> AN/ I've worked 7 days a week for the last month. That is why this is slowly updated. Fun fact... I've decided to use a hit of acid to rewrite the ending of the plot of my story... A rare treat for you guys. LSD fueled plotlines... Ah, I love American freedoms.
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> Chapter 5: I'm a mummer! Not a wildling! I swear!
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> (Age 14)
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> Little fishing villages along the coast were overjoyed to see the 'tamed' snowbears. Snowbears were the fiercest and most feared of all predators in the land. Massive beasts of fang, claw, bone, and muscle. My bears were larger than ones raised in the wild. The four full-grown snowbears stood up and towered over twice the height of any man in the villages.
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> I asked for my weight in fish, both fresh and salted to show off my bear taming skills. a larger village payed me to make two showings. The real trick was to end my shows with a surprise.
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> I whistled sharply and snapped my fingers.
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> Claw, Fang, Rip, and Tear roared so loud the ground shook. There was nothing separating my audience from the bellowing and crazed looking snowbears as they began to go seemingly berserk. Ripping up the ground with their stamping hind legs that caused the earth to tremble. Standing upright, they had their arms open wide as they bellowed and showed off razor sharp claws bigger than a man's fingers.
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> Tales of my mummer's beast taming show spread before me. Alyse and I were greeted warmly by all four of the villages between the Shadow Tower and the edge of the Wolf's Wood. We continued to hug the coast as we made our way into the Wolf's Wood. I longed to see the ladies clothed in silk and the men in shining steel in their glittering castles I had heard so many stories of since early childhood.
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> As the first real southern fort I had ever seen(barring the wall) came into view over the distant hill, I was disappointed. The log keep on top of the hill looked like any old petty warlord in the north's stronghold. the wooden wall made of thick tree-trunks was a new adaption. Usually thinner logs were used for walls in the north.
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> Halfway to the motte and bailey, the thundering of hooves alerted me to the riders just before the bears got a whiff of them. I counted as many men as I had fingers and toes. I had the bears stop and await the riders. The riders stopped at the base of a hill, and stared at us in stunned silence.
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> "You that beasty mummer?" A man braver than the others called out. "Didn't believe it til I saw this pack o snowbears, with my own eyes." The horseman rode closer as he yelled across the field.
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> My bears stood motionless as I waved from the back of Fang. "I am the Beast Tamer of the North." I declared loudly. "Don't come too close now, My bears don't like it when men get too close to my wife." I waved an arm at Alyse.
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> The horseman stopped 30 yards away. "Lord Glover has heard of your beasts and wishes to see them for himself." The horseman cracked a joke. "Its said that you are the father of bears and 10 feet tall." He crowed. "I'd like to know how you mount a she-bear myself, but, I lack the balls to climb atop a woman as big as that."
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> "A big woman is nothing to fear, Ser." I embellished the kneeler title of a knight as I nodded down to the rider from atop Fang's back. "A big girl will keep you warm in the winter." I informed sagely. "If you know how to deal with the claws and temper. Nothing I can do about that bet though. Unless you want to tame your own bears and make the see how many men are willing to bet against you after that."
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> The man laughed. With my quick wit, I found it simple to bring smiles and laughs to the faces of southern kneelers. The southerners were eased from the fear my snowbear skins by my easy smile and witty words. I despised them, the more I got to know them.
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> "My names' Ser Horess Hore. I'm A knight, and the Captain of Lord Galbert Glover's Guard." The man tilted his head in the way that a noble gives to a kneeler commoner without lowering himself. Respect, but not supplication. "I'd like you and your wife to accompany my men and I to Deepwood Motte. The Lord would like to see your show for himself. You have been the talk of the keep for the last two weeks."
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> I felt excited to be the center of attention. I delighted in attention. Sneaky, the boy, had so little of his peer's acceptance and Veranyr, the man, craved nothing less than the adoration of the kneelers and Free-folk both, and to hear the lamentations of their widows after I killed the men.
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> At 14, most of my thoughts were of women, and the things I could do with them. I glanced at Alyse. She was looking at me apprehensively. Her head ducked down as she noticed me looking at her. I felt my loins tighten in my furs as I thought about what I wanted to do with her at this very moment.
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> The knight's words woke me from my erotic daydream. "Of course he is willing to pay you double the demanded weight in fish." All the bear's ears perked up along with my own as I swung my attention back to the kneeler. Enough food to feed my bears for two weeks.
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> It was illegal to hunt in the Wolf's Wood. Feeding my bears would see me hung as a poacher. Such a custom in the north would have had every man hanging by a rope. There was just no way to feed yourself and your family in any way other than fishing or hunting.
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> "Double?" I asked. "That sounds like a deal to me." I grinned. "Lord Glover is a generous man." I lied.
