Year 108 A.C.
POV: Denovan
Six hours later...
Everyone was packing things up to leave. The boats we had would not be enough to take everyone at once, so the vast majority was preparing to march on foot along the coast. I would go with them by land, while Heindall would accompany the boats along with some of my men to ensure safety at sea.
Men and women walked quickly through the settlement. This was a very large clan, one of the largest I have ever seen. It must have had around 1,200 people. There were many.
With the additional two hundred of my own troop helping to pack and catalog the supplies, the camp had become a bustling, but productive, chaos.
I took the moment to send my various birds in the direction of the other clans that had already surrendered. They would all easily recognize a black bird with golden eyes, especially one that landed in front of their leaders and stared at them with human intelligence.
Soon, all the clans of the North would leave towards Hardhome.
Thinking about it... maybe I should give a better name to our new capital. "Hardhome" does not sound impactful or grandiose at all.
The only bird that was still with me was the giant Heindall. I wanted him to accompany the boats to make sure everything would go smoothly at sea.
Torghen, the former leader of the Frozen Shore clan, was standing next to me, watching his people take down the tents. I turned to him.
"How many boats do you have? And wagons?"
"Boats we have about twelve... and we have one that is a little bigger, in the style of a southern longship, which we looted a few years ago. You can go deeper into the high seas with it," Torghen replied, before looking at his own fingers, thoughtfully. "Wagons... I never bothered to count them, chief."
The word "chief" still seemed a little forced coming out of his mouth, loaded with recent submission, but I knew that in a while there would be sincerity in it, right after he saw the changes I would bring.
"Sigh..."
"Take a shot," I said, gesturing with my hand for him to estimate a number.
Torghen blinked, seeming genuinely confused. "Take a shot... at who?"
I stared at him for a second before remembering that this one had not yet gotten used to slang and expressions from my old world.
"Forget it. Since you don't know, let's gather them and count them later..." I shook my head. "But, even so, looking it over, I believe they won't be enough."
"Then, call your strongest men. Start cutting some medium trees and let's improvise some more wagons and cargo sleds," I ordered. "I will call my men to help you. We have some wagons that we made ourselves in the Valley of the Thenns, but most of them are already stuffed with things."
I turned to find my archer. "Korr! Call some of ours and instruct the novices to make the wagons. We leave in two days. We have waited too long."
"Yes, chief!" he replied, beating his chest.
The shy and scared archer from five years ago was nonexistent. Now, he was an unrecognizable veteran, with a commander's posture and runes of power engraved on his skin. We were all much better than before... I think.
Both Korr and Torghen rushed off to do what I asked, and I found myself alone near the ice cliffs.
I walked towards the coast. The wind hit my face, and as I looked at that freezing and dark sea, the golden threads seemed to give a slight and constant tremble in the back of my mind.
"It's almost time...", I murmured, my golden eyes fixed on the infinite horizon.
Three days later...
It had been a few hours since we arrived at Hardhome.
While the majority of the people made the crossing on foot, which took days, I ended up changing my mind at the last minute and made the last crossing by boat along with the rearguard. We reached the bay in less than three hours sailing. As soon as we anchored, we decided to help unload the provisions, with the men taking turns in the heavy transport.
Now, we were unpacking things and organizing the basic logistics. The dark legends that the Free Folk told about the ruins of Hardhome were all lies... the place is not gloomy, it doesn't smell like sulfur, and there is no sound of ghosts screaming in the wind. It is just an unpopulated bay, with remains of rotten wood covered in snow and a lot of space.
We had almost 1,500 people working at the same time, and a lot to do. The construction of the shelters began quickly. We would erect fast tents and cabins first to withstand the cold, and only then would we start building walls with solid wood and, perhaps, stone — that is if we found enough quarries in the region, which I doubt, there was a high mountain nearby, but we didn't have tools for quick extraction from them.
But things would work out. After all, at least we had ships now. The rest would just take time and sweat.
However, I wasn't going to get my hands dirty with the cabins right now. I was excited about building my city, yes, but that wasn't my immediate focus. I went to the beach and stopped in front of the largest vessel the Frozen Shore possessed.
It fit around forty men. It was very similar to an ironborn longship, but with fewer details and of worse quality. It already looked quite worn by time, by the ice and by the incursions, but it would certainly serve. It even had a mast with a heavy sail.
