Jon and Ygritte

"I love you Jon Snow", she whispered to him as they lay in the cave, the waterfall splashing around them, "But I know you're still a crow. And if you betray me, I'll kill you."

Jon rested his head upon her feeling her chest rise and fall with the slow, rythmic beat of her free heart. He thought of his oath.

"Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all nights to come."

He thought of his family, of Bran and Rickon, burnt to ashes by the Turncloak. Of his father, beheaded on the steps of the Sept of Baelor. He thought of his unknown mother, be she some tavern wench, a whore, or a highborn lady. He looked at Ygritte, her fiery red hair burning in the soft glow of the torchlight, her bright green eyes staring at him. He broke.

"Alright", he said softly. "I'm yours. And you are mine."

"I am yours, and you are mine", she agreed. She reached slowly in and kissed him, their tongues dancing playfully with each other. Jon felt his pulse raise, and pulled her in closer.

Several hours later, they emerged from the cave, wet and sticky.

"Ahhh, have you not tired of him yet, girl?" shouted Tormund Giantsbane up at them. "Come here and I'll show you what a real man can do! Might be I'll slip under your cloak tonight."

"Try that, and you'll end up without a cock!" Ygritte called back, but the wind was picking up, and it whipped away her words before anybody but Jon could hear them. Her hair was flowing behind her as they descended the hill, the same colour as the glow of the sun sinking behind the Wall to the south-west. The ice glistened like tears in the dusky twilight. 

"Why are we climbing the Wall at night?" asked Ygritte. "We'll fall, or freeze."

"I told you already", said Jon annoyed. "The patrols will catch us otherwise. Once we're over the Wall, we march to Castle Black.

The Wall stood majestically before them, a 700 foot high barrier stretching 500 miles across the North, the culmination of eight thousand years of ice, stone, and death. It was said that Brandon the Builder worked blood magic into the vey foundations of the Wall, making it impassable to Others or to the dead.