A Wolf Would Not Like the Sea

[corrielle]

Title: A Wolf Would Not Like the Sea
Author: corrielle
Fandom: Game of Thrones
Word Count: 686
Characters: Theon Greyjoy, Robb Stark, and various direwolves.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine. Not making any profit.  GoT is GGRM's and HBO's.
Summary: Theon Greyjoy doesn't want a direwolf.  Really he doesn't.


In the morning, after Theon had broken his fast in the great hall, Arya and her direwolf pup ran past him in the narrow corridor in a tangle of awkward legs and feet.

"Sorry!" she called over her shoulder as the two of them raced away.

While he and Robb and Jon went at each other with practice blades under Rodrick's watchful eye, Jon's white runt with the red eyes watched as well, and when Rodrick gave them rest, Jon went to stroke the pup's head, and it licked Jon's hand with a pink tongue.

Just before midday, Sansa and her Septa came out and sat on the balcony in the sun, and Sansa's pup, nearly as prim as she was, sat neatly at her feet as she worked on the stitching in her lap.

In the afternoon, while Bran pulled his bowstring back against his cheek, his pup lay a safe distance away, raising his head only when Bran's arrows struck the target soundly. Bran's quiver empty, Theon stepped up to the line and sunk three arrows into the center, one right after the other, but the wolf did not raise its head for him.

When Lord Stark commanded that his two oldest sons and Theon accompany him as he rode out to one of his crofter's homes, a small movement in the shadows caught Theon's eye on the way to the stables. Across the courtyard, little Rickon was curled up with his big black wolf pup, who was almost large enough to hide Rickon from any who would search for him.

Theon wondered how long the boy would stay hidden before his mother or his sisters found him, and then, without warning, he wondered what it would be like to have a wolf of his own to walk next to him in the shadows as they rode out from Winterfell.

"Jealous, Greyjoy?" Robb Stark asked. He was dressed to ride already, and one hand rested easily on the pommel of his sword. His pup, Greywind (two words or one?), stood with his head brushing against Robb's knee.

"Jealous?" Theon scoffed. "Of what?"

Robb turned his head slowly to look at Rickon and his wolf, then raised an eyebrow at Theon as if to say, "We both know what I mean. I'll say it, if you make me, but I'd rather let you own to it yourself." It was an expression Theon had seen on Ned Stark's face a dozen times. Robb did many things that reminded him of Lord Stark these days, and it made Theon wonder he ever reminded anyone of his father, or if Balon Greyjoy would still recognize anything of himself in his only living son.

"You mean… of you Starks and your wolf pups?" Theon asked.

Robb nodded. "Well… are you? Do you wish there had been a seventh pup for you?"

"And what would I do with a direwolf?" Theon asked. "They whine and shit and howl, and besides… when I go home one day…" If I ever go home… He pushed that thought away. "I don't think a wolf would like the sea." He had memories of dogs on the Iron Islands, but the Starks' wolf pups were bred for mountains and forests, not beaches and barren rock.

Robb frowned for a moment. Theon had been in Winterfell so long that from time to time, Robb forgot that the dreary, grey hulk of a castle was not Theon's home by choice. That forgetting would have grated on him if it had been anyone else, but this was Robb, so Theon didn't take pains to remind him.

"Don't worry, Theon," Robb said at last. He grinned and slapped Theon on the shoulder. "We'll catch you a kraken that's just hatched, and you can let your pet loose in the pond in the god's wood!"

Theon's back went rigid. No man could ever keep a kraken as a pet, he almost said, but Robb was already laughing at his own wit, and because Theon knew that it was laughter meant for sharing and not for mocking, he laughed with him.