ғᴏᴜʀ ♚ with the wild wolves around you

[wolfskin]

[ Informing Alayne had been difficult and Arya- the day had tired Robb utterly with only a few draining events.

Thus he writes instead of speaks, hand steady despite the exhaustion seeping into his bones. His mother hand friends and they deserve to know this news now that her family has been informed. ]

To those who knew her, Lady Catelyn of House Stark has been returned to home and country, no longer does she reside within these walls. You all have my thanks for treating her so kindly, I am certain she valued your company and friendship as much as I.

─ Robb Stark, King in the North and of the Trident.

[ Once signed with the direwolf symbol pressed into the page, Robb puts his quill down dropping his head into the palm of his hands. He dares not write any more, for he cannot assure any of them that she will be happy and safe back in Westeros. He simply cannot. ]

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[wolfchild]

[ arya had known this day would come. she had known it. it was the start of all her fears coming true. her mother's gone, and her brother and sister will be too. she will be the one left behind and alone. she is always the one left alone.

her rage earlier had left her feeling empty. her chest throbbed, a dark hollow where her heart once was. her mother's gone. arya had seen her just that morning. did she kiss her? did she hug her? she doesn't remember. the sudden panic has her rearing up and startling the wolves with her on the bed.

she has to find her, she has to at least get her back only for a moment, just long enough to hug her and tell her mother she loves her and that she will try harder and make her proud, she needs only a second—

she falls off the bed, her feet entangled in the blankets. her heart is beating a scarlet tattoo against her throat, and it hurts. she has to find her mother, she has to— ]

[assassino]

My apologies, Robb, to you and your siblings.

[quota]

[Ah, the heartache of little girls.

Kyubey is roused from a nap by the whole affair, senses acutely focused on the change in Arya's mood. Incubators like him just know, really, and he knows immediately that this isn't just a momentary spell. Something like this only comes with something serious.

After getting up and stretching, Kyubey slips out from under the pillows on Arya's bed and picks his way over to her.

Poor girl.]

[secondchances]

[... jeez. Steph immediately thinks of Arya. That kid never gets a break, does she?]

I'm so sorry to hear that.

[wolfskin]

[ He hears the heavy thud and jerks to his feet knocking the chair off with the force. ]

Arya?! [ He is by her side within the span of a heartbeat, untangling the sheets from her feet and gathering her up in his arms, checking for injuries. ]

[wolfchild]

[ Where before she would have felt him move and held her arm out to him for him to climb up on her shoulder or into her lap as need be, she doesn't move. She doesn't care really. Wanting to be alone, she had wandered in a haze back into her room. She does not remember doing it, but she can hear Nymeria scratching at the door to be let in. It registers distantly, as if worlds away instead of a few feet.

Arya hardly moves. Her eyes are fixed on her lap, unseeing. All she wants to do is sleep. If she concentrates and thinks of four paws and the earth beneath her, she will wear Nymeria's skin. Nymeria misses no one. Nymeria is fierce and untouchable. She doesn't feel fear or hurt. Robb would let her out to hunt. She could run outside and howl at the sky and taste the blood of a fresh kill in her mouth. It would feel like dreaming. Better than dreaming.

Mayhaps she could find her lady mother somewhere outside. ]

[wolfchild]

[ She pushes at him, seized by a mad desire. ]

Let me go, I have to find her, I forgot!

[ Even if no one else will, Arya will find her. People do not really leave. They are elsewhere waiting to be found. Arya can find her. Nymeria will help. ]

[quota]

[Kyubey searches her thoughts in silence, but he hears nothing, as he expected. She's too lost in thought about what is troubling her, and while Kyubey certainly doesn't wish to better empathize with that kind of pain, he can never wrap his mind around quiet, secluded suffering.

He approaches her, sitting by her thigh and looking up at those unseeing eyes. After a moment's thought, he gently presses one small paw to her wrist.

Does she realize how powerful she could be?]

[wolfskin]

[ It breaks his heart, shatters it really, her words and he wraps his arms around her to keep her from fleeing. ]

Arya. [ Above them he sees the wolves peering over the side of the bed, blinking with their golden eyes. Grey Wind whines as if expressing the sadness Robb struggles to keep from his face. ] She is no longer here, you know this as well as I.

