A wolf's happy life

A thousand years ago, the Children of the Forest and the First Men went to war over land and faith. After long years of slaughter, the two sides signed a peace pact and ended the war.

But disaster struck without warning. A long winter and savage blizzards shrouded the land, accompanied by the appearance of the Others.

The Long Night had come.

Wherever the Others went, all living things became dead things. The First Men and the Children of the Forest had no choice but to join forces against them.

Among the Children of the Forest, besides the Skinchangers and Greenseers, a ghostly figure also joined the army fighting the Others.

It was the Wolf Spirit King and the pack of Direwolves he commanded.

The Wolf Spirit King received the blessing of... His pack underwent a transformation... The Direwolves became the masters of the Great Snow Mountain...

This historical text had long since rotted away. The section recording the Wolf Spirit King had crumbled completely to dust, while the only intact portion at the end of the scroll was marred by stains that could not be removed.

Maester Luwin tried every method he could, but could only reconstruct half a sentence-"People called them 'Skinchangers.'"

Skinchangers...?

Like a reader falling into an abandoned novel, the maester was so curious he nearly scratched himself bald. Clutching the document, he began writing to the Citadel.

A few days later, Ghost's injuries healed completely. He officially moved into Lyanna Stark's bedchamber.

She showed an extraordinary fondness for Lyanna alone. As for everyone else, apart from a few members of House Stark, Ghost allowed no one near him.

Ghost loved nothing more than curling up on Lyanna's soft, fragrant bed to sleep. He was now completely inseparable from Lyanna, even sleeping at her feet at night.

Lyanna, meanwhile, tirelessly held up slips of paper covered in names for him to see, hoping he would choose one himself.

White Frost-pass. Too cold.

White Snow-pass. Too tacky.

White Sweet Mold-pass. That glutton Benjen must have come up with it.

Snow Dumpling-pass. She wasn't a daifuku!

After ages without seeing a suitable name, Ghost gave a bored yawn, his eyes narrowing to slits.

Lyanna was getting a little troubled. "You really are picky." She picked up a few books beside her pillow and began leafing through them, hoping to find a few more good words.

She casually opened the history book the maester had lent her. When she saw the passage-[The Children of the Forest firmly believed that all things had spirits]-her expression shifted.

She tried calling out, "Ghost? Shall I call you Ghost?"

The white wolf raised his head and stared at her, his round eyes opening wide as he wagged his tail hard.

Lyanna smiled happily. "Looks like you really like it. Ghost it is."

Ghost became Lyanna's closest companion, and the two of them explored every corner of Winterfell together.

This fortress, almost as old as House Stark itself, held many untold stories. Their favorite thing was to climb to the tops of the tallest towers and gaze out over the North's endless ice fields and emerald-green plains.

Whenever the mood struck her, Lyanna would ride out to hunt near the Wolfswood. Her horsemanship was the best, and when she rode at full speed, almost none of the household knights could catch her.

And whenever Lyanna returned from a hunt, she often brought back more and larger game than before, all driven out and caught with Ghost's help.

Almost everyone in Winterfell had received game Lyanna had hunted herself. From the elderly to the children, "There's no one who doesn't like Lyanna," they said.

Some young men with budding feelings, in particular, secretly competed where Lyanna could not see them. Even exchanging a few extra words with her would leave them trembling with excitement and blushing.

But none dared overstep in public. After all, Lyanna's elder brother was Winterfell's little tyrant, and her status was noble.

Their affection extended to Ghost, and the treatment he received in Winterfell improved by leaps and bounds. Boiled chicken, mutton... stewed beef. The whole wolf put on weight as though being inflated, growing fluffy and chubby and looking more endearing by the day.

Lyanna had always felt that Ghost was unlike any other animal. He was as clever as a human, and that showed in more than just his ability to understand human speech...

For a wolf, many of his habits were far too strange. Not only did he eat nothing but food cooked by humans, he was also particularly fond of cleanliness.

Whenever she bathed, Ghost would deliberately make trouble and splash water all over himself. Then Lyanna would have no choice but to give him a bath too.

Sometimes Lyanna would suddenly speak to Ghost, staring into his round green-gold eyes. Holding his enormous wolf head, she would ask the same question over and over:

"You can actually understand everything we say, can't you?"

Ghost gave two innocent howls and played dumb, then licked her chin.

"Hahahaha... that tickles..." Lyanna decided to let it go. A playmate like this was nice too.

Every day spent with Lyanna was happy. Not only did Ghost have enough food and warmth, the pretty young lady also hugged and petted her every day.

Apart from the monotonous food, this was practically paradise!!

She had almost forgotten she had originally been human. All she wanted was to protect Lyanna as she grew up in peace, then stop her romance with Rhaegar.

As long as Lyanna did not fall in love with Rhaegar, as long as she stopped Rhaegar from taking Lyanna away because of the prophecy, Lyanna would not die in childbirth at the Tower of Joy.

Then Jon Snow, the biggest scumbag in the entire show, would never be born either. Following that development, the tragic ending in which the Mother of Dragons was backstabbed would change as well.

