[Chapter Size: 3600 Words.]
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Third Person POV
Kaeth, 300 AC.
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Early in the morning, the camp leader came to Jon, stating that they were going to dismantle the camp and enter the county.
"We want to thank you for everything, and also apologize for our distrust of you. But we believe your words and will enter the county knowing there have been bandits spying on the camp these past few days..." he thanked Jon.
"Good luck..." Jon said as he returned to the small camp, going to eat something his men had prepared around the campfires. Today, the cook ended up being Jin Sakai, showing a bit of the cuisine he never stopped practicing, originating from Yi-Ti, offering tea and coffee.
Some time later, they heard cavalry coming from the same direction Jon had brought his group from yesterday, and everyone immediately looked at the more than ten horses advancing.
"What do we have here...?" Jon couldn't help but raise his head while his men also watched beside him.
The rider leading that group went to the larger camp and, while calling the leader, opened a piece of paper, with everyone gathering in front of him, except for Jon's camp, which was still there preparing to move again.
"By decree of Lord Valewood, all of you have permission to enter the county," he openly announced. "As long as you obey all laws against stealing, against assault, and follow the orders Lord Valewood will implement, all of you will be welcome. But you may be expelled if you fail to follow them and disrupt the peaceful life within the county." He spoke in a courteous and somewhat exaggerated tone.
The crowd soon became excited, talking among themselves, some commenting that what Jon had said yesterday was true.
"That's good," Jon said, satisfied.
"They didn't come here yesterday, but they did today... Did you do something?" Arya asked beside Jon, looking at him with curious eyes.
In truth, Jon hadn't exactly said what he had done yesterday, but his sudden departure without any guards caught Arya's attention, and she still hadn't had time to ask.
Those men didn't seem like they had the initiative to simply start calling back the people they had expelled from the county.
Jon didn't believe Lord Valewood could have done this yesterday, but after seeing how the county was today, he probably rushed and ordered his men to immediately come announce the refugees' entry.
Jon merely showed a smile at Arya's question. "I'm sure those men will explain soon enough..." Jon simply said as he watched the group of riders approach them after speaking with the larger camp.
"milorde..." said the rider, approaching with some caution while looking directly at Jon.
The hostility had been replaced by a more evaluating and even somewhat suspicious look. To him, Jon was not just a representative of Arctic, but also someone important, capable of leading all those people who were extremely well-trained troops and even making his employer act so submissively. Besides showing a strength no other knight had, enough to break through armor the way he saw, to the point of even damaging the sword itself with his bare hands. He possessed a strength no man should have.
"Hello, ser. We're surprised here. So in the end, Lord Valewood sent you to personally bring these people back..." Jon hummed.
The man nodded. "That is true, that wasn't the intention... But something happened yesterday that is impossible to ignore..." he said while looking at Jon, wondering if he had anything to do with it. As abnormal as it was, it was something he had never seen in his life.
"All the apple trees became loaded with fruit, and other trees sprouted there as well. Tens of thousands of fruits simply appeared overnight within the county."
"Lord Valewood saw this as a sign and ordered everyone in the region to be called back immediately, since the crisis of a possible food shortage would no longer happen in the county...." He spoke while the rest of Jon's camp listened and looked at the king.
Jon could already feel Arya's gaze fixed on his back as well, but his cousin said nothing.
Jon had entered the place at night not only to fill every tree with heavy fruit throughout the area, but he had also started planting several seeds around the region, around 200 saplings, blessing the land as well so it could produce fruit and trees much more easily.
The same thing he had done with Icehill 11 years ago, except compared to that time, he could now make entire plantations grow and turn the land blessed enough for great harvests to always sprout. That was so many years ago. Now he possessed far more power; blessing a land with hundreds of trees was nothing.
He modified the trees themselves so they would produce fruit day after day, forcing them into a cycle where, as long as they were nourished with sunlight and water, they would never stop. At least food in the form of fruit would not be a problem for them.
"Then perhaps the very ghost of Garth Greenhand passed through your lands and blessed them last night," Jon said in a friendly manner, but anyone hearing him say that could tell he was not surprised at all. He might even have sounded skeptical regarding what the knight had said.
