Beyond the borders, the land is bitterly cold, with low temperatures and short daylight hours. It sounds like the Arctic Circle—barren and covered in snow and ice.But that's not entirely true. The land beyond the Wall is more akin to Canada in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire—similar in both size and geographical features.
North of the Wall is like the northern segment of the Rocky Mountains in Canadian forests.
Yes, the people of this world call it the "Ghostshadow Forest." It begins 800 meters north of the Wall and stretches over a thousand kilometers further. Of course, due to the short daylight hours, the further north you go, the sparser the forest becomes—far less dense than the woods near the Wall.
It's too dense.
Under the full moon, the land beyond the Wall seems cloaked in a thin, silvery-gray veil. You can see the people and objects around you even without a torch.But the moment you step into the woods, endless darkness envelops you.
Then, a chilling cold mixed with the damp, decaying scent of fallen leaves rolls over like a wave, submerging everything. Looking down, even faint specks of moonlight are hard to find on the ground.
The forest is mostly made up of evergreen trees—tall and upright soldier pines, straight and towering sentinel trees, and dark green, almost black ironwoods with branches so densely interwoven that they form a near-solid canopy.
Forget moonlight getting through; even the air feels thick and stifling to the death squad members trudging through.
"Hey, another giant corpse," Ygritte called out, agile as a monkey as she climbed over a slick rock and crossed a dark tree trunk lying in a bubbling stream. She came to stand beside a furry giant's body.
"A female giant. Soso. I know her," Ygritte's voice carried a thick nasal tone, almost breaking into tears. "Two years ago, my horse slipped in a canyon and I broke my leg. It was Soso who carried me back."
Dany "floated" ghost-like to the red-haired woman's side and examined the gray-furred giant's wounds closely. "A sword wound to the left waist—not fatal, but she bled out because it wasn't treated in time."
Jon led his horse across the stream and gently advised, "Ygritte, don't be so reckless. What if it's turned into a wight? If you rush in and it slaps you to death, that would be a stupid way to go."
"I don't have dragons, but when it comes to courage, I won't lose to her," the red-haired woman said, pointing at Dany.
Barristan's mouth twitched. You're comparing yourself to the wrong person.Her Majesty the Queen isn't even here.
Yes, Daenerys was patrolling the skies on dragonback. The one on the ground "leading from the front" was merely a shadow—a spiritual projection.
"This should be the last giant corpse, and it's the smallest. It can serve as bait," Dany said.
They had already ventured ten kilometers into the forest and found seven giant corpses along the way. Most had died from blood loss—never treated in time. It was a pitiful way to go.
Drogon, his soul wound now healed, stayed with Ghost and the death squad, hovering 300 meters above the forest. Whenever they found a giant corpse—or whenever Dany called or another team rang a gong—Drogon would swoop down to carry it away.
Besides the giants, they also encountered many wildling camps—small ones, just a single tribe of dozens or maybe a hundred people.
After the morning's battle and Mance's capture, the once-united hundreds of thousands of wildlings had scattered again.
When encountering these camps, the death squads would send wildling members to negotiate, explaining their mission to capture White Walkers—assuring the wildlings that the Night's Watch wasn't hunting them down or disturbing their small camps.
In most cases, there was no conflict—largely because the dragons would scream through the sky above the camp beforehand, roaring as they passed.
Yes, the 20 death squads moved in a diamond formation through the forest, covering an area of less than two square kilometers. For two dragons, patrolling that area was effortless.
Thanks to the dragons sweeping overhead every three minutes, the death squads managed to maintain high morale despite being in such a dark and dangerous forest.
"Skree—skree—!" When Dany decided on the bait location, Drogon immediately let out two sharp dragon cries.
"Two cries. That means the vanguard team has stopped. We should find a place to set the trap as well."
Upon hearing the call, the teams stopped and began preparing traps.
In fact, they had come across many wildling corpses along the way—mostly within the first five kilometers from the forest edge. Just the ones seen by the death squads numbered nearly a thousand.
It's easy to guess there are many more corpses deeper in the woods that remain undiscovered.
However, the death squads had limited iron chains and couldn't bind every corpse. They had to press forward and try to keep the White Walkers beyond the five-kilometer boundary.
Yes, the reason Dany had gone ten kilometers deep into the Ghostshadow Forest was precisely to push the White Walkers back beyond the 8–10 kilometer range.
Simply put, if Dany encountered a White Walker ten kilometers in, and killed, captured, or drove it off, then the corpses behind her in the forest would remain safe.
The diamond formation of the death squads served as a shield, "protecting" thousands of wildling corpses until dawn.
Of course, that's the perfect outcome—but stories don't always follow the script.
"Cut off its hands and left foot," Dany said to Barristan.
"Why? Soso's already pitiful enough, dying and now used as bait—and you want to mutilate her corpse too?" Ygritte shouted from up in the tree.
Dany looked up. The branches obscured Ygritte's small figure, making her easy to overlook.
But White Walkers don't rely on eyesight to find their prey—they can sense the presence of living beings.
