JON
Jon was staring at his dragons, waiting for everyone to calm down from the excitement of the evening and go to bed. He didn't want anyone to follow him when he went to meet Rhaegal and Viserion for the first time. A part of him wanted no one to get hurt if he couldn't control them, but a more selfish part of him wanted to keep them to himself, just for a while. But he knew that he couldn't. He would need them before long.
His new dragons had just finished eating. And were now yawning. It must be tiring work, being born. It was so strange watching them on his bed, he felt something swell in his chest. He felt happy just looking at them doing normal things. Like eating and trying and failing to keep themselves awake.
He knelt down before the bed and looked at his little dragons. "Alright, I am going to have to go, but I will be back soon. You guys will behave and be quiet until I return, alright?"
He had to admit, he would have felt a little silly, talking to dragons. If he hadn't been inside the head of Rhaegal since he had been hatched, he would have thought himself mad. Jon knew better that anyone that dragons understood what was spoken to them. Even in the common tongue.
All the dragons were looking at him in silence, and he knew that they had understood. But he wondered if they would obey him. He stood up and with a last, be good, he left the room.
The night was cool, and the moon and the stars were shining bright. As he was looking at the stars, he had a thought. He had to name his young dragons. He would have to give that some thought. But now he had to meet the other two dragons on Westeros.
He walked to the stables and found his horse. His fifteen-year old bay gelding had served him faithfully over the years. He could still remember when his father gave him the horse as a name-day present. He had been so happy getting him.
He saddled his horse and lead him to the gate. The black brother standing by the gate looked at Jon with wonder and worry. He had most likely been one of many to see him step out of the burning pyre. The man was one of the new one´s that had not yet taken his vows yet. Jon wasn't sure what his name was.
"I need to go, but I will be back in a few hours." Jon said to the man. The man nodded and his eyes were wide.
The man went to open the gate, and Jon mounted his horse and rode out. Jon could feel the connection between him and Rhaegal. The pull was getting stronger and stronger with every step the horse took.
It took him an hour to get close to the dragons. he dismounted his horse and tied him to a tree close by. He would walk the rest of the way. He was very nervous. He was finally meeting Rhaegal, his dragon.
Jon enter the clearing, and the sight before him took his breath away.
The dragons that he had hatched this very night were the size of large cats. But the two dragons before him were definitely not the size of cats.
The Cream and gold one, Viserion he knew from Rhaegal´s memories, was the smallest one of the three Daenerys had hatched in Essos. But he had grown, by now he looked to be around sixty feet long from snout to the tip of his tail. But Rhaegal, who was the color of emeralds and bronze was even bigger.
The cream and gold dragon was only 2/3 of Rhaegal´s size. Jon knew, as if by some long forgotten memory that the dragons would grow quicker the closer they were to him physically and mentally. That long forgotten memory also told him that Rhaegal´s would grow even quicker that any dragon now living. It did take Jon a moment to realize that the knowledge of how quickly the dragons would grow didn't belong to him, but to Rhaegal.
Rhaegal´s was so excited to see him, that in his rush over to Jon, he almost ran over his brother. Viserion made a sound that sounded like an irritated growl and shook his head. Jon could have sworn he saw the dragon roll his eyes.
The great green dragon was now breathing in Jon´s scent. He could feel Rhaegal´s happiness at seeing him and he couldn't help but to smile. The dragon reminded him of Ghost when they hadn't seen each other in a long time.
Jon put his hand on Rhaegal´s snout. He felt something snap into place at the act. Like the connection between them had been half formed, even though it was incredibly strong, but now it was in full force. It was like all of Jon´s senses were amplified. He felt like he, himself was better just by being in Rhaegal´s presence.
He closed his eyes and let all the new senses and feelings wash over him. From the happiness of the dragon, to the coarseness of the scales of his body and the heat he felt as he touched the dragon´s snout.
When Jon opened his eyes, he looked straight into Rhaegal´s eyes. The green dragon was looking at him expectantly. Jon knew exactly what the dragon wanted.
