28 | BEYOND THE WALL

Reyanna walked closely near Jon. She indulged in what little warmth being near him gave her. "You all right?" Jon asked Gendry, who had never been farther north than King's Landing. Gendry nodded, his lips unreasonably pale.

"Ever been north before?" Tormund asked the boy.

"Never seen snow before." Gendry told.

"Beautiful, eh? I can breathe again. Down south, the air smells like pig shit." Tormund chuckled.

"You've never been down south." Jon commented.

"I've been to Winterfell."
"That's the North."

"How did you live up here? How do you keep your balls from freezing off?" Gendry spoke through his chattering teeth.

"You have to keep moving." Reyanna answered him.

"You lived up here, too?" Gendry asked the queen.

She nodded. "A southern borne growing up north of the Wall. Sounds like a plot to a strange story." She chuckled.

* * *

The trek was long and unmerciful. The cold north of the Wall during the daring winter was worse than Reyanna ever remembered. She held her sword close, hoping it'd bring her guidance and protection. But, it was just another sword. It wasn't even a special one, a passed down one or even one she used before. But it was a sword. One with sharp edges that could kill the living. Yet, to the dead, it was useless. It did no harm to the walkers, so she wondered why she continued to lug around that heavy sword. She quickly unbuckled the belt, which seemed to have grown tighter around her waist, and dropped the sword.

"What are you doing?" Jon asked her.

"It's heavy." Reyanna shrugged.

Jon looked at her like she was crazy, but didn't question her, knowing she'd only grow angry at him. "Jon, am I getting fat?" Reyanna asked, wondering why she felt so heavy. Perhaps it was simply the thick cold air that was holding her down.

Jon didn't answer, knowing silence was the key to not angering a woman. Reyanna instantly assumed that his silence meant that it must be true. She suddenly felt enraged and sad all at once. Hot tears stung her eyes out of no where and they poured down her face. "You haven't even got the courage to tell me." Reyanna muttered, wiping away her tears quietly.

Jon furrowed her brows out of pure confusion at her. "Why are you crying? I didn't even—" Jon asked, worried that she was going mad.

"I don't want to talk to you anymore!" She whisper-yelled at him so that the other men wouldn't hear. Jon flinched and quieted himself again. He had no clue as to what was going on with Reyanna, but he thought it best to leave her alone.

* * *

"I saw that in a fire. A mountain the shape of an arrowhead." The Hound or —as Reyanna called him— the man who was kissed by fire, spoke up and halted the group to a stop before the curious looking mountain.

"We're getting close." The Hound stated. Then, continued to walk, resuming the group's trek.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Dragonstone. Sofina was growing anxious. She had developed a recent and odd feeling that she needed to protect her little sister. Like a mother bear with her baby cub. It was strange, but Sofina thought it was because she knew Reyanna was headed toward danger. "I've got to go north." Sofina announced to Tyrion.

"You can't go north, it's dangerous." Tyrion groaned, growing quite annoyed at his boss's sudden decision making skills.

"That's exactly why I have to go north. Something is going to go wrong, and if it does we lose our only Westerosi ally— the North— now that Dorne, the Iron Islands and the Reach is lost. Also," Sofina paused to shoot daggers at Tyrion with her eyes, "you don't tell me what to do when my sister's life is on the line." Sofina huffed then hurried out of the castle to ride Drogon to north of the Wall to aid the group retrieving a white walker for Cersei. Viserion and Rhaegal followed her flight to the North.

* * *

One of the members of the group, a stranger to Rey, trekked ahead of the rest of the group. A blizzard had picked up in the midst of their trek, blowing harsh cold winds and snow into everyone's faces. It also make the air look dingy and opaque. One could only really see a few feet in front of them. So, the man's distant silhouette could only be seen. The entire group was huddled up together as they slowly followed the man who was still up ahead until Tormund stopped them and pointed to another figure approaching the Hound. "A bear." He whispered.

