The Little Wolf

Fierce by Nature

King's Landing

It was in the following weeks that Lyra learnt another lesson. You don't anger the Lannister's, or mess with their pride. The Lannister house sigil was a bold lion, yellow like the colour of their hair, fierce by nature. 

Her parents broke the rule, and angered the Lannister's.

"If you poke a lion, what do expect it to do?" Maester Leland asked her one night.

"Get angry?" Lyra guessed.

"Yes. And if you disrupt the pride, what's a lion to do?"

"Attack you."

"Yes, my girl. Never attack a lion. Never anger a Lannister. Reprobates must cop the bite. "

Lyra's mother, however, was unsure of the lesson, it seemed to her, as she had proceeded to not only poke the lion, but disrupt the pride in one fell swoop.

 The young girl was clueless about all the events that had happened in Winterfell, but due to the secrecy and urgency, she determined it must be linked to Bran. Her mother, as Lyra gathered, figured the Lannister's were responsible for Bran's accident, specifically the imp, and had taken him prisoner. Lyra refused to believe the only nice Lannister she had ever known was responsible for crippling her brother. 

The imp Lyra had met at Winterfell seemed to be more a kitten to the little girl, not the large cat of their sigil. He was, thankfully, far more pleasant than Cersei. She had long yellow hair that matched her long face. A scowl was always lingering, and if she was to smile, it was a cunning smirk. Her twin brother was Jaime Lannister, known as the "Kingslayer" as he murdered the mad Targaryen King, Aerys. Neither seemed too disappointed about Bran's fall, but never ceased to question his survival.

Nevertheless, you could not say Jaime Lannister was disloyal to his family. He marched up to her father, surrounded by guards, and engaged in a fight, ordering him to control his wife and release his brother. The fight saw the death of Jory, the captain of her father's guards who was always so friendly to her, and a spear in the leg of her father. Of course, these were only stories Lyra heard. Everyone refused to tell Lyra the whole story and would only give her pieces to the puzzle, but clever as she was, she realised if she asked enough people, she could put the pieces together.

Alas, following the incident, she spent her days sitting by Eddard's side, despite his delirium, or picking flowers for him. 

It doesn't do well to anger a Stag either; a stag of the house Baratheon. The Prince, Joffrey, was a mixture of both lion and stag, so there was no doubting his nastiness. Purely a stag, however, was the King, who had spent his youth with Eddard. Prior to the incident, her father had surrendered his position as Hand of the King and had instructed his three daughter's to prepare to leave back to Winterfell. Lyra was pleased, Arya wanted to make sure her dancing teacher could accompany, but Sansa complained, naturally, as she was supposed to be betrothed to the awful Prince. 

Lyra was unsure what made her father wish to leave with such haste, but she knew it angered the King, because when Lyra visited her father, the pin had been thrown back at him. This came with the uninviting news that they would be remaining in King's Landing, and the secrecy of being an Outsider would continue. 

When Eddard began to heal and move around, Lyra asked him about how mother poked the lion and stole from the pride. Her father smiled at her tenderly, placing an arm around her shoulders and kissed her forehead.

"Father?" Lyra asked

"Yes, darling?"

"Since a lion is fierce, are wolves fierce too?" she questioned, remembering her wolf heritage.

Eddard sighed deeply, a sad look falling over his face. He always seemed to know something more than Lyra about her destiny, and it often made him sad. He frequently told her "never change", but Maester Leland would contradict that by comforting her and saying, "Change is inevitable in time, but you mustn't forget who you are, what your soul is".

 Nonetheless, they would always tell her, "Never forget this: You are Lyra Stark". They would emphasise her name, making Lyra question what was so important about it; how in Seven Hells would she ever forget who she was? Still, she'd smile and promise her father and Maester, the men who knew her destiny. 

Her father looked at her woefully, before shuffling closer, and repeating the same line he told her every single night:

"You are Lyra Stark of Winterfell, daughter of Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn Stark. You are strong enough to withstand the storm, because you are the storm. You are my little Wolf."

He refused to leave until she had repeated it back to him:

"I am Lyra Stark of Winterfell, daughter of Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn Stark. I am strong enough to withstand the storm, because I am the storm. I am a wolf."

She was determined she'd never forget.

The Little Wolf was not to know the storm she was to endure.