If a person had asked Jorah Mormont years ago if he would be here in this exact moment in time he would have laughed at them and called a healer for them. If someone had asked him when he was still in the service of his beloved dragon queen he simply would have had them killed for speaking such thought in front of him.
Biut now he he stood and now here he kneels in the great keep of winter fell with the queen of the north sans an stark first of her name the red wolf lady ice heart before him deciding his fate. The entire time he marched north with the forces of the queen in front of him lead by one gendry baratheon he was haunted by the same question over and over agin. Did he remember. That was the question that had haunted his dreams ever since he had finally been reunited with his queen on the shores of drone months earlier.
There she had stood with the wolf girl at her side and sher bastard nephew along with her half brother beside her. He had brought her forces along with the imp and he had knelt and begged for her mercy. She had simply looked at him and then asked if he would ever betray her agin. He had vowed never to give her any reason to doubt him ever again. He had stood before her dragon and had been judged worthy to be by her side. That night had had been clothed in the armor of her army and once again was by the side of the woman he loved. And that was the night the nightmares started.
He dreamed of the place of his birth and the mountains and the family and the father who would forever be ashamed of him. As the days passed he grew more and more haunted by the place and people left behind, and more than once in his dreams he heard the words. The north remembers. The voice then asked him if he remembered. For years Jonah had put the thoughts of the north out of his mind. He had put aside the nostalgia and the melancholy that often found him and moments when the night was quiet and the stars were out. They would often find him at the times he never felt like he belonged anywhere.
And they found a hold in him once more when he saw the bastard Jon snow wielding long claw in battle against the enemies of his queen. The ancient sword that his father had told him stories of as a child. A sword he was told would one day be his. A sword that was now in the hands of a dragon wolf bastard. In the hands of a boy that was given to him by his father. A boy that was suspposedly fighting so that the North would be safe. A boy that visited the tent of his queen every night ad a boy that had been brought back Ina storm of fire and ice by a woman of The Lord of light.
Sometimes when Jorah saw the boy with the sword he could almost feel it calling to him. He could almost feel it in his hands like those times as a boy when his father would let him hold it and tell him that one day it would be his duty to use it to defend their home and answer they call of the north if they were ever needed. He sees the bears head on the sword with his eyes glinting mocking him. When he had fled from Bear Island he had left it behind to be wielded by a Mormont. Only one of his line should wield it. It should be wielded by one of Bear Island in the service of the North. Not in the service of a bastard who knew nothing of its history or it's place. It was meant to be wielded by a man of honor.
And this boy who was said to be the lover of the red wolf herself and was now the dragon's plaything after a mere year of being found on the battlefield after defeating the white walkers and now seemingly beloved by the mother of dragons. And as the days passed more of these thought began to dominate his thoughts and more and more bitterness began to bleed into his mind. Dany denied his council and his skills and instead relied upon those of a boy and those around her who wanted nothing but their own glory. He loved her and wanted only the best for her. Instead she ignored him and it cost them a good part of their Dornish forces when Aegon went North to try and make the red wolf cower only to come back with the wolf assassin and the bastard with a bleeding gut and tales of a women who decimated their forces and would not surrender.
His queen then told them to prepare for war and to summon their forces. Jorah tried to tell her that the north would never follow a dragon and that it would be best o broker peace but then the woman he had loved looked at him with mocking eyes and said that he had come crawling back to her. If one man could then the rest of them would learn. And then in that moment something had broken within him and he had left without replying.
Walking into his tent he had looked into the basin filled with water as his reflection had stared back at him. His fathers eyes looked back at him with the mark of the demon marking his face. The man staring back at him had a face cold and fierce and wild. It was a face of an wild man. A man who had seen hell and back and who had still survived. If was the face of the North. It was as worn as the mountains with eyes as cold as snow. It was the face of a man who looked broken and who had nothing left. And it was then that Jonah Mormont the bear of the mother of dragons had fallen to his knees and wept.
It was that night that something long buried and denied and thought to be killed awoke within him and began to beat as hard and steady a a war drum. It was the call of mountains and of an island and a place as wild and fierce as the girl he once worshipped and would have killed or died for it she so much as asked it of him. It was then he began to think maybe that was why he was devoted to his queen so much. She held within her the fire and strength of home. She was as wild and beautiful as the north he had fled. She had reminded him of the fierce women of his home. The fierce people who called the far north home. They were a mangy lot but they made due with what they had and were proud. They had honor. They did not have much but it was enough.
He had been one of these people and he had thrown it away. And for what a woman who had left him when it became apparent he would never be rich sand give her the gold and silver and jewels she had wanted? He has never had the finery of the southern lords and it had always been enough for him growing up on the isle among the ancient pine and the fierce yet demanding love of his mother. A demand that he be strong and bring honor and respect to his house and to obey the words of them all. Here We Stand.
