Dragon of the North | B. Stark

𝐱𝐢𝐢𝐢. new faces

Chapter 13 | NEW FACES

"I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE Jon again," Rhaella said, placing fur on the ground to sleep on. I'll even be able to finally meet Maester Aemon. "Yeah me too, I miss him," Bran agreed. "Hodor!" The giant said happily. "Alright now, we need our rest," Osha said. Shaggydog and Summer laid by the fire, already sleeping.

Everyone said goodnight to each other. "Goodnight," Rickon said last. Then, he blew out the fire. "RICKON!" Everyone shouted. "What?" Rickon asked, "We always blow out the light before we sleep!"

"Yeah, in our bed chambers, Rickon!" Rhaella said. "We needed the fire so we wouldn't be cold," Bran sighed. He looked around into the darkness, "and so we wouldn't sleep in the dark."

"Oh . . ." Rickon said.

Osha sighed, "It's okay, maybe we shouldn't have a fire anyway, everyone go to sleep."

This is going to be a long journey, she thought to herself.

As they traveled, every time Bran slept he'd have dreams about a boy. "Is he cute?" Rhaella asked. "Why does that matter . . ?" Bran asked. Rhaella giggled, "just curious."

"We don't need to hear about any of that black magic," Osha rolled her eyes.

It's been a couple of weeks of the journey so far and Rhaella hated it. The little princess just wanted everything to be over. She was tired of traveling, tired of war. Tired of being tired. To avoid being spotted, the group had no choice but to avoid the main road, making the journey to Castle Black extend longer. Even worse, they definitely had been going in circles a few times. The group brought a cart with them, so whenever Bran couldn't walk anymore, he could rest in it while Hodor pushed. Bran hated sitting in the cart though.

The food they brought quickly disappeared, mostly because of Rickon and Hodor's big appetites. Osha had to start hunting for food. Bran and Rhaella assisted her as well with the bows and arrows they took from the castle.

The party stopped in the middle of a woods to set camp. After finishing the tents, Osha, Rhaella, and Bran left to go hunt. Summer accompanied them while Shaggydog stayed behind to protect Hodor and Rickon.

They hid behind bushes to not startle any creatures. "Look." Osha whispered. She pointed out a cute brown rabbit hopping around. As much as Rhaella loved food, she hated hunting for animals. It made her feel so guilty. "I'll get it," Bran said. He slowly moved away from the bushes and aimed the arrow. Once he released it, the arrow shot far from the rabbit. He was deeply embarrassed by his failure as Rhaella giggled.

"I told you, you need to fix your posture." She reminded him. "Try again." He aimed the arrow at the rabbit, but before he could shoot, Rhaella stopped his tracks, "wait." She stood closely behind him, straightening his back and fixed the position of his arms. "There, that's better."

When he released the arrow, it went straight through the rabbits neck. Rhaella clapped, "well done, my prince." He playfully rolled his eyes, "you still like to call me that?"

"That I do," she said. "It grew on me."

"Alright, love birds," Osha interrupted. "Let's keep hunting."

Both of their faces were as red as tomatoes, "we're not—"

"Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say," Osha teased. "Now, go grab that rabbit, there's gotta be more out here."

Rhaella spotted another one, quickly killing it, as Bran ran to get his. Once they retrieved their arrows and rabbits, they heard a noise. It sounded like leaves being stepped on. The three of them were on their guard. "What was that?" Rhaella whispered. "I don't know," Osha replied, "stay here, I'll be back." She snuck off to investigate the sound. Rhaella turned to Bran, "when she returns, we should probably head back to—"

Summer let out a vicious growl. Before Bran could ask the wolf what was wrong, they saw a shadowy figure of a boy approaching them. Bran quickly stood in front of Rhaella to protect her.

He aimed his arrow at the boy nervously, "who goes there?" The boy finally got close enough for them to examine his features. He had pale skin and dirty blonde hair with eyes that were the color of moss. He looked a couple of years older than them. First, he stared at Bran. Then, to Rhaella's surprise, he locked eyes with her too. She quickly broke the eye contact, lightly blushing. He stopped once Osha snuck up behind him with her spear against the back of his neck.

"Not another step boy," she warned him. "Unless, you'd like to drown in your own blood."

"I'm unarmed." He said calmly.

Osha scoffed with a smirk on her face, "that was terrible planning."

He slightly smirked, "my sister is the one who carries the weapons."

A girl with short dark brown curly hair swiftly snuck up behind her and held a knife to her throat, "I'm better with them. Now, drop the spear."

Osha threw the spear to the ground.

Rhaella spoke up, "I-If you kill her, our wolf will tear you both to pieces!"

He looked at her, "we are not here to harm any of you. The wolf won't do anything to me. This isn't the day I die."

The boy slowly approached Summer, stretching his arm out to him. "You must be Summer," he smiled. The wolf curiously sniffed his hand, and walked out of the way. Confused, Bran stopped aiming his arrow at the mysterious boy.

"How do you know the name of my wolf?" Bran asked. "Wait . . . you're the boy I saw in my dream! Who are you people?"

The boy bowed before Bran, "forgive me, prince Brandon, my name is Jojen Reed." He then approached Rhaella, taking her hand, "and you must be princess Rhaella."

To all of their shock, he lightly kissed her hand. Rhaella blushed, not knowing what to say. Bran watched from the side, twitching his right eye. Jojen backed away and pointed out the brown haired girl, "that is my older sister, Meera."

"Your father, he was friends with mine." Bran stated. "What do you want from us?"

"We've come a long way to find you, Brandon. We still have much farther to go."