บท 6: From 0 to 100
"Boy, are you sure you wish to sell this meat? I heard bandits robbed you before. Rickon said he saw 20 men leave your hut."
The tavern owner said with some worry to me. I could only roll my eyes. The bandits robbing me is the most talked about subject around here at this moment. Even if it happened a few weeks ago.
"I killed them all, old man. They won't bother us again. Besides, I tamed two wolf packs just in case." I said with a droll tone as I pointed at the meat.
The old man gulped down hearing that.
"I-I see, youngster, I heard that Lord Stark wants to see you. He might have some good work. It's a lifetime opportunity that you should not squander." The man said with a sagely tone. As if it's knowledge from the heavens. It's nothing more than what a brainwashed man would say. Though everyone wants to climb this social ladder. No matter how illusionary it is.
"I will skip that. I like to hunt whenever I like instead of someone telling me when to do it." I said with an eye roll. As I motioned for him to pay up.
"I see. Sad to hear that, but I doubt the Lord would appreciate your decline. Those riders will come back." The old man said while pulling out some silver and copper coins and handing them over to me.
I counter them. Though no one wants to swindle me when a wolf is standing behind me. No matter how wimp Dogo is, he is still a good intimidation factor.
"I will consider after seeing how good these 'riders'," I said while I started to walk towards the doors. I whistle loudly for the dog to follow as it was staring at the old man and the meat he was hiding away.
The dog was smart enough to know that the meat I gave away is no longer mine.
"We still have pelts to sell, stop lazing around you silly mutt."
The wolf rushed quickly after me, leaving the owner sighting in worry, even the patrons were silent like graves when a wolf is in the tavern. This kind of stuff only happens when I am around.
Thankfully the village is small and the marketplace is extremely small, when I am saying small it is small, there are only three merchants, two of which constantly travel around the North.
Me ending the bandits is something they learned days ago so they are extra happy.
This is something I am going to use to get more cash out of them.
"Ray my boy! You are here to sell your pelts? I have been waiting for you. The merchants in White Harbour love your pelts!"
Of course, they do, my stuff is S-tier, no one else has symbolistic ritual magic.
"Good to hear, I have some of the usual."
As I said that I pulled out a bunch of rolled pelts to the merchant.
Deer, boar, and Stags pelts are usually used for household guards, while wolf stuff is usually used by high-class ladies. They love that fluffy stuff.
"Good, good…"
The man inspected the stuff, he brushed his finger, liking the quality.
"Since you dealt with the issue of the bandits I don't need to bother with extra security in getting out of Wolfswood, once on the Kingsroad we have Lord Stark's men.
This means I can drop in a few extra coins." The man said as he pulled out a pouch of coins. It was bigger than usual.
He handed it over and I checked out the content of the pouch. I whistled seeing the amount of Silver Stags.
"Not bad, if I knew this beforehand I would have hunted those idiots down before," I said with a thoughtful look.
Practice hunting people is something I am lacking, I used basic fear factors and surroundings from all sides. Something I should test out more.
'Maybe I should hunt some more bandits? What I got from them was unique loot. Salt is rare in this world.'
"Don't think much of this. Just focus on what you do best. Your pelts are helping me make some great friends."
'Of course, they do. I don't doubt he is getting close with Lord Mandarly, the Lord of White Harbour; they are the only ones in the North who care about economics.'
What pisses me the most is that no one here is trying to do more and not just survive. It's a ridiculously stale affair.
After selling the pelts it was time to get my resources, like bread, some veggies, sadly stuff like tomatoes and cucumber is something that doesn't exist.
Apart from that, I went over to the blacksmith. Well calling it a 'Blacksmith' is a stretch as the man only fixes tools for the farmers as nothing else is profitable and makes money.
Plus I am pretty sure it's against the King's law to sell weapons…or something like that. Over the 8 thousand years of feudalism, King's and Lord's rules have been ironed out.
'Or I am just overthinking as these people are just dumb and don't make weapons. I would not be surprised if this is the case.'
Once again I bought some steel scraps. By this point, I have enough steel to make some good steel arrows. Having an array of arrows is something any hunter should have, and I am not an exception.
My own ritualistic prepared bone arrows are sharp and they get stuck in the flesh. In other words, it's a ruthless way of mutilating my enemies.
Once I spent the majority of my money I proceeded to walk home.
"Hold it, boy!"
My steps stopped as I turned around.
I saw a leather-dressed man with a castle-forged steel weapon. He had a Stark Direwolf sigil sewn to his chest.
Though he was taken aback when Dogo started to growl and drool started to get down his mouth. He saw this man as food.
