1 Exposition Chapter: Andy and Alys I

Waves crashed against stone, slowly eroding away. A body washed up on a beach, burned and unrecognizable.

The First thing Andy Searson saw after dying were small fat fingers in a plate of mashed potatoes. After further inspection, she found out those fingers were in fact her fat fingers, and they were proportionate to her entire small, fat, and little body. To her right was another fat little baby. He had a mane of bright red brown hair. She hit him. It was only to see if he was real. He stopped eating, turned to her, and hit her right back harder than she. Andy now knew that this was very real. She didn't cry, though she wanted to, but instead looked at the woman feeding them. She was young, still in her late teens, maybe early twenties, with bright blue eyes and even brighter auburn hair. Andy guessed she was about the age Andy had been when she had died.

How old was she again? It was getting hard to remember, and she had only just woken up. Andy had been a few months out of high school before she died. She was going to go to college with full aid to become a music teacher; she remembered. Yes, it was all starting to come back. I am Andy Searson, and I am trapped in a baby, unable to speak. Only then did I start crying. My new brother's hand found mine. Only it wasn't for comfort. He started stealing my food. I cried harder.

The woman approached "Robb! You shouldn't steal your sister's food." She chastised. She picked me up, "Come my sweet daughter" daughter? This woman was my mother? Was I a ginger too? Oh, Holy Ghost, please don't make me a ginger. My new brother had bright auburn hair, and I guessed I did too. Hopefully, it'll darken when I am Older.

In My past life, I was a poor musician and now I'm ginger. God sure didn't plan on blessing me. My face was in her breast and I couldn't see anything, but I felt enormous hands grab me. The hands turned me to face a solemn looking young man. Another older teenager, he was dark of hair, long of face, and grey of eye.

"What happened little Alys?" His voice was stern but full of affection.

"Robb hit her and stole her food, my lord," My lord? What in the world- "Well, seems like a normal sibling affection to me, Cat," he said. The Lord kissed my forehead and handed me back to my new mother. "Perhaps she and Jon can play together more to prevent such things from happening," he suggested.

"I'm not letting my daughter play with that bastard", she stated. Oh. That's a little harsh, I didn't know this Jon child, but if we're playing together, then he must be a baby too. Calling babies 'bastards' is pretty cruel, in my opinion. I poked her cheek. She slapped my hand. I laughed. She scowled. My new mother was younger than my old mother would ever be, and I was starting to think this might just be fun. How would her age affect our relationship when I'm older?

The lord grabbed me again. "I'll take my daughter to Jon." He started walking away before my new mother could even protest. I'm his daughter, my new father is a Lord of something. Very cool, I was rich and being ginger didn't seem so bad after all. An upgrade from being a poor brunette. As he carried me off to see Jon, he mentioned that Jon was also my brother. But my new mother had called Jon a bastard. I knew of history and genetics and concluded that Jon must be a half sibling, and since he was a bastard, his mother was probably not my new mother.

People passed by and respectfully muttered 'Milords' and 'My Lords'. We stopped at a door and he put me down on my unstable feet. I could walk, it seems. When he opened the door I ran past him and tripped, but I got back up again. A boy who looked much like my new father was staring at me. Observing like a cat would. I walked up to him and spoke the first words to come out of my new mouth, "Hi." My voice was a higher pitch, cuter than I remembered and almost silvery, but I was also a baby so of course it was higher. I spoke again and waved this time. Jon smiled. It hit me then that I didn't remember how I died. I grew quiet and Jon noticed "what happened" he said while raising his hands and looking at my new father. "No" I pinched him. It was much harder to communicate my feelings now that I was a baby. But he looked as if he understood. Babies know babies I guess. We both laughed and father left us to play alone. An old woman took his place and told us stories.

Over the years Andy had left, and I had become Alys with Andy's memories. Me and Robb grew closer as well, no more hitting, but there was a bit of a rivalry. We were twins, and the only way you could spot the difference was because of our eyes. His were the blue of our mother, and mine were like Father's and Jon's. Though sometimes we could switch lessons and not get caught. There was a point when I was taller than him, but that didn't last long.

Our Mother was tall for a woman, so I was grateful that I may be that tall too. And I was always taller than Jon. I had a new sister called Sansa, and a few years later Arya too. The same year Arya came, an older boy named Theon came too. He was eight, almost nine, or maybe he was already nine, and Robb, Jon, and I were six. Now we were no longer the oldest. The ever observant Jon did not really like Theon and chose to distance himself from him. Me and Robb, however, were thick as thieves with Theon.

