Some days
I am more wolf
than woman
and I am still learning
how to stop apologizing
for my wild.
————
WOLF AND WOMAN
NIKITA GILL
——
she was ice, frozen in the summer
ELIA
&
PODRICK
and he was iron, chipping at her cold
——
prologue
————
YOU DO NOT SCARE ME, I AM AT HOME IN MY WOODS
Elia Stark was not a lot of things, she was not Sansa and Arya - she was not fierce with a sword like Arya did and she did not know how to run her people like Sanda did. She had been raised in the middle of nowhere, amongst commoners and smallfolk, she did not know how to fight and she didn't know how to lead.
Still, she was in charge of the North. Elia thought Jon was mad for leaving her to look after it all, she didn't know what she was doing. She hardly knew how to look after herself, and she wasn't very good at that herself; Podrick and Brienne had saved her countless times on her journey north.
"Lady Elia, supper is served." Her handmaiden spoke from the doorway to her room but Elia waved her off with a shake of her hand. She hadn't needed a handmaiden while on the road with Brienne, she had helped Elia with the lacing of her armor and Pod had helped her with every small cut and bump.
She hadn't needed them them, she didn't need them now, "My lady, your sister is calling you for supper."
When Elia turned to face the doorway, Pod bowed and smiled brightly at her. He'd changed along the months journey and Elia knew he was still wary and unsure but still she loved him, "I do not feel like dinner, my lord,"
Elia smiled at his flushed face, no matter how long Elia and Pod had known each other, Pod would always flush red at her teasing and Elia loved it.
She stood from her bed and took Pod into her arms, she truly cared for him, as much as he tried to push her aside she could never leave him. Elia loved Pod as much as her sisters, though a different kind of love, she loved him all the same
M'lady, I cannot - it is not proper to feel what I do for you, Elia had remembered what Pod said to her a year ago, he hadn't wanted to follow through with their attraction. Pod had fought it with every bone in his body, he thought he was too low born to love a lady like Elia Stark but she had proved his wrong.
I will make my life happy, Elia thought as she brought her lips to meet Pod's, With fire and ice, I will be happy and so will my family.