Val thought they were making progress! She had managed to get her to drink some water and was in the process of describing where they were. Tormund had already explained how they found her, and the other people they had found.

She still hadn't said anything, but was listening closely, her brows furrowed in concentration. So, she continued, described her people, how they were heading further south soon. She didn't mention the white walkers though, not yet.

"What's your name?" Tormund interrupted. It sounded more like a demand…

She turned in his direction, an odd look on her face. "Verona…" she said quietly, voice scratchy sounding. Val poured more water and set in down in from of her, she drank it quickly.

"I know this must be… overwhelming" Val began gently "But, you believe us, right? You fell from the sky, in a hollow chunk of metal, and you're in the far north of a place called Westeros?"

"I know you're not lying… and we call it an airship."

Val looked at Tormund, he looked back at her. This was good, she was telling them things, now to get her to continue. "Oh?" she prompted, still in a gentle voice.

"There were more people with me… more than five. Can you take me back there? Maybe you just didn't know where to look…" More people wasn't good, they could have been turned already. Maybe she should explain.

"Tell us where you're from first, and we'll consider it."

Damn it Tormund… Val thought with frustration.

"… A country called the United States, on the continent of North America."

Well… Val already knew she wasn't from around here, but to hear it so plainly was still shocking. Tormund stood, promised to be back with a proper coat, and left.

Verona started at where he left, wrapped in a blanket Val had given her. An awkward silence arose between them. "So um, did you know the people you were with very well?"

"No… I met them a couple days ago I guess."

"oh. Well, could you explain what an airship is then?"

She looked thoughtful, and a bit confused. Like she had never been asked to explain it and didn't know where to start.

"They're used for transporting things really, but they can hover in place too, for long periods of time. That's what made them different than airplanes and jets."

"That thing was able to float in the air? It made of metal. There's nothin' I've heard of that can fly like that."

Verona turns towards her, a curious look on her face. Tormund walked back in before she could ask anything though, an extra coat in hand.

Verona's POV:

I placed my hand on the ship, concentrating on trying to find others, a heartbeat, or someone taking a breath. There was nothing…

But it was odd, it was too small… I made a fist a knocked against the hull. I could tell a few people jumped. The ones further away watching, and the two closest to her. It wasn't even half of it… must have broken apart…

"Thought you were going to look for your people?" The man askes, sounding uneasy.

"I did. There's no more heartbeats. But this isn't the whole thing… What direction did it fall from?"

"But are there more bodies, where would they be that we haven't looked, as you said?"

Its nice, I suppose, that they wanted to bury them as well. Or cremate them, like they did the others they found. I felt a pang in my heart, as I pondered what their names were… they never did say…

"It's split open, no sealed doors. If there were more, you would have seen them. Which direction did it… did we fall from?"

Someone else was walking closer, I turned my head a bit, but kept my hand on the hull. There was an uneasy silence, and I grew a bit frustrated. It had been awhile since I was around people who were so uncomfortable around me, or people who didn't understand how my being blind didn't mean I didn't know where things (people included) were. Anyway, only five others found, the rest had to be in the other half. I should find them, they would have a better idea of what was going on, one of them had to know what the hell happened. One of them had to know how to get back.

No one was saying anything. They must be communicating by looks… what jerks.

Finally, someone spoke again. It sounded like the man from when I first woke up… should probably apologize for pushing them. No one had asked me yet, but I'm sure they're being so careful around me because of what I did.

"It came from the south. And as it happens, that's exactly where we're headed."

Jon was in the thick of it now. In the middle of a wildling camp, he never would have thought he would be here. He stared after the kids that ran off from him, thinking about the kids back home who were probably in the same situation… it wouldn't do to linger on those thoughts though. Ygritte and the lord of bones led him to Mance Rayder's tent.

There were three men inside, the largest one eating by the fire, and the first to speak… probably the leader then. But there was another there too, also in wildling cloths, with a hood up and turned away from him.

After foolishly kneeling for the completely wrong person, and being told to stand back up, Jon felt even more nervous. Jon watched silently as Ygritte left.

