The Wolf Princess

Chapter 1 | Mockingbird

Lilia coughed as her eyes opened and her hands buried themselves in the sand. She tried to sit on what she presumed was a beach, but she didn't find the strength in her arms to do so. Adjusting to the light was a task which took her a lot of effort to manage, but eventually, the blurry surroundings became neater and she noticed how she was in an unknown place.

Confusion.

Her head hurt as much as if it had been banged against a stone wall and the fact that she could barely remember her name did not help on easing her nerves. She was lost somewhere she had no idea of where it was but then, as she closed her eyes multiple times, glimpses of the night helped her realize what was going on.

She looked around, to see if she could find anyone who had been in that boat with her... but all she could see were rocks. She stayed where she was, thanking for the first time since she had woken up how lucky she had been to have survived.

During the desperation of the night before, as the water kept banging the little ship and waves swallowed it, Lilia thought she was going to die. She prayed to the Gods but deep down she knew it was unlikely she could ever make it.

Then, she noticed the waves bringing another body to shore.

The captain, she thought. It must be the captain.

However, when the waves left the body on the sand and Lilia paid extreme attention to it, she realized it was not the captain.

Tears threatened to stream down her face but she held herself back. She crawled next to the body and she hesitantly touched the body's neck. No heartbeat.

Then, at last, she balled her eyes out.

Her direwolf, Winter Rose, was gone... dead. Her only companion was dead and had left her alone and that was all her fault. She was now alone in the world.

Winter Rose was the only thing she had which reminded her of home. She wasn't just company or protection – Winter Rose was her father, her mother, her brothers, her sisters... Winterfell. It was home.

Now, Lilia had nothing left to bring her back home, even if for a moment. She had nothing else left to hold on to. She had nothing else to remind herself of her father and of her little siblings that she could barely remember.

"NO!" she screamed as she laid her head on her wolf's belly. That would be the very last time she was going to feel the soft fur which had given her comfort on so many times. She was never going to feel the warmth or that feeling of protection that she would always feel whenever she was near her direwolf.

The guilt was quick to cloud her mind.

I should have left her at Winterfell with Bran and Rickon, where she would have been given comfort and would grow on the company of Bran's unnamed direwolf and Shaggydog, she thought to herself. Or perhaps I should have left Winter Rose with Sansa, in King's Landing. It was not the safest place in the world but it was much safer than the journey I put her through. It was all my fault!

She wanted to weep and punish herself for what she had done to the one who had shown her the most loyalty and respect.

But she could not, and she knew it.

She had to leave that beach and she would have to leave the body of what had once been her greatest companion and go on. The longer she took the hardest it would be for her to go by as unnoticed by the Queen and the King, and the most unlikely it would be for her to reunite with her brother.

She couldn't be caught. She had to go back to Robb, she had to help him win the wicked war which had taken so much from her and then, she had to get Sansa out of King's Landing, the furthest away from Joffrey and Cersei the better.