Everyone stood tall, ready to fight to flight if the far away bear were to come and attack them, except for Reyanna. The cold was too unbearable for her to stand, neck up and out. She continued to have her arms wrapped around Jon's arm and her face buried into his coat. She had already forgotten about yelling at him earlier. Her emotions were all over the place. Yet, the only thing distracting her from it now was the cold. "Do bears have blue eyes?" Gendry squinted as he glanced at the blue glowing eyes the bear seemed to have.

The bear began run full force at the man. And he came sprinting back toward the ground. Everyone unsheathed their swords, getting ready to fight. The man was quickly snatched by the bear as he tried to hurry back to the group. And the bear quietly disappeared. Everyone looked around to see where it went, and, before they knew it, the bear was attacking the group. It took out another man and flung and scratched the men attacking the bear. It was clearly undead. A part of the Night King's army. Jon and Reyanna were hesitant to charge in to fight against the bear like the others; they had a lot at stake if they died. Reyanna grabbed a dragonglass dagger and whilst the bear was using one man as a chew toy, she stabbed the bear on its side. The bear instantly fell to its demise, and the Hound managed to pull the man who was used as a chew toy out of the bear's jaws.

Once it was all over, they continued to walk like nothing happened.

* * *

On their way up a mountain, Tormund stopped the group. He heard footsteps from afar, and worried it was the undead army. He motioned for everyone to duck behind boulders along the mountain to look down below. And just as Tormund expected, it was the dead walking. "Where's the rest of them?" Jon asked, noting that there was only a handful of them.

"If we wait long enough, we'll find out." Tormund whispered back. Jon nodded curtly at him and waved Reyanna over.

She crawled silently over to him and tried to continue being unseen behind the boulders from the dead army below. He handed her more dragonglass and whispered: "we attack soon."

She nodded and pocketed the glass. Within minutes, the group ran down and attacked the small army. Reyanna stayed on the outskirts, picking off outliers.  It only took the group a few minutes to fight the dead until Jon killed their leaders and all of his soldiers disappeared into dust. Except for one. The lucky walker that would be Cersei's present. Everyone surrounded the jumpy walker. One man managed to shove the walker to his knees some men jumped on the walker to hold him down as Tormund quickly tied up the walker. The walker screeched out inhuman noises, possibly to call other walkers, but the Hound managed to hold his mouth shut as Tormund tied him up.

Reyanna heard thundering steps nearing them, and she grabbed Jon's arm to gain his attention. They both stared out into the snowy abyss and saw an incoming army of the dead. They were coming to avenge one of their leaders Jon slaughtered. "Run back to Eastwatch. Get a raven to Sofina. Tell her what's happened." Jon shouted at Gendry.

"I'm not leaving you." Gendry retorted.

"You're the fastest. Go now." Jon demanded, Gendry huffed and began running off. Reyanna ran off in the opposite direction, leading the ground away from the incoming army. They ran out over a frozen lake, the ice cracking under their feet. Reyanna noticed an island in the middle of the lake and ran straight for it. The others followed. The dead army, by the thousands, flooded in after them— managing to catch up. They were quick and terrifying. The men that slagged behind got snatched by walkers and those that made it to the island were saved from being drowned in the cold lake since the ice was breaking as the dead army rushed on it.

For a bit, the group was safe on their little islands since walkers couldn't swim. They'd just sink to the bottom of the lake. But, they were now surrounded by walkers. Either the group would starve to death being encased on the island or the lake would refreeze and allow the walkers to walk over it again.

For hours, the group stood on the island with his captive walker. Reyanna's adrenaline kept her awake and standing through the cold evening. It was getting dark out, and the lake was seeming to freeze over quicker than she anticipated. She grabbed Jon's hands and pressed them to her warm cheeks. He was stupid enough to not have worn thicker, leathery gloves. "Why are you warm?" Jon asked her as he felt her hot cheeks. Reyanna simply shrugged.