If you want to support me, check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions on them, so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
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123 AC, Haunted Forest, Beyond the Wall
After all, he had come North of the Wall to help prevent a second Long Night, and that was worth far more than any danger he might be in. And so, he walked, following the Potters and Leaf into the deep North, toward a place no sane man had tried to reach in thousands of years.
Leaf seethed in silence as she walked alongside the Stranger, his mate, and the Winter King, to what was most likely their doom. She would not have done this normally. She would have helped her kin prepare for what came after them. And yet, she felt an urge to be a part of their quest with every memory of the Wise One's tale, perhaps it would be more fitting to call it a confession of her kind's history, one that even the rest of her kin did not know.
She had often asked tales of the Cold Ones, knowing deeply from the moment she set foot on the world, that her fate would be intertwined with the war with them. None of her kin knew why the Cold Ones hated them above any other creature. They did not know why they targeted the Old Ones' eggs during the first war, nor did they even know the reason for their lowered rate of birth.
For a race that could peer into the past, there was startlingly much that they did not know about their own history, that it was built on the ashes and blood of other creatures, that their kind was not created by the Gods to sing the song of the earth, but to wage wars on their behalf.
Her mind went back to an old dream of her own, one that she treasured before all else, of thousands of her kind before a small forest of Weirwoods, all of them singing their hearts away. It was a time before man, a time that her kin treasured, and it was all built on a lie.
Leaf wished that she could curse the Wise One, or as the Greenseer had liked to address her, the Elder. Unfortunately, she couldn't, for she understood her decision to keep their past a secret. Many of her kin treasured the days before the First Men, often losing themselves in their dreams to this era, when everything felt this natural. Should they have known the truth…
No, she was sure that they would have endured it. Maybe.
She couldn't help but release a small growl at the thought. Perhaps she had joined the Stranger's mad quest to distract herself from what she had learned, to have time to truly digest and move past it. After all, winter was coming for them, and they would face it together or be swallowed by it.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Cregan's voice, "Are you well?"
Leaf was almost planning on throwing one of her daggers at him when he raised his hand in surrender, "I meant no offence. You seemed… troubled."
She clicked her tongue in irritation but kept her gaze forward. "It is not of any concern of yours, Winter King."
The boy seemed almost startled by the title she had bestowed upon him. It was one that he had earned when Brandon's weapon came to his aid when they battled the giant. She had never seen the sword before, as even in dreams the Long Night was far too dangerous to see recklessly, but she had heard the stories of the glowing weapon that struck the greatest of all the Cold Ones, the one that earned Brandon his throne and title as King.
When Leaf roamed the lands, Leaf realised that men were, for some reason, obsessed with their bloodlines. Of course, that gave their blood power, something that they treasured immensely, that could be sacrificed to the world to perform great magical feats. Her kind cared more for life than blood, and so their magics had adapted to it.
Then again, her kind were not born of the union of two parents, but from their forests themselves as the will of their gods, so perhaps their thoughts were simply too different.
"I have to say, I'm surprised that the Elder of your kind showed us your secrets so openly," Cregan continued, bringing her out of her thoughts once more.
She did not voice it, but she was surprised about this as well. The Wise One did not do anything without a purpose in mind. Every word she spoke was a lesson or advice in some way. It was why they called her this, despite it not being her true name. Leaf wasn't sure what her true name even was in the first place.
Perhaps the Wise One had answered to honour the debt that she owed the Stranger, perhaps she thought that he would have found the answers regardless, perhaps she was afraid that he would look at their kind and decide to end them for denying him his answers. Leaf doubted that it was the latter. The Stranger might feel terrifying and was far more powerful than what a mortal should even be, if one could even call him that. She had spent enough time to know that he likely would not slay her people out of frustration. Not that it made his existence any less chilling.
And so, she answered the man's question the best way she could, "We honour our pacts, even ones done on our behalf. The Last Greenseer was our protector and voice to the realm of men. His bargains and promises are our own, a sign of our trust."
Her voice weakened slightly in the memory of the man whom she had known since the day she came into the world. He had failed her, hoping to shield her from the world, yet she couldn't help but miss him dearly.
She could feel Ghost, the young direwolf who felt so strange to her, like a ghost of a future that would never be, hence the name she had given him, lick her hand in comfort, his master smiling at her sadly, "I am sorry for your loss."
