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  elia’s unusual silen the way back to Winterfell worried Ned and Robb for a long time, but no one ented. Everyone khat words would not make se that moment.

  elia was stunned. Although she felt better than she had at the execution site, her mind was still fused. Thoughts wahrough her head, but she couldn’t focus on any of them.

  Maybe she just ime to adjust. Time was running out, and she knew she had to adjust quickly. pared to the wind, rain, and storms the future would bring, the events of that day were just small ripples on a calm ke.

  While she was still lost ihoughts, Ned and the others abruptly stopped their horses, bringing her back to reality. She looked in the dire of her father and brothers, fused, but couldn’t see anything. Even so, she felt the tension and silent anger building in the air.

  “What happened?” elia asked.

  She noticed that Ned and the others had dismounted and moved forward. She hurried to dismount as well and took her walking stick, given to her by her father, holding it firmly. She began to walk slowly, expl the terrain ahead. At the same time, a rancid smell reached her nostrils.

  “Lia, don’t go any further! It’s too dirty here!” Robb warned.

  elia was already close to them. Robb stopped her before she could go any further. They weren’t going back the same way they came; Ned had decided to make some detours for them to rex. However, they found a carcass of a moose in the middle of the road.

  At a g was obvious that the animal had been dead for a long time. Its body was deposing, and worms were eating the rotten flesh. elia, who always valued liness, was disgusted. A se like that was too much to bear.

  “What is it?” elia asked, being stopped by Robb. She already had an idea of what was happening from the smell in the air, so she obeyed and stopped where she was.

  “It’s a dead deer,” Jon replied, frowning, looking at the fallen animal with its exposed iines.

  “Was it a mountain lion?” Theoed, stepping forward to get a better look.

  “There are no mountain lions in this area,” Ned said, looking around attentively. Suddenly, something in the roear the river below caught his attention. Without hesitation, he began to desd toward the river, followed naturally by Robb and the others.

  Bran took elia’s hand and carefully guided her around the deer carcass so they could follow the others. When they reached the edge of the road and were about to desd, Jon stopped them, f elia to wait there.

  Initially, elia po obey and stay still, but then she heard her father’s voice from the river below. It woke her from her trance.

  “Yes! Every Stark child had a direwolf, and it was at this moment they would find them!”

  elia remembered watg Game of Thrones in the past. She had always admired the Stark family and, especially, envied Robb and his brothers for having such majestic direwolves.

  But her excitement quickly faded. In total, there were only six direwolves, enough for each of the six Stark children in the inal book. She, being an outsider in this story, had nht to one.

  “Alright,” elia thought. She might not have a direwolf, but that wouldn’t stop her from pying with theirs, right?

  “No!” Bran’s excmatiht elia back from her distant thoughts. She had to admit that she had been distracted ever sihey left the execution site.

  When she focused again, she clearly heard her father’s order for the direwolf pups to be killed. Sihe mother wolf was dead, the pups wouldn’t survive on their own. Theon was already holding a dagger and was about to act, tearing the small wolf from Bran’s hands. Fortunately, Robb stopped him in time.

  “I obey your father, not you!” Theoed, holding the pup tightly. elia frowned, surprised and irritated.

  Bran watched the little wolf struggle in Theon’s hands and desperately pleaded for mercy from his father. But Ned did not retract his order.

  “Lord Stark, there are six wolves in total! One for each Stark child. The direwolf is the symbol of your house. Finding them is destiny,” Jon said, trying to appeal to Ned’s sense of honor.

  Jon couldn’t bear the idea of seeing the helpless pups killed. He intervened when Ned was about to walk away. His words, however, deeply frustrated elia.

  “How is this right? Isn’t one missing? Are you fetting Ri and me?” elia questioned. “But if there are only six, then I don’t want one. You boys and the wolves make the perfect match. Arya will love having hers. As for Sansa, even though she’s a little youhan me, she’s my sister, and I should let her have one.”

  elia frowned and finally grabbed her e to explore the path. Ser Rodrik, who had already desded, took her hand, helping her so she wouldn’t fall.

  She knew her mother, Catelyn, had never liked Jon. To Catelyn, Joence roof of Ned’s disloyalty. elia uood her mother’s pain but saw that her brothers lived in harmony and that Ned had never been biased. To her, they were all family, and Jon art of it.

  elia also khat her mother’s unfavorable treatment of Jon must have left him resentful. That’s why, for years, she had tried te the gap between them.

  Repeatedly, she had tried to vince her mother to give Jon a true surname, something that reized him as a Stark, instead of “Snow,” which symbolized illegitimacy. However, her efforts had been in vain.

