A Song of Ice and Fire [EPILOGUE]

Samwell Tarly looked out at the vast expanse of the wild North. He was on an expedition with the Night's Watch to find Jon Snow's killer. It wasn't his time to have died, yet he had. Sam felt fear in his bones though, scared of what they might find in this wild place. Not only the Wildlings walked the snows here. There...were other things. Sam had seen one once. Nearly died by it.

He turned to one of his Night's Watch brothers and said, "Make sure you sound the horn if you see anything. Be on your guard, Shak." Shak nodded and peered out past the wind and fog. Sam hated being here. This...Fist of the First Men. This was supposedly a sacred place where the first men of Westeros had made a camp, but Sam merely felt death and fear here. He was so afraid and he missed Jon. He was ready to find the craven killer. They had two recruits disappear in the last few weeks. First the one who had killed Jon and a man named Daario who had disappeared under suspicious circumstances like the first. They had needed those men to defend against the Wildlings on this expedition, but now it seemed they were down two good men and the best man Sam had ever known.

Shak held a horn in his hand and was prepared to use it at the sight of a single person. A single blow of the horn meant rangers returning. Two horns...wildlings. Three...Sam shivered in fear.

He walked further down the line of men and pulled his cloak higher. It was freezing.

A horn blew from behind him.

"Thank the gods. The rangers have -"

A second blow of the horn.

Sam drew his sword. He was absolutely shaking with dread. Wildlings had found them.

A third blow of the horn.

"No..." Sam could only drop his sword and fall to his knees.

The White Walker was coming. He was coming for all of them.

The other Night's Watch men rushed around to defend the position. Shak rushed to Sam's side to get him up. Suddenly a wild creature was on him. Sam scrambled backwards as the thing clawed at Shak's face and his chest.

It was one of the wights! Sam stood up, swallowed his fear, and charged forward, scooping his blade up as he ran. He slashed at the thing which had the face of Renly Baratheon. Sam swung and cut off one of it's arms. It jumped at Sam and he fell backwards. His head slammed into a rock and he fell unconscious.

Shak lifted himself up, one eye nearly out of its socket, the rest of his face clawed up and bloody. He charged at the creature, tackling it. They fell off the cliff and into the deep and freezing fog. As they fell, the beast howled and chilled Shak's blood. The two crashed hard into the rocks beneath the Fist. Shak's eye popped from its socket then and blood dripped from his nose and forehead.

The creature merely stood back up and began climbing the rocks again, back up to kill the rest of the Night's Watch that remained.

Ygritte had been watching the Night's Watch at the Fist before the fog had obscured her view. She had slowly been making her way closer to the rocks when the horns sounded. She first believed they had spotted her, but even wildlings knew three horns meant the great evil.

She charged forward from there and arrived in time to see a wight and a man falling. One remained still, but the wight got up and climbed again. Ygritte pulled an arrow back and fired a shot at the creature. She fired another arrow as it jumped at her from high above. The arrow connected with skull and the wight landed near her, defeated.

She heard the screams from above and another man fell beside the first. She ran closer to the cliff and pulled a torch from her pack, igniting a fire. She had to burn the bodies or else they'd simply come back as more wights. After that, she climbed. Someone had to be alive up there and someone had to know who had killed Jon.

When she reached the top, blood flooded the snow-covered ground and she saw it. The White Walker loomed over a large man sprawled on the ground. It was leaning down to touch him. Ygritte readied her bow and fired a flaming arrow at the creature. It hit its face and the Walker stopped moving. It looked right at her and shrieked before changing targets and drawing its icy sword on her.

She lit another arrow and fired, but it didn't even seem to damage the creature. She was ready to die though and closed her eyes. She was ready to be with Jon again.

Sam opened his eyes and rubbed the back of his head. He felt blood, but the sounds of screams snapped him back to reality when he saw the same evil being stepping towards...a wildling? He stood and charged at the evil thing, drawing the only known weapon that could slay a White Walker, a dragonglass dagger.

