Hey guys. So this is my first fic in a loooong time, and my first ever Song of Ice and Fire one. This is only going to be a one-shot (unless I can think up some more to add...) Reviews are very much appreciated!
iThe fire in the hearth had burnt itself out, only ashes remained. "How apt," the young man sighed to himself. Absently, he reached down to rub the ears of the great animal resting at his side. The animal raised his head, intelligence gleaming from his eyes, reassuring the man that he understood, and that all was not lost. Ashes can be swept aside, and a new and greater life can be built upon the ground where once stood a magnificent castle with a history stretching back over five hundred years. Now is the time. Now we can prove to the world that we are important. The history of that place can be destroyed, for it held memories that would rather be forgotten, buried in the crypts with his father's bones.
But alas, today was not the day for rebuilding, nor making history. The man got up from his chair, and tied the piece of parchment he had been writing upon to the leg of a waiting raven.
"Snow," it cawed.
Ignoring the raven, and cursing Samwell Tarley for teaching the birds the damned word, he directed the raven to deliver the letter straight to the King. "We need his help now more than ever," he muttered before releasing the bird.
Watching the black wings growing ever-smaller, he thought upon a saying of his father's: "dark wings, dark words". Unbidden, his thoughts drifted back to his childhood in the great castle that was now naught but dust, ashes and a distant memory.
The loud bang at the door interrupted his musings. They were here. Finally, the horrors had found him in his tower. Drawing his bastard blade from the scabbard at his hip, he turned to face the horrors clamouring for entrance to his solar.
"Come on then, I'm not afraid to die," he muttered, as the white direwolf joined his side, growling low in its throat, and the first of the bodies staggered through the door.../i
Jon Snow awoke in his bed, flailing around and gasping for breath.
"What is it?" a hoarse whisper asked from beside him. Pyp, the boy was called.
"Nothing. Go back to sleep."
"It's oft said a man will dream badly when missing his family," Pyp continued.
"It was nothing."
"Quiet, Lord Snow. We are men of the Night's Watch, not women at their needlework to gossip!" Ser Alliser Thorne commanded. "Don't make me set a beating for you on the morrow."
Jon sighed and rolled over. It was his first night on the Wall at Castle Black, and life would only get harder up in the extreme North. But what else was the bastard of Winterfell to do. At least he still had Ghost, and his Uncle Benjen Stark. The Stark words ran through his head as he thought back to his dream. iWinter is coming/i.