A Tale of Blue Winter

Prologue: Benjen

The winds had picked up. The trees had disappeared several leagues ago. He saw white. Everything was white: the sky, the ground, the mountains and the wisps of air that seemed to escape his frostbitten lips. Benjen collapsed into a bed of snow, feeling tiny flakes fall from the pallid sky and onto his face. It was the coldest climate he had ever endured, which meant one thing. He closed his eyes and heard Eddard’s voice repeat the words of their people.

Winter is coming.

These words had haunted him as a child, and eventually forced him to join the Night’s Watch. It was an ancient tradition for the Stark men to take the black and defend the Realm from the horrors that brewed beyond the Wall. He had been afraid, very afraid, but without fear there was no hope for courage or bravery. His father had taught him that.

He thought of the late Lord Rickard Stark, and of Brandon and Lyanna, too. They were the fallen. They remained in the crypts of Winterfell, whilst he and Eddard, perhaps the most unwilling of all the Stark children, had survived them in what was known as Robert’s Rebellion. It had been a war fought with valiance and bravery and fierceness from all sides. But Benjen’s thoughts didn’t circulate that of the battles cries or war drums. He thought of one particular day, preceding the siege of King’s Landing. 

It was the day that started it all.

It was the day Ice had met Fire.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Don't forget to rate and review :)

xo