Pulling at the reins he commanded his horse to move closer to the slope and paring down the side Griffith saw the beast.
It was massive with dead white eyes out of which maggots crawled out.
"By the Gods!" he cursed and his horse cantered backwards in fright.
He then saw as Robb reached down and picked a small bundle of fur off the ground.
His brother then turned and presented it to them.
Jon gasped, "A pup."
Griffith glanced over at him, "Jon go get father, he should see this."
His brother grinned and rode off down the road.
He didn't have to wait long for the small party of twenty to arrive, the first ones to reach them were Jory and Theon.
They both drew their swords as they saw the direwolf, "Get away from it!"
Griffith chuckled at Jory's exclamation, "It's dead, Sir Jory."
The knight coughed in embarrassment, "Well you can never be too sure."
Looking over to the bridge Griffith saw as the rest of the group dismounted and walked over to them on foot, Jon included.
Theon's face wrinkled in disgust, "What in the seven hells is it?"
Robb looked up at him, "A wolf."
"More like a freak, look at the size of it," Theon said, spitting on the ground.
Everybody but Griffith had dismounted by now and were swarming around the dead direwolf.
He heard a cry of delight and saw Bran run over to Robb.
"Direwolves loose in the realm after so many years, I like it not." Hullen, the master of horse, said scratching his chin.
Jory shook his head, "It's a sign."
Walking forward, Eddard started to walk around the animal, "Do we know what killed her?"
Robb enthusiastically pointed at its neck, "They're just under the jaw."
His father knelt down and pulled something out of the wolf's neck, it was a foot of shattered antler.
Griffith's eyes narrowed, he usually didn't believe in omens but when they were this clear he wasn't so sure.
The rest of the party seemed to think the same as silence descended.
"I'm surprised she lived long enough to welp." His father said breaking the spell.
"She might not have," Jory said solemnly.
"Born with the dead, worse luck." one of the guards put in.
Harwin shook his head, "They'll be dead soon."
"Well better sooner than later." Theon said drawing his sword, "hand the pup over, Bran."
"Leave it Greyjoy!" Griffith ordered coldly from where he sat atop his black stallion.
They all turned to look at him, even at his tender age of fourteen Griffith still looked imposing when he wanted to, his long black-white hair coupled with the pair of sharp blue eyes that seemed to see all, he just gave off a sense of authority that matched his lord father.
Theon gulped, he had never been able to defeat Griffith in their sparring matches and it irked him greatly, the boy had only picked up the sword about three years ago and still, he had surpassed everybody in the castle.
Setting his jaw, Theon glared up at Griffith, but just as he was about to speak the boy turned to his half-brother, "Robb, how many pups are there again?"
His eyes widened, "Three males and two females.
Griffith chuckled and looked at Eddard, "Father, I believe your children were meant to have these pups
There are five direwolves and five trueborn Stark children.
Three male wolves and three sons.
Two female wolves and two daughters."
Eddard smiled, and shook his head in resignation, "You make a good case Griffith, but don't Jon and you also want one?"
Griffith glanced over at his brother, and the other smiled.
"No father, we are not Starks, we are Snows."
Eddard nodded, "Fine," and then turned to his other two sons, "but you'll have to take care of them yourselves, I don't want to hear anything about you pushing your responsibilities onto others, okay?"
They both nodded in agreement, great big smiles adorning their faces.
"Well then we better get back to Winterfell, we shouldn't dally too long or the others might get worried."
They had just started riding off when Jon dismounted again.
"What is it, Jon?" Harwin asked.
"I just heard something, give me a moment."
He then ran back to where the dead direwolf lay and knelt down.
Standing back up he ran back with something in each arm, "They must have crawled away from the others?"
"Or driven away," Hullen said darkly.
Both the pups were snow-white but the one in Jon's right arm had red eyes while the other had blue.
He quickly strode over to Griffith, "This one's yours." He then handed him one of the pups and strode away back to his horse.
Looking down at the direwolf, Griffith gazed into the pup's bright blue eyes which were identical to his own.
***
I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please tell me if you see any mistakes.
What I think is really interesting is how you all reacted to my last question.
I just asked Black or White and you all instinctively thought that I meant the direwolves.
There was no right or wrong answer, I just wanted to test the human mind.
Then I hope you have a nice day or night depending on where you are, goodbye ;)