Dreams

|The whole world stretched out before him, a tapestry of white, brown, and green. He saw everything so clearly that for an instant time seemed to freeze. He saw the entire continent and each of the individual kingdoms.

He saw Winterfell as the eagles saw it, the slender towers looking flat and stubby from above, the castle walls nothing more than lines on the ground. He saw Maester Luwin sitting on a balcony wrapped in a thick wool blanket reading a book, frowning. He saw his brother Jon through the window of his room, the boy is lying on the bed with one leg dangling, he saw his drawing book still open on a table next to the bed; Jon was drawing a knight before going to bed, the breastplate is half finished.

He saw his father in his solar, looking at a letter with a somber expression. In the heart of the godswood, the great white weirwood bent over his reflection in the black pool, its leaves rustling in the icy wind. When he caught Robb's gaze, he raised his eyes from the calm waters and returned it deliberately. For some reason Robb isn't surprised, it felt almost natural.

He looks to the southwest and sees a large fleet moving away from a burning city, a couple of kilometers from the city he sees an islet connected to the mainland by a stone bridge. A huge castle is built on the islet. There is a ringfort on the peak with walls, gates, and watchtowers around it.

Robb turns his gaze to the east and sees the largest city he has ever seen, at least twice the size of the city plundered by the fleet in the west. But this city looks much more chaotic, there is no order or plan in its structure. It's like someone started building houses, taverns and markets everywhere without having an exact plan and then kept building more and more things, trying to get as many buildings as possible in a small space. Three things stand out in the city: the enormous half-collapsed round building, the docks with hundreds of boats and a large red stone castle.

Robb focuses his gaze on the castle and sees a tall, very muscular man his father's age sitting on a throne made of swords. In front of the throne are several dozen people, including a fat bald man dressed in colorful robes and an old man with a nearly bald head with a hand-shaped brooch on his blue doublet.

Bored Robb looks even further east, he sees huge cities that make the capital of the Seven Kingdoms look like a shanty town. Cities so large and beautiful they seem from another world, and more to the east he sees a sea of ​​fire and smoke. Among the smoke a small island seems to shine, something seems to call him there. Robb was about to get closer but then he saw something dark and sinister further to the east. He went beyond a great desert, beyond green lands with buildings and cities as strange as his people; people with dark hair and eyes, with pale to somewhat yellowish complexions, and strange eyes that seem half-closed. He sees a dark and sinister city, and darkness beyond. A land where the sunlight does not reach, a land that makes his whole body tremble with fear.

He then sees it, through the darkness a pair of eyes stare back at him.|

Robb gets up covered in cold sweat, his whole body trembling.

He gets out of bed and strips off his sodden clothes, puts on dry clothes and walks over to the fireplace. He throws more wood on the fire to fan the flames.

He swallows, nervous and scared.

He doesn't know what he saw, he just knows it was something terrifying.

Minutes pass and the bone-chilling cold doesn't go away, Robb wraps himself in a woolen blanket and runs to his father's solar, where he saw him in his dream. It is still early, the sun is not yet visible in the sky but the sky is not dark, it is a light blue with gray tones on the horizon.

Robb greets the guards, Jory and Hull, and walks into the solar, his father looking surprised to see him up so early.

"Robb, what's going on son? Have you had a nightmare?" He gently questions his visibly upset son.

That's not the case but Robb nods, he knows the dream wasn't a dream, but it was very scary.

Ned waves at him and Robb walks over to his father, Ned picks him up and sits him on his lap, hugging him against his chest.

"Did I ever tell you the story of how I almost fell off a cliff when I was two and ten namedays?" Robb shakes his head and Ned begins to tell the story.

"Robert, our king and my best friend, had been complaining about the maester's lessons so Jon took us hunting to placate the troublemaker. The valleys of the Vale are dangerous, the roads narrow and steep so we went on foot.-" Ned continues to tell him the hunting story and Robb listens with distant eyes, not wanting to think about those terrifying eyes but the image does not disappear from his mind.

For the first time in his life, the heir to the North curses his memory, he almost never forgets anything, which always gave him the advantage in his studies, but right now that memory seems more like a curse.

**

Hours later Robb seems to have cheered up to Ned's delight, it's rare to see his adventurous son depressed and melancholy, it doesn't seem natural. Robb is a boy full of energy, always doing this or that, never sitting still. Seeing him so frightened and gloomy didn't sit well with Ned.

But he can't help but fall into that frame of mind himself.

Hours before dawn Maester Luwin woke him with an urgent letter from the capital, Balon Greyjoy sacked Lannisport and declared himself King of the Isles.

`War,` thinks the Warden of the North bitterly.

Five years ago when he returned home after half a life away from the North he promised never to leave home again. "Bad things happen to Starks when they go south" Old Nan used to tell him that when he was a boy but he didn't believe her back then. He didn't believe her when he became a man either, but when he saw his sister's lifeless body in a pool of her own blood those words rang in his ears.

So when he returned to Winterfell with his heir in his arms he vowed never to go down below the Neck again, not unless the world ends.

But his king, his friend, requires his presence.

Ned has four children, two sons and two daughters. His youngest is barely one year old, little Arya has just begun to pronounce her first words. Her first word was Jon's name, to the anger of his wife. Ned didn't care, in fact it seemed quite appropriate, Sansa's first word was the name of his heir. Apparently his daughters took a shine to the brother they resemble the most, Sansa to Robb as they both have the Tully appearance of their mother, and Arya to Jon as they both have the Stark appearance.

Ned doesn't want to go and leave his family behind, he doesn't want to miss the first steps of his youngest daughter nor the new misadventures that his older ones will get into.

"Curse you Greyjoy." mutters Lord Stark angrily.

"My lord?" asks Rodrik Cassel, who is a couple of steps away. They are both looking at his sons training with the sword.

"Nothing." Ned replies watching the kids train.

Jon is quick and precise with his slashes while Robb is strong and agile. They are very close in skill, both talented swordsmen.

"It seems we have the next Arthur Dayne and Barristan Selmy on our hands." Jory Cassel jokes watching the kids train.

Ned winces as he remembers the Sword of the Morning.

`That's the last thing I want to remember today,`