𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐁𝐎𝐘

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴏ

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The afternoon was bitter sweet, the sun had broken through the clouds by the time Torsten had managed to bring himself out from the Common Hall. Outside, snow swirled through the castle gates, and the yard was silent. Torsten turned his back to the seven hundred foot Wall. A blazing blue and transparent in the sunlight. Even after all these years the sight of it still gave the boy the shivers. Centuries of windblown dirt had dented and gnarled it, covering it like a film. It often seemed a pale grey, the color of an over cast sky. But when the sun caught it fair on a bright day, it shone alive with light, an immense blue yet white cliff that filled up half the sky. It was truly breathtaking to any outsider.

"Torsten, my boy. Come meet my nephew." Benjen Stark called. An unruly mess of dark black curls sat atop a boy's head. Next to the boy stood a direwolf, half Torsten's height. Its fur was just as white as snow while its eyes glowed like red embers. Torsten had heard many direwolves beyond the Wall, yet never had he truly seen one.
A whooshing whistle cracked through the morning wind as the frosted cold bit harshly at any exposed skin on Torsten's body. He silently watched as the boy and the wolf approached. The yard was quiet and empty. A couple lone brother's walked the Wall keeping watch, their cloaks pulled tight around them against the cold.
As the boy approached, his direwolf padded next to him. It was a long walk down the yard.

"You're Ned Stark's bastard, aren't you?" Torsten said as the boy and his wolf stopped in front of him. Jon felt a coldness pass right through him. He pressed his lips together and said nothing. "Did I offend you?" Torsten asked, rubbing a hand awkwardly against the back of his neck. "I'm sorry." He quickly continued. "I'm the bastard of the Wall. 'Round here house names mean nothing. I'm just curious... Ben talks about you a lot." Torsten grinned.

"Lord Eddard Stark is my father." Jon admitted stiffly, while Ghost nuzzled at his hand. Torsten studied Jon's face.

"Bastard!" The vicious howl of Ser Alliser Thorne was quick to crack through the frosted air. The man's voice brought a look of distaste to cross the younger boys face. The man he hated the most, the man he hated more than anything in the whole realm. "When I find you!" The voice continued to howl.

"So boy, what did you do to anger the beast?" Tyrion Lannister asked hobbling towards Torsten. Tyrion Lannister, the youngest of Lord Tywin's brood and by far the ugliest. All that the gods had given to his siblings, Cersei and Jamie, they had denied Tyrion. He was a dwarf, half his sibling's height, struggling to keep pace on stunted legs and his head was too large for his body.
Torsten watched him with fascination. He'd only seen him around the Black a couple times over the years.

"It's more like... what didn't I do, my Lord." Torsten slowly answered with an irritated sigh. Torsten's head fell stiff of a nod as he thought his words over.

"I'd like you to look out for my nephew." Benjen informed steering Torsten away from the preying eyes of those who silently watched. Guiding him towards the entrance of Castle Black, Jon Snow was quick in tow.

"Look out for him?" Torsten asked. His preying eyes glanced behind himself to look Jon over. "To me, it looks like he deals well." Torsten announced. 

"Look out for each other then." Benjen laughed. Benjen was sharp featured and gaunt as a mountain crag, but there was always a hint of laughter in his blue-grey eyes. He dressed in black, as befitted a man of the Night's Watch and a heavy silver chain was looped around his neck with a pendent of a wolf, befitting of a Stark.

"Will do." Torsten answered with a quick nod of his head.

"Ah, here boy." Benjen smiled. He pulled a leather bound book from deep within his coat. The pages were delicate.

"Thank you." Torsten beamed towards the older. His hands reached to clutch the book close to his chest. His eyes watched Benjen's back flee and disappear within the halls of Castle Black.

"You and my uncle seem close." The now familiar northern accent echoed in Torsten's head. The older bastard boy had replaced where Benjen had stood.

"I suppose." Torsten said taking a step closer towards the bastard. "There are still direwolves beyond the Wall. We hear them on our hunting's." Torsten gave Ghost a long look of amusement. "A very quiet wolf." He observed.

"He never makes a sound. That's why I named him Ghost. That, and because he's white. My sibling's direwolves are grey or black." Jon informed.

"Do all the Stark children have a direwolf?" Torsten asked and when Jon nodded his head, he lifted a hand to scratch at his stubble. "I guess it is fitting."

"I've always dreamt of joining the Night's Watch." Jon suddenly announced. The boy had thought on it long and hard, lying abed at night while his brothers slept around him. Robb would someday inherit Winterfell, would command great armies as the Warden of the North. Bran and Rickon would be Robb's bannermen and rule holdfasts in his name. His sisters Arya and Sansa would marry the heirs of other great houses and go south as mistress of castles of their own. But what place could a bastard hope for?

"You don't know what you're asking for." Torsten began, eyes drifting to look around the horrid place. "The Night's Watch is a sworn brotherhood. We have no families. None of us will ever father children. Our wife is duty. Our mistress is honour." Jon could see the darkness in the young boy's eyes as he talked about the Watch.

"Us bastard's can have honour too." Jon said. "I am ready to swear the oath." Torsten laughed, he hadn't meant to, but he did.

"You'll see, Snow. You're not a man yet. This place will tear you apart, it always does." Torsten said and Jon fell silent. "I didn't get a choice, you're lucky to have one. This place is a cage, I can't leave and I don't want to stay. My dream is to go beyond the Wall." Torsten smiled to himself.

"Beyond the Wall?" Jon repeated and Torsten gently nodded his head.

"I want to be free." Torsten sighed.

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