Chapter 25

'There's no need to worry. I trained her well. She won't fall for Rhaegar's empty words.'

I was consoling myself while riding towards Riverrun. There were a lot of possibilities. But, I knew for a fact that if Lyanna didn't want to go with him, she would put a fight of her lifetime to resist him.

I was speeding towards the gates when the guards saw me on the horizon. Four of the guards stationed at the gates mounted their horses and rode towards me with the Tully house flags and spears in tow.

"Halt!" One of them shouted.

I pulled on the reigns of my horse and he neighed to a stop.

"State you name! What house do you belong to?!"

I looked at the man dumber than Rickard Stark with a bland expression. The guard beside him smacked his head and shouted, "Why would he tell you what house he's from?! He'll obviously lie if he's the enemy!"

'... He's dumber.'

Dumb one looked at me and asked genuinely, "Are you an enemy?"

Dumber one hit dumb one on the head again and shouted, "Ask him if he's an ally! Enemies will lie, allies won't!!"

'... What the fuck?!'

Much to my relief, the third on smaled both of them on the head and said to me, "Fo'give 'em, ser. Me bro'ers fell out o' me ma' an' hit their 'eads. They are good fer nofin'. I can see yer a Stark from yer sigil on yer plate. Ye' can come ta' the castle, or, I cou' go an' fetch lor' Stark if 'tis some'fin' urgent."

'... Dumb and dumber with a british pirate as the eldest.'

"Ahem, it's best if I visit lord Stark on my own. If you'd please lead me to him."

The twins kept bickering while the pirate told me everything about Riverrun... Without me promting him to do it. The four guard was mute, because, he was born that way.

I hastily left them behind as their senseless chatter was beginning to give me a headache.

There were Stark guards stationed outside Rickard's room and they recognized me immediately.

"Curran! You're here? What happened with your journey beyond the wall?"

"That is the reason why I'm here. I need to talk to lord Stark. It's important."

The two looked at each other and one of them said, "Sure, lord Stark is inside the room."

He knocked on the door and when asked, he said, "Lord Stark, Allan Curran is back from beyond the wall. He's here, wanting to talk to you."

"... Send him in."

The bitterness in his voice clear as day.

As I entered the room amd saw him, his displeasure of my presence was visible. The guards closed the door behind me and I greeted him, "Lord Stark."

"Curran... You're back."

"... Aye, I've returned with troubling news from beyond the wall."

Rickard narrowed his eyes and promted me to continue.

"I visited the wildlings of Whitetree settlement and talked to their chieftain about the recent wildling raids. He wasn't quite welcoming of my presence, but, after I drank their wildling ale, he opened up. He talked of the Thenns who were coming south and raiding settlements of other wildlings. The cold in the lands of always winter is becoming unbearable and the Thenns are looking for warmer lands."

Rickard frowned at the mention of Thenns. Every northman knew who they were and none of them had any affections for cannibals. The Thenns were the most hated of the wildlings. Even the Boltons had nothing but contempt for them.

"Those fucking Thenns."

"There's more, lord Stark. Other than the Thenns, a war has broken out between the men of the frozen shore and the cannibal men of the Ice river clans. So, from the north, there are the Thenns who are hunting wildlings in the Haunted forest and Hardhome and the deserters and the warring clans in the western part of the land beyond the wall. All those affected by the raids and the war and deserters, all of them are coming south and trying to enter our lands to escape."

Rickard was visibly troubled by the news. He sank into his chair and breathed out a sigh, his face wilting and showing his middle aged wrinkles.

"Lord Stark.."

He looked at me with his weary eyes and asked, "Anything else?"

"Aye... The wildlings talked about... The cold ones."

"... The cold ones?"

I took a deep breath and said, "They talk of the dead coming back to life. Of beings made of ice with weapons that shatter steel. They are saying that the White Walkers are back."

"And you believed them? The long night.. The walkers.. They haven't been seen for thousands of years."

"And, yet! The wildlings talk of men disappearing, of the dead rising, of new born babes being offered to the Night king."

Rickard banged his fist on the arm rest of his chair and shouted, "Do not dare to interrupt me, you low life!"

My teeth ground together as I worked on controlling my anger towards the fool. Before were could talk further, a guard rushed in through the door and exclaimed, "Lord Stark!"

"What!?"

"L-Lady Lyanna! She.. She's not in her room! The guards that were stationed at her doors were found to be beaten and bound!"

Rickard flew in rage and grabbed me by my throat. He then shouted, "This is your fault!! You fuckin' savage freak!! If something happens to my Lyanna, I'll have your fuckin' head!!"

He released me and rushed out of the room with the guards in tow.

I didn't rage. I didn't have the time. I jumped from the window and down on the ground before running off to look for Lyanna. The Starks were hot on my tail with almost all the guards of their household.

"Lyanna!!" I kept shouting on the top of my lungs, hoping that I wasn't too late, hoping she was safe.

I reached a clearing within the forest and the Starks arrived just after me. My eyes widened with dread as I looked at the scene before me.

The grass was pained red with blood.

A man of the Kingsguard was laying dead with his head almost cut off. The Starks surrounded the dead man's carcass and identified him to be Jonothor Darry.

I fell on my knees as I gently cradled a lone arm of a woman. The hand was cleched tightly to the handle of the bloodied Spatha I had gifted to Lyanna.

'Lyanna was confronted by Rhaegar. She rejected him so he tried to take her with force. She fought back and killed Darry. They cut her arm off and took her away.'

Something primodial woke up inside me that day. With rage so potent that it overpowered all rationale within me, a bestial roar errupted from my throat as I yelled, "RHAEGAAAAAARRR!!!!!!!"