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Ch 33 Do you remember that one time... Part 1
🕑 Added 2023-08-04 17:42:34 +0000 UTCIn the hazy memories of his days as a brother of the Night's Watch, Mance could only recall a few moments with absolute clarity. Though raised within the walls of Castle Black from a tender age, his time there was marked by shovelling shit, doing chores and rigorous training. And by the time he was a Man he had already deserted the Watch to live as a free man.
But one of the few things he could remember clearly was a profound conversation he had with the ageing maester of Castle Black, just before he left the Watch.
He had just returned from a Ranging where he was hurt by a shadow cat and then nursed to health by a Wildling woman who also mended his torn cloak with swatches of red silk.
But immediately upon returning to the Wall, Ser Denys Mallister told him to get rid of the cloak and said that he was only allowed to wear black.
This infringement of freedom was too much for the young teen at the time who felt that it was too much and he struggled to understand the Watch's stringent rules, especially the prohibition of love, marriage, and personal freedom. Seeking answers, he turned to the maester, whom he considered one of the wisest men he had ever known.
And he could still remember his wrinkly face as he had told him, "Love is the Death of Duty. When you love someone or something, you'll always have to choose between them or your duty,"
Sacrificing personal desires was the inescapable price for fulfilling their solemn duty to protect the realm.
Of course, he didn't understand him at that time as it wasn't a duty that he had chosen for himself and so he had chosen to break free from the Watch and embrace a life beyond the Wall with the Free Folk. There, he found a sense of belonging and even fell in love with Wildling woman who had saved him and who later became his wife.
But now after all these years, he had chosen a duty of his own, a duty to make sure that everyone beyond the Wall doesn't end up a dead man.
He had looked on as the most faraway tribe started to disappear one after the other, he had seen them kill his friends and raise them as their own. He knew that if someone didn't do anything and didn't gather every one of them together to fight, then eventually they would lose everyone. And everyone he knew and loved would become a part of them.
But he also knew that no 'Someone' was coming to save them, no one cared what happened to the people beyond the wall, and, that no one was going to believe them and help them...
So he decided that he would be the one... the one to unite the tribes and ensure their survival, Mance embraced this new purpose.
And now instead of doing that duty... he was on the other side of the wall on behalf of his wife to find her stupid sister and even though he had tried to make her understand that she was probably dead, his wife wasn't ready to believe it as she said that she felt it in her heart that her sister wasn't dead...whatever that means.
Anyway, one thing lead to another as he crossed the wall along with Val's friend Ygritte who was eager to go on an adventure to save her.
And lo and behold miraculously somehow when he went to the town to gather news he found out that the lass was actually alive... just that she was under the clutches of someone named Jon Snow.
So he sighed in relief as he thought that it wouldn't take him long to find her and bring her to his wife. But of course, fate wouldn't be a bitch if she let everything go so smoothly, so just when he thought that he was getting too lucky, he was ambushed by two northerners outside the cave he had made his home.
The one who had him at an arrow point was a young man with brown hair and brown eyes, and a face commonly found in the north. While the one who was holding a knife to Ygritte's throat was a lass even younger than the man, she was a comely girl of about fifteen years of age, which was making it hard for him to believe how she'd even managed to subdue someone like Ygritte.
His mind was running fiercely trying to find a solution to their predicament, his eyes were roaming everywhere trying to find something that would help them.
"Don't look so fierce, Wildling King. We are not here to hurt you or anything," said the man who still hadn't lowered his bow.
"Who are you? And how do you know me?" Mance growled with his most dangerous expression, trying to intimidate the young man and considering his massive size and his broad shoulders it should have worked but the man wasn't phased at all.
"Before I answer any of your questions, why don't we get into a more comfortable situation," the man said with a smile on his face, "Because my arms are going to ache tomorrow if we continue to talk like this," he said while jerking his head to the strung bow in his hands.
"Why don't you lower that then? I promise not to do anything to you and your friend... You have my word as a King," Mance said with a nod, trying to look regal as he said that, hoping that the boy will buy his bullshit.
"Ah! Good try, but I am not as naive as I look... I know that you Wildlings have a very different meaning of what a King is," the young man said, while shaking his head, "What I meant was for you to partake in the guest rights," he gestured towards a plate of bread that had been placed beforehand on a nearby rock, "so that we can have a civilised conversation,"
Mance mulled over his offer for a few moments before he asked, "Why is she gagged and bound?" while pointing towards Ygritted who gritted her teeth.
