"Ba!" Rose shouted, reaching out to grab at Dany's hair when her mother bent forward to fix the baby's clothes before they headed out to the village.
"Yes," Dany cooed, lightly tickling Rose, whose laugh already could rival Tormund's. Dany's smile broadened at Rose's giggles and she was caught with a now very familiar feeling of joy.
At seven months old, Rose filled her parents' lives with excitement and wonder every day. She was tiny, silly, and currently incredibly interested in her toes - a fairly recent discovery. As Dany had guessed, Rose's features had begun to take on a mostly Northern look. Her patch of light hair had become a mop of dusty brown waves and she had most of Jon's coloring, but her eyes had turned violet like her mother's.
Own features aside, Rose was still completely fascinated by other people's hair and enjoyed getting her hands on as much of it as possible. Dany had forgotten to tie hers back this morning, and was relieved when the baby turned to play with her other favorite thing: Ghost's tail, which was a perfect combination of hair and movement.
The direwolf was lying across the bed, Rose sitting against him. Dany laughed when he noticed the baby hands coming for his tail and closed his eyes, sighing as a little hand sunk into his fur. Lazily, he wagged the tip of his tail, much to his charge's delight.
"Ba! Bababa!" she shouted again. Though she babbled a lot, this was Rose's new favorite phrase. Dany was pretty sure it meant "direwolf," "mama," "papa," "feed me," and several other definitions.
"Ivestragī īlva jikagon, ñuha Rosie," Dany said, picking the baby up, "Let's leave Ghost's tail alone for now." Ghost huffed another sigh appreciatively, flopping onto his side and stretching out while Dany fitted herself and Rose into her sling and pulling Rose's hood over her head and little ears.
Though the weather had continually warmed since Rose was born, the snow melting and not gaining much more height past occasional flurries, Dany insisted on Rose keeping a hood on, much to the baby's chagrin.
"Oh, good, you're finally outside," Tormund greeted them, sliding from the roof as Dany closed the door behind Ghost, "Your man here said I couldn't cut though your wall until you left!" Tormund waved to the baby, who was peeking out from the sling, smiling at the red man.
"That's because nobody wants you marching into their home unannounced and swinging an ax," Jon replied, coming from around the house.
He and Tormund were near to completing their work on what was to become Rose's room. They had waited as long as possible to cut out part of the back of the house to make an entrance to the new room, but today was the day and soon it would be ready for Rose.
"Will it be done by this afternoon?" Dany asked them, absently taking Jon's hand as he stopped by her side. He stroked a thumb over her knuckles.
"Should be if you ever let me get in the house!" Tormund teased gruffly, wielding his ax with the manic glint that Dany was sure was similar to what came to her eyes when she plucked feathers for beds and pillows.
She laughed as he waggled his eyebrows eagerly. "Okay, then. Don't get carried away - I'd like to come back and still have a house with all its walls intact," she told Jon, reaching up to kiss him. He held onto her for a lingering moment, perhaps remembering the particularly lovely evening they had spent with each other last night, until Tormund cleared his throat.
They broke apart, Dany feeling blush creep into her cheeks at Tormund's knowing look, and Jon bent down to kiss the top of Rose's head.
"See you later," he said.
As she headed down the worn footpath with Ghost at her heels, Dany heard Tormund's booming laugh.
"I see why she hasn't frozen up here yet!" he shouted gleefully.
Late morning in the village was surprisingly peaceful given the pleasant day. The bitter cold and biting winds had given way to a much more average kind of frozen instead. Though some, like Tormund, insisted this was warm weather, the South in Dany thought of it as merely "less frigid."
Here and there, as she walked to Willa's house right near the village's center, villagers outside were going about their daily business: tanning hides, sharpening axes, or darning clothes. A few traded with travelers that were passing through on their way to far off places. Shadowedge had begun to have a reputation amongst the free folk as a good stop for nomads and travelers in need of supplies or human contact.
Ghost bounded ahead of her now, excitedly sniffing the air for a hint of cooking meat at someone's hearth. Though the direwolf regularly hunted for himself, he was also quite content with shoving his large head through someone's low window and begging for something even tastier than raw meat ("Quite content with getting fat," as Jon put it).
Making it into the village center, Dany could hardly believe that she was going to make it all the way to Willa's house without -
"Dany's here!"
Of course they're all at Willa's house today.
Several pairs of children's feet scrambled to crunch across the snow straight past Ghost so that Dany found herself suddenly surrounded by most of the village children and Willa behind them, nearly doubled over in silent laughter. Even Rose, who had fallen asleep on the walk, peeked her head up to see what all the noise was about.
"Dany!" "Dany!"
"You brought Rose!"
"And Ghost!"
"Can we play with her now?"
"Did she talk yet? Or walk? Or anything?"
"Dany?" Myl's little hand tugged on her and Dany looked down at his inquiring face, "Will you tell us a story, Dany?"
