Prologue

The woman ran through the tree's clutching her stomach in pain. She had been running for days, praying that she could get to safety before the birthing pains had started. Of course, she didn't get her wish. The stress of having to run with no food or rest was causing the babe to come early. The winter winds were freezing her to the bone, she was sure her teeth would shatter from chattering so violently.

She was lost in her thoughts, but that still didn't distract her from the fact that it was getting impossibly colder. The trees were beginning to form icicles, long and dangerous looking. The water from the river she ran next to was freezing in seconds. It was as if the life was being sucked out of the air around her. The burn of the cold had become almost unbearable. That could only mean one thing.

He's close, she thought.

She had finally escaped him, after all this time, but she knew she was going to have to find help. She wasn't going to be able to go on for much longer. The women was desperate to get as far away from him as possible. She had come this far, she wasn't going to be thwarted in the end. Her child would be raised to be a good and kind women, not into a cold, unfeeling monster. She wouldn't allow it. She would give her life to give her child this chance.

Castle Black was not too far away. The Crows weren't ideal, but they weren't evil. They hated The Wildlings, but she knew that they feared what followed her even more. They were the only ones South of the wall that truly remember what lurks in the night. They would have to help her if they wanted to survive. She was truly desperate to resort to asking the crows for help. But she did not have any other options.

And he wasn't far behind.

She was running out of time. She could feel her life slipping away with every breath she took as more blood poured down her legs. The birthing pains were so terrible, she could barely stay on her feet. She kept standing because of the sheer strength of her will. The women knew she would not survive the night.

Just as they said,she thought bitterly.

The old crone in the Village she lived in predicted her fate and the fate of her child. She wished she had believed the warning when she had heard it the first time. It probably wouldn't have changed anything, but she could have appreciated what she had while she had the chance. She recalls it as if it were yesterday.

The old crone had said, "You shall grow to be the most beautiful women north of the wall. But, your beauty shall be your downfall girl. Evil will desire you, and Evil will have you. You shall melt a frozen heart."

The women remembers how her face twisted in horror.

"There will be a child. One you will die to bring into this world. She will grow to be even lovelier than you. The most beautiful women in the world, they will call her. She will be able to tame any man with a single smile. Bewitch them with a single look upon her face. Her beauty will be her power, just as it will be her curse."

"Men will start wars for her love, not one can resist her" she continued. "She will be kind and her heart will be gentle. The man she chooses to love in return will become king. He will be of ice and fire. She will be winter, who has taken the form of a lovely maid."

Her sister had convinced her that the women was talking nonsense. The White Walkers hadn't been seen in thousands of years, so what she predicted had to be impossible. The two young girls ran home, laughing off the words of the old women. She had forgotten the words entirely for years. Until it was to late.

She recalled the day he came for her. The women cursed her mother and father for trading her to the Nights King. They were so weak. They were cowards. When her older sister had tried to save her, it grabbed her face. It stared into her beloved sisters eyes as her face froze. She can still remember her sister's screams of pain as its hand print was burned into the side of her face. She had to be dragged from the tent, refusing to leave her sisters side.

She stills remembers the night vividly, the winds he brought freezing the tears on her cheeks. She had tried to fight him, but he was far to strong. He was unmovable and unforgiving. He had lifted her onto his undead horse and wiped the tears away with his cold fingers. Fingers that didn't burn her. She didn't understand. She had begged and pleaded for her freedom, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. She shuddered at the thought.

She was heavy with its child.

It kept her hidden in a tent where ever it traveled. It would come to her in the dark of night, freezing her and taking her. She couldn't believe that she had become pregnant. The women did not even know that The Others could breed. From what she could tell, he hadn't known either. She remembered the look of disbelief on his face when her stomach began to swell. The way he had tentatively touched her stomach, the corners of his mouth turned up. It made him seem almost human. Almost.

When she found out she was with child, she knew she had to run.

She wouldn't allow her child to be raised by that thing. Something so cruel and devoid of love. She had been foolish to think it could care. He had been so gentle with her, she was so foolish to think that she could change him. When she saw what it was capable off, she knew she couldn't bear to care for it. She never referred to it as a he anymore. It wasn't human. It wasn't capable of emotion she constantly had to remind herself of that fact. It had showed her that much.

The women saw a fire in the distance. The Crows. She almost collapsed because of the shear relief that she felt. She wanted so badly to close her eyes and go to sleep. She was so tired, the exhaustion weighing down all of her limbs. She pushed herself to keep running to the outskirts of the camp.

