Disclaimer I do not own a song of ice and fire all I own are my OC's.
Upon Waking up the first thing I realized is that I don't know where I am in the timeline so I can only plan for so much. secondly I seem to be in a cave and I haven't been moved or anything along those lines so I'm before the free folk begin to group together to March on the wall. assuming that then the main thing I will have to prepare for are the others and the wights the closest dragon glass I no of is at the fist of the first man but with me not knowing where I am that doesn't do me much good and judging from my body I am at best 4 years of age more likely I am 3. So that is the big limiter. I will have to be older to travel on my own and that's not even mentioning being skilled unoff to travel on this side of the wall because the cold will be the least of my problems. There are cannibals all over the north, there are bears 3 times the size as the ones from my world and a million other things that can kill me the moment I step out of this cave. I will have to pick up as many skills as possible to raise the chance of me surviving till Canon starts.
First and most important is my body. From the looks of it I am not getting enough food for my body to grow at its optimal level so I will have to figure out how to get more food. I can't workout or do anything too intense with my body so as to not stunt my growth. Any heavy exercises will have to weigh until I am 7 or 8 years of age. meaning I will have to do my best to learn to speak the old tongue and the common tongue. and other skills that do not cause too much stress to the body and hopefully I am a skinchanger because out of all the magic shown in the books and show skinchanging seemed to be one of the most powerful forms of magic.
As time passed I started to pick up on words after listening to their conversations for a while and learned a few things like that I didn't have a name. I forgot that beyond the wall they didn't name their children till they were 4 years old so as not to grow attached if they were to die. another thing I learned was that the gont women was my mother and the to young adults were her cousins and that the old crone was my 3 time great grandmother she seemed to be what the nobility would call a woods witch I saw her carve some old tongue runes onto a stone so I was hoping to learn runes as well. But with all that being said my time in the cave was torture there was nothing to do but sit and listen to people talk in a language I didn't no i so bored I try meditation but with me not noing what to do or how to do it I didn't make much progress.
time skip a few months later
A few months later or what I hope were months it was hard to tell time when inside a cave but that's beside the point so after a long period of time was able to pick up enough words to ask for things and listen to conversations. the first thing I ask for was a small knife and yes i no your asking why would I need a knife but it's simple to learn how to throw it why because the biggest weakness of armor is the it can't cover your eyes meaning if I learn how to throw knives well enough than I could hold my own against multiple exponents at one's. the main reason I am not trying to learn the sword or spear yet is because I don't live in a castle with a master of arms nor can I hire a master to teach me so I will more then likely have to learn from experience and I would like a skill that could protect me if my main weapon failed me.
time skip 1.5 years later
After a year and a half had passed I finally was given a name. It wasn't the best but it could have been worse. I was named Dran
for the past year and a half I had been learning to craft small knives out of stone, bone or any other hard materials I could find in the cave. the reason I learned how to craft knife is so if any of the one a have broke I will always be able to make another one and so I can make them different shapes and sizes so that they are not all the same making it a harder challenge to throw them right which will intern increase my skill in throwing knifes. My mother and her relatives seem to speak primarily the common tongue but they all seem to know some old tongue. I think it was the crone who taught them how. Besides that I have tried to for lack of a better word shoot my conscience out of my body so that I could learn to skinchange but I don't think I can learn to be a skinchanger without line of sight so I haven't gone anywhere on that front. but besides that I have carved all the runes I have seen on a stone slab so I could memorize them but without knowing their meaning I can't do much with them. I have been walking around the cave for at least 45 minutes every day to stay in shape and to build stamina, it seems that whatever was done to my feet has given me a better constitution I am not as bothered by the cold as I was earlier and as long as I don't stab myself it seems that the skin on my feet have the strength of leather and while I can still feel with my feet they don't seem to feel pain. Making me think that they could be good weapons if I train to throw kicks and punches. It will be a good skill to have if I lose my weapons. With that being said I have started to trade my better knives for more food and it seems to have paid off. I seemed to have filled out and gotten taller over the past year . Sadly there still is nothing to do but practice practice and more practice which is tiring at times making me want to give up but then I am reminded of the ice zombie that will come for the free folk at some point making me push that much harder to improve my skills so I can survive the second long night. Another skill I have tried to cultivate is climbing and while I am nervous about falling to my death I have to push through that because if all else falls I will be able to climb the wall and run, so I will always have a backup plan.
time skip one year later
If my estimate was correct I was somewhere past 6 years of age.
