After bidding Toshi goodbye, Brian, Dany, and Arya got back on the dragon and set off again. By evening, they'd come to the wildling village of Whitetree. Brian had been here once before, when he was still in the Night's Watch, but it had been a very different place then. At that time, it had consisted of only a few ramshackle houses, and the people who lived there had all fled, for fear of White Walkers. But now that the White Walkers were all gone, the wildlings had returned. They'd started repairing their houses, and even begun building several new ones. Brian could see several men and women at work on a new building right now, as a matter of fact. The first time Brian had come to Whitetree, it was a place that had ended, but now it seemed like a place that was beginning anew.

Brian had no sooner dismounted when a big red-bearded man ran up to him and lifted him up into the air. He squeezed Brian so hard he nearly cracked the direwolf's ribs. "Brian Griffin!" he boomed. "Har!"

"Tormund Giantsbane," Brian replied, once Tormund had set him down and he'd had a chance to regain his breath. "It's good to see your face again. You know my wife, Dany, don't you?"

"Don't-call-me-Dany," Dany said automatically.

"Sorry. My wife, Queen Daenerys Targaryen."

"Aye, might be I met her afore," Tormund agreed. "Though the details are a little hazy to me now, cause as I recall, we were runnin' from a swarm of White Walkers at the time!"

"And this is our friend, Arya Stark," Brian said, gesturing to Arya. "Do you know her?"

"I should say so! Us free folk fought alongside her and her sister Sansa at the Battle of Winterfell, though the two of them were callin' themselves by different names at the time. Har! We sure could've used your help in that final fight against the White Walkers, Brian Griffin. And I bet that big dragon would've come in handy. He could've blown a blast of fire on the White Walkers and just melted them all away! But we still won in the end! Har! Where were you while that was goin' on, anyway?"

"Yeah, where were you?" Arya agreed, staring pointedly at Dany.

"Regrettably, we had to miss the Battle of Winterfell. We had our own battle to fight, down in King's Landing," said Dany. "Bill Cipher was attacking the city with an army of monsters from his dimension."

"You don't say?" boomed Tormund. "That little one-eyed creep who killed Mance Rayder? Wish I'd been there. I'd've stabbed him right in that evil eye of his!"

"Too bad you never got the chance," said Brian. "But Bill's done for now. Stewie took care of him."

"Stewie Griffin? The little crippled boy? Har! Now that's a story! If Mance was still alive, he'd probably make a song of it!"

"Funny you should say that," said Brian. "I've actually begun writing a book about it…"

Tormund hastily changed the subject. "Anyway, we've moved back into Whitetree now, and we're doin' just dandy. We've even started buildin' an expansion to the village. Only trouble is, our crops ain't growin' too well."

"We're having that same problem all over Westeros," said Dany. "And we know what's causing it. Before Bill was destroyed, he placed four things called the Four Sisters at the four corners of the land, and they're killing all our plants somehow. We don't know exactly what they are, but we know where the first of them is." She pulled her fragment of map out and showed it to the wildling chieftain. "In a place called Dragon's Mouth. Ever heard of it?"

Tormund shook his head. "No, I never have. Seems to me you'd be the expert on anythin' havin' to do with dragons. But no, I've never heard of any place at all by that name. Wish I could be of more help to you. But you must stay with me at my house tonight. We'll share a bit o' meat and mead."

"We don't want to put you out," said Brian.

Tormund scoffed at this. "You're my friend, Brian Griffin. I may not have much, but I'll share what I've got freely with you and your companions. Though I hope you don't expect me to feed the dragon too."

"Drogon knows how to get his own food," said Dany. "He'll probably find a wild animal to eat."

"Just as long as he doesn't kill any people!" Tormund chuckled. "Har!"

And so it was that they took dinner that night with Tormund, his two sons, and his daughter. Tormund regaled the travelers with the tale of how he earned the name of Giantsbane. "I slew a giant when I was just ten years old. Afterward, I crept into his wife's bed. When she woke, she suckled me at her teat, thinkin' I was her own baby!"

"How long did that go on?" Arya asked curiously.

"Three months! And it was that milk from the giantess's breast that made me so strong! Har!"

Everyone around the table laughed, although Tormund's daughter, Munda, whispered to Arya, "He tells that tale over and over, and he changes the details every time."

Afterward Tormund turned serious. "So tell me, Brian Griffin, is there anythin' else I can do for you? Anythin' at all?"

"Not unless you know what to do about two people who can't stop arguing," said Brian, glancing at Dany and Arya.

"Two of my sons, Dormund and Torwynd, used to argue with each other all the time. So, whenever I caught 'em at it, I'd knock their heads together! Har!"

"Well, I can't do that to Arya and Daenerys," said Brian. "If I tried to bang their heads together, they'd probably kill me!"

"Are these Dormund and Torwynd here?" Dany asked.

The two young men seated at the table shook their heads. "No," said the older one. "I'm Toregg the Tall, and this is Dryn."

"Dormund and Torwynd are dead now," Tormund explained. "Dormund was cut down in a battle by one o' Stannis Baratheon's knights. And Torwynd… it was the cold claimed him. Always sickly, that one. He just up and died one night. The worst o' it, before we ever knew he'd died, he rose pale with them blue eyes. He'd become a wight. I had to burn him m'self, to stop him from killing the rest of the family." Tears stood in his eyes.

"We're sorry," said Dany. "We didn't mean to make you upset."

Tormund wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "'Sall right," he said gruffly. "Just remember, when you set out tomorrow, be careful. The dead may not come walkin' in the night anymore, but there's plenty of other dangers up here. Southerners don't usually fare too well in these parts."

"Lucky for me I'm a northerner then," said Arya.

"To us free folk, you're all southerners," said Tormund. "It's all in where you're standin'."