Chapter 41

Barbrey Dustin was not the kind of person who would sit before a Heart Tree and pray to the Old gods. Not after all that she had suffered in her life.

But her nephew, her dear departed sister's son had gone North to the Wall despite all her protests. And now she had not heard from him for whole two moons.

Before leaving, he had told her that the Wall was probably a gigantic ice construct standing only because of the magic deeply embedded in it and that they will probably not be able to reach each other with the magical mirror because of it's interference.

As always, he was correct. The magical mirror didn't work. So she had not heard about him for a long time and as a result, she was worried.

And with nothing else to do, she had come here in the godswood in order to pray to the old gods.

It was unlikely that they would hear her prayer. They never heard hers when she prayed for them to allow her to marry Brandon Stark. And they didn't listen to her when she prayed for the return of her husband's safety or the safety of her sister.

But she was desperate and sitting in front of the Heart Tree would at least allow her to get some peace of mind.

So she sat in front of the Heart Tree and was about to pray when she heard a loud Crack and turned around to find herself staring at the surreal scene of Domeric standing in front of her with a bright smile on her face.

Except that he was not alone and was holding hands with two other children of his own height.

Except that… No…

Those children were not the children of humans but the 'Children of the Forest'. The legends that she had heard so much about as a child.

She stared dumbly at their group as the Children started fidgeting under her stare until Domeric finally coughed in his hands and her eyes widened for a moment before she lunged at him and enveloped him in a hug before crying out her grievances at him.

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It took him a good amount of time to console his aunt who was rather worried that he might have gotten himself killed by the Wildlings North of the Wall.

In his own experience, the Wildlings were not as scary as the men made them out to be. But then again, he was living in the middle ages where every news you get was based on rumors. And rumors had the tendency to grow and exaggerate as they pass from one man to another.

After that, he had told her that he had to go back so that he could bring back his people safely and she threw another temper tantrum which took even longer to calm down and by the end of it, she was rather cross with him once again.

In the end, he told her to take care of Leaf and Ash and hide their existence from the other humans as they could go about carving faces in the dozens of Weirwood trees he had planted in Godswood.

She accepted his request and with a final nod he apparated to the top of the Wall from where he used his portkey to reach his group.