Those county men behind the knight looked at him with some suspicion, but neither they nor the knight said anything. Whatever happened, perhaps it was because of these strange people, and for them to be capable of such a thing, they had to be extremely powerful people. It was too much of a coincidence, and they all seemed not very surprised by the description...
The men did not take long after that. They had orders from Lord Valewood and soon began leaving, returning to the county, while the larger camp was in complete frenzy, preparing to depart that very morning to enter the safer lands, since there they were still in danger, at the mercy of the local bandits.
Vandelli, the camp leader who had come to speak with Jon earlier, was a former farmer who was now taking care of those people. He approached Jon once again when everyone was already beginning to leave.
"Well, I said it before, you weren't lying. So we're going, but it's still quite strange what you're doing. I can't understand why."
The man was middle-aged, despite having a completely sculpted and sturdy body due to a lifetime of work on some farm rather than as a warrior, yet he could still recognize strength when he saw it, and he had that impression from that group.
All of them were strong and carried the bearing of warriors, loaded with weapons. Although the camp had become quite tense with their presence nearby, since one glance was enough to realize they would probably be massacred in a fight, they hadn't even managed to send them away yesterday because they were afraid. After all, in a fight, all the men in the larger camp would be slaughtered, and their appearance did not seem ordinary in the slightest.
Even so, they seemed like friendly people trying to help, which made Vandelli unable to understand them very well. There should not be people like that in times of war.
"Don't think too much about it," Jon said, seeming to notice the doubts planted in his mind.
He had already said yesterday that they were merely trying to do what was right.
The man nodded, although he looked at Jon with some caution. He understood that he should not bother him too much with questions.
"Anyway, good luck. We're going to see a few more groups and inform them, if the county men haven't already done so. But we need to look for some young warriors to join us..." Jon explained, offering his hand for the man to shake as a farewell.
That left the man somewhat surprised. "Young warriors...? You're recruiting?" he immediately imagined. "Then you must be building a force."
"Exactly." Jon did not lie.
As the man looked at him, understanding what he meant by that, he said, "Interesting... I can't say I'm not surprised by it, and I still can't understand you. But it's certainly a noble cause."
"Yes. I looked at this camp yesterday, but I didn't see anyone interesting. The young men already seemed to be fighting over certain ladies there, trying to build a life rather than fight for this cause. I do not intend to extend my invitation to men who clearly don't seem willing to give up their lives here..." Jon said.
He had truly searched for that kind of person there, but found no one interesting.
"Alright, we're leaving then. Thank you for everything, and may you succeed." He finally said his farewell.
Jon returned to the camp, which they hadn't even touched yet, but he couldn't help noticing two children running toward him from the side.
"Hey, m'lord!" the children shouted.
Jon stopped, watching them approach. They still carried the small bag of apples Jon had given them yesterday, now somewhat emptier, while they looked at him cautiously.
Jon analyzed them. There was only one sack behind them. It seemed to be all they had. And from what Jon noticed, their hair was full of grass and dirt, which meant they did not sleep in tents, but out on the streets.
These orphaned children certainly had nothing, and the others in the camp seemed not to care. They were just more mouths no one wanted to feed.
"Tell me, what do you want? Shouldn't you be with the others, preparing to leave with them?" Jon asked.
The children looked at the camp and then back at him. They seemed cautious about their next words.
"Can we go with you?" one of them asked.
Jon narrowed his eyes. "Why would I take children with me?" he said.
They were no older than Jon had been when he left Winterfell to be taken to the Wall, before that storm that changed everything.
They seemed cautious, but the one on the right immediately puffed out his chest. "We have nothing here for us. Nothing will change by entering the county. The people there don't care about us. They know we steal and mistreat us and despise us for it, but we don't have a choice either, because if we don't try to take something from them, we starve. And getting beaten, or feeling the whip, is better than starving to death," he said.
"No one helps us in the camp..." he added sadly.
"I saw people with game and fishermen from the river. No one offers you anything? The leader didn't seem like someone who would let children starve to death..." Jon said, while this time they made a face.
