6 Months Before the Death of Jon Arryn
Stann
The gate was raised slowly, and the light began to pierce the darkness in the tunnel. The twelve rangers waited atop their mounts, waited for the opening to be cleared. They sat in pairs, atop mounts as dark as the cloaks their riders wore.
Stann was on the left side of the fifth row, and he was shaking. Micah was on the right side of the third row, looking for all the world as if this were what he were born to do. Benjen was on the left side of the first row, the only man who looked more at ease than Micah. But Stann could see a difference in the two men's demeanor: Benjen knew the dangers that awaited them beyond the Wall and was confident in his ability to overcome them. Micah was too stupid to realize how dangerous it was. And Stann, well he was too craven to care.
Benjen Stark gave the signal, and the company advanced out beyond the safety of the Wall into the territory of the Wildlings.
The company rode all day and part way into the night, following the lead of the First Ranger, who seemed to know exactly where he was going, though how he knew was beyond Stann. What he did know was that the First Ranger did not need him or any of the others to accomplish what he had set out to do. Perhaps others took confidence from this, drew strength from the power of their commander. For Stann, it was just one more confirmation that he was expendable.
They broke camp at first light, and began moving north again. As far as Stann could tell they were headed due north. The reason given for this mission was to find the three missing rangers. But it was almost as if Benjen knew exactly where they had been headed, for he did not seem interested in stopping to try and find traces of them. Not that there would be many traces after three months.
On the third day, the company again moved almost due North, perhaps veering slightly to the west. But something was different this day. The First Ranger seemed agitated, as if something were eating away at him. He kept staring off into the tree line, as if looking for his quarry around every tree, and surprised by what was not there. Throughout the whole day, he never removed his hand from his sword.
That night, while seated around the fire, Benjen seemed even surer that something was lurking just out of sight.
They sat around the fire, and one by one the men drifted off to sleep until it was only the First Ranger and Stann still awake.
The two sat around the crackling fire, both lost in their own thoughts. The First Ranger still had his hand on his sword.
"Snowhopper" he said.
"m'lord" Stann responded.
"Call me, Benjen. Lord Stark is my brother." Stann was uncertain of the First Ranger's informality. It didn't sit well with the anxious man ready to draw his weapon if someone breathed too loudly.
"Today is your nameday, is it not?"
"It is, m'lord, I mean, Benjen."
"How old are you?"
"Thirteen"
"By the gods" he said in surprise. "You've been with us for almost a year. How in the seven hells did you get yourself sent to the Wall at twelve."
"Eleven. I was sent to the Wall at eleven. My mother died giving birth to me. Father remarried, and when his new wife gave him a son, he didn't want any complications in the line of succession."
"I did not realize your father was a lord."
"He wasn't. But he was wealthy." Benjen was silent.
"On one hand," he finally said, "I understand being pushed aside in favor of on the other, I have no idea what that must have been like for you." He sighed. "All three of my siblings are famous throughout the whole Seven Kingdoms, but people often forget Ned Stark has a younger brother. But I wasn't cast out in favor of him."
"Brandon and Lyanna destroyed Westeros, and Ned remade it, along with Jon Arryn. Robert was just along for the ride" Stann said. "But while they played politics, you protected the realm. You, the one who will forever be the unsung Stark, are the greatest hero of them all."
"Tell me, Stann" Benjen said, ignoring Stann's last remark, "is there something about our trek so far that makes you uneasy."
"The truth is, Benjen, everything about this journey makes me uneasy. I do not know why I was chosen to be a Ranger."
"Because fifty years from now, when you are the obvious choice for Lord Commander, you will be the only Ranger who can claim fifty years of service to the Night's Watch."
"If I am still alive fifty years from now."
"There is that" Benjen conceded. "But what makes you uneasy about your surroundings right now? What is missing?"
"Sound? Warmth? I really don't know."
"What is the first thing you think of when I say the words 'North of the Wall'?"
"Wildlings?"
"Exactly! Where are the Wildlings? We're almost fifty miles from the Wall and we haven't seen a single Wildling."
"You were expecting to have been attacked by now, and the lack of Wildlings is making you uneasy" Stann said, finally understanding the First Ranger's confusion.
"Not attacked, exactly. Wildlings this close to the Wall are generally fairly cooperative with the Watch, unless they think they can overwhelm our patrols, which usually means one of the northern warlords has come south. But the Wildlings fight each other as much as they do us. In fact, we spend a fair amount of time defending the Wildling settlements within a day's ride of the Wall.
"No, it's not an attack I've been expecting. But we haven't even seen a Wildling. It's as if they've all gone somewhere. I was expecting to hear news of a northern warlord come down to terrorize the southern villages and the Watch, but that does not seem to be the case."
"So what do you think happened to our Rangers."
"I don't know, Snowhopper. But there are stories of things worse than Wildings north of the Wall."
"Worse things?" Stann asked, feeling the flame of panic rise up in his chest again.
"The stories tell of dead men walking, of creatures of Ice and Children of the Forest, and of a Three-Eyed Crow."
"And you believe these stories?"
"If you want me to tell you they are not real, I cannot do that. The Wildlings are very adamant they exist. I've never seen a dead man walk, or a walker made of ice, but men do not build three hundred foot high walls to stop other humans from crossing. And the Night's Watch has a signal for the dead approaching"
"If dead men really do walk beyond the Wall, how do we kill them?"
"I don't know. But the Wildlings always burn their dead, so fire may be useful. But perhaps the fire stops them from resurrecting and has no effect on a moving dead person. "
"So if the stories are true and we encounter a monster, we run?"
"No. If we encounter a creature from the stories, we must find some way to kill it."
"But what if there is no way to kill it?"
"Then our watch will be ended."
That night, Stann went to sleep with a wetness in his pants that had not come from the snow.