Chapter 11: Chapter 11 - Adventures in the North 08.
[Chapter Size: 3221 Words]
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Jon Snow POV
North Kingdom, Somewhere in WolfWoods, 289 A.C., many days later.
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Jon spent weeks traveling with his companions of paws and wings. He didn't take a direct route to the Wall, like the King's Road. Essentially, he headed north along the edge of WolfWoods, avoiding all major roads because he had to be cautious with his giant wolves. They would attract too much attention and could result in a hunt by people with radical ideas.
This led Jon to approach many farms farther from cities and large villages. He took advantage and turned his lands into more fertile grounds for 100% utilization, provided predators didn't attack the crops. Still, it was a lifelong result, as his plantations would always be fertile from then on and wouldn't be destroyed due to lack of nutrients or the harsh Northern temperatures.
Jon had no idea how people would react to this, but in the future, everyone would take notice over the course of the moons, and soon, even more rumors would spread that the blessed child from the south of the North had passed through their farms.
Jon wouldn't be aware of the rumors in the coming moons. His plan was to avoid human contact whenever possible and always ensure his "visits" to these farms were stealthy. He used his power mostly at night in the fields. His goal was that he wanted to help, as Lucas had told him on the day of the attack, so he was helping as much as he could wherever he went.
Jon began to realize that he had acquired a degree of knowledge about agriculture from the Old Gods, something much more advanced than the knowledge he had read in Winterfell. So, he knew how to use his power on these lands.
The boy with these powers also never went hungry. With the seeds he carried, he could generate any fruit from them and could generate even more seeds from the tree itself. If someone were tracking him, they could see a fruit-bearing tree from tens of kilometers away.
He realized that he could create a forest in a desert once he became strong enough. He started imagining himself creating countless trees from the ground since then. He could dream about it every night, but his dreams weren't just about trees. He dreamt of Arya and his father, missing them greatly.
However, he couldn't deny that he had never been happier in his life than he is now. Unlike being in a protected castle with food, water, and a bed to sleep in, he felt trapped and unhappy, and now he is exposed to the world, sleeping on the ground and among animals, but he was free and happy. His animals had feelings of unconditional love for him, something he had from only 2 people among hundreds in the Stark headquarters castle.
Jon was in a part of the wolf forest, a clearing he used to rest a bit with his batch of companions. Meanwhile, he was lost in thoughts with all the knowledge he had in his mind now. One of them, which he was very interested in learning and practicing, was alchemy. He was remembering Master Luwin, who sometimes mentioned that it was used to make medicines and poisons.
He remembered that the master said that Dorne had many masters in poison funded by the Martell family themselves, and studies on remedies in Westeros were almost all done at the Citadel, the headquarters of the order of maesters, a place Jon one day intends to visit with his thirst for knowledge.
But with his knowledge in alchemy now, what the boy had in mind was more than just medicines or poisons. After his fight and his near-death from straining with his powers in such a childish body, he didn't survive by luck or the gods watching over him. He had been thinking that he needed more than luck when he's just a child fighting against adults. Jon couldn't win any in direct confrontation with his current body, so he needed to resort to other things, like alchemy.
He was thinking that the Winterfell maester said one day in his classes that some maesters use potions to increase their wisdom or, as Jon knew now, brain activity. But due to the side effects, it was extremely restricted or even prohibited by the order, as besides bringing horrible long-term results, such as maesters becoming dumber with attention deficits and, in some more extreme cases, bringing chemical dependence on the formula, making addicts to the drug.
But with this idea and thought, he began to reformulate chemical and genetic structures of plants in his mind to build alchemical potions with more powerful mixtures and minimal or nonexistent side effects. Instead of improving the mind, he would use all this to enhance his physical power. With this, then, the boy changed his plans and decided to delay his trip to the Wall until he could find a solution.
Your group settled at this moment in a part of the Wolfswoods after a few weeks of travel. Jon knew he was close to a town in the Glovers' lands. It would be good to establish his small laboratory near civilization since he needed resources for some time.
While still searching for a good place, he decided this because if he wants to continue his journey, he needs to learn to defend himself and not rely solely on his animals. He still had the short sword he took from a bandit after the battle. The old one he took from the dead man in the forest was very worn, but even being a short sword, it was too heavy for a child. He needed a forge to try to reshape it. He also had knowledge of forging thanks to the Old Gods now!
[Forging knowledge equivalent to a dwarf of hundreds of years in Tolkien's Middle-earth]
He needed to not only remake the weapon but also wanted to produce the glass for potion experiments.
Today, Jon decided to use his powers to access the memories of local animals again, not 200 as he did last time, as he almost died from it, but a few dozen to find a good place to settle.
