He's small, even for a boy, and everyone despises him. The Maester said it's because he's a dwarf, and dwarves are bad signs. Father won't say what their sister had said - they blame him for killing mother. But he doesn't understand why they see it that way - it didn't make sense to him. It wasn't as if his little brother had chosen to be deformed, and it wasn't as if his brother had chosen to kill their mother either.
Father's gone cold without mother. Cold and hard like a stone lion statue. The gods had been cruel to take her away from them. Why was everyone still praying to the gods?
"I'm leaving soon," he declares to his brother. He was eleven now, almost a man, but his brother had only had three name days. He doesn't think he understands that his older brother was going to become a squire, and he would fight battles and slay enemies and become a knight.
"I can't protect you when I'm gone." It was a big brother's job to protect his little brother. In not too many years from now it would be his job to protect everyone here.
"The Maester said the white raven will come soon, so it'll be winter before long. You have to keep warm and safe until I come back. I'll come back for you when I'm a knight." You and our sister, he didn't say. His little brother was definitely too young to understand his twin siblings' relationship.