THE NORTH BEYOND | JON SNOW

PROLOUGE.

A man of the Night's Watch, fully clad in black, carries a newborn baby through the snowy expanse beyond the wall. He tucks the baby tighter in his furs and walks briskly through the night. His breaths are short and shallow as he tries to complete the task he was sent to do.

He looks down at the newborn baby who would never know its mother or father or might not even survive past this night. The baby looks up at the man, its deep, azure blue eyes bright against the dark night. The man looks around suspecting that someone was there, but his sword against his left leg reassuring him that he wasn't defenceless and so he continues walking.

Then, he hears a rustle amongst the foliage. He sets the newborn down in the shelter and cover of a tree and draws his sword. Holding it with two hands steadily in front of him, he searches for the source of the noise.

He looks back at the baby and turns around to see a white walker. His blue eyes trained on the baby under the shelter of the tree. The baby looks back at the creature in front of her and recognizes her danger immediately. She cries out for protection from the white walker, her cries echoing around the snowy and mountainous place where the cold nipped against her face. She didn't understand why she needs protection, or why this creature was dangerous, but she knew. And that was enough.

The man of the Night's Watch lunges in to drive the sword through the white walker like he would with the flesh of a human, but this was no human. The flimsy sword clangs off the white walker's body and the white walker disintegrates it with a touch. The man looks down at his hands which now hold no weapon. The white walker drives his own weapon through the man and kills him almost in an instant and steps over the worthless scum in front of it.

He steps forward towards the baby that was still bawling. The white walker picks it up in its furs and the baby looks up at the creature again. He moves his finger to press into the baby's face but she wraps her hand around the creature's finger and the white walker howls and screeches in pain. She holds it tightly, her eyes not leaving his as she destroys the white walker and falls to the ground. She cries as the pain courses through her, writhing at the cold. The rags around her falling away to the ground and now the full intensity of the cold hits her and her cries grow louder and more desperate.

A pair of blood red eyes watch her through the trees. The eyes move out of the camouflage of the night and steps forward to reveal a wolf, jet black and large. The baby stops crying and senses no danger as the wolf stalks down to the baby. The wolf opens his mouth to reveal her teeth and licks the baby who giggles, the cold pushed away while she studies the animal. She stretches her hand out to his muzzle and touches the black wolf who very lightly, picks her up the only way she knows how. In her teeth. Before walking away with her. The wolf walks and walks and walks far away from the tree that the man of the Night's Watch set her down at. The wolf grows tired and finds a suitable place and sets the baby down. She curls up next to the baby, warming her and shielding her.

The wolf is woken from her sleep when an arrow hits her back. She howls, and stands up, snarling the humans in front of her. She looks back at the baby behind her who she had startled by howling. Her red eyes scan through the surroundings behind her and she howls again, asking her pack to come to her aid. Another arrow hits her and she snarls again, stepping forward. Then, a pair of blue eyes and then a pair of brown emerge from the sides, all snarling and growling making their advance slowly as others joined behind them. Now, a pack of 20 wolves advances on the humans, baring their teeth as they support their leader who called on them.

There were three humans who started to drop their weapons and started retreating slowly. One of them has ginger hair and a large beard, the other has brown hair, covered by a hood and sunken eyes. His eyes turn white as he tries to possess the wolves in front of him but finds that he cannot. The girl has red hair and light blue eyes and she studies the baby with unease. They all turn and run and the black wolf returns to the baby, nuzzling her. The baby touches her wounds and the blood stops and it heals over. Not perfect, but enough to stop the pain. The baby feels a strange connection with the wolf, one of deep love and trust, like that of a mother with its child.

The wolf, fearing for the safety of the newborn baby, carries her again, back to the humans this time. She sets her down where the humans will find her and leaves her there. The baby cries as the wolf leaves and the wolf whimpers, sensing her distress but carries on walking back to her pack and leaves the baby with the humans.