Jon
Darkness and the cold were their constant companions on the wall. After so long fighting in the south, Jon had thought he would have forgotten the cold and the solitude that often graced you when you stood watch on the Wall, but he had not. For a whole year he and the men of the north had been here, helping the Night's Watch fight the White Walkers, wights and all the other things that seemed to be trying to breach the Wall. They were having some albeit limited success, they knew now that the wights fell to fire, and so caches of fire had been put into the pits north of the wall, and when the wights came arrows were fired, plain arrows, causing the wights to stumble into the pits that was when the fire arrows were unleashed and the dead things burned.
Still more and more of them came each night, for that was when the cold was at its strongest, and with the sun seemingly lost in the maze of winter, the nights seemed to last for an eternity. Patrols had been sent out by his uncle Lord Commander Benjen Stark, and fewer and fewer men were returning alive, the last patrol to leave Castle Black had been some four weeks past and so far there had been no sighting of them, though there had been an increase in the frequency of attacks from the wights and the other creatures that followed them, giants, aurochs, mammoths, those creatures who had not come south with the wildlings were coming south now in greater droves then anyone had ever seen and with them they brought death and destruction.
Jon had brought 5,000 men with him of those 2,000 men had died and countless of those men who had died had risen again quicker and quicker each time, leaving them no time to burn the bodies before they rose with pale blue eyes and the coldness thickened, and more fighting and death continued. Jon's uncle had ordered that there be no more patrols from either Castle Black or the other castles on the Wall, and Jon had ordered his remaining men to fan out in a defensive formation to the south of Castle Black along with the wildlings who were being led by Tormund Giantsbane, Mance having been killed during one of the earlier battles. They were camped out on the Gift, now, reports had reached them of Wights beginning a brutal march south of the wall toward Last Hearth, and the fighting had been fierce, wights, mammoths and giants had fought them and more and more men had died, the fighting had lasted for four nights, endlessly with no sunlight, the clouds keeping the sun away and the night remained. Until eventually the sun came through and the sound of wings beating forced the mammoths and giants to flee, as if some sort of primal instinct had kicked in.
The wings had belonged to a dragon with green and bronze scales, the beast itself was as big as one of the biggest mammoths that Jon had seen, its fire was and orange yellow, and Jon had been very surprised when he had felt the beast's conscious beating against his own, like a ram battering against the walls begging to be let in. When Jon had unwillingly let the beast into his mind, he found that the he was a she, and that he could control the beast with his mind, and had even managed to see through the beast's eyes as he had sent her out to help out at the wall and deal with any number of problems that seemed to have arisen since her arrival, mainly the increasing number of attacks by the wights and giants there, the mammoths were all dead now, that much had become clear after a scouting missing through the dragon's eyes reported as such. The wildlings that were camped with them had seen Jon control the dragon and had become terrified of him; they all spoke to him now with a mixture of fear and respect, but mostly fear.
That skin changer Varmyr Sixskins had bowed his head and those of his creatures before Jon after one of Rhaegal's scouting missions had produced food and the end of the mammoth threat. Confused Jon had asked Tormund why the wildlings were bowing before him and calling him names in the Old Tongue, and for once the great big man had simply looked at Jon before saying "They believe you to be a saviour that our tales speak of. The ability to control the dragon and your direwolf shows you to be a warg lad, a great warg, the true warg." His words made no sense to Jon, but there was no one else for him to speak to and so he simply let it pass, accepting the wildlings new found fear for him with some reluctant acceptance as it now meant that were more willing to listen to his commands though they always seemed worried that he was going to feed them to the great green beast that was now at his side as often as Ghost seemed to be.
Rhaegal joined Jon approximately six moons into the campaign at the wall, at that time only wights, giants and mammoths had breached the Wall, making it through gaps in the defences in Eastwatch and other castles that were growing increasingly weak, with many of the men coming to Castle Black to defend it as that seemed to be where the White Walkers were making their appearances. Jon had taken his men and those of the Wildlings with him to Castle Black to fight the White Walkers, but had found that they had disappeared into the ether at the sighting of his dragon, whilst the brothers of the Night's Watch stared open mouthed at him, Melisandre, the red woman who had sealed her fate to that of Stannis's proclaimed that he must ride north if he wished to save the world, for the sword of fire was located there. Jon had merely stared at her and had told her that in no uncertain terms that he was not leading a group of men north of the wall into their most possible death and leave the best defence the wall had against a possible breach by the White Walkers. Melisandre had laughed and going with some of Stannis's men who had been left behind to help defend Queen Selyse and Princess Shireen had ridden north of the wall. Her body and those of her companions had been found in the Fist of the First Men by the sole survivor of the party uncle Benjen had sent north, their heads gone, bodies left and burnt covered in ice.
