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Under Jimmy's leadership, the group began their massive migration.
They crossed the Frostfangs, cut down enormous trees, and bound them into rafts.
Nothing was wasted.
Small branches were fed to the mammoths and deer, Larger ones were kept as firewood.
The Free Folk demonstrated perfectly what it meant to live off the land.
In the mountains they trapped rabbits. On frozen lakes, they smashed through the ice to catch fish.
For the most part, they were completely self-sufficient.
The only thing giving Jimmy a headache was their cooking tools.
They had no metal cookware.
Only stone pots or crude containers made from tree bark.
The few small iron pots Jimmy had brought became priceless treasures.
They were kept over the fire almost twenty-four hours a day, guarded like sacred relics.
…
Soon, Jimmy had cut down nearly half of the trees on one side of the mountain.
Using the ropes he had prepared earlier, the logs were bound into massive rafts.
Each raft was enormous.
They were practically floating islands.
Giants stood along the sides gripping giant oars. Four giants worked together to guide each raft while everyone else sat in the middle calming the deer herds and mammoths.
Jimmy moved constantly between the rafts.
Children sat aboard what they jokingly called the "Wood-Sail."
Horus gripped the ropes of the lead raft and dragged it through the sky toward Sea Dragon Point.
The speed was slow.
At this pace, it would take at least two and a half days to reach their destination.
For Horus, flying alone at full speed, the same distance would take less than five hours.
On the first day of the voyage, everyone was excited.
Some people even leaned over the raft's edges trying to catch fish.
Jimmy shouted loudly across the water, forcing them back.
"Spread out! Don't crowd the edge!"
"If someone falls into the sea in this weather, you'll freeze to death in five minutes!"
After hearing that, everyone behaved themselves.
Because cooking was difficult at sea, their meals were reduced from two per day to one.
Huge blocks of ice were melted for drinking water.
They boiled it in bark pots and added pine needles to slightly alter the flavor, making the water go down more easily.
…
Meanwhile, far away on Bear Island.
"Report! Report!"
A scout rushed into the hall.
"Lady Lyanna! Something strange has appeared from the direction of the Bay of Ice. A large number of… things. We can't identify them, but they appear to be heading toward Sea Dragon Point."
Lyanna Mormont immediately composed herself.
For a brief moment, she had looked like a fragile young girl.
But the instant someone entered the room, that softness disappeared.
Her elder sister had died at the Twins.
Her mother and two other sisters had vanished on the road to the Neck. No one knew if they were alive or dead.
Only Lyanna had returned to Bear Island.
Now she alone carried the weight of House Mormont.
Bear Island itself had little intrigue or political scheming, but that did not make life easier.
The island had only two rowing ships and barely thirty hunters.
Lyanna had spent months recruiting anyone capable of holding a weapon.
Even so, the total number of fighters she could muster was only sixty-one.
Barely enough to call soldiers.
Across the sea at Deepwood Motte, the Ironborn Queen Asha Greyjoy had stationed nearly a thousand Ironborn raiders.
Fortunately, it was winter.
Violent winds and towering waves battered the seas, and massive chunks of ice drifted in from the Bay of Ice.
Those hazards prevented Asha from launching a landing on Bear Island.
Not that the island was worth much anyway.
Bear Island had never been wealthy.
And it had suffered terribly under a foolish heir.
Jorah Mormont.
He had nearly drained the island of its last coin, stripped the forests of valuable herbs, and finally fled after being caught selling poachers into slavery.
When he fled, he took Bear Island's only ship capable of long-distance sailing.
Just when the island had begun to recover…
The War of the Five Kings erupted.
House Mormont sent almost every warrior it had to support House Stark.
The outcome was obvious.
Now fewer than five hundred people remained on Bear Island.
Most were children, elders, or women.
Only sixty-one people could lift a sword.
Not one more.
And even those sixty-one lacked proper equipment.
They barely had enough armor to outfit them all, and only enough shields and single-handed weapons to arm the entire force.
Only part of the soldiers even had armor.
At least there were plenty of bows and arrows.
…
Lyanna stood up.
"Knight, don't panic, The people of Bear Island do not behave like frightened children. Take me there. I will see it myself."
She climbed to the watchtower.
The sea wind was fierce, nearly knocking her off balance. She steadied herself and looked toward the distant waters.
Then her eyes widened.
"Seven hells… is that… a floating island?"
At such a distance she mistook the giants for tall men and the Free Folk for children.
But when she saw one of the "men" casually grab a deer that had wandered to the edge of the raft…
She finally realized what she was looking at.
Giants.
Actual giants from legend.
"Where are they going…?"
She paused.
"Sound the—"
She stopped herself.
"…No, Forget it."
"Raise the alert, but do nothing unless they head for Bear Island."
"The armies of the North already have enough people who deserve to die."
"Count their numbers instead. We should at least know what's moving through the Bay of Ice."
Lyanna pulled her cloak tighter and descended from the tower.
It wasn't cowardice.
This situation had simply exceeded Bear Island's ability to respond.
They had no ships.
No reinforcements.
No army.
If Bear Island chose to fight, the island would simply be wiped out and it would accomplish nothing.
If she survived, at least she could report how many Free Folk had crossed the Bay of Ice.
Besides…
With the soldiers of the Dreadfort currently ravaging the North, perhaps it would be fitting if they collided with these wildlings instead.
…
Meanwhile, Jimmy was pulling the massive raft to shore.
The giants helped drag it in.
Free Folk poured off first, rushing onto the beach. Then came the deer herds, followed slowly by the mammoths carrying the giants' belongings.
"Seven hells! Those are giants!"
Rickon had heard the commotion and ran toward the shore.
When he saw the crowded beach and the towering giants, his jaw dropped.
Osha stood beside him, surprisingly calm.
"Of course those are giants," she said. "But I've never seen this many before, I think Lord Jimmy may have brought every giant north of the Wall with him."
She wasn't entirely wrong.
Once everyone had disembarked, Jimmy led the entire group toward the caves.
The largest caves were given to the giants.
The rest were far too small to house the seven or eight thousand Free Folk.
But the Free Folk were used to sleeping outdoors.
Sea Dragon Point was far warmer than lands beyond the Wall anyway.
As long as fires were lit, people gathered around them could survive even the coldest night.
Jimmy raised his voice.
"Everyone listen!"
"Look over here!"
"I'm going to leave for a while to gather iron. We'll need it to forge weapons and armor."
"Yes, we've reached the free land I promised. But that doesn't mean we're safe."
"If we want to keep that freedom, we need to arm ourselves."
He pointed toward one of his trusted aides.
"While I'm gone, he will handle supplies and distribute food."
"The food is a loan. It must be repaid."
"Of course, you can also choose another option."
"You can become my warriors."
"If you fight to defend our freedom, I'll pay you."
"The payment can be food. Or swords. Or armor."
A voice suddenly shouted from the crowd.
"Can it be an iron pot?"
Jimmy froze.
"…Seriously?"
"Out of everything I just said—"
"Weapons, armor, food…"
"And you choose the iron pot?"
He rubbed his forehead in disbelief.
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