The Warg Lord (ASOIAF)(SI)

[LazyWizard]

Our story starts on a normal day in November, in a city that never sleeps. The pedestrians could be seen tightening their scarves to save themselves from the frigid wind while the sun could be seen setting on the horizon. The office workers were rushing along the sidewalk trying to reach their homes a little faster. A few people suddenly started looking up after they felt something wet on their faces. It had started snowing and as it was the first snow of the year there was a sense of merriment on the street.

On the outskirts of this city, there was a hospital that had been there for so long that people were not sure when it was first opened. Its original color was unrecognizable because of grime and its machines were older than the oldest patient in the hospital. It was still well-known in the neighborhood for being cheap but still being surprisingly competent.

On the third floor of this hospital outside the emergency ward, a couple of nurses could be seen gossiping beside the water dispenser.

"Did you hear that the patient in Room 401 might not have long to live"

"Yeah, the poor boy was unlucky to have contracted COVID after all this time, when it's practically over and done for."

"Exactly, just the other day I was telling my mother that I don't have to wear masks all the time while going outside because no one's getting COVID anymore. She going to nag me so much when she hears about this."

"At least you have a mother to nag you, I heard in the two weeks that he's been here, not a single person's visited him"

"Yeah, and every time that I've gone to check on him all I've seen him do is read online web novels, I mean how can someone be on their last few days and still—"

A door opened abruptly behind them and a doctor's voice shouted over,

"I need this patient transferred to the emergency room ASAP, his condition has deteriorated"

One of the nurses rushed to do the doctor's bidding and help transfer the patient, while the other one ran to set up the emergency room.

...

John could see the doctor rushing around him while performing various checks on his body while simultaneously instructing the nurses. The doctor shouted for the nurse to get some kind of instrument while asking the other nurse to administer some kind of syringe to the IV connected to his hand.

"We are losing him, doctor," said the nurse looking at the heart monitor.

"I know, I know... gi..ve ...me ....the....." the doctor's voice started to get garbled and incomprehensible.

John was slowly losing his vision but he could see the pretty snowflakes falling outside through the window behind the doctor. It was a really peaceful view for being the last thing he sees before leaving this world.

As John was slowly moving towards his last breath on this planet, the only regret on his mind at that moment was that he had been not been able to read "Winds of Winter" from the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. That guy on youtube had assured his subscribers that Martin was definitely going to release it this year.

...

283 AC, Tower of Joy

In the middle of a great expanse of desert, where no matter where you looked only the color yellow would be visible, a lone tower stood. Outside of that tower on its steps, three men could be seen sitting and sweating inside their full body armor. One of the knights with two swords attached to his hips stood up abruptly and shouted something while pointing toward the distance. Seeing the same thing as the first knight the other two also stood up as well. All three of them fastened their armor and made sure that their weapons were in their place and then they stood still, waiting.

A few miles away on the horizon, a party of seven could be seen approaching the tower and anyone who had seen how they were dressed would instantly conclude that these people were very away from their homes and were not made to survive in this weather.

...

While history was being written outside of that tower, at the same time inside a room on the second floor of the round tower, a heavily pregnant young girl could be seen sweating and writhing from pain. The girl's face was red from exhaustion and fever and looked just about to give in. An olive-skinned middle-aged lady could be seen trying to comfort the young girl.

"Just one more push m'lady, I can already see the head"

The young girl screamed with all her remaining strength and fell back on the bed while breathing feebly. A few moments later another scream could be heard but this time of a newborn, the olive-skinned woman came out from between the legs of the young girl while carrying a newborn child.

The midwife rushed the remaining procedure and cleaned the baby hurriedly because she knew that at moment the mother needed her more than the baby.

"Pl..please bring my..my baby, to me. I..I want to hold him"

"Here m'lady I'll just lay him down by your side"

The young girl looked at the miracle laying beside her, she could not believe that this new life had come from her. The baby looked just like her, from the color of his hair to his light grey eyes, the only feature that she could see of his father was his nose.

"M'lady you are losing too much blood we need to get you to a maester immediately"

The midwife was right she could feel the strength leaving her body very fast. She knew that she didn't have much time, but she didn't want to look away from her son for even a moment. The second she had lain her eyes on him he'd already become more important than anything, even her life. She kissed the baby's forehead while crying softly.

"I hear the sound the sound of swords clashing outside m'lady"

The midwife frantically looked towards the door with wide eyes. She knew she was helpless before a knight.

"It's alright, take my son and go to the other room and wait for me to call you out"

The young girl looked towards her baby very intensely, trying to imprint every single feature of her son inside her brain before, she very reluctantly handed her son to the midwife. The second the midwife had closed the door to the other room she could hear footsteps running up the stairs.

...

He did not know how much time had passed before his foggy mind started to clear up. It was as if every thought of his was submerged in deep water. He was feeling sluggish while having trouble being able to link any two coherent thoughts together.

After some time, when his jumbled thoughts had become untangled enough to be coherent, he felt as if he was in a very constricting space. His body felt pressured from all sides and before he could make head or tail of the situation he suddenly felt himself being pushed through a very narrow tunnel, head first. It was suffocating and confusing for him.

The second he came out of the tunnel all of his senses started working simultaneously. He could breathe, listen and feel his skin tingle at the same time, it was too much for him to handle and before he could stop himself he started screaming out loud.

"AAA.... aaaaa..... uaaaa"

His scream was in sync with another scream from somewhere above him and it sounded like it belonged to a young girl. Her voice went from screaming loudly to just breathing heavily whilst he continued to cry his heart out.

'Where am I, I was supposed to be in the hospital dying from COVID. Why am I not wearing an oxygen mask and where are the nurses or the doctor and, ....' he thought incoherently

He felt like he was moving on a wild rollercoaster ride. He couldn't open his eyes fully and had no control over his hands or his legs. Every sense of his body was muted and it felt like the connection between his brain and the various body parts that make the human body work has not yet fully been established.

He started to open his eyes slowly and at first, all he could see around him was the blurry shape of a person who was cleaning him. And as his vision started to clear up he could make out the features of the person.

She was a plump woman with olive skin and dark hair, she looked to be around 40-something years old and was wearing some kind of medieval clothing. She was looking at me with something akin to fascination and after she had cleaned him, she looked above him and replied to someone out of his line of sight, took him into her arms, and brought him along. She laid him on a warm bed beside a 16-17-year-old young girl.

'Looks like I've been reincarnated into a medieval setting judging from their clothes and the lack of technology. This young girl is most likely my mother and the woman from before must be a midwife' he thought while looking at the young girl.

She was a pale young girl with soft brown hair, grey eyes, and a small nose with very symmetrical features. Her hair looked to be wet with sweat and she had dark circles under her eyes and she was breathing feebly. But the look she gave me was filled with so much love and warmth, it felt like I was looking toward the sun. She hugged me close to her breast as if she was afraid that I would disappear any moment now.

'Oh well, it's not like I had any kind of attachment in my previous life to anyone and I've always wanted to live in a medieval world so I think that I am pretty thankful for whatever deity dropped me here'

The midwife said something about hearing some kind of sword fighting, and the young girl asked her to take me to the adjacent room to hide. She kissed my forehead and looked at me for a moment before handing me over to the midwife.

'Man, why do I have the feeling that this will be the last time that I will see her? Looks like I will be an orphan in this life too'

The moment the midwife put me down in the crib, my body started craving sleep and I fell asleep faster than the speed of light.

....

The morning sun had not yet fully risen on the horizon and yet the temperature was still too much for the two men who were from the north of Westeros. The place where a lone tower used to stand, now only graves marked with stones from that same tower could be seen.

The Dornish midwife could be seen feeding a newborn on the remaining rubble of the tower while the two northerners were discussing over a cart.

"When I went to get the cart from the nearby village and sell the extra horses, I also took the liberty to buy us enough supplies to last for a while, My Lord" Howland said while wiping sweat from his brows.

For most of his life, he'd never left his home, The Greywater Castle, so these past months have been tiring on his body. Trying to adapt to all kinds of different environments from the constant rains of Stormlands to all that greenery in Riverlands and now the scorching heat in this desert has been a nightmare.

"That was smart of you Howland, I'd been so caught up in my thoughts that I only remembered about our dwindling supplies after you'd already left,"

"You give me too much credit My Lord," Howland replied while bowing slightly.

"Now, open that map you bought yesterday. We should decide on the path we are to take, I don't want to get lost in these cursed red mountains" Eddard said while looking around the sand dunes that looked indistinguishable from one another.

Howland went and got the crude map he got from the nearby village as well as their map of Westeros. He spread both maps beside each other on the cart. There were two paths leading toward the North from where they were, one along the western side of Westeros via Starfall and the other one along the eastern side. Eddard looked at the map for a while before speaking.

"If we take this path then it should eventually lead us to Starfall," he said while drawing a line along the said path.

"If you want Ned I could return the Dawn to Starfall and come back here..." Howland said while not looking into Eddard's eyes, "I thought after what happened in Harrenhal you wouldn't want to meet Lady Ashara,"

"I've already broken my promise to her once and now with her brother's death..." Eddard took a deep breath, "The least I could do is not dishonor her by hiding like a coward"

"As you say, Ned but does that mean that we will not be going to King's Landing and heading straight toward North"

"No, I will have to bring the news of Lyanna's demise to Robert myself and be present for his coronation and if Tywin had managed to convince Lord Arryn then maybe attend Robert's wedding too," He said while making a sour face at the thought of attending a wedding with Tywin.

"Will it be alright to bring little Jon to KingLanding?" Howland asked hesitatingly.

"NO! Jon and Robert will not be in the same room ever if I can help it. The atrocities committed there still haunt me to this day, even the thought of Jon anywhere near Kingslanding makes me..." Eddard closed his eyes while repressing a shudder.

They were silent for a moment while looking at the midwife fussing over little Jon who had just now woken up. Little Jon was apparently hungry because the midwife pulled down her blouse to feed the toddler without hesitation. They both looked away awkwardly at the same time and without saying anything went back to the maps.

"I think after I've returned the ancestral sword to the Dayne's we should part ways at the port, you can take Jon and head straight towards Seagard and from there towards The North, while I can go towards that snake's pit of a city and try to make polite conversation with people I want to kill," Eddard said while making a tight grip on his sword and looking as if he was looking at their faces. He shook his head for a moment and after gathering himself, he looked towards me solemnly.

"Will you make sure that Jon reaches Winterfell safely Howland?" Eddard said while looking Howland in the eyes.

"I will protect your nephew with my life, My Lord. And even if you had not asked me to do so, I owe too much to Lady Lyanna to let any harm come to her son."

"I am so glad you came with me Howland, you are a good man" Eddard smiled while putting a hand on his shoulder.

"It was an honor, My Lord," Howland replied with a small smile.

"Now when we reach Starfall, I will request their maester to send a letter to Benjen at Winterfell. So you can expect either an escort of guards or Benjen himself at the neck."

"That would be helpful, My lord." Howland paused for a moment and hesitatingly asked "What are you going to do about Lady Catelyn, Ned"

"What about her," Eddard asked while tilting his head.

"Well, you told me that you are going to claim that little Jon is your bastard and from what I've heard, the Faith of the seven is not kind towards bastards and Lady Catelyn is as faithful as they come. So are you going to tell her the truth about Jon's parentage?"

"While I would like to think the best of her, I think the fewer people that know about this, the better. I will tell her that he is my bastard and beg her forgiveness for straying from our marriage and even if she doesn't accept him, at least I will make sure that he has a father's love if not a mother's. And if she is a little less cordial towards him then I think that would be another form of protection for him, as because of her no one will suspect that he is anything other than a bastard"

"If you would be alright with it, I could take him with me to Greywater's watch, My Lord"

"No, while that is kind of you Howland. Little Jon has the blood of Starks in him and I want him to grow up in his Ancestral home with his siblings, like his mother and I were bought up. I will love him as much as my true son and make sure to raise him into an honorable man," Eddard said, his voice thick with emotion.

"You are right My Lord, I think Lady Lyanna will be happy with that," Howland said while bowing his head.

"And when we were in Kings Landing, I had gotten the news about Catelyn being pregnant, so hopefully by the time I arrive at Riverrun, she'll have already brought our child into this world," Eddard looked toward the horizon with hope in his eyes.

They packed up after that and started their journey toward their home, The North.

...

Since my reincarnation in this medieval world, I only woke up sporadically for a handful of minutes, and that too with only the desire to eat and shit and then go back to sleep after a few minutes.

As days passed, my control over my body as well as my eyesight improved gradually and I was starting to be able to see some colors too. The only thing I had been able to gather in between my frequent visits to the dream world is that I was in the company of three people.

One was the olive-skinned woman who I first saw when I was bought into this world, so I would hazard a guess and conclude that she is a midwife, because from her absence I can conclude that my mother didn't make it past my birth.

The other two were both men barely out of their teenage years, one of them was a bit taller than the other. The tall one had a long handsome face and soft brown hair as well as a solemn face with his dark grey turning soft every time he held me.

The shorter one of the two was a weird amalgam of contradictions, he looked like a child but had the voice of an adult and his eyes were a bit too big to be considered normal.

The mystery of the world I had been reborn into was solved by me picking up some words from the conversation between the adults, particularly "Stark", "Dorne", "Lyanna", "Ned" and most damningly "Winter is Coming".

It was not long after that, that I was able to put together my background in the world of planetos. I was born as Jon "You Know Nothing" Snow, the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen and the bastard of Winterfell.

A few days after that revelation we reached some kind of a castle on an island that I think was Starfall. Only Eddard went in there, while we stayed in the nearby village because I don't think he wanted anyone to ask too many questions about me.

When Eddard came out of the castle he was even more moody and grim than before. At first, I was confused about his behavior as I had no idea what could have happened but then I suddenly remembered that Ashara Dayne had committed suicide around this time. Then it all started making sense because it was rumored in the books they became a thing for a time in Harrenhall.

We reached the port the next day and I found out that Lord Stark was not coming with us to Winterfell directly because he had to go to King's Landing. We had to part ways immediately because our ship was set to leave that very day. Ned held me in his hands for a few moments and kissed my forehead before giving me to the midwife.

After some time ship had enough time to supply itself and the captain started calling all the passengers to start boarding. We had barely climbed the ship when it started to sail away from the port.

The time spent onboard the ship was very boring to me, even though I slept most of the time. Howland was not much of a talker and the midwife who was called Wylla spent most of her time knitting something. She had heard some things about the cold in the north and wanted to knit some clothes for me.

The ship only stopped for resupply two times after we started our journey, once in Oldtown and the other time in Lannisport. Both times only Howland went into the city to get some necessary supplies while Wylla and I stayed cooped up in our cabin.

I had wanted to go into those towns to check them out but when I cried aloud to make my voice heard the only thing I got for my trouble was a nipple in my mouth. I sighed and thought 'Well, what can you do when life gives you lemons you suck on them,'

A couple of weeks must have passed by before I was jostled awake by Wylla. We were finally going to go down from the ship. We went toward the front of the ship and eagerly waited for it to dock, I heard from the nearby talking sailors that we had reached the port of Seagard.

If I remember correctly then it is the seat of House Mallister who were sworn directly to House Tully of Riverrunn. It would mean that we are not that far from the north now. We went down the ship immediately after it had stopped, and Lord Reed started leading us straight out of the market at the port. I tried to keep my eyes open as much as possible and to look at every single thing I could at the same time, and because of that, my head kept swirling around from left to right. Wylla tried to keep me still as she tried to follow the unusually fast crannogman through the crowd of peddlers.

When Lord Reed took us straight out of the walls of the city without stopping for resupply, I thought he had forgotten about it, and from the looks of Wylla, she thought the same. But the second we had passed some distance from the city and were in the shade of trees, out of nowhere we were suddenly surrounded by a handful of people covered from head to toe in green with bows on their backs while holding some kind of a trident weapon.

Wylla screamed when one of the small people started running towards us and attacked Lord Reed by jumping on him and the lord instead of running stood still with his arms wide open. It took some time for us to understand that they were the people of Lord Reed and that the person in Lord reed's arms was his fiance. Apparently, Lord Reed had somehow gotten the message to his people while we were on our way to ask for an escort.

The journey towards the north got a bit interesting after we gained our new companions, we never took the main road and only passed by unused paths that were only known to crannogman. Lord Reed's fiance played with me sometimes when the midwife got tired from the walk and I always smiled whenever she made some faces at me to try to keep me entertained.

I had barely felt the cold when we came closer to the Neck but, the way Wylla kept shivering I think she must have been feeling the cold a lot more than me. After thinking about it, I felt that it made sense because, in the place where she had been born, people had to be more used to the hotter climate so her genes may have evolved that way. And because I had the blood of the starks who had been living in harsh winters for thousands of years, our genes must have evolved in the opposite direction so that we can feel almost comfortable in cold.

There was this one time when I saw a documentary about how there was a place very high up in the Tibetian plateau where only the natives can survive comfortably because their bodies have evolved to be able to live with the concentration of oxygen in the environment much lower than a normal person is used to. It made sense for people with this much history in Westeros to evolve if even the people on earth with barely centuries of history could somewhat evolve to adjust to their surroundings.

A couple of days later we came across an escort of guards waiting outside what seemed like a ruined collection of huge towers that I later learned was The Moat Callin. The escort was led by a young boy who had a remarkable resemblance to Ned, he had a huge smile on his face and relief in his eyes when he held me. Wylla and I parted ways with the company of crannogman after that and started the last part of our toward the castle of Winterfell.

As days turned to weeks I saw more and more vast empty wilderness, forests, pine-covered hills, and snow-capped mountains and the beauty of it started to grow on me. We very rarely stopped on the way because I think uncle Benjen was really eager to get to his home. It was a couple more weeks before we saw the huge castle of Winterfell in the distance.

 

[LazyWizard]

I was rolling around inside my crib while making random noises. It had been a few days since we in Winterfell and I was already bored out of my mind. I was inside a nursery in the Great keep, which had been used by generations of stark babies and most recently my mother and benjen. The room looked like it had been recently cleaned which would make considering it had been left empty for almost 15-16 years.

The room was colored in gray colors with a crib in the center in which I was staying, while two other cribs were thrown haphazardly in the corner, I guess they could be repaired or cleaned if more than one child arrives in the Stark family. There were half a dozen toys strewn around just beside the door which consisted of little wooden swords, a wooden wolf, and a wooden horse on which you could ride.

The door opened and I immediately stopped rolling around. A woman around 25 years old entered the room. She was a bit plain looking with brown hair, pale skin, and brown eyes.

She was from winter town and had been brought in by benjen to feed me as the wetnurse who had arrived here with us all the way from Dorne went back home. Benjen had tried to persuade her to stay and take care of me and she did try to stay for a few days but she couldn't stop her teeth from clattering and her body from shivering constantly, so benjen finally took pity on her and gave her enough money for a trip home and some more, as well as sent a couple of guards to escort her to White harbor from where she could catch a ship to her home.

"How are you today little lord," the wetnurse cooed to me while taking me out of the crib. She always called me little lord even though she knew that I was a bastard and not some lord but I guess to normal villagers, everyone who could live in a castle without being part of the staff is a lord.

"You are going to grow up to be a big man, little lord," she said while feeding me from her breast, "You are always so eager to drink milk, I wish my little sam back home, could drink as much as you, he always turns his face away from my breasts. But you like my milk, don't you,"

The wet nurse put me back in the crib after I had my fill and went away after thinking that I fell asleep. I don't know about the exact amount of time, but enough time had passed since my birth that I could now stay awake for more hours every day. So at first, I thought that it would be fun being in the legendary castle of Winterfell and exploring it, but my body, unfortunately, disagreed with me as it was not yet strong enough to walk or even crawl yet.

So besides staring around the room and looking at the dull gray walls, all I had to simulate myself was when the wet nurse came to feed me or when benjen could find the time to come entertain me. Benjen would come into the nursery at least once per day to spend some time with me. And he would always try and make faces that were supposed to be funny but were really not, but I liked him so I indulged him with a laugh now and then, and that always seem to make his day.

Anyway, other than that I was pretty much left alone to my devices, and that was slowly but surely driving me up the wall. I was a man who had lived in the 21st century, a man who was online 90% of the time he was awake, and a man who never spent more than a week without reading some kind of novel online (like light novel, web novel, or manga, etc), or watching an anime, or watching some youtube videos. In short, I was a man (like everyone else from my home planet) severely addicted to the internet.

So being cooped up in a room with almost nothing to entertain me, it was only a matter of time before I suffered through some kind of withdrawal symptoms from my internet addiction. I don't know what they would look like but I didn't want to go through them, so I tried to find other things to capture my attention, things that would not require me to use anything other than my mind.

The first thing I could think of was MATH. I know! I know! it's a nerdy thing but I was pretty okay with math when I was in school, nowhere near good enough to go for something like a Ph.D. but good enough that I enjoyed it.

Anyway, there was a video that I saw in my last life about a kid from somewhere in Asia who could do all kinds of complicated calculations in his head and I was told in that very video that it was a good exercise for the mind, and who knows maybe it would help me increase my mind potential or something, and if not, it would at least be useful if I ever wanted to be a merchant in the future.

I started small, by taking any random 2-digit numbers and performing addition and subtraction with them in my head like 93-15 or 27+15, etc. And when I get comfortable enough with those I would make the numbers 3 digits then 4 digits, and so on. And when I eventually get bored with those maybe I could even make it more difficult by doing multiplication, or division and if I was ever comfortable enough with doing the multiplication of 4-digit numbers in my head, then maybe I could even open the box of calculus.

Now, while doing maths did keep me busy for a while, enough not to get bored. But there were times when I would just get sick of seeing numbers after a while and that is when another thing that I saw in an anime (don't remember which) came to my mind. I think it was called something like Image Training, it is where you train yourself against an imaginary opponent inside your mind.

Anyways, when I tried to do that, it turned into a total failure, I could not even make an image of a simple stick or rod in my mind last long enough, let alone create a stable enough image of a person for Image Training. So I backtracked a little and thought that if I ever wanted to do image training in the future, I would need to start small, then maybe I would eventually get better.

So what I would do is I look at any object in my room like say the small wooden wolf hanging above me in my crib and try to remember all of its details, from its exact color to its texture, to where it had been chewed in its leg and to what shape it was, and when I had retained enough details of it, I would then close my eyes and try to recreate the exact replica of that object inside my head.

To be honest, when I had the idea in my mind, I thought it would be very easy, I mean it was from an anime, how hard could it be? Right!

Wrong! It was very hard and It had not been going so well for me. I could never get the image of the object inside my head stable enough, it would always be a little wobbly and its shape kept on changing with its color reverting back to black. It was as if my mind was not under my control at all and would make whatever random shapes it could without listening to my desires at all.

It was all very frustrating for me, but I didn't give up and remembered the mantra PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, and went right back at it.
...
It was around midday and the wet nurse had just exited the room after feeding me and I was hesitating between doing math or image training, as I was starting to hate both of them equally when the nursery's door slowly opened and Benjen's face peeked through.

"Hey little wolf are you awake," Benjen whispered while looking toward my crib. I immediately stood up in my crib and gave him a big smile as I welcomed the distraction instantly. He came into the room when he saw that I was awake. He stopped beside my crib and took me gently into his arms, and sat on a nearby chair while still holding me.

Benjen was a very young-looking man with blue-grey eyes and long black hair. He had the long face of the starks which always looked a little sad, and slouched as if the weight of the world was on his shoulder. Losing almost all of his family so young must have been hard on him.

"I have very good news to share with you little wolf," he said while smiling slightly and bouncing me on his lap "Your father is going to be home in a couple of days, you remember your father, don't you? He's the one whose face is always a little grumpy, "

"And you know what's even better news, he's bringing along your little brother with him, so you won't have to be so alone anymore, and you would finally have someone to play with. Isn't it the best," he said with a long look in his eyes as if remembering something.

"I used to play with your aunt all the time you know, there was not a single place in the whole of Winterfell that we left unexplored. I was very close with your Aunt Lyanna, not so much with your father as he had been fostered in the Vale since I was a baby and your uncle Brandon had all those older friends of his to run around with so..." his voice took on a morose tone by the end and it looked as if he'd forgotten about me before he shook himself off and looked toward me again.

"What am I talking about, you don't care about that at all do you?" he said with a bitter tone before he smiled, "you know now that you're going to have a brother how about when you grow up a bit, I could teach you all kinds of tricks to annoy your brother. I used to take Lyanna's brush or her sword to annoy her all the time and then she would chase after me all around Winterfell from the kitchen to the training yard to the broken tower.

Whenever father caught us, he would always scold me instead of lyanna because she was his favorite you see, in fact, I think she was everyone's favorite. Not a single person in the whole castle had anything bad to say about her... " he went a little quiet for a while.

I had just been fed just before benjen came so I was starting to get a little sleepy and my head started to roll around in benjen's lap.

"Oh! looks like it's time for the little wolf to go to sleep," he said while standing up and bringing me to my crib before laying me down and tucking me in.

"How about I sing you a little lullaby, huh," he said while taking a seat on the ground beside the crib and started to slowly swing my crib back and forth. He sang in low voice, it was a very sad song. I couldn't remember the whole lullaby, just that it was about a wolf pack and a cub who got lost, it was really soothing.

"Lyanna used to sing that to me," Benjen continued after the lullaby finished, "Whenever I was sad or I had a nightmare about something she would always be there to comfort me and hold my hand. I lost my mother at a very young age, so lyanna was the one who took care of me most of the time.

"Every single place in this castle reminds me of her, of her smile, of her fierceness, of her gentleness. Everywhere I look I see the faces of my sister or father or even Brandon and they haunt me every waking moment," his voice started to crack and he started sobbing while lying on the ground in a fetal position.

"I think I will join the Night's Watch after Ned gets here," benjen said after his tears had dried up and he was half asleep "I don't think that I can stay in this castle any longer. And there will be nothing holding me here after Ned gets here, he will have his new wife who will look after him and you and Robb too. And if I join the Night's watch I could even atone for all my sins, because if it had not been for me then maybe lyanna could still be...still be..."
...
Two days later, the whole castle woke up before the morning fog had cleared and while it was still dark out there, there was a sense of excitement in the inhabitants of Winterfell. The Lord of Winterfell was finally coming back and was bringing along with him a Southern wife as well as a newborn heir.

Some were happy that their Lord was coming back after winning a long war, while others were sad that only one, out of the four Starks that went away, was coming home. A scout had spread the news while eating in the great hall that he had seen the party only half a day away so people started to rush even more in a bid to make everything better.

Jon was already awake by the time the wet nurse came into the nursery in the morning. After finishing the usual morning routine, she took Jon out of the nursery and down the stairs straight into the throng of people that were gathered in the courtyard. Apparently, Uncle Benjen had instructed her to bring Jon here so that he could be present when they welcome Ned into Winterfell.

Jon didn't think that his being there was a very good idea because, while Eddard might be happy to see Jon again. Happiness or Joy will definitely not be the emotion that Catelyn would express after she sees him and Jon didn't want to be present for that.

The courtyard was filled with servants standing in different clusters according to their cliques while almost all the guards were gathered on the wall of the castle and looking into the distance. Just behind the open gate, standing in front looking regal in his new clothes was Benjen, and standing just beside him was Maester Luwin along with the steward, Vayn Poole as well as the Master at Arms Ser Rodrik Cassel.

Jon was just behind them in the hands of the wet nurse who was fussing over his clothes. They must have been standing there for about half an hour before a guard suddenly shouted from above that he could see the party in the distance. A nervous current suddenly ran through the crowd with the steward trying to straighten his clothes while one maid was trying to hide the stain on her clothes.

Everyone stopped what they were doing when the sound of horses came into their ears and they simultaneously looked toward the open gate in anticipation. In just a couple of minutes, the party entered through the gate bringing along sand clouds in their wake. In front of the party, wearing leather armor and riding a black horse was Lord Stark and along with him came a handful of guards in stark sigil and they all looked incredibly travel-worn.

Behind them came a white carriage with four huge wheels along with half a dozen guards shadowing it on both sides. Behind the carriage came a couple of carts carrying chests and almost a dozen servants and maids. If anyone had looked closer then they would notice that almost half the guards had the fish sigil on their chest, so it looked as if Lady Catelyn had brought quite a household along with her.

Lord Stark stopped his horse in front of the welcoming party and just looked around the castle with relief and nostalgia in his eyes. It was a couple of minutes later that he was able to break himself out of the trance and get down from the horse in one swift motion.

Benjen had silently waited until Eddard was standing in front of him before he bowed and spoke, "Winterfell is yours My Lo—" Eddard stopped him from bowing with his hands on Benjen's shoulder and brought him into an embrace and hugged him with all his might.

"I missed you a lot, Ben," Eddard said in a voice thick with emotion.

"I missed you too Ned." Benjen croaked with moist eyes hugging him back just as tight.

While the stark brothers were reuniting with each other after a long time, Lady Catelyn had gotten down from the carriage with a bundle in her hands. She looked around the castle and all the servants with a timid gaze before she started walking toward where her husband was. She stopped just short of reaching them and then stood waiting while fussing over the toddler in her hands.

Catelyn was a young girl about 17 years old. She had luscious auburn hair that seemed to shine in contrast with the snow. Her eyes were sky-blue eyes and she had white smooth skin without a single blemish anywhere, along with a symmetrical face she was one of the most beautiful women any of the servants had seen in their whole life.

The brothers broke up their hug after a few moments and Eddard finally noticed his new wife standing beside him.

"Benjen, Let me introduce you, this is my wife Lady Catelyn Stark," Eddard said while putting a hand behind Catelyn's back.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, good-sister," Benjen said while blushing.

"Likewise, Lord Benjen." Catelyn smiled a little, benjen reminding her of her little brother back home, and did a little curtsy while awkwardly holding the toddler in her hands.

"And this is my son and heir Robb Stark," Eddard said loudly with pride in his voice while taking Robb from Catelyn's arm and raising him a little so that everyone could catch the sight of their future Lord.

"He is a really beautiful child, Ned," Benjen said with a soft smile while touching the sleeping toddler's cheek with his fingers.

They stood there in the courtyard for a few minutes getting acquainted with each other while the crowd slowly started to thin as people started going back to their duties.

"You all must be very exhausted from the long journey, I've already had rooms prepared for you in the great keep with warm baths and the kitchen had also been notified so a meal will be waiting for you whenever you want," Benjen said while looking at Lady Catelyn who looked to be dead on her feet.

"A warm meal sound's like a wonderful idea," Eddard said in a grateful voice and started walking toward the direction of the great keep, before he abruptly turned around, "Oh, I forgot to ask but where is Jon?"
Benjen looked around for a moment in confusion as he had been very sure that he had seen Jon there just a while before.

What had happened was that our little Jon was not in the mood to participate in any kind of drama, so when he had seen that Lady Catelyn had gotten down from the carriage, he used "the most potent weapon" available at his disposal to make the wet nurse take him inside, "THE SHIT MISSILE". The wet nurse was helpless against the weapon and could only admit defeat and take him inside to get him changed.

"Oh he was just around here somewhere, the wetnurse must have taken him inside. I will send for a servant to fetch him immediately," Benjen said while turning around and raising his hand.

"No it's alright, I'll meet with him later," Eddard said while putting a hand on benjen's shoulder to stop him from calling a servant.

"Who's Jon?" Catelyn asked quietly while tilting her head.

Benjen looked toward her with a confused expression while Eddard's eyes widened comically as he suddenly remembered that in his haste to travel from Riverrun to Winterfell he had totally forgotten to tell his new wife about his "bastard" son.

IT WAS AT THAT MOMENT HE KNEW THAT HE FU**ED UP

There was complete silence in the courtyard with not even the horses making any sound. All residents would swear that they all collectively felt a sudden chill in the air as if the Long Night had come back.

 

[LazyWizard]

I was standing at the bow of my ship looking far into the distance with the help of a far eye. My assistant was standing beside me giving me a report.

"Only 2 ships need an emergency repair, Captain. The rest of them are working in optimum condition" He said to me while reading from a notebook.

"2 ships out of the 115 ships I have in my fleet falling to pieces, is a lot better than I expected. How about our food stock" I asked.

"We should be fine for the return journey, as long as we reach Valariya in 5 days, Captain," he replied after looking at the report in his hands for a while.

"Well then, that should not be a problem, because I can see the smokes of valyria in the distance," I said while handing him the far-eye. I started shouting immediately.

"Bring out the filter masks and give one to everyone on the ships. You! Flagbearer! Send a signal to every ship in our fleet for them to..."

"Jo... Jon ... Jon... JON"

An irritating voice was shouting from somewhere far away and jostling me and I was telling it to stop.

Suddenly the fog inside my head cleared and I found myself inside my room. The source of that irritating voice was my brother,

"JON! JON! WAKE UP!" who will get the beating of his life if he doesn't stop shaking me.

"Go Away Let me sleep," I shouted back and pulled the blanket on my head. For a moment of bliss I thought he had gone away and the next second I felt my blanket pulled away from me. I sat up on my bed angrily and looked at him standing in the corner with that infuriating innocent smile on his face.

"I'll KILL YOU, STARK," I said through my gritted teeth.

"You'll have to get up for that," he replied smugly.

I fell back with a groan on my bed. Now wide awake but too tired to walk across the room and beat the snot out of that annoying brat.

"Why in the seven hell did you wake me up at this ungodly hour, Robb," I sighed and started slowly getting out of my bed.

"You promised to teach me to swim," he said eagerly, "and If we don't go now then everyone's going to be awake and someone will catch us,"

"You already know almost everything you need to swim," I grouched while changing my night clothes into something suitable for the cold outside, not that they are going to be any help while swimming naked, I shivered at the thought.

"Yeah, but what If I drown because I am all alone out there? You'll lose your favorite brother," he said while making a sad face.

"You just want someone to be there to share punishment with you if we get caught," I snarked toward him while walking toward the door, "And you are my only brother,"

He stuck a tongue at me and went outside the door with me following right behind him. I closed the door behind me and as I looked around, I noticed it was still quite dark outside and it would be an hour before the sun rises. As I was slowly walking down the stairs, I found Robb, already at the bottom of the stairs, waving at me to hurry up.

I sighed and went down the stairs two steps at a time. We silently crossed the courtyard toward the armory. We only had to hide twice, one time because of a maid rushing to the kitchen and the other time because of a sleepy guard doing night patrol.

After that, it was a smooth journey, we passed the armory and went straight into the godswood. We kept walking silently between the thick canopy of trees which mostly consisted of birch, oak, and ironwood. The ground was hard and packed with moss and thousands-year-old humus.

The godswood was a dark primal forest that had been left untouched for thousands of years, and the silence was only broken by the sounds of unidentified creatures of the forest and leaves crunching under our feet, so it could have scared a grown man into running let alone two kids. But we had been coming here for so long, mostly with Father, that the place had lost its mysteries to us.

We passed by a couple of more trees before we came into a clearing with a tall weirwood tree. The weirwood had bark white as bone, dark red leaves, and a long and melancholy face carved in the bark, its deep-cut eyes red with dried sap. In the center of the clearing was a small, dark, and cold pool.

We both kept walking in until we stopped in front of the weirwood tree and then simultaneously knelt there to pray. I prayed to the old gods for the autumn to end a bit sooner and for the health of everyone in our family, even Catelyn.

When I came into this world I had not been a particularly faithful person, never quite believing in any of the gods. But as Lord Stark began to bring me and Robb to pray here once or twice a week, it became a habit for me. And I found it so calming to pray here that before I knew it, I was a follower of the old gods not that there were any particular requirements for it. The old gods don't actually demand anything unlike the faith of the Seven.

After a few seconds, I stood up and found Robb stripping his clothes in front of the pool.

"What are you doing?" I asked while moving toward him.

"Going for a swim, the thing we came here for, you know," he said while rolling his eyes.

"Not in this cold pool, I thought we were going for the three pools by the guest house, where the water comes from the hot springs," I said speaking slowly as if talking to a particularly dimwitted child, "The summer has not arrived yet, you do know that,"

"I heard old Nan say that it's almost autumn, so the water's not going be that cold," he said while stripping the last of his clothes to stand in front of the pool naked while looking at me in anticipation.

"You are insane!" I said while not moving at all to join him.

"It's called being valiant and manly," he said while puffing his chest and standing with his hands on his waist.

I stared at him in silence for a few moments before speaking in a deadpan,

"You look stupid,"

He looked sheepish for a moment before he took a few steps away from the pool and then after giving me a challenging smirk took a running start and jumped right into the pool.

"Whoohoo... " his excited shout echoed in the silent forest before he went under the water. It took a few seconds before he came back up and looked toward me with a wide grin on his face.

"Come... onnn...ittsss...noottt... thaaat... cooooldddd," he said with his teeth clattering.

"I believe you," I said sarcastically while taking a seat on a rock.

"You're not going leave me all alone here, Are you?" he said smoothly after a few minutes, having already gotten accustomed to the cold water. It gets really hard to doubt magic is there in our blood when looking at the sight of a kid adapting to almost freezing water in a matter of minutes.

While we both are only 3-year-olds we are taller and more robust than any 5 or 6-year-old kid out there. We very rarely get sick with a cold and while other people would shiver uncontrollably on a particularly cold day we barely feel it.

"Are you coming in or not!" he shouted.

"I am not"

"If you have the blood of starks of winter in you then you will not be afraid of a little cold and If you don't come inside then you're not my brother," he said while pouting and looking at me from the corner of his eyes.

"You think your childish provocation will work on me," I said while raising an eyebrow with a little smile on my face.

"Come on pleaaassse..." he whined like a 3-year-old.

"Alright! Alright! I am coming don't start crying," I said before standing up and divesting my clothes beside Robb's. I took a breath and jumped straight into the pool.

The cold water knocked the wind out of me and I felt like needles were pricking at my skin, all over my body. I swam to the surface of the water and took slow deep breaths while keeping my eyes closed. Only a couple of seconds later, my body got used to the cold water and I could almost feel the pores across my body shrinking and blood circulating faster.

After a moment of just enjoying the coolness of the water on my skin, I opened my eyes and was instantly splashed with a huge amount of water out of nowhere. I started coughing and rubbing my eyes while listening to Robb laughing his ass off. I opened my eyes and glared at him with murderous eyes.

He must have seen something on my face because he immediately started swimming away from me.

"Get back here, You Bastard!," I shouted while swimming after him.

"I am not the bastard, You are!" he said while laughing out loud and when he looked back to check on me, he squealed like a little girl when he found out how close I was and tried to swim away even faster.

We played in the pool till the sun's rays could be seen on the horizon, and after having our fill of the fun, we wore our clothes and lay down beside the pool to calm down our breathing.

After having sufficiently rested I stood up and walked toward the trees in the godswood. I walked around for a while before I found a tree that I considered appropriate for a beginner then I took some distance from that tree. While facing the tree I took a deep breath, and then ran toward it at a moderate speed, just before reaching it I took a jump and then started climbing it, I didn't even make a meter above the ground before I fell toward the ground hard.

"Ow Ow..."

As I lay there trying to catch my breath, I felt a shadow on my face, when I opened my eyes I found Robb standing there with his face crunched up in confusion.

"What are you doing?" he inquired.

