Jon I

"Night gathers and now my watch begins," Samwell, Edd, Pip, and Grenn all chant at him with the vows of the Black Brothers.

Jon, torn between the love he bears for his family in the south and the duty he carries as a brother of the Night's watch, continues to watch on in frustration as his friends dissuade him from deserting.

The punishment for desertion is death, Jon knows it but he still cannot just ignore the plight his family is in right now.

He may be a bastard but Lord Eddard Stark treated him like his trueborn son. Lady Catelyn may have been unkind to him, but he does not wish anything untoward to the mother of his kin.

" It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post," they continue to chant.

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"What is honor compared to a woman's love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms ... or the memory of a brother's smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory and our great tragedy."

He remembers his father, the love he bore for his children and his wife, and yet still took on the duty of being the King's Hand.

"You may not be a Stark, but you'll always be my blood," those are the words his father told him before he departed for the capital, together with the promise of telling him about his mother.

Slowly but surely he calms down and says the last of his vows with his sworn brothers, "I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, and the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."

He calms his horse down and looks his brothers, dead in the eye.

"Come on now Jon, let's go back. You do know that Set Alliser will have all the pleasure of beheading us. You wouldn't want that would you?"

Jon laughed and added, "The only pleasure he'll be having are the wet dreams he'll have at night. Come on, you bastards sure have a way with words."

"I may be weak in swordplay Jon but I'm not soft in the head," said Samwell

"Aye, what he says, and you're the bastard... bastard," added Gren.

Right there dead in the night within the wintry forest you could hear the out-of-place sound of laughter ringing.

As Jon and his brothers trod back to Castle Black, a crow could be spotted, perched upon the branches of the weirwoods just above.

The crow looked intently at the motley crew and screamed with all its might as they left, " Snow! Snow! Cold winds are Rising!"

The crow left its place among the weirwoods and flew away.. to Castle Black.

---------morning------------

After breaking his fast, Jon gets called upon by the Lord Commander, Jeor Mormont. Walking with trepidation, Jon slowly opens up the doors of the Lord Commander's office.

The moment he enters, the Lord Commander looked him straight in the eye, ever so serious.

"You look tired."

"Was your little escapade that exhausting?"

The jig was up, Jon couldn't hide what happened last night anymore. Jon hung his head down and stared fiercely at his moleskin gloves and boots. He was deeply guilty, and he knew that he would be punished and that the punishment for desertion is beheading. What's worse is that his brothers might also pay for his attempted desertion.

"Don't look so glum. If the Night's watch beheaded every person that ran away for the night, only ghosts would guard the Wall.

Well, at least you weren't whoring in Mole town.

Honor made you leave yet honor also made you come back."

Jon released a breath of air, relieved that his brothers wouldn't have to suffer for his crimes.

"Honor didn't bring me back, my brothers did," Jon admitted.

"Was your honor the one being mentioned, Lord Snow?"

".... They killed my father, I want to go, I need to go..."

"Go do what exactly?

Are you going to bring him back to life, are you?"

Seeing that he received no response, Lord Commander Mormont continued, "No? Well, that's good to hear. We've had our fair share of the dead being brought back.

Beyond the Wall, our rangers have been sending reports of whole wildling villages being abandoned. At night, they see fires being lit and blazing the mountains from dusk 'till dawn. They captured a wildling that swore that tribes are moving and uniting with each other in some secret stronghold, to what ends, only the Gods know.

Outside Eastwatch by the Sea, Cotter Pyke's lot discovered four blue-eyed corpses. Unlike us, who had you kill the dead men, they were wise enough to burn them beforehand."

Being reminded of the events that happened just mere moments ago brought a chill to Jon's spine. Those... things were... unnatural. Those blue eyes were eerie, to say the least. The moment he saw them he felt a sense of fear and also... a sense of familiarity within those irises. He can't help but admit that despite being scared of it, he also found beauty and relief when seeing them.

"Do you think your brother's war is more important than ours?"

He was reminded of his brothers and sisters, he had to protect them, they needed him. However, once those things reach the south, they'll need more than him to keep them safe.

"No... "

"When dead men come hunting for us in the dead of the night, do you think it matters who sits the Iron Throne?"

"No."

"Good. Because I want you and your wolf to be with us when we ride out beyond the Wall on the morrow"

"Beyond the Wall?"

"When winter comes it would be best if you prepare for its coming. I'll not sit meekly by and wait for the snows to arrive. I mean to find out what's happening and why it's happening.

The Night's Watch will ride out in force against the Wildlings, the White Walkers, and whatever lurks beyond these walls. And we will find Benjen Stark, alive or dead. And if we somehow see a dead Benjen Stark with those damn blue eyes we will do our duty as the shield that guards the realms of men and burn him along with all those blue-eyed bastards.

I will command them myself.

So I'll only ask you this once Lord Snow... Are you a brother of The Night's Watch?

Or are you just another bastard boy who wants to play at war?"

Jon gulped before answering, "I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, and the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come."

"It's good that you remember your vows, never forget them. Etch it deep into that head of yours, most Black Brothers tend to forget them once they go beyond the Wall. Pack up your things, we move out tomorrow. You are dismissed."

Jon bowed down before the Lord Commander before taking his leave. The moment he looks up to face the Lord Commander, however, he is faced with the image of a crow entering the window of the Lord Commander's chambers and perching on his shoulders.

The crow turned to him and shouted, "Snow! Snow! Winter is Coming!"