Gems for Spring - Re-write of Game of Thrones Season 8

Episode 1 - The wolves and the dragons

In the woods to Winterfell

It was snowing lightly in the woods on the way from White Harbour to Winterfell. Dany had never seen the snow and she was studying it amused. For every flake that was falling on her hand, a pleasant shiver hit her, and she thought of every time in her life she would have welcomed this ice, like when she was starved and mortally thirsty in the desert. The silence that this white thick crunchy coat brought to the world around it, the quiet and the numbness that brought to her mind and her body, made her feel calm, settled, lucid as never before. The ice was softening the fire. She closed her eyes to feel the lull, and when she opened them, she saw Jon. He had wanted for the two of them to travel far from the army, far from the attention of the crowd, to keep Dany safe.

"If you see the people here displeased, it is not with you, remember they do not know you. They are mad I betrayed them, their trust, their choice." he said, trying to console her. 

She knew it was not true. The heritage her father left her was just fear and hate, no love, no memory of greatness. Viserys was a fool, deceived by his thirst for power, in believing that in Westeros the people were waiting for the last Targaryens with joy, and would have looked at them as saviours. She saw it, in the eyes of the people that were waiting at White Harbour. She feared she would have seen it in the eyes of Jon's family too. She was afraid to lose him. Dany gave him a half smile, and wavered at the thought of what she was risking for Jon Snow, a man whom she had just recently met, and for whom she fell with the joy of a little girl. She loved her husband, and he loved her, but at the centre of everything there was always the thought of the iron throne. With Jon instead, she seemed to forget the throne at times, and everything she now wanted, she wanted it with him by her side. This scared her, hurt her in a way, she felt as she was betraying who she had always been before him; she now had put all this power over her in the hands of a man she practically did not know, yet she felt as they were two pieces of something that used to be whole. All this love, this warmth she had with him, when she grew up knowing none.

Jon looked at her. He was afraid Sansa would have tainted his love, that somebody, or something, would have hurt Daenerys. He had loved Ygritte, but Daenerys was as an arm, a leg of his, his heart. How fiercely strong and powerful she was, yet she would hide and disappear in his arms as if he was her whole world. He had always been nothing, treated like nothing, and now this dream with silver hair and purple eyes loved him back and had changed her world for him. He had known only cold, in his heart, in the heart of people around him, and now this fire was soothing the white desert his life had been. The terror of losing her never left him. He stretched over his horse to reach her hand and kissed it, one kiss for each flake of snow that was on it. They could find in each other's eyes all this that could not be conveyed in words.

Suddenly, the horses heard a cracking noise and stopped, and Jon and Dany froze. They saw four man waiting by a tree, looking at the two of them with disgust and contempt.

One man said "You brought us the conqueror, bastard. You are no king of ours.".

Another added "You bent the knee to a foreign woman with silver hair? At least queen Cersei does not bring Dothraki and monsters. And she would pay an awful lot for a silver lock...or scalp...or head...".

Jon dismounted and took out his sword, trying to shield Dany from the traitors; she could see he was trying to think fast. Two of the men had bows and arrows, and the other two had swords. Drogon and Rhaegal were far looking for food, they had not eaten properly in days, as they had followed the fleet. A little fish was not enough to satisfy two grown dragons, but now Jon was on his own to protect her. Only one arrow and she would have been just an empty body.