video; both courts

[survivra]

This wolf is enormous.

[ Katsa can be heard before she's seen, her locket instead in the face of a fully-grown direwolf that's shoving his nose in front of it in her hands. She pushes him out of the way, backs up so that she can be seen in scale with the direwolf: her blue and green eyes are overbright, red-rimmed as though she's been crying, but her voice when she speaks is loud and demanding. ]

What potions or tonics would turn dark hair blue?

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[wolfskin]

You wish to turn his hair blue? [ Robb gives her incredulous look, a laugh half passing his lips. ] I do not think that is wise. Grey Wind resits baths unless it is of his own choosing.

[survivra]

It doesn't have to be wise—he just has to be still long enough for me to do it. I want to do something of my choosing. [ she narrows her eyes. ] He resists, but he doesn't hurt you, does he?

[wolfskin]

Have you given thought to how the wolf must feel on the prospect?

[ He truly doubts that any direwolf would sit happily and allow their fur to be turned another color. ]

No, I raised Grey Wind from a pup and I recognize him for what he is. He would not do me harm.

[survivra]

[ she looks over at liam who's circling around her room, the flex of his shoulders and haunches with every step he takes. ]

You raised him here? Or are they native to your home?

[ abrupt change of topic means if anything katsa is at least trying to listen, curious about something else, something new to have on her mind. ]

[wolfskin]

They are native to my home, though none had ever been seen South of the Wall. Grey Wind and his litter mates were the first in a very long time.

[survivra]

They couldn't have appeared out of nowhere. Unless they're born the same way Morla does it, with just a word.

[wolfskin]

No, I'd wager their mother managed to slip past the Wall and bore them before her demise.

[survivra]

Is your home that unforgiving?




[ katsa thinks it's her own dry sense of humor but that could be awkward word choice

to a stark ]

[wolfskin]

Is yours kind? [ The look he gives her is pointed, all worlds are cruel. Life is cruel. ]

[survivra]

[ she pauses for a moment, thinks, amends her assertion. shrugs. ]

It just is. It's men who are kind or unkind.

[wolfskin]

It is the same in my own.

[survivra]

There's none of this—magic, in mine. Things that take away as much as they pretend to give. There are unnatural things, like Graces that affect the mind and read the future, but they don't lie and hide about what they are.

[ well, usually. but that's a different story. ]

[wolfskin]

It is little more than a story in my own land, something nannies tell to children before they sleep. [ Robb never believed, all the while he dreamt of wolves. ] But we had dragons─ have. They were supposed to have all died out a hundred years ago, but recently tales of living ones have started to come across the Narrow Sea.

[survivra]

A dragon.

[ she's heard of as much since she's been here the past few months. liam stops pacing and settles down at katsa's side; for all her talk of dyeing his fur, she slings an arm around his neck, absentminded, and leans against him. ]

I should like to see a dragon. You've giant wolves and dragons and... sea monsters? [ that's so curious it sounds almost hopeful. ] Are they the same as dragons that supposedly live here?

[wolfskin]

[ He thinks, at least he has distracted her from her foolhardly quest to dye the wolf's fur blue, and alternatively the sorrow of her loss. ]

Ah, I cannot say I have heard of sea monsters outside of the stories I was told as a child. [ Old Nan told many stories, the thought of her no longer─ Robb shakes his head. ] I pray I never do, [ You never will, Robb Stark. ] the only stories told of them often involve the deaths of whoever dares get too close.

[survivra]

[ he's distracted her well enough if the look of surprise and satisfaction on her face is anything to go by. katsa grasps for the distraction, too, preferring this to anything else. ]

How close? [ whether or not robb knows the answer, the question is completely sincere. ] I know a man who said his ship was chased by one once.

[wolfskin]

He is lucky to still live. [ Seriously, applaud that man for his ability to still be alive after being chased by one. ]

Close enough to feel the heat of their flames.

[survivra]

Flames—on the ocean? I don't believe it. [ though she looks more fascinated than disbelieving. ] Unless it's the same as these dragons, though I doubt a ship could outrun it. You think they're real, then, too?

[wolfskin]

Dragon fire is different to fire itself, it is said it can melt a man's flesh straight on their bones. [ No one wants to play with dragons, it is a bad idea. ] Aye, they were real in my land. I have not seen the skulls myself but there are many a dragon skull in the Red Keep.

[survivra]

Fascinating. [ 100% without sarcasm. katsa's digging this conversation. ] How big are they? Did people ever fight a dragon, try to kill them? Or was the only way to run?

[wolfskin]

Big enough to swallow a man and horse, they say. [ It helps him as well, this conversation. Something to focus on other than his own poison thoughts. ] When Aegon Targaryen landed with his sisters atop of a dragons men fought them, one by one kingdoms fell, until all were under his rule.

[survivra]

Sisters...

[ she chews on her lower lip, thinking about this. ]

That's terrifying. And exhilarating. Men had the power to ride them, and to conquer kingdoms...

And I thought I was lucky to have escaped death in a fight with a mountain lion.

[ would even her grace help her against a dragon?? katsa's weirdly tempted to find out. ]

[wolfskin]

Aye, Aegon Targaryen had two sisters who began his queens after they conquered the Seven Kingdoms.

[ Perhaps he shouldn't be encouraging her fascination with dragons, but it is an easy conversation to have. He manages a smile then, though it is tight and worn. ]

Mountain lions are no less fierce.

[survivra]

Seven—you're from that place too! [ she sits upright. ] That's three now. I'm from a Seven Kingdoms as well, though a different one, I lately learned. We've no tales of dragons, though it were all siblings who were the first kings and queens of the seven lands as well.

[ assuming aegon's sisters became different queens...

katsa rubs a hand over a shoulder, feeling the raised scars beneath her shirt ]

No dragon tales in my Seven Kingdoms, though mountain lions are real as they are fierce.

[wolfskin]

How queer. [ Another Seven Kingdoms, though she certainly does not sound if she is from Westeros. However people do say these monarchs take all sorts from different worlds to fight their war. ] You must have spoken to members or my house, or our allies.

[ Glad, he is, that none of their enemies have yet to arrive. ]

I'd prefer lions over dragons. [ Lions he can kill. ]