Falling / Bran Stark

20. The Prophecy

The bodies were being removed and the floors were being cleaned. Sandor was in the kitchen eating a whole chicken and Odetta was trying to get the blood from her hands. 

"Hodor," Bran whispered and he put Bran down before heading out. "Thank you Odetta." She smiled softly back at him. 

"I was so worried about you." Odetta remarked. "You and Rickon." she scrubbed harder. "You are not scared of me are you?"

"Scared of you?" Bran rasped. "Never, I love you, you saved me, and winterfell"

"I didnt do it alone." Odetta assured. "Sandor helped... but Bran... I..." she hesitated. "It's clear now more than ever that the lannisters need to be defeated, we have to take them down."

"Lannisters, Theon was working with his father, Baelor, not the lannisters."

"But they will come to, they will come for revenge for Jaime when they realize he is dead, they will see us, children at winterfell and they will strike harder than we can handle." Odetta remarked she moved to him crawling into  his lap and holding him tight. "I have to kill Cersei. And Tywin too, then this war can be over and we can have our happily ever after." 

"Whatever you need to do, I'm here for you and I support you." Bran agreed. 

Odetta was curled up beside Bran the next morning, she smiled kissing his cheek before she noticed visitors in the courtyard. She get ready quickly and grabbed her blade. 

"We dont mean any harm," the boy said but the girl beside him had a face of contempt. 

"Forgive me if I dont believe you." Odetta countered. 

"I'm Jojen Reed and this is my sister, meera." He answered. "We have come to find Brandon Stark, we came a long way."

"Why?" odetta countered. 

"Because he is the key to our salvation." Jojen answered. 

"That seems like a lot of pressure on a kid," Odetta countered. But of course bran allowed them in and spoke with them. Their fathers had been friends ages ago and Bran trusted them at their word, Odetta was still hesitant of the strangers. 

"My father taught me. We have no knights at Greywater. No master-at-arms, and no maester."

"Who keeps your ravens?" She smiled.

"Ravens can't find Greywater Watch, no more than our enemies can."

"Why not?"

"Because it moves," she told him. Bran had never heard of a moving castle before. He looked at her uncertainly, but he couldn't tell whether she was teasing him or not. Bran looked to Odetta and she cocked her head back at Meera.

"It moves. Sandor!" odetta called out. "Does the greywater watch move?"

"Fuck if I know." Sandor countered as he passed.

"I wish I could see it. Do you think your lord father would let me come visit when the war is over?" Bran questioned. "We could go together Odetta," Bran added grabbing her hand.

"Oh yes, anywhere, I would go anywhere with you." Odetta agreed kissing his cheek.

"You would be most welcome, my prince. Then or now."

"Now?" Bran had spent his whole life at Winterfell. He yearned to see far places but not with his legs as they were.

"He's not a prince." Odetta corrected confused.

"It's a sign of respect." Jojen added.

"But he's not a prince." Odetta repeated. "He's lord of Winterfell currently in his brothers absent. I suppose that's like royalty."

"I could ask Ser Rodrik when he returns." The old knight was off east, trying to set to rights the trouble there.

"Ser Rodrik might let me go. Maester Luwin never would." Sitting cross-legged under the weirwood, Jojen Reed regarded him solemnly.

"It would be good if you left Winterfell, Bran."

"It would?" Bran countered looking to Odetta.

"Yes. And sooner rather than later." Jojen added.

"My brother has the greensight," Meera informed them. "He dreams things that haven't happened, but sometimes they do."

"That sounds like a lie or witchcraft." Odetta cut in.

"There is no sometimes, Meera." Jojen corrected sternly. A look passed between them, him sad, her defiant, odetta noticed.

"Tell me what's going to happen," Bran instructed.

"I will," answered Jojen, "if you'll tell me about your dreams." 

The godswood grew quiet. Bran could hear leaves rustling, and Hodor's distant splashing from the hot pools. He thought of the golden man and the three-eyed crow, remembered the crunch of bones between his jaws and the coppery taste of blood. He could taste it, he could feel it, he could remember what it was like yet he couldn't have...

"I don't have dreams. Maester Luwin gives me sleeping draughts." Bran corrected. 

"Do they help?"

 "Sometimes." Bran shrugged

 "All of Winterfell knows you wake at night shouting and sweating, Bran. The women talk of it at the well, and the guards in their hall." Meera said bluntly. Odetta gaped back at her, bran looked pale. 

 "Tell us what frightens you so much," Jojen instructed.

 "I don't want to. Anyway, it's only dreams." Bran answered. 

"He doesnt have to tell you people jackshit." Odetta agreed. "Pushy, pushy," she tsked. 

"Maester Luwin says dreams might mean anything or nothing." Bran added grabbing odetta's hand. 

 "My brother dreams as other boys do, and those dreams might mean anything," Meera informed him. "but the green dreams are different." Jojen's eyes were the color of moss, and sometimes when he looked at you he seemed to be seeing something else. Like now as he looked at Bran he seemed to see something else, something that wasnt there and it frightened ODetta. She wasnt scared of much but she didnt like this magic, this thing she didnt understand. 

 "I dreamed of a winged wolf bound to earth with grey stone chains," Jojen said. "It was a green dream, so I knew it was true. A crow was trying to peck through the chains, but the stone was too hard and his beak could only chip at them." 

"Did the crow have three eyes?" Bran questioned Jojen nodded. Summer raised his head from Bran's lap, and gazed at the man with his dark golden eyes. Odetta worried what being a dream walker or whatever Jojen was, would change Bran, turn him distant, only living for the future and possible prophecies and not the present. 

"When I was little I almost died of greywater fever. That was when the crow came to me." 

"He came to me after I fell," Bran blurted out. "I was asleep for a long time. He said I had to fly or die, and I woke up, only I was broken and I couldn't fly after all." Bran couldnt look at Odetta when he said it, she had been there for him, taken care of him and never treated him like he was broken and yet he felt completely broken, life was unfair. 

 "You can if you want to." Meera countered as if it was that easy.

 "You are the winged wolf, Bran," said Jojen. "I wasn't sure when we first came, but now I am. The crow sent us here to break your chains."

 "Is the crow at Greywater?" Odetta questioned. 

 "No. The crow is in the north."

 "At the Wall?" Bran had always wanted to see the Wall. His brother Jon was there now, a man of the Night's Watch. 

"Beyond the Wall."

"Odetta, you ready?" Sandor called out. Odetta sucked in a tight breath, how could she leave now?"

"No," she called back. 

"odetta, I thought-"

"I need to make sure Bran and Rickon are alright before I take my temporary leave." Odetta clarified, she also didnt like the look of this Meera girl.