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They arrived at a shamble of hazardously placed wood and crumbling pieces of stone, a home completely abandoned. Driysa stepped through the doorframe, glancing through the snow stained room for any explanations. She dropped her head at the black soot that covered what she could only have assumed was where they had once slept, crisp air exhaled from her mouth as she shook her head, "They won't be back,"
Meera followed close behind her, reading her bow as she carefully chose her steps wary of the gaping holes on the floors, "What happened here?"
Driysa held her tongue, numerous events flashing through her mind like a meteor shower, each crashing to a halt as she explored more and more of the small house. The soot covered the snow in greater and greater quantity as the two moved through the house, but it also became clearer they wouldn't find anyone hiding in the house.
"We'll be safer here than out there," Driysa said, glancing towards Meera.
Meera let out a huff, hesitantly returning her arrow to its quiver. Meera was never good at hiding her emotions but, rubbing the soot against her finger, Driysa knew there was nothing she could say to ease Meera's uncertainty. Instead, Driysa simply let Meera leave to get the others as Driysa explored the house more closely. Even the smallest of homes had stories, as long as they were North of the Wall there was always a story to be found. She sat in the middle of the house, staring into the empty firepit. It was almost identical to her own home, too similar for her liking. She tried to imagine her mother sitting where she was, a babe in her arms, listening to her uncle's half-truth stories as her father laughed along. She even tried to imagine her mother sitting alone just like herself and thinking about her too, it was a blurrier image than the first. Her head was filled with half-formed regrets as she tried to keep it all from bursting out and spilling down her face, her father always warned her that the tears would form to ice on her face and cut her if she let them spill from her eyes.
"Driysa, are you alright?"
Driysa looked up, wiping her face just to be certain, to see Bran being wheeled into the house by Hodor. She gave a half-hearted smile, getting to her feet.
"I'm going to go for a walk I think," Her voice was soft, too soft. Still, Bran was able to hear her.
✧✧✧ ✧✧✧
The daylight had dwindled to a barely perceptible lightening of the gloom, the one problem with being inside was that there was no way of knowing what was waiting for you to fall asleep. Because of this, Driysa had decided to stay awake in case anyone - or anything - found them. It was getting incredibly boring, having to find her source of entertainment in the shadows that were cast by the light of their small fire.
"Awake?"
Driysa turned her head towards Bran, who was rubbing his eyes as he struggled to try and get up. Driysa returned her gaze to the fire, watching the flames dance around one another.
"Sorry, did I wake you?" Driysa whispered.
Bran shook his head, "I woke myself up,"
Driysa tilted her head, his words playing over in her head on loop as she tried to understand what he meant. Driysa had always been warned how confusing Southerners could get, with their big books and old men, but Bran seemed to be especially dumbfounding.
Noticing her look, Bran continued, "My greensight, it gets kind of confusing for me sometimes,"
"You have greensight?" Driysa whisper-shouted, inching towards him, "I think my aunt had that,"
"I didn't tell you?"
Driysa narrowed her eyes, giving a single shake of her head, "No,"
Bran scratched his head, looking down at his feet, "I could've sworn I told you..."
A silence fell over the duo as Driysa continued to stare daggers into Bran. While Driysa knew she would've likely never aided the group if she knew about Bran's power, she'd always been wary of old magic, it still hurt her that Bran had never thought to tell her afterwards. After all, they were supposed to be friends, or at the very least travel companions.
"Well, do you want to hear about it?" Bran asked, trying to break the silence.
Driysa held her tongue, allowing more and more silence to fill the space as she waited to respond.
Finally, she complied, "Is it different each time?"
Bran beamed, "Normally, but recently it's been the exact same thing," Bran gazed around at the rest of the group sound asleep and patted the wood beside him, "Come on, don't want to wake everyone else up,"
Driysa faltered slightly, looking around to make sure no one else was awake before deciding to move. She placed herself right next to Bran, crossing her legs and leaning against the wall as she waited for Bran to continue.
"It always starts with the Three-Eyed Raven, I'm always trying to run towards him but he's always too far to touch-"
"Wait, you can walk in your dreams," Driysa asked, looking down at his legs.
"I flew once," Bran smiled sadly, "Plus, I used to be able to walk,"
Driysa's mouth fell open. She had always thought he acted like he used to be able to walk, though she'd never met a person like Bran before. She'd just assumed he'd always been like that. It made her wonder what changed.
"But when I'm about to touch its wing, I fall through the snow and all I can see are a sea of white walkers and wights," Bran continued, "They're all just frozen, not moving or blinking and I'll keep walking but I can't get out of the maze of dead things,"
Driysa frowned, she'd never heard of such a thing before. She'd had some pretty bizarre dreams, including going past the Wall and finding out the South was full of giant deer and wolves, but Bran's seemed like they were trying to tell him something. Perhaps that was what greensight did, tell people terrible truths. But Driysa couldn't seem to accept that, her mind couldn't handle the possibility of hundreds of dead just waiting for them.
"Anything a bit happier?" Driysa asked, fiddling with her thumbs
"I once saw a dragon,"
"I could try and solve that one for you," Driysa smiled, "got any books on dragons?"
Bran turned to her, an excited smile on his face, "You liked me teaching you to read?"
Driysa gave a small shrug, yawning, "Yeah, it was pretty cool,"
"I could do some more now," Bran smiled, trying to reach Jojen's bag.
Driysa grabbed his hand, placing it back in his lap, "No, I think I'm going to try and sleep a bit, maybe you could watch over us since you're having those nightmares,"
Bran nodded, smiling as Driysa began to close her eyes, "I'd love to,"