[wilder]

[...Well then. So that day was here. He could bother with manners like he did when Elizabeth left, but something else is more on his mind]

Where's Arya?

[wolfskin]

She is with me. [ No offense Zelos, but this is a Stark only zone for a while. ]

[wilder]

[rude. fine i'll just steal your birthright later]

...Alright.

[He breathes a little. Too many months of her not having siblings here make him sometimes forget Robb's around okay. But yeah, brother is better to handle this]

Sorry for you loss.

NOT THAT FACE WHY DO YOU HATE ME

[wolfchild]

No! They come back, they do! [ She catches Robb's face between her hands. She has to make him understand. ] People who leave, sometimes they're here, they're just someplace else and they don't remember! We can find her! The wolves will. We can make her remember if she forgot!

NO I LOVE YOU A LOT OKAY

[wolfskin]

[ He looks at because she makes him but he cannot keep her eyes, they drop and he takes a deep breath. Arya will fight him on this, she will fight him until there is no more fight in her body and she succumbs to the reality of their mother's leaving. ]

We wont. [ Gods be good, what he would give to believe her. To believe that his mother is somewhere else with no memory. He wishes he could, he truly does. ] Please sister, do not speak these things.

[wolfchild]

[ The touch stirs her. Her eyes slide to him. Grey eyes. Stark eyes. She never looked like her mother. Her mother had beautiful blue eyes and red hair that every one of her brothers and her sister inherited but her. Only Jon had ever looked like her.

She wants Jon. She wants her mother.

Arya doesn't cry. She turns her hand over, as much of an invitation as Kyubey will get. ]

[wolfskin]

[ STOP STEALING HIS BIRTHRIGHT!!!

Words are wind, Robb thinks before closing the journal. There is nothing else to say. And all these condolences ring hollow with the knowledge he holds. ]

[wolfchild]

[ No wasn't something she expected. ]

But—

[ Her hands drop slowly. Arya stares at him like he's something new, and strange. ]

She's our mother. She would search everywhere for us.

[wilder]

[NEVER MWHAHAHA]

[And he's not in the least surprised by the journal shut or offended. Robb has Arya and his own grief to deal with, let him do that]

[wolfskin]

I know.

[ Robb inhales sharply, looking towards the upturned chair and desk his journal lays upon. ]

Mother- [ Be strong, be strong. He is the head of their House, he is her eldest brother, her King. He is one the who must remain strong as other crumble, he must be the one who keeps them together. ] She left us letters.

[wolfchild]

[ Arya backs away from him. Her eyes are wide and pale. As pale as her face. All the color seems to have drained from her. Her arms are loose at her sides. There is something vaguely animalistic in the way she tilts her head and in the way she continues to edge back.

She doesn't ask for the letter. She doesn't look at the desk. She keeps her eyes fixed on Robb like he's the hunter now and she the one hunted. A fine tremble suffuses her palms. ]

[wolfskin]

[ She may as well have stab him in the heart, the look on her face the blade twisting sharply. His hand follows after her and his mask is stripped away, raw pain as clear as glass. ]

Arya...

[ He moves without thinking, outreached hand taking a hold of her arm and pulling her back to him, his own wrapping around her in a tight hug.

I am sorry. Forgive me. ]

[wolfchild]

[ She breathes in Robb's smell, of leather and steel and soap and their wolves. And she clings to him hard enough to hurt. Arya doesn't realize she's babbling until she hears her voice, thin and frightened. ]

Please don't go. Please don't leave me. I promise I'll be good. I'll be nicer. I swear it. Please don't. Please don't leave me. I don't want to be alone again, I can't…

[wolfskin]

I promise you, I will not leave. [ It is cruel that he promises her this, knowing he cannot keep his promise as much as he wants to. But he does it to calm her fear, to help ease the ache in her chest- the same ache he has in his own. That is what a brother should do. That is what Jon would do. ]

Hush, I am here. [ He smooths her hair with his hand, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. The King's own voice cracking with emotion. ] I am here.

[wolfchild]

I forgot to kiss her today.

[ That's what bothers her most. Arya never says goodbye. ]

[wolfskin]

As did I, little sister.