2At the window overlooking the moonlit courtyard Catelyn Stark sat quietly nursing her son. Her eyes didn't look out at her home since childhood but instead they were kept on her peacefully sleeping daughter. In truth, she couldn't take her eyes off either of the twins for very long. They both seemed such small and fragile looking things, babes born in a time of war and strife. She wondered after her husband as Robb pulled from her and hiccuped softly. A husband she hardly knew, but had already gifted her two children that she cherished more than the world.
Maester Luwin had somehow found the twins as much a surprise as Catelyn. Throughout her pregnancy he'd stated she looked as though she was carrying a healthy babe, but only believed it was one not two. Catelyn had even brought up the possibility of twins one evening after she felt a particularly rowdy bit of kicking from them. He'd examined her skeptically, and told her she didn't look it, telling her she would likely have to be rounder and heavier for it to be twins. So when she'd pushed young Robb from her she'd been glad to have a healthy son. She was reaching for him when she felt another contraction. She would have pushed it from her mind as the after birth Luwin had informed her of if he hadn't been instructing the midwife with them to take Robb with a look of surprise as he turned to Catelyn and said that they weren't yet finished.
The small girl came much quicker and quieter than her twin, only a few minutes between her birth and Robbs. While Robb had screamed upon leaving her, his sister was quiet, and where Robb was a hearty newborn in size she was petite. When Catelyn had laid eyes upon her she'd felt her heart drop in fear that she was stillborn. She's too quiet, she'd thought, but then the girl had let out a cry softer than her brothers, and began to squirm and reach for something to grab onto.
Catelyn settled Robb into the cot beside his sister. She was still softly sleeping, though she stirred as her brother settled in beside her. "Little Robb," Catelyn whispered with affection, brushing her fingers gently over his head, feeling the soft auburn hair that he'd gotten from her. "And little Lyarra." She caressed her daughters' slightly thicker hair just as gently. "How blessed I have been." She settles back into her seat by the window and glances once more out at Riverrun, saying her silent goodbyes to the only home she has known, for she departs with her babes to Winterfell upon the morning.
Winterfell was even colder than she'd been expecting. But the people were kind to her when she arrived, quickly assisting her in getting situated with her new household. Even the people of Wintertown outside the walls had greeted her and the twins with excitement and kind faces. But the keep chilled Catelyn when she'd arrived. Not because of the people or its stone walls, but because of the small babe in a nursery not far from her own children. When she'd arrived she hadn't known. She'd been nervously awaiting the husband who she'd spent less than a fortnight with, awaiting time to truly learn of each other.
But when he'd told her of the babe, shown her him. She'd felt herself freeze like the land all around her. Shutting herself away from him and spending her days after arrival with only the twins. Seeing Eddard only when he came to see them.
It's a late evening just over a month after her arrival when he speaks to her nervously in their nursery. "We hadn't talked about names much," he sat with Lyarra in his arms, making her look even smaller than she already was. "I mentioned Robb as a possibility, and another I think…" "Arya, for a girl." She says, rocking Robb gently. "But," she sighs and glances over at the little girl, "she didn't look much an Arya to me when I saw her."
"Why Lyarra?" He asks, his voice hesitant like someone walking across a frozen lake. "I know it was my mothers name… but why did you choose it?"
She ponders for a moment, "I knew you wouldn't want to name one after your sister. Even if she'd lived and returned… I knew it would've been a difficult wound." She shifts Robb in her arms as he reaches up for a strand of her hair. "But, the sound was right… Lya, that is. And you'd told me a bit of your mother during our wedding feast." She tells him, "you told me that she was a gentle woman, but strong. You'd also said that her mother Arya was more free-spirited and wild, like your sister." She pulls her hair from Robbs hand and replaces it with one of her fingers for him to grip. "She was unexpected, and when she arrived I feared her dead with how quiet she was. Robb came out screaming, but she was silent until a soft hiccup and some quiet cries."
"When I looked at her, I saw a gentleness… and the name just came. It took me a while, a few weeks of trying others. But Lyarra was what stuck to me."
"I'm glad," he says, a smile upon his face as he looks to her. "She has my mother's eyes as well," he informs her softness quieting his voice. "My mother had a look that would send us to our rooms without a word, I'm sure someday she'll have it as well. A very icy northern look." He brushes a finger over the wisps of red hair on her, "but I'm happy she has your hair, both of them. When I first saw you, all I thought was how beautiful your hair was in the light."
A tentative quietness falls over them for the rest of the evening. But it's a calm one, with the previous iciness beginning to melt away between them. As months pass they find each other slowly, learning each other and, slowly, loving each other.
It isn't until after Jon recovers from his illness as a babe that Catelyn lessens her stance of keeping the twins from their baseborn brother. Trying to hold her peace with what she'd promised the gods for bringing the boy back, but finding it hard to mother him and deciding that letting the twins be siblings to him was all she could manage.
The three children of Ned Stark fill the halls of Winterfell with laughter as they grow. By three years old Jon and Robb run about the place with small wooden swords ever present in their hands. All the while Lyarra wanders behind them smiling and giggling and helping them get out of trouble some times and into it others. Occasionally she steals away one of the wooden swords and challenges the pair of them, quickly feigning injury when one of them gets too competitive and running away laughing as the pair begin to panic over their sister.
