Chapter 1: The Arrival

Jon stood there in the darkness of the room staring at the statue of the man he had spoken too, one statue amongst many others.

He knew little of the room itself, most of it was lost to the darkness that enveloped the room but what he did know he had discovered a little while earlier when he had tried to find his way out.

When he had first arrived, where ever he was, he had quickly tried to find his way back to daylight. He was grateful for the torch he had with him or else he would not have been able to see at all. He held it in his left hand so that his right was free to draw his sword if need be. Ghost stayed close, content to walk next to him in what little light there was then go off into the darkness by himself. As Jon made his way through the room he found that it was filled with statues set in rows facing out from, what Jon could tell in this darkness, was the centre of the room.

From what he had seen of them it appeared that all the statues where different; all with different features, some men, some women and all dressed in different garb. It reminded Jon of the crypts at Winterfell with its hallways filled with the statues and tombs of dead lords and kings. That thought did not put him at ease, though it seemed unlikely that this was a crypt as there were no tombs to go with the statues.

Jon managed to reach the edge of the room without any kind of incident. The walls themselves where stone, thick and without seems or cracks. He pulled the glove from his right hand with his mouth as his left still held the torch and placed the glove through his belt. He ran his hand across the surface of the cold stone, trying to feel for something his eyes didn't see. He began to walk the edge of the room his hand still trailing along the wall trying to find some sort of door.

He quickly found it.

The door was huge as large as Winterfell's main gate. Wooden with metal hinges but it didn't seem to open from this side. Jon tried for half an hour or more trying to get it open as well as banging on the door and yelling so that someone on the other side might hear him. It was no use though, the door wouldn't move no matter what he tried and the door was either too thick for someone outside to hear him or there was no one there to hear his calls.

Even Ghost made some attempt to get the door to open, scratching and pushing against the door to try to move the massive, unmoving gateway. He remained silent though, just as he always had.

Once it became clear that the door would not open Jon made his way back to find the statue of the man he had spoken too. That is where he stood now, staring at the statue of the man he had spoken to, waiting for… something! For him to come back, to show him a way out, for an explanation about any of this!

The day had started much like he had come to expect at The Wall. Breaking his fast then going on to morning drills. It wasn't until later that any of this strangeness took place. He had been give assignment atop The Wall, standing watch. He'd brought Ghost up with him, preferring not to leave him below. Jon had stood their looking out beyond the wall for any sign of movement, Wildling or Ranger, with hope that he might see his uncle Benjen returning at long last. It hadn't been a bright day, the sky had been covered in a layer of steel grey clouds since Jon had woken, but it was late afternoon now and it was beginning to grow dark. Jon had rested his spear against the wall and begun lighting the torches that hung from the walls of the path behind him.

It was after he had done this that things suddenly became strange. In an instant and without warning an almighty gale of wind had roared up from the north side of the wall. The force of it had hit him pushing him backwards. Jon kept his balance but all the torches guttered out and he couldn't see, the air was a soup of snow and ice. Just above the scream of the wind he could hear the shouts of others call out to each other in in fear and disbelief at the ferocity and suddenness of the storm. The wind whipped around him, the bitter cold stinging his face punctuated by shards of ice striking the exposed skin. The wind was pushing him this way and that each moment seem to change direction, he struggled to keep his footing so he knelt down and held on to Ghost as fearful of him going over the edge as was for himself.

A short, sharp sudden push came from behind him as if he'd been kicked in the back. He stumbled forward the wind and the slipperiness of the ice moving him further than he should of. To close to the edge. Sudden sickness rose in his stomach as he felt himself falling. He gripped onto to Ghost as tight as he could in some vain hope of saving himself but Ghost had slipped when Jon had and they were both falling together. Jon squeezed his eyes shut and pulled Ghost close.

I won't scream Jon thought and for a hand full of heartbeats he was falling.

And then he wasn't.

Quickly, far too quickly than Jon would have thought falling from The Wall would take, he landed but not with a thud or a smack or any other sound that you would expect a breaking body to make but with a splash. Jon flung his eyes open and found himself in shallow water. In one sharp motion he pushed himself up out of the water to stand. Ghost was there too, shaking the water from his fur.

Jon couldn't understand it, how he had survived? He had been falling, even if it hadn't been the entire way he had been falling far enough for it to at least hurt. But it hadn't felt that way when he had landed. It had hurt like he had just tripped not like he had fallen from any kind of height. In that moment however Jon stopped questioning the matter of his survival as another question soon dawned on him.

