Howland Reed read the letter from Ned stark with amused disbelief. It is one strange and amusing tale, including the dangerous and unnecessary quest of little dragon prince and his children.
It is good that they found an incredibly vast piece of untouched forest, rather, they found the long lost sanctuary of neck is not infested with monsters any more. Yet, the danger such quest involved was as unnecessary as it could get.
With a single strange quest on their minds, and a most idiotic display of bravery - Meera, Jojen and Jon snow ran away with a single canoe in to the no-return marshes. These marshes called so, for no men that went in to the place ever returned. It is a true marvel they found the steaming lake instead.
In times of old, that is before the dragons arrived in westeros, this place used to be where people of neck wintered. The area is a large valley surrounded by deepest and most treacherous of marshes. Winds and storms arriving from north and vale in to the neck caused sudden whirlpools in the lake, that killed thousands of people over time.
On the top of that, every thing is big in this part of the marshes. Leeches, lizard lions, hell, even mosquitoes are larger here. How ever, in winter, outer layer of the marshes froze and allowed for travel. The lake is deep enough to allow under water life to flourish, thus making ice fishing possible.
The steaming lake warmed the entire valley that surrounded icy lake. Thus, the valley remained a rain forest, almost like summer islands, or islands of nath with life blooming in it during winter. In fact, life only flourished here during winter, as the forest is too hot and humid during summer.
As they went in to the forest, they found stretches of dragon glass in the mountains and valley. Then, in the steep mountain stretch that loosely connects them to vale, they found dragon bones, almost as big as famed Balerion the black dread. The remains of a single human are found along with the bones.
From what remained of the dragon and human, Howland could only assume that the dragon is sheep-stealer, human is Netty. That also explained how they both were able to drop off the face of earth. The place is warm enough for a dragon in summer, has enough food to feed even a dragon in winter.
What he never told any one is that he also found a cache of dragon eggs in one of the abandoned caves. In fact, it is Jon who found them. He woke up one day morning, decided he wanted to explore this cave. Seeing as none of the others are awake, Jon's impatience, Howland offered to accompany him.
He and Jon ventured in to the cave. For first few steps, it is naught but stone. After that came a most beautiful display of color. The cave is full of glowing mushrooms. Both of them smiled at the sight, though none made any effort to touch them. After all, mushrooms are among one of the most dangerous of neck's foes.
They both tied their hand kerchiefs to their noses and proceeded in to the cave. After a while, they came to a chamber full of dragon glass, smack in the middle of it, three colorful dragon eggs. A burnt orange, gray green like waters of steaming lake and ash gray like the color of a winter storm. Jon instinctively walked towards the dragon eggs.
"Wow.. Lord Reed, these stones are still warm." he said taking them in to hands and petting the stones.
Howland just stood there in surprise at the discovery. After patting them twice, Jon frowned.
"These don't feel like stones." Jon said trying to examine the eggs.
"That is because they are not. They are seeds of a rare oak plant, that's rumored to grow only during long night." Lord Reed said. Till to day, he is not sure why he said it.
Jon sat on his knees, still petting the dragon eggs.
"You should take them." Howland said suddenly.
"huh?" Jon turned towards Lord Reed.
"You are on a quest to collect plants and seeds for winterfell, are you not? Take them. They are rarer than you think. I believe it is fate you found them, so you must take them with you." Lord Reed answered.
"Okay." Jon nodded in answer, placed the eggs in cloth bag provided by lord reed.
They continued on in the tunnel, eventually emerging in to an opening that opened in to the steaming lake. The opening is just above the lake's highest edge. Few of the crannog men remained in the valley to scout and build cabins for winter. Rest all returned with Howland to gray-water watch.
For the first time in a long while, Howland felt better at the prospect of winter. Not that they wouldn't take the usual care, but this time around, they will have the added assurance of having a place that provides bounty of land even during winter.
The first of the crofters arrived in winter-fell after two weeks of unicorn eggs being laid. On the first day, one of the daring servants netted an egg and brought it to the chef.
He promptly tried to make some thing of it. Eventually, they found out, it's just impossible to cook an unicorn egg. It melted in to goo the moment it left the cold place where rest of them are. The parents both took to digging tunnels from pit.