"I am training to become a hunter," I said while standing up for another try at it.

"By practicing how to fall from a tree," he asked, bewildered.

"No by learning to climb a tree very fast," I said before I ran and tried to climb the tree, this time I was able to reach a higher place before falling down on my feet.

"How are you going to become a hunter by learning to climb a tree?" he asked in a skeptical tone as if questioning my sanity.

"Do you remember that old hunter in Wintertown who hunted that big stag last year?" I asked while not stopping my training.

"Yeah, Old mark, right. What about him?"

"Well I asked him a couple of days ago, about what should I do to become a good hunter, and he said that the most important thing for a hunter is how fast he could climb a tree. Apparently, there is a saying between the hunter, 'The faster a hunter climbs, The longer he survives ', so that's why I am training so that if I come across a wolf or something, I could climb a tree in a heartbeat... Ow..ow..."

I was able to almost reach the first branch this time but I lost my balance before catching it. Robb had already found a rock to sit on.

"Well, why do you want to become a hunter all of a sudden?" he said while watching me from his seat.

"Do you know how much money Old Mark got for that big buck?"

"Enough to last him for a while, I guess"

"Well he got about 70 silver stag, if it was not so full of arrows he could have even gotten a gold dragon," I said to him while stopping for a moment to catch a breath.

That old mark had gotten quite lucky to be able to hunt down that big of a beast. While they were not a rarity, they almost always escape because they are not slowed down by a couple of arrows at all. The second he had gotten that money, he married his daughter to our blacksmith Mikken's son.

"Why would you want to earn money ?" he asked bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Do you remember what I told you two days ago?"

"What are— Oh, about your dream to travel the world" he replied quietly.

"Yeah, and you need a lot of money to do that so I have to start early. I don't want to turn into an old man before I earn enough money to go to White Harbour, Do I?" I said while laughing lightly.

But Robb wasn't laughing, he was looking at the ground morosely. I sighed and went toward him and sat beside him before putting a hand around his shoulders.

"Hey what happened? Why are you sulking?"

"I'm not sulking," he sulkily said while looking at the ground.

"Of course, you are not. Now tell me what happened,"

"I don't want you to go," he said while looking up at me with moist eyes.

"Hey! Hey! I am not talking about going anywhere soon, You know. It'll probably be a decade before Father even allows me to step foot outside Winterfell," I said while rubbing his shoulder in comfort, "So you don't have to worry about me disappearing tomorrow,"

"I am not worried about you," he said while looking away from me and rubbing his eyes.

"Of course, you're not," I said while standing up and walking toward the exit "Now come on let's go before the grumkin comes looking for you,"

"She'll be with my mother, so we don't have to worry at all," he said while catching up with me.

"How is lady stark by the way?"

"She's alright, just angry with father because he told her that she was not allowed to go outside." he said before continuing with a crunched-up face, "And she doesn't like being fat or being called fat,"

"Well it won't be long before we have a little sister"

"Mother thinks that we'll have a baby brother but father said he wants a little baby girl," he said while kicking a pebble before continuing, "But I don't understand how mother getting fat will get us a baby brother or a baby sister,"

"Did you not ask Lady Stark," I asked while imagining Catelyn's face when Robb asks her about where babies come from.

"I did, but she said I am not old enough," he said before turning toward me, "But you know about that right, so you can tell me,"

"I do know but she's right, you're not old enough yet to know about this secret," I said in a mystifying tone.

"Hey! We are the same age. Come on, tell me! Please!" he whined while swinging my arm back and forth.

"Alright! Alright! Tell you what, if you win the race then I'll tell you," I said while taking my hand from him.

"What race," he said while tilting his head.

"The race to the kitchen that starts..." I said before bending to get into the runner's position and then took off with a shout of "NOW!"

"Hey! that's cheating!" he shouted from behind me before I heard his footsteps as he ran behind me.

We ran for a while between trees and then went straight out of godswood. As we were passing by the armory and I took a turn around a corner, I came to a complete stop.

"Hey, why did you stop," he asked while slowing down after seeing me stand at the corner looking toward the other side.

"Look's like the grumkin found us!" I said to him in a whisper as he came to stand beside me and when he found out who was in front of me he immediately understood the reason I stopped.

"Where are you two up to?" Septa Mordane said while looking at us with suspicion in her eyes.

Before I could reply to her with something that would definitely not be appropriate for a child, I saw Robb looking at me with wide eyes, silently asking me if I wanted to mess with her. I obviously replied in an affirmative via rapid blinking of my eyes.

"Nothing!" We shouted simultaneously.

She looked at both of us for a few moments before turning toward Robb.

"Lord Robb, I've told you this before but you should not associate yourself too much with him," she said while pretending as if I don't exist.

"And why should I not associate with my brother, Septa," he inquired as if genuinely curious.

"Because he is a bastard," she said while looking at me from the corner of her eyes to see if would react, but I only smiled back not offended at all, "And they are creatures born out of sin and lust so they are not to be trusted,"

"Oh! they are," Robb said in an exaggerated tone, "And are children of bastards, bastards too, Septa,"

"Of course," she replied while directing a smirk at me

Robb nodded as if he understood everything she was telling him and then abruptly turned toward me.

"Do you remember Jon?" Robb asked, "What Maester Luwin was teaching us two days,"

"Of course, he was teaching us the history of Baratheons," I replied while hiding my smile, having understood where he was going with this.

"And wasn't the founder of House Baratheon, Orys Baratheon a Targaryen bastard,"

"That's what it says in the history books," I replied while trying to hold my laughter in.

"And isn't there a very important man who is a descendent of Baratheon," he asked while turning toward a rapidly paling septa.

"Yes, I think the King, the ruler of Seven kingdoms is a Baratheon,"

We both started advancing toward the septa who slowly started stepping backward while looking as if she had seen a ghost.

"So what the good Septa here is telling us is that the king is a creature born of sin and lust,"

"No, I didn't mean tha—" she tried to say but I interrupted her.

"And isn't Lord Stark a very old friend of the king?"

"Yeah, he is and we should definitely tell father what the good septa here is saying about his childhood friend," Robb replied while we both looked maliciously toward the septa.

...

A few minutes later the septa walked out of that corner looking as if her soul had left her body, she hurriedly walked toward the great keep with her head down.

"She will definitely leave us alone for a while now,"

"Where did you learn to blackmail people like that," I asked Robb as he was dipping freshly baked bread into his soup.

We had gotten some breakfast from the kitchen and were sitting in the great hall. It was mostly empty with the occasional guard coming for an early breakfast.

"From you," he spoke while spraying food from his mouth everywhere.

"Don't speak with your mouth full," I said while moving my plate away from his.

"You sound like my mother,"

"Just because Lady stark is not here, doesn't mean you should forget your manners," I replied while hitting the back of his head, "And when did you see me blackmail someone?"

"That one time you blackmailed my mother into letting you sit at the head table or the other time when she tried to move you into servant quarter but you somehow suddenly persuaded her, or the—"

"Alright! Alright! I get it, you don't need to say anymore," I interrupted him when he looked like he would go on for a while, "And you should not do it anymore, or else your mother will really murder me in my sleep,"

"If you can do it, then I can do it too,"

"I am more mature than you, so you should listen to me," I said while trying to make my voice firm.

"We are the same age," he said petulantly while sticking his tongue out at me.

Before I could teach the brat about respecting his betters, a guard suddenly came into the great hall and started walking toward us intently. He came to a stop beside Robb before he started speaking.

"Lord Stark requested your presence in his solar m'lord,"

Robb nodded to let him know that he had gotten the message and then tried to hurriedly finish the rest of his food.

"Is today one of your lordly lessons?" I asked while eating slowly.

"Yeah, today he is going to teach me all about our army and how to call for them," he said excitedly, before standing up, "I'll tell you about it later, Bye"

He ran out of the hall toward the great keep while dodging between the maids. Once or twice a month Father calls Robb into his solar for long lessons where he teaches him about things a Lord is required to know. They are supposed to be secrets that Lord passes onto his heir, but Robb always tells me everything that he learns in there.

After cleaning my plate of all the food, I slowly stood up and went out of the great hall. As I looked toward the sky I felt that it should be around the time that guards start their daily training, so I turned toward the direction of the courtyard and started walking leisurely.

Almost the whole castle had woken up by this point so it was really bustling, I passed many servants, guards, the steward, or the stable boy rushing toward their daily chores.

It only took a couple of minutes for me to reach the courtyard, it was filled with men of all kinds of ages. From the elderly master at arms to young new recruits being drilled by the Guard captain.

I passed by everyone only stopping occasionally to say hi, before I came to a stop in front of a ring where some of the guards were having impromptu duels. I found my regular spot which was an out-of-the-way tree stump and sat on it while looking toward the ongoing duel.

Since I had been able to walk, I had been coming here to observe the guards practicing their forms or competing against each other. And while I was too young to practice my arms for a few years yet, I thought that I would still learn something from watching them.

The most important thing that I learned was all the different kinds of forms the guards used in their sword fight. I slowly started noticing a pattern, like a particular form is used by most guards when they are on the defensive or the other form they use while on the attack.

I still had the habit of doing the complex calculations in my mind and doing image training and after all this, it had paid off here. My memory retention was outstanding, so whenever I saw a guard use a particular, I would remember everything about it from the location of his hands and legs to when it was being used, etc.

So after I've got enough data from watching all these duels, I should be able to predict what my opponent would do next by the position of his arms and legs as well as his center of balance. It was all a theory for now but when I start practicing for real, that is when I would find out If it would pay off.

 

[LazyWizard]

The Lords Solar, Winterfell

Eddard was sitting behind the desk while looking over the reports sent by his bannermen on their remaining food stock. Winter had just ended and he needed to see what was the overall conditions of his lands. To prepare better for the next winter, he needed to see which of his bannermen were struggling and which were thriving. It was the duty of every Lord of Winterfell to make sure the next winter is better than the last.

If the winter had lasted even a year longer then a lot of the population in the villages all over the north would have starved. Not that it would be a new thing, it's how people in the north have lived for a long time, whenever times get hard the older men will go out to hunt in the night and never come back. Things like these make the smallfolk dream of a summer that lasts forever, however, the Starks know that no matter how long summer lasts, Winter is Coming.

He put aside the report after a few minutes while massaging his forehead and looked over a message from the mormonts, they reported an increase in raids from Ironborn and also noted large patches of forest disappearing, most probably stolen by the reavers for their ships. Eddard hoped that it was just a couple of drunk rogue reavers and not something more sinister. He still decided that he would write a letter to Robert to tell him about the ironborn problem.

He was going over a message benjen had sent from Wall when a knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts.

"Come in!" Eddard said while putting the message aside. The door to his solar opened, and Maester Luwin came inside while closing the door behind him.

"You called for me My Lord," Maester Luwin said while coming to stand before his desk.

"Yes, please take a seat," Eddard said while pointing toward the seat, "How is Catelyn doing now, Maester? Is her fever down yet,"

"Lady Catelyn is fine now and even her fever has come down," Maester Luwin said while shuffling his chains, "so I don't think there will be any complication with the birth,"

"That is good news, Maester!" Eddard said while sighing in relief.

"Why don't you visit her, My Lord," Maester Luwin said with a kind smile, "I am sure she will be happy to see you,"

"I don't know about that," Eddard said while squirming in discomfort, "The last time I went to see her she threw a glass at me,"

"That was partly your fault, My Lord. You should have knocked before entering," Maester said in reproach.

"I know," Eddard said while covering his face with his hand and looking away in embarrassment, "I just didn't expect to find her in such a... distressing position,"

"The young lady was quite mortified after that," the maester said while shaking his head, "but I assured her that you would not be angry,"

"Yes, Well thank you for that, Maester," he said before composing himself and hurriedly asked, "How long until she gives birth Maester,"

"You can never be too sure about these things, but if all goes well then she should give birth before the week is over, My Lord,"

"Good! Good!" Eddard said while looking out the window, "And the weather today is clear too, so it seems a good day to go on a hunt,"

"Oh, are you talking about the tradition of going on a hunt before the birth of a child," Luwin asked curiously, it had not been more than a decade since he became Winterfell's maester so he was still new to some things.

"Yes, It is a long-standing stark tradition to hunt an animal and offer it to the old gods before a child is born. I still remember when I went on a hunt with Brandon and Father when Lyanna was born," Eddard said while reminiscing, "While I was not able to do so for Robb and Jon, this next child should have the old god's blessing,"

"Then I hope you have a very successful hunt," Luwin said while standing up, "If that is all, My Lord. I should go back to Lady Catelyn,"

"Yes, thank you Maester," Eddard said while standing up to follow him outside and closed the door behind him

"Do you know where Robb and Jon are," he asked the maester who was already at the end of the corridor,

"No My lord, they both ran away halfway through their lesson," Maester Luwin while shaking his head.

They both shared a bitter smile over the mischievous kids before Luwin went away and Eddard went out of the great keep. He walked around for about half an hour looking for them but couldn't find them anywhere so he forgo looking for his kids and went toward the courtyard first.

The courtyard was half-filled with recruits drilling under the command of the old guard captain along with his apprentice young Jory Cassel. Ser Rodrik Cassel was watching from afar having already finished his morning training. When Rodrik noticed Eddard, he immediately started walking toward him.

"Keeping a watch on your nephew's practice, Ser Rodrik," Eddard asked Rodrik while nodding toward where Jory was going through his forms.

"Yes, My Lord. Just making sure he's not slacking off,"

"He is a good lad just give him a few years and he will be ready to take over the guard captain's position," Eddard said and Rodrik looked at his nephew with pride in his eyes. They talked about the various recruits and who among them was talented or particularly hard-working.

"I came here to tell you to gather a small hunting party," Eddard said after a while," It will be a short hunt so you don't pack too much stuff. Just gather the usual people and meet me at Hunter's gate in an hour,"

"Yes, My lord," he nodded and went away briskly.

'Now, the last and hardest job, to find those two troublemakers', Eddard thought and went off in search around the castle.

He had been going around the castle and asking people along the way for about 10 more minutes when a young maid pointed toward them while hiding a smile. Both the boys were standing on top of the wall beside the east gate and had piled up a small mountain of snow beside their feet. Eddard sighed tiredly and started walking toward them.

"Why is no one coming?" Robb whispered to Jon while looking out of the gate.

"Someone will come, we just have to wait," Jon whispered back before turning toward Robb, "And you have to remember Robb, 'HIT and HIDE', you always forget the hiding part,"

"But If I don't see them getting hit, where would be the fun in that," Robb said while whining a little.

"If you see them then they may see you too," Jon said while rolling his eyes in exasperation, "And don't you remember what father said to us the last time he caught us?"

Robb cleared his throat before he deepened his voice and tried to imitate Eddard, "If I ever catch you, boys, pranking again, I will make you collect horse shit from dusk till dawn,"

"That's right, so we can't be caught," Jon said while looking out the east gate.

"Don't worry, I chose this place after a lot of thought," Robb said while patting his chest, "Father won't catch us here,".

"Won't I? Robb," A deep voice said from behind them suddenly.

Robb and Jon both turned around wildly, startled from their conversation like a stag from a hunter's arrow, and Robb hurriedly tried to hide the small snow hill beside their feet by kicking it sneakily while standing up as if to hide the evidence of their crime.

Eddard just continued to stare at them blankly without saying a word until they started to squirm in discomfort. Robb stared at anywhere but his father's eyes while Jon stared resolutely ahead with a poker face.

"What were you two doing?" Eddard asked quietly, even though he had heard everything.

"Nothing," Robb replied a little too quickly.

He stared at them with an ice-cold face without blinking, waiting for one of them to break and confess. Robb started to move his hands awkwardly and his face looked the part of a child caught in the act.

"We were just watching people come and go," Jon said hurriedly when it looked like Robb would cave in.

Over the years they have pulled many pranks on the household staff. Mostly it was them taking revenge on someone who had said one thing or the other about Jon being a bastard. He had punished the boys of course but also subtly made sure that the staff was out of the castle by the end of the week.

But it looked like they were in the habit of pranking people now and had started to turn their attention to random passersby.

"I don't have time for this today but when we get back, you both will be cleaning the stables for a week," Eddard said and they both started to protest before he overrode them, "And I don't want to hear any excuses. Do you understand," he glared at them until they nodded. He turned around and started walking downstairs with both of them following him.

"But where are we going, Father," Robb asked while Jon looked on curiously.

"We are going on a hunt,"

"Yes," they shouted in unison and started jumping in excitement.

"You are to go straight to your room and change," Eddard turned toward them when they had reached downstairs, "Then meet me at the Hunter's Gate, and If you are late, then I will leave both of you behind,"

He had not even completed the sentence but they were already running away, Eddard just sighed while looking behind them before shaking his head in exasperation and walking toward the Great Keep.

'These two were already a handful and there would be another little wolf in a few days.' Eddard thought while shuddering and prayed to the old gods to grant him patience.

An hour later the party was gathered at the hunter's gate ready to set out. The hunting party consisted of a total of 10 people.

Three of them were hunters from Wintertown of which two of them were carrying bows on their backs while the last one had a spear and every one of them had a skinning knife on their waists. They hunted regularly for the kitchens of Winterfell so they were quite experienced.

Four of them were part of Winterfell household guards, each of them was carrying a sword while two of them had hunting spears as well. And along with them were Ser Rodrik Cassel and his nephew Jory.

Eddard was speaking to Ser Rodrik and Jory about something when Jory started laughing while looking behind them and when they both turned around, what they saw made Eddard facepalm in exasperation.

Robb and Jon were both running toward them with big smiles on their faces, and while Jon looked normal in his leathers, Robb looked ridiculous wearing his toy helmet while carrying a wooden sword on his waist as well as a small bow in his hands.

"Robb, what are you wearing," Eddard sighed after both of them came to stand in front of him and glared at Jon who was snickering at his brother non-stop.

"I am going on a hunt so I wore my hunting clothes," Robb said while smiling widely.

"You are not going to be hunting, We are," Eddard said while kneeling before Robb and removing his helmet and taking the bow from his hands, and giving them to a nearby guard, "The only thing that you will be doing is watch from a safe distance and learn,"

"I told you, they won't let us hunt," Jon said while rolling his eyes.

"Well, I don't want to go If I can't hunt," Robb huffed and looked to the side while folding his little hands.

"Well Jon," Eddard said while standing up, "it looks like it'll just be the two of us then, let's go,"

He turned around and started to walk toward his horse, with Jon following behind him while waving his hand at Robb mockingly. They had almost reached the horse when Robb came behind them running and shouting.

"Wait! don't leave me, I want to come too,"

"Are you sure you'll be able to go without being able to hunt?" Eddard asked while hiding a small smile and looking down at Robb.

"Yes,"

"Very Well, then," Eddard said before lifting Robb by his armpits and placing him on his horse before doing the same with Jon and putting him just behind Robb. After making sure that they were not at risk of falling, he mounted the horse in a smooth motion and sat behind them. The hunting party started to move slowly out of the Gate and toward the forest of Wolfwood.

...

About an hour later the hunting party stopped just before the dense part of the forest started and got down from their horses. Two of the guards went around collecting all the horses and tying them to trees.

"Why are we stopping here father?" Jon asked.

"Because it's dangerous to go inside the forest on a horse, it's easy for them to lose their footing, and we may fall down," Eddard replied while patting Jon's head.

"But why didn't we stop out there where the trees started," Robb asked while pointing toward the trees that they had left behind them.

"This is where the proper Wolfwood begins, while those are trees that have grown in the past few decades and will be cut down before long. Now stop asking questions," Eddard said before waving at Jory, "Jory, it will be your duty along with two of the guards to look after them. Alright,"

"Yes, My lord," Jory replied and stood behind the two of them.

"Now, boys it will be dangerous inside the forest so once we go inside, you are to listen to anything I say at once, and not cause any kind of mischief. And you are not to move too far from Jory. Do you understand?"

"Yes," they shouted in unison.

Ser Rodrik left two guards behind to watch over the horses while the rest of the party slowly entered the forest. At the front of the party was a hunter who acted as a scout while just behind them were Eddard and Ser Rodrik. In the middle of the party were Jon and Robb along with Jory, while bringing the rear of the party were two guards and two hunters.

The wolfswood was a very large forest that stretched across almost half of North. There were very large varieties of trees in there like oak, sentinels, beech, ash, ironwoods, etc. Weirwoods could occasionally be found in there mostly isolated or in pairs. The wolfswood was named after the great many wolves one can hear howling in the night, but one can also find boars, deers, elks, rabbits, and the occasional bears in here.

They were slowly moving while being careful of their surroundings, while the hunters were looking for footprints or any other sign of animals on the ground.

"Why are you using a spear, Father?" Robb suddenly asked Eddard after he realized that the only ones who were wielding a sword were Ser Rodrik and Jory while everyone else was either holding a spear or wielding a bow.

"It is much easier to use a spear than a sword while hunting and safer too," Eddard said while thrusting his spear, "It keeps the animals at a distance,"

"But I like swords," Robb said.

"Every weapon has its uses, they just need the right condition for them to shine. For example, while a sword may not be the best for hunting, it is the best weapon when you are against peasant levies whose only form of protection is useless against a sharp weapon. And the safest option is probably to shoot from a distance with a bow," Eddard said shrugging. He hid his smile when he saw what Jon was doing from behind Robb, and continued in a whisper, "Until your enemy gets too close to you..."

"BOO..." Jon suddenly shouted in Robb's ear which made him scream like a little girl and jump. Robb immediately started chasing after Jon while the party started laughing at the antics of their lord's children.

"Isn't it a bit early for them to learn about having to kill peasant levies, My Lord?" Ser Rodrik asked in a low voice from behind Eddard.

"While they are a bit young, they won't be that forever, and we can never be too sure of the future," Eddard said while looking at his two sons, "But one thing we can be sure of is, Winter is—"

"Winter is Coming. Yes, My lord, I Know," Rodrik said while rolling his eyes.

"I do say that a lot don't I," Eddard said and smiled slightly while patting Ser Rodrick on the shoulder.

The hunter who had been sent to scout ahead came back running toward them while looking a bit out of breath. He told the party that he had found the traces of a boar. Everyone started to get a bit serious after that and silently followed the hunter who took them toward the trail of the boar.

Eddard kept getting distracted by Robb's constant questions, he felt that Robb would scare their prey away. So Eddard caught Jon's eye and looked meaningfully at him while pointing toward Robb, Jon rolled his eyes but still went toward Robb.

"Hey, Robb! How about we play a game," Jon asked Robb while walking beside him.

"What game?" Robb asked while looking at Jon a bit warily.

"Don't worry I am not tricking you, I swear," Jon said while putting a hand on his heart and when Robb nodded he continued, "The game is every time you see a small animal like a squirrel or a bird you silently point toward it, and I will do the same. At the end of the hunt whoever found more animals wins. How about it?"

"Alright, Lest play," Robb said enthusiastically.

After that, it was silent with the boys just pointing now and then toward their surroundings while the hunters were able to pay attention to their surroundings.

They must have been following the trail for about half an hour when suddenly a hunter in the front found the boar. Ser Rodrik and two of the hunters went ahead to circle around and surround the boar from the opposite side.

"BOAR! INCOMING!" Ser Rodrik's shout came from the front.

"Everyone spread out! Jory, take Jon and Robb toward the back." Eddard shouted.

Everyone rearranged themselves, two of the guards stood in front of Lord Stark on the left and right side while holding their spears. A few seconds must have passed before a great boar suddenly came barrelling toward them from between the trees. The boar went straight toward the guard on the left who panicked and thrust his spear toward the boar a bit early, the boar changed direction before even coming close and charged toward its left where Eddard was.

Eddard stood still, waiting for the charging boar to come toward him with his spear lowered, he was as calm as still water. When the boar was just a couple meters away and Eddard still didn't move, and Jon's heart lurched into his mouth.

"FATHER!" Robb shouted toward Eddard in a scared voice.

Just before the boar hit him, Eddard suddenly thrust his spear straight into the boar's face with a squishing sound while sliding and jumping backward skillfully to kill the boar's momentum. After a few seconds, he suddenly plunged the spear downward into the still-screaming boar and held it there until it stopped twitching.

The second Eddard pulled the spear out of the now-dead boar, the boys came running straight toward him. They both started shouting together while jumping up and down.

"You were so cool father and when you thrust your spear, that was so... so..." Robb said while feeling a bit breathless.

"I think I like the spear now," Jon said while looking at Eddard a bit reverently.

Eddard laughed out loud while putting the spear away and patting both their head, feeling very happy to receive compliments from his sons.

The hunters gathered around the boar to tie it on a stick so that it would be easy to carry. The boys had calmed down by now and were watching them from afar while feeling a bit squirmish.

"Will we eat the boar at dinner father," Robb asked while looking toward Eddard.

"No, after we perform a small ceremony in the godswood we will donate toward some of the poor in Wintertown,"

They were silently waiting for the party to pack up and move back when Robb suddenly looked away and pointed in the distance.

"What are you doing, Robb? The game is already over," Jon said while rolling his eyes.

"No look!" Robb said while thrusting his finger toward a tree.

Jon looked and immediately ran over when he found out what it was. Jon stopped before a tree and looked at the ground. What Robb had found was a small baby bird that looked a bit injured in its wings. Jon very gingerly took the bird in his hands and looked toward it with wide eyes. It was blue and white in color with yellow eyes and was probably a few weeks old.

"It looks like a baby snow eagle, probably fell from its nest," Eddard said while coming behind them.

"Can I keep it, Father please," Jon said while looking at Eddard pleadingly. Jon had felt a connection with the eagle the second he held it in his hand, and from the sound of its happy chirping, the baby eagle was happy too.

"It will not be able to survive for long without a mother,"

"I will take care of it every day, so please, Father," Jon said while making his eyes look big.

"Alright, you can keep it. But only if you promise to clean after the bird yourself, I will not have to bother the servants with this. And it may not survive anyway, and you will be the one who will have to bury it when that happens,"

"Yes," Jon shouted with a wide smile and looked toward the baby eagle, "I will call you Frost,"

Their journey back toward their horses was a bit slow, and when they finally reached Winterfell it was almost dark. So they hurriedly took the dead boar into the godswood before it went bad. Jon, Robb, and Eddard performed a ceremony in front of the Heart tree while asking the old gods to bless the newest stark.

A very happy Jon went to sleep that night while thinking about the baby bird and how he had finally caught his first POKEMON.

 

[LazyWizard]

It was afternoon and I was in my room kneeling down and watching frost waddle around slowly, I would occasionally place obstacles in front of her as a game and she would move around them while making cute chirp noises. Either her wings had not been healed or she was not yet old enough but she hasn't been able to fly yet.

From time to time she would fall and I would gently stand her back up and she would go right back into the game. I didn't know her exact diet yet but I have been feeding her strips of meat leaving a small water bowl beside her, and she hasn't complained yet.

'I should borrow a book from Library about birds,' I thought.

Right after the morning lesson with Maester Luwin had been completed, Robb had run straight toward Catelyn's room to see if we could be allowed in yet. It's been two days since Catelyn gave birth, but Robb and I have not been allowed to see the baby yet, Robb has been throwing tantrums about that around the clock, so instead of going along with I came back to room play with Frost.

The reason we had not been allowed in yet was that a light snow had fallen the day after our hunt and considering that Catelyn had a fever just before the birth, Maester Luwin didn't want to take any risk or at least that's what the maids were gossiping about in the kitchen.

Suddenly the door of my room was slammed open and I looked up while Frost fell from surprise. Robb came inside looking as if he had been running a marathon, his face red like his hair from exertion.

"Father says we can see the baby," he said while huffing and puffing.

I immediately stood up and gently took Frost in my hands and put him in a box on the desk, while making sure that there wasn't a risk of her falling.

"Stop playing with your bird and hurry up!"

"She's not a bird, she is an eagle Stupid," I said while placing a blanket around the box before rushing toward the door, "And her name is Frost," I said while hitting him lightly on the head and closing the door behind me.

"Whatever," Robb said while rubbing his head, before turning around, "Now, let's go,"

We both ran down the stairs and cut straight through the courtyard without heeding any passersby, Robb almost knocked down a maid who was carrying laundry, but other than that we made record time toward the room where the baby and Catelyn were staying.

We reached outside the room and found Lord stark standing outside and waiting for us. Robb made to go running straight toward the door but Eddard caught him by his scruff and dangled him in the air.

"I am going to see the baby," Robb said while wiggling like a worm.

"Stop and listen to me first," Eddard said while placing Robb down beside me.

"But you said we can see the baby," Robb said accusingly at his father.

"You can, but you have to follow some rules," Eddard said while looking at us sternly, "You will not talk loudly inside, you will not disturb Catelyn's rest, and you will be very careful with the baby as she is very fragile so there will be no pranks. Do you understand,"

"Yes, Father," We both said simultaneously while nodding our heads like chickens.

Lord stark looked at us for a moment before turning around and opening the door and ushering us inside the room. This room was one of the warmest in Winterfell and along with the burning fireplace, it was like summer inside, and the air was a bit stale with the smell of sweat and fresh clothes lingering around.

Lady Catelyn was sleeping on the bed under a pile of blankets, while a crib was placed just within reach of the bed. Robb and I ran straight toward the crib while Catelyn opened her eyes blearily hearing some sounds.

"What is he doing here," Catelyn said when she saw me with Robb.

"He is my brother, so he will stay," Robb said while glaring at his mother before turning back to the baby.

I rolled my eyes and ignored her, instead looking toward the small thing wrapped in bundles laying inside the crib. Over the years, Catelyn had tried to be mean toward me to make me stay away from Robb and scare me away, but most of the things she said goes inside one ear and out the other. While a normal child would be distraught and shy away from her, to my adult soul she was just a bratty 17-year-old teenager who was throwing a tantrum.

"She is so pretty," Robb said while looking inside the crib with wide eyes.

"Yeah and she looks like you, Robb. You both have the same hair," I said while watching the baby yawn with fascination.

"He is my son, Catelyn," Eddard said in a low voice while sitting on the bed beside Catelyn and taking her hand.

"Well he is not my son," Catelyn snapped toward Eddard while snatching her hand away. I turned around while holding onto Robb's shoulder when it looked like Robb would shout at his mother.

"You have to understand one thing Lady Stark, that while you may not be my mother," I said while looking into Catelyn's eyes resolutely and pointing toward the baby, "She is my sister and she is part of the pack now, and while you may not know what that means. Know this 'When the snows fall and the white wind blows, the lone wolf dies..."

"...While the pack survives," Eddard and Robb completed my sentence, hence proving my point.

Catelyn looked toward all three of us in succession before she fell back on the bed with a pout after seeing a losing battle.

"Look she opened her, Jon," Robb said excitedly and I immediately ran to join him back beside the crib.

"What is her name, Father," I asked.

"Her name is Sansa," Eddard said while running his hand along Catelyn's hair as a way of apologizing.

We stayed for about half an hour while making faces at the curious toddler who was looking around in fascination. At some point, she suddenly started crying and Lord Stark immediately ushered us out of there while saying that the baby needs to eat.

We wandered around for a while after leaving the great keep while discussing all kinds of tricks we would teach her and how we would steal her from the hands of Grumpkin when she grows up and my feet automatically started taking me toward the library.

"You are not going to the library are you," Robb said when he realized where they were going.

"Yes, I have to take a look at books about birds for Frost, "I said before turning toward him, "and you should come too and you can work on your old tongue,"

"Ugh... I thought Luwin's lesson was enough for the day, now this too," Robb said while slouching, "Alright, you go ahead and I'll go get a quick snack from the kitchen before I join you,"

I've been learning how to read and speak the old tongue from Old Nan since a year ago along with the regular lessons on the common tongue from Maester. When found out about it he was really excited about it and thought it would be cool to have a secret language only both of us could understand.

While I wanted to learn the old tongue because while searching in the library for books on wargs and the magic of the first men, I found a whole section of a library filled with books written in the Old Tongue which have been sitting there for centuries without anyone to read or translate them. They were only copied word to word by an acolyte whenever the books started to get old and frayed.

I reached the library and slowly climbed the stairs because they were slippery sometimes. When I entered the library, I found Tom the acolyte sitting at the desk and copying some book about flowers that was fraying at the edges.

"Hello, Tom," I said while waving at tom.

"Hello, Jon. Going toward the old section today too," Tom said while looking up from his book and raising an eyebrow in question.

"Yes, They are very fascinating books,"

"Well have fun then. At least it's good to know that the work of acolytes over the years has not gone to waste and someone will read the books we copy someday...," I went away deep into the library without listening to the rest of tom's sentence.

Tom was a bastard of a Lord of a masterly house in the north and was learning under Maester Luwin. I say learning, but mostly he does some odd jobs for the Maester like looking after the ravens, copying old and fraying books, buying herbs from wintertown and he also looks after the library. His relationship with Maester Luwin is a give-and-take, where he works under the maester for a few years and if the maester is satisfied in the end, then he will give him a recommendation so that he may study at the citadel to become a maester.

After reaching the old section, I searched around for a few moments before I pulled out the book I had been reading yesterday. I took the book to a table and started reading silently. It was a bit hard to comprehend the words in these books because they had been mostly copied by people who don't exactly understand the old tongue. They just copy it as it is like a picture and that results in some of the words having a very different meaning than intended.

About half an hour later Robb arrived and after fetching a book about the basics of old tongue sat down across from me and started reading, while occasionally asking me about some stuff that he couldn't understand. I had told him that he could go and learn from Old Nan like I did but he said that he gets my explanation much better than her.

The books I was reading were mostly diaries, reports, and accounts written by maesters from centuries ago. Some of them mention the length of winter that year, or where the famine struck and destroyed a noble family but most of them were about wars and who died in which war with the wildlings or the andals.

I was reading my third book of the day and was just about done for the day when I came across a text that was written by a maester who was also the brother of Lord of Winterfell at that time. He was complaining about how his nephew, the only heir of Starks at that time had zero talent in the secret art. After reading the text about 5 times I basically understood the gist of it.

This maester talks about a secret art that has been passed among the Starks for ages from father to son. This secret art makes the user be in control of their emotions at all times, and have a very clear feeling about their thoughts and personality. This secret art is the reason that whenever a Stark, wargs into their direwolf they never lose their sense of self or get trapped inside the mind of the animal.

The nephew in question had zero talent for the secret art which is taught at a very young age so the maester was worried the art will be lost in the annals of history, because of that he had written a book in the old tongue and hidden it in the library so that a future stark may find it.

I was so excited that my hands started shaking, I didn't lose a second and immediately turned the page and read about what the secret art was. There were mainly three things that you have to do to learn the secret art.

The first thing you have to do was wake up early in the morning and try to empty your mind. When you think that your mind is emptied, then you fill your head with random images and smells and intense emotion until your mind is clustered. After that, you have to start emptying your mind again, and you need to do this every day until you can clear your mind in a second. The main benefit of this exercise is that when you warg into an animal you have a very clear sense of self and you won't be mixed with the mind of the animal.

The second thing you have to do is every night before going to sleep, you have to sit in meditation and review everything that happened that day, from things you ate that day to where you went, every minute detail, along with every intense emotion you felt that day and why you felt it. It is said to be a very draining exercise and would take a very long time to perfect. But it is said to improve your memory drastically as well you give you excellent control of your emotion. One side-effect written here is that when people look at you they think that your face is carved with ice and you are an unfeeling man so while it's suitable for unnerving your enemies, it also makes little children cry and run away from you.

And the third and most important step is to care for the animal you want to warg into from a young age. The bond you form with the animal will be very strong if the animal knew you for its whole life. This would make the animal willing to share its mind with it since it would consider you his family.

The pages after that were filled with unintelligible sentences, of a legendary warg born in the Stark family who was able to control multiple animals and was even able to warg into an animal while still in control of his body.

I sighed in satisfaction and fell back into the chair, I had finally found a clear direction to follow to become a warg. Before this, I was a bit afraid of it as in this book it was said that only a person who hated himself would become a successful warg, like bran because he hated his cripple body. Now I found a different and safer method to become a warg.

"Hey, Let's go get lunch. I am starving," Robb said bringing me out of my delusions of an army of animals under my control.

"Alright," I said while putting every book back into its place except for the one about wargs and followed Robb to the exit.

"Wait for a second, I forgot something," I said and ran back into the library and came back two minutes later while carrying a book about northern birds of prey and walking toward Robb who was impatiently tapping his legs and standing beside the door, "Just forgot a book. Let's Go,"

We had a quick lunch of meat and soup, and Robb was yawning throughout the meal. Sitting two hours in the Library and learning an old language must have been too much for the kid. After we finished eating we went toward the Great keep. While Robb went straight to sleep after going into his room, I simply placed the books I borrowed safely into a chest, and after checking on a sleeping frost and filling her bowl of water, I left my room toward the east gate.

"Hey, Adam," I said while waving to the guard at the gate.

"Where are you going today, Jon," Adam asked while chewing on some kind of bark to relieve boredom.

"I am just going to Old mark's house,"

"Well come back before Night falls. Or else Lord Stark will send a search party again," He said while smirking.

I groaned and walked a bit faster toward the snow-covered houses of Wintertown. About a month ago, I lost track of time while in the town, and by the time I came to the gates of Winterfell Lord Stark had already sent a search party. I was grounded for a week and had to give all my desserts to Robb. That was a dark week.

Wintertown felt emptier and emptier every time I walked through the houses. Every few days two or three families will leave to go back to their farms now that winter is over. The only time Wintertown is ever filled is at the height of winter when people leave their farms and gather here to hide from the harsh snows and cold winds. By the time summer arrives almost half the population here will be gone.

I passed by the somewhat bustling market while looking at different kinds of wares, mostly hunters selling pelts and meat or some housewives selling arrows they made while trapped inside their homes in winter, or blacksmiths repairing farming tools.

If it had been my previous world then it would have been very strange for a small kid to wander around by himself but here in this world, where it is the norm for a person at the age of 13 to marry and if they are tall enough then can also join the army. So normal rules don't apply in this world, children are forced to grow from a very early age.

About 15 minutes later I passed the densely packed houses and went into the woods on the outskirts of the town. I walked between trees and arrived at a wooden cabin that looked to have been repaired many times over the years. Outside the house was a man sitting on a tree stump and sharpening an already sharp knife and beside him was the carcass of a boar. He was around the age of fifty with his head full of white hair, his filled with wrinkles, and hands covered in scars, but he had the muscles and agility of a younger man.

"Hey Old man! What are we learning today," I said in a chipper voice while walking toward him.

He looked up for a moment and grunted before he went back to doing his sharpening. I rolled my eyes at his gruffness and sat on the nearby grass. Old Mark was a very famous hunter in wintertown known for hunting very large animals and was one of the few who can hunt for prey during full winter when all the animals go into hiding, and while the rest of the hunters return empty-handed, he always returns with a game in his hand.

After a lot of begging and pestering the old hunter had finally agreed to take me as an apprentice, to teach me everything he could about becoming a hunter. And considering he had become old in a profession where most people die young, he would have a fountain of knowledge to share. I've been coming here every other day for about two weeks.

He had already taught me two things, one is how to spot a trail and whether I should follow it or run for my life in the opposite direction. And the other one is how to walk through a forest silently and without leaving a trace. While it would take me years of practice to get good at those things, his instruction was really good and to the point.