I was fluent enough in common that I was able to have conversations and ask questions about the world to gain information about the timeline. Sadly all I know is that I am somewhere between Robert's rebellion and canon. that about as much information about the timeline i can gather on this side of the wall. I had asked the crone if she could teach me the old tongue and while she said yes she would teach me by talking to me in the old tongue so progress is slow on that front. she said she'd teach me runes only if I was fluent in the old tongue bringing that to a complete holt besides that my knife throwing and crafting skills have plateau without having moving targets to practice on and having sub-par crafting materials makes it to where I can only hit a target from any place in the cave and with the crafting I have been able to make them fast and been able to make them sharper all of my materials are brittle making them easy to break and the don't last long.
As months go by I have picked up on more old tongue but not to where I am fluent.
My relatives and I don't really have a loving relationship. They make sure to take care of me but that's about it. I believe It has something to do with my father but they have made sure to keep it quiet not that it really matters. I didn't want to replace my out family with a new one especially while I was grieving for what I lost. The first few months were hard but as time passed I did my best to move on and not let it bother me. because if I did then I would still be wallowing in grief and when the others came I would have died . so I did my best to think on the bright side like I am in a world with magic and I can meet my favorite characters from the books. So it doesn't bother me that my kin in this life don't treat me with care because as long as they can provide for me long enough for me to go out on my own then I will be grateful.
time skip one year
as I turn seven I started to trade my best knife and spear heads for more food in preparation for heavy exercises and practice with training weapon that I had made the year before with wood they brought in for the fire they let me use some and I use the wood they gave me to make some small training weapons a short spear, a small long sword, a long knife, and a buckler were all thing I crafted using the wood. with the spear I trained thrusting slicing and cutting the air with precise movements to build up my frame along with hacking slashing with the sword thrusting with the knife and bashing the wall with the buckler were all this I did to condition my body the reason I focused on conditioning instead of skill is because I don't have anyone to teach me stances or katas. I made sure to stretch and to stay nimble because no matter how strong I become there will always be someone faster, stronger or more skilled than me so I will have to try to stack the deck in my favor in all areas that I can. A strong but limber body will give me the most advantages. In that area the main thing I want to work on is hunting with a bow and knife because that is the best way to train those skills but sadly I am too young to survive outside this cave. After I get stronger and grow some more I will request one of my relatives to teach me to hunt and you a bow.
for the past couple weeks I have gotten into a routine of training and learning different thing I have started to fill out more and no longer look like snik and bone. and I'm becoming more fluent in old tongue all most to the point to where I can have a conversation in it which is making me excited I mean who wouldn't want to be able to talk to giants or learn the runes of the old tongue which in theory is able to perform magic enchanting and protection are all thing I am excited about
After doing that for a few more weeks I asked my relatives to catch an animal so I could see if I was a skinchanger. South of the wall skinchangers are a myth, but north of the wall skinchangers are met with both fear and awe so the idea that someone in are group could be a skinchanger was a big thing so even if they were skeptical it would still be worth it if there was even a small chance I was one so after a few days of begging they went out to hunt and brought back a small white colored fox with eyes the color of crystal ice it's age seemed to be that of a young adult for the first few days they kept an eye on me and the fox but after a couple of weeks of no progress they seemed to have lost interest. little did they no the I was pretending to practice during the day because if I was a skinchanger I didn't want anyone to no it was too large of an advantage to be a skinchanger and no one for me to let even my relatives now so at night I would practice skinchanging for the first couple of night nothing seemed to happen but one night as I was trying to keep a calm mind a became frustrated over the lack of success and as I got angrier and angrier it happen one moment I am looking a the fox and the next I am looking at myself lying on the ground. being in the skin of an animal felt weird I seemed to be overly curious yet overly cautious at the same time it was a weird dichotomy I could see much better the smell in the cave was horrible as all the new senses started to overwhelm me I found myself looking up a the sealing of the cave.