Jon walked over to the dragon´s neck, there was a collar of iron around it. It looked like it was getting too tight for him as he had clearly been growing since, he and his brother escaped Meereen. There was a pin that was holding the collar together. Jon grasped it and pulled. The pin slid out and the collar came crashing to the ground. Rhaegal made a happy screeching sound and shook his head and neck at finally being free of the collar.
Viserion came closer to them and looked at Jon hopefully as a dragon could. The pale dragon lowered his head and neck for Jon to reach the pin that was holding his collar together. Soon Viserion´s iron collar had followed Rhaegal´s to the ground. Then Jon felt Rhaegal´s snout bump gently into his back. Jon turned to Rhaegal.
Jon looked at the dragon as he lowered his shoulder so Jon could climb onto his back. Jon felt a face splitting grin form on his face, and his hands shook with excitement. For the first time in his life, Jon was going for a dragon ride.
The climb up was surprisingly easy and the dragon radiated so much heat that most people would have thought it unbearable to be sitting on the dragon. But to Jon, it felt warm and comforting like the burning pyre he had stepped out of. When Jon made himself comfortable on Rhaegal´s back, the emerald and bronze dragon kicked off the ground.
All the air fled Jon´s lungs as they rouse into the night sky. Because the moonlight was so bright Jon could see a lot more than he had expected. Jon couldn't help but to admire the North as it as bathed in the silver moonlight. Then he heard a noise and looked back to see what it was. Viserion had joined them in the sky.
He could feel his heart hammering in his chest, he didn't think that he had ever been this happy as the larger than life dragons soared through the night sky. Jon could see over the Wall and into the true North as the free folk called it, and the stars looked like millions of diamonds on a blanket of ebony.
The world had turned so small and all the worries that had been plaguing him had been blown away with the cold northern wind. He felt like for the first time in his life, as Rhaegal climbed through the clouds, that nothing could hurt him.
As they were flying, the dragons were completely silent. It was like they knew that he didn't want anyone to hear them. Jon didn't try to control Rhaegal, he instead let the dragon fly like he wanted to, but Jon was sure that Rhaegal would carry out any command that Jon gave him. Just like when Jon had stopped him from coming to Castle Black and burning everyone and everything.
They were flying for hours most likely, but for Jon it was all too soon that they had to return to the clearing that Rhaegal and Viserion had been using. Dawn would be breaking soon, and he had to return to Castle Black.
He dismounted from Rhaegal´s back and stroked the dragon´s neck. Rhaegal closed his eyes in satisfaction. Jon could more feel that hear Viserion land behind him. He come close enough to touch. He looked at the pale dragon behind him and gave him a rub on the snout. Viserion seemed to appreciate that, if the sounds he made that reminded Jon of a purring cat, were anything to go by.
SANSA
She woke up slowly a few hours after dawn. She didn't have a good night, but that wasn't to be expected. Every night sense her wedding night, she had nightmares, and she never slept for very long. But having Ghost by her side had been much better. When she had woken up, she had seen the great white direwolf lying beside her. She had used him as a frightened child uses a teddy bear.
Jon´s direwolf had taken the indignity with patience and grace. He had been such a comfort to her that night. She was very tempted to ask Jon if Ghost could stay with her indefinitely. Jon being who he is, would probably agree.
Sansa got up to get dressed. She hadn't dared to take of her dress, but she had taken her cloak of her shoulders. She also didn't have any extra clothes with her, so it didn't take her a long time. When she left her room, she noticed that Brienne was standing guard just outside her door. "Brienne, why are you not asleep?" She couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice.
Brienne looked very tired and her eyes were red form lack of sleep. "I´m guarding you, my lady." Brienne looked a little sheepish at that.
"I had Ghost with me all night, lady Brienne. You could have gone to sleep." Sansa replayed not unkindly. "Why don't you get some sleep now, I will have Ghost to protect me and I will go to Jon. I have to talk to him any way and he would never let anyone hurt me." Lady Brienne looked at the big direwolf. Sansa knew that Brienne couldn't deny that the white wolf was a fearsome sight, and everyone had heard that Robb had gone into battle with Greywind, his own direwolf.
