Winter Is Coming

“I never thanked you,” I looked up from leaning on the bed staring at Brandon and saw Lady Stark looking at me, “I never thanked you for finding my son, for getting my husband.”

“There’s no thanks needed,” I said and then looked at Lady Stark and gave a small smile, “You’ve taken Cynthia and I in, the least we could do was help watch over your family.”

“Will you come with me? Tomorrow I would like to go somewhere,” she said and I looked at her confused, but nodded my head, “Thank you.”

The door opened and Maester Luwin walked into the room, he bowed towards Lady Stark and then walked over towards where I was kneeling on the bed and stood next to me. He placed his hand on Brandon’s head and sighed, “It’s time we reviewed the accounts, my lady.”

I looked at him like he was crazy, “You think now is the best time?”

“You’ll want to know how much the royal visit has cost us,” he said, completely ignoring me.

“Talk to Poole about it,” Lady Stark said and I sighed.

“Poole went south with Lord Stark, my lady,” Maester Luwin sighed and I stood up, “We need a new steward, and there are several other appointments that require our immediate attention-“

“I don’t care about appointments!” Lady Stark said and I looked at Maester Luwin.

“Is there anything I can do?” I asked and again, he ignored me, ‘…Am I invisible?...’

“But-“

“I’ll make the appointments,” I heard and looked towards the door to see that Robb walked
in, “We’ll talk about it first thing in the morning.”

“Very good, my lord,” Luwin said and then walked out of the room while Robb walked in.

He gave me a small smile and then walked over towards the window and opened the doors, the dogs were howling and barking and it was quiet annoying.

“When was the last time you left this room?” Robb asked and I gulped, feeling like I was going to be in the middle of a family argument.

“I have to take care of him!” Lady Stark said and I tensed.

‘…This is going to get awkward…’

“He’s not going to die, Mother!” Robb said and I nodded my head and started to walk towards the door, ‘…Yup, getting awkward…’ I thought as I got to the door, “Maester Luwin says the most dangerous time has passed-“

“What if he’s wrong?!” Lady Stark snapped, and I opened the door.

‘…Awkward, awkward, awkward, get out-…”

“Stay!” both Robb and Lady Stark said and I stiffened and closed the door.

“Ok,” I said uncomfortably and then sighed and turned around and leaned against the wall, ‘…God, I really don’t want to…’

Lady Stark looked at Robb and repeated, “What if he’s wrong? Bran needs me-“

“Rickon needs you,” Robb said and I looked around the room, wondering if I shoulder really be in here, “He’s six! He doesn’t know what’s happening, he follows me around all day, clutching my leg, crying-“

“Close the windows!” Lady Stark yelled because the dogs were getting louder, and I listened carefully, “I can’t stand it! Please make them stop!”

“No wait!” I said and they both looked at me and I ran past Robb towards the windows, “Something’s wrong.”

“What?” Robb asked and I looked out the window.

“Fire!” I said, seeing that the one building was on fire.

“What?” Robb asked and pushed past me, he saw the flames and looked at me and then towards Lady Stark, “You stay here, I’ll come back!”

“Robb, wait!”

“Stay Jess!” he yelled and ran out the door.

I looked at Lady Stark and then back out the window, seeing men running towards the burning building. I sighed and then walked over towards Brandon and decided that he needed another clean rag on his head. I looked in the bucket of water and found that it was dirty, “I’ll go get him some clean water.”

“All right,” Lady Stark said and I picked the bucket up and walked out of the room.

I must have made it down the hallway when I heard Lady Stark cry out ‘no’. I snapped my body around and sniffed the air, ‘…Someone’s in there!...’ I growled as I ran back down the hallway and into the room to see Lady Stark fighting off a man. I smelled her blood and saw that her hands were cut from fighting off the blade that was trying to be cut her throat.

I growled and then threw the bucket at the man’s back, getting his attention and then punching him in his side, “Get away from her!” I growled and saw the man throw Lady Stark to the side, “Get Robb! Go!”

She nodded her head and then ran out of the room. The man in all black swung his blade at me, but I just back and then ducked low and kicked out the man’s feet. I climbed on top of him and landed at least five punches to his ribs, knowing that I at least broke two of them, but I cried out when I felt a pain in my side and saw the blade that he tried to kill Lady Stark with, was rammed into my shoulder.

The man pushed me off of him and I landed on my back, he climbed on top of me and started to choke me and rammed the blade deeper into my shoulder. I snarled towards him and managed to scratch his face and landed a punch in his nose before I felt his weight being pulled off of me.

I landed back on my back and heard the man crying out in pain and seeing that Summer, Brandon’s wolf, had ran into the room and jumped onto the intruder. She snapped at his throat and killed him, then jumped onto the bed to check and see if Brandon was all right, before jumping on the floor and trotting over towards me.

“I’m all right, I’m all right,” she whined and licked my face and then sniffed at the blade in my shoulder, “Thank you, Summer.”

I was breathing heavily and in a lot of pain, I managed to push myself up and lean against the end of the bed. I heard footsteps running towards the room and my sight was a little fuzzy, I heard my name being called.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was helping the men get rid of the fire when Mother ran up to me, her hands all bloody and she told me that there was a man in the room trying to kill my brother and that Jessica was fighting him. We ran into the castle and when I got to the floor, I noted that it was quiet. I ran into the room and found a man in all black dead on the ground; Summer was licking Jessica, who was leaning against the bed, a dagger in her shoulder.

“Jess!” I yelled and collapsed in front of her and cupped her face, “Jess!” I called and she groaned and then placed her hand on my arm, “I need to take the blade out,” I said and she weakly nodded her head, “Mother get Maester Luwin!”

“Right,” she said and then turned around and ran out of the room.

“Jess!” I called because she looked like she was going to pass out, “Stay with me, don’t die!”

“Get the damn thing out,” she growled weakly and I smirked, and nodded my head.

I grabbed the hilt of the blade and quickly pulled it out. She cried out in pain and then pounded on my chest, breathing heavily.

“What’s going on?!” I heard and turned to see Theon there.

“Get towels, now!” I yelled and he nodded his head and grabbed a towel and ran over.

“What happened to her? Who’s he? What’s going on?” Theon asked and I growled and placed the towel on Jessica’s shoulder to try and control the bleeding.

“Put pressure on that,” I said and Theon nodded his head, bent down next to me and placed pressure on Jessica’s wound. She gasped and then leaned her head back onto the bed, he eyes drooping, “Hey, hey, hey, stay with me! Don’t pass out! Stay with me!”

“Robb!” I turned and saw Mother walking in with Maester Luwin.

“What happened?” he asked and Mother told him what happened, “We must treat her wound!”

“Theon, find Cynthia and bring her,” I ordered and he stood up and nodded his head before he walked out of the room. I placed my hand under Jessica’s back and then her legs before picking her up and looked at Mother, “Where?”

“Follow me,” Maester Luwin said and I followed him towards the section of the castle that we healed the sick and injured soldiers.

I laid Jessica on the cot and a woman walked over and opened her dress, I looked away when they started to remove it, but looked back when her chest was covered. She gasped and cried out in pain and I looked to see that they were pouring some liquids on the wound and then started to stitch the wound up. I grabbed her hand and winced when her grip tightened.

‘…I’m going to find out who did this and kill them…’