"The girl likes you. You like her back Snow? That why you want to join us?" Jon was uncomfortable with the implication. Uncomfortable with the fact that he actually did like her too…

"Don't panic boy, this isn't the damn night's watch where we make you swear off girls." the redhead supplied.

"This chicken eater here you thought was king is Tormund Giantsbane." Mance gestured to the redhead.

"Can't believe this pup killed halfhand…" Tormund added grumbling.

"He was our enemy, and I'm glad he's dead." Mance reaches his hand out for Jon to shake. Jon looks down and takes it. Mance stares at him intensely.

"He was my brother once… back when he had a whole hand. What were you doing with him?" He tosses Jon's hand away.

"The lord commander sent me to the halfhand for seasoning."

"Why?"

"He wants me to lead one day"

"But here you are, a traitor. Kneeling for the king beyond the wall."

"If I'm a traitor, you are too." Jon points out, causing the two wildlings close to him to look at him intensely.

"Why do you want to join us Jon Snow?" Mance asks after looking him up and down.

"I want to be free." Jon decided to say.

"No, I don't think so." Mance replied, too quickly for Jon to be comfortable.

"I think what you want to be most of all, is to be a hero. I'll ask you one last time, why do you want to join us?"

Jon paused before responding. "We stopped at Craster's keep on the way north. I saw…

"What did you see?"

"I saw Craster take his baby boy into the woods and leave him in the snow. I saw what took him."

"You telling me you saw one of them?"

Jon stared intently at Mance, telling him he was serious.

"And why would that make you abandon your brothers?" Mance questioned further.

"When I told the lord commander, he already knew." Jon looked right at Mance "Thousands of years ago, the first men battled the white walkers and defeated them. I want to fight for the side that fights for the living. Did I come to the right place?" Jon stared intensely, almost challengingly.

"We'll need to find you a new cloak." Mance responded, a small smile on his face as he turned away.

The others seemed less tense now, backing away from him. The other one he hadn't looked at though, because they didn't move, was looking towards him now. He was surprised to see that it was a girl, and not only that, with blue hair that fell over her face, to just passed her nose. Her face obscured mostly, but her he could tell her nose was sharp and slightly upturned, and her eyes pale. Her head was tilted a bit as she looked towards him, but it didn't look like she was focused on him.

"Noticed her have you? That's another thing to talk about. Someone will have told the rest of your little group by now. You noticed the crash marks as you got here Snow?"

"Yes… fortunate it missed you." Jon supplied, confused about how it related.

"Fortunate." Tormund sniggered to himself.

"There were people inside. Here's the only one we found alive." Mance nodded in the girl's direction.

Jon's head snapped back to her, though she wasn't looking towards him anymore, she stared blankly at the wall of the tent. Jon struggled to think of anything to say to such a revelation. He had seen the thing in the sky, is certainly looked unnatural, but he never thought a person could be inside it, it was unimaginable. Not only that, but how could someone even survive a fall from the sky?

"We promised her safe passage south, she thinks there are more of her people there."

Jon was still staring, but she wasn't looking back at him, she wasn't even staring at anything really…

"You're blind?" Jon blurted out. He heard the other sniggering at him and flushed. Then he heard her chuckle quietly and looked back up. She was smiling a bit.

"How rude." She said dryly "I prefer, visually challenged, if you don't mind." she was still smiling so he guessed she was teasing him. The sniggering got louder, and the big redheaded man actually let out a laugh.

"But how did you survive?"

She shrugged, "I have tough bones, and an even harder head apparently."

"But, but how – wh-where did you – " Jon sputtered out.

"Different world, as far as I can tell. Nothing in common but the language, for some reason… which doesn't make any sense…" She trailed off quietly, but then began again, as if startled back to them. "But there's something I would like to know, something you neglected to mention." She said while standing, speaking to Mance this time.

The other two wildlings looked at her, the redhead raised an eyebrow but didn't appear worried, just curious. Mance turned to face her as well.

