Bran’s new special horse is named Dancer. It would be a bit too on the nose for him to ride out of Winterfell with the cry “Now, Dancer!” I suppose. I’m choosing to believe it’s a hidden metaphor casting Tyrion as Santa; he did bring Bran a present, after all.

This is Bran’s first horseback outing after weeks of training himself and the horse. Robb is with him and to Bran’s displeasure so is half of Winterfell (but not baby Rickon, because no one cares about him). Outside of the castle lies a winter village, that is a permanent urban centre that is only populated when it’s too cold for the farmers to stay in their remote farms. People have already started to fill up the residences, but not quite in earnest yet. More will come soon, because — are you ready? — Winter! Is! Coming! Only seven paragraphs in. I bet you GRRM had this sentence on a macro when writing this book.

Eventually, Bran gets steady enough in his saddle to gallop away from direwolf-fearing peasant and Theon Greyjoy’s tales of sexual conquests. With the rest of the group falling behind, Robb and Bran get a private moment to talk. Robb is at first hesitant to share his burdens with his little brother, but it’s obviously bullshit that Bran’s old enough to witness executions but not old enough to be filled in on what’s going on with his wandering parents and he has no trouble persuading Robb of the fact. Not that Robb needed much prodding, I think, there’s a lot on his shoulders and he has to share with someone.

Robb’s particular burden is a new message that came in the night. Bran has already learned that all news is bad news in his world and the pattern holds: the bird brought tidings of the rumble in King’s Landing. Robb makes it sound like Jaime personally slit Jory et alia’s throats, which isn’t too far from the truth. Worst of all for the boys is, of course, the news that their father is wounded and flying high, if you know what I mean. I can’t remember, do the books ever mention opium addicts? Ladies delicately sipping milk of the poppy in the privacy of their bedrooms like Victorians with laudanum.

Obviously, their father’s potential future as an opium eater is not on the boys’ minds, instead they (and Theon, who’s caught up) are contemplating declaring war on the Lannisters. Theon is all for it, Bran is not so gung-ho. Robb has a lot of responsibilities and advisors on one side and a lack of parental guidance and experience on the other. The ride is pretty much ruined, but they have to get their wolves, who dashed off into the woods, before heading back.

Theon and the others fall behind once again and Robb leaves Bran by an Emotionally Significant Stream to go get their howling wolves. That’s where a group of armed ruffians finds him. The usual “give us all your stuff and we give you your life” exchange takes place, but “stuff” includes “horse” and Bran obviously can’t get off. His dignity flares at the word “cripple” — what does Tyrion keep telling you boys about words! — and he tries to intimidate them with his Stark name. The group, consisting of men and women, argues with each other, mentioning names such as Mance (a big deal on the other side of the Wall), Benjen (although not in a way that suggests he’s alive, just that Mance has a grudge against him), and the white walkers (of whom the group is afraid and from whom they are presumably fleeing). One of them tries to cut Bran out of his saddle straps and ends up wounding his leg, causing no pain for obviously sad reasons. Then Robb shows up with the direwolves, and the group wrongly assumes safety in their marginally superior numbers. You couldn’t pay me to wrestle with a canine no matter how many I have at my back, someone will always end up as dog chow. I mean dog chow literally, by the way, Summer ends up feasting on the entrails of the ruffian woman he kills. The wolves and Robb make quick work out of most of the group, but the one who was cutting Bran loose finishes the job and holds the boy hostage.

Aside from the man, a woman named Osha is still alive, though wounded, but she refuses to kill the wolves on the reasonable assumption that they would not just stand there and let her do it. The man tries to levy his possession of Bran to make Robb do it and then it’s Theon Greyjoy to the rescue in his one shining moment of heroism. Lucky for everyone Theon’s a good shot, he kills the man with one arrow.

Robb seems to think that luck is all it was, so he yells at Theon for risking Bran’s life like that. He has a point, but I’m not sure it’s worth it to fight about it now and make Theon sulk. They have to live with the guy. Robb’s also angry that the guards were delayed because Theon was hunting a turkey. Theon reasonably points out that as far as anyone knew, Bran was with Robb. Probably Robb has that little guilty thought eating away at him too.

There’s still a survivor to deal with, Osha. Two of the group were Night’s Watch defectors, but the woman herself is a wildling, probably the other dead ruffians were too. I think these are the first live wildlings we’ve seen since Royce Zombie’s scouting party stumbled on a pile of their dead bodies half a book ago. Osha gets to live as an advance against the potential usefulness of any information she can provide. The sight of Summer enjoying wildling tartar is enough to persuade anyone to be very, very useful.