Benjen
The wall was falling, had been falling for the past six moons, bit by bit, piece by piece, the ancient ice defence against the wildlings and death itself, that had been in place since time had been recorded was falling, and there seemed to be nothing they could do about it. Even with the addition of the northmen and the lords of the Reach and Crownlands who had come from ship to Eastwatch per the instructions of the boy calling himself Aegon Targaryen, their numbers had swelled, but so to had the numbers of dead things coming back to life.
The White Walkers had yet to fully breach the Wall, even with it crumbling all around them, there seemed to be some sort of spell or some sort of ancient charms holding the creatures back, they hovered at the fringes, throwing ice spears and arrows at the men who patrolled the walls, killing them with the cold and raising them up again to attack their brothers in arms the next night. Fire had proved useful against the wights, but too many of them were coming up to take the place of the fallen. It was not just the wights either, it was the giants and the mammoths and the spiders and other unspeakable things that Benjen and many in the north had believed to be long dead.
These creatures were shaking the foundations of the wall, tearing it and bringing the ice down, crashing and cascading to destruction, they took the Black Brothers, the northmen it mattered not who was on the wall when they attacked, for when they did the Wall weakened by the sound of the horn still ringing in the sky, crumbled all the same and the men on the walls plummeted to their deaths. Even the dragons, those two great beasts, fire made flesh seemed unable to completely hold off the coming hordes of dead things and those other creatures, sure the creatures and the wights burnt in the fire, but more always came back and some of the unspeakable evils came back burning with fire, their eyes red instead of blue, and Benjen could have sworn one of them once called out his name, in Lya's voice and that had terrified him more than he could say.
Lya, gods he had not thought of his sister in such a long time, not since Ned had come home and told him what had happened, not since he had learnt of his sister's death and the hand he had played in it. When Ned told him Brandon's bastard son was staying Dorne for a time with his mother, Benjen did not question him, though he was smart enough to put the pieces together to know that Brandon had never lain with Ashara Dayne at Harrenhal, no that had been Ned, no this child was Lyanna's, her and that idiot of a Prince, Rhaegar. At Harrenhal both he and Lyanna had been star struck, seeing the grandeur of a southern court for the first time had made them both silent with awe. Lyanna more so than Benjen, he'd been too engrossed in listening to Robert Baratheon's stories of what he and Ned had gotten up to at the Eyrie, and watching Brandon flirt shamelessly with girls despite the fact that he was to be married to Catelyn within a month of the tourney. Then Prince Rhaegar had played that god damned song of his and Lya had cried, his Lya, brave, strong Lya who had never cried and had always comforted him when he had been upset, and of course the god's damned prince had had to see her crying and pouring her drink over him. Benjen sometimes wondered what would have happened if he had been the one to don the armour of the Knight of the Laughing Tree instead of Lya, had she remained with Howland and Ned whilst he rode in the lists and knocked those squires silly, he could have done it, he had said as much at the time, but Lya would have none of it, and of course the prince had found her then, and that was when the seeds for what happened next had been planted.
As he looks at his nephew now standing next to him, the same solemn expression he saw both Ned and their father wear so many times over the years he thinks that perhaps nothing different would have happened, Lyanna would still have run away but perhaps with a different man and not the crown prince. Jon Sand now Stark, gods that felt strange to think let alone say, he wondered how his nephew felt, just like Ned the boy was not one to say much, only speaking when necessary and even then each word was carefully thought out and measured. Jon knew the truth of his parentage and that he and the boy calling himself Aegon Targaryen were brothers, were kith and kin, in bonds stronger than what Benjen had with him, and yet he did not wish to return to King's Landing with his brother, if there would be a King's Landing to return to at the end of all of this.
"They're breaching the eastern walls." Jon said, snapping Benjen away from his thoughts and back to reality.
"What?" he asked, not sure he had heard correctly.
"They're breaching the Eastern walls, the Weeper and his men." Jon repeated.