"What took the baby… its something you're all scared of. I could tell, as soon as it was mentioned, you all reached an understanding quite quickly. So… what are these white walkers?"

Mance let out a sigh and looked towards Tormund, and eyebrow raised in question.

"Best tell her… better for her to be prepared as we go south." He huffed out.

They were making slow, but steady progress further south. Each night, Jon thought about how he was supposed to get away, to warm the night's watch. Even with a lot of ground to cover, he felt he was running out of time. Not to mention his now growing feelings for Ygritte, and how she was starting to make him question his own upbringing and morals. And the girl from the sky was another matter entirely.

She mentioned how there was another part of the ship that brought her here, how there were more people that would be with it. That if she could find then there would be a chance for them to go home somehow. When questioned on how exactly they would do that, she simply answered, that's why I need to find the others, I have no idea what happened, much less how to copy it.

The whole situation was almost too strange.

She was curious about the world though. She didn't always ask questions, but you could tell she was always listening closely for new information. Tormund seemed to like telling her stories, mostly of his own fierce deeds, and how the wildling way of life went, how they had been fighting for centuries over their rightful land south of the wall.

Ygritte turned out to like her quite a bit, especially after she had told them that her own country was a democratic nation that chose their own leaders. Ygritte smirked right at him after, as if to say, see? A whole other world out there and they don't have any lords or kings.

Learning that had made him uneasy. Perhaps, she would join the wildings in their attack? If she agreed more with how they viewed things. There was something about her, something the others knew that they weren't telling… but he thought there was something dangerous about her. The fact that she was able to get around so well without seeing was odd enough. Though, it seemed like she had a harder time walking in the snow, he even saw her stumble a few times. But never on more solid ground.

She wore wildling cloths, but her boots were different. He hadn't noticed before, but they were smooth black leather, they looked expensive. He wondered what she was wearing when she appeared from the other world. She carried a bag with her, something a wildling named Val gave her. He wondered what was in it sometimes.

She sought him out, some nights, while everyone was eating. She wanted to know more about the south, more than the others were telling her. It made the wildlings close by uneasy, both at her and at himself, unfortunately. But her explanation seemed innocent enough…

If the other half of the ship landed south of even Castle Black, are you just going to send me south without any heads ups? I need to know what to expect at least, surely that's not asking for too much.

Explaining the way things were to a literal other worlder, was decidedly odd. The lands of the seven kingdoms were easy enough to describe, along with the leading families… the politics were more difficult to explain, but he did his best. He tried to avoid the topic of who rightfully lived where…

One night, she had asked why he was known by Mance already, as a bastard. He had already talked about his family, but not the specifics exactly… it was difficult to explain, some of his bitterness lingering in this voice. He asked if they didn't have the same attitude where she was from, the answer surprising most everyone close by.

Marriage got less and less popular as time went on, it's an old fashioned thing now. What's important is making a promise to someone. You can live together or whatever without being married, that includes having children. No one really cares about that anymore.

Even the wildlings had their marriage rituals. Jon wondered if her parents where that way but didn't find it in himself to ask. The idea was both strange and nice.

Her accent was odd, her 'r' and 'a' sounds the most different. She had odd phrases too, she added them so casually so her speech… He heard her say to Tormund that they all spoke like they were from Scotland…

He could see her approaching the fire he and seven other wildlings sat at tonight, Ygritte and Tormund among them. It was easy to spot her, she stuck out quite a bit with her hood down. He wondered if she would ask anything this time, or just be listening.

She carried a cup with her and placed it near the fire before finding a seat. That was something else peculiar she did, always letting her drink heat up if she could. When asked about it she said she just liked warm drinks, it wasn't something everyone did.

"Wanting to hear more stories, girl?" Tormund asked as she sat down. "How about you tell us some from your place first?"

"Oh? What kind of story would you like to hear?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Tell us more about where you were born. Did you have family? Is that why you insist on going to find your others, were they with you?" Ygritte asked her.

