Chapter 4 - The Dragon and Rider (I)
"His flesh may be made of fire and his blood as hot as magma, he may be of a completely different race than mine, but we are undeniably brothers. Brothers bonded until the day I die, or if the Gods so choose, something I pray every night will not happen, his death." - Aenar Targaryen, reflecting on his bond with his dragon.
--------------
The next day, Eddard Stark and his bannermen went to war again. Thirty-five thousand seasoned men and a few women from Bear Island. All already baptized in the fire and steel of war. Another fifteen thousand would join along the way, making a total of fifty thousand men and women, and the army would march to the battlefield.
Westeros was experiencing its first war since the rebellion that led to the destruction of House Targaryen.
Knowing that Catelyn would act as regent and rule all of Winterfell in Lord Stark's absence, Jon decided to spare the life of his uncle's wife and, after saying goodbye to Robb, left for Wofswood with a dagger and some food and water supplies.
His departure attracted no attention except from Robb himself, but knowing what his mother might do to Jon, he remained silent even when questioned by his mother. Even though other people knew of Jon's departure, they didn't care; they all had their own lives to tend to instead of worrying about the life of a bastard.
Woofswood was a large forest, its huge oaks looking ancient and strangely twisted. It wasn't just oaks that inhabited the forest. Sentinels, soldier pines, and hawthorn, beech, ash, chestnut, ironwood, fir, and many tall pines. Weirwoods were occasionally found singly or in pairs.
In addition to the trees, there were wolves, bears, wild boars, deer, elk, fish, foxes, rabbits, tree cats, black squirrels, and emperor spiders.
In short, it was not a forest friendly to humans, let alone a small, fragile six-year-old boy, the favorite prey of many of the predators that lived in this forest.
Jon knew this, and so his every move consisted of using his Prescience as much as he could at the moment, avoiding predators like wolves and bears for the most part.
However, the ability couldn't be used 24 hours a day, which put the six-year-old through some very dangerous times when he found himself facing a particularly hungry giant brown bear.