章 20: Chapter 20- Adventures in the North 17.
[Chapter Size: 3162 Words.]
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Jon Snow POV.
North Kingdom, Unknown Lands, Glovers' Lands, 289 A.C., at this very moment.
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While Lord Stark was lost in his thoughts about the events of the past weeks, Jon was leading his group through the lands of the Glovers after leaving FrostRoar. They veered off the road as they entered the open fields to try to deceive any potential pursuers. Fortunately for them, it was already night, making it difficult for anyone on their trail to pursue them, opting to do so only the next morning, as Jon could easily control his animals and lead them.
"We're getting close to WolfWoods," Jon said to William and Ducken after seeing through a owl he released. Caraxes wasn't very good with night vision, so Jon opted for another bird that easily bonded.
"The horses are already tired. As much as they obey you, they still have a limit," Ducken said in the darkness.
"I know, let's camp in this place," Jon finally gave the order.
The field was open, but no threat would approach without being detected with their owls monitoring after releasing four more cages in all directions.
"You have a very useful skill," William commented with a hint of envy.
"Anyway, let's prepare a fire, the wood in the wagons," Jon said, and Ducken went to get the firewood.
"Leave it stacked, and I'll make the fire." The boy said as he grabbed the tents.
After setting them up, Jon went to the pile of firewood, and in his hand, a flame appeared.
"By the gods!" William said, watching this with a stunned Ducken by his side.
"It's useful, but aside from lighting a fire, it's almost useless. It would hardly kill anyone in a battle with a small flame..." Jon mocked with that thought.
He knew that besides his magic related to the old gods, like creating trees, warging, and genetics with a slight degree of healing, his other magical fields couldn't grow, so he is limited to lighting a fire with fire magic, just as with wind magic, which is limited to keeping his arrows unaffected by the wind. It's useful in some cases, but nothing extraordinary.
Shrugging, Jon lit the fire, and they gathered around it to warm themselves.
"It seems there's a group following us..." Jon commented suddenly as they ate.
"How many and what position?" Ducken asked quickly while scratching the hilt of his sword.
"One of the owls flew southeast, finding a group of 30 men. They're wearing mismatched clothes, but they are clearly Frotniid House men in disguise.
"30 men? Isn't that dangerous?" William asked a little frightened.
"It is, but they can't reach us tonight. We'll be safe when we approach Wolfwoods." Jon was calm as he spoke. It's not the first time he's felt danger, so he's starting to get used to this kind of situation, especially since he knows that the group chasing them can't catch up with them during the night, not when they left the road many hours ago.
His thinking was right, as some time later the group passed the point where he left the road without realizing it. When they realize they lost the trail, they'll have to wait until dawn to pursue them again.
"Then let's sleep, a bit." Ducken said, and everyone went to rest in their tents.
When the sun began to rise, everyone was heading west. When they reached the edge of Wolfwoods, Jon knew there was a problem with the wagons. They would never make it through the dense forest.
"Let's go north. I have a plan to shake off our pursuers," Jon said, and everyone followed. No one had difficulty accepting orders from this child, not after everything he could do.
As the day passed, Jon headed north, and a group being monitored by Caraxes was now entering the field as they picked up the wagon tracks. Due to their mistake the previous night, they were significantly delayed in resuming the pursuit of the tracks. So, when they reached the edge of Wolfwoods, it was already past noon.
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**Captain Gyt -**
North Kingdom, Unknown Lands, Glovers' Lands, 289 A.C., at this very moment.
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Gyt formed a search group with 29 more disguised men. They are hunting under Lord Frotniid's order, seeking revenge for the boy who harmed his son. When he learned of Ducken's betrayal in joining the boy, I demanded that we close the gates and kill them right there. However, Lord Frotniid said it wouldn't be well-received to do that here when everyone witnessed the conflict, and they're dealing with a son of House Stark, bastard or not. So, we're here chasing them, my desire to kill Ducken was as great as my men beside me; Ducken was always a tough commander and often meddled in our affairs. Our lords kept him as a leader because he could control the soldiers and was skilled with a sword, gaining fame after the war, but we were always dissatisfied with him. Now, with his betrayal, we can finally get revenge, with me taking his position.
When we reached the edge of Wolfwoods, I noticed the trail had shifted to the north. "So, they want to walk along the edge of the forest?" I said mockingly. It was only three men against a number that exceeded us tenfold, whether that boy had sorcery or not, they stood no chance. We continued to pursue them to the north; unfortunately, we lost the trail, so we are a bit behind, but there are no nearby towns or villages. We'll catch them the next day.
As night began to fall, I ordered my men to set up camp; I won't make the same mistake when they are so close. Our night was quiet, with men drinking and discussing how they would spend their money after bringing the heads of that group, whether in a brothel or buying a new weapon. When we finally went to rest, we could never imagine what would happen in the next few hours...
