Lya puts her hand on her second youngest brother's shoulder, feeling the fur between her fingertips. She stares straight, looking at the man adorned in black. A man of the Night's Watch. Her eyes find Jon who stands on the other side of their brother Bran. He had confessed to her his plans to join the Watch. A plan she herself despised.
"I know I broke my oath. And I know I'm a deserter. I should have gone back to the Wall and warned them. But I saw what I saw. I saw the White Walkers. People need to know. If you can get word to my family, tell them I'm no coward. Tell them I'm sorry." The man's final words send chills down Lya's spine. His words should wrench her heart, saddened for the mans family. But all she can feel is the inevitable fear. Winter is coming. And if what he says is true, darkness follows.
Her father nods yes, and the man of the Night's Watch is positioned on the tree limb that serves as a block. Eddard Stark draws Ice from a scabbard held by Theon. The sword is so tall it reaches the height of Bran himself. Bran and Lya both note the man's whispering but neither can hear the words spoken. Their father bows his head to his sword, speaking the oh so familiar words.
Lya has been there for every execution since the death of a childhood friend. After that Ned Stark saw fit that she should not be sheltered any longer. Catelyn desperately disagreed but Ned won that fight. Lya accompanied Robb to every one atop her mare Calla. A loyal creature who had been trained by the girl since she was a filly. Lya seemed to have an apt relationship with most animals.
"Don't look away." Jon spoke to Bran as the Warden of the North spoke the vows. "Father will know if you do." Lya puts her warm hand on the back of Bran's neck, doing her best to comfort the boy. He was ten. The same age she was when she met death for the first time. Their father swings the sword and in one swift slice the mans head goes tumbling away.
Robb comes to the two, smiling at his sister and wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Their father pulls Bran to the side to say a few words and Lya's twin pulls her to their horses. "Feel like a race?" He asks as Lya pets her black and white speckled mare. A smirk pulls at her lips and she pulls herself atop the horses saddle.
"Is that even a question brother?" She says as competitive as ever. She recounted the times her and her brothers had fought against each other in any competition thinkable.
Robb gets on top of his own steed, followed by their bastard brother. "Well it was nice to see you boys. But I have a race to win." She kicks her horse foreword, feeling the wind in her hair as the cold bites at the tip of her nose and tops of her ears. This was everything the North was to her. Racing. Running. Free.
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When they reach the bridge, Lya is far ahead. She looks back consistently at her brothers only to prove that she was ahead like always. As she came to the rotting deer, it was the smell she noticed first. She pulled Calla to a halt so quickly that her front legs reared into the air before landing hard on the wooden bridge. She nearly jumps from the horse when she sees the sight.
