Arya Stark (nothorsefaced) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-10-31 21:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, arya stark, katniss everdeen |
Who: Arya Stark and Katniss Everdeen
What: Katniss is hunting and almost shoots a direwolf
When: Backdated: Sometime in the second half of October
Where: A wooded walking path
Rating: Family Friendly
Status: Complete
With the exception of the day that one handed guy had tried to shoot Nymeria, Arya hadn’t had any other incidents on the walking trail that went through the woods. Sure, she could understand why someone would think Nymeria was a wild animal. She was quite a bit bigger than a regular wolf, but that didn’t mean the guy could just shoot first and ask questions after. Luckily, for the guy, Nymeria hadn’t attacked him, but she could tell that the wolf had been on edge for the rest of the time they were around him. But since then they hadn’t run into any one else trying to shoot Nymeria, so Arya had continued to take her dire-wolf with her at least once a week so that she could get more exercise than simply running around their backyard.
Today, as with any other day they’d come out there, Nymeria was in the lead, trotting along a few feet ahead of Arya.
Katniss was out in the woods, centering herself and getting back to what she was familiar with. She had taken out her bow and arrow to see if she could maybe bring something home for a change from chicken. Pigeon maybe or pheasant.
When she spotted the wolf through the brush however, she suddenly realised today might not be as simple as she had planned. She slowly lowered herself to the ground and took out an arrow to notch in her bowstring, never taking her eyes from the wolf. Taking aim, she steadied her breathing and prepared to fire.
Arya heard leaves rustling more than usual just as Nymeria’s head snapped around in the direction of the sound and she bared her teeth. Sighing, Arya caught up to her wolf, “If that’s a squirrel or something and you go after it, I’m leaving you here to fend for yourself.” Not that she’d actually leave Nymeria in the woods, but it was a good threat. Or it would be if Nymeria knew what she was talking about.
The girl stepped into Katniss’ field of vision, stepping between Katniss and the wolf. She just managed to move her bow to the side to miss the girl and wolf as her fingers released the bow string. The arrow sailed through the air over the girls shoulder and into a nearby tree. “Damn,” she cursed under her breath, that had been a close one! “Are you ok?” Katniss called out to the girl, staying low as she heard the wolf growling in her direction.
Really? Another one? “Will everyone just stop trying to shoot my wolf?” She wasn’t really talking to the girl, but in general. Maybe she should find somewhere else to take Nymeria. This was two people now who had tried to shoot her, “Yeah, I’m fine.” Arya reached out to bury her fingers in Nymeria’s fur to try and sooth the wolf, not wanting her to attack the girl, “I really wouldn’t try to do that again.”
“The wolf’s yours?!” Katniss exclaimed in confusion, rising slightly from her crouch. “Why the hell do you have a wolf?!”
Nymeria backed off a little once she felt Arya’s hand in her fur, which told her that she didn’t have to try and protect Arya, “Because I do. It’s a family thing.” If this girl was also a dreamer she would have just told her that she’d dreamt about her and one night she just appeared, but not knowing whether or not the girl had the same sort of real feeling dreams as she had, she was bound to sound incredibly insane if she said that. “Why were you hiding in the woods?”
"I wasn't hiding, I was hunting," Katniss told her, as she stood upright once the wolf seemed to back off somewhat. "And your wolf nearly ended up as a hearth rug! You should put a harness on it or something so people know its domesticated or something," she suggested, making her way through the brush to the girl and her wolf.
Arya quirked a brow at the girl and gave her a look as if to say, Yeah, I’ll get right on that. “Chances are better that you would have wound up with one less arm.” Nymeria was much faster than a regular wolf and would protect Arya no matter what. “But that’s only if you actually tried to shoot her. And what are you hunting for? These aren’t really hunting woods. Don’t you need a permit or something to do that anyway?”
“Something different for dinner,” Katniss told her casually, putting the bow across her body. It was obvious she wasn’t going to get anything done now. “Never needed a permit before, I just went into the woods and shot something,” she shrugged, mentally noting that she should probably look into that before trying to hunt again. “You walking your wolf?” she paused and gave a little smile. “Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say,” she joked.
"I wouldn't recommend wolf," Arya scratched Nymeria's fur as the dire-wolf began to relax more and eventually fell out of her protective stance and moved away to sniff at something, "It's better out here for her to stretch her legs." The backyard at Stark Manor was quite big, but the woods were even bigger.
“Oh I wasn’t planning on eating her, just protecting myself,” Katniss told her. “She’s big, it can be a little intimidating,” she shrugged. “I can imagine she needs a lot of exercise. So you say its a family thing, do your family breed them or something?”
Well, knowing that this girl hadn’t intended on eating Nymeria was a bit of a relief, but Arya was still a little miffed that everyone kept trying to shoot her. “No. It’s….it’s hard to explain. We just each have one.” In the dreams anyway. In the real world it was just her and Bran with their dire-wolves.
“That’s pretty cool, all we’ve got it is a stupid stray cat that decided to make us its home when my sister started to feed it,” Katniss shrugged. She hated that cat and the cat hated her, but it made her sister happy so she put up with it.
“We also have a dog. Well, my brother has a dog.” It was dumb luck that Summer and Nymeria got a long so well with Cobalt, because it would have sucked if the dire-wolves had tried to eat Bran’s dog. “And that’s why they tell you not to feed stray animals. Let me guess, you don’t like the cat.” It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Katniss didn’t like her sister’s cat.