Brienne sighed and relented, and Sansa went to find her brother. It was so strange that Jon had survived the burning pyre and had manage to hatch not one, but four living dragons. And the way they had obeyed him was also strange.
Dragons were famously hard to control for the Targaryen´s and impossible for anyone else after the Doom. But how could Jon control them so easily. It wasn't because he was bigger than them. Sansa had spent enough time around Tyrion to know this.
Her former husband was the closest to being a dragon expert you could get in this day and age. And he had loved to talk about the creatures. He had said that even the hatchlings couldn't be controlled by someone who didn't have any blood of old Valyria.
But as far as Sansa knew Jon didn't have any Valyrian blood. Then again, she didn't know who his mother was, no one knew. Her father had taken the secret to his grave.
But that hit her as strange. Her father had been renowned for his honor. But fathering a bastard wasn't honorable. And the fact he never talked about her was even stranger.
Could Jon´s mother be a Targaryen? No that couldn't be. The only female Targaryen that could have given birth around the time Jon was born was Rhealla Targaryen and she had been pregnant with Daenerys Targaryen. The other person that had hatched dragons in the last one hundred and fifty years.
The only other person that had spent long enough time around a Targaryen to have a child around the time Jon had to be conceived was…
Sansa stopped on her way to Jon´s rooms. She just stood there staring into space. Could it be? Could Jon really be…
That made more sense than Eddard Stark fathering a bastard. Her aunt Lyanna had been with Rhaegar Targaryen for a year before Lord Stark had found her in the Tower of Joy where she had mysteriously died of a fever. Could she have died of a birthing fever? Could Jon really be the son of Lyanna and Rhaegar.
That would also explain the reason he had such control over the dragons.
She could feel something in her stomach twist. If that was true, Jon wasn't her brother. Sansa didn't know how to handle that. She had just gotten him back. She didn't want to lose him again. Then again, she couldn't just barge into his solar and start to shout out wild theories. She had to confirm them or disprove them if that was possible.
It was then Sansa remembered, her father hadn't been alone at the Tower of Joy. Lord Howland Reed had been with him. If anyone knew the truth, it was him.
But it would have to wait. She had to speak to Jon about gathering an army to take back Winterfell from the Bolton´s.
Sansa arrived at the door to Jon´s solar. She was about to knock when she heard voices from the inside. But she couldn't make out what they were saying. She shook her head and gathered her courage and knocked. The voices stopped and she could hear someone walk to the door.
The door swung open to reveal Jon. He gave her one of his rare but beautiful smiles and invited her in. When she walked into the solar, she could see who Jon had been talking to. It was the wild haired wildling from the night before.
She also noticed that Jon´s dragons where strutting around the floor in front of the fireplace. Ghost trotted over to them to lay in front of the fireplace. The dragons seemed to remember the lesson Jon had thought them the night before. While they didn't threaten Ghost, they couldn't contain their curiosity and started to approach the direwolf to sniff at him.
Sansa was pulled out of her thought of dragons and direwolfs by Jon, who was introducing her to the wildling man. "Sansa, this is Tormund. Tormund this is my sister, Lady Sansa of Winterfell." Jon was so much like Eddard Stark in that moment. Her father hadn't liked flowery introductions either. Tormund gave her a beaming smile. He looked like he was going to say something, but Jon interrupted him before he could say anything.
"So, can I count on you Tormund?" The big man laughed.
"Of course, King crow, I will help you. But you are going to have to convince the others, but after yesterday, I don't think that is going to be a problem. Harhar." With that he left the room chuckling.
Sansa stared after the man with wide eyes. "He grows on you." Jon´s voice was filled with laughter. She couldn't remember seeing him this relaxed before. It was a strange that a man was more relaxed after being murdered and then being brought back to life, than he had been as a child.
Sansa gave him a smile. She couldn't believe she had him back. She had thought that she had lost him forever, but here he was. Alife and whole. She could feel the tears start to well up in her eyes. She blinked them away and tried to distract Jon from noticing them.
