"If you wring your hands any harder, they'll fall off," Jon told Dany as they trekked alongside the Antler. They had recently passed by their home on the way into Shadowedge and the knowledge of their impending reunion with Rose, Willa, and Tormund had dropped on Dany like the weight of another thousand dragon eggs.
The sole dragon egg in her possession also seemed to have grown heavier as Dany tried to imagine how she was to tell Willa and Tormund what she had brought back from their journey or her plans for it. The egg continued to become brilliant at seemingly random occasions, sometimes several times in a few minutes before a stretch of no life signs for hours at a time. But Dany couldn't decide which would have been better to tell her friends: that she brought back an egg that she couldn't save thereby rendering her journey half pointless (except for finding Drogon, who decided not to come back with her) or that she had saved an egg that may hatch into a very large dragon one day and potentially freeze or raze all of Shadowedge depending on which parent it took after. She tried not to think about the latter part, given that there was no certainty the egg would ever hatch.
"You know you never did that before we left Dragonstone," Jon was saying as they crunched along over the frosted ground, joining up with the well-beaten path into the village. Thin trails of smoke were becoming visible in the sky and footprints were becoming more present along the path, most pointed in the direction of Shadowedge.
"Did what?" Dany asked absently, looking at her feet moving one in front of the other.
Her heart was beating very roughly as her surroundings became more and more familiar. She wished it was from anticipation of seeing her daughter, but all she could feel was dread. Dread that Rose would cry at the sight of her, viewing her as a stranger now. Dread that Willa would still not even look at her like the day she had left. Dread that everything in the pocket of the world she had come to love had changed in the past month.
"Show anything other than steel nerves. Even when you were angry, if you didn't speak people could barely tell," he said, gesturing to her hands, still wringing.
"I would much prefer to be planning a war right now," Dany responded testily, "At least I was pretty certain of myself back then."
Jon broke apart Dany's grip on herself, taking one of her hands and gently squeezing it. "Just breathe," he said.
The sun was falling from its high overhead, highlighting the first houses that came into view as Jon and Dany reached the edge of the forest. Please let us go unnoticed, Dany begged. She had no idea how much Willa and Tormund had detailed about their absence to the other villagers and was cursing that Willa's house had to be situated in the center of Shadowedge.
"Come on," Jon said, pulling Dany to the south edge of the village and slipping into the alley between two houses on the outer row. It was as if he read her mind about not being recognized and they slipped deftly around the houses and the few people that were out, finally coming to the last row before the village center and Willa's home.
As Dany spied the front of her friend's house, she noticed that Willa was unusually not working outside at the little table. Panic overtook her: Is something wrong? Is it Rose? Did they leave? But movement in Willa's window caught her eye and she shook off the irrational thoughts. Just breathe, she told herself, repeating Jon's advice. The breath didn't seem to agree, catching in her chest.
The two walked up to Willa's door and, as they got close, Dany could hear raised voices coming from inside.
"You can't just go out there alone!" she heard Willa snap angrily. Dany imagined her friend's face red and hardset at the sound of her tone.
"For all the gods, woman, what do you think I've been doing the past year before I came here?"
"Even you didn't go into anything that cold, Tormund! You heard those nomads. Nobody in cold like that could have come out alive. I can't have you going out there too when Jon and Dany are already - " Willa's voice broke off with a choking sound and Dany could not hear anything more than muffled steps across the floor.
Did Willa think they were dead? Dany's stomach twisted shamefully. She knew Jon was right, that she had left for the Mammoth's Head for a good reason and had made a choice that wasn't necessarily wrong, but staying would not have been wrong either, given the pain she seemed to have caused. Her breathing was still getting stuck in her chest.
She glanced at Jon, who looked as troubled as she felt, and motioned with her head to suggest knocking. Still frowning, he nodded, and rapped four times on the front door. Dany heard shuffling inside before the door opened and a blotchy face peeked out from inside and looked straight at Jon, absolute bewilderment dawning on her face.
Willa screamed and slammed the door in Jon's face. Dumbstruck, he stood there for a minute before knocking again.
This time, Tormund opened the door wide. He glanced gruffly from Jon to Dany at his side, so reminiscent of their meeting at the entrance to Castle Black. Then his face split into a broad grin and he spread his arms.
"You two really enjoy showing up after everyone thinks your dead," he told them casually.
"We're still not ghosts," Jon told him, smiling and taking Tormund's hand. The red man pulled Jon in for a hug, thumping him on the back.
Before they could release, Dany had slipped past them and into Willa's house. Her friend stood virtually in the center of the floor, golden eyes wide with shock. They were glassy as her face was blotchy and Dany was sure she had been crying moments ago. As Dany walked closer, Willa took an automatic step backwards, as if not sure that Dany was actually real.
"I thought you had died," she whispered to Dany.
Dany shook her head. "I'm here," she replied, stepping up to Willa and smiling softly.
At that, Willa simply fell forward and hugged Dany tightly, body shaking, as Dany wrapped her arms around her friend.
Rose still had a penchant for grabbing hair. Her slightly larger hand wove through the ends of Dany's hair as she sat on her mother's lap. They were seated at Willa's inside table with Jon, Tormund, Willa, and Ghost contentedly at Dany's feet. His tail had stopped its aggressive happy thrashing from when he first saw Jon and Dany again, but the tip was still flicking excitedly.
