A/N: Yall thought I was gonna keep spoiling you didn't you? I was going to but i've kind of been treating my other story like a neglected 50's wife -it needed some loving and I promised myself I wouldn't even start this chapter until I could publish the other, so it took me longer than 2 days.
Dread Knight N7: I have to thank you for your kind words and reviews time and time again and I feel honoured that you would spend your time reading what I have to write. I really am grateful for a reader like you.
sofiaaelisabeth: Have patience my child! But I will admit...it's getting harder to keep them apart for me personally. I have a plan of what happens and when but the more I write/think about it my inner fangirl LIVES and I want some touchy-feely.
Guest&Guest2: Look this is the story that I wanted to go with, i'm sorry if it offends you but it can't be offending you more than you've chosen to offend me. And no it seems pretty fair that I "mistook" dislike for confusion since none of what you said indicated that you wished to engage in constructive criticism. I'm not trying to be defensive but you obviously don't seem convinced so I apologize but i'm not going to personally spend my time and energy convincing you when I happen to like my story the way it is. Talla is special to me and she is special to the Wall. I wanted to write a woman who could shape these men and finally become herself in a place that was always associated with men. So if you think it is too out of the question for her to be respected then by all means go ahead and quit reading because that's not something i'm gonna drop. Castle Black, in this AU, has already been through so much and fears Jon's wrath, so anything out of order -including raping and murdering his best friend's sister, is not too fond of an idea to them. And sending Talla back, while yes it may be a shabby excuse to keep her there, is not hard to understand. Jon would rather kill one man he can not spare to make another example than to send half a dozen of them down and waste resources as well as risk desertion. Also, Randyl is working on something else and will call Talla when he chooses to do so. So there you go. This will be the last time that I explain myself to your comments because I can't do that more than once, I won't spend my time trying to convince you to like something you obviously don't like.
Alainwonderland: I actually know of 0 Jon/OC fics that I have liked enough to recommend but to be fair I don't really read Jon/OC fics. I think out of all the ASOIAF fics I read Jon fics the least of any of them...don't ask me why I have no idea! But i'll keep my eyes peeled for you just in case I happen upon any good ones!
Enjoy!
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Talla
She didn't know what it meant to be a steward, not at the Wall at least. It took her by surprise, not only the sudden announcement but the unexpected sentiment that came along with it. Talla didn't know what to think of the knowing look in the Lord Commander's eyes as he gave her the order and spun around on his heels in a cooler demeanor than she had seen him in before. She didn't see him for much of the rest of the day, unsure if the reason why was because of the usual workload she assigned herself or if she truly had no wish to come across him again.
What did he even mean by that? She thought as she pressed and twisted the wet clothes out of the hot water in the safety of the laundry room. It had quickly become her sanctuary, the boiling room. Ever since the night of the execution Talla had taken to hiding away there. It was the only place in which she could hide and simultaneously get something done. It was also, coincidentally, one of the only other places the brothers wouldn't enter -especially not after she had taken over that certain unsavoury duty. Something about men washing other men's clothes. They seem perfectly fine wielding their swords and bows but come the prospect of seeing what's in another man's breeches they get squeamish. The brothers to whom our lives are handed to serve and protect. She chuckled soundly at her own thoughts with the knowledge that no one else could hear her -and no one would question or ask her why she had such a smile on her face.
She supposed she should be happy about the whole thing -she was, but it all made her think about how it wouldn't last. And thoughts of her return were as unwelcome to Talla as the cold that brewed through her bones when the night was deep and there was no escape.
But there was something almost itching to be uncovered in the way the Lord Commander had said it to her. The way his eyes looked at her, like they were looking down, there was a glimmer of something she was completely unused to seeing from anyone who hadn't met her father; pity. It was the very thing she was getting away from, the notion of her weakness -the reminder of the wheels breaking her at every turn or step. He looked at her like she knew there was something she so desperately needed; almost as if it was him instead of Ghost that had stayed by her side the night before and watched her weep into his fur.
I am nothing. She thought once more. But Jon Snow doesn't know that yet. And a part of her decided that Jon Snow, and all the other brothers, would never know that. She just had to keep it up before she was torn away.
Talla squeezed out as much of the remaining water as she could out of the last piece of linen she could bring her reddened hands to scrub. Where had all the time gone? There were no window in her sanctuary, of course, but it felt like she had been hiding and plucking her brain for an eternity -and whatever part of her that wanted to stay in the comfortable warmth of the damp room had to be stepped on by Talla today. I will not cower to duty. So she dried her hands, pulled down her sleeves, put the dead man's cloak back on and braced herself for the cold once more -amongst other things.
