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Robert is a badass who treats killing gods and slaying demons like just another Thursday. Did you know it was inspired by Thairon, the protagonist of my original story, Arrival : Ruptures, long before I began to write it? Comments, likes and reviews are appreciated. Here are the links for : AO3, Spacebattles, Royal Road and Webnovel.
—
Stormlands
Asgard
After well over a year in the Iron Islands to tend to the mother tree, Leaf and several other Children of the Forest returned to Asgard to carry out their part of the agreement regarding the Underdwellers.
With an interesting addition in tow.
Another Child of the Forest, which actually was a child. He was about to ask who the father was and to congratulate Leaf, but it turns out she was created by the mother tree.
Which shed a light on how the Children reproduced without males.
They were basically tree nymphs.
The Children were in a celebratory mood, as their numbers had increased for the first time in thousands of years.
Reeling from the death of the High Septon and the reason behind it, the Faith was silent for the last two months.
There were uprisings all around the Seven Kingdoms, smaller in scale, as the word of the High Septon, Father of the Faithful, His High Holiness, and Shepherd of the Faithful, being caught in a bed with two whores caused outrage.
Fun times for Robert.
But now, Leaf was going to send him to meet the Underdwellers so he could find out how dragonstone was made.
"We have not spoken to the Underdwellers for a long time, but ages ago, they moved to live beneath the land, in a cobweb of tunnels. They were people who cared greatly for deals struck, and breaking an agreement was a way to earn their ire. Be careful with your words while agreeing to anything," Leaf explained. Her knowledge was from the tales of her forebears, and she had warned Robert as such.
"Got it. How do we find these tunnels?" It better be somewhere close; otherwise, this whole thing would have to be delayed.
Leaf put her index finger on the map, right on Eyrie. "There is an entrance beneath the land you call the Vale."
"In Vale? Damn, Jon's not going to like that."
"This must be kept a secret, as was our deal with them." Leaf's tone conveyed the seriousness of the situation.
Robert raised his hands in surrender, because he knew there would be people with genocidal tendencies hellbent on killing the Underdwellers for some religious reason. "Got it. Do you know the exact place?"
"Indeed. I shall lead you there."
—
"Alright, I need two of you to stay back and protect Asgard while I'm off." All three siblings took a step forward and growled at each other, wanting to be the one to go.
Robert coughed gently. "Cut that out."
The growling stopped, but the dragon siblings were still stuck in a glaring match.
"Since you three can't be adults about it, we are going to do it by luck." He pulled out three sticks, holding them in a way the dragons wouldn't see the true lengths.
"Pick a stick; the tallest comes with me, and the other two will stay back." Robert explained, and the dragons leaned forward, trying to see which one was the tallest.
Obelisk went for the one on the right, Ra chose the left stick, and Slifer the middle one.
Robert revealed the sticks, and it was the one on the right.
The golden dragon rumbled like a car engine, pleased. "Ra is coming with me. The two of you keep the city in one piece, listen to Tyrion, and kill anyone dumb enough to attack the city."
His brothers did not like it, however, and were poking Ra with their tails.
"I'm still here." Robert warned again, this time sterner, and the dragons stopped.
Sandor, carrying their rations, tents, and other supplies, came along with Leaf. "Ready?" Robert asked, calling Ra to sit.
—
Leaf told him more about the Underdwellers during the journey. They were a matriarchal society, with a council of females from the most prominent clans led by the Coven Matriarch.
As the Children of the Forest and giants were driven out of the Seven Kingdoms, the Underdwellers had gone into hiding as well, eventually choosing to avoid mankind altogether by living beneath the Earth.
Understandable, given how much the First Men and the Andals had done to the Children alone.
Their descriptions were interesting, with sharp, thin ears similar to the children; hair of mostly silver, white, and light-gold colors; gem-like eyes; pale skin; and rainbow-colored see-through wings that allowed the females to fly short distances, while the males did not enjoy the same freedom.
Hence the matriarchal society.
The last part was unexpected, and they sounded like human-sized fairies, the ASOIAF version anyway. The entrance was, interestingly enough, beneath Eyrie, and if Jon Arryn ever learned that there was a race living beneath Vale with the entrance at the bottom of his keep, there would be trouble.
Foster father or not, Jon was a very traditional person, and accepting other races wasn't something he would do easily.
Which is why they were going to keep out of sight.
