Now when I write fanfictions I don't always adhere to canon and deviate from it. Sometimes in large ways and sometimes in minor ways. So please ask me about what I know about the canon of either series before assuming. Although I have no doubt some will ignore this part.
This post explores Rin's connection to her direwolf pack. As it was the family she was raised with, her time with them impacted her in very meaningful ways. With them she learned life lessons and useful skills. The only thing I don't touch on is her 'Native Tongue' as I don't think it would fit in this post.
Before Rin was a year old she traveled with her mother, Hisara Kaari, and another man. They were traveling in the North. They were on no great mission and were just travelers. It was there that they were attacked by bandits. Even though Hisara and the other man put up a good fight, they ended up dead.
The bandits decided not to kill Rin but also decided against the idea of bringing her along. This left Rin defenseless against the elements. For a few days she cried out, her only comfort the warmth that was fading from her mother.
After that time a direwolf pack came to her rescue. On an instinctual level they felt her Stark blood, her father being Benjen Stark, and so were compelled to rescue her. They were compelled to become her family.
As the days wore on Rin knew she wasn't a real member of the pack. She didn't bother trying to figure out how she knew that, she was under a year old after all, and merely accepted it as fact. She was afraid that if she wasn't a real member of the pack that she would be discarded and left on her own. She had seen a few pups casually left behind for, she guessed, not measuring up to the pack's standard.
So she waited for an opportunity to show her worth.
Rin found an opportunity when a bear attacked. While the pack did help her, she was the one to make the major blow against it. She found herself on its back and stuck her fingers in one of its eyes. In its pain, it fell down allowing her pack to get an easy victory.
From that point on Rin was a true member of the pack.
Rin learned many things in her pack that made her into the woman she is when the fic starts. One of the most important lessons she learned was that she had to be constantly on her guard. Constantly aware of her surroundings. While people in castles could have large moments of peace, that was not a luxury Rin had.
If she was off her guard for even a second something could attack. One second of letting her mind wander and things could go horribly wrong. When she was a baby she was protected by the pack but as she grew older, being vigilant was much more important.
Wild animals don't sleep like we do. They are alert even in their sleep and Rin followed that way of life. She sleeps and dreams, but she never has experienced the sleep of a human. She also doesn't mind that fact.
Rin can be dreaming of a hunt and wake up at the slightest sound. Once she is assured that the sound is nothing important, she'll drift back to sleep. Being in a pack of direwolves helped her sleep as she wasn't alone. She had a family even if it wasn't human.
Since Rin grew up in a harsh environment, she loathes anything that makes it easier for her to sleep. While normal humans love a comfy bed, she loathes that kind of comfort. She finds something comfortable odd and unnerving. This is because she has been trained from a young age to always be vigilant. To always be alert. So being comfortable just doesn't make sense to her.
Rin learned other lessons from her pack that helped her with her life. One of those lessons was that of loyalty. When she deals with humans she finds loyalty more valuable than gold. With gold you have to worry about people liking you only for your wealth. But if people value your honor and loyalty, they are more likely to stick with you in the harshest of times.
In her pack she knew that if they didn't work together, all would be lost. So she would make sure to always do right by the pack and they would do right by her. She quickly figured out if she protected them she would always be assured of their protection.
Rin was quickly thrown into the world of life and death. Of kill or be killed. She learned this lesson by the death of what she considered her parents and the killing of the bear. Once she learned she was actually a human, she could not shake the lesson of death.
This causes her to sometimes be harsher than most people. She will make swift judgements to those she considers a threat because that's how it would be in the wild.
Rin also learned a lot about how to deal with fear. She found out that fear was useful. An area that looked calm could be full of terrible danger. A noble person might have a much darker side. So she learned to use that fear.
That's not to say that she is controlled by fear, but that she uses it as a guide. She hears what it says and decides what to do with the information. She knows that fear isn't always right and can sometimes make you see danger where there isn't any. An area that looks safe could be very safe indeed. A noble person might have the best of intentions.
If you ignore fear you could miss danger while if you are controlled by fear you could get yourself killed just as easily if you ignored the warnings.
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To survive with her pack, Rin needed to learn various skills. The first form of attack she learned was hand to hand combat. This was since she couldn't count on having a weapon at any given time. This caused her to learn the weak spots of creatures. If a creature was much more powerful than she was she would either use the help of her pack or use more defensive maneuvers until she was certain of victory.
Due to the uncertainty of what weapons would be available at any given time, Rin became a fast learner with various forms of weaponry. While she can't automatically become a master at the use of every weapon, she can quickly learn how to fight with a new weapon. This helped her greatly when scavenging and finding something new.
Besides being able to use weapons, she is able to forge them. This is due to not having any weapons at times and also finding broken weapons. Rin also started to make the weapons she made to be better suited to her fighting style once she became proficient at making weapons.
Another skill Rin has is the ability to track. She boasts that she can track a person from Westeros to Essos with barely any information. This tracking ability is extremely useful when hunting, especially if prey is scarce. It was also useful for Rin to reunite with her pack if she ever got lost.
Rin is also proficient at making clothes. As direwolves don't need clothes, she had to find out about them on her own. First she learned to repair clothing that she found and then she learned how to make her own clothing. Because she didn't have much in the way of clothing early on, she can also stand the more extreme temperatures.
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