"He's a liar. He doesn't care about us!" the shyer one replied, now angry. "No one cares about us. They only give us scraps, the way they do with dogs. We live through their pity, and we don't want that. We heard from the adults that you're warriors. We want to fight too. Fight in search of food and something better than this place..." Jon raised an eyebrow at the boy.
He certainly should not take children with him, but he saw something in those youths that reminded him of his time in Winterfell, living only through scraps and being treated like a burden, or rather, a plague... since that boy's words were certainly true. He was not lying.
"You know you could even die if you stay with us, right? It's better for you to live like this here than try to act brave while you're just children getting involved in adults' wars," Jon said in a very serious tone.
He could very well speak with Valewood through a letter to take care of those two boys, if they were truly being treated that way by the other adults.
"We don't want to be pitied. We want to act! Earn our bread, my father used to say that! That there is no shame for a man who fights to earn his coins through his sweat..." they said.
"Your father sounded like a good man..." Jon murmured... He looked at the children, thinking about what to do. He sighed.
"Alright then. Since this is what you want, come with me," Jon said as he turned his back and walked on, with the two children quickly following behind him.
"Besides, I'm not a lord. Just call me Jon," Jon said.
The children simply nodded quickly and followed him.
As for Arya and the others, who were eating, they watched Jon approach with curious eyes fixed on the king and the two small individuals who had approached him, but no one bothered them.
"Jon, what's this?" Arya asked, looking at the children.
"Well, since we'll be quite busy over the next few days, we'll need someone to feed the horses and organize our supplies..." Jon said.
The children looked around cautiously. The adults watched, still not understanding why Jon would bring two children with him. It did not seem like his type of thing, bringing children to work on his dangerous mission.
"Anyway, they'll be staying with us," Jon finally said, without needing to give any explanation.
He turned back to the children with a serious look. "You are not going to steal anything from us, understood? You'll receive food and even some military training. You're already at the age to learn something." Jon said this because there was no harm in training a few children. He already intended to do that with common folk anyway.
"Yes, m'lord."
"Just call me Jon..." Jon repeated, while some of them showed faint smiles at that.
"Selmy, you'll handle their training every morning after they finish their tasks. And you, Sakai, can decide what their tasks will be, alright? We'll leave here in a few hours after the meal, but I'd like you to already start showing them camp maintenance..." Jon said.
Jin Sakai nodded, standing up, while the children were somewhat surprised by that and approached him.
"By the way, I don't even know your names," Jon said.
"I'm Greg."
"I'm Lima."
Each of them answered.
Greg had a somewhat dirty face, whether from the dirt where he ended up sleeping or the freckles on his face. He had a rounder face, brown eyes, and dirty dark blond hair.
Meanwhile, Lima had black hair and black eyes as well. He had a few freckles, but most of the marks on his face came from the dirt where he had slept that night.
Jon led them away to begin showing them what their duties would be over the next few days.
"Are you sure about bringing these children, my king?" Lancelot sat beside Jon, who had returned near the main campfire.
"They don't have much, Lancelot. Let them stay with us. We can keep them together with the others we'll be recruiting. Besides, don't call me my king here. I'll be just Jon, remember," Jon said.
While they nodded, someone tapped Selmy on the shoulder from the other side. "So, great knight of the Kingsguard, from what I'm seeing you're not that famous after all. Four knights saw you and nobody recognized you. Those common folk looked at you too and nobody recognized you. Seems you're not as popular as I imagined." The one mocking him was Bari, another royal guard and one who usually served as Arya's royal guard.
Jon paid no attention to that while picking up a quill and parchment. It was time to begin his manipulations. First, he needed to dismantle the alliance between the Lannisters and the Freys.
Taking one of Tywin Lannister's own letters, he began replicating the handwriting itself while writing a few words to send to a castle closer to where the army would be passing, coming north.
He finished the letter and picked up his seal boxes, using House Lannister's marker, stamping it with red wax and sealing the letter together with a small golden mark beside it, the royal Baratheon seal, to indicate the letter came from King's Landing.
He placed it on a raven and made it fly away while ignoring his men's conversation.
