AN: This started out as just a drabble, then it ate my brain... I found it sad that barely anyone seems to write about the wildlings, so... here you go.
"This is your new home, kid."
"I have a home", said the kid in question. "Why am I here? Where are my mother and father?"
"Look here...", Lord Commander Quorgyle began, but found that he didn't know how to go on. This wildling child's parents had been caught poaching in the Gift. They were dead. But how to tell that to a little lad like this? The Lord Commander wasn't a soft-spoken man.
He settled for the cold, hard truth. "Your parents have been... killed."
The boy's eyes widened and he put a hand on his mouth. He did not cry or scream. He said "Oh", but kept otherwise quiet.
"My men and I have decided to take you in."
"Ah. I... see." The boy frowned and said no more. Wide brown eyes scrutinized the Lord Commander from behind a thicket of brown hair. Someone needs to take care of that hair... the Lord Commander thought, but another voice of thought piped up and scolded the first one.
What are we doing? it said. The kid needs a mother, not us, not the men of the Night's Watch, a bunch of thieves and rapists and worse, that is known. Who are we to bring up a child?
But there was no one else to do the job, for who else would take him in? It was this or letting him die in the snow.
"You don't seem very... shocked." Just wary of the new surroundings, and alert.
"All men must die." It sounded like a recital. The Lord Commander felt a sudden surge of sympathy for the boy before him.
"Do you have a name, kid?" He had heard somewhere that wildlings didn't name their children... up to what age again?
"My name is Mance Rayder", the boy said, with all the pride of a true wildling in his words.
Aye... something needs to be done about that too.
Teaching a wildling child some discipline proved a far trickier mission for the Night's Watch than just defending a wall against some grown-up ones.
"Mance! Come down there, for the Gods sake! What did I tell you about climbing on the Wall?"
Silence. Then: "...that I mustn't."
"And why is that?"
"...because I could hurt myself?"
"Correct. Did you forget about that?"
"...didn't" the boy muttered.
"So if you clearly remember me telling you not to do that, why did you do it?"
"Why? Because I wanted to anyway." Mance raised his eyes to meet his for the first time. There was a scowl on his face, and in his eyes a stubbornness that would either be his downfall or open doors to him as an adult. Such a stubborn stubbornness was hard to conquer.
The Lord Commander sighed.
"Mance. What did I tell you about stealing from the kitchen?"
"Um... you didn't."
"Right. Because I didn't expect you to be able to sneak past the cooks. You're far too cunning for such a young child."
Said child beamed, as if having received a huge compliment, exposing two gaps in his teeth, which would have been endearing at every other occasion, but right now just was the wrong kind of reaction.
"Anyway, there will be no more un-allowed trips to the kitchen for you."
"Um- excuse me- what does 'un-allowed' mean?"
Lord Commander Quorgyle searched the boy's face for any signs of irony or jest. He found none, just genuine confusion. The boy was bright, but nobody had taught him that.
"It means you haven't asked me first."
"Why should I ask you?"
The Lord Commander rubbed his temples. "Look, some simple obedience... is that too much to ask?"
"What does 'obedience' mean?"
The Lord Commander tried not to lose his temper. "Obedience means that I tell you to do or not do something and you follow the orders I give you", he explained slowly and carefully.
"But what if I don't want to?"
"You do it anyway."
"What? Why?"
By now, the Lord Commander felt like the kid was purposefully pushing him. But it's not like that, he reminded himself. His parents were wildlings. They obeyed nobody.
"Because I'm the Lord Commander and I'm an adult", he said at last. There. A brief lesson in social dynamics. Hopefully the boy had understood now.
Mance furrowed his brows and Lord Commander Quorgyle gave up hope.
"Is this like kneeling?"
"Something... like that, yes."
That turned out to be the wrong thing to say.
"My parents taught me to never kneel! They said I'd be a free man when I grow up, and a free man goes wherever he wants!"
"Your parents are dead, lad. And that's all this attitude is ever going to get you- killed. It's going to get you killed."
"But-!"
"Listen. You're not a wildling anymore. But neither are you one of us. One needs to know where one's place is. Do you?"
"N-no. No I don't."
"No I don't, Mylord", the Lord Commander corrected.
"Excuse me again, Mylord. No, I don't know where my place is, Mylord."
"It is here, lad. Your place is here among us, my men and me, we're doing our best to be your new parents, and we could also become your sworn brothers later. What I mean is, when you grow up, you could become a man of the Night's Watch. Would you like that?"
The boy gnawed at his lower lip and looked around the training yard of Castle Black, where they were standing.
"Yes, M'lord", he said at last.
"Then start to behave. Learn to bend these knees of yours. And always, always remember where your place is. It's behind this wall, defending it, at least when you are older. It's not anywhere north of the Wall anymore."
"Mance... take a look at yourself! You've all but ruined your clothes and why is your lip bleeding?"
"I fell", Mance muttered.
"Did you climb again? I told you that you mustn't!"
"Hmmh."
Lord Commander Quorgyle hesitated. He still wasn't quite savvy with the fine arts of raising a child, but he had gotten to know his ward. Mance was an intelligent, outspoken boy, if he had just been climbing on the Wall again, he would have started a lengthy discussion on why he should be allowed to. One-line answers weren't like him at all. He also noticed the reddish color around the boy's eyes.
"It was these boys again, right?"
Mance shrugged his shoulders.
"Tell me their names, I'll reprimand them."
"No."
"They're my recruits, they shouldn't-"
"No. I've already taught these stupid kneelers."
