[Chapter Size: 3200 Words.]
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Third Person POV
Arctic, 298 AC.
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"Are you sure we can trust him? Is this really going to help us?" Val asked Mance as they watched the men bringing all the barrels filled with arrows.
"I don't know... but we can test it," Mance said.
"So you intend to take people north?" a man nearby asked, concerned.
"We have no choice. We have no dead with us... We have to test it. If this works, it could save us," Mance said and returned to his men.
"I need you to take a small group north and search mainly the ground. Any corpses... any remains of human parts... stay alert. We'll trust what King Artican said: that the corpses are hiding under the snow and catching men by surprise."
He said this as the leaders gathered, preparing some men to form a group that would return north with the dragonglass arrows and verify the truth of the information Jon had given them — it was too risky, but they needed this.
Quickly, the camp began to stir, while many still looked to the sky, in the direction where the dragon had flown away, wondering what that was and who that person was, with most not yet knowing it was Jon Artica.
Jon was flying as he distanced himself from the camp, choosing a place to stay. Seeing a smaller mountain, he flew to land there — a bit closer than the one he had been on before, but now on the southern side — waiting for the attack from the north in the coming hours as the day began to end, giving way to night.
"Well... now we just have to wait for them," Jon muttered, analyzing the situation from afar, as the campfires were lit down below.
At the same time, far from there, in Artica, at the king's castle, Ygritte was with her children sewing an embroidery for the baby that was about to be born. She took pleasure in making the little clothes even though she had never liked sewing — she still wanted to make sure her child lacked nothing when born.
She also wanted to make a cloak for her husband, as she watched her children playing in front of her with wooden toys near her that night. In the same room, there were two giant wolves, lying quietly in a corner.
The giant wolves always followed the children. Regardless of how many children Jon had, all of them would have their own wolves — some still pups, others young of just a few moons. There was never a shortage of wolves.
The newborns from the litters were wolves destined for his children, something recurring since the easy breeding in the Wolf Forest, where thousands of giant wolves lived among the animals and fed on meat produced on a large scale. The forest was self-sustaining, greatly increasing the wolf population.
Everything seemed calm.
Lyanna played with her one-year-old little brother.
"Come on, Brandon! My wolf is faster than yours!" she laughed, stretching her arm with her wooden wolf.
"No... no!" the boy said, still fumbling with words as he was learning to speak. He tried to reach his sister, but due to the size difference, his arm couldn't stretch as far as hers.
Lyanna laughed. "Ah, my little brother..."
"!!" But instead of complaining, Brandon laughed like a baby.
"Brother, how about we grab the dragons...?" she suggested to him, still smiling, before turning her attention back to the boy. That's when she saw him simply drop the wooden wolf, which fell to the ground.
"Hm?!" Her eyes widened as she looked at Brandon's face.
"Mom..." she murmured. "Brandon's acting weird..." she said fearfully, as Ygritte immediately blinked and stood up, concerned upon hearing it. She supported her pregnant belly with one hand and approached to see her son, who had his back to her in the middle of the room.
Upon seeing him, she noticed his eyes were completely white. She immediately came closer, touching his face.
"Is he okay? He's scary..." Lyanna murmured, frightened, as Ygritte touched her son's head, his eyes dazed.
"He... He's fine. He's a Warg, just like you. The dreams you both have are of wolves... only you do it unconsciously while sleeping. But when you do it while awake... your eyes turn white like your brother's, except for your father's — his don't have that effect," she commented, still a bit surprised.
Lyanna wasn't familiar with wargs because Jon thought she was too young for it and would wait a while before she and her brother saw a warg in action, as it could scare the children.
"But I wonder... what animal is he in? Brandon doing this so suddenly..." Ygritte murmured as she looked at Brandon's wolf.
Its head was raised, ears perked, but upon checking its eyes, she realized that wasn't the animal Brandon had mentally entered.
That made Ygritte frown. After all, it was said no warg could die inside the body of the animal, and that worried her — not knowing which creature Brandon had taken over now, and her heart quickly beat with urgency.
