"That is the Fist of the First Men," Mance Rayder said, pointing ahead.
After passing through a forest, the group arrived on a hill, from where they could see a huge mountain peak rising on the horizon.
From a distance, the mountain peak appeared somewhat abruptly; on a flat expanse of land, a fist-shaped hill suddenly emerged, as if a giant underground was trying to push its fist out of the ground.
Knowing that Lord Linde had no intention of interfering with the Night's Watch's affairs, the Lost Country Knights, feeling safe, relaxed considerably, and their improved mood led to a much faster pace. The journey that would have originally taken two days was completed in just a day and a half, and by noon, they had already reached the area where the Fist of the First Men could be seen.
"My Lord, is what you said true? Is the winter horn really on the Fist of the First Men?" Mance Rayder continued to lead the team towards the Fist of the First Men, and once again asked Lord Linde, who was beside him.
Lord Linde replied in a deep voice, "If nothing unexpected happened, it should be at the index finger corner of the Fist of the First Men."
"Nothing unexpected happened?" Mance Rayder looked at Lord Linde in confusion.
Lord Linde frowned and said, "The book that records the winter horn comes from a Ranger's patrol diary. It's just that, whether due to the recorder or the content of the Ranger's diary itself, there are many contradictory places in this section about the winter horn. I found that Ranger's diary in Black Castle, but many parts of that diary were worm-eaten, and it was impossible to tell what the original record contained."
Mance Rayder suggested, "Could you tell us about the content? Perhaps we can offer you some useful guesses."
Lord Linde thought about it and felt that two heads were better than one, so he recounted the content about Ranger Rosha and the winter horn to everyone, and also expressed his doubts.
Someone casually guessed, "What if this Rosha actually died, but then he was resurrected, only to become a wight…"
The Lost Country Knight next to him rolled his eyes at his companion and said, "Resurrected as a wight, and then the wight wrote a diary? How smart do you have to be to come up with that answer?"
The others also mocked their companion who had offered such a whimsical idea.
Although this conjecture was somewhat absurd, it was not entirely impossible, at least in the Lost Country Knight's memory, there were cases where corpses still retained their intelligence from before death.
Lord Linde said in a deep voice, "No matter what, we will know the truth once we reach the Fist of the First Men. And even if the story has contradictions, what does it matter? As long as the winter horn in the story is truly buried there, that's all that matters. The truth or falsehood of the story is irrelevant."
Everyone agreed, so they quickened their pace. They were also eager to see what the mythical artifact, capable of awakening giants from the earth and destroying the Wall, truly looked like.
Although they had seen the Fist of the First Men in the distance at noon, it was nearly evening when they finally reached the peak of the Fist of the First Men.
At the summit of the mountain, a circle of man-made walls formed a ring-fort shape. Within the Walls, there were remnants of several buildings and some burial mounds. Besides these, there was only a pile of strangely shaped rubble.
The ring-fort before them, though simple, was an ancient relic. According to records, it was built by the First Men during the Dawn Age, dating back five or six thousand years.
The group entered the ring-fort. The Rangers unloaded the firewood they had gathered along the way from their horses, then piled up various stones and built them together with the Walls of the surrounding ruins to form a windbreak, lit a bonfire, and set up camp.
Lord Linde, guided by Mance Rayder, went to the place called the index finger corner. Indeed, there were burial mounds here, and not just one, but a whole area of them.
"So many burial mounds? Which one holds the winter horn?" Mance Rayder couldn't help but ask, looking at the burial mounds before him.
"If we clear them one by one, it might take all night," a Lost Country Knight said.
"No need to clear them one by one." After Lord Linde arrived at the summit, he had already used his extended vision to survey the surroundings. In his eyes, only one of these burial mounds was emitting an extremely faint magical power.
He walked alone to a place on the edge of the mountain, near a cliff, moved a large stone, and saw the buried mound beneath it.
He quickly cleared away the gravel on top, and soon saw the corner of a black cloak.
Mance Rayder and his men also came over to help with the clearing, and the burial mound was quickly cleared.
Inside this burial mound were about eight corpses of Night's Watch members. Their weapons were also placed here, and perhaps due to the surrounding environment, the weapons were still relatively intact.
Additionally, next to these bodies were arrowheads and spearheads made entirely of obsidian, as well as a few obsidian daggers.
