Jon
Winterfell was less than a half day's ride away now, Jon knew. He had ridden these woods for years. Every brook and tree seemed familiar to him, and he could feel as though he were getting closer to where he ought to be.
By Jeyne's side, Jon thought to himself. He wondered just how she would react to the fact that they weren't twins in truth, but cousins.
Ghost had not strayed too far today, he noted, much less than he did normally. He hadn't even left to go hunt, which struck Jon as queer.
His hand slipped to his sword belt, where the sword of the Dragonknight, the Old King and the Rogue Prince hung from his scabbard for just a moment.
Jon continued his ride in silence, as he found himself getting closer and closer to the castle where he had grown up.
He wondered how Lady Catelyn would feel about him returning to Winterfell. Robb would no doubt allow Jon to stay for some time, but his mother would kick him out soon enough. She might be more receptive though if she knew Jon no intention to stay long, but continue south.
It didn't matter, he decided. If Lady Catelyn did not allow him to stay, he wouldn't.
At some point he decided to dismount along a brook. The water was clean, Jon noted, and he decided to take a drink from it. Further off he heard another horse whining, and steel clashing.
Jon decided to go investigate it, remounting his horse, and riding quickly. He wondered if someone had been sent to greet him, but to his surprise, the first thing that he encountered was a wolf, one of the direwolves he realized. It must be Greywind he realized since all the others save Shaggydog were south, and it clearly was not Shaggydog.
For as comfortable as his horse was around Ghost, he wasn't familiar with Greywind, and a bit uneasy near the new wolf, however Greywind quickly turned and led them down the path, going quickly. Jon spurred the horse to go faster, as he made south, until finally he saw where the noises were coming from. There were two horses that some were struggling with, four he counted, who as he got closer he saw were wildlings.
No, not wildlings, Jon realized, when he saw one of them had a black cloak, and he approached them quickly. "Another one," one of them called out, and he could see Robb was lying face up in the stream, unmoving, with whom he judged to be Princess Myrcella attending to him.
Robb had fought them he realized, when he saw that two of them were dead on the ground before him.
It didn't matter to Jon though, who unsheathed Dark Sister, and charged at them. "Winterfell!" He yelled.
He went for the first wildling before him, a big and bald man, who seemed to have deserted from the Night's Watch.
His foe drew his sword as well to meet with Jon, who could dimly see that Greywind and Ghost had both taken action as well, with Greywind having torn at the leg of a woman, who was screaming now, and Ghost having bitten the neck of a wildling who had let go of his axe.
Jon's own duel hardly lasted before the man swung low, right for the horse's leg, which caused the horse to buckle out from under him.
For a moment all that he could see was that he was falling, but by some miracle the horse did not fall on one of his legs, and when he landed he was able to get back on his feet, and just in time too, as the deserter was bringing his sword down on Jon, with a blow he just barely managed to deflect.
He rushed the man as fast as he could, letting a sudden rush take control over him, and he attacked the man with all his strength.
The man parried a handful of blows, but the man was a good fighter he realized, and was matching his blows, and even making his own attacks against Jon.
He was stronger than Jon, but Jon was faster. It didn't matter though, as suddenly a sword was jutting out of the man's chest, running red with blood.
Jon saw the shocked look of the man, as the sword suddenly was withdrawn, and the man fell to the ground. In front of him though was not Robb, but the Princess, having taken up Robb's sword and run it through the deserter's back.
He thought to saw something to her, but he there was still one more wildling left, with Greywind and Ghost having killed the other two, which he advanced towards. She was a long and tall woman, with very short hair, dressed in rags.
"Mercy my lord," she called out to him, as he approached.
Jon stopped in front of her. "Have mercy on me my lord. It was them who fought the Stark, not me. Spare my life and I will be of service to you."
He considered it for a moment, before he looked back to the creek where Robb lay. A fury took over him, and he swung Dark Sister, taking the woman's head cleanly off, before he rushed towards Robb.
"No, no, Robb…" Jon said as he cradled the boy that had once been his brother. He was limp, but he was breathing, Jon saw. The creek was not very deep, but both of them were quite wet, and he could see that Robb's skin was prickled, no doubt from the cold.
