HI BOO BOO BEARS! (I'm running out of greetings, don't judge my madness..) I have returned with chapter 14, sort of a part 2 to the last one's ending. New meet & greets in this chapter, so hope you like it. Sorry for the wait, I keep getting hit with road blocks for this! Enjoy, be merry, and tell me what you think with a comment. X
Daenerys:
Her fingers clicked the top of the long table as she waited for their response. They shared their whispers and grumbles, but no one had spoken yet. When they came in the doors, Dany could see four wolves sitting in one row together. They all wore the same looks.
Her last greeting with the eldest had his face stuck when he saw Daenerys, not knowing what to do. Another, his face had a solemn look to him. His dark hair and grey eyes matched his spirit and sulking look.
Next to each of them a girl, on their sides. The older one, had a classic beauty to her. Her fiery red hair went well with the hardened glares she wore. Daenerys thought of her to be too warm, full of color to be one of the many shades of a grey Stark. Still, she saw the same on her gown as the rest, a silver direwolf.
When Daenerys looked to the younger girl, in her eyes she saw just her own reflection in grey eyes. Outside she saw brown haired girl with a calm face, but she was hollowed out; empty inside.
The seconds she sat there felt like minutes in the silence. Finally someone stood to break it apart. The first one to speak was the dark and gloomy one. He didn't look back at Dany when he stood up, just looking on at the old men sitting across from them in the hall.
"We shall continue then-" They stopped the sulking one from even letting the rest of the words come out of his mouth. Their angry glares turned back to Dany.
"Why is she here?!" One of the booming voices echoed throughout the hall, she wasn't truly sure what they wanted to hear. Daenerys collected her thoughts to answer their demands, instead she stopped and would watch the show of the animals in their natural place.
One spoke, the rest of the flock began to yell amongst themselves once again. A screech of the centered chair caught them all off guard. His expression hardened looking back against their squabbling.
"We will all get our answers, but we have much more to discuss. Let him speak." When he finished speaking, his head turned towards Daenerys with a tense look on his face. Still, they listened to him.
When Daenerys looked back to Robb Stark, she saw the change in his face. His curls had been neatly cut, instead of the thick mop of auburn he wore in Meereen. His face had been trimmed as well, looking almost noble. The North seemed to have dug out the King they once had.
"We need every maester to look through their records of the longest winters, the long night, and history, tales or no of the white walkers. Everyone, age ten to sixty will drill daily with spears, pikes, bow and arrows."
When the dark eyed one paused, they nodded and pounded the tables with their plans. "It's about time we taught these boys of summer how to fight." An older man with aged beard and banners of an iron fist agreed with him. That's when he pursed his lips before speaking again.
"Not just the boys.. The North cannot be defended if only half the population is fighting." Their voices dropped looking at one another. Dany noticed this stranger had a boldness to himself mentioning his plans to a room of old men with looks of disbelief. The same man who spoke stood again with anger, disbelief possibly both.
"You expect me to put a spear in my granddaughter's hand? I take orders from my King, not his bastard brother." When the man finished speaking, it came together on whom the solemn one was. Looking back at them Dany saw little resemblance to the brothers.
Robb Stark tried to rise to defend his brother, but the wave of his hand stopped him. The grey eyes of the brother glimmered as he scuffed at the Lord's words. "Aye Lord Glover, what would I know? Just a bastard.."
All the Starks, the Lords surrounding, even Daenerys herself raised her eyebrows to just bow and accept his harsh words. Then his head rose up staring the Lord Glover in the eye.
"You believe I just sat and watch and see what's coming. You can go back to Deepwood Motte, and wait for the storm to pass. But they bring the storm, they will come to your gates and swallow you whole if you choose to not listen to just a "bastard."
Glover didn't speak, he only stared back at the dour words of the baseborn brother. The tension was thick enough to cut it with the blades they carried with them. Suddenly a short figure stood, catching their attention.
"I don't plan on knitting by the fire, while men fight for me. I may be small, and a girl, but I am every bit as much a Northerner as any of you.. Most of you." The younger girl turned her eyes towards Daenerys at the last part.
The Lord Glover tried to break their arguing, but she stopped him again with speaking of defending the North herself. When they both ended their jabs back at one another, the girl turned back to the direwolf long table.
"We'll begin training every man, woman, boy, and girl on Bear Island." The rest of them hit their fists against the tables cheering her, as did the Lord Glover with bowing his head to the young lady.
Robb Stark stood for the first time and began to speak. "While we're preparing our attack, we need to sure up our defenses. My brother, former Lord Commander of the Night's Watch has given us much more help with knowledge of the Wall, than we deserve."
He glared back at the older Lord again when he spoke last. "With the lack of men, I ask, for I am not King of the Free Folk to help us survive this winter together." She didn't know of when he spoke of "Free Folk," but Dany saw grey darkened animal fur with a feral looking man stand up.
