HARDHOME

A massive wall made of wood was build on the shore of Hardhome. On the side where the wall met the mountain was a big cabin, it's roof was white covered by snow but smoke came from inside the cabin. It was where the weapons and the dragonglass were kept. Boats came and go and the wildlings walked and talked as they prepared to leave. It was a strange sight to behold, Rhaenys thought. Men of the Night's Watch helping wildlings. For how many years have they been fighting each other? She couldn't remember and it didn't really mattered because as she looked at them helping each other she knew that this is how it was supposed to be. The wildlings were not their enemies, they were scared, like us. The real enemy is them, the White Walkers. How could they ever hope to defeat them if they're fighting each other? At least for now there was peace between them.

But there was no peace for Rhaenys because she knew the truth. Thirty ships had the Night's Watch send from the south to take the wildlings and bring them to the other side, behind the safety of the Wall. Thirty ships for five thousand wildlings. She knew the ships were not enough and as she looked at the people she knew as well that most of them would die. Which is why she spoke with the men of the Night's Watch and told them to make sure that the first ones who will get on the boats for the ships would be the young and the mothers. She knew that by doing this she was sacrificing the old but in her mind it was easier to sacrifice an old man or woman who would sooner die of old age than a child. Yet the weight of the decision made her sick all the same.

Keeping the wildlings in line was not easy but they did the best they could. Tormund had been very helpful with that, it was not hard to be intimidated by the big red headed man. However the tightness in her stomach was getting worse every minute.

"We're leaving too many behind." She said in a quiet voice, she didn't want to alert the others of their plans. It would only cause panic and it was the last thing they needed.

"You can't save everyone. It's better than saving no one." Tormund said and then he lifted a child and placed it in her mother's arms on the boat. Rhaenys knew he was right but she couldn't bear the thought that more than half the people who stood there would die. More and more people entered the boats and Rhaenys prayed to any gods that listened to forgive her. But it was not the gods who answered...

The sound came from the sky, so loud and booming that she felt the ground beneath her feet vibrating. It made her heart beat wild with fear. Had she been in any other place her biggest worry would be to find a shelter to hide from the storm but this place was like no other. These are the Lands of Always Winter, the home of the White Walkers and the storm meant only one thing. They were here.

As if they were one all the people turned towards the mountains and silently watched. Rhaenys knew they were as scared as she was, this is what they had been running from. And then the snow came. Like a cloud it fell from the mountains and the silence broke from the screams. She saw people running and she heard a man yelling to close the gates. And then the gates were closed and she could hear the screams of the people who were left behind on the other side of the wall, they were screaming to open the gates, they were screaming for help. Rhaenys wanted to run to the gates but she was frozen in place. Their screams filled her ears, the cold filled her lungs and fear filled her heart. If she could move she would cover her ears, she could see the shadows of their feet beneath the gates as they desperately clung to the wall hoping that someone will have mercy on them and will open them again.

And then the screams suddenly stopped and the shadows of the feet beneath the gates disappeared. Silence fell and Rhaenys swore that she could hear every man's and woman's heart beating. Or maybe it was her own heart. She wasn't sure for how long the silence lasted but she could not have missed the sound of an inhuman scream from the other side. Many followed after that and suddenly people started running and Rhaenys felt like she had just woke up from a dream. Tormund was shouting but she could not hear what he was saying. He was trying to prevent people from hurting each other in their attempt to get to the boats. They desperately jumped in the water trying to get inside the boats, the men of the Night's Watch were unable to stop this chaos. She could see the wights climbing on the wall, skeletons and rotten corpses, the wildlings shot them with their arrows but that didn't stop them. The dead did not feel pain.

And then Rhaenys suddenly remembered. The dragonglass. They could not leave the dragonglass, it was their only hope to defeat the White Walkers. The only weapon that could kill them. She turned around to find Tormund, she grabbed his arm and he almost pushed her away until he turned his head and saw that it was her.

"We have to get the dragonglass!" She yelled, then she turned to the men of the Night's Watch. "We have to take the dragonglass from the cabin." She saw the struggle and the fear in their eyes. The cabin was near the wall where the wights were attacking. They had to get through them to reach the cabin.

"Let's go!" Tormund yelled and Rhaenys followed after him. When she turned around she saw that the men of the Night's Watch eventually followed as well. The wildlings fought bravely and so did the Night's Watch but no matter how many wights they killed more and more came from the other side of the wall. She could see the cabin, it was not too far. She ran towards the cabin and she almost fell back when midway a wight jumped in front of her. Rhaenys lifted the Valyrian sword and slashed the wight in half. And then she looked up... And she saw them...

On top of the mountain there were four of them. Seated on their dead horses. Rhaenys knew that they were not wights, they were not dead, mindless corpses. They are White Walkers, she realized. They watched her as she watched them. A new kind of fear filled her, a fear so cold that she felt it in her bones. But she could not froze, not now. Now she had to fight. She was not the only one who saw them, a man was standing next to her watching them as well. He was a big man, the fur he was wearing made him look even bigger and the axe he was holding made him look like a wild beast. But Rhaenys knew that even that big scary man felt the same kind of fear she felt as he watched the undead creatures.

"Go for the dragonglass!" Tormund yelled from behind her, he slashed the wights one after another.

"I'll come with you." The big man with the axe who was standing next to her said.

