Carliene Stark

II Epilogue

Arya

I licked my lips. The blood of the stag slipped from my chin, still warm on my tongue. It had been a large proud animal. One of the largest we had caught in months. It had deadly teeth on its head, which it used to fight heroically, injuring three of my cousins and actually killing one.

Now it was meat at my feet, filling my belly with satisfaction. My grey cousins swarmed around me, nipping and picking at whatever they could sink their teeth in. A low growl was enough to put them into place. Food was growing scarce and many of them were growing scrawnier and more desperate.

It was their own choice. There was more than enough to eat in these lands. Sweet things. Ripe things. Red men that simply needed to be plucked from the trees. They were already dead and sometimes rotten enough to fall apart. But they still tasted good and they filled the belly.

The weather was growing darker and harder as well. The ground had grown hard and the air cut your throat, but the snow was great to play in. And a streak of blood had appeared in the sky.

And I still played sometimes. Not often. But sometimes.

The cold also meant that rather than rotting, the bodies of the hanged men would freeze, keeping them fresh.

Only a few of my many cousins shared in a meal made of man. The others were still afraid. I did not mind. It meant there would be more for me. And I needed my strength.

Something was coming. Something darker and colder than this weather. I could feel it in my bones.

I sensed something different with my nose and ears. A great pack of men, passing through these lands. They had horses and fires and sometimes the smell of their burned meat caused my cousins to grow restless with wild appetite.

But I knew better. Although we had taken down packs of men before, torn them from their horses and evaded their long, sharp teeth, this was a size that should not be messed with. We needed to bide our time. To watch from the safety of the woods and to stalk them at a distance. 

My curiosity was not just food though. There was something there. Something that pulled at something deep inside me. Something familiar and yet faint like the memory of being a pup.

A familiar scent, a familiar feeling. Something that some deep and hidden part inside me recognised. Something the wolf remembered and Arya Stark knew.