Benjen cursed, he had not wanted to believe the rumours that the Weeper had sold himself to the White Walkers and to their unpaled march for destruction, but seeing the man for himself, the pale blue skin the haunting eyes, Benjen knew the rumours for fact and cursed himself for the day he had not slit the bastard's throat. "Fire the arrows." Benjen shouted and watched as his command was relayed across the wall, soon enough 300 arrows dipped in fire were unleashed on the Weeper and his men, the men died, each one of them falling screaming to their deaths, the Weeper advanced on, neither his horse nor his person being affected. "Unleash the catapults." Benjen shouted, and the stones whirred from their holding and knocked down the giants that had joined the Weeper and still he marched on.
The wall shook, Benjen managed to hold onto a nearby piece of Ice and held on some of the men were not so lucky, they continued to fall down and when they landed the Weeper cut them down and they rose again and wights hell bent on bringing death and destruction to them all. Benjen turned to Jon and said seriously "Get on Rhaegal Jon, get on your dragon and find your brother, otherwise we will be damned if the Weeper gets onto the wall." His nephew nodded and whistled and got onto his dragon flying away to find King Aegon. Benjen looked down and was horrified to see the wights clambering up the wall, dressed in black, placing their feet and hands in the footholds only the Black Brothers knew about. "Fire all arrows now!" He shouted his voice high in his panic. The arrows came whirring out, striking left, right and centre, and a great pit of fire was seen where the Wights had fallen and burnt to their deaths, and still the Weeper marched toward the Wall.
The Wall shook again, and more pieces of ice began to fall away, bringing more men to their deaths. "Fire more arrows!" Benjen shouted, but no more arrows followed his command, "Where are the arrows?" he shouted.
Ser Allister Thorne appeared then, covered in blood and looking battered and bruised. "The arrows are done Lord Commander. The last of the archers fell down to their deaths with the Ice."
Benjen swore loudly, and then said "Reports from the other castles?"
A grave look passed over Ser Allister's face then when he replied. "Wesbridge has fallen; the White Walkers have taken the castle. Eastwatch is besieged by the wights and those ungodly beasts."
Benjen swore once more, Wesbridge had been heavily fortified with the wildlings of the Gift placed in charge of holding it under Mance Rayder's command, if they were all dead then they would likely be marching for Castle Black for some revenge. "What news from the Shadow Tower?"
"None my lord. Nothing since the raven two moons ago asking for more aid." Ser Allister replied, his tone growing more desperate.
The wall shook once more before Benjen could reply, and this time when he looked across he could not see the Weeper advancing toward the wall, feeling the panic beginning to swell in his chest he yelled "Where is the Weeper? Where has he gone."
He felt the hairs of his back stand on end when he heard one of the men shout back "He's disappeared my lord."
"Well don't just wait for my command some of you go look for him, kill him and burn him once you've found him. And the rest of you continue killing these god damn wights!" He shouted.
Above he heard the beating of wings, and some form of relief course through him, maybe just maybe the Wights would all die now, perhaps. The dragons roared and Benjen took cover and shielded his eyes, but through the shadow of his gloves saw the wights burn to their deaths, heard the screams of the Giants and Mammoths as they burnt to their graves as well. The other creatures made not a sound, not a sound at all, but he knew they were likely burning as well.
The dragons flew off further down into enemy lines, and Benjen moved towards the edge of the wall to observe the results for himself. The charred remains of the wights and giants and mammoths perhaps some 3,000 of them were all that remained on the ground. The bodies of those other creatures were there as well, glowing as the sun began to set and the cold began to come in. They had survived for another day, but would they make it through the night? He walked toward the winch cage, saying to Ser Allister as he got in "The wall is yours Ser Allister, find me should they come again." With that done, he waited in the Wince Cage alone with his thoughts and his nightmares.