Barristan Selmy was explaining that, even after becoming Lord Commander and accomplishing great deeds in Westeros, sometimes his appearance alone would not be enough for everyone to recognize his name. They could not always recognize the royal guard beside the king or even the man who won tournaments, and they would never imagine such a legendary figure would be among them, taking orders like anyone else. After all, there were more than a dozen Arctican royal guards there.
Jon spent the rest of the morning doing a few more things. With no one else in the neighboring camp anymore, they had the riverside area entirely to themselves.
Jon simply began deciding what he would do that day, marking the places he wanted to visit. Knowing there was another camp in the region... And a much larger one...
At some point, he decided to relax and went to the riverside, prepared his line and cast it directly into the water while fishing.
"You, fishing...?" Arya approached beside him.
Jon was shirtless, wearing only pants, since he had gone for a swim in the river to wash himself earlier.
"And what's wrong with that? It's a good pastime," Jon said, finally relaxing a little after these past few days.
As Arya looked at him mockingly, Jon smiled. "You can keep looking at me like that. Otherwise, I thought my cousin was quite interested in my body," he mocked, smiling and winking at her, noticing Arya's eyes drifting to his chest and stomach, defined by years of training, battles, and also the development potions.
"Idiot," she replied before looking at the motionless line in the middle of the water. "You could simply summon the fish themselves."
"I never do that with animals I control. That's unethical," Jon said with a grimace.
"That doesn't work with fish... You've already done it with them," she reminded him.
That was true. When they were sailing and Jon wanted to eat something different besides preserved food, whether meat or fruit they had on the ships, he could make entire schools of fish rush upward while his men simply opened the nets to catch them as the fish jumped into them. He did that often when Rhaenys and Ygritte had cravings during pregnancy. That way they could eat something different, as long as it wasn't poisonous.
"That's true. But like I said, I want to relax," he reminded her while staring at the water, and he sensed those children, Greg and Lima, approaching.
"M'lord..." they called.
"It's Jon. Jon," he reminded them once again in a tired tone, it was already the third time and those children still hadn't learned.... At the same time, Arya let out a small laugh.
"We're done. Mister Jin says we're already leaving."
"Yes. Help him organize the camp. We'll be departing soon," Jon finally said.
They seemed lost. Clearly they wanted to do something, but they were already leaving, so it was better to let those children work if they wanted a place among them.
Arya watched them leave, seeking guidance from other people.
"Are you sure they'll be alright?" Arya asked. She didn't know the children, but she certainly wanted what was best for them, as long as they didn't do anything wrong.
"It was the first time I found them trying to rob our camp last night, sneaking in, but they reminded me a lot of who I was in Winterfell. I think I can give them a chance..." Jon calmly explained the main reasons for taking them in...
Arya stared at him somewhat surprised, but nodded. "I remember you being grumpier than them," she said some time later.
"And you were a bratty little snot-nosed girl," Jon mocked.
"Wait!" Jon interrupted Arya's comeback when he felt his line begin to tug.
Jon smiled as he started pulling the line. He ignored Arya's murderous glare and pulled until he finally removed a medium-sized fish from the river, at least around thirty centimeters long.
"Great. Let's prepare something before we head to the other camp," Jon said, satisfied, while carrying the fish back toward the middle of the area, with Arya following behind him.
...
A few hours later, Jon stood atop a large rock before a crowd of people in an area somewhat farther from the county.
"That is why I wish for those who can fight in pursuit of freeing these lands from these dark times to join us in our quest to help other people. We are not doing this for glory, for money, perhaps no one will remember us, but we are doing this because we know it is the right thing to do!" Jon spoke before the crowd gathered around him.
He had found a camp with more than eight hundred people, while his voice echoed easily like that of a commander throughout the place.
It was time to begin recruiting people.
Certainly, his tone and inspiring words immediately began making dozens of eyes shine, and the hearts of those who were righteous longed to do something considered right, even if they did not seem to possess strength or skill.
Jon sought a force to be trained, and his eyes immediately swept across all those he had already captivated.
This would be the beginning of something greater.
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