The Reluctant Conquest of Ruby Snow Chapter Two

As always I will have a link to the G-docs at the bottom as well as some other reading formats.

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Winterfell, ah my beloved, if only for the indoor plumbing alone. It almost made up for the insane weather up here.

Well kinda indoor plumbing, they sorta cheated with the hot spring underground. But it still counted! It was warm enough in Winterfell that in boxes by the main road winding its way through the castle there were plants flourishing in raised beds set into wooden boxes. Mostly veggies but veggies could be pretty too!

I smiled and greeted the people going about their duties in the evening and received mostly polite and brief acknowledgements in return. Now that I think about it, things were a bit more lively than normal. 

“Ruby!” I blinked as my name was called and turned to wave at Sansa as she hurried over without obviously hurrying, a sort of ladylike speed-walking. Dang she was good at it too, pretty fast.

“Hi Sansa, are you doing well?” In response she shoved an embroidery hoop into my hands with an eager smile.

“What do you think?” She practically bounced in place as I lifted the hoop up to have a look in the sunlight.

“That is some very nice blockwork.” I whistled “Holbein stitches looking good, I love the leaves scattered about too, super pretty.” I grinned at her and held out the hoop. “So pretty, much cute! I bet Old Nan was impressed.” Sansa preened at my words before adopting her ‘noble lady’ look.

“I am still not quite as good as you with some of my stitches.” She offered.

“Are you joking? Your embroidery is amazing Sansa.” And it honestly was, she had a fine eye for detail. But I suppose it was unladylike to boast about stuff, even when she should be boasting. She was good enough for it.

“It’s a shame you could not join us for the lesson.” She prodded and I nodded.

“I just wanted to have some time with Rose Bolt.” I said, tapping the stock of my crossbow.

“You named it.” Sansa gave an exaggerated sigh as I giggled.

“Name him, and he is brilliant, and performed perfectly.” I informed the eldest Stark daughter. 

“Did he now? Have you already given your catch over to the kitchen?” Sansa glanced behind me.

“Oh, dang, I forgot my sled.” I had left it with Farlen’s overturned cart in all the excitement.

“You forgot what you went out specifically to do? How does one leave behind an entire sled?” Sansa teased as I groaned.

“No, no I saw Farlen and Palla when I was coming back from the North Wood and their cart fell over and I left my sled with their cart because I was distracted by the whole cart falling over thing and it was a little awkward... but the cart is only like, half a mile down the kingsroad? I will go pick it up tomorrow.” It’s not like many people will be traveling this late with the summer snow coating the land.

And it was just a sled, my sled, ohhh I hope no one takes it!

“So, no game?” Sansa probed. “You would not have forgotten it if you had caught anything of value.” I looked at her and she had a dang old smirk on her face!

“I had a buck, big old boy, stag, I took him down cleanly but.” I glanced around before taking Sansa’s shoulder and leaning in as she paused and offered me her ear. “I had to abandon the buck, it was important, I have to tell Ned about it.” She blinked and slowly opened her mouth.

“Poachers?” She whispered and I shook my head.

“No, it’s not poachers, I can’t tell you exactly now but, it’s just dangerous to go to the Northwood right now. I will talk to Ned about it and then I can probably tell you later.” I smiled at her as she gave me a worried look.

“A lady should not be putting herself in danger Ruby, Old Nan is already complaining about you going out on your own at just fourteen...” I quickly waved her off that subject.

“It’s fine, I know what I am doing and I will probably not be heading into the woods for the next few weeks with the current situation, anyway.” It was best to give a pregnant direwolf some room, she had managed to get very close to me without me even knowing despite being a big chonky girl!

A hungry wolfie that big and THAT sneaky? Better safe than sorry.

“Ah, because of whatever you need to speak to father about but won’t tell me?” Sansa rolled her eyes.

“Sorry.” I rubbed the back of my neck and smiled at Sansa as she tittered again. 

“Well, to make it up to me, might I ask for your help with my dress this evening?” She dimured as I turned towards her and took her hands.

“Of course! You look so, so pretty in that, wait we are talking about the blue one with the wolves on the cuffs?” She nodded. 

“I seem to have grown a little bit.” She offered with a wry smile.