They heard a roar from the cabin and suddenly the front side broke down as the giant Wun Wun came out of it with four wights clinging on his back. One by one he grabbed them and threw them to the ground and then he crashed them under his massive feet. Rhaenys ran inside the cabin and the man with the axe followed. The place was burning but it was extremely cold. And then Rhaenys saw the reason...

On the other side of the cabin a door was open. She saw a shadow moving through the snow and the smoke and when the shadow came closer she saw it clearly. The White Walker walked inside the cabin slowly. The fire disappeared and Rhaenys could see her breath freezing in the air. The White Walker stood tall with skin pale blue and long white hair. The creature was clad in armor and the weapon it was carrying was taller than the creature itself. But the most terrifying thing were the creature's eyes. Bright blue eyes like burning ice.

"Find the dragonglass." The man said calmly and then he lifted his axe and charged on the White Walker. Rhaenys turned away from them and started searching around the cabin. Behind her she could hear the sounds of the fight. She turned around only for a moment and she saw the White Walker hitting the man's axe with its ice weapon and the axe broke into a thousand pieces. The man stood frozen in front of the creature. The White Walker did not waited long, it lifted it's long weapon that looked like ice and then the weapon went into the man's chest, right through his heart. Rhaenys did not want to look anymore. He's dead she thought, he's dead and now it will come after me.

Her boots slipped on a piece of ice and she fell. But when she was down she saw it. There, beneath the broken pieces of wood she found the dragonglass. Her hand reached out and her fingers brushed the obsidian weapon before she was grabbed and thrown to the other side of the cabin. The Valyrian sword fell from her hand. She landed hard on the ground and she struggled to get back on her feet. She saw the White Walker coming towards her again. She climbed up where she knew the weapons were kept. She grabbed the first sword she found and she had barely time to turn around and see the White Walker behind her. She charged at the creature and when her sword hit its ice weapon the blade shattered into a thousand small pieces. The White Walker pushed her and she fell back down on the pieces of broken wood.

Her entire body hurt and for a moment she couldn't breathe but she knew that if she waited a moment longer she was dead. She got up just as she saw the White Walker jumping down. It will not stop until I'm dead, she thought. She ran out of the cabin and she almost fell again when her boot kicked something. It was her sword, she reached down and grabbed the Valyrian sword and then she ran again. A wight jumped on her throwing her down, but it was not the wight she was worried about. She turned around and she saw the White Walker lifting its weapon, ready to attack her. No, she thought. This isn't the end. She gathered all the strength she had left and she lifted her sword.

Ice met steel. But this time the steel did not shatter. No, this time the steel held strong against the undead creature's weapon. Surprise flashed into the White Walker's terrifying blue eyes. This is no common steel, she remembered. This is Valyrian steel, from the old Valyria. From the land of dragons. The White Walker pulled back its weapon and that gave Rhaenys enough time to attack. When the blade came down on the White Walker, the creature broke into a million pieces in the snow. The sound it made was like breaking glass . Rhaenys fell to her knees. When she raised her head she saw them again watching her from the top of the mountain but this time there were three White Walkers. Valyrian steel can kill them, she realized, it can kill them like dragonglass. Suddenly someone pulled her on her feet, she turned to see Tormund.

"Everybody dies. We have to go, now." He said urgently.

"But the dragonglass..." She tried to remind him,

"Forget the dragonglass! If we don't go now we're going to die here!" He yelled.

A strange sound came from the mountain above, it was like an animal screaming in pain and it made her ears hurt. As they looked up they saw wights falling from the mountain. Hundreds of them. They ran towards the edge of the mountain cliff and then they fell down on the ground unmoving. For a moment nothing happened and then suddenly they rose from the ground and they came running at them.

"Run!" Tormund shouted and they ran towards the sea. As she looked behind her she saw the wall collapsing and the wights came by thousands. The giant Wun Wun was right behind them, smashing as many wights as he could with the whale bone he had. When they reached the dock Rhaenys jumped into the boat, Tormund followed and then the men of the Night's Watch. Rhaenys sat at the edge of the boat watching the battle they left behind. No, not battle. This was not a battle, this was a massacre. It was chaos. You could not tell the dead from the living. People screaming, creatures screaming. The wildlings that were left behind were slaughtered one after another. She knew she could not help them, if she had stayed she would meet the same fate.

The screams of the living were silenced after a while. A shadow walked on the dock and as it did the wights stopped moving, they stood still watching. This White Walker was different, it had pale blue skin and bright blue eyes like the other one, it was clad inarmor as well but where the other one had long white hair this one had no hair at all. Instead this one had white spikes on top of its head, it looked like a crown made of ice. And then Rhaenys remembered all the stories she had been told when she was a child, stories and legends about the dark creatures of the Long Night. The Night's King, she thought. The creature's eyes were locked with hers, as if he knew what she was thinking. The Night's King looked towards the mountains and Rhaenys followed his eyes. All she saw were thousands of dead wildlings.

The King's eyes locked with hers once again and this time the creature raised it's arms. Dread filled her as she saw the corpses of the dead wildlings moving, they slowly rose from the ground. Their eyes were no longer human but bright blue, like burning ice. Death doesn't stop them, Rhaenys realized, it only makes them stronger. Wherever she looked she saw blue eyes. Thousands of blue eyes. The army of the dead. The Night's King watched her silently and Rhaenys swore that before he disappeared in the fog she saw the hint of a smile on the creature's lips, a smile that would haunt her until her last breath.