章節 143: Chapter 143 - Second King Beyond the Wall.
[Chapter Size: 3700 Words.]
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Thrid Person POV
Westeros, 296 AC.
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Many miles above Artica, passing through various plains, fields, and frozen lakes, proceeding through enormous fogs and mountains, situated in an area much colder than the south, with forests petrified by the low temperature, a huge encampment was concentrated there at this moment.
The camp was crowded with tents everywhere, while men wearing leather clothes patrolled the entire region; there were two races, the giants who lived bringing logs to the camp and the Free Folk, with more than 400 giants and 110,000 people of the Free Folk gathered there, among the men, there were 200 wargs.
This camp has been in this northern region for almost a decade, gathering everything they could save from the cold shadows, the darkness, or death gods as many used to say.
However, the enemy is beginning to move; in the last moons, the camp started receiving attacks while their scouts began to disappear, never a direct attack, just picking off one here and there, as if they were waiting for something bigger to come.
Seeing the camp starting to be attacked from all sides, the people there began to worry as those monsters were becoming increasingly aggressive.
The pressure on the leader began to build, Mance, the declared King Beyond the Wall, started to move the camp, seeing that in the north only death remained, and it was time for them to head south in search of a way to cross the Wall.
In the main tent of the camp where Mance usually held his meetings with the camp's top leaders of the Free Folk, he was making the last one before they really left the north.
"As you know..." Mance began. "We lost all contact against all the last northern tribes we tried to recruit, but even our scouts are not returning, which ends up showing us that they are dead..." He commented while the group looked grim.
"These fools chose not to come to this camp when they were called, now let them die; let's go south and dominate the Wall of the crows." The leader of the Thenns, Styr, the Magnar of Thenn, spoke in a serious tone.
"I've heard some quite strange things about the south... I think you should know, Mance..." A woman with a huge scar on her face spoke.
"It's been 16 years since I've been to the south... Morna White Mask. I've heard things, too, but just very strange rumors to believe..." Mance commented.
"Mance, if you need information from the south, I have a person from my tribe who fled from the south and was part of the Lunar tribe many years ago..." One of the other leaders informed him.
"Isn't that one of the biggest tribes in the southeast...? I heard it was destroyed many years ago, but I didn't believe it..." He said curiously, he hadn't heard of them for almost a decade, when he had been in that region, just some people with rumors, but nobody from the tribe.
"It was, Mance, when he showed up at my camp, he said the tribe was decimated 7 years ago." Said the leader.
"Did the darkness eliminate them?" He asked sadly.
"No Mance, it's hard to explain... but it's better if you hear it directly from him." The Leader said in a calm tone and went out to call this man; it didn't take long for this leader to enter the tent while greeting everyone with some fear.
"So you're from that tribe... I thought you guys had at least 2,000 men to fight with you..." Mance said, waiting for the man to continue this mystery.
"Yes, I belonged to the tribe, and we were at our peak, however, more than 7 years ago in the south... a new group began to patrol the southern region near the coast, recruiting tribes, they called themselves the Artican tribe, our wargs started to watch them and we saw the large tribe with a group of giants, a number larger than in this camp, the tribe was made of giants, men, and even many animals, we spotted many giant wolves, at least about 50 of them roaming the nomadic tribe... They were a group of 4,000, we were interested in them, they had food and weapons we had never seen before, there were giants and animals covered in strange metal that shone in a green hue, but we were much smaller than them..." He spoke, pausing while everyone looked curious about what they had just heard, it seemed that the south was quite bustling while they were in the north.
Still pondering what they had just heard, wondering whether to believe those words or not, the former member of the Lunar tribe continued. "So we recruited other tribes and agreed to openly attack them to divide their spoils, but it was our biggest mistake in the end..." He looked somber. "We had 3,000 warriors, but we didn't stand a chance..."
"What do you mean?" The man with a huge scar on his face, Styr asked curiously as many around the tent thought similarly.