“Easy enough to fix with the stitching, I don’t think we will get it done in just one evening but I don’t think I have much to do tomorrow...” She nodded.

“It’s settled then.” She smiled and recovered her hands from my grippers as we started on again heading towards the great hall. 

“Where is Bran and Arya?” I asked as we walked, looking around at the walls, roofs and battlements of winterfell in case I could see the little monkey.

“Bran went with father to witness the King’s Justice.” Sansa began as I held back a sigh. Even after fourteen years I could never get used to what the people of Westeros consider ‘justice’.

“And Arya?” I prompted, causing her to sigh.

“I don’t know, probably sulking somewhere.” She snapped, causing me to glance at her before she gave me a sheepish look. “Sorry.” She mumbled.

“Why would she be sulking?” I probed causing Sansa to inspect Mr Ground but I already knew how he was doing so I put a hand on her shoulder as we stopped. “Sansa?”

“I might have gotten a bit cross with her, and said that she was not trying, but that is only because she was being stupid and said that the lessons were a waste of time!” Sansa ranted as I gave her the ‘Big Sister’ face. 

“Sansa...” I began.

“No she said I was stupid and everything we do is stupid and, and... it’s partially your fault.” I blinked and cocked my head.

“My fault?” I squeaked out.

“Yes! You don’t go to the lessons and go out hunting so Arya thinks that she can do the same as if she were just a bastard!” As soon as the word left Sansa’s mouth she reached up to cover her mouth and stared at me wide eyed.

“Sansa it’s-” 

“I am so sorry!” She whined, eyes watering up, ugh.

“Sansa, it's fine.” I said quickly, giving her a smile. “It’s not a big deal or anything, I will go talk to her okay, before I speak to Ned I guess. Do you know where she is at least?” I told the girl holding back tears. People treated the whole ‘Bastard’ stuff so seriously.

Especially Catelyn... 

I mean, yeah I get it but it can be hard to be around her sometimes. 

“No crying now.” I chastised Sansa and pulled her into a hug as she sniffed. “It’s okay.” Big Sisters don’t get upset at silly things said by mistake, they just get prank revenge later on!

Prankvengance!... Prengance? 

No, that did not sound right at all. I will workshop it for later. 

“Do you know where she went?” I asked and Sansa shook her head as I stepped back away from her. “Well, I am going to go look for Arya, then I have to go speak to Ned when he gets back but after that we can work on your dress in the evening after supper, okay?” I gave her a smile and she sniffed.

“Your funny words... ‘okay’” she mimicked and rubbed her cheeks. She was around the age where all sorts of emotions would be coming in rapid fire so it was okay to have a little cry now and then.

That was the law! 

Even as the super cool and stoic older sister my body was still messing with me, but I had already gone though all that gross stuff once already so it was easier for me.

Well, except for Old Nan taking delight in embarrassing me in her ‘moonblood’ lecture. Ugh, never again.

ANYWAY! MOVING ON NOW!

I departed from Sansa and made my way to one of the many hiding places of Arya, it was the most obvious hiding place, one she had used many times and one that had been compromised utterly but that she continued to use anyway.

My Smithy-workshop. 

Tucked in a nook close to the broken tower and the First Keep was an old smithy and storehouse that had been long disused. And that was super dumb because the place still had a set of good quality anvils and even some tools still in the place. Since no one was using it I decided to fix the place up so I had somewhere to work on cool weapons like Rose Bolt.

After I had already been using the place for weeks Ned decided to just let me continue, now the nook was better equipped than his own smithy. Hehe. 

I guess it was not too dumb that there were places in Winterfell that were not actively being used now that I think about it. The castle was more like a small city, it was huge! I don’t even think I have explored everything with how humongous Winterfell actually was! With how many buildings, courtyards and the like were actually inside of the walls it was not a surprise that some things just got set aside and left alone.

Even if that was super sad. I stepped past the broken tower, looking up at the crumbling ruin as a bunch of crows were murdering about up there. Totally unsafe but even when I had asked there was no way to fix up, or safely dismantle the tower. The stone was not needed and if we fixed it up? It would just go unused. 