"What happened?" He asked Princess Myrcella, completely forgetting all his courtesies, and ignoring the cries of his horse. It was Robb who needed him more.
"We… We were riding, and we stopped here, before some wildlings came upon us. They demanded we give up our horses and riches and they would leave us be, but Robb fought, and killed two, before the one you killed threatened our child, and Robb dropped his sword, and the wildling pulled Robb down from his horse," she explained to him.
It took Jon a few moments to comprehend what she had told him. Their child? He thought to himself, before he looked at the princess and could see her belly was just the slightest bit swollen through her clothes.
It didn't matter, Jon decided, they needed to get back to Winterfell. "Help me, my lady," he told the Princess as he began to pull Robb out of the creek. Thankfully she understood what he was trying to do, and joined him.
Together they were able to pull Robb out while he was unconscious, to one of the two horses that had not been harmed by the wildlings. Robb was heavy though, too heavy for them to lift onto the horse on their own.
"Robb," he called out, hoping Robb might wake, and to his surprise, Robb's eyes fluttered open.
"Cold… Cella? Jon?" He said, still not understanding what was going on.
Surely they had not been so foolish to ride out together, alone, Jon hoped. "Are there others?" He asked, unsure as to who he truly directed the question.
"No," Princess Myrcella replied.
He looked to the direwolves, with Greywind still feasting on the guts of one of the wildling women, but Ghost was there. "Find me someone," Jon told the white wolf, and thankfully Ghost complied, running towards Winterfell.
Jon remembered his horse that he was riding. It had stopped making noise, but when he looked over he could see the horse was still alive. He took Dark Sister and thrust it through the poor animal's neck, to put it out of its misery, before he wiped the blood on the sword off on one of the wildling corpses, and put the Valyrian Steel longsword back in its scabbard.
He dug through the pack pulling out Maester Aemon's letters to his siblings and Daenerys, and a few other things.
When he had finished, Jon went back to Robb and Myrcella who were next to one of the two horses, while the second horse had fled. The Princess was crouched next to Robb, who was sitting up but dazed.
Jon looked over Robb. He must have cut his leg on a rock as he had fallen from the bad gash on his right thigh that he saw,
"Can you stand?" Jon asked Robb, hoping Robb might be able to mount himself.
Robb groaned a little, as he started to get up, with Jon and Myrcella aiding him. "You went… You went to the Wall…"
"I did… But I came home," Jon told him. "I didn't join the Watch."
He nodded faintly at that, Robb was on both feet standing upright, though wobbly. "Careful," Jon told him, as he held Robb steady.
Robb tried to mount, but ended up losing his balance, and falling back to the ground, though thankfully Jon was there to catch him, and keep him upright.
He looked around. With one horse, one direwolf and three of them, with night falling, he figured it best they simply waited until Ghost came back with help from Winterfell.
"What are we supposed to do Jon?" Princess Myrcella asked him. Jon didn't fail to note that she used his name, which caught him off guard.
"Maester Luwin or Ser Rodrik or Lady Catelyn or your Ser Arys will take note of you not returning and send out men to look for us, and Ghost will be able to lead them to us… We can wait here for the night, until they find us," he told her. Winterfell was still near half a day's ride away by his estimates, and he did not think Ghost would get to the castle, and have returned with some men from the castle by the time, and it was nearly midday already. Jon gave her the ropes for the horse. "Hold these my lady," he said, before he back to his dead horse.
He grabbed one of his spare breeches, wine and a bandage from the pack, and went over to Robb, but when he got over to Robb, he took them himself. "I know what to do," Robb said as he took them, and so Jon left him be, before he went back over to the Princess, and took back the horse's reigns, and tied them around a tree.
"What will we do if more wildlings should come?" The Princess wondered.
Jon looked the princess over, seeing her wearing a soiled dress, even seeming a little as improper as Arya did many often.
"You ride hard for Winterfell then, and tell them what happened, my Princess. Robb and I will try to fight them off."
"And if you should fail?" Myrcella asked him.
Jon shrugged. "Then we die then I guess…" It would pain him to die now, so far from Jeyne, but it didn't matter he thought to himself. If he died, then he died, and there wasn't anything he could do to change it.