So, through mental images, he found some abandoned houses northwest of his location. He was happy since there was a place that looked like an old, broken forge of some lord who settled there. Jon imagined that it belonged to some lord hundreds of years or even thousands of years ago judging by the conditions of the place, as the structure was very old like the oldest castles and cities in the North.
However, the boy was startled by the images of the next memories of that fox that passed through the area because the houses were not as abandoned as he imagined at first. In the memory, he saw creatures that were using the houses as dwellings and was nervous about it because they were creatures that until then, he believed were only in the fantasies of books and legends of the North, like tales that Old Nan told, not seen in the North for thousands of years.
He choked because these creatures were...
"Giants..." The boy murmured.
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A few hours later.
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"I hope this is not a terrible idea..." The boy said to himself as he approached the location he had seen while being surrounded by giant wolves and a horse, Caraxes was flying at this moment and studying the area.
Jon, from some distance, spotted the houses for the first time. He realized that the giants had destroyed the walls and some rooms to settle in a larger space, and even made their beds inside. It was incredible to see real giants, and there were 7 of them here, 2 of them being children who were twice the size of Jon.
He thought about how this place was very safe for them to live, as it would never be easy to find these structures, even though it was only two days from the end of the forest, he would never find them if not for his powers. Jon noticed that they made a giant bonfire in the middle of the place between the houses and thanked in his mind for not messing with the structure that seemed like the old forge.
Jon was unsure how to contact these creatures. They, as primitive as they seemed compared to humans, he somehow wanted to communicate with them, believing that they must have their own language, thinking about the stories in Winterfell like the giants fought alongside the First Men.
Caraxes, who landed next to the boy after flying over the area, would land on Jon's shoulder as usual, but the bird had grown a lot, going from a small chick to a little larger than an adult bird within a moon, which was bizarre, but that was due to Jon's magic. The young bird, initially unhappy with its size, as it was still a young bird mentally and could no longer perch on its master's shoulder due to its size, but always slept clinging to the boy.
Caraxes wasted no time and complained, sounding like a mother saying that the boy always does dangerous things.
Beside him, Panis, the horse that Jon renamed after taking it from the Icehill farm, was the most excited in the group silently, as he didn't want to alert the group of giants. The horse was a crazy adventurer. As for the 4 wolves surrounding the group, well, they were just wolves, as they remained quiet without expressing much, but ready to act if Jon was in danger.
Calmly, Jon began to approach the area. It seemed like all the giant residents were here, as he saw everyone who appeared in the memories of that fox. With his animals following him, Jon began to emerge in the area. Caraxes flew, waiting for any sign of danger to his friend and master.
"!!!" The giants, who were focused on their own things, stopped when they noticed the presence of the boy, becoming agitated by a child leading a group of giant wolves and a horse.
*Steps*
*Steps*
*Steps*
*Steps*
Their steps were quite loud against the ground, something normal when you have hundreds of kilograms. Soon, they gathered in a single group to assess Jon's and his wolves' intentions.
Jon knew they were afraid of his group. Even though the largest ones were 4 meters tall, the presence of the 4 wolves, each 2 meters in size, was intimidating, and it's very likely that the wolves would kill the giants in a fight since they didn't seem to have blades other than clubs made of pieces of trees or wood from the houses.
Jon walked cautiously towards them, showing no aggression. Soon, the two groups stood face to face at a distance of 10 meters, with no one saying anything. Jon in front of the wolves, and the giants looking cautiously at the boy and his group.
Jon, getting a better look at the giants, realized there were two couples, a giant that looked like a young female, and two twin children, totaling 7 of them here. The adult men were 4 meters tall, while the adult females were a bit shorter in height. The oldest giant was quite intimidating, with a scar over one eye, which ended up being closed due to the injury.
Jon didn't find the females attractive by his beauty standards, but he kept his thoughts to himself, not wanting to anger these creatures. He felt like an ant ready to be crushed in front of them, which made him quite nervous.
Jon also noticed that, despite them weighing over 100 kilograms, they all seemed extremely thin. This deduced that they had settled here recently. Seeing that there were only a few bones of a servant and other small animals, like rabbits and birds, that they managed to collect, their sustenance was more significant with fruits they were harvesting and piling up in a location next to the camp.
The boy took the initiative to communicate to break the tension that was forming with one group in front of the other. He knew he wouldn't come out whole if his wolves and the giants fought each other while he was in the middle of them.
"Hello, gentlemen giants! I come in peace and don't want to harm you. I just wanted to know if I can use that broken structure there because I need it, and I intend to reward you!" Jon pointed to the forge. But the giants didn't understand what the boy was saying. They just looked at the child with a strange look.