The man took a deep breath before continuing. "When we attacked, we faced 400 giants from the enemies, even knowing it would be difficult, we were confident, but of the 400, 200 were archers and had a range greater than any archer in our tribe, they could launch arrows like 6 archers throwing arrows for one to catch and throw to the next..." He spoke, after all the Free Folk had no notion of distance, but their arrows could reach up to 50 meters on average, which was much less than a common giant with a bow launching arrows at 300 meters at that time Jon faced this group before finding Weirwood, which would later be the place where Artica was born.
He finished his words with a sad demeanor and full of traumas from that day. Still remembering how his people were massacred when he was one of the ones who most wanted to attack that strange tribe.
"They killed 400-500 bodies with each volley of giant arrows, Mance. I saw my companions falling, one after another as we tried to reach them, when we thought of fleeing, seeing that it was a lost fight, they threw something behind us, because everything exploded in green fire, I've never seen anything like it in my life, it seemed like witchcraft. We couldn't run to the opposite side and when we went to the right and left sides, being the only way out, but we were attacked by people of the Free Folk along with animals and giants, all surrounding us while we were massacred mercilessly... 3,000 men were reduced to nothing in a single battle... it was shameful and terrifying, I was one of the few who survived with some luck while escaping that chaos..." He finished.
"That sounds like nonsense!" Snarled the leader of the Thenns finally realizing how this story seemed like a fantasy.
"That... is hard to believe... that's why I didn't report this years ago when I found him wandering the forest traumatized..." Morna White Mask said.
"Mance, you don't believe this, do you?" Another spoke.
"... I can't say I don't believe it until I see it with my own eyes..." Mance looked curiously at the man, he seemed not to lie, but the way he was scared just by talking about it, could tell he might have gone mad.
"Were there giant animals besides the giant wolves?" Sixskins, who is considered the greatest warg in the north at this camp, asked curiously.
"There were bears, shadow-cats, and all those terrible wolves, many were armored along with some giants, we heard there's just one person controlling all of them, they called him the Warg King by rumors!" He spoke.
"Warg King? Look at that Sixskins, seems like you're not so impressive after all... there's someone more powerful than you in the south..." One of the leaders teased the man.
"That must be nonsense, what kind of person controls 60 terrible wolves."
"That shouldn't be possible," another person said in support of Sixskins. "A warg usually has 1 animal for life and I only got my second when I was 23!" He said as a warg too, hardly believing these words.
"There was a child..." The man from the lunar tribe began speaking again, capturing everyone's attention... "He rode a giant wolf as if he commanded it, but he might be a child, that thing was a demon! He dismounted from his wolf and began to cut down my companions one after the other. A child doesn't move that way, I saw him kill 10 men and I started to flee, I never want to return to the southeast! I'm afraid of encountering that demon, they made no prisoners, he just killed us like a plague until the last!" The man finished his story with a lifeless expression.
"By the Gods. If this spreads, it will cause chaos in the camp when we go south," said another leader.
"That clearly can't be true! Look at the man, he's mad! It could have been the darkness that did this and he thinks he saw something else!" said a 19-year-old blonde-haired girl behind Mance.
"Let's not worry about that now... let's just prepare to head south... I want to see if we can find this Artican tribe and I want any updated information from the south... we left that place without paying attention to what was happening there, now it seems like a mess," he said.
"Mance... I have some members of my tribe who were recruited... they talked about a group of normal men, small men, and giant men wearing metal clothes marching in the south recruiting tribes..." one of the leaders said.
"Then I want to see them, I need more information from that place... but anyway... let's move the camp south... I need to know how the situation in the Seven Kingdoms is so we can decide how to act, I have a spy in the Night's Watch who can give us good information," Mance said as everyone nodded.
The camp began to be dismantled the next moment as they moved south. Meanwhile, Mance started to hear more about this strange group in the south and seemed quite hopeful about recruiting them to attack the Wall, seeing it as a potential great ally with the resources he heard about, perhaps they would even have to take them by force, but he believed he would handle it well when he has more than 100,000 people to fight by his side.
Meanwhile, a moon had passed in Artica since the royal birth, while the kingdom entered a week-long festival after the children were born. Jon had to participate in some banquets held in the arenas, carrying his children. What relieved him was how the children seemed not to care about all the noise even though there were hundreds of thousands of people paying attention to them, or even when Jon had to take them to see Eragon while the small dragons followed him along with the wolf pups, which basically followed them and stayed close when not with their mother nursing them.