She walked about aimlessly for a little while, everyone had something to do and they seemed to get on very well doing it -but Talla could not help but think about where her place between these men truly was. Most of them were nice to her, truly, even lovelier than some men who had been intent on courting her in the past. Talla found it hard to believe that they were criminals or unwanted men with no other place in the world, even though she thought of herself as much of the same. You are wanted here, this is your place. She said out to all of them silently, hoping her heart would beat it loud enough for them to hear. She cared not of what old wounds they had had or inflicted in the past, they were good men with sound heads on their shoulders -she only wished they would keep them that way. Talla couldn't exactly say the same for the other men at the Wall -the ones who treated her like the undesirable she was. To their credit they avoided her most of the time, Talla would have thought that a disliked man at the Wall would encounter his fair share of trouble so a disliked woman was something she was almost frightened of being -but they always kept out of her way. They scattered around like ants whenever she was passing by them, though they left nothing wanted in the looks they gave her. They still did nothing, no one tried anything, and as much as Talla would have liked to be naïve, to be young and childlike and think that even those men could see whatever good she had left, Talla knew it was because of the power their Lord Commander had over them -especially after the previous example he had made of a man that had insulted her.
Though he wasn't insulting me, really. He was insulting Jon. She kept the right to call him by his given name in her own thoughts, surely I don't need his permission for that? Maybe he calls me Talla when he thinks of me. She swiftly shook the thought out of her head. He does not think of me at all.
Would he announce my new appointment to his men? Would he tell them at dinner? Would he have their heads if they refused to have me?
What would their reaction be? She had no idea. And perhaps she never truly would -she would never know what it was like to be them. They had all come here from different places and walks of life, had all served under different Lords and titles, but they all met at the same fate. And though Talla could see, well and truly see, the beauty that came with all of the ugliness and the weights they bore on their shoulders, she would never be privy to understand it. She would never know the harsh sting of the cold when one knew it was to be their home for as long as they were alive, she would never draw her sword to a wildling or carry her brother from battle, she would never trek to a Weirwood, just like Sam had told her, and say her vows before a tree that bled like they did. All I know is the same loneliness that haunts my bed as theirs does -and not even all of them either for that matter. I will never know combat, I will never know the fight of the North, I will never know a heartree.
Suddenly, and without much fixture to thought, Talla knew what would occupy her time from then on until dinner. Perhaps I could know the heartree, after all. Spinning on her heels, she walked over hurriedly and briskly in her worn boots to find someone, a ranger, that could take her since she was already anticipating the Lord Commander's harsh head shake at the prospect of her going alone -which was fine. Talla, though fond of riding, had no need or interest in wandering the Lands beyond the Wall on her own -especially not a tortured and haunted forest where the Weirwoods coincidentally stood.
Her eyes finally landed on someone who happened upon her path who was not a steward or a builder, where do all you rangers go to play?
"Ben!" She cried out to Bearded Ben, to whom she had purposely decided on addressing by his given name at any and all times. His beard is not even that long. How many Bens can there be at the Wall?
"Lady Talla," He said, his accent thick with the North, with a smile and only a shadow of a bow. She was tempted to wave him off or roll her eyes but she hardly wanted to give him the satisfaction. "Can I be o' service?"
"If it's not too much trouble, I have a mind to go see the Weirwood -i've never seen one before. And i've nothing to do until dinner time. Could you accompany me? Unless of course you're busy training then I-" Bearded Ben raised his hand sharply at that and smiled once more, though Talla did not miss the curious look in his eyes.
"Does ah, does the Lord Commander know of yer' little trip, M'Lady?" With the curiosity in his eyes now explained, Talla found it in her to raise her chin in defiance and look for something to stand on.
"I couldn't find the Lord Commander. He's a busy man, he doesn't need to be bored with all the details." She watched as the man cracked a humorless smile at her before his eyes darted to something behind her, but she stayed still nevertheless.
"Well now's yer' chance to ask him."
Talla turned around to find her faced with the very same man it was empirical for her sanity for her not to see in that exact moment. Without giving him a chance to speak before she could she turned sharply to Bearded Ben with a look akin to a scowl and with a voice she hardly even recognised and ordered,
"Ready the horses while I inform Commander Snow." His smile was full of the humour it was once missing as Bearded Ben relented in a full bow this time,
"As you wish, M'Lady."
