If you’ve read George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire or have been watching HBO’s Game of Thrones closely since the beginning, you know the connection between the Stark children and their pet direwolves goes far beyond the usual owner/puppy scenario. Your dog may be your best friend, but will it save you from assassins and help win battles for you? I thought not.

Though in recent seasons the TV series has lost sight of the direwolves—either bumping them off or forgetting they exist—a recent season 7 promo teased the return of Arya’s beloved direwolf, Nymeria. And if the show is following what Martin himself has said about the destiny of direwolves, this will be much more than a quick cameo.

Nymeria and Arya haven’t seen each other since Season 1, when Arya drove Nymeria away (for her own good).

In fact, Arya hasn’t seen a direwolf at all since Robb’s wolf Grey Wind was murdered, decapitated, and his head was transplanted onto the late King in the North’s shoulders in Season 3. In the books, Arya’s connection to her wolf is much, much stronger. They stay in communication via dreams and skin-changing—a Stark family skill only Bran appears to have inherited in the show. Throughout Martin’s novels, news of a wolf pack (hundreds of them) led by Nymeria attacking Stark enemies deep in Frey territory circulate via rumor or the occasional Arya dream. Fans already suspected, thanks to Time’s behind-the-scenes set report, that both Nymeria and her pack would pop up this year. A feral she-wolf unleashed on the Freys? Who could that possibly remind us of?