When Sansa is born Lyarra dotes upon her sister.
"Can I help dress her, mother?" She asks at age four, sitting upon a chair in the nursery with Catelyn while the two boys can be heard below throwing snow at one another.
By five Lyarra has found a profound love for learning. Reading easily and asking questions about everything. Septa Mordane found an eager student upon her arrival to Winterfell that year. Meanwhile, Robb and Jon became skilled at finding the best places to hide around the keep whenever they found themselves in trouble. Though all that is needed to find them is to ask Lyarra, who holds a talent for finding whatever small corner the boys squeezed themselves within.
When Lyarra is seven, Arya is old enough to toddle behind the boys and cause trouble alongside them. Lyarra or Jon always sneaking her her very own little wooden sword to use herself. Its once Bran comes along a year later that Catelyn notices how her eldest daughter mothers the others, keeping them out of serious trouble and helping them with their own lessons. She also notices how Lyarra keeps the boys from fighting each other, and if they do is always the one to bring them back together.
The eldest daughter of Winterfell is nine when her love of learning expands further and she decides she must know all she can. At first she simply follows Maester Luwin about the keep, watching what he does through the day and asking questions about everything and anything. Then she starts to sneak into his tower when he's gone from it, usually to be found at the end of the day with a candle on its last legs and hunched over one of the maesters many books. She began extra lessons on all matters of things after a few nights of being found like that.
She proves to those about her to be a good lady when she is eleven and the Umbers arrive to ride south with her father against the Greyjoys. Kindly welcoming the men and assisting her mother in all manner of tasks required. She proves it once more several months later when the Northerners return and some of the lords spend several nights feasting and celebrating in Winterfell's main hall. She courteously treats with the lords and those accompanying them, earning several of the lord's sons favors over the nights.
Both Jon and Robb received a smack on the head from her after their attempts at teasing her for these favors.
She also treats well with Theon upon his arrival. The Greyjoy boy taking time at first to warm up to the Starks. She smiles prettily at him and asks him questions about the Iron Islands, trying to make the boy feel more at home as a ward rather than to feel trapped like the hostage he truly is. Eventually when Robb and Theon start to mesh entirely she happily treats Theon the same as Jon and Robb, helping him in and out of trouble as much as her own brothers.
Though the friendliness between Theon and her daughter causes a bit of worry for Catelyn she does nothing more than keep a watchful eye upon them as they grow.
And grow they do. By thirteen Lyarra starts to develop beautifully. A growth spurt sends her towering over her brothers for a few months until Robb eventually catches up to her. Her figure begins to grow a slight curve, though she still seems a bit thin and straight with her height. By fourteen she flowers and Winterfell finds lords and their sons passing through more and more often.
That same year she and Robb both travel the North with their father, Jon and Theon. They spend near a fortnight at each lords own castle, treating with them and learning of their vassals and land. It was more for Robb, she knew, the future Lord of Winterfell should know his men. A fact that their father informed them of consistently enough that Lyarra keeps it close to her own heart. At Bear Island she learns to hunt alongside the Mormont ladies. At the Last Hearth she enjoys the boisterous loud entertainment that is the Greatjon, getting truly drunk for the first time and having to be helped along to her room by Theon. At Karhold she entertains the courting of Harrion, spending much of her time there with him, and consistently smacking her brothers when they tease her for that as well. As well as teasing them back when Robb steps on Alys Karstarks foot and Jon blushes so hard when she asks him to dance that she swears that he matched her hair.
She enjoys their time in White Harbor the most though, primarily because she manages to sneak off from the keep and spend an entire day exploring the city. Theon finds her in the end that first time, bringing her back and earning her a lecture from father but she still manages to repeat the adventuring a few more times before they leave the city, even convincing her brothers to accompany her the last time.
When she returns Catelyn finds her daughter more mature and grown. She wonders if it was simply the time away that made her see it. She'd spent months with only her smallest and youngest children. So when her eldest have returned, she is made to see how much they had grown. Even Robb, who still caused trouble when he was allowed, had matured greatly in the time away. Her son spent more time learning from Ned, and Lyarra began to spend even more of her time with Catelyn learning the ways to run a household.
Catelyn finds that her eldest daughter also becomes a godsend when it comes the other two girls fighting. Easily diffusing a situation between them when it happens and keeping the pair of them happy despite their fighting just as she did with the boys before them.
Once Rickon comes along she helps with the youngest boy even more than she'd helped with the others. Playing with him when Catelyn is otherwise busy and keeping him from running completely wild as he begins to grow.
Seeing Lyarra grow and mature brings a sadness to Catelyn that she hadn't expected. Fearing the day that she'll have to say goodbye to her first born girl and send her off to run her own house. Lord Karstark and Umber have both put their eldest sons forth, and Catelyn knows they both are good matches. But she keeps Ned from accepting either right away, telling him that she's still young. Eighteen was when many betrothals and marriages tended to occur unless other pressures came up, but there was nothing truly rushing them into any marriages. Ned agrees which brings relief to Catelyn. Though she thinks he's just as relieved himself to have a reason to put it off other than his own apprehensions.
Lyarra is just eighteen when the king journeys north after the death of Jon Arryn. She excitedly speaks with Sansa of the event, letting her younger sister be excited of the change and even herself feeling a slight anticipation for the arrival of southerners.