All according to plan. √√√

Then what Ghost needed to do next was recall as many key plot points, details, and dates from the prequel as possible. Then she would find the important characters and change their fates.

According to the plot, Lyanna would suffer a difficult childbirth at eighteen. The "False Spring," when she met Rhaegar at the Tourney at Harrenhal, took place a year before that.

Lyanna was fourteen now and had just become engaged to Robert Baratheon. In three years, the series of events that would throw the continent into turmoil would begin.

The best solution was to make sure Lyanna never met Rhaegar. But that was too difficult.

She was just an innocent, adorable little white wolf. Why did she have to shoulder the fate of changing the world?

Ghost thought it over and over, but none of the methods seemed foolproof. It was all because she had read too few books in her previous life and was too stupid.

Life is hard. Doggy sigh...

The days of being a salted fish passed in a flash, and the North's grand event, the [Hundred-Person Hunt], was about to begin.

The rules of the [Hundred-Person Hunt] were simple:

Every house in the North could participate as long as they could gather twenty people. Their leader would take their best men and set out from Winter Town outside Winterfell, hunt enough game over three days, then return.

During the hunt, they could focus on hunting or lie in wait to rob others. As long as nobody died, even beating someone half to death was fine.

(Ghost: PvP + PvE. They certainly know how to have fun.)

In short, after three days, the house that returned with the most game and the fewest wounded would win. Lord Stark and other highly respected lords would serve as judges.

Of course, there could also be cases where several evenly matched houses tied. That was easily solved: they simply fought again in the enclosed clearing outside Winter Town.

The prize was all the game from the event, along with an honorary title-awarded by the lord.

Originally, a portion of the game from the Hundred-Person Hunt was supposed to be paid to the lord, but Lord Stark had fairly refused it, sending enthusiasm for participation soaring among the northerners.

After all, everyone knew that in the North, there were only two kinds of most dangerous enemies: winter and hunger.

Naturally, Brandon would lead House Stark's men into the contest, while Lyanna seemed rather unenthusiastic.

Ghost found this a little strange. Only after listening to the excited maids gossip every day did she get a rough idea of what was going on.

First, the Hundred-Person Hunt was a savage, intense event for girls, especially noble girls.

(In previous years, weapons and clothes had often been destroyed in fights, leaving a bunch of burly men wrestling naked.)

Huh? That sounds pretty spectacular... no, it really is pretty savage!

Second, Lyanna was an unmarried noble young lady and should no longer be going out in public like that. After all, once fighting broke out, casualties were difficult to avoid.

Finally, Ghost felt that Lord Rickard actually wanted to pave the way for his eldest son Brandon as much as possible and let him display his strength, laying the groundwork for his future inheritance of the duchy and rule over the North.

So the other children just needed to behave themselves, watch, and cheer their eldest brother on.

However, Ned, who was close to Lyanna in age, would have to participate as a future vassal and household knight.

Lyanna took it well: rather than compete in fighting and riding against stinking men, she would rather browse the streets outside the castle and watch the contest.

But... Lyanna's eyes shifted toward Ghost, who spent every day eating well and lazing about, her figure growing rounder by the day.

It was time to shut the doors and let the dog loose.

An ominous premonition suddenly flashed through Ghost's mind.

Ned was delighted, his face blooming with smiles. He had coveted Ghost for a long time. He had never expected his sister to be willing to lend him Ghost for the hunt.

He hugged Ghost and refused to let go, burying his big face straight into Ghost's beautiful, fluffy white fur.

Ghost felt as though he was using her fur to wipe his face...

She howled plaintively at Lyanna, who forced herself not to look at her.

Then she could not help fussing over Ned like an old mother. "Brother, Ghost likes being clean. Make sure you don't let her bite anything dirty."

"She doesn't eat raw meat. Remember to roast or boil it before feeding her."

"And don't push too hard during the hunt. If you run into a bear, you lot go first."

Ned: "..."

Ghost: "..."

Arrow to the knee.jpg.

There was also a strange sense of embarrassment.

Ned good-naturedly agreed to everything, though several times he seemed about to speak, then stopped. Finally, unable to hold back, he asked a question:

"Lyanna, is Ghost... really a wolf?"

Lyanna looked up at the sky and sighed. "He should... be one..."

"Then how about I don't take him after all?"

Lyanna rubbed Ghost's soft fur and plump bottom, then hardened her heart. "No, she needs more exercise! What kind of wolf eats so much and lazes around like this?"

Ghost: Another arrow to the knee...

Ned nodded in agreement. He really should go for a run in the wild. A wolf must not lose his wild nature.

Ghost could only follow Ned helplessly, looking back three times with every step.

If she were in human form now, she would definitely have stretched out an Erkang hand and turned into Roaring Ma, shouting, "Don't you want your little cutie anymore?"

Seeing Ghost's drooping head, Ned felt a little sorry for him too. He thought for a moment, then said, "If you do well, how about I make you some honey-roasted meat? I'm pretty good at it."

Moved, Ghost raised her head, opening her large, moist eyes wide and imagining them sparkling.

Ned could not help laughing.

His smile slowly faded as he suddenly recalled a strange detail.

Had Lyanna just said... "she"?