Magic Awakens: CH 74 - Jaehaerion Targaryen (The Last Hero Reborn)
Summary: Jon deals with his death and rebirth. Reunited with his favorite sister and able to meet Daenerys for the first time in his own body, he struggles to grasp the light as darkness lingers.
Preview: Cold was all he felt as his vision blurred and everything went dark, the pain no longer bothering him. Then he was floating above his body, looking down on himself, lifeless and laying in a puddle of his own blood. Robb clung to him, whispering apologies and crying out for help.
Jon tried to hold on, grasping desperately to his body and life as it faded farther away. He tried to go back to it as he floated higher and higher and the scene of his death became smaller below him. But he had no avenue to do so, at a loss as to how to make it so. It was like pushing on a door that was locked and then sealed shut with stones.
Somewhere he felt a small ember in the cold nothingness, calling to him, promising warmth and life. As he fought against it, he felt like he was losing himself. Panic and desperation overwhelmed him. He felt like he would be lost in this torturous existence in limbo for eternity.
An owl soared over him and hooted, before it dove down and through him, shocking all his senses. He blinked. Wait, how? When he opened his mouth, he was the one to hoot.
“Jon?” he heard echoing in his mind.
“B-Bran?” he asked, recognizing the voice.
A series of events from before he was killed flashed through their shared mind. He remembered now, the owl that had followed Grey Wind and Ghost during their hunt.
“I can’t hold this much longer. You must go to Ghost. He will take care of you until she arrives.”
And then he was floating again, the simmering heat growing stronger. He reached out to grab ahold of it. There! Once he stopped resisting and let himself answer the warm glowing call it raged into an inferno, chasing away the cold. Hurtling across the expanse of the Wall, weightless, until he amalgamated with his direwolf.
Grey Wind was next to him but they weren’t alone, a crow with three eyes followed above them. A snow storm blew around them, making everything disappear in a wall of white. The wind whipped from every direction, bringing a barrage of scents.
A rabbit was huddling nearby in a bush, trying to stay alive in the cold. Carrion crows pecked at one of their fellow birds that didn’t make the flight in the harsh conditions. Fresh lemons and jasmines and spices of… that’s not right, it is winter.
His paws halted and his head twisted towards the foreign smell so out of place here in the North, the hairs on the back of his neck standing at attention as his ears quirked to survey the area. Next to him, Grey Wind noticed he was no longer running and waited.
A shadow of silver glittered through the snow, floating amethysts shining like a beacon of hope and love. “Jon? Is that you?”
He took off towards her, screaming her name from within him. A mournful howl reverberated across the Wall and was muffled in the blistering wind. The snow thickened, and then she was gone. The three-eyed crow cawed, and he felt lost and alone.
If not for Robb warging Grey Wind and Ghost urging him to continue on to Castle Black, he may have laid down in the snow and given up. His mood and Ghost’s were soured by the grief of death. After speaking with his brother, anger became his motivation, driving him to continue within his wolf’s mind.
Each day trapped in Ghost, he began to feel more wolf than man. When he was beyond the Wall, he was told if you stayed within your companion’s mind too long you would lose yourself to the beast. He could feel each piece of himself as it slipped away.
Then a sound of thunder clapped from above, followed by a ferocious roar so loud it shook the walls of Robb’s chambers where he rested. His brother rushed to the door and the direwolves nipped at his heels to find the source of the noise. Men were screaming and hurrying and pointing. They took up arms and aimed their bows above towards the sky.
Tracing their line of sight, he saw it, a great black dragon circling above. He would know Valerion anywhere, having watched him grow in his dreams from the eyes of the green dragon. Atop his back was a saddle unlike anything he had ever seen, attaching several bodies securely.
Robb yelled to command his men to lay down their arms and began to plan for their guests' arrival. Ghost stood in the courtyard, his eyes never leaving the dragon as it came closer to the ground outside the gates. Soon he would see Daenerys in person for the first time. It was just his luck that his body was dead and he was a fookin’ direwolf.
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