It didn't take long for This to reach the entrance to the castle. Almost all of Winterfell had been memorized with the usage of its Mindscape.
The only parts it hadn't were the parts it hadn't seen.
Receiving greetings from the guardsmen, This gave a small nod something it was becoming very familiar with, and entered.
In the week it had spent here, This noticed a key part of how humans communicate. This called it body language.
Oftentimes, humans said what they thought with nods or frowns, smiles and waves, and many other confusing ways.
At first, it took a while for This to understand that each movement might've had a meaning, but eventually This realized it was something it had to take seriously, as seriously as it took learning words.
Some body language was simple, like humans smiling to show happiness or lowering their eyebrows to show anger.
While others were more confusing, like Jon's deep stares and Septa's constant talking.
This still couldn't understand what these meant.
Still, This would understand them slowly.
This had also begun to speak to humans after practicing speech l when alone.
Feeling confident, it had, as first intended, asked the humans many questions.
After all, it still had no answer about the system, and its last message was to speak to humans to understand more.
However, unlike what it had expected, asking Septa about the floating, glowing system had not yielded any answers. And instead resulted in it having a long conversation with Mother and Father.
The conversation was long and slightly confusing. They often asked questions This couldn't answer like "Are you seeing things?" or "Why have you been acting so strange?"
This had answered "yes" to the first and was only confused by the second. However, instead of learning anything about the system, it seemed they now thought "Sansa was sick".
At least that's what This heard the maids say.
This only knew what sickness was from Sansas memories, tired, itchy eyes and a wet nose, but This had none of them. So it was certain it wasn't.
Yet it seemed every human in the castle had thought so.
In the end, it worked out for This.
Humans asked fewer questions and stopped shouting when This ate with its hands.
Walking with quick steps, This found its way to its room. Entering, it placed the book down and prepared to leave.
However, to its surprise, when This had turned around, it had felt a soft lightness on the back of its foot.
Looking down, This saw the same white, four-legged being that had bitten itself earlier. The blood around its mouth had now dried up, and the look in its eyes had simmered into something this recognized as confusion.
The being looked up at this and sat silently.
"How did you get here?" This asked the being.
"..." As expected, there was no response. The small thing only continued to look at This, occasionally opening its mouth and letting its tongue hang.
This couldn't understand what the gesture meant, but This thought that if it had hung its tongue out, it would only be because it was hungry.
"You're hungry?" This asked again; this time, not waiting for a response. This walked towards the door and opened it.
Looking down again, This was now aware of how the small thing had followed it until now.
It was walking at a perfect speed to match This, hiding partially underneath its dress.
Giving an approving nod, This exited the room and headed straight towards the kitchen.
Even if the being wasn't hungry, This had planned to go there from the start.
________________________________________
After father's announcement to the family and advisers of Sansas condition, the house seemed to have shifted slightly.
Although the usual busyness and calmness were present, there was now a firm feeling of the unknown.
Perhaps it was only my imagination, but somehow, it felt like things had changed.
Two days ago, Lady Stark and Father had spoken to Sansa about something.
I didn't know the exact details, but they said she had trouble connecting the dots on certain memories and had even spoken about seeing things.
Father had made it clear not to speak of it to anyone, yet somehow this information was now common gossip for every busy mouth in the castle.
At first, I was worried this information could somehow affect the reputation of the Stark family. But seeing her reading and eating all the time, with such joy in both, I couldn't find a single negative word to say.
Although the new Sansa almost never spoke and often held a cold demeanour. Seeing her smile like a child every so often made me think that it wasn't such a big deal. That in the end, it'd be okay.
Those sentiments kept my thinking mind stable.
And with the new addition of cute wolf pups, I was hoping it'd help her feel more comfortable talking again.
"Haah, This isn't my problem, I shouldn't think too much.." Trying my best to forget about the new weird Sansa. I shifted my attention to the last pup I held within my coat.
Ghost. That was the name I had decided on after a short moment of alone time.
It resembled me in a way. Discarded, extra, almost forgotten. A stray pup kept distant from the rest of the litter, but in the end, still one of them.
Taking the pup out from underneath my armpit, I lifted him above my head, getting a clear image of the young wolf who'd id one day bury.
His fur was pure white, and his eyes were blood red. If it were any of my other siblings that had seen its deep red eyes, they may have thought it was cursed, but I found it somewhat... cute.
'Well, maybe Sansa wouldn't think it's cursed either.' I thought idly while looking as deeply as I could into the pup's eyes. Sadly, the red haze covering its eyes made it hard to tell whether it was even alive.
Putting the pup back underneath my armpit, I headed towards my room. I planned on leaving him there while I went and saw Robb for a spar.
