Anera had never thought she would find herself like this. Tending fires in a castle with her ankles in chains. She glanced back to see Osha, struggling to keep a bundle of sticks tied together. Footsteps sounded behind them, and Anera lifted her gaze to the man from the forest, whose name she had quickly learned was Theon. The moment his green eyes met her blue ones, she looked away. "You're both very lucky girls. Do you know that?" he asked.

Osha gave a stiff nod, but Theon only continued. "Where I come from, we don't show mercy to criminals. Where I come from, if someone like you two attacked a little lord? At low tide we'd lay you on your back on the beach, your hands and feet chained to four stakes. The sea would come in closer and closer. You'd see death creeping toward you a few inches at a time."

Anera fought the urge to smirk as she asked, "where exactly do you come from?"

Theon started to move toward her as he answered, "the Iron Islands."

"They far away at all?" Anera pressed.

He seemed stunned. "You've never heard of the Iron Islands?"

"Trust me. You wouldn't have heard of where we're from neither," Anera replied, nodding toward Osha.

"'Trust me, my lord,'" he corrected, and when Anera and Osha looked at him confusedly, he continued, "you're not living in the wilderness anymore. In civilized lands, you refer to your betters by their proper titles."

"And what's that?" Osha asked.

"Lord," Theon replied.

"Why?" Osha said.

Theon was unamused. "Why?" he asked. "What do you mean why? My father is Balon Greyjoy, Lord of the Iron Islands."

"What has that got to do with you?" Anera asked.

She looked at Theon, feigning curiosity. "If your father's the lord, how can you be the lord, too?"

"I will be the lord after my father- -" Theon began.

"But you're not the lord yet."

"No, you- - Are you having a go at me? Is that what you're doing?"

Anera shook her head. "Of course not, my lord. I just don't understand how you southerners do things."

"I'm not a southerner," Theon stated.

"You're from south of the Wall. That means you're a southerner."

Anera heard Osha snort at that. She looked away when she heard Theon coming toward her, hardly flinching when he grabbed her face, bringing her head up to meet his eyes fully. "You are an impudent wench, aren't you? You and your friend."

She shrugged. "I'm afraid I don't know what 'impunent' means."

"Impudent," he corrected. "And it means rude."

At that, she fought the urge to smile. "Can't you just say rude, then? Or do like having your fancy words, my lord?"

He glared, reaching to pull the chain around her ankles. "You want to lose this chain?"

"Theon Greyjoy!"

The three of them all looked up to see an elderly man, who Anera knew to be called Maester Luwin. Theon dropped Anera, getting to his feet and putting his hands behind his back. "The ladies are our guests," Maester Luwin said.

"I thought they were our prisoners," Theon replied.

"Are the two mutually exclusive in your experience?"

Anera smiled to herself, getting back to placing firewood into the fireplace. Theon held back a retort, turning and leaving the room. Maester Luwin sighed. "Chances are I won't be nearby the next time that happens," he told Osha and Anera.

"We're used to worse than him," Osha said, and when Maester Luwin raised an eyebrow, she explained. "We're used to men that could chew that boy up and pick their teeth with his bones."

Maester Luwin chuckled at that, moving to look at the two women. "Why did you come here?" he asked.

"Didn't mean to come here," Anera replied. "We needed to get much farther south than this. As far south as south goes, before the Long Night starts."

"Why?" Maester Luwin asked. "What are you afraid of?"

Anera let out a low breath, raising her head to meet his eyes. "There are things that sleep during the day and hunt at night."

"Owls and shadowcats- -"

"I'm not talking about owls and shadowcats."

Maester Luwin looked as if he wanted her to elaborate, but Anera went silent. He hesitated. "The 'things' you speak of- - they've been gone for thousands of years."

"They wasn't gone, old man," Osha said. "They was sleeping. And they ain't sleeping no more."

One morning, ravens flew from Winterfell. Hundreds of them took to the sky, squawking loudly. Anera watched them through a window, her blue eyes wide. She had never seen so many birds all at once. Beyond the Wall, the only birds she saw were snowy white owls or bright red robins. For a moment she began to wonder what it would be like out of the chains around her ankles, running through the forest with all those birds above her. Her thoughts were broken by Theon's voice. "What are you doing?"

"Watching the ravens," she said, not even sparing him a glance.

"You have work to do," he replied.

She rolled her eyes. "Sorry, my lord. I'm just distracted."

She turned to face him, offering a flash of a smile. Theon was not amused. He pushed her down the hallway. "Get back to your work."

Withholding a growl, she nodded obediently. "Of course, my lord."

He took her wrist then, and she whirled around to face him, teeth bared in a snarl. He raised an eyebrow, grip tightening. "You're on thin ice," he stated. "You have to show respect to your betters."

She pulled her wrist free. "You may have me in chains," she stated, "but you're not my better."

He raised a hand to slap her. She caught his wrist, fingernails digging into the skin. "The minute I'm out of these chains, I promise you, boy, I'll put a dagger through your eye."

His green eyes locked with her blue ones. In her grip, his hand was shaking with rage. He curled it into a fist, lowering his arm. "You'll never leave those chains if you keep acting like this."

There was a strange sincerity to his words that made her drop his wrist. She turned away, starting to walk down the hall, calling back, "I could've broken your wrist then. Don't get so close if you don't want the consequences."

Surprisingly, Theon had no retort.