The Crippled Wolf: Stark SI (GOT)

Chapter 19

CREGAN STARK

Cregan could feel himself swimming, his mind whirring and body all submerged in deep waters and yet it refused to fill his lungs. It refused to take his life.

He had felt this before. He had, ever since his return to the North, whenever the Three-Eyed Raven would come to him in his dreams to torment him. To peck at his skin. To tear off his eyes. To wound and scar him.

But never had it all felt so vivid, and as he tried to move.

Yet he knew that he had to move. He had to because his family was in danger. Because Joffrey was dead.

As he tried to fight back, to move his arms, he found them bound tighter and tighter by an invisible rope. Or was it really rope? As he looked down, he realized that it was no rope.

No. It was a tree. Branches, and as he looked around, he found himself trapped in the trunk of a tree as branches surrounded and covered his body, holding him captive.

"You did this!" he thundered, knowing well that this was his doing. His and no one else's.

"Let me go! Let me go!" he screamed as he tried to pull away, and yet this was no rope. This was thick, hard, wood that made it difficult to even budge, as suddenly he saw a raven land on his shoulder.

Its feathers were black as night, and its head had three eyes, the third one in between the two regular one, and it cawed on his shoulder.

"What have you done?" Cregan questioned, knowing full well that it could understand him.

"The Song must be sung. The Song must be sung," it cawed as Cregan's lips thinned.

"I know of the danger that comes. I can stop them. I can," he pleaded, though in his heart, he felt as if it was already too late.

"Flow the river shall. Stop it. You should not. The Song has begun. The Song has begun," and the words made his heart sink.

'Sung' it meant that he was too late.

"What have you done?" he asked desperately as the crow cawed.

"The Song is Sung! The Song is Sung!" it repeated as it flew away, and Cregan felt his body begin to sink again.

"What have you done? TELL ME YOU BASTARD! WHAT HAVE YOU DO....!"

And yet his consciousness sunk away, as suddenly he felt himself waken.

..

..

..

The light hit his eyes first. Burning light and the warmth came second. And then it hit him. Joffrey's dead body. The bandits surrounded him. And Myrcella running.

It hit him all at once.

And his body jerked up as he tried to push himself up, and yet he stopped as a rather familiar voice entered his ears.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," and the blurriness began to vanish as he squinted his eyes, and much to his surprise, his hands and feet were not tied up. He could move them.

And the light, it was the Sun. It came from a fire burning infront of him, and as power came to his muscles, the pain followed up rather quickly as he winced and closed his lips, as he felt his shoulder burn.

"AHHHHH!" he clenched his eyes shut in pain as he pushed himself to sit, trying to reach for a flask in his pocket, and yet he found it not.

"Easy there, boy! " The stranger who was no stranger came upon him and helped him up as Cregan opened his eyes again to look at his face. His long face and grey hair were the same ones he had stared at days ago after the feast with the royal family.

"It took me bind that wound of yours. I would hate to do it all over again," and then it him the smell of blood and sweat as he looked to his side and saw his shoulder bound by cloth, with wood tied around it to keep it in its place.

The King Beyond the Wall helped him sit up before he passed him a thick flask, and he had no choice but to take it and trust in his generosity as the man helped him put it to his lips, draining the watered-down ale into his parched mouth.

"Good. That is good," the man said as Cregan put down the flask and began to look around them. They were in a cave of sorts, not a very deep one, for he could hear the crickets outside even now.

The fire lit up the cave, and from the ashes and the bones around it. He could estimate that he had been asleep for more than a few hours, roughly.

"How long?" as he stared into those brown eyes as Mance Rayder plopped down opposite to him and began playing with the fire.

"Two days," the man answered, as Cregan felt his heart sink. Two days. Two entire days.

"And what of the bandits?" he asked, remembering well that he had been captured by bandits rather than the King Beyond the Wall.

"Those southern idiots knew nothing about the North. A voice here, a stick there, and they ran away like rats. Some I killed myself, others I left for the men searching for you all over the forest," and somehow he could tell that they were not in the forest.

He was in pain still, searing pain, but he had long gotten used to pain. And even as he hungered for a sip of his poppy milk, he knew he had to be awake. He had to be.

"Southern?" he asked, and the brown eyes man of middling height nodded.

"Yes, they were southern, all of them. Paid by a stranger to kill the crippled son of the Starks," the man voiced, and Cregan had an inkling about who had paid them, but he did not know whether he would ever get to learn the truth.

"Why did you save me?" he asked, and the man did not answer at first. He simply stared at him as the fire's crackling sound filled the cave.

And then he reached into his side and took out a black dagger he easily recognized.

"Because you know about what is coming for us," he added. Cregan's lips thinned as he saw the Dragonglass dagger he had given the man. The black obsidian stone ate away the fire as Cregan sighed.

"You were feverish and could have died had I not come to save you. You had two arrows hit you, bout Gods were merciful, and they spared anything vital. I took them out, cleaned the wounds, and nursed you for two days," and Cregan's lips thinned as he nodded, the cold of the North finally hitting him as he pulled p the thick woolen fur wrapped around him.

"You have my gratitude...."

"I don't care about gratitude, boy," the older man cut in as he looked at him lazily.

"I need answers," and though he was hesitant at first, Cregan was not blind to the favor the man had done to him. But still, he knew that he was in no state to fight him, so he asked.

