"That has got to be the most patient dog I've ever seen."
Willa watched as Rose, on a woven mat on the floor, reached for Ghost's fluffy tail and managed to grab hold of it before he gently moved it away. Immediately, tiny grabby hands went after the tail again. They had been playing this game for an hour, allowing Dany take time to pluck the two grouse Jon had caught in the traps he had laid.
"I'm pretty sure Ghost thinks the baby is his most of the time," Dany replied, chuckling, "He barely leaves her side."
In the four months since Rose was born, Ghost, like everyone else, had hardly taken his eyes off of her. He had moved from sleeping by Dany during his nights inside to sleeping directly next to the cradle. Whenever Rose cried or became fussy in her cradle during the day, it was a race across the room to see if her parents would get there before her direwolf. At night it was virtually no contest, Ghost just popped up from sleeping to check on her.
"I feel like someone's trying to replace me as a father," Jon had mockingly complained as he laid Rose down to nurse from Dany one night. He had tripped over Ghost when trying to reach the baby.
Truthfully, however, it was a huge relief. Dany did not feel so nervous about turning her back on Rose for a minute with a huge direwolf keeping an eye on her for most of the day. She also appreciated her friend coming out most days to check on them for a few hours, making sure Rose was doing well and that Dany was able to have time to not have one eye on her baby.
"How has she been sleeping?" Willa asked as Ghost moved his tail a little further away. Rose tried to reach again, rocking on her stomach and kicking a little with her legs.
Dany pulled out more feathers on the grouse before replying. "She's started to sleep through some nights, though when she does wake up it's quite loud, but overall she's been doing well."
"And Jon?"
"Sleeping?"
Willa narrowed her eyes and smirked before Dany caught on. "Willa!"
"Okay, okay," Willa laughed, holding her hands up in truce, "That part I was asking as your friend. You know it's okay to start - "
She cut off as Dany silenced her with a glare, plucking out the last grouse feathers with extra ferocity. Truthfully, she missed intimacy with Jon very badly, but it was hard to get back to that when her mind was always honed in on the baby on the other side of the room. Recently moving Rose's cradle further from their bedside had been a mild attempt at changing that, but Dany felt as though she and Jon were back where they started when they had left Dragonstone: unspokenly wanting each other and settling for short kisses.
"Dany!" a voice called from outside.
Willa shook her head. "It's as if we called right into his ear!" she said in mock exclamation. Dany rolled her eyes, getting up and picking Rose up off the floor and away from her favorite toy to go outside and greet Jon.
With Ghost and Willa behind her, Dany began to head out the door but stopped in her tracks. Next to Jon stood a great red-bearded man with twinkling blue eyes.
"Tormund!" Dany breathed, hurrying out with Rose on her hip.
"I heard there was a new mouth to feed in Shadowedge," he greeted her, smiling broadly as he leaned down to close to Rose to greet her. Fascinated by Tormund, Rose reached out and grasped a fistful of red beard to shake, babbling happily.
All of the adults laughed at this and, once Tormund was released from the baby's clutches, Jon led them all back inside.
They caught up over a meal together, discussing how Shadowedge was doing and how they had adjusted to being parents before the conversation turned to the free folk.
"How is it in the rest of the north?" Dany asked Tormund after returning from nursing Rose some time later. She passed Jon the baby, who sat her upright on his knee as she reached out for a fork that he automatically moved further on the table.
Tormund leaned back in his chair, patting his now full stomach thoughtfully. "Strange," he answered, his face growing uncharacteristically dark, "I've been all over. After I lead the last of our people through the Wall I traveled to see where everyone had settled and how they were doing. Don't have a clan of my own anymore, ya know?
"But it's different than before. Used to be that we were a sparse people, but it's a big land. Now it's an empty land. Went days and days without seeing anyone, not even a trace. Found some villages like the one here though, once in a while. People wanting to be more peaceful - friendlier - just survive. It's like our way of life is changing."
"The Dead left deep wounds," Willa agreed. Her face looked somber and troubled. She's the last of her tribe , Dany reminded herself. She sometimes forgot that Willa had not always lived in Shadowedge and that her intention originally was not to stay for long. Similarly, she forgot that Shadowedge had not always been home to the villagers Dany thought of as her clan and community; the villagers had been for numerous clans and tribes, all with their own histories and cultures that were now all but gone. It had been less than two years since the free folk had slept with one eye open, terrified of what lurked in their homelands. Even when she had left Dragonstone as everything fell to pieces around her, Dany still had Jon. She always had Jon. So many free folk had only stories and memories. Who wouldn't want to live peacefully, after all that we've been through?