Leaf simply nodded, accepting his words, yet refusing to answer. The wound was still raw. She would heal, in time, as everyone did. For now, the wound remained fresh, as they often had.
The young man respected her silence, and soon, she noticed a familiar mountain range in the distance, their jagged peaks sheathed eternally in snow. The humans called it the Frostfangs, but her kind, more accurately, called it the Great Barrier, for it was the true start of the Cold Ones' domain. No one who went past it ever returned, almost always swallowed by a cold that was too unnatural to survive. She could almost feel the Cold Ones' presence above them, as if the very winds were watching them, far away from the Gods' protection.
What was more accurate was the Stranger suddenly stopping and staring in the distance. She heard him mutter, "That's rather rude, isn't it?"
Leaf did not know what the man meant, and thankfully, Cregan hadn't either as he voiced his confusion, "What do you mean?"
"They blocked out spatial anomalies from forming from the mountains forward. It's rather crude, but undeniably powerful. Very powerful. I suppose it would have been too optimistic to hope that they wouldn't have made countermeasures after my little display in Hardhome."
Leaf flinched at the memory of the Stranger slaying a child of the Old Ones so easily, even a misshapen one. She still seethed at the Raven's heresy at the act, for their protection was a duty that was ingrained in every one of her kin, and by committing this act as their Greenseer, that meant that they were to blame as well, as he had used their teaching to the deed. Then again, if the Stranger was to be believed, the Cold Ones had planned on using it to destroy the Wall, which was a prospect that still unsettled Leaf deeply.
Cregan seemed almost horrified by the Stranger's words, "Please tell me you're not planning on making us climb it."
Harry snorted, "Thankfully not. There are valleys between the mountains, if I remember correctly. The Citadel didn't have much on the Geography beyond the Wall, but I distinctly remember a river called the Milkwater that ran through one of them."
Leaf nodded, knowing exactly what the man meant, and they walked South towards the river in question. However, as she took a step, the world shifted, as if she were running at impossible speeds, and a sudden chill enveloped her. She shivered, knowing that the cold had little to do with it, then it was followed by a loud release of magic, akin to a gigantic bell, before it disappeared alongside their surroundings.
She suddenly gasped, as the world made sense once more, almost gaping at the sight of a familiar white river a few feet away from them, "What did you do?"
"A little misdirection. Even if the Others know that we're coming, there's no reason to make it easy for them, is it?"
Realisation suddenly came to Leaf, as she realised that if she had felt the magic, then the Cold Ones likely had as well, and they would swarm its source, and where they had moved to. She inwardly admitted that it was… clever.
Cregan must have come to the same conclusion, given his snort of amusement, but that was short-lived as they walked past the mountains, alongside the river. Despite the small victory, Leaf could not shake the feeling that every step forward was a step into something none of them were prepared for. The air past the mountain's shadow felt heavier, colder, and more oppressive. Even the river beside them, calm and white as bone, seemed to run quieter than it should have, as if the streams were as dead as the creatures that roamed the Frozen Lands.
The river seemed to become larger as they walked deeper into the enemy's territory, yet its shore became far shorter, almost as if it had carved through the mountain range. Yet, they followed the Potters down the traitorous path, nonetheless. They did not speak much until the sun began to set and the night started to consume the world around them.
It was only then that Leaf realised that all the events that plagued her, from the moment the Stranger came to their cave, had occurred in a single day, including the battle with the false Greenseer and the Wise One's revelations, which shattered much of what Leaf thought of her people. She understood, now, the words that the Greenseer often uttered; sometimes, days could be more eventful than entire decades.
They ended up stopping near one of the caves, one that the Stranger had specifically chosen for some strange reason. It was not an unnatural sight, as they had walked past many others. She supposed that it could have been a simple whim, but she was sure about very little when it came to Harry Potter.
With a wave of her hand, Daphne Potter created a bonfire deep inside the cave, and sleep suddenly felt like a distant, almost foreign thought. The warmth was welcome, but it did little to settle Leaf's mind. She sat near the entrance, listening to the low crackle of the flames behind her, trying to steady her breathing while the Stranger forged protections on their temporary camp. Leaf did not know when she began to pet the young Direwolf's pelt, but she did not deny that it was comforting.