"Aye, so you want us to mind the castles for you?" A red bearded man taller than most of them in the room walked forward strutting through the hall as men gave a grimace of mistrust.
The dark haired brother spoke again to the red headed one. "The last we saw the Night King was at Hardhome, the closest castle to Hardhome is Eastwatch by the Sea."
He nodded back to them in agreement. "Then that's where we'll go. Looks like we're the Night's Watch now." The wildling man chuckled staring back at the scowls of the Northern lords.
"If they breach the Wall, the first two castles in their path are Last Hearth and Karhold." Another voice grumbled hearing the words. Dany turned to see his face, the drunken giant she saw before, glum and sullen, his head lying on his arms as he listened to them.
"The Umbers and the KarStarks betrayed the North. Their castles should be torn down with not a stone left standing." Another man chimed in. Daenerys could see the cloak he wore, iron studs on a bronze field. She remembered the color from the painted table, somewhere in the Vale.
The tall man with chains wrapped in his clothes rose kicking the chair he sat on when he heard the words. "Anyone who lays a hand on my Last Hearth, I will happily burn down your castles with all of you in it. What was that Royce, Umbers betraying the Starks?!"
"Aye, GreatJon I said it. Who's son was it that brought Rickon Stark to Bolton's bastard, and where is he now? Buried in the crypts with his father!" The white haired Lord Royce spat back at him.
Dany could see clear now the giant whom they call "GreatJon" was an Umber. When the lord mention one's son, she could hear the blades begin to pull, until men held the Umber lord back.
"I didn't say we were scholars like the old shits in the Citadel, but we are LOYAL. You, you don't talk about my son. If you do so, it will be the last words you'll say when I am finished."
When the blades had begun to be drawn, fists slammed into the table loud enough for it to crack the wood it was made of. "Sit. Down!" She heard Robb Stark yell from the end of the room.
The men stopped their fights and shouting. None of them had known what to say, to ease their problems in the room. Only one person spoke.
"Whatever had happened during this, the castles committed no crimes. We need every fortress we have for the war to come. We should give them to new families, loyal to us who supported us against Ramsay." When the older girl had spoken, most of them agreed with her more than either of the two brothers.
"The KarStarks and the Umbers have fought beside the House Stark for centuries, why strip their families of their ancestral homes because of one member's crimes and reckless actions?" The brother with the white wolf laying at his feet said again, going against what seemed to be his sister.
"So there's no punishment for treason, and no reward for loyalty?" The girl turned back to Robb Stark, waiting for his answer, as did his brother beside him. When he began to speak, the the black haired one stepped back into the discussion.
"Father always said, "The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword." We always tried since we could remember to live by those words. Taking a home from families it's belonged to for centuries will break all that our father did and make it into nothing."
Daenerys could see the two Stark siblings bickering and snapping back at one another on the same problem. She could see his blue eyes hazed in conflict looking back at the tall headed Umber's worried looks.
He finally stood and their heads turned waiting for him to speak. "Harold Karstark died in the battle, and SmallJon…" He bit his lip when before he could finish with a sullen look to the one he called GreatJon.
She could see his chest when he took a final breath before finishing. "SmallJon Umber died as well. Lord Umber during your imprisonment at The Twins, you titles were passed to your heir. Now they have been passed to the next in line."
The giant of a man's eyes widened at the thought. "A boy, he's just a boy, he's done nothing of treason!-" Their "King in the North" stopped the panicked Lord again.
"No son will be punished for a father's actions. Only what they do will matter, I give them the choice to honor these oaths their ancestors made long before. Ned Umber, Alys Karstark. Come forward."
The boy stood first, it didn't made a difference in height when he was sitting Daenerys thought. He looked no older than ten with a nervous look on his face. Then came a girl, young and scared as the other had been when they stepped forward.
"For centuries, our houses fought side by side on the battlefield. I ask you to pledge your loyalty, once again to House Stark. To serve as our banner men, and come to our aid when called upon." No one spoke, they only waited.
Soon enough the swords they carried were pull out in front of them. He ordered them to stand. "Yesterday's wars don't matter anymore, the North will ban together." His voice echoed across the room.
Dany heard them ask again to stand beside them. They responded quickly, at the same time. Then the words of "Now and Always." bounce across the walls, she could almost hear ringing.
Their fists slammed and they cheered. She could see the smiles they wore proudly, by just saying a few words and promising to serve a Stark. Daenerys even saw the small grin she saw on Stark, quite different from last she saw, bloodied and broken.
Dany caught eyes with the brother as he fiddled with a small broken sealed note. When she caught him staring, his grey eyes widened and turned back looking at the hall. "There is one more.."