Tormund nodded at Willa's statement. "Those that aren't in villages, well, some of them still move around. Some alone, some not. Not really any nomad clans left and it's a hard life - starting to die off. Though, there's been talk around these parts of nomads from the ice-rivers attacking some of the smaller villages for food. Though I haven't seen anything myself."
"Will you be staying here long, then?" Jon asked.
Shrugging, the red man replied, "Long as I want. I'll stay in Shadowedge for a few months at least, give you some help with building your new room, but I don't think it's time to settle down just yet. May go visit the other villages once or twice more. Keep Mance's work going."
Both Jon and Willa nodded knowingly, but Dany regarded Tormund curiously. Before she could ask anything, however, the conversation shifted.
"Now," Tormund said face brightening again as he looked down at Rose, "I'd really like to know why nobody told me there was a baby crow on the way the last time I saw you both!"
It was warm enough the next day to take Rose outside. Jon had gone hunting for the day with Tormund and Ghost, so Dany ended up on a walk with Willa through the forest, Rose in a sling on her chest.
They were supposed to looking for bearberry plants and conifer needles, though Dany barely had a clue what a bearberry looked like in comparison to any other berry, especially since everything was still mostly buried under the snow.
The question about "Mance's work" still burned in her mind from the evening before. She had felt clueless not completely knowing what Tormund had meant, but was struggling to bring it up to Willa with any dignity.
"I forgot to ask Tormund for clarification last night," Dany finally began, preparing herself to sound like an idiot as she used a knife to cut some conifer branches that looked fresh.
"About what?" Willa prompted, not looking up from peering into a rabbit hole.
"What did he mean by 'Mance's work?'" she asked.
Her friend looked up and wrinkled her nose before huffing out a disbelieving laugh. I must sound like an idiot , Dany thought, her cheeks burning as she paused from cutting the conifers.
Shaking her head as she peered into the hole once more, Willa answered, "Sometimes I forget that you haven't always been part of the free folk."
"Did he mean Mance Rayder?"
Willa nodded, lifting back up and closing her eyes as if to picture the face in her mind. "The King-Beyond-The-Wall," she said, almost reverently, "Though he didn't wear a crown or ask people to kneel like Southerners do. He united us - most of us. Clans that had warred for a thousand years came together under him. We knew he spoke the truth: if we didn't unite, we'd die. Come back all blue-eyed and undead. My tribe joined with him. Our camp stretched all the way to the horizon, clans coming together from everywhere."
Her words reminded Dany of the Dothraki prophecy of the Stallion Who Mounts the World - one person uniting a people together in a single khalasar .
"He died, didn't he? Stannis Baratheon tried to burn him alive and then - " Jon had talked about the King-Beyond-The-Wall before, about the time he had spent with the man who led the free folk. She knew how his story ended: the same way the Stallion's story ended.
Willa nodded. "Tormund said that Jon killed him with mercy," she finished for Dany, "Many of us that escaped that bloodbath ended up at Hardhome. And, well, you know what happened from there, I'm guessing, given who you sleep next to every night." Dany shuddered.
"So, Tormund meant that he was still trying to unite the free folk?"
"No," she said, "Not like that. But we were better after Mance. We fought less, had something to live for besides fighting. There are so few of us left now, we need to remember how to work together, not just how to kill each other. Someone needs to keep reminding people of that."
Willa left the rabbit hole, continuing past Dany to survey other potential warrens that may lead to bearberry bushes or plant roots. Finishing up cutting off the branches, Dany turned and followed her friend.
"Oh my!" Willa suddenly exclaimed, only a few feet ahead of her. In front of her, as if he had melted out of the tree shadows, stood a man that Dany had never seen before. Even at Winterfell and Castle Black, Dany could not remember seeing anyone like this amongst the free folk.
He was the definition of "wildling." His clothes were made of what looked to be once-slick, mottled animal skin. Bone adorned his head and neck, it looked to be mostly walrus tusks, but the effect was still chilling. This, coupled with his menacing black eyes and leering face, had Willa skirting back next to Dany, who gripped the knife in her hand harder.
Tormund's words echoed in her mind: "There's been talk around these parts of nomads from the ice-rivers attacking some of the smaller villages for food." Was this man one of those?
He looked gaunt, almost sick, with his skin stretched over his cheek bones in a hollow sort of way. Dark circles, almost like bruises, sat under his eyes and though he looked intimidating, Dany also found him very decrepit. He looked like the rickety houses of Sisterton, where one well-placed blow could break them apart. Again, she heard Tormund from the night before, "It's a hard life - starting to die off."
"Who are you?" she asked loudly, one hand protectively over Rose while the other held the knife at her side.
