ᴅᴀʀᴋ ʀᴇᴅ ↪𝑉. 𝑇𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑒𝑛 𝑖𝑖𝑖

3 . 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐦𝐚 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐮𝐛𝐬

She started gently rocking his body in her arms as she whispered into his ear, "What did you dream about?"

He stayed silent for a while, soothed by the way his sister was gently rocking him, but when she brought up his nightmare, he tightened his arms around her neck and sniffled.

His answer made her blood freeze, and she brought him impossibly closer to her chest as finally the tears she was trying so hard not to break loose flowed down her pale cheeks.

"You left Winterfell."

She kept quiet instead of soothing his concerns and just kept rocking him. She refused to make empty promises.

As if this night couldn't get any worse, she heard rain start to pour from the skies and, with an added effect, her mother's wails from behind the door.

In Reyna's arms, Rickon sat up and turned his face towards the door.

"Why's Mama crying?"

"She's just a bit sad, little wolf."

Rickon appeared to be satisfied and a little sad with that answer as he nodded, then went back to lying his head on her shoulder.

"What are you doing out of bed?" Reyna's arms tightened around Rickon as she spun around, then she sighed in relief when she saw the puppy dog face of Jon.

"I could ask you the same thing," Reyna said with narrowed eyes.

Jon shrugged sheepishly, "I couldn't sleep."

Just after Jon had spoken, a broken sob came from behind her parents' door.

Jon's dark doe eyes locked with Reyna's as he gave her a worried look, "Is she alright?"

Reyna gave him a sad shake of her head.

She wondered how Jon could still stay so sweet and compassionate after all these years. It was no secret that Jon was a bastard of Eddard Stark, and her mother made no attempt to hide her hatred and distaste for him.

Reyna never condoned her mother's hatred towards him; he had done nothing wrong except for being born. And Reyna has tried for years to get her mother to change her views on Jon, but Catelyn Stark was a stubborn woman.

Jon deserved none of this, of course. The kind and humble boy that he has always been and still is, if her mother's rage should have been focused on someone, it should have been rightly aimed at her father.

And to some extent, Reyna could understand why Catelyn could never find it in herself to love Jon; after all, how could anyone care for and love something that was a forever reminder of the love of their life's infidelity?

Jon was a mere year younger than her and Robb, so essentially, the three of them had been raised as triplets. The Warriors Three, as Robb had named them,

Naturally, ladies of noble birth, or women in general, were not supposed to fight. It was severely frowned upon. But what was a girl to do for fun when she grew up with two boys? Her mother hated it, but just as Catelyn was stubborn, so was Reyna, and they eventually compromised that Reyna could fight and train with her brothers and Theon, her father's ward, in secret, but she would also have to attend regular lessons with her septa and train to be a proper lady.

Reyna was talented with the art of sword fighting and a bow, but to the dislike of her brothers, she preferred daggers, and close combat fighting. Sometimes her father would sit in on her training, and more often than not he would jest about how Reyna's combat skills surpass Robb and Jon's. Truthfully, Reyna knew it could not be a jest if he made it every time they trained.