"This message was sent to me from Samwell Tarly, he was my brother at the Night's Watch. A man I trust as much as anyone in this world. He discovered this map, a map of Dragonstone that uncovers a mountain of Dragonglass under the castle."
Dany pursed her lips, waiting for the moment she knew was coming. She wouldn't speak or offer anything, she wanted to hear them ask. "Dragonglass kills White Walkers, it's more valuable to us more than gold. We need to find it, we need to mine it, we need to make weapons of it."
For a moment she found humor in their faces, seeing the prideful looks, not wanting to give it up for something they seemed to need. She would do it for them. "I'd be willing to allow allies who were to swear fealty to me to mine this dragonglass."
She turned back to Robb Stark, staring back at him wanting to hear who she was speaking to. "Not usurpers who take what is mine by right." Dany stood still, not moving a muscle even when the Lords snapped back at her.
They stared back at one another, Daenerys wouldn't back down and neither would he. Then the Northern Lords barked back like wild dogs. They snapped at her loud enough with "How dare" and calling her a foreigner all at once she couldn't hear what one or the other had said.
"Forgive me Your Grace." Daenerys turned back to the brother, he tried to be fair when he spoke. "There are no sides when it comes to this. Allies or 'usurpers' and whatever we all are to each other doesn't matter. We are not the enemy.. The dead are the enemy."
His words pulled her back for a moment. "The dead? Forgive me.." Dany realized that there wasn't a name to fit the dark haired one with the brooding face.
He looked back at them for a moment, the scuffs and looks of the old men waiting for him to say it. "Jon Snow." He said proudly, not listening nor looking back at them.
"Jon Snow.. You speak of stories meant to scare children, why should I listen to these when I have real enemies to deal with." He sighed at her and his grey eyes puzzled as if he knew she would say it.
"The army of the dead is real, the White Walkers are real, the Night King is real. If they get past the Wall, while we're all squabbling amongst ourselves.. We're finished." He seemed to speak truly, but she couldn't give Jon Snow the answer he wanted.
"You seem to have.. Strong beliefs on this matter, but I do not know you or your intentions. I won't inflict them on those who are still on Dragonstone, not knowing if they are at risk if I let you through." He seemed to have a talent for brooding, for it was the only emotion he had during their whole conversation.
She stopped to look at them, sighing, angry, and disappointed looks all around her. Her words were nothing to them, only more reason to stand against her. Dany pursed her lips, inhaled trying to come to a balance.
"Your men would be allowed entrance into Dragonstone, for this dragonglass you need. But this will only happen on one thing." She turned back to Robb Stark looking at his glum face, waiting for her to say it.
"Bend the knee Lord Stark."
They all snapped back at her like wild dogs. Tyrion told her she would be dealing with proud old men who wanted justice. Daenerys looked around the room and saw not her but stubborn little children.
"Why should the North rule under you? Because you have the blood of your father, the man who killed our uncle and burned our grandfather alive?" The red haired girl stepped in with her father Aerys' work. It always went back to him, Dany never knew him, but they always had to compare.
As they should have, the Northerners agreed and cheered with her words. Another stood, the GreatJon had much to say by the look of his face.
"Lady Sansa speaks true, we don't know you. You're not our Queen, you just want us to win your wars and bend our knees. That's why he is our King, he came back for the North. He's the King we chose."
Daenerys turned back to him in awe, she finally understood. She thought his silence was odd for him, his sullen looks. Robb Stark carried the guilt of hiding what he did while his people rotted away; drinking under a sellswords name in Essos with not a care at all.
He knew what she realized, his face eased waiting for the burden to be lifted with Daenerys telling them. He stared back at her, waiting for her to choose. Little did he know..
"I know what my father did, he was an evil man. I ask you forgive his crimes against your family on my behalf. And to not a judge a daughter on the sins of her father.." She saw the surprise in their faces, and none stopped her from talking this time.
"I didn't come here to burn your kingdoms to ash or what else you may have assumed. I came for peace, what it was before. With a Targaryen sitting the Iron Throne and a Stark as Warden of the North." She spoke ignoring the rolling of their eyes.
"Who else remembers that peace, when we went south for war and it ended at the Trident with the silver bastard falling to Robert's war hammer?" Dany heard them whisper.
She gritted her teeth and pursed her lips before she started again. "Whatever peace could have been, it will not with Cersei Lannister ruling." She cringed when she thought of it.
"Winter is here, and just the beginning. The Lannister woman isn't that simple to march North, Southerners can't handle the cold like us." A younger man one pointed out, she could tell he wasn't just talking about Cersei Lannister.
"And how long did it take for any of us to believe winter was actually here? Until the snows piled up at our gates. We can't fight Cersei, and what is farther north alone." Dany finally heard Robb Stark speak up after letting his men speak all they like. From what he said, he may have been defending her.
