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Ch 26 Letters Part 1
🕑 Added 2023-06-16 16:29:08 +0000 UTC"Do you really think she's a wildling?" A 13 years old chubby boy curiously asked his fellow classmates.
Their teacher, a one-legged veteran sailor, had just freed them from their class where they had been taught how to unfurl the sail. And as they stepped outside, their path led them to the training ground where an enthralling duel was taking place. So all of them had gathered outside the duelling ring to watch the infamous daughter of Lady Mormont, Dacey fending off attacks from a fierce 14-year-old girl.
"She can't be a wildling," declared a confident seventeen-year-old girl, her tall frame and freckled face exuding assurance. "Look at her! She's too pretty for that!"
And indeed, the subject of their discussion possessed an enchanting beauty that captivated all who laid eyes upon her. With flowing locks of blonde, akin to the shade of dark honey, cascading down to her waist, and high, chiselled cheekbones, she embodied a rare wild beauty. Her eyes, a pale grey that could transform into a gentle blue under the morning light, only enhanced her allure.
In fact, she was probably the most beautiful person the people around here had seen for quite a while. The last beauty the Smallfolks had seen was the Southerner wife that Jorah Mormont, their lord at that time had married, the one he ran away with.
"B-But I heard that Jon bought her here just after the Wildling attack?" murmured a smaller boy, his voice tinged with a touch of fear, "A-And she can even speak the Old Tongue." Tales of wildlings, spun by his grandmother, had left him trembling at the mere thought of encountering them.
Val continued to attack Dacey with all her might, and for a girl who seemed to have received no formal training she was doing pretty good with the short sword, but alas Dacey was too good for her and was easily running circles around her and repeatedly beating her into the ground.
"Aye, but she's got the look of a southerner," interjected the tall girl, her confidence unwavering. "Just look at her golden locks and those icy blue eyes."
"Perhaps she's one of those girls they rescued from the clutches of the Ironborn during their last voyage," offered a helpful older girl, striving to shed light on the enigma. "You know, the ones from the Reach."
The oldest boy, wise beyond his years at twenty-five, shook his head with a gruff voice. "That can't be it. I've heard tales of those girls, and she doesn't fit the description. One's too young, and the other's too old."
"So, she really is a wildling?" exclaimed the boy with the prominent nose, his disbelief palpable.
"But why would Jon bring her here, then?" questioned the tall girl, her brow furrowing in confusion. "Doesn't that seem rather dangerous?"
"It's obvious isn't it," The oldest boy said nodding his head sagely, "Young Jon isn't so young anymore, he is now already old enough to know some things. He was probably smitten with her looks and couldn't bear to kill her,"
The tall girl shook her head, countering, "Or maybe she's just from one of the nearby villages. You know how Jon has a habit of rescuing teenagers and bringing them here for training."
"Or maybe... she is..." A mischievous voice whispered from behind, causing everyone to instinctively lean in, their ears pricked to catch the soft-spoken words. Then, the voice erupted, "NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS!"
The group of gossiping teenagers cringed as the loud exclamation assaulted their eardrums. In an instant, they snapped to attention, their bodies rigid, as they realized who had caught them.
Jon Snow stood before them, his gaze piercing and formidable. "Seems like you have plenty of time to waste on gossip," he growled menacingly. "Perhaps the instructors have been too lenient. I'll be sure to remind them to increase your workload when I see them. Now... Go Run around the ground 10 times,"
"Yes," they chimed, their voices a mixture of trepidation and obedience.
"NOW!!!"
Jon bellowed, his voice thundering through the air. The students scrambled into action, hastily beginning to run around the training grounds that would take even the fastest among them about 5 minutes to even complete a single round. So it would probably be hard for most of them to see this through, "Perhaps this will teach them a lesson about unnecessary gossip," he mused to himself.
He turned his attention to Val who was getting increasingly frustrated at her inability to defeat Dacey. There was a straightforward reason behind Jon bringing Val with him to Bear Island, which involved one of his goals.
Jon had three vague goals that he had created for himself since his toddler days when he had been confined to his crib, goals that he felt were essential for him to survive and live a life in this new world that he wouldn't regret.
