Summer child~Brandon Stark x Reader

Chapter 20- Something small, Something warm

We've been traveling far enough.. "Where are we going?" ... "Bran??"
"You'll know soon." "How?" "We're just picking Somethin up." "Which is?" "You ask too many questions." Meera comments. "You'll be happy in the end so don't ask anymore. It's a surprise! We're almost there." I grimace and listen. The rest of the way wasn't too long as promised. We reached a very small clearing. In it there was practically no vegetation, just cold hard dirt. Hodor pushed Bran to the middle and helped him out. Bran crawls over to a nearby tree and extends his arm to grab something. Suddenly someone's hands go over my eyes. I gasp and prepare to scream. "It's just me! Don't look. It's a surprise!" Meera replies. "Hodor?" "Bring me over to her please." I hear a quiet squeal. A few second pass and another squeal erupts but much closer. "Alright. Open your eyes." Meera lets go of my face and let's me see. In Bran's arms is a small furry little wolf pup. "What's this?" I ask. I stare at the gray fur of the little thing and it brushes it's face into Bran's fur. Summer sniffs the little thing and jealously rubs his head on Bran's legs. "She's yours." "Mine??" "Yes. A female direwolf." He hands her to me. "I thought I'd get you a male pup but then I figured perhaps we could breed Summer and your pup and our children may have direwolves as well." I blush and hold the warm ball of fur. She nuzzles my cloak. "She's perfect!" My heart swells with emotion and I rub my face into the fur of the pup. He smiles at me gleefully. "Do you like her?" "I love her! Thank you Bran!" I quickly kiss his cheek before I could rationalize my thinking. "Ooh-hoo!!" Meera giggles. Both of us blush.

We travel on for most of the day until we find a small area with a lot of scraps of wood. We stayed here. Hodor and I picked up logs and sticks while Meera hunted for food. When we collected enough, I positioned them best I could and attempted to make a fire. I like to think of myself as tough but I haven't made a fire before. It proved successful a few tries and a small warm flame grew. A little while later, Meera came back with 2 rabbits. "This is all I could find." Jojen gives his sister a smile. I cuddle my little Direwolf and she smirks victoriously.  Meera skins the white rabbits herself before stabbing a stick through their mouths to cook. We roast them for a while and Summer trots off to go hunting. By the time we all shared the two rabbits, the skies were pitch black apart from a light fall of snow. "Is there anything I could really feed the pup?" "When I first adopted Summer i fed him milk for a fortnight before small amounts of meat." "No milk." Jojen notes. "Well..yes...I didn't think this through well enough." "Poor little thing is probably hungry." Meera mused. I cuddle the pup to keep her warm and she sleeps in my arms. Meera rolled out some bedrolls for her and Jojen and then brought out another large one for Hodor. She set out one for me as well and stirred the fire. It grew quite large. I watched how she did it so I would learn. Meera walks over to Bran and pulls up his furs to keep him warm. She whispers something in his ear and snickers. He blushes and looks at me. "Thank you Meera." He says. Summer trots over to Bran from the shadows of the woods, his muzzle covered in blood. I wonder what she could've said but I have no time to ponder it as sleep took over my body. I tried to fight it but it was useless. The last thing I remember that night was Bran stroking Summer's fur and watching me doze off.

In the morning, the fire was out and there was a light dusting of snow over the burnt out wood. The puppy was rubbing it's face into my neck and making small whimpering sounds. Bran was chewing on some sort of meat and Summer was eating snow. Hodor was still heavily asleep so Meera pushed a stick towards me. "Here." "What is it?" "A bird. That's all you need to know. Eat it." I looked around me. Apart from sleeping Hodor, everyone was eating it so I joined in. The meet was juicy and tender. Light though as if it was chicken but it didn't taste like chicken. Where I live, we have a lot of meat but not nearly as much as Winterfell. Winterfell is the farthest North to go unless you're headed to the Night's Watch. Or further North, beyond the wall. I leaned against a nearby tree and stretched my legs, still eating the mysterious bird when Summer stood up growling. I turned around. Nothing. "What is it?" Meera says. She has her knife out. Summer sniffs in the direction and then settles down again. "Whatever it is, it's not coming our way. Should I check it out?" "You know every time you've ever checked anything out, it's brought us straight to the seven Hells. I have a feeling we won't be as lucky this time. Stay. Here." She says firmly. Bran obeys but not without an embarrassed flush. Hodor suddenly stands up as Meera starts to pack up the bedrolls. I figured I would help her so I stood up as well. "Mm. Hodor?" Hodor stands up and blinks. He turns to Bran and sighs in relief. "Hodor!" He exclaims. Bran smiles. "Hello Hodor." Summer settles down back on Bran's legs gazing at Jojen who kicked the wood pile into the snow. Meera seemed to be all set. She picked up her bow and smiled. "Are we ready?" Bran nods and Summer stands back up. Hodor lifts Bran into the wheelbarrow and covers his legs with blankets. He motions me over and Hodor begins to push him. "Tomorrow we must go back. We cannot stay out too long. I don't know how my parents will react to me just leaving. I'm fine obviously but they're protective." "Of course they are you're precious to them. They almost lost you once." "I know." He sighs. "But I'm alive now." I smile understandingly. "Do they know about this?" I lift the squirming pup to his face. "Nope. Well..I talked to them about it. They were fine with it if you follow the same guidelines as I. Take care of her yourself, feed her yourself, train her yourself." "But they didn't know you found a suitable pup.." "Not exactly.." He murmurs apologetically at me. "If you're worried they'll take her away they won't." I gently hug the pup to my chest. "I haven't the slightest idea of what to name her..something that has to do with snow.." "Flurry?" Bran asks. "No.. Flake? No.." "Blizzard?" "Blizzard..I like that Blizzard.." He smiles and looks delightedly at the pup. "Blizzard!" He says satisfied. "I love it." I murmur and nuzzle the pup. "Summer and Blizzard." Bran chuckles. "I like that."

