I don't ever want t' leave this cave, Jon Snow. Not ever

Only the soldier pines and sentinels still showed green; the broadleaf trees had donned mantles of russet and gold, or else uncloaked themselves to scratch against the sky with branches brown and bare.

Minds are like swords, I do fear. The old ones go to rust.

Kill me, and be cursed. You are no king of mine.

What could he have done, one man against so many?" He could have tried, Brienne thought.

Turtles have always been my sigil, I suppose. When I was a kid, growing up in Bayonne, NJ, I lived in a federal housing project, and we were not allowed to have a dog or cats. The only pets I could have were turtles. So, I had an entire toy castle filled with dime-store turtles. I gave them all names, and since they were living in a toy castle, I decided they were all knights and kingsand I made up stories about how they killed each other and betrayed each other and fought for the kingdom. So, Game of Thrones, actually began with turtles. I decided later to recast it with actual human beings.

Old stories are like old friends, she used to say. You have to visit them from time to time.