Robb jolted awake, breathing harshly. His gaze flew left and right, taking in everything they could, trying to spot the danger his beating heart told him was near.

It took some time before his brain managed to process his environment.

He was still in the copse, everything was fine, calm down, Robb.

He rubbed his face with shaking hands and realised that his cheeks were wet. Robb scoffed, wiping the tears away with his sleeve and then went to sit with his back against the tree. He pressed a hand on his chest, sure he could feel his heartbeat even through the armour, and worked to calm his breathing. Robb didn't want to wake Grey Wind with his... drama.

Judging by the sky, the sun would not rise for a few hours yet. Robb sighed heavily and leaned his head back to rest on a tree.

He could see stars, but there were no constellations he recognized. No surprise there, this was a different world, after all, but he had always been able to take comfort in the night sky. It was eternal. Robb had always known that it had been there before him and would continue to exist for long after his death. This sudden change of something usually so immutable was...jarring.

There was one particularly bright star, half-hidden behind the trees. Robb wondered what direction it was in. North, like in Westeros? What was its name? Did the people of this world even name the stars?

Robb continued to contemplate the night sky in silence. At some point, his eyes must have slid shut again because when he opened them again thanks to Grey Wind licking his cheek, the sun was already rising.

He was grateful for a few hours of restful sleep without the nightmare from before.

Robb, on the assumption that the sun rose in the east here in Arda as well, quickly noted that the bright star was in the same direction before beginning to gather his things.

With those two points of orientation, Robb decided to make his way southwest towards the mountain range. He had no idea what he might find there, but at the moment, it was better than the nothingness of the plain.

Yet, his second day in Arda turned out to be exactly as uneventful as the first. He broke his fast on the go and Grey Wind sometimes strayed from his side to chase the occasional mouse or hare.

The only remotely interesting thing was a flock of what Robb assumed to be crows or ravens circling above him for some time before they continued on towards the mountains.

The grassy landscape slowly turned into a hilly one with rocks and boulders everywhere. The mountains got closer and bigger. When darkness set in, Robb had reached an unusually large gathering of evergreens for this area, and decided to make camp at the foot of an uprooted fir. Its roots, reaching higher into the air than Robb was tall, would provide perfect cover from behind and protect him from the wind.

Robb once again refrained from lighting a fire and opened his satchel to eat something.

He wasn't very successful.

Grey Wind ears twitched and he got up, snarling at the darkness of the surrounding woods. Soon after, Robb too began to hear something - the cracking of branches from all around him, the sound of metal sliding against metal, and steps. There was a soft growling as well, one Robb knew had not come from Grey Wind.

Robb grabbed his sword and quickly rose to his feet. He could not be entirely certain that whoever was approaching was his enemy, but better safe than sorry. It was always a good idea to trust Grey Wind's instincts. He had, after all, learned that the hard way.

What came out of the shadows first were wolves. They were sizable but still much smaller than Grey Wind, who had reached the height of a pony some months ago and had only grown taller since.

As a pack of wolves was wont to do, they had Robb surrounded from all sides - except from behind, where the roots of the fallen tree kept them from approaching. Unfortunately, said roots kept Robb and Grey Wind from retreating as well, which meant a fight was likely.

The wolves had stopped at the sight of Grey Wind - whether they were afraid or thought him a potential alpha, Robb knew not - but some of the ugliest people Robb had ever seen came up from behind them, so it did not really matter.

They had misshapen skulls and long pointy ears that stuck out from their heads and were ripped in several places. Their skin was lumpy and unnaturally gray - but that might have been an illusion due to the lack of light. What Robb could recognize were their numerous scars and the fact that they were shorter than the average man, if not quite as short as Tyrion Lannister.

Considering their drawn swords and scimitars, their axes and hammers, all flecked with a dark substance Robb couldn't truly identify, but somehow knew was blood... Well, Robb was reasonably sure those people were not friendly.

"It seems we've got ourselves a meal, boys!" one of them cackled and yeah, alright, they were cannibals as well. Great.