“Nah, we just...don’t get on,” Katniss shrugged. “It’s been a mutual agreement since it moved in,” she joked. “As you can probably guess from the bow and arrow, most of my interactions with animals don’t end well for them. I tried to tell her not to feed it, but...kids will be kids. So is this far out of your way?”
Arya laughed as she listened to the other girl’s explanation about the cat then shook her head, “I live in Laguna Beach, so it’s not that far.” She glanced over to where Nymeria was now sniffing a tree, making sure that she was still close by. “How old is your sister? Younger, I’m guessing. I have two younger brothers, so I know how they can be a pain sometimes.” She meant that in the nicest way of course, because she loved Bran and Rickon no matter what.
“She’s twelve,” Katniss replied as she started walking slowly through the woods. “She’s always been a more gentle soul, but I guess she’s had someone to look after her where I didn’t,” she shrugged. “How about yours?”
“Bran is seventeen and Rickon is fourteen,” Arya said as she fell in beside the other girl, Nymeria following as well, “I’ve also got two older brothers and an older sister.” She knew how uncommon it was to have such a big family these days, but when your father was a Lord and you didn’t have to worry about money you could have as many kids as you wanted, “I’m Arya, by the way.”
“Wow, big family,” Katniss nodded, eyebrows raised in surprise. “You must know how to handle yourself in a fight with all those brothers,” she joked. “Katniss,” she reached over a hand to shake Arya’s by way of introduction. “And this is?” she indicated the wolf walking beside them.
Arya nodded, “Oh yeah. I know how to fight.” She left out the part where she could also swordfight, because that was more a result of the dreams. When Katniss extended her hand, Arya shook then glanced at where Nymeria was now trotting along ahead of them as they walked. “That’s Nymeria.” At the sound of her name, the wolf glanced back at them briefly.
“Well, my apologies Nymeria,” Katniss said to the wolf ahead of them. “Unusual name that,” she smiled as she watched the wolf moving ahead of them. “How did you come by it?”
“Nymeria was a legendary queen of the Rhoynar.” Arya said without thinking about the fact that, that was only in the dreams. In real life that would just be a story.
“Of the what now?” Katniss asked. “Never heard of the place,” she shook her head, pretty sure she hadn’t heard it in any of her history or geography classes.
“Right.” Arya ran a hand through her hair, “It’s not actually a real place. Well, it depends on how you look at it.” She might sound incredibly crazy, but Arya had never really worried what other people thought about her, “I have these dreams about another time and place and that’s where the legend comes from.” She glanced over at Katniss to see what her reaction would be.
“Dreams?” Katniss asked, slowing her pace a little as she looked at Arya. “You’re the second person I’ve talked to who’s spoken about dreams,” she narrowed her eyes at the girl a little. “I didn’t believe her, but now I’m not so sure…”
“Did she mention Valarnet?” Arya asked, wondering who Katniss has talked to. As far as she knew only people on Valarnet had the dreams. She still didn’t understand how it worked, but she wasn’t about to try and figure it out. That would take far too much effort, “If so, she wasn’t lying. That’s actually how I got Nymeria.”
“No, she didn’t mention the Net,” Katniss replied, kicking some leaves as she walked. “It was weird actually, she randomly recognised me as I was walking passed and called my name. It freaked me out, especially when she started talking about this...backward ass world where the government sacrificed their children to keep people in line,” she shook her head. It still seemed unbelievable and far-fetched, but maybe there was some truth to it after all. She thought about the card Portia had given her if she ever wanted to talk...maybe she’d take her up on the offer. “So how did you get Nymeria then? Through Valarnet?”
Arya quirked a brow as Katniss talked about the world that the other woman had told her about, “That sounds like a real crappy place.” Of course Westeros wasn’t all that better really, “The place I dream about is like medieval times. But it’s not a place that’s real here.” Arya glanced over to where Nymeria was walking ahead of them, “Here, she showed up in my room one night. Sometimes stuff just shows up. One of my brothers has his wolf too. In the dreams, him, our older brothers and father found six dire-wolf puppies in the woods. Their mother had been killed and my brothers convinced our father to let them bring them home since our sigil is the dire-wolf and there were six of us.” She often wondered if Nymeria and Summer missed Lady, Shaggydog, Grey Wind and Ghost.
“Yeah, it does, I don’t want to dream of that sort of thing,” Katniss admitted worriedly. “That must have been a weird morning! Go to sleep alone and wake up with a wolf in your room,” she laughed. “Did you know who she was when you saw her?”
Arya nodded, “Yeah, I knew who she was. In my dreams I had to send her away and it was that night that I dreamt that, that she showed up.” They were coming around now to the end of the path which had looped around back to where her car was parked, “And it wasn’t really shocking since my brother had, had his wolf for a little while before that.”
“And was she...y’know, tame?” Katniss asked. “Does she get on with the others?”
“Oh yeah, they’re pretty tame. I mean, unless we’re being threatened. Then all bets are off.” Arya recalled when Nymeria had bit Joffrey and she smirked, “They wouldn’t hurt anyone in my family.” Reaching the area where her car was parked, Arya ran a hand through her hair, “I should probably get her home though.” She knew that the longer she had Nymeria out of the house, the more her mother was going to start to worry. Their parents had been really good about the random wolves that had shown up, but they were still wolves and they could probably get in trouble if the wrong person saw them out of the house.
“Yeah, I should probably get back too before someone else sees me with my bow and arrow,” Katniss gave a furtive look around. “It was nice meeting you Arya,” she told the girl, then turned to look at the wolf. “You too Nymeria and I’m sorry I tried to shoot you,” she smiled at the wolf.