Selyse had gone hysterical at that, news of her husband's death had left her broken and crazed and she had refused to leave the tower where she was living with Shireen, who was now Queen in her own right. With Melisandre dead, Selyse point blank refused to leave for Winterfell, even though some of her own men begged and pleaded with her to go south to Winterfell. When Jon pointed out that her husband had named him Lord Protector and that as such he could force her to leave for Winterfell along with Shireen, Selyse had merely looked at him and said "My husband named you Lord of Winterfell and gave you a most fertile wife. He has named you Lord Protector, but he did not name you regent, as such I, as Shireen's last living family am her regent, and therefore you shall do no ordering and we shall remain here." Jon had been helpless then, and when the darkness had finally entered Castle Black, a gap somewhere in the gates, that allowed thousands upon thousands of wights to enter, Jon had ordered men to guard the tower where Stannis's wife and daughter stayed, only to turn round and find the tower engulfed in wights as if the White Walkers knew what was in that tower and were instructing their thralls to kill Shireen and Selyse. Jon had shouted for Rhaegal and directing the dragon to the tower, had prayed and prayed that the gods would forgive, as he ordered the green dragon to blow fire onto the tower, the tower had fallen to its ruin and the wights had been killed, as had Selyse and Shireen. Their bodies charred beyond recognition, the guilt of what he had done constantly warred with the fact that those wights had been killed and he had saved many more lives.
The nightmares were bad, very, very bad. Dreams of dead things in the water, on the snow, everywhere, and a feeling that there was nothing he could do. He'd taken to writing to Alys, telling her the basic things about what was happening at the Wall, but more to find out what was happening at Winterfell and the rest of the north. It was through that, he learnt that his little boy Rickard was growing into a tough young lad, who was already speaking and walking about ordering the servants in a manner that reminded Alys of Bran, and he learnt that apparently Roger Ryswell the new Lord of Barrowtown had written to Winterfell asking if Jon's 'mother' would be interested in wedding him, Jon's mother had replied saying she wished for the war to end before considering any proposals. Jon merely bristled at the nerve of the man, his house had sided with the Boltons in betraying Robb, and it was merely out of a sense of not needlessly killing more than the Boltons that had stayed Jon's hand. Sansa too had apparently received offers for her hand from northern and southern houses in the Riverlands, and even a raven from Willas Tyrell speaking more about a betrothal. It was in one of her letters that Alys told him, that he should write to Sansa as well, that she felt lonely in Winterfell, and that she was desperate for his approval. Jon had never thought that Lady Like Sansa would want anything to do with him, she had never paid too much attention to him when they were all growing up, but he supposed he ought to listen to his wife, she had never been wrong about anything after all.
At first his letters were short and to the point, he knew not how to write something that Sansa would find interesting, at least the Sansa he remembered from his time at Winterfell, the one who liked songs about knights and fair maidens. From what Alys wrote, his cousin was not like that anymore, there seemed to be a more worldly sense to her that his mother had apparently said came from experiencing things that change you on some deep fundamental level. However, the more he wrote to her, the more he came to appreciate her, her knowledge and understanding of northern politics astounded him as did her compassion and humility. Gradually he grew to realise that was he was beginning to feel for her was completely different to how he had viewed Arya or even Jeyne, he was beginning to fall for her and that was what worried him, she was his cousin and he was married, it was not right, he loved Alys truly he did, he loved her and their son, he could not understand why he was feeling the way he was, and he could not very well ask his uncle.
Such concerns though took a back foot the day Aegon Targaryen arrived at Castle Black on his red dragon. This man who was Jon's brother had taken King's Landing and now had the fealty of the Westerlands, the Riverlands, Dorne and the Stormlands, with only the Iron Islands, the Vale and the North not having bent the knee, and Jon could guess why this man had come to the Wall. He had greeted him coolly, Alys had written of how the man had acted in Winterfell, and towards Sansa, and he was half tempted to state that he would not bend to pressure. But over time found that he liked the man who would be his brother, though the man still did not believe that Jon was his brother, even when Lord Howland spoke the same tale he had told Jon, so Jon had sent for Ser Arthur reluctantly, and it was whilst they were waiting for Jon's uncle to arrive that the White Walkers found a gap in the wall for them to cross, and an ancient horn was blown, and the wall began to crumble down.