Hey what's up and hello there guys, I'm back for a long time and the second chapter of "Winter's Daughter" is here. Thank you for your first reviews and support for this Game of Thrones fanfic. I appreciate it. Sorry for the long wait because of college you know.
Game of Thrones Season 5 has already ended (with Jon Snow murdered by the Watch and the traitorous Olly! :'(...) and got myself a DVD copy of it to watch it in tv over and over again. Watching GoT series at HBO channel may no longer be possible anymore since the fifth season has ended. Oh well, time to wait for the upcoming Season 6! :D
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Game of Thrones or any of the characters involved in the story. It belongs to George R.R. Martin, the author of the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and to D & D who worked on the production on the television hit HBO series.
Anyways enjoy and don't forget to review. :D No flames please
8000 years later, somewhere in the lands of the North near the Gift
Somewhere in deep within the wolfswood near the Gift, there was a small cottage and there lived a simple young woman with dark-grey hair with small linen of pure white strands garbed in fur cloaked huntress dress who have just returned from hunting game for food and storing them for the coming winter to survive as the Starks always say for many years and were always right.
Feeling relieved to be home under the safety of her roof, the young woman put away her bow and quiver of arrows on the cabinet and set down the prize of her hunt she successfully carried out for her meals to cook as a personal reward to herself.
But this was no ordinary woman who is neither lowborn or even human at all.
She was known to be Aneira Stark or rather Aneira Winters now, an adopted daughter of Brandon the Breaker, the King in the North and his secretly bastard niece. Not only that, Aneira is a half-White Walker with more human appearance than a White Walker born from the love made by her parents, the Night's King, formerly once the 13th Lord Commander of the Night's Watch and his Queen who were responsible for taking control of the Night's Watch before being driven out by the combined forces of the free folk and the Starks of Winterfell.
After being taken in by the King in the North from the Nightfort where she was born under his custody, Aneira was given a home and place among the Stark family in Winterfell where he secretly explained to his wife about her origins and after several moments of taking in, she had seemed to accept the girl with the idea of legitimize her as a Stark among their trueborn children.
Otherwise, Aneira would have been known as a Snow throughout the rest of her life when she grows up and a life of a bastard may not be nice and pleasant in the eyes of society in the North. And Brandon the Breaker would not let that happen to his one of his own related kin despite her White Walker blood within.
During her years at Winterfell, the girl was being loved and taken care of by the Stark family as she had been treated well by Brandon's wife and children although remained unaware of her true heritage. She played with her "brothers and sisters" in their series of childish games such as sword play and archery including some knack of embroidery and enjoyed sibling moments together. Her "mother" and "father" loved her like a daughter among their trueborn children.
But when there were happy moments for the young girl, there were sad moments. Some of the smallfolk and the household members in the ancient seat of the Starks sees Aneira as a bastard born out of wedlock by their King Brandon and a living disgrace to his wife's honor as they saw her as a babe in the man's arms upon returning to Winterfell with his forces in their gossips and rumors among themselves.
Some of them were bold enough to call her a bastard and tormented her with bullying and insults towards her whenever chance and opportunity they have just to make her feel miserable in the great keep before Brandon rashly put an end to it who was notified of the intolerable behavior of his subjects on his adopted daughter that greatly silenced them out of fear of invoking Stark's wrath for tormenting one of his own kin despite their protests that she's a bastard but the King in the North would hear none of it and had those despicable people banished or executed personally from Winterfell for good.
However, the effects of being bullied had remained in her mindset because of them. Despite being treated and loved as family, Aneira always felt like an outsider and insecure in Winterfell but her "parents and siblings" were always there on her side and convinced her to stand up for herself however that she was grateful of.
But it does not end there. Watching her loved ones, the family she cherished, who had took care of her grow old and die followed by their children's children throughout the years, Aneira felt despair and sadness as to why she couldn't grow old and die like all the people as she saw herself remain youthful as if age and death never came to her at all. The half-White Walker once tried to kill herself in her moment of despair but no weapon were able to kill her, although they made her bleed, she's still alive.
That is where she discovered pale icy skin forming around her arm in one of the freezing winter and had realized that she was not human at all and a White Walker, one of the non-human races from Beyond the Wall that once invaded Westeros in the Long Night in their wake of cold and death they brought before being driven back farther north with the Night's Watch guarding the Wall to prevent their return. Coupled with the fact that in one of her hunts, she had unconsciously caused the dead animals and a couple of bandits and poachers she had killed in self-defense to rise as mindless wights bidding to do under her command when they stare at her with cold blue eyes waiting for her orders. Frightened of the wights she revived unknowingly, she killed them again and burned their corpses to prevent that from happening again, and also forbid herself from doing such an unnatural ability to raise the dead.
Deciding to isolate herself from civilization because of her unnatural abilities of a White Walker in fear, Aneira lived deep within the wolfswood near the Gift with a small cottage she built for herself with little contact with the people of the North and took a new surname of "Winters" for herself by choice as opposed of Stark since her name faded away in the lineage book about House Stark for many years.
For the free folk who have now lived in the Gift as part of the Kingdom of the North as Brandon the Breaker and Joramun had brokered between both sides after uniting to take down the Night's King and his Queen, they view her as unnatural and suspicious of her true nature as a White Walker since they have close encounters with them back from Beyond the Wall before being allowed inside south of the Wall by the King in the North and saw glimpses of her abilities especially during the passing winter seasons.