["We don't speak your human language..."] Their voice was thick and slow, as if carrying like a snowstorm in a terrible winter. Despite the slow tune between the words, the boy understood perfectly what they meant.
Jon wanted to slap himself at this moment, knowing that giants are originally an ancient people in Westeros, who lived even before the First Men. Obviously, their language would be the ancient one. He sighed and spoke the same words in the ancient language.
["Hello, gentlemen margranur! I came in peace and I don't want to harm you, I wanted to see if I can use that broken structure there because I need it and I intend to reward you!"]
The adult giants looked at each other for a moment and then turned their faces to the forge. *Whispers* Jon heard them whispering, even though he heard the boy between their interactions.
They knew it wouldn't be a problem to use that place, but they were still cautious, and the boy saw that. Thinking about what he could do to resolve the standoff, he smiled at this moment.
Taking the bag of leaves that stored the seeds, Jon took a brown seed from it and walked to a corner of the place carefully not to show any hostile action, his wolves stayed in place because Jon commanded mentally.
After walking carefully until he was about 5 meters away from the other group, Jon crouched down and began to dig the ground with his bare hands. After opening a hole and burying the seed, he stepped back a few steps, with all eyes attentive and curious both in front of him and his group of wolves on guard for any hostile action from the giants. He pressed his hand to the ground.
Below his hands, a soft emerald light began to become visible. The giants didn't fail to see this low thing between the ground and the palm of the small human here.
In the next moment, all the giants were stunned and even scared, taking steps back alarmed and even 3 of them falling on their butts.
The ground where the seeds were planted began to shake, and roots started to come out of the ground towards the sky. Soon, these roots became a trunk. After a certain height, the roots began to spread in 360 degrees forming its branches. When it reached the limit, all the branches began to gain leaves. In a few seconds, the dry tree that was there gained life with tens of thousands of small leaves, and from these leaves, red fruits began to be born. The magical spectacle turned into a large tree, 5 meters high in 40 seconds, shining with its green leaves and red fruits, which were apples.
This type of tree wouldn't survive in the climate of the North; however, the apple tree was strengthened with Jon's magic. The adult giants had wide eyes; the teenage female and the two children were quite frightened, and Jon smiled at that. He walked again to the spot and touched the tree, causing two apples to fall into his hand as if he had commanded the tree to do so.
Gaining a bit of courage, Jon walked up to the giants who were now more afraid of Jon himself than those giant wolves behind the tree.
Approaching within 2 meters, Jon bit into one of the apples in front of them, showing that they were edible. Savoring its taste, which Jon could never get tired of, he extended the free arm with the other apple and offered it directly to that group of giants, especially to the children, who were cautious and frightened.
Little Jon couldn't blame them, but the adult giants had a different thought, seeing a child surrounded by so many animals that not even the adult wargs in the most powerful tribes could have, and not to mention that 4 giant wolves are powerful familiars. Now, witnessing that this human child generated a tree from the ground with just a seed, in their heads, the human boy was a blessed creature, and they set aside the fear of the unknown for admiration of the child in front of them.
The giant with one eye closed due to the scar, who seemed to be the father of the twin children, nodded and told one of the boys to do what the human had suggested.
The still cautious child reached out and took that small red ball, observed again how the human was eating, then did the same. His bite took half of the apple, and Jon imagined he could swallow it whole if he wanted.
Suddenly, the 2-meter boy was surprised by the taste of that small ball and quickly swallowed the rest, leaving all the giants surprised at the child's action, wondering if it was that delicious.
Jon saw how the giant was amazed by the apple and ate the rest quickly. It seemed like he hadn't eaten something so good in his entire life. He quickly pointed to the tree and said in the ancient language, "This is called an apple, and that tree is yours as payment for me to use that place with a forge. I won't harm you, just use it for a while, and then I'll leave."
The giants, hearing this, looked with shining eyes now. Giants are naturally herbivores; they only eat meat with great need because they hate eating such food. And that's what happened when they came here; as they didn't want to attract the attention of the nearby humans, they didn't go very far from this place and had to resort to hunting to suppress the lack of food. However, giants are terrible hunters; they don't have most tools like humans and rely more on luck than anything else. This made them suffer from food shortages, even those they themselves hated.
They looked at the child and nodded with joy. No matter what Jon asked of them, whether it be that structure made by the former owners of the place or something else, they would willingly accept. Giants are difficult creatures to gain trust, but it's much simpler when there's food when they are starving and running away from north of the Wall.
Without wasting any more time, the giants walked past Jon and began to walk towards the apple-filled tree. Jon smiled at the scene before his eyes and went to the broken forge to assess its condition and start his work.
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