[Godswood, Winterfell]
Catelyn enters the godswood, where she knows Ned to go after executing men, and is overcome with unease. She never liked Winterfell's godswood, it's dull and has a sense of dread, the complete opposite of the warm and sunny one back in her childhood home of Riverrun. But she presses on and finds Ned sitting under the heart tree, polishing Ice. He looks up and sheaths the greatsword.
Ned: How are the children?
Catelyn: They are checking on the boy, and naming their direwolves no doubt.
He nods, then his eyes drop and he lets out a long sigh.
Catelyn: You seem to be handling it worse than Brandon. What's the matter?
Ned: This is the fourth deserter this year, and he was mad as a wolf with a stone in its paw. Something had scared him into running.
Ned puts his sword down beside him and he leans back against the tree.
Ned: The Night's Watch isn't what it used to be, or what it should be. Its numbers have dropped below a thousand, from deserters and deaths. If this keeps up our bannermen may have to ride against Mance Rayder in their place.
Catelyn: There are much worse things to be found beyond the wall than the Wildlings.
Ned: The Others have been dead for eight thousand years. Luwin and I have doubts if they ever existed that is.
Catelyn: Dire Wolves were thought extinct below the wall until today.
She sits next to him and puts her hand on his.
Ned: Eye, I suppose you're right.
He notices her holding a letter.
Ned: What do you have?
Catelyn: My good brother Jon Aryn is dead. King Robert wrote the letter himself.
She hands Ned the letter and he reads the first part.
Ned: Jon is dead. I can't believe it. It feels like only yesterday that Robert and I were still his wards.
Catelyn: I'm worried about Lyssa.
Ned: You should take the children and go to see her and Robert. The company will do them a world of good.
Catelyn: That will have to wait. Robert Baratheon is coming here to Winterfell with most of his court.
She points to the second paragraph of the letter and Ned reads it.
Ned: That is good. It's been nine years since I saw him last, and a reunion is long overdue.
Catelyn: But you just found a direwolf dead in the snow with the antlers of a stag in its neck. Not a good omen before the Baratheons visit the Starks.
Ned: It is merely a coincidence.
Catelyn: You're hopefully right. Just don't get too comfortable with him here.
Ned: But why would Robert be coming here?
Catelyn: He likely means to make you the Hand of the King in place of Jon.
Ned's eyes widen, then settle as he thinks about it. He stands up and behind pacing.
Ned: I should refuse it. My duty is here in Winterfell, in the North.
Catelyn: But the king should have someone he trusts as his hand. When men lose their fathers they often turn to their brothers.
Ned: Perhaps, but still, I'm unsure about being so close to the Lannisters.
Catelyn: That is a sentiment I have no counter for.
YOU ARE READING
Lion Knight of the Northern Sky{Hiatus}
FantasyEddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North had just executed a deserter of the Nightseatch, accompanied by his sons Robb and Brandon Stark, and his bastard son Jon Snow. On the way back, they recover six dire wolf pups after their moth...