"Quick! We need to take him immediately to the Sacred Tree!" she said with a tone of urgency, picking up her unconscious son in her arms and carrying him outside, startling Lyanna a bit as she saw her mother calling the royal guards and asking them to get a cart immediately, saying she needed to take her son to the Children of the Forest in the sacred grove.
Only the Children of the Forest can break this...
At the same time, to the north, a white owl flew out of its tree at that moment. Its eyes blinked, seeming confused about where it was, before it began flapping its wings and moving upward. Soon, it spotted a large camp ahead and started flying over the area.
Below it, men were rushing through the forest. It was the group that had advanced to test the use of dragonglass.
"Quick! Call Mance, quick!" they shouted as they ran. The men in the camp cleared the way for them, while some arrived injured.
Mance immediately went to meet the group, while the owl observed them curiously, landing atop one of the tents and watching, curious, seeing a world completely different from what it was used to.
"You did it?" Mance asked hopefully, looking at the panting men.
"Yes... And it worked. These things... they kill the dead just on contact!" one of the men replied, grabbing an arrow tipped with dragonglass. "But there were so many! We lost two and have four wounded... But Mance... a huge number of them are coming this way. A lot of them. And they'll arrive in a few hours. We managed to escape... but we saw them. As the fire consumed the trees and weapons we had to light, we saw a crowd right behind."
Mance narrowed his eyes and murmured, "So it's true..."
He then returned to his men.
"Alright! Get ready! Everyone, arm the arrows for the archers. At the same time, light several piles of fire all around the camp! Quickly!" he shouted.
Immediately the men began to move. Everything was already being prepared. In a short time, many firepoints were lit around the camp, while the dragonglass arrows were being distributed.
Thousands of men with bows took position.
"We have ten thousand of these arrows..." Mance murmured. "I hope this saves us..."
He moved forward, inspecting the defenses.
Upon reaching the front lines of the men gathered at the northern edge of the camp, Mance adjusted something there, while shouting orders. Soon, everyone was ready.
"Now we just have to wait..." Mance murmured, returning to the highest point from which he would command the crowd.
There were also giants positioned, holding large logs ready to be lit and used to attack anything that approached.
About five thousand bowmen were organized, each with two dragonglass arrows in hand. Near them, piles of regular arrows were prepared so that once the dragonglass supply was depleted, they would be quickly replaced with flaming arrows as their stocks ran out.
Everything suddenly went quiet, as Mance simply waited for any sign coming from the forest to the north. His eyes were fixed, alert to any movement between the three trees ahead, just like all the other men.
The rest of the camp, behind him, swallowed hard, hoping they would manage to defeat the enemies.
At the same time, that owl watched everything with curiosity, observing the scene before it attentively. It tried to open its wings and fly, but was soon stopped.
Several crows and even other owls began to appear right in front of it, blocking its path and forcing it to retreat.
The bird shrank back. Brandon was inside it — and Jon was not happy about it at all.
He could feel his son's presence, even from a distance, and couldn't help but feel shaken by it.
He didn't know how Brandon had entered the mind of a bird that size, but one thing was certain: he wouldn't let the boy go any further — it was too dangerous.
If necessary, he would hold him back or even drag him back.
The bird looked scared. It was just a one-year-old child, after all. Brandon didn't have the courage to truly confront all those crows surrounding him, blocking his escape in every direction.
The situation remained that way for about two hours. No sign of the dead.
But Mance was willing to stay there all night, if needed.
Suddenly, the temperature began to drop. The men's breath became increasingly visible in the cold air.
"This cold... it's them," one of the men murmured, with a serious look.
"Yes. Get ready. The enemy is here," Mance replied.
Everyone fell silent, preparing themselves. Even Jon got ready to move at any moment, still thinking about his son Brandon.
Quickly, he accessed the eyes of one of his animals in Artica.
There, he found Ygritte, Seryna, and dozens of Children of the Forest in the Sacred Grove — they were carrying Brandon to the Children of the Forest, trying to cancel the skinchanging powers and bring the boy's soul back to his body. While Brandon was laid among the roots and Leaf was trying to bring him back, his wolf was there beside him.
Jon sighed. He turned his attention back to the present, mounting Eragon, adjusting the saddle and tightening the belt.