He suddenly stood and without any kind of gesture toward me walked to the carcass and started talking while inserting his knife into the dead boar.

"The most important thing about skinning a boar is..."

He explained all the intricacies involved in the process and for an hour talked about the anatomy of the boar and which parts were most valuable and which parts were tastiest. Whenever I asked a question, he would either answer in small sentences or give me a practical demonstration. Halfway through skinning he gave me the knife and made me do the remaining process while critiquing me occasionally.

At the end of the process, I was covered in blood and guts while the half-ruined pelt and unevenly cut flesh lay there at my feet. He didn't say anything about wasting the boar only telling me that were done for the day.

I walked toward the bucket of water in the distance and after removing my clothes, started washing all the blood. When I was done and had worn back my clothes the door to the cabin slowly opened and a little girl with twin pigtails appeared while carrying a glass of water. She was about 6 years old and had brown hair and green eyes.

"Hello mister Jon," she said while shyly giving me the glass of water.

"Thank you Emy," I said gratefully while smiling at her. Even though she was 3 years older than me, I was almost as tall as her.

"You can bring the charcoal and wooden slate out now, Emy. Your grandfather won't be teaching me anything else today," I said and Emilia nodded with dimples on her face and ran back inside the cabin.

Oh, did I forget to mention it? My begging and persistence didn't work at all on the old hunter. And the only reason he even agreed to teach me anything was that I offered to teach his granddaughter Emilia how to read and write. Old mark's daughter and son-in-law had died during the previous winter, and as her only living relative left, Emilia came under his care.

For about an hour and a half, I taught Emilia about the verbs in the common tongue. She was a really smart kid and picked up things at a fast rate. I would have to find new things to teach her before long or else she would be done before Old mark had even taught me half of the things he knows.

I was almost late returning to Winterfell and had to endure teasing from the guards about how they were just about to send a search party for me.

 

[LazyWizard]

My eyes shot open abruptly and I looked around wildly for a few seconds, what came into my view was my room at Winterfell and not my apartment in my previous life, which made me fall back onto my bed in relief. I had a really absurd dream that I went back to my normal life in my previous world. It was not a dream but a nightmare, the past few years in this new life had been so invigorating that even the thought of going back to my mundane life makes me scrunch up my face in disgust.

I had stayed up late last night so I was a little tired and a bit sleep-deprived. Robb and I were in Sansa's nursery playing with her as she refused to go to sleep.

I flicked the blanket away and got up from my bed, there was a bucket of water placed before the now unlit fireplace. I took a piece of cloth, soaked it in water, and then washed my hands and face with it. When my eyes were properly opened, I found my way to the window and opened them, instantly the frigid wind of the north hit my face and scared away any traces of sleep from my body.

The box with a nest made of blankets in it sat empty on my desk. Frost had started flying about a week ago and since then every evening she would go out to hunt in the wolfswood nearby and return sometime during the day. I was worried for the first few days but after that, I was reassured that she could take care of herself.

I took a couple of breaths of fresh air and then went back to my bed and sat on it cross-legged. I took a moment to calm down and then started to breathe according to the instructions in the journal of the maester I found in the Library. Two deep breaths inside and five quick exhale, and then repeat it until my mind is clear of every thought.

Every few seconds a stray thought will pop up inside my head like what would be for breakfast today, and from there it would lead to the face of the one who cooks our food and if he washes his hands. And every time that happened I would have to open my eyes, take a couple of seconds to calm down and then start over.

I didn't know how much time had passed but my mind suddenly emptied of every thought and I was as calm as still water. I could feel as if I was not inside my body but inside my mind and my mind was not a physical organ like a brain instead it was a wobbly sphere of consciousness and its surface was undulating with every wave of thought inside my brain and the excitement of achieving this state of mind immediately made the surface of sphere get washed with tsunamis of my stray thoughts and I was brought off my mind. I was breathing heavily in excitement and I could not keep the wide grin off my face.

It's been two months since Sansa was born and I've been practicing according to the journal every day. Every morning I try to wake up a bit early and try to meditate. It's incredibly difficult to rid yourself of every thought, and only once before I was able to achieve this state of being where I could feel my sphere of mind. It was said to be the first step of techniques inside the journal. When I could dive into that state at the drop of a hat, only then would I be ready to start proper warging.

And every night before I go to sleep, I try to remember every single thing that I've experienced that day, this was a lot harder than just emptying my mind because it involves a lot of introspection, going through every emotion you felt and why you felt them, that was so emotionally draining that for the first month I could only go halfway through my day before giving up.

The thing is that you are only supposed to start these exercises when you turn 11 because by then you have a somewhat developed personality and these exercises won't hinder it. But because I already have an adult soul, I could practice them and that is also the reason I've not told Robb about these exercises.

There still hasn't been much progress in having complete control over my emotion but I didn't want to give it up, so I still persisted to try and process all the memories of the day.

When I looked outside the window I found out that the sun was already rising on the horizon, so I stood up from my bed and went out of my room after changing into some proper clothes.

I went to Robb's room and found him already awake and waiting for me, we both went toward the kitchens together. We passed by the mostly empty great hall to the high table where Ned and Catelyn were sitting together with Sansa in Catelyn's hands.

"Hello Sansa," Robb said while going toward our baby sister. I was feeling particularly mischievous today so I came up behind him and stuck my tongue out to make a scary face, but I faced the baby in such a way so that from Catelyn's point of view it seemed as if I was sticking my tongue at her.

"Look, Ned," Catelyn said while pointing her finger at me, "He is mocking me again, by sticking his tongue at me. I told you he always does that,"

"I don't know what you mean by that, Lady Stark," I said with a perfectly innocent face, "I was only playing with my baby sister. Wasn't I Robb,"

Robb looked at me for a moment considering something before turning toward his parents, "I think you might have been mistaken, Mother. Jon always makes that face at Sansa,"

"But... But..." Catelyn shot a betrayed look toward her son.

"It's too early in the morning for this," Eddard said with a groan, "Boys take a seat, and Cat, you don't need to create new things to have a fight with Jon."

"Thank you, Robb. I owe you one," I said in a whisper to Robb.

"Oh Don't worry, I got the perfect thing for you to make it up to me," Robb whispered back to me before he suddenly turned to Father and asked, "Father when do we get to start training in the yard,"

"It's too early for you boys, your bones and muscles haven't properly grown yet," Lord Stark gave the same answer he gives whenever Robb brought up that particular topic over the last year.

"But Father," Robb said, "Jon is already training to be a hunter, why can't I start too,"

"What is he talking about Jon," Ned said while turning toward me. I shot a shocked look toward Robb who silently reminded me about the favor I just owed him and I groaned internally before turning to face Lord Stark.

"Old Mark is just teaching me stuff like how to identify an animal or how to quickly climb a tree to run away, he is not teaching me any of the heavy stuff like archery or something," I said while omitting a lot of things, "And he only does it because I teach his granddaughter how to read and write,"

"As if you are smart enough to teach anyone," Catelyn said in a fake whisper while not looking at me.

"Did you say something Lady Stark," I asked sweetly and when she did not reply to me, I continued, "Say Lady Stark, If a tree has 5 birds on it and Robb shoots an arrow which misses obviously," "HEY!" "So how many birds are left on the tree,"

Catelyn looked like she didn't want to answer but couldn't stop herself and said, "Obviously 5 birds because he didn't shoot any of them,"

"See, that's why I can teach someone and not you," I said smugly while looking at her, and before she could say something I turned toward Father and asked, "Why don't you answer Father,"

"There are no birds because all of them were scared away from the arrow," Father answered while not looking up from his food. Catelyn turned red for a moment, from embarrassment or anger I didn't know.

"Don't Wowwy Sansa," I said in a baby voice to my sister, "You won't have to learn from your mother, your big bwother will teach you,"

And Sansa immediately started giggling cutely, which made the situation even more hilarious, even Father cracked a smile at her. The rest of our meal passed like that with me and Lady Stark and taking a pass at each other mostly me winning at the end, while Robb continued to pester Father for starting in the yard early. So by the end of Breakfast Lord Stark was quite done with everything so he immediately took Robb by his arms and after reaching the Courtyard told him to run five laps.

"Do you want early training too, Jon," Father said while looking toward me. Looking at his face I understood the only training he will give us will be just to run us until we are tired.

"No, I am alright, I need to go into Wintertown anyway," I said while slowly backing away and running away before he could call me back.

'Sorry Robb, but you asked for it, so you will have to endure it alone,' I thought while going out of the gates of Winterfell.

I looked toward the beautiful sky and sighed with a grin on my face, Spring had arrived last month so the temperature had risen a bit.

"Oh shit," I was suddenly startled out of my thoughts by a blue football-sized object suddenly appearing in front of me out of nowhere, "Come on, Frost don't scare me like that,"

I caught Frost in my hand and she immediately started chirping excitedly. Ever since she had learned to fly, she started getting delighted every time she caught me off guard. I brushed along her feathers just the way she liked it, while she closed her eyes in pleasure.

She had grown to the size of my head in the two months since the day of the hunt. For a month or so I had thought that she was a snow eagle that is said to be quite common here in the north. But as she started to grow up, I realized that while the colors of a snow eagle were white feathers with a dash of blue, Frost had her feathers completely sky blue with just a dash of white along her head.

So I went back to the library and after searching for about two weeks, I finally found what kind of species she was. She was one of the rarest birds in the north, The Ice Eagle, also known as the Queen of Skies. This creature was said to have no competition in the air before the dragons arrived in Westeros and even then it was recorded to be the only creature to escape a dragon's hunt with her speed.

When Alysanne Targayrean arrived in the north, Lord Stark at the time took her on a hunt where they saw an Ice Eagle and the Lord of Winterfell, said to the Queen of Westeros that it was the faster creature in the sky, which the Good Queen took as a challenge and immediately saddled Silverwing to try and catch it but alas after an hour she returned empty-handed.

The Ice eagle took the queen's pursuit as a game and toyed around with her by flying circles around her Silverwing while she tried her hardest to hunt it. She was the one who named the Eagle, Queen of Skies, before then it was called the silent death by the people of North. The sightings of Ice Eagles are as rare as of Direwolfs but there have been legends of Commoners having spotted a fully grown Ice Eagle hunting creatures of massive size like bears, wolfs, and stags with ease.

"Did you have a good hunt, Frost?" I asked my friend while placing her on my shoulder. I listened to her squeak while occasionally understanding what she was trying to convey, she was quite intelligent and had an uncanny grasp of human language.

My feet automatically took me through the dwindling population of Wintertown toward the house of my unofficial mentor. I found Old Mark outside his home in his usual attire already waiting for me, and when he saw me coming, he stood up and without saying anything started walking away into the trees. I looked at frost in confusion, who actually shrugged with her tiny shoulders.

'Looks like it will finally be time for a more practical lesson,' I thought while following the old hunter through roots and thick bushes under the dense canopy of trees while trying to create as little noise as possible. Over the last two months, we've only had theoretical lessons about how to behave while on a hunt, like how to always try to stay downwind, identify all kinds of animals in the wolfswood, or walk with absolute silence.

We walked without much interaction for about an hour before he suddenly stopped behind a bush and told me to stay there with his eyes and hands. He turned around and started walking into a clearing in front of the bush. I looked at the spot he was moving toward and found a rabbit chewing on the grass while occasionally looking up warily.

Old mark slowly but steadily approached the rabbit while staying out of its line of sight with ease and after he got unnaturally close to the rabbit he looked toward me to check and make sure that I was watching before he turned back and came back toward me while taking a roundabout way.

"Now, you do it," he grunted while pointing toward the rabbit.

I nodded and placed Frost on the ground, taking a couple of deep breaths to calm myself down, I started walking toward the rabbit while trying to apply all the stuff I'd learned over the last month.

I was still ways away from it, taking all the time in the world to approach it, and was looking toward the ground every few seconds, to make sure that I didn't step on any twigs when the rabbit suddenly looked up straight toward me and quickly sprang away. I didn't know what I did wrong.

I looked toward my teacher with a sigh, expecting him to look disappointed but he didn't say anything. Just turned around and waved his hand, silently telling me to follow him, he found another rabbit about 15 minutes later and told me all the mistakes I made the last time before telling me to have another go.

For a few hours, that was the only thing we did, the old hunter would find a small skittish animal like a rabbit and I would try to approach it without alerting it. About an hour into my training, frost seemed to get bored of just being a spectator, and just as I was about to approach another rabbit, she silently and gracefully glided toward the rabbit and landed just behind it before she turned and looked toward me with a triumphant look.

My bird was actually mocking me, and the worst thing was that I suddenly heard a snort behind me and when I turned around I found my teacher's face which was usually a block of ice actually sporting a small smile. 'Oh it is on,' I thought while looking toward Frost with resolution in my eyes.

About three hours later we were walking back to the cabin, with my shoulders slumped in disappointment, while frost was trying to cheer me up. I didn't even come close to approaching a single rabbit, the second I would go out of our hiding place the rabbit would run away.

When we arrived at the cabin it was to find Emilia sitting along with a girl outside. The new kid was the same age as Emilia but instead of brown hair and green eyes, she had blond hair and blue eyes. When Emilia saw us coming from the trees she immediately ran towards us and took her grandpa's tools from his hand while he patted her head gratefully.

"Hello Mr. Jon," Emilia said while turning toward me.

"Hey, Emy, who is this?" I asked Emilia while pointing toward the blonde kid who was following behind her.

"Oh hello, I am Becca," Becca answered before Emilia could even open her mouth, "I am Emilia's cousin,"

Becca was the daughter of Old Mark's nephew, who was a merchant who regularly buys every animal that Old mark hunts. He travels around a lot so he usually leaves Becca to stay at Old Mark's house.

"Do you really live in the big castle? Have you ever seen lord stark? Emy brags about you all the time but I didn't believe her at all," Becca said all in one breath.

"I don't brag," Emilia said while blushing and pushing her cousin a little.

Teaching Emilia was a little hard that day as Becca kept interrupting us and asking about one thing or the other curiously. By the time I went back to Winterfell, I was absolutely tired. In my previous life, I was an extreme case introvert so dealing with an extrovert who is not family was a little exhausting.

As the days continued to pass, my progress with the morning meditation was a bit slow but steady. But as I got better at entering the state that I have started to call 'the zone' one thing I've noticed is that whenever I found the time to do image training, my mind power gets absolutely used up and when I wake up the next day my mind sphere grows up just a tiny bit bigger.

I experimented with it by not doing any image training for a week and doing a lot of image training the next one and the result was very stark. So I've incorporated image training into my daily regimen instead of doing it whenever I felt like it so that it may hopefully turn my mind into a powerhouse.

At the breakfast today they served Lemoncakes so I thought about taking some for Emilia but Catelyn got to the last of it before I could take them all the while smirking at me. I went toward the kitchen while thinking how she could have the role of a typical evil stepmother in any movie.

"I need some Lemoncakes, Please," I said to the chef in the kitchen who was sitting and keeping a watch on the rest of the workers.

"They are none left," he said while taking a fleeting glance at me.

"Oh come on," I said, "I know you always keep some for yourself,"

"I don't know what you are talking about," he huffed, "Now go away, I am busy," before he went back to staring at young maids.

"Oh so you want to play it like that," I whispered to myself while narrowing my eyes. I had heard a saying in my world about if you can't be friends with them use them so I applied that with Catelyn, I spoke loudly, "Oh I wonder how Lady Stark will react when she finds out that her favorite maid is playing hide and seek with the chef,"

The cook immediately look around wildly at that and after making sure that no one was too close to us, leaned down and said to me in a whisper "I don't know what you're talking about,"

"Lady Stark will surely be wroth to know that the maid she brought all the way from Riverland was playing with a northern savage..."

"Alright, Alright I will get them for you," he hastily said before he stood up and went toward the cupboard and brought back two lemon cakes. I quickly took them out of his hands and wrapped them in a napkin before placing them in my pocket.

"Don't come back here," I heard the cook say from behind me.

I just looked at him with an evil smile and went out of the kitchen. I suddenly paused in my step and wondered, 'Is this how Baelish started,'... before I dismissed it as nonsense.

There was a skip in my step as I went toward Old marks place. 'I will give one of the cakes to Emy because she was really brilliant in the last class and the other one will be for me because I don't think that Old mark ever ate anything sweet,'

But when I reached the cabin it was to find that there were some extra people there. There was Emy's cousin Becca along with a man in his mid-thirties who looked like a relative of hers.

The middle-aged man, Sam was indeed Becca's father and Old Mark's Nephew. It turned out that he was trying to teach his daughter numbers the last few months but she was not very good at it, but instead of admitting her mistake, she said that he was just not a good teacher and that Emilia's teacher is way better than him.

So he arrived here to discuss if I could also teach Emilia's cousin along with her. He also generously agreed to pay a handsome sum of 10 silver stags a month, almost the amount the maid who works at Winterfell gets. So while I was not able to refuse such a mouth-watering offer, I did haggle and made him agree that he would buy all the prey I would hunt in the future just like he did for Old Mark.

"Oh are those cakes for us? You are so generous Mr. Jon," Becca said while taking the cakes sticking out of my pocket and giving one to Emy. Looking at the face of Becca happily eating the cake that was supposed to be mine, I immediately felt that I had made a very wrong decision, but I was too late by then and made the ultimate sacrifice of my desserts.

To read some chapters ahead go to buymeacoffee.com/lazywizard

 

[LazyWizard]

"...and then the knight chivalrously saved the maiden and they got married in Sept," Septa Mordane read to a 2-year-old Sansa from a thin book, "She gave him many baby boys and he loved his beautiful and humble wife forever,"

"But what was the name of the knight," Sansa asked, her eyes gleaming with curiosity.

"There is no name written here, he is just a pious knight of the Seven,"

"But how will I know that he is that good knight if I meet him,"

"That is because all knights are honorable and chivalrous," Septa Mordane said while placing the book on the desk beside the small bed where Sansa was sitting.

"But...but brother didn't say that,"

"Which brother," Septa asked her eyes suddenly sharpening, "And what did he say,"

"He said to never trust—" before Sansa could complete her sentence the door to the room abruptly opened.

"Septa Mordane, I saw Mother just now," Robb said with wide eyes while breathing heavily, "I think she was looking for you everywhere, I think it's very urgent,"

"Lady Stark is searching for me?" Septa asked confused, "But she is the one who asked me to look after Sansa,"

"I don't know about that," Robb said while waving his hands urgently, "But I think she must have a very crucial task for you—Come on, I'll lead you to her,"

"Very well," She said with an air of importance, before standing up and following after Robb who was already moving away from the door.

Sansa was left all alone in her room, she sighed and stood up from her bed to go toward the chest beside the desk, to find some dolls to play with. Today was Sansa's name day, but Mother didn't want to get her new dress dirty, so she had forbidden her brothers to play with her.

She had been hoping her brothers will still come, but Robb came and didn't even wish her Happy Name Day, so she was a little sad.

"Psss... Sansa," Sansa immediately turned around and found her brother, Jon, crouching beside the door, waving with his hands and whispering to her, "Come quickly before the Grumpkin comes back,"

Sansa quickly put the doll back inside before she ran toward him with her hands outstretched and he quickly took her in his arms before going out the door, they quickly ran down the stairs and out of the Great Keep.

"Where are we going Jon," Sansa asked, holding onto Jon's neck while he ran across the courtyard.

"We are going to your Nameday Present," Jon grinned while flicking his sister across the nose.

"Really," Sansa exclaimed with a wide smile, "I thought you and Robb wouldn't come because Mother forbid you,"

"Of course, we would come, we aren't afraid of—" Jon said before he suddenly hid behind a corner. A fuming Septa Mordane was striding back toward Sansa's room, she passed by them and Jon covered Sansa's ears because she was muttering things that a Septa was definitely not supposed to.

Jon left the hiding place after she had gone away and immediately crossed the yard. He ran past the armory, straight into the godswood. He stood at the entrance and waited for a while before Robb suddenly arrived while huffing and puffing.

"What took you so long," Jon asked while placing Sansa on the ground.

"I was going to lead the Septa away but bad luck struck and we actually came across mother, so I had to run the other way before— Anyway, Happy Name Day Sansa," Robb said while picking Sansa who immediately squealed in delight.

"Thank you, Robb,"

"Come on, let's show Sansa her Name day present," Jon said before he lead the way.

They entered and passed through the dense canopy of trees while swinging a giggling Sansa between them. They walked for about 10 minutes before arriving at the heart tree.

"Here, A present for the Wolf Princess," Jon said theatrically while pointing toward the tree behind the Heart tree, "Go check it out,"

Sansa excitedly ran forward and went around the heart tree. "But that's just a tree," She said while tilting her head, and looking back at her brothers who stood with their hands on their waists and their chests puffed.

"What do you mean— Robb, didn't you drop it down," Jon asked while walking toward the tree and finding nothing there.

"I thought I had already done it," Robb said sheepishly while rubbing his head.

"You can be so stupid sometimes," Jon said while shaking his head in exasperation. He took a deep breath before taking a running start toward the tree and climbed it in a single motion. He stepped on the lowest branch and walked along it before he threw down a rectangular piece of wood attached to a rope and then he slid down skillfully.

"We both made it just for you," Robb said while pointing toward the swing.

"Come on, let's get you on it," Jon said while picking her up, and walking toward the swing.

"I don't want to fall," Sansa said as Jon gently sat her on the swing, but she didn't let go of him.

"Don't worry, I won't let you fall," Jon said and slowly removed Sansa's finger from his clothes.

"And I'll catch you if you do," Robb said while standing in front of them and crouching.

"Alright, Ready—go," Jon pushed the swing and Sansa immediately squealed before she closed her eyes.

It took quite a few more swings and screaming before she opened her eyes and her squeals of fright turned to those of excitement.

"Higher! Jon Higher!" Sansa shouted with a wide grin, "Look Robb, I am Flying just like Frost,"

As Jon was pushing Sansa on the swing, he suddenly looked up into the trees and a second later, the aforementioned bird appeared with a graceful dive. She circled above them for a moment before she started to fly alongside Sansa and chirped along with her.

After a while, Frost got bored of just watching and started to fly in front of Jon's face to obscure his face every time he pushed the swing.

"Stop it, Frost," Jon said while waving his arms but Frost was too fast for him.

She had a very successful hunt just before she came here so she was feeling a bit mischievous. Jon tried to get her to stop distracting him but she didn't stop and ultimately after a few close swings where Jon was almost clipped, she got what she wanted.

"Robb, you push now," Jon said leaving the swing and immediately running after Frost, "I have a bird to kill,"

Jon chased after Frost all over the godswood, and Frost even restricted herself to make the game more interesting by not flying more than 5 trees away or higher than Jon could reach her. A few minutes later, Sansa felt that the game Jon and Frost were playing was more fun so Robb and she joined in Jon's game of CATCH THE BIRD.

They tried to corner Frost so many times but didn't even come close to touching her feathers. The only person who came close was Sansa but that was because Frost deliberately slowed to let her have fun.

They played like that for quite a while before they eventually got tired and laid down on a patch of grass by the pool to absorb the sunlight streaming between leaves. While sunlight was very rare in the North, Summer had arrived a while back, and with that came the news that Lady Stark had gotten pregnant again.

Jon was quite thankful to Ned for that because he kept on making her pregnant which made it very hard for her to run after them.

Jon took a couple of calming breaths while taking in the smell of fresh plants. The calm, warm atmosphere with only the sound of various small insects chirping, made it incredibly easy for him to enter the zone.

One second he was lying in godswood with his siblings and the next he was inside his consciousness. It was only darkness as far as you could see, and in the middle of it, a small white balloon made of his mind.

Over the last couple of years, he hadn't slacked off a single day which was also the reason that he could enter the zone almost at will in a handful of minutes.

He had kept on with his image training daily which slowly increased the size of his sphere of consciousness. After a couple of months of doing this, he found out that there was a pin-sized needle located just outside his sphere of mind.

His sphere of consciousness had touched this pin just last month and the result of that was a sort of communication channel opened up, so that he could actually ask frost to do stuff for him with just his mind.

Exactly like Robb was able to do with Grey Wind when he had him eat GreatJon's fingers. He could call Frost to him whenever he wanted with just a thought and he had a sort of radar inside him that kept him aware of Frost's location at all times.

And he had the feeling that if he kept increasing the size of his mind like this, then it would eventually be pierced by the needle, and his instincts told him that, when that happened it would open up a tunnel straight to Frost and allow him to warg into her.
///
If you want to read ahead, go to buymeacoffee.com/lazywizard

 

[LazyWizard]

"I had guessed that I would find you here," A voice suddenly drifted over and broke my concentration and brought me out of my internal world. I shook my head to clear the cobwebs inside my head before I heard Robb shout, "Uncle Benjen!"

I opened my eyes and found Robb already running toward Benjen from where he was lying on the other side of Sansa, who was still sleeping peacefully. I stood up and gently took Sansa into my arms while making sure that she didn't wake up.

"When did you arrive Uncle Benjen," I said while walking up to Benjen, who had already caught Robb in his hands and was throwing him into the air making him laugh loudly.

"I arrived just this morning, Jon," Benjen said while giving me a wide smile while placing Robb on the ground and rubbing my head, "And is that my littlest niece, she's grown so much from the Last time I had seen her,"

Benjen cooed at Sansa who was sleeping blissfully unaware of the new presence. Benjen would make sure to take a trip from the Wall to Winterfell to visit at least twice a year. He stays for about a week before leaving with quite a few essential supplies for the Watch.

"You boys do know that Lady Stark and her Septa had been searching for you and Sansa all over the place," Benjen said while looking at the two of us with a strict face, but he couldn't keep up the pretense, and his face immediately cracked up, "You were really clever, using such a basic distraction tactic,"

We both looked at each other with a grin, there was a reason he was our favorite adult. Every time he arrived, it would be like a party for a week in Winterfell. Even Father loosens up a lot and doesn't mind us roughhousing as much.

"Now come on," Benjen said while putting his hands behind us and leading us toward the gate, "You boys must be hungry and we should really take Sansa to Lady Stark before she turns any redder... nothing more dangerous than an angry pregnant woman," he mumbled the last part to himself.

All the way toward the kitchen, he regaled us with tales about his adventures as a First Ranger, and the wonders he saw when he ventured beyond the wall. While he was definitely hiding a lot of the grim details, Robb seem to be taking it all in with wide eyes.

He was a really good storyteller, and it made it easy to imagine why the previous Jon would consider the Wall such a good option.

By the time we arrived at the Great Hall, Sansa had woken up from her nap and was looking at the stranger in curiosity. She had been too young the last time Benjen arrived, so I introduced Sansa to her only uncle. She was shy at first, but Benjen's charm was enough to make her laugh by the time we were done with our lunch.

"Now, I heard someone say that today is your Nameday," Benjen said with a warm smile while looking down at Sansa, "And I think I have the perfect gift for you,"

Bengen reached into a small bag placed on the table by his side and pulled out a small necklace. Tied to a thin string of rope was a small wolf made of a black material that shimmered and glittered under the light.

"It's made out of Dragonglass, I made it from a broken dagger I found in the Wall's armory,"

"It's so pretty," Sansa said with wide eyes while taking it into her hands.

"And don't think that I forgot about you guys," Benjen said to us before once again reaching into the bag and pulling two wooden swords out of his bag, "These have been made from one of the sturdiest wood found on the other side of the wall,"

"It's heavy," Robb said while taking a sword into his hand.

"It's supposed to be," Benjen chuckled.

"Does that mean..." I asked eagerly while looking at the sword in my hands.

"Yes, Ned thinks that you are finally ready to train. He is already waiting for you in the yard," Benjen said while pushing both of us to stand, "Go on, from today onward, your training to become the finest Stark warriors begins,"

Robb immediately ran out of the yard while carrying his sword, I was just about to follow him but suddenly remembering something, I looked toward Sansa.

"Don't worry about her, I'll take her to her mother" Benjen said and I nodded in thanks before running straight out of the Great hall.

I caught up to Robb at the entrance to the courtyard and we both entered together to find Father standing there along with Ser Rodrik and his nephew Jory.

"Looks like benjen finally managed to find you two, huh," Lord Stark while looking at his sons who were grinning widely.

"Is it true, Father?" Robb asked stars in his eyes, "Uncle benjen said that we could finally start training,"

"Yes," Eddard said with a small nod before he continued with a grim face, "Now before I let you start, there are a few things you need to understand. The training yard is a very dangerous place, even a small mistake could lead to heavy consequences. Do you understand?"

We both nodded with very solemn faces. While to the outsiders Eddard's face would look the same all the time, over the years we became very good at reading his deadpan face, and deducing when he was in a joking mood, and when not, and right now he was dead serious.

"So I am being very serious when I say that if I find you pranking, roughhousing, or causing your usual mischievousness in the training yard. Then, I assure you won't see the face of the training yard again until you are taller than Hodor," Eddard said and stared at them for a few moments to convey his seriousness before he turned to Ser Rodrik and nodded.

"Alright Boys, Lord Stark tells me that you've been doing some stamina training over the last few months, so I don't need to give you the usual Rookie treatment as such we will go straight into the thick of things," Ser Rodrik said gruffly before he turned around and pointed toward his nephew, "Jory here will go through some of the basics sword forms and you are to observe him carefully,"

Ser Rodrik nodded toward Jory, who immediately took a training sword placed on the stand beside the wall. He stood in the center of the yard with a very stable stance and started to go through the various forms.

"Did you memorize them?" Ser Rodrik asked after Jory went through all of them. Both of us nodded eagerly and his eyes widened a bit before he said, "You did! Well let's see it then, go and perform the first form,"

We stood in the center of the yard side by side and went through the first form. While Robb was a bit wobbly, I went through it seamlessly.

Eddard and Ser Rodrik looked at each other in surprise, "Maybe it was a fluke," Rodrik whispered while shrugging and had both of us go through the rest of the forms.

"Looks like someone has been training with the sword," Eddard said sternly while walking toward us after we stopped, "Even though I don't remember giving you permission,"

"Of course not Father," Jon said while not looking toward the fidgeting Robb, "It's just we watched while the guards trained that's all,"

"Yes, Father," Robb nodded vigorously. He had caught me training secretly a month ago and had pestered me to teach him, that's the reason he was not very good as he had not been training for long.

Eddard glared at us for a few moments before he sighed and shook his head before turning back, "Alright, Jory pad them up. Let's see where they are at,"

Jory nodded silently and placed his sword back and took some pads from beside the stand before going toward Robb and tying them on him before he did the same with me. The pads gave us protection toward all the important places while not hindering our movement too much.

"Alright, the first one to get hit or fall down loses," Ser Rodrik said while standing between us, after getting our nods, "Ready, Go,"

Robb immediately ran at me with the wooden sword above his head. My mind automatically predicted what he would do and the many ways to counter it.

I chose the simplest option and just stood there, and when he came close I pivoted on my left leg and ducked to the left. The moment he passed by me I whacked him gently on his head.

"Stop!" Rodrik said and sent us back to our positions. The second one played out the same as well, Robb charged at me and I dodged his strikes twice before I kicked him from behind.

I won two more duels before Robb got smarter and during the fifth duel, when I parried his sword, he immediately abandoned his sword and tackled me into the ground with a wild move.

"I win!" Robb said with a wide grin while sitting on my stomach.

"Yes, you did," I gave him a wry smile while shaking my head, "Ugh... Now get off me, you are too heavy,"

"Alright, boys come here," Ser Rodrik said while waving us over to where he and Father stood watching.

We went toward them while still carrying wide grins on our faces from the rush of having our first proper duel.

"Now, Robb you look like you still need a lot of work on your forms, so you will practice those until I am satisfied with them," Ser Rodrik said before turning toward me, "Jon, while you seem to have a very solid foundation, you still need a lot of work on your footwork and you won't survive long if you just wait and counter,"

Robb pouted and I nodded silently, while I had been training by myself a bit every day, It couldn't compare to getting instructed by a proper teacher.

Ser Rodrik took Robb to Jory to show him the forms once again and correct his posture. I stayed back and went toward the silently watching Lord of Winterfell.

"Father, I wanted to ask you something,"

"What is it,"

"I was wondering if I could learn to wield the spear too," I said while looking him straight in the eyes.

"You don't want to learn the sword," Eddard asked while tilting his head.

"No, I do. I just wondered if I could learn more than one weapon,"

"When you have become proficient in the sword," Eddard said while folding his hands, "Ser Rodrik will make sure that you have the passing knowledge of all the most common weapons,"

"I know that, but I don't want to be just familiar, I want to be proficient in more than one weapon,"

"Jon," Father said placing a hand on my shoulder, "if you focus on too many things, you may not become good at any of them at all,"

"I think you said something similar when I wanted to learn the old tongue," Jon cheekily said.

Eddard looked at him for a moment, before he nodded, "Very well, Ser Rodrik will teach you about both the spear and the sword for a month and if he deems that you can't keep for that month then it will stop. Understood,"

"Yes," Jon nodded happily and started to walk away before he suddenly turned back, "I forgot to ask something,"

"Now what," Eddard sighed in exhaustion.

"Well you know how I use both my arms for all kinds of stuff and don't have any dominant arm," I said sheepily. From a very young age, I had forced myself to use both of my arms equally so as to have no weak arms, and now It has finally paid up, "I was wondering if I could learn to duel wield like the Sword of the Morning,"

"Of Course, you do," Father sighed while facepalming.

///

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[LazyWizard]

"Move your legs!" Ser Rodrik shouted.

Jon nimbly ducked under an overhand slash while skipping back to make some space. But Jory, Jon's opponent didn't leave him a chance and immediately sent a flurry of quick strikes while advancing.

Jon kept Jory's body posture as well as leg placement in his field of vision at all times and timely parried two strikes from the right easily, as long as he knew what was coming, he could respond with ample time, but Jory's sword suddenly reversed back after passing him by and the hit was too fast for Jon to respond so he was only able to bring his sword about halfway up and immediately paid for it.

*Wham*

The wooden sword hit the pad on his shoulder and he immediately went down like a pile of loose sand, while losing the grip on his wooden sword.

"Stop!" Ser Rodrik said firmly to Jon when he started to reach toward the fallen sword and moved toward his fallen form.

Jon left the sword and stood up groaning while massaging the new bruise on his body. Ser Rodrik stood looming over him, evaluating his condition, "Do you know your mistake,"

"My footwork," Jon said while taking a deep breath and exhaling all his frustration.

"And what do I always tell you?" Rodrik asked while pressing over the area and making sure that nothing was damaged beyond reason.

"To move my legs," Jon exhaled while looking down, Rodrik had shouted that particular sentence enough times that those words ring inside Jon's head for a long while even after leaving the practice yard.

And it wasn't like Jon didn't want to follow this advice. It's just that he was using all of his concentration to analyze his opponent's posture and using it to predict their next attack.

He was putting all of his brain power into making that calculation an instinct, but that had made it very easy for him to lose focus and, forget the most basic lesson of the yard: Keep Moving.

The only solution to this problem he could see was that he stop doing his Analyze skill, which he wasn't prepared to do as that would make him lose all his progress. So he understood that all he could do about it was persist in it until his mind had gotten used to multitasking and his footwork had become an instinct.

"Exactly Move Your Legs!" Ser Rodrik said sternly before he finished checking Jon, "Alright, you're fine," he gruffly said while gently patting him, "Now get back in there,"

Jon moved to pick up his fallen sword from beside the smug Jory while going over his recent bout inside his head. "And Jon," he turned back toward Ser Rodrick, "Switch your Sword hands,"

Jon nodded silently and took the sword into his left hand before doing a few empty swings to get his mind and body used to the new posture. After warming up, he slowly advanced toward Jory who had moved back to his starting position.

The reason Jon was training with the much older Jory and not with the other young recruits his age where Robb was training was that he already had a very stable foundation in most of the basic forms in which they were training.

And another reason was that whenever he had been placed against them he would easily win, which was not very good for learning. It also didn't help with their confidence or his complacency, or so Lord Stark said.

The most important reason was that there was no one who knew how to duel wield in Winterfell. It was a very rare skill and very few people could ever train in it until they are good enough to use it in battle and survive. So there was no fixed format on how to go about learning it like for the other weapons skills.

The only way Ser Rodrik and Eddard had been able to come up with was for Jon to duel with alternate hands against an opponent until he gets proficient enough to actually dual-wield. And then when he does, they would have him spar against different people and different weapons so that he could come up with a style of his own.

Jon had been quite confident that utilizing both his hands for chores since birth would have made sure that he would have an easy time learning to dual-wield. But unfortunately, he had found out during early lessons that while the strength of both his arms was relatively equal, he still subconsciously considered his right arm to be dominant which made him a weaker opponent while fighting with his left hand.

"Ready to bite dust one more time, Jon," Jory teased good-naturedly.

"I was thinking, maybe it's time for you to taste the ground, it's actually quite delicious," Jon shot back with a grin while trying to keep Jory's whole body in his field of vision.

The second Jon entered Jory's range of motion, he immediately started using his longer reach and faster speed to overwhelm Jon's defense.

It was all Jon could do to dodge and parry, he was still a bit uncomfortable using his left hand to do the maneuvers he was thinking in his mind, so he was having a very hard time defending himself.

The only reason he could last this long was that he moved before Jory most of the time, but Jory had slowly gotten used to Jon's fighting style over their daily spars and had found his weak points. He had started utilizing feints liberally which got Jon quite a few times before he started to recognize them.

Jon was so focused on ducking and trying to find a way to attack Jory instead of perpetually defending, that he forgot the only thing he was supposed to remember.

"Move JON! MOVE!" Rodrik shouted.

"Sorry!" Jon said flustered and immediately tried to move from an awkward position, which turned out to be a mistake as his legs got tangled together *Bam* and he fell very ungracefully.

Jon cursed in a low voice while removing his arms from under him while slowly untangling his legs when he heard a snort, and the second his mind recognized the voice, he groaned and grimaced even further.

When he finally managed to look up, he found Lord Stark standing at the edge of the field looking reproachingly at his side, where Jon's nemesis Lady Catelyn was standing, while hiding her mouth and looking at Jon with mirth in her eyes.

'That's great she's never going to let me live this one down,'


///

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[LazyWizard]

Catelyn's been very jealous ever since Jon turned out to be so good in the yard, and because of that every time Jon makes even the smallest of mistakes while training. She exaggerates it while making a funny tale out of it and tells it to Sansa at their meals, usually making Jon into a particularly dull character.

It wasn't like Jon didn't give it back as good as he got. They had quite the prank war going between them. It all started when Sansa was a bit clumsy with a lemon cake and ruined Catelyn's favorite dress. She obviously went to Jon for help in tears and was very scared that her mother will be angry with her, so Jon took a fall for it.

So Catelyn obviously assumed that Jon had done it intentionally and took revenge. Jon woke up the next day to find his shoes missing and when he found them after searching all over Winterfell, they were stuck in horse shit. She didn't need to say that it was her, the smirk on her face was enough for Jon.

