"You are an utter disgrace to House Karstark!"
"Father, The Mountain was too strong. I couldn't beat him."
"Then you should have fought to the death! Fought to the death! Just like your two brothers! Instead of becoming a captive!"
Harrion saw his father Rickard's white beard explode like a lion's mane as he chased him with a longsword.
Harrion sat up abruptly in bed, gasping for cold air. He reached under his clothes and felt sweat covering his body, even though the fireplace had gone out.
Ever since the Battle of the Green Fork, Harrion often had such dreams. In them, he was imprisoned in the Lannister POW camp, and his father Rickard would suddenly appear to purge him from the family.
"Thank the gods for Jon." Harrion turned to look toward the Tower of Dread, regretting that the Kingpyre Tower, garrisoned by Roose Bolton, blocked his view.
Just as Harrion was about to get dressed and take another look at The Mountain's corpse, he suddenly saw a raven tapping on his window with its beak.
Jon's raven.
Harrion recognized it immediately. Sure enough, he saw a small bronze tube on the raven's leg. Untying the tube, Harrion poured out a small slip of paper.
"Such a clever raven. How was it trained?" Harrion unfolded the note while glancing at the raven still perched on the sill.
Ravens in Westeros usually only remembered routes between castles. A raven like Jon's that could find his specific room was truly rare.
Opening the note, he read the contents: Mountain clan warriors had a conflict with your men. This is my order: put on your mail shirt underneath your clothes and escalate the situation.
Burn after reading.
"Escalate the situation?" Harrion pressed his thick finger on the note and moved to a brighter spot, thinking he had misread.
Confirming it said "escalate" and not "suppress," Harrion pondered for a moment, then casually tossed the note into the fireplace.
With a flash of flame, the note ignited and soon turned to ash.
Harrion turned to the raven and said, "I know. It's burned."
The raven spread its wings and fluttered away.
Harrion put on his mail shirt, covered it with his clothes, and was about to leave when he suddenly turned back to the windowsill.
"Gods, can Jon's raven understand me?" But he didn't dwell on it, just scratched his head and prepared to go see.
The raven, midway through its flight, circled back, realizing it had been a bit careless just now.
Harrion soon arrived at the barracks and saw a group of people brawling from a distance.
Although they wore clothes similar to his men, their accents and demeanor suggested they were indeed the mountain clan wildlings from Jon's side.
Escalate the situation.
If not for Jon's letter, Harrion would have assumed this was a misunderstanding, controlled the scene first, and then notified Jon.
Although he didn't know Jon's intention, he must have a reason. Harrion cleared his throat and roared at the crowd:
"Stop it, all of you! You sons of bitches, what are you doing? Believe it or not, I'll chop off your heads!"
Harrion's beard shook with his curses, making him look exactly like his father Rickard in his youth.
"My Lord," a Karhold soldier stepped forward to explain. "My Lord, these wildlings withheld our meat rations. Look at them, their mouths still smell of meat!"
"What? Meat!"
Harrion frowned and looked at the clan warriors who came to distribute rations. Sure enough, many had grease and crumbs in their beards, as if deliberately showing off.
He saw someone who looked very familiar.
The man looked powerful, with faint scars on his neck and a wild aura.
It was Hakon, acting on Jon's orders to "incite trouble."
Thinking of Jon's instructions, Harrion shouted at Hakon: "Wildling, leave what you stole! Or don't think about leaving today!"
"Who are you calling a wildling? We gave you what we should have. If you're dissatisfied, go find Lord Jon, you prisoner!" Hakon retorted without backing down, deliberately emphasizing the word "prisoner."
"What did you say?!" Hearing someone call him that, Harrion instantly flew into a rage.
"I said you're a stinking prisoner!"
"We are all Northern soldiers! Don't push your luck!" a Karhold soldier shouted angrily. He was one of those saved by Jon alongside Harrion.
"So what if I push my luck! Harrion Karstark, you are just a stinking prisoner!" Hakon followed Jon's instructions, hitting where it hurt most.
Harrion realized he didn't even need to deliberately escalate things. A wildling daring to talk to him like that was intolerable!
But he maintained a shred of rationality, unbuckled his sword belt, threw it on the ground, and strode toward Hakon.
