Of Lions, Wolves, and Dragons (Jon Snow)

48. Tormund

Things and people were growing restless at the Stark encampment.  A letter had been sent to Ramsay Bolton a few days ago, inviting him to meet with them and try to discuss terms before an all out battle actually broke out.  Joellyn remembered that conversation vividly.  Sansa had become furious and stormed out of Jon's tent.  She didn't want to meet with Ramsay and try to reach an agreement.  She, understandably, wanted Ramsay dead.  As much as Davos tried to convince her that it was just a formality and that Ramsay surely wouldn't agree to any terms, Sansa was still not pleased.  A letter had been written by Jon and sent to Ramsay anyway, and now they were waiting to hear back on when and where they could meet.

The few days of waiting had been tense and Joellyn really hadn't seen much of either Jon or Sansa.  Sansa mostly kept to her tent, avoiding Jon and Davos.  Joellyn went to visit her some, but she was still furious about how few men they had to fight Ramsay with, so it was difficult to have any sort of pleasant conversation with Sansa.  Jon and Davos had been busy trying to make preliminary battle plans as well as with dividing and training the men.  The men had been split into a group of cavalry that would fight with swords and be led by Jon, and a group of archers led by Davos that would stay back and try to cover them from behind.  Joellyn mostly tried to keep herself busy by continuing to train on her own, away from everyone else, then help around camp during the day. Keeping herself busy also distracted her from the fact that there was no help from Dorne, nor had she received any word from Doran about what had happened.

What little time she and Jon had together in the evenings, they were both exhausted.  Jon was tired from planning and training, and she was tired from walking through the entire camp helping to organize and treat the various small wounds that the men had sustained while training for the battle.  They would talk for a while and eat a small meal together, but that was about all they could manage.  He fell asleep the first night, so she covered him with his furs and left him in peace.  He needed all the rest he could get for the upcomming days.  She fell asleep the next, and had woken only when Jon was placing her down on her makeshift bed in her tent.

She remembered Jon kissing her softly on the forehead, and she remembered grabbing his hand as he went to leave her side.  She had told him, "You didn't have to carry me, you could've woken me up."

Jon had smiled at her as he said, "But you looked so peaceful and I didn't want to disturb you.  It seems that I failed at that, anyway."

Joellyn laughed and squeezed his hand before letting it go and saying, "I don't mind, but you need to get your rest too.  Don't go back and stay up half the night trying to make more plans."

Jon kissed her softly at that before saying, "Yes, my lady," then kissed her one more time before saying, "Goodnight, Joellyn."

It was nice that they had been able to have these small times together and that Jon still wanted to see her, even with how busy he had been, but she longed to be able to be with him more.  However, as long as they were waiting to hear back from Ramsay, there were preparations that needed to be made.  Now it had been two days since the letter had been sent to Ramsay.  They were expecting a return letter any day now, but there was no way to know precisely when he would decide to get back to them.

This morning, Joellyn wound her way through camp and the environment was tense and uncomfortable.  The men were not happy with being in one place for so long, waiting on the edge of a battle.  It was not made better by the fact that two Wildlings were fighting with each other.  Gods only knew what they were fighting about, as it was likely that they didn't even really have a clear idea of why they were fighting each other.  The Wildlings were more restless than the rest of the men.  They were likely as anything to just be taking out steam.