The Wolves' Shadow (Game Of Thrones X Oc)

Chapter 1 - The Shadow Walker

     He was waiting, watching, listening all day and all night. That's all his duties were, and now wasn't any different as the armored man waited perched on the roof above his mistress's window like a gargoyle. He could hear her pained grunts as the maester guided her through the birthing process. He absentmindedly scanned the ground below him, seeing pairs of Tully bannermen patrol the grounds around the castle. As a torch light passed near him, he shifted, causing his feet to brush some loose rock off the steep roof he clung to.

"One last push, my lady." came the raspy voice of the maester below. A final scream soon followed as the faint sound of wailing filled the night sky. "Congratulations, Lady Stark. You have delivered a baby boy." The armored knight risked inching closer to the ledge, allowing his head to hang down and peer into the window. He could see the back of the maester holding what he presumed was the wailing infant. A few handmaidens were wiping away the sweat and blood off Catelyn Stark as she lay gasping in her bed.

'Two... three... possibly two more near the door.' The armored man began to count out the people within the room, memorizing each face as best someone could while upside down. There was a set of three candles on each side of the bed that thankfully didn't shine bright enough to reveal his position. When one of the chambermaids looked up at the window, he quickly retracted his head, staying completely silent, waiting, listening. He could hear the chatter between the people inside the room as clear as day. "Please, all of you, grant me a moment alone with my new son." At her command, he could hear the shuffling of feet and the door opening and shutting.

Slowly, he leaned his head down once more. Catelyn Stark was busy gazing and adoring over her child, too busy to notice the armored man slowly maneuvering his body around so his feet softly landed on the windowsill. He peered his head inside, his eyes immediately darting toward the door. Despite the weight of the armor, it produced no noise when he gingerly stepped into the room. The dark shades of each piece made him almost undetectable with the dim candlelight. Many times had he snuck into places he wasn't allowed, often to kill someone of importance.

His large frame followed the shadows dancing on the old stone walls, slowly moving closer to Catelyn's bed. The large dark gauntlet of the man reached out as he neared one of the sets of candles on her bedside. With movement too quick for Catelyn to register, his hand swiped the flames as if stealing the fire itself before she found that she couldn't scream. No noise could escape her mouth as the man's gauntlet smothered her mouth. Panic rose in her eyes as she could barely make out the silhouette of an enormous creature looming above her like a demon. She could see what looked to be horns on the top of its head as its tail rose high in the air.

As if sensing her distress, the child in her arms began whimpering, almost on the verge of bawling its eyes out once more. She couldn't let this thing hurt her child, so she started squirming and shaking, trying to remove the large hand preventing her from calling for help.

"Lady...Stark."

The chilling voice of the demon froze her in place. It felt as though the room became colder as the silhouette spoke to her. A cold chill ran down her back as she saw its free hand move behind its back. Tears began to spill from her eyes, thinking of how this was how her and her newborn's lives would end. She could only imagine the devastation Ned would feel, hearing that both his wife and son had their throats slit in the darkness of the night, and there was nothing he could've done to prevent it. The tears clouding her vision and the noise of her hyperventilating ringing in her ears barely made her register that the silhouette moved something into her sight.

It was a letter with the seal of House Stark.

Had Catelyn's mouth not been covered, she would've scoffed and sighed with relief. The silhouette neared her face, causing her head to shrink back into the pillows as far as she could. But her attempt to retreat into herself stopped when the silhouette leaned in enough for the candles on the other side of her bed to light up its face. What she thought were horns turned out to be two ornaments of wings on either side of its helmet. The tail she saw was the spiked tip of its poleaxe secured onto its back. It was no demon, just a man in dark armor, a rather large man.