After watching that young man die while proclaiming a truth that nobody would believe, it had made something inside me burn, and Robb would be the perfect victim for such a flame.
________________________________________
The kitchen was full of humans. They all shuffled about, making different sorts of food at the same time.
For a while, nobody even noticed This watching the busy environment.
This had no problem waiting; it had been here before. Eventually, a human would speak to This and feed it.
In the idle time of waiting, This wondered what kind of food the small being would like; it had bitten so hard into its hand that This briefly considered whether it would like to eat meat or not.
'...Who wouldn't like to eat meat?
"Ahh, Lady Sansa! I apologize, I didn't see you there! Are you hungry, my lady?" Interrupting This's thoughts, a small-looking woman with simple brown hair appeared directly in front of This.
Looking into the woman's eyes, This keenly felt the slight shock mixed with a tinge of happiness the human felt.
Perhaps because it had been with humans for a while, This felt that these things were becoming easier and easier to notice.
"One large meat... please." This spoke slowly; the last word was added with a bit of carelessness, but the lady didn't seem to mind and smiled brilliantly.
"Of course! Just wait one moment, I'll get something for you!" Bowing her head once, the maid then turned around and joined the large number of humans moving wildly in the kitchen.
This would have liked to follow the lady and see how she got the meat, but being so small, it would have been hard blending in with all those humans, and this wasn't in the mood to talk either.
Looking around, This found a seat near a rather empty table and waited. It considered putting the small being on the table so it could see, but, looking down and watching the thing settle comfortably underneath its chair, This decided against it.
With nothing left to do, This waited. But not idly.
Closing its eyes, the dark Mindscape, which This had come to accept as a sort of home, welcomed it.
Feeling around within its Mindscape, This first noticed the large mental pile of memories that it still hadn't gone through.
With the finding of words and human language, This had put off going through each memory for when it was bored.
After all, going through the memories didn't take any thinking; it was like watching the snow fall, unending and extremely slow.
Instead, it had spent its first week here, understanding humans, like the system wanted.
This often thought of many ways to get the system to come back, such as speaking to humans, speaking about the system, even thinking strongly about the blue box, but in the end, nothing happened.
This had even considered the possibility that it would never come back.
Leaving the system thought pile to the side, This moved on to another large amount of memories; this pile was the words, books, and letters that this had been studying.
The pile was quite large, almost as big as Sansa's memory pile. The only problem with it was the complete lack of understanding. Although This had technically "read" hundreds of books, they were all just memorized with almost no words actually making sense to it.
Even so, This still found books largely interesting. The idea of human thoughts, thoughts that This itself could never have, where all written carefully inside a small book was very interesting to it.
Yet the rate of learning words was still extremely slow. Just learning the Alphabet had taken a full week; This could only imagine how long it'd take to learn every word.
But something even more important to This, currently, was the word "Kill".
This hadn't had any time to enter the Mindscape until now, hence it still had no real understanding of what the word meant.
So, without thinking too much, it delved deeply into Sansas' memories to see if it could find anything related to "kill".
The memories weren't easy to sift through, and there was no way to find exactly what it was looking for, so instead, it went purely by feeling alone. With the Mindscape, no memories or feelings could be forgotten, so all This had to do was connect that earlier feeling to a memory of Sansas.
Searching through pure feelings, This tried to cut away as many happy or joyful memories as possible. Then it moved on to all memories involving wiggles, or four-legged beings.
With these steps in mind, This could only hope to find what it was looking for.
....
This wasn't sure how long it had been inside of its Mindscape, but after searching for so long, it had found nothing.
Not many wiggles, not many four-legged beings and certainly no "kill".
Opening its eyes, This let out a large exhale and rested its chin on the table. Going through the memories like that was tiring, even for This.
And to find nothing relevant left This feeling slightly empty.
"Erm.. M'lady? Your meal is ready! Would you like a drink?" With its head still resting against the table, looking vaguely into the distance, This first noticed a plate appear in front of it, followed by the soft voice of the familiar brown-haired maid.
Lifting its head up, This looked at the maid for a split second before dragging its eyes to the shiny golden brown meat.
It was covered in beautiful juices and was still sizzling in certain spots, without even having to take a breath, this could smell the delectable aroma waft off the meat and enter directly into its mind.
This wanted nothing more than to eat the meat right then and there. But thinking of the hungry small thing, This decided to wait.
Not noticing the drool escaping its mouth, This spoke hazily.
"Thank you..." And without another word, This grabbed the plate and headed towards its room.
The maid said nothing as she watched the young lady run off with the large plate, heading straight for the exit.
Yet, only as the young lady left did she notice her blood-stained hand, and the small puppy following her.
________________________________________
With careful yet quick steps, This found itself back inside its room.