Theon was a handsome boy with dark black hair and dark eyes. He taught me how to use a bow, the phrases "nock, draw, loose!", were drilled into my head. It was one of our many secrets. One day, after showing me how to fletch my own arrows, he kissed me. It wasn't like I hadn't been kissed before, it's just Alys Stark hadn't been kissed before. And especially not by someone who I viewed as an older brother. I had memories of Andy and her kisses with boys and even girls. My lips tingled at the thought and other places too. We didn't talk about it, it was a secret unsaid and never even hinted nor teased about. It was deadly serious. Yet even now there was tension in his stares that I hadn't noticed before, that Alys hadn't noticed before that. Because Alys was a girl and Andy was a grown woman, or was Andy now Alys, who was a child still and did not notice these things? Theon would distance himself from me, and the serving girls would blush whenever he came around. Sometimes it was hard not to notice.

I tried talking to Andy to see if she would reply, she never did. My moon blood came soon after my eleventh name day. I hid it the first time since it was so light and told Mother after it had passed. She was with Bran, who was four at the time and heavily pregnant with Rickon. It seems like she was always with Bran; she loved him more than any of us, though she'd never admit it. "It will happen every moon turn" I knew that already "and it is messy, and it also means you are ready to bear children" no, no it doesn't. I'm literally eleven. "But not now, you will have years till you give me grandchildren", she smiled and kissed my forehead and called for Septa Mordane to help me with everything I needed. Some of Andy's memories I was thankful for.

It scared me that night. Scared of what my mother was planning and if she already had a person in mind for whom I might marry. A stranger. I'd rather marry Theon. I went to sleep that night and woke up the next morning a bit taller and more filled out. I was no longer eleven but four and ten, my breast had grown and I cupped them in my own hands. The flesh of my breast spilled through my fingers, and my figure was starting to show. This would become bothersome.

When I was Andy, this wasn't as much of a problem, but now that I'm Alys in the land of Westeros this was an immense problem. How long would it be till they married me to some lord's eldest son, second son, or even an old lord himself? It was an awful thought that I pushed out of my head. I put on a new shift and a dark blue wool dress. When I saw myself in the looking glass I let out a sigh. This was indeed an issue. Alys was beautiful, Alys was tall and her, well my auburn hair had darkened like Andy had wished all those years ago. It was long and went well past my waist, and it was thick and curly too. Another massive problem. My face was also strikingly beautiful, I had high cheekbones so much like my mother's own, and my naturally rosy cheeks created a glow that was unnatural in the cold north. My lips were full and prettily pink, my grey eyes round and slightly upturned, lashes long and thick. I turned my head to examine my profile. My chin was pointed and my jawline had looked like the gods had sculpted it. I looked like the maiden reborn.

"They could have at least made me fat and pimpled to counterbalance all these features'', I said to myself. It had been 3 years since my first moon blood and all the time had passed in the blink of an eye. I had memories that played in my head like a movie that felt like I sat back on but didn't actually experience. They did not even seem real. There was a scratch at my door. It was a dire wolf pup, a name came to my mind "Wraith!" The pup blinked at me. It had an ashen coat of fur and eyes like molten gold. She looked at the direwolf her brothers and father brought home, the pup that Theon had almost killed. And she remembered how sickly she was. Another wolf's head popped out of nowhere with Sansa on her trail.

I was taken aback, Sansa was just like me but with blue eyes. And soon she would flower and fill out too. It was another scary thought. My little sister would soon be sent off to be a wife in a few years too. I reached out for her and hugged her tight. We were both tall for our age. The top of Sansa's head reached my chin, and I rested it there and closed my eyes. As if it were the last time I would see her.

Sansa sighed and looked up at me with a smile "Father says the king should arrive today with prince Joffrey and Princess Marcella, and prince Tommen and some of the kings guard and I've heard that the queen is the most beautiful woman in all the seven kingdoms'', she loosened herself from my arms and looked dreamily out the window at the far end of my room. "I hope Arya doesn't ruin it, she always finds a way to make things go horribly wrong" Sansa said.

"She won't, and you don't have to be so hard on her. She's just a child and so are you." I snapped. Sansa blushed "Well I just meant-"

"I know" I interjected.

"You look very beautiful today" she complimented me, obviously to catch me off guard, and it worked "I just wish Arya was more like you. You are so smart and you know things even Septa Mordane doesn't and even Maester Luwin is always surprised by your imagination. Arya is well . . . Arya.'' Sansa reached for my hand and I accepted. "You have calluses on your fingers'' Sansa gasped "It's just from needlework" I deflected. Sansa was smart, she knew it wasn't just from needlework like she knew Theon also had the same calluses on his right hand and the other bowmen as well. I looked across my room and saw the unstrung bow just barely peeking out from under my bed. Not the best hiding place, and my arms were still sore from the late night practicing with Theon. I should've worn gloves more often when practicing. My mistake.

"Let's go, you don't want to be late meeting Prince Charming," and then we were off to meet the King.