Lost beyond the wall, Jasmine Otherys and her twin Isabelle encounter creatures they've never seen before looming their surroundings, killing their companions, and leaving them all alone, stranded in a harsh environment.
Their flee ends them right o...
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FOR DAYS, they had been marching, trudging through the snow-covered mountains. Isabelle and Jasmine were exhausted, coughing, and feeling ill, but they refused to show their fatigue to the men. They were determined to prove their resilience, even in the face of the army of the undead.
"What's the matter, Piggy?" Rast asked Sam, who made his struggle evident to everyone. Rast still harboured resentment against Sam and the twins, and while Jon was not present, he made sure to annoy them. "You crying 'cause you're cold? There's 200 brothers killed by dead men and you're still here whimpering."
Sam somehow ended up blaming himself for the death of the men. He was a coward and ended up hiding like some little scared girl, and if it wasn't for Isabelle and her twin, he would have been dead.
"That seem fair to you?" Rast continued the emotional torture. "I've seen 'em torn to pieces fighting while you were off somewhere hiding in a hole. Why don't you lie down and rest for a while, eh? You know you want to."
"Just stop," Isabelle was bold enough to face the man as everyone else seemed to avoid any confrontation, even Sam himself, who was drained.
"Stop what?" Rast turned to her, his words dripping poison. "Why aren't you also whimpering, cryin' about your crew that are all probably by now walking with the undead!"
Isabelle chose to remain silent this time. She was too exhausted to confront him, so she let him go as he walked away, while Sam dropped down to his knees. Rast turned around and felt content with himself, as Jasmine struggled to lift Sam back up.
"Stand up, Sam," she said.
"No," Sam whimpered.
"Come on, you know that I can't help you up."
Grenn appeared to have taken notice of the situation, prompting him and Edd to walk towards them.
"Get up, Sam," Grenn said as he approached the twins, who took a few steps back to allow the two men to deal with him.
"No."
"Get up."
"I can't."
"If you stop, you'll die."
"'Course if you don't stop, you'll probably die, too," Edd the pessimist said.
"You don't care," Sam looked up at them.
"'Course we care," Grenn told him.
"You left me," Sam whimpered. "You left us when the White Walkers came, you left us."
Grenn exchanged a glance with the twins, who stood there staring back at him and Edd. They weren't angry with them, unlike Sam. They knew that they hadn't done it intentionally. They were all too scared.
"Aye, we left you," Edd told him. "You're fat and you're slow. We didn't want to die."
Grenn gave him a look, and Edd shrugged his shoulders.
"Help me get him up."
"Looks like that piggy is done for," Rast said as he came back.
"Help us get him up!" Grenn spat.
"He's slowing us down."
"Just get him up!"
"Why? So the rest of us can die? We'll move faster without him."
"Just shut up," Isabelle said as she dashed forward to help them pull Sam up to his feet. He was pushing against them, refusing to stand up until Lord Mormont showed up.
"What is this? Get up, Tarly," he said, causing the men behind him to all stop and watch them. "Is he all right?"
"Aye, I think so," Grenn said.
"If he can't, we may as well just go without him," Rast started again but was shut off by the Lord Commander.
"That's enough," he said before directing his attention back at Sam. "Tarly, I forbid you to die. Do you hear me?"
Sam nodded his head.
"Why should the rest of us-" Rast started complaining.
"Rast, you're responsible for him," Lord Mormont told him.
"What am I supposed to do?"
"Make sure he gets back alive. If he doesn't, you don't. Move on!"
He continued ahead with the men following closely, except for Rast and his group.
"I'm not dying for you, Piggy. You hear me?" Rast told Sam.
As night fell, they reached the sprawling farmhouse complex. The women scattered and fled as they neared. Despite feeling uneasy about returning to Craster's Keep, Isabelle and Jasmine decided to accept the offer of food and shelter.
Led by Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, they were met by Craster. "What do we have here? Frozen crows?" he asked, eyeing them.
"We've come a long way," the Lord Commander replied.
"Smaller flock than you went north with."
"We can talk inside."
"Oh, can we?"
Craster assessed the situation in silence, as the Night's Watch prepared to force their way in if needed.
Inside, the men sat by the fire in tense silence. Isabelle and Jasmine positioned themselves slightly behind Edd, Grenn, and Sam, while Karl Tanner kept fidgeting behind them, his eyes darting up to the rafters where the women peeked down. But what was the most unsettling was a woman's wailing, likely in the throes of childbirth. Isabelle and Jasmine had expected it to be Gilly.
"They need some water," a woman said as she rushed in and out. "Tether it and I'll be inside."
"Keep your eyes where they belong," Craster warned Rast, who glanced upward too often. "They're not meant for you."
"Bet you treat that pig better than you treat us," Karl Tanner remarked as he stood behind Jasmine.
"Aye, the pig's got value to me. You should all be kissing my feet for letting you in. I'd have turned you all away if I wasn't a godly man."
"You are a godly man?" Lord Commander asked.
"I am," Craster told him. "I got no fear of what's out there. When the white cold comes, your swords and cloaks and bloody fires won't help you. The only ones left will be those who are right with the gods. The real gods."
The woman continued to wail in another room, growing louder. Isabelle and Jasmine exchanged uneasy glances.
"Go tell her she can bite down on a rag or she can bite down on my fist," he said. Isabelle looked up to see him gazing at her.
"Women," he muttered before peeling his eyes off of her.
"That sow right there gave birth to a litter of eight," he said next pointing at the pig. "Barely a grunt."
"And she's almost as fat as this one here," he continued this time pointing at Sam. "Now why don't you dine on him? Carve off what you need as you go. Well, look at him. He's a walking feast."
Edd and Grenn stopped chewing. The twins watched as Sam fidgeted. To make it worse, Craster laughed uncontrollably at Sam's reaction, causing him to leave.
