章 374: Chapter 374: Blacktyde Island
This was an island in the vast sea, with winding sandy beaches and clean water constantly washing over the rocks at the edge of the coast.
Today was a fine day, sunny and cloudless. Above the towering cliffs was a fishing village, smoke rising from its chimneys.
Beneath the cliffs, on the nearby beach, a group of Ironborn, barefoot under the scorching sun, wearing wet short clothes and rolled-up trousers, were pulling their fishing boats ashore with ropes, shouting in unison.
Among them was a boy with brown hair and black eyes, his skin somewhat darkened from years of sun exposure. He slapped his palm, reddened from pulling the boat, and spat on the ground.
"Glenn, we had good luck today."
At this moment, a boy from the same village, who had also been pulling the boat with him, came up to him with a basket of fish.
They had set out to sea early in the morning, and after a morning of hard work, they returned home when the sun was at its fiercest.
For the islanders of this era, life was not stressful. They lived off the land and the sea, not dreaming of getting rich overnight. They could at least fill their stomachs by fishing, and if they couldn't catch fish, they could pick up some shells by the sea.
Today, their catch was good. They caught a lot of fish, some of which could be used for fresh fish soup, and the rest could be salted or dried. They wouldn't need to go out to sea for a while.
Glenn was a true Ironborn, born on Blacktyde Island, the northernmost of the Iron Islands.
Blacktyde Island was small, only about a tenth the size of Great Wyk, and sparsely populated. There were scattered villages and a simple castle. The lord of the island was House Blacktyde, a small and unremarkable family, whose sigil was a black and green fur pattern.
"Hmm?"
Hearing his friend's greeting, Glenn, who seemed somewhat distracted, looked up.
"Right!"
He managed a smile and high-fived his friend. As he watched his friend walk away, the smile on the dark-skinned boy's face gradually faded.
Glenn wasn't feeling well today. Although they had been lucky and caught a lot of fish, Glenn hadn't contributed much, and even let a big fish escape because he was distracted.
But his fellow villagers didn't blame him. Everyone had off days. They still split the catch evenly.
He didn't know why, but he always felt a sense of impending loss, as if some great danger was about to befall them, but nothing had actually happened.
"Drowned God above."
Glenn prayed silently in his heart, hoping that the great Drowned God, who had suffered so much, would protect the Ironborn.
"Huh."
The dark-skinned boy stood on the beach with his basket of fish, shook his head, and sighed, trying to clear his mind of worries.
Then he picked up his basket of fish and headed home, where his elderly mother was waiting for him.
His mother had once been a salt wife his father had taken from the Greenlands. She had borne his father a son, and in Glenn's memory, she had hated his father intensely.
But with his father's death, his mother gradually stopped talking about her old home, and was now even urging Glenn to act like a true Ironborn and seize a wife for himself.
"My own woman..."
The thought always made the dark-skinned boy feel hot, but he didn't have the courage to follow Lord Blacktyde to sea and 'follow the old way', let alone kill.
Not long ago, it seemed that Lord Baelor Blacktyde had taken advantage of the civil war in the Seven Kingdoms to raid the ships passing by the Westerlands.
The Ironborn dared to harass the coastal lords from time to time even when they were subject to the Iron Throne, let alone now when the nobles of the Greenlands were too busy to care about them.
"I heard they're in big trouble now..."
"Something... like White Walkers."
Glenn was lost in thought as he carried his basket of fish, but he didn't notice that far out at sea, behind him, the vague shapes of warships were gradually appearing.
They were densely packed, covering the entire sea, and were heading towards Blacktyde Island.
...
The disaster struck suddenly.
Glenn was at home, cooking a pot of rich fish soup, enduring his mother's endless chatter, when suddenly there was a panicked shout from the village, as if something terrifying had happened.
His mother's reaction was quicker and more alert than Glenn's. The years had given her too many stories.
She immediately told Glenn to drop his ladle and go out to see what had happened, and she also took out a curved blade that Glenn's father had left behind and gave it to her son.
"There might be pirates attacking Blacktyde Island."
But who would dare to attack the Iron Islands, the home of the greatest pirates?
But his mother's words still scared Glenn. But looking into his mother's eyes, he plucked up the courage to take his father's curved blade, and then turned and ran out.
But the situation outside was even worse than a pirate attack.
Because Glenn, who had just stepped out of his house with his curved blade, saw a friend who had gone fishing with him this morning and had said goodbye to him before leaving, acting like a madman.
His eyes were a deep blue, saliva dripped from his mouth, and his body was covered in bright red blood. He had knocked down an old man in the village and was biting him fiercely.
An Ironborn came out and shouted, bravely drawing his sword to kill the mad villager.
But at that moment, he was pierced through the chest by an ice arrow that came flying from nowhere, his body was shot and pinned to the mud wall behind him.
A woman with brown hair, her eyes burning with icy blue flames, was holding an ice bow. Her face was as cold as the flames in her eyes. She shot and killed an Ironborn with one arrow, and then her gaze fell on Glenn.
The dark-skinned boy met the woman's gaze and shivered. He had no desire to avenge his friend, instead, he turned and ran.
"Mother!"
Glenn ran back to his house, grabbed his mother, and ran towards the outskirts of the village.
But by now, the entire small fishing village was filled with the sounds of wailing and howling.
Not long after...
The screams that filled the fishing village gradually quieted down, and then it became eerily silent.
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