The night was beautiful, with a lone moon hanging over the sea, casting the entire surface into a shimmering silver-white glow.
But under such moonlight, a wolf's shadow was leaping about, bounding through the bright night.
From time to time, it would leap high, climbing along narrow cracks in the rocks, and finally sit atop a stone, lifting its head to gaze into the distant sea.
Sometimes it would approach a cluster of flowers, lower its head to look at their colors, and in the end bring its nose close to sniff the flowers' fragrance.
Occasionally, as though it were thirsty, it would find a small pool, stare at its reflection, admire it for quite a while, and only then lower its head to lick the taste of the rainwater collected there.
The night did not hinder its vision, so it would also slip into dark caves to wander about, as though adventuring in an unknown world.
In the end, without knowing how it got there, it arrived at a place of scorching heat.
It looked up and saw a creature roughly the size of a sheep, but with no hair covering its body, sprawled out on its limbs, wings spread open, sleeping on its back with deep, steady breaths.
Its mouth hung open, and flecks of sparks gently puffed out from its mouth and nose with each breath.
The burning heat washed forward in waves, surging toward the wolf's shadow with its breathing.
An intangible aura was brewing on its body, slowly pressing toward the wolf's shadow together with that rising heat.
Unease surfaced in the wolf shadow's heart, and instinctively, it wanted to retreat.
But a foot appeared behind it, blocking its way.
"Ghost?"
"What are you doing running into my room in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?"
Kal, who had just returned from "working" in the game world, looked in puzzlement at Ghost—who was bristling all over and trembling slightly—lying in front of the little gold dragon Robert.
However, as his confused voice sounded, Kal immediately noticed something odd in Ghost's blood-red eyes.
Normally, Ghost never had this kind of expression. Lively, yes—but never with this kind of awareness.
In fact, it was somewhat like a human's gaze.
No, to be precise—it was like the eyes of a lost, confused person.
"Wait?"
As Kal thought, he could not help but become aware of something.
Then, before Ghost could instinctively dodge, his large hand pressed down on Ghost's head in one go.
Grabbing it by the back of the neck, Kal leaned in even closer, and at once saw even more clearly that the look in Ghost's eyes truly was not the same as on usual days.
And now that he had caught it, it did not show the reaction an animal usually would when suddenly grabbed, but only showed a kind of instinctive shrinking back under his stare.
Seeing this, Kal narrowed his eyes and carefully sensed.
Then he sensed on Ghost's body a faint, indistinct feeling of spiritual clarity, like nitrogen and argon spreading through the air.
"So you're not Ghost, you're Jon—" By now Kal had already realized the reason.
Next, an interested expression appeared on Kal's face. He released Ghost's neck, pressed down on its head, and muttered, "A skinchanger awakening—is it that the power of magic has been growing stronger recently?"
"Or is it simply that the Stark family has also begun to awaken the wolf-spirit gift in their blood?"
"Or perhaps both?"
While Kal was studying this albino direwolf that was not sleeping in the dead of night but had run over at midnight to "launch a night raid" on his little gold dragon...
It was unclear whether his arrival had woken Robert, or whether Robert had caught his scent.
Or perhaps this little glutton, who did nothing but eat and sleep and sleep and eat, had only just now noticed that something unfamiliar had come up beside it.
"Roar~"
The dragon the size of a sheep immediately rolled over and stood up, the wings on its back flapping as though it were stretching.
After that, it first stretched out its head—on which the budding outline of dragon horns could already faintly be seen—and rubbed against Kal's body, then finally looked curiously at the direwolf Ghost in Kal's hands.
Looking at this pure white creature, somewhat beautifully shaped and somewhat like a sheep, Robert tilted his head, as though thinking about something.
Then, two seconds later, it seemed to have understood something, hurriedly flapped its wings again in delight, stretched out its neck, and opened its mouth wide.
A scorching breath gradually began to spread in its throat.
And Kal, who had originally been smiling on the side and quietly watching the two interact, upon seeing that Robert had actually taken Jon's direwolf for prey he had brought it, also hurriedly panicked, his expression changing in alarm.
Seeing that Robert was just about to breathe out a mouthful of dragon breath, Kal, quick of eye and hand, hurriedly thrust out his hand and, in one motion, pinched Robert's gaping mouth shut, squeezing his lips back together as if welding them closed.
But dragon breath is easy to spit out, and hard to take back.
Before Robert could even react, with his doting father pinching his mouth shut, the entire mouthful of dragonflame was spewed into his own mouth.