The White Walker noticed him approaching and dodged the attack. It then disappeared into the fog, anger in its cold, icy face.​

Sansa Stark ran down the hall in Winterfell. The Lannisters were attacking and her father had left with Robb a fortnight ago and never returned. They last heard they had been caught by the snowstorm. She heard a booming crash and the shouts of soldiers. The walls had fallen!

She bolted into her room where Arya hid and barred the door. Sansa and Arya crawled under their beds as rumbling footsteps echoed outside their room. Soldiers began attempting to break down the door. Arya was holding back tears and Sansa reached out to touch her, but she was too far.

After a few moments, the door was knocked off its hinges and crashed down with a bang. The girls lay frozen under their beds. Two men entered the halls. Jaime Lannister walked towards the window, looked out, then sat on Sansa's bed.

"All this bloody work and not a single Stark found," he said. He set down his sword and Sansa saw blood and guts covering the sharp blade. Ice was frozen with fear.

"Dear brother, don't you see? Winterfell is ours now. Our sister will be pleased at the news and we can get out of this stinkhole of a place." Tyrion walked up to his brother and gave him a pat on the shoulder. He bumped the sword, which slid over and clattered on the floor.

Sansa held her breath.

Tyrion leaned over and put his hand on the hilt. He had seen her.

"Hello, sweet Sonata."​

Tyrion looked proudly at the conquered Winterfell. He had protected his family, as instructed, and had done it by his brother's side.

"Oh, dear brother, this is a glorious day for our family. Father may have died, but it seems we're doing swimmingly without him. Wouldn't you agree?" Tyrion shook his glass of wine at Jaime, who merely looked at the sky, pain clearly etched on his face.

"Tyrion, I have something to tell you," started Jaime. He turned to face his small brother. "Our sister seems to believe you will betray us."

"Cersei has never trusted me. She always believed I was an evil imp. All I have ever done is make sure this family succeeded." Tyrion didn't much feel like drinking now.

"Yes. I know, brother." Jaime put a hand on Tyrion's shoulder.

"The Kingslayer and the Imp. What a pair we make."

"Kingslayer...and now Kinslayer." Jaime drew a dirk and stabbed Tyrion in the throat.

As Tyrion choked back blood, Jaime bent down, tears in his eyes, and said, "And now...the debt is paid."
​

Ned Stark bent before the sight of Winterfell in ruin and flame. The Lannisters had done this. Tears flickered from his eyes and he nearly charged towards his home intending to slay as many craven fools as he could. He had sneaked up to the walls during the night and saw their corpses. His beautiful daughters dead and he was to blame for leaving them.

Ned stood and began walking away. There was nothing to do now but find Stannis Baratheon and join his cause against the Lannisters. Or...the Targaryen girl. Either options were better than seeing his entire family slaughtered. He could go with Robb and find shelter at a Northern house that he trusted, but...

He heard the howl of wind and a deep cold fell over him. "Winter truly is coming..." He tightened his cloak and kept walking, but noticed a puddle freezing over beside the path.

He stopped and listened. Crackling ice and a continuing howl filled his ears. It can't be...

Ned drew his Valaryian steel sword, Ice, and parried an icy creature. The foul thing looked to be made of evil, but it was still beautiful in sight. It leered at him and he jumped back to prepare for its next attack. The creature shrieked at him and suddenly Ned felt a sharp pain in his knee. He turned and saw a blue-eyed man, frostbitten and cold, stabbing him with a dagger. He swung at the thing, but a second stabbed him in the stomach.

He fell to his knees and his sword clattered into the brush. He was stabbed twice more by the blue-eyed men before collapsing. Ned knew what creatures these were.

The White Walker stepped closer and leaned down by his face before pressing a finger lightly to his forehead.

Ned felt his insides turn ice cold and felt fire burn in his eyes.​