Looking down expectantly, This noticed that the small creature was still walking beneath its dress, although it now seemed much more tired than before.
This placed the plate on the table near the mirror, forcefully ripped a piece of meat off, and placed the chunk in her fabric-covered hand. It was hot, but This didn't mind.
Lowering its body, This held its hand out, looked directly into the thing's eyes and spoke.
"Don't bite me this time." The words came out coldly, with a hint of anger that was not intended, but the small thing seemed to have understood.
First taking a sniff, then another, it no longer hesitated and bit the meat, taking it from This's hands and moving a small distance away.
This didn't mind its attitude, even preferring its quickness. At least this way, it had more time to enjoy its own food.
Standing back up and returning to the dresser, this haphazardly picked up the large piece of meat with both hands and began to feast.
As soon as the first piece had entered its mouth, This felt reminded again what it meant to be alive.
As much as it enjoyed learning words and understanding humans. This felt that if it could eat meat forever, it wouldn't mind doing so.
With the first chunk of meat sliding down its throat and into its stomach, this felt its body and mind grow more comfortable, similar to when it had first eaten.
This still couldn't understand why it became so much easier to move whenever it ate, but in the current moment, it did not care.
Right now, it was only This and the meat.
________________________________________
It didn't take long for me to find Robb; he was always spending time in his study, worried about finances, or responsibilities about becoming the next lord.
I respected him for this. In a way, it felt much easier to treat Robb like an older brother of mine.
Even then, with all the work he did in that study, it was never good to let your body rust while your mind sharpened. It took only a few short words to convince him to come out and spar.
This wasn't uncommon for us; we had been sparring partners since we were young. I'd have been more surprised had he turned my request down, but that'd just mean I'd have to spar with Theon, and Robb was never a fan of bullying.
"Have you decided on a name for your pup?"
Walking towards the training ground, I started some casual small talk with my brother.
"Not yet. I think I'll let the name come to me. Have you decided yours?" He replied without turning.
"I have, I was thinking Ghost? What do you think?" Responding in the same casual tone, I asked his opinion on the name.
"Ghost?... It's fitting. I see why you named it as such." Giving me a brief look, he seemed to approve before turning away again.
Reaching the training grounds, Robb closed in on an old barrel filled with wooden swords.
The barrel had been in the same spot for so many years, I had come to believe it was older than I was.
Following closely behind, I fiddled with the handles before finding a familiar dark brown handle with a hint of red dyed deep into it.
The blade had always held a tint of red to it, whether from its material or from his predecessors before him; either way, I found that this sword fit me best.
Robb gave a cursory glance at my blade before picking at a random one and swinging it a few times.
Done with his warmup, he looked at me with an undisguised laziness and spoke.
"Are you ready?" Not feeling the need to warm up, I answered quickly.
"Of course." And with that, the duel had officially begun.
Robb held his ground with no intention to move; it wasn't an uncommon tactic of his, so instead of hesitating, I dashed in and quickly closed the distance.
Allowing the unease within my gut to guide me, I lifted the sword high with the full intention to break his guard in one strike.
Without waste, Robb decided against blocking and simply weaved to the right, dodging the strike entirely.
Not finished with my move, I shifted the blade's weight in my hand, swinging it horizontally in his direction.
My goal in this duel had never been to be calculating, but simply to apply an onslaught of pressure.
Seeing the sword headed in his direction, Robb calmly lifted his blade in reverse grip, parrying the hit.
However, the momentum I held forced him to step back slightly. Not holding back for a moment, I went in again, this time aiming for his neck with a diagonal slash.
Seeing my movement, Robb lifted the sword above himself in a blocking posture, using his off-hand to steady the full length of the blade
Thooom
The sound of our blades colliding in the air was loud enough for anyone nearby to clearly hear.
Taking a moment to breathe, I attempted to look into Robb's eyes, but not satisfied with the stalemate, Robb stepped forward, aiming a thrust kick towards my stomach.
Not expecting the kick, I was a moment too late to respond and took it harshly. Falling backwards, I did a quick roll to land back on my feet, raising to a stand as quickly as possible.
Yet, with the same calculating precision, Robb had already appeared in front of me with his blade aimed towards my face.
"Shall we consider this my win?" With a hint of a smirk, Robb spoke with slight mockery in his tone.
I had long gotten used to losing, especially to him, but through the many losses, the bitter taste of defeat never diminished.
"...Yeah.. It's your win." With those words, Robb lowered the wooden sword and held out his hand for me to grab.
Gripping it with some anger, I was then pulled to my feet.
"Again," I spoke as calmly as I could manage.
Not answering, Robb simply took a few steps back and entered his familiar counter stance, waiting for my move.
Smiling slightly at that, I charged in once more.