When the second child of Lord Rickard Stark was born, it was said that the child never cried. At first, it was believed the child to be a stillbirth. After all, the child seemed upon initial sight to be as unmoving as a corpse, but the limbs moved and both Lord and Lady Stark sighed in relief. They named the child Eddard; though the Lady and the Lord would always shorten it into Ned whenever times of leisure and relaxation appeared. It was to the horror of both Lord Rickard Lady Lyarra when whispers emerged dubbing the child as 'The Quiet Wolf' for his rather silent behavior and for his unusual birth.

  When the second child of Lord Rickard Stark grew up, it was said by the more superstitious among the Northerners that the boy was blessed by the old gods to be a warrior with due to the fact that other trainees never seemed to best him in both bladed combat as well as in unarmed combat.

  His parents disagreed with that notion, believing him to be more akin to a snake than a warrior, due in part to the child always seeming to never be seen within Winterfell even in his room. Though, in truth, the little lord was hiding due to apparent amusement at the guards repeated attempts on finding him.

  It was after the fourth time of little Ned's sneaking that his Lord Father gave up altogether and declared to the guards to abandon any and all efforts to find the young scion. It seemed that all whispers seems to emerge replacing the child's moniker from 'The Quiet Wolf' into being 'The Slithering Wolf' after his stealthful nature.

  When the third child of Lord Rickard Stark was born, it was said that all the cries that should've been emerged back when Eddard Stark was born was taken by his sister who cried endlessly. Brandon commented to his younger brother "Doesn't she ever shut up?" to which Ned replied with a smirk, "Don't you?" which prompted both of them to laugh. At the first sight of his younger sister however, Ned became uncharacteristically somber and spoke up silently "She seems so bright, even sunny even." His older sibling seemed to have heard and remarked, "Will you protect her then?" Ned simply nodded. They named the child Lyanna though they would casually called her as Lya.

  Ned Stark always seemed to surpass most expectations of him. He was both proficient with books as well as in fighting. To everyone's amusement, he always managed to best his brother, Brandon, in combat. His father seemed to swell with pride when Ned managed to learn a couple of language which were High Valyrian, The Summer Tongue, and even the Language of the Dothraki which were unexpected for someone of his age.

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  He had plans for Ned to become an ambassador or a diplomat of sorts for the North once he grew into the age of majority. It would be best for the North to be able to grow more bridges than to sequester themselves from the rest of the Kingdom's. Some of the Northerner's might hate Rickard for tying himself more with the South, but each Winter was killing more and more of his people every time it passed and he is constantly remembered of his house's saying, Winter is Coming.

  Alas, it was to his father's dismay that Ned always critiqued visiting Nobles for their less-than-stellar record. Despite his attempts at correcting Ned's behavior, the boy remained steadfast in his attitude.

  It was on one incident when Eddard was at the age of seven when two older trainees conspired to teach him a lesson that he wouldn't forget after he embarrassed them for harassing a young maid of Winterfell. They issued a small duel against him and them when Ned simply smirked as spoke as brazenly but as evenly as he could, "Try all you might, but I doubt even your might is worth a single drop of ink." The trainees bursted out laughing and the small duel commenced with Lord Rickard Stark watching with eyes full of amusement.

  The duel ended almost as quickly as it ended as Ned ran forward with the speed of rainfall and neglecting his wooden training sword, he jumped up and kneed his opponent in the face subsequently breaking the trainee's nose then he picked up the blunt sword of his fallen foe and threw it at the other boy who was stunned enough for Ned to sucker punch with him in the gut with enough force to make him keel over .

  The crowd applauded the young lord's victory, but his Lord Father watched and came upon the realization that he had given birth to one that will give honor to the root word of warrior. War.

  When Ned was squired off to Jon Arryn and sent away to the Eyrie, his younger sister cried. Ned smiled and consoled her, "Don't worry. I'll only be gone 'till I grow into the age of majority." However, Lya seemed to cry even harder. For some reason.

  At his arrival to the Eyrie, Ned met Robert of the House Baratheon. When Robert asked why he always seemed so distant to the others, Ned softly spoke, "I've . . . never been interested in the lives of others." Robert simply smirked at his response as if that was a challenge.

  It was at his first night in the Eyrie that he dreamt of War. In the furthest reaches of his dreams, his soul could not find peace. For his soul was drenched with war.