And as Ghost stayed with Jon all the time, his companion was also there while Jon was near his children. It was a strange feeling being a father... he shared his blood with those two little beings and felt happy and fulfilled by this, he wanted them well and wouldn't think twice about giving his life to protect them.
Little Jon, as everyone called him being the firstborn and having his green eye trait, was the quietest of his children. He was calm, yet curious as his eyes looked from one side to another, seeming to want to learn about the world around him.
Lyanna was the opposite when it came to behavior, as the girl was entirely imperative; she laughed more easily than her brother and cried much more, while she liked to move, trying to crawl and even trying to climb on Jon's and her mothers' clothes. Both wives, Seryna and Ygritte, came to the conclusion that they would consider both children theirs to avoid any jealousy from either, while trying to treat everyone equally, and Jon appreciated that.
After a week of festivities, Jon isolated himself saying that he wanted to be part of his children's first month, so he left all the city's work with his ministers and he could only be called in case of an emergency and stayed that way while Artica continued to develop as expected. His only concern outside his family was his experiments in developing potions with dosages for growth and immunity strengthening for children and the magic stones created by his tree in the king's greenhouse.
After all these weeks, he finally decided to have a serious conversation about something he had waited a moon to address, with his former sister. He was calmly walking through the castle, following the corridor, while his guards accompanied him, but it was not just his guards, but 12 dragons walking behind Jon in line, making sounds all around, yet still following Jon closely.
At the end of the corridor, there was a door with many guards at the entrance, "You wait here. I'll go in alone," he told his men, as they lined up with their companions already at the entrance.
The doors were opened for him as he entered the room, in a unique environment within that castle, and there, unsurprisingly, were his wives with their children, Arya, and Ghost with his companion.
This was a place he had built to be a kind of special garden in the middle of the castle, with a small stream running along the roots of the Grand Weirwood, passing beneath the castle and overflowing water above. The garden had been designed to make the environment more natural, with a huge glass window allowing the sun to illuminate the place.
Jon approached them with his dragons, while watching Arya playing with his daughter, having fun as always. After all, the two were very much alike.
"Jon..." Seryna smiled as her eyes went to the dragons following him, while the little wolves ended up staying with their children all the time. "These little creatures are following you everywhere now, aren't they?" She laughed at the comment.
Jon just smiled, watching the small creatures approach as they began to disperse, coming closer to where the children were emitting childish sounds as if they also wanted their attention. Jon didn't know who they liked more, but it didn't matter. He avoided stepping on some of the dragons surrounding the group and approached, giving a small kiss on the forehead of each wife, Arya, and his children, before petting Ghost at the side.
"Could you give us some privacy?" Jon looked at his wives, who quickly understood. After all, they themselves had urged him to talk to Arya about fatherhood. Jon had put it off due to the birth of his children, but knew it was time to tell.
"Stay Arya, and come Ghost, with your companion, come keep us company. Let's take a walk," Ygritte said.
Arya was confused as Seryna and Ygritte led the two giant wolves out the door, leaving just her, Jon, the dragons, little wolves, and their children while Jon had taken little Jon from Seryna.
His son watched him with curiosity, raising his little hands and squeezing his cheeks, laughing. Jon opened a loving smile finding it amusing, looking into those eyes so different and magical at the same time.
Lyanna saw this too and began to cry, pointing her little hand at Jon. Arya saw this, now being ignored by the fussy Lyanna, and immediately complained. "Jon, how do you do that?! You're the only one she wants to get away from me for!"
"She just wants her father's lap..." Jon commented, approaching as he took little Jon from his lap while picking up Lyanna before giving the boy to Arya to hold.
Despite the girl Stark's dissatisfaction, she found herself being stared at by the curious Jon, who looked at her with as much curiosity as anyone else. "Look who it is? It's auntie!" Arya finally smiled at that.
Meanwhile, Jon kept Lyanna lively in his arms while laughing the whole time as he made gentle rocking movements, walking calmly from one side to the other while the dragons just watched, turning their necks like a bunch of meerkats.
"She's going to be so beautiful with that white hair..." Arya looked at Jon, unable to refrain from commenting.