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**Shadow -**
North Kingdom, Unknown Lands, Glovers' Lands, 289 A.C., 3 hours later.
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[Author here: I'll try to report the thoughts of a familiar, so I won't use the third person in this part]
We were in darkness, but our eyes were those of hunters, and we were not limited by the night. Our masters, the ones with magical blood, commanded us to fight against their enemies. There were four of us when we saw the human camp, but at this moment, I felt our master sharing his consciousness with me, something that had never happened before, as if we were just one being at this moment.
I felt happy, happy to assist our masters alongside my companion and our siblings. I made a small noise, knowing that all our minds were united with the master at this moment, so we advanced towards his enemies' camp. First, we ran to two awake men; I had the advantage of appearing as the night, so I attacked by sinking my teeth into their necks—the humans had no chance, just like the other human next to them. My companion jumped on him without giving him a chance to scream.
Our masters instructed us to eliminate the sentinels without alerting the other humans; it was easy and quick. I could see the desperation on their faces, but it was their choice to become our enemies. After that, the camp had no human eyes to warn them; my other siblings came alongside the corpses.
Our masters, Jon, instructed us to grab some branches and let them burn by throwing them into the tents, something we would never do normally, but with the master sharing our minds, we did. Each of us managed to throw that branch into the tents once or twice; there were six tents burning at this moment, while the humans screamed in a language we didn't quite know. When they started coming out of the tents, we began to run around the burning camp to attack them. Their screams increased when they noticed us piercing their throats while they screamed even more with pain and fear.
We didn't know how much time had passed since the start of the fire, didn't know how many humans I had killed, but I knew I had to eliminate all threats to our master. They seemed to realize they couldn't defeat us; the camp was full of dead humans. Instead of a direct attack, we circled, killing humans alone as they tried to attack us, but without success.
We managed to block their path to the horses with the flames; their long-range weapons were all in that place. They began to group, but there were far fewer humans now, less than half of the initial number. They were trembling in fear; we could smell it, we were powerful, and all other species feared us; it was not an unfamiliar sight. The fire didn't help; my companion and my siblings had to be cautious with it, and the humans were suffering even more in the middle of the camp.
They shouted, cursed us in that language; our master instructed us to appear on all sides of the group except the west. When they saw us, we bared our teeth with a growl, threatening to jump on them. The humans were horrified by our sight as we walked towards the group; there were about 12 of them still, all huddled together, but I was sure they were imagining their deaths here. When the first saw a clear path to the forest, he began to run out of the group; the human formation broke when the first left them, the second followed soon after. When the group dispersed, all were running into the woods; we caught the last 4 before entering the forest.
We could hear the desperation of the last 8 in the middle of the woods, but that was our territory. While our master instructed us to free the horses trapped to prevent them from burning in the spreading fire, my brother and I went to hunt the other 8 humans. It didn't take long to exterminate all of them; we won't leave any enemies of our master alive.
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**Jon Snow -**
North Kingdom, Unknown Lands, Glovers' Lands, 289 A.C., at this very moment.
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"HMMM!" Jon choked in the middle of the night.
*COF*
*COF*
Jon rushed out of his tent and began to vomit in front of him.
"Jon? Are you okay?" Ducken, who was on watch, ran to where Jon was vomiting.
"I'm fine... it's just the horrible taste of blood..." He grumbled.
"Taste of what?!" Ducken was stunned by this.
"Forget it, I'm okay; you'll know more later..." Jon said, affirming that he was fine now.
Ducken returned to keep watch on the place, and Jon returned to the tent with a grim expression.
"That was not cool," Jon said to himself.
He entered the minds of his animals to instruct them to hunt down the men who had underestimated them. He avoided any sensation as his wolves killed, but when it was over, the taste of blood appeared in his mouth.
With his group eliminated, it was safer to continue his journey. He managed to free the horses; now he was warging with 20 of them. He wasn't skilled enough to try to control all 30, but 20 would be a great addition. The next day, Ducken and William were stunned by 20 horses arriving shortly after sunrise in their camp. With all these horses, Jon could enter the Wolfwood with most of his belongings.
First, he took the wagons to disassemble and make them smaller for the sand, while the horses would carry bags that Jon acquired from the city stores. Unfortunately, there was the anvil, which was extremely heavy, so they would leave it hidden at the edge of the woods until they picked it up again. Of the three remaining wagons, Jon placed them with some horses to go north. If someone chased them again, they would be divided into entering the Wolfwoods or going further north. Jon doubted they would want to enter the forest after seeing the state of the other camp, killed by giant beasts.