She felt her eyes close faintly in comfort as the oppressive presence that she had felt since they walked past the mountains disappeared, and when she opened them, a different scene met her. The bonfire remained burning just as intensely, with Cregan sleeping deeply in its warmth, his faithful Direwolf near him, and yet there were no signs of the Stranger and his mate.
Leaf sat up suddenly, and Ghost did the same, waking his master in the process. Cregan slowly opened his eyes and yawned, "What… What happened?"
"They are not here," she commented without answering the question.
She saw him freeze in shock and suddenly sit up to look around them. As expected, there were no traces of the Potters anywhere. The Winter King slowly walked towards where they sat, before Ghost sniffed traces of them and trotted deeper into the cave.
The Direwolf stopped before a wall, tilting his head in confusion, tilting his head as though expecting it to move. Leaf joined him and pressed her hand against the stone. It was solid, cold, and entirely mundane.
She almost removed her hand when she heard something in the distance, a song. It was not one she knew, and yet it was… familiar, like a distant tune that she had forgotten. She did not mean to answer it, yet a sound left her mouth, barely more whisper, yet it was enough.
The stone shuddered, and its surface lost its shape, sagging like wet clay before melting downward, revealing a narrow passageway into the depths of the mountain. Wind, likely trapped inside for thousands of years, released itself and blew out of the cave, leaving nothing but a distant darkness.
She couldn't help but growl in slight betrayal as she realised that the Stranger had gone through this place without telling them, had likely even chosen where they would rest with that in mind.
Cregan whistled impressively, "Well, I suppose we now know where they disappeared."
Leaf did not share his attitude, for she was quickly learning to dislike having things kept away from her, from the Greenseer, to the Wise One, and now even the Stranger, who she had thought his blunt honesty to be almost refreshing.
She did not know if it was spite or stubbornness that guided her feet, but she stepped toward the opening without hesitation, daring Cregan to stop her. To her surprise, the young man simply grabbed his weapon, lit a torch, and followed her into the passageway. "You do not have to join me."
He simply shrugged, "I don't think I'd be able to fall asleep alone, and it seems like a terrible idea to split up. Even the Potters walk in pairs."
The young man was so certain in his decision, and normally, Leaf would have dissuaded him. Alas, she looked at the glowing blade before her and remembered the tales she was told of the weapon and the legendary warrior who once wielded it. Hadn't Cregan proven himself in Hardhome against the possessed giant?
And so, she answered with a nod, and they slowly and carefully walked into the passageway. As they stepped inside, Leaf realised that the cavern was far larger than she expected, so large that their torchlight could not reach the far walls. Shapes lay scattered across the stone floor, half-buried under frost and time. At first, she thought they were boulders, but that thought quickly turned to horror as they approached, for she realised that they stood before a graveyard.
The first body she saw was that of a spider the size of a horse, its legs curled lifelessly beneath its dead body. He was one of dozens that almost littered the ground, each one having been slain by familiar arrows made of black glass. It was, undoubtedly, Frozen Fire, or as the humans called it, Dragonglass. As for the spider's body, it was not white, not like that of the Cold Ones' weapons, but brown, conserved by the cold inside the cave.
Farther ahead were dozens, if not hundreds, of bodies littered around. Most were frozen enough to almost look fresh, while others were nought but piles of bones. She recognised a few shapes, like a few of the Deep Ones that she had seen in the Wise One's visions, but most she did not, mostly large reptiles and creatures with too many limbs. However, they all held something in common: the Frozen Fire arrows impaled into them. Leaf almost winced as she saw the remnants of winged humanoid creatures lying atop one another, as if hoping to protect their kin with their own bodies.
She turned towards the walls, hoping to distract herself from the sight, only to notice that the boulders that her gaze had turned to were also impaled with her kind's chosen weapons, creating cracks in them. After a closer look, she realised that they looked more akin to kneeling giants made of stone, which looked like warriors trying and failing to make their final stand. She could see the remnants of roots around them, binding them to the ground, before they perished.
It was not hard to see what this place was: a battlefield, one that her kind had not left any survivors in. "I had hoped that it was all a lie."
And she had. A part of her had hoped that it had been a cruel jape from the Wise One, that it was not true, but there was no denying what she was witnessing. There was no denying the corpses that her kind left behind in their wars.
Fortunately, her musings were interrupted as she heard Cregan's voice yell out her name, "Leaf!"
