The Wolf and the Rose / Sequel to The Queen in the North

Thirty-Six

Chapter 36 - Winterfell

Sorry for the massive delay in an update, life has been hectic and but this story continues to be something that inspires hence why I've been writing it for over 5 years now and as I am writing alongside the seasons now, after the end of season 8 this will probably be the end of qitn. Especially as El is no longer the queen in the north, but currently thats kind of the point. But yeah, this has been incredible but I'm 20 now and was 14 when I first started this story its been a journey but the story ends somewhere and hopefully it won't end with everyone dying and the white walkers on the throne but who knows!!

I will be writing like I did last season kind of in contingence with where the storyline is going but through El, Garlan and Axel and my own storylines woven in, as I've always done. Enjoy the last eight chapters of qitn then!

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Winter had finally crept its way to the Highgarden when El and Garlan left for the north. They sailed the entire might of the Reach north to White Harbour and then rode in land to Winterfell. The journey North was icy and bitter, it was like constantly swallowing bile that rose up your throat. Hundreds of thousands of southerners most who had never seen snow, rode with a certain urgency to fight an unknown enemy. One that seemed as real as a Childs bad dream or a monster in a storybook. But the enemy was real, and although most of their army were yet to be face to face with one of the dead, El had. She'd seen the Wight Jon brought to the meeting in Kingslanding. Though she'd always believed anyone who had seen one, after she had witnessed it there was a new kind of fear she felt. One that made her want to run, grab her children and sail far away somewhere they could not reach.

Anxiety that could not be suppressed and an utter hopelessness that El could not express in words. She felt in her heart that this war could not be won, and the guilt of leaving her children and the prospect of leading these armies to their inevitable deaths terrified her. She felt lost without her children, but was simultaneously glad they were across the sea, away from those who would kill them all. Knowing her children were safely across the sea on the Summer Isles and away from the army of the dead gave her little peace. While she could only think of the families of those who marched north with her. Fathers, sons, brothers who would never see their loved ones again most likely.

This dread El felt was something in the air that was the unspeakable tension. As if, prolonging acknowledging how hopeless the war was pointless in itself. They needed to fight and everyone marching understood that to some extent. Whether they had been at the negotiation in Kingslanding and who'd seen the walker then, or they'd heard rumours. The army understood what they were fighting and why. But El still couldn't shake the guilt. She was to be responsible for the deaths of these men, who did not quite understand what they were to fight.

Garlan's worry was his men, and that at first meeting with the army of the dead, they might desert. Flee south, return home and hold their wives and children. And ultimately if that happened there was nothing he could say or do that would make them want to stay. This war was going to be one of great sacrifice. The loss of their lives would be for the preservation of all the living souls in the seven kingdoms. But that was a hard narrative to sell to men who were homesick and freezing.

Axel too was anxious to return to Winterfell. The war worried him less than seeing Sansa though. After what had happened he felt sick at the thought of what she could say to him, but knowing that like the battle it was, inevitable.

Winterfell was now more than a snowy castle on a hall with towns surrounding, it was now a large city, of tents. The encampment and makeshift shelters and defences stretched for miles. Snowy hills covered in tents, housing hundreds and thousands of soldiers. Francas and Caswell led the troops to their space to set up camp for the time being. While, El and Garlan ode on with a small party to the keep to meet with Sansa.