The Remnant of the Pack - Book 1 - GoT

Wrong side of the wall

For the first time in a long time, Bran had managed to convince Ylina to sleep for longer than four hours. He knew the girl hated to stay out for so long since she felt responsible for everyone travelling with them. Now that she and the Reeds talked out their differences, she even worried about the pair of siblings. But Bran knew better. He knew that, if she didn't sleep properly soon, she would end up sick, so he made her.

He promised to keep an eye on Rickon and on Embar. He promised nothing would happen. Osha, Meera, him and Jojen would take shifts watching over the group during the night and he knew nothing would happen while she slept. It never has, so why start tonight?

None of that had convinced Ylina. Not until Bran had promised that, should anything happen, she would be the first one he would wake up. And so she finally relented, falling asleep on some furs beside Bran's cart just before the sun had set the night before.

For some miracle, she had managed to sleep through the night. Not a miracle, Bran told himself. She hadn't slept properly in days. It was no surprise she was so tired. He hoped she would sleep for a while longer, after all, she deserved it. But with the scene unfolding in front of him, he thought she would be waking up soon.

"That's not how you skin a rabbit." Osha was smirking, as she watched Meera struggling with the dagger, cutting up one of the rabbits she had hunted that morning.

"I know how to skin a rabbit." She mumbled, not bothering looking up at the wildling woman.

"Not by the looks of it." She said, reaching over to grab another rabbit having already skinned one.

Meera watched as Osha opened a cut through the skin of the rabbit right in its middle, pulling it off from the meat in two strong pulls. Meera wouldn't admit it, but she was rather impressed.

"You grow up north of the Wall, you learn the proper way to handle game." Osha smirked smugly, putting the rabbit in a stick so that she could place it over the fire to cook it.

"I didn't see any game before I got here." Meera said, her eyes in her own rabbit as she kept skinning it the way she knew how.

"If Ylina let me use that bloody bow of hers, I could have shot a dozen rabbits." Osha responded, causing Bran to roll his eyes as he watched them.

"Well, I made this bow myself." It was Meera's turn to smirk. "Guess you don't learn how to do that north of the Wall."

"You learn how to use your fists, though."

"Oh, you're gonna punch the rabbits to death?" Meera asked sarcastically as Osha groaned.

"I had someone else in mind."

"Well, someone else is sitting right here."

Afraid of that exchange escalating to something too out of his control, Bran decided it was time for him to intervene.

"You're both very good at skinning rabbits." He said.

"Some of us are just a little better." Osha insisted, causing Meera to lift her eyes to look at her.

"Well, some of us would say thank you when someone else hunts down their breakfast for them." She spat. "Or don't they teach you to say thank you north of the Wall?"

"You've got a big mouth, girl, and too many teeth."

At Osha's threat, Meera got up, trying to look taller than the wildling woman. She still had her hunting dagger in her hand, but, of course, Osha wouldn't let that slip, so she mirrored the Reed's actions, standing right in front of her with her eyes glued to her and an angry scowl on her face.