The Reluctant Conquest of Ruby Snow Chapter Six

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Ruby

I managed to land on my feet and keep my balance for a whole second after enduring the cold, judgemental, tree zone before my legs buckled. With my aura shattered again so soon after the first time I felt the immense fatigue and strain overcome me, dragging me to the ground.

“Uegh-” It was hardly the most dignified sound I had ever made and thankfully it was cut off as my face impacted a pile of loosely packed snow. That was... not exactly what I wanted to feel, snow did indicate I had gone north, but Grumpus was in Winterfell and never had snow around him except in the coldest of winters. And this aint’ it! That meant I could honestly be anywhere, there were ‘wild’ wierwoods in forests in the north but I was going to have to find a way to keep warm and then work out where I am...

Oh, wait, I need oxygen.

It took superhuman willpower to force my aura-depleted body to shuffle around in the snow enough that I could turn my head to the side and avoid suffocation by a few inches of snow. I was just in the process of enjoying the sensation of being alive when I saw the most cutest horrible thing I could have seen possible. 

He was fluffy, like a ball of fur with legs and a head sticking out. A little black nose under a pair of big ruby red eyes staring into my own. My mind became a battleground, my heart pumping faster and faster as I contended with two realities. 

One, HE IS OBJECTIVELY THE CUTEST THING EVER!

Two, baby wolf meant mumma wolf, I was close to baby wolf barely able to move my body.

“So this is how I die this time huh?” I asked the cutie who waddled forwards to push his little button nose into my hair and sniff at me. I saw a bigger little fluff ball poke it’s head up from a bank of snow, it’s bright emerald eyes sparkling as it’s black fur played starkly against the blanket of white snow. Hehe, that was a good one.

No, no I wont die, not yet!

I fought against the weakness in my limbs, against the darkness at the edge of my vision that threatened to overwhelm me. I fed all of my power, all of my strength into my left arm as I slowly raised it out of the cold snow.

And towards the fluffball sniffing my head.

With a triumphant grunt I stroked the puppy, smushing him into my face and smothering myself in the purest essence of fluff. The cutie did not make a sound, simply curling up around my hand and nipping at my fingers as his tail waged.

Ah, victory.

I was not surprised when I heard a low growl, the sheer presence of mumma fluffy causing every animal in a hundred miles to silence themselves out of respect for what was doubtlessly the most dangerous predator in the wolfwood. For an instant I considered the axe just a few feet away from me in the snow but I could not even move my body so that would not help me one bit.

“Do as you will.” I said, my face still fluffed. “I’ve already won.” At my declaration of victory I felt death stalk closer. I reflected upon my short life here, on the Stark family, on my place in the world and what I had experienced. It would be a shame to move on so soon, I did want to enjoy a quiet life where the biggest responsibility was squeezing out a baby at some point in the future, where the entire world did not rely upon me and I had family who I loved.

For a moment I wondered if I had squandered this life, if I had gotten myself killed foolishly.

But no, that was dumb, who the heck could have predicted I could jump into trees! This was all just bad luck. I want indoor plumbing next time, and video games! What kind of world could exist without video games?!

It was with that I felt the faint warmth in the crisp air that meant the mumma Fluffy was right behind me. At least my body would feed cute little puppies as they grew big and strong, I was pretty sure that direwolves were somewhat endangered animals. I just  hope she made it qui-

“Oof!” I felt all the air in my lungs forced out at once as Fluffy sat on me.

“What are you do-” I tried to look back only to get a paw on the back of my head pushing my face into the snow with a low warning growl as Fluffy plucked the quiet little pupper from my hand. I stayed like that for a moment, stunned, not quite comprehending what was going on when Fluffy shifted, even a fraction of her bulk seemed like enough to keep me pinned even if I had any strength at all in the noodles I called limbs. As it was I was totally trapped and could do nothing but accept Fluffy's wild ride.

She let out a howl and over the pale white verge came a stampede of puppies, each one cuter than the last and I had to struggle not to squeal when I beheld them scampering over to me, sniffing, prodding and nipping at my clothes.

“This is not quite how I expected this to go.” I groaned out with what little air I could bring into my lungs. “If you are trying.” I squirmed under Fluffy. “To suffocate me then you suck at it.”

Fluffy responded by rolling to her side, mostly off of me apart from my legs and giving me the space to turn to look at her. She stared down at me with pale sapphire eyes as she settled into a comfortable position for her puppies to nurse, I saw ‘red eyes’ had already latched on and was drinking hungrily as his brothers and sisters lost interest in me and pranced over to dinner.

Dinner that was not me apparently?

“So are you going to eat me or not? This is getting pretty awkward and I don’t do well with mixed signals.” 

She just stared at me and cocked her head to the side almost killing me there and then with her cuteness.

“Is this about me feeding you before? I had my crossbow so if you want me to catch you another buck you have to let me head back to Winterfell so I can get my crossbow.” I rambled, the awkwardness of not being killed and eaten starting to get to me.

Wait, I was feeling pretty good actually. I wiggled my limbs and for some reason did not feel like I was going to die. I took a deep breath and focused and felt the faint potency of my aura seeping out from my core. I slowly slipped my hands onto the cold ground and began to push myself up when Fluffy almost casually planted a paw on my back and pushed me back down, punctuating her actions with a snappy bark.

“-fine, I won’t move.” I grunted, waiting while Fluffy fed her puppies. After a while the pale, red eyed ball of cuteness wabbled over, his little belly full of milk as he went to investigate me more.

“Gosh, you are gorgeous, well, all of you are gorgeous.” I told him as I snuck a glance back at all the other puppies. “You are the runt huh.” I mused as he wobbled up to my head and curled up on my shoulder. In an instant he was sleeping and despite the snow all around me I felt warm and comfortable myself.