Jon sighed and realized that he should tell her, after all, Arya kept asking why the girl had this hair color while the boy shared a purple eye, but Ygritte always dodged it saying Jon would explain it in the future.
"Arya, do you know why both were born with purple eyes? And why Lyanna has this color in her hair?" Jon asked, as Arya looked at him touching the dragons at their feet, although they didn't much like her touch, they also didn't move away since the children were there.
"I don't know," Arya responded. "Ygritte always avoided talking about it. Said I should ask you. Why does your daughter have white hair and purple eyes?" She asked.
"It's because I am a Targaryen," Jon simply said. Arya was distracted, but quickly raised her gaze, surprised as if she were looking at a Jon who had been born with a second head.
"What did you say?" She asked, incredulous.
Jon sighed and came closer. "Listen, when I found out about this, I was equally shocked. That was on the same day they were born. It seemed like the gods were warning me about my true origin, and to understand how this would affect our children, so when I left Artica, I went to the statue of my mother in Winterfell."
"But... then your mother..." Arya murmured, still shocked. "Wait, you've been to Winterfell?! Statue of your mother?!" She exclaimed, startling little Jon a bit and the dragons screamed in disapproval.
"Calm down..." Jon approached as he touched little Jon's head in front of Arya, "It's not the way you're thinking. Your father isn't my father. I am the son of Lyanna. My father is Rhaegar Targaryen," Jon spoke to her for the first time.
Arya looked at him even more shocked, trying to process the words that had come out of his mouth. "Is that true...? So, you're my cousin...?" She said in an unconscious tone.
"I know it's hard to understand. My life has always been a lie. I believed your father was my father, but he lied so much, that in a moment of anger, I almost crushed his face on the same day I learned the truth. When I went to my mother's tomb," Jon continued.
"You went to Winterfell that day... you really almost hit our father... I mean my father...?" She was trying to absorb all this information without being able to think properly.
"Arya, you might be angry about what I've just told you. Yes, I am the son of Rhaegar, the one who died at the Trident in the battle against King Robert. I went to Lyanna's tomb because I wanted to see the statue of my mother. I wanted to see my mother, buried in those crypts all this time without me knowing the truth... When I left Winterfell at 8 namedays, I decided I wouldn't speak of her with my father again since she was dead... but honestly, she was always someone I wanted to know who she was. When I found out, I went straight there, but unfortunately, your father appeared. It was the moment I was looking at the statue."
Jon paused, taking a deep breath. "I was so enraged that I lifted him up and punched the wall next to his face. I didn't want to do anything stupid, so I left before something worse could happen. I was angry, Arya," Jon finished, feeling relieved to finally have told the truth.
Jon didn't even have time to react as Arya threw herself on him, careful not to hurt little Jon, leaving the king of Artica slightly surprised. "I'm sorry for this, Jon," she said, surprising him, as tears came out of her eyes. "I'm sorry for all this. You should never have had to go through what you did in Winterfell. I'm sorry for what my father did... Robb and Theon are the real culprits of that damned theft, I always knew, but I could never do anything... But I swear... when I go to Winterfell, I will bring that castle to its knees until I prove your innocence." She exclaimed with a sob, still holding him close and holding little Jon, who looked curious, as did Lyanna, watching the two embraced.
The dragons seemed equally curious on the ground, raising their heads and curving their necks, trying to understand what was happening.
"It's alright, Arya. I have an entire kingdom to take care of to worry about something so insignificant... And I will always love you, no matter what we are," Jon spoke, accepting her embrace and letting Arya's tears fall on his shoulder.
"But you know, Jon..." Arya spoke again, wiping some of her tears with her free hand. "You might not like my words, but I'm glad things happened the way they did. Now we're here, in this place." She continued, wiping away the tears while a smile and a blush appeared on her face.
Jon also smiled at the girl. "Yes, Arya, you're right. We can't have everything we wanted, but fate and the gods were still generous. I have a family now here and wouldn't change anything up to this moment. I have you, Seryna, Ygritte, and our children, and my other companions by my side," Jon said, happy to share this moment with Arya, as both shared these warm and sincere words, happy that fate had brought them to this point, wondering what else it would bring.
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