I watched carefully as the three boys talked before me. Each of them looking down at the crypts in fear.
"They say there's secrets hidden down there." The light haired boy said, with a tone of fear in his voice. The auburn haired boy scoffed and walked forward, pulling the gate open with all his strength.
"If you're so bothered about them secrets Theon why don't you go down instead." The auburn haired boy said.
I walked closer, glancing down at the pit of darkness behind the gate. A boy with curly dark hair stood behind both two boys, edging out with one step at a time. His dark eyes didn't leave the auburn haired lad, he kept his eyes on him at all time as he moved secretly away.
"I didn't lose the game," the one called Theon said. "Snow lost it fair and square." He spat and turned to the dark haired boy.
The boy froze his manoeuvre quickly and turned to look at Theon with a look of hate.
"Snow," the auburn haired boy spoke, stepping forward. "You lost, you know what the forfeit is."
Snow nodded his head of curly hair and stepped forward proudly. He was scared, I could see it. But he took a step to the darkness and looked at the auburn haired boy.
"If I don't come back up, tell Father I love him." The boy said, causing the other boys to laugh loudly.
I felt bad for the scared boy as he lowered his head in embarrassment. He didn't want to go down there, I knew that for sure, but he had bravely gone down there without a fight. He was honourable, that was obvious.
"If you don't come back up Jon, Father would slaughter me." He laughed and then patted him on the back. "Go as far as Grandfather."
Grandfather? This was Winterfell, the only people in the crypts were lords of Winterfell. These boys had a Grandfather down their, meaning they were both little lords. I didn't know them, but the curly haired boy was someone I felt I knew.
The boys were young, only around ten, yet they acted much older. Especially the auburn haired one, who did indeed act like a little lord.
The dark haired boy who went by the name of Jon then proceeded to walk into the darkness. The boys sniggered behind his back, as he walked further and further.
I followed the boy, not wanting him to be entirely alone, although it seemed I was invisible to him. But I knew he'd be safe with me.
The candles were lit all the way down, allowing the stairs to be seen by the naked eye, but the boy took them warily with a hint of fear.
I could see his hand shaking as he reached for a small candle placed on a large pillar. He used all his might and pulled it from the holder and quickly brought it too his chest, then let out a shakey breath, causing steam to rise in the air. I wanted to reach out and grab his hand, tell him there's nothing to be afraid of. But it was as if there were some invisible force, stopping myself from going anywhere near him.
I watched the way he walked, something so familiar about it. Then his eyes, dark as the night sky like a Stark. But his face was different, he looked like a Stark, I was sure of that, but there was a hint of something else. His skin looked pale, but not the same complexion of what the Starks have. This pale was near see through, yet radiant and smooth. I couldn't pin point the familiarity to anyone, but I knew it was someone. I had seen this type of skin before, and it was defiantly not in my family.
As we walked deeper and deeper into the crypts, the boys confidence had peaked and he now walked with a strong stride, picking up his pace with each step. We passed Kings of Winter, past Lords and the odd family member who had the status to be buried here. I looked at the statues as we passed, analysing the faces as I went, thinking of the person that once lived.
Then suddenly the boy stopped, he began taking slow steps as I watched. He was nearing his destination.
He began to sing a soft lullaby to himself, his voice quite low, but managing a beautiful harmony. The song was only a little nursery rhyme, but one that sounded like it meant a lot to him. He whispered it quietly to himself, obviously for reassurance. I had never heard the song, a song about a dragon prince and an army. A new one.
Then, under the watchful gaze of myself he turned to look at a statue. I followed his gaze and before me stood a Lord of Winterfell with the face of my Father.
I felt my heart drop at the sight, and in that moment I wanted to run back up the stairs and never return. In this very place I have some of the sweetest moments, but now it is filled with death and defilement. Gone. My family were gone.
I walked over to the statue and placed my hand on it, but I could feel nothing; no damp, coldness, just nothing.