I approached a warrior who was busy unloading the last crates from the longship and called him.
"You. Call the same men who came rowing with you. We are going to take a short trip..."
"Ch-chief...", the wildling got a scare, almost dropping the crate of furs, but replied quickly, bowing his head. "I will call them..."
The former member of the Frozen Shore walked over to where the other rowers were sitting. They all looked exhausted, their arms heavy with fatigue, and their contained irritation was visible when they learned that I was giving new orders right when the unloading had finished.
Seeing the displeasure and fatigue on their faces as they approached the boat, I decided to give an incentive.
"You are going to see the most interesting thing you have ever seen in your lives," I said, crossing my arms. "If you don't want to go, you are free to stay and I can call others. You were my first option only because we already shared the boat on the way here and you know the oars."
The men hesitated a bit, exchanging suspicious glances, before one of them mustered the courage to speak.
"I'll go, chief... but I don't like lies and false promises... even with you being the chief," said the man, his voice cracking slightly at the last part, fearing he had insulted me.
"Then let's go! It will be quick. To the oars!" I said, turning and jumping inside the vessel.
I felt some heavy sighs behind me, but when I looked sideways, everyone was getting into the boat and taking their positions.
When I was finishing settling near the bow, Sigrid's sharp voice sounded from the beach.
"Didn't the things just arrive? Why are you leaving again?!" she asked genuinely curious.
I finished securing my axe and replied loudly, without facing her:
"Sig, I leave everyone here under your command. If you need help organizing the camp, call Korr and Melika, they should be able to handle it. And if the men from the Frozen Shore start making a mess or questioning orders, just ask Orion, Kali and Fenrir to give them a scare."
"Denovannn...", she shouted, stomping hard on the freezing sand. "What are you up to this time?"
"I am going to find something I have been waiting for for many years, Sig. Just wait patiently. In a few hours I will return with something incredible."
"Tsk...", Sigrid grumbled, turning her back and walking away from the water, cursing in the Old Tongue, her mother tongue.
I straightened up in the boat quickly, before she started shouting even more and attracted the attention of the whole camp.
"Take care of things for the next few hours!" I bellowed back, in a tone that left no room for discussion.
Seeing my sister's irritation, an amused smile appeared on my face. But it disappeared quickly when I looked at the men in the boat. I sat on the first bench and picked up one of the heavy oars.
"ROW!"
We pulled the oars together. The boat jolted and started to move.
"Again!"
I pulled my oar with force. The boat took a crooked yaw to the side opposite to the one I was rowing. My strength, amplified by my size and the runes, was disproportionate to that of the men on the other side.
"Stop. Two men leave this side of mine and go to the other," I ordered. "The way it is, we will never leave the spot."
One of the men came from the back of the longship and another right behind me, visibly intimidated, and went to the other side, balancing the weight and the traction.
The time I rowed was not with them, but with another group; with them I had only helped in the loading and unloading.
The strong voice of one of the rowers sounded after the boat adjusted itself:
"ROW!"
I pulled the oar again. I used much less force this time so as not to unbalance the vessel, and now the boat glided aligned and perfectly straight, cutting the dark waters. The longship gained speed and, in the blink of an eye, we left the bay of Hardhome and were in the open sea.
"Where are we going, chief?" asked one of the crew members, panting.
"We are going southwest," I said, pointing the direction on the grey horizon with my head.
"Are we going to the Wall?"
"Not yet. But it is near there."
We continued rowing out to sea for almost two hours...
Suddenly, I felt the trembling of the golden threads in the bottom of my soul. They felt like a caged little bird flapping its wings frantically, trying to escape.
"Stop! WE WILL WAIT HERE!" I shouted.
"Here? Why here? We are in the middle of nowhere!" protested one of the men, letting go of his oars.
I looked around and couldn't judge him for saying that. We were very far from the coast and there was no island or anything nearby. The sea was an absolute void.
I walked to the bow and stood looking into the deep sea. The dark, freezing water was quite intimidating, but much more frightening was knowing that a giant Naga was down there, swimming in the depths.
I stood looking motionless and in a trance at the black waters for almost five minutes, until the voice of one of the men interrupted the tense silence.
"Until when are we going to wait here?"
"Just wait... it is here. Stay in silence or I'll rip your heads off," I said, irritated for being taken out of focus.