Lord Linde reminded them, "You should collect all these obsidian arrowheads and daggers. These can be used to harm or kill Others. They are what you will use to save your lives Beyond the Wall in the future."
Hearing Lord Linde's words, Mance Rayder and the others immediately squatted down and picked up every piece of obsidian they saw on the ground.
"What about wights?" someone asked while picking up obsidian.
Lord Linde explained, "There are two methods: one is to burn them with fire, and the other is to use other powers to dispel the Others' magic within their bodies."
As he spoke, he walked to the only Night's Watch skeleton in his line of sight that was emitting faint magical power, knelt down, and lifted its cloak. He then saw a bronze horn placed beneath the cloak, which was the source of the magical power in his eyes.
Mance Rayder also saw Lord Linde pick up a not-so-large bronze horn from a skeleton. He couldn't help but stop what he was doing, walked over to Lord Linde, and asked in an extremely excited tone, "Is this the winter horn?"
"Perhaps?" Lord Linde did not give a definitive answer.
What was certain now was that this horn was broken. A very obvious crack extended from the top of the horn all the way to the end, completely cutting the mysterious runes on the bronze surface into two sections. If one looked closely, this crack seemed to have been cut by an extremely sharp sword.
Although it had been damaged for such a long time, the magic contained within this horn was still astonishing, indicating how powerful it must have been in its intact state.
Furthermore, Lord Linde also discovered that the horn actually had two layers. Besides the outer bronze shell covered with mysterious runes, the inner layer of the horn was inlaid with circles of polished black stones.
At first, Lord Linde thought it was obsidian, but upon closer inspection, he found that these black stones were very similar to the foundation material Lord Linde had seen in the Black Stone Fortress at the bottom of Hightower in Oldtown, appearing to be the same kind of stone.
One was the island foundation at the southernmost tip of Westeros, and the other was a legendary artifact at the northernmost tip of Westeros. These two objects were connected by a special black stone, which not only raised more questions in one's mind but also created an irresistible desire to explore further.
Compared to Lord Linde's concern for the secrets contained within the winter horn, Mance Rayder was more concerned about the horn's function. After hearing Lord Linde's uncertain answer, he couldn't help but press, "Why 'perhaps'?"
Lord Linde turned to look at Mance Rayder and said, "This horn is too small, much smaller than I expected. What kind of reaction do you think the Wall would have if such a horn were blown towards it?"
Hearing Lord Linde's words, Mance Rayder's mind couldn't help but conjure related images, which made him understand why Lord Linde would say he wasn't sure. It was simply because the disparity between the two was too great. No matter how small the winter horn was, it should be as large as a giant, after all, it was meant to awaken earth giants to push down the Wall. This horn was simply too small.
Lord Linde did not continue to study the winter horn. He walked over to his horse, took out a pre-prepared box from his saddlebag, placed the horn inside, and then put it back into the saddlebag, next to the Dragon Egg.
At this moment, he suddenly noticed that the Dragon Egg, which had not been cared for in two days, seemed to have undergone some changes. So he took the Dragon Egg out of the saddlebag and placed it by the fire to examine it carefully.
He saw that on the surface of the originally petrified shell, there was an additional layer of patterns that looked like blood vessels, connecting all the scales on the Dragon Egg's surface. Furthermore, the magic contained within the Dragon Egg not only became stronger but also formed magical vibrations similar to a heartbeat.
"Is this a Dragon Egg?" Everyone exclaimed when they saw what Lord Linde had taken out.
Mance Rayder, who was tidying up the obsidian arrowheads, also looked over at the sound. He then handed over the task of tidying the arrowheads to his subordinates and walked over, looking at the Dragon Egg in Lord Linde's hand in surprise, saying, "The song of the Godsworn, ghosts, and Dragon Eggs, it's all true? You really got a Dragon Egg from the ghosts of Summerhall?"
"Yes." Lord Linde did not deny it. He then gestured for everyone not to disturb him, called Glory to his side, and then began the routine care of the Dragon Egg using the Dragon Rune.
Unlike previous care processes where there was no reaction, this time, as his Dragon Rune power was infused, the blood vessel-like patterns on the Dragon Egg's surface began to glow with faint red light. And each time the red light flashed, the scales on the Dragon Egg's surface would also glow with red mixed with silver-blue light.