But dragonflame is not some kind of saliva that, if you can't spit it out, you can just swallow down while forcing down your disgust.
That blazing fire was utterly pervasive, so even though Kal had already pinched Robert's mouth shut, the flames still came bubbling out everywhere toward the outside, like a child playing a blowing game with their mouth closed, puff-puff-puffing out.
The flames, gusting as they blew, shone bright red-orange with a faint blue-green, lighting Kal's dim room into a riot of shifting colors.
The flames might have been pretty to look at, but Kal—the one who had taken the initiative to step out in front of Ghost and even reached out to pinch Robert's mouth shut—was the one who ended up in deep trouble and suffering for it.
That dragonflame, whooshing outward, was like a flame-jet radiating heat in all directions; in just a second or two, it had scorched Kal's clothes until they were pitch-black, charred and stinking, torn and ragged.
The dignified Protector of the Realm, King of the Seven Kingdoms, at this moment looked simply worse than a beggar.
But fortunately Robert's reaction was still quick; after the dragonflame had flared out for less than two seconds, it hurriedly and forcibly swallowed it back down. Otherwise, the king right now probably wouldn't even have a set of rags left to wear.
"Damn it, didn't I just introduce this as Jon's direwolf to you?!"
"You bastard, are you so muddleheaded from sleep?!"
"Most importantly, just how many sets of clothes of mine is this now?!"
As he watched the flames go out, Kal glanced at the clothes on his body, which had originally been perfectly fine but in the blink of an eye had turned into rags, and immediately decided that he ought to give the child a complete childhood.
So he yanked off the leather belt at his waist, which had already been scorched by the flames to the point it was about to fall apart, folded it in two, held Robert down, and gave its backside a solid thrashing.
He whipped Robert until it was wailing.
But Robert was quick-witted as well; after wailing twice, it immediately changed into cries of submission, and even took the initiative to roll over, expose its belly to Kal, and stare at him wide-eyed and pleading.
Seeing it looking so spineless, Kal only grew all the more furious.
On the spot—he gave it two more smacks.
"Damn it, when I tell you to recognize a direwolf you can't, but you sure pick up a dog's moves fast!"
Fortunately, it was still his own child after all; killing it was out of the question, he would just have to discipline it a bit.
Thick-skinned and tough-fleshed to begin with, and lately eating so well it had grown plump and sturdy, Robert did not care about any of this. Seeing that his "doting father" was no longer angry, he hurriedly got up and, with a fawning face, came over to nuzzle and act spoiled.
Kal felt he was almost laughing from sheer anger, but could only helplessly drop the belt.
With a casual flick of his tail, Robert swept this thing that had just been used to smack him off into a corner to the side.
Kal pretended not to see his action. His fingers slid over the game panel, and with a few taps he changed himself into a fresh set of clothes again.
"No, this won't do. Next time I have to take the dragon eggshell fragments to a tailor and see if they can fuse this material into the fabric of my clothes. Otherwise, if I keep getting hit with this kind of thing from this fellow every now and then, others will probably give me some nickname like 'the Naked King,' 'Kal the Streaker.'"
Thinking of that magical tailor in the game world who could make clothes out of dragons or whatever other creatures, an idea could not help but rise in Kal's mind.
The suit of dragon armor he had forged for himself would not be scorched by dragonflame; after all, besides its powerful physical defense, it also had extra magical defense.
Kal had tested it; it could withstand even Artessa's dragonflame.
Earlier Kal had been wondering whether the runes of House Royce of Runestone had this same effect, and he had even been planning to find a chance to talk with House Royce about this matter.
But no matter how strong that thing was, Kal could not possibly go around wearing it in his daily life.
Still, all that being said, this job was not urgent.
For the moment, he still had to study what exactly was going on with this kind of magic where Jon's consciousness attached itself to an animal.
And just as he turned his head to look again toward where Ghost was, that place was already empty.
"Runs pretty fast, doesn't he…" Kal's mouth twitched speechlessly, and he could only turn his head again to look at Robert, who had his tongue sticking out and his mouth open, just short of speaking.
"Hssss… Forget it, forget it, this is my own sin, my own sin…"
Kal ground his teeth and forced down the idea of giving this little bastard another beating, then stretched out a finger and poked Robert on the head.
"Remember this for me: people you're familiar with—no, never mind, whether they're people or not—anything that's our own property, you are not allowed to burn!"
Seeing that there were no tasty dragon eggshells to eat and that he had even taken a beating, Robert could only lower his head and submit to the lecture.
