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[RIVERLANDS WOODS, FURTHER UP THE PATH]
[CATELYN weaves a wooden circle bound with twine. TALISA rides up and dismounts with the help of a soldier, her mount whinnying.]
"You're afraid of her. And she knows it."
"I'm not afraid of her. May I help you, Lady Stark?"
"No."
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"
"You can't help because a mother makes one for her children to protect them. Only a mother can make them."
"You've made them before?"
"Twice."
"Did they work?"
"After a fashion. I prayed for my son Bran to survive his fall. Many years before that, one of the boys came down with the pox."
Ned's brows furrowed, trying to remember which of his sons had come down with the pox. When the answer came to him, he looked at his wife stunned.
But Catelyn said nothing, stubbornly staring at the wall.
"Maester Luwin said if he made it through the night, he'd live. But it would be a very long night. So I sat with him all through the darkness. Listened to his ragged little breaths, his coughing, his whimpering."
"Which boy?"
"Jon Snow."
"Me?!" Jon acted as if he was shocked. His cousins though were genuinely shocked.
"There is no other Jon Snow, is there" Catelyn said as a matter of factly, but did not even look at him once as she did so.
"When my husband brought that baby home from the war, I couldn't bear to look at him. I didn't want to see those brown stranger's eyes staring up at me. So I prayed to the gods, take him away. Make him die."
Lyanna's hands fisted in outrage, but Jon's grip on them stopped her from speaking. She looked at her son, who shook his head at her.
"She didn't know" he whispered.
Lyanna almost let a whimper escape her lips.
Instead of lashing out at Catelyn Stark, she embraced her son tightly.
"I'm so sorry you had to live like that" she whispered.
Jon simply patted her back as hugging back was awkward for him.
"He got the pox. And I knew I was the worst woman who ever lived. A murderer. I'd condemned this poor, innocent child to a horrible death all because I was jealous of his mother. A woman he didn't even know. So I prayed to all seven gods, let the boy live. Let him live and I'll love him. I'll be a mother to him. I'll beg my husband to give him a true name, to call him Stark and be done with it, to make him one of us."
"And he lived."
"And he lived. And I couldn't keep my promise. And everything that's happened since then all this horror that's come to my family it's all because I couldn't love a motherless child."
Catelyn's jaws set even tighter, hands fisting on her knees.
________________________
[NORTH OF THE WALL]
[The wildlings march through the mountains. JON and MANCE RAYDER stop to talk.]
Jon straightens on his seat, the earlier mood replaced by sourness.
"Was it hard for you to kill the Halfhand?"
"Yes."
"You liked him? I like you, but if you're playing us false, it won't be hard for me to kill you. I've got wildling blood in my veins. These are my people."
"Does he?" Robb asked his father.
"I have heard rumours that he was sired from a wildling mother. I suppose they are true" Ned Stark shrugged,
"I understand."
"Well, how could you understand?"
"You want to protect your people."
"Do you know what it takes to unite 90 clans, half of whom want to massacre the other half for one insult or another? They speak seven different languages in my army. The Thenns hate the Hornfoots. The Hornfoots hate the ice-river clans. Everyone hates the cave people. So you know how I got moon worshippers and cannibals and giants to march together in the same army?"
"He sounds a lot like Aegon the Conqueror" Shireen commented.
Rhaegar turned to her alarme.
"In what way?!" he asked sharply.
The girl shrinks before she straightens to meet the dead prince's eyes.
"Aegon the Conqueror united the Seven Kingdoms-"
"Six. Dorne was yet to be brought in during his time" Oberyn corrected with a smile.
"Six... He untied Six Kingdoms, each with their customs and preferences. I mean that."
Rhaegar ponders for a moment.
"I see your point" he nods finally and looks away.
Shireen looks away as well, missing the look of pride in her father's eyes.
"I told them we were all going to die if we didn't get south. Because that's the truth."
"Well, not completely like Aegon. He threatened they would die if they didn't bend the knee" Jaime pointed out with an easy smile.
Rhaegar just shook his head. Even after he told them the reason for the conquest, they were still blind to it.
[A CRAG NEXT TO THE MARCHING FORCES]
[MANCE and JON join TORMUND GIANTSBANE, YGRITTE, and ORREL. ORREL sits, eyes white, looking up to a raven.]
