Chapter Size: 2150 Words.
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JON POV
Wolfswood near FrostRoar, 290DC, that same morning.
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"So shall we depart?" Ducken asked as they had their first meal.
"Yes, I've received troubling news from the North..." Jon said.
The boy had received some information from his sky scouts yesterday, so he urged everyone to hasten and advance the journey that was supposed to happen only in a week.
"News, what would it be?" William asked, and all the giants looked to see what the boy would answer. They had learned a lot from him in all these moons together, to the point of understanding most of the human dialogues on this side of the wall, even with a little difficulty in pronouncing the words.
"A group of wildlings beyond the Wall crossed the sea and descended north, passing through all places unnoticed, and attacked the Glovers' territory. The more serious problem was that they attacked an escort with the daughter of the great lord while the lord himself is with my father fighting against the last resistance of the slavers to the east. A large search party was launched, but they haven't been successful yet. I intend to interfere in this." Jon said, no longer seeming like a nine-nameday boy. He was accustomed, after all these moons, to organizing this camp; he had become used to commanding the place, and no one protested against it.
"I understand, then let's rescue that girl!" Ducken said, smiling at the child in front of him.
"Start organizing yourselves; we'll depart as soon as everyone is ready." He announced, and everyone returned to their meal shortly afterward.
Everyone ate and began to prepare to leave in the next few hours. It was noon when many wagons and horses were ready to leave the camp with a group of giants fully armored with a new greenish metal.
"Let's go; we're two days behind since the attack happened, but we can catch them before they leave the northern coast." Jon led the group, and they set off after clearing a path in the dense forest.
While traveling to exit the forest, Jon sent his aerial guards to all corners in search of possible encounters and the traces left by the wildlings themselves.
Jon looked at the camp where he had lived for the last 6 moons and thought about how this place had become his home and refuge, but he had to move on.
In this place, they left many wagons with some horses to roam freely. The camp's warehouse still had many iron ingots and unpolished material with weapons and items he had created with William.
He couldn't take everything, even leaving a part of the forge, thinking that one day he would return to the location. So until then, this place would remain untouched with some luck since it was known as a cursed place by all regions due to the efforts of its talking parrots and ravens, leaving some to take care of the place.
They continued the walk to the end of the forest with Jon, Ducken, William in the wagons, 6 giants, and various animals and their offspring following them on the ground, while giant and small birds were flying over the group.
Their wagons were loaded with the main supplies and tools from the camp. Jon had prepared many weapons and armors for the journey, not just for them but as reserves since he intended to see his father in a few days.
After a few hours, the sky darkened, and the group had to camp as soon as they found a suitable place. It took a few more days for them to finally leave WolfWoods and begin to see hills beyond trees in all directions.
Thus, a group composed of wagons accompanied by giant wolves, bears, shadow cats with giants and humans, all in armor, left that forest wanting to show the entire northern kingdom what would be known as the most terrifying to set foot on their lands in the last centuries.
"I'm still quite impressed with these armors..." William commented while looking at the giants flanking them with discipline as they tried to reach the North, avoiding the main roads.
"It was luck; I was trying to combine an effect with magical runes and ended up creating this unintentionally." Jon tried to remind William of the answer the boy always repeated when he asked the same question.
"Still, you know how to draw and create magnificent armor! Are you sure I can't become your apprentice?" He said and asked with some hope.
"I'm as surprised as you are about this talent for creating armor and weapons like this, and no, William, I've already said I'm only nine namedays old!" Jon protested and rolled his eyes.
"Maybe when you grow up, you can teach me how to make this design. I'm sure even the king would like to have a weapon made with these designs, Eldenmetal or not." He said, and Jon didn't respond to that, continuing the journey north.
The next days were quite comical in Jon's opinion. They continued the journey north, only sighting wild animals, but eventually, they saw people hunting or passing through the pastures in their path. There was no need to talk about the fear they instilled when people noticed their group; just the sight of giants in armor made everyone run as if their lives depended on it.
The boy knew it wouldn't take long for rumors to spread in the coming days among the nearby villages and cities. Jon was hoping this wouldn't cause him too many problems in the days to come, with a bunch of curious people trying to approach them. Despite this, he knew these rumors were a reason to deter 90% of the people with the idea of seeing a giant in the North.
For some travelers, the sight of Jon and his group was nothing but despair in their hearts. They were traveling peacefully, leaving their farms or hunting, when they felt the ground tremble a moment before noticing the group coming from the south. Many ran in desperation at the sight of the 4-meter-tall men, but others still had a chance to see them surrounded by giant animals besides the giants. This scared them even more than the first group, even though the group of monsters didn't seem interested in them, they ran with the greatest fear of moving away from that place.
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One day, Jon spoke to Ducken.
"We'll have company soon; a large group with more than four dozen is coming in our direction." Jon informed him, and the man quickly prepared the giants, while the boy commanded the animals.