He took of the saddle from the one horse that they had, while the Princess walked over to Robb, and when he had finished, he went over to the dead horse, and began removing the pack saddle on it, and saddled the other horse with it, and placed Maester Aemon's letters back in them, before he started to grab some wood. Making a fire here would not be too hard, and before long they had one burning, with Robb and Myrcella sitting next to it.
The Princess was with child, and Robb still injured, so Jon took it upon himself to help set up their camp for the night.
The grass was high here, which would make the earth softer as they slept at least, and he had only two blankets in his pack, and they simply had to pray that it would not rain in the night.
When Jon had finished, he went and sat back by the fire. Robb had been in conversation with the Princess when he came over, though they stopped when he took a seat on one of the rocks that was around the fire. Robb had been attending to it, he saw, and it was well into the afternoon now.
Ghost had not returned yet, nor had anyone came upon them, so most likely they would have to stay the night out there.
"Why didn't you join the Watch Jon?" Robb asked to break the silence.
Jon thought for a moment, considering his words carefully. "Jeyne… She needs me…" He told Robb.
His dreams had been troubling him of late. Jeyne wasn't at Raventree Hall he knew, and there was something wrong, but he didn't know what.
Thankfully Robb seemed to understand, and simply nodded quietly, not pressing him for anything more than that.
"Lady Catelyn…. Your mother… She told father that she would not have me at Winterfell with him gone. Would she allow me to at least rest a night at the castle before I continue south?" Jon wondered. He didn't want to stay long, but mayhaps Lady Catelyn would be even the slightest bit warmer to him knowing that he had saved her son.
"Mother…" Robb said, letting the word sit in the air for a moment. "She made for King's Landing not long after you left Jon."
Jon was shocked to hear it. He had not thought that Lady Catelyn might have gone south to King's Landing. "Why?"
Robb began to say something, before he looked to Princess Myrcella sitting next to him, and closed his mouth, shaking his head. "It doesn't matter," Robb said.
Whatever the reason, Princess Myrcella didn't and couldn't know, he realized. There was some secret Robb was keeping from her.
He took out some of the salt beef he had brought south with him, going around the fire to do so. Robb bid that Jon sit down next to him, and both he and the Princess took some from him.
Both began to chew on some, and Jon took some for himself too. It was hard, and didn't taste particularly good, but it was food. He ate it all, though he noticed after Princess Myrcella had tried some, she had given it to Robb, Holding her stomach as she did, and he realized her tender stomach must not have been able to handle the salt beef.
He might have offered her something else to eat instead, but he didn't have anything else to give her.
Instead, they sat around the fire for hours, talking in hushed voices as the sun began to set in the west, watching as the world grew darker and darker, until it was lit solely by the light of their fire.
Outside of Winterfell, the stars always shined brighter than they did in the castle, but tonight clouds covered the sky, leaving them unable to see the stars above.
The Princess had drifted off to sleep next to Robb, leaving Jon and Robb the only two still awake, allowing them to speak privately. For a moment he thought to tell Robb, to tell him the truth, but he decided against it. He decided it better to save the truth until he finally could speak with Jeyne.
He realized it hadn't just been Lord Eddard who had lied to him either. The former white knights of Aerys's kingsguard, save Ser Barristan, had, and the men he had brought with him to the Tower.
They had all lied, he thought to himself. Lord Eddard had done it to protect him, Jon tried to tell himself, but deep down he wondered if there might have been more.
"I have a need of you Jon," Robb told him to break the silence.
"What do you need me for?" Jon asked him.
"With… Father gone, and mother… And Bran and the girls… And Jeyne too, everything has fallen to me," Robb said. "I could use you at Winterfell…"
Jon looked at Robb carefully. There was loneliness in Robb's blue eyes, and for a moment he thought he should stay. But when he closed his eyes it was Jeyne's face that he saw.
"I have to go south…" Jon said, even though it wouldn't please him.
Robb gave a look of dismay, one that Jon had seldom seen in their youth together. "We leave for the isle of Skagos soon, to go deal with their unruliness. I would at least have a need with you there."
Jon opened his mouth, thinking to argue with him, but no words would come out. If Robb was going to Skagos, of course he would have a need for Jon. He pictured the island as they had been told it was like by Old Nan so many times in their youth, filled with men who feasted on flesh, and many other heinous acts that had once scared him so much. Though he and Jeyne had shared a bedchamber when they were young, they always had their own beds, save for when one of Old Nan's tales were too scary, and they shared a bed for the night, almost always being tales of Skagosi.
