6 Months before the Death of Jon Arryn
Cenn
Cenn had always known his family and the six other families that lived within a day's walk of his home had lived far, far, far to the north of anyone else, but he had not realized exactly how far north they were. Cenn had walked due south every single day for more than half a year and he was only now starting to see signs of other humans.
Over the past six months Cenn had doubted his sanity more than once. After a month he had begun to question whether or not he was actually headed south. After three, he was sure he was not. By now, even though his instincts promised him he was headed south, his mind questioned every step.
But here in the snow was a snare for a hare, and this proved he had finally reached the outskirts of the domain of men. The White Walkers had once pushed far, far further South than this. During the Long Night, they had even gotten as far as four hundred leagues south of the Wall. Even now, in the height of summer, he knew they ranged as far south as within a day's walk of the Wall.
He remembered once, near two decades ago, when Cenn was not but a boy of twelve, his father and some of the men from the other nearby families had captured a White Walker alive. White Walker's couldn't be tortured, but they did fear death, or at least this one had. It had told them of a Wall far to the south, a Wall over one thousand feet high and defended by killer crows, a Wall the Night King was bound to get past. Knowing rumor always exaggerated, Cenn's father had estimated the Wall was really twenty-five to thirty feet in height and defended by men in black cloaks. Not exactly a supernatural barrier, but formidable all the same.
Cenn stopped walking, and sat down against a tree and wondered for the millionth time why he was headed south. He was not sure what he hoped to find down here, not sure this call was anything more than his own imagination. Cate and Alyse were to the north. Even in death, they had power over him; they called to him. He desperately missed them.
Cate had been his mate for fifteen years, and they had been mating for longer. Together they had had five strong boys and Alyse. But all of his sons had been ripped away from him by the White Walkers while they were yet children. Only the firstborn had reached manhood, and he had died within a month of that milestone. But through all of the sorrow he had never given up. He had never abandoned his home. But Alyse's death had broken him.
Maybe part of the reason he had abandoned the north, had answered the call, was because he couldn't bear to be in his hut, to sit around his fire without Alyse, while the memories of her were walking around. He couldn't sleep in the furs where Cate had nestled up against him without her. Every time he had lost a child, he had hunted down the White Walker or wight responsible and killed it, sometimes vanishing for weeks on end. And when he came back, Cate had been there. Alyse had been there.
Maybe another part of the reason he was headed south was because he hoped to find something, anything that would make the pain go away. Unlike his boys, Alyse's corpse had not been mutilated when she had died. No matter what Cenn did, he could not stop seeing his beautiful baby girl with his knife in her eye socket. He knew he had not killed her, that the wight was not her, but that did not change the way his heart contorted every time Cenn closed his eyes.
A final reason for his trek, perhaps, was one Cenn had hidden away in the back of his mind, the bottom of his heart, and the pit of his soul: the possibility that there was some magic south of the Wall that would bring his baby girl back to him. He knew it was impossible. He did not care. Alyse was dead, and so Cenn no longer cared about what was impossible. From this point forward, Cenn would be the one deciding what could or could not be done.
By the time Cenn's reverie had ended the sun was dipping quickly below the horizon, so Cenn began climbing up the tree he had rested against to tie himself in for the night. When one traveled alone as far north as Cenn's home, one learned the safest ways to sleep, and a tree was always the first choice. Evergreens with thick blankets of needles were great, second to only the Weirwoods, which the Other's avoided for some unknown reason. Cenn did not like to sleep in them; whenever he did, a night full of disturbing dreams of ice and fire followed, dreams of children, with eyes of green, throwing balls of light at the White Walkers while great beasts flew above, spewing fire indiscriminately. But as miserable as those nights were, Cenn was not foolish enough to pass up a night in a tree the Walkers would not touch.
But this was no weirwood. It was a tree unlike anything Cenn had ever seen. It was tall like a weirwood, though much thinner, Branches grew out of the tree, branches with no leaves on them. Cenn had never seen a tree like this, which was not an evergreen or a weirwood. But it looked strong and tall, so Cenn climbed into it for the night.
"I miss you guys" Cenn whispered, as he closed his eyes.
"Papa" Aylse called to him as he came back to the cabin, a fawn draped over his shoulders from his hunt. She ran to greet him and leapt into a hug, wrapping herself around him and nearly knocking him over. He waddled over to the hut where he deposited the deer, before returning Alyse's hug. He kissed the top of her head, then lifted her chin to look into her eyes, blue as the daytime sky, framed by a mane of red. Kissed by fire, just like her mother. He kissed her nose and then released her.
"Guess what, papa" she exclaimed, practically bouncing with excitement.
"You made dinner?" he guessed, knowing how she loved cooking.
"No, papa. I killed a wight today."
"Your first one?" he asked. "Where was it?" he asked Cate, who had just exited the hut.
"It was inside the fence" Cate said. "And there were two more on the other side of the hut. It was as if they were coordinating this, trying to get inside. And there's only thing that makes them smart enough to do that."
"There's a Walker nearby." She nodded at him before continuing.
"I would prefer it if you stayed here tomorrow."
"Tomorrow, I need to help Rikard fix his hut. Fool man nearly slept through a wight digging its way through the wall."
"What if the Walker comes when you're away? You know they never come without a host of wights, and I can't fight them all. I need you here."
"The Walker won't come tomorrow. It will have to head south to gather more wights."
"Cenn, I really think you should stay, just in case. I can't fight a Walker and a horde by myself."
"You won't be by yourself, mommy. You'll have me."
"Hear that, Cate, you'll have Alyse Wightsbane here to help you. All will be well, I promise you."
Cenn woke the next morning with tears frozen to his face.