"Control your wolf, boy. I am here on behalf of Lord Stark. He wants to see you." The man motioned to follow me. Two horses were waiting for us.
This guy has balls… as he turned around and started to walk towards the horses. Is he expecting I will follow him? Is he nuts?
I snorted and continued to walk toward my hut.
It took a while but this rider noticed that I was not following him!
So he rode his horse towards me or tried to as the horse CAN feel the threat of a wolf.
"Boy! I was instructed by Lord Stark to bring you to him!"
"I don't care about your Lord Stark, so leave me alone. You're starting to annoy me." I said with a snappy tone. I truly hoped that I didn't need to see these people but I guess I ended up meeting them. That is the issue of not being a 'Lord' in Westeros, everyone looks down on you. Especially when you are a kid.
"Are you denying orders from Lord Stark!? He will throw you into the dungeons."
"He needs to get me first and survive the encounter with my wolves. Now, GET LOST."
As I said that my Dogo sensed my anger and growled much louder which made the horse get all antsy. This made the man try to control it and eventually he was taken away by a panicked horse.
"Stupid man. Bringing a grass eater in front of a wolf."
Dogo barked happily for being called a wolf.
"You have your episodes but you are just an oversized dog." I quickly deflated Dogo's happiness.
"Now let's go before that idiot returns or more idiots join him."
~~~
After returning to the hut, Raynor proceeded to start working with another totem. He wants to add Boar to the mix. Having piercing damage is never a bad thing.
Especially for a hunter who relies on delivering that damage as quickly as possible.
With food restocked the Hunter Boy can relax and just focus on his carving. No matter how much chaos he has caused outside.
And chaos it was.
The guardsman who was sent packing returned to his Lord and explained things from his perspective.
In the end, the situation was clear. The boy doesn't care that he denied his Lord, the boy doesn't care that he lives on his Lord's land. And the boy doesn't have respect for his Lord.
This means that the situation requires a response. For this Eddard Stark mobilised 50 of his household guards. And several hunting dogs as well.
They will surround the boy's hut and wait for him to leave. Once he will leave he will be punished. Lord Stark doesn't plan to be ruthless, a few strikes from a whip should straighten the boy up.
After doing all the preparations everyone left the Winterfell.
~~~
Raynor frowned when he sensed people around the fog.
A quick check later he saw tents with Stark Banners hanging in the air.
"Dang, these people are seriously bored with their lives." He said with a frown as he retreated into the fog.
Once he was back he thought about this for a while before shrugging and going back to his carving and clothes-making.
Honestly, he doesn't give a fuck about them.
And so another month has passed.
Raynor realised a small issue, he needed to leave his hut for a hunt.
He needs meat, he needs to feed his pets…
"So war it is?" For a moment he said with a frown. Will they back down? He highly doubts that. He looked at his Weather Totem.
For a moment he thought about solutions to how to deal with this.
The first thing which comes to mind is nighttime and Rain.
"Yes…we can do that."
But first, he needs to give them a chance to leave.
So he walked over and out of the fog with both of his wolf packs.
…
…
…
This made all of the men scramble, they got quite weary seeing nearly twenty wolves surrounding the boy.
Lord Stark frowned heavily seeing this. He knew what this was. He heard the stories from behind the wall. How men over there can tame animals. Though this boy doesn't look wildling he looks far too good to be one.
Cautiously he approached the boy with his men.
"Are you the boy which they call Ray?"
"I am."
"Boy, not showing respect for your Lord is a crime. You are breaking the King's peace by assaulting my men. Something I can not allow to continue." The man said with a stony face. He has shown his infamous Stark look. The chilly gaze and no-nonsense tone.
"Oh is that it? I need a reason to show respect, so far all I saw is weakness. Hiding behind men, hiding behind your castle walls. You won't survive long in the wild with such a pathetic attitude.
I am giving you a day to leave my premises. If you don't leave it's going to start raining. Once it starts raining I will show you what a Lord looks like."
After saying that he turned around and entered the fog. Some of the wolves stayed behind showing their teeth and growling. Others licked their lips…waiting for a signal to start feasting.
This is going to be a banquet!
This left the men weary. The ominous tone of the boy…is he thinking of fighting him? Is he serious? Is he seriously offending Lord Paramount of the North? Is the boy having a death wish?
"Check your weapons and stay vigilant. And send the word to Winterfell. We need more men. The boy is dangerous. I was not expecting this many wolves." Eddard said with the seriousness which made his men scramble and prepare.
That moment the Stark looked at the sky… It has been a whole month…but the sun…
His eyes widened and he swiftly looked around. In the distance, he can see grey clouds but they never come in this area.
'Gods… He can manipulate the weather like the Children of the Forest!?'
