Chapter 10: Chapter - 10
"We will be holding a pissing contest in atop the Fair Castle, the man who pisses farther and longer wins. Winner gets more ale, women and gets to hear my songs," Aeron Greyjoy proclaimed aboard his ship, the Golden Storm a hybrid ship half longship yet, larger than the traditional and half galley.
"Lord Captain, we don't dare compete with you," Grathrum conceded, "you might as well reward them to yourself."
Aeron looked at his second in command and long time friend before he ordered a sailor to bring him more ale.
"Seems like there would be a storm by the time we arrive there?" a sailor asked.
Sprinkling his ale on the deck as he drank a big mouthful from sheepskin bottle, "Seems so," Aeron replied.
After taking few more mouthfuls of ale, he gazed ram on his ship's prow with dissatisfaction; he wanted to mount a graphic monument to his accomplishment on his ship's prow as a ram.
The god had given him the ability to piss farther and longer than any men in seven kingdoms, so why shouldn't he have a monument to commemorate his achievement; instead, he is stuck with a traditional Greyjoy Kraken shaped ram because Balon had threatened to hang him from the mast of his own ship if he did so apparently Balon is jealous of his accomplishment, but he dare not say so in front of others.
Meanwhile, The Reader Lord Rodrick Harlaw aboard Sea Song was cursing Victarion Greyjoy. He had tried to dissuade Lord Balon Greyjoy, now King of the Iron Islands, against Iron Throne, citing now is not the good time to rebel.
"That pigheaded bastard, we should have turned back." Lord Harlaw cursed, feeling the increasing waves crashing against his ship as they sailed towards Fair Castle even the wind is unfavourable.
"You don't look good, cousin?" the voice of his cousin Harras fell into his ears from behind him; Harras had never heard his cousin curse someone.
"How could I look good?" Rodrick replied, "That dull brute thinks we should attack while Stannis is still far away from Paxter Redwyne; he thinks Redwyne is a bigger threat, and Stannis is chump on the sea," Rodrick sighed, "One Should never underestimate his enemies, I have bad premonition for all this."
"Then we can look at the outcome and see how it plays out Cousin!" his cousin Harras said.
Rodrick nodded in agreement; house Harlaw is the only educated noble house in Iron islands.
"You know Harras, we should be trading, reading and exploring instead of killing and reaving," Rodrick closed the book in his hand and gazed at the sky in lament.
"Ships sighted!" One of the sailors on the lookout shouted.
"How far," Lord Rodrick immediately asked.
"On the horizon," lookout replied.
Excitement before battle filled their bodies; as everyone on the deck readied the axes, the exception being Lord Rodrick and his cousin Harras who happened to prefer swords unlike their shipmates.
As the distance between the two fleets gradually reduced, the Redwyne fleet was first to fire with catapults aboard their ships; as stone projectiles smashed into Ironborn formation, some hit the mark, others fell into the sea. It is not easy to hit the target on the sea; before the invention of rangefinders and fire controls. Soon the two fleets fired Scorpions at each other at a distance of 400 meters. At this distance, scorpions are pretty accurate to hit their targets; Rodrick observed the Formation used by the Redwyne fleet, five Carracks in the centre backed by more than forty Wargallies, twenty on each flank. They had been well prepared for the battle, contrary to the thoughts of Victarion, who thought they were resting in Fair Castle, Rodrick observed. His ship had been fortunate enough to avoid stone projectiles, but they were not so lucky in avoiding missile projectiles, three of the giant arrows still lodged in the deck of his ship; a ship to their left had already sunk under the stone projectiles.
"A hard battle ahead!" Rodrick whispered as he unsheathed his sword from the scabbard, followed by Harras, "good thing, Cousin! Their fleets are not combined, or else it would be much worse," Harras continued after his cousin.
"It would be dangerous if an enemy were to appear behind us; I hope the boys would be safe," Rodrick whispered to himself as he had a bad premonition in his heart; his two sons are also commanding ships in the Iron Fleet.
The Ironborn Uttered deafening battle cries, "what is dead may never die," for a moment, their battle cry overwhelmed the air and subdued the waves challenging them.
Both locked the other into battle whether they liked it or not; crossbows from the Redwynes greeted Ironborn's lust for the battle as the bolts pierced both leather or chain mail armour they wore, embedding themselves into their flesh as blood flowed on the deck.
In the centre, Carracks repulsed the ironborn attempt to board them like a floating fortress with power concentrated in the front; In the flanks, both sides fought tooth and nail. Ironborn sought to bypass the flanks and hit them from the side with their spitfire's rain fire down upon their enemies from the sides for that they must reach under the proximity of 50 meters which brought them into the range of side scorpion mounted on the deck and the crossbowmen. The crossbowmen and scorpion fired at the Ironborn from the elevated positions of their deck. Two sides cursed and howled at each other as they fought as the dying moaned in pain, but the true surprise was yet to arrive. Two sides fought back and forth for an hour; Iron finally succeeded to board the ships and cut the halliards of her mainsail with their axes, which resulted in these ships stalling as Ironborn cleared the deck after deck.
As the Ironborn were busy battling, Stannis Baratheon's fleet appeared behind them; they had never thought Stannis would appear here in their minds, he was in Crakehall with his ships, infact he was in Kaycee much closer to the Fairisle. To their surprise, the Ironborn found themselves locked between the narrow strait surrounded by land on East and West and the ships in South and North. Stannis had them right where he wanted them to be.
The royal fleet raced towards the Iron fleet like a hammer ready to ram and send them to their revered seas and the drowned god.
Royal fleet rammed into the back of the Iron fleet. Stannis's flagship of the fleet Fury was the first to ram the enemy vessel Golden Storm cleaving the ship into two halves. Planks of timber flew in the air; whenever a ship rammed into an Ironborn ship. The three fleets battled for an hour and a half before the remaining ships of Ironfleet scattered to escape.
In the battle, the combined fleet had barely lost ten vessels compared to the Ironborn, who had lost ninety ships. Both Victarion and Rodrick's ship had escaped, but Rodrick's sons would remain forever in the strait of Fair Isle, and the Aeron Greyjoy would be holding piss contests in a Lannister dungeon for the remainder of the war.
Now Iron islands were free real estate for the forces of Iron Throne like a broken ribcage.
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