[Chapter Size: 3800 Words.]
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Third Person POV
Bear Island, 300 AC.
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"First, I want the fleet to split up and surround the island, especially to the south. Do not let anyone pass to the mainland or head toward Pyke."
Jon began giving orders in front of hundreds of birds standing on the deck, of all kinds. He was not speaking to the animals around him, but rather through the bonds with the wargs who were on each of the ships, serving as communicators for the entire fleet.
Each warg would inform his captain and guide the ships according to the order. It was a simple and direct method, and they quickly carried out what had been requested by the fleet's leaders, especially the king.
All the ships began to spread out in the following minutes. The fleet was divided into six groups of fifty ships each, becoming more versatile. Each group carried a different colored flag above the Arctic banner, to signal which group they belonged to, with a master ship leading each group.
These six groups began to separate. Two would remain on the sides of the island, two others to the south, preventing any ironborn from escaping, and the main group, led by Jon's ship, would dock to the north of the island.
Jon could already make out the raiders' ships along the coast. The ironborn could also see the fifty ships approaching, while the others tried to circle as far away as possible from the watchers' field of vision, preparing to catch them by surprise.
"Ser Barristan Selmy." Jon, who had been at the