Jayden
Her bare feet smacked against the frozen ground, the painful numbing traveling up her legs like a million biting spiders. But she dare not stop. Run, her father had cried. Run to Winterfell. Keep running until you get there, and stop for nothing and no one. His next words were undecipherable screams- screams of a wild animal caged and frightened. Screams that shouldn't come from a human, let alone her father.
Even as she ran further and further away from her home, his cries of pain still stayed with her, pushing her forward even as her muscles grew exhausted and her lungs seared with pain. She rested once, in a barn she found abandoned just off of the Kingsroad. She had slept fretfully and woke often, but didn't leave until the sun came up. Jayden ran through the snow and the sleet and the rain, her feet frozen but still moving.
As she ran through a weirwood grove, she heard riders fast approaching. Tears streamed down her face and stung as they froze in the cold, wintery air.
"Halt!" a mans voice called from behind her, his voice almost inaudible from the sound of hooves following her. Stop for no one. Jayden was pumping her arms as hard as she could. "Stop! Now!" there were more voices, more horses. They had her. She knew they had her. She chanced a look behind her, but her eyes were too blurred to see.
The branch smacked her right above the eyebrow, stopping her escape. For a moment she stood there as the riders circled her, their banners flapping in the wind. As a warmth ran into her eyes, she felt her legs collapse, and her lungs sting as she took a wheezy breath. The last thing she saw was a grey direwolf snarling as it whipped in the air.
-x-
Jon
They had been breaking their fast in the hall when the squire ran in, his cheeks red from the cold.
"Milord! " the boy cried, his voice high pitched and faint. "Your riders have just returned! They bring a girl and ask for you and Maester Luwin immediately!"
His father rubs a hand across his long face, looking up at the boy. "I will be there in a moment." With a nod of his head the boy disappears, running off.
Lady Stark loom to her husband. "Gods be good, this one died of natural causes. I do hate when they are savaged to death by shadowcats."
"I still don't see why you have to collect them anyway." Robb says from his hot oats, looking to their father.
"It's his job! "Arya says from Jon's side, smiling at Robb. "As Warden of the North he has to know what happens in the woods."
" It's disgusting," Sansa says from between her mother and Septa. "They are corpses. We don't need to bring death in here-"
Their father stood, silencing the conversation. "Jon," he said in a weary voice, "get the Maester, please. Meet me in the infirmary."
Jon stood, bringing his cleared bowl to the waiting kitchen maid. He slid his cloak over his shoulders and stepped onto the walkway above the heart of the castle. The wind hit him like a slap, but he walked on. He walked through the stone passageways to the Maester's study.
"Jon." The old man said, closing the heavy book he had been studying, "is all well?"
"Lord Stark needs you in the infirmary." Jon holds the door open for the man. "They found another body."
The maester shook his head. "This is the third in two months. Something must be done about the shadowcats."
"Maybe they can be hunted for reward, like we did with the winterdeer." Jon suggested as they walked to the infirmary. If that were to happen, he expected many meals of cat to be served.
When they arrived, Lord Stark was talking to the scouts, shaking his head.
"Did you see what she was running from before you found her?" he asked, looking down at the corpse. Jon couldn't see anything from where he stood, all the men's backs blocking the table he assumed it was splayed upon.
"No, Lord Stark. She had soot on her face, and her eyes looked mad. There was nothing behind her. Only fog." One of the men said, shaking his head.
"Move aside, if you please." Luwin said quietly, placing a hand on the mans shoulder, stepping to look at the body. Jon filed closer to take a look.
To his surprise, it wasn't a savaged corpse at all. On the table lay a young woman in a stained nightshift; her legs caked with mud and her feet black from the cold. Her hair was knotted in a braid, a deep gash dried with blood above her eyes. Her brows were furrowed, giving her a confused look. She looked to be no older than Jon.
"Lord Stark,' the maester said from the other side of the table. He held the girls wrist in his hands, inspecting it. "Tell me if I am seeing this correctly."
Jon's father walked over to Luwin's side, looking at the girl's wrist.
"My Gods." He hissed, sliding his thumb over her wrist.
"What is it?" Jon heard himself ask before he could stop himself. His father looked up at him. The maester held up the girls arm, turning it so Jon could see. In black ink he could see the shape of a crescent moon, with a tiny 'L' in the center.
"She's a Lawrence." His father said. "I will send her father a message of the death."
"Milord," Maester Luwin said quietly. "There is no need for that. The girl is alive."
They all looked to the maester was pointing. At the girl's neck, a vein pulsed strongly beneath the skin.
" Get Septa Mordane. I will contact Lord Lawrence." His father strode out of the room with efficiency. "Jon, come."
He followed his father out of the infirmary, looking back at the girl once more before he left.
-x-
The girl had been placed in the room beside the room Jon and Theon shared. He had discovered that when he found that the crack beside his bed now allowed light in, where he had grown accustomed to the darkness. The Lawrence girl's bed was on the other side of the wall from his, and he could see her face through the crack. They had brushed her hair smooth, so it shone like bronze across the pillow. The septa had bathed her and maester Luwin had stitched up the gash above her brow, but her eyebrows were still furrowed.
"The raven returned with my message." His father had told them over dinner a few nights before.
"What does that mean?" Bran had asked, putting Rickon's napkin back in his little lap.
