Drabble_weekly Challenge 36 - Enemies overhead

[m_findlow]

Title: Enemies overhead
Fandom: Game of Thrones
Author: m_findlow
Characters/Pairing: Jon, Ygritte
Rating: PG
Challenge: 36 - Birds
Warnings: none
Spoilers: none
Summary: Jon has a lot to learn about life on the other side of the Wall.
Disclaimer: I don't own them

He knew he'd sound stupid asking the question, but it nagged at him.

'Why are there no birds?'

She stopped beside him, pale face flushed red from the cold air, matching the fiery red hair that he'd come to love.

'What?'

'Birds,' he said. 'I've been north of the Wall for weeks and haven't seen a single bird.' Unless he counted that wretched eagle Varamyr Sixskins had sent after him, nearly tearing out his eye.

'Do crows care more for birds than their own people?' Ygritte asked him.

'I just... I thought there'd be ravens if nothing else.'

He never thought he'd have missed the endless cries of the Old Bear's raven's calls for corn. Up here though, there was nothing.

'You see a bird Jon Snow, you'd best put an arrow through it,' she replied, passing him a handful of her own fletchings. He gripped them tightly in his gloved hand.

'Why?'

'We can burn the bodies of free folk. Don't trust anything you don't kill yourself.'

Jon remembered the White Walker in the forest, mounted on his rotting horse, coming to cut him down where he stood.

'Spies?' he said.

'Worse than spies. You know nothing, Jon Snow.'