House of the wolf

“Geatjon you take a thousand men and keep chasing and harassing their army until they reach the Twins, make all that returns to the Frey´s are broken whelps who will never dare march against us again!”

“Beron you take the rest of those who are able to go back to protect the rest of our men marching on foot with the prisoners and supplies for the watch. Make sure they pick up the pace”

“Yes lord,” Beron replies more formally than usual. After they take their leave I sigh to myself in relief, this past month I have been going non-stop at problem-solving while there are still some pressing matters, the situation right now is not as dire as it was anymore.  

I turn to my side “Rodrick, let's take the supplies inside,” I say a bit restless to meet my family again.

“Aye, we will also make sure to collect all the armor off of the corpses, you got to hand it to Roose, not a single soul in his army is lacking equipment”

I nod to his words and start riding toward the gate looking at the walls even if it was just in a siege they are still in tip-top shape the main doors look a little banged up but still hold strong.

“Open the gate” Rodrick yells up to the men on top of the wall.

I see a familiar face on top of the wall peaking down making me smile behind my helmet. 

Bran even looking from afar has changed, his face still looks childlike but I can tell he is now on the cusp of entering puberty his facial features have sharpened, and he no longer looks like an innocent little boy.

He starts running down from the wall as the gate opens up. Walking into Winterfell again is a feeling I can´t even describe, it is not only a comforting feeling of being home but the feeling is much more intense than I ever felt in my previous life.

I guess it's like this because it is now painfully obvious to me that there is no place better for me in this world than Winterfell, no place I would be more welcome, no place where I would be safer than here.

Even though my blood is still boiling from the bloodshed earlier, being surrounded by these walls again is helping me contain it.

Seeing inside there are some buildings ruined by the siege but nothing that can´t be fixed. 

There is a welcoming party forming I see familiar faces guards and workers I grew up around, and some new faces I don´t recognize as well. I don´t think they are just new guards I can see from their clothes that they are from noble houses but I stop thinking about those implications when a beautiful red-haired girl walks in front of the welcoming party. 

As she is about to speak Bran comes running back entering the scene she looks at him in displeasure but looks back towards me “We owe this lord our gratitude for coming to our aid” and she does a perfectly practised bow with her dress.

Looking at how beautiful my sister has become makes my chest fill with pride and love, even though I can see the difficult times make her eyes look tired and have had an effect and changed her in some ways, but to my relief, she still has some innocence and clumsiness to her.

I laugh out loud at her words and courtesy making some people in the crowd frown but I just start speaking as I take off my helmet.

“Dear sister, I know it has been a while but must you be so formal with your big brother” 

Everybody in the courtyard just stared at me in shocked silence until you heard.

“ED!” Both Sansa and Bran yell out in disbelief tears forming in their eyes when see my face without the helmet. They start running towards me as I dismount. As soon as my feet hit the ground they barrel into me, both of them only reaching as high as my chest I embrace them both not trusting my voice for the moment to speak without breaking.

Using the helmet trick for the second time today to get surprised and emotional reactions from those I am reuniting with has me seriously considering whether or not it would be too shameless to do it a third time with Mom since Catelyn is not here at the entrance welcoming the new arrival.

Thinking about Mom and how she must be feeling right now but since I am focusing on my siblings I decided not to bring her up right away. I can feel Sansa shaking in my embrace, I can´t really get a read on just what her mental state is right now but I think she feeling a bunch of different things right now so I just put my hand on her back. 

While Bran gets out of the embrace and looks up at me as if to confirm it's me with my other hand I Rub the top of his head. 

“I´m proud of you guys, you did well to hold the fort for as long as you did, thank you… Dad and Robb would be proud as well” Sansa starts sobbing at that and Bran also looks down at the ground.

After they collect themselves I look at the people around us Maester Luwin and other familiar faces all looking at me all of them happily rejoicing at my survival.

Then I start looking at those unfamiliar faces who also seem to be happy at my arrival. 

Making me think, at least they seem to be friendly, I turn to them and speak “Forgive me for not recognizing your faces I´m Edwyn Stark, who might you be?”