A/N: Warning — there will be swearing, murder, rape etc... this is Game of Thrones after all. Also, this is based on the TV Show but I am aware that House Dayne is more prominent in the books but there will be many major differences between my portrayal of them and George R R Martins, for obvious reasons. Disclaimer — I own nothing bar Deandra, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this. This is also on Quotev and Wattpad under the same name but my accounts are Jessamine and LilMunckin01 respectively.

The start is a tad slow and there will be time jumps but it should be simple to keep up

DEANDRA — pronounced dee-an-druh, means divine protector

PROLOGUE

Until her relocation to Winterfell, Deandra had never been called a Stark. Sure, she'd always known her parentage and by what name she should have been known by but many nobles in Starfall had refused to acknowledge such facts out loud. From her birth (most likely) and after the death of both her mother and uncle (most certainly), Deandra was a Dayne and nothing else, at least to the Lords and Ladies of House Dayne who had known Arthur and Ashara. Many blamed Eddard Stark for the death of Arthur — fair enough — and for Ashara's suicide when her daughter was only a babe.

While growing up around such animosity had made her weary of the Warden of the North, Deandra held no hate for him and she doubted she could — at least not until she met the man. Yes, he had killed her uncle but death was a consequence of war and the former Sword of the Morning had known what he was getting into. She definitely did not blame him for her mother's demise. If anything, Deandra was a little bitter toward her mother for being selfish enough to take her own life. She tried not to judge too harshly, she wasn't in any position to do so as she had never known the woman — and that was the crux of it all. Deandra had never known the people she was so supposed to miss so she couldn't miss them and she had yet to meet the people she was supposed to hate so she couldn't hate them.

Some days she would wonder what her mother was like, if she would sing her lullabies and give her advice and other days she would wonder if her uncle had been as good as the legends depicted and what her life would have been like had he won his fight. This daydreaming often made her feel a tad lonely but she couldn't miss what she'd never had in the first place.

She had never known her father either. Brandon Stark had been dead for even longer than her mother yet she found herself more interested in him. Perhaps it was due to what little she knew about him — the people of Starfall had no qualms about droning on and on about beautiful Ashara but no one ever mentioned Brandon. Deandra also found herself wondering about their romance. Their marriage had been a secret, this she knew. They had met at Harrenhal and married soon after with Arthur and Lyanna Stark, Brandon's deceased younger sister, as witnesses. Had their wedding been out of love or a whirlwind of lust that resulted in Ashara's unexpected pregnancy? Neither of her parents were known for being the most celibate of people.

Another reason for her curiosity was probably all the traits she shared with her father — only deducing this after learning that they could not have come from her mother. Her height was something she certainly did not share with Ashara. While not all Northmen were giants, Deandra happily learned that her father had been a particularly tall man and had he been alive today, his height would have been likened to that of the Clegane's at a push. She wasn't astoundingly tall or bulky like the Clegane siblings but she was taller than all girls her age that she'd met, and most of the boys too, though apparently boys tended to grow taller later on.

Her features, while feminine and entirely desirable, allowed her Northern heritage to shine through with a strong nose and jawline, sharp cheekbones and a steely gaze. In fact, once she reached Winterfell, her beauty had been compared to that of her aunt Lyanna. Her most prominent connection to her Dornish roots were her vivid eyes, the famed dark blue, essentially purple colour, of House Dayne. Even the lilac of House Targaryen paled in comparison.

These small clues and traits allowed Deandra to create an image of her father and yet she still longed to learn more. Why should she know everything about her mother, from her favourite colour to her favourite wine, but nothing about her other parent? All she really knew for certain about Brandon was the cruel and gruesome way he had died and his moniker, the Wild Wolf.

It was at age nine that Deandra's curiosity would be fed as she was sent to Winterfell to stay with her uncle and cousins. As it turned out, not everyone in Starfall were as delighted as she was with her Northern spirit and nature. She wouldn't say she was despised but she could safely say that she had no friends and she was quite the handful, which did make her unpopular.

It would be seven years before she saw Starfall again, arguably the most impressive castle in existence, and even then she would only be there long enough to leave once more.