Pate

Pate saw the child on the road. He was wearing strange red and white clothes and carrying a black sword leaning it on his shoulder. The boy was walking alone on the road. His steps were confident, and his head held high. It looked like he was the son of some lordling lost in the woods, and so, Pate lifted his hatchet and prepared to jump out of the trees.

He signalled his lads to be ready. When the kid was so close he couldn't run away, Pate and his lads came out of the trees where they had been hiding all morning. The kid seemed surprised but not scared and lifted his black sword. Now that he was close, Pate realized that the boy had eyes and hair darker than anything he had seen before. Ringlets of opaque black hair adorned his head, and in his black eyes you couldn't make out his pupil."Put down the sword, kid, and we won't hurt ya." Said one of Pate's lads, Gared.

The boy remained still with his sword in both hands and didn't say a word. Pate rolled his eyes."Get the boy alive. He looks like a lordling. We may get money for him."

Two of Pate's men walked towards the boy. They didn't even lift their weapons. They both were a couple of steps away from the kid in opposite directions. The child walked backwards slowly to keep both men in front of him, like a pup cornered by hungry wolves. Suddenly Gared jumped forwards from the boy's left to grab his arm, but a black blur flashed through the air. The next moment Gared was on his knees, holding his guts inside his body with both his hands. Or at least trying to. An effort that proved fruitless, as the black sword cut through the air again. This time slitting Gared's throat.

Fortunately, Chett got close enough to hit the kid in the back of the head with his club and knocked him out cold. The boy fell to the ground face first."What do we do now, Pate.?" Asked Chett, he was looking at the now still Gared laying on the ground with one hand on his opened stomach and another on his opened throat. A shameful way to go, gutted by a kid.

"We'll carry the kid to the Oldstones and bury Gareth deeper in the forest." Pate looked at his men to see what they thought about his plan. They all nodded, and Chett was openly smiling while he dropped his club and took the black sword. Pate would solve that later, maybe slit his throat when he slept, and keep the sword for himself. He couldn't go around with a rusty hatchet while one of his men held such a fine sword.

The sun was setting when they arrived at the Oldstones. There was a fire already lit, and it seemed like old Will had managed to catch a buck and was skinning it. They were camping on the ruins near what must have been the gatehouse."Tie the boy to a tree. I don't want him running when he wakes." Ordered Pate.

Joss took the child and dropped him next to a tree with his back leaning on it. Tied him, and then went towards the fire. Looking more interested in the meat they were about to eat than in anything else. "What ya catch.?" Asked Will looking at the boy.

"Some lordling or sumthing." Pate replied following Will's gaze."He had no chance to tell." He added turning his eyes towards the deer.

"He'll tell when he wakes." Said Joss while he was adding some logs to the fire."Now keep goin Will, me stomach growling." He finished as he dropped the last log into the fire and sat by it.

Chett was alone sitting on the ruins of the wall holding his new black sword up and admiring it in the light of the twilight. Pate would let the lackwit enjoy it while he could. Soon enough it would be he who had a new nice sword. The sun finally set and the smell of burning meat filled the camp, the four of them gathered around the fire. It would be the first decent meal they had in days and the first fine meal they had in months. They had been living on berries and nuts and if old Will had not caught that deer Pate wasn't sure how long he could have continued eating the stuff. They ate and drank and laughed They had slain a wine merchant a few days before but they hadn't had a decent meal to accompany the wine with so that night they had a feast. Amidst the carousing they heard a grunt coming from the boy, he had awakened.

Pate and his lads moved towards the boy and sat in a semicircle around him, Chett brought one of the logs on the fire to shy away the shadows. The kid was tied too far away from the bonfire for the light to reach them."Do ya want a bite boy?" Will asked him while offering a piece of meat holding it in front of the kid's face but when he tried to take a bite Will took the meat away and bit it himself. They all laughed loudly at Will's antics.