This made him even more weary. That threat…
He was quite serious, wasn't he?
As the sun started to set dark clouds appeared out of nowhere and heavy rain started to fall.
Normally…rain is just rain…but this was different, this rain signified something to the gathered men. They all had a look of horror. All of them wanted to live but at the same time, their honour was keeping them staying behind with their Lord.
As the sun sunk into the west the world around them turned dark. It was still pouring heavily, and it was extremely hard to see anything in such conditions, not to mention they were struggling to keep fire burning in their torches.
Then it started to happen.
One of the men screamed, and everyone paid attention to the side. They saw a pair of yellow eyes reflect the light.
It was a wolf that pulled the man into darkness. Soon the screaming stopped.
No doubt he was dead.
"Gods… he truly is attacking us…" Eddard was shocked to the bone. The boy is rebelling against his Lord.
This leaves him no other choice. He would need to put the boy down.
"Stay sharp. And have your weapons ready."
Then another scream came from the other side as another man was mauled to death.
Before anyone could rush to their side the wolf already retreated to the darkness.
"Pay attention to your surroundings! Don't focus on a single point!" Eddard instructed the men. He needs to wait for the morning then they can regroup and bring some siege equipment or maybe burn the grass. They could force that…hunter, out of the fog.
'He is no longer a boy, No he is a Hunter '
Though his thoughts quickly got distracted as arrows started to fly.
It hit one of his men's neck, followed by another, which hit his Men's chest.
"S-Sir they are dead! We are sitting ducks here!!!"
Before Eddard can say anything, blinding light rushed into another of his men.
*BOOM*
At that moment…all hell got loose.
The morale got shattered and his men started to run in all directions.
While all this was happening, Eddard's world was spinning and he couldn't hear anything. Though he was sure that he could hear screams.
Then the final fire got sniffed out and he could see tens of predatory yellow eyes.
They were surrounded and his men were shattered, it was raining and it was pitch black night.
~~~
As Ser Rodrik Cassel, the Master-at-Arms of Winterfell arrived with another two hundred men he found not a single body.
All he could see were remnants of a camp, full of blood.
"Find out what happened to our Lord! Question the Smallfolk at once!"
"Yes, Ser!"
"Look for any signs of what could happen!"
The majority of the men dismounted as they formed a perimeter and proceeded to look for any sort of signs.
A few minutes later they found…
Remnants of bodies.
With a few bitten fingers and bits of flesh, they found more of people's body remains, but nothing solid. Not a single body.
"It looks like wolves have feasted here…a lot of wolves. I found a wolf's teeth as well." One of the House guards said with a serious tone as he showed the teeth he found.
"Aye… the villagers said that there is a boy who lives inside the fog. Lord Stark wanted to speak with him but the boy attacked the rider, and now he attacked Lord Stark."
Sure enough, people started to get angry.
"As they say…The North Remembers."
"Aye, the North Remembers! Send the word to Winterfell! It's a dark day!"
Ser Rodrik Cassel said with a cold tone as he looked at the Fog.
"The rest of you surrounded the fog and proceeded to enter from all directions. It's time to find this criminal!"
"Aye! At once!"
As the men surrounded the foggy area they proceeded to walk in from all directions.
While they all felt an intense urge to turn around, they in the end did pass the fog and ended up on the other side.
What they saw was a hut, next to a hut there was a small door size building with smoke coming out from it. On the other side, there is a pillar of some sort with carving…
"Ser… What is that?"
One of the guards picked up a wood carving and showed it to the old Master of Arms.
"It's a boar—"
*BOOOM* *BOOM* *BOOOOM*
Once the three huge white explosions settled down, it became extremely quiet. For a short while, what followed next was the howls of wolves.
*HOWL*
The wild predators rushed in from all directions and started to maul all whatever was left alive.
Though three statues were used as explosives, and they did cause quite an explosion it was not enough to kill all of the men.
Out of 200 Stark men over 30 were completely incinerated. Though the ambush factor combined with the absurd explosion was enough to completely shatter the morale.
The moment the wolves entered everyone started to panic and run away.
The issue was that the fog was like a net.
This means that if they ran into the fog they would turn around inside and return to the wolves.
While the one-sided slaughter was happening as the men were acting like sheep without their leader Raynor slowly walked through the fog.
He looked pissed, not only did he needed to use his last remaining carvings, but he used his house as a trap.
Yes, he pulled a move from the Art of War. As they say he opened the doors of his house and let everyone enter before setting it on 'fire'.
Well, he didn't set fire but he did put bombs.
His bloodlust has been feeding the wolves which made all of them even more frenzied.
As his eyes scanned around he pulled out his knives and proceeded to cut his way through this cattle.
~~~
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