THE LITTLE PUP (EDITING AND REWRITING)

Chapter 8 | People grow apart

"Hey, loser!" Lilia sat next to Jon. It was already night and she hadn't seen him during the day. It was like he had disappeared from the world. The feast was going to start at any moment and she should already be there but she didn't care what so ever. She needed to see her brother, that was a priority. "I was starting to think that you had evaporated! I looked for you all day long!"

"Shouldn't you be at your feast?" he asked as he stood in there. "The Queen won't like that you don't get there in time"

"Well, I won't like it if you keep avoiding me, especially in my name day" she pointed out, making him look at her. "And I will totally be offended if you don't show up at the feast, my feast"

"It isn't appropriate for a bastard to join a feast, especially if the Royal Family is attending," he said. His voice sounded hurtful. He was suffering at that moment and Lilia felt bad about it. She was sure that it was her mother's responsibility and that angered her. Jon didn't deserve the way he was being treated, he deserved way better.

"Well, it isn't appropriate for my brother to skip the feast organized in my honour" she insisted and put her hand over his. "Jon, you are my brother and I love you. I don't care about what my mother will think if you join us, I don't care what the Queen, the King, the Prince or whoever else thinks about you joining us. For better or for worse, you are my brother and you are one of my best friends. You HAVE to attend"

"I'm not your brother, I'm a bastard. I'm not a Stark" the boy insisted in pointing it out. It was hard for Lilia to see one of the boys she had grown up with sad.

"You may not have the Stark name but to me, you are a Stark. You are Jon Stark. You are part of the pack. Remember, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives" she tried to convince him and then, out of nowhere he dropped her the bomb.

"I'm going to take the black" suddenly Lilia's world fell apart. First, her father was going to march south, then Jon was marching north and leaving his family behind. She hugged him as tight as she could, not letting go of him for nothing in the world, then tears started to stream down her face. "Don't cry, Lia. It's your fifteenth name day!"

"I'll always support you no matter what but why does it feel like the pack is falling apart?" Jon didn't know what to say to his half-sister. There wasn't a right answer and there certainly wasn't an explanation to that. He knew it, and so did she. Nevertheless, neither of the two could help but think about the matter, not even for a little bit.

"It was bound to happen, Lia. We all knew that, at some point, you, Sansa and Arya would leave Winterfell and get married to highborn Lords. We all knew that one day Robb would take father's place. Just as we all knew that one day, Bran and Rickon will leave Winterfell as well. People grow apart when they grow up. Think about it as a matter of fate and, about fate we only know one thing. If it is meant to be, then it will be" that was the best he could come up with. Lilia understood what he had said, but she couldn't bring herself to accept that it was happening. "It is time for me to follow my fate and accept the call. I've spoken to Uncle Benjen and we leave in two days.

"Two days? So soon?" she indagated and he nodded. "Then, you must go to the feast with me! It's my last two days with you, Jon Snow! There is no way I'm getting you out of my sight for that long!"

"Lady Stark will hate it if..." as he was about to find another excuse, Lilia interrupted him. She wasn't going to let her brother leave Winterfell thinking that he didn't belong to that family.

"Well, the good thing is that it's my name day, not Lady Stark's. End of the conversation! Now, come on!" she pushed him by the hand and headed to the feast. When she got there, all the people were already drinking and laughing.

"Lady Lilia" she heard a male voice speak to her and it was someone who she hadn't met at that point. "Happy name day. I'm Tyrion Lannister but you might have already figured that out"

"Thank you very much, My Lord. I would have figured it out other ways since you are the cleverest among most of the people inside this room" she was being true to her words. It had reached her ears that Tyrion Lannister visited the library. She was taken by surprise since all she had heard was that he would most likely reside in some brothel while they were there. Probably his sister or his brother handled the situation and forced him to come over and validate the family name.

"I take it that you are speaking of my nephew" she couldn't say that she was... but she also couldn't say that she wasn't since she would be lying to the man's face. Fortunately for her, he didn't give her the time to respond. "It's alright, I won't say a word. I see you are just as beautiful as I had been told. A winter rose, indeed"

"Thank you, My Lord" she gave him a kind, true smile. "I hope you enjoy the feast, my mother worked very hard to please you all"

"Thank you, My Lady. I shall enjoy it" she finally got inside with Jon and looked around, trying to find Robb, when she found something else that brought her great happiness.

"It looks like Sansa will be Queen after all" Jon commented, and she laughed. Joffrey was talking with Sansa and they seemed really into each other. It was all good news because she knew that he wouldn't try to get with her and because Sansa would have a dream come true. She then looked at Robb, who was speaking to some Northerners who had also been invited.

"She is. All her dreams coming true..." Lilia observed. She didn't know if that night would also be one of the last nights she would see her best friend. She didn't know if Sansa would leave with their father to marry Joffrey. What she knew was that the uncertainty in her life was driving her crazy.

"Where is my favourite rider?" she heard a voice say. Whose voice it was? Someone she knew very well and that would take her brother away from her. She turned to see the owner of the voice and smiled straight away once she saw him. "Happy name day"

"UNCLE BENJEN!" she jumped into his arms. "Where have you been? Do you even know how long it has been since I last set eyes on you?"

"I've been defending the Wall for your safety" he replied and she crossed her arms impatiently. "I take it that Jon already told you that he would be joining me along with the little Lannister"

"Lord Tyrion is joining the Night's Watch?" she questioned sort of confused. She didn't think of the broken Lannister as the kind to take the black, especially due to his lack of control when women were being discussed. "Does he know what he is going to vow and the consequences of not keeping that vow, or is he going blindfolded or perhaps def?"

"No, he's just going to see the Wall and ride North with us. He says he wants to be at the top of the world and piss on it" the man explained and she rolled her eyes. Certainly, that was way too much information for her taste and she would rather have stayed ignorant. Her eyes met Sansa's, who was now alone since Prince Joffrey wandered off, to the Gods know to where.

"I want to dance!" the young she-wolf declared and both her uncle and her half-brother looked at her in a strange way. She knew neither of them would dance but she didn't care, she didn't lose anything for trying.

"You can't dance alone..." Jon pointed out. It was true, but she also knew that it was her feast so, she pushed the thought of the King's and the Queen's presence aside.

"I won't dance alone!"