However, they have never proved that she is a White Walker that had somehow bypassed the Wall meant to keep the race of icy beings out from the south of Westeros right under the noses and the keen sight of the Night's Watch in their speculations and even if they did, no hard evidence can back out such claims to back them up yet their suspicions remains.
Even the few hundred giants who were brought along with the free folk including the mammoths as well appear to be aware of this suspiciously but had simply saw her as harmless and nonthreatening. Thankfully they kept this among themselves and their simplified Old Tongue made it harder for those who speak Common Tongue to understand what they were talking.
She would often visit the free folk settlement in the Gift for several occasion just to trade up with the results of her hunts for goods and supplies although still felt cautious of their wary nature towards her including the giants.
The only ones among the free folk who didn't treat her with contempt or suspicion are the family who are descended from former King-Beyond-the-Wall, Joramun who is one of the few who knows of Aneira's heritage as the daughter of the Night's King aside Brandon the Breaker and the wetnurse who tended to her before dying in old age and the secret of this knowledge was passed for generations.
But she wasn't aware of that however since there were rare interactions with the free folk family for few decades or so.
Eight thousand years has passed, Aneira Winters have lived and witnessed some or most of the events that has happened and transpired throughout Westeros from the Andals' invasion of Westeros and the rise and fall of a hundred kingdoms of the First Men and the Andals before the Seven Kingdoms to Aegon the Conqueror's subjugation of Westeros under his rule of the Iron Throne by his three dragons and the Targaryen reign that followed over the passing three hundred years.
Thanks to her centuries-long isolation, almost no one knew of her existence as an extremely long-lived half-White Walker and a 'daughter' of the ancient King in the North Brandon the Breaker at all since it's been a very long, long time since the Age of Heroes. And also, she doesn't bother to involve herself in the affairs of kings and men when wars, rebellions and major events occurred in Westeros that is none of her business and hopes to keep it that way.
In her time perspective, it had felt like recently, hours, days or even weeks ago for Aneira but decades passed and she was not aware of it probably because of her long-lived longevity as a half-White Walker that they never age at all even for a thousand years or more. This however ruined her sense of time and had great trouble to cope with it since then.
While living throughout eight thousand years in isolation, Aneira managed to learn to hone and use her abilities as a half-White Walker to control ice to craft and shape weapons out of it she produced at will but never reviving the dead as wights since her morals and respect for the dead to rest in peace still held strong within her mentality while keeping them a secret and let the suspicions remain as they are about her without being found out.
Finishing recalling her memories of long ancient past, the half-White Walker woman have started making meals for herself out of boar and rabbit stew, hot chicken soup and a cup of hot water and milk and started eating although secretly, she wishes that there'd be some company at least since the atmosphere in her small home is getting very lonesome for so long too many times.
Suddenly, there were a few several knocks heard through the door of her cottage and Aneira was surprised that there are visitors which is considered new and very rare since no one can find her isolated home in the wolfswood.
"Visitors? Strange... That's new. I wonder who it is?", she said to herself before getting off the chair and headed for the door.
Outside the half-White Walker woman's humble cottage are four young children in teen ages who wore fur cloaks and clothing for the cold weather and they are of House Stark with their long faces and grey hair including the direwolf sigil of theirs. They appeared to have noticed Aneira Winter's home while having a little journey in the wolfswood with their horses after sneaking out in Winterfell right under from their father's nose just for a little adventure. Partially they blame the wolf's blood in them for getting them into trouble, mostly on the two who displayed more of such traits in the Stark family.
"Hello? Is there someone home in there?", a young girl called out through the door and continued to knock more.
"Are you sure about this, Lyanna? We're not supposed to be here.", a meekly boy muttered in fear.
"Sure it is Benjen. Without Father knowing, we just went to the wolfswood to explore only to find this small cottage and we need to know who lives here. So far almost no one lives here this deep except the mountain clans. Right, Ned?", an older brother's voice chimed in.
"I agree with you Brandon. This small cottage was here in the wolfswood and it may be either occupied by either the smallfolk or the free folk yet never notified Father at Winterfell about it.", another boy said with a reserved and quiet tone.
As the Stark siblings continue talked among themselves, a door opened for them and they see a young-looking woman who appeared to share the similar traits of the members of the Great House of the North and beamed a soft kind yet lonely smile when she asked despite the already cold air feeling around themselves and saw a small glint of blue eyes glowing a bit.
"Yes, can I help you children?"
Author's Note: Well the new chapter of "Winter's Daughter" is done and the next one will come around soon. In the next chapter, Aneira meets the young Stark siblings: Lyanna, Ned, Brandon and Benjen before accompanying back to Winterfell, her former home 8,000 years ago. For the rest of the future chapters, Westeros may soon learn the existence of a White Walker, or rather half-White Walker after believing a non-human race of ice and death to be extinct for thousands of years and nothing more than a stuff of myth and legend.
Hey guys, my brainpower is kinda pretty low and I might need help on what ideas and suggestions in order to make the story better and more interesting. Feel free to say so and I'm all ears for that.
Anyways, enjoy and don't forget to review. :D
