"Time. Space. Reality. It's more than a linear path. It's a prism of endless possibility. Where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities, creating alternate worlds from the ones you know. Each a reflection of what could have been. Some heroes will rise, others will fall. And nothing will be the same. I am the Watcher. I am your guide through these vast new realities. Follow me and dare to face the unknown, and ponder the question... What If?"
Castle Black, which is known to be one of the primary bases of the Night's Watch within the Wall that borders between the north and Beyond the Wall. Under the orders of Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, three rangers named Ser Waymar Royce of House Royce, Gared Tuttle of House Tuttle, and William Cerwyn of House Cerwyn, were preparing to embark on a ranging mission in search of a band of wildling raiders that were said to have been seen within the Haunted Forest. They enter the tunnel leading to beyond the Wall, eventually emerging on the other side, where they continue on into the Haunted Forest, all of them branching off in different directions while Uatu the Watcher had been observing.
"I have seen a lot of things in different universes," Uatu explained as he observed. "Every universe is different, but this one is merely the beginning."
Waymar Royce was handsome, graceful and slender, with grey eyes. He wears leather boots, woolen pants, moleskin gloves, a sable cloak, and ringmail over layers of wool and boiled leather, all in black. Wielding a longsword, the hilt of which is decorated with jewels, Waymar displays a sense of entitlement as well as arrogance towards more experienced members of the Night's Watch. As a third son of a lord, Waymar had very few chances at wealth or land, so he decided to join the Night's Watch.
Gared Tuttle was the nephew of Lord Duncan Tuttle of House Tuttle that lived in the northern kingdom. After his uncle became the Lord and about three sons, Gared decided to join the Night's Watch and serve under Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, whom he favored as a father.
William looked around the forest when his horse nickers nervously. "Easy, boy..."
William climbs off his horse first and goes off to go scout the clearing on foot. He slowly approaches what appears to be a small camp. Fearing that the Wildlings would ambush him, he slowly crawls through the snow to better conceal himself. He finally reaches the camp, only to find that it has been completely ransacked, with the brutally mutilated corpses of multiple wildlings scattered all around the area. Upon seeing this with his own eyes, William was clearly terrified at what he sees and runs off, only to appear in front of the body of a wildling child skewered on a tree branch. As he started to panic, he immediately runs off, getting back on his horse.
Evantually, William managed to find Waymar and Gared. Waymar had been spending his time in messing with the saddle on his horse, not wanting to look at either Gared or William.
"What d'you expect? They're savages," Waymar stated that his facts were correct about the Wildlings. "One lot steals a goat from another lot and before you know it, they're ripping each other to pieces."
"I've never seen wildlings do a thing like this!" William exclaimed in a panic. "I've never seen a thing like this, not ever in my life!"
"How close did you get?" Waymar asked.
"Close as any man would," William nervously answered.
"We should head back to the Wall," Gared suggested
Waymar turned to Gared and condescended as he asked. "Do the dead frighten you?"
"Our orders were to track the wildlings," We tracked them. They won't trouble us no more.
"You don't think he'll ask us how they died?" Waymar asked and let out a scoff. "Get back on your horse."
Gared huffs, clearly not pleased with Waymar giving him orders since he was not an officer within the Night's Watch. He grumbles under his breath as he walks off.
"Whatever did it to them could do it to us," William fearfully warned. "They even killed the children!"
"It's a good thing we're not children," Waymar smirked. "You want to run away south... run away. Of course, they will behead you as a deserter… if I don't catch you first." He stares at Will, who continued to remain nervous about going forward or even thinking of deserting the Night's Watch, and firmly gives him an order. "Get back on your horse. I won't say it again."
William was hesitant at first, but finally relents since he hated disobeying orders, and mounts back on his horse, who continued to nicker nervously. William could tell that something was not right around here and feared that it wasn't the Wildlings, but something else lurking within the Haunted Forest. He slowly rides with Gared and Waymar and leads them to the spot where the Wildings were killed. The three of them make a complete stop, dismount, and slowly move on foot. Once they approach the area with the corpses on foot, they hold their swords drawn, but just when they get there, all of the corpses were gone.
Waymar enters the camp and looks around and sighs with a hint of annoyance. "Your dead men seem to have moved camp."
"They were here," William panicked, looking around the forest. "I swear they were here."
"We need to go," Gared said, looking wary.
"Not until we find those savages that were spying," Raymar refused to back down on this.
"Waymar don't be a fool, we need to go back," Gared hastily said. "If we stay for too long until nightfall, will die."
"If you and Will are too cowardly to move on, I will do this on my own," Waymar answered.
William couldn't stand this and he starts to backtrack while Waymar continues to move forward to investigate with Gared following him since he didn't want to leave him behind. Waymar and Gared move on towards another clearing which wasn't too far from the abandoned camp. That was when Gared made a complete halt when he noticed something under the white snow. He bends over to pick it up to examine. It is some kind of torn-up red cloth.
"What is it?" Waymar asked.
Before Gared can tell him, a mysterious creature emerges from behind Waymar. Gared noticed the creature and looks horrified upon seeing it. Waymar notices Gared's look and immediately turns around. Theywe briefly see that the creature was none other than a White Walker.
White Walkers were an ancient race of formerly-human ice creatures who came from the Far North of Westeros. They were thousands of years old, coming from the time preceding the Age of Heroes. Born of powerful and untested magic, they were created to protect the Children of the Forest from the First Men, who had waged war on them ever since they had arrived from Essos. However, the White Walkers eventually broke free of the Children's control and became the most feared creatures in Westeros, posing a threat to anything living.
Eight thousand years before Robert's Rebellion, the longest winter in history fell on the entire world and lasted a whole generation. In the darkness and cold of the Long Night, the White Walkers descended upon Westeros from the Far North, killing all in their path and reanimating the dead as wights to serve as their footsoldiers in their army of the dead. Eventually, the people of Westeros rallied against them and, in a conflict known as the War for the Dawn, defeated the White Walkers and drove them back into the frozen Far North. With help from giants and the Children of the Forest, the Wall was raised to bar their return. The Night's Watch was founded to guard the Wall and the realms of men should the mysterious threat ever rise again.
Elsewhere in the forest, William is wandering alone when he hears Gared screaming in the distance. All three of the horses are seen galloping away, clearly panicked. William watches them go with a combined look of confusion and fright. He looks in the direction the horses came from, only to see a small figure standing there. William stares at the figure, but as it slowly turns around, he was horrified to see that it was the dead Wildling Girl he previously saw from the abandoned camp. William froze, but since he couldn't stop staring at the dead Wildling Girl with icy blue eyes, he begins to run away as fast as he can through the forest.
That was when he bumped into Gared in anothing clearing. They both look up and realize they are in the same clearing. The two huddle together, but at that very moment, the same White Walker emerged again. Gared and William were terrified upon seeing the White Walker with their very own eyes. That was when they saw someone else appraoching from behind the White Walker. It was Waymar Royce. For a second, Gared and William thought that he was here to save them by his attempt to strike the Walker from behind, but wasn't it. Fear struck them when they saw that Waymar's eyes were icy blue and the inside of his clothing was covered in blood.
The two quickly make a run for it just as Waymar holds his sword and chases after them. The White Walker watches chatters in a strange language before turning a different way.