Jon got back at her by making her favorite dress disappear and when Catelyn made a big commotion accusing Jon, who immediately presented Eddard Stark as his witness who swore that Jon had been with him all along. In the end, the dress magically reappeared in her room, which made her look stupid. Frost got a small feast as a reward from Jon that night.

Stuff like that kept on happening, sometimes only her portion of food would become incredibly salty, and when she would complain, it would feel like she was whining since every one of us would say that it tasted good. Jon couldn't control his grin throughout the meal which made Catelyn retaliate the very next day.

It had been going like that for quite a while, and at the start, Lord Stark and Robb tried to intervene but when they became the unintentional victim due to picking the wrong side, they ultimately left the two of them alone.

The reason Catelyn had been particularly antsy toward Jon at that moment was due to the incident that happened two weeks. Some time ago she had given birth to Arya, but unlike Sansa, she wasn't a fan of her mother, she would always cry whenever Catelyn carried her and even refused to drink her milk.

Two weeks ago, during a visit from the whole Stark family, to meet the newest wolf, halfway through, Arya suddenly started crying uncontrollably. So Catelyn had gotten really flustered, so they had all taken turns trying to calm her down. At the end of the visit, it was concluded that baby Arya red-haired part of her family and only sleeps soundly when held by either Jon or Eddard which made Catelyn as a mother pretty jealous.

"JON! Come here," Eddard said firmly.

Jon stood up while patting his pants, and walked toward his father. Catelyn turned away in a huff and went toward where Robb had started sparring with young recruits.

"Yes, Father," Jon said while looking at his shoes.

"Are you alright?" Eddard asked worriedly while looking down at him.

"I am fine," Jon nodded sulkily.

"Jon look at me!" Eddard said while putting a hand on his shoulder and when Jon looked up continued softly, "You need to slow down, Jon. You are not going to become proficient at dual wielding in just a few months, maybe not even in a decade,"

Jon looked at his Father in disbelief, if he was trying to cheer him up, then he was doing a very shit job of it, telling Jon that he can't do it even if he worked hard for 10 years was a low blow.

"But... if you persist in it until the end. Then you could become the greatest swordsman of your age, the best of the best," Eddard said before his eyes suddenly gained a nostalgic look, "There was only one dual wielder I met in my whole life and he was a... monster."

"He would be defending with his left hand and attacking with his right one moment, and in the next suddenly both hands would start attacking you. Fighting him was like fighting multiple people with multiple hands at the same time."

"There were five of us and only him alone, but it still felt like he was ganging up on us..." Eddard said while remembering the memory of that day.

In the beginning, there were five of them against him but when Ser Mark Ryswell had killed the old Lord Commander Ser Gerold, it had been six against him alone, but he still cut through them like they were a bunch of unruly young squires and not the best warriors north had to offer, who had been trained in the art of combat since a young age.

"Anyway..." Eddard said while shaking his head and coming back to the present, "You need to take it slow and not rush into it, it shall take a lot of time and effort but I promise you if you ever reach mastery then you would be like that Man,"

"Can you tell me more—" Jon started to say, but was interrupted midway through.

"Hey, Jon! Are you alright," Robb said in concern while coming to a stop before them, "I saw the fall and it looked bad,"

"I am fine, Nothing's broken," Jon smiled reassuringly while moving both his arms to show him.

"Well if you are fine then..." Robb said before his face suddenly puffed up, "You looked so stupid flailing around like that..." and he started laughing while pointing towards Jon, "Even Sansa isn't that clumsy! You should have seen your face... HAHA,"

"Oh, you find my face stupid do you?" Jon said while smiling evilly before suddenly jumping on his brother and started pulling his face, "Let me make your face stupid too,"

Eddard looked at the sky while asking Old Gods to give him some strength before he looked at his son's wrestling before him with a sigh of exhaustion and immediately broke them up, "Enough!" he sternly said while holding one unruly child in each hand, "go get cleaned up and remove you pads you are done for the day. And after that, you are to head straight for the Great Hall,"

Eddard put them back on the floor only after they had nodded. He looked at them running away still bickering with each, before leaving the courtyard with Catelyn toward Great Hall, watching them practice had suddenly made him hungry.

Both the boy's completed their cool-down stretches and put back their swords and pads on the stand, before immediately racing toward the Great Hall.

The entire meal passed with Robb telling Jon about his various bouts and how very soon he would be ready to join him. Jon only kept nodding along unconsciously all the while frequently yawing. He was so tired that by the time the meal was done, Jon was half asleep.

The day since Jon had started training in the yard, his daily schedule had become fully packed and he suddenly found himself with very little free time.

After Jon's usual morning meditation, he broke his fast before he had to go to Maester Luwin's lesson. The Maester usually taught them about Geography, History, various Noble Houses of Westeros, etc. And Jon had recently started taking lessons in the Valyrian language, so the usual free time he had when Robb learned the intricacies common tongue was also filled.

"Hey!" Robb said while clicking his fingers in front of Jon and he was immediately startled awake, "You were about to walk into that pillar. Why are you sleepwalking? "

"It's nothing," Jon said airily while moving around the pillar, "Frost woke me up early in the morning, so I wasn't able to have much sleep,"

While Frost was the reason Jon was feeling sleep-deprived. It was not the way Robb probably imagined. About a month ago, Jon started to have occasional dreams about flying and hunting in the wolfswood at night.

At first, Jon thought that they were just regular dreams occurring due to his intense desire to become a warg, but when Frost confirmed that the prey she had hunted the night before was exactly the prey from his dream, he concluded that he had already started having warg dreams. So Jon multiplied his efforts at trying to warg into Frost before going to bed.

Jon ate too much during lunch, which along with his intense morning exercise meant that he was dead tired by the time he reached his room.

'I'll just take a quick nap and...' Jon thought while falling on his bed and instantly fell asleep.

///
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[LazyWizard]

I don't know how long I slept but it felt like I had just closed my eyes when something suddenly started poking me in my ribs. I tried to ignore it but it only got more insistent as time went on, so ultimately I had to open my eyes.

"Hmm... what is it frost," I mumbled while rubbing sleep from my eyes. Frost immediately started pecking his beak toward the window, "huh...what's out there Fros— Oh shit, I am going to be late,"

I started panicking and immediately started changing my clothes, and gathering my stuff from around the room, "Old mark is so gonna kill me, that block of ice doesn't tolerate shit," I fretted while tying my shoes. That old man was already so grumpy so I always made sure to never be late or else who knew what set him off and he stopped giving me lessons.

"Aww... Frost couldn't you have woken me up a bit early, the only thing you do during the day is fly lazily anyway—Ow...Ow..." I flinched and shielded my face when Frost started swatting me with his wings, "Alright! Sorry! Sorry! it was my fault," I said while ducking from the overgrown bird, before immediately rushing out of my room.

I dashed straight out of the Winterfell Gates and didn't stop even for a second to take a breath. I completed the journey through Wintertown house in a record time and ran toward the unused path outside town.

"I... I am he...here..." I shouted huffing the second I reached the old hunter's cabin while trying to soothe the stitch in my side, but didn't find the Old hunter at his usual spot which was not a good sign.

The cabin door opened and I looked up hopefully but it was hunter's granddaughters, Emily and Becca, and not the man himself.

"Umm... Mr. Jon," Emily hesitatingly said while coming out of the lodge, with Becca, the merchant's daughter following, "Grandpa went away when you didn't arrive for a while. He said that he would be back after a while,"

"Yeah, Grandpa Mark was very angry," Becca said teasingly, "You're gonna be in so much trouble Jon hehe..."

"Shut up, Becca," I growled at the blonde but the mirth dancing in her blue eyes only increased, so I just huffed before moving to sit on the usual tree stump.

'This is not good, the last time I messed up like this, Old mark had me climb the tree at least a hundred times, he didn't tell me that it was a punishment and not training but my body definitely felt it that night.'

"Come on, go get your stuff, Let's complete your lesson—And stop smirking Becca," I grumbled at them while swearing that I would teach that naughty girl a lesson. Emily immediately pulled Becca inside the hut before she could make any more mischief, they came out a minute later carrying a wooden slate, some charcoals, etc.

"Becca, Show me your homework?" I asked her with a small smile after they sat on the ground in front of me at their usual spot, hoping to get some revenge on the peppy girl.

"Why do you always ask for mine first?" Becca pouted while reluctantly handing me her slate.

"Because Emily is a very good student and always completes her work," I praised the brown-haired who immediately blushed, which made her bright green eyes stand out even more, before turning toward the blonde, "But you on the other hand...Tch...Tch," I shook my head and went back to check her work.

"Hey, what does that mean," She made a wronged face, while Emy's body shook with suppressed giggles.

"This looks completed—surprisingly... You didn't ask for Emy's help, Did you?" I asked suspiciously.

"Of course not!" Becca said self-righteously with pride, "I would never do something like that,"

"That's what you told me the last 5 times you copied from her,"

"That's in the past," Becca said airily.

"Well looks like you dodged extra homework this time," I said feeling a bit disappointed before continuing, "Now, let's pick up where we left off... Umm Emily what was I teaching at the last lesson."

"Mr. Jon you were teaching Becca about Multiplication and adjectives..."

Emily was scarily smart and had already learned all about reading and writing the common tongue as well as simple algebra, So I had already started teaching her old tongue and more advanced stuff that mostly nobles and big merchants learn for administration.

Becca on the other hand didn't have quite as much interest in learning and was more curious about learning how to bash people's heads in. So at the start when she was being difficult to teach, I started incentivizing her by teaching her a trickle of combat lessons every time she completed her homework correctly.

And it turned out that Becca was quite a natural at combat. She soaked all the weapon lessons like a sponge and I would even go as far as to say that she was a prodigy in the spear, a few more months and she could even beat Robb, and while she was about 4 years older than us that was still a big thing.

It was actually quite ironic considering that the hunter's granddaughter Emily didn't like physical stuff much and was into learning while the merchant's daughter Becca, was instead interested in combat and couldn't do the math to save her life.

"Ugh... It's done," Becca said while showing me her work, "Can we do some training now, Please Jon," She said while opening her blue eyes as wide as they go.

"Well let me see..." I said while perusing over her work, "half the answers are wrong or riddled with mistakes and your writing is barely illegible," Becca immediately deflated, "but I guess you did complete it. Fine! go get your stick," I said and Becca immediately ran away, with Emily following after her a bit slowly.

They came back a minute later with Becca carrying a thick wooden stick about her height and Emily with two small wooden daggers.

"Alright, go through the forms I showed you last time,"

"But I wanted to learn a new one," Becca whined.

"Uhuh...Not until you've mastered them," I shook my head, "Now come go through them a hundred times," and they immediately started going through various basic forms I had taught.

I wasn't teaching them any advanced stuff, just making them repeat normal stuff so that they would have a solid foundation.

At first, it was just Becca who trained, but after watching me teach her cousin, Emily had picked up the courage and asked to be taught too, so I handed her the lightest weapon, and while she had not been as good as Becca she was a hard worker.

"No Emily! You need to move your whole body," I said before showing her how to do it, "you need the strength from your hips, not just your arms—Yes! just like that,"

I trained with them for about an hour like that, while Becca only needed to be shown once to correct her mistakes, Emily needed constant guidance. I was just correcting Emily's leg posture when I was startled by a cough behind me. I turned around and found Old mark standing there holding a long package in his arms.

"Old Mark!" I shouted and immediately went toward him, "I am sorry I was late, I fell asleep and—"

He cut me off with a raised hand and just turned around while asking me to follow him.

"We are done for the day girls," I shouted back before following after the old hunter, who was remarkably quick for a man his age.

We walked for a while in silence before I couldn't take it anymore and blurted out, "I know that I made a mistake, but I don't think tree climbing is going to help me much anymore—" I stop mid-sentence when we passed through some bushes and emerged into a clearing.

My breath caught up in my throat, the place before me was a training zone straight out of an anime, there were wooden targets stuck on a stick at varying distances and some targets were also attached to ropes, hanging from branches and they moved along with the wind.

"Is this what I think it is—" I asked while turning around and found Old mark had opened the package he was holding. It was a small but sturdy bow perfect for my size, along with a quiver full of arrows.

"You are ready to learn how to shoot," He said gruffly while giving me the bow and arrows.

I took both of them gratefully into my hands, while over the past few weeks he had been teaching me stuff like how to properly string a bow and how to make my own arrows so I had been anticipating it for a while, but I didn't think it would be this soon.

"Well, what are you waiting for," He interrupted me admiring the bow while pointing toward the target, "Get on with it,"

"Yes," I enthusiastically said before taking the right posture and after holding still for a while, shot my first proper arrow. The arrow sailed and stuck at the edge of the target, which made me wide grin widely.

"Don't stop," the hunter snapped, "You are not to leave until you have stuck dead center at least 10 times,"

"Figured as much," I mumbled under my breath and went back into it.

...

By the time I reached Winterfell, I was dead tired and my arms were shaking from exhaustion, I barely lasted through the dinner, and was half dead on my feet by the time I reached my room.

My body protested but I still didn't go to sleep right away, and instead sat on my bed and tried to warg a couple of times before sleeping. I wasn't expecting much as I hadn't succeeded in the last handful of weeks so I was just going through the motion.

About 10 minutes later my mind had been emptied of all thoughts and I was only focused on the picture of Frost inside my mind, I don't what had happened or how I did it but suddenly a pop went inside my head and my sphere of consciousness pierced the needle outside it.

I immediately felt the path to Frost open up and when I went along it, I suddenly found myself leaving my body behind, I felt as If I was occupying a different mind and when I opened my eyes, I was looking through the eyes of Frost for the first time as she was flying over the Wolfswood.

///

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[LazyWizard]

In the middle of the training ground hidden in the shade of trees near Old Mark's house. I stood at the starting position while holding the bow in a form called the relaxed stance.

I just gazed at the target for a whole minute before finally taking a deep breath and without any break, strung the arrow, raised the bow, and shot it in a single motion.

The arrow swiftly flew and hit the target a bit left of the dead center. I took another arrow from the quiver beside me but didn't string it, instead went back to the relaxed position, and closed my eyes.

I replayed my last shot inside my head and tried to find the mistake I made during the execution.

Was my posture wrong? Was it the wind?

Was the arrow a bit crooked? Should I have held the Bow a bit higher?

The one thing Old Mark always insisted I do, is try to find mistakes in every single arrow I shoot during training.

He didn't believe in learning by repetition, as he believes only stupid people should learn using that method. He thinks that there are basically two ways to learn archery.

The easy way is to learn the bow by the process of repetition. If a person shoots thousands of arrows mindlessly until the routine becomes a bodily instinct then they would eventually get good at shooting the target. But those who learn like this are rigid in Old Mark's eyes.

In his words, "Their body learns to shoot, but their mind didn't do the work involved,". So these kinds of people would be good at shooting at a stationary target or the target they are used to but if a new mark appears then their arrows start to go wide.

The hard is, that from the beginning you learn by deliberating every single step associated with shooting the arrow, and by taking into account every single factor. If they do this then while it could take longer and may be more difficult, eventually they would become one of the few truly versatile archers in Westeros, those who can shoot a bullseye in every situation.

After finding the problems with my last try, I opened my eyes and once again went through my routine, and after observing the target for a few moments, I raised the bow and shot the target in a single breath.

Looking at the target a small grin appeared on my face, this time the arrow stuck closer to the target, which meant I diagnosed the issue correctly.

Observe—Shoot—Diagnose—Repeat

I kept on training my archery like that, and when my right arm started to ache, I switched my arms and started shooting with my left hand while holding the bow with my right hand.

A whole different kind of calculation is associated with shooting from the opposite arm, you need to change the posture, place the arrow differently, take the wind direction differently, etc. Basically, you would need to rewire your brain to respond to foreign situations.

I shot arrows for a couple of hours and whenever my arms got tired I alternated them. But no matter how much rest I gave my arms, ultimately they started to get weary, so after my arms started to really ache I decided that I was done for the day.

I put down the bow on a rock and slowly started to collect the scattered arrows, about a fourth of them were not reusable, but the rest of them could be used a few more times.

While I was collecting the arrows from some bushes, I suddenly felt a ping go inside my head, and immediately looked up, and there she was, drifting through the air at an incredible speed toward me.

The color of her feathers was such a perfect camouflage with the blue sky, that if I didn't have a bond with her, I wouldn't have been able to locate her even if I was looking at her directly.

Reaching an appropriate distance from me, Frost braked silently and glided towards me gracefully before landing on the rock in front of me, as she had gotten too huge to be able to sit on my shoulder.

"Hey, Frost," I cheerfully said while patting her feathers gently, "How was your hunt?"

Frost immediately started chirping and screeching, and simultaneously, I started to get some emotions and faded images from her inside my head like an MMS, which immediately made me understand her.

"What! That shitty bird tried to steal from you again," I exclaimed while listening to Frost chirp, and jump around trying to explain the entire situation to me.

Apparently, a Snow Eagle, the discount offshoot species of the Ice Eagles from which Frost originates, had taken to occupying Frost's nest, located at a high cliff in Wolfswood, whenever she was away from it.

And the second she sees Frost coming, the snow eagle runs away, so Frost didn't bother with her at first just considering her an annoyance but lately, she had even started to steal berries that Frost had hidden inside her nest, so Frost finally decide enough was enough and ambushed the intruder today, and after injuring her heavily she scared the snow eagle away.

"Oh, you showed her who's the boss didn't you, Frost," I said to the smug-looking Frost, who basked in her own glory.

I showered her with praises for quite a while before I remembered and asked her, "Hey, Frost did you notice anyone around here?"

Frost tilted her head for a moment, before shaking her relatively tiny head, I immediately understood the point she was trying to convey. She had seen some animals but didn't see any two-legged creatures.

"Alright then, since you are already here, let's complete our warging quota for the day," I said before moving toward a large flat rock nearby and sitting on it cross-legged.


///

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[LazyWizard]

"Alright then, since you are already here, let's complete our warging quota for the day," I said before moving toward a large flat rock nearby and sitting on it cross-legged.

It's been about 5 months since my first foray with warging into Frost, and I had been diligently practicing it at least once a day since sometimes even more if I find the time for it.

I pulled an hourglass out of my pocket and placed it beside me. It was made out of glass and had numerous markings made of charcoal outside it. It had been a bit of an expensive purchase, costing about two months of my earnings from teaching Becca, but it was worth it, watching my progress every day reassured me that I wasn't stagnating.

After getting into a comfortable position, I closed my eyes, took a couple of deep breaths, and immediately went into my zone of consciousness.

The sphere of my mind had grown a lot since I first accessed this place, and it's also gotten a lot more firm the image training I still did had paid off. The bumps and flailing on the surface of the orb, which represented distracting thoughts have also been smoothed out a lot.

After admiring my inner world for a few moments, I focused on the needle poking at my sphere from outside and sent my consciousness toward it.

Immediately I felt myself connect to a door leading into a tunnel, and without hesitation entered it by concentrating on it. Almost instantly I experienced a feeling of weightlessness, and before I could fully appreciate the sensation, I was suddenly bombarded with all kinds of new sensory information.

I could suddenly see everything, I had an almost 360-degree vision, along with being able to see a new range of colors, and could even zoom at an ant or bug crawling on the ground, I could listen to whole new varieties of sounds.

While feeling all those senses at once was very disorienting, it also made me feel powerful like I was the most dangerous predator around and nothing could stop me.

Frost's thoughts were very erratic and predatory, most of the thoughts passing through her mind classified every living thing she saw as prey and predator. Thankfully when I looked at my body slumped on the rock, she categorized me as family.

'Fly,' I tried to send my request through a series of images and feelings, and while Frost's thoughts were very scattered, she was able to understand my desire and immediately flapped her powerful wings and suddenly I was flying away.

My body felt light as a feather, I felt like could go anywhere and the whole world was just my playground.

The feeling of freedom, the wind rushing across my feathers, the euphoria from this liberation from the solid ground was so addictive, it made me giddy and made me want to remain inside her forever, to leave the domain of earth and fly for eternity.

But thankfully while those thoughts were very prevalent, the meditation in the morning along with the mental exercises I did before going to bed made my mind very resilient, and firm so I was able to suppress those seductive thoughts.

The whole of Winterfell and the town outside were in my view, I could even see the facial feature of every single person inside the town.

And on the other side was the forest of Wolfswood, and almost immediately I could spot about 6 prey located at various distances every single of them was hiding using a different technique, but I was still able to spot them all.

'Higher,'

Immediately Frost flapped his powerful sets of wings again and started flying higher. I didn't actually command her or anything. So instead of being a driver, I was actually just a passenger, and whenever I wanted something I just asked her...politely, and she complies.

I tried not to wrestle the control of Frost's body away from her because while I felt like I could do it, it would detrimental in the long run for the trust between us, and besides I don't think I could control Frost's body better than her, so I just left the steering wheel in her hands while nudging her occasionally.

Frost stopped rising and just started gliding in huge circles, I was so high up that it was cold enough to give my normal body frostbite, but in Frost's body, the cold winds just felt comfortable, almost... soothing.

Alas, all too soon I started to feel the solid orb of my mind start to wear down around the edges. The firm grip I had on my thoughts started to loosen slowly, as Frost's fleeting thoughts and predatory emotions started to affect me so I reluctantly but quickly exited Frost's mind and went toward the tunnel leading toward mine.

It had been written inside the notes I found in the Winterfell Library that one should never stay inside the mind of an animal beyond their mental capacity allows because if they do then the animal's mind swings will slowly but surely start to affect the warg and make them more... animalistic.

The one thing written inside that I had taken to heart was that 'The sign of a good warg was their ability to introspect and to be able to evaluate their mental condition at all times,'

*Whoosh*

I entered back inside my body and immediately felt a sense of incongruity, even though I had only been in Frost for a short while. I was a little uncomfortable having hands instead of wings, and losing all those additional senses also made me feel weakened.

I took a few seconds to get assimilated before standing up from where I had been slumped on the rock. I mostly always warg from inside my own room after locking the door, so I didn't take into account the comfort of my unconscious body.

I looked toward the hourglass and marked the fallen sand with a piece of charcoal. Looking at the previous mark I was a bit happy that I had improved once again and was able to stay a bit longer inside Frost.

//

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[LazyWizard]

After stretching a bit, I collected my bow and the quiver of arrows before heading out. I passed through the dense foliage of trees before taking the familiar path and arriving at Old Mark's house. The door was locked and there were signs outside showing that the home had been empty for a while.

"They haven't arrived back huh," I sighed before leaving toward Wintertown.

Becca, Emily, and Old mark had all left for WhiteHarbour a while back, along with them went Becca's father and mother. They had all gone to attend the wedding of Becca's older brother, who was a sailor on a merchant ship.

'A Merchant father and Sailor son, what a perfect combination' I thought, 'And they said that the woman Becca's brother is marrying owns a storefront in WhiteHarbour, so almost the whole family works and earns, except for that musclehead, Becca... Sigh, I don't think she's going to ever work on a normal job,'

Leaving the shade of trees I moved on to the well-worn but somewhat clean path leading into Wintertown. With the full advent of summer, Wintertown was back to only hosting its permanent residents along with the occasion travelers and merchants.

While passing through the main street I suddenly saw a congregation of people in the middle of the road, with constant chattering of villagers and someone shouting prices as if auctioning something.

Curious, I went toward the gathering and through the throng of people, when I started hearing the neighing of horses.

What I saw in the middle left me very excited. A small herd of horses, small and big, were tied to some carts in a single line, and the villagers were going around and evaluating the various breeds of horses. A young boy about 12 years old was shouting about the various prices and qualities of horses. The owner was in the corner negotiating with the resident innkeeper who wanted to sell his old horse and buy a new one.

I immediately ran toward the young boy and yelled, "Hey! Hey!" The lad stopped mid-shout and looked toward me, "Did your master get any Foals this time?"

"Yes, we got about...Umm," He looked behind him for a moment before turning back, "...Four young ones this time,"

"Alright, Don't sell them! I am coming back right away," I urged him, already running toward Winterfell.

"Don't take too long," He shouted toward my back and I waved my hand without turning back.

I quickly navigated through the streets of the town before going through the open gate of the Castle and hurrying toward the Great Keep. After rushing up the stairs, I quickly opened my room and deposited my bow, before moving toward Robb's room, but he wasn't inside.

I looked around for quite a while, in the courtyard, the library, and the Maester's Turret but I just couldn't seem to find him.

Ultimately a guard told me where my brother was and I immediately ran toward the empty part of Winterfell and found them outside FirstKeep.

Robb was napping at the patch of grass outside the oldest tower of the Castle while Sansa was sitting on the stairs trying to braid baby Arya's hair.

"Don't Squirm, Arya," Sansa said while Arya just babbled incoherently while playing with the sand in front of her, "And don't put that in your mouth," Sansa admonished while emptying her little sister's hand.

Arya's eyes shot up as she noticed me walking toward them and immediately a gummy smile appeared on her face as she tried to crawl toward me, "Where are you going Arya—Oh hey, Jon," Sansa said while holding Arya back.

I smiled and waved toward them while moving toward Robb. Looking at the innocent face of my brother sleeping, I immediately got bombarded with lots of pranks opportunities.

But alas, I didn't have time for that, so while shaking my head in regret, I took a deep breath and shouted just beside the Sleeping Princess's ears, "WAKE UP!"

"I AM UP M-MOM! I-I am looking after them—Oh...it's you," Robb said while flailing around for a moment before his eyes fully opened and found me, "Did you have to wake me up like that,"

"Of course I did," I said smugly, "Now come on, let's go get Father. Shawn is back here in WinterTown,"

"Shawn Who?" He asked while yawning.

"Shawn—The breeder from Barrowtown," I reminded him while pulling him up, "Don't you remember what Father promised us the last time he was in WinterTown?"

"Oh yes! Let's go quickly," Robb said perking up.

"Can we come too?" Sansa asked when we were leaving, coming behind us while carrying Arya who immediately pushed her hands toward me.

"Alright, Come on then," I said while taking Arya into my arms and all three of us ran toward the Lord's Solar, where Father would most likely be.

Climbing the stairs we found the door closed with a guard standing outside, and the moment the guard spotted us he stepped up and barred us with his hands.

"Lord Stark is busy with the Steward, he asked not to be disturbed," the guard said evenly.

"We need to speak with Father. It's urgent!" Robb said.

"I am sure it is!" the guard replied while rolling his eyes, "But it shall have to wait,"

No matter how Robb tried to dissuade him, the guard didn't budge, so I took drastic measures. I turned my head toward Sansa and winked conspiringly.

She tilted her cutely, a bit confused but I kept on winking while pointing with my finger toward the door, while hiding my hand from the guard, her eyes lit up as she immediately understood and pecked her head like a bird.

I moved Arya in my hands in such a way that Sansa was completely blocked from the guard and while Robb was distracting him, Sansa went behind the guard and immediately opened the door.

"Hey Stop—" By the time the guard noticed it, Sansa had already gone inside and when he turned toward Sansa, both of us also took the opportunity to barge into the Solar while dodging the guard. Spotting Father all four of us siblings started shouting at the same time:

"Father you promised that when Shawn came—" "I just saw him in Wintertown Father. We have to go quick before—" "I wanna come too, Father—" "WaWaWa,"

Lord Stark who was talking to the steward Vayon Poole sitting opposite, just looked at us in exasperation for a moment before taking a deep breath, "Alright SILENCE!" He shouted and all of us stopped except for Arya who kept on babbling.

"I am sorry, Milord," The guard said from the door while bowing, "I tried to stop them but..."

"It's alright, Mike," Lord Stark said while sighing before turning towards his children, "Now what is this about—Not all at the same time! Jon, you tell me,"

"Father, the breeder from last time, Shawn, is back in town and he's got some new foals, and you promised to buy Robb and me our own Horses," I said excitedly.

"Couldn't this wait?" Eddard said while waving his hands toward the book opened before him.

"No, he only has limited stock!" I exclaimed.

"Yes father, Come on, you promised," Robb joined me in persuading him and even Sansa turned her big eyes toward him.

"Alright! Alright! Fine," Eddard said while closing his book, "Vayon we shall go over the books later,"

"Yes, My Lord," The steward said while bowing and collecting his stuff.

"Let's go then," Father said while moving toward us before taking Arya from me into his own hands and leading us out.

We set a quick pace toward the gates where some household guards immediately joined our group. Cutting through the townspeople who bowed and saluted when they recognized the Lord of the Castle and his brood.

The second we approached the crowd still surrounding the horses, Shawn the breeder immediately spotted Lord Stark and came towards us eagerly while leaving the innkeeper who was negotiating with him, behind him.

"Lord Stark," Shawn said while bowing, "What would you like to purchase, Milord? I have some of the best breeds of horses this time, all in the prime of their life,"

"I don't come to buy for myself this time," Lord Stark while waving his free hand toward his children who were already closing in on the horses, "Two of my sons want to look at your Foals,"

"Of Course, Milrod. Follow me," Shawn said while moving toward a section behind where all the adult horses were tied up, "Here are my youngest horses, this brown and red one is my best one, comes from a long line of Warhorses and is sure to grow up to be very strong, and it's very docile too,"

"I want this one, Father," Robb said excitedly while jumping up and down in front of the small horse.

I looked toward the foals but didn't feel that any of them were particularly special, I was moving toward the last horse when I found a small foal sitting down and just looking at everyone curiously, it was as white as snow and actually looked bored, if a horse can convey that emotion.

"Hey," I shouted toward the breeder who immediately turned toward me, "What about this one?"

"Oh, that one I am afraid is somewhat of a defective product," the man said while moving toward me, "It's one of the smartest horse I have ever seen, but alas that also make him the laziest one. It would only do something if he was bribed properly and is prone to using his legs and teeth quite skillfully if someone talks shit about him, I would say he would make a very bad companion,"

"Oh, is that so," I pondered while looking at the beautiful creature in front of me, I don't know what it was but I had a strange feeling it was a special horse.

I closed my eyes instinctively and went inside my mind zone, but instead of approaching the needle tunnel leading toward Frost, I just sent a small spike of a tendril in front of me, in the direction of the horse, and immediately I felt myself touching the surface of the horse's mind before my mind snapped back inside my body. I had never done this before with any animal besides frost.

I opened my eyes and found the horse looking at me with curious eyes as if he had also felt what had happened, the horse slowly stood up and approached me. I just stood there and when he stopped in front of me, I brought my hand up and slowly stroked his face, and he closed his eyes enjoying it before he nudged me softly.

"I'll name you, Pegasus," I whispered and he neighed his approval. I turned toward the breeder with a grin and shouted, "I'll take this one,"

"Are you sure?" he said while looking at the suddenly docile horse skeptically.

"Yes, I am,"

Father approached me with Robb and Sansa following behind, "Did you choose this one, Jon,"

"Yes father," I said with a grin before saying to baby Arya, "Look Arya, he's my horse and his name is Pegasus. I'll take you on a ride when you grow some,"

"Howse," Arya babbled and all of us were astonished and exchanged incredulous looks with each other.

"Nobody mention this to Catelyn," Lord Stark said sternly while looking at all of us before he sighed, "I don't think she could take it if she found out her daughter's first word was 'Horse',"
///
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[LazyWizard]

"Stay still, Robb. Don't move!" Jon opened his eyes and said to his squirming brother for the nth time. They were both sitting under the Heart tree in the Winterfell Godswood while Sansa was some ways away playing with Arya by the swing.

"I've been sitting here for half an hour now," Robb said while massaging his legs, "My legs have gone numb. Aren't you done yet,"

"No, I am not,"

"Ugh! You're so stupid. What is even the point of this?" Robb asked.

"You don't need to know," Jon replied, "Don't move! Don't speak! or else the deal's off the table and I won't be buying you anything,"

Robb rolled his eyes but complied with his brother and sat like a stone. There was a cool far-eye that he had been dying to buy but Ned felt that it would be a waste, so he forbid Catelyn from buying it for him, but Jon promised him that he will buy it for his next birthday so he had to do what he said.

Jon closed his eyes and tried once again, he accessed his mind zone which had changed plenty since he got Pegasus. The mind sphere had expanded a lot, and the needle which represented Frost had been submerged halfway through into his mind sphere when it expanded.

The half-swallowed needle had the benefit of making warging into Frost a lot easier and faster, before he would have to concentrate for quite a while before he warged into frost, now he could do it in a matter of minutes.

Another thing that had changed was that a new needle had appeared a while back on the opposite side of Frost's needle, while it was still away from his mind sphere and hasn't touched it yet, he was sure that this one represented Pegasus.

But it wasn't the time to admire his new acquisition, so he focused back on the task at hand. He tried to do what he did when he warged into frost but instead of an intent focused on the needle representing his feathered friend, he sent a scattered intent outward without a focus like he unconsciously did when he met pegasus for the first time.

For quite a while he felt nothing, he was just blindly searching in the dark without any idea of what he was looking for exactly except for a vague feeling.

When he still didn't get a result after 5 minutes, his hopes started dwindling as he wondered if he hadn't imagined the feeling after all. But just when he was about to give up, his consciousness came into contact with something—it was feeble at first but after a few seconds, he started to get a feel for the shape.

The thing, which he was sure was Robb's consciousness, was a weird squiggly shape somewhat like a sphere but with a lot of bumps and flailing tentacles on the surface. It was a lot smaller than his but it definitely felt similar to Jon's own mind sphere.

Suddenly the sphere representing started getting fainter and farther before it immediately disappeared which broke his concentration and got him out of his mind zone. And when he opened his eyes, it was to find his brother sneakily crawling away which explained everything.

*Cough**Cough*

Robb abruptly turned his head around and found Jon glaring at him, "Um... I thought you had already fallen asleep...Hehe..."

"You can forget about the Far-eye now," Jon said flatly.

"NO! You promised!"

"So you do know what that word means," Jon said standing up and going toward his sisters, with Robb following after him and trying to persuade him that he was just stretching and was not going to run away.

They played for a while in the godswood, just the four stark siblings, and happily went toward the Great hall for their dinner when the sun started going down.

Over the next few days, the staff of Winter was kept on their toes at all times because their Lord's bastard son had taken to randomly select a person and follow them around while they worked. When they stopped for a while to do some chores, he would just close his eyes and stand still there for a while, and after some time open his eyes with a gleam of triumph before thanking them and going away.

At first, the staff thought of that as the latest prank concocted by their Lord's son, and the absence of the other one, Robb, only made them warier and kept them looking over their shoulders even after Jon had moved on to his next target.

At the family dinner a few days later, the atmosphere had turned a little awkward because Jon was trying to glare a hole into his nemesis's head and Catelyn was starting to get antsy, and it didn't help that she was pregnant again.

"What are looking at?" Catelyn asked with gritted teeth after finally losing her patience.

"Nothing, Just wondering if you've turned even more beautiful," Jon smiled which seemed to unnerve Catelyn, even more. She kept on looking at Jon, waiting for the other shoe to drop, but Jon looked away with some satisfaction after a while as if he had found what he was looking for.

Jon was very happy with the results he had gotten from the experiments he had conducted over the last few days. And an unintended side-effect of regularly using his skill, which he had dubbed Mind Sense, on various people was that now he didn't have to close his eyes anymore to use it, which he just successfully tried when he used mind sense on Catelyn.

The first conclusion he reached from his experiments is that all people have different shapes of consciousness, and most of them including Catelyn just have squiggly shapes made of different thoughts that are not even closely related to a sphere.

But on the other side, all the Starks have their consciousness in a shape that is very close to a sphere, and while not as large as his sphere of consciousness, the sizes of their minds are also a lot larger than the rest of non-starks.

And Jon knew that the Starks had gotten the talent to warg from one of their ancestors, so from all that information it was easy for him to conclude what qualities a person's SOC (Sea of Consciousness) needs to have to be a potential warg, which would definitely be a boon for his future endeavors.

There was another benefit of him running around and randomly using his mind sense on the people of Winterfell. Because as he slowly got better and faster at using mind sense, it unknowingly also improved his warging into Frost a lot and also made the process a lot smoother and quicker.

It only takes Jon now about a second to go close his eyes and warg into Frost, and about two seconds to collect information about the surroundings from Frost's senses before exiting her body and coming back into his, which also takes no more than two seconds— so all in all in 5 seconds he could warg in and out of Frost.

That increased speed of his warging skill made it a lot more useful and would definitely be mighty helpful in a lot of situations in the future.

///

Name change, A Jon Snow SI —>

1. The Warg Lord
or
2. Lord of Wargs

Which one should I pick?

P.S.-> DId I just give a spoiler?
...

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[LazyWizard]

A few days later I was approaching Old marks house while carrying my bow and quiver full of arrows on my back. Old mark and his family had returned from their vacation to White Harbour, where they had gone to attend the wedding of Becca's Cousin.


And after coming back the only thing his students could talk about was how awesome the only city in the North was, how clean the city was, how beautiful the New Castle was, and how they had never seen so many people in a single place ever.


Even the usually reticent Emily was gushing about the City, she was very impressed with the various kinds of books she saw on the markets there, but unfortunately, she didn't buy any as they couldn't afford them, while all Becca could talk about the various ships she saw there and how her brother had taken them on a tour of his ship which had been docked at that time.


While looking at them chattering away, I suddenly had an idea and immediately decided to execute it. I focused on Emily and intently used my mind sense on her, about a second later my eyes widened as the results astonished me.


"Mr. Jon, Emily is going to turn into a tomato if you keep on glaring at her like this," Becca said with mirth, and indeed Emily had started blushing from his staring, but I didn't bother with that as she was very shy and instead turned to check Becca.


"Um... Why are you staring at me now— Oh! Is it the game where whoever blinks first loses? Alright! I won't lose," Becca said enthusiastically but I wasn't listening and just used my mind sense on her too and the results once again left me flabbergasted.


Surprisingly both of my students had the talent to be wargs, and while not as big as Robb's they both had their SOC a lot larger than usual and the shape was also almost a sphere. There must have been a Warg somewhere in their ancestry, or else, it would be a very unlikely coincidence that both of them happened to be potential wargs.


"Aha! You blinked. I Won! Now you need to buy me something," Becca said unreasonably, but I didn't pay her any mind as the wheels inside my mind started spinning rapidly as I thought about the massive opportunity this presented.


Considering that both of my students were almost 11 years old, the age said to be the safest for a child to begin his training in the art written in the Maester's diary I found in Winterfell's library. The only reason I didn't teach Robb was that he was young, but now I finally have people I could teach and find out if the techniques can make wargs out of non-starks or not.


If they did become eventually learned the art of warging then it would be a Jackpot for me. Before I could spiral into my thoughts about me having an army of wargs, I saw Old mark coming up behind me in my periphery.


I turned around and found him beckoning me over, so I left my students or my future minions behind and started following my teacher into the forest.


The second Old Mark arrived back from his trip to White Harbour, he had taken me to the training ground and run me into the ground through a series of tests so that he could check on the progress I had made while he was away, and he must have been satisfied because the very next he told me that I was finally ready for a real hunt, and after that, he started taking me into the Wolfswood.


But, while I had started going on a hunt with him I wasn't really part of the action yet. The only thing I had done was shadow him as he went through a hunt. I wasn't allowed to shoot or speak, so I just watched as he tracked the prey from little clues, how he set up an ambush, how he skinned it before eventually carrying it to the market and selling various parts to different people.


