for this night and all the nights to come.

[cardon131313]

-"Do you want to learn how to fend for yourself? How to survive alone around here?" He asked. He could see the small hut ahead, flanked by small piles of wood.

[sasha]

“I do.” She told him. She was glad he still wanted her to stay with him – or at least he didn’t want to get rid of her. They walked up to a little hut, as the night fell.

[cardon131313]

-"Then tomorrow I'll teach you how to shoot an arrow straight and block someone who tries to slit your throat like I just did."
Stephen pushed the door of the hut and stepped inside, immediatly working on getting a fire lit. It was cold after several weeks of abscence.

[sasha]

“Thanks.” She said, as they came in the hut. She was standing beside the man, whose name she still didn’t know. She was a little bit too shy, and she didn’t dare sit on a chair or even ask if she could. She was very tired, and even if she had just eaten the small loaf of bread he gave her, she was still starving. Alarel wasn’t a really strong woman, and she knew it would be hard for her to learn to fend herself. But as long as this stranger was trying to teach her, she was not left on her own and fighting to stay alive. If she was alone, she thought, she would let herself starve to death, probably.

[cardon131313]

     Stephen had learned to fight, first with his father's master at arms, then with a travelling band of mercenaries, an army that had fought for some forgotten lord, and finally the Night's Watch. He had lived almost every day fighting, practicing, developing techniques and strengthening himself. He took three days carefully training Alarel, focusing on teaching her how to defend herself and develop her technique on her own. Especially, he also worked on teaching her how to survive in the mountains, where to find food, wood, how to collect the precious plants that could be brought to a tiny wildling settlement a little north of the wall, when one didn't want to cross down south, to be sold for essential supplies. There was even a tiny hut down there for when the days became too rough. By the third day, he estimated that she was approximately ready. She could hit anything that wasn't moving at a very respectable distance, could definitely bring anything constituting a danger down with her knife and shortsword, and would be able to survive alone. And he needed to get home.
     He woke up late into the night. On the eastern horizon, in the distance, you could just glimpse a slight brightening of the sky. He packed his affairs in complete silence, making sure it was impossible for him to be heard. As he was about to leave, he pulled from his bag his old cloak of the Night's Watch and hung it on a peg in the wall. That would be a clear enough message. And then he stepped out, and began to move briskly back. By the time the sun rose, he needed to have made half the way to the Wall. And not to the Shadow tower. Too predictable. Instead he angled his steps, crossed a pass, and arrived in a neighbouring valley. Straight to Westwatch-by-the-bridge. There were allways other ways.

[sasha]

Alarel woke up later than she used to do on that day, maybe because she didn’t heard Stephen putting wood in the small fireplace they had in the hut. She opened her eyes, slightly, as the brightness of the sun reflecting on the snow was too intense, and pricked up her ears. Nothing. She sat up, and looked all around herself. Still nothing. When suddenly, she noticed that all his bags were gone, and his white cloak was not hanging anywhere. She took a deep breath, went outside to check if he was not waiting for her..

Gone. Everything was gone : his supplies, his bags, his cloaks, his furs. Gone. She was gaping. And then she noticed the black cloak.

“A crow ! You are a crow !” She started shouting. She was furious, she was so angry, and the rage was so huge in her heart that she couldn’t even think of what to do now. How could he have left her like that ? Why didn’t he say anything to her ? Of course she would have understand. She had herself some secrets she didn’t tell him as well, but she hadn’t planned such things. Although, she calmed down and she took his old black cloak from the Night’s Watch, and went outside. She knew some wildlings living a little further to the west, and they would probably be able to help her, and give her a mount. Because she was determined, and she would find him.

[cardon131313]

-"Not far." He muttered to himself. He had not stopped walking since the morning, and he could allready see the wall in the distance ahead. And before it, the gorge, spanned by the Bridge of skulls. He would reach it before the sun was down, he estimated. He slowed his pace to soothe his screaming legs, and frequently turned back to look behind him. He certainly didn't want to be sneaked up upon from behind.

[sasha]

It didn’t take her too long to get to the wildling camp she knew. She was walking fast, and if anyone tried to annoy her, she now knew how to use a shortsword. Stephen had at least taught her that: it’s always great to know how to defend yourself against enemies, in a world full of them. When she arrived, four or five free folk men approached, she couldn’t see precisely how many they were, because the wind was blowing snow all around. But they recognised her, they had sworn their lives to her father, a long, long time ago. No one knew where he was, not even Alarel. She barely remembered the last time she had seen him.

Despite that, her name was still helpful if she needed anything. And therefore, they gave her the most precious thing she would ever need, right at this moment : one of the last horses from beyond the wall. It was a strong and young Shire Horse, and she hastened to climb on his back and left the camp, riding up to the Shadow Tower. She was almost sure she would find Stephen there.

[cardon131313]

Stephen stopped for a moment to change back to his watch blacks. The cloak he had left behind had been an old one, and the new one fluttered perfectly in the wind behind him.
-"Time to go back home." He muttered to himself, putting his outer white coat into his bag and resuming his course for the Bridge of Skulls. He knew the secret passages of the keep inside out, including the little one no one had ever suspected. Though the first time he had discovered it, it had almost cost him his life.

[sasha]

Alarel left the camp, and its wives preparing food, and its kids playing with dogs. She was riding quite fast, through the snow and the wind. But she suddenly stopped.

“A crow, she whispered. He was smart enough to fool me, he’s probably smart enough not to go to the Shadow Tower first.” She thought out loud. She turned around, in order to get back to the camp. She needed to be quick, otherwise Stephen would reach the Wall before she had caught up on him.

“Would you mind if I borrow the dog ?” She asked, smiling, as the little boy she had seen in the camp a few minutes ago was laughing hearing this question. But he let her take the dog, as long as she would come back. She pulled the old black cloak out of her bag, and made the dog inhale the smell of the fabric. It started to run almost immediately, and she followed. Now, she would be sure to be on the right way.

[cardon131313]

The wall towered aboved him now. Across the bridge of skulls, then onto the top of the wall. From there he could walk back to the Shadow Tower. At the top of the last hill before the bridge, he turned back to look at the snow-covered mountains. He wondered how he was going to manage further patrols, now that there was someone who knew exactly who he was up there. And no doubt a good deal more wildlings would know soon enough.

[sasha]

Alarel followed the dog for a while, through all the snow that was falling from the sky ; she had completely lost her bearings. She couldn’t see really far, and everything around her was white. She knew the night was probably about to fall, even though she couldn’t see the sun to confirm. But she kept going, as fast as she could. She wasn’t really sure about what to do when she would have find him, but still.

She was heading up to Westwatch. She had almost lost every little bit of hope left in her heart, when she suddenly noticed a tiny black spot in the middle of nowhere. And a smile appeared on her face.

“There you are.” She whispered to herself.