A round man stepped forward with dusty green leathers that stretched wider that could fit two men in it together. His face had been red and gasping when he rose.
"If Cersei Lannister would blow up the Sept of Baelor with her whole court inside, and what others are saying she had some monster in her Kingsguard throw the boy Tommen from the Red Keep, do you think she'd care sending men North to rip us from our keeps?" The larger lord asked the rest of the them.
She could see him twiddling with his hands and fingers looking like he was counting in his head before he spoke again. "How many men do we truly have ten, fifteen thousand at the most? And Jon Snow, how many of them coming?" He turned back to the brother.
He spoke with a brooding face and pursed his lips as the rest of the Lords looked back for an answer. "Hundreds and thousands.." Dany heard the men grumble and roar almost as if their fear was said in yelling.
She saw the one they called Jon Snow jump back and stop their words. "And more if we plan on fighting Cersei! South is not the way to go find your enemies, it's only North.."
"Yes, they're North.. They're everywhere, and we can't fight all of them alone." The larger man with the merman embroiled on his doublet stepped forward to Daenerys and looked back at Robb Stark.
"I saw some pages in a book once about the Long Night, how fire can kill what is coming. Long after reading that I saw a creature so magnificent that men feared the fire it could breath, and one of them left you here." She stiffened her back knowing what he would ask of her.
"I will do this only with my King's blessing, but I Wyman of the House Manderly, Lord of White Harbor, and Warden of the White Knife will lay my men at your cause. With this promise I ask you bring your own men and beasts loyal to you, farther North than you have been."
Dany pursed her lips, seeing she may have been wrong with who this man was. For she only saw an old man with a rather big shape to him. Now, he had revealed himself to be a calculating man hiding under his merman sigils.
Daenerys could see the other Stark bannermen staring at Lord Manderly with hatred and disgust. They looked to him like a traitor but he stopped them in their works. "I said before with my King's blessing, and I still mean my King. There is only one thing that must happen before I send any Manderlys."
Lord Manderly looked back to Robb Stark bowing his head, as if he was doing it all for him. He'd let his own bannermen and lords mock him for the son of Eddard Stark. "The North." He said plain as day.
"Renounce your claim to it, for we know no King but the King in the North whose name is Stark." He bowed to the younger girl with the Ser Jorah's sigil, Daenerys clenched her fists with what she'd call an agreement.
"Let us be free and independent while you have the last six or what is left of it. Free the North." His demands weren't even for himself, all for one who barely even spoke during all of this.
All she had done, all she had lived was to go home. Dany was reminded everyday of her blood, no matter which Mad man she was related to, her claim was the only claim. She stood up, her ribs aching and bruised and she stared back to the Lord Manderly once more.
"Then you may keep your men my Lord. I was born to rule the seven kingdoms, and I will." She heard their gasps and yelling again she could hardly care for it anymore.
The Manderly Lord sighed quietly with a disappointed look on his face. "Perhaps you will someday, but not with my men." He bowed again to the Starks before striding out of the hall. Another man stood, bowing again and walking away.
The rest followed like a flock of birds. Few stared back, but they bit their lips as followed their bannermen out. Lord Royce had stopped to turn back to her. "I do not know you girl, but I remember Aerys. I remember your brother Rhaegar as well, and the poor Lady Lyanna. Lord Rickard, Brandon and the faces of the men we sent south. Now they lie under the dirt."
Dany had no words so say, but Lord Royce had more as he turned to the Starks. "A Targaryen cannot be trusted." She stood back seeing all of them leave, not a care to look back. She did not know them, nor did they know her. All but her name pulled them away.
She thought of Aerys' grim face, how she envied to erase his existence from all their eyes, even hers. Now she stood in the hall, alone, because of her name. Except for one clapping behind her.
"If that was supposed to gain you allies, you'll need to work on that." Daenerys might've hated his voice calling back to her, but she supposed Robb Stark wasn't lying. She turned back to the empty tables with one left sitting waiting for her answer.
His face softened, looking for a response to his jokes, but he knew he would get none. His face softened as he looked embarrassed with his hands stressing through the curls on his head. She held her breath, feeling like her head would burst.
Instead she let out her breaths, staring back at him. "Do you remember what you were supposed to do? How you got here, how the Second Sons came to fight your battles? Do you recall who's armies did that for you, and what you were to do with your bannermen?"
He just stared back at her blinking, she scuffed at him. "Of course you don't." It didn't matter if he was a Stark or was supposed to have honor like Tyrion mentioned. He had been a drunk with little memory they had dragged out and put a direwolf on his clothes.
When she rolled her eyes turning back, she heard him jump up following her across the hall. "No, no I remember… I was drunk most of my times in that pyramid, but I swear I couldn't have been.." Dany saw him press his hands firmly against his head leaning trying to have what was left of his memory.
