He was watching Eastwatch, Castle Black and all the ways into Winterfell by every animal he could snag.
He didn't go in beyond the walls of the Stark stronghold - it did have its own magic guarding it that was stronger without Eda's welcoming essence there.
But also because he did not want to deal with the three eyed raven at the moment.
His time would come.
After a few days, he watched Jon Snow traveling to Winterfell with a small group of men that he had taken with him beyond the wall.
He did not see or feel his beloved among them.
He felt prying eyes of the raven pup on him, but the child was so untrained.
One glance into his mind showed the newly minted seer had not heard anything since the other pup left the capital.
The Night King flipped the mirrored glass puzzle he could now see was finally starting to flow through the young mind of the Stark child.
He saw the memories of Jon Snow's birth.
Ah, so Edaline didn't simply call her cousins her brothers she really thought Ned Stark was the pup's real father.
The King, who has always known Jon real parentage, was actually a bit surprised that none of the Stark children knew it either, and that it took the new master seer this long to deduct it.
He looked back into reality, he was less than a mile from Eastwatch. He had a dragon capable of breathing blue flames that could tear down the wall.
His army numbered hundreds of thousands and he could always raise more.
What was he waiting for!
But he knew.
He wanted his delicious soft companion at his side. He wanted her always at his side. He should have never let her go south.
He clenched his fists. The dragon silently sitting near by - extremely silently for a creature that size, opened its huge blue eyes.
He would keep looking he decided.
His generals didn't question him.
The silent necromancers at his side knew better, plus it wasn't in their nature to question.
Then something caught his attention across the wall.
He quickly zoomed in to his set of eyes from where he felt her.
Jon Snow just opened a small parchment scroll dropped into his hand by an exhausted looking bird.
They were resting at an inn somewhere halfway between Eastwatch and Winterfell.
The moment the scroll hit the snow he felt her call in it, felt her need for him, her urgency from the spots that his borrowed eyes allowed him to see. He was looking through a wolf, so everything was in shades of grey. But he smelled her blood on the ink.
That was enough.
His queen and his child inside her were calling out for him - and he had means to break through.
He was done waiting, eight thousand years done!
He mounted the dead dragon in one swift move.
This wasn't a first for him and he was always a good rider.
Thousands of years ago and now still.
Penetrating the wall at Eastwatch was a sensation beyond pleasure.
Watching the magical barrier crumble under the blue icy flame of his new dragon and his dead marched in was … he would say the single greatest moment of the last millennia but it would be a lie.
The moment Edaline Stark looked into his face with her obsidian eyes and told him about the miracle in her belly was the best moment of the last millennia.
The giant fuck you to the living breathing world, the children, the wall - everything.
He had a queen who will bear his child.
Who will forever be at his side.
He wanted to wrap his arms around his little goddess right this moment.
Wanted to run his fingers over that tiny swell where a new unlife they made was growing.
Wanted to fuck her in every way on the remnants of the wall while humanity died.
The wall crumbled and men screamed.
He reeled his dragon back. He needed some of them alive to question and to find Jon Snow and Edaline's location.
He grounded the dead animal at the foot of destroyed castle - his keen eyes plus eyes of his army looking for survivors.
Within an hour about fifty men were rounded up and by the wights.
The rest must have died or escaped.
He absentmindedly raised his hand and the newly dead began to dig themselves out of the crushing weight of the broken debris.
The lack of need to take a breath or stay warm greatly assisted them where they failed while still living.
He coldly looked over the surrounded group trying to figure out who would be the leader.
Normally a proper leader took command and protected his men - but wildrings he knew usually had more guts than the rangers so they all jumped forward.
He noticed the flaming head of one who stood taller than the rest.
Ah! Edaline spoken fondly of this human before - huge and kissed by fire. And he was a friend of Jon Snow...
She was very adamant he remained unharmed when he ventured on the last mission with her brother.
What was his name?
"Tormund Giantsbane, come here "
The Night King called out to the ginger giant and pointed his icy blue finger and his eyes at him. His voice sounded like ancient ice cracking and absolutely terrifying.
The man literally froze among the chaos meeting the Night King's eye's in shock - his sword half raised.
The silent Others never spoke never even approached closer than the furthest hill.
He was in shock that not only did the Night King speak the common tongue but also knew his name personally.
The ginger giant moved forward pushing the rest of the humans behind him.
Like a proper leader, the king silently approved.
He remembered liking the man from Eda's stories before.
His fire kissed hair reminded the Night King of the men in his own tribe so long ago.
Those that stood up to the cruel tricky Children of the forest. He wondered if there was a shared lineage there.
The man was clearly stupid and brave enough to be a descendant.
He watched Turmound charge at him - sword out, face red.