He spoke in a hard language that Dany did not understand, fixing her with a manic look upon his face, licking his lips as he shakily pointed his chipped spear threateningly towards them.
Breaking from her thoughts, she heard Willa respond to him, her voice harsh in the same hard language. Obviously she recognized what had been said. Whatever she replied seemed to anger the man more, and he shouted, leaning into a lower stance and brandishing his spear. Was he planning on killing them?
I'm going to have to kill him , Dany realized. Her daughter was being threatened. Her friend was being threatened. There wasn't a choice to do nothing. Instinctively, she felt her torso turn with Rose away from the man.
Then, there was a whistle of metal through the air followed by a dull thud, and the man's eyes widened. He made a choking noise as blood beginning to run from his mouth, and he dropped to the ground at their feet. The snow around him began turning red. An ax was sticking out of his back.
"Dany!" Jon shouted, he and Tormund running up with Ghost to where the women still stood in shock. Each man had a few rabbits over their shoulders.
"Ice-river," Tormund spat as they approached, wrenching his ax out of the man's back with a crunching, squelching sound that made bile rise in Dany's throat. She twisted her body away, wanting to shield Rose from the sight even though the baby had somehow slept through the ordeal.
"What in the Seven Hells? Are you all okay?" Jon asked alarmingly as he came up to Dany's side and checking on both mother and daughter.
Brittly, Willa replied, "He just appeared. I turned back from talking to Dany and there he was with a spear."
"What was he saying?"
"Said the gods had finally blessed him with food. I told him to keep looking," she said, her eyes cold. Though always prickly, Dany had never seen her look truly angry before.
"I hate those flesh-eating cunts," Tormund grumbled, cleaning his ax, "After all we survived, you'd think they'd have the decency to try real food and not sneak up and eat their fucking neighbors. I'll take the body and burn it away from here."
Willa nodded in agreement. "I can help," she said, "We might as well head back to the village after."
"Willa..." Dany started, though she trailed off. What do you say when you just survived someone threatening to eat you?
The healer's face incrementally softened and she placed her hand on Dany's shoulder with a small smile before turning away. Dany and Jon watched as Tormund heaved the man's lifeless body up over his shoulder and he and Willa set off.
Once they had disappeared, Jon turned to Dany, frowning. "Let's get back," he said, taking her hand. They walked along through the darkening forest, silent all the way into the clearing and the house.
Inside, Dany settled down to have Rose nurse for the evening. She knew that she should be feeling something more than oddly calm. If anything, I just feel bad for him. What a horrible way to die.
Jon sat, brooding as he watched Dany and his daughter. "Do you want to stay here?" he asked after a long silence.
"What?" the question surprised her, "Why wouldn't I?"
"Dany, a man found you in the forest and threatened to eat you and Rose! Eat you. You're not disturbed by that?" Jon exclaimed incredulously.
"I am," she said quickly, "I am. But, that doesn't mean I want to leave. When we were standing there today...I had a knife in my hand. I was ready to kill him, to protect Rose. Tormund got there first, but I knew that if I killed him, that was what I had to do and then that would've been the end of it. And somehow it made me...calmer?"
Jon raised his eyebrows and Dany, for the second time that day, thought she sounded like an idiot.
"I knew that if I killed him, he would die and it would just be something that happened. There would be no repercussions or his vengeful aunt or mother or brother or whatever wanting to kill all of us for it. And other people getting in on it with their own opinions of what I should or shouldn't have done."
"You're saying you're happy with stray cannibals running around?"
"I'm saying," she drew out the word and she shifted Rose, "I would much rather be at home with the threat of stray cannibals or freezing your limbs off than down south with the lying, and the titles, and the hating people because you have to, and the scheming, and the backstabbing. I like not having to think through choices like this all the time. I like not having to make choices like this all the time. This is the first time something like this has happened the whole time we've lived here. It's nice - not the cannibal part - but I'm actually happy to raise our daughter in here. I don't feel judged or stressed or like I have a constant target on my back. Nobody is trying to pit us against each other. They're just trying to live."
"I guess I have to agree with you," Jon replied, "Although I'm still disturbed about the cannibal part."
"Let's not focus on the cannibal part," Dany told him.
This chapter went through about 12 re-writes and I'm still not a huge fan of it, but it was needed in some capacity. So I'm really sorry if you were left thinking, "What the heck did I just read?"
Cannibal free folk are a thing, though I'm not sure if the ice-river clans are so I just took some mild fanfic liberties with that bit. I also apologize if there are any horrible typos in this, I was watching the US vs. Sweden Women's World Cup game while revising and was mildly distracted and shouting at it the whole time.
Anyways, until next time.