"Oh! That's not our fault. That girl is too feisty, she wouldn't stay still no matter what we said to her," the man said with a shrug and the girl holding the dagger nodded her head rapidly, while Ygritte glare fiercely at them but she didn't try to move much, "so in the end we had to be a bit rough with her and bind her and as for the gag... Well, she's got a very foul mouth on her and we could just couldn't take it when she started to describe very vividly what she would do to my mother and father when she got free..."
'That sounds like her,' Mance thought before he finally sighed and went toward the bread.
From the looks of it, these two didn't seem to have any intention of harming them at the moment so Mance decided that he would go with the flow for the moment.
The tension in their shoulder seem to leave for a few moments after Mance took a few bites of the bread. "Now, would you please persuade your friend to do the same," the man with the bow said.
Mance looked towards Ygritte and saw unwillingness and anger in her eyes and knew that the girl wanted nothing more than to get her bow and fill both of them with her arrows but they were not in an advantageous position at the moment so he looked firmly into her eyes and nodded.
Ygritte hesitated for a few seconds before she nodded, and the girl holding the dagger loosened her ropes but didn't lower guard until the red-haired lass had also partaken in a bite of their offerings, only then did she lower her dagger and left her to go stand behind the man who had finally lowered his bow.
Shortly after, all four of them were seated on rocks on two sides of the impromptu meeting spot. The tension in the air was palpable as they exchanged awkward glares and stares. The man with the bow, finally broke the silence, introducing himself "My name is Lawrence Snow and my friend here is Asha," he said while gesturing towards the silent girl who nodded politely, "And don't mind if she doesn't speak... because she can't," he said teasingly and Asha immediately swatted his head.
Mance cleared his throat to get their attention, "You already seem to know me and this fiery lass here is Ygritee," he said while taking a swig of an ale presented by Lawerence, "Now...Answer my question, Who are you? and What do you want with us?"
"Our captain calls us minions, and don't ask me what that means because I don't know it," Lawrence said when he saw Mance open his mouth, "And we are here on behalf of our captain who is also the reason we were on the lookout of anyone looking to cross the wall as he felt that someone would probably be coming to rescue that lass Val—"
"What? You know Val," Ygritte suddenly interrupted him, "What have you done with her? Where is she? If you hurt even a hair on her head, I will kill you!" she said while spitting fire from her eyes.
"Ygritte, Calm down!"
Mance intervened, trying to maintain composure. "I already know she's not in Bear Island and is somewhere down south, so... What do you want from us?"
Lawrence reassured them, "Oh, she's not a hostage or anything if that's what you're worried about. In fact, she was the one who snuck onto a ship, thinking that she'd jump aboard when it passed the wall or something, not knowing that it was moving south," he chuckled. Both Mance and Ygritte groaned as that sounded like the Val they know.
"As for what we want?" Lawrence said leaning in with a serious expression, "We wants to make a trade deal with you... the King-Beyond-The-Wall,"
"What?" Mance asked with a bizarre expression on his face, "You want to trade with us?"
"Oh, not me!!" Lawrence said shaking his hands before him with a smile, "I wouldn't have even imagined that I would ever sit down and talk with anyone from beyond the wall let alone trade with them, it's our captain who wants it..."
There was silence for a few moments before Ygritte turned to Mance with a confused expression on his face, "Is he mocking us?"
"I am not sure," Mance said to her before he asked Lawrence, "And what exactly does this captain of yours want to trade from us?"
"It really depends on what you can provide," Lawrence continued. "Whatever you can find in that frozen land that could be worth something in the south, we are ready to take. Copper, iron, other metals, and our captain even thinks there might be silver and gold mines out there, so if you can find them, all the better..."
Mance's memory was triggered as he recalled a past encounter when a clansman mentioned finding silver in the mountains. At the time, it had no value to their people as it was useless for making weapons and no one there placed any sort of value on that metal so he had completely forgotten about that, but it seems that now...
"—But of course, even if you can't find those, there are other things we are ready to accept, like pelts and fur of fierce creatures that are only found North of the Wall, such as Direwolves, Mammoths, Snow bears, etc. You know, the animals that people in the South consider legends. And if you can somehow find a few alive cubs, then it would be even better. Finally, if you can't find any of those, then we are even ready to accept good quality wood in abundant quantity," Lawrence finished and took a gulp of water from his pouch, it had taken him a lot of time to remember all the details from Jon's letter, so he was very satisfied that he didn't miss anything.