"Crows" she thought the word like a prayer. Her thoughts were interrupted when another crippling pain tore through her. She felt like she was on fire while simultaneously freezing to death. The women could swear that she was being sawed in half by some unseen force. This must be her punishment. She grew to care for that monster. As much as she tried to deny it, she knew it was true. The gods were punishing her for not being able to stay indifferent. That must of been her great test in life. She knew she failed.

She made her presence known to them when another birthing pain ripped a scream from her throat. The women fell to her knees. She could not fight it any longer. The babe was coming. She was going to die were her knees hit the ice.

An older man with a stern face noticed her first, while the other crows jumped to grab their swords. They were frightened by the screams of a dying women, how typical of those south of the wall. Frightened of their own shadows. She was grateful that the older man halted them before they could attack her.

"Lord Commander Mormont it is a wilding, we must get rid of her before-" the king crow silenced him with his hand. He saw the swell between her hips, and the blood that stained the clothing between her legs. She was in labor, and by the looks of it she was dying.

"Please King Crow, we both will die without help." She begged.

He was no Maester, but even a fool could tell she wouldn't live long without assistance. The women was so lovely. Even with the look of death upon her. Even a man as old as Lord Commander Mormont could not help but fall under her spell.

He fought with himself for a moment. The Lord Commander knew that the Night's Watch could not care for a child. But he could not leave an innocent to freeze out in the cold or to be eaten by what lurks in the night, not with the women begging so sweetly.

"Fetch Maester Aemon." He commanded one of the boys.

Not but a few moments later, the women saw an old man with silver hair approaching her. He looked at her without seeing. The King Crow ushered the rest of his men to the other side of the camp. They listened as the women screamed and cried out in pain for what seems like hours.

Finally, a baby's cry shattered the night.

"A girl," Maester Aemon whispered to the women gently. "What do you wish her name be?"

"Lilyanna." The women choked. She did not have much life left in her. Mormont held the child as Maester Aemon rushed to save its mother.

"Stop" the women begged "It is no use. My life has ended. You must leave quickly"

"Tell us where her father is girl, we will take her there you have my word." The king crow said. It was the least he could do for the lovely girl.

"No!" She cried out, "You must all leave. Death will come for you all if you don't. Please you must keep her safe. Take her to the wall. Her father cannot touch her there."

The women grabbed his hand and pulled him close. "Please King Crow. Promise me you will care for her, hide her."

He wondered if this women was a witch, for he could not find it in his heart to say no.

"We cannot take a child-"

"Please!" the women shouted. "Hide her away in the tallest tower of one of your castles, give her to a Southern Lord. Do what you must. You cannot leave her North of the Wall. Promise me!"

He looked into her warm and bewitching brown eyes. He knew then he could not say no.

"Alright girl. I promise you," he said. "Who is the father that causes such a great fear in you?"

"The Night's King." She whispers so quietly only he could hear. Her breaths were barley coming in puffs now.

The Lord Commander had learned not to fear much in his time being alive. But that name struck a fear so deep, he nearly crushed the baby he was holding.

"Let me see her," the women whispered. "Just once before.."

The Lord Commander angled the child so her mother could look upon her face for the first and last time. The look of love on the women's face would be burned into his memory for the rest of his life. As would her strong chocolate eyes. She reached to her neck and yanked. She stuffed something cold and metal into the Lord Commanders hands.

"Give this to her," she rasped, "So she has a part of me."

He watched as the light faded out of those strong brown eyes.

The women had died. He would never know her name and nor would the child he held.

He looked down at the women's child for the first time. She was going to be lovely, just like her mother. He opened his hand, the women had handed him a silver necklace. With a little snowflake dangling from the chain.

The lord commander felt the weight of his promise pressing down on him then. He would make sure this child of winter was cared for and he would protect her. He would hide her and care for her as if she was his own. This could be his second chance, after his son had dishonored him and his family name.

As if the little thing could sense his thoughts, she opened her eyes to stare at him for the first time. What he saw shocked him.

Eyes that were an icy blue. The women did not lie. That means they could not linger any longer if they wished to survive.

"Pack up, Brothers!" He commanded. "We leave for Castle Black Immediately."

Lord Commander Mormont leaned down and closed the empty eyes of the wilding women. They could not burn her, for it would give away their position.