That brought another torrent of "Yes! Please!" from every child and Willa dramatically shaking her head and looking up at the clear sky, though she was grinning. Dany felt herself smiling too. How was she to resist? She may pretend not to enjoy the wave of children that always attacked whenever she set foot into Shadowedge, but, truthfully, it was her favorite part.
"Okay! If you let me sit down first!" she told them. Excitedly cheering, all the children led her back to the table that Willa had outside her house for work. Dany sat down on one of the empty stools, stories racing through her mind as she tried to pick what to tell them about, as Willa lifted Rose out of the sling.
"They've been asking if you were coming today since I stepped foot out the door," she whispered.
The children gathered at Dany's feet, jostling for prime positions while Willa settled in another seat, setting Rose on her knee.
"Hmm," Dany started, theatrically scratching her head, "Did I ever tell you about the Free City of Tyrosh?"
Wide-eyed, her audience shook their heads. "Babababa ba!" Rose said from Willa's lap as the healer bounced her slightly, much to the baby's amusement. Dany smiled at her daughter, before turning back to the rest of the children to begin.
"Tyrosh is a city very very south of here and across the sea on the continent of Essos. It's warm there, so warm that many Tyroshi clothes are no thicker than linen!
"When I was little, I lived in Tyrosh for a time - and took on their accent, some of which I've been told you can still hear today. The Tyroshi make incredible pear brandy and baked honeyfingers," she paused, remembering the taste from the last time she had walked through the Tyroshi markets, "and metal helmets shaped into beautiful birds and animals the people from all over come to buy because there are no others like it.
"And the city is a huge fortress, surrounded by high walls - not as high as the Wall, though. Inside is full of markets and temples to every god you could think of. You can't walk anywhere without seeing a different statue or a different merchant selling jewelry, food, handcraft, anything. It's very bright there, not only from the warm sun on the land, but from the people as well. You know how up here we see a lot of green, brown, white and grey?"
"And blue! The sky and the water!" one of the children piped up.
"Very true!" Dany replied, "In Tyrosh, they love even brighter colors. Flashy pinks and purples, bright greens and blues, and vermillion - a red brighter and richer than even the red wanderer in the sky. The Tyroshi love colors so much, they can't just wear it on their clothes, they even dye their hair and beards those colors!"
At that, the kids giggled and looked at their neighbors' hair, no doubt thinking of how their people would look with green hair and blue beards.
"Now, you may be thinking, 'Dany, how do they get all these colors in the first place? Do they crush plants? Do they just have them? Are they super rare?' and I would say, 'No.'"
"Wait...but that's how you make dye," Willa interrupted, as enraptured with the story as the kids and barely noticing that Rose was tugging at the beading in her hair. Absently, she placed her hand over Rose's to release the hold while staring bewilderedly at Dany.
"You're correct," Dany said, raising a single finger up with a mischievous smile on her face, "Except for one thing! That's how we make dye. But the Tyroshi have a secret. Anyone think they can guess? No? Are you ready for the answer? Are you sure?"
She paused dramatically, cupping her hands over her mouth as her audience leaned forward.
"Snails," she mock-whispered.
"Snails?" several children and Willa repeated incredulously.
"Sea snails, actually," Dany replied, "Their secretions change color with their diet and every - "
"I'M TELLING YOU!" a trader shouted outside of Nerell and Enda's house, next to Willa's, where their father stood trading the furs he had from hunting. The sudden noise stopped Dany's story and she looked around to see who was shouting.
"It was three times as large as a bull mammoth - maybe more," the trader was saying, "Couldn't believe my luck when I'd found the snow bear fresh dead, was gonna tie it up and have the dogs haul it back to camp, when this monster just comes from the clouds. Went straight for me - didn't even have time to duck! The beast flew right over my head, grabbed the bear, and went right into the clouds again. Wouldn't've even known what it was if I hadn't seen those two down South during the War."
Dorand shook his head at the trader. "There aren't any dragons in the North," he said dismissively, "Only in legend."
Turning back to the children, Dany tried to start the story again. "Sorry - where was I? Oh yes, snail secretions! See, if you feed these particular sea snails - "
"It wasn't no ice dragon, Dorand," the trader said harshly, "This'un was black as night. Red spikes down his back. Largest creature I'd ever seen!"
Black and red? Dany's eyes widened. She had stopped the story again and was now openly staring at the conversation and caught, out of the corner of her eye, Willa doing the same.
"Listen, Moregg, we're trading or we're not," Dorand replied, glancing at the children and Dany, "I don't want to hear no more talk about myths."
The trader glared in response, pulling his pack up onto his shoulder and heaving off without another word. Dorand turned to Dany, Willa, and the children. "Sorry," he said shrugging.
Dany shook her head in response, turning back to the children and taking a deep breath to add what she hoped was a convincing smile back onto her face despite her heart thumping and ears ringing with what she had just heard.
"So...snails," she began again, sharing a meaningful glance at Willa before continuing her story of the South as her mind began to drift further and further north.
Sorry about the weekend hiatus - there was plot-evaluating to be done!