I kept looking at the bottom of the sea. The boat rocked incessantly, and the force of the wind dragged us slowly, but that didn't worry me.
The golden threads inside me trembled like never before. They trembled like a hand holding a high-induction magnet near a metal plate. A giant, feral smile crossed my face. My eyes glowed, almost as if they had their own light.
The world around me, the sound of the wind and the crashing of the waves seemed to get slower and slower, until time practically froze.
Then I felt it. I felt that I was being watched.
My eyes pierced the water and saw other eyes staring at me from the depths. They were blue eyes that shone like crystalline ice. Gradually, an incredible serpentine creature began to emerge from the sea.
She was large. Incredibly larger in person than in my dreams. A monster in its own right. Her horns, similar to those of a massive stag, rose to the sky looking like a crown of bones. Her blue-green scales shimmered slightly under the faint light.
I did not initiate the magic consciously, but the golden threads of my soul — not one or two, but all of them — exploded from my chest with all their ferocity and strength. They flew towards the Naga, enveloping her. The threads came out infinitely, covering the serpent almost completely. She was gleaming in gold, looking like a statue woven from threads of light. Even so, her icy eyes still stared at me.
Then, with my mental consent, the threads penetrated her mind and initiated the contact, they sank in, with less resistance than any other of my bonds had, it felt right, it felt like both I and she, wanted that.
The sensation was the most insane thing I have ever experienced. I felt pain. I felt a melted heat and a scorching cold tearing through all parts of my body simultaneously. My brain seemed to freeze, thaw and start burning, repeating the cycle in a torturous loop. But it wasn't just pain, I felt my senses expand, the sounds, the light in my eyes, the wind and the armor on my skin. I felt hysterical comfort, which I didn't know where it came from, I felt the runes burn cold on my skin. I felt everything I could feel...
POV: Third Person
All of this happened in a span of just five seconds, since the gigantic serpent broke the surface of the water.
In the longship, the twenty free folk were paralyzed, frozen in terror, looking motionlessly at the abyssal creature that stared at the boat with total focus. The seconds began to pass. Then, to the horror of the observing men, their leader — the Black Beast, the Beast King —, fell to his knees on the deck. Bright red blood began to flow from his eyes and ears.
But that was not the strangest and darkest thing of that day.
The dragon-serpent hissed, emitting a deafening sound that was a mixture of a tiger's roar with the shrill hiss of a viper.
Shaking its horned head and showing its giant fangs sharp as swords, the creature writhed. The serpent's eyes began to change color, lightening gradually, going from the supernatural ice-blue to a brilliant, liquid gold.
When the eyes became completely that color, the serpent stopped screaming. Panting, the beast began to climb onto the boat. The wood of the longship creaked and groaned under the colossal weight; the ship shook violently and seemed to want to tip over to the left.
The wildlings drew their blades instinctively, but no one had the courage to attack. Everyone stared in a funereal silence at the sinister creature reared up before them.
The boat started to tip too much, the edge almost dipping into the dark water, until Denovan's voice sounded on the deck, hoarse and absurdly exhausted:
"Follow us... through the water."
His eyes were closed, and the blood still flowed down his face, staining his armor.
The serpent looked at the armed men and, then, lowered its crowned head to the small human kneeling before it. The Beast King did not look any better than any other man before that mystical beast.
But to the astonishment of the men, the creature obeyed the command, the Naga retreated quickly from the boat, sliding its scales over the wood and diving back into the rough sea without making a sound.
Everything fell into absolute silence on the boat for long seconds, until the trembling voice of one of the wildlings cut the air:
"By the Old Gods... what was that, chief? Did you... did you command that thing?"
With his last ounces of strength, Denovan stood up slowly, leaning his back and arms on the inner edge of the boat.
"Shut up... my head is splitting...", he growled, his voice cracking. Then, he collapsed, sitting heavily at the bottom of the boat and grumbled: "Let's go back... call Melika... when we arrive..."
His voice kept losing strength until it disappeared. Denovan's head slumped to the side.
The wildlings then dashed forward, all crowding near the fallen leader.
"Hey! Hey, chief!"
"Fuck... he passed out!"
"To the oars! Let's go back quickly... before that thing decides to come back to eat us!"
In the midst of the panic and the rush on the deck, the free folk grabbed the oars. They rowed with every grain of strength they had in their muscles, pushing the longship at maximum speed back to the coast of Hardhome.
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