He looked back down at the child and gave her a small smile.

"Lilyanna."

Later that night, The Night King had finally tracked his loves trail to an abandoned camp. She lied in a pool of her own blood. Dead. His child gone. He could still smell the crows that were here only hours before. He knew they had taken his baby to the wall. A wall that he could not pass, because of the magic ingrained in its stones. When he lifted his loves head into his lap, he noticed that the necklace he had gifted her was gone. Angry red marks had formed from where it had been yanked off.

He was angry. This was his fault. He should have known better, should have been more careful. He had cared about her. He supposed it was best. Caring makes you weak. He wouldn't raise her from the dead. She deserved to be at peace.

The Night's King carried her little body into the forest and laid her underneath a tree. He entombed her in ice like glass. Her beauty frozen forever.

17 years later

The old crone said that Lilyanna would grow to be even lovelier than the most beautiful women in Westeros. And grow beautiful she did.

She had her mother's long heavy deep auburn waves. Her beautiful hair flowed down to her hips, and she always wore it loose. Wild, like the winter she born into. Her long hair framed her heart shaped face like a halo. She had smooth pale limbs, her skin the color of ivory causing her to glow gently in the moonlight. She had filled out, gently curving in all the right places. Lilyanna's most striking feature were her haunting ice blue eyes. They were the same shape her mothers had been, large and almond shaped. Even though the color was harsh, her kindness and gentleness always shown through.

The cold didn't bother Lilyanna. She would were a long cotton white dress that blew with the winter winds. Never requiring a coat, gloves, or fur.

As the years went on, Lord Commander Mormont also grew to love the girl as his own daughter. The Lord Commander was going to send her south to live with one of the great lords of the North. But he became too attached. He was the only father she knew. He never had the heart to tell her who truly fathered her. For a time, he feared she would grow to be cruel and unforgiving like the winter.

Like her father.

But his winter Lily never did. She grew to be gentle and kind. Maester Aemon taught her to read and write. Taught her all about the great houses of Westeros. When she was young she would spend most her days huddled up in the Library reading a book or helping Maester Aemon with small tasks.

He quickly discovered she cast the same spell over men, as her mother did to him the night he found her. If not a more powerful one.

In the dead of winter when rations were at their shortest, all she had to do was bat her delicate eyelashes and she would have a man as stern as Ser Allister Thorne giving her his extra bread and a small smile. He noticed it when she would sing, and even the birds would stop to listen.

She held some of her father's power over winter. When she was upset, the snows would come in heavy than before. Lilly could create snowflakes and icicles with her tiny hands, showing her tricks to her favorite brothers of the nights watch. The Lord Commander was content that she had not shown any of the more dangerous magic.

Like raising the dead.

Lord Commander Mormont kept her close to him, her champers high in the tower of the Lord Commander.

But as the years went on, the men of the night's watch became more and more unsavory. The king in the South would send rapists, thieves, and murders to join the nights watch. Their leering and lingering gazes became more and more noticeable as Lilly grew older and more beautiful.

The Lord Commander knew it was no longer safe for her to be wandering Castle Black unattended any longer. He confined her to the Lord Commanders tower. He had not had a personal steward in years. Not trusting any of them to be near his precious girl.

This did not bother Lilly. She was tired of all of their lingering gazes and suggestive comments. She was content with the company of her father, Maester Aemon, and occasionally Ser Allister.

By her seventeenth name day, her presence was forgotten. The men who saw her in the moonlight thought she was a ghost or a snow nymph. Glowing gently in the moonlight, and far too beautiful to be real.

Those few who knew she was there, did nothing to remind others in fear of them trying to harm her.

She would watch new Brothers come and go, men rise and fall. She was content with her life. But she could not help but feel lonely.

As she grew older, her skin grew colder. Even her beloved father could not touch her bare skin any longer without coming away with a burn from the cold. Lilly often felt it was the loneliness she felt freezing her from the inside out.

She wondered if there was a man out there made for her, who could touch her and love her without recoiling from the cold. A man who did not simply look at her with lust in his eyes. Take her away and marry her. Like in all of the books she read.

She stared out her window, fiddling with the necklace her father gave her. The little snowflake suited her. She stared out longingly to the road. Not knowing who the days brought closer and closer.

This is my first fanfiction! Please read and review! I am so excited to see what you all have to say. I combined chapters 1 and 2 because I felt chapter two was to short to stand on its own!