THE LITTLE PUP (EDITING AND REWRITING)

1.

The morning was as cold as any other in Winterfell. It had snowed in the past days, which was always good as it meant that Lilia would certainly be throwing snowballs at her siblings and vice-versa.

Sansa would not be too happy about that though. They had decided to sew a dress for each other – both in a light blue fabric as it was one of their favourite colours. Sansa had done a better job, being the more talented in the feminine arts, but Lilia did her best. She tried to convince Arya to participate but her youngest sister had no desire to engage in such activities nor in using dresses, for that matter.

Three girls and all so different from one another. Her father always said that her sisters had grabbed two different sides of her – Sansa had gotten the lady and Arya had gotten the rebel. Lilia liked both her sisters and felt very protective of them – she was the eldest girl after all – but she had always been closer to Sansa, who was only a year younger than her and shared interests in things Arya did not. She wished they could all get along but it didn't seem possible, as Sansa and Arya seemed more like cat and dog and were always at each other's throats.

Lilia used to intervene but as the years went by and their differences grew larger by the day, she decided to ignore their quarrels and whenever they would argue, she would get on her horse and ride away. Of course, her mother never liked that very much so she had to be discreet and Hodor would generally never say word... mainly because he couldn't, even if he wanted to.

That day had been one of them. She sensed the tension and removed herself from the scene, riding her horse through the village and the nearby woods that were filled with snow. It always felt good to breathe the humidity in the air and feel the wind hit her face. She cherished every moment. It served to keep her sanity and she liked to be alone sometimes. She could be free to be herself and not who she was meant to be.

As she galloped inside the courtyard, she noticed her siblings sword-fighting. Bran was fighting Jon and had just been knocked to the ground. It was no wonder as Jon had years and years of training and Bran was but a boy of eight, six years younger than his opponent.

She saw in this an opportunity to tease them all and to cheer Bran, who didn't seem to happy. Rickon, her youngest brother, was cheerful when he saw her and started clapping excitingly but the same didn't go for all her brothers.

"Stop showing off! Lilia!" Bran said frustratingly, dropping his shield and sword in the ground. She smirked as she rode around them and then past them, jumping off her horse and giving it to Hodor, walking slowly towards the boys.

"Jon is older than you, it's not a fair fight, Bran. Try something else" she advised her brother, messing the auburn curls that he had inherited from their mother. He shook his head in impatience and slapped her hand away which only made her giggle as he quickly fixed his hair.

"Lady Lilia Stark" Jon teased, clumsily bowing to her as women did and earning laughter from Robb, who stood next to them. It was her turn to narrow her eyes and punch his shoulder, which only earned more laughter.

It was common knowledge that Lilia wasn't an example for ladylikeness and the boys would never miss an opportunity to rub it in her face. It had become to recurring joke since when they were children, Lilia had fallen from her curtsy. It had been one of the most embarrassing in her entire life and to that day, every single time that she had to do so, she'd make sure to be careful not to fall again. She'd been successful in her mission as that never happened ever since then but the joke continued and so she was never able to forget about it. "Would you be honoured to show the brat... Prince Joffrey the castle?"

She rolled her eyes at that. A raven had arrived a few weeks ago from the South and rumour had it that it was about asking her hand in marriage. Sansa was hysterical when she heard and was not shy to suppose that Lilia could marry the Prince of the Seven Kingdoms, Joffrey.