Watching over you-Bran Stark

Chapiter 3

 When night came, she started to feel her eyes close, but at last Maester Luwin made his way inside the room asking to talk about appointments with Cat, but Robb cut short their discussions saying he would be the one making them first thing in the morning the next day. As the maester left the chamber, Robb made his way to the window, opening it making clearer the howls of the dogs.

"When was the last time you left this room?" He asked to Lady Catelyn.

"I have to take care of him." She responds.

"He's not going to die, Mother" Robb follows. "Maester Luwin says the most dangerous time has passed."

"What if he's wrong? Bran needs me."

"Rickon needs you." Robb states. "He's six. He doesn't know what's happening. He follows me around all day, clutching my leg, crying..."

"Close the windows! Ican't stand it! Please make them stop!" Screams Catelyn.

"Fire. You stay here. I'll come back." Robb runs out after saying this going to help put out the fire. After he left, Cat stands up to close the windows, Alaia staying in her chair following her every movement. She then sees a man enter the bedroom. Looking at his face, she didn't recognize him.

"You're not supposed to be here. No one is supposed to be here." The man states looking at both women. "It's a mercy. He's dead already." He follows his statement looking at Bran. The man pulls out a dagger and heads for Bran. As he does so, Cat attacks the man, but he hit her in the face. As she falls on the bed, the assassin make a step in her direction, but Alaia springs to her feet and lungs at him. He quickly takes her by the hair putting her in front of him and tries to cut her troat but she puts her hands on the blade to stop him. The blade of the dagger sinks down in her palms cutting them, drawing blood. To escape the man, Alaia tries to hit them so he could release her. She finally managed to do it after some struggling by biting his hand. He pushes her to the side going for the kill when Summer came to the rescue jumping on him and gnawing at his skin. In the end, the direwolf kills him taking a bite of is aorta. Still full of blood covering his muzzle, he takes place at the foot of Bran's bed.

Looking at the man on the ground of the bedroom, Catelyn stood up going out seeking a guard to take the body out and a maiden to rub the floor so there would be no blood left on it. When the lady came back, she had a pot of water and bandages in hand. She approached Alaia and sat beside her, taking her hand in hers scrubbing the blood off, bandaging them after. Catelyn then made her way out of the room, leaving Alaia alone in the chamber with Bran and his direwolf. She sat her eyes on him, got up from the floor and goes to sit at his side on the bed.

"It could have been the night I lose you today, but at last gods be good, they didn't take you from me," she starts, "I nearly lost my life to save you but I would do it any day if it means you still breath for the sake of your family." She then lied herself at his side looking at his sleeping face. Herself feeling the call of her exhaustion, she closed her eyes, falling in a light sleep ready to spring up if any danger came to her and her little lord. It hadn't been long after sleep took her that she had woken up feeling the mattress dip. She sprung up to see that her direwolf had jumped onto the bed to join them. When Alaia saw it was only Raven, she put her head back on the pillow welcoming the slumber.

♦♦♦

She woke up the next day being shaken up by Robb telling her to get up that they were demanded for a reunion in the godswood. She shakes her head indicating that she had understood. Robb had then took his leave. Before she retired to her bedroom to get dressed, Alaia looked one last time at the sleeping feature of Bran and closed the door behind her. Once dressed, she headed for the godswood find there Robb, Catelyn, Theon, Maester Luwin and Ser Rodrick. Catelyn was the one who started the conversation saying she didn't think that Bran had fallen, that it was more likely that someone had thrown him down from the tower because he had seen something he shouldn't have. Theon then asked what he had saw but Cat only respond that she didn't know still she was sure that the Lannister had something to do with all this. It was decided that Ned should be informed of this treason and that it would be Catelyn who would go to King's Landing to tell him with Ser Rodrick to accompagn her since the King's Road was full of danger. When the council came to end. Alaia got back to Bran, sitting at his bedside reading a book, sometimes looking up at him, to make sure he hadn't woken up. She spends her day at his side, only leaving him to go into the hall to eat and coming back when she had finished. Late at night she woke up to feeling eyes on her, she groggily opened her eyes recognizing Bran's chamber, noting she had fell asleep in the chair beside him. Her eyes then examine his sleeping form, stopping on his face. She realized at this moment that he was no longer sleeping. After a month he had woken up. Alaia jumped up to join him in the bed, putting her hand on his right cheek, caressing it.

♦♦♦

Time past and Bran became more unlike himself as it did. He becomes more sour, didn't smile as frequently as he did, didn't laugh anymore. The days became darker as they passed taking a toll on everyone. Alaia tried to make him feel better spending her days at his side talking and comforting him. Everyone saw the way his eyes became more alive when she entered the room. The two were smitten to each other.

On a rainy day, Old Nan was knitting. Bran was lying in his bed looking at a window as for Alaia, she had fallen into a light sleep at his side. A crow then perched itself on the windowsill cawing as he did so, waking up in a fright Alaia who cling herself at Bran putting her head in his collarbone.

"Don't listen to it. Crows are all liars." She stops a moment but then continue, " I know a story about a crow."

"I hate your stories." Snapped Bran. He had no interest in them, they were all invented to make children listen. Alaia lifted her head from his neck, looking at him as she slid her hand down his arm below the sheets to take his in her's.

"I know a story about a boy who hated stories." She followed his response. "I could tell you about Ser Duncan the Tall. Those were always your favourites."

"Those weren't my favourites." Bran replied. Alaia caressed his hand as he spoked. "My favourites were the scary ones."

"Oh, my sweet summer child. What do you know about fear?" Asked Old Nan before continuing. "Fear is for the winter, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep. Fear is for the long night, when the sun hides for years and children are born and live and die all in darkness. That is the time for fear, my little lord, when the White Walkers move through the woods." Bran turns his heads towards her clasping his hand hard with Alaia's who he could feel trembling at his side. "Thousands of years ago there came a night that lasted a generation. Kings froze to death in their castles, same as the shepherds in their huts. And women smothered their babies rather than see them starve, and wept and felt the tears freeze on their cheeks. So is this the sort of story that you like?" she questioned. Bran only responds with a shake of his head indicating that it was, in fact, the stories he liked. "In that darkness, the White Walkers came for the first time. They swept through cities and kingdoms, riding their dead horses, hunting with their packs of pale spiders big as hounds..." Bran and Alaia were so entranced by the story that when Robb opened the door they jumped in fear.

"What are you telling him now?" Inquires Robb.

"Only what the little lord wants to hear." She reassures him.

"Get your supper.  I want some time with him." Old Nan got up from her chair nodding her head at Alaia to get up indicating that she follows her to supper. As she gets up, she lay a kiss on Bran's cheek as goodbye, nodding at Robb as she passes him.