"So let me get this clear," Willa said as Dany gently guided Rose's hand out of her hair, smiling as her daughter held onto her hand, "You met your dragon, gave him some fire because he was sick, and then you followed your dragon, all of you nearly dying of cold, into the nest of an ice dragon that up until a few minutes ago, I thought was only a story for children, only to find that she and your fire dragon had a clutch of eggs together so now there are more dragons in the north because you watched them hatch while nearly dying in the cold?"
After the initial entrance into Willa's home and seeing a very excited Rose who woke up from her nap to Dany and Jon and immediately grinned, reaching out for Dany, the talk had turned to the recounting of their journey over a warm stag stew. It was deliciously welcome, as Dany could not remember the last time she had tasted something so warm and filling. Even after roasting food over a fire on their journey, the meat grew cold within seconds of removing it from the flame.
Whatever had been going on before they had come in, Willa and Tormund regained their composure and pressed Jon and Dany intently for the full story of how they seemingly returned from certain, icy death. They had finally gotten to the part in their story where they met Saphira and her eggs, having had plenty of interruptions and questions from their bewildered but enthralled audience along the way.
"Yes," Dany replied, Jon nodding along with her. Both of them stared like Dany had just sprouted wings from her ears.
"And then you...turned around and came home?"
Still smiling from the enjoyment of being with Rose again, Dany's face fell at this. Everything had gone much more smoothly than Dany had expected: Rose hadn't forgotten her, Willa hadn't entirely branded her as horrible (though she was still fairly cold), none of them were dead or gone; it seemed as if not much had changed. Except for this, Dany thought, heart beginning to race again. She glanced at Jon, who nodded encouragingly, and then turned back to Willa and Tormund across the table, passing Rose to her father.
"Well, there was one other thing," Dany said, bending down to grab her satchel.
On the table, she rested the still closed satchel and watched as Willa raised a perplexed eyebrow. "Remember how we said that only two of the three eggs from Drogon and Saphira's clutch hatched?"
She opened the satchel. Willa gasped, staring at the silver and gold egg inside with incredulity, her open mouth unable to form any words.
"You brought back the egg?" Tormund exclaimed in amazement, looking forward eagerly and reaching out a hand to it, but never touching the scaly, hard surface. Trust Tormund to be nothing but excited, Dany thought with some relief.
"We couldn't just leave it there," Jon explained, "It was dying in the cold."
"How can you tell it's not dead now?" Willa asked. Her initial surprise seemed to have subsided for curiosity and she, too, leaned in for a closer look. Scrunching her eyes in scrutiny, she peered from one end of it to the other, studying the pattern of the scaly exterior like Dany had so many times.
Suddenly, the egg flashed brilliantly for a brief second and both Willa and Tormund flew back, looking even more shocked than when Dany had revealed the egg.
"It does that sometimes," she said simply, "It started happening after we got out of the worst of the cold. We think it just needed to warm up."
Willa cocked an eyebrow at her. "And what happens when it gets warm enough?" she asked pointedly, eyes narrowing.
"I couldn't just let it die," Dany told her, her voice echoing with the finality she attributed to giving people orders. Willa opened her mouth, but seemed to think better of responding and closed it again. It seemed as though she didn't want to argue any more just yet, and Dany was perfectly happy to leave the discussion of the egg at an unspoken disagreement for now.
Truthfully, Willa had a point. Dany had not gotten much further in planning than wanting to help the dragon in the egg. If Drogon and Saphira were any indication, a hatchling dragon of theirs would soon grow to be enormous, dangerous, and very conspicuous. When her children had hatched, word traveled quickly about dragons in the East. Dany wrenchingly remembered when the warlocks stole her dragons in Qarth, having heard much about them before she even arrived. What unwelcome visitors could a hatchling dragon, even more precious with its mythical ice blood, bring to Shadowedge?
In the midst Dany's thoughts, it seemed that the conversation had turned to the other dragons in the North, as Tormund was currently giving his opinion. "I say we just leave them be for now," he was saying, "Only the four of us know they're there and any other idiots who have been that way and glimpsed one like that cunt Moregg sound like they're talking nonsense. Obviously there's been an ice dragon around for a long time and nobody's noticed it yet."
"Has Moregg been back this way, then?" Jon asked.
Tormund nodded. "Lots of traders and nomads have been coming through recently on their way south to get away from the cold you two decided to risk your necks in. Got a few new villagers out of the mix and loads of people who know where we are now," he explained, "Been arguing about whether or not to wait it out before coming to look for you. That's where I was planning on heading today before you decided to show up."
"What did you tell everyone about where we had gone?" Dany asked.
"Lied, more like," Willa scoffed, "Told them you were going to try and trade furs for some sheep, but thought Rose was too young to travel. Obviously you'll have to think of a reason as to why you have no sheep."
Dany looked down at her hands. The little bubble of hope that perhaps all was being slowly forgiven was quickly deflating. "We never meant to put so much onus on you," she murmured, unsure of what else to say, "I just...I really needed to do this. I'm sorry."
A hand reached out for her shoulder, but Dany could tell by the size that it wasn't Jon's. She looked up and saw Willa with a much softer expression than before. Perhaps "sorry" was all she needed to hear.
"Just don't run off like that again, okay?"