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"First tell us who are ya. Are ya sum lordling or sumthing?" Spoke Chett, his face a stark contrast to the boy's. Chett was an ugly bastard with a big broad broken nose, pig eyes and a big mouth with wide meaty lips. The kid instead had a delicate nose, upturned eyes and a small mouth with full lips. The kid answered in a strange language. Pate and the lads looked at each other for a second and then laughed. Chett laughed so hard that he fell backwards grabbing his stomach."A lordling ye said, is but an essosi shite." The kid was looking at them with squinted eyes. Chett got up and hit the brat with the back of his hand."What ye lookin at?!" He spat at the now bloodied face of the kid.

"Let us play a cut each, I start!" Said Will with a gleeful smile."Lets! I go second." Agreed with him Chett before licking his lips. Joss nodded and went for a knife, Pate ripped the boy's clothes at the chest and so they played, a cut each. Each got a turn and when the round ended and none had won they played another, and then another. That way they spent their night. Playing at the light of the embers, drinking and jesting while the kid grunted and gasped but surprisingly didn't scream. Never had Pate seen a game in which ten rounds went by without a winner, and eventually, they bored and left the kid to his pain. Drinking what was left of the wine and passing out.

Pate dreamt of screams, of men screaming, but he didn't wake up. Eventually, Pate slowly opened his eyes, his head hurt badly and he could hear screaming like in his dream. It took him a few seconds to realize he was tied down and a few more to feel that the back of his head was wet. He looked up towards the screaming, and what he saw left him horrified.

The kid was untied and cutting Chett's tongue with the black sword. Chett was screaming wordlessly and looking towards the sky, but Pate was sure he could see nothing for where once his stupid pig eyes were, now there was nothing but too bloodied holes. Pate looked away but then he saw Will. He wasn't tied like Pate and Chett, he was grovelling away, coughing. Pate looked at him more carefully, he could see that he also had no eyes, he had no ears, he probably had no tongue but most disturbingly was the fact that he had no hands or feet, and was leaving a trail of blood that started on a tree. Where he was most likely tied down moments ago.

If anything, Pate was a cautious man, so he had a bone knife on his right boot and most importantly, the kid didn't seem like he had noticed that he was awake. He moved his right foot to his left hand slowly, trying not to make a sound. All that could be heard was a sword slashing meat. More specifically Chett's extremities, who at this moment was no longer screaming and had started to sob and cough. If he listened closely over Will's grovelling, Pate could hear the river winds whispering. Finally, he reached his bone knife, cut his bindings and quietly stood up. He walked slowly, with his knife ready towards the unaware brat.

When Pate was but a couple of steps away from the accursed child he stumbled on something. He managed not to fall and looked down to see what he had stumbled on. It was Joss with his throat slit and with the moon reflecting on his wide-opened eyes, his face contorted in fear. Then he heard his voice speaking in his strange language. Pate looked up and saw the child looking at him. The moonlight didn't reflect on his raven hair or his deep black eyes. It did reflect, however, on the fresh blood itself that covered his chest, his hands and his bloodied black sword. It also reflected on his wicked white smile.

Pate didn't hesitate, he dropped the knife and ran away. His lads were all dead, and that demon disguised as a child would want to do to him what it had done to Chett and Will. So Pate ran, he ran until the sun came out and then ran some more until the sun was high in the sky. He didn't even think about where he was running. Pate just ran, ran through tall grass and ran through thick forests until he found himself in Hag's Mire.

The guards stopped him and asked him what he was doing, and he told them everything. From what he had done to the wine merchant to kidnapping the demon child, and he warned them about the demon that now dwelled in the Oldstones. Needless to say, they ignored him. They brought him to Lord Nayland, and they asked but one question."The Wall or the hangman?" And so, Pate soon found himself on his way to The Wall. They hadn't heeded his warning, but it didn't matter as long as he was far away. Hopefully, The Nightswatch would be far enough that he would never have to see that black-eyed demon again.