ʏᴏᴜ ғᴜᴄᴋᴇᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ sᴜɴsʜɪɴᴇ

[wolfchild]

ᴡʜᴏ: arya + robb, arya + lulu
ᴡʜᴀᴛ: stuff
ᴡʜᴇɴ: backdated and forwarddated. I am the best at filling this out.
ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ: the dead zone border + mansion

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[wolfchild]

[ Arya does her chores dutifully. Once Aemon and Northern Son are both watered and hobbled, she returns to Robb. She pulls out her journal and filters a quiet message. Arya motions for him to get his. ]

Can you see what I said?

[wolfskin]

[ When he looks to her it looks as if she pulled him from a daze, confused he pulls his journal out and opens it, looking for what she wrote. For a moment the world seems to stop and he looks up to her. ]

...I can.

[wolfchild]

[ She turns her own journal toward him. The message itself is inconsequential. The filter is the only part that matters: to skinchangers. ]

I can do it too. I thought it scary at first, but it's nice. It feels like putting on your favorite and warmest coat in winter. It's like coming home.

[wolfskin]

[ It is too much to process, he brings his hands up to his face and inhales sharply. Skinchangers. He can still remember the stories Old Nan told him as a child, the same stories she would tell Bran over and over again. That- it can't be possible. ]

Gods be good.

[wolfchild]

It's true. I can prove it. It's not bad, Robb, really.

[ She grabs his hand. Her heart is beating too fast. She can feel it in her chest:boom boom boom. ]

[wolfskin]

How? [ How is this good? In this moment he cannot see it, he cannot see how being a skinchanger is good in any way. ]

[wolfchild]

Do you think me bad?

[wolfskin]

What? [ He looks at her, mouth agape. ] No, I do not think you bad.

[wolfchild]

Do you trust me?

[wolfskin]

I do.

[wolfchild]

Then believe me! I-I can show it to you! I can wear Nymeria's skin. She's never hurt and neither am I. It only hurts when we go in there. [ She points into the Dead Zone. ] That's why they're so unhappy in there. They can't feel us anymore. It's like losing a leg and they mislike it.

[wolfskin]

[ It sounds mad, it really does, and if he had not seen what he thinks he saw- if he had not seen the filter she wrote him, he would truly think his sister mad. But he knows her, he thinks he knows her well enough that she would not make up such an outlandish tale.

And the pain he felt entering the Dead Zone, the way his wolf reacted making his horse throw him... ]

Forgive me, I do not think you false. You would not make up such a like. This is all just- [ Too much. ]

[wolfchild]

[ Arya bites her lip. She's pushing, she knows. She swallows her fear. ]

I'm sorry.

[wolfskin]

[ He shakes his head, trying to give her a reassuring smile. It is comes out uneasy instead. ]

It is alright.

[wolfchild]

[ Shame colors her. She has to look away. ]

Should we make a fire?

[wolfskin]

Aye, we should.

[ He shifts, moving to begin the task. ]

[wolfchild]

[ Arya gathers branches and kindling. She builds it with ease born of practice. Once she's finished, she sits back on her heels for Robb to light it. She chews on her lip. ]

[wolfskin]

[ He fumbles at first before finally lighting it. Once that task is completely he sits himself down, hands linked in front of his face as he stares off into the flames. ]

I felt the pain, when we crossed into the Dead Zone. It startled Grey Wind and me, it felt as if someone tore my arm from my body.

[wolfchild]

[ arya pauses before nodding. ]

I've been here thrice. It never gets better. I didn't have Nymeria with me the first. I found her in there. Jon had gone. And you. I thought I could find you. [ she makes a moue. ] She found me.

The second time Mother let me because Zelos promised to look after me. Nymeria was unhappy the entire time. I didn't know why it felt so awful. People kept telling me I had magic, but I don't. [ even now, she refuses it. what she does, that's not magic. it doesn't feel like magic. it feels meant to be. like finishing a puzzle she did not know she had begun. ] It's different. I dream I'm a wolf and it's really happening. Like she's me.

[wolfskin]

[ Robb smiles, in a way he isn't certain why he does, but he does. ]

Mother once told me that Grey Wind is apart of me, to fear him would be to fear myself. [ Would that I listened. ]

[wolfchild]

Mother is right.

[wolfskin]

She is. [ He brings a hand to his face. ] I had been so blinded by grief and doubt I did not see it.

[wolfchild]

[ she misunderstands the reason behind the admission. ]

I don't think Grey Wind minds. He loves you. I had to throw rocks at Nymeria to make her leave and she still loves me. She helped me. I used to dream of a wolf howling before anything bad happened. Everyone else laughed and said I had wolves on the brain. But I always woke up in time and woke them up too so we weren't killed in our sleep.

[wolfskin]

I am sure he does. [ Even when he spurned him the wolf tried to warn Robb, he wonders if he became frustrated with his master after a time?

He looks to the wolf before his gaze moves back to the fire. ]