Suddenly, Mance felt a painful tug on his left ear. "Mance, I told you not to use that word again."
The Lord Commander's pity had turned into anger as soon as his ward had dropped the notorious k-bomb. "Ow ow ow",Mance wailed, and the Lord Commander let him go.
He ducked away and hid under a table out of the Lord Commander's reach. "Kneeler, kneeler, kneeler", he crooned. Then he spun around and ran out of the Lord Commander's solar, just ran. His feet carried him towards the large stairs up the Wall, all the way up. There he sat down on the ice-cold ground, hugged his knees and started to cry.
They had been four young recruits, older and larger than him, and notorious for picking on smaller ones. They had circled him, pushed him around, chanting "Wildling! Wildling!" over and over, until he had fallen und hurt his lip on a large rock, and the shame and humiliation had driven dreaded tears into his eyes.
Then he had picked the rock up and broken one's nose, so at least that was alright.
I don't belong here, he thought. I don't belong here and they know it.
Down on the ground, he heard the Lord Commander call his name. He wanted him to come down, and probably give him a stern talking to.
"No", he replied. "Go away, stupid kneeler."
He wiped his eyes angrily and turned around. Below him was all that land beyond the Wall. It seemed to stretch on for ever and ever.
This is my home, he thought. they have no right to take it away from me.
The Lord Commander knocked on Maester Aemon's door and waited five seconds before entering. He could hear voices from the solar.
"And thus... thus did Eh...gon the con-que-ror..."
"His name was Aegon. You need to concentrate. Also, you need to stop mumbling. If you really aspire to be a singer, as you told me, you will need an eloquent, clear articulation."
"Alright, Maester, I'll watch meself."
"Myself, not meself. You're still a wildling in your speech. I'm not asking you to forget your origin, but I'll not let you get your hands on any sheet music as long as you don't sound the part, and by that I mean like the educated man you'll hopefully become."
The Lord Commander decided to make his presence known and stepped into view. Maester Aemon greeted him, Mance Rayder merely regarded his presence and did nothing, until Maester Aemon nudged him sharply. Then the wildling child got up, said "M'lord" and bowed like a good boy. He had grown an inch again, and the Maester had given him that long-required haircut. His hair was still almost shoulder-length, but at least now he looked like a human being.
"Are you enjoying your reading lessons?", Lord Commander Quorgyle asked him.
"Ye-es, M'lord", the boy said indecisively. "I mean, it's boring, but Maester Aemon promised me I could read music later on!"
"Ah, you'd like to learn some songs, right?"
"Not some, but all of them, M'lord!"
The two adults smiled. "Maester, could I borrow the lad for a few?"
"Go on with him" Maester Aemon smiled mildly. "He's quite a reluctant learner, and bothers you with questions you don't want to answer. Frankly, I would be glad to be rid of him for a while."
Mance just grinned and gladly hopped off his chair, no doubt tired of the stuffy room and the books in it.
The Lord Commander took him to his own solar, sat down behind his desk and bid Mance to close the door.
"Do you know why I summoned you here?"
Mance bit his lower lip. He always did that when he suspected trouble. "If this is about the disappeared pies, I swear to the Old Gods I have nothing to do with it."
The Lord Commander had to stifle a smile. "Be careful with what you swear" he told the boy nonetheless. "The Old Gods could prove wrathful."
"Oh."
"Anyway, this isn't about pies. Today is your name day, lad."
"Really? I- I forgot about that."
"How old are you now?" the Lord Commander asked. He expected to get a blank stare or an 'I dunno', but the boy looked down at his fingers for a brief second and then said: "I'm eight-and-two, M'lord."
"Eh?", the Lord Commander said, surprised.
"I can't count further than eight" Mance admitted and then explained: "Because you see, M'lord, my mother, M'lord, she wasn't one for the letters, but she could count. And every year on my name day, she took her knife and carved one little line into a tree near our home, and the year she died, there were eight lines, she told me that. Since I came here, my name day passed once. Now it's my name day again, which makes me eight-and-two years old."
"That's well thought out. But 'eight-and-two' is called ten."
"T-ten. Good. Thanks for telling me that, M'lord."
"I will order Maester Aemon to teach you to count."
The boy said nothing, undoubtedly thinking of all the extra hours that he was going to spend in Maester Aemon's rooms. For a moment they just silently looked at each other, creating an uncomfortable atmosphere. After a while, Mance began to get squirmy and finally said: "Can I go now, M'lord?"
"What, don't you want your name day present?"
He just got a disbelieving stare in response. Then suddenly, the boy blurted out: "A present for me? Err, Mylord?"
"Yes." The Lord Commander picked up an object that was sitting behind his desk and gave it to the dumbstruck boy. "My brothers and me threw some money together and bought this off a travelling singer. I'm afraid it's not quite new, but it'll have to make do. Come, take it already. It won't bite you."
Mance gingerly picked the thing up. "It's a...a..."
"A lute for you to play on. I heard Maester Aemon say you'd like to learn to play music. So, here you go."
"Gee, thanks, M'lord!", Mance said wide-eyed and clutched the instrument tightly to his chest.
"Now run along", the Lord Commander said. "And remember to practice daily. Practice makes perfect."
"Yes, M'lord, I'll practice lots."
"Good. In a few years, we can make you a recruit. Then you'll soon be a brother of the Night's Watch."
Hey, hello, how are you doing? Did you like this? Please note that English is not my native language, so if you find any horrible mistakes, feel free to point them out. Please be kind though. Flames will be used to feed R'hllor! :)