—
Vale
Three Days Later
Robert had Ra approach the Giant's Lance from right above the pine trees in the forest beneath, while Leaf found the exact place.
Which was a dead end because he didn't see a cave at the place she indicated.
"Could they have used this echo to close the entrance?" Robert scratched his head.
This thing had just gotten harder.
"Possible."
Taking his hammer, Robert began to tap on the stone in different places to see if there was an opening behind.
Ra, however, had more interesting matters and walked to the trees. His tail lashed out, breaking a tree in half, and a very clear human yelping echoed through the forest.
Robert sighed, "Sandor, go capture whoever that was."
They were most likely clansmen, but there was also a small chance of knights on a punitive raid to thin the numbers of the clansmen.
Sandor bolted like a bloodhound and returned shortly after with two mountain clansmen dressed in furs, unkempt, wild, and ragged.
"There were more, but your dragon killed them," Sandor reported, pushing the clansmen down on their knees, while Ra was still searching the forest for any more intruders.
"By the gods…" The clansmen gasped at seeing Leaf, a Child of the Forest. As they worshipped the old gods, the Children would naturally be holy to them, or at least significant.
Whatever they were here for, the entrance had to be secret, and Robert never liked the mountain clans anyway.
"Off with their heads," Robert shooed with his hand, and Sandor pulled his sword, ready to behead both.
"Wait, mercy," the clansmen begged, but Robert had already turned around to find the entrance.
Leaf moved to intervene, having heard the mountain clans still worshipped the old gods, but Sandor had already beheaded both in one swing.
"They could have been useful," Leaf excused, but Robert shook his head.
He had fought the clansmen in his youth enough to know otherwise. "No, they would not have. The mountain clansmen are pests, nothing more."
Minutes later, one of the taps sounded different, and he was sure that the other side was hollow.
Checking for the exact sizes of the artificial layer, Robert slammed his hammer on the stone, barely leaving a small crack.
"Huh." The stone wasn't ordinary then, because that hit should have at least broken through.
This was going to take some time.
—
While Ra patrolled the forest, Robert hammered the wall to pieces, eventually creating an entrance large enough for him to squeeze through.
Commanding the dragon to stay in the area, hunt, and keep people off the entrance, Robert, Sandor, and Leaf went through.
—
With only the light of the torches to illuminate the dark caves, they walked on and on, leaving marks through the tunnel system to find their way back in case they couldn't locate the Underdwellers.
Telling the time was a challenge, but Robert had them take breaks regularly, at least as much as possible, and once he felt the sleep begin to settle, it was time to set up camp.
Lighting a fire this deep wasn't possible, which was the reason he had brought in so much food that didn't require a fire.
Eating his sandwich, Robert couldn't imagine how deep they were in, nor how much longer they had to go.
"How deep do these Underdwellers live?" They had rations for at least a week, but if the Underdwellers were too deep, they might have to turn back and return more prepared.
"I have never been to their coven."
Leaving the uncertainty of it aside, Robert had something else he wanted to know: "You said to be careful with my words. Why?"
"The wording of a deal matters greatly. Some, not all, were known to be trickers, and the price for their help might be different than what you thought in the first place."
Robert blinked.
Westeros had fucking faes.
—
Sandor, ever the faithful guard, was persistent on having the first watch, with Robert taking the second, while Leaf wouldn't take one because she wasn't a fighter.
—
"Wake up, something is coming." Robert's eyes snapped open as Sandor shook him, and once the words registered, his hands went for Nightblood.
"Leaf, stand back." It could be the Underdwellers who had realized there were intruders, or something else in the tunnels.
It was something else, a giant spider to be exact.
With pincers that could pierce through Robert and be half exposed, that thing had to be longer than twenty feet.
It screeched, sending a shockwave through the air, and charged.
"Cut down the front legs and stay away from the head."
"Fucking hell," Sandor grumbled, ready to fight.
The spider brought down its front leg to skewer Robert like shish kebab, but he took a step back, baiting the spider into bringing its leg closer.
A quick slash shortened that leg by at least five feet, causing a flood of green blood to spill down, and as Sandor repeated the same to the other leg, the spider stumbled, screeching in pain this time.
It was unaware that the humans before him weren't the prey, but the predator.