And where did it lead him? Here at the side of a woman who had becme as mocking and weak as those of the south? Gone was the girl he had loved. Now in her place was at woman that he was losing more each day. These thoughts continued to haunt him as well as he words The North Remembers.
A battle came soon after with Jon snow leading the charge against the forces of the north led by Gendry Baratheon, once a bastard now sworn to the North. He remembers the day the news came of this development. The young wolf bitch had gone feral and killed almost six men before she has restrained by the bastard where she collapsed crying in his arms crying about a stupid bull who never kept his promises.
It was in the midst of this battle that Jorah began fighting. But his sword never made it to its mark and instead he began to look around the battle field. And it was then he saw the bastard raise Longclaw to a woman he knew was alysane Mormont. The sword of his house was being raised in a death blow to one of its own. And in that moment something in his broken loose and free.
A roar escaped him as he struck and knocked the word out of the hand of the bastard. He stabbed and then before Snow could act he grabbed the sword and then stood in front of the heir to bear island. And in that moment Jorah's eyes met those of the bastard. And in that moment Jorah looked to the sky and saw the mother of dragons flying ahead. And in that moment he felt they chains break. And in the next moment he grabbed Longclaw and began to use the sword of his house to cut down any who came near his kinswoman. He did not care who it was he would protect this woman until there was not any breath left in his body. And at the end of the battle with athe dragon Drogon dead and there Neck held Jorah was brought before the Baratheon who stood tall and strong with his war hammer at hand.
He said nothing and Jorah then said he wished to be brought before the Queen of the North. And now here he was. Longclaw in front go him and his heart pounding as he waited for the woman in front of him to decide his fate. As she called his name he raised his eyes to meet her own and then in that moment as his eyes met he own he felt the chains being welded and forged and he did nothing to stop them. He before him stood a woman who was as strong and cold as the women of his home. Here was a woman his father would have served and here was as woman the North would bow to. She was a woman who he could call queen and no longer feel shamed or disgraced for doing so. And when she gave him the choice of taking the black or death at the moment Jorah made the choice he should have years prior and chose the black.
The queen then looked at him long with those eyes and told him after the South was driven from their lands he would journey to the wall where her uncle was now The Lord commander. He would for now serve her. And as she rose with the large grey Direwolf at her side and then asked him in a hauntingly familiar voice that for now he would need to sword of his house to defend the north. She then continued and asked if he would remember who he was now, and he answered with the words of his house, Here We Stand. Satisfied she nodded and left the tent.
And as Jorah was unshackled he took the sword in hand and closed his eyes, and for a moment he would feel the waves crashing rocky shores and the roar of the wind over the bay. And in the next moment he saw his kinswoman standing beforehand him demanding he answer her questions. For the first time in forever Jorah Mormont smiled. His hand gripped the sword as he nodded and followed her out of the ten to where the rest of her forces were camping.
Jorah stood the night telling snippets of his tale to the firece woman who sat across the fire from him and watched him with sharp eyes. After he was done speaking she remained silent for a time until she told him in no uncertain terms if he ever posed a threat to Queen Sansa she would not hesitate to gut him with his own sword. Jorah blinked and tried to tell her that Longclaw was meant to be wielded by only one of their House and that as its heir it was hers by right. He took the sword from his side and tried to hand it to her. But to his shock she looked at him with something akin to amusement as she remarked that for the sword had found it back into his hand after a time in the South and for the time being it belonged at his side in his hands to become one with the blood of their ememies. It was then she smirked and bade him goodnight.
Once outside he strapped the sword to his side and ran his fingers over the eyes and head fo the bear and smiled softly. Unable to sleep in the tent located with the Mormont forces he deciced to walk around the camp to try and expel his excess energy. And it was during his round that Jorah saw something that would forever be branded in his mind.
Clearly in the moonlight he saw the tall figure of the Baratheon man in the shelter of the folds of the outside of the opening to the Queens tent. In the doorway stood the Queen and it was then he saw the large hand of her Commander resting on the small swell of her stomach that had been hidden by her high waistes of her dresses earlier in the day. Stepping into the shadow to remain unseen he saw the bulky and tall man with sea blue eyes known as the Storm Lord, due to his first victory being fought and won in the middle of a snow storm, with his one hand on the swell of her stomach with the other cupping her cheek looking deep into her own icy pale eyes h something that looked akin to devotion or love that was reflected in her own.
Turning around Jorah kept walking as the dawn came and the soldiers of the army of the North awoke. He then looked around and saw men and women and wildlings who were hard and cold and rugged. They who looked like him. Yes he could serve this queen and ride and fight with these men. Here he stood. And never again would he forget.
****AN: So I decded to make this a series. For this AU Jon never used Longclaw to kill the White Walker so the bear head remained on the sword. I know this may be weird but this plot bunny about Jorah would not leave me alone. I hope you like. Next up is Gendry!****