Now, all that was left was to wait, as his eyes returned to the distant camp, lit by several campfires.
That was when the first dead appeared, coming out from between the trees.
Soon after, more and more dead advanced, walking silently in a straight line.
A crowd began to form behind them, growing with each second.
They marched slowly, stopping halfway, as if waiting for some kind of order.
They hadn't come close enough to attack yet.
Mance watched carefully, his eyes alert to the fear spreading among everyone there.
It was not a pretty sight.
To see a small army of the dead stopping, aligning in silence, staring at the living with ice-blue eyes.
More and more dead joined until the entire northern part of the camp was surrounded by those glowing, empty eyes.
Mance couldn't help it. He swallowed hard. Val and the other leaders beside him also had a glimmer of fear in their eyes.
At the same time, something began to open in the middle of the horde of dead.
A space was created, as if the corpses themselves were stepping aside to let something through.
Then, it appeared.
A White Walker, mounted on an undead horse, with a spear in hand.
He stared forward, with a cold and cruel gaze.
Everyone who saw that creature swallowed hard once again.
It was as if the temperature dropped even further with its presence.
The cold seeped into the bones, and no one could tell if it was the weather… or pure fear.
The White Walker turned, surprised, looking directly at the man who had fired. Like him, all the other eyes — living and dead — turned to the archer, who trembled and dropped the bow purely out of nervousness.
"We have to kill them!" he murmured, justifying having shot before any order from Mance.
Mance frowned, watching everything with seriousness.
The White Walker narrowed its eyes, raised the spear, and let out a scream — a sound that came from no known animal, much less a human. It roared through the trees, a cold and supernatural roar.
Immediately, the dead began to advance.
The Walker turned and hid behind the crowd now running toward the battlefield, as if it knew those dragonglass arrows could kill it.
"Quick! Fire! Fire!" Mance exclaimed, raising his voice.
The men quickly began launching their arrows. The first of the dead began to fall, arrows stuck in their bodies. Some screamed — or let out something resembling screams — before collapsing to the ground.
"Don't waste all the arrows!" Mance shouted again when he realized many were shooting non-stop. Immediately, the order was passed from group to group.
Most pulled back while the archers on the front line reloaded their quivers. Some warriors lit arrows at the fires and quickly passed them to the shooters.
The dead kept coming... and now, flaming arrows cut through the sky.
The White Walker remained hidden among the crowd, protecting itself.
"Smart..." Jon murmured, analyzing the situation.
But it was at that moment, through the bird's eyes, that Jon noticed something coming from the north. One of his crows, flying over the area, began to grow agitated.
It quickly veered away, flying into the darkness to investigate what it was, while arrows continued striking the dead and the trees began to catch fire with the advancing flames.
More and more wights emerged from the forest, while the dragonglass arrows kept being fired alongside the flaming arrows, killing the enemies. However, the stock of special arrows was quickly running out.
Jon had sent a letter to Mance days earlier, instructing him to keep a portion of the arrows separate — those were only for the White Walkers, as normal fire wasn't enough to stop them.
Meanwhile, the crow kept flying, cutting through the wind of the approaching cold front.
That's when Jon, through the bird, began to see blue dots glowing in the dark sky.
He frowned, startled, as he realized the shapes were approaching... birds.
Hundreds, maybe thousands of undead birds, with intense blue eyes, were coming through the sky in his direction.
Before he could react, the crow Jon was controlling was swallowed by that cloud of dead birds.
The connection was broken.
Jon blinked, stunned. He had never seen undead animals besides horses.
But now...
That number of birds would be disastrous as soon as they reached the camp.
At the same time, another crow moved along the flanks to scout the sides of the camp. That was when a horde of undead animals began to emerge.
Bears, shadowcats, small wolves, rodents like rabbits and squirrels — all of them with glowing blue eyes and missing body parts — advanced like a dark wave. Even giant wolves were part of the horde, marching along with the others.
Each side of the attack was led by a White Walker: one mounted on a bear, the other on a giant wolf. Both guided their respective flanks toward the camp, which was unprepared for this — especially at those poorly defended points.
