DAGGERS TO THE HEART Part 1 - GAME OF THRONES

Jon VIII

One of the two hounds accompanying them barked as Benjen waved the torch, the signal to open the gates. The creaking sound of wood against metal rang out loud as the distant sight of the haunted forest came into view. As they set off through the tunnel, Jon looked towards the sky and noticed the comet above, a streak of bright red across the sky, reminding him of Sansa's hair. The dragons will hatch soon. He remembered Dany telling him the tale of bringing the dragons into the world. They'd waited for the comet to appear in the sky, which was why they delayed the trip. Not that anyone could know the truth; instead, the burned right hand Jon had got from saving Lord Commander Mormont was the reason given.

Jon whistled for Ghost, who dashed into the forest, sniffing for danger like it was his first taste of freedom. Here, the direwolf was in his element. North of the wall was his true home. Jon was jealous of the direwolf's freedom, and he felt guilty for not allowing him to roam the north forever. Jon's path would take him south, and he was uncertain whether Ghost would want to join him. Would Jon have to leave his northern roots to live in the south, accepting his dragon heritage? It was a question he couldn't answer.

With that thought on his mind, Jon, Benjen, Edd, Pyp, Grenn and two accompanying Stark soldiers rode out on their horses, followed by Sam on the supply cart; containing ravens, food and wine for Craster. If it were up to Jon, he would avoid the place altogether, but he felt he owed it to Sam to introduce him to Gilly; Jon couldn't let his friend live without the love of his life; nor could he leave Gilly to suffer the fate she would have endured had she stayed, where Craster would leave baby Sam in the woods for the whitewalkers. Jon hoped he'd find Mance Rayder and get back in time to save them. The journey from Castle Black to Craster's Keep was around sixty miles. Doubled when travelling through Haunted Forest, which was littered with fallen trees and no direct path. Their journey would have been easier if it weren't for Sam's supply cart slowing them down.

The fifth overnight stop was near a small village called Whitetree, a few miles north-west of Castle Black. A long abandoned wildling village containing four tumbledown one-room houses, surrounding a sheepfold and a well. The small ramshackle houses were each built from dry stone walls and roofed with sod, the windows shuttered with pieces of hide to keep out the wind. Each house had low doors, packed dirt floors, and a smoke hole in the roof.

Above the village stood an enormous old Heart Tree, unlike any Jon had seen. Its trunk was nearly eight feet wide, and its branches, covered with blood red leaves, were large enough to shade the entire village. The weirwood tree's face was not a simple carving, instead a jagged hollow for a mouth, large enough to swallow a hound, replaced the usual gash. At the foot of the tree, he spotted ashes and sacrificial bones. A he knelt down at the base of the tree, to picked up a human skull, Jon felt the power of the tree seep into his body.

Jon turned the skull over in his hand and examined it. "Wildlings burn their dead." he glanced around the village. "I wonder if the dead have already been, or if the villagers ran."

"Knowing my luck, the one who ran will come back and kill me, then the dead will turn me into one of those blue-eyed fuckers." Edd stared fearfully at the skull in Jon's hand. "I'd look terrible with blue eyes."

"Check the houses for dead bodies. Anything we find, burn." he gazed at the horizon. "The sun will set soon. We should camp elsewhere." Jon turned to Pyp. "Pyp, you help Sam with the horses. The rest of us will search the houses."

The men split into pairs, Jon with Edd, and Benjen with Grenn. Jon and Edd searched the first house, both stooping under the low door. The room was unfurnished, with a simple dirt floor. There was no sign of anyone having lived there recently, save for the ashes beneath the smokehole.