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HMJ - Chapter 38
🕑 Added 2024-06-21 17:59:20 +0000 UTCIt’s been over a month since he traveled beyond the wall and began his search around the Forst Fangs in this harsh climate.
Luckily, if he had chosen to only take the former members of the Free Folk on this journey, the Skagosi troops would have slowed him down considerably.
But the more time he spent up here, the clearer it became that he would be unable to fulfill his main objective. This objective was the one he had already spent the most time on, and still he didn’t seem to get any closer.
He had been searching for the legendary Children of the Forest. A race of non-humans able to use magic related to nature itself.
They were the supposed origin of the abilities of Skingchangers and Greenseers, but they had even more beyond theirs.
Some of their legendary feats consist of powerful nature magic that destroyed parts of the Westerosi Continent or permanently changed them.
Through some kind of magical ritual, they summoned ‘the Hammer of the Waters’ and destroyed the landbridge between Westeros and Essos.
They tried to repeat the same with the Neck, the area that connects the North with the South, but it only resulted in turning it into a swamp region.
Harry was certain that they really existed. Sirius had left notes and books about them; he even worked with them during his lifetime. While they were physically weaker than humans, they had some very powerful magical abilities.
To be honest, he was even absolutely certain that they were alive. With scrying spells, he managed to confirm that they were still alive even today, somewhere north beyond the Wall.
But that’s where his problem starts. Alone casting spells that confirmed their existence had used a considerable amount of power.
And he still didn’t know where they were. Even the combined power of him, Tiamat, and the three Eldunari were unable to scry their current location.
It didn’t matter which form of magic or which spell he used. Be it wizarding magic or an advanced spell in the ancient language, the location of the Children of the Forest remained hidden from them.
The only thing they were certain of was that the children were surrounded by powerful magical protections or wards that could understand the combined power of several dragons. At the very least, they were able to combine the power of their magic too.
“We should be soon there.” Rattleshirt announced this as he was at the head of the party, leading them through a snowy path in the Frostfangs.
All the former members of the Free Folk were very accustomed to this region and knew the hidden paths and how to navigate through this wilderness.
“Good, I can’t wait to finally return home. Our time is getting close.” Harry muttered as he wandered behind Rattleshirt with some other Free Folk. Tiamat was flying above them, disillusioned, so it would be harder to spot her.
It was nice to allow her to fly freely in other regions besides Skagos; she always had to hide since he didn’t want to make her existence public knowledge.
But here, north of the wall, rumors about a dragon would not spread into the Seven Kindoms.
At most, it would be considered the same type of rumor as Giants, Children of the Forest, or the Others.
“It isn’t our fault that you decided to take a round trip through the True North. I told you the children have died out; they haven’t been spotted for hundreds of years.” Rattleshirt complained, a bit disgruntled.
“Then we agree to disagree... The children are still out there, just hidden behind powful wards that conceal them.” Harry sighed, as he felt he had that discussion a few times too often these days. “And they will understand me?”
“You speak the old tongue, so there should be no problem.” Rattleshirt answered decisively as he continued to lead them on their snowy path through the Frostfangs.
It was very likely that their goal already knew they were approaching; after all, the Giants had a very keen sense of smell, and they weren’t very far from their camp.
The existence of Tiamat would without a doubt alarm them about their arrival.
She must be excluding such a strong and unique smell that the Giants would have noticed her without a doubt. It wasn’t every day that you could smell a dragon.
The Frostfangs were the place where the last giants in this world were living. At least as far as he knew.
While there had been finds of giant bones even in Essos, he couldn’t find any rumors about living ones there, and the further away, the more muddy the rumors became.
Anything behind Yi Ti, like the Grey Waste, was completely out of his reach for any serious rumors.
His whole expedition to the True North was in order to find the Children of the Forest and the Giants, so he could recruit them.
Harry was very interested in the magic of the children; their knowledge could become very useful for him.
Unfortunately, they had disappeared and hidden away, even from his own eyes.
While the Giants, not famous for their magic, were still a powerful force, he absolutely wanted to recruit them.
Alone, their martial power was nothing to scoff at with their big size. Imagine putting them in proper armor with good weapons, and he had walking steel titans of destruction.
But according to the information he had from the Free Folk that had joined his land, their number wasn’t big anymore.
At most, there were a few hundred of them remaining. If this was really true, then it wasn’t worth it to use them for his army. After all, strong, large humans had other uses beyond military might.
Their natural strength would easily ease any transport inside his land, not having to rely on the primitive wagons he had currently.
Also, they were far more flexible than a wooden wagon or a wooden crane and could be far more efficient in construction and logistics.
Alone, this would make them a powerful resource, improving the economy of his land. And in the worst case, once their numbers had recovered, he could still use them for his own military.
Suddenly, Tiamat sent him a mental image: ‘Hurry!’
She flew high above them in the skies and could scout and see ahead of them. Their goal still lay behind a few hills that were blocking their direct line of sight.
But what Tiamat had shown him made him worry.
From the sky, she could see that the Giants were currently in the middle of combat; around a hundred Giants were surrounded by attackers that looked like walking corpses or zombies. Thousands of them were attacking these giants with no mercy.
It didn’t seem like they were feeling pain or were even stopped by physical damage. Multiple of these fights had been sent flying by the wooden clubs of the Giants, and after landing, they just rushed back into battle as if nothing had happened.
“Take a defensive position on that hill. Make some fire. It looks like the Giants are currently under attack from the dead!" Harry ordered his party of Free Folk before he requested Tiamat to guard them.
Alone, he rushed off in the direction of the battle. ‘Shouldn’t you ride Tiamat into battle? She's big enough for it.’ Miremel asked inside his mind.
'No, I need her to guard my men. Based on my guess, these undead are weak to fire. She can take care of any attacker with her dragonfire, while my men are unable to use magic and have to rely on natural fire.’ Harry reasoned as he continued to sprint over the hills, as he could see the battle in front of him.
The Giants were right in peril, as the Undead were attacking them tiredlessly. Some of these undead were even wearing armor with horned helmets that looked vaguely familiar.
They were acting as leaders of the other Undeads that were hording the dimishing numbers of Giants.
Most of the Undead were rotting corpses, partially already fallen apart. Some were wearing the black rags that once may have been the Cloaks of the Night Watch, but most of them were in pelts and leather armor, which was so common amongst the Free Folk.
It was clear that these wars were the reanimated corpses of the people found in the true North.
They were slowly decaying, but thanks to the cold in these lands, most of them would last for centuries, if not longer.
On the other hand, the armored undead were different. They weren’t rotting, but rather looked mumified. There was no trace of rot on their bodies, but still, they were clearly undead.
With their nordic-looking armor, they clearly stood out from amongst the crowd of Undead.
Harry had no more time to think about them as he readied his own blade, prepared to face the first of the Armored Undead directly.
It had noticed him approaching and directly blocked his blade with its own.
The blue eyes of the undead pierced into Harry as his eyes widened. That horned shape of the helmets, the style of the weapon, and the armor He knew where he had seen it before.
It was too late before he could react.
There was a deep, booming voice: “FUS-RO-DAH!”