"He, they took my drinks already before I left. It, just all goes blurry, foggy, and my head.. I just can't remember!" He tossed the cup of wine that was on the table as it hit the wall. Red dripped down, and Dany turned back to see if anyone outside had heard him.
He pressed his hands to his temples, she couldn't tell if it was meant to be a show for her to have mercy. Still, she saw the shame in his face with forgetting much. "The North." She reminded him.
"I asked of you to bring the North to my cause, against Cersei. Now they call you King in the North and demand their freedom." She wouldn't admit it, but she may have been helping him with resembling what was left of the conversations in Meereen.
"If they call you "King", they are your subjects to follow your rule. Why is it you haven't told them of this pact you made coming here? To bend the knee, and go south once more." The last part she spoke, she saw his head raise and nod against her words.
"I will not have them fight my battles, or yours even so. I may have planned on before, but not now. They had gone through each of the seven hells and back to fight my battles long before you came here." He nodded again to his words stroking his wolf that sat at his feet.
"You plan on having them hide in their homes while the rest of the country is at war?" She asked him. Before she even finished he came back at her with more to say.
"Oh they'll be fighting for something, just not south The real enemy is of the North." She scuffed at him going back to this "great danger" his brother had spoken of before.
"As far as I can tell, you are the enemy of the North." Dany spat back at him. She saw blue eyes roll back into his head when she spoke. "You believe this... enemy." She agreed with him on the name that no one would say it's real title.
"You haven't even been North to see it for yourself, how should I believe the word of someone who has no proof of it. What was his name, Jon Snow? You want me to put my trust in his word?" She saw him nod his head up agreeing with her.
"I've always put my trust in my brother and he's never made me regret it." She saw the faith he had in this Jon Snow. But what good was faith in Gods, or people she thought. One should only have faith in themselves, for they may be the only ones who wouldn't betray you Daenerys reminded herself.
"I spent years in foreign lands to get what is mine. I will not waste that time I was in exile for losing all I've done for faith and believing in stories." He sighed again, below Robb Stark his own wolf tilted his head almost as confused as himself.
She saw him scuff at her words, and bowing his head. "Then long may you reign over a Kingdom of ghosts and ash, because thats all you'll have to sit on the Iron Throne." She turned back to him wanting to hear her loud and clear when she spoke.
"When I do rule the Seven Kingdoms, what you've done, naming yourself King is treason. Why shouldn't you be held accountable for your crimes." Daenerys almost wanted to mention like his father, but she held her tongue from the rest, she showed mercy sometimes when no one knew it.
They stared back at one another, neither saying a word. He had venom in his eyes from her words, to break the silence the doors were pushed open. A servant out of breath came running, "My lord-, I mean.. Your Grace..." He huffed and puffed trying to finish speaking.
"Someone... at the gates."
Fresh snow had begun to fall, the little flakes melted onto the waxed seal. The later days she spent in Winterfell, the less she had of dealing with their people. Most were too busy with the broken boy and his companion return to Winterfell.
Tyrion had written to her of the plans that had been made. The Greyjoys have just sailed for Dorne with the Martells to gather their forces for what was to come.
He also wrote of Grey Worm leaving them at White Harbor to meet with the rest of the Unsullied. Tyrion had mentioned before that taking Casterly Rock than Kings Landing would have a better outcome than having foreign soldiers take the Capitol.
Dany twisted her seal that stamped the three headed dragon onto each of the letters. She could remember Viserys holding it close everywhere they went. Now she knew why he held it tightly, the only way that they would remember house Targaryen was in a crimson seal.
Daenerys felt her cheeks flush and brighten red from the wind hitting her, but she stood outside still. Watching them fascinated her, the people in the courtyard. She could see the older girl giving out orders to the Knights of the Vale.
None had noticed her watching above in the corners with all the noise and work going around the courtyard. She didn't need to expect any stares from the bannermen since another Stark arrived at the gates.
The maester, or maesters she thought to herself, of the two serving in Winterfell, had built a chair with large thick wheels to move through the snow for the quiet brother. Daenerys still didn't understand how a boy with broken legs and a girl had made it back from North of the wall to Winterfell's doors.
She didn't understand many things looking at all the Northmen. They all worked and served with pleasure to them. Not for oaths their houses had made, the Boltons had proven those oaths meant nothing as Tyrion reminded her before. They follow the Starks, because they wanted to, because of their blood to Ned Stark.
"My mother and father would stand here, watching." She hearted footsteps walking towards her as he spoke. Daenerys raised her eyebrows to him, confused to his words. When Robb Stark realized what he had said his face reddened and mouth gaped.
"I didn't mean we-" He said quickly moving steps away to ease the awkwardness of his words. She stopped him from finishing.
