5 Months before the death of Jon Arryn
Stann
Stann lay awake in the snow as Micah circled the camp on his late night watch. He clutched his knife tightly and waited for Micah to walk close to him.
This was a terrible plan, Stann knew that. There was no way he was going to subdue Micah with a small knife, let alone do it silently. Micah was bigger, stronger, and much better with his sword. And even if Stann were somehow to succeed in this mad escape, he would be alone beyond the Wall, with no friends, and every Wildling and man of the Watch seeking him. This was terrible plan. But Stann couldn't take one more day in the Watch.
For ten days they had traveled almost due north. Every day, Benjen had gotten more irritated. Even when they had arrived at a friendly Wildling's keep, Benjen had not been satisfied. The Wildling had told them Mance was gathering Wildlings in the Frostfangs. The Wildling had not known why Mance was gathering them, but there were not too many reasons why he would need one hundred thousand Wildlings. Mance had to be coming for the Wall. Stann was not going to be on the Wall when the Wildlings came.
But Benjen was not heading for the mountains. For some reason he was still headed north. The day before, they had reached the lonely hill they were now camped on. Three sides were near insurmountable, leaving only the south side for Stann's possible escape. There were not many scenarios that would be worse for Stann to attempt his escape.
The easiest way to escape would be to kill Micah, unhobble the horses, and scatter them, but that would doom all of the Rangers. Stann wanted out, but if possible he would avoid killing. Unfortunately, Stann did not see a way out that did not involve killing Micah. It most certainly did not help that the horses were tied at the far northern end of the hill, as far as possible from the only feasible way down by horseback.
Micah walked past again, and Stann rose. The one advantage he had was his ability to move silently. He crept away toward where the horses, and waited until Micah completed another round.
This was it. Up until now, Stann had not done anything he couldn't provide a rational explanation for. All he had done up until now was get up to make water. But as soon as he unhobbled this horse, he was a deserter from the Night's Watch.
Fear seized him. Stann stood, rooted in place. Too scared to continue in the Watch, too scared to leave it, what a man Stann was.
"But I'm not a man, am I?" Stann thought. "I am only a scared boy. I was never a man of the Night's Watch."
Stann unhobbled the horse and nudged it forward, toward the southern slope of the hill, and separated himself from it a little distance.
As Stann had hoped, Micah noticed the horse moving toward the camp. But in the darkness he hadn't noticed the small shadow that was Stann. He moved toward the horse, thinking someone had failed to hobble it well enough.
Micah ran his hands over the horse's snout, soothing it. Stann moved in from behind, holding his now drawn sword by the blade, and swung with all the force and momentum his small body could muster. The pommel of the sword connected with side of Micah's head with a crack that sounded far too loud to Stann.
Indeed it was. One of the other rangers darted awake and rolled to his feet as Stann dropped to the ground as quickly as he could.
The ranger scanned the area quickly and determined there was no threat. But he did notice the horse and walked over to it. When he was halfway to the horse it seemed to occur to him that the sentry was nowhere to be found. He drew his sword, and the sound seemed to alert another ranger.
Horrified, Stann began to move slowly back toward the line where the other horses were tethered. The first ranger had made it to the horse by now, but in the darkness he had not yet found Micah lying in the snow beside the horse.
Stann reached the standing line of horses and quickly began to unhobble them. As quickly as he could, he tied all of their reins to the pommel of a single horse.
By now all of the rangers were awake, and they knew he and Micah were missing. And second now, they would find Micah lying in the snow. Any second now, one of them would light a torch and it would all be over, Stann's only advantage negated.
Miraculously, neither of those things happened before Stann had finished tying the horses together. He mounted the lead horse, and hugged it as tightly as possible. Right as the first cries went out, which Stann assumed meant they had found Micah, Stann spurred his horses to a dead gallop.
The sudden charge of the horses caught the rangers by surprise. Most of them were able to get out of the way. Three or four went down screaming under thousands of pounds of horse flesh. Stann had no idea whether the unconscious Micah had been trampled or not.
Down the southern slope of the hill Stann went before wheeling the horses back around the hill and heading north. Stann couldn't head back to the Wall; he had to get as far from any member of the Watch as he could. He had to get north, farther than any ranging went, abandon his black cloak, and make a life for himself.
When Stann looped around, terror filled him. A single rider on the lone remaining horse was tearing down the hill after him. Stann had known someone would follow him. They couldn't let him get away with the horses.
Still, Stann galloped. He had to cover as much distance as possible. He had to get north of the hill before the lone rider overtook him. He pressed hard, dug his heels into the horse's side, screamed at it to run faster.
Stann had fewer than forty paces on the rider when he cleared the hill. Stann yanked on the knot on the pommel and it came free, exactly as Stann had designed it to. All of the horses scattered, and the rider behind Stann was forced to make a choice. If he continued to follow Stann, almost all of the horses would be lost and the rangers would be caught on foot far from the Wall, at the mercy of the Wildlings.
The rider continued after Stann, past where the horses had split. For many long seconds the rider stayed hot on his trail. The rider screamed in frustration, and Stann could have sworn he heard Benjen Stark yell his name. A knife whistled through the air, and buried itself in Stann's waist. It was all Stann could do to stay on the horse. But the rider veered off to hunt down the horses, and Stann galloped north into the Haunted Forest alone.