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[lonewolflives]

It was fortunate that the damage hadn't been worse, she supposed, but ultimately Summerfell had seen enough trouble with the weather that it was built to take it, or at least to be easy to fix up afterwards

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[turnedoutfine]

Alexis noticed the horse first. She'd ridden before, not much but some, and she was thinking it reminded her of Black Beauty when she noticed the girl leading the horse looked like she was around Alexis' age. "Your horse is beautiful," she said, when she got close enough where she didn't have to shout.

[lonewolflives]

"Shh, you'll only encourage him," Arya said, peering at Benjen as if expecting him to start preening, although he contented himself with a snort and a toss of his head that would have lost her the reins had she less of a grip on them. "He is, and doesn't he know it. He's not really mine, though."

[turnedoutfine]

"I wouldn't want him to get a swelled head or anything," Alexis replied, smiling. If he wasn't this girl's she wondered who he belonged to - maybe someone who wasn't on the island anymore. "What's his name?"

[lonewolflives]

"Benjen," Arya said, "My aunt named him after my uncle. It was a lot funnier at the time, believe me. And mine's Arya."

[turnedoutfine]

Alexis tried to think of what a horse named after her dad would be like. Playful, definitely, and probably always trying to escape his pen and get into mischief. "I'm Alexis," she said. "It's nice to meet you, Arya."

"And Benjen," she added in a stage whisper, like she was trying to make sure the horse couldn't hear her and get a bigger ego.

[lonewolflives]

Arya peered suspiciously at Benjen for signs of preening, but he seemed more interested in trying to keep moving now that she'd stopped to talk.

"And you," she said. "You're new, aren't you?"

[turnedoutfine]

"Pretty new, yeah," Alexis confirmed. "Not brand spanking, but I've only been here about a month and a half and from what I hear, lots of people have been here way longer than that."

[lonewolflives]

Arya gave her a lopsided smile. "Four and a half years," she said, "give or take a month or so. A month and a half is pretty brand spanking."

She wasn't actually sure what brand spanking meant, but she thought she'd picked it up well enough to use it.

[turnedoutfine]

"Wow. I can't even imagine," Alexis said, not in a pitying way or anything, but more like awe. "Are there people here you know? I mean, I'm sure you know a lot of people here, but people from your home?"

[lonewolflives]

"One of my brothers is here," Arya said, staying away from the fact that more had been there and weren't, any more. "There are other people from the same place, but they're not really from home. I didn't know them before here. What about you?"

[turnedoutfine]

Alexis nodded. "My dad is here," she said. "And the detective he'd been working with back home, too. It's nice having them here."