So many buildings were already useless, it made no sense to spend the tax money from the smallfolk fixing things that would just be left alone and fall into disrepair again. I sighed and patted the walls of the broken tower with its super cool gargoyles and stuff as I snuck into the storehouse side of my little workspace since that was the part with the door slightly ajar.

Careful not to open the door too much and let a bunch of light in or have the hinge scream out just because he was getting a little bit of work to do I slipped into the gloom all sneaky beaky like and spied upon a snooping little girl.

She was looking over at the ‘totally not abandoned dreams’ table where I had a bunch of cool weapons that were not quite entirely done just yet but I would totally get around to fixing them.

She had just put down the ‘blade hidden inside a bracer’ idea and that was actually a bit of a relief since I haven't found a good way of making that one safe.

Like at all.

Thankfully while Arya wanted to spy on and touch everything she was smart enough not to strap knives to her arms all willy nilly.

Wait, what did that say about me?

ANYWAY!

I tiptoed forwards struggling super hard not to giggle until I was close enough to touch Arya as she pawed around with my stuff before I jumped up.

“SNOOPER! I caught a sneaky little snooper!” I jumped back and laughed at the red faced little pup that had totally not let out a truly impressive scream. 

“I AM NOT A SNOOPER!” Arya raged as she blushed, having been caught being a great big snoop. Cute little snoop too.

“Caught the snoop!” I teased as I wrapped my arms around her and threw her over my shoulder as she squealed and hammered her little hands on my back.

“Put me down!” She laughed as I jabbed my fingers into her ribs making her kick out her legs at my relentless assault. 

“Never!” I replied and continued the attack.

“I’m gonna pee you idiot!” She screamed and I quickly dropped her and jumped away from the child.

“Ewww!” I shouted as she gasped red faced at me.

“Yo-” She began as I pointed at the door.

“Go pee!” I ordered as she put her hands on her hips and gave me a smug look.

“I don’t even need to go, you are just gullible.” she said something so scandalous, so brazenly.

“You lied!?” I gasped, clasping my cheeks and staring in open mouthed shock at the cheeky little fibbing snoop.

“Why are you jumping up at me and scaring me around weapons!” She snapped, doing her best to change the subject from her shocking behavior.

“You had put the weapon down so-” 

“That is not safe! That is a... you broke your dumb rules.” She pointed at the sign I had put up at the door with all of my rules.

Including no roughhousing inside the workshop.

Dang, she got me, this was super not responsible, big sis behavior.

“Alright, alright you are right.” I held up my hands. “It was a bit unsafe, but so was sneaking into my workshop while I was away, how did you even get in? I locked the door.”

“No, the door was left unlocked.” Arya said as I scratched my head. 

“Are you sure? I could have sworn it was locked.” I thought back to this morning when I went to pick up Rose Bolt for the hunt today, I had been pretty excited to give him a test.

“No, the door was closed but you left the key in the lock.” She said, plucking the wrought iron key from her pocket and waving it around as I patted my own, empty pocket.

“Drat. I must have gotten too excited.” Ugh, now am I meant to show Arya how I am a responsible older sister when I forget keys in locks!

“What is going on over here?” Came a very familiar voice as the door swung open and Catelyn stride into my workshop in full ‘glare at Ruby’ mode. Behind her was the unmistakable form of Wylis holding open the door so light could get in and Catelyn could get a good look at the place.

That was still a bit messy to be honest.

“What was that screaming? I could hear you from all the way across the castle!” She demanded as Arya and I stared at the woman for a moment, looked at each other and had very little time to think of an explanation for Catelyn that the Stark Matriarch would accept.

Engage plan distraction!

“I saw a Direwolf.” I said, causing Catelyn to blink in utter bafflement. 

“You did?!” Arya squeaked in excitement causing me to grin and nod my head at the girl as Catelyn cleared her throat to get our attention back on her.

“Explain girl, now.” She demanded. She had an incredibly serious and concerned expression on her face and even Wylis looked worried.

...dang, was plan ‘distraction Catelyn from me making Arya scream a bunch’ actually a bad idea? 

Regardless, I had no choice now, so I started to explain my encounter with the Direwolf. Catelyn had to know about Fluffy.

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