The Remnant of the Pack - Book 1 - GoT

Castle of ashes

"Stay here." Ylina whispered.

After making sure Embar was comfortably laying in the small basket Ylina had been using as a makeshift crib, she slowly got up from her place beside him and started to make her way out of the crypts.

"Lina." Rickon called, moving to follow her, but she only stopped walking and turned to him with a shake of her head.

"Stay here, love. It'll be alright." She assured.

Ylina waited for Rickon to, begrudgingly obey and sit back down beside Bran and, as soon as he did, she started to walk away. She knew Daria was close behind her but when she heard a few footsteps nearby, she could tell Osha was following her as well. With a gentle smile and a roll of her eyes, Ylina spoke up, careful not to be heard outside of the crypts but still loud enough so that Osha could hear her without the girl having to look back at her.

"I told you to stay there." She said, as the wildling woman shrugged.

"Wasn't going to risk it, pretty lady."

"Everything seems silent." Ylina said. "Too quiet, almost."

"Aye."

"The fire is not cracking anymore." She continued, walking slowly but surely toward the exit of the crypts, her hunting instincts kicking in as she tried to analyze the environment around her the best she could without properly having a look at it. Instead, she used her other senses: smelling, hearing, feeling the air around her. Everything that could give her a slight idea of what was happening outside. "There's no one walking around either."

"Maybe they left." Osha offered, as Ylina extended her arm in her direction in a clear sign that she wanted her to stop.

Without questioning herself, Osha stopped walking and stepped back, allowing Daria to walk past her, giving Ylina one last glance before climbing the final steps that would lead her to the courtyard.

"Why would they leave?" Ylina asked, and Osha wasn't sure if the question was directed at her or not. "And if they did, where would they go to?"

Osha didn't even have the time to answer, because as soon as she opened her mouth, Daria came down the steps and sat down in front of Ylina and tilting her head slightly to the side, looking up at her as the girl sighed.

"Let's go get the boys." She said. "We can can get out now."

And at that, Osha nodded, walking back toward the small, hidden space they had been staying in for far too long and walked over to Rickon, extending a hand toward him to help him get up. As Ylina bend down to pick up Embar, she turned to Hodor with a gentle smile.

"Help Bran up, Hodor." She said, as the giant nodded with a smile of his own.

"Hodor."

"Lina, what are you doing?" Bran asked, allowing Hodor to pick him up as Osha helped him climb into his back.

Sighing and fixing her hold on Embar, Ylina smiled down at him when he gurgled happily in her arms. The young woman watched as Shaggydog and Summer ran out of the crypts and toward the courtyard, probably happy to finally be able to run around for a while after so long. Looking back at Bran as he expected her answer, Ylina pulled up the hood of her cape over her head.

"We're leaving." She said, before making her way out of the crypts.

Bran frowned, looking back at Osha, but when the wildling woman shrugged, he knew she was almost as confused as he was.

"Just let's go before your sister changes her mind." She said, nudging Rickon forward and following Ylina into the courtyard.

Hodor was close behind them, but by the time he had finally managed to climb all of the steps from the crypts, everyone was already out and the silence around him finally made sense. There was no one around, the horses were dead, the hounds were dead, the walls of the castle were darkened and some had even fallen down. Everything had been burned and nothing or anything had been spared. The Ironborn came, took away their home from them and, as if that wasn't enough, they destroyed the one place they ever felt safe in, the one place any of them could ever call home, the one place where all of their best memories were made.