"Hey Bran?" "Mmhm?" "What do you think?" "About what?" "winter. I know we've spoken about this before and all but..I don't know. I have a bad feeling about it." "Im too young. We're summer children. I have a bad feeling too though." "Maybe it's the fear of the unknown?" "Maybe. Or maybe its going to be a long winter." "You think that.." "Maybe. If people have seen the white walkers, and they truly have, then maybe we will live now and die in the winter." "Bran don't say that!" Meera cuts in. "Jojen. Have you seen anything?" "No..I'm sorry. I'd have let you know if I did." "You think this will last a generation? That's only happened once.." "Possibly. Or our history doesn't tell us of its occurrences from far back." "Maybe...I don't want to think that we may die in winter." "Neither do I. My hope is that Winter will only last us a decade? Far fetched idea but then we'd have many summers and winters to live through? I don't know." "When exactly was the last winter..." "That's a question for my father. I don't know." "We'll have to ask him then." Meera chimes in. I smile at her. "What do you think?" "I think winter will last a while, but not a century." "I hope you're right Meera." "We will live to see more summers and winters maybe 3 more cycles." "I hope.." "You're likely to have winter children and summer children y/n, Bran." Bran smiles.

Around midday, I helped Meera hunt down any game we could find. That consisted of a bird and a small rabbit. I wish we could've found a deer or something to feed us all. We brought it back and made a small fire to eat it. We divided the food between us all and Summer trotted back. On our walk to find a space for a fire, Summer had walked off and hunted. Back now, he laid down and waited for us to get ready to walk again. "Only a mile more okay? We cannot go too far. We can make an encampment. We will stay there for a days time, none more." "That's fine. I saw your father get angry with us. But quickly forgiven no worries." Bran sighs dreadfully. "I'm old enough to leave when I please. I have you guys. It's not like I'm climbing somewhere anymore." I note the change in tone. He sounded so sad..so defeated.. I wished I could've just picked him up in my arms and hugged him. As Meera packed things up, Hodor grabbed Bran's handles. I checked behind me. Meera was occupied and Jojen was watching her. They'd probably see but oh well. "What?" Bran asks curiously. I mouth I want to kiss you. He blushes. I grab ahold of him hooking my arms around his and I quickly pull him up. He is limp in my arms and slightly lower than I. He's blushing and looking up at me innocently. I fight the urge to bite my lip and I simply kiss him and let him back down. His face is red and he watches me like a little child watches someone higher than them. Meera coughs. Well I figured she'd see. I knew the risks. They're my friends too..so oh well! I turn around, facing the music. She only smirks and stands, grabbing her bow. "Shall we? Love birds?" She cocks her head. I sneer at her and walk along side Bran, Summer flanking his other side. Bran makes conversation with Jojen and me and Meera talk to each other with small attempts of including Hodor who would giggle and watch us in fascination muttering small hodors every now and then. He was like a giant child. He was sweet and oh so loyal to Bran. Faithful. I hope I can be as faithful as that lovable idiot to Bran. Or more. Before we knew it we had walked enough and we set our camp with the daylight still out. It was cloudy however, and snow gently fell at a constant pace for hours on end. We tried to stay under a small encampment of trees so we wouldn't be buried in the drift by tomorrow. Summer immediately laid down and curled up near the fire. The puppy was napping in my arms and Meera was adding twigs and branches to the flames. I watched the Orange and white hues dance against the colder colors of the forest. The crackling noise made me feel comfortable and at home, even in the deep dark woods. Hodor lifted Bran down next to me without his asking to. I shimmied closer to him and his hand found mine.

I awoke to the sound of gasping and spitting. Meera was up as quick as light and held her brothers convulsing form, his head in her lap. She spoke to him urgently attempting to calm him. Bran was staring worriedly at his friend. Summer watched him with concern. Once Jojen calmed down he turned to Bran with a grave look upon his face. It was an expression I didn't like at all. "What did you see?" Meera whispers in a shocked tone. "Many things. Wildlings. Coming in the direction of Winterfell in hope of reaching South at last minute. They could cross our path..or the castles.. However it'll be they'll meet with us and they sure as hell won't like us." My body felt ice cold and I was stiff. "You said many things Jojen..." Bran pressed. "Winter. The storm. Before we get back tomorrow..we'll be caught in it. We need to leave now." "In the dead of night?" Meera sounded frantic so I chimed in. "We'll get lost we can't!" "We'll get lost either way. Less chance of death this way. The snow won't stop." "Wait I thought we had time..our wedding before winter.." "I wish I had the answer..the future is subjective it changes." "what's the last thing Jojen.." Bran's voice was laced with worry and assumptions. Jojen responded darkly and shortly. A small phrase deadly to us all. Two words that could scare us to death right then and there.
"White walkers."