The boy stepped forward and began reaching into his pocket, he then pulled out a stone. One from the gravel in the courtyard, the very stones that I use to throw at my brothers to annoy them.
He placed the stone delicately at the bottom of the statue and closed his eyes for a brief moment, as if he was saying some sort of prayer. Then he moved onto the next one, which was Brandon and did the exact same.
I let out a sigh as I looked at my older brother, gone before his time all because I loved a man I shouldn't. The people I love were down here all because of me and there was nothing I could do about it. And now, stands an unknown Stark boy going round giving them offerings. The only thing that they were now able to accept.
Breaking me from my thoughts the boy then moved to the other side of the crypt, his candle lighting the way. He stopped suddenly, reaching into his pocket once more, and pulling out something. But this object wasn't like the stones, it was blue.
I moved closer to him, trying to get a better look. And then I saw it, that all too familiar flower that caused faces to drop and hearts to break. A blue winter rose.
"For you." The boy then said and placed it down at the bottom of a statue. It took my eyes time to adjust before I saw who this was for. The statue was me...
I awoke suddenly, my heart racing and sweat covering my body. I quickly looked to my side for Rhaegar but he wasn't there. I felt uneasy as I sat there in the room alone, the dream felt quite calm at the time, but my body told me otherwise. I looked down at my shakey hands and quickly slipped them under my legs. I had seen the boy before, but in the dream my unrational mind couldn't comprehend anything. I had seen him many times in my dreams, old and young. But every time he never saw me. It was like I didn't exist in his world. There was no explanation to me as to who he was and how he knew my family, but they way he had placed them offerings were as if they meant something to him.
He had given them to Father, Brandon, Mother... Mother. The thought of her pained me as I had barely given her attention in my dream. It was strange how everything now felt, instead of feeling happiness at the thought of my family, I now had guilt. A guilt that overwhelmed me entirely, nearly taking my breath away.
But the curly haired boy had given me a sense of calmness, a sense of longing and love. A feeling that I couldn't describe.
But a dream is a dream, something that isn't real, a figment of ones imagination. Nan had told me many times what dreams meant, but this one didn't make sense. Nothing in my life made sense anymore.
With that thought in mind messing with my head, I clambered out of bed and walked over to the window, glancing out at the low moon. Memories of the crypts began to filter through my mind, ones from being a child, others from paying respect to fallen ancestors. And then there was the one of Rhaegar. How them pins had dropped at the same time, causing us to come together as one. Things were easier back then, now I was thousands of miles away from home, with just Rhaegar. No family surrounding me.
I needed to see him, I needed to be reminded of who I had left for, and why I left.
I couldn't have been asleep for long, as the sun had only just set, meaning Rhaegar could still be with Barristan Selmy. Either way I put a cloak round me and the bump and went to find him.
When I got to the meeting room I listened from outside the door for any noise and nothing could be heard. Meaning Selmy and his men had gone. I slowly pushed the door open and headed in, only to find Rhaegar sat there writing letters.
He looked up as he heard the door and I was met with his beautiful eyes.
"Lyanna." He smiled and stood to his feet.
I quickly scuttled over to him and wrapped my arms round his neck, needing to feel him in my arms and know that I wasn't dead like in the dream. Needing to know that he was real and so was I.
"I had a strange dream." I whispered and left a light kiss on his neck.
"You've been asleep?" He asked laughing as he pulled away and placed his hands on my belly. "Sleeping is all you seem to do."
"Sleeping calms me and the child." I said and took a step back looking at the piles of letters that he had wrote. All labelled with the Targaryen sigil. "Why are there so many? Who are you writing them all too?" I asked and began counting all of them, trying to distract myself from my thoughts. There seemed to be dozens of them, enough to take my mind away from then unease.
I quickly plucked one of them out and read the name on the front; House Thorne. I gave Rhaegar a puzzled look and he let out a small sigh. House Thorne was a small house, but a house that was deeply loyal to the Targaryens.