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> Fucking kneeler Lord taking his own kin's hard-won food and spending it watching a handful of bears dance. Idiots like these would starve come winter. Food to watch bears dance.
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> Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
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> Fools, the lot of them.
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> Lord Glover was not what I imagined a kneeler Lord to be. Wearing the dsame furs as his men, my shadowcat cloak and snowbear furs were far finer than the Lord's own. Galbert Glover's feet stomped with his men's in the great hall of his keep. Alyse had a pretty enough voice and sang 'The Bear and the Maiden Fair' as Rip and Tear stood on their back legs with their claws entwined as if they were dancing hand in hand like a pair of humans. If there were actually any snowbear left in their skulls, they would be killing each-other for getting so close to the 5 black-bear sized cubs that were bobbing their heads and clapping in tune with Alyse's singing.
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> Fang and Claw were stomping their back paws and clapping their front paws together in tune with the sweet voice of my young wife. They had very human-like smiles on their faces that showed plenty of teeth.
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> Glover was laughing and sloshing his horn of wine as much as the knight next to him. The front of his brown leather tunic was stained with the deep red hue of the rich southern wine. He was boisterous, generous, and apparently prone to drink too much.
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> I stood in the middle of the madness, whistling, making hand gestures, and snapping my fingers like I was directing the bears with anything other than my mind. They were empty skins, and slipping inside of them was like slipping on the thick woolen socks that were my prized possessions.
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> Can't find warm woolen socks north of the wall, for damn sure.
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> Alyse soon finished her song, and backed away for me to conduct the finale of my performance. I whistled sharply, and the bears stopped dancing. I whistled again and they all stood on their hind legs, with toothy smiles on all their faces. Another sharp whistle had them lined up shoulder to shoulder, facing Lord Glover.
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> The lord laughed and spilled some wine on himself. "What are you going to have them do next, Beast Tamer?" He asked after the bears all stood at my sides like giants. They were the size of giants, in all reality. Far stronger than a giant by my guess, too. Though these southerners had never seen a giant, and didn't believe they were real.
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> I snapped my fingers.
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> Lord Galbert Glover paled dramatically as the bears roared in fury and ripped up parts of the cobble-stone floor in their facade of rage. The audience of kneeler nobles in the great hall gasped or screamed in fear almost as loud as the roars of my skins.
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> As the bears settled back down, as docile as could be, Lord Glover looked at me.
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> "Have you considered using your beasts for war?" Glover's voice was hoarse as his skin looked decidedly pale. "I'll give you a tower-house and a title if you can make these beasts fight on a battlefield."
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> I tilted my head, as if confused. "War, Mi'lord?"
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> I had heard that there would be a southern war soon. Something about a mad king killing the kneeler overlord that ruled these lands. A famous Stark. The ancient line of descendants Kings of the First Men. The gray direwolf on a white field was known even in the 'True North.'
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> "I am riding for war in the south in a fortnight. I received the call to gather my banners from Lord Eddard Stark a week ago." The Lord was regaining color from the fright I'd given him. The guests were clearing from the great log hall's feast. "I'll need every man I can get to join us in battle."
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> Greed warred with excitement. Of course I wanted to go to war with the southerners. I was a 14 year old man. It was only right that I took place in a war at my age. The riches and fame I could earn in a big enough war could make me immortal. Like Mag the Mighty Giant King, or Styr the Elder, the Magnar-King of the Thenn. War could make men immortal.
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> "They can fight, but I'll need something if you want me to fight for you, Mi'Lord." I lowered my head. "I'll have to stand by this request."
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> "For your snowbears next to me on a battlefield, I'd give much. Name your price." The young Lord Glover, who was hardly older than me, seemed to grimace as he realized this would be a harder sell than he thought.
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> I gave a sly grin. "Some steel armor for these four." I waved my hand at Fang, Claw, Rip, and Tear. "I want bladed gauntlets, chest-plates, greaves, and helmets for them."
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> Glover tilted his head. "You want armor?" He asked. "Nothing more?" He sounded tired at the cost of the armor I wanted forged.
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> "And two more things." I added. Greed glinted in my eyes.
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> "What else?" Glover gritted his teeth and shut huis eyes awaiting the price. He really wanted these animals next to him as the southerners tried to kill them.
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> "A noble's hunting rights, so that I can feed my Bears, for one." I grinned "And for the other…" I trailed off. There was a chance that he may not be willing to give up something as valuable as what I wanted.
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> "And...?" Lord Glover prompted. "What is your last demand? Gold?"
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> "A map of the world. as detailed as possible."
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> Glover laughed "Done." He raised his horn. "I'll have Maester Kale copy you a map tonight, the smiths of Deepwood Motte will have your armors ready before we leave for war, and of course you shall have hunting rights. We can't let these beasts starve on the way to a battlefield, can we?"
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