Leaf barely had time to turn before a shape the size of a horse dropped from the ceiling. Eight limbs struck the stone with a crack that echoed through the cavern. The spider looked as if it were made of ice, its legs as sharp as her daggers, which were headed for her.
She reacted on instinct, throwing herself sideways as a leg slammed into the ground where she had stood. The impact split the stone. A hiss, sharp and cold, followed her as she rolled and came up on her feet, breath catching in her throat. She reached for her dagger, but before she could do anything, a blur passed in front of her, Brandon's sword in hand, the weapon's glow almost covering its wielder completely.
He leapt in the air, far further than any man ever could, and impaled the giant creature in the head, the sword parting it with ease, the giant creature suddenly turning into ice crystals, and dying with a screech.
Cregan looked at her and said, "We need to get out of here."
As if it were agreeing with him, they heard the chittering of dozens of creatures above them, freezing as they noticed the small army of Ice Spiders ready to drop down at them. Immediately, they ran back towards the passageway, only for a gigantic wave of skeletons to almost move and block it.
Leaf dodged one of the attacks coming at her and rolled, grabbing one of the Dragonglass arrows from one of the corpses, making it glow, and throwing it at the ceiling, where it exploded in a spray of fire, making the Ice Spiders above them screech and fall in pain, being impaled by the remnants of her people's weapons.
The path looked almost clear when something took her by surprise, and the impact disoriented her and threw her almost towards the horde of Ice Spiders. She barely managed to light another arrow of Frozen Fire to stop the creatures from taking advantage of her position, even though her body still reeled from the hit.
She finally turned to look at the source of the attack, and saw a stone giant standing and moving, a blue glow taking over the cracks on its body, and she felt Cregan stiffen in panic at battling another giant. A plan quickly formed in her mind, and she yelled at him, "Throw me!"
Cregan's eyes widened, but he did not question her request. He grabbed her and threw her with his newfound unnatural strength. In mid-air, Leaf grabbed a sphere of Frozen Fire and threw it in the creature's maw, before singing a platform into being, which quickly took her away from the battle.
The giant's face exploded, and the body fell down with a large thump. She smiled at the result of her plan and turned to see Cregan dispatching a few Ice Spiders, one sword in hand, while the other held a torch.
She moved to help him, ready to sing once more and use the platform to bring them to safety. Only for her song to be suddenly disrupted by… something. She was able to jump to Cregan's side, but her platform crashed, though it did crush some of the Ice Spiders with it.
Leaf prepared to form another platform, only to freeze as something shifted in the darkness ahead. The bones scattered across the cavern floor began to rattle, with the sounds of giant steps becoming louder and louder. Something was coming, something dark that had disrupted her song to the Earth itself.
Leaf's throat tightened as a shape stepped into the torchlight. If it weren't for the sheer oppressive song that she could hear as it approached, she could have confused it with another stone giant. Even then, the size was wrong, for it was far larger, and its limbs looked different.
Then, its head lifted and two eyes of burning blue locked onto them, almost illuminating the very cave. She saw curved horns rising from its skull, which made the monster before her look even more feral.
With each step, frost spread beneath its feet. Blue fire seeped through its chest, coiling up its arms like veins. In its hands was a gigantic whip, one made of the same blue fire that the creature seemed to breathe in.
Even the spiders refused to come near it. They clung to the walls in silence, or perhaps it was anticipation.
Cregan stepped forward without a word, sword raised, despite the nature of the threat. Leaf couldn't help but do the same, perhaps for familiarity's sake rather than any form of confidence, bracing for the creature's advance, instinctively knowing that there was very little that she could do against this foe.
And then the world changed, with heat surging around them. Flame erupted from the stone at their feet, rising into a ring that spun upward in a tight spiral, forming a wall of fire that circled both of them. The cold recoil forced the creature to take a step back; its flame flickered and dimmed under the pressure.
Then two figures stepped from the flames, the Stranger and his mate, looking at the creature with a mixture of interest and exasperation, "We couldn't even leave you for five minutes, could we?"
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AN: That chapter got away from me a bit. Don't worry, everything I showed here is related to the lore that sort of binds the White Walkers, the Children of the Forest, and the Long Night. Things should get clearer in the next chapter. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me, check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions on them, so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.