Unable to meet the steely man's burning gaze just yet, she watched Bearded Ben walk away with as cool a demeanor as she could muster before she knew her attention would be summoned back to where it so belonged. How good of an idea is this? She had just been awarded with a position -which was far more than she could say she expected, was it really necessary to spoil whatever she had built to see a tree? But, of course, Talla would not stand back -she knew it, even as she felt the man's fuming breath reach her hair, she knew it.
"May I ask what need you have for horses, Lady Talla?"
She turned to him with a clear face, one she hoped was devoid of any hesitation in her actions or what she was about to say.
"I was just telling Ben how I wished to see the Weirwood. I can't exactly walk there now can I?" I've done far more stupid things than that, she was going to add, but decided it was best not to poke the bear for the time being. Especially with his eyes darkening that way.
"The Weirwood?" He questioned harshly, clearly expecting a more detailed explanation than what Talla was about to give.
"I hear it's charming." What else could I have said? I wished to get away from the men of the Wall? I wished to get away from you?
"You're not going to see any Weirwood, my Lady." It was he who was poking the bear now.
"Am I confined to your keep, Lord Commander?" She accused as she folded her arms across her chest.
"No one enters or leaves without my permission and-"
"Well then may I have it? Your permission?"
"What need would you have to go there? With Bearded Ben?"
"He was the only person I could find," she began stuttering out, clearly taken aback by the underlying implication to his words and Talla barely had time to be angry at any part of it before he cut in once more,
"You're not to go with him." Had I gained a new father in the process? I was unaware. She could only bring herself to huff audibly in response, the alternative being to shriek and Talla, being Talla, was not about to let anyone think that Jon Snow affected her that much. Instead she spun on her heel without another word to the contrary man and made to leave him standing dumbfounded in the snow.
As she walked away, stumped with defeat, she spotted Ben approaching sheepishly with two horses' reigns in his hands, rubbing salt on the very wound Talla was currently nursing. She was about to raise her chin, pick up her skirts and leave and not show her face to dinner -she was about to say she didn't care which of his men thought she was anything to the Wall until she heard Jon Snow's voice again from behind her.
"I'll take you to the Weirwood, my Lady. If that is what you so wish." It was enough to stop her right in her tracks.
Talla turned back to him open-mouthed, shocked at the his acceptance. He was very person she wanted to get some distance from, and he was offering to come with her? She had half a mind to refuse, to say that she had no wish for it any longer; to make him think that it was he that she had no wish for, but she recalled the sweet smile on Sam's face when he told her of how he had taken his vows in front of a tree that would scare him if he was not in such awe of it, and Talla -for once, relented.
She nodded painstakingly in his direction, and before she knew it he had walked over to where Bearded Ben stood, still smirking, and relieved him of the horse reigns he was holding. A sharp whistle sounded the air and Talla almost winced at the sudden noise before she felt Ghost approach them -where he goes Ghost follows.
The Lord Commander informed a few of his men of their departure and where to find him should they have any need of him -assuring them in the process that they would not be long, which relieved Talla. However, she did not miss the curious looks some of the brothers gave in reaction to his announcement; the same gleam she had seen in Bearded Ben's. Talla could only wonder at what that meant.
One of Jon's squires came to him next -a handsome young lad with dark hair that Talla had noticed on the first night she had joined them for dinner, right before they were set to mount their horses, and offered him a heavier cloak. The Lord Commander reached out to take it before hesitating to a stop, instead Talla watched as his eyes flickered to her with sudden thoughtfulness. She wondered briefly what of her insecurities would fail her this time, what part of her composure was not good enough, before he turned to address his squire.
"Give the cloak to Lady Talla, she'll need it more than I." It almost made her smile, almost, before she took it as a slight against her build. Nevertheless, knowing she was unaware and probably unprepared to go out riding North of the Wall she accepted as the beautiful young man took her previous cloak from her, the momentary lapse in the cold in between cloaks reminding Talla of just where she was, before wrapping the heavier one around her carefully.
It smelled like something Talla knew, like the outside. Like the unforgiving wind and harsh tribulations; is that all you are made of, Lord Commander? It must be, for Ghost leant into her legs even closer at the new scent that masked over her figure.
