Running Through The Woods - Sandor Clegane

Chapter 20

"What!? White Walkers? The stories wet nurses told children!? Jon-" We were in his room as he told me what he saw.

"Y/n please believe me."

"Jon you know this sounds ridiculous, right?" I scratched Ghost's ears. He told me that Sam killed one and I sighed. "Fine let's say I believe you for a slipt second, what are we going to do?" Jon told me about the wildling prisoners at the Wall and they might help. The Wall wasn't that far from Castle Black, Jon said about three hundred miles North.

Jon and I got to the Wall, and Jon took me to the cells. There was an enormous ginger man who stood up and chained when he saw us approaching. "Jon fucking Snow. You can be glad I am all chained up." The man pulled at his chains. Jon moved a chair and sat across from him at a table.

"Where are the rest of the free folk now?" Jon asked the ginger, but the man only scoffed. "Where have they gone? Who leads them?"

"They followed Mance. They won't follow anyone else." The man replied, glaring at the lord commander.

"What about you?" Jon asked.

"Hard to lead when you're in chains." He said lifting his chains and dropping them again, the sound of them clanging filled the room as silence erupted. "What if I unchained you?" I stared between my oldest friend and a wildling trying to see any threat coming.

"Why would you do that?" He eyed the brother of the Night Watch.

"Because you are not my enemy. And I'm not yours." Jon said. The man was under the impression that Jon was his enemy when Jon was killing his friends. "For eight thousand years the Night's Watch has sworn an oath to be the shield that guards the realms of men. And for eight thousand years, we've fallen short of that oath. You belong to the realms of men. All of you."

"And now everything is going to change?" The ginger asked.

"It is."

"Why now?"

"Because now, I am Lord Commander of the Night's Watch," Jon said leaning forward. "What would you have me do, Lord Commander?" Ginger leaned forward also. I moved closer my hand on the hilt of my sword, glaring at the man and ready if he tries something.

"I'd have you go north of the Wall. Gather the remaining free folk wherever they are and bring them back here. I'll open the gates for them and let them through. I'll find them lands to settle south of the Wall." Jon stated, standing up causing me and the ginger to rip our eyes from each other and back to him.

"They won't kneel for you and neither will I." The man said. Jon said that he didn't want them to kneel for him. He wanted them to fight with him when the time comes. "The day I ask my people to fight with the crows is the day my people cut my guts from my belly and make me eat them."

"Can I be the one that cuts you? I would love to see that," I spoke up for the first time since we walked into the room. The wildling's attention was back on me with his icy blue eyes and smirk, looking me up and down. "And how many of your people can't fight? The women, the children, the old, the sick, what happens to them? You're condemning them to death. Worse than death because you're too proud to make peace. Or maybe you're not proud. Maybe you're just a coward." I said, glaring.

"An easy thing to say to a man in chains." He stood up, showing the chains again, and Jon took the key, unchaining him. The ginger man was wide-eyed as he felt his wrists.

"Your people need a leader. And they need to get south of the Wall before it's too late. We don't have much time and they have less. The walkers are coming and they'll hit your people first. I'm not asking you to make peace to save your skin. Make peace to save your people." Jon said.