"You are going to lead today," Old mark said while stopping in front of the place where the trees started getting denser and the real forest started, "I will just observe,"


A surge of adrenaline ran through my vein as I heard him say that, finally after days of just watching I got to hunt for real. I took a deep breath to calm myself down and after looking at Old Mark just standing there patiently, I started silently rushing through the forest with my teacher shadowing me from behind like a ghost.


About 10 minutes into the forest, I found what I thought to be tracks of a boar so I got really excited. But after following the tracks for about half an hour, I lost the trail, and my first potential lead turned out to be a dud.


I didn't get sad after that as I had quickly found another lead, but after that one too turned into a failure, my excitement started waning. I started getting a bit frustrated as after half hour I didn't have anything to show for it, and while I had come across some small animals, I just ignored them which made Old Mark shake his head in disapproval, but I didn't want my first hunt to be a rabbit.


In my mind, I knew that being patient was the most important thing while on a hunt but my heart desired glory and felt that I should have already hunted the biggest stag or boar by now, so when my patience finally ran out, I decided to cheat a little.


I looked around and after finding the tallest tree and I quickly climbed it. Old mark didn't follow me up as he must have thought that I was looking around for prey, but that wasn't the idea I had in my mind.


After climbing high enough and ensuring I was out of my teacher's sight, I found the right branch and sat on it. After making sure that I was properly secured and wasn't at risk of falling, I closed my eyes and quickly warged into frost.


My point of view abruptly changed and I was suddenly flying over an infinite green forest, after communicating with frost I found that she wasn't very far away from where I was, so I quickly urged her to find prey for me, the bigger the better. And she rose up to the challenge like a boss and promised me that she would not disappoint, so I thanked her and went back inside my human body.


I opened my eyes and got over the disorientation quickly before climbing down the tree. Not more than ten seconds had passed, so Old Mark didn't suspect anything at all. I started purposely leading him toward the direction I knew frost was in as if I had already found my mark.


I didn't have to pretend for long because I felt a ping go inside my head about 15 minutes later, and after telling Old Mark that I need to pee, I went into some bushes and quickly warged, and immediately Frost started bombarding me with all the various animals she had found.


I quickly sorted through them and after eliminating the small animals, a few bears, and a pack of wolves, I finally found a perfect match, it was a lone stag and it was in the larger size. After making sure that I got the location, he was roaming in, right, I exited frost's body after thanking her.


I went back to the old hunter and immediately started leading him in a different direction than the one I was going into before. Old Mark didn't ask anything about that or even ask me why I was changing directions suddenly, in fact, he hasn't spoken or offered me any advice even once since the hunt started, so he was really just an observer as he said.


After a while, I came across the huge sentinel tree which I was searching for. It was the halfway mark between me and my prey, and if the direction I had seen the stag going from frost was right then it should be passing from this area in a while.


After looking around for a while, I found the perfect tree for an ambush and climbed it, but this time asking Old Mark to climb too, and not remain on the ground.


We both hid in the greenery of the tree, him a lot more skillfully than me. About five minutes of silence passed before I suddenly heard a branch snapping, and I immediately got even more alert. A few seconds later the Stag I had seen came wandering into the view while occasionally eating the berries from the bushes along the way and looking up every few seconds warily.


I took a slow breath and silently knelt while holding the bow in my hands with an arrow in the relaxed stance with the quiver just beside my feet. I focused on the wind's direction while taking my elevation as well as the stag's eventual reaction into account.


After making sure that I took everything into account, I calmly stared at the grazing stag for two seconds before I smoothly raised my bow and shot him in a single motion. Without waiting for my arrow, I immediately strung another arrow, and adjusting the bow a little I shot again before I followed the routine and shot once again.


The first arrow flew through the air swiftly, the stag immediately looked up to run away but it was a little slow as the arrow pierced straight through its neck which made it jump and immediately start to run away when the second arrow which seemed to have eyes of its own penetrated through its hind legs.


It immediately fell and slid through the ground when the third arrow passed through the eyes of the whimpering stag, like a nail in the coffin, and put the mighty beast out of its misery.


///


To read ahead go to: patreon.com/lazywizard

 

[LazyWizard]

After taking a look around and making sure that there were no other beasts around, I quickly climbed down and approached the dead stag. I closed my eyes and thanked the old gods in a whisper, before crouching and taking my knife out to field dress the prey, which meant that I cut it open and removed its guts and all other inedible parts inside.


After tying its legs with a small, I tried to carry it on my back but was unbalanced and fell down due to the stag being too heavy. Old mark silently appeared behind me and helped me carry the heavy beast on his back before he started walking toward the hut.


"You did a good job!" My teacher said with his back to me, "I am proud of you,"


A proud grin appeared on my face, Old mark was not a very emotional individual so he hardly gave praises which made the ones he gave all the more precious.


We made sure to be extra careful on the way back because of a couple of incidents that happened with us when predators like wolves or bears ambushed while walking back from a successful hunt with prey on their backs. The only thing to do in those sticky situations was to leave the game behind and climb a tree and pepper the predator with arrows hoping that it would go away.


It is said that most of the hunter's death happens while they are walking back toward their home with their prey. Fortunately, we arrived back safely without any hassle, but instead of going toward the lodge, we went straight to the merchant in town.


The merchant, who also happened to be Becca's father and Old mark's son-in-law, gave a huge smile when he looked at the size of the prey. The stag I had hunted was very large compared to Old Mark's usual prey, so its hide and antlers could be sold to the nobles in the south for them to brag.


He happily gave me 15 stags for the beast, which I tried to share with Old Mark, but he denied it with a wave. I wanted to thank my teacher in some way so I went back and had the butcher who worked for the merchant, cut me the tenderest and juiciest meat out.


I divided the meat into two portions, before giving half of it to old mark who didn't deny it this time. I said my farewell to Old Mark for the day and went toward Winterfell with a smile on my face while carrying back the meat from my first successful hunt.


Arriving at Winterfell I went straight toward the kitchen to give them the meat for them to prepare for dinner that night. There I found from a friendly maid that the whole Stark family was in the courtyard beside the stables.


All the way toward the stables, I felt like I had forgotten something important, but no matter how I thought about it I couldn't remember it.


It was only when I reached there and watched as Robb rode on his young horse, that I remembered that there was supposed to be a horse riding lesson today. I immediately ran toward the stable where my brand-new companion was.


"You're late," Lord Stark said from where he sat along with Sansa and Arya.


"Sorry," I shouted back before going toward pegasus, who had gotten a lot bigger since I had first seen him. While he was not big enough to carry a full-grown man, he could easily handle my weight.


Pegasus immediately stood up when he saw me coming and neighed at me in greeting. I started patting him as I said hello to him, before taking him out of there and toward where Robb's horse was being led around by the stable master.


I went toward the stable master's son standing on the edge of the courtyard who helped me mount pegasus before he started to run beside me as I rode pegasus toward Robb.


"Jon! You finally came," Robb shouted enthusiastically.


"Yeah, sorry I forgot,"


We rode our horses like that for a while before Robb pleaded with Father to let us ride unassisted as we were ready for it and I agreed with him.


After consulting with the stable master, Lord Stark allowed both of us to ride our respective horses without anyone holding the reins from the side.


At first, we started slow, just running slow circles in the courtyard, but before long Robb started to increase his speed gradually, which made me ride faster to keep up with him.


One thing led to another and ultimately we started a race on our horses with both of us neck to neck. I was a bit surprised by how good of a rider Robb was, while I had the advantage of being a warg and pegasus almost understanding my thoughts instinctually, he didn't have that but he still kept up with me.


There was no winner of the race as Lord Stark ultimately called us to a stop when we started going too fast, but both of us had wide grins on our faces so we didn't mind too much.


We dismounted and after placing our horses back into the stable before going toward where Eddard with Arya in his hands and Sansa standing beside him.


"You both were very good out there," Eddard said with a small smile.


"Yes, Jon! Robb!," Sansa chirped while jumping, "You were so awesome,"


Both of us exchanged a proud grin with each other at that before the littlest stark decided to share her opinion.


"Want Howsy!" Arya abruptly said.


"No, Arya," Eddard calmly said, "You are a little too young. Maybe when you are a bit older,"


"No! Want Howsy Now!" she said and when she didn't get her to wish she immediately started throwing a tantrum.


All of us were at a loss about what to do, and after brainstorming for a while I had a brilliant idea. The idea I had was so simple but if it panned out, it would be an incredible one.


"I'll get you a horse, Arya," I said while approaching her.


"Really, you pwomise," Arya said while looking at me with her large wet eyes.


"Yes, but it would take a while to get your horse so how about while waiting for that you use big brother horse," I said doing the only thing a brother could in this situation, and immediately put Arya on my back before I started crawling on my hand and knees.


"Go Howsy! GO!" Arya shouted delightedly while grabbing onto my hair.


Sansa looked enviously toward them before she turned her big blue eyes toward Robb who immediately crossed his hands and said, "No way, you are too big for that," But Sansa's eyes started watering which broke Robb's resistance quickly, "Alright fine," Robb said while getting on his fours.


Eddard looked with a gentle smile on his face as he watched his four children laugh and have the time of his life, he closed his eyes and prayed to the old god to never take those smiles away.


///


patreon.com/lazywizard —> To read ahead

 

[LazyWizard]

"Alright, you can open your eyes now," Jon quietly said to his two students sitting cross-legged in front of him, who slowly opened their eyes, "Now Emily, focus on the wolf figurine in front of you and try to remember all the details that you missed or weren't able to visualize,"


Emily looked intently at the small toy from Jon's childhood for a while, before she started, "Umm... The color was a bit wrong a-and the length of the wolf was too long... and maybe the texture was a bit off..."


"Very good! That's way better than the Last time," Jon said and she gave him a huge smile at his praise, before he turned toward Becca, "And what about you Becca?"


"Ugh... the same thing happened again," Becca moaned while looking at the Shadowcat figurine in her hands with disappointment, "The Shadowcat I imagined just wouldn't stay still and didn't want to stay in one place at all, it kept on running around and then an unending green field appeared out of nowhere and t-then a rabbit appeared and it turned into a hunt from there..." Becca trailed off, wondering if she was too stupid for the technique no matter how hard she tried.


"No, it's alright," Jon said patting her head after seeing Becca get sad, "I think we are going at it the wrong way. You don't need to have the exact same results as Emily. It's fine as long as you're improving,"


A couple of months had passed since Jon had discovered that his students had a talent for the art of Warging. And while they were both very young, they were a lot more mature than kids their own age and he had come to trust them a lot over the past few years.


So a few days after taking everything into consideration he had told them that he was a warg and explained what warging was and had even done a live demonstration with Frost at his side.


They had both been a little surprised at first when his eyes turned completely white, but after they overcame their shock, they started to accept that Jon was actually telling them the truth and he really was like one of those Legendary Wargs from their childhood stories.


He had then offered them a chance to become a warg like him and promised them that he would make sure to teach them to the best of his abilities.


Becca didn't even let him finish his proposal and immediately started jumping around with happiness while giving him her consent, as the prospect of having this kind of magical ability was too exciting for her to let go.


And while Emily was a little bit scared initially at the idea of her soul leaving her body and going into the body of an animal, she said that she trusted him and that she would also like to experience the feeling of being able to fly above the clouds, like he had described while he was explaining warging to them.


And so for the past few months, after their usual classes had been completed, he started teaching them the skills he had used to get started. The first thing he had them try was the simplest of his techniques, just doing complicated calculations in their head.


Jon had found in his experience that using this technique regularly was very useful in making his consciousness a lot more flexible and made it easier for him to process a lot of the information he gets when he is warging.


Emily had thrived while using this technique, and while she was already very smart, the speed at which she had improved had left Jon a bit in awe of her. She had gotten so good at solving difficult problems in her head that Jon kept on having to find new stuff for her to practice.


But on the other hand, Becca had really struggled with that, as she already had a hard time cracking normal problems with the help of a slate and charcoal, so it wasn't really much of a surprise when she didn't excel at it.


When they had gotten a hang of this technique, he started teaching them his second technique, Image Training, which was also one of the techniques he had found very useful in laying down the foundation for future training.


Emily didn't excel as she usually did in this one as she had difficulty getting the whole picture and while she was really good at individually getting the textures and colors of things that she was supposed to visualize right, she had a lot of trouble focusing on all of the details of the object at once.


For example, she would be able to imagine the structure of the object close to perfect but it would comprise the color of the object, and vice versa if she started to focus on the color, the structure seemed to go away from her, so Jon had Emily mainly focus on getting her mind used to multitasking and focusing on more than one thing at once.


Becca, on the other hand, had a very active imagination, whenever he gave her an object to visualize it seems to come alive in her imagination and it was especially potent if the object represented a living being.


Like the Shadowcat this time, or the rabbit the last time, when he had told her to just focus on creating just the image in her head, and instead she had ended up unconsciously creating a complete scenario in her mind about the cute rabbit and its family, and how they escape the various traps placed around their home by the hunters.


And while at first, he had tried to make Becca try and focus on making the images in her mind motionless. Lately, he had started to understand that she wouldn't be able to learn like he and Emily did with still images, and instead needed a completely different approach.


While he mostly depended on their honest evaluation of their own faults and the various mistake they made in their execution of these techniques. By regularly using his Mind Sense on them, he had found another way of tracking their progress as they got better at Visualization and Mental Arithmetics.


They were still a little shy of being 11 years old, the age that is said to be safe to start practicing the techniques written in the Maester's Journal. So until that time, he would get them used to utilizing their minds as much as possible, which was sure to help them when they actually started.


"Alright, Now let's try that once again but this time—" Jon started saying but mid-sentence he suddenly felt an intense spike of emotions in his head that weren't his own. He felt a bit disoriented for a few moments before he understood where the anger and aggressiveness he was feeling were coming from.


He quickly ran toward his usual rock, before hurriedly sitting down while leaning against it and without telling his confused students anything closed his eyes. It didn't even take him a second to enter the zone, and the moment he did, he saw that the needle representing Frost was pulsing rapidly as if a flickering light.


///
patreon.com/lazywizard —> To read ahead

Sirius Black SI —> My other fic

 

[LazyWizard]

He quickly ran toward his usual rock, before hurriedly sitting down while leaning against it and without telling his confused students anything closed his eyes. It didn't even take him a second to enter the zone, and the moment he did, he saw that the needle representing Frost was pulsing rapidly as if a flickering light.



Without wasting a single moment, he went toward the needle and entered the tunnel, before he felt the usual freefalling experience associated with warging. A moment later, his sight and almost all of his other senses got enhanced as he suddenly started seeing through the eyes of his companion.



The first thing he noticed after entering frost was that he was above a massive green forest that seemed to stretch forever, with a few mountains dotted here and there, and he was just beside a massive cliff with his point of view going up and down as he felt Frost flapping her wings intensely while occasionally screeching angrily from time to time.



It was the first time he had ever felt Frost get this angry at someone, as she was usually a very mild-mannered eagle, but this time something seemed to have ticked her off completely, as her anger seemed to increase with every screech.



And if he hadn't gotten so good at isolating his own thoughts from those of Frost's courtesy of his daily mediation training, then he would have been a lot more affected by Frost. And after reading about some of those horror stories in those ancient texts written in Old Tongue about wargs becoming a lot more animalistic as time passed, he was very thankful that he religiously practiced his techniques every day and didn't slack off.



The reason for Frost's ire wasn't very far away, as a snow eagle appeared in front of them fluttering her wings and trying to intimidate frost with screeches of her own. This eagle was a bit bigger than Frost and looked quite older than her too.



At first glance, both of them seemed to be of the same species just born with different colors but with a deeper look the differences become very noticeable. While the snow eagle was a little larger than Frost she had already hit her peak size whereas Frost was still very young and had a lot of room for growth.



And even though the snow eagle was trying to look as intimidating as possible, it was very easy to see by looking into her eyes and the way she darted around, that she was scared out of her wits and was just trying to look for a way to run away.



'Hey, Frost. What happened, why are you so worked up about this eagle,' Jon thought his questions to Frost using a telepathy-like technique.



Frost immediately started sending back her response using an amalgam of thoughts, emotions, and a few memory images. It took a couple of seconds for Jon to decipher her thoughts from all that but he understood the gist of the situation.



It turns out that the eagle was the same one from the last time, the one who had taken to occupying and stealing from Frost's nest while she was away until Frost had gotten tired of her and scared her away after leaving her heavily injured.



But while Frost had thought this shitty bird had learned her lesson and wouldn't dare to come back, it seems that the snow eagle seemed to think differently as not only did she have the gall to come back, she even tried to steal a rabbit from Frost's nest that she had just hunted.



It was too much for Frost to handle as while Frost may look gentle and cute most of the time, at her core, she was the ultimate predator of the sky. And the one thing most essential to a predator in a huge forest like Wolfswood is that they need to be able to defend their territory aggressively, or else they wouldn't be able to survive for long.



The snow eagle was already sporting a couple of injuries courtesy of Frost, so she didn't seem to have a very good chance of winning, and Frost's thoughts weren't merciful at all so It didn't look like she would be letting the snow eagle out of this one alive.



The shitty bird abruptly dived toward them and tried to peck at Frost with her beak but Frost easily dodged her, but the snow eagle was a lot older and a crafty one as she wasn't actually attacking Frost instead was counting on her dodging and after passing Frost she didn't look back and immediately used the opportunity to fly away.



Frost got even more furious and immediately followed after her, and while Frost might be a bit smaller and younger than the snow eagle, the one advantage she had due to being an Ice Eagle was that she was absurdly fast so it didn't take Frost long to catch up to her.



The second she reached her, Frost immediately swooped down and attacked the bird but the Snow eagle dodged at the last moment and once again widened the distance between them leaving Frost behind. Frost screeched and tried to attack her again and again with the same results occasionally leaving scratches.



The reason why Frost had still not taken the slower eagle down yet started to appear before Jon. As while the snow eagle was slower than Frost, her body was full of various scars proving that she must have been in a lot of battles making her a lot more experienced and cunning than the young and naive Frost.



'Alright! Calm Down, Frost. Follow my lead from now on,'





///

patreon.com/lazywizard —> To read ahead



Sirius Black SI —> My other fic
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/sirius-black-si.1057737/#post-88795068

 

[LazyWizard]

'Alright! Calm Down, Frost. Follow my lead from now on,'

Jon tried to soothe his companion while gently bringing her back from her apocalyptical rage at her incompetence in failing to catch the shitty bird. It took a few tries but after a while, Jon was able to calm her down.

Jon commanded Frost to slowly fly above the snow eagle without attacking and after a few moments of observing the older eagle's flight patterns, he told her to swoop down to the snow eagle right as if attacking her but without committing to the attack fully.

And it went as Jon had predicted as the second Frost leaned down the snow eagle dodged to left almost instantly, which meant that Jon's plan would work so he immediately started preparing for its execution.

Frost was still a bit weak at deceiving maneuvers, so Jon had to run her through these patterns a few more times before she understood how to feint properly. But after a while, she started to execute those flawlessly so Jon immediately went to the next part of his plan.

He slowly started using Frost's various flight attacks and swoops to slowly lead the snow eagle toward his desired location. And this one went smoothly, as while their opponent was old and experienced, she had never encountered these kinds of elaborate tactics so she didn't even suspect a trap.

After getting the snow eagle in a perfect spot, Jon sent the next command and Frost immediately feinted to right, and as predicted the snow eagle instantly dodged to the left, and in response, I had Frost abruptly change her direction to follow up after the shitty bird, and while the Snow eagle was quite surprised she was still able to dodge the attack by a hair's breadth.

But before the older eagle could feel relief, her wings suddenly got clipped at the edge of the cliff that appeared out of nowhere as she was distracted by Frost's attack, and as if waiting for that exact moment Frost immediately swooped on the faltering snow eagle.

Frost used her claws and beak viciously in a series of attacks on the Snow eagle's back making her screech madly in pain and beat her wings rapidly in a bid to run away. But Frost had tasted victory after a lot of frustration so she wasn't letting her escape, and while the snow eagle tried to retaliate a few times, the advantage of agility was in Frost's court now due to shortened distance so none of her attacks worked.

Jon didn't participate in the hunt after that as he just focused completely on isolating his thoughts and emotion, which started to get harder as Frost gave in to her predatory instincts completely.

The flight left the Snow eagle a few seconds later, as she went spiraling down to a small bump on the cliff they were fighting beside.

*Thump*

The fallen eagle's chest heaved and her wings shuddered a few more times before the fight left her eyes completely, and she lay still.

*Screech**Screech**Screech*

Frost immediately started crowing in victory as she circled above her fallen nemesis in ecstasy and asserted her dominance as the apex predator of the sky in that Forest.

'Well done, Frost. I am proud of you,'

After she had been completely satisfied she started to fly away while leaving her fallen foe to nature, and it was at that moment Jon suddenly noticed something that Frost had missed.

'Wait, Frost! go back, Look over there,'

Frost tilted her in confusion, but still complied with her two-legged companion and flew back. She landed on a similar bump a few meters away from where the Shitty bird had fallen. Laying there just in the shadow of the natural roof made by the cliff was a small nest.

'It must have belonged to the Snow eagle,'

The nest hadn't been the thing that had captured Jon's attention, instead, his full focus was on the baby chick curiously looking at them from her nest. And the second Jon had laid eyes on the baby eagle, he immediately knew what to do with the chick.

'Hey, Frost do me a favor and bring her back with you,'

While Frost was a bit confused about the use of the progeny of her dead nemesis who wasn't even big enough to fly, she still pecked her head in her assent, and immediately flew to the nest and seized the squealing chick in her claws.

'Gently, Frost,'

Jon stayed with Frost for quite a while on the way back, making sure that Frost didn't lose her or hurt the chick with her sharp claws. After they were more than halfway back and he was sure that the chick was safe in Frost's claws, Jon exited Frost's body smoothly.

And the moment he was back in his own body, Jon was greeted with the sight of Emily's blue eyes inches away from his face while his other student Becca was squatting just in front of him while poking his cheeks with a wicked smile on her face.

"What are you doing?" Jon asked calmly.

"Ah!" Emily immediately jerked back startled and fell down her backside with a thump, while Becca poked his cheeks a few more times before reluctantly taking her finger away calmly.

"Emily was just fascinated with how your pupil suddenly disappeared..." Becca said immediately placing the blame on her cousin.

"W-What!" Emily stuttered from her shock, "But you were the one who started it—"

"Anyway," Becca said airily waving her hand, "Where did you suddenly go without warning us? We were quite scared you know," She asked using exaggerated hand gestures.

"I am sure you were," Jon said skeptically, "But the matter of why I suddenly warged into Frost would be explained in a few moments when she gets here,"

Jon looked toward the sky and a few minutes later he found Frost flying toward them without much difficulty even though she was indistinguishable from the blue sky. When Frost had approached close enough, Jon opened his hands and she immediately swooped down gracefully while deposition the parcel in her claws into his hands gently.

"What's that in your hands?" Becca curiously asked as she and Emily came up behind Jon, and he immediately opened his hands showing them the prize.

"Aww..." Emily squealed while jumping in her place, "She is so cute,"

"Really," Becca said while looking skeptically at the feathered baby chick, "I think she is a bit ugly— not pretty like frost at all," Becca pointed at the majestic blue eagle sitting on the rock beside them and Frost immediately crowned proudly at the compliment,

"Don't call her ugly! You don't know anything, baby chicks are supposed to be like that when they are young—" Emily immediately countered before she turned back to Jon, "Is she your new pet, Mr. Jon,"

"No, she isn't for me. I was hoping one of you might like her," Jon said before he whispered conspiringly, "Besides I don't think Frost will be agreeable to sharing,"

"Really!" Emily squealed and jumped before she turned to her cousin and fully used the effect of her huge blue eyes on her cousin, "Can I please keep her Becca? Please! Please! Please!"

"Fine! Fine, you can keep her. Stop pulling my hand now, before they fall off," Becca said and Emily immediately hugged her with a huge smile on her face before she turned back and slowly took the baby chick from Jon.

"Well, that clears up my dilemma of who would be the first one to get a companion," Jon said before he looked at his side at Becca who looked at her happy cousin with envy," Don't worry! We'll find a companion for you soon enough," Jon patted Becca gently who immediately perked up.

"You promise!"

"Yes, I do," Jon told Becca before he continued sternly, "But that is only if you work hard at the techniques I teach you,"

"I'll try my best" Becca said completely pumped up about her future pet.

///
patreon.com/lazywizard —> To read ahead
Sirius Black SI —> My other fic

 

[LazyWizard]

Jon passed through the gates of the Winterfell castle in the early noon after he had completed his daily training in the yard. Today had been an especially brutal day for Jon, as he was already tired because he had been training with his bow till late yesterday with Old Mark, and early in the morning Ser Rodrik made him spar with different older opponents with a sword for an hour, and then the same with a spear.


And while he had been the one to ask for training in both sword and spear, and in his mind, he didn't regret it even once, his sore body disagreed with that vehemently.


Jon greeted the guard before entering the town outside the castle, he moved through the streets and went deeper into the part of the town where most of the craftsmen lived.


Ever since he had been stuck with that brilliant idea when his little sister Arya had asked for a horse of her own, he hadn't been able to sleep due to excitement because if this stuff actually worked out he would have a way of making a huge amount of gold that didn't require him to stir up the pot too much.


So the very next day he started his search for a blacksmith in Wintertown to work on his project, which lasted a lot longer than he expected.


Initially, none of the blacksmiths took him seriously due to his small stature, and while they decided he was legit after he told them he was Lord Stark's bastard, they still shooed him away because they weren't happy with the pay he was giving them for the stuff he wanted them to do.


But in the end, he located a blacksmith who was only a part-time blacksmith but had worked on some stuff during the last war so was proficient enough for his need and he also happened to have a lot of free time on his hands because he wasn't in demand as much after the population of the town decreased after summer arrived.


He had agreed that he would work on his project as long as he wanted him to—provided he was paid his dues regularly.


And of course, the reason he had not gone to the Winterfell's resident Blacksmith Mikken was also quite similar as he was busy most of the time handling stuff for the guards and staff that worked in the castle.


Stuff like repairing broken equipment, adjusting old armor for the new recruits, or creating new ones, etc. So he wasn't able to dedicate as much time, and patience as his project required, as it needed a lot of research and tinkering in its initial phase.


And besides, he was keeping the project a secret from the rest of his family, which was also the reason he hadn't asked Lord Stark to fund it for him, as one of the first things Jon had been taught since he was young was, 'For every penny, we save during the summer, one more soul would survive in the north in winter,'.


And Jon didn't want to ask for Eddard's help in what he would definitely consider a child's whim, without being sure that this would work out in the end.


So this whole project was being funded by Jon, with the initial funds coming from his saving over the years. And he had started making quite a Lump Sum from his hunting activities, partly because he was getting better at it but mostly... because he had frost's help—locating the largest and most profitable prey.


Jon reached the home-cum-workshop of the blacksmith named Bryan, who had been able to look past his childish face, and decide that it didn't matter to him how young his employer was, or how weird the thing he was asked to make was, as long he got paid.


"Hey, Bryan!" Jon shouted from outside the wooden door, "Are you in there?" Jon knew that it was a stupid question as he could see the smoke coming out of the chimney, and as Bryan lived alone, it was quite obvious he was inside, but he asked for the sake of it anyway.


Jon heard footsteps coming from inside after a few moments before the door opened with a bang, "You came at the right time," Bryan said the moment he saw Jon and immediately beckoned him inside his home with an excited look on his face.


"Did you finally make it work?" Jon asked delightedly while following after the blacksmith who was taking two steps at a time in his excitement.


"Yes, I was eventually able to make a model that actually works," Bryan said while rushing toward his workshop, "You know after the tenth time you rejected it and told me to remake it. I had actually thought that it would never work, but it turns out you were right about it all along..." he trailed off and opened the door before stepping aside and showing Jon the thing he had made.


"I-It's perfect," Jon said with a wide grin before moving toward the first successful prototype, and after running his hands along the smooth creation before him he turned back toward the Blacksmith and asked him animatedly, "Did you try to use it,"


"No!No! No," Bryan said while shaking his head, "I don't think I have the flexibility required for me to use this thing, but I can guarantee that it would run smoothly,"


"I believe you," Jon replied with a bright smile, "So how much time would it take for you to create a similar-sized one, one medium-sized, and the last a tiny version of this,"


"Umm..." Bryan thought for a moment, "Considering I could most probably use the leftover materials from the previously failed products... and the smallest one was very easy to make so I already made it... it should not take me more than a week," he finished with confidence.


"Alright then," Jon took one last look at the thing before moving toward the exit, "I will come back a week later for all of them, and will bring the rest of your payment along with me so make sure to complete it on time,"


"I will definitely try my best," Bryan seriously said before a grin appeared on his face, "And don't worry about the payment, I know where you so live so there's no need for me to worry about you running away... Ha Ha,"


Jon laughed along with the blacksmith's unfunny joke as he opened the door, but stopped abruptly as he was on the doorstep because he suddenly came under a large shadow and when he looked up he saw the face of a young teen plastered on a body that wouldn't look out of place among the tallest guards of Winterfell.


"Oh... it's you again," Bryan said in an unfriendly tone when he recognized the man blocking the exit, "I already told you I don't have any work for you. Why do you keep on coming back?"


"Pease just give me one chance," the man in front of Jon begged in a surprisingly young voice, "I would be willing to even work for free— just give me a place to stay and some food and I would work very hard—"


"My answer won't change no matter how much you plead. I don't have an abundance of work as it is, and I would have to starve if I even started sharing that," Bryan briskly said before turning to Jon, "I will have your things ready by the week's end," Jon nodded and Bryan closed the door with a snap.


The large man looked at the closed door with disappointment and after sighing in defeat turned around to leave.


He was wearing clothes that had definitely seen better days and seemed to be carrying all his possessions in the sack on his back, and also carried a heavy hammer on his waist. He also looked as if he hadn't been eating well and his body looked thin and dirty as if he didn't hadn't had a proper meal and rest for quite a while.


"Hey, wait up!" Jon shouted toward the man, who immediately stopped and turned around and found Jon coming up toward him.


"Huh... Do you mean me!" the man asked in confusion while pointing a finger toward his face.


"Of Course, Who else is here on this empty street," Jon said while coming to stop in front of him before he narrowed his eyes and looked intently at the person in front of him for a while before his eyes suddenly gained a triumphant gleam and a small grin appeared on his face.


"I guess..." the teen-man said after looking around and finding no one else, "So do you want something from me,"


"I saw what happened back there," Jon said while pointing behind at the Blacksmith's home, "So I was curious. I haven't seen you around here before, Are you a Blacksmith from out of town?"


"Yes, I am... Um... I mean—I will be, I guess," the teen-man stuttered for a while before he sighed and continued sadly, "An Old Blacksmith in my village taught me some things during the last winter but he wasn't able to teach me everything because... the winter took him away,"


"That would make you a novice blacksmith," Jon said while massaging his neck that had started to hurt from looking at an awkward 70° angle, so he took the teen-man toward a tree stump nearby and made him sit so that they could talk on the same level, "That's better... Now, are you looking for some work, or were you hoping for someone who can take you as an apprentice,"


"I am trying to find some work, but haven't had any luck so far..." the teen-man said with a bitter smile, "And do I look like someone who's got enough money to pay someone for an apprenticeship,"


"Hmm..." Jon stood there for a while with his hand under his chin, his mind churning a mile per second trying to rapidly work on whether the idea that appeared inside his head was feasible.


"Umm...Why are you asking me so many things, anyway," the person in front of Jon hesitated for a moment before saying, "Do you know of someone who would have a job for me?"


"Maybe, I do," Jon said with a small smile before asking, "But first tell me, how old are you?"


"Hmm... 12 or maybe...13 I think," he replied unsurely.


"Brilliant!" Jon cheerfully said before he stopped and looked at the teen up and down with some skepticism, "You look so young but you are already traveling? And, Where did you say your village was, again?"


"I am from a village close to the Last Hearth, A-And..."


'So he hails from the land of Umbers, his absurd height completely makes sense now,' Jon thought before nodding encouragingly, "And..."


"Well... I was a fourth son of a farmer and though I learned under a blacksmith when summer arrived my father wanted me to become a farmer just like the rest of my family but I liked being a Blacksmith, so..."


"Go on..."


"But becoming a blacksmith wasn't as lucrative if there wasn't a war around the corner... and nobody wanted to pay a half-learned boy to make even the simplest stuff, and my pa didn't have money for me to complete my training. So one day I heard from an elder that wintertown was thriving and that it would be very easy to find work here..."


"So you ran away from home and arrived here..." Jon completed.


"Um yeah..." the boy agreed while rubbing his head with a silly smile before he suddenly lost his smile and said with a defeated sigh, "But it looks like the elder was wrong... because I wasn't able to find work, even though I have been here for more than two weeks,"


"How about you come with me, then," Jon said with a pure smile while extending his hand, "I'll make sure that you can get the apprenticeship you wanted and you can even get a place to stay,"


"Really..." he said in elation while taking Jon's hand before he suddenly realized something and asked, "Aren't you a bit... Um... young,"


"Don't Worry about that, I just don't look my age," Jon said waving his hands and he wasn't lying as he definitely looked a lot taller than children his age.


There were two reasons Jon decided to help this "boy"... Number 1 he had very good potential and could become a warg in the future if he was trained properly. And of course, Number 2 was it never hurt to have a blacksmith friend in a medieval world.


Ever since Jon got skilled enough at using Mind Sense, he had taken to using the skill very liberally on every person he came across inside Winterfell and in Wintertown too. And most of the time the people he came across were already past their prime age with their minds already being set and not having enough fluidity for them to improve with practice.


So the second he felt this boy's mind he was astonished to find that he had the fluid consciousness of a young one inside the body of a full-grown man, so the moment he asked his age his confusion got cleared.


"I am Jon by the way, What's your name..."


"Oh I am Tom but everyone in my family called me LittleTom..." LittleTom said sheepily.


"Um... Sure," Jon said while looking up at the "Little" tom before he put his hand on the shoulder which he could barely reach, and continued, "Well, then—tell me LittleTom, have you ever been to a castle..."


....


Eddard Stark P.O.V


"—The armors have almost all been repaired while all the unworkable ones have all been melted for reuse, if we go at this steady rate then by the time the week is over we should have all the weapons repaired too," Ser Rodrik said.


Eddard nodded as he listened to his most trusted knight gave him the report while they were leaving the armory of Winterfell, "That is very good. And how about the arrows?"


"They are being made at a steady rate, so we should have enough stock ready in a few weeks," Rodrik said before he asked hesitatingly, "May I ask you something, My Lord?"


"Sure. Go on," Eddard said after they came to stop in front of the smithy where his ears were suddenly assaulted with the constant sound of hammering and clanking while the smell of burning metal filled the air.


"Is there to be a war, My Lord..."


Eddard sighed while looking into the huge open warm smithy before speaking, "I am not sure. The coastal villages have been constantly reporting large tracts of forest being stolen... and almost every month a new letter arrives from the bear islands with the sightings of Ironborn ships so while I am not completely sure the Ironborn will come out into the open to launch a full-scale attack,


"The one thing I know for sure is if they keep on going like this we will have to call our banners to come to the aid of Mormonts sooner or later. And another thing I've learned over the years is it never hurts to be always prepared..."


They had only been standing there for a couple of minutes before Mikken the resident Blacksmith came running out of the smithy.


"Milord, Ser Rodrik," Mikken saluted while wiping sweat from his forehead, "What can I do for you?"


"Nothing, I was just here to check if the work was coming along well and if the stock is enough," Eddard asked.


"The work is being done at a steady rate and everything is going very smoothly," Mikken said merrily, satisfied with the sudden upsurge in his work, "And the stock of metal should still last us for quite a while,"


"Hmm..." Eddard looked into the smithy before suddenly asking, "How is that boy that Jon brought in last week? Is he any good?"


"Oh he is a hard worker My lord," Mikken said with a smile, "And he is one of the fastest learners I have taught. Of course, he knows half the stuff already, so that helps but still, I don't have to spend that much time teaching him as he picks up things really quickly,"


Eddard looked into the smithy for quite a while but still wasn't able to spot him, "Where is he? I don't see him inside, Is he not working today?"


"Oh yes, he was working till about two hours ago... when Jon came and took him away saying he needed him for something,"


Eddard wondered about where Jon had taken his newest friend when they suddenly heard a voice around the corner, "Have you seen my father," when Eddard turned around, he found his son Robb talking to a guard who immediately pointed toward them.


Robb's eyes lit up with relief and he thanked the guard before running straight toward them, "Father! I finally found you. I was looking for you everywhere. Come on! quick," Ron said excitedly while pulling his father's hand behind him.


"What seems to have happened, Robb," Eddard asked, indulgently letting Robb pull him along while waving at Ser Rodrik and Mikken behind him to let them go back to work, "Where are you taking me?


"You know "the thing" Jon's been talking about for ages and hiding from all of us saying that 'It's a secret,'" Robb said with a smile, "Well... he is finally going to show us, and the rest of them are already there waiting for us, so Come on!"


Eddard did know about "the thing" Robb was talking about, having been receiving reports about Jon's whereabouts in Wintertown regularly, he knew that his son was visiting a Blacksmith for a couple of months now.


Ever since Jon had started earning some money from his regular hunts, he had really started to shine as if he suddenly gained wings. And while Eddard had been a bit worried about Jon being so independent so young, he felt that ultimately it would be a useful thing in the end.


And while Eddard had been anxious about Jon learning to hunt from the Old hunter in Wintertown at the start, after having an in-depth talk with him, he had been assured by Jon's mentor that he will take every precaution and will always priorities his safety. So even though he was still a little stressed every time Jon was a little late, he started to get used to seeing Jon as more mature.


And the one thing Ned was immensely proud of was that Jon hadn't used his first income on himself, instead like a real Big brother he had spent it on his siblings, like the Far-eye he bought for Robb or the flute for Sansa after she had expressed her interest in music, and now whatever he was having the Blacksmith make for Arya.


They arrived at the courtyard while Eddard was reminiscing, the rest of his family was already gathered there, including Catelyn, which was a bit of a surprise for Ned.


"Cat," Eddard said while coming to a stop beside his wife and putting a hand on her back, "You came too,"


"Oh... that well—Arya didn't want to go without me so I came along to make sure that she didn't miss me," Catelyn said without meeting his eyes.


"Is that so," Ned said with a raised eyebrow and a little smile while looking at his youngest daughter who didn't seem like she was missing her mother at all, entertained as she was by Sansa and Jon.


"Yes, really," Catelyn said lightly blushing, "I am not here because I am curious or something about what he is going to show..." she finished unconvincingly and Eddard just nodded along with his wife.


Over the years, Jon and Catelyn had cultivated a strange bond that was completely bizarre for everyone else. When at the start Catelyn had been so cold toward Jon, Eddard had been a little worried, but instead of becoming self-conscious like a child his age, Jon seemed to have burrowed inside her heart using his cheerful personality and sheer stubbornness.


And while Catelyn had resisted his charms with all her might, she had fallen for his mischievousness before long and stopped looking at Jon negatively.