Lord stark left them as they are, for as long as they threw some grass down the pit, the beasts stayed calm and happy. Still, they dug the tunnels.
They called for an arch maester or an apprentice to observe and catalog behavior of the beasts. Maester arrived fast enough. He even dared to go down one night in to the pit, after the beasts are out on milk of poppy, shorn a fistful of their hair. Unicorns hair made a fairly bad wool, but it made wool none the less. It's too rough to be used for any thing save ropes and rugs.
The true marvel of them all arrived after almost a month. An maester cum blacksmith, who was thrown out of citadel due to prejudice of high-born peers, arrived seeking patronage of Starks. Lord Stark made to refuse him so as to not anger citadel, but Sansa intervened. She told him to make him part of Sansa's crew, as she named the eclectic group of skilled men she gathered.
Eventually, Lord Stark accepted him under the guise that he will become squire to Robb Stark, who is too much of a boy to have any squires as of yet. By the end of it, Tomas was crying tears of eternal gratitude. He has been left with out a livelihood, for he is not a maester, he could not adjust to being an apprentice to second rate blacksmiths.
As soon as he settled down, Sansa shew him the picture of bicycle. She told him how it works in a very generic manner. Tomas was beyond overjoyed with the idea. Sansa left him to his own methods, for she her self has ideas about end products, but not the process or design. Best she could do is give a very vague description of what's needed.
Either way, tomas has become ghost of winter-fell's library since the time Sansa mentioned the machine. Every other day Sansa dropped by his desk to remind him not to die of starvation, and solve any of the simpler problems he has. When sansa first mentioned the way to calculate a circle's circumference, she got the rudest shock of her life. Tomas did not know what pi is. He had no idea what geometry is.
It is during those meetings it dawned on Sansa how much of an uphill battle she has even if she gathers enough people to discover every thing she wants early. Not to mention she is going to change future irrevocably.
Either way, Sansa imparted the knowledge she has, which is minuscule to say the best. For now, she decided she will be happy with dragon eggs and unicorns. How many of her contemporaries can say the same for them selves? She is going to hatch those bloody dragons, make Jon train them.
Speaking of Jon, it's about time he goes on the quest to find tomatoes again. This time, she hoped he brought real deal instead of legendary lost objects.
Jon, keeping in line with his promise, left after he served all his punishment with a fair deal more men. Each and every one of them have been inspired by the dinner time stories Jon told them. On the plus side, Starks are paying for most of the journey.
The day before they left, Sansa sneaked in to Jon's room with dragon eggs.
"Jon, do you know what these are?" she asked him showing the eggs wrapped in her hand kerchief.
"seeds of a rare oak plant?" Jon answered doubtfully, as if he is struggling to remember what this item is.
Sansa wondered if she should let him continue with his ignorance. At the end of it, she decided not to. It's a long time before dragons hatched, he can do some thing with them till then.
"They are dragon eggs." Sansa answered.
"Dragon eggs?" Jon returned with surprise, delight and little bit of fear in his eyes.
"I am not playing a prank. They are dragon eggs. You must not tell that to any one." Sansa told him.
Jon nodded eagerly, extending his hands to touch the eggs again.
Sansa offered them willingly. After all, he is the best person to hatch them.
"You should keep them in fire as much as possible. Give them a drop of your blood every day till they hatch. " Sansa added.
"Will they?" Jon asked with the same delight and fear.
"I do not know. How ever, the dragon lore legend says so. Who knows, one day they might indeed hatch." Sansa told him.
Jon looked every bit serious as he answered her next.
"I will complete this duty with utmost diligence, Lady Sansa." he said puffing up his chest, still gazing at dragon eggs with wonder.
Sansa couldn't help it. He looked so adorable there, with his boyish innocence. She pinched his cheeks, kissed his forehead.
"I have no doubt as to that, my knight." Sansa said.
Just as she is about to leave, she turned and asked him the question that is plaguing her since her arrival here.
"You are my Knight, aren't you Jon?" she asked.
"Yes, my lady." Jon answered with out a hint of doubt in his voice.
Sansa smiled beatifically at him, exited his room. She has to tell him of his birth, but she will wait for now. After all, she is but almost nine, he is still twelve.