"And you will have them once you tell me about your intentions with me?" and the man raised a brow.

"You think I would do all this just to kill you? Do you think me a fool, boy?" he retorted as he sipped his ale, and it was the truth.

"I take you for a King," Cregan answered, and the man scoffed.

"There are no Kings Beyond the Wall, I am, but Mance Rayder," and Cregan shrugged.

"Yet your people look to you in their times of need. They rally to your call in your times of need as you do in theirs. If that is not a King, then I do not know what is," and the man scoffed.

"You have a playwright's tongue, you, but answer me, boy. Tell me all you know about what is coming..." His voice lowered as the smile on his lips vanished.

"...and what do you intend to do about my people?"

And Cregan thought about what to do. But what could he do? He was tired, weak, and helpless. The only reason he had survived was because of this man's mercy.

"And what will you do with me afterward?" he asked, and the man scoffed.

"You are useless to me in the North. I won't harm you, boy. You have my word on that," and Cregan eased up at that.

"I have told you much of what I know," he began slowly as he gulped down another sip of the ale.

"I know about what is coming, I know how to kill it..." and after some hesitation he continued.

"I know how you are gathering the tribes and the giants, trying to attack the wall. I know you will fail. I told you as much that night," he added, but the man was silent.

"How?" he questioned after some time.

"I don..."

"How do we kill them?" he asked, and Cregan pointed towards the dragon glass.

"That is one way to kill them. Dragonglass, the other is fire. I believe that one can burn them, and then the last one..." he took a deep breath before he answered.

"The last one is by using Valyrian Steel," he finished, and the man nodded.

"And you believe there is Dragonglass beyond the wall?" he asked, and Cregan shrugged.

"I believe that the first men would have fought against the dead using it, so it is highly likely that some of it still remains there. Where it may be beyond the Wall, I know not."

"And where did you get this?" he asked, pointing towards the dagger he had given him.

"Dragonstone," he answered.

"There is a cave there filled with it," he answered, and the man nodded.

"Where are we?" Cregan felt he had answered enough questions, so it was his turn to ask some.

"In the mountains that at the edge of the forest. I was here, at your words, searching for this," he pointed at dragon glass as he continued.

"...when I heard screams and sounds of battle from the forest. I ran down and saw those bandits carrying you away. And I decided to wait until the dark before I dealt with them and took you into the mountains," and that made sense.

Cregan had told him of his suspicion that there might be some Dragonglass here, and those words had ended up saving his life.

"Did you find any?" he asked, and the man shook his head.

"Not much, but I have not searched for long either, so no one knows whether I will find any or not," he added, and Cregan shrugged.

"You said we would lose," he suddenly cut into his surprise as he again looked into his eyes.

"That we would fail in trying to take down the wall," and Cregan nodded.

"The Nightwatch, thinned and blunted as it may, is still a formidable force, especially against the untrained Free Folk. And the Night's Watch is but the first of the opponents that you would have to face. The second word of your men reaches the North, the whole of the North will stand up against them, and you will lose," and Mance must know that as well.

"Six times it has been tried. Six times, a King Beyond the Wall has dreamt the same as you, and yet none have succeeded. And it is not because of luck but because of weapons and steel, and castles and training. All of which your men lack," and the man scoffed.

"We have courage," and Crgean shook his head.

"Courage does not win wars. Men, gold, and steel do," and Mance must understand that the man was once a ranger and must know of the Night's Watch's strength. He had come here and dined with his father and the other Northern lords. He must know of their strength as well.

"There is no way that your men would come south of the Wall, at least not by war," Cregan added, and the man perked up at that.

"We do not kneel," he thundered, and Cregan sighed.

"Yet you bleed, and you die just as men and woman beyond the wall do," he suggested, and it was a preposterous idea that he had no idea how to bring to fruition.

But it was a gamble he had played after that damned three-eyed raven's work.

"The Crows and your lords would never have peace," he scoffed as he stood up.

"Nor would your men. But the truth is that if we are to survive this, survive what is coming for us, we will need to make peace one way or another," Cregan pleaded before he pointed at them.

"In a way, we already have," he suggested, and he could see him thinking about his words as the man shook his head.

"This is not pea...." but suddenly the man stopped, and Cregan understood the reason as well, as Mance Rayder jumped to his feet.

"Someone's here," and the man quickly jumped and reached for his blade as Cregan felt his heart hammer in his chest as Mance Rayder came and walked to his side, as the sound of footsteps grew louder and louder.

And he saw it first. Those eyes, those red eyes and white fur, and he knew who had come.

"It's a direwolf," Mance Rayder gasped, as suddenly two people emerged from behind it, and he felt Mance put the blade to his neck.

"No, it's ghost...."

He screamed at once and felt relieved as he saw just who had come to his rescue.

"JON! BENJEN! STOP!"

"Let him go," thundered Benjen Stark as he unsheathed his blade as Cregan felt the cold steel of Mance Rayder's blade on his neck.

"Take a step forward, and the boy dies," he shouted as Ghost bared its fangs.

"STOP! UNCLE BENJEN STOP!" he screamed louder this time. The cave delved into silence, and they both stared into his eyes.

"I need you both to listen to me...."

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P/S: I don't like doing this, but here is a bit of an explanation. MC's Warging did not work in the last chap because of Three-Eyed Raven, whose intention is to kill MC because he is messing with his plans.