Children waiting for the day they feel good

[start_a_rumpus]

It's not often that Max is quiet. He has his moments when he's sad, or he's thinking or when he's absolutely so happy he can't stand it but those times are few and far between.

But then Jason crawled out of his grave and Max pretty much shut up.  He still doesn't really understand. Why he was in there and why that gravestone says he was dead. All he

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[_kinginthenorth]

Grey Wind has had a lifetime of experience with children being angry and throwing rocks. So he does not find it especially strange to find this one doing so. He has even got used to people he doesn't know wandering near Summerfell, and as a little boy throwing rocks at a tree is not likely to be a threat, he just sits down nearby and watches.

[start_a_rumpus]

Max notices the big wolf come up and freezes. He thinks it probably isn't bad, but he's not sure. He probably shouldn't throw rocks, though, in case it is. "Go away," he commands, voice not as impressive as he would like.

[_kinginthenorth]

Grey Wind has heard that before, too, but he only listens when he wants to.

His person, however, isn't far off; it takes him a minute to catch up sometimes, but he always does.

"He won't hurt you," Robb assures the boy. Grey Wind, after all, is just sitting there. "...What'd the tree do?"

[start_a_rumpus]

"This place is bad," he softly explains, dropping the rock to the ground. "Is he a wolf? Like a real one?"

[_kinginthenorth]

"Sometimes it is," Robb agrees, because while he appreciates the island for many things, he resents it just as much. He nods, and Grey Wind pads a few steps closer. "He's a direwolf. His name is Grey Wind."

[start_a_rumpus]

"Hi," Max says to the wolf, trying to scrub at his face without really being noticed.

"I don't know what a direwolf is. Is that better than a regular one?"

[_kinginthenorth]

Grey Wind lays his head down on his paws, which might or might not mean hello.

"I don't know about better," Robb says honestly, though he certainly thinks so. "Bigger, definitely."

[start_a_rumpus]

"Back before I came here, I was with a bunch of monsters and they were really big," he offers up quietly. "They were like as tall as houses. I liked it better there, I think."

[_kinginthenorth]

Robb has no reason not to believe in monsters as tall as houses. "That makes sense," he says thoughtfully. "I expect you miss them."

[start_a_rumpus]

"I do miss them but I don't think they'd like it here very much," Max confesses. "This place is too mean and I think they'd be sad. It gives you mean things."

[_kinginthenorth]

Robb nods seriously. "What did it give you?"

[start_a_rumpus]

"It gave my friend his grave and it put him in it," he says, voice low and deadly serious. "And he had to crawl out. I tried to help him..."

[_kinginthenorth]

That is, admittedly, one of the crueler 'gifts' Robb has heard of the island giving anyone, and it seems fairly clear what made the boy upset.

"Did you?" he asks. "That was brave of you."

[start_a_rumpus]

"Not really," he admits. "I got scared because I thought he was a monster. Then he had to crawl out by himself. He was really upset."

[_kinginthenorth]

Robb, having some experience in how traumatic reminders of your own death can be, rather imagines he was indeed. "More at the grave, than at you, I expect."