A few hours later, Jon could hear the sound of horses coming towards them. He squinted at the sound coming his way.
"Fifty horses are coming." He murmured.
"Prepare for battle!" Ducken was the first to give orders since he was the official military commander among them and had trained the formation the giants were currently doing. Seryna ended up going to Jon's side with her hammer, ready to protect him from any enemy.
The horses stopped at a distance of 100 meters from the group. There were 50 soldiers with the Glover's crest. Jon used Caraxes's eyes in the air and could even feel their tension.
"They're scared, but that's not a surprise." Jon thought as he looked at their hesitant eyes in our group.
On the other side, the soldiers were trembling. A minor lord from the region along with official soldiers from Deepmott came here to check the rumors while looking for the group of wildlings that kidnapped their lord's daughter. They heard the nonsense of a group of giants and huge beasts walking in the lands next to Wolfwood, heading north.
Now, seeing that the rumors were true, giants in armor with giant animals, all so fantastical that they began to question their sanity and their eyes. Even though they didn't want to believe it, they were facing this terrible group, wondering if they had a chance to survive those things in combat, even though their numbers were higher at times.
"State your names and why you're wandering in the North! Are you wildlings from beyond the Wall?" The captain of this expedition shouted, gaining some courage, hoping that wasn't the case and that they could communicate. There were two men in the wagons and a child on top of a giant wolf.
Jon urged Shadow, the one he was mounted on, to take a few steps ahead of the group and shouted with his childish but audible voice to the men 100 meters away.
"Do we look like wildlings to you?" Jon shouted mockingly. It was a silly question, as wildlings are known to be primitive, and they were in much better armor than the kingdom-made ones the soldiers were wearing with leather.
"Do you really think we're the wildlings who attacked you?" Jon mocked internally right after. He sighed and addressed the captain who asked the last question on the other side since he remained silent after such a response, bewildered.
"My name is Jon Snow, son of Eddard Stark, Lord of the North. I am on a mission to rescue people from the wildling attack as well. I'm leading my group to hunt them down before they can escape from the North with the hostages!" He shouted again, declaring his identity.
The boy was bluffing about the mission, but he didn't want to waste more time and wasn't too excited about massacring Northern soldiers in a possible confrontation if the other party tried to stop them.
Silence once again filled the place.
But they seemed much calmer, greatly easing the initial tension when they encountered the group. The captain then approached alone with caution; when he was 10 meters away, he looked at the boy carefully and was a little relieved. Despite the military formation of the giants, which surprised this captain, questioning how they could pierce and stop this monstrous wall and how many hundreds of soldiers were needed for that, the group showed no hostile behavior, and he saw a lot of resemblance between Lord Stark and the boy on the wolf, as he had already met the Lord of Winterfell when he accompanied his lord's noble family to the heart of the North during the harvest festival.
"I see you speak the truth, Jon Snow." He finally said. He could have called the boy a child, but it was somewhat disrespectful, seeing that he was the leader of this terrible group with him on top of the fiercest creature he had ever seen, and there was a giant in beautiful feminine armor at his side, ready to kill any threat to the boy, even though, in his opinion, the brat had barely left a wet nurse's teat.
"I'm on the trail of the wildlings; I believe there is no problem with our passage since we haven't attacked anyone and have avoided the main roads along with the villages and cities to prevent panic." Ducken spoke beside Jon.
"Before that, let me introduce myself. I'm Erick, captain of the Deepmott guard. And about your question, no, I won't interfere with your passage, but we can accompany you. I believe the boy, after all I've heard, I'm starting to believe the rumors." The captain declared.
"You can accompany us, but I don't know if you'll keep up. I intend to head north even during the night since our time is limited, and they may reach their rafts on the kingdom's coast as a passage beyond the Wall." Jon informed now.
"Even so, I insist." Said Erick, and Jon nodded.
Without much more time to lose, the group continued, and the 50 soldiers stayed behind them as they headed north. The giants were slow but made up for the time, continuing the journey during the night with some energy potions so they wouldn't need to sleep, which Jon distributed to everyone. Incredibly, the group of Glover soldiers managed to keep up with the boy's group, even though they fell behind to camp at night but could catch up with the group the next day after running the trail left by the group.
Jon already found the group with his vision monitoring the sky further north; he saw the women taken as hostages and even the 5-year-old noble being held captive.
The group passed by a sight that angered them; they saw the devastation of three villages in the next few days, something that made the boy extremely furious during this journey to the coast, wanting to seek justice for these people.
Unfortunately, they didn't even have time to deal with the men, old people, and children massacred by wildlings and continued the path with Erick saying that it would be done later.
Finally, they found the group during a night journey, having to leave the Glover soldiers behind, and he had to act as a surprise element while looking at the wild camp from afar, barely illuminated.
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