Risen

Chapter 1: First Meeting

   Jon hadn't shown his soulmark to a single human soul ever since it had first appeared on his wrist, hadn't told anyone either. One advantage of living in the North was that he didn't have to. He could always wear his thick leather gloves and long sleeves to create layers upon layers between the unwanted mark and the world purely under the pretence of keeping out the cold.

  It had been years now since the dreaded thing had appeared on his wrist and still not a single person thought that he was anything other than an Unmarked. It was something that he had struggled with for the first few months. Bran and Arya constantly hoping that a mark might show and the constant guilt at the lie niggling under his skin, making him want to tell someone, just at least one person. 

  Despite how much he hated it, he found himself tracing the pattern, entranced by the way the light of the fire in the hearth danced off of it and seemed to make the blue flames move too. Normally late at night when he was in his chamber alone except for the direwolf Ghost. His direwolf. 

  When he had found the pup after all the rest he hadn't known what to hope. Would be able to keep it and have the animal of his father's house for his own? Did he want the the albino? A pup that was more likely to die than any of the other. Already Ghost was the size of a large wolf and was growing by the day, fur white as the Wall and eyes as red as the apples that came to Winterfell from Highgarden. He was a fearsome creature but he had never made a sound. 

  Even though he was proud of his friend now he had decided that he hadn't wanted it at the time. Ghost had been smaller than the rest, his fur blending in with the snowy North and, although he grew bigger than his brothers and sisters quickly, he still stood out from the other five. It was a reminder of how much if an outsider he was. It was another thing to love. To be loved by. But Ghost was good in the end. Dogs, and obviously direwolves, loved their masters. They felt it wholeheartedly and didn't discriminate against birth status. Ghost seemed to love Jon. Certainly after the months that Jon had had him for anyway, when he'd fed the creature, trained him, talked to him about things that he hadn't talked about with anyone else.

  Ghost was the only living thing he had shown his mark to... 

  Now he was going off to the Wall. He had had enough of Lady Stark's scorn. He had had enough of being the bastard of Winterfell. As a man if the Night's Watch he could do some good, could fight for the realm. He could protect Westros and those that he did love. At the Wall it was even colder, he could put even more layers between himself and his skin and hide it even from himself.

  Before he left though he had that confrontation with the king's imp brother in law Tyrion Lannister. "Remember what you are. The world will try to use it against you. Wear it like an armour and it can never be used to hurt you." Jon knew that those words would stay with him forever. Spending time with the Lannister had been more pleasant than he would have thought. When they parted way with Ned and Jon was promised that the truth about his mother would be revealed when they next saw each other he was put in an instant better mood.

  When he joined the Watch though it hadn't been the glamorous and honourable affair that he had thought. It was much more like his Uncle Benjen had promised. Castle Black was a harsh and unforgiving place as Jon soon found out. It was a sore blow to find that even in a place such as that, full of murderers and rapists, that he could still find his life to be hard as a result of being a bastard. The training master, Ser Alliser Thorne, had taken an instant disliking to him as had many of the other new recruits. 

  At nights he would sleep alongside the boy he had fought for, Sam, as well as the other two lads Pypar and Grenn- they were his friends there. That is until he became the Lord Commander's steward. That night Jon lay on his own bed in his own small chamber, curled up next to Ghost. He sunk his fingers into the thick, lush white fur and watched the flames circling his wrist. The blue glint shone in the light of the candle on the table beside his bed. He watched the rise and fall of his wolf's side, how the soft hairs moved against his skin.