Where am I? Jon started to take notice of his surroundings and realized that nothing was right. Gone where the pines, the oaks and in their place stood new trees with vast twisting masses of intertwined roots and branches. The snow was gone to and was replace by murky brown water, as it had all melted away but the biggest change was the wall. It was gone! There was nothing!

Jon had never seen anything like this place before but he did think it reminded him about how other had described The Neck.

Whatever thoughts he was having he was shook from them by a voice behind him.

"I know that you are confused." Jon turned to face the man that the voice belonged to and found himself looking at a man in late life, seventy or more, but still seemed to have some strength for his age. He dressed in long red robes, simple but finely made. His bone white hair, the same colour of his beard, was held in place at the back of his head by a ornate golden pin.

I should have heard him. Jon glanced down at where the man in red stood. In the middle of the shallow pool Jon had landed in. I should have heard him as he walked through the water.

"There is much you needed to know." The man in red continued. "But I am afraid there is not much time. The force that brought you here was random, an occurrence brought about by imbalance in my world and in yours. There has never been anything like it before."

Jon had no idea what this strange man was talking about, he tried to interrupt with questions. "I was falling. Where am I? Who are…" The man in red spoke over him cutting him off.

"I did not seek to bring you here but I believe that you may be able to help." His voice took on a more apologetic tone. "I'm sorry. There is no way for me to send you back to where you came from but I can offer you a way to move forward." Jon had more question then he had a moment ago but he was given no time to ask them.

"From what I have seen of you, you are loyal, dutiful and honourable. I am sending you to meet a boy, Aang, he is at the start of his own journey. It is a difficult one and he will be in need of allies. Allies such as you." The man in red paused a moment and Jon chose to ask the question that was at the front of his mind.

"Why are you telling me all this? What are you asking of me?" He was almost pleading with the man in red, the situation begging to affect him.

The man in red moved closer to Jon with a ghostly glide halting just outside of arms reach. "You have spent a long time wondering who you are and what you can be." The man in red reached down into the murky water around their feet and pulled something from the water. It was a torch, the same as the one Jon had been carrying back on The Wall, it must have been blown over with him. The man in red held the torch in his right hand. "You have often questioned what your destiny was." He offered it to Jon. "Now I am offering you a different one." Jon hesitated, unsure that he should. The man in red gave a nod of encouragement and with some uncertainty Jon took it with his left.

The darkness swarmed over him in an instant. Sudden panic gripped his heart, the torch crackled into life. Jon was somewhere else now and only a statue of the man in red remained.

That is how Jon had come to be standing in the darkness of some strange place full of uncertainties and fears. He had been there for at least an hour now, or near as makes no difference. His mind a storm of questions. Where he was? How he had gotten here? Who was the man in red? What had he been speaking when he talked about worlds and destinies?

Jon found himself think if it was possible to get back to The Wall. It had not been what he thought it was but he had some friends there now. He had been a few days from swearing his vows so he was no deserter but he still felt he should return. I offer you a different one. That's what he said. What kind of destiny was it to stand in the dark? Jon had found no way out and no boys named Aang. He wanted this man in red to return and offer some explanation beyond talk of destiny but all he had been left with was a statue in his likeness.

Perhaps it's not a statue Jon thought. Perhaps its him turned to stone. When you can go from the top of The Wall to a swamp to a deep dark who-knows-where what's one man turning to stone?

Thoughts like this weren't helping. He had no way out, the torch would die at some point and he had no food for himself or Ghost. Ghost lay at Jon's feet, head resting on his front paws having made no move to go off into the shadows by himself at any point since they had arrived.

At least I'm not alone. That gave Jon some small measure of comfort, enough to give him a small sad smile. He bent down to scratch Ghost's ear.

THUD

Both Jon and Ghost turned to the source of the noise, Ghost was standing in an instant ears pricked up and staring into the darkness in the direction of the door. Jon stood as well. No other sounds came for a moment. Jon made a slow steady pace towards the door, Ghost following at his side.

They were half way there when a new sound appeared. He stopped. The faint rush of wind could be heard, softened to a whisper by the thick door. In the rush of wind Jon could hear other sounds, three times he heard the low call of a horn. Slowly the door began to open with a monstrous creak. Light flooded in, shielding his eyes from the sudden brightness Jon saw in the light the silhouettes of three people. When the door had stopped moving and lay completely open the middle of the three new people called out to the room and moved to enter.

"Hello. Anyone home?"

I do plan to continue this. I've taken this story down a few times but I do intend to leave the story up now.