She thanked the squire pleasantly before turning to mount her horse -with some added difficulty thanks to the new cloak she had to brave wearing. Accept that it is for your own good. She reminded herself that perhaps she should be grateful, perhaps he was not adding insult to injury. Perhaps he was not taunting her, perhaps he was being nice. With that thought in mind and with a laugh escaping her throat, they rode off in tow with Ghost in close pursuit.
It did not take long for them to arrive at what Talla recognised as a heavily wooded area. They stopped just short of the darkness's beginning and as the Lord Commander loosely tied the steads to a close by tree Talla regarded the forest with much unexpected trepidation.
I have ridden through lands of hard ground, rivers and snow -what do I have to fear from the woods? The unfolding darkness before her reminded her of another terror -one that she thought she left behind. The hunting grounds at Horn Hill were tolerable at dawn, but there were places that not even the sun could bring forth, places full of secrets and whatever monsters her Septa had warned her of. "You're never to set foot there, young lady. Your father will not have his daughter lost to a beast." What beasts await me now, father?
"You're not having second thoughts, are you?" Said Jon with a cocked eyebrow and an indecisive look to which Talla decided to take full advantage of.
"Not at all. Shall we?"
"After you, my Lady."
They walked together briskly, braving the deep snow. Ghost stayed impeccably close to her, nudging her along when she needed it, but when the woods grew thicker the snow on the ground adversely grew shallower and Talla could finally walk with a resumed bounce in her step.
"There are nine weirwoods making up the grove. It's used as a Godswood when necessary."
"And what constitutes a necessity, Lord Commander?" Talla teased subtly, and as expected the sullen man took it in all seriousness.
"Prayer, vows, weddings I suppose."
"Have there been many weddings here?" She questioned, letting her curiosity get the best of her.
"None that I can think of by the Weirwood, my Lady. But up North the old Gods are what we stick to."
"I've had my lessons, Lord Commander, I know of the Old Ways." There is no need for you to teach me.
"They're not the Old Ways, not here. This far North they are the only Ways." It must have been true, for her own brother who had been raised in the Seven like her had taken her vows like a boy of the North. Would she have to accept the Old Gods, the spirit of the wood and the forest, like all men north of the Trident?
"Very true. 'Suppose that's another thing i'll have to learn." If i'm here long enough, that is.
After a dozen more steps Talla found them now stood facing a tree with a face carved deep into its own bark; wearing it like a skin.
She squinted and edged closer, feeling Commander Snow close behind her, and she inspected the elusive tree before her. It wept, its eyes sad with the grief of what it had witnessed, the red sap ran a true vermillion streak down the bark and it stirred a host of curiosity within Talla.
She had always known about the Heart Tree, she and Sam had read books about the Old Gods and her Septa would tell her of how the savage Northmen bowed to none but the sacred trees that haunted their woods, but standing before it was something else completely. Those eyes, that she had been told were carved by the children of the forest themselves, glowed on with life into her and she wondered and wondered what could be so sad and beautiful.
She leaned back, finally standing parallel to the other human beside her -Talla somehow felt that they were not the only living things in the forest, not with the life of thousands of years dwelling around them.
"Why does it look so sad?" She wondered out loud.
"That's not for me to say, my Lady." Why do you look so sad?
"I thought you knew everything, Jon Snow." She replied in good spirits, but looked to her side to find that he had not immediately smiled. She hadn't expected him to be jovial, but neither had she anticipated his eyes boring into her with such question. Like there was something she was hiding, and he was bound to uncover it.
Just as she inspected his curious scowl he shook his expression away and replaced it with an insincere smile to placate her worry. It was, to say the least, not Talla's favourite. I wonder which of your smiles is.
She was about to question him on what he found so arresting, so suspicious, about her statement before she heard a whine come from the white direwolf behind them. Ghost didn't look so jovial himself, his fur melting into the snow until from a safe distance he was just a pair of red spheres floating in the wood.
It would not be the most peculiar sight here in the woods, Ghost.
Jon
It felt sacred to stand before that very tree with that very woman, the same way he had known others to stand before it and make vows of such substance that only a king had the power to renounce should he so feel inclined to. They both stood facing it, in deep thought, and as Jon suspected, with much a heavy heart. He imagined that perhaps when others stood there they felt the same way, how could they not? The Heart Tree's visage was something he had grown familiar with since his childhood, but it was a small kind of solace he would let himself have to watch others witness it for the first time -to drink in the melancholy and what it meant to stand before it just as Talla was.
