The Dalyngridge Girl ➝ Bran Stark

Chapter 27

It had been a few weeks since Bran and I's delayed wedding night, and my belly has been growing. Not much, but now you can definitely tell. Meera, Jojen, and Hodor found out that I was pregnant when my belly started to grow on very little food, so they ruled out the possibility of me getting fat. They also noticed how Bran has been so careful with me, and he wouldn't just do it all the sudden. So, it all lead to them figuring out I was pregnant.

We had started climbing a mountain, and for the most part, it was easy. Uphill was tough, but it was easy. But then a blizzard started, causing everything to be more nerve-wracking than it already was.

I was trudging in the snow next to Bran's cart, which was being pulled by Hodor. Jojen was behind me, and Meera tied up the back, and Summer and Felan, who had reached the size of Summer, wandered behind us to make sure no one was following. Bran would look at me, but I couldn't look back at him. I needed to focus on not tripping and falling on my stomach.

I noticed something in the clouds, something golden and beautiful. It wasn't like anything we had seen recently, which was snow and dark clouds. A sudden thought made my stomach drop, and I almost threw up. What if I was dead...?

"Jojen, look!" Bran yelled to Jojen, and my relief sank in. I wasn't the only one that saw it. But what if he was dead? What if we were all dead?

"We've reached the three-eyed raven," Jojen said, walking up next to us. He pointed to a white tree with blood-red leaves that stood out against the snow. I had been so caught up thinking I was dead that I didn't even realize there was a tree.

As we were walking to it, Summer and Felan went ahead, sniffing at the ground. I was still walking next to Bran, and I couldn't help but hate this place.

"Bran, I don't like it here..." I said, looking around nervously. I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched by something.

Felan turned back suddenly, snarling with her ears back. She was inching towards us, and my first thought was, she's going to kill us.

All the sudden I heard someone fall in the snow behind us, and I whipped around. Jojen was on the ground with a hand attached to his leg. And it was pulling him back.

Meera ran to his side and started pulling, and I everything seemed in slow motion for me. Bran was screaming about something and Meera was screaming, Hodor was running towards them and then another hand burst through the snow. When I came back to my senses, there were skeletons bursting up out of the snow, trying to kill us.

I ran to try and help Hodor, who had been attacked by one of them. I was going to do all I could to help, but I thought, in the midst of all this, that now would be a good time if I could just warg into something. But unfortunately, I wasn't a warg, and I could only see back things to come.

A sharp pain in my head knocked me down, and I curled into a ball to protect my stomach. Another blow, this time to the back, made me cry out in pain. I felt a sudden relief wash over me, and as an axe was about to come down on my stomach, I grabbed the handle and shoved it back into the skull of the dead man. A sound of shattering glass made me know it was gone, at least for now. But it wasn't me that did it, it was someone else. I wasn't in control of my body, and I wasn't thinking as myself. I grabbed an axe and swung at the one in Hodor, knocking it off and then jabbing it in the skull. It went limp, and I looked to Bran, but it wasn't me willing my neck to turn. Bran's eyes were white, like they always were when he warged into something.

He warged into... me.

A strange girl appeared from the tree, and Felan ran by my side and snarled at it, along with Summer on my other.

"Come with me, or die with him," she said, pointing behind us. I turned to see Meera holding Jojen, who wasn't moving. Jojen was dead.

I felt the relief wash away and it was replaced by pain. Luckily I wasn't hit with a blade, just a heavy mallet.

Hodor carried Bran to the strange girl, and Meera reluctantly left Jojen. Felan stayed by me if I needed help, and I did because I could barely walk without clutching my back in pain. Bran was calling for me, doing everything he could to try and get me to hurry up.

Once we were in the cave, Bran took me into his arms and held me. "Are you alright?" he asked, his voice shaking so much that I thought he would cry.

"I'm okay," I said, trying to sound relieved. "Bruised, but I'm okay."

"We are called The Children," the girl said, looking at them. I looked at her with the same mirrored curiosity. "You must come quickly, the Three-Eyed Raven has been waiting for you all."

We all followed the odd girl until we got to a big throne room with a floor covered with bones. Hodor set Bran down the base of the throne, where a very old-looking man sat.

"Brandon Stark," the man said dryly, looking to me. "And Mare Dalyngridge. What a pleasure to meet you both."

"You're the three-eyed raven?" Bran asked aghast.

"But you're human," I said, matching his tone. The man nodded and looked to Bran once again.

"Bran Stark, you will do great things and overcome great difficulties in your life," the raven-man said, and I knelt down next to Bran.

"Will I get my legs back?" Bran asked excitedly, and his optimism broke my heart.

"No," the man said, "but Brandon Stark, you will fly."

And with that, the Three-Eyed Raven waved his hand in dismissal and we were guided out of the eerie throne room.

Reluctantly, we started our journey back home; back to Winterfell.