"I will kill you, or I will die trying! THIS IS FOR THE LIVING!" The giant bellowed and charged.
The king shattered his weapon with his own icy blade. Pinning the man in the next move of supernatural speed and strength, face down on the ground with his foot and restraining him as if the giant was a small child
"Tormund Giantsbane" he repeated - his voice sounding more human to his own ears - when he spoke to his Edaline he wasn't actually sure they spoke out loud any more - and he had not needed to speak to anyone else in centuries.
"Where is she? Where is Edaline?"
Turmound turned his head as much as he could, a look of blank confusion on his honest face.
"You want…who"
The king repeated himself, was he not speaking in the correct language?
Ah, no, the man was just being dense.
"The sister child of the one you call Jon Snow" he clarified himself.
"What you want little Eda for - I vowed to keep her safe and I will die doing so" Turmound gripped his sword tighter and furrowed his face angrily.
The king was really beginning to not completely despise this human and he loosened the grip on his arm from lethal to painful.
"She traveled to the capital down south with Jon Snow and one of the dead you acquired from my army a few weeks ago to show the queen" he added helpfully.
Turmound's face changed to blank than to shock.
"How did you know why we took it…?"
"Because Edaline asked if her brother could take it"
Turmound's face turned snow white than reddened again with fury,
"You are lying!" He growled trying to throw himself at the king again, only to be pinned back down by inhuman strength.
"You took the wight and sent the young boy back for help after my army surrounded you - I let him reach back here so he could send a message to the white haired female child. You see, I needed her to bring her dragons"
He gestured at the blue- eyed monster behind him.
"Edaline specifically asked me to let you take one of my wights and return back alive or all of you would be gone the moment I had this" he gestured at the dragon.
He remembered why he hated talking to humans, they were so dense.
"I am asking you now one last time - where is she now?"
Turmound swallowed hard.
"You really don't know..?"
"WHY WOULD I BOTHER NOT KILLING YOU AND ASKING YOU THIS IF I DID!" The king bellowed losing his final ounce of self control.
The hordes of the dead moved a foot forward until he put a hand out to stop them mid-step.
The red giant's face grew fierce with anger at being scolded.
Bravery and enormous stupidity in the face of danger - he bet they were distant clan mates.
"I will tell you, if no harm comes to my people"
That's it?
"Fine" the king answered pretending like he had to think.
"You swear?"
The king reeled in his temper and swore an ancient oath of his people.
Evidently it was still valid - as Turmound looked in shock that King knew its words and didn't burst into flames saying them, then lowered his weapon.
"I had word from Jon that she disappeared off the ship they took back - Jon said it was meant to look like she fell overboard but he was sure she was snatched.
Edaline would not come close to a ship's edge.. on her own and she isn't a drunkard to just fall off on a clear night, and an excellent swimmer even if it was cold"
"Cold would not been a problem…. The king said almost to himself
"Ships make her sea sick .and standing closer to the edge makes it worse - I also do not believe this"
Tormund looked at the king in horror - somehow finding the Nightking off - hand knowledge of those intimate details about little Edaline was most disturbing to him.
"You, Tormund Giantsbane will send a raven to summon Jon Snow, I wish to speak to him - he comes without the dragons or the girl that mounts them, if he declines, my army will begin exterminating every living thing as they march forward towards Winterfell.
For now, they will stand here."
Turmound wasn't sure how to even start that.
Mance, the king beyond the wall, taught every free man or woman to read and write if they wanted.
So that was the least of his problems.
Once the remainder of the living were escorted to the bowls of the broken castle with all the food supply they had stored (clearly this army did not care about their cellars) and safe.
He wrote a short scroll to his friend.
The Night King broken the wall, Eastwatch is destroyed and occupied. The hordes are not moving south yet.
He wants you to come here without dragons or their queen.
The Night King wishes to speak to you about Edaline - if you do not come, his army will start killing.
No matter how many times he read it over - it sounded so insane that he finally tied it to the raven and let it go.
If Jon didn't believe him… everyone would die anyways.
Turmound was watching the king, who was in turn not doing anything particularly magical or evil at the moment. Just sitting in his dead horse peering into the fog as if trying to see something.
Finally his curiosity got better of him.
"Why are you interested in little Edaline anyways?" He asked.
The king looked up startled out of his thoughts. That gesture was so human is made Turmound uncomfortable.
He turned his strange dead face and his inhuman glowing eyes and the man wished he stayed quite now.
"She needs to come home'
The monster said it so normally and there was no question left about where 'home' was for sweet pretty Edaline Stark.
Little sister of the man who took up to fight for the living as his main cause in this life. Who took a knife to the heart to protect the living.
Turmound for once had nothing to say