BranHe was riding. He didn't know where to but he was riding. He looked around. Around him were giant pine trees. He wondered how his horse could run so fast among all these trees and looked down. He was actually riding atop of Winter, his direwolf. He smiled. He knew it was a dream. He always had dreams like these. He griped Winter's fur so he wouldn't fall of his back.
"If I fall on the ground, I will probably wake up." Bran thought.
"And what if you don't?" Called a voice.
Bran looked up. Above him flew a black crow. It looked like any other crow. The only difference was that instead of two eyes it had three. The third eye was imbedded in its forehead staring at Bran even more intensely then the other two.
"Why wouldn't I wake up? That is how it is in dreams: If you fall down you wake up."
He thought he heard the crow laugh. "What if I told you that you could fly?"
"But I don't know how to fly." Bran replied. "I also have Winter to ride. Look he is almost fastr then you." He said as he made Winter run even faster.
The crow did not give up. "But you are not really riding him. This is only a dream. I can show you how to ride him. I can show you how to fly."
Bran laughed. "I would need wings to fly." He sank more and more into Winters white fur.
"There is more then one kind of wings."
He reached something. It was a wall of ice and stone, a gigantic curtain that went from one horizon to the other. Winter began to climb it. He just ran up the white wall, his paws flying over the slick surface without slipping.
Bran laughed again. "See? The only wing I need is Winter."
"I will make you fly boy whether you like it or not." The crow pecked Bran between the eyes.
Bran in turn snarled up at him and jumped up to eat the annoying bird. He had become one with Winter. A wolfs never tolerate a pesky bird. In his jump he realized that he was still climbing the wall. Suddenly he fell, fell ever quicker. "Now! Fly! Spread your wings and fly!" The bird called above him. But Bran didn't care. He wanted to wake up from this dream. And hitting the ground was the quickest way to do that.
He tumbled out of bed and felt the stones of the ground beneath him. He looked out of the window. It was still night. He thought about going back to bed, but dismissed the idea. He did not want to repeat that particular dream. He washed himself and put on his clothes. Winter, who slept outside his room, followed him as he went into the yard. It was cold and Bran began to walk around the keep to warm his body.
All of this was now his. He still could not believe it. At first he had tried to make Jon o all the ruling for him, but he, Maester Luwin and mother insisted that he would have to learn it. He still did not understand why Jon or Anna could not be his father's heir. Endless times Anna and Jon had tried to explain it to him and every time he just thought that those rules were stupid. Once he had declared that once he was Lord of Winterfell he would change the laws, but that only caused laughter among his older siblings. He went to Maester Luwin afterwards and asked him why he could not change the laws. Luwin replied that only a king could pass laws of that magnitude. Bran did not understand why the King in King's Landing should decide about the fate of Jon and Anna, but he thought it best not to ask.
Winter suddenly growled at something in the darkness. Bran turned to find Myrcella the king's daughter walking towards them. Immediately he smiled. He liked Myrcella she was so unlike her older brother and so much more like her younger brother. She often woke up early to read in the library of Winterfell and probably was on her way there. "Quiet, Winter." Winter seemed the only one who did not like Bran's new friend. Everybody in Winterfell seemed very happy that Bran and she were becoming friends. Even the young Domeric who had come to Winterfell a few days ago had laughed about it.
"Are you on your way to the library?" He asked. Myrcella who had been startled by Winter's growl now came closer again.
"Yes, I wanted to read something about direwolves. I thought if I knew more about Winter he might like me more."
Her face was red from the cold so Bran took of his coat and gave it to her. "Here you seem to need it. Well I don't know. Winter seems to understand you just fine. He is also very nice to you once he sees you. Its just you smell probably. He doesn't like it. It was the same with all of your family I was told." He scratch Winter behind the ears.
"I guess so." She did not seem convinced. "And why are you out so early? Did you have a bad dream?"
"No of course not. Winter woke me up and I could not sleep anymore. But I keep having this dream where I am Winter. It gets kind of annoying." He wanted to laugh, but then he saw the look on his friend's face. "What's wrong?" He asked.
Her answer came as a whisper: "Do you know what a warg is?"
