The Silent Wolf

Chapter 1

Life was like the sand in an hourglass. Like every grain of sand falling from the top half to the bottom half, life was not a constant thing. It was ever-changing, sometimes high and sometimes low until it was time. Once the glass would no longer be resent, the counting of time will be stopped, much like how once life ended there would be no irregularities, just eternal stillness.

At least that was my belief. I did not remember who I was, nor did I remember how I got where I got. But the one thing that I did remember was my flesh burning and my blood boiling. It was agonizing pain, one that I would wish on another.

As to where I was, I had no clue. It was snow all around me, falling from the dark void that was in the sky and collecting on the ground. I was ankle-deep in it, standing without a clue of what was happening.

Yet I did not feel the cold. The snow fell on my body, some cascaded down while some made home in my hair. When I touched them, they felt like cotton, soft tufts that crumbled at the first squeeze.

It was all confusing, where I was, how I got here and why I did not feel the cold. I did what came as a natural thought to me, I trekked forward. I was not sure how long I was walking, but since my legs did not throb from walking yet, I assumed that it was not so long. But my trekking had born me the fruits I desired.

I stopped before a statue of a woman placed in the middle of nowhere. It was huge, only the upper part of the body above the ground. The woman had her arms crossed over her front as if she was covering herself from the leering eyes of others. Her hair fell over her face, only revealing her mouth which was gaping and her forked tongue hanging out.

I moved closer to the statue and gently touched it. I felt it right away, the piercing sting of the cold running up my arm. I moved my hand away immediately and stepped back from the statue.

Suddenly the statue had vanished, replaced by a woman holding a silver tray. The only feature she had was the shape of her body, the thing that made me believe she was a woman. Her skin was white as snow, her hair dark as ebony. She did not wear a single article of clothing, because there was nothing to hide. She was like the incomplete sketch of an artist, who had only traced the outline and added the hair. She did not have any other markings all over her body, not the parts that should be present around her body to further push her gender, nor any features on her face. She was simply blank.

She was walking towards me, every step she took putting me in a hypnotic trance. I could not move, because I did not want to move.

She stopped right in front of me, her head tilting down in a manner that made it seem like she was looking down at me. She was taller than me, I realized. She held out the tray to me, gently bumping it against my torso. I looked down at it and saw an apple on it. It was a normal apple, except for the fact that it was blue in colour.

She wanted me to eat the apple, and I understood. My instincts told me to not touch the apple, to turn and make a run for it. But my body seemed to operate on its own accords like it had a mind of its own. I picked up the apple, brought it to my lips and took a bite from it.

The apple tasted bitter at first, making me scrunch my face. But then it slowly got better, tasting almost sweet, tasting of honey, new-fallen snow, pepper and cinnamon and the warmth of a loved one's embrace. I did not know how I knew the taste of new-fallen snow, but I did somehow. I ate the rest of the apple like a hungry child, gobbling it all up, core and all.

Immediately I was on my knees, clutching my head in pain. A scream erupted from my open mouth, darkness claiming my vision.

It felt like I was being stabbed in the head. Images poured into my mind, scenarios, faces, and names, none of which I recognized. It was like an entire world was making its home in my head, expanding, pushing the limits of my mind.

The pain faded just as suddenly as it had appeared, all at once in a flash. I had memories in my mind, memories that were not my own, different sets of memories of the same events. It was confusing. My stomach wanted to hurl out whatever contents it had inside of it.

I looked back at the woman before me and fear was all I felt. The woman's face now had features to it, a gaping mouth, scaled skin and slit eyes. She had the head of a snake.

The woman hissed at me, his forked tongue peeking out. I did not move, paralyzed by fear. I was not sure how long the two of us just stared at one another, one afraid and one observant. I don't think I need to clarify who was what. My left eye twitched and the woman's head shot forward.

The pain was what invaded my sense again as the woman's fangs pierced the sides of my head. She had bit my face, a set of fangs piercing each side of my head from the front. I was staring into her throat, wide-eyed and in terror. There was a spark, a small flicker of light before I was pulled in. She was eating me whole and I was powerless to do anything.

I felt my entire body constrict as the woman ate me fully, the warmth and sliminess of her throat soaking me and making me sweat. There was light at the end of the path, which was odd since I didn't know the stomach had any sort of lighting. I was moving towards it, making my thoughts change to that of me moving on. The light was probably the afterlife. I closed my eyes and awaited what comes next.

The cold was what I felt first before the sensation of warmth passed through me. The world was a blur around me, but I could make out forms that seemed human.

I squirmed in their grip when they dipped me in water. They were cleaning me, and drying me off with some sort of cloth before wrapping something around my body, binding me tightly.

I was handed over to someone, someone I didn't know. It was a woman, with pale skin, dark grey eyes and brown hair. She was smiling at me, I think. The blurriness may have faded from my vision, but I was still not seeing a complete picture.

Another face soon came into my field of vision, a man with similar hair, eyes and skin tone as the woman. He had a thick beard and a stern look on his face.

"My Lord, I present to you your son, Eddard Stark."

The woman spoke and all I could do was stare in confusion.