"I know what you meant." Dany assured him. She had never noticed a nervous speaker in him. She only saw a talker, who thought he had charm. It might've been the wine speaking for him in Meereen, but the North put a difference between what was, than now.
She looked back to the Northmen, ordering each other around. "You may not see their ways of thinking, but we're all the same with what we want." He told her. She didn't get who he spoke of first, but she felt his cloak brush against her when he pointed across to the people.
"GreatJon, he was locked away for years as a prisoner. When he was freed, he watched his son be killed in front of him. Your new friend Wyman Manderly, his son was killed at the Twins, we found his second son locked away weeping and afraid to leave his cell, thinking it was a trick."
Dany looked back to the Lords, almost with pity. Then he had her turn to the side side towards soldiers in black fish scales. They wore grey, gaunt faces even in young men as they looked up to the Winter snows.
"Those are Tully men, they left their homes to fight for my family. My uncle led them. Their lands and homes were stripped away for the treasonous acts of fighting for what was right against the Lannisters."
She pursed her lips tightening her hand against the railings, still listening to him. "And the rest of them, who we could bring back, were stuffed in cells with no light. When they ran out of room, the Freys had their own way to make room. Did you know that rivers have high and low tides? So when the men were chained to the sides of the Twins they would wait, dangling from their chained arms waiting for the water to wash them away-"
"Why are you telling me this?" Daenerys asked. She had no reason to know this, them, or what else had gone on.
"I'm giving you an answer to why I won't order them to fight for you. All those things I spoke of, were because of my plans to march south and they naming me King and going with me. Kings shouldn't let his people go through that, or Queens."
She still twisted her seal in circles, thinking of what she would do. Dany felt the warm air lean closer near her face, when Robb Stark whispered the last words. "If you're going to be their Queen, of all the seven, you should look back to what you all want."
He had already started walking back quickly, and when he turned back towards her, he echoed across the balconies outside. "What would you do with all that anger, built up for years?" He asked.
Whatever he meant, if that was to help bring them to at least not despising her, Daenerys may have been grateful for the last question. All the years of anger filling up in her until it felt like a burning pain. With nothing to do but remember all who had wronged you, she thought of several things, but it all ended with one desire of vengeance.
The sky hadn't changed throughout the day, it still remained grey as ever. She could see the darker clouds start to grow and feed the night. She was lucky it was bright enough for Dany to write one last paper.
She twisted rolled parchment, tempted on whether to give it the right person. The grey gown had dragged across the snow, to darker into a deep black. Daenerys walked across the courtyards of Winterfell, pushing open the gates to the Godswood.
Dany felt the gush of steam blow her face when she walked farther into the untouched forest. She could see the same weirwood tree she saw before, the red sap dripping from his eyes. When the wind blew, the leaves brushed only like little whispers into ones ear.
Daenerys tried to find a reason people followed the Old Gods. All she saw were pieces of ivory wood with red paint. She wouldn't ask these trees for help or guidance, she couldn't even see the need for a Godswood.
While looking back at the odd plant, Dany saw a darkened shape worn hand grasp the weirwood tightly. She turned around to circle the tree and saw the body sprawled across the roots laying back.
She jumped and lost her breath for a moment when it moved, and the eyes rolled back to a boy. "Hello." He said so meekly with no emotion in his voice. She bowed her head back to him in a hurry to leave.
"I shouldn't be here, you seemed busy with that. I'll go so you can continue." She said quickly, and lifting the heavy skirts. Dany didn't need an answer, she wanted to walk back to her chambers.
That was until she heard the boy reply. "Did I frighten you? I'm sorry, if it means anything to you." She turned back to the boy, almost a man she thought looking back for a moment.
"It's alright, just didn't know anyone would come out here in the cold." He looked up to the snow falling from the sky, just realizing as if he hadn't noticed.
"You're Daenerys Targaryen. Your brother was Rhaegar.." That was a first of hearing that. Usually Dany had been referred to as the "Mad King's daughter." The boy had already dazed off thinking just with her name and Rhaegar's.
"I am." She said standing across from him. Dany looked back next to him and saw the chair with wheels across the bottom. "You know my name, I believe I know yours. And you are Brandon Stark?" She asked watching his sullen face.
"Somewhat." He answered. The Stark brother wasn't of man of many words, she thought. Until he looked up to her with a question on his mind.
"Have you met Jon yet?" He asked, with Daenerys assuming he meant his baseborn brother. They had changed interests from her brother to his own in a matter of minutes.
"I have, in your Great Hall. I saw your other siblings as well, but not you. Have you been out here long? It's quite cold. " She explained. He shrugged grasping the roots of the weirwood.
