Chapter 2
Helena was woken by the birds singing their morning tune outside their bedroom window, she lay their listening to the happy dawn chorus. She tried to fall back to sleep but it was no use her mind was wandering elsewhere. Helena sat up and crept over to her dressing table where she collected the letter that had arrived the day before and tiptoed out of the bedroom, careful not to wake her husband.
After slipping on her favourite pair of soft pale pink shoes and a hooded clock she slipped outside into the cool early morning air. She took in a deep breath of fresh air and it felt wonderful, the last 3 days had turned hr world upside down. Only a day after she had received her father's letter she had received another letter this time from her mother. Whereas her father's letter had filled her with unease and concern her mother's filled her with both fear and anger. Fear because her worst nightmares were coming true.
Helena had always had a knack for glimpsing the future in her dreams or getting a gut feeling about it. Old Nan had always told her that it was linked to the Children of the forest and the old ways, magic and the Starks had been intertwined from the very beginning. Whatever caused these dreams and feeling Helena didn't know however she did now that they were not often wrong and this make her nervous.
Making her way through the gardens towards the Winter garden Helena tried to take in all the familiar sights and smells of the place she now called home. The familiar birds going about their lives and the blooming flowers delighting with their colours and smells. She smiled to herself and entered the Winter garden she headed for her usual bench and sat down.
Slowly she unfolded the letter from her mother and proceeded to re-read it for the umpteenth time. The letters contained news about a tragic fall that Bran had suffered from a tower at Winterfell, this fall had left him fighting or his life. However Catlin suspected that the Lannister's had a hand in Brans misfortune. Helena re-read the letter again then carefully folded it up and stowed it in her sleeve. She heard a rustling sound off to her left, "Who's there?" she asked, "Oh it's you Rowan what are you doing here at this hour?"
"It is my duty to watch over you my Lady regardless of the time of day. May I?" he indicated to the bench.
"Of course take a seat, you know you didn't need to ask. You are one of my most trusted advisors and loyalist protector.
Sir Rowen sat down beside her, Sir Rowen had travelled down with her from Winterfell after her marriage and she had known him since she was a young girl. She missed Winterfell, the beautiful Godswood with the heated spring, the wild landscape that filled you with a sense of freedom. The sense of family that surrounded Winterfell and her own family that resided there. Helena missed her father in particular, she had always been far closer to him than to her mother, her mother often told her that she should have been born a man.
"What is troubling you Helena?" Rowan asked with such concern in his voice that Helena knew he really wanted to know.
"I am trying to make sense of everything, everything with Bran and my father. I think my father has seen Winterfell for the last time, I have had the same dream for the past 3 days now ever since I received my father's letter."
"What happens in the dream?" Rowan asked all trace of his usual smile gone, Rowan had been around Helena enough to know that if she was worried about something then so should you be.
"It's a series of images really, that don't all make sense. It starts off with Bran falling with a lock of golden hair clutched in his hand, then the image changes to my father riding into the jaws of a lion. Then images of my mother with Tyrion Lannister and my aunt all rolled into one, this then melts into images of my father's men dead on the ground. Then suddenly an old stag appears but is dragged down by a pride of Lions and then up through the middle of the stag appears a spike with my father's head on it." As she spoke hot tears had started to roll down her face, she wiped them away hurriedly.
The sat in silence for a while just staring at the winter roses in full bloom swaying gently in the warm breeze. The sun slowly rose in the sky until there was no denying that the new day had truly started. "We better head back" Helena sat standing up at last, "We have a lot to do and very little time to do it all in, we have less than week before we set off for Kings landing and we need to make sure we are ready. After all winter is coming."