"I've had news from Kings Landing." He said as he looked over the letters, trying to avoid my eye contact.
"News?" I asked. News from Kings Landing was never good news.
"I have to go to war Lyanna." He whispered, causing me to jump in fear and knock over a candle. He said it so quickly and out of the blue that it sounded like a joke, but his features definitely made it known that it wasn't. Then I fully came to terms with what that meant.
In that moment I felt like I had been shot full of arrows. It was something that I wasn't expecting at all, especially not from him at this moment in time. My mouth suddenly became dry and I had lost the will to speak. The room had filled with silence and it had turned awfully cold.
War... the thing that had plucked my Father and Brother from this world was now here, on my doorstep wanting to take the last thing I had from me. I began shaking my head profusely, not accepting the words that he had just spoke. I wanted to hit him, and hit him hard with those idiotic words. But I was frozen like always, as my mind began tearing up the idea of finally finding happiness.
The child began to kick, like it knew I had just taken a huge blow and I slowly managed to slip my hand round it.
"I have to." He then spoke and reached out for me but instantly I took a step back.
"No." Was all I said as I shook my head.
"Lyanna," He said soothingly and then stood to be nearer me. "It's the only way."
"No." I repeated, but now more stern.
"He'll kill us all if I don't." He desperately pleaded and grabbed hold of my hands. I knew of who he spoke, but the thought of Rhaegar never returning to me killed me. He was all I had. "Once the ravens return after these letters fly, I'll have my army. An army big enough to defeat the rebellion, an army also big enough to crush my Father."
His words hurt, not only because he would leave me, but because with every word he spoke he sounded just like a Prince, a prince that was promised a golden crown. A crown he now wanted.
He would kill Robert, a retched man to me, but a man whom my brother loved like his own blood. A man that loved me.
He would kill Northerns, the people who I grew up around. The people who made me who I am today.
He would kill Ned... my own brother.
"You want the crown?" I asked, my voice cracking slightly as I looked into his violet eyes. I wanted to cry, but I held them back. Today was a day in which I only cried for my Mother, not for him.
"If I don't have it we all die, you, me and the child. The King will slaughter us all." I could tell he was being honest, but there was an edge to his voice, one that I couldn't yet decipher.
"What if you don't return? Our child a bastard born to a King that never was. I'd be ruined, we'd be ruined. I wouldn't have you anymore." I mumbled the last sentence as I gripped his hands tight. I didn't want to imagine a life without him. I couldn't. He was my everything. Words blurted out of my mouth that I had never cared for before.
I watched as his eyes searched mine, as he tried to think of a solution to my words. And then, as if his brain has just clicked he spat out the words I had never expected him to say.
"Marry me." He whispered and then moved his hands to my face, cupping my cheek. I gave a sharp intake of breath at his statement and then allowed a single tear to roll down my cheek.
Marriage? I had never expected us to marry, we were meant to be alone together for the rest of our lives. We had given up playing the game of thrones the minute we boarded that boat. We knew our child would be branded a bastard if we were found, but we never planned to be found. Marriage would make the child a prince or princess. A Targaryen heir, an heir to the iron throne. A life in which involved danger. I had to think of a rational way out of this, the whole idea was a death sentence.
"What about Elia?" I asked as he wiped the tear from my face. Elia was the only thing that had ever distanced us or made us doubt our connection. Now she was the person who stood in the way of path I wasn't sure I'd like to take.
I began to shake my head at the thought of a new future, a future in which I would end up on the iron throne. Something I truly didn't want.
"Please," Rhaegar then said as if he knew what I was thinking. "I know a Maester, he can annul it for me. When I take the iron throne I need you by my side. You and the child." He said and ran his hand along my belly, the child kicking in return.
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A/N: Soooooooooo everything's beginning to happen . Can't believe it's the GoT season 7 finale on Sunday, why does it have to go so bloody fast :( Let me know what you think of this chapter anyway as I really like to see what people have to say!!! X