Ghost had never been the fondest of this part of the woods, so Jon did not take much note of his whines as he savoured what silence he could find before the tree. And so he said a silent prayer, even to the Gods who thought he was no one, to find the strength to carry through even when they were empty. Jon looked to Talla in silence and wondered whether somehow she was singing the same prayer he was trying to muster.
Stray snowflakes fell from the heathen branches onto her hair like a hollow crown; barely visible in its wake, and Jon recalled the sight of a more pronounced crown of snow on Alys Karstark's wedding day. If she is Winter's Lady, what role does Talla play in the long winter? Winter's faithful subject, probably. He hoped she would not hear his thoughts in the haunted wood.
All thoughts of Talla's crown and her hair left him once the low rumble of Ghost's growl was glaringly audible to him; to the both of them, and Talla looked to him in worry without needing to look back at Ghost -somehow knowing something was amiss.
Involuntarily, he stepped in front of Talla, causing her to reflexively hold onto his upper arm as he followed Ghost to the foliage he was growling upon threateningly. His hand moved swiftly to the helm of his sword, pulling it out slightly in preparation, and Talla's grasp on his arm tightened even further. He almost told her to stay where she was -to not get any closer to the threat before he could determine what it was, but he knew leaving her alone would probably incite more harm than good.
Focusing his glare past the grove and grooves of the many trees that lined them, Jon spotted the unmissable blue; the unmistakable death. It's was not the deep, unyielding blue of an Other, but the shining blue of a Wight -a dead wildling still roped within his pelted fur, he stood idly staring back at Jon. Like he knew it was where he was supposed to be -like this was his prophecy to fulfill.
A small part of him, still naïve to the horrors of beyond, didn't want to believe what stood before him -even after Hardhome and the massacre he bore witness to, but the strangled gasp that left the throat behind him reminded him how real what stood before them was.
"Run."
And they did, all the way back to their horses. He took no grace or prior thought as he harshly lifted Talla's legs up to mount the horse, feeling her heartbeat through every inch of her clothes in the process, and jumped onto his own steed within the next heartbeat. They were back in the flurry of white, a hazy dream of pumping blood and falling snow. He looked back at the haunted forest disappearing behind him to see who -or what, had followed but there was nothing but the lingering darkness staring back at him until his own eyes could see nothing but frost.
They entered through the already opened gates into the darkened tunnel, finally coming to a stop on their thoughtless hurry. Jon quickly unmounted and made his way to Talla to help her down, but as she landed -hands limp on his shoulder still under the heavy weight of his own cloak, he registered the far away disposition her eyes had acquired.
"Talla?"
"What-what was that?" She choked out, barely audible had he not been as close as he was, hands still on her waist as her eyes still could not meet his.
Her question brought him back to reality, this was their world now -and it would have to be a world Talla shared as well.
"A wight," He ground out, finally bring himself to push his hands off of her waist and up her shoulders to pull her attention back to him. Before he could explain any further, her eyes -her eyes so full of emotion and uncertainty, interrupted him and gave her the chance to speak before he could.
"He...it...it was just standing there." His grip somewhat relaxed on her shoulder and Jon did not know what to do with her fear, it was so new. He felt like he had been over this so many times, he did not how else he could explain it or whether he even had the patience for it. This is our world now, Talla. This is our world.
"I have to go back and end it." Before he could spin away he felt her own hands grab at his shoulders with the strength she had lacked just moments before.
"Have you lost your mind?" Her voice was picking up now but the fear still rung through his ears in a higher pitch than was audible.
"If a wight appears that always means there is an Other nearby." He did not have time to explain all of this to a girl.
"It's almost nightfall, you can't go back there!" She tried to follow in jutters as he marched on with the intention of calling his best rangers to put the taunting creature to rest, it was a mercy he feared most would never know. He would have done it earlier when faced with it but Talla was there and he could not waste time in getting her to safety, it was his duty.
"I know what time it is!" His voice was stone now, loud like the salt it was made up of, and it was enough to stop Talla in her tracks.
"Stay inside and away from the gates until me and the rangers come back." Silencing her with his final order, he left her side, and surprisingly it was Ghost that followed him.
He spared her no other glance as he took Grenn and Bearded Ben with him out onto the same path he had set upon himself.
Jon and his men inspected the woods heavily after striking down the wight -who did not give even the slightest of fights to the brothers set out to tear him apart, but they found no other trace of danger, at least none that they could see. They burned the body on a pyre when the last of the sun had set and rode back wordlessly to the towering castle that awaited their return -and, if Jon suspected correctly, back to the highborn lady praying for their safety whilst simultaneously cursing him to the Others themselves.
