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The Warg Lord (ASOIAF)(SI)

This is very funny to me since I just got covid
 
Ch 13- Don't Bring Back Any Squids!
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
 
ok when or if he gets a boat he could warg to a whale or leviathan to pull the boat, and if he gets the sphere big enough and works on multi-tasking more he could run the "passive" warning around him while in combat, having a sphere of awareness for living beings around him, ambushing him on the battlefield will not work, blind fighting might develop that, sensing what the attacker does?
 
Ch 14 A Plan
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.
 
Well people knowing the heir and his brother are actively protecting them will do much to benefit the Starks.
 
While they were discussing, Jon remunerated about the problem in front of him in his head.
To remunerate means to pay someone back money that you owe them. Such as their wages earned from you.

You maybe meant a different word here, but I have no idea what it would be.
 
Good.Wargs should act as recon and communication,and then you have equivalent of WW1 level planes and early radios for your medieval army.Which mean,that you would always win or retreat if victory is impossible.

Is Jon aware about 4 field rotation,glass making,steel making and how to made blackpowder?
If so,he could made North rich and powerfull.
 
"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."
Unless we are talking some serious filters here, like a gasmask, or top tier masks - It's of neglible use in terms of avoiding getting it, it's main use is to counter spreading it to others if you've just recently contracted it, and are not yet symptomatic - If if you're immune, but still carrying it. If you're already got symptoms, you should absolutely not be hinding your breathing like that, it's gonna be tough enough as it is.

But this made for some rather believable gossip, me gusta.

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.
Tssk, you're her teacher now! And by medieval settings you could even give her a spanking. Although I'd probably make her stand there and hold buckets of water while answering questions.

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.
Agreed, that is pretty much my approach to learning skills as well. Anything less is a sub-standard IMO.
 
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So who is the most fitting wife/planned ship?
A fitting bride would be another warg female. Could we have bloodraven descend? A wildling princess who rides a white direwolf? Damn that's like 9/10 princess mononoke already. When bloodraven abandoned the watch and his vows and before crucifying himself inside tree roots he had some sex, y'know to spread them genes of a start and targ, maybe even left the sword with the one he knocked up? Go down a few generations, high warg affinity, nice sword, good looks, white direwolf as a coming if age gift to the stark bastard girl who was born north of the walls...
 
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.
I feel like there's some underestimation of the force a bow can pack into an arrow here. Even if you're shooting arrows with rounded rubber balls at the end, you could still break the skull of a child, or crush an eye/throat. He would need some protection for sensitive area's. Like a gorget, and helmet. Possibly a suspensor too, if you want to keep your manly bits.

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.
I feel like there's some underestimation of the force a bow can pack into an arrow here. Even if you're shooting arrows with rounded rubber balls at the end, you could still break the skull of a child, or crush and eye/throat.
"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.
Hmm, I'm starting to think he will earn his own noble title this way. And I'm starting to think it will be: "Jon Frost(Or possibly Eagle, Hawk, Eagle-eye, Hawk-eye, Talon, Birds-eye, etc)." With a sigil of a an Ice Eagle. And perhaps a saying akin to: "We are the eyes of the pack, we keep watch over our own."
In reference to their bird warg bonds, and their connection to the Stark's.


Good.Wargs should act as recon and communication,and then you have equivalent of WW1 level planes and early radios for your medieval army.Which mean,that you would always win or retreat if victory is impossible.

Is Jon aware about 4 field rotation,glass making,steel making and how to made blackpowder?
If so,he could made North rich and powerfull.
The first most ppl know about, the question is if the North knows about it yet. The 2nd he might not know the details of, but the basics are pretty easy, and she should be able to improve upon it with trial and error. Making good steel is not an easy thing to get started, and takes quite some resources to throw up in large scale production. But it's honestly not that relevant yet. Steel production is already massive in Westerors, we don't know how far the amount mined exceeds the production capacity. I doubt it's enough to warrant it as a focus for him right now.

And on the note of gunpowder... It's oooh soo easy to burn down the house trying to make it - I literally know a guy whose father did that when he was young. he would be better served by trying to create explosives I believe. Mass producing gunpowder is an arduous process that would require quite some infrastructure to work with. But distilling some fosfor into making some bombs is much easier, and you can easily distill it from something as innocuous as milk.

Not that it's really worth focusing on them, with Wild Fire in this world. I can imagine him using his birds to drop bombs on enemy armies from above though...
 
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Ch 15 House Codd
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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Thanks for the chapter
 
Dunno why you'd keep Luwin in the dark about the Warging. He's one of the few Maesters who actually has a Valyrian Steel link, which means he's able enough with magic to make one. Apparently he studied how to do so under Marwyn the Mage.

Granted, he also doesn't trust it, but let's face it: not trusting magic in ASoIaF is the wisest relationship with it you can have. He's also deeply loyal to House Stark and while he'd advise caution with warging, but that's his universal response to everything: caution. Seeing it actually manifest would only result in him trying to support Jon in exploring and mastering the talent -- especially as it's already being put to good use for the benefit of House Stark.

Point being: even if you're including the Maester anti-magic conspiracy fanon to this story, Luwin is definitely not one of it's members. Hell, in canon when Bran started having the greendreams, Luwin started giving him sleeping draughts to help him sleep.
 
"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,"
They're not going to buy a word of it, and ignore his orders. And then they'll be in a pickle.

Dunno why you'd keep Luwin in the dark about the Warging. He's one of the few Maesters who actually has a Valyrian Steel link, which means he's able enough with magic to make one. Apparently he studied how to do so under Marwyn the Mage.

Granted, he also doesn't trust it, but let's face it: not trusting magic in ASoIaF is the wisest relationship with it you can have. He's also deeply loyal to House Stark and while he'd advise caution with warging, but that's his universal response to everything: caution. Seeing it actually manifest would only result in him trying to support Jon in exploring and mastering the talent -- especially as it's already being put to good use for the benefit of House Stark.

Point being: even if you're including the Maester anti-magic conspiracy fanon to this story, Luwin is definitely not one of it's members. Hell, in canon when Bran started having the greendreams, Luwin started giving him sleeping draughts to help him sleep.
It is possible, but it's also possible he'll panick about it. And it's certain he'll tell Lord Stark, who'll tell his wife, who WILL condemn it.

In short it's liable to get out if he tells him, and the potentail rewards are not even nearly worth the risks. Beyond everything else, it's an edge to have against your opponents, but mostly only remains one for as long as they don't know about it.
 
Yep.That is how you use wargs.
 
Ch 16 Do they cut "that" off at the Wall?
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,'
 
So three ships captured, now Jon can have one for him to play with maybe?
 
Ch 17 Nature's Documentary
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.
 
Good chapter.Eagle and shadowcat - did he need anything more? owl maybe,for night recon?

And,start teaching about warging.North need Warg corps for coming war.And preferable,if South do not knew about that.
If they have wargs with birds,they could find enemy army before they found them,and keep communication between part of their army.So commander X would knew when exactly reatreat or attack.

Mammals - well,they could be used for recon,too,owners could see through their eyes after all.
When they undarstandt,that Wargs should be used only for recon and communication,they would win with forces 10 times stronger then them.

P.S Happy Easter !
 
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Ch 18 Lord Too-Fat-to-Sit-a-Horse
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.

///
If you can't wait, you can go to: patreon.com/lazywizard
 
Meh, not THAT interested in his bicycle business tbh... Most interesting mention was the slight tech progress in the utilization of water wheels for factory work.
 

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