255Six of Eddard Stark's seven children were looking at their new Direwolf cubs in awe and amazement, from little Rickon to his heir Robb and bastard Jon, they were in joy at their new companions. Things were moving faster than Eddard liked them to, finding a dead Direwolf with a living litter was one thing, but coupling that with the death of his second father and an impending visit by his old friend and now King Robert, and Ned was uneasy to say the least. This was the North, things didn't happen that fast up here. But still, he would do his duty and host the King as would be expected of him. "Father!" Arya cried, rushing over to him and hugging him tightly. "Thank you thank you thank you."
Ned smiled and rubbed his daughter's head softly. "Don't leave her Arya," he told her and her eyes widened and she rushed back to the pup she had left on the ground and was already crying out softly. She picked up the pup and cradled it once more. "Listen carefully," Ned said, and instantly he had the attention of his sons and daughters. "Winterfell is about to become busier than ever, the King, my old friend Robert Baratheon is riding for Winterfell." Robb and Bran looked half proud half amazed, Sansa blushed, Arya was more focussed on her wolf, Jon was silent and Rickon was confused.
"Do you know why father?" Jon asked.
Ned had his suspicions, but did not voice them, "no, I do not," he said, "but you will all be presentable many of the King's household will be coming, as will relatives and retainers. According to the letter, two of the Queen's brothers will be in the royal party, as will the King's niece and nephew, his children, of course, and many others." Robb nodded, dutifully, but at the same time looked desperate to ask a question. But it seemed that his daughter had gotten there first.
"What is the Prince like father," Sansa was breathless.
Ned smiled again, "I have not seen the boy," he said, "I am unsure, you will see him yourself when he arrives." He looked to the seven wolves, Robb had two in his lap, one nuzzling at his leathers whilst the other tried to crawl out from his lap, Jon kept his albino within arm's reach but still let it explore, the others were holding them close. It seemed he had made the right choice in keeping them alive, the Direwolves would, with some fortune, grow to be loyal guardians to his children. "The wolves will be restrained when the King arrives," Ned told him and his children looked aghast, "I do not think the Queen will think well of them."
"I can't restrain this one father," Robb said, indicating the one that was constantly trying to get away, it bore similar colours to the one Robb had claimed as his own, but darker, colder.
"Then we had best find it's master then hadn't we." Robb, Arya, Bran, Rickon, Jon and Sansa all looked to him with amazement, giddy with excitement.
"You mean…?" Arya said, breathlessly, just as Sansa had been when talking about the prince.
Ned nodded, and looked to Robb. "I shall write you a letter," he said to his son and heir. "Take your horse and ten men and deliver it to Lord Bolton at the Dreadfort." Robb's mouth curled into a large smile, as was to be expected, "it is time that Tristan came home." Robb, Jon, Bran and Arya all cheered, Sansa clapped excitedly and Rickon grinned.
Ned however only gave a half smile. They saw their brother coming home, but Ned was only reminded of the incident that had caused his second son, Robb's twin brother, and the best young swordsman in the North to spend a year in service to Lord Bolton at the Dreadfort. Tristan murdered someone on Dreadfort land. An execution more than anything, there were witnesses. However, it was not for Tristan to take the law into his own hands, particularly when in the lands of one of his father's bannermen. His wife had been distraught at the news and Tristan's siblings had been either incensed, in the case of Bran and Arya, or deeply saddened, as was the case for the others. Catelyn had begged him to appease Lord Bolton in other ways, but Tristan had to learn responsibility for his actions. The boy was too much like Brandon, he snuck out of Winterfell in his youth enough times to turn a man grey before his time, and, was, more than once accused of being in bed with a nobleman's daughter.
It had been ten months since then, but if he waited for the Royal party to arrive before recalling his son, it was likely that he would be there for the latter half of the visit at most, and his Direwolf might grow to be too independent without him. He would apologise, but he hoped Lord Bolton would understand, if not, then he did not, but if Ned was going to be offered the position of Hand of the King, then he would see his son again before he left. "Robb," Ned said, and his son broke from hugging Arya to look at him, "you best make ready, I want you to be gone as soon as possible, the rest of you, do what you are told by the Household, Winterfell will be ready to receive the king." His stern message was taken seriously it seemed, by all his children, for which he was glad. He would have quite enough to do without chasing Arya around to tell her to listen to her mother or her Septa, or to tell Bran to stop climbing and clean himself up to present himself properly.