Hakon also tossed aside the longsword at his waist, and the two rapidly closed the distance.
"I'm going to knock your teeth out today!"
"And I'm going to pluck out your beard!"
Almost instantly, the two were brawling. Fist met flesh with dull thuds, no fake fighting here. Punches landed on faces with slapping sounds. The two rough men focused only on offense, ignoring defense. Soon, noses and mouths were bleeding, their heads looking like bloody gourds.
Seeing their lord and leader fighting, the soldiers on both sides naturally wouldn't be outdone.
Soon, the mountain clan warriors and Karstark soldiers were brawling together. Fists and helmets flew, teeth and saliva sprayed. The scene became even more chaotic.
Some smarter soldiers ran back to call for reinforcements.
Although a mass brawl broke out here, it was nothing compared to the vastness of Harrenhal.
Meanwhile, Medger Cerwyn was enjoying his breakfast.
Suddenly, he saw a raven with a bronze tube in its beak.
Jon's raven.
Medger Cerwyn also recognized the owner immediately.
While eating, he poured the note out of the tube. Upon reading it, he even stopped chewing.
There is a fight under the Wailing Tower. Go there immediately. Burn after reading.
Medger Cerwyn impassively crumpled the note into a ball but didn't burn it as requested. Instead, he hid it deep within his clothes. Suddenly, he noticed the raven observing him, but he ignored it, opened the window, and let the raven fly out.
He tidied up briefly and ran over to watch the spectacle.
Soon, Wendel Manderly also recognized Jon's raven and received his letter; he too did not destroy it.
Then came the Lord of House Hornwood, who chose to destroy the letter.
Soon, a group of nobles arrived at the Karstark camp one after another. By the time they arrived, the fight was nearing its end.
This was Karstark territory after all. Hakon and his men were quickly defeated, lying on the ground groaning in pain.
Everyone's face was bloodied and wretched. Medger Cerwyn stepped forward to ask what happened, and Harrion told him the truth.
"Sigh, how could Jon let these wildlings distribute supplies? It's asking for trouble!" In Medger Cerwyn's view, Jon was a cautious young man who shouldn't have made such a mistake.
But remembering the raven's letter, he thought it might be intentional.
Medger Cerwyn looked at the others, realizing they likely came to watch the show on Jon's orders too.
But what was his purpose?
Just as everyone was puzzled, a Karhold soldier suddenly shouted: "Look! Those wildlings are back!"
Everyone turned to look and saw a large group of fierce-looking soldiers approaching. Many held weapons! This was no longer a simple fistfight.
Lives might be lost! But upon closer inspection, they saw Jon in the ranks.
Jon arrived beside Hakon. Lying on the ground, Hakon grabbed the hem of Jon's clothes and pointed at Harrion, saying, "My Lord, these guys! They complained we distributed too little food and beat us. And that noble, he beat me the hardest!"
A group of soldiers started complaining to Jon. Harrion quickly stepped forward: "Jon, it's not like that! They withheld our supplies, we..."
Jon looked at the big guy, realizing he was fully "in character" and had forgotten the agreement. But this was good; it made it harder to blow their cover.
"Then let Lord Bolton judge who is right," Jon said.
"Judge? Jon! Your men were unreasonable first! Besides, why go to that old bastard Bolton!" Harrion didn't seem to react.
Listening to their conversation, Medger Cerwyn and the others also found it strange. Although the conflict wasn't small, they could resolve it internally.
Besides, no one here respected Roose Bolton.
But Jon insisted on seeing Roose Bolton, confusing everyone.
While they were talking, everyone noticed Jon had come with stretchers. The injured soldiers were already being loaded onto them.
The pure white stretchers looked particularly conspicuous against the black muddy ground.
"Jon, must you do this?" Harrion looked at Jon in confusion.
"Yes, I can't let my soldiers be injured for nothing!" Jon said loudly, feigning anger.
But soon he turned his body to block the others' view and whispered in Harrion's ear: "There are weapons hidden in the stretchers. Don't ask, follow me!"
"Weapons—"
Harrion swallowed hard, subconsciously touching the mail shirt hidden under his clothes.