Everyone moved at once.

Grey Wind took a great bounding leap, landing on one of the people and crushing their ribcage in the process. He tore out another one's throat in the same movement, splattering black blood everywhere before continuing on to his next victim.

Robb's focus slid away from Grey Wind when a wolf and two of the misshapen people closed in on him at the same time.

Blocking the first one's sword was easy, as was pushing them into the wolf to buy himself some time. The second one wielded a hammer that they swung at Robb's chest. Their short height prevented them from reaching much higher.

Robb dodged the blow and beheaded them only seconds later. Meanwhile, the wolf had disentangled itself from the person Robb had shoved into its way and was coming at him. Robb leapt to the side and quickly killed the first attacker before taking out the wolf with a strike to the throat.

Looking around, Robb could see that Grey Wind was taking good care of both the wolves and the... monsters, for lack of better word.

Some of the wolves were already retreating, tails between their legs. Others were yelping in pain or fright, but still fighting.

There were half a dozen of the monsters already on the ground. The rest was squeaking or yelling for various reasons. Anger, Robb thought, had to be the predominant one.

Robb made his way to the nearest of the attackers. He dispatched them within only a few seconds. Compared to the knights and trained soldiers Robb had fought in his war, these opponents were ridiculously weak.

Their only advantage was their short height and their speed, but playfighting with Bran, Arya and Rickon had left him fairly capable of fending off such attacks.

(Even if he had not seen them in a long time and they were dead now, or worse-)

Robb spotted one of the monsters running at Grey Wind from behind with an axe. As the direwolf was currently occupied with another wolf, Grey Wind wouldn't be able to turn around fast enough to stop him.

Robb made to interfere, but before he could reach the little monster, they fell to the ground.

An arrow stuck out from their head. The axe fell from their now only twitching hands.

Robb spun around and squinted his eyes, trying to spot this new arrival in the darkness of the woods.

Another of the monsters rushed at him and Robb had to tear away his gaze to block their knife, punching them in the face while they were occupied before cleanly beheading them.

Robb looked around again and this time, he could see several dark shapes running towards him.

'Grey Wind, you need to leave.'

Robb had found out long ago that he and his direwolf could, for reasons he did not understand but was grateful for, communicate without words.

This was proven once again as Grey Wind quickly snapped the neck of the monster under him and then looked up at Robb.

Robb nodded at him and Grey Wind licked his muzzle one last time before shaking himself and taking off into the opposite direction to the one the newcomers were arriving from. Within seconds, he was gone.

Robb approached another monster. There was no sense in standing around, waiting, when there were still opponents left to be fought.

Another arrow flew past him and took out the last of the wolves. A blinding light suddenly shone from behind Robb. The remaining monsters screeched in pain and quickly scuttled back into the darkness they had come from.

Grey Wind would probably take care of them.

Robb watched them run for a few more moments. Then he turned around.

There were nine people, all of them looking travel worn, slowly stepping out of the woodwork until they came to stand a few paces away from Robb.

One of them looked far too old to be here, in the middle of nowhere and near this kind of violence. He was leaning on a staff which was both much taller and more roughly hewn than any cane Robb had ever seen.

Next to him stood a man in ragged clothes. He looked entirely too used to spending a night or twenty outdoors. The man's hand rested at the hilt of his sword, but he hadn't drawn it yet.

The third person was much taller and slimmer than the rest. They had obviously been the one to shoot the arrows, judging by the bow in their hand. They had long blond hair, pointy ears and their face somehow looked neither male nor female. All in all, they shared a great similarity with the more human-like Valar, up to and including their ephemeral beauty.

Out of the six remaining people, five were about as tall as the Imp. One of them had several axes strapped to his body and a long, bushy beard. The other ones looked more like children than anything else.

Robb finally let his gaze slip over to the last man, the one who was standing behind the children protectively.

Robb's breath caught in his throat and he nearly took a step back. The sword slipped from his hand as he grew deathly pale.

"F- Father?"

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