WILOW-Ch.324: A... Normal Baby and the Northern Army
Lands Beyond the Wall
POV of Domeric Bolton
Their cheering came to an abrupt end when a crying baby's voice came from behind Domeric.
A chill went down his back as he remembered all the horror movies in which he heard the crying of a baby, and he slowly turned back to look at the bundle which the White Walker had carried with him.
He frowned at it.
Ygritte moved forward to check on the bundle he had held of her arm and pulled her back.
"What?" she asked, confused.
"We don't know what it is." He said, "Everyone. Back away from the bundle."
They followed his orders without question, and he slowly moved toward the bundle and then removed the cloth covering it with his sword.
The crying became intense, and he saw the face of a… real baby in front of him.
But he was not fooled.
He took out his wand and cast a dozen charms on it to make sure that it was not an icy killer baby in human baby form.
The results told him that the baby was just that… a baby.
But… why the hell was the White Walker taking it with him?
Was there something special about the baby?
He cast a few more charms but found nothing special about the baby.
The baby had been crying this whole time, and Ygritte's maternal instinct finally forced her to act.
She pushed him to the side and picked the baby from the ground. "It's just a baby," she said.
He didn't stop her. It really was just an ordinary baby.
What he didn't understand was why White Walker was carrying a baby.
Did the White Walkers plan on sacrificing babies for some rituals?
Or maybe they knew of a way to turn a baby into a White Walker baby?
The questions kept coming to him, and he had no answers.
He turned to Kalmyr, the best tracker in his team, and asked, "Can you find where the baby came from?"
Kalmyr bent down and sniffed the baby a few times before he looked up and nodded at him.
"I can. Suppose a snowstorm doesn't come and wipe away the smell, then yes. It's doable."
Finding the White Walker took them half a month. And even that was thanks to the green dreams he had.
He doubted that he would be able to find another White Walker any time soon. And most of the Banners had already gathered at Winterfell.
If he didn't want to be late to the war, then he needed to hurry up.
This war was his only chance to build a reputation as a great battle commander among the people of the South. Otherwise, he might have to say goodbye to his dreams of creating an Empire. At least not as an Emperor that the people accepted.
But before that, he needed to investigate this baby.
The whole thing was far too fishy for him to let slide without any investigation.
---------------
Winterfell, Stark Lands
POV of Robb Stark
"This is taking too long." He said as he walked along the battlements of Winterfell and looked at the large number of tents gathered below that his eyes once again went to the most organized camp, the Bolton army, before he turned to look at Jon. "I'm worried about Sansa."
"I'm worried about her, too," Jon said and rubbed Snowstorm's and Snowric's neck. "But the North is the largest Kingdom in Westeros. And gathering levies and sending them North takes time."
"The Bolton army came here within a week." He said.
And wasn't that a fucking irony. The house with the largest army came before any other great house. He would say that the others should be ashamed, but he understood that gathering levies really did take a lot of time.
His father sent for his banners more than half a month ago, and a few houses have still not arrived.
At least many of the northern lords had heeded Lord Bolton's warnings and advice and had begun gathering their levies much earlier.
Otherwise, it would have taken much longer for many houses to arrive, and the North would most likely not have been able to assemble such a large army.
"The Bolton army is… different," Jon said, and he understood.
One look at the Bolton army, which had not stopped training even when they arrived, and anyone could tell that they were the real deal.
They were what a real army should look like.
"Fucking disrespectful is what they are," Theon said from behind. "Have you talked with that Bronn guy. The fucker didn't have any respect for his betters."
He nodded. He could see where Theon was coming from.
But he also knew that Bronn was a mercenary who had participated in dozens of campaigns in Essos, giving him more real-world war experience than even his own father.
Plus, they needed the Bolton men. So, there was that as well.
"You'd better not talk about Bronn like that, Theon. At least not in front of others. Bronn may be a former mercenary and foul-mouthed, but he's currently the general of the North's largest and most organized army." He said.
And, as he expected, Theon merely grumbled and turned his face away in response.
"At least we have the numbers," Jon said.
"That we have." He nodded, "But not as many as the Lannisters."
At that moment, he heard a loud screeching sound, and a large shadow passed above their heads.
It took a few moments for him to get his heartbeat under control.
The first time he had seen the Wyverns, he had almost pissed his pants in fear. Not to mention that people had mistaken them for Dragons.
The wyverns were not dragons. They couldn't breathe fire. They couldn't grow half as large as an adult dragon. And their scales could be penetrated with longbows.
But that didn't change the fact that the wyverns still put the fear of Old Gods in him.
"Still think that it's not enough," Theon said, and he rolled his eyes.
"It's hard to believe that Lord Bolton was able to import wyverns from Sothoryos." Jon said, "How much do you think he would have to pay for the capture of one of them?"
"100,000 gold dragons," Theon said.
They both looked at him incredulously, and he shrugged.
"Theon might be right." He said after thinking about it for a bit, "Sothoryos is a perilous place. The diseases alone could kill half the people who try to enter too deeply. And I am not even mentioning the danger brought by the Brindled Men, the Basilisks, the Giant Apes, and the Wyverns. Capturing one and then bringing it back all the way to Dreadfort alive might cost even more than 100,000 gold dragons."
Jon sighed, "Do you wonder what Arya is doing in Dreadfort right now?"
"Learning swordsmanship from a Braavosi man, riding a horse, sewing a new leather armor, or maybe archery practice." He said. Arya had made a habit of sending them a long letter almost every week, telling them about the new things she was learning at the Dreadfort.
Theon scoffed at his words but said nothing. Theon still looked down on women in general, but after seeing the kind of damage that Ygritte and Raksa could do… he had been more subdued about it.
"A campaign of 35,000 men. This might be the largest army that North had managed to gather in a long time." Jon said.
He agreed.
In the last war, North sent out only some 18,000 men, and in the one before that, 25,000. So, gathering 35,000 men was no small feat.
Especially when his father had told the houses on the Western shore not to come but to guard the shore.
If he called them as well, then that number would have increased to 40,000 men, which would equal the men that the Lannisters have recently unleashed in the Riverlands.
"We've still heard no news about Sansa." He said. He knew that wars took time, but still. He was impatient. And worried.
Everyone was worried because the Lannisters had captured Sansa, and their mother was with King Renly Baratheon while King Stannis was calling for their support.
The situation was very stressful for them.
"I think no news is good news in this case," Jon said
"I hope so." He said, looking at the Wyvern flying in the distance, and hoped they would start marching soon enough.
--------------
Author's Note: You folks can also read up to +65 chapters on my P@treon Page as an early access privilege.
You can also read "+3 Free Chapter" and see some pictures as aFree Member.
www.patreon.com/vanguard_v
P@treon Page Name: V For Vanguard
Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.325: Catelyn Stark's Letter
Ch.326: Craster's Keep
Ch.327: Judgment