Ned returned to his solar, thinking of what had to be done. The king's letter had mentioned that his niece and nephew would be coming with, but nothing of their father. It seemed that Robert's feelings for his brothers were as strong as ever, and that Stannis would remain in the south and the capital. There was also the matter of the Queen's brothers. Ned would try to keep his feelings about that family back, thankfully he didn't have to deal with the other brother, he was already uneasy about entertaining three of them, let alone four, but as far as he was aware, Lord Tywin's second son, and heir to Casterly Rock, was still in the East, he had fled there some time ago, no one was entirely sure why. But the Imp and the Kingslayer, no those two would still be coming to Winterfell.
He sat back and sighed, wondering what had happened to make the gods curse him so. At that point his wife entered the room, dressed in a blue dress with a red outline, the colours of House Tully. "Ned," she said, coming over to him and hugging him from behind. "I hear you are sending for Tristan," she whispered in his ear, her tone eager.
Ned smiled, "and who told you that?" He asked, "do I need to cuff Arya? Or was it Robb?"
"You know he has been feeling absent without his twin," Catelyn replied, confirming Ned's suspicions that Robb had told her. Catelyn was right, until he had permitted his son to have the Direwolf, it had been a long time since Robb sincerely smiled, but when Tristan had been here, then Robb had smiled as much as any other boy. Ned often lay awake at night, wondering what would become of Tristan in the Dreadfort. He would not have gone to such an extreme had Tristan not stoked up a fast friendship with Lord Bolton's heir, among other noble sons from the North.
"That he has," Ned admitted, "but I did what I had to, Tristan had to be reined in."
He did not see it, but he felt his wife's face fall at the comment. "I know," she whispered, "even Arya is not so wilful, though I think that is in part out of fear that she will suffer the same punishment."
"Aye," Ned said, "she never ran out of Winterfell, she ran all around it, but never left the walls."
His wife nodded, "still, I wonder if Tristan can be reined in, he was always, by nature, a little wild."
"That is why he fit in so well with Robb," Ned commented, "Robb would temper him." They fell into silence once again, Ned and his wife looking out over the castle and the North beyond it. "Do we have enough food to feed the entire royal party?"
Catelyn unwrapped her arms and moved to a different chair. "We will need to bring some more in, if rumours about your friend's appetite are to be believed."
"Double them," Ned replied with a small smile, he remembered Robert well.
Catelyn gave a small laugh of her own. "What else will we require for the visit?"
Ned rubbed his temples in thought, "Robert will want a hunt, which means I should limit the amount of hunting in the Wolfswood, Robert never returns from a hunt until he himself has caught something."
"Entertainment of course," Catelyn added, "jugglers, singers, fools."
"Plenty of them will be coming with the king," Ned muttered.
"You should not speak in such a way of the family of the Queen."
Ned nodded, not trusting his tongue when it came to the family of Casterly Rock. "Do we know of any of the preferences of the others?"
"I hear the king's niece is an archer," Catelyn muttered darkly, "that is not what Arya needs."
"You can hardly blame her," Ned added, slightly defensive of Arya, although he could see the many problems that could arise from having a noblewoman archer. "Her mother is from the Marches, and they learn archery well there, her brother is the same."
"Dorne is now part of the Seven Kingdoms," Catelyn replied angrily, "that should no longer be necessary." Ned laughed, he knew that it was only because of Arya that his wife was objecting to the archer, if his second daughter had been like Sansa then he suspected that Catelyn would keep her objections to herself. "Besides, from what I have heard of Lord Stannis, surely he is not the type to have his daughter train in combat?"
"Lord Stannis is Master of Ships, he is like to spend most of his time in King's Landing," Ned pointed out, "it is likely their mother had more to do with raising the child than the father."
Catelyn muttered darkly, but said no more on the matter of the King's niece. "What of the King's brothers by marriage?"
Ned sighed, it was going to be a long month.
A/N: So it took a while but I've finally reached a point where I feel secure enough in this story to begin publishing. The uploads are likely to be slower than in the last story owing to an increased workload at Uni, but I have a fairly solid idea of where this story is going.
Since there are multiple new and changed characters, I'm going to give a list of them here:
Robb and Tristan - 17
Lyonel - 15
Shireen - 14
Loren - 30
His children
Lelia - 13
Myrielle - 11
Joanna - 10
Tion - 8
So those are the new characters and their ages. The final note I have to say is that it looks like I will be cutting the invasion from the Others/White Walkers. I have a good idea of how to progress the story without that arc involved, but that can still be changed if I feel the need.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the story and, as always, every follow, favourite and most importantly, review, is another incentive to get this story out faster.