Their words were brief, with awkward stares and the young Stark staring off farther into the godswood. "It doesn't bother me.. It's colder north, but we'll all see it soon." She sighed realizing what his words led to.
"Yes, you and your brother Jon Snow are much alike with telling me of those 'things.' Did he tell you what to say to get me believe your story." She asked him. He shook his head slowly with his hand stroking the freshly Snow on the ground.
"I haven't seen him since I arrived. Too many people in every room to talk to about what I need to speak to him about, I have many things to say..." He looked back sullenly with curiosity peaking to what was so important.
"But he didn't have to tell me, the white walkers are real. I have seen them, I can see them." She raised her eyebrows to where he could see these things, for they were the only two in the Godswood. He saw her non believing looks and Dany heard him sigh.
Daenerys saw his blue eyes slowly daze off into his own thoughts, but he still had more he wanted to say. "Have you heard, about the riddle Bloodraven, your ancestor? Where it goes.. How many eyes does Lord Blooraven have, a thousand eyes and one. I feel like that, I can see it all at once and my head isn't fast enough so it hits me at all different times.."
She looked back with confusion, not knowing what to say back. Not even with what Brandon had spoken of seeing 'things,' but with that she hadn't heard of a Bloodraven from her house's histories.
"You'll have to forgive me, but I don't understand." She spoke truthfully. She heard the small sigh come from his voice, but she saw his hand grasp the roots of the weirwood. The snow began to fall faster and the ground had turned a frost white covering.
She waited for words, but none came. He looked through her as if she wasn't standing across from him. "I think I'll go back in." She muttered as some form of farewell to their greeting. He didn't answer and Dany turned back towards the entrance and she could hear more voice outside of the Godswood, but one had her turn back to hear a response.
"You believed yourself.." She heard Brandon Stark speak. "People thought you were mad walking into fire, and few had believed you would return here, to Westeros. When that man didn't believe you, he called you a little princess. Yet you, you said your dreams do come true, you had faith in Daenerys Targaryen.. I believe your dreams."
She turned back to him, not knowing what to say, or how he could know what they had said so long ago. All she could do was look back to Qarth, the Spice king and the thirteen's remarks of how she was nothing. But here she stood, and they were long for dead.
"But I believe Jon as well, and his dreams are true. Except they're more of nightmares." He looked down to his arm, and pulled his sleeve to show a darkened and bruised arm that had left his wrist indented with ice blue burning away his cream colored skin.
"I need to go back now." Dany told him. He gave no answer just laying back against the white bark once more.
"I think I'll stay a bit longer." He muttered staring off with his hands folded softly against the snow. As she left the Godswood, the wolves began to sing.
She paced back and forth, the candles had begun to drip onto the tables with wax as they waited. "You're sure they're coming?" She asked. He had been sitting back, calm as ever staring at her with his brows furrowed looking at her as if she was mad.
"They should be, they could've come sooner if I had given them a reason why they were wanted here." Dany didn't answer him, instead just twisting the sealed letter in her fingers. She stopped her fast pace when the doors of the Great Hall were opened again.
They came in a pack, she noticed. All of them tightly together even though there were few Lords who had come. She didn't want all of them, not the sons or relatives of each of the houses. Just their leige lords.
Most of them were old men, except one girl. She had been no older than ten, and half the size of the rest of the men she stood next to. Dany saw no fear in her, only the grown men she stood beside seemed to keep quiet around her.
"Our King wanted us here, not you." She stood silently, waiting for them to get their words at. Dany would give them that at least, let all their rage crack open and spill out. "Why is she here?" They asked him.
"We only follow our King, his orders, not yours." They started again. She could see the annoyances that came to them when she did not answer. They crossed their arm, hands on swords as if Daenerys was the threat against them.
"I'm not here to give you orders, I only ask of you to listen as I will." Robb Stark spoke from behind her.
"I was born on Dragonstone." Dany informed them, most had not been listening. "I've been called much worse than foreigner, invader, or mad but I choose not to care for those titles."
"But I remember them." Few had looked at her when she spoke.
"Someone told me to think bad to all they had been thrown at me, what I would choose after it had all built up over time. I choose vengeance." Eyes fell on her.
Daenerys had begun to pace, not focusing on the faces that watched her. Instead, she thought of Tyrion's words on the northerners. "I've been told before, that the North remembers. That I do not recall what you would remember as I am nothing but a foreigner, and not your King."
"It seems to me the true enemy of the North would be yourselves. It seems the North doesn't remember, even I who lived oh so far away from my home my whole life, had heard what the Northerners seemed to ignore." She saw the fury in their eyes all surrounding her.
"I was remember hearing about a wedding, where you went as friends and ended as foes. Fathers, sons, and so many more never returned." Daenerys would not hold back, no matter the cringe in their eyes as she spoke again.