Their return was marked by no anticipating reception or looming eyes, not even the single figure of a Lady who Jon had thought might be waiting. Instead, most of the sound erupting seemed to be coming from the common hall. Jon looked up at the sky and realised that the common hall was the exact place he would expect to find everyone when the sky was this colour -like nothing had happened, like nothing had changed.
Grenn and Bearded Ben had taken their leave to return to their rooms, certainly to try their best to rid themselves of the day they had had. But Jon found the warmth dancing in the doorway of the hall, calling his name, and he felt something pull himself in -casually wondering in the process whether he would find the lady of the Wall there as well.
Though whatever sound being emitted from the hall may have sounded joyous to the grey outside Jon was previously standing in, it was sullen in comparison to the past nights the men had shared in the presence of Lady Talla Tarly.
He could just make her solemn figure out, sitting silently at the end of one of the tables with her eyes empty and devoid of the determination he had almost gotten used to seeing in them. The brothers around her seemed to follow suit, trying to hide their insincere joviality in food and drink.
It was a strange thing to witness, how changed his own men were come the change of a singular lady. It was undeniable now as he tried to conjure up an image of her from nights passed, giggling at Ulmer's crude stories and quipping with the Builders, and compared it to how she sat now -alone and beholden to the fear that had shook through her. And with hr inward change something hushed over the brothers around her like a blanket setting them to an awkward slumber.
Perhaps, Jon thought, there is a connection that lies between the changing moods of the present ladies and the men who had grown loyal to her -just as Ghost is to me.
With that in mind, he carefully approached Lady Talla, who didn't eve notice he was there until he carefully brought his gloved hand to rest on her shoulder which then had her in a fright.
She looked back at him with relief and something unknown within him stirred at the realisation, at the revelation, that he was not what she feared.
"A word, my Lady?" He made sure to make it sound like a question and to keep his voice gentle enough not to quell her nerves. Jon could not recall when he had been so considerate.
Nevertheless, she nodded slowly in acceptance. Jon watched as her expressionless face changed momentarily to that of shock as he helped her out of her seat and offered her his own arm to escort her out of the hall that was now damp with need for attention. Defeatedly, and in a way he hadn't expected, Talla slid her arm through his, allowing him to feel the very bone that brew within her.
They walked in silence, even when they left the hall and the now familiar cold cast a chilled blush to the Lady's cheeks. She kept her eyes cast, though whether she was in deep thought or just tired Jon could not himself determine.
They stopped a few steps shy of the stairs, and Jon finally turned to the lady to address her. She was looking fully upon him then, and he barely registered that her hand still lay lifelessly in his. She looked to Jon so different, so changed, from the woman he had seen. She looked like the woman she was when she wept, in my dreams, he thought. So sad and beautiful, like a Weirwood.
"I wanted to make sure you were alright, after this afternoon."
Talla shrugged carelessly in response with not enough meaning in her eyes to cast it as an answer, at least not to Jon.
"I'm sorry you couldn't stay longer with the Weirwood. You seemed to like it." Once again she shrugged, was her neck not getting tired of all that shrugging? But this time words had the fortune of following it.
"What are my wants in the face of such dangers, Lord Commander?" It was hardly something he expected to hear -even with her so sullen.
Deciding that the best course of action was one with pride removed from the equation, Jon drew in as deep a breath as his close proximity with the Lady allowed him and began to rescind his earlier actions.
"If I was harsh earlier it was only-"
"You were only being fair. As fair as you can be to a burden such as myself, at least." Once again, her retort was not what he expected. And it wasn't until she agreed with what he had been silently and angrily thinking over the past week that he came to the decision that it was simply untrue.
"I don't think that. And neither do the brothers."
"And how would you know?" She almost scoffed in return and Jon could just make out the first signs of life return to her being. I need you alive, Tarly.
"Did no one tell you?" He said with his breath a cloud of white between them.
"Tell me what?" She met his eyes with confusion, and Jon allowed himself to smirk -for the Lady's sake.
"Apparently I know everything."
It wasn't enough to make her laugh, Jon wasn't sure he was made up of the stuff that would allow that sound to grace him just yet, but it won a smile. And to him, in that smile he could see the steady build of trust, the rise in morale, his men's cheers, and somewhere far off - a Lady's favour.
"he grumpy, she kinda ok and everyone hungry
tries to be nice"
Please review and tell me what you think!
