𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐁𝐎𝐘

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰᴏᴜʀ

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Torsten found himself shivering, the chill was always with him at the Wall. Three days after Benjen and Jon's arrival Torsten had heard that Benjen was to lead a half dozen men on a ranging into the haunted forest. He was the First Ranger, and he spent his days and nights with Lord Commander Mormont and Maester Aemon and the other high officers, while Torsten hardly got to see the man, he had to spend his days with the less than tender charge of Ser Alliser Thorne as per usual.
That night Torsten sought out Benjen in the great timbered Common Hall where he found Jon sitting with him, pleading to go with his uncle. Benjen refused him curtly. Torsten stood awkwardly with a tray in his hands as his eyes blinked between the two. "You're not going. You're no ranger, Jon." He told him.

"But I'm better than every..." Jon argued, Torsten slowly sank into the bench on the other side of the two.

"This is not Winterfell." Benjen said as he cut his meat with fork and dagger. "On the Wall, a man gets only what he earns. You're no ranger, Jon. Only a green boy with the smell of summer still on you." Jon's mouth shifted.

"I'll be eighteen on my name day. I'm almost a grown man." Benjen only frowned at his nephew's words.

"A boy you are, and a boy you'll remain until Ser Alliser says you're fit to be a man of the Night's Watch. If you thought your Stark blood would win you easy favours, you were wrong. We put aside our old families when we swear our vows." Benjen gestured with his dagger at the men around them, all the hard cold men in black. Torsten could tell the older's eyes held many dark stories behind its tired sockets.
Torsten rose at dawn the next day to watch Benjen Stark leave. One of his rangers, a big ugly man, sang a bawdy song as he saddled his garron, his breath streaming in the cold morning air. Benjen smiled at that, but he had no smile for his nephew. Jon stood with Torsten. "We'll speak when I return." Torsten watched Benjen lead his horse into the tunnel. The two boys stayed waiting for the party to leave.

"I wonder what lies beyond the Wall." Jon spoke, shielding his eyes from the sun that peaked over the Wall.

"The rangers say it's just woods, mountains, snow and frozen lakes." Torsten answered.

"Tyrion Lannister had said it's the most useless wall on our way here." Jon said and Torsten shrugged his heavy cloaked shoulders.

"The Imp isn't wrong. I used to love climbing these walls... until Ser Alliser caught me Couldn't walk for a month and never did it again." Torsten mumbled, his face scrunched at the memory. While Jon laughed. "They'll be serving some vile stew in the Common Hall by now, and I could do with a bowl of something hot. You coming, Snow?" Jon was hungry too, so he fell in beside Torsten. The wind was rising, and they could hear the old wooden buildings creaking around them, and in the distance a heavy shutter banging, over and over, forgotten.

"I don't see Ghost." Torsten said as they walked.

"I chain him up in the old stables when we're training. They board all the horses in the east stables now, so no one bother's him. The rest of the boys are scared of him." Jon shrugged and Torsten nodded.

"Wise boys, stupid but wise. I like Ghost though." Torsten said and Jon smiled to himself.
Inside the hall was immense and drafty, even with a fire roaring in its great health. Crows nested in the timbers of its lofty ceiling. Torsten heard their cries overhead as he accepted a bowl of stew and a heel of black bread from the day's cook. Grenn and Pypar and some of the others were seated at the bench nearest the warmth, laughing and cursing each other in rough voices. Jon eyed them thoughtfully while Torsten played with his food, sniffing at it suspiciously.
The two sat away from everyone at the far end of the hall, well away from the other diners.

"It's mutton stew." Jon pulled off his gloves and warmed his hands in the steam rising from the bowl. The smell made his mouth water.

"Just you wait, Snow." Torsten smirked darkly waiting for the boy's reaction. He'd seen many recruits try the mutton stew for the first time and it always managed to make him laugh.

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