and his second in command wait with Benjen, Eddard, Robb, Jon, Daeron and Willem.
"Are we ready?" Benjen asks. "We will have six servants with us and four of our guards."
"We're ready, let's go", Lyra says.

Jaime, Lyra, Daemon, Bronn and Will ride out in to the woods as one hunting party while Benjen, Eddard, Robb, Daeron, Jon and Willem ride out as a second hunting party.

The hunt lasts all day and the company returns to Winterfell in the evening, right before dark, Jaime, Bronn, Eddard, Lyra, Robb, Jon, Benjen and Daemon all with game slung over the backs of their horses.

The hunters leave the animals to the cooks and tanners, Jaime making sure that the elk skins shot by himself, Lyra and Daemon are being taken care of and brought to him as well as the skin of the bear taken down by himself and Daemon and the rabbit skins of all rabbits taken down by the three of them and the skin of the wolf taken down by Lyra.

Bronn himself makes sure that the skins of the game he took down, are brought to him.
"Now tell us, how was the hunt? How did my grandson fare?" Ariella asks her daughter when they sit together in the great hall of Winterfell.
"Jaime took down two deers, an elk and two rabbits, Daemon took down a deer, an elk and three rabbits, I took down an elk, three deer, four rabbits and a wolf, the three of us together took down a bear", Lyra says proudly. "Father, uncle Eddard and Robb all took down three elks each and six rabbits all together, Bronn and Jon took down two deer, an elk and four rabbits each."
"That is wonderful", Ariella says proudly. "Where are the men now?"
"The wolf put up a bit of a struggle with Jaime when he took him down and now maester Luwin is taking care of him, Daemon is with his father, he's unharmed, Bronn and Will are taking care of our horses, father and uncle Eddard are also being taken care of by Luwin, a couple scratches, Robb is being looked over but seemed okay, as is Jon, Daeron and Willem are in the yard still, I believe", Lyra says.
"I see", Ariella says, visibly proud of her grandson. "You and Jaime seem to have been teaching your son well."
"He is as good a hunter as me, Jaime and Bronn", Lyra says.
"The woods are amazing here, we don't really have that at the Rock", Daemon says, coming in to the great hall with his father and Bronn in tow.
"I know, I loved the woods growing up here", Lyra says. "The hunting here is great, especially this time of year, there's a lot of game in the woods."
"Really great", Daemon says. "And yeah, considering how much game we caught and brought back."

In the evening there's a great feast, before the evening meal, servants bring the flayed skins of the deer, elk, rabbits, wolf and bear caught by Lyra, Jaime and Daemon, to the chambers shared by Jaime and Lyra.

Lyra has her ladies help her dress for the evening and Jaime's groomsmen helps him and Daemon. While they are in the great hall of Winterfell, her ladies and Jaime's groomsmen carefully pack the skins in their packing, Daemon's bag and skins laid on the daybed, Jaime's skins laid on his side of the bed and Lyra's skins on her side of the bed.

That evening, Daemon proudly gets to sit in the high seat in the great hall of Winterfell, his father on one side and his mother on the other with Benjen on Lyra's other side and her mother on her father's other side.

On lady Ariella's other side, lady Catelyn sits with lord Eddard beside her. Next to lady Catelyn, lord Benjen's other children sits with their cousins.

That evening, Jaime and Lyra looks over the skins and decides that they will use the bear skin and the wolf skin as pelts for their bed at Casterly Rock and have skins of deer made into a large blanket. The rabbit skins they decide to have made into small clothes for them.