If Jon had responded to Catelyn's frostiness by sulking and losing his self-confidence, it would have never worked, so Eddard was glad that Jon was so mature and thick-skinned and had never been hurt or ashamed, because people thought of him as a bastard, instead, he seemed to have wholeheartedly accepted it.


"Jon! Horsey! Now Pwease!" Arya's pleas bought Ned out of his musing, and he looked toward Jon who had finally noticed that his audience was finally complete.


"Of course, Now that everyone is here," Jon said before he announced dramatically, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the product unveiling of the century—Everyone! Clap!" Jon said and all the kids started cheerfully clapping, and even Cat got carried away and clapped twice before stopping abruptly, probably hoping no one saw her.


"Now without further ado, Let me present to you the product," Jon said while theatrically waving his hands to the side, "It's a Horse made for the littlest Stark, it's called the—" he paused dramatically before announcing with a flair, "StarkHorse!"


Everyone waited with anticipation and Arya and Sansa even stood up in their excitement but even after a while had passed nothing seemed to happen, so all of them turned back to Jon, who started sweating while standing in that awkward pose.


"That's your clue, TOM!" Jon shouted while blushing after nothing happened for over a minute.


"Sorry! Sorry!" LittleTom apologized while carrying the product on his back which was covered in a white cloth.


"Nevermind, put it here," Jon said with a huff while pointing in front of himself, before turning back toward his audience, "Now where was I—Yes! I present to you, StarkHorse," he said pulling the cloth away.


The thing that appeared before everyone's eyes was a small contraption with three tiny wheels like the one everyone was used to seeing on carriages. There was a small wooden seat in the middle, with paddles on both sides pointing in the opposite direction connected to the front wheel, where the legs were supposed to be.


"Wow," Arya and Sansa said in awe while all three of Jon's siblings started clapping.


"Thank You! Thank You!" Jon bowed while drinking up the praises, "Now come Arya, let's get you on your first ride,"


Jon picked up his little sister from where she was sitting before placing her on the contraption he called StarkHorse, "Now you need to paddle with your legs to move it, Alright," Jon explained and Arya started pecking her little head excitedly like a bird.


"Alright then GO!" Jon pushed the Starkhorse slowly and Arya immediately started paddling using her legs while giggling in elation, "Look! Look! I am riding a horse,"


Jon only had to help Arya for a few minutes, and before long she was riding in circles in the courtyard without anyone's help all while squealing in delight. Jon looked at his little sister's happy face with satisfaction before he turned toward his other sibling, "Don't think I forgot about you two," Jon said teasingly before turning and shouting, "LittleTom!"


This time he appeared within a second while carrying two bigger StarkHorses in both his hands, before placing them in front of them. These ones were a little different, as instead of three tires there were, just two of them, "Now this one's going to need a little practice, so you first—Robb!"


"Yes!" Robb jumped in delight while Sansa pouted.


Robb immediately mounted his Starkhorse, with Jon holding his seat tightly before he started pushing it slowly, "Now Robb, slowly paddle with your legs,"


It took Robb quite a while to get the hang of it but eventually, he was also circling along the courtyard with Arya, both sporting wide grins on their faces.


"It's really something, Huh!" Eddard said in amazement and Catelyn nodded unconsciously while looking at Jon teaching Sansa who seemed to be having the most trouble as she was quite scared, but Jon was patient with her and eventually, she too started to get over her fear, and started laughing in surprise.


"Maybe I should ask Jon to have one of these StarkHorses made for me too," Eddard wondered, but before he could think on it any further, he saw from the periphery of his vision the Maester rushing towards him with a grim look on his face.


Eddard immediately turned toward the Maester who came to a stop in front of him, "What happened,"


Maester Luwing silently extended the letter in his hands in the lieu of an answer. Eddard opened the letter nervously, and the moment he read its content a dark look appeared on his face.


"What is it, My love," Catelyn asked, anxiously.


"Lannisport Burns! The Greyjoys have Rebelled"

 

[LazyWizard]

The cool summer wind blew through the clearing in the Winterfell Godswood and Robb narrowed his eyes while slowly raising his bow. Nocking the arrow, Robb took aim at his brother before pulling the string in a quick motion.


*Shoot*


The arrow flew through the air toward his brother at a moderate speed, Robb looked at the arrow hopefully but alas... Jon leaned a little to the left and dodged the arrow easily.


"Are you sure you learned how to shoot?" Jon taunted Robb, with an infuriating smirk, "Maybe you should come even closer, or should I tie a cloth around my eyes to give you some more chance..."


"Shut up," Robb yelled, the color of his face matching his hair in embarrassment, "I'll get you sooner or later,"


"Sure you will and I would even believe you if you hadn't said that about 10 times already—" Jon jumped mid-sentence, hopping over the arrow Robb had shot while he was talking, "—And see you missed another one,"


If there had been an adult there they would have been horrified to see one brother shooting arrows at the other. But fortunately, it wasn't something as scandalous as a brother's feud, what they were actually doing was surprisingly! —Training.


About a month ago, Robb had begun to learn the bow from Ser Rodrik and since Jon was learning from Old Mark and was already almost half as good as his mentor, he was exempted from having to attend the lessons. So Robb had started bragging to Jon that before long he would become as good as him, which was of course, absurd.


But for some time Jon had been trying to find some way to learn the art of dodging flying arrows. Considering that he was an archer, Jon knew that arrows were one of the most dangerous weapons in this medieval fantasy world, so not having any insurance against them would be stupid.


So seeing an opportunity to teach his brother some manners and train in the art of dodging arrows at the same time Jon devised the little game they were playing.


The game went somewhat like this, Jon would stand in a small circle drawn using a stick, which was the range in which he could dodge, and about 15 meters away Robb would stand behind a line and shoot arrows at him, and of course, the arrows were without arrowheads. They were young, not stupid.


They both took turns being the shooter and the target, and so far luck hadn't been on Robb's side at all. Both of them got to shoot 10 arrows before they had to switch and this time it was Robb's turn to shoot.


In the beginning, Robb had been able to hit Jon about 5 out of 10 times while Jon had a 10/10 hit rate. But as he slowly got better at dodging, Robb started to hit Jon less and less while Jon managed to hit Robb every time no matter how he dodged.


"Stay still!" Robb groaned while furiously shooting another arrow.


"I don't think that's—" Jon dodged to the left, "—the point of—" Jon ducked,"—this exercise. And it's time to switch,"


Robb grimaced but still approached Jon to switch with him as the target, which he didn't like at all. As he was going to the circle along with Jon's bow, Robb's eyes suddenly widened when he noticed something behind Jon in the distance, "She is back, Jon,"


"I know," Jon hissed back without moving his head, he had been able to feel her approach them for a while, "Don't look in her direction or you'll spook her,"


"OH! I won't," Robb whispered with a conspiratory wink while handing Jon his bow. Both of them stood close and started causally speaking with each other in loud voices about mundane things so as not to let the observer know that she had been spotted already.


"She's close enough now. We'll shoot at the same time on my signal," Jon said in a low voice and Robb nodded eagerly while grabbing his bow tightly, "3...2...1...NOW!" Jon shouted and turned back with a spin while raising his bow and shooting the arrow.


*SQUAWK*


Frost made a surprised squeak when Jon's arrow almost managed to catch but fortunately, she was still able to dodge herself at the last moment. Robb's arrow followed after but unlike Jon's it went wide enough that she didn't have to flap her wings.


"Aww she dodged again," Robb whined when their ambush went down badly, but Jon wasn't giving up yet, "Don't stop Robb, come we'll get her if both of us try it together,"


But Jon was wrong about that, now that she knew they were aiming for her it was almost impossible for them to even come close to hitting her no matter how fast they shot.


The reason for this hunt was somewhat similar to the previous one, as they say, "Every predator is someone else's prey,". Just like how Jon taunted Robb about his abysmal archery, Jon's companion Frost also took great pleasure in showing him that no matter how good he got, he would never be able to shoot her.


So Jon had taken the challenge issued by his icy bird very seriously, and every chance he got he would find ways to shoot her, and Robb obviously joined him because it felt good to be the attacker than the target.


But alas no matter how much Jon improved his arrow's speed, how far he thought ahead while shooting, or how many arrows he shot in a second, Jon wasn't able even to come close to touching his friend's feather.


As she grew with time, Frost's supremacy in the air started to become even more apparent. And while her size also increased by a lot, (she was now almost equal to the largest eagle from Jon's previous life,) making her a bigger target, her speed, and maneuverability in the air also increased along with it, which more than made up for it.


"What are you doing!" Sudden girlish yells interrupted the two boys who were happily shooting dull arrows at Frost.


When he turned around, a very weird view appeared in front of Jon, Emily and Sansa were standing in a similar posture, with their hands on their waist while indignantly staring at them. And just behind them, were Becca and Arya, who were clapping at the fun game in front of them.


Frost took that opportunity to fly straight to his rescuers (even though he never needed one,) and immediately hid behind Sansa and Emily.


"Where they being mean, Frost," Emily said while rubbing Frost's feather expertly, she had her own bird, the small snow eagle, nestled in her front pocket.


"Don't worry. We'll protect you," Sansa said throwing a nasty glance at her brothers while imitating the way Emily moved her hand, and Frost soaked up all the praises and rubs, acting as if she had been wronged.


"Hey, don't blame me, it was all Jon's idea," Robb said while pointing toward his brother, "And besides we never even managed to touch a single feather on her," Robb tried to explain but the girls ignored him.


It was a very common thing to see all four of them together nowadays and the reason for that is very complicated.


It all began with Lord Stark wanting to create some more units of archers in addition to the one supplied by his Lords because he thought they would be very useful against the squids who were almost always on a boat or a ship so most of them had only leathers for protection.


So of course, the first person he thought of was Old Mark, and Jon was sure that had to do with Eddard being impressed with how good of an archer he became under his tutelage. So he called him and asked him to train a new unit of archers and if that wasn't enough he even offered him a job here in Winterfell after they were done with the rebellion.


And while Old Mark hesitated in the beginning, he eventually realized that he was too old to still live on his income from his weekly hunts and that it was finally time to settle down and take a stable job, so he accepted the offer.


And of course with Old mark came his granddaughter, Emily, and not far behind her was Becca, and while Becca didn't live here in Winterfell as Emily did, she still spent most of her day in the castle playing with Emily so it wasn't much different.


And a few days after that they ran into the lady of the castle, and surprisingly (or maybe not) Lady Stark had taken an instant liking to Emy, she seemed to like that Emily was so well-mannered and well-spoken, and the cherry on the top was when she found out that Emy knew the Seven-Pointed Star book inside out,( of course, Jon was behind that).


Lady stark wasn't much of a fan of Becca as she didn't like her mischievousness and her constant rough-housing, but on the opposite end, she seemed to have found an admirer in Jon's littlest sister, Arya, who would follow her everywhere and wouldn't leave her alone without a mighty tantrum.


And since Lady stark was pregnant with the newest stark as well as had to handle all the work involved with the sudden outpouring of guests (which Eddard had repeatedly told her not to) due to the rebellion she couldn't handle her rowdy daughters on top of that, so she finally delegated her daughter's.


And that was how both of Jon's students become his little sister's babysitters, Emily taking care of Sansa and Becca of Arya, of course, there was a maid that followed them around to make sure everything was alright but most of the time they were left alone inside the castle.


"What are you doing here anyway," Jon said after coming to a stop in front of his sisters and students.


"Oh! We are here on Lady Stark's orders," Emily said while standing up gracefully from where she was petting Frost, "She called both of you to Lord Stark's chambers,"


"Why?" Jon asked while exchanging confused glances with his brother, "What happened?"


"I am not sure... But I think maybe its because the army is finally ready to leave,"


Over the past few weeks, the gate guards of Winterfell were kept busy throughout the day with the irregular times the Lords of North arrived along with their army. Some arrived early in the morning, while others during the evening, so even the cooks and the staff had to be ready at all times to make sure everyone was settled properly.


"Oh! Then we should hurry up..."


All of them went out of the godswood together, with Frost having left them for the Wolfswood for a hunt. While they moved toward the Great keep they through the armory and smithy which was more crowded than ever, and at all times during the day, the constant hammering and the smoke churning out of the chimneys could be seen.


Even little Tom was being told to handle a lot of work even though he wasn't a proper expert yet. But while he was busier than ever, there was a constant smile on his face whenever Jon saw him, which proved his initial claim that he loved being a blacksmith.


But while all of them were busy doing different things, Jon still managed to find some time during the day to take his students (which had increased to three,) to the now empty hunter's lodge for a warging lesson.


Halfway through they came across Jory who confirmed for them that the army would be leaving Tomorrow, after the last and the farthest Lord Umber arrived from the last hearth that morning.


So Emily and Becca separated from them there, as they wanted to say farewell to Old Mark as he would also be leaving with the army. Jon told Emily that he would go to Old Mark's room after he was done to say his own farewells.


Before long all four siblings came to the Great keep and after climbing the stairs before the Lord's Solar they found Catelyn there standing outside the door speaking with the Steward.


"I'll make sure that everything's ready, My Lady," The steward said before bowing and going away.


"... You're finally here," Catelyn said when she turned and found all of them, and immediately turned around to open the door and ushered all of them in, "Come inside,"


Eddard was going over some papers alone in the solar and looked up when he saw his whole family entering, "Oh... What are you all doing here?" he asked while standing up and coming toward them.


"I called them," Catelyn said, "I thought you would want to say your... " She hitched and stopped mid-sentence and turned her head away to hide her face.


"Thank you, Cat," Eddard said while warmly rubbing his hand behind her back to console her before turning to his children.


"Robb," Ned said while putting his hand on his eldest son's shoulder, "You know that I must leave to do my duty to the king tomorrow. You'll be the Stark in the Winterfell then, so I am counting on you,"


"I won't let you down, Father," Robb said while puffing his chest as much as possible before Eddard rubbed his hair with a small smile while giving him a hug, "I know you won't, Son,"


Eddard moved to his other son, before similarly patting his shoulder, "Jon, you're the smartest of the lot so I am leaning on you to take care of your siblings and keep them in line, Understood," Jon nodded and Eddard hugged him fiercely, but before moving away he whispered so that only Jon could hear, "And give Catelyn too much grief,"


Jon nodded with a laugh as Eddard went to his Daughters, "Now, Sansa, my baby girl—" Eddard started but before he could go on, Sansa immediately jumped into his arms and started crying loudly, "Please don't go! Father,"


"Calm Down, Sansa. I won't be gone for long," Ned said while rubbing his daughter's back but she started crying even louder, which set off Arya who started bawling even louder than his sister, so took her in her arms too, "Damn those squids," he hissed to himself while looking at his crying daughters whom he had to leave behind because of the reavers.


Eddard tried to console his two daughters in his arms, but he wasn't having much luck, he looked to his sons for help but Robb was barely holding himself together with his wet eyes, and Catelyn wasn't even looking at them but he could see her shoulder's shaking, so finally he turned to Jon, the only one who wasn't crying in the room along with Eddard.


Jon nodded immediately and took the crying Arya into his arms, and started to rock her which after a few minutes turned the crying into silent hiccups.


"You know father, I heard that the squids have eight wiggling slimy legs and I heard somewhere that when the people on the iron islands eat them they wiggle inside their mouths..."


"Eww..." Sansa said in disgust before giggling wetly at the way Jon was wiggling his fingers, Eddard finally sighed in relief when the crying finally stopped, he immediately changed the subject to a friendly one about that day's dinner.


...


The next day all the lords were leaving through the gates of Winterfell along with the Warden of the North. The army had already left an hour ahead of them, and they were bringing the rear along with the end of their baggage train.


They were just out of Winterfell's view and Eddard was talking with GreatJon about something when he heard a sudden shout behind him, and when he looked back, he could just make out his sons standing on the walls shouting at the top of their lungs, "Don't Bring Back Any Squids!"

"HaHa! HaHa!" GreatJon laughed loudly and said, "Your sons sure are lively,"


"That they are..." Eddard shook his head before waving his hand and turned around to leave after taking a final look at his home.

///
To read ahead go to patreon.com/lazywizard

 

[LazyWizard]

Deep inside the middle of the wolfswood forest, there was a constant fight for survival happening between prey and predators. The varieties of tree species inside this forest were too numerous to be counted by even the maesters. But the most common of them were oak, evergreen, black brier, sentinels, soldier pines, hawthorn, beech, ash, chestnuts, ironwoods, and firs.

On a particular ironwood tree, a dead stag was hanging from one of its sturdy branches, and if that was not unusual enough in the middle of the forest. A snow-white horse was sitting just beside that tree with its eyes closed and from the looks of it seems to be deep asleep without a care in the world.

It was very unusual as the horse was located in the lower part of the food chain of this forest so as a prey it should presumably be more skittish and vigilant of its surroundings.

The scent of the dead animal mixed with the one of a live horse was like an invitation for the beasts inside this forest. It was too tempting for any of the countless animals in this forest and before long one such predator took
the bait.

Wolfs in this forest usually hunt in groups so as to increase their chances of success, but there are always some exceptions and the lone wolf warily watching from the bushes was one such peculiarity.

While still smaller than its cousins the direwolves, it was one of the biggest wolves in this area of the forest. That meant that this wolf was huge enough that it could hunt most of the prey in this area alone so it didn't have to share its food.

This wolf had various encounters with the hunters during his life, so it was very cautious of the cunning traps made by them. It was very strange that the horse wasn't jumping around scared by its scent, but it just assumed that it was a particularly stupid one.

After a while, the wolf was sure that it was safe and didn't hesitate anymore and instantly flicked out of the bushes and ran toward the sleeping horse. He closed the distance rapidly and when he was a couple of meters away, he jumped toward the prey in triumph.

Just as it opened its jaw full of gleaming teeth with the desire to tear the delicious meat in front of it to pieces, a sudden tang sound rang in the air, and before the wolf could think about the sound, an arrow went inside its eyes and into its brain, killing it instantly. The wolf's body skidded across the ground before stopping a meter away from the horse who opened its eyes calmly.

"This bow really is too strong," Jon said in awe while admiring the new bow Old Mark had gotten for him before he went away. It was a bit hard to draw for his young body but the power it gave made it all worth it.

He quickly jumped down from the tree where he was hidden after a thorough look around the area. Running toward his majestic-looking white horse who was lazily standing up while glancing at the dead wolf with disdain, Jon was very happy with how far she had come since he had bought him from the Barrowtown trader.

"You've gotten really good at pretending to be bait...Huh Peggy," Jon said while rubbing Pegasus's neck, "Maybe you finally believe that I would never miss my mark no matter what,"

Pegasus scoffed and tuned his body a bit to show Jon his belly where a thin faded scar lay, proof that Jon wasn't completely right, "Hey! That was just one time and I didn't actually miss—the boar was half-dead already, it's just it took a wild dying swing and you got caught up in it..."

It had taken quite some training for Pegasus to start getting used to doing things that went against her instincts but as Jon started to warg into her regularly her intelligence also started to increase exponentially which helped a lot so now the horse was almost never scared no matter the situation she was in, and could always think with almost human-like intelligence.

Pegasus rolled her eyes at her two-legged's excuses, but Jon wasn't done yet, he said while pointing toward the semicircle around the part where Pegasus was lying "And didn't I start taking precautions after that,". The earth in that area looked a bit irregular as if it had been dug and filled recently.

If the wolf had taken one more step, it would have fallen into a tip full of sharp wooden spears that would have killed or injured it heavily.

"But it looks like we will have to change locations again," Jon said while field-dressing the dead wolf, "We hunted too much here and now all the animals around this place have started to avoid this area,"

"But we got a really big one this time— It should fetch us quite a few silver stags, maybe even a whole dragon, considering its size and that the skin is almost completely undamaged," Jon mumbled happily while draining the blood from the wolf, and he didn't have to worry about getting ambushed as his other partner Frost was keeping watch above him, and nothing hides from her eyes.

Jon had become one of the best hunters in Wintertown with his combination of Frost, Peggy, and his own hunting skills. And he was one of the wealthiest too as he always went after the biggest game which was always in demand, it meant that he always got a premium price, and considering he had almost no expenses, he had saved up a lot.

"I think these should be enough for the day, Peggy," Jon said while putting the dead stag as well as the wolf on his horse's back, who stood up easily after he had secured them tightly, "You sure you can handle the weight," Jon asked but Peggy just snorted in disdain at his unnecessary worry and even jogged around a little to show him that the weight meant nothing.

"Yes! Yes! you're very strong. No need to show off," Jon said while rolling his eyes, before looking up at the dense canopy and whispered, "Frost we are done for the day. Show us the safest and shortest way home,"
Jon's whisper had no chance of reaching anything, but Frost immediately replied back with an echoing majestic Caw that scared all the birds in the surrounding trees away.

"Good! let's go, Peggy," Jon said and immediately started running ahead while following frost whose location was like a beacon in his head, with his white horse keeping up with him easily through the trees, roots, rocks, and difficult forest ground.

It would be almost impossible for a normal horse to move expertly through this terrain the way Jon's horse was doing. Jon had trained her since the day he had gotten her to move in all kinds of different situations and it was only possible because he was able to communicate with his horse at a human level.


And her intelligence made it possible for her to in things individually like a human. Jon had also taught Peggy among various other things, to fight expertly using its all-powerful front and back legs.

That was also the reason he was fearless in bringing Peggy into this dangerous forest as he knew for sure that she could take on most of the dangerous animals in here in a one-on-one fight using her combat skills.

And with her increased intelligence due to his regular warging came a massive increase in appetite as even though she wasn't fully grown yet, Peggy could eat twice as much as an adult Warhorse, and that was all converted into powerful muscles bringing her increased strength and speed due to her regular exercises.

Before long they came out of the forest, and Jon was barely out of breath even though he had run all this way. He didn't stop anywhere and went straight to his regular merchant in Wintertown.

As he was going there he noticed the atmosphere inside the town was a little weird, as he had passed at least three different gatherings of adults whispering to each other with grim faces.

He reached the merchant before he could think about it any further, "Jon! You bought another big one," the merchant said with a huge smile when he saw Jon coming with Peggy and before Jon could answer he turned toward a young helper moving behind him and yelled, "Boy, bring the game to the usual place,"

"Come, Jon, Come!" He happily said while beckoning Jon toward a wooden table a couple of meters away. He took out a piece of paper from the table and after writing something and stamping his seal, gave it to him, "You know, Jon if you keep on hunting such massive games with undamaged skin, it won't be long before I end up owing you more than I make up in a year,"

Jon took the IOU from him before asking him worriedly, "Is that going to be a problem?".

The sea trade with the outside of the North was halted due to the war with the ironborn. The merchant had asked for a delay in the payment until the war was over as he didn't want to use up too much of his liquid funds and Jon had agreed readily as not only had he known him for a few years, but he was also Becca's father which made him very trustworthy.

"Oh! It would not be a problem at all," he said airily, "Once the sea is calm again and isn't so filled with soldiers and pirates, there will be a sudden rush to fill the increased demand from the free cities as the rich magisters and nobles there are always happy to have more exotic skins to decorate their lavish homes,"

"That's good," Jon said with relief, as he had been hunting daily since Eddard had gone, and he was sure there was a special section in the warehouse filled to the brim with skins he had bought back.

Jon was leaving when he suddenly remembered something and asked the merchant, "Do you know what happened in the Town? Everyone was acting a bit out of place,"

"Oh... Do you not know?" The merchant asked, his face suddenly turning grim, "A fishing town was raided by the ironborn, and the survivors arrived in Wintertown this morning,"

"Survivors..."

"Yes... Only two heavily injured men, a woman, and 5 children... they were all that was left of a whole village," He said while shaking his head, "They were almost inconsolable, the villagers gave them some food and a place to stay. The adults I think... went to Winterfell to report or ask for help..."

Jon thanked the man unconsciously before moving toward the Winterfell with a grim look. Pegasus joined him shortly so he mounted his horse in a smooth motion and moved toward his home with a sense of urgency.

He dismounted the second he was inside the castle walls and moved toward The Great Keep with quick steps. Behind him, Pegasus went toward the stable without needing anyone's assistance. He went straight for the one place he knew he would find his brother after he had dealt with the survivors.

Jon knocked on the solar and wasn't kept waiting for long as Maester Luwin opened the door instantly. "Jon," Maester nodded and stepped aside to let his Lord's son inside before closing the door back behind him.

"You heard," Robb asked him the moment he entered, from behind the table where he was standing. In front of him on the other side of the table was Ser Rodrik, the person Eddard trusted unconditionally, and Vayne Poole, the steward, who was joined by the Maester.

"I did," Jon said while moving to stand beside Robb, Lady stark was heavily pregnant at the moment so the people gathered here at the moment were the decision maker of the Winterfell and The North.

There is a reason why Lord Stark started teaching Robb about ruling from an absurdly young age. If a person from Jon's previous world looked at it they would find it unbelievable but Jon had understood from a young age that it was wrong to think about the customs of a medieval fantasy world through the eyes of the Modern world.

One of the main reasons Starks have been able to keep ruling north for thousands of years was that they almost always start teaching their heirs as young as possible. This was a world where dangerous things happen all the time and even someone as young as 7 years old could suddenly become a Lord responsible for thousands of lives.

So The Starks were very cautious about these things, like their other saying perfectly demonstrates, 'There must always be a Stark in Winterfell,'. It's a motto that helps separate the Starks from the other noble houses of the North because they're more than that. They are essentially the royal family of the North.

And Joffery in the canon perfectly shows what happens when a person is handed a lot of power at a young age without learning about all the responsibilities involved.

"What are they arguing about?" Jon asked in a whisper to Robb while looking at Maester Luwin and Ser Rodrik who were each talking with each other, with the steward trying to meditate between them.

"Ser Rodrik says that the villages along the coast should be emptied and situated more inland for their safety," Robb replied with a sigh, "While Ser Rodrik says that the villagers won't agree to leave easily,"

"I am telling you it won't be the last one, and it won't be long before we hear the news of another raid," Ser Rodrik said with a grim look and his hands tightened into a fist, "The ironborn run a circle of our coastal areas before they go on an actual raid to see if they can get lucky. It's almost like a ritual for those squids," He ended with disgust.

"I understand that perfectly, Ser," Maester Luwin replied calmly while fiddling with his chain, "I am just saying that the first summer harvest hasn't arrived yet so there is not enough food yet. And with the war going for who knows how long, we may have to tighten our belt for a while. And most of those villages depend on their daily fishing so they will be very reluctant to leave their home as that may mean starving. So if they were going to die anyway, they will definitely choose to go after a fight with the ironborn,"

"Can we not provide them with protection from the reserve forces we have?" Robb asked after a while after both the adults stopped speaking.

"That would not be possible, My Lord," Ser Rodrik shook his head, before running his finger along the coast on the map in between them, "It may not seem so on this Map but our coast is too long with small villages scattered everywhere. It would be possible to protect a few but almost impossible to do so for every single one. And without knowing their target we would just be running from one village to another, without ever catching them,"

Robb nodded before asking Maester Luwin about how much food they would have to supply, if they were able to situate all of the villagers inland, or if it was possible to buy from Riverlands and how much it would cost us.

While they were discussing, Jon remunerated about the problem in front of him in his head. There was a very obvious solution to the problem presented in front of him. But the resolution required him to share some things that may leave him a bit vulnerable and expose some things before he was ready to.

In the end, he remembered the survivors that had arrived this morning and his conscious couldn't take it without him doing anything if he could help it. Besides if he played right it may not even be that dangerous.

Jon took a deep breath and asked, "What if we were able to learn about the targets in advance? Will it be possible to prepare a defense then?"

"If that was possible then we could set up a few decent size forces in between and assign them to 4 or 5 villages each, and send them to the target village quickly," Ser Rodrik said immediately, "If we know about their target a few days in advance, forget defense we could even set an ambush for those reavers and show them what North is made up of," He humphed in agitation before he calmed down and said while shaking his head, "But alas that all depends on an advanced scouting system we don't have in the north,"

"I may have a way to know in advance when and where they would strike," Jon said after taking a deep breath.

Maester Luwin and Ser Rodrik exchanged glances before the Maester asked skeptically, "What way?"

"You all know about Frost, Don't you?" Jon asked and they all nodded, "I think if I can get a hold of all the Ironborn flags. I can teach Frost to recognize them and she could fly back immediately and warn us,"

"That is really hard to believe, But what do I know about Bird Rearing," Ser Rodrik said before looking toward Maester, "Is it possible then? I know that Ravens can do all kinds of things but this seems a bit farfetched,"

"I know that frost is uncannily intelligent but... I don't know," Maester Luwin said frankly, "There's no precedent of it happening before that I've read of,"

"I believe in Jon," Robb said decisively before they could talk about it any further, "If Jon says he could do it then he can,"

They took a bit more to be convinced but they ultimately decided to trust Robb and started planning for the ambush sites and where the forces should be placed for the best efficiency and where they would be able to react in a timely manner.

After a very long session, all the adults left one by one, and ultimately only Jon and Robb were left behind. And the door closed after the last one, Robb turned to his brother, "Can you really do it?"

"I already showed you how I warg into Frost," Jon said calmly, "And she is really fast so it would be very easy for her to patrol a very large area. She would be able any ship long before they even come close to the coast,"

"That is good because a lot of lives depend on this," Robb said in relief before he expectantly looked at Jon, "So when are you going to teach me?"

"I told you that you need to reach an appropriate level in the techniques I taught you," Jon said while giving him the excuse he had told his brother. If he told Robb that the real reason was age, it would open a can of worms of why he could do it if they were the same age.


"Ugh those are very hard," Robb said while pouting, finally being his age after being forced to act like an adult for so long.

"Come, let's go to the Kitchen," Jon said while moving toward the door, "I don't know about you but I am very hungry, and I hunted a very delicious Stag today so..." Jon didn't even finish and Robb was already rushing in front of him.

 

[LazyWizard]

A small figure stood in a grass field that seemed to stretch as far as eyes could see. If someone looked at the figure a bit closely they would be to sense that it wasn't a real person as it would seem like the figure was missing some of the finer details, for example, it had no ears to speak of and its eyes were a bit out of place, it was as if the one who created him was an amateur painter.

Only someone who had known him for a long time would be able to interpret that the small figure was actually Jon. Jon looked around for a moment before he closed his "eyes" and when he opened them another figure suddenly appeared in front of him out of nowhere this one being a bit more adult sized.

But the new figure was even more bizarre as it only had the basic body shape and was even less detailed as there was only a shadow in the place of a face. While it would be quite hard to see any similarities between them, this figure was actually based on Jory Cassel.

By now it was easy for anyone to comprehend that it wasn't a real place, and they weren't actual physical figures instead it was an imaginary one, and the figures were the construct of Jon's mind.

At some point in time, both of the figures had acquired swords of different lengths from somewhere. Jon took an offensive stance with the figure in front of him mirroring him, and suddenly at some unforeseen signal both of them started attacking each other with swords.

The taller figure fighting Jon was based on Jory because he was the one that he dueled the most in the training yard which means that he was familiar with all of his habits, quirks, the way he moved, and all the different kinds of moves he was likely to use in various situations.

As they went back and forth, the smaller figure started improving his combat ability slowly but steadily. He used his agility to the fullest and started to find better postures to use with respect to different positions of his feet which slowly improved the efficiency of his muscles along with his attack speed.

Ever so slowly Jon started to get a sense of how to apply more strength while using less energy and how to dodge the sword coming toward him in such a way that it would leave him in a better position to attack, he was basically making dodging into an offensive maneuver.

Jon didn't just train with the sword after a period of time had passed he switched to a spear and started practicing with that.

In this place he had a kind of omniscient view of the whole fight, he was able to see all of his various muscles from a 360° Pov, which helped him a lot in being able to see all the mistakes he made unconsciously and experiment different ways he could rectify them and improve.

After the spear, he trained with a sword and shield, and he even changed his dominant hand from time to time. Even Jory changed his weapons after Jon went through one cycle of all the weapons he was training in. He was able to train himself to fight against different kinds of weapons like spears, swords, shields, etc.

The figures on the field kept on fighting without ever getting tired, they just moved from one weapon to another which helped a lot in improving Jon's hand-eye coordination and getting a perfect feel for the correct depth for each weapon as well as the best range for each weapon.

Time was meaningless here so he didn't how long had passed but suddenly Jon could feel his face getting warm, and before he could think about that he woke up and the field instantly disappeared as Jon opened his eyes to see sunlight streaming through the window on his face as he was lying on his bed.

All the image training Jon had been doing using various weapons was actually in his dream.

As Jon started to get better at being a warg and as his mind developed over months and years, the quality of images he could conjure in his mind started to improve by a lot. But unfortunately, it was still very slow going as he was still not at the level where he could imagine moving figures in his mind consciously.

And that was when he found this dream hack.

While he was having a normal dream one night he found out that it was very simple for him to control things he could do and imagine in the dream consciously. And due to his mind being a lot more active in dreams, he was easily able to do image training here, which he had found impossible to do during the day.

It was as if his body was able to focus all the resources that were used to do other things while he was conscious solely toward running his mind.

And while he couldn't do it very consistently as he was only able to stumble on this about once a month. It was still very useful since whenever he was able to remain aware in his dreams he was given a god-like view of his various fighting abilities and his combat strength improved by a lot every time that happened.

He was hoping that as his mental strength improved and he warged into more and more animals, eventually he would be able to do Image Training consciously which would have an immense impact on his combat.

After he got out of bed, Jon went through his usual morning routine quickly and after wearing comfortable clothes left for the training yard.

As almost all of the veteran guards had gone to fight the Rebellion with Lord Stark, there were no appropriate opponents for him to train against in the training yard, and Ser Rodrik too left just a few days ago, so after warming up Jon started going through the forms.

And the lack of a sparring partner didn't hamper him that day as he had time to digest the gains he made during his dream training. Every time he went through a training session in his dream, he struggled to sync his body and mind the next morning. It was something he struggled with as his mind was able to come up with moves so rapidly that his body just couldn't keep up, so he had to train to bring his mind to be in line with his body.

As he was midway through his training, he saw Robb entering the training yard. He quickly joined him after warming up and picking a wooden sword along the way.

"Where were you?" Jon asked when Robb was close enough.

"Oh! I was with mother," Robb said while going through his forms, "She was a bit stressed as Father's letter arrived from the Westerlands. They just reached there and would be going on a ship toward the Iron Islands from there with the King,"

"Yes that would do it," Jon nodded as Lady Stark was far enough in her pregnancy that she was moody all the time, so the news of her husband going to war would definitely be something that would set her off.
As they were training Jon felt a familiar ping go inside his head which him stop swinging his sword at once, even though it had not happened too many times he immediately understood that it was Frost knocking on his mind-door.

So he quickly left the middle of the training ground and went toward the weapon rack in the corner. He went into the shadow of the weapon rack and leaned against the wall before he closed his eyes while looking like he was just taking a breather.

A second later most of his conscious mind left his body as he warged inside Frost. The moment he looked through his companion's eyes, the first scene that appeared in front of him was so breathtaking that he was speechless for a while.

He was hundreds of meters high in the air, and as far he could see, all that was visible was vast clear blue skies from above joining the similarly colored infinite blue ocean below with just the shining Sun in the middle.

As he was lost in the natural beauty of the view in front that he had never seen, even in his previous life, Frost suddenly cawed and berated Jon for getting distracted so easily by things like sky and water, as these were things she see saw every day and couldn't understand his fascination with them.

"Sorry," Jon mumbled in his mind before asking, "Why did you call me, Frost? Did you find anything?"

She immediately turned her eyes toward the sea below and brought Jon's attention to three dots in the distance. Jon was just barely able to make out that those three dots were ships before Frost did something with her eyes and suddenly he felt as if the entire view was zoomed 100's on times and he was suddenly able to see the view on the ships clearly.

He could even make out the people walking by and their facial features so it was very easy for him to make out the flag on the ships and if that wasn't enough the livery every single person on the crew was wearing was a dead giveaway that they were IronBorn. The Silver Codfish sigil was very easy to identify and Jon could even remember the words of the House Codd.

Their motto is, 'Though all men do despise us,' which sufficiently explained what they were like. The Codds are a house that was not well-regarded even among the ironborn, their men are thought to be thieves and cowards.

This explained why they would leave the big war behind and go after the "Softer" targets like fishing villages in The North.

'Circle over them, Frost,' Jon said to Frost in his mind and started counting as she did so. He was able to get a rough estimate of about 50 members on every ship so about 150 reavers combined from the three ships.

'How far are they from the coast, Frost,' Jon asked as he couldn't make out anything except for the sea so he didn't know where they were.

Frost tilted her head and thought about it for a few seconds before she gave up and started sending Jon images and feelings of when she had last seen the coastline and how long it would take her to reach there if she went at her normal speed.

Jon had been training his mind to be able to do complex calculations in his head since he was a toddler so it was very easy for him to what Frost was implying in human time and conclude that these reavers were about four days away from the coast if they went at the speed they were moving at right now.

'Can you show me all of the places you passed while coming here, Frost,'

Frost didn't even think about it and immediately started bombarding the various places, landmarks, and scenery she passed on the way and what the coast looked like. It took some time but Jon was eventually able to identify the nearby landmarks and from there he could quickly remember which village was the nearest from here on the map he had memorized in Winterfell.

'Thanks, Frost. You did good,' Jon thought while sending feelings of pride and happiness toward his companion who had been at sea for quite a while due to his decision, 'I will prepare a reward for you when you come back,'

Jon exited his companion after she gave a delighted squeal. He opened his eyes to his own body and stopped leaning against the wall, his body was in the exact same position he had left it at. As he got more proficient with warging, Jon found out that he could leave his body in a default position and that it would stay like that even without his mind wasn't completely there.

It was as if he was able to leave a very tiny part of his consciousness behind that was able to keep all the essential things in his body going that were required to keep it in the default position whether it be sitting or leaning against the wall.

Not even a minute had passed so no one had noticed me except for Robb who was looking at Jon with suspicion. Jon quickly gestured for him to follow while leaving toward the exit, Robb left his weapon and started walking behind him.

They silently walked for a while before they came across a relatively deserted corridor and Jon immediately turned around.

"Were you warging?" Robb asked excitedly in a whisper before Jon could open his mouth and get a word out.

"I was," Jon nodded and continued before he could ask anything else, "And I found three Ironborn ships not far from our coast,"

Robb's eyes immediately widened as he immediately understood what that meant. He didn't ask him anything more and both of them started hurriedly moving toward the Maester's tower. They had created a plan of attack and defense a while back that depended a lot on Frost's intelligence so time was of the essence.

Along the way, Jon filled in Robb about the number of ships and the approximate number of sailors that were on board along the village that was the closest to their location, which would be their most probable target.

Before long they were standing before the Maester's room and without wasting a single moment Robb entered without knocking.

The Maester was sitting behind a desk and making some kind of herbal mixture using a mortar and pestle.

"Ah! You scared me—" Maester exclaimed while slowly putting down the bowl in his hand, "You should know better than to enter without knocking—"

"Jon knows where the next ship is going to attack," Robb said cutting him off.

Maester Luwin was confused for a few moments before he was able to understand what both of them were here for. He quickly stood up and went to the shelf behind him before he took out a map.

