The Little Wolf

Chapter 16 | Bastards of Dorne

She knew her mother believed Ashara to be Jon's mother, even if the woman had never mentioned her name to Lilia. However, the crypts of Winterfell kept many secrets, and Lilia had heard some of them as a child when she used to play with her siblings inside. Usually, they would play hide and seek, but one day, Jon had told her about a dream where he was walking to the crypts going further than they ever had when they played there, he said he would wake up scared in the middle of the night. So, that day, she decided that she would go with him and that they would go to the end of the crypts, from their grandfather and their uncle and aunt, till Bran, the Builder's crypt.

They tried to, but they never made it, since their father caught them as they were walking there. He forbade them to ever go to that part of the crypts and, for the first and only time, Lilia feared her father. That was the time where she thought her father would hit her for encouraging Jon to go there. She was a child, her curiosity had gotten the best of her, but Ned was too worried and upset to care. He yelled at her and punished her by sending her to her chambers and keeping her there for the rest of the day.

Lilia never really understood why he was so worried. After all, the crypts were the safest place in Winterfell. Not many knew how to access it, so there would be no one there to hurt them.

The truth was that Lilia never went further than the first floor of many. The curiosity, on the other hand, would often surface. Jon's dreams never stopped, he would always wake up when he was about to get to the darkest part of the crypts. He would avoid telling her since he knew how much she wanted to see what was there and why their father wouldn't let her go further, but she would always figure it out.

"Princess, Lady Stark" Lilia woke up from her thoughts as Prince Trystane approached them. "Can I have this dance, Princess Myrcella?"

Myrcella froze for a second, she was too embarrassed to say anything at all, making Trystane clearly apprehensive. Lilia understood both sides, even if she had never gone through that. The nearest she got from that situation was having to refuse Joffrey, which had happened many times in the last months.

"Yes, you can" Lilia replied for the Princess, making Trystane look at the girl for reassurance. She nodded slightly, taking his hand and looking back at Lilia, who smiled supportively.

"A Lannister and a Martell, they don't even imagine how dangerous that is" Lilia looked to her right only to find Oberyn with a woman by his side. She had olive skin, dark hair, along with deep eyes of the same colour. The woman was very beautiful and looked like the type of woman Lilia pictured as the typical woman of Dorne. "Are you enjoying Dorne so far?"

"It has treated me fairly" Lilia politely replied, making Oberyn and his companion share a look, followed by a smirk that Lilia simply ignored, returning her gaze to the young couple.

"Well, I guess it is time for you both to meet" Oberyn caught Lilia's attention once again. "This is my paramour, Ellaria Sand. Ellaria, this is the girl I've talked you about, Lady Lilia Stark of Winterfell"

"It's very nice to meet you, Lady Ellaria" Lilia smiled a bit, earning a giggle from the woman. This left her confused, had she done anything wrong or was the woman simply mad?

"I'm no Lady, dear. I'm a bastard, I have thousands of siblings. I don't know how they do it in Winterfell, but here bastards are not Lords and Ladies" she cleared out. Lilia wanted to be delicate and she didn't exactly know what to say. She had never met a bastard aside from her brother. She had heard of some northern bastards, for example, Ramsay Snow, the bastard of Dreadfort. Nevertheless, she hadn't spoken with him, and so, she didn't know what to say without hurting the woman. "But it is my pleasure, Lady Lilia"

"Well, in Winterfell bastards are not family, they are an embarrassment, so they are either called bastards or not acknowledged at all" she explained, earning a look from the woman. "Yes, people in Dorne have a different way of seeing the world, a much more pleasant and fair way of seeing it"

"Here, in Dorne, bastards are the result of passion and love and lust, they are not an embarrassment and we don't feel ashamed of them" Oberyn cleared out as he pressed Ellaria's body against his, making Lilia look at her feet. Her parents had never done anything of the sort in front of her, they had never shown lust or... anything like what those two were doing. "I have eight bastard daughters of my own, I believe you must have talked to them already"

"Some of them" she confirmed, making Oberyn smile. She didn't quite understand if they were doing that to make her feel uncomfortable or if they simply acted like that on a daily basis.

"Uncle" Arianne showed up out of nowhere and hugged her uncle. Lilia took a moment to look at them. They looked very alike, and from what she had seen so far, they also acted very alike. They didn't have shame, all they cared about was partying and living their lives in extravagance. "You did come after all"

"What can I say? The Princess left me no choice" Lilia replied shortly, being interrupted by a man showing up.

"Mors Manwoody, what were the odds of finding you here?" Arianne stepped in with a smile. The man had ginger hair and green eyes, his skin wasn't as pale as hers, but not as dark as Arianne's, making Lilia realize that not only Dornishmen had the appearance of Oberyn Martell.

"Word spreads fast around here, you should know that by now" Arianne gave him a look as he rolled his eyes. "That and your uncle told me"

"Of course he did" Arianne looked back at her uncle as he and his friend hugged each other. Lilia watched the scene as memories of her own father and Robert Baratheon surfaced. Everything was much easier when the man was alive, once he was gone, everything went down and tragedy hit her family. "Well, I would love to spend more time with you all, but I have other places to be at"

And what places did she have to be at...

So, Lilia and Ellaria got along well and it looks like she's about to meet some new people while she's staying in Dorne...

This chapter might have been a little boring but the next one is going to be filled with much more interesting stuff going on! 

I hope you've enjoyed it and see you!