  The rese in Catelyn’s heart ran too deep. Eveioning this subject made her unhappy, and now, Jon’s words frustrated and saddened elia deeply. She just wanted him to uand that he had always been a member of the Stark family.

  Besides, there were only six direwolves, and they rightfully beloo her brothers. Even though she loved them, she had no cim to them.

  Jon looked at elia, who insisted on walking to the river. He wao say something, but the words died in his throat. His eyes welled up, and he lowered his gaze, resigned.

  “Father, if Bran and the others like them, let them keep them!” elia said firmly. “What Jon said makes sense. Maybe it’s destiny to find them.”

  “You must train them with your own hands, feed them with your own hands, and, if they die, you will bury them with your own hands,” ated, looking at each of his children.

  elia’s words eased some of the tension in Ned’s heart. He g Jon, who remained silent, and finally nodded, agreeing to let the wolves live. However, thinking about Jon’s words, a feeling of helplessness overcame him. He turned and began to walk away.

  Catelyn’s rese was a knot that was hard to untie, but Ned only wished that his children could truly be brothers. That would be enough.

  With the deade, Theohed the dagger and hahe little wolf back to Bran. Robb stepped forward, took two of the pups, and hahem to Theon, then held onto two more himself.

  “I’ll give this oo you! I don’t ! I know you like it. As you said, as a brother, I must give in to my sister.”

  Jon took a step frabbed the st direwolf, which was still cirg the dead wolf's body, and walked over to elia. Without saying a word, he pced the wolf into her arms.

  Johat elia loved direwolves. She had always liked these furry and fierce creatures, but he khe wolf became particurly docile in her presence. Jon didn’t mind being without a wolf if it could make her happy.

  “I said I don’t want it, I don’t want it! This one is yours!” elia insisted.

  Although she smiled happily at Jon’s gesture, she resolutely hahe direwolf ba. She khat, in the inal story, there were only six direwolves, one for each Stark child. This would be Ghost, the white wolf who should be Jon’s loyal panion. She couldn’t take something that beloo him.

  “Stuing, you two! Is something missing?” Robb said, helplessly seeing both of them insist on giving in. He was about to intervene when his eyes noticed a movement in the grass behind a tree. A white, fluffy tail swayed gently.

  “Another direwolf?” Robb murmured.

  “There’s another one?” elia thought, surprised, her hand still h in the air. “There were only six wolves, right? Why is there another o ’t be that there’s one just because of me, it?”

  “It’s true, there’s another one! So this one is yours, elia!” Jon said, walking to the tree and pulling out the pup. It was pletely white, with no traces of gray fur, looking like a small fox.

  “In that case, there’s exactly one for each of us!” Bran excimed, petting his direwolf with joy.

  “Hey, Snow! This one’s as white as you! A bastard to another bastard!” joked Theon, looking at the pure white wolf in Jon’s arms.

  “Theon! Shut up!” elia scolded, irritated. She really hated when he spoke like that. None of her brothers ever mentioned Jon’s ins, and even though their mother didn’t like him, she never said it openly.

  But even in Winterfell, there were aleople like Theon saying cruel things about Jon. elia couldn’t trol what they said behind his back, but she would never allow them to speak like that in front of her.

  “Sorry, Lia!” Theon murmured, notig elia’s displeasure. His voice was filled with shame and frustration.

  “By the way, Jon, what did you mean by that? Why do I feel so lost?” elia asked, shiftitention away from Theon.

  She stepped forward and raised the direwolf in front of them, frowning as if she were truly distressed.

  “I ’t see anything during the day! You just grabbed one and tossed it into my arms, saying it was mine. How am I supposed to know whie is the prettiest? I want to choose the prettiest one before Arya and Sansa e back. And none of you, not even Bran, pete with me on that!”

  elia shook her head seriously. She wasn’t joking. She had never denied her ability to perceive beauty. Even if it was a direwolf, she believed hers should be the most beautiful.

  “Didn’t you say you didn’t want one? Now you’re choosing?” Jon smiled, a genuine warmth filling his heart. He khe real meaning behind elia’s words. Still, he looked seriously at the seven pups in everyone’s arms and chose one of the wolves Robb was holding.

  “How about this one? He’s the most majestic!” Jon said, handing the wolf to elia and taking the one in her arms to give to Robb.

  elia alreferred beautiful things. Just like she had been ented by the bcksmith Bob’s beautiful horse, while ign the bck, bald dog named Happy from the Aris family. Of course, maybe it was because Happy was too dirty.

  As for the wolf in her arms, Jon liked it.

  Sometimes, many things do seem to be the work of fate. Like that pure white direwolf, it stood out from all the others.

  But it was there, with the other direwolves and her brothers.

  Whether in the past or the future, perhaps that was the most important thing.

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