Deciding to run away, the arachnid tried to crawl back, slowed down by its now shorter and bleeding front legs, but Robert wasn't about to let it get away. Another slash to the wounded leg, and it reeled in pain before he ran forward, stabbing Nightblood up and gutting the spider.
"See? Killing monsters is easy work, once you know how to do it." Robert pointed at Sandor with Nightblood as the green liquid flowed down the length of it, splashing to the ground, while the corpse spasmed before going still.
"Great, because you will need it." Leaf pointed at where the spider had come from, and it turned out it wasn't the only one of its kind.
Several spiders, the smallest being the size of a horse and the largest being a quarter smaller than the one they had just killed, barred the way forward.
Robert rolled his neck, feeling his blood boil in excitement, and turned to Sandor, latching his helmet on. "Now that the knowledge part is out of the way, it is time to use it."
—
Sandor moved out of the way and held his sword out. The charging spider missed him, but the blade caught its side, leaving a deep gash, before he took the damn bug's back legs and stabbed it through the head.
The narrowness of the tunnel meant the spiders could not swarm them, and the one he killed was the last one alive.
Taking a deep breath, he gagged at the stench.
"Fuck this shit," he grumbled, swinging the sword to get rid of the blood.
He had to admit, though, it was fun now that the spiders were all dead and they were alive.
"Let's break camp and get out of here. The smell's going to make me puke," Robert complained, even though he was already planning to take some pincers back as trophies.
—
Quickly breaking camp, they moved further down after setting the bodies on fire. The fur on the backs of the spiders easily caught flame, and with the way they were burning, there would be no rotting corpses on the way back.
The tunnels, however, only got more interesting.
Robert was thinking that these spiders must have something equally large as prey to be alive in the first place, and it wasn't just one thing.
Hundreds of glowing mushrooms illuminated an area the size of Asgard, with a pristine river flowing through the middle, surrounded by purple vegetation, and there were animals there.
Giant moles, rabbits, gophers, weasels, and more.
"What the hell do they eat to grow so big?" Robert was in awe. This was a world in itself, like the Hollow Earth, though hopefully with no Godzilla down there.
"Did you know about this?" He asked. Had Robert known a place like this existed, he would have come only for the novelty of it.
Leaf shook her head, dazed. "Nay." This was new for her as well.
Even the usually gruff Sandor was taken by the beauty of it.
—
That large area wasn't the only one, and over the next two days, they found four more, with three the same size and one even larger one. The animals didn't vary much from the first ones they came across and weren't really hostile except for the predatory ones, such as more spiders.
If the trip didn't take so long, Robert would definitely return regularly to enjoy the sights and fight monsters.
The rabbits were edible, something the Lord of Asgard learned by cooking one over a mushroom fire. The fungi here were dense, and the dried ones burned well, all without the danger of getting high. They even boiled water and restocked on supplies to move forward even more.
Camping near the edge of the river, Sandor took the first watch again, leaving Robert and Leaf to sleep.
—
"Something's coming," Sandor warned the camp again, only having noticed them because of the crunchy leaves Robert had spread around the camp.
Whatever they were, they were not spiders.
Robert scowled, annoyed that his sleep had been interrupted again, and swore that whatever it was, it was about to have its liver removed.
"Show yourselves before I go there," he warned. If it was an animal, no trouble, but if it was something else, such as the Underdwellers, then it was best to be ready.
His answer was an arrow through the darkness, one that was slapped aside by his sword.
Not the animals then, unless they evolved to the point of using weapons.
Leaf ran out, shouting something in the True Tongue, and through the shadows, the Underdwellers showed themselves.
"Finally," Robert grunted, sword still out but held defensively.
A figure came forward, female like all the warriors, notching another arrow in her bow, the one who had just fired at him.
She said something that Robert did not understand at all, and he looked down at Leaf.
"She says…"
—
Notes : The part with the Fae will be a bit quick because we will see them later, and I really want to get to the next arc.
—
In the next chapter:
"So, once you have my firstborn, you teach me this Echo?" then he would teach it to a corps of engineers.
"Indeed, but you do not have the magic to learn it. If you want, it will have to be someone who has," well, at least that's one thing he didn't have to deal with.
"Doable."
"You're giving her your firstborn? What the fuck?!" Sandor hissed, causing Robert to chuckle, "Sandor, watch and learn."
"Do we agree then?" The Fae held her glowing hand out, and Robert took it.
"We do."
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