"This is bad..." Jon stated the obvious, his gaze fixed on the horizon.
He quickly struck Eragon's side, who was already taking his first steps as his wings spread, beating hard, gaining altitude.
There were many armed men all over the camp, but they weren't prepared for undead animals, which were even faster and harder to deal with than humans. It was a completely different threat, coming from all directions.
Jon needed to decide where to act first.
He determined that the airspace would be the first point to defend — after all, the birds could strike anyone inside the camp.
But now, he had to be careful. That owl still carried the mind of his son, Brandon.
While the crows quickly forced the owl Brandon was possessing to retreat, trying to drag him to a safe place as fast as possible with that threat coming from the sky.
The bird housing Brandon seemed frightened, but was quickly surrounded by a flock of crows and other larger birds on top of that tent, which began to protect him, circling him.
At the same time, everyone's eyes began to turn toward the sky, where several blue glows were approaching. A terrifying sight.
Even Mance opened his mouth, stunned as he noticed the sound coming from the sky.
"By the gods..." he murmured, as Val and the others beside him also noticed the approach of the winged creatures.
Thousands of dead birds, with blue eyes, advanced like a living storm.
"The sky! Aim for the sky, now!" the orders echoed among the leaders and quickly spread through the camp.
The archers began to aim upward, but the piercing cries of the dead birds made it difficult to stay focused.
Chaos spread.
Some soldiers continued shooting into the forest, still dealing with the dead coming from the ground, while others tried to keep up with the sky, now swarming with this new threat.
It was then that the great white mass crossed the skies — a colossal figure dove through the birds like a lightning bolt.
Eragon.
The dragon that many had seen before returned, descending with ferocity upon the airborne horde.
And, in the next moment, opened its mouth.
A river of red flames consumed the air above the camp, lighting up the entire area as if it were day.
Eragon's roar tore through the sky, shrill and powerful, making the ground tremble beneath his feet.
The bird, which was being carried by the crows and others, watched the scene ahead. Its eyes gleamed with the flames reflected in its irises, until suddenly, it blinked.
A child of only one year simply opened his eyes at that exact moment, dazed and frightened, in Artica.
It was then that a red-haired woman embraced him tightly.
"Son... thank the gods, you're alright!" Ygritte murmured as she saw Brandon return to himself, while they were in the middle of the Sacred Grove, next to the Great Tree.
Leaf and other Children of the Forest stood around them.
Seryna had been with Ygritte ever since she learned what had happened. Upon realizing the seriousness of the situation, she left Loki to take care of Lyanna, along with Jaehaerys and the other queens who protected the children.
"Mom... mama..." the boy clung to his mother and began to cry.
"What happened, son? Where were you?" Ygritte asked, worried, running her hand through his hair.
"I... I don't know, mommy... I saw daddy..." Brandon murmured, trying to form his sentences. He stumbled over the words, still learning how to speak.
"Your father? You were in the North?" she asked, even more tense. "No... It's dangerous there!"
Ygritte examined him carefully, concerned about the danger Jon might be facing at that moment — and even more so with her youngest son involved in it.
"It's quite possible he was thinking about Jon... and somehow managed to connect with an animal in the North," Leaf said, analyzing the boy seriously.
"It's better to keep him here. We can block his skinchanging. It's too dangerous. He was inside an external animal... this could traumatize him deeply... even kill him," she warned, even though she was amazed that a child only one year old was capable of warging.
It was something extremely dangerous, and she knew that was the last thing Jon would want — to see his son in danger.
"I saw daddy... Eragon... fire!" Brandon murmured, making faces as he tried to describe what he had seen.
Though he still seemed scared, he was talking about the battle he had witnessed, with Jon appearing in the middle of the chaos.
Ygritte only looked at Seryna, not knowing what to say.
She knew she needed to keep her son away from all of that.
No matter what Jon was facing at that moment — that was no place for a curious child.
-------------Nexts Chapters ----------------
Chapter 257 - The Blood Eagle.
Chapter 262 - Events in Arctic.
Chapter 272 - The Journey and Titles of the Arctican King up to This Moment.
Chapter 281 - The Winterfell Banquet 02.
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