"What are you counting on Tormund to do?"
Jon sat down on his chair behind the desk. "I was asking him if he could supply us with men to take back Winterfell." Of all the things she had been expecting from Jon at this moment. This definitely wasn't it. "Winterfell is your birth-right, I am not going to let the Bolton´s have it. They betrayed Robb if the stories are correct and where given the North as a reward for it. It cannot stand." Sansa could hear the anger in his voice now. She was so happy right now that she didn't even try to stop the tears from flowing down her cheeks.
Jon looked shocked at seeing her cry. He stood up and started to walk over to her and he looked like he was going to say something, but he was stopped when Sansa rushed over to him and hugged him, she buried her face in his neck. Jon slowly put his arms around her as if he expected someone to reprimand him for touching her. The only sound in the room was the crackling of the fire, chirping of the dragons and Sansa repeating "Thank you" over and over again in Jon´s ear.
After a while she let him go. She couldn't help but let out a small giggle when she saw his face. She had never seen anyone blush so hard before in her life. She shouldn't laugh, Jon hadn't had the most affection in his life, and very few people had ever hugged him at Winterfell. He probably hadn't gotten used to it.
He cleared his throat. "We should decide on who we should contact. I know some of the lords have declared for the Bolton´s. Like the Karstark´s, Dustin´s and Ryswell´s."
Sansa turned serious again and added. "So have the Umber´s. I heard Ramsey talk about it once. And I know that Smalljon Umber helped him against Stannis." Jon was frowning but he didn't seem all that concerned with this information. "He also said that the Dustin´s and the Ryswell´s didn't send all their cavalry south for Robb, they only sent enough to make sure no one would question them."
That got Jon´s attention if nothing else. "That means that they may have been planning to stab Robb in the back all along." That thought had occurred to Sansa before. "But we need some loyal Northern Lords on our side. We can´t just take Winterfell back with Free folk behind us. We have to show everyone that the North is behind you."
Now Sansa was impressed. Unlike Robb, Jon was thinking about the political fight alongside the actual fighting, the political part of war was just as important as the actual battles. While Robb had been winning every battle, he had lost the war because of that fact.
Sansa bit her lip in worry. "You don't seem very concerned that they have a lot more men than we do even if we get all the other houses. Why is that?"
"It would be better if I showed you." He replayed. "Tonight, I will take you, Tormund and Ser Davos to see why I think we have an advantage in this fight. But you can´t tell anyone. I want it to be a nasty surprise for our enemies."
Sansa couldn't help it. She was a little worried. Could they trust Tormund and Ser Davos. She voiced this to Jon.
"Yes, I think so. Ghost likes them and everyone he likes, I trust." Sansa smiled at that. She wished that she still had Lady with her.
"Do you trust Lady Brienne?" Jon asked after a short silence.
"Yes, she helped me when she didn't have to, and I had no one else. I was almost captured by Ramsey´s hunters when she came and saved me and Theon and brought me here. She also seems to honest to be capable of anything nefarious." She said with a smile.
"Good, then why don't you bring her too." Sansa nodded grateful that Jon was allowing her to bring Brienne.
She was about to ask more when there was a knock on the door. Jon called whoever it was to enter. The man who entered was the dour faced man from yesterday. Jon introduced them. She learned that his name was Eddison Tollet, but he was affectionally referred to as Dolorous Edd.
"Jon we still have to execute the traitors. Shall we do it now." Jon nodded and Edd started to leave the room. Then Jon stopped him.
"Wait Edd," The man stopped and waited for what Jon had to say. "I want you to build gallows on the other side of the wall, we will hang them there." Both Edd and Sansa looked at Jon like he had lost his mind.
"You want to execute them on the other side of the wall? And what if they come back?" Now to was Edd´s turn to get a look from Sansa that said, have you lost your mind too?
"I hope that they do. And if they do, we will take them with us south and show the lords the proof of our words that the Others are returning." Sansa was sure that her mind had stopped working. The Others? Returning? What in the world is going on?
Edd had gone pale, but he left the room with a nod and a promise to see it done.
