[ A warm bubble of pride spreads in Arya's chest at the words. She'll never be a proper lady. Some days she doesn't think she makes a very good daughter or sister or friend. A wolf she can be. A wolf she wants to be. ]

That's how it's supposed to be Beyond the Wall. Bran the Builder raised the Wall thousands of years ago to protect the realms against everything beyond. It's wildlings what try to invade really, but Old Nan liked to scare us with stories about the White Walkers and the Long Night.

That's where Nymeria's mother came from. Before her, no one had ever seen direwolves south of the Wall in hundreds of years. She was dead when my brothers found her, but they brought her litter to Winterfell. Six pups, one for each of us.