The first goal was an obvious and basic one which was to make sure that he and his family( The Starks mainly) survived the unfortunate events and wars that they didn't in canon. As he grew older that group had expanded to include more and more of his friends from the north which made the task even harder.
His primary strategy to accomplish this goal was to prevent the war from occurring in the first place. And if it were unavoidable, then make sure that he somehow ends up on the winning side.
Now the second goal of his was a lot less noble and a bit selfish and it was a goal that a lot of dreamers across all the worlds had in common. The goal, that he had in his mind since his last life, was to travel around all the unique locations of the world but sadly he passed away before he could do that, but now that he had a new chance in this life in a world that was even more exotic and mysterious than the precious one he desired it even more and he wasn't going to let it pass through his hands this time.
He had been working very hard for his second goal and his dream over the last few years. He was of course talking about the fleet of ships he commanded which he hoped to someday enlarge enough to create a shipping company sometime in the future. And while he could have gone for the solo route and just taken off on any random ship to Bravoos or Pentos with a few gold dragons, that would have likely been a very short trip for him with him probably ending dead behind some bar somewhere in Essos considering how dangerous this world is.
So he had decided to go for the safer and more complex route to achieve his dream of travelling the world which would not only provide him with a lot of money it would also help him with his first goal as anyone with even a bit of knowledge about history could tell you that whoever had bigger and better fleet would prevail in most wars and situations.
And finally the last but definitely not the least one, was to somehow survive the White Walkers and their hordes of walking dead. And this goal was the one that had left him stumped for a long time as he had had no idea how to even go about countering a magical zombie. And the only thing he could think about for a long time was to just buy a lot of obsidian from Dragonstone and to create a shit ton of spearheads and arrowheads from them.
So while he knew he would somehow have to remove and reduce the number of bodies available to the Walkers beyond the wall, he had no idea how. As one thing he was sure about was that the moment any of the wildling leaders even took a glimpse of him they would kill him first before they would ask any questions.
The moment Jon had realised who he had inadvertently stumbled upon, a bolt of lightning went through his brain and almost immediately he was bombarded by a lot of ideas on how to work through his third goal, all of which had the teen girl, sister of Mance Rayder's wife, as the middleman. He had almost immediately decided that he would have to somehow bind her to his cause and make her help him.
So Jon had somehow managed to persuade Val that if she somehow managed to defeat him or Dacey in a single combat in the yard, he would bring her over the wall and deliver her safely to her sister. And considering that she knew that she likely wouldn't survive the journey to the wall and over it alone she didn't have much of a choice but of course, she had him take an oath in front of the old gods before she believed him.
"Y'know..." A voice interrupted Jon as he was lost in his thoughts, "They won't be the last ones to ask, Boy. And you can't intimidate all of them with extra training,"
Jon turned to Maege who came to stand beside him and said with a smirk, "We'll see about that,"
Maege just rolled her eyes at his cheekiness and asked nonchalantly, "So... did you really take a liking to her because if you did then I need to tell you that you're still a bit young for things like these—"
"Seriously... Even you!!" Jon interrupted with a scoff.
"I am just asking, Boy," Maege said with a raised eyebrow not at all bothered by his frustration.
"Maybe... I just took pity on her and decided that she didn't to die after all," Jon said with a shrug as he couldn't exactly tell her that he wanted her to be a go-to between the people on the other side of the Wall and that if it went according to his plans then there would be a lot more wildlings to deal with than just this one.
"As if..." The Mother-Bear scoffed his excuse away with a scoff and said, "And I wouldn't really care about if Lord Stark hadn't left you in my care otherwise how would I explain to my liege that he somehow became a grandfather suddenly at that young age—"
"W-What?" Jon spluttered with a red face at the insinuation. While he was somewhat older mentally his body was at that age where it would even blush at the slightest mention of birds and bees.
"SO..." Maege raised her voice over his sputtering, "I need to make sure that you're not taking the wrong path or something like that," she took up her mace while speaking and walked into the nearby ring and said to him after raising her weapon in a challenge, "Now, show me if you're tuff enough to be a man,"
'Of course, she would decide that with a duel,' Jon thought sarcastically but he went to pick up a practice sword smilingly as the one thing he was confident about was his battle prowess so he came in front of her and answered her, "With Pleasure!"