"And Jon Snow—no, that fellow is now called Jon White Wolf—doesn't he also have dragon's blood flowing in his veins? How did your half-asleep brain get so muddled?"
Robert's head bobbed up and down, his face full of grievance.
"What, you mean the aura on him has changed?"
"No shit it's changed—and you're a dragon, not a dog!"
Kal's face was full of frustration at its incompetence and disappointment at its failings.
Then he stood up, stroked his chin, and looked at the bright moon outside the window, thinking seriously, "This won't do. It seems I'll have to think of a way to bring Robert back into the game world again."
"When the time comes, I'll have Artessa teach him, send him to kindergarten."
"Even if he can't learn a few spells like hers, he should at least learn how to talk, otherwise he's going to end up acting like a dog all day."
"Damn it, how exactly does this game world let you bring living creatures in and out? Am I supposed to Daze Robert first and pack him up as prey?"
"And next time I'll have to try and see if I can bring bandits out as well; otherwise it's not cost-effective to keep taking turns in bed with the three vampire sisters."
Robert understood what Kal was saying, and with a mix of curiosity and fear he expressed his grievance.
Then, with a pa, Kal tossed him an entire bear carcass and a few pieces of dragon eggshell.
At once, this little fellow obediently took the bear's body in his mouth, scooped up the dragon eggshells, and went back to his own spot.
A few bursts of dragonflame later, the bear meat was charred on the outside and raw within, but Robert still ate with saliva flying everywhere.
"Mm, I still have to change his lair. At most half a month, this fellow will probably be as big as a cow, and by then he won't even be able to get out the door."
"And then there's Jon…" Letting Robert have his extra meal at the side, Kal thought of Ghost, whom he had just seen, turned, walked over to his bed, and lay down on it.
As for the principle behind skinchangers, Kal really had not studied it much; after all, in the original work this thing mostly existed to serve the plot
But regarding skinchangers, he vaguely remembered some theories he had read in his previous life.
Skinchangers are humans who can invade the consciousness of animals or other people and control their actions.
In the original work, after Bran was paralyzed, he was one such person; besides Summer, Hodor was an even more typical human whose mind was invaded by him.
In the show, when Bran later saw the Night King and his followers mustering for war through the greensight, he was grabbed by the Night King, who left his mark on Bran's hand, and everyone's location was immediately exposed.
After that, he invaded Hodor's mind and controlled him to resist the wights.
But in the greensight, young Wylis seemed to hear Meera's call, and in the process of repeatedly saying "hold the door!" suffered some kind of mental injury, becoming the way he later was.
He lost his ability to speak and could only repeat the syllable-swallowed sound of "Hodor."
As for the greensight being able to see the past, traverse time, and influence the future—
Kal feared this thing deeply, yet also had no way to deal with it.
But now, with Jon beginning to awaken the skinchanger ability, Kal could not help but start thinking about the greenseers—
or rather, whether the Three-Eyed Raven, Brynden Rivers, was still the same as in the original work.
Regarding Bran, who had been saved by him, had not become paralyzed, and had even been brought to King's Landing by Catelyn—what thoughts would he have?
Would he choose someone else to be his successor, or rather choose someone else to be his new body?
"I remember that the link between a skinchanger and an animal's consciousness affects the personalities of both sides; once the human consciousness cannot surpass the animal's, it will have an adverse effect on the human."
"If a skinchanger occupies an animal's consciousness and that animal is killed, it will cause extremely severe damage to the human."
"If a skinchanger is killed while invading an animal's consciousness, then a portion of his consciousness will remain in that creature."
"Greenseers seem to persist through this method."
"Such theories include Jeor Mormont's raven—when electing the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, his raven appeared and said Jon Snow's name."
"And the one-eared black cat in the Red Keep, suspected to be Princess Rhaenys; after all, she inherited her great-grandmother Betha Blackwood's First Men bloodline and may have also inherited skinchanger ability originating from the First Men."
With Robert eating beside him, smacking his lips, Kal lay on the bed and found himself thinking more and more.
As the magical tide rose little by little, the recent strange and fantastical events seemed to grow ever more numerous.
And with his own arrival, the variables of history had long since become unpredictable for him.
"In that case… if the greenseers have not given up yet?"
"Does Bran Stark still face danger?"
Looking at the moonlight outside the window, the more Kal thought, the more confused he became, until at last his eyelids gradually drooped.
He truly had been quite tired lately.
After noticing that Kal's breathing had become steady, Robert turned his head to glance at him, then picked up the leftover bear carcass, made his way to the window, and with a leap spread his wings and flew out.
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