Once again an army made camp in the Neck. This time it was the Northern armies on their way south towards the capital. Thousands of men, some walking and some on horseback. They seemed battle-torn already.

And once again a young man stepped into the swamp looking for Greywater Watch. Another young man burdened by the legacy of his father. Another young man not knowing which dangers awaited him in the swamp.

Meera saw them arriving from perched high up in a cypress tree. Her usual position for scouting out what was happening in their lands. She could see everything that was going on, but no one could see her as her position was hidden by the branches and leaves of the tree.

She waited until the young man was well away from the camp. Then she approached him, spear first. Better safe than sorry when it came to intruders in the swamp.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" she called out.

He raised his hands in the air. The man had thick curly hair and wore a thick grey fur coat. He looked exasperated with life and the duties it threw at him. Like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. He was quite handsome, Meera had to admit that, but looked way to sullen for her tastes. Not the most handsome man to pass through these parts lately.

"I'm Jon Snow, King of the North. I'm looking for Howland Reed. I need to ask Lord Reed something, " he answered.

Meera had heard of Jon Snow before, of course she had, everyone in the kingdom knew of him. But she had never actually met him. He was younger and shorter than she had imagined. Less imposing.

"I'm Lady Meera Reed, Howland is my father. And I don't trust you, Jon Snow. You were supposed to be our ally. But the Dragon Queen wanted to burn us and you didn't stop her. Lord Baratheon told us."

Jon sighed. He probably had hoped that they wouldn't find out about that plan. He also looked slightly confused about who exactly she was talking about, it seemed to take him a while to work it out.

"Of course, Gendry... he told you? That was her plan, yes. I didn't want it... but she's my queen. I couldn't cross her."

"Yes, Lord Baratheon told us about the plan. And it doesn't matter if you wanted it or not. You didn't stop her. You were supposed to protect us."

She thought it odd that Jon wasn't referring to Gendry by his proper title, it seemed disrespectful to her. Sure, Jon was a northerner, but so was she. That didn't make them savages. Proper customs should still be followed. Even in the swamp.

"I'm sorry, Lady Reed. I should have. I should have refused. But as soon as Gendry offered to go here I supported him, I convinced my queen to let him try."

She lowered her spear. But she still didn't trust him. Jon should have refused, but he hadn't. Gendry had saved them, not him. It did seem like Jon regretted not stepping in though. And she'd rather back him than the Dragon Queen, who had actually wanted them to burn.

"What do you need my father for?"

"I need to ask him about something... something my brother told me. I need to know if it's true. I believe Lord Reed knows."

"Bran told you something?"

He nodded, it seemed like it didn't dawn on him until now that she was the one who had helped Bran home. It seemed like a lot of things didn't dawn on Jon until they were dangled right in front of him.

"Of course... you know Bran. So you know what he can do, you know his powers."

She nodded back but hesitated as she did. She didn't know his powers, not his true powers, and she didn't think his family did either. But she couldn't tell Jon that, because she couldn't prove what she knew. All she had was a feeling, a feeling of dread and fright. And she didn't trust Jon. She didn't think that he would believe her over whatever was masquerading as his brother.

Instead, she waved to Jon to follow her through the swamp.

"Come along, I will take you to my father. He will answer you if he can."

She chose the dry path this time. Her father seemed to object to guests arriving at their castle soaking wet and there was always the risk of sinkholes on the other path.

The dry path went through a thick forest of small, wiry trees. The forest was basically impenetrable if you left the path. The ground was covered with high grass growing in tufts. Various critters could be heard rummaging around, but they couldn't be seen as the grass obscured them. This was another sunny day in the Neck, they were getting more of them now as spring was approaching, and the sunshine lit up their path in tones of yellow and green.

It could have been a romantic walk. But suffice to say that is wasn't. Meera didn't trust Jon, not at all. She trusted him about as far as she could throw him, which was probably pretty far. After all, Meera was a strong woman and Jon was a quite small man. And she had no thought of romance, as her heart was already taken by someone else. By another bastard son. Although she didn't quite realize it herself yet.

Meanwhile, Jon was caught up in his own internal struggles. Thinking about a certain Dragon Queen that he loved, who also may or may not be his aunt. That's why he was here, for Howland to confirm whether that was true or not. Jon was also sweating profusely since his fur coat didn't really mesh with the sunny weather.

Meera walked ahead of Jon to show him the way. They walked in a quite brisk speed and he only seemed to be lagging behind slightly. Which was to be expected as he wasn't used to walking these lands.

Suddenly Meera heard Jon screaming behind her.

"GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

She turned around and saw him battling a small crocodile that had attached itself to his boot. That was the problem with the dry path, it went right by a crocodile nest. She shook her head at Jon as he was flailing to get loose. It was almost like he had never encountered a crocodile before.

Why did she always let guests walk behind her?

As Jon started to get his sword out to battle the crocodile Meera ran over to intervene.

"Don't kill it! It's just a small one. It can barely harm you."

She kneeled down and got a firm grip around the crocodile's jaws with both her hands. That way she could pry it off the leg of the King of the North. Who was looking more than a little bit spooked at the moment. And not at all kingly.

After she had pried the crocodile away from Jon, she released into the high grass and gave it a little pat on the tail as it left. She liked crocodiles and often fed scraps to them from the dock at Greywater Watch. Which her father wasn't pleased with but oh well.

Meera looked back at Jon who was inspecting his very shredded boot. It wasn't much left of it so he threw it away. He would have to walk the rest of the way without it.

"It seems like the boot took most the damage," he said.

"Such a small crocodile can't do much damage. It probably wouldn't even be able to chop your leg off."

Jon's eyes grew wide as she said that. Her words didn't seem to assure him that he hadn't been in danger.

"Can we just get out of here as soon as possible? I need all my limbs for the battle ahead," he grumbled.

She nodded and waved at him to come along. It wasn't much further to the castle.

***

Howland Reed stood on the dock and greeted them as they arrived. He seemed slightly perturbed by the fact that Jon arrived at the castle without one of his boots and mumbled something about leading guests to the castle by himself next time. Meera shrugged, it wasn't really her fault that these men were so incompetent when it came to navigating the swamp.

Howland told Meera to wait outside when he and Jon talked. Apparently what Jon needed to ask him was very important and very secret. It wasn't safe for her to know according to her father.

So Meera listened in on their conversation from the adjacent room instead. If her father didn't want her to listen in to his conversations he should have built his castle from something thicker than vines.

"Lord Reed, I think you know what I need to ask you," she heard Jon say. "Because you're the only one alive who was there when I was born. Is it true? About my parents?"

It was quiet for a while before Howland responded. Like he was pondering whether to tell this truth or not. After all, he had held this secret for so long. It almost didn't seem right to him to say it out loud.

"It's true," he said finally. "I was there myself. I saw her laying on that bed, dying. Lyanna Stark. She was your mother and Rhaegar was your father."

So that's how Jon found out. He found out that what Bran had told him was actually true. He found out who his parents actually were. And Meera knew too.

Not that it mattered anyway in the end.

But what did matter was that Meera knew more about Bran's powers. She knew he could see the past. She knew he could use it to influence people. She knew he could make them do what he needed them to do. To get what he wanted. Because that is what he did to his brother.

Author's note: I offer my sincere apologies to Jon Snow for this chapter. You deserved better than what the show gave you in the end, and you certainly didn't deserve to get bitten by a crocodile. Or get made fun of for your constant moping...

But I couldn't help myself, I leaned into the slapstick of it all! And it amused me very much to write this chapter, so I hope it amused someone to read it too.