"You wanted to turn back time, to change your pay attention to the words of the song, that you all saw as just a tune." She could see the ship in his eyes sink into the deep blue ocean from the one behind her.
"But you can't."
"I ask again, not to bend your knees and make me a queen. For I know that will never happen. I'm giving you a chance, to have your vengeance on those who hurt you long ago, we share the same enemies, South or North." Jon Snow raised his sullen eyes to her.
"I'm asking the North to remember.." When Daenerys turned back and stopped moving, she waited for their insults and arguments flow from their mouths. But they would not come.
No voices were heard, once they had nothing to say. She waited for any answer, but they wouldn't speak. Daenerys almost chuckled, for that was all she could say to convince the stubborn Lords.
Instead of waiting for them, Dany stretched her arm to Jon Snow. She handed him the small paper that she had held so title she thought the seal would break. "This will give you passage to Dragonstone, when your ship arrives, give it to Lord Varys."
"I will allow you to mine the dragonglass, resources or men that you'll need will be provided for you." She told the brother with a look of surprise to him that had seemed rare.
"Thank you." He said briefly. She believed that was the first time, anyone had said that since arriving in Winterfell.
Looking back to the others, Daenerys had saw her faith begin to simmer. They had nothing else to say, nothing more to persuade them on where to go. She could only hear the stomping of the big one's feet.
The GreatJon, she remembered his name. He marched face to face, or chest as Daenerys had not been tall enough to reach his head. He stared back at her, his face reddened thinking before he spoke.
"I haven't, I will not- I never forget!" He yelled to her. The louder he got, she could see he almost cared what she thought of him. When he pulled out his sword, men stepped in to pull him back as he pushed each the others off of him.
Still, his eyes softened. "I remember.." He said, throwing his sword down to her feet. The Lord Umber bowed his head, looking unkempt and sweat on his brow as he bowed and walked away.
Lord Glover had stepped forward with a stern look on his face, "Who we lost, we never forget them, their faces will haunt us for the rest of our days.." She saw his head lower as he spoke.
"But the North has forgotten its vengeance.. The Lannister woman will see our wrath, no matter who's side we fight for." He tossed his sword that raised a shutter against the floorboards.
The young girl stepped forward. "I will never name you my Queen, for house Mormont sees only one King. But we remember.." The brave girl with bears on her sigil bowed her head to Robb Stark as her men threw their own swords down.
Another, who's face she had not expected to come near her again. Instead he bowed, lightly placing his sword in his hands and laying it down to her feet gently. Lord Manderly's face had been as If he was waiting for Daenerys to say it.
"I remember.." He hold her with a hushed, fatherly tone in his voice. More men stood to follow, and the blades were pulled from their sheaths and had all fallen to her.
Perhaps the saying had been true, she thought. Maybe the North did remember whatever else they had ripped away from them. Soon their voices turned into echoes bouncing across the timber of the Starks great hall, until there were only two left once again.
She turned back to him, he had no grin or charm. Daenerys only saw a stern look staring back at her. "You shouldn't have said that, tricking them into joining you, telling them they had forgotten all of.. those things." He stuttered when he spoke. She could tell Robb Stark was not talking about his bannermen.
When Daenerys had faded under the maester's care, she remembered a husband and wife. How he stared so lovingly at the girl with the olive skin his heart could burst at that moment. "I didn't trick anyone. You said before that they had wanted revenge, they wouldn't have gotten that if they had stayed so stubborn to not go against Cersei because they could not stand my presence, let alone share enemies."
"And you had to hurt them by speaking of that? You don't know them, or how they.. feel." She saw no hurt in the Lords voices. She could tell that the Stark she saw before had died with the young wife at the Twins.
Dany pursed her lips, and sighed as she waited for him say more. But he did not. She could tell he had been the broken one in all of this. "What was she? Braavosi, Myrish, she was olive skinned."
She crossed her arms waiting for him to speak as he lifted his head up to her craving to know how. "Volantis.. She was from Volantis." His hoarse voice had cracked as the King in the North spoke. Daenerys had finally found the missing piece that had floated around her head from time to time.
He changed their conversation quickly. "You spoke for them, not for any games to you? Even though you still believe your own claims to each of the kingdoms?" She nodded her head briefly. Until he had begun to smile.
His laughter was almost mad, Daenerys' brow furrowed looking at him. He answered for her without asking. "You gave into your own wants and needs for others, for vassal Lords beneath you?"
His smile was almost brightening as he nodded his head staring back at her as Robb Stark walked away. "Well, what is it?" She asked rolling her eyes with annoyance at him once again.
He turned back with the same bright blue eyes that had been there once before, so long ago. "That's what Queens do." He muttered trying to catch his breath from laughing.
He bowed his arms to her as the doors opened, he had one more to say. "Well then. Long may you reign."