The Old Bear's Daughter

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"We're all on the same side," Jon finally said.

Juliana looked at him, "How's that?"

"We're all breathing."

Jon walked forward and unlocked the cell to let them out.

*****

Juliana had gotten her old uniform of the Night's Watch seeing as it was made for weather like this and that's what she was wearing as they left the tunnel underneath the wall to go catch themselves a wight.

*****

"You alright?" Jon asked as he looked at Gendry who was stomping stiffly through the snow.

Gendry just hummed.

"Ever been north before?"

"Never seen snow before," he explained.

"Beautiful, eh?" Tormund asked, "I can breathe again. Down south, the air smells like pig shit."

"You've never been down south," Jon told him.

"I've been to Winterfell."

"That's the North."

Tormund blew a raspberry and Gendry had to smirk at the giant man's childish antics.

"How do you live up here? How do you keep your balls from freezing off?" Gendry asked the wildling.

"You got to keep moving. That's the secret. Walking's good, fighting's better, fucking's best."

"The only living woman within the next hundred miles is her," Jon said, pointing at Juliana who was walking further ahead, "And I've heard stories of what she's done to men who came to close for her liking."

Gendry grinned proudly, looking at his lover,  "So have I."

*****

Juliana and Gendry were walking together again as they watched the unknown man who had sat at the table with them talk to Jon. 

They had found out that his name was Daegal but there was little else they knew of him. Which was currently not the strangest thing about him.

He was dressed as if he were in the south.

"Why is he not freezing his balls off?" Gendry asked her.

Juliana shrugged, "Maybe he doesn't have any."

There was a moment of silence before the two looked at each other and burst out laughing.

They only sobered up as they saw Beric and Thoros looking at them.

"You still mad at us, boy?" Thoros asked.

"You sold us to a witch," Gendry said.

"A priestess," Thoros corrected, "I'll admit, it is a subtle distinction."

"We're fighting a great war," Beric told them, "Wars cost money."

"I wanted to be one of you. Juliana would have joined you too. We wanted to join the Brotherhood, but you sold me off like a slave. Do you know what she did to me? She gave a paralyzing potion, stripped me naked and put leeches on me!"

"She needed your blood," Thoros explained like it was a normal thing.

"Yes, thank you. I know that."

"Could have been worse," Sandor Clegane remarked.

"She wanted to kill me! They would have killed the both of us if it wasn't for Davos."

"But they didn't, did they?" he asked as they stopped walking. "So, what you whinging about?"

"I'm not whinging."

Sandor pointed at his face, "Your lips are moving and you're complaining about something. That's whinging." he pointed at Beric, "This one's been killed six times. You don't hear him bitching about it."

He walked off again, Beric and Thoros following him.

"Maybe we should have kept rowing," Juliana remarked as they started walking again.

*****

They were getting closer to their destination as they landed in a snowstorm. 

"Look!" Tormund pointed at a dark shape in the distance.

"A bear," the Hound remarked. "Big fucker."

"Do bears have blue eyes?" Gendry asked.

"Ask the Mormonts," Daegal replied at the same time as Juliana asked, "How the fuck can you even see its eyes?"

Then, the Bear came charging at them and ripped right through one of the wildlings who was travelling with them. 

They ran forward to where the man had been but only found his lance lying in the bloody snow.

Standing back to back, they formed a circle to try and see the beast through the storm.

One of their comrades screamed as the Bear lunged at him, tearing him up and showing the company its half-rotten body.

"Do something!" Gendry yelled at Juliana through the storm.

"I can't!" she yelled back.

"It's an animal!"

"A dead animal!"

Jon ran forward with his sword but was thrown back to their feet.

Beric and Thoros lit up their swords and charged at the wight together but the Bear had Thoros underneath him within seconds, clawing at him before he threw him across the snowy ground.

Beric made the Bear go up in flames as Juliana threw a few knives into it but it kept screeching.

"Fuck it," Juliana heard Daegal say from behind him as the young man jumped forward and...turned into a dragon.

The dragon was about the size of a horse with dark brown scales and orange eyes and Juliana watched in awe as it flew over and around the bear, spewing fire.

Daegal then flew past it, lifted the lance of their fallen comrade up and started flying at the bear with high speed.

Trying to escape the flames, the bear ran forward but wasn't fast enough to escape the lance that went right through its skull, pinning it to the ground where it would have to burn until it was fully destroyed.

Daegal landed next to Thoros and was a human again within a matter of seconds. 

"Are you alright?" he asked as if it was the most normal thing to turn into a dragon and kill an undead bear.

"Funny old life."