The Last Sand Snake of Dorne (Game of Thrones Fanfic)

Chapter 8: Dragonblood, Wolf Family

(*A/N: Hey guys. Just wanted you to know that my sched's a bit hectic and loaded with so much career talks and orientations, so I'm sorry if I couldn't update then and again! Also, three and a half thousand reads?! Holy. DAMN, you guys are SO amazing, really! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for the support and reads and votes and everything else! xxx, Y.G)

Beyond the Wall

A girl crouched on the swirling snow, a short sword held loosely in her hand. Furs covered her whole body, only her eyes were seen, but she moved fast. After all, the ice and snow was her home.

She eyed the brown direwolf in front of her, his eyes glowing liquid gold. She licked her ice-chapped lips under her leather coverings, and then stood up slowly, her grip tightening on the sword. She had a bow and arrow strapped at her back, two daggers in her boots, another longer dagger strapped to her leg. She weighed the outcomes if she attacked the wolf, but why would she?

Instead, she dropped her sword and charged headfirst towards the wolf, letting out a yell as the wolf also lunged towards her . . .

. . . And they rolled in the snow together, the girl laughing as if tackling wolves were one of the most normal things in her daily Wildling life. The wolf clung to the girl's wrap, biting playfully as the girl grabbed the wolf's ears, the two rolling down the snowy slope. Pack fights were always like these, and Quill didn't bother the wolf's sharp fangs as it bit through her already-tattered clothing. 

"Naughty Aedel!" Quill laughed as the wolf finally had her underneath his swirling mass of thick fur. "Truce it is," she swiped at Aedel's white-tipped nose as he moved away, sitting up on the snow as if smug that he had finally toppled down the human pup. "You're cheeky, you know that?" Quill walked to where her sword lay in the snow, and sheathing it back. Aedel trotted towards her and then nuzzled her side as if saying Sorry. Quill ruffled the wolf's ears before she trudged back up the hill they rolled down from, and just so, a hunting horn resounded, booming into the vales and mountain ridges.

Ahoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Quill's trudging became thrashing as she wrestled with the snow trying to get to the tribe as fast as she could. Aedel could feel the human pup's excitement as it heaved through the snow like an angry elk. "Da's home!" she gasped as she finally burst out of the snow dune and went tumbling down the opposite side of the hill in her enthusiasm to get there as fast as she could before the others did. Of course the tribe's leader would like to see his daughter first.

Aedel barked at Quill and she hastily clambered on his back, her hands scrabbling for the leather gripholds that her father especially made, and slung herself over, riding the wolf like her faithful steed. 

Together, girl and wolf loped towards the tribe with an unnatural speed the women and children of the tribe grew to know, the snow kicking up in all directions as the two raced down towards the massive travel-party. Tall, snow-coated horses pranced in their places as the direwolf neared, but it wasn't out of fear - they circled around each other like they were one and the same. The men astride the horses laughed gaily as they saw the figure standing as tall as them, and made way for her as Aedel brought her to the mammoth.

"Da!" Quill yelled as the mammoth's long trunk easily picked her up and transported her to the hunched figure sitting on top of its hairy head. The figure removed his hood and smothered Quill's face with kisses. 

"My girl, grown up I see!" Umo boomed as he wrestled around Quill's thick albino hair to let it out fly in the wind. "Ye haven't been out to the woods again, have ya? Ya silly girl, always like your ma." The mammoth continued its trek into the tribe, the women welcoming their men and children meeting their fathers, or some, their mothers.

"Aha, that's why you loved her, da! Bashed down by her own spear when you two still small. A tale I'll never forget!" Quill quipped at her father, earning another playful tug on her hair. "What'cha got there at the back, Da?" Quill shimmied around her father's hulking frame of furs and clambered up at the small hut nestled at the tip of the mammoth's back. 

Usually, it was laden with spoils of war or supplies of fur and food. Sometimes it clinked loudly with battle armor or weapons, or even raw iron and bronze mined from the outskirts of the ice, but this time, Quill found it more empty than usual. It only meant one thing: that someone was in there. She stopped crawling, looking at the hut as it swayed along with the mammoth's gentle strides. She felt her father's hand behind her. 

His eyes suggested something that she was dreading about, even if she didn't know what he would tell her. She nodded mutely and then slid behind him, the weather becoming colder than she knew it would be.

***

Quill's mother died a long time ago, just as when she was borne. She had no aunts or uncles, nor brothers or sisters; it was just her and Da, and the tribe they managed to build and protect as the winter winds and summer gales blew by. 

Some of the other wildlings didn't want Da as the tribe's leader, but the rumors that went around even frightened Quill herself, although she never brought herself to ask Da about them. She loved him, as a faithful (yet willful and strong-headed) daughter would to her father, and  she was sure that his intentions were always good. 

They were always good with animals - direwolves, wolves, elks, mammoths, hawks, eagles and snow foxes. Da went around with the mammoth to transport goods. The elks' population were kept in balance by the wolves and foxes, so there was always enough leather and hide and, of course meat, to get around. Aedel the direwolf had a pack of his own, but he always returned to the tribe, wherever they were, to accompany Quill as she did her daily duties, and that included shaping her up for the Ice.

Quill was even more different than her da. Where Umo had coal black hair, brown eyes and brown skin, Quill was pale - her hair a shockful of white, and her eyes a dark purple. Everyone still seemed to doubt that this girl was their tribe leader's true blood daughter, but no one raised a finger to ask. They simply kept respect. 

By far, their tribe was the most protected, and nomadic, always moving in way too deep or far away from the Wall and even the Frostfangs. But the whispers from the other tribes or clans would always worm their way in with them. 

Warg. Skinchanger. Cursed. 

Quill, however, remained vigilant to the tribe and her father. She didn't need anything else for she was content with the way she lived.

After the people had taken in the men and the goods, Umo clambered down the mammoth as he and Quill headed for their tent. Quill kept an uneasy eye on the hut before she went past the tent flap and quickly attended to Umo by removing his furs and melting snow in a small bronze pot. Umo changed into a newer, albeit, lighter set of furs, and went beside his daughter as she poked the coals angrily with a stick. 

"There's a crow in there, and a lady," Umo finally said.

The coals clacked together and emerged with an angry hiss of sparks. "What do they want?" Quill asked, managing to keep the anger out of her voice. "There isn't anything here that interests them at all!"  

Umo looked at her coolly. "Do you still know your stories, girl? The one about the blue roses of the damned Winterfell and the Wildling King?"

"Of course I do!" she spat. "But you're avoiding the question again, Da! What do they want with us?" 

"To say it bluntly, there's something we want with you, Quilliana." The crow said frrom the edge of the tent, holding up the flap to let in a lady that seemed to Quill as looking into a mirror. Except that this reflection of hers was wearing more comely clothes: thick leather breeches and knee high boots frozen with a light sheen of ice, a dull red doublet over a thick cotton shirt, and a cloak that dragged behind her as Quill's reflection went in. 

Quill never knew her mother, but by the way Umo rushed forward to kiss her, she finally knew.