With all of this, they set off into the phenomenal forest, with half a dozen horses. It didn't take long for their wolves to appear while Ducken and William trembled at those giant beasts, wondering how a man could withstand those jaws. But Jon praised them, rubbing his hands on the four giant wolves. The same went for the two dozen horses, but the boy did it mentally.
They continued through the forest, as they were much further north than from the gate, it took a few more days walking between trees and camping by fires. Local animals avoided their group with the presence of the wolves, which only came out at night from their side to hunt something. With the vision in the sky with Caraxes and his owls and his wolves on the ground, he would never get lost here and easily found the route to the giants' camp.
In these days, the sick bird started to recover. Jon healed all the beautiful bird's wounds with his magic, curing it every day. He wanted to conserve energy, so he couldn't use magic as he did with Lucas in Icehill. But now, the black bird with red and some golden spots was getting familiar with Caraxes. Jon bonded with her on the same level as he did with his white eagle and asked him to take care of her, which made him happy with his new female companion.
It took 5 days to reach the camp. As Jon didn't tell them about the giants, his new friends were stunned when they saw them for the first time.
"BY THE GODS!" Poor William was the most hysterical.
"Don't be too alarmed; they are my companions that I found in this place. Let's share this space with their cooperation," Jon reassured them.
"These are Wallyk, Wuual, Carruuyi, Tuuuxy, and Seryna!" Jon introduced in the common language.
"These are William and Ducken!" Jon introduced the humans in the ancient language.
The horses were relocated to a part of the camp as they began to unload their goods with the help of their giant friends, while Seryna ran after Jon after not seeing him in these days. With everything ready, Jon would stay stuck here while practicing fencing with Ducken every day, fixing the forge with William using the materials he bought in the city. When the forge was ready, they would start their projects with the iron the giants could get from the mine. Jon would study alchemy as soon as he began creating glass with melted sand.
Unfortunately, there was the anvil, which was extremely heavy, so they would leave it hidden at the edge of the woods until they picked it up again. Of the three remaining wagons, Jon placed them with some horses to go north. If someone chased them again, they would be divided into entering the Wolfwoods or going further north. Jon doubted they would want to enter the forest after seeing the state of the other camp, killed by giant beasts.
With all of this, they set off into the phenomenal forest, with half a dozen horses. It didn't take long for their wolves to appear while Ducken and William trembled at those giant beasts, wondering how a man could withstand those jaws. But Jon praised them, rubbing his hands on the four giant wolves. The same went for the two dozen horses, but the boy did it mentally.
They continued through the forest, as they were much further north than from the gate, it took a few more days walking between trees and camping by fires. Local animals avoided their group with the presence of the wolves, which only came out at night from their side to hunt something. With the vision in the sky with Caraxes and his owls and his wolves on the ground, he would never get lost here and easily found the route to the giants' camp.
In these days, the sick bird started to recover. Jon healed all the beautiful bird's wounds with his magic, curing it every day. He wanted to conserve energy, so he couldn't use magic as he did with Lucas in Icehill. But now, the black bird with red and some golden spots was getting familiar with Caraxes. Jon bonded with her on the same level as he did with his white eagle and asked him to take care of her, which made him happy with his new female companion.
It took 5 days to reach the camp. As Jon didn't tell them about the giants, his new friends were stunned when they saw them for the first time.
"BY THE GODS!" Poor William was the most hysterical.
"Don't be too alarmed; they are my companions that I found in this place. Let's share this space with their cooperation," Jon reassured them.
"These are Wallyk, Wuual, with their children, Carruuyi, Tuuuxy. The others are Carruuyi, Tuuuxy, and Seryna!" Jon introduced in the common language.
"These are William and Ducken!" Jon presented the humans in the ancient language.
The horses were relocated to a part of the camp as they began to unload their goods with the help of their giant friends, while Seryna ran after Jon after not seeing him in these days. With everything ready, Jon would be stuck here while training swordsmanship with Ducken every day, fixing the forge with William using the materials he bought in the city. When the forge was ready, they would start their projects with the iron the giants could get from the mine. Jon would study alchemy as soon as he began creating glass with melted sand.
He would wait for the she-wolf, Blackarrow, to give birth to a new litter and be ready to continue his journey because he was sure he would train all his new birds, horses, and wolves for the challenges that would come. He easily connected with the 50 birds, but he didn't have full control, but he would strengthen it over time. His swordsmanship and his body would be strengthened in the coming moons with Ducken, and he was confident he could find a short-term solution to his young age with alchemy.
And with William's help, he was sure he could arm them all. He would even try something that was on his mind, the magical runic knowledge he acquired from the gods. It couldn't be as profound as the Roycers of the valley, but he could activate rune magic different from the ancient house. He would conduct some experiments with the armor in the coming moons and could revolutionize the current craft knowledge. Now Jon is ready to seclude himself with all his planned objectives.
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