“Not even gonna snore, you are a quiet little pup.” I told him as his noisy brothers and sisters lethargically played with each other on top of me. My eyelids grew heavy as I struggled to remain in the waking world. “Gunna call you Quiet.” I told him as he snuggled against my cheek.

Wait, feeling warm in the cold is a sign of hypothermia. Despite that morbid thought I could not resist the onset of Fluffy induced sleep and faded from the waking world.

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“-uuuuby!” I blinked away a confusing and fading dream about a bird bouncing around in a circle seemingly mad that I kept trying to feed him popcorn and looked to see the forest was moving.

Oh wait, no I was moving. I looked down at myself to see a long trench had been cut into the lightly packed snow as I had been dragged by Fluffy through the woods by my collar. When I tried to wiggle Fluffy shook her head, and thus me, until I relented to her dragging me along.

“Ruuuuubbby!” Came another shout, echoing through the trees. 

“Robb?” I muttered, very cognisant of the fact that I was in the jaws of a bear sized wolf.

“-on’t find much now.” As Fluffy’s march took me closer to Robb’s voice I heard the unmistakable annoying lameness of Theon Greyjoy with him.

“RUBY!” Came Robb’s shout, a roar of frustration that inflicted a wave of guilt upon me. I did not want to make anyone worry about me.

“Likely found a boy with a cock she fancied and ran off, gotta ask your father to check the coffers, see if she ran with some drag- OH FUCK!” Fluffy jumped effortlessly up a verge with me in her mouth overlooking the two young men searching the woods for me. 

“Hi Robb, Theon.” I began staring at the stunned and terrified pair. “Fancy seeing you here.” Robb had his hand on his sword and Theon had managed to knock an arrow the moment he saw Fluffy, for all the good it would do them.

They would lose this fight.

“Ruby?” Robb said my name again, his eyes wide.

“Yep, that’s me. So, I suppose you’re wondering how I ended up in this situation.” I began. “You see I a-AHHH!” Fluffy opened her mouth and sent me rolling down a small but rather steep virge onto a pile of pointy rocks. “Ouch.” I said as I glared up at Fluffy.

“Ruby!” Robb shouted, ignoring his sword, and Fluffy as he darted forwards to look me over. “Are you okay?” He asked, fussing over me as I got my limbs under me and staggered to my feet.

“I’m okay.” I assured him as I steadyed myself on glorified jelly that I had the temerity to call legs. “It’s just been a long... day?”

“Days.” Robb corrected me with a glare. “Arya was worried sick when you never showed up for practice with her. You never go on your hunting trips without telling someone... and you normally take one of your weapons with you.” I looked back at Fluffy and rubbed the back of my neck. Wait, I was going to have to fix my collar, she left bite holes in it! Fluffy!

“What the fuck is going on...” I looked over to see Theon staring at Fluffy. He was shaking in place, pale, genuinely terrified as he stared up at the admittedly huge wolf, just one lunge away from him as he clutched the bow in his hands. Fluffy stared at him for a moment before snorting and turning around to see to her puppies.

“Thank you!” I called out to the retreating direwolf as Robb wrapped his arms around me and tried to squeeze me to death. 

“We were so worried.” He whispered.

“Sorry.” I said quickly. “I had no idea it would end up like this.”

“I’m just glad you’re okay.” Robb stepped back from me with a smile.

“That was a direwolf.” Theon’s voice betrayed his utter disbelief about what he had seen with his own eyes.

“Don’t worry about Fluffy.” I said with a wave of my hand. “Uh, wait no, you should worry about Fluffy, she is incredibly dangerous huh.” I looked back as the mummy faded into the woods before I looked back at the boys. “Look, I’m as surprised as you are.”

“That’s a lie.” Robb laughed as Theon, half a decade his senior turned to look at my half brother.

“How can you laugh, she’s a witch or something!” Theon jabbed an arrow in my direction.

“I’m not a witch!” I snapped at him. “You don’t know anything.”

“You vanish into the woods and a direwolf drags you out? What the fuck!” The Greyjoy stepped back away from me as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Reguardless of what’s going on, I am cold, and tired. We are heading back and calling off the search.” Robb resolved, throwing an arm around me and pulling me close. “You can tell your story to Father.” the heir to Winterfell laughed as I slumped into his arms.

“Can we not tell anyone about the whole being dragged around by direwolves, thing?” I asked fruitlessly.

“No way!” Robb shook his head with a laugh. “Father needs to hear about this.”

“Are you a witch?” Theon asked, stepping back away from me as if I was suddenly going to bite.

“No, I’m just Ruby!” I assured the pair of them. “This was a total accident.”

“Let's go home.” Robb said, making sure to grab my wrist like I was going to suddenly vanish if he let me walk on my own. All the while Theon kept his distance and kept stealing glances at me with a pale face. Ugh.

This was going to have something of an effect on my reputation it seemed...

Dang it.

How the heck do I even explain any of this? What should I explain about this!? I can’t say anything about the Weirwoods right? Catelyn believed in the Seven so she would probably be super upset if I said that the Weirwoods had some crazy magic in them. Probably.

Why did I have to practice my semblance!? This conversation was going to suck!

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WOOOBY! It's always wonderful to dive back into this fic, I hope you are enjoying it and as always I am eager for criticism, I am also interested in what kind of rumours Ruby doing this would have created, we all know Theon is gunna blab.

This is the last piece of content I will post before my travels, as I said in my Barb Queen chapter post I will continue to write when I am away but you won't see any updates here until the 3rd as I am reasonably sure I won't have any internet access.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H9oR9zY-5EDJaeho_fUg1ixcniU790mDXHGtHgyd4Cg/edit?tab=t.0