"Where I was born huh… It was in the largest city in the States, New York city. Hundreds of building there, so tall we called them skyscrapers. It's the city that never sleeps, because of all the lights, and noise… Though, I grew up mostly in the capital, I guess. Washington D.C. We moved there when I was… three years old, I turned four later though. There were a lot of museums there, free for everyone to go in. It didn't have buildings as tall, but they were grand in their own way. More, historic… or something." She gestured with her hand at the end.

Everyone looking fascinated. Jon wondered just how tall a building had to be to be called a skyscraper. She went on to describe the capital more, some monuments they had, and the house all the presidents lived in. She had a strange look when she mentioned that.

"I want to find the others because… well, I should try and make sure they're alright, at the very least. They were taking me back to D.C. after all… I owe them that, at least, don't I?

"As for family… My parents' names were Mathew and Melinda Rendell, they got married when I was two. I had one brother. His name was Lucas… they're gone now." She finished quietly, sounding resigned. Jon understood that. It wasn't long ago he learned of his own father's death.

"I think I'll just… take a walk before turning in. Excuse me…" They all watched as she picked up her cup and went off. Tormund giving Ygritte a look. "How was I supposed to know?" she hissed under her breath. Maybe because she hasn't mentioned them the entire time she's been here. Not even when they were talking about bastards, she hadn't mentioned she was one too, technically. Most people end up talking about those close to them. Even Jon had mentioned his brothers. Though, Mance Rayder already knew who his family was.

Jon got up to follow her, not really sure what he would say. Maybe talk more about Westeros as a distraction? It didn't take long to catch up to her.

"My father, Eddard Stark, was killed, not long ago" Jon found himself saying instead "Executed, accused of being a traitor… my brother Robb decided to march south, but I decided to stay in the north... It was part of the vow I took, I couldn't leave my brothers. Not when I knew what we were facing."

"What a horrible choice to have to make. I'm sorry you ever had to." Jon turned to Verona, who was looking troubled, well, as far as he could tell with her hair still mostly covering her face. It wasn't what he was expecting to hear…

"My brother was only seven years old. They were all killed… all at once. It was a long time ago now, but…" she trailed off, shaking her head like she didn't have the words. They ended up walking a bit away from camp. She stopped and turned to him. "Their deaths started a war. It was only declared over, the week before I came here."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because, I know war, and I know what it feels like before conflict happens. And I know the free folk and the southerns have some really bad history. Its going to get worse soon, with this army marching south. I'm not an idiot. I don't want to be forced to take a side. Not when I haven't even made up my mind about any of you… no offense."

"That still doesn't explain why you're telling me."

"You were lying, the first time you told Mance you wanted to join them. You were only half lying the second. I think, that you're not really one of them. You said yourself you chose to stay north, you must be close with the other… crows."

Jon tenses immediately, looking to see if anyone was close by.

"Don't worry, no one is close by." She points to her ears "I would know."

"You said yourself, you haven't decided on a side. What does that matter to you?" Jon asks carefully.

"It matters, because I'm not sure if they mean to actually let me go when the times comes. I just met these people after all. They're only telling me what they want me to know. They didn't tell me about the white walkers till you showed up. It would be nice to know I have someone's word that they'll help me leave when I want to. And seeing as you're not with them with them…"

He supposed it wouldn't hurt to give her the reassurance. He didn't know exactly why they had promised in the first place to help her. He nodded in acceptance and looked at her. She had her arms crossed expectantly. Oh, right…

"Yes" Jon rushed out, embarrassed he had forgotten, when he himself blurted it out at their first meeting. "Yes, I will help you leave, when you decide to, and if they don't let you." He continued more slowly. She turned her head to the side, a smirk grew on her face.

"You were nodding, weren't you?"

"Yes." He sighed. She started chuckling under her breath.

"Nice of you, to forget." She smiled and mocked him gently. He rolled his eyes but gave a small chuckle.

They both turned to make their way back closer to camp. Just before going off to where she was staying, with the wildling healer Val, he thought, she turned to him once more.

"I am sorry, to hear about your father. If he was anything like how you describe… then I know he wasn't a traitor."

"Thank you." He said softly.

She gave a small nod and walked off.