Dany sneered, "If it comes back to life fully intact, with a giant's strength, the pitiful one will be you."
"Uh…" Ygritte paused, then said, "The branches are blocking my view—I can't see the wight clearly below. Since I can't hide anyway, might as well chop off the nearby branches and let the moonlight in."
Ten meters away, Jon, crouched by a stump tying ropes, turned and advised, "Maybe you've climbed high enough that the White Walkers won't catch your living scent. The branches might help keep you safe. Besides, you've got the bells—they'll alert you when a White Walker approaches."
Well, Jon had set up a perimeter nearby with a rope strung in a circle, and small bells hung from it. No matter how powerful the White Walkers were, they couldn't fly, right?To reach the corpses and reanimate them, they'd have to ring the bells.
But no one knew the casting range of a White Walker's magic. If they could resurrect corpses from hundreds of meters away, then all their efforts tonight would be in vain.
To prevent that, Dany assigned three "corpse watchers" to each team.
This was the task currently being handled by Ygritte and Ser Aliser. They had to find a tall, straight sentinel tree, climb to the treetop, and wrap oil-soaked cloth around the top branch. If things got dire, they'd ignite it—since White Walkers feared fire.
Normally, they couldn't just light the treetop; it might scare the White Walkers away. After all, the objective of this mission was to capture one.
Next, they would find a stable branch below the oil-soaked cloth, tie themselves securely with hemp rope around the waist to avoid falling asleep and dropping off.
Of course, they also had to prepare a fur cloak for warmth and a flask of strong liquor to stay warm.
The corpse watchers would keep their eyes fixed on every blade of grass and tree in the area. If a White Walker appeared, they were to strike the gong immediately, summoning the dragon and the hunting party.
The three corpse watchers were spaced 30 to 50 meters apart, forming a triangle around the pile of corpses, whose ankles had been bound.
As for whether the sound of the gong would scare the White Walkers away—If a White Walker could be frightened off by a mere gong, would humans even need to fear them?
Of course, if a White Walker were intelligent enough to deduce from the gong that it was an ambush, it might indeed retreat.
But Dany and the others knew nothing about the intelligence level of the White Walkers. Even if the gong scared them off, it would at least give them a clue about how smart they were.
In addition to the three corpse watchers, there was also one—well, Dany called them the "suicider."
Because they couldn't determine the White Walkers' intelligence, they also couldn't be sure whether the gong would scare them off. Dany had a plan for that, too.
If the White Walker wasn't very intelligent and didn't flee at the sound of the gong, great. But if it was smart enough to suspect a trap and tried to escape, that's when the suicider stepped in.
Any intelligent creature has pride. If a human climbed down from a tree, stood on the ground, held up a steel sword, and shouted a challenge—"Hey, you bastard! Got the guts for a one-on-one? Come at me and I'll slice off your cold little ice stick!"
Well, Dany was very curious to see how a White Walker that was planning to retreat would react.
And Jon happened to be the suicider.
It wasn't that Dany was trying to get her nephew killed—it's just that he happened to wield a Valyrian steel sword!
Besides the corpse watchers and suicider, each five-person team also included a mobile cavalry unit.
Didn't each team still have one horse?
Once they'd unloaded chains, oil pipes, bear traps, hunting nets, ropes, liquor, and sausages, the pack horse became a warhorse, and mounting it turned you into a knight.
The forest floor was littered with rocks, roots, and puddles, and with poor night visibility, it would be easy for a horse to stumble. Ordinary people had no chance of riding through the Ghostwood.
The dense forest was difficult to navigate even in broad daylight.
But the Night's Watch rangers weren't ordinary people.
A ranger team of three men and three horses could patrol the vast Ghostwood for months on end.
During that time, they had to rely on survival skills that would put even Bear Grylls to shame—finding food and water on their own, while fending off wild beasts and wildlings.
Riding horses through the forest at night without getting lost, falling, or getting hit by wildling arrows was just a basic skill.
Without those skills, a man wouldn't survive his first patrol.
That's why the rangers were the strongest and most honorable profession within the Night's Watch.
When Jon had first arrived at the Wall, he had been disappointed and frustrated for a long time after not being assigned to the rangers—until Sam explained the importance of the Lord Commander's steward, the one next in line to be Commander of the Night's Watch.
But that's straying off-topic.
The rangers would gather on horseback at the center of the diamond formation—twenty riders forming four cavalry squads of five each, guarding the four corners of the diamond.
Of course, Dany wasn't actually planning to let the suicider die without any backup.
If a White Walker appeared at any of the hunting points, a corresponding cavalry team would rush over to assist.
Until the rangers arrived at the scene, Dany wouldn't let her dragon land in the forest to breathe fire. What if a White Walker was hiding nearby and hurled a spear at her dragon? She'd be devastated!
Naturally, Dany also had a trump card—if the situation became critical, she would send the White Knight.
The White Knight was a master of combat, clad in Valyrian steel armor and wielding an iron sword. He could definitely hold off a White Walker alone.
(End of Chapter)
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