"It means that either the bird got lost and returned, or that there is no Castle Talon."
"There is a Castle Talon though," Arya said defiantly, "its on our map!"
" What if something happened to it?" Lady Stark asked, a concerned expression on her face, "The girl could have been running from an attack on the castle?"
"That would be unlikely, though. Aren't they the house that is famous for their neutrality?" Robb added, taking a gulp of his wine.
"The girl was running from something…" his father said, his brows furrowed.
"Does she have a name?" Sansa asked, "I'm sure if she is a noblewoman she has a name."
"Maester Luwin said her name is either Jayden or Ayne." Theon said as he chewed his meat.
"I'm going to send some scouts out to Castle Talon to see if there is any problem." His father said before he stood and left the table, followed quickly by Catelyn.
Jon lay in bed that night, staring up at the ceiling. Out of the corner of his eye he saw movement in the girls room. He turned his head and peeked in. the girl had opened her eyes, and was staring around the room in panic.
"Hello, my dear." He heard Septa Mordane say in a soothing voice as the girl's breath had begun to quicken in fear. "Shh, its alright now. Your safe, child." He saw the old woman's hand touch the girls face. The girl looked up at her, obviously not soothed.
"Where am I?" she whispers in a rough voice, wincing in pain.
"I will get the Maester, you wait a moment." He heard the door to her room close, and the dragging of the septa's skirts in the hall.
"No, WAIT!" the girls cried after the Septa. "WHERE AM I? WHRE AM I!"
A fit of coughing ended her cries.
"Winterfell." Jon whispered, feeling pity for the girl. She looked around wildly.
"Who is there?" she hissed, eyes wide with fear. Of course she couldn't see him.
"You're in Winterfell." He said again. Her head turned to the crack, and she squinted her hazel eyes, trying to see.
"You swear?" she whispered after giving up on seeing him.
"Yes."
She opened her mouth to say something else, but then maester Luwin entered the room. Jon listened as he softly soothed her, giving her the milk of the poppy after ensuring that she was feeling all right.
"Her name!" the septa hissed after she had begun to drift to sleep.
"Let her rest. We will find out soon enough."
They left, the candles casting a soft glow over her now calm face.
"Jayden. " she whispered in her sleep, as if answering the septa.
Then she went to sleep, right before Jon.
-x-
Jayden
She had been asleep for a week's time, the kind old maester had told her. She must have asked if this was Winterfell at least twenty times before she believed them, and must have seemed completely insane. But the Maester was patient, waiting for her to calm don before pressing questions on her. And for that she was grateful.
She had been taken to Lord Stark's study for questioning, after being dressed in a borrowed gown from one of his daughters. With him was Lady Catelyn Tully, his wife. She was also very kind, but more cautious with her kindness. Both Lord Stark and his heir Robb were observant, Lord Stark asking questions as the Maester wrote them down.
"What is your name?"
"Jayden, of house Lawrence" she responded, watching him nod as if he understood completely.
"And do you remember what happened?"
She opened her mouth to speak, but found it difficult finding the words to explain.
"There were…these creatures." She looked up to the maester, who nodded encouragingly. "I was asleep, and then I heard screaming. I ran to see what the sound was. I thought my sister was going into childbirth-"
"Anye?" Lord Stark asked.
"Yes, Ayne. She was great with child, and her husband Lord Lyzander was sharing the room with her, but when I opened the door, they were both gone. Our father's room was down the hall, so I ran there. But he was gone too…"
She paused, looking to Lord Stark. "I don't know what happened to my sister and her husband."
"I sent out scouts. We will look for them." Robb answered for his father. His blue gaze seemed genuine.
"Thank you." She whispered." I ran to the kitchen and saw the glass from the windows everywhere, and blood…so much blood. It was everywhere. And there were gouges in the floor. The screams continued, and I followed the sound. My father was fighting something…I couldn't see what it was. It looked like a man, but bigger. And there were other things too. I thought I saw a few shadowcats, but they ran past me so quickly I couldn't tell."
"What about your father?" Lord Stark pressed.
"He was fighting this creature with a sword, and the creature had one too. But instead of hands…it had claws. I don't know if it was the cats or this creature screaming, but it was not my father. I called out to him, trying to get to him. But he turned to me, holding a hand out and shouting for me to stop…and the thing grabbed him and began to pull him away. Then he was screaming too. He told me to run, to run here. I tried to get to him-" She hadn't realized she had been crying until her body began to shake. Robb Stark wrapped his cloak around her shoulders, grabbing her shoulders, making her look at him.
"No one is blaming you for not getting to him. Just tell us what happened next." His words were soft, his eyes seeming hypnotic. If Lord Stark was anything like his son, she understood why her father liked him so much.
"I tried to get to him, but then something shoved me backward. And I felt myself being dragged out of my home. And then it sounded like my father was beside me, his screams were so loud. So I ran."
She stopped, looking away from the stark boys eyes. "And then I woke up here."
Lord Stark nodded. "I believe you. What are your house words?"
She felt confused. "Nothing Forgotten."
"And your mother's?"
"Death before Lies."
"Do you live your words true?" his gaze made her feel like he was truly listening.
"Yes, my lord."
"Thank you. The scouts will be back within the morrow."
He stood and walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Your father has always been a good friend to me. I promise you, we will find out who did this."
"Thank you." She said quietly.
The interrogation was over.