"Why is his eyes like that?" Bran asked.
"He is a warg. He is currently inhabiting the mind of an animal. An eagle to be exact" Jon explained.
"How do you know?" Arya asked.
"His eyes, when they are like that it means he is Warging" Jon stated
Arya nodded her head and looked back towards the screen.
"Where were you this time?"
[ORELL returns to consciousness.]
"The Fist of the First Men."
"What did you see?"
"Dead crows."
A shiver ran down Robb's spine. Sam survived, so there could be more who survived with him.
[NORTH OF THE WALL]
[The Night's Watch march through the snow-covered mountains, looking exhausted. SAMWELL TARLY is drained. He falls to his knees. GRENN notices that SAM has given up. GRENN and DOLOROUS EDDISON TOLLETT walk back to him.]
Jon let out a sigh of relief. Survivors...
"I can't."
"If you stop, you'll die."
"Course if you don't stop, you'll probably die, too."
"Not helpful" Lyanna muttered with worry. She kind of liked Sam, he was a nice kid as can be.
"You don't care."
"Course we care."
"You left me. When the white walkers came, you left me."
"Aye, we left you. You're fat and you're slow. We didn't want to die."
"Fair assessment" Tyrion muttered. It was logical, friend or not. He would do the same. Perhaps... not if it was Jaime.
[GRENN and DOLOROUS EDD try to help SAM to his feet. RAST comes back to the trio.]
"Looks like that piggy is done for."
"He's mean. They all are." Tommen said with a frown. "Can we have Sam with us? He likes books, we have many books"
"I will... think about it" Tyrion answered. It wasn't the worst idea, to get the unfavoured son out of Randyll Tarly's hands and possibly have him owe House Lannister one. Plus, Sam was well educated. It would be nice to have another scholar for the company.
[LORD COMMANDER JEOR MORMONT comes back to see what is happening.]
"What is this? Get up, Tarly. Is he all right?"
"Aye, I think so."
"If he can't, we may as well just go without him."
"Fair" Oberyn nodded. "Cruel as it is, letting one man pull the group down in those conditions is suicide."
"That's enough. Tarly, I forbid you to die. Do you hear me?"
"I don't think him forbidding the boy would do any good if he is dying," Renly said with a chuckle, a light chuckle that barely had its usual vigour.
"Rast, you're responsible for him."
Tyrion snorted with amusement.
[WOODS IN THE NORTH]
[BRAN lies sleeping on some furs. A branch snaps in the distance and he wakes with a start. OSHA and SUMMER are hunched and alert. OSHA has her makeshift spear at the ready. OSHA creeps forward and then runs into the woods. SUMMER growls. A young figure approaches. He looks curiously at BRAN. SUMMER growls more fiercely. From behind him, OSHA places her spearpoint on JOJEN's neck.]
"The boy from the dream!" Bran exclaimed.
Ned frowed deeper. Now he really felt like he knew the face somehow, with that body structure too...
"I'm unarmed."
"That was poor planning."
"My sister carries the weapons."
[MEERA REED appears quietly, slipping a knife to OSHA's throat and creating a stand-off.]
"Oh she's good," Oberyn said appreciatively, leaning forward with a smile. It was not always he saw capable female warriors up North. So far he'd seen two! And both in the viewing before him.
[OSHA releases the spear.]
"If you kill me, that wolf will tear you to bits."
[SUMMER continues to growl in warning. JOJEN approaches the direwolf.]
"You must be SUMMER."
"He... knows Summer?" Bran asks in confusion. How did he know summer?
[SUMMER immediately stops growling. JOJEN holds out his hand. SUMMER sniffs it and is pleased. The direwolf walks away. JOJEN approaches BRAN.]
"Well if the wolf trusts him..." Robb said unsure.
"I'm Jojen Reed. This is my sister Meera. We've come a long way to find you, Brandon. And we have much farther to go."
Ned snapped his fingers just as Lyanna gasped.
"Howland's children?!" she asked almost excitedly. She remembered the man, well the boy. He was young when she'd last seen him. A shy but upstanding individual. She liked him. His children no doubt would be like him too.