"Jon, what is going on?" Sansa asked Jon while staring at him with wide eyes. Jon sighed and asked her to sit. Then he proceeded to tell her about the thing that had happened at the wall sense he had arrived here.
Sansa must have sat there in his solar for a long time listening to his impossible tale, but Jon had a way to make the impossible happen. Satin, Jon faithful steward had come with food for them as he as telling her his tale, and Sansa could barely remember the taste of the food she ate, she was so enraptured in his story.
Just after he finished the story, Edd came back and told them it was time and they were ready.
Jon and Sansa stood up to follow Edd back outside, but the little dragons wouldn't have it. They all hurried after Jon and made screeching sounds. They apparently didn't want to be left behind. Ghost used the opportunity to leave the room and go outside.
Jon stared down at the little dragons and they stared right back up at him. Then Jon sighed and said a quiet "Fine." Sansa couldn't help the giggle that escaped her lips. Jon looked like a tried father at this moment.
JON
Even though Jon hadn't slept at all the entre night he wasn't that tried. He was walking along side Sansa, as they made their way to the gate to the other side of the wall. Edd came and told him that the traitors were waiting on the other side along with a lot of the Black brothers that wanted to see them pay for their crime.
Jon really hoped that it would work. Executing them on the North side of the wall, if they had proof of the dead rising it would be much easier to get the Lords of Westeros to help the Nights Watch defeat the Night King and his armies.
They arrived at the gate. Ghost was impatiently waiting for them at the gate. It was like he was in a hurry to get to the other side of the wall.
His dragons were hurrying the best they could after him, like ducklings after their mother. They couldn't fly yet, but Jon was sure that in a few days they would be soaring in the sky. Where they belonged.
The gate was opened, and they went down the tunnel. It was as cold as in an ice dragon´s belly. He looked behind him at the dragons to make sure that they were alright. They didn't seem bothered by the cold at all.
Sansa on the other hand looked like she was freezing. Jon hurriedly took of his cloak and put it around her shoulders without a word. She tried to protest but Jon just smiled at her and shook his head. She looked down but Jon was sure that he had seen her smile just a little. That made something in his chest swell at the thought.
They made it to the other side of the wall and when they got out, Ghost ran as fast as his feet could carry him. He disappeared into the forest, but Jon wasn't worried. Ghost would come back if he needed him.
"Where is Ghost going?" Sansa looked worried.
"He will be back soon he always comes back."
They walked up to where the gallows had been put up. The four traitors were already with their head in the nooses and all Jon needed to do was to cut the rope. Then they would drop to their deaths. They had been told of Jon´s return to the land of the living but seeing their reaction was priceless. They looked even more shocked at the dragons that followed Jon around.
But Jon had a duty to perform. He listened to their last words, which Bowen Marsh was bumbling about how Jon shouldn't be alive, Wick Wittlestick wanted his family to believe that he had died fighting the free folk, Olly was silent, but it was Ser Alister Thorne that surprised Jon most. He had expected a long speech about how he would do it again if he could, but the man just stared at Jon´s dragons. Then it hit Jon. Ser Alister had been a Targaryen supporter in the past, it must kill him that Ned Stark bastard had four dragons now, when he was sure that Thorne had nothing to say he cut the rope, and they fell to their deaths.
Jon stepped back down from the gallows and watched them swig there for a while. Sansa stepped to his side and linked their arms together and the dragons gathered around his feet and started to playfully snap at each other. For a moment everything was peaceful, but then the bodies of Jon´s murderers came back to life and started to screech and try to reach them.
Sansa grabbed his arm with both her hand and gasped in shock. She was pressing her body against his arm and he could feel the heat radiating of her. Jon pushed away the thought and ordered the bodies cut down and put in the ice cell for preservation.
With some difficulty the black brothers managed it, without any injury. Just as Sansa and Jon were about to leave, Ghost came trotting back.
He had something in his mouth. It was small, grey and furry. Ghost brought it to them, and he seemed to be handing it to Sansa. It took Jon a moment to realize what it was.
It was a small direwolf pup.