Watching the strange sight before them, everyone around momentarily forgot what they were doing and quietly watched Lord Linde and the Dragon Egg in his hand.
This care did not last too long. Soon, Lord Linde felt that the Dragon Egg's tolerance for Dragon Rune power had reached its limit, so he stopped.
The Dragon Egg returned to its petrified state as before, but if one looked closely, one could still see the blood vessel-like patterns faintly flickering like a heart.
When Lord Linde was in contact with the Dragon Egg through the Dragon Rune, he clearly felt that the Dragon Egg had become very different from his last care. He speculated that the cause of all these changes might be the Wall. Just as he passed through the Wall and the Dragon Rune was affected, the Dragon Egg was also affected. And from the current situation, this influence might be benign, at least for now.
"Lord Linde, are you trying to hatch a dragon?" Someone asked, unable to resist, when the strange phenomenon on the Dragon Egg disappeared.
"Not yet, not yet," Lord Linde did not directly answer his question, but gave a completely puzzling reply.
Afterward, Lord Linde got up, put the Dragon Egg back into his backpack, took some animals that Glory had hunted on the way from his horse's back, and threw them to Mance Rayder and his men for them to process.
Someone took the prey, and while taking out a small knife to process it, said, "If only we had some wine. Kraste's cellar must have hidden wine. He drank all night that night and didn't finish it. We should have searched it when we left."
"Shut up! We still had guest rights with Kraste's family back then; if you did that, you would be scorned by the Old Gods," said a Lost Country Knight, who was probably a follower of the Old Gods.
That person retorted, "Kraste is dead, so the guest rights are canceled."
"But Kraste's wife is still alive."
Someone interrupted the two arguing, saying, "What do you think will happen when Benjen Stark brings the wight Kraste back to Black Castle?"
"Some of them will definitely wet themselves."
"Just like you. I slept next to you yesterday and smelled urine."
"Shut up, you smelled urine because you were sleeping next to the sheepfold, and a fat sheep's butt was facing you."
Amidst the clamor of these Lost Country Knights, they quickly processed the prey, rubbed it with coarse salt, and placed it over the fire to roast. Soon, the sizzling sound of oil could be heard, and the aroma of meat began to spread.
"Where are you planning to go next?" Lord Linde asked casually, flipping the food roasting in front of him.
Mance Rayder thought for a moment and said, "Gerry, the leader of the Tree People, and I have an agreement. He will bring people to meet me, and then we might go to the Thenn area in the North."
"Will he trust the Night's Watch?" Lord Linde asked.
"He will, because I have already broken my oath in front of him," Mance Rayder responded simply, without specifying what oath he had broken. Then he pointed to the other Lost Country Night's Watch members and said, "They have all broken their oaths too, and we are all bastards. One of our parents is always Night's Watch, and one is Free Folk. In the Night's Watch, the status of bastards is even lower than that of robbers, murderers, and rapists. They are constantly wary of us."
Lord Linde said in a deep voice, "Your current actions only confirm their thoughts: bastards cannot be trusted."
Mance Rayder fell silent and did not respond.
Lord Linde did not press further. Instead, he said to Mance Rayder, "After Benjen brings the wight to King's Landing, it will surely attract the attention of the King and the great lords. The overall strength of the Night's Watch will definitely increase as a result. At that time, the Night's Watch's patrol range is very likely to expand to the Fist of the First Men. The conflicts between the Savage Tribes and the Night's Watch will probably increase. Coupled with the appearance of the Others, life for the Savage Tribes Beyond the Wall will likely become increasingly difficult. I hope you won't regret your decision to break your oath then, future King Beyond the Wall."
"King Beyond the Wall?" Mance Rayder was stunned for a moment, then laughed, "Is that a prophecy?"
The people around him also started to jeer, but Lord Linde did not answer them.
"Movement! There's movement down the mountain!" At this moment, the person responsible for standing guard on the cliff suddenly shouted loudly.
Everyone immediately ran over at the sound and looked down the mountain.
However, due to the wind and snow, they couldn't see the situation below very clearly, only vaguely seeing many people fleeing, and even dozens of giants among them.
Compared to the others, Lord Linde saw more clearly. He saw that the scene below the mountain was the Others hunting the Free Folk.
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 40 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
[patreon.com/TripleCrown07]
Thank you so much for your support!!!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"