Laying the map on the table he beckoned the boys and gestured over the map with his hands before saying, "Where on this do you think the next attack will be?"

The map laying on the table was rough one of all the coastal villages on the eastern side of the North. This one needed to be regularly updated every few years because the villagers that settle there are vulnerable to many things like pirate ships, floods, better opportunities, etc.

"Here," Jon said after looking at the map for a while, he had remembered most of the map for a situation like this beforehand.

"That one would be nearest to the Deepwood Motte," He mumbled to himself before taking a piece of paper and writing on it.

"There are most probably three ships full of Ironborn with about 150 pirates," Robb informed him before he could complete the letter.

"Oh! Did Frost tell you that too?" The Maester asked skeptically

"Yes," Jon immediately nodded, "I trained her very well, she pecked with her beak on a rough map I made and even showed me the number of ships using berries,"

"Yes, I watched it too," Robb lied to back Jon, "Frost showed us using her beak and we would have even shown it to you if she hadn't left for the forest to rest,"

Maester sighed but added in the number of ships on the parchment before sealing it with wax. He immediately took the appropriate Raven out of the dozens in the rookery before tying the letter on its legs and letting it fly out of his window.

"How long would it take to reach there, Maester," Jon asked.

"The Raven should reach the Deepwood Motte in about 5 hours and from there it should only take a fast rider about 2 hours to reach the place where Ser Rodrik has set up camp," Maester said after pondering on the question for a while.

"Then it should be fine," Jon sighed in relief, "They should have plenty of time to set up the ambush we prepared beforehand,"

"We should hope so,"
...
///
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[LazyWizard]

P.O.V Change

It was one of those rare mornings when the sky was clear instead of the usual depressing grey and the warmth of the Sun gave more vitality to people in the North, and the pleasing weather also put Ser Rodrik in a good mood.

He was standing at the edge of an impromptu field and watching over the men at arms as they drilled. He was standing a few meters away from the place where they had set up their temporary camp.

This place, where they set up camp, was chosen with careful consideration in Winterfell. It had the unique property of being in the middle of North's coastal region, which made almost all of the village accessible from here in a reasonable time. Even the farthest fishing village would only take about one and a half days for them to reach if they tried their hardest.

"Put your back into it!" Ser Rodrik shouted when he noticed some of the younger ones slouching.

For the Rebellion, Lord Stark had only taken the cream of the corps, the veterans of the last war (at least those who still had fully functioning limbs) with him. He felt that most of the war would be fought on the sea (which had nothing to do with the North) and for the land battles they would have enough of a number advantage from the start that he saw no need to take more soldiers than required.

This meant that there were still enough healthy soldiers left for Rodrik to choose from without compromising Winterfell's defense. He mostly chose those who were in their prime age but weren't so young as to be hot-blooded and reckless.

All of them had been trained since they were young in the Winterfell courtyard so they were proficient enough with arms, they just did not have any experience to speak off, except for when they went on occasional bandit hunting or if there was a Night Watch's deserter on loose.

As he was monitoring the drilling soldiers, he suddenly noticed something in his periphery, his squire was running towards him with a red face and huffing like a horse. He started moving toward the poor boy to meet him halfway when he saw the urgency on his face.

"What happened?" He asked calmly when the squire was close enough.

"A r-rider arrived with this letter Ser, said it was urgent," he said while pressing a stitch in his stomach.

Rodrik took the letter from him and opened it quickly when he noticed Winterfell's seal on it. The words were in Maester Luwin's familiar writing which was always concise while delivering all the necessary information.

"Lads!" He hollered, excitement surging through him at the thought of finally having a chance to squash some squids, "Pack up, we got some reavers to Crush!"

Rodrik didn't think he would have a chance to fight the ironborn after he was left behind for the Rebellion by Lord Stark but the opportunity came for him on its own to show those ironshits some northern steel.

There were only 80 men under him in total so they were very efficient and were packed and ready within an hour. And with every individual having a horse of his own, they had very high mobility.

Rodrik had been skeptical about the idea of Jon's eagle being able to scout for ships at the start. While he was ignorant about the ways the ravens were bought up or how they were able to carry messages from one end of Westeros to the other, he did know that training any animal or bird was a very hard undertaking so he was doubtful of a child's ability to train the eagle to that extent.

But on the other hand, Rodrik had been there on the hunt when they had found the Eagle and he had seen her grow up (at a very fast rate) and he knew that she was a fiercely intelligent bird. He also knew enough about Jon to know that he was not a liar, so ultimately he decided to go with his gut and believe in his Lord's son.

They only set up camp once at night on the whole journey when they were about halfway towards the village, and after some quick meal and a night's rest, they were back on the course at the first light.

There was a palpable sense of excitement among the soldiers, some were dreading the carnage and the battle while others were looking forward to having the chance to earn some glory, it was easy to understand once you know that most of them had never been in an actual battle before.

They reached the target village when the sun had just started its descent from its peak. Rodrik had the soldiers set up a camp about three leagues away and the camp was set in such a way that it would not be visible at all from afar.

Rodrik went to meet the villagers who were slowly coming out of their homes and were vigilantly looking at the soldiers setting up camp from afar and discussing in hushed voices between themselves. He brought his best soldiers along with him and since the village came under the control of Deepwood motte, he also bought with Lord Glover's Master at arms who had arrived with the letter.

They introduced themselves to the villagers gathering, and the Stark name took most of the tension from their shoulders.

Rodrik immediately told them about a possible imminent Ironborn attack and just as the Maester had predicted they were very reluctant to leave the village. Instead, they were ready to bear weapons like forks, hammers, shovels, bows, and arrows, or whatever they could against the ironborn.

But Ser Rodrik and the Master at Arms were able to persuade them to empty their village for just a short time. The soldiers helped the villagers settle in a temporary shelter they had created in the forest a few leagues away and they tried to move as fast as possible as they had no way to be sure when the Ironborn were about to attack.

After the evacuation, Ser Rodrik gathered the soldiers and started preparing the field according to the plan they had created at Winterfell. It took all 80 of them working together about 6 hours of work to complete it, which meant that they were barely done before the sun started to fall.

The chance of the Ironborn attacking at night on such a small village was very small but Rodrik still decided to post a couple of sentries just in case. All of them ate a warm meal made by the villagers which consisted of fish and seaweed dishes, so everyone went to sleep sated that night.
...
On board a ship that was slowly moving along with the wind, a young teen was standing on the lookout but he was barely doing any looking out.

Tristan had joined the crew under House Codd only recently, (he mentioned joined but the truth was that they were the only ones who would pick him,) and his luck was so good that on his very first trip out of iron islands, they had taken him on the greatest raid in Westeros in decades.

No one had told Tristan that they would be assaulting Lannisport, the jewel under the paw of the mighty Lord Tywin Lannister. So he had gotten the shock of his life when he woke up one day and the captain told him that they were about to attack the port.

Fortunately for him, House Codd was not known for their love of fighting or their fearlessness, No! What they were known for were their thieving ways and cowardly nature, which Tristan agreed with wholeheartedly.

They had been there when the Iron fleet was trying to burn the Lannisport with all their might but instead of helping their fellow ironborns fight, they had been busy looting as much as they could, and before the fighting had even shown the signs of slowing down they sneakily sailed away when no one was looking.

Tristan decided that he liked the way these people ran things, they loot and they run, and while they were labeled as cowards by the rest of the lot, Tristan was fine with that as long as he was alive and richer than them and had more functioning limbs than them.

Or he would be richer if he didn't lose all his share of the loot in gambling with his crewmates, which was compulsory for him to play. He was the youngest and the newest member of the crew which made him the easiest target for everyone and he was deathly scared of the finger dance which meant that he had already lost about half of his spoils before they even reached the coast.

He was hiding on the lookout to keep his remaining wealth safe. Their ships had skipped docking at the iron islands as the captain said he didn't want to explain why they were the first ones to arrive back from the fighting (Tristan thought that his captain was very experienced in these things,). So they decided to head toward the North and try their luck at finding a village.

Tristan was thinking about the food he would get to eat after they reached the coast when he suddenly noticed a small fishing boat in the distance, It had come close enough that he was able to notice it without the need of a far eye.

"A Ship! A Ship! I see a ship!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, and he didn't know if it was a coincidence or if the fishermen also heard him because at that exact same moment the fishing boat started rowing away from them, "We got a Runner!"

His shout had roused all the lazy pirates from their afternoon naps, and when he ran down the lookout, it was to find the captain shouting at the top of his lungs to follow the fishing boat as he knew that a fishing boat also meant a fishing village. He also ordered Tristan, when he noticed him, to signal the other two ships to gather on them.

The three ships kept a certain distance from each other so as to cover a larger distance but they were always close enough that they would be able to notice the flag signals from any ship.

The workers had started rowing enthusiastically the moment they had heard the orders. Everyone was very excited to finally catch the sight of prey after so long, but the captain hadn't ordered them to move at full speed yet, instead, he wanted them to move just fast enough that he could easily keep the fishing boat in his line of sight, which was trying to flee with all its might.

The other two ships caught up with them before long and it was just in time as well as the captain could just make out a village on the coast.

"It looks like we will have warm beds tonight lads!" the captain cried and a cheer went through the crew and they started rowing with all their might.

While the reavers had looted enough gold and treasure for them to last a while at the Lannisport, unfortunately, they didn't stop there long enough for the men to sate their other desires. It was also one of the main reasons they were here hunting for a village in the North even though the Captain knew that there wouldn't be a chance of good loot here, he was hoping for everyone on his crew to get a salt wife or two which would keep them happy for a while.

"Look at that Greenlander running," The captain guffawed and the crew laughed loudly in response, Tristan also joined them as he could see the fisherman as he half-jumped and half-fell off his boat as he ran toward the village hollering about the Ironborn raid.

But alas it was bound to be useless because the iron born's prowess at sea wasn't just for a show, as the three ships docked just a minute after the fisherman's and the iron islanders started jumping one after the other while shouting at the top of their lungs and running toward the village in the distance.

The fisherman's cries had roused the villagers at this point as the Ironborn saw some people run out of the house toward the forest in the distance. The sight of their prey fleeing from them invigorated their sadistic desires even more as the reavers started excitedly shouting obscenities at the runners.

Tristan was a little confused as he wasn't able to make out any woman amidst the villagers as they were running away. But he just assumed that all these northerners were cowards who would leave their wives and daughters behind, which was all the better for him so he didn't really think about it that much.

"Run! Greenlanders Run!" "HAHA"

Tristan also started laughing along with his crewmates but his laughter didn't last very long as he started hearing cursing and swearing from the front as they stopped abruptly. Tristan jumped to get a view of the front and what he saw made him both confused and scared.

The reavers who had been leading them had unknowingly fallen into a mud trap while they were chasing after the villagers without focusing. And now that Tristan thought about it he remembered that all the Greenlanders had run along the borders while avoiding the center.

Before they could comprehend anything and try to bring out the ones who were stuck in the mud, the cowardly villagers who were running away suddenly turned around and the pirates were quick to notice the bows in their hands that weren't there before.

The ironborn culture and the old way were based around the concept of ambushing and stealing but they were rarely at the mercy of an ambush as they almost always chose their targets at random which meant that it was a rare moment for them and they all reacted very haphazardly, as would be expected from someone who had never faced an ambush in there lives.

Some of them panicked and tried running back, some got angry and ran toward the one holding the bows, while others stood just there frozen in shock. All in all, they presented a very appetizing target for the archers who didn't miss the chance and peppered the pirates from the front mercilessly.

The ones who rushed at the villagers were the first ones to go down as without any semblance of a shield they weren't able to come very close. The ironborns at the back who had mostly escaped the mud through luck and using the one trapped in the mud as a shield turned around and ran back to find a cover and after that think about a way to F**k the archers.

But before they could try to put those thoughts to fruition, they suddenly heard a sound that sent a chill down their spines and drained all blood from their faces.

All of them turned around simultaneously toward the sound and what they found was an iron born's worst nightmare coming towards them at a very fast speed from the direction of the forest.

A horde of horses was galloping toward them, neighing and scattering dust clouds in their stampede. It was not possible to estimate their number at a glance but roughly they seemed to be somewhere between 50 and 70 which was too many for them and riding on horse's back, were fully armored knights, which was even more terrifying.

"Come at me, You F**king Greenlanders!" the captain shouted and some of the veterans echoed him, and the rising chorus of shouts roused their morals and their blood started boiling as they raised their weapons and started getting into a rough formation.

"We will show them!" "F**k them!" "What is dead may never die!" "What is dead may never die!"

Tristan had thought that he was lucky when he didn't get trapped in the Mud trap as he was at the back but he wasn't so sure now as he somehow ended up in the front of the pile of reavers.

"W-What is dead may never die!"

He tried to take up the chant, hoping that it would instill some courage in him but it didn't seem to help him much. And the only thing he wanted to do, looking at the approaching shiny armor and sharp weapons of the knights, was run away but the f**kers behind weren't letting him move an inch.

As the cavalry was approaching, Tristan started shitting and pissing at the sight of the sharp lances coming ever closer. He closed his eyes at the last moment and swung his axe while screaming wildly, hoping to take the f**ker down with him.

"AHHhh—"

But he only hit the air and what he heard was the sound of horses miraculously galloping away, and when he opened his eyes, he was delighted to find that the cavalry had skipped them for some reason and didn't crash in them at all. Tristan didn't know the cause of why they behaved so stupidly but he was just happy to be alive and didn't want to think about it any further.

"Maybe the fu**ers got scared," A man beside him guffawed in disbelief but alas before they could celebrate any further, they suddenly heard a sound from behind them accompanied by dying screams.

*Thump**Thump**Thump*

The last thing you should do when under an archer is to stand still and that was what they did as they forgot about the archers from the beginning who were done with the reavers stuck in the mud and turned their arrows toward them.

*Run!**Run!**Run!*

All of them started running toward the ships erratically, having lost all thoughts of fighting back. But it seems the northerners weren't keen on giving them any breathing space as they heard the cavalry coming back toward them and this time no one stopped to make a formation to resist which meant that they were slim pickings for them.

Tristan ran toward the ships with all his might and even though he had an arrow running through his arm, he still somehow made it, which made him one of the lucky few who did.

They were about 150 ironborn, of which they left behind about 15 behind when they went for the raid, 5 on each ship. They lost about 30 in the mud trap and almost double that in the second arrow fire when they stood still,
while the rest of them were easily picked by the cavalry so only twenty of them made it on the ships.

"MOVE! THE SHIP!" Tristan shouted at the people, who messing with the ropes and the oars while sliding down the wall and trying to stem the flow of blood in his wounds.

"You think I was not trying that already! F**ker!" a crewmate shouted while anxiously pulling on the ropes, "The ship is not moving for some reason—or did you think I was waiting for you,"

'He is right,' Tristan thought as he noticed that none of the three ships had been able to escape and were all standing still at the place where they had decked.

Before he could think on it any further he heard the sound of fighting suddenly stop and after a minute or so of silence, he heard a loud bellow from below, "Surrender!—and You may take the Black,"

There was silence for a moment as everyone stopped what they were doing before one of his crueler crewmates shouted back before anyone could stop him, "Get Lost! You F**kers!"

Tristan knew what was coming so he immediately took cover and sure enough he started hearing thumping and dying screams a moment later. He just closed his eyes, covered his ears, and prayed to the drowned god.

About a minute later the arrows stopped and Tristan slowly opened his eyes, and when he looked around he found out that he was the last one alive on this ship.

"I surrender!" "I surrender!" He started shouting at the top of his lungs.

There was a few moments of pause when he thought that he was going to die after all but someone shouted back, "Come out! then,"

Tristan got up and slowly walked out of the ship and the line of archers standing behind a stout man with whiskers scared any thoughts of running away from his mind.

"Rope him," The stout man told a soldier beside him who immediately moved to obey, "Check if there are any survivors on any ships," he said to the armored men beside him and everyone started moving to obey in an organized manner.

While the soldier was tying the rope on his hands without any mercy for the arrow wound, Tristan couldn't help but ask him the one burning question in his mind, "Why did our ship not move?"

The soldier looked at him for a moment before he jerked his toward the ship's bottom and when he looked there he found dozens of people coming out of the water from beside the ship with ropes and pick axes in their hands, "They are the villagers you were just supposed to raid," the Northern soldier supplied helpfully.

This ambush was too elaborate to be a simple one so Tristan wanted to ask further about how they knew where they were but the soldier wasn't in the mood to entertain any more questions.
As they were taking him away the only thought on Tristan's mind was, 'I hope they didn't cut off my cock at the Wall,'

 

[LazyWizard]

Jon was hiding in a tree deep inside the forest of Wolfswood, he was deeper than he had ever been. In fact, he was so deep, that even reaching here took him more than six hours of continuous running and that too following a safe path shown by Frost (which avoided all predator territories) because for anyone else it would have taken them more than a few days to arrive here as they would have to fight through wolf packs, boars, bears and all sorts of small and big beasts who called this huge forest home.

He was not actually here to hunt for a normal animal.

It was not as if there were not enough prey available close enough on the edge of the forest. In fact, the forest is so huge that even if Jon was to hunt his whole life every day he would not even put a small dent in the animal population here.

Maester Luwin said that there was a time when the whole forest came under the rule of House Blackwood before they were driven by the Kings of Winter, the Starks of Winterfell. Old Nan at Winterfell even told them in her stories that the Blackwood castle was left as is when they left so there may even be some treasure there.

But enough time had passed that no one even remembers where the location of the castle was, so it was all a mystery but when they were young Jon and Robb had sworn that they find the castle and bring back all the treasure there.

Anyway back to the present, the tree he was hiding in gave Jon a very good view of a big cave in the mountains. He had told Frost to be on the lookout for some particular beasts that were said to not exist on this side of the wall and she had finally come through and so Jon came here for that special beast.

Back at home, Emily had already started to have warg dreams of her own so Jon knew that it wasn't far in the future when she would start actually warning. But since Becca did not have an animal companion yet her progress was stilled and while she did not complain (She did! but not too much) Jon felt that as they were his disciples it was his duty to get them a starting animal.

'Is this really the place, Frost,' Jon sent his thoughts to the bird who was lazily pecking through her feathers and taking in the sun above him.

Jon had asked that quite a few times and as always Frost just nodded before going back to admiring her own ice-blue feathers. He had been here every day this week and had seen no sign of the aforementioned beast so either he was very unlucky and always just missed them or he was getting up early in the morning for nothing and the beast had moved to a different lair.

More than two months had passed since Jon had assisted Ser Rodrik in annihilating all the ironborn on those three ships that were about to raid the Northern villages. There had been three more similar potential raids on three different villages that Ser Rodrik was able to stop with minimum to no casualties on the Northern side with the help of Jon and Frost.

Ser Rodrik had no mercy for the reavers so he almost always tries to completely destroy them, except for a few who unfortunately agreed to take the black. This meant that there was no one to leak their tactics so he was able to use the same tactics every time with just a bit of variation for different terrain with immense success.

Rodrik had become somewhat of a legend in those fishing villages as he was somehow always able to know Ironborn ship's target in advance. Every time he went to a surrounding village nearby where he had set up camp he was greeted with jubilation and hero-worship.

But to his immense dismay, it all came to a stop when the news arrived of Stannis's victory at the Straits of Fair Isle against Victarion's Iron Fleet.

That was the beginning of Robert's counterattack as he was finally able to board the ships from Lannisport with his army and sail for the Greyjoys. The Rebel king should have called back all his ships to defend his home which meant that there were no more raids for Ser Rodrik to sabotage.

That had freed up Frost and Rodrik had also arrived back to Winterfell with the victorious soldiers, to the cheers of the Wintertown crowd. They had arrived back with some loot that Ironborn ships had taken from the places they had raided before coming North, most of the wealth probably being from Lannisport.

Jon was a follower of the saying, 'Finder's keepers Looser's Weepers,' so he had told Robb to mix all the new loot in the Winterfell treasury without keeping an official count because if he was right about Lord Stark's character then the minute he came back he would try to send back the spoils to the Lannister lord as his honor demanded. And that black-hearted golden lord would probably just perfunctorily accept it and throw it on the already huge pile in his treasury which would help no one.

At least this way he would have no way to know about the amount of loot they had recovered and he would have a lot of difficulties if he wanted to be a noble person and return the money.

When asked about what to do with the ships they had captured from the ironborn, Robb had told Ser Rodrik to leave it for the respective villages and they were all overjoyed as the ships were mostly unharmed which meant a lot for them.

One more thing had happened since then, Lady Stark had finally given birth to baby Bran, who had arrived in Westeros screaming and crying for the whole of Winterfell to hear. Arya was fascinated with the baby and would play with him happily until he would start crying and she would get bored and leave him to others.

Sansa had already been through Arya's toddler years so she was a bit calmer and would help her Lady Mother along with Emily in any way she could. Since Lady Stark had taken Emily under her wings who did the same with Sansa which meant that they were the ones who spent the most time with the recovering mother.

As Jon was reminiscing about the recent events, he suddenly felt a ping inside his head from the nearby Frost and, almost immediately he turned alert and started looking around.

Before he could ask her anything, Jon suddenly heard a faint crunching sound and before long he found two shadowy intruders moving toward the cave. Jon dug deeper into the branches he was hiding in after finally catching the glimpse of the target of his hunt.

The two shadowcats were slowly moving toward the cave. They had thick black fur with white stripes and were the size of a mountain lion from Jon's past life. The main thing to take notice of was that both of them had visible injuries, with the smaller female one being more injured than the other, as she was visibly limping.

There was a huge scar on the back of the smaller one that almost looked fatal and from that Jon was able to deduce that they were a victim of a failed bear hunt. The shadowcats were rare in this area as they were mostly found in Westeros in the lands beyond the Wall, the Mountains of the Moon, the Northern Riverlands, and the Red Mountains of Dorne.

They were fearsome agile and silent predators who were known for their sharp claws which can disembowel a man with a paw and their pelts are prized possessions known as Shadowskin.

'You didn't tell me that there was more than one here, Frost,'

Jon grumbled to Frost mentally who gave a mental shrug at him that told him that she only saw one of them last time.

From the accounts of veteran hunters he knew, Jon knew that they were very fast and good climbers too so he was sure that he could barely handle one of them which meant that the situation here was too risky and he didn't want to find out for himself if they were fast enough to dodge arrows.

Jon was just about to declare this as a failed hunt and go home to come back with more preparation when an interesting development started taking place in front of the cave.

There seemed to be some kind of disagreement between the two as the male started bristling in anger about something and growled at the female while moving toward the cave. The female jumped in front of him and arched her back defensively while hissing furiously as if denying him entrance.

The male was enraged and snarled in warning while showing his fearsome set of teeth but the female held on and insisted on standing in front of him.

Jon was confused over the drama in front of him, as while they both looked a little emaciated as if they had just recently crossed the wall, he couldn't fathom why they would fight over a cave but ultimately he decided that it was all the better for him if one of them was sufficiently injured.

The situation escalated after the male lost his patience and lunged for the female, which started a fearsome brawl to the death between the two big cats. There was a lot of biting, clawing, and screaming involved and none of the two were holding back but the female was already limping so the outcome was clear from the start to Jon.

Jon scratched his head over why the female wasn't running away from her sure death before the reason came stumbling out of the cave.

The new entrant seemed like a smaller version of the male outside and was the size of a small dog and the moment he came out he started foolishly barking at the bigger Shadowcat who was almost done with the female.
Jon had read somewhere in his past life that there were parents in wildlife that would even eat their own children but watching it with his own eyes left a foul taste in his mouth.

The bigger Shadowcat was disgustingly salivating at the sight of his meal and didn't waste a single moment as he stalked for the child who was futilely barking. The female tried to stop him once more but she was a lot slower now and a sharp slap of the male's claw took the fight out of her.

If the scene wasn't already tragic enough, an even younger Shadowcat came yipping out of the cave and going toward her sibling, this new one was barely the size of a puppy.

The male Shadowcat wasn't waiting anymore as he lunged at his meal. This would have ended in a very bad tragedy if not for an arrow that came out of nowhere and toward the Shadowcat's eyes who was barely able to move his head and was struck just below instead of his eyes.

The Shadowcat screamed furiously and wasn't interested in his meal anymore as he didn't waste a single moment and immediately ran for the tree where the second and the third arrow came for it, but he was too nimble for them as he dodged them easily not even breaking in his stride.

The big cat reached the tree before the third arrow even hit the ground and without breaking a sweat took a jumping start and started climbing the tree. Jon was crouched on the tree with an arrow strung in his bow and watching his death approaching calmly.

It looked as if Jon was petrified as he didn't lose the arrow even when the Shadowcat was halfway up. Jon was about to become cat food when suddenly something moved blindingly fast across the Shadowcat's vision and before the cat could even blink its right eye was clawed out as he fell off screaming.

Jon chose that exact moment to lose the arrow precisely for the eye and the cat wasn't able to dodge this time as the arrow easily pierced his uninjured eye and straight into his brain stopping its scream abruptly.

The Shadowcat's body fell with a thud on the ground and after shooting another arrow to make sure that the cat was dead, Jon climbed down the tree and moved toward the cave.

The female was on her last breath, with her children whining at her to stand up. When Jon came close enough the stupid bigger sibling, who turned out to be a male, came at him barking with all its might, but it was too small to do anything as Jon easily caught him by its neck and dangled him in the air.

The huge eye of the female was looking at Jon imploringly and he was proficient enough in warning to know that she was asking him not to kill her children. Jon closed his eyes and after establishing a faint connection with the dying cat, sent his thoughts to her without full warning into her.

'I will not kill them and instead make sure they live,' he said using emotions and images.

Jon had no idea if the female understood him or not but she stopped looking at him and instead growled something at her children for a while before her eyes closed and she breathed her last.
...
That day the town of wintertown was sent buzzing with the news that their lord's bastard had hunted two fully grown Shadowcats that hadn't been seen around here in years so it was somewhat of a feat.

Becca was finally able to start on her journey as a warg when she chose the little Shadowcat who she named Moon as she was a female.

Jon was followed everywhere he went by a striped cat that scared the shit out of all the hounds in the kennel, and he named his new animal companion, Tiger.

A few weeks later the town celebrated in jubilation when the news arrived of the Iron Throne's victory over ironborn.

 

[LazyWizard]

Robb and Jon rode together on their horses, the wind whistling in their ears as they made their way to the White Knife. "According to his last letter, they just reached the Moat Cailin," Robb said, breaking the silence. "So it shouldn't take Father that long to reach Winterfell now. And he said that all the Lords will be coming with him as well."

"Why?" Jon asked, tilting his head.

"Well, we just had the first harvest not too long ago," Robb explained. "So I think he just wanted to be done with the Harvest festival before they all go back so that the Lords don't have to make a trip again in the near future."

Jon nodded in agreement. "That is good news then. And it has been quite some time since we saw him, and he should be eager to meet little Bran as well," he said with a little smile before he noticed something and pointed it out to Robb. "Look there – you see that wooden warehouse beside the White Knife? That's our destination."

Robb looked in the direction Jon was pointing and saw a massive wooden structure standing beside the fast-flowing current of White Knife. "I see it! Whoa, I had no idea it was this big," he said, impressed.

Excitement building inside him, Robb turned his head and shouted at the party escorting them. "Ser Rodrik! Hurry up!" before he turned to Jon. "Let's go ahead!"

Robb controlled his horse and galloped toward the wooden structure, with Jon following on his heels leisurely on Pegasus.

As they came closer, the loud rushing sound of White Knife was joined by the wood-cutting noises and hammering sounds coming from the building in front of them.

"Let's go inside," Robb said, dismounting and going through the open wooden door that was big enough to accommodate any type of material or product they needed to bring in or out, no matter how huge.

Jon followed him, and as they entered, he heard Robb's awe as he looked at the view in front of him. It was a rudimentary factory, with saws and huge hammers that were moving through the use of hydro-power, making all the work faster and easier.

It was previously a small wooden water mill but it was rarely used by its owner so Jon was able to buy it cheaply from him. And when he bought it, Jon had taken into consideration that it would be very easy for them to use the existing water wheel to fulfill their blacksmithing and woodworking need with just a little bit of work on it and there was nothing around here so he could quickly expand later as required

The concept of Water mills and windmills was a concept that had been perpetuated in Westeros and Essos for quite a while, so it wasn't as if Jon had done something revolutionary. Still, he had taken some of his high school and some youtube knowledge from his previous life to have the structure constructed without needing to call an expert from outside the North who would have taken an arm or a leg in payment.

According to the books in the Winterfell library, there were similar constructions used all around Westeros and Essos. Still, they were located in areas that were a lot more prosperous than the north, like Braavos or Qarth.

One side of the wall was filled with a long line of furnaces that were made keeping in mind the production requirements for the future. However, at the moment, only five of them were burning, with different blacksmiths working in front of them.

The Blacksmiths were mainly working on smaller components at the moment, as even though the Starkhorse was mostly a wooden contraption, it required a lot of small parts that held everything together, that needed to be made from metals like iron.

In the expansive central area of the warehouse, a bustling group of over fifteen skilled woodworkers were meticulously crafting and sculpting trees into various shapes tailored to specific parts. The sound of saws and chisels echoed throughout the space, blending with the steady rhythm of the water wheel turning outside. Each woodworker was deeply focused on their task, their faces set in concentration as they expertly guided their tools over the raw wood.

Little Tom, who was one of the blacksmiths working, noticed Robb and Jon enter and came towards them. All the other workers kept on working on their respective stuff, creating a symphony of sound and movement that made the place come alive.

"M'lord," Little Tom said bowing, "I didn't know you were coming today,"

"Don't worry about us, Tom," Robb said while looking up at the man who didn't have a single thing "little" about him, "How is the work coming along,"

"It is going very well, M'lord," Little Tom said happily, "We can produce more than ever as the worker becomes familiar with the parts and more skilled at their jobs day after day,"

"Little Tom here was the one who improved the designs and came up with the idea to use an offshoot of ironwood for the base wood that made the Starkhorses a lot more hardy and easy to produce," Jon praised Little Tom who blushed with a silly smile on his face.

"Really," Robb said surprised as he never had the impression that the giant blacksmith was so talented.

"It's not that impressive, M'lord," Little Tom said while rubbing his head, "Back in our village we made most our spoons and plates from this wood and they last for decades without breaking and I thought to make one our Starkhorse with it once and it turned out to be a lot more hardy and durable,"

Ser Rodrik who had joined them inside by this point added, "I think most our spear shafts and axe handles are made of this wood too, and I can say that they are very hardy and last for years too,"

While Jon was satisfied with the benefit of having Starkhorses more durable the one thing that made him happier was that the offshoot of Ironwood used for this was only available in the North which meant that he could have somewhat of a monopoly on this.

"Umm... Where do you keep all the ones you've already made..." Robb asked after looking around and found that there were no finished products nearby.

"Oh! They are placed separately— Come I will show you," Jon said leading Robb through the side so that they don't disturb the workers toward the back where there was an inconspicuous door. Jon opened the door and
gestured for Robb to go in before following him.

"So Many," Robb said breathlessly looking at the rows and rows of Starkhorses that had filled half the storage.

"We should be able to fill this up before long," Jon said proudly.

"Don't you think that these are too many," Robb asked hesitatingly while looking around, "I don't think it will be useful much in the north with all the snow we have,"

"Oh don't worry about it," Jon chuckled, "I have no intention of going village by village to sell them where they won't be much of an attraction. My main targets will be all those cities in Westeros and Esoos with their clear straight roads where it will be a cheaper and cleaner alternative,"

For the tires of the Starkhorses Jon didn't do anything new instead just used the already available method of creating wheels for carriages and carts. And while that made the Starkhorses harder to move, it wasn't much of a problem as he knew that the people in this world were a lot stronger than the ones in his previous one.

Even though he knew that there were a few trees here in the north that could provide rubber, he had no idea of the intricacies involved in its creation from the tree juices to tubes so at the moment he was keeping the design basic.

"How are you going to sell to those cities from here in the north?" Robb asked having a hard time wrapping his head around the concept of selling anything to those faraway cities he had only heard of in the books.

"You don't need to worry about that. My very first big customer is coming to Winterfell very soon and he has a city filled with roads where I am sure the Starkhorses will be very useful," Jon answered with his eyebrows dancing mischievously.

Robb was confused for a moment before his eyes widened as he understood the "big" customer Jon was talking about.
...

A few weeks later the victorious lords arrived at Winterfell to the cheers of the crowd with as much pomp and celebration as the North could stomach which wasn't very much.

The feasts the northern's throw may seem dull compared to the feasts by the southerners with their mummer shows, expensive cakes, and barrels of sweet summer wines. However, this does not mean that the feasts in the North are any less enjoyable or festive. While they may lack the theatricality and extravagance of the southern feasts, the warmth, and hospitality of the northern hosts more than makeup for it.

The scent of sizzling meat filled the hall, and the sounds of laughter and good-natured banter echoed off the walls. The tables were groaning under the weight of roasted meats, stews, and hearty breads, all accompanied by enough supply of ale and mead for the lords and their retainers to eat and drink all night; Lord Umber had every intention to do so.

As the sun rose over the Stark stronghold the next morning, the sounds of groans and muffled curses could be heard coming from the guest quarters. The maidservants moved quietly among them, offering water and Maester's herbal remedies to ease their discomfort. Even the hardiest and most seasoned of the lords and knights, accustomed to long nights of drinking and carousing were hungover after the feast the previous... except for a few.

Lord Stark had been looking forward to spending time with his family ever since arriving at Winterfell, so when Lord Umber started hollering for a drinking competition, he took the opportunity to make his exit. Since he had taken an early leave he was one of the few who was up and about and was already making his way up to his solar to catch up on the work that had been piled up in his absence.

And Lord Bolton would take an arrow to the heart before he let anyone get drunk and wasted so he was in his room telling his master-at-arms to prepare for a return journey that very day as he was very uncomfortable in this castle and wanted to go back to Dreadfort and its dreadful silence as soon as possible.

And one other such Lord was the Lord of White Harbor, Lord Manderly. Lord Wyman Manderly was a man in his fifties and while he could still ride a horse, he was fat enough that he only needed to get a bit fatter for him to be known as the Lord Too-fat-to-sit-a-horse.

At the feast the previous night he had partaken in the ale as much as the next lord but somehow he was right as rain even though he knew that Lord Umber next door was still nursing a headache. He didn't know why though, he had never been one of those who could drink as much as they want without a hangover.

'Maybe his capacity was increasing without him knowing,' he thought with a smile.

After breaking his fast in the great hall Lord Wyman was moving toward a smaller courtyard in the castle that was a bit out of the way because he was promised that he would see an astonishing thing if he went there.
What had happened was that when he had just woken up and was half asleep, he heard the maids whispering to each other and gossiping about a wondrous invention that they had seen in the castle.

They said that it was a horse that was made of wood and that didn't need feeding and that it could move very fast too. And that they didn't need to spend to learn like with horses and that anyone can learn it easily.

So Lord Manderly's curiosity was around and he immediately asked the maids politely if what they were talking about was true or not. The maids swore that they were talking truly and even pointed him towards the place where he could see such things and that was where he was going right now.

As he reached the courtyard, even before going in he could hear hoots and whistles from inside, and as he went in his attention was immediately attracted as he noticed that some kind of race was going on.

An auburn-haired boy which he knew to be Lord Stark's son from last night's feast was racing on a wooden contraption that the maids had been talking about. The boy's competitors were two girls, one of which was the boy's sister Sansa and the other was a blonde girl he didn't know but he heard someone yelling 'Faster Becca,' so he guessed that it was her.

The one shouting and cheering them on was a black-haired boy standing just in front of him. The boy seemed a bit familiar to him but he hadn't seen him at last night's feast so he had no idea who he was.

Lord Wyman approached the boy while watching the race curiously, "Do you know what this contraption is called?" he asked the boy who turned around to notice the large lord who had joined him.

"It's called a Starkhorse, My Lord," the boy answered with surprising politeness and elegance. His manners and his way of speaking made Wyman suspect that he was highborn or at least had the same education, "Go Arya," the boy shouted turning back.

It was only then the Lord noticed that Robb wasn't only racing two girls but three as he looked at Lord Starks second daughter paddling on a smaller similar Starkhorse way behind her Brother and Sister with a gummy smile with a brown-haired following behind closely on her feet and making sure that she didn't fall down.

"Can anyone learn to use that?" Wyman asked after a few seconds, his merchant senses were tingling violently in his head at the prospect in front of him.

"Yes, Anyone can," Jon answered easily, "if they are good they can learn it in under an hour and if they are bad at it then they may take a day or two but anyone who is able to can easily learn it,"

Now that he was looking at him from up close Lord Manderly suddenly realized who the boy looked similar to and asked unconsciously, "Are you Lord Stark's bastard?"

"Yes," He answered with a smile, "My name is Jon Snow,"

Wyman didn't see any bitterness in the boy's smile at being called a bastard, it was as if he wasn't at all bothered by his birth which the lord knew was a rare thing among bastards, he just attributed it to Lord Stark's teaching.

"Do you know where these Starkhorses could be bought from and how much they cost?" Lord Manderly asked going back to the topic he was interested in.

"Why? Do you want to buy them?"

"I am thinking about it,"

"Then come with me," Jon said gesturing with his hand and walking out of the courtyard, "I will lead you to the one who can sell them to you,"

Wyman took one last look at the race that had ended with Robb's win and followed the boy out. Jon walked through the hallways of the castle and took a few complicated shortcuts that only the people who lived in Winterfell would be able to use and before long they were climbing the steps to a room that Wyman had visited more than a few dozen times in his life.

"Are you taking me to the..."

"Yes, My Lord," Jon replied with a cheeky smile before knocking on the door to the Lord's Solar. Almost immediately a voice came from inside, "Come in,"

He opened the door and gestured to the lord inside, "Ah... Lord Manderly, I was expecting you," Lord Stark said while looking at the huge Lord entering his solar.

"You were..." Wyman asked confusedly.

Jon didn't enter and instead closed the door behind the Lord of White Harbor and went back. He knew that he looked too young someone to take him seriously in a negotiation so he enlisted the help of his father in dealing with the sale of his very first batch of Starkhorse.

Lord Stark had been very surprised when he learned about the things Jon had accomplished while he was gone and had told him multiple times that he was very proud of him and he had happily accepted the task to be the face of his business.

///
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[LazyWizard]

White Harbor, despite being known as the smallest among the five cities to the people of Westeros, remained the most significant settlement north of the Neck. However, unlike King's Landing, the frigid climate of the North ensured that the city never had to contend with unpleasant odors no matter how much its population increased.

The city of White Harbor was situated on the River White Knife's eastern coastline where it meets the Bite. It is a clean and well-ordered City, with wide straight cobbled streets that make it easy to walk around. The houses are built of whitewashed stone, with steeply-pitched roofs of dark grey slate.

Located on the central street, just a stone's throw away from the famous Fishfoot fountain of Harbor, was a modest two-story building. Although the building's owner, an elderly merchant, had recently passed away, he was able to fulfill his wife's final wish by arranging the marriage of his daughter, Danny, to Rogar, the son of his dear friend Sam, who was also a merchant from Wintertown.