"I'll go," Jon said, wondering what madness had overcome him, when they heard a rustling of leaves loud enough that it even woke Princess Myrcella.
"More wildlings?" Robb asked. Jon thought there might be a chance Ghost had brought men from Winterfell to find them, but he didn't think it particularly likely. Jon felt himself rising, placing his hand on Dark Sister's hilt, waiting anxiously as suddenly a pair of yellow eyes became visible.
"Greywind?" Robb said, and Jon could see that the wolf had been dragging something with him.
They both ran over, and saw that the wolf had killed an elk and brought it to them. They both brought the wolf closer to the fire where Robb began to remove the animal's guts, and took some of the meat that they could cook off the animal as well, while allowing Greywind to eat his fill.
When Robb had finished cooking some, he offered it first to the Princess, who devoured it greedily, before he gave some to Jon. When Jon had eaten his fill, he looked around at the camp. No stars were in the sky still, while Robb still ate with Princess Myrcella, japing as they did.
It was good to see that Robb could be happy, though it made Jon wonder what he needed to be happy himself, and soon he fell asleep sitting against the stone thinking about that.
He had a dreamless sleep that night, before he woke in the morning.
Someone had placed a blanket on him after he had fallen asleep he saw, while Robb and Myrcella lay together covered in a blanket of their own, and Greywind had curled up next to him.
It had not rained that night, which was a relief, though with the morning dew on the grass, he realized it likely didn't matter.
The fire had died down to a handful of embers, though with the sun having risen Jon could see perfectly well. For a moment he thought simply to put it out entirely, since they could hopefully walk to Winterfell by nightfall, though with Robb's leg injured and the Princess being with child, he thought against it.
Shortly after Jon had begun tending to the fire again, as they waited for men from Winterfell to find them, he noticed that Robb and Myrcella had woken, and had come over to join him.
They both looked terrible from what Jon could see, in particular the Princess whose dress had already been soiled from riding yesterday, and whose golden hair seemed a tangled mess now, while Robb did not look much better either.
To break their fast, they ate more from the elk that Greywind had killed yesterday, as they sat and waited, though it was not long before he heard the distant noises of hoofs beating and horses whining.
Not long after the men from Winterfell had come upon their camp with Ghost by their side before it was even midday.
He spotted Theon, and Myrcella's white knight, though he couldn't remember his name. Ser Elys was the name he thought of, though he knew it wasn't right. And there were other men at arms from Winterfell, with Maester Luwin too even, no less than a dozen men. They had extra horses too, which Jon was thankful for.
"My lord, you ought to not ride out like that… And Jon…" Maester Luwin began to say, his face going a bit red.
Theon had begun to say some sort of jape before he saw the wildlings bodies and the dead horse. He spotted in the corner of his eye that the white knight was giving the Princess some riding leathers that he must have thought to bring with him from Winterfell, while Robb spoke with Hal Mollen, telling of what had happened no doubt.
"You were going to join the Night's Watch…" Maester Luwin said, no doubt fearing that Jon had deserted.
"I never said my vows," Jon assured the maester, whose face returned a little to it's normal coloration.
Jon went over to the fire that was still burning low, and used some water from the brook nearby to put it out, and then he mounted one of the horses that had been brought.
Maester Luwin had begun to talk to Robb, wondering what had happened. "We can speak when we return to Winterfell," Robb told the maester though, and that had silenced him. And before long the Princess had returned from the woods, having finally been dressed in proper riding clothes, and mounted her own horse, and they were riding back to Winterfell.
While most everyone was speaking to Robb and Princess Myrcella, few had cared to speak with him. Ghost followed alongside Jon as they rode back to Winterfell, and before long he began to see the great castle looming ahead of them.
Home, Jon thought to himself as he rode, even if the castle seemed built on lies to him now.
Author Notes:
Whoa, another chapter?
I don't have much to say here other than I hope you enjoyed.
Please do leave feedback, whether they be reviews, follows or favorites. They help me a lot in my writing, and I would like to be getting more of them (reviews in particular).
ASOIAF has not, does not, and will not ever belong to me.