His dreams were old, the day Ned returned for a visit at Winterfell, happier times, when the wolf pack had been whole and complete. Brandon was cracking jokes, Ned had a wry grin on his face and Lyanna and he were listening intently to Brandon and Ned's stories. Their father sat there listening to all of this and watching them all, his wolf children, a rare smile on his face. The dream changed as it was wont to do; here he was meeting Jonella Cerwyn for the first time, he knew why, his father wished to appease some of his bannermen and so was hoping to arrange a betrothal between his youngest child and the heir to Castle Cerwyn, she could have been his wife once, Jonella Cerwyn, their betrothal had never been finalised, and after the rebellion he still could have married her and become Lord of Castle Cerwyn one day, but he wanted to take the Black to atone for leading Lya to her death, and so the betrothal was never formalised and Ned never asked him why he took the Black. The dream changed, and now it was a three eyed crow and a broken boy with a direwolf head calling out to him. Saying the same words over and over again. "Joramun, the boy is Joramun, he must blow the horn." As usual Benjen understood not what they meant, Joramun was just a tale, a tale told to children late at night, this horn of his had never been found, if it had the Wall would have resisted it. And what boy were they speaking of?
His sleep was disturbed by a knock on the door. Clearing the sleep from his eyes he sat up and called for whoever it was to come in. It was his steward a boy named Gendry who had come with some southerner hoping to find someone, they did not know who, but the boy's eyes had grown wide as saucers when he'd seen Jon. The boy had not taken the Black, but Benjen knew there was something he was hiding from, and someone in particular. "Yes what is it lad? Have they found out where the Weeper is?"
"No my lord, but the red woman, she, she has returned." Gendry said.
Benjen immediately got up; he was still in the same clothes he had worn throughout the day. "Where is she?" he asked.
"In the hall my lord, being questioned by Lord Stark and his grace King Aegon." Gendry replied.
Benjen nodded his thanks and made his way to the hall. Upon entering he found it largely deserted, with only Jon, King Aegon and Ser Allister Thorne present, the red lady, Stannis Baratheon's red lady Melisandre was hunched in the middle of the hall a cloak wrapped around her, her red hair was matted and looked filthy. "When did she get here?" Benjen asked.
"Riders found her outside of the northern gate my lord. We've only just managed to get her inside this hall." Ser Allister replied.
"Has she said anything?" Benjen asked standing in front of the woman.
"She keeps repeating the same words over and over again." Jon said.
"What words?" Benjen asked and then turned to look down at the woman before him, who he now noted was covered in blood and ice, and was rocking backwards and forwards. "What happened to her?" he asked worried.
Before anyone else could reply, the Lady Melisandre spoke in a high and shrill voice. "It was all a lie, all of it. The darkness is everlasting, there is no true saviour. We will all die, the boy has been found, Joramun will come and the wall shall fall."
"What do you mean?" Benjen asked her.
Melisandre tilted her head up to look him in the eye, and a smile came onto her lips. "Ah the wolf pup, the bearer of so many secrets. Tell us what you dream pup, of the darkness and the boy with the wolf's head. The darkness is here now pup, and the Great Other is knocking on our gates."
"What does she mean uncle Benjen?" Jon asked.
"Have the White Walkers crossed?" Benjen asked Ser Allister.
"No my lord, none of them have been sighted." The man replied.
"How long has the sun been down?" Benjen asked.
"Five hours Lord Commander." King Aegon replied.
"Oh they won't come now, they'll come tomorrow, when the boy awakens, when he awakens from his slumber. Three horns shall blow and darkness and ice and fire will fall." Melisandre said shrilly.
"Ser Allister take her somewhere safe, none of the brothers should see her like this." Benjen said. He was about to say more when a deafening howl was heard from outside, and the floors began to shake and the walls began to rattle. More howling, a primitive noise, something Benjen had heard only once before in the Lands of Always Winter, the threat, the monsters from the dark had come. Death was coming, and it was not alone.