The two-story building boasted a store on the ground floor, similar to the nearby buildings, while the upstairs area served as a living space. Danny was primarily responsible for managing the store, which mainly sold various types of food supplies suitable for long voyages. Given its strategic location in the biggest port in the North, the store was thriving and enjoyed a steady flow of customers.

Following the death of Danny's father, she and her husband Rogar resided in the building alone until a few weeks ago, when Roger's father, Sam, arrived from Wintertown to work and moved in with them.

The morning was still young, and the street lay deserted as Danny worked away in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. She glanced up when she heard footsteps and spotted her father-in-law emerging, dressed in his work clothes.

"Good morning, Danny," Sam greeted her with a warm smile, "Has Rogar already left?"

"Yes, he departed in a hurry since his ship is leaving for King's Landing tomorrow," Danny replied, returning to kneading the dough. She looked up again as Sam approached the door. "Where are you headed, Father? Breakfast is almost ready."

"I'm already running late, and there's a shipment due to arrive today," Sam explained apologetically. "Don't worry about wasting any food; I'll be back for lunch." Without waiting for a response, he closed the door behind him and hastened off to his destination.

As Sam scurried along the path, jostling through the throngs of early risers heading to their jobs, he found himself reminiscing about the day his fortunes had taken a turn for the better. It was a vivid memory, etched into his mind like a clear blue sky. At that time, he had been a little concerned about his younger daughter Becca, who was unruly and showed no interest in learning.

When Becca expressed a desire to learn from Jon, Lord Stark's son, he readily agreed and even paid a handsome fee to Jon, who was still a young boy at the time. His primary motivation, Of course, had been to establish a connection with his liege lord, Lord Stark, at that time as any true Northener would attest to the value of any connection to the Starks, no matter how tenuous.

But little had Sam known that this decision would become one of the best ones of his life and would ultimately pay immense dividends in the future.

Jon Snow had managed to create an exceptional invention, the Starkhorse, which served as an excellent alternative to horses in large cities while being much cheaper. Although it could not replace horses used by armies, knights, Lords, and the like, it was an ideal option for smallfolks who needed to travel within the city or move small items quickly.

When Jon offered him the opportunity to oversee the day-to-day operations of his Starkhorse business, he readily accepted the offer, recognizing the immense profit potential it presented. He had only been in town for two months since arriving from Wintertown, and he had already been sold out of stock five times. Fortunately, Jon always anticipated the demand and sent more stock than before.

At this moment, a new batch of freshly made Starkhorses was on its way to White Knife from Winterfell, and he needed to be there to ensure that everything went smoothly. He couldn't afford any mishaps, and he was determined to make the most of this opportunity.

As he made his way towards his destination, he spotted a commotion in the middle of a four-way street. As he approached, the clamor emanating from the crowd quickly revealed what was happening.

"Step right up! Witness the wonder of the North! Behold the Starkhorse!" a young teenager hollered enthusiastically, beckoning all onlookers to gather around.

Despite it having been over two months since these promotions began, the sight of people flocking to see the Starkhorse remained awe-inspiring. After all, such novelties were a rarity in the North.

The teenage promoter was putting on quite the performance, leaping and shouting dramatically in an attempt to convince the crowd of the benefits of purchasing a Starkhorse. The assembled crowd was entranced, listening with bated breath.

Abruptly, a middle-aged man muscled his way to the front of the crowd and shouted a question towards the young promoter. "Why the F*ck should I buy this...this...thing instead of a normal horse? At least a horse can walk on its own," he grumbled

"Good question!" the teen beamed, "Tell me then, Old Man, Does a horse need to eat,"

"Oh course it does," The man retorted, "What kind of horse doesn't need that,"

"Well, This one doesn't need any kind of feed at all," The teen waved his hand over the Starkhorse standing perched on a pedestal, "Now, tell me can a horse die? Can it fall sick? Can it easily get injured? Can it easily break a leg?"

"Y-Yes,"

"Ah, but this one cannot," the teen exclaimed triumphantly. "So you can purchase it without hesitation. And you want to know the cherry on top..." The teen said dramatically to the crowd, "It doesn't Shit! So no more waking up in the morning early to clean new shit every day," the crowd supplied the teen's enthusiasm with raucous cheers.

"So tell me, People of The North," The teen yelled as soon as the clamor had died down, "Is a horse better or a Starkhorse,"

"STARKHORSE!" The crowd chanted excitedly.

"And, as an added bonus, a Starkhorse is FIVE times less expensive than a horse," the teen pivoted to face the middle-aged man. "So, are you now ready to make a purchase?"

The man hesitated for a few moments before he said, "Ah! F*ck it! I'll buy one then," he announced, making his way toward the back of the teenage promoter. There, rows of Starkhorses were on display, with a man seated at a table taking payments and distributing Starkhorses.

Observing the man making a purchase, a dozen other hesitant individuals were tempted, and soon followed suit, clamoring to acquire their very own Starkhorses.

After observing the commotion for a few more moments, Sam decided to move away from the crowd and continue on his journey. He had seen this kind of marketing ploy more times than he could count and knew that it was all staged. In fact, he knew that it was a marketing idea sent by Jon himself. But there was no denying that it was working wonders for the sales of Starkhorses.

The person who had posed the question was actually a worker under their employ, so there was little to no cost involved in the promotion. The concept was simply brilliant and played on the psychology of people, boosting sales by more than three times.

Every few days when the sales hit a plateau in an area, they would move to another part of town and start anew, with a different worker, asking similar questions, maybe they will change the order now and then to keep things interesting.

Jon had estimated that it would take approximately two years to reach most of the city's population that could afford a Starkhorse. However, with the way demand was increasing day by day, Sam was confident that they would meet the city's demand a lot sooner than anticipated.

After which they would start looking for markets in other cities in Westeros and maybe even in Essos. But at the moment they were not letting even a single Starkhorse move out of the city as much as they could, even though a lot of merchants had come to them with great offers after seeing the potential it had.

But Jon didn't want to move out of North before they completed White Harbor's demand completely and another thing was that every new batch of Starkhorse had one or two improvements that made it better. So he wanted to make sure that they were safe and perfect during what he called a "Trial Run" since if any problem arose in the North it could be solved easily with the Stark name which would be hard to do somewhere else.

Of all the sales that happened, Sam knew that the Manderlys took about 20% of the profit. And this generous amount was due to Lord Stark being the one who was negotiating on behalf of Jon, for if he himself had done it, things would have gone a lot differently. Because he understood that for the likes of Lord Manderly, doing a favor to their liege lord was a lot more valuable to them than anything he could earn from this.

And the Manderlys provide many things in return for their cut of profit things like protection, a warehouse to store their products, and the like. While all the people working had been hired by Sam on Jon's behalf the warehouses on the other hand a place to dock, as well as ships that ferry their product from Winterfell to Whiteharbour, were provided by the Manderlys.

Sam arrived at the inner port where the eastern shore of the river White Knife ended, to find three ships filled to the brim with a new shipment of Starkhorses. They had been transported straight out of the Factory on the bank of the other end of White Knife near Winterfell.

He hastened to the pier, relieved to find the unloading process already underway. As he had anticipated, the number of Starkhorses was greater than the last shipment.

At the start when the sales took off and the stock in Whiteharbor started to empty a lot faster than Sam anticipated, he was a bit worried that the supply would not be able to keep up with the demand.

But it seemed that Jon had taken that into account too because slowly but surely he was upping the pace at which he produced Starkhorse and Sam even heard that Jon was already planning a new factory just beside the old one.

Sam diligently worked from morning till noon, overseeing the stocktaking and ensuring the workers weren't slacking off and that no one was trying to do anything sneaky. The process was completed without any hiccups, and the new stock was safely deposited in the Warehouse. Sam's stomach growled with hunger as he hurriedly made his way back home.

He relished his meal heartily, savoring the satisfaction of eating well after a few hours of hard work. As he finished his lunch and got ready to head back to work, a teenage boy suddenly appeared, sprinting towards him at full speed. Sam halted in his tracks, recognizing the boy.

"Mr Sam," the teen panted, coming to a stop in front of him, "The first mate is calling for you urgently,"

"Why? What's happened?" Sam asked with a hint of concern in his voice as he hurried towards the outer port, where his son's ship was likely still docked.

"I don't know," replied the teen, his pace quickening to keep up with Sam's.

As they arrived at the bustling port, the noise of ships unloading and loading goods filled their ears. Pushing their way through the throng of people, they finally reached their destination ship, where Rogar was impatiently waiting for his father.

"Rogar," Sam said, "What happened? Your aide said that it was urgent?"

"Father, do you remember when you told me to keep an eye out for anyone selling ships?" Rogar asked, a smile spreading across his face.

"Yes, I do," Sam said with anticipation, "Why? Did you find a good deal?"

"Yes, I did," Rogar nodded happily, "Do you remember Ron, the wealthy merchant from King's Landing?"

"Yes, the one who used to trade in fruits and olives,"

"His fleet was struck by a severe storm," Rogar explained with animated gestures. "He lost a significant amount of cargo and a few ships. As a result, he needs to sell three ships he can't afford to keep right now to raise cash."

"Really," Sam said, his excitement building.

"Yes, I think he will be willing to sell them at a huge loss if you were able to pay him upfront," Rogar said before he asked worriedly, "Would you be able to procure that kind of gold in time,"

"Oh Don't worry about that," Sam waved his son's worries away with a smile, "I have been waiting for an opportunity like this for a long time. Before that, Did you see the condition of those ships? Are they in good condition?"

This was another crucial task Jon had asked him to do, he wanted him to acquire affordable ships and assemble a fleet of at least five fully crewed vessels with trustworthy sailors over the next two years. So that when they
eventually started shipping to other cities, they didn't have to look for other merchants and could have a Shipping company of their own.

"Yes, I looked through all three ships closely before calling for you," Rogar nodded seriously, "All three were barely damaged in the storm and would be good as new after a few repairs,"

As they walked towards the merchant's home to negotiate the ship's price, they discussed a few more things. However, Sam noticed a frown on his son's face and asked, "Is something bothering you, son?"

Rogar hesitated before replying, "It's nothing serious. It's just that I have a couple of friends who used to work as crew members on those ships. Now that the ships are being sold, they'll be out of work. They have families to
support, and I'm worried about them."

Rogar sighed and shook his head. "They're good northerners, and they'll have a hard time finding work. They'll probably have to start from scratch somewhere else and be paid far less than what they were earning before."
Sam's face lit up with realization. "Why didn't you tell me earlier? That's not a problem at all. In fact, it's good news. I was worried about the time it would take to hire a completely new crew for the ships, but now we can just hire them."

"Are you sure about that?" Rogar asked.

"Absolutely," Sam replied confidently. "We can hire as many of the previous crew members as want to stay on board. It's a win-win situation."

He was excited at getting one pleasing news after another and knew that when Frost arrived next week with Jon's letter he would be writing a good long reply filled with the good news that would be sure to get his spirits high.

 

[LazyWizard]

The castle of Winterfell loomed in the darkness, its walls and towers silhouetted against a starry sky. Only a handful of lamps flickered here and there, casting feeble pools of light on the cobblestone paths.

The only people awake and moving in the castle of Winterfell were the night guards and in some of the private chambers, couples were hard at work, striving to increase the population of the North. Their faces glowed in the dim light of torches as they laboured through the night.

An exception to this was Jon who was neither a night guard nor old enough to participate in contributing to the population yet.

He had slipped past the guards after his family had retired for the night and made his way to an isolated stretch of the wall, where the guards rarely ventured, it was a place where you could get the best view of the night sky in Winterfell Castle.

Jon lay sprawled on the wall, his eyes tracing the glittering constellations that speckled the night sky. He fancied himself a bit of an expert on the subject, having spent countless hours poring over dusty tomes in the castle library. The Moonmaid, the ice dragon, and the Crane were old friends to him, but others were more elusive. The Stallion and the Shadowcat, for instance, were so similar that he struggled to tell them apart.

But don't be fooled into thinking that Jon was simply star-gazing to while away the sleepless hours because at that moment the neurons in his brain were firing at light speed at full intensity as he fought hard to keep his eyes open and his focus sharp to stay in his own body.

Jon's attention was split in two: one half focused on the twinkling stars overhead, while the other half delved deep into the mind of Frost, who was far away on the other end of Wolfswood near Last Hearth, dashing through the trees on the hunt for prey.

It had taken months of grueling practice, but Jon had finally achieved a level of control over his warging abilities that he'd never thought possible. He could now seamlessly slip into Frost's consciousness while maintaining full control over his own body and senses.

The first time he did it properly, it felt like a bolt of lightning had struck him, and his mind felt as if it had leveled up, and his thoughts suddenly were clearer, more agile, and he could multitask with ease that he never could before. But at first, he was only able to maintain that state of being in two bodies at the same time for a few dozen seconds so he had decided to come here to train in this ability until he could reliably do it.

About ten minutes later, Jon's eyes snapped shut as he began to pant and sweat from the effort. The mental strain of warging was immense, and warging while keeping his body fully functional was a Herculean feat that pushed him to the limits of his endurance.

A grin spread across Jon's face as he glanced at the hourglass beside him. Ten minutes of warging without losing control was a new personal best, and he felt a surge of pride and satisfaction at his progress. As mentally taxing as this training was, the thrill of improvement kept him motivated.

His mind began to wander, seeking relief from the strain of warging. Jon's thoughts flitted from one topic to another with no discernible thread. He mused aloud about the three ships he'd recently acquired, "I hope Sam is playing it safe with those ships..."

He had told Merchant not to take any risk with the three new ships, and only allow them to take the safest trips, even if it means sacrificing profits. At the moment his priority was to build up a skilled crew so he had also told him to select youngsters from Wintertown and to rotate them on the ships to learn so that when they increased the number of ships in the future they have skilled captains, first mates, and sailors readily available.

As his mind wandered, Jon's thoughts turned to his animal companions. Frost, who he had just been warging into, was currently moving towards the wall at Jon's request. He had always wanted to see the wall and since it was inconvenient at the moment to physically be there himself, he thought to see through Frost's eyes.

Frost had never stopped growing and despite Frost's size - having grown larger than Jon himself - she remained light as a feather and incredibly fast. But with such a large creature, Jon had to be careful about when and where he met her. Frost's size was sure to scare the inhabitants of Winterfell, so Jon only met her at night to avoid causing any unnecessary rumors.

Frost had made the entire North her home, and she could move fast enough to traverse the distance from Moat Callin to the Wall in just one day. However, she mostly wandered through the mountains and forests without leaving the North. This was a source of joy for Jon, as he got to see the many beautiful things that were hidden from the rest of the world through her eyes.

Speaking of that, Jon's other companion, Tiger, the shadow cat he had bought from the Wolfswood along with its sibling, had grown large enough to hunt on its own. Jon had found a cave in the nearby forest for Tiger to live in, and he visited him every other day. However, Jon mostly left him alone so that Tiger could grow up naturally in the wild. The only thing Jon told Tiger was to avoid any humans he might come across.

Jon didn't know if it was a coincidence or not, but somehow every single animal that was associated with him seemed to be growing abnormally quickly, with their diets being almost double the normal amount. In addition,
they all seemed to be smarter than their counterparts

A perfect example of this would be his horse, Pegasus. Despite both Jon and Robb acquiring their horses on the same day, Pegasus had already reached the normal height of an adult while Robb's horse was still far from it.

And Pegasus didn't show any signs of stopping his growth anytime soon, which meant he might break some records if he continued at this rate. Similarly, Jon's tiger was growing much faster than its sibling.

The only thing he could conclude at that moment was that all this abnormal growth was related to him. His frequent warging into the animals since they were young might have stimulated their brains to grow, which in turn forced their bodies to bring out their full potential.

Jon wasn't sure when he had fallen asleep, but the next time he opened his eyes, he noticed that the sun was rising on the horizon. He let out a big yawn and slowly climbed down the wall before Sansa or Arya started looking for him.

As Jon made his way through the courtyard, he couldn't help but overhear a couple of maids gossiping in hushed tones about something in the distance. His curiosity piqued, he quietly approached them and began to eavesdrop.

After a few moments, Jon pieced together the gist of their conversation: Lord Stark was preparing for a trip to the Bear Islands because the young lord Mormont had broken a sacred law by selling to slavers, and now Lord Stark was obliged to punish him.

The news jogged Jon's memory, and he suddenly realized that the Jorah poaching incident was supposed to happen around this time. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks as a chain of thoughts raced through his mind, and an idea began to formulate in his mind that might turn out to be his brightest yet.

If he could execute his plan properly, this seemingly irrelevant incident could be turned into North's biggest advantage.
...

"...and that's why I know that every single year after you pay taxes to the throne, you spend all the remaining money to buy food from the Riverlands, Vales, or the Reach, to make sure that more people survive the harsh
winter and don't have to die of starvation..."

Lord Stark was seated at his desk in the Lord's Solar, with Robb sitting in the chair before him. They were listening intently to Jon's proposal of how they could use this Mormont incident to their advantage and listening to him till now Ned could say proudly that Jon was a lot more eloquent than he could ever be.

"...That is also the reason I never came to you when I initially had the idea to sell Starkhouses to make a profit because I knew that you hate spending money frivolously as a few dragons may just mean that one more family survives in the winter. And I had no way of knowing that my idea may even work but now that we are making a steady profit in White Harbor, I can bring this to you as a profitable business..."

Eddard knew more clearly than anyone else that one of the main reasons for North being the poorest of Seven Kingdoms (except for the Iron Islands) was that they seemed to be stuck in some kind of a perpetual wheel where the harsh winters make it difficult for the North to accumulate wealth, as they spent much of their resources on food and supplies to survive the long, cold months.

They could never afford the luxury to spend coins like the other kingdoms on things like roads or ships to increase trade, or fancy armor and horses to improve their military might Even if they somehow managed to save some money after a short winter, someone, somewhere will start a war over some petty reason, dragging the North into it and leaving them with no choice but to focus on fighting instead of development.

It is as if every Northerner had accepted the reality in their heart that come Winter a great culling will happen where the weak will perish and the ones who survive will have to continue. And it seems that it will continue to happen perpetually unless they somehow instantly become rich enough to afford food for every single person in the North.

"...But if we continue down this path we never develop and will always be known as barbarians to those in the south but this... this is a chance for us to break through. If we can fully capitalize on it, we can improve the lives of
Northerners like never before," Jon concluded his well-prepared speech with a deep breath, looking at Lord Stark expectantly for his response.

At the moment the whole of the planetos was an Agrarian civilization where wealth was measured by the amount of arable land one owned, protected by their army, with only a few exceptions such as the Lannisters who had a huge gold mine under their ass. So at the moment, the only way Jon could see a way to make some quick money before the shit hit the fan was through some kind of industry and he chose the most practical one that he could remember.

"I wholeheartedly agree with your point about needing a breakthrough," Ned said with a sigh, before leaning back and nodding at Jon. "So, tell me exactly what you need."

"As I've already mentioned, my plan is to sell Starkhorses in cities on the eastern shore such as Braavos, King's Landing, Pentos, and all the Essosi cities through White Harbor. Therefore, I was thinking that if we had a similar port on the western shore it would make cities like Lannisport and Oldtown more accessible, without having to go all the way around through Dorne," Jon explained.

Ned shook his head with a bitter smile. "While it's a noble idea, you might as well give it up because I don't think it's going to be feasible at all," he said.

"Why not, Father?" Robb asked immediately, "Not only could we sell Starkhorses through there it would also improve trade on the western shores," Robb had been the one most excited listening to Jon create a vivid picture in their mind about his future vision, and he was already on board with every single idea that Jon placed in front of Eddard.

"Ironborn," Jon said answering Robb instead of Ned.

"That's right," Ned nodded approvingly at Jon, "They would never let a port survive that close to them,"

"B-But they just lost the huge war," Robb said with wide eyes as if urging them to see from his point of view, "They must be lacking any kind of army at the moment, a-and won't they be afraid of retaliation so soon after the war if they tried anything again,"

"While you're right for the most. You've never fought them so you don't know them well enough," Ned calmly explained to his agitated son, "Ironborn are best explained by the Greyjoy motto, 'We do not Sow,'. They do not believe in money or trade— just pillaging and plundering,"

"So even though they just got out of a huge war, it won't be long before they are able to assemble a few wooden ships to start their pirating ways again," Ned continued, his nose crunching in disgust, "They will probably just change their targets for a while to Essos or maybe they'll hide their flags and disguise as pirates if they want to hunt on Westeros's shore to have deniability but they won't stop. So it is almost impossible for a port to survive
in waters close to them as they won't let a single ship pass by without sinking and looting them,"

"But...But..." Robb appeared crestfallen at having the idea that he thought was brilliant being shot down due to those pirates but before he could dwell on his disappointment, Ned turned to Jon with a smile and asked him

"Jon, it seems you've already pondered this situation. Do you have a solution?"

"You are right, Father, I do have a solution," Jon nodded with a proud smile, "We simply take away their biggest weapon and it will be very easy to defend against them,"

"Their biggest Weapon? What is that?" Robb asked hurriedly and Ned also looked curiously at Jon.

"If you look at the history of most of the battles that ironborn have ever won, you can easily notice that the biggest thing going for them, their biggest weapon is SURPRISE. They always employ ambush tactics and they're sneaky and can move quickly on their ships. By the time their targets realize what's happening, they're already on their doorstep. Then their suicidal charge and sheer numbers take care of the rest,"

Jon's eyes lit up with excitement as he spoke, "If we strip away their element of surprise, the ironborn become just another band of pirates." He gestured with his hand, emphasizing his point. "Just imagine if the Lannisters had been warned about the attack on Lannisport even a day in advance. It would have made a huge difference. Removing the surprise factor is like taking the wings off a bird."

Ned leaned in, his expression serious. "That's all well and good, Jon, but how do we take away their surprise?"

"For that, I need to tell you something that I've kept a secret all this time..." Jon hesitated for a moment, exchanging a glance with his brother before finally taking a deep breath he said, "You know those stories about the
wargs... Well, they are kind of true..."

Jon was in that room for a very long time, even past dinner and it was only when Lady Stark herself came that the three Stark males left the solar to eat. A few days later, Lord Stark and Jon left for the Bear Islands with their minds filled with a whole lot more than just punishing a Lord.

 

[LazyWizard]

As the sun began to dip lower in the sky, the warm glow intensified, casting a golden hue on the treetops and the faces of Lord Stark's party as they mingled with Lord Glover's, who had joined them halfway through the Wolfswood to lead his liege. The mingling of the two groups was a welcome respite from the long journey through the Wolfswood, and the sound of birdsong mixed with the lively chatter and laughter of the group as they busied themselves with preparations for the evening meal.

Eddard and Lord Glover were in deep conversation when a movement caught Eddard's eye. He looked up, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the forest before turning to Lord Glover with a subtle teasing tone, "Looks like they've finally returned."

"Huh," Glover who was taking a swig of some hardy Northern ale looked in the direction Eddard was indicating. He scowled irritably as the hunting party emerged from the forest. "Not again," he muttered. "There has to be some kind of trick to this."

But Jon Snow, who led the party, was quick to retort, a smug grin on his face. "No trick, my lord. Just pure skill."

The hunting party consisted of two skilled hunters from Deepwoode Motte and two from Winterfell, accompanied by the two young boys. One was Jon Snow, and the other was Lawrence Snow, the bastard of Hornwood, a ward under Galbart Glover. The hands of the adults were filled with the game they had hunted consisting of a stag, a boar, and a rare moose.

"He was amazing, My Lord," Lawrence gushed in an awe-filled voice to Lord Glover, "He hunted one animal after another a-and he was able to pick up trails that none of our hunters were able to see and..."

The young ward went on and on, singing Jon's praises until Lord Glover interrupted him with a wave of his hand, rolling his eyes. "Fine, fine! You don't have to sing laurels of him anymore. I get it, he's a very good hunter."

The banter between the lord and his ward elicited laughter from the group. Despite being a bastard, Lawrence was very close to Lord Glover, and their relationship was a source of amusement for those around them. Lawrence sheepishly rubbed his head with a smile before making his way to the cook, who was skinning the game.

As Lawrence left, Jon approached the two lords with a huge smile on his face. Glover tried to avoid looking at his Liege's bastard, but Jon wasn't going to let him off the hook. In a leading tone, he said, "I think you have a gift for me, My Lord."

"Huh...Oh...Um...." Glover tried to feign ignorance, looking around as if searching for an excuse, before finally turning to Lord Stark for help. However, the Lord of Winterfell raised his hands in surrender and said, "Don't look at me, Galbart. I warned you not to bet against him. It's your own fault for not listening to me."

The smugness was evident in Lord Stark's typically stern expression, and the group couldn't help but chuckle at the scene before them.

Lord Glover hesitated for a moment, scrutinizing the faces of his liege and his liege's bastard, before grumbling, "Fine! Fine! Here take it, boy, I don't want people to say that I am a sore loser," he reluctantly passed a beautiful sleek Weirwood bow to Jon, who received it with reverence and eagerness. "Don't lose it, boy," he cautioned.

"Don't worry, My Lord," Jon said, bowing happily, "I'll take good care of it," Jon immediately took his leave and went to the side to try out his new bow. The longbow was a true masterpiece, crafted from Weirwood, and had the ability to shoot arrows so quickly and accurately that one would be struck before they could even spot the archer. Coupled with the short bow given to him by his teacher, Jon could now cover an even greater range.

As they watched Jon display his skills to the guards and hunters, Eddard turned to Lord Glover and asked, "You're not too upset about this, are you? If you are, perhaps I can try to persuade Jon..."

Lord Glover shook his head and took a swig of his ale. "Nah, forget it. He'll make better use of it than a tired old man like me. Besides, I got it from a Wildling raider, so it's not like I paid for it or anything. This will teach me not
to underestimate kids in the future," he added, chuckling self-deprecatingly.

The story went somewhat like this, Lord Glover had heard stories about Jon's hunting prowess, so he asked Lord Stark to confirm them. Lord Stark not only verified Jon's prowess but also proclaimed him to be the best hunter in Winterfell.

Lord Glover was of course skeptical and expressed doubts and Jon who was nearby immediately saw an opportunity. Jon had fallen in love with Lord Glover's bow, so he suggested a bet that whoever hunted more and better prey over the following days before they left the forest would win and of course, the price would be the bow.

Lord Glover scoffed and said something like, "I've been hunting in this woods before I could crawl, Boy! There is no way I would lose to a wet behind-his-ears brat like you," They took turns hunting for every evening meal, and Lord Glover and his party grew increasingly dumbfounded as they watched Jon consistently bring in ridiculously large and rare prey. It was as if he no longer considered rabbits and deer they hunted as suitable prey at all.

"Don't worry, Galbart. You probably won't be the last one he swindles things out of," Lord Stark consoled him. Upon realizing that their destination was Bear Islands, where the proud Lady Mormont resided, Lord Glover burst into laughter.

They left the wolfswood the very next and arrived at the castle of Deepwood Motte. It was a wooden motte-and-bailey castle so while it was not particularly strong it worked for the people here.

The castle's long hall sat atop a hill with a flattened top, accompanied by a fifty-foot-high watchtower. Below the hill, there was a bailey that contained stables, paddocks, a smithy, a well, and a sheepfold. The castle's defence was meagre, consisting of a ditch, an earthen dike, and a palisade of logs. Deepwood's mossy outer walls were safeguarded by two square towers and wallwalks.

They spent only a night at Deepwood Motte before setting off towards the sea, which was only about five leagues away. Waiting for them there was a ship sent by the Mormonts to escort Lord Stark and his party to Bear Islands, Lady Mormont herself came on the ship, but she brought along the news that Ser Jorah had run away along with his southern wife in the middle of the night.

...

"...He hired a fancy cook from Oldtown, a harper from Lannisport, and even bought a fancy ship so that he and his pretty wife could attend tourneys and festivals," Maege explained, her face contorted in disgust, "He spared no effort to please his wife even if meant bringing the House into ruinous debt, but I guess even that wasn't enough... so he eventually resorted to selling poachers as slaves to those Tyroshi," She ended self deprecatingly while shaking her head.

They were in the Lord's solar of Mormont castle which was actually just a wooden Longhall, surrounded by an Earthern palisade. It was a remote and cold windswept island of forests and hills but despite the harsh surroundings, the beauty of the ancient trees, flowering thorn bushes, and creeks outside the window was undeniable.

There were four people in the room, Maege Mormont, Acting Lady of Bear Island (For the moment), her eldest daughter Dacey Mormont, Lord Stark, and Jon, who stood behind him. While the adults discussed, Jon and Dacey quietly observed, with the latter occasionally stealing curious glances at Jon.

"What were those Tyroshi doing out here?" Eddard furrowed his brow in confusion.

"They hailed from the Stepstones and were traveling to Westeros as merchants," Maege explained in a weary voice, her face showing signs of sleepless nights, "Apparently, these scoundrels were regular clients of the Ironborn, buying any excess 'Thralls' they had on hand for a low price and selling them for profit in Essos,"

"Having just been through a war, the Ironborn didn't have anything to sell so they came here to resupply when Jorah got wind of it and thought about a braindead scheme to sell the poacher prisoners who were due for the wall to them sneakily at night. If it wasn't for Dacey here," She jerked her head to her daughter standing behind her who stuck her chest proudly, "who happened to catch him, we would have never even known,"

"It's not your fault, Maege," Eddard consoled her. "You fulfilled your duty by promptly informing me of his crime. There was nothing more you could have done,"

"No, what happened was done by a Mormont, and it was unforgivable," Maege said, her head shaking resolutely. "I would give you the treasury if there was anything in there. That coward not only left us deeply in debt to the Iron Bank, but he also took whatever little we had in the treasury when he ran away with that wench." Her head lowered, and even Dacey gritted her teeth in anger and shame. "But I would accept any kind of tax you levy on
us, My Lord, no matter how harsh it may be, and spend my whole life repaying you if that's what it takes to regain our honor,"

"Maege, you know that I can't do that. It would be exceedingly cruel to the people here who committed no crime," Eddard shook his head with a sigh before standing and walking to the window. He looked out for a moment before turning back to the room, his expression serious. "I'll be frank with you, Maege. I came to Bear Island this time hoping to enlist your help in one of my endeavors,"

"Anything, My lord. As long as you wish it, I will try my hardest to fulfill it," Maege said, her eyes brightening as if grasping for a branch when she was drowning.

"I need you to build a port here,"

"A port, My lord," Maege said, in confusion, "But we already have one,"

"Not a small one, but one that can accommodate a sufficient number of trade vessels comfortably and defend itself when necessary,"

"I don't think that would be feasible here, My lord. We don't have anything that is worth exporting except for fish and trees and we have no shipbuilders or builders of any kind and of course, the Ironborn would never let a port survive here..." Maege abruptly stopped listing the reasons, and said, "But you already knew all that... So why..."

"You don't have to worry about the things to export as we already have that," Eddard said calmly, "As for builders, I asked Wyman to send a few of his best builders; they should be arriving here in a few weeks and they will be the one to lead the work on the port. As for your second and third reason..." He nodded toward his son who immediately came forward as if he was waiting for it.

"My lady, I am Jon Snow," Jon bowed and said with a smile, "...and I have a special skill,"

"Special skill?" Maege asked with a tilt of her head, looking between the father and son who were acting mysteriously, and behind her, Dacey also perked up, interested in this special skill.

"May I take a seat, My Lady," Jon said, gesturing and when Lady Mormont nodded he sat on the chair.

He got as comfortable as he could before he took a deep breath, "Now don't get scared My lady..."

Before the two females in the room could express their confusion, Jon's body suddenly went limp and when they looked at his eyes they both gasped loudly, and Lady Mormont even stood up abruptly as they noticed that his pupils had completely vanished.

Remembering the legends and stories she had heard in her childhood, Maege dumbfoundingly turned to her Liege Lord who was calmly standing there without saying anything as his son performed a clear feat of magic that was feared across Westeros and was hated vehemently by the Maesters.

"What—"

Jon's eyes turned normal before Maege could question Eddard and he immediately started speaking after taking a few deep breaths, "There are ten ships hailing from Bear Islands that are currently fishing in the nearby sea and you have ten more that are docked across the villages on the island—"

Maege interrupted Jon with a surprised tone. "You're a Warg!"

"I am," Jon replied, a small smile playing on his lips as he watched her reaction.

"...Amazing!" Dacey exclaimed with wide eyes and Jon immediately provided her a smile.

Maege took a deep breath and calmly sat back in her seat. Turning to Eddard, she asked, "And you're okay with this?"

"He is my son," Eddard said with a weary smile, "While I would've preferred if he wasn't involved with magic, it is what it is,"

"I thought you would be a bit more against it since you were brought up in the south and all...But..." Maege mumbled under her breath before she shook her head and asked, "Anyway... how will this help us get ships because we don't have the resources to build a shipyard or hire experts for that..."

"For starters... I know about a village nearby that has recently acquired a few ships that they have no use for so I am sure they will be happy to trade them for some fishing boats that would be more useful for them. As for what to do after..." Jon looked into her eyes and said with a sweet smile, "Don't you have a neighbor that has an abundance of ships, I am sure they won't mind sharing a few with us every now and then,"

"I don't get it?" Dacey asked tilting her head.

"My friend up there is a very fast bird," Jon said while pointing his finger upward, "She can travel the distance that a ship takes about three days to cover— in just under an hour, So, when I warg into her I can see what she
sees which means that if I want to I can always know the location of any ship I want,"

"Really..." Dacey exclaimed with wide eyes and said to her mother, "That would mean that—"

"You're right, that would be too much of an advantage," Maege nodded wonderingly.

"So what do you say," Eddard asked coming to stand in front of Maege, "Not only will this port help Bear Island but it would also provide jobs for the nearby Deepwood who I am sure would be happy to supply wood for adequate wages,"

Maege was a bit overwhelmed but she still said with a small smile, "I think, My Lord, you already know my answer..."

...

"...How much farther, now," Jon asked after a while.

"We're almost there," Dacey replied, her skilled hands manoeuvring the small boat effortlessly.

Lord Stark and Lady Mormont were finalizing all the details of the new port - discussing ownership, the optimal location for the factory, and other important matters. After Jon had given his input on the necessary details for the factory, Lady Mormont had asked Dacey to take him on a tour of the port.

As they exited the castle, Dacey led Jon straight to a small, worn-out fishing boat, urging him to climb aboard. "Is this yours?" Jon asked tentatively, feeling uneasy about boarding a boat for the first time in his life.

Dacey laughed. "No, it's not mine, but I don't think the owner will mind if I borrow it for a bit." Jon wasn't entirely convinced about that.

And when asked about where she was taking him? she only said that she wants to, "...show you something special,"

So here he was sitting on a precariously wobbling boat driven by a ten-year-old, who was driving him to an unknown place to show him something special. Jon didn't know what to think or feel, so he just laid back and enjoyed the stunning sea and the clear blue sky above. Although it was summer, the breeze was still chilly, sending pleasant shivers down his skin every now and then.

After around fifteen minutes, Dacey suddenly started rowing slowly towards a massive cliff. As they drew nearer, Jon noticed a small, hidden beach nestled between the cliffs, visible only from up close. Dacey deftly parked the boat, and with Jon's assistance, she pulled it onto the sand to prevent it from drifting away.

"So what is it that you wanted to show me," Jon asked while looking around the small sand beach that while very beautiful had nothing visible that said "special" about it.

Instead of answering, Dacey walked to the shore, took a deep breath, put her fingers in her mouth, and whistled loudly. She had an amazing set of lungs and Jon had to cover his ears, so loud was she and she continued for several seconds before finally stopping.

"Now what," Jon said after nothing happened for a while

Dacey gazed out over the horizon for a few moments before turning to him and replying, "Now we wait." She then curiously asked, "So, tell me, can you only warg into a single animal or can you do it into any animal?"

Although Jon was taken aback by the sudden change of topic, he decided to go along with her, "Well there are two types basically a Skinchanger and a Warg..."

Jon talked to her for quite a while and he didn't notice the time passing so he was very surprised when Dacey who had opened her mouth to ask him another question suddenly stood up and exclaimed, "She's here!" before happily running into the sea.

"Who's here," Jon asked bewildered but stood up nonetheless to follow her. When he was about a foot away from the sea and Dacey was waist-deep in the sea, Jon suddenly saw a small bump coming of water moving toward them rapidly. Alarmed, he stooped and asked, "What's that?"

"That's my dolphin friend," Dacey replied, without turning around. The bump began circling Dacey before rushing into her and knocking her into the water. Dacey laughed and got back up, scolding the dolphin, "Stop! Don't do that! Cory! I am not here to play with you today," while rubbing the small head that had popped up and was squeaking excitedly, "I brought a friend here to meet you—Jon what are you doing there come closer!" she waved
toward Jon excitedly while her other hand played with Cory.

Jon looked at Dacey incredulously as he stepped into the water. "You have a dolphin as a friend?" he asked.

Dacey's face lit up as she replied, "Yes! I found her injured on the shore a few years ago when she was just a baby. I helped her, and she became my friend. Her name is Cory. Do you think I can warg into her?" Her eyes sparkled with hope.

"I'm not sure, I would have to check—Ahhh," Jon suddenly stumbled backward in fear as the "Dolphin" finally emerged for him to see Cory in her full glory, "That's not a dolphin!" he exclaimed. "It's a baby ORCA!"

"Eh! What's the difference," Dacey asked with a tilt of her head, still standing at her place and playing with Cory.

Jon shook his head in disbelief. "You don't know the difference between a killer whale and a dolphin? Haven't you ever read a book?"

"Really! That's amazing," Dacey said excitedly, ignoring Jon's comment about dusty old tomes that she detested with her core, "You hear that Cory, you're really strong,"

"Cory" the Orca squealed and bumped her head gently onto Dacey as if she could feel her friend's happiness. Jon had seen a documentary in his last life that explained that Orcas were really intelligent sea creatures and didn't consider humans as a part of their diet so they weren't as dangerous to humans but seeing it with his own eyes was a very different thing.

The Orca was about 15 feet or about 4.5 meters long which meant that she was still in her childhood phase as he knew that they grow up to be about 32 feet.

"So tell me," Dacey asked again, "Can I warg into her,"

Jon opened and closed his mouth a few times trying to articulate his feeling but ultimately he just shook his head and decided to go with the flow. He closed his eyes and sent a scattered intent of his mind that he usually did and almost immediately he could feel the only two minds nearby. It was easy to see that the simpler mind belong to the baby orca and the complex squiggly-shaped mind belonged to Dacey.

"Ah—" Jon exclaimed and immediately opened his eyes in surprise when he noticed that there already existed a preliminary bond between the two of them, and while it was very fragile at the moment, it would be easy to strengthen it.

"What happened? Tell me. Can I warg into her,"

"I can say for sure that you definitely can," Jon nodded.

"Yes! You hear that Cory. That's amazing," Dacey started jumping in happiness and playing with her.

...

Later that day after an extensive talk between Lord Stark, his bastard, and Lady Mormont, it was announced that Jon would stay as a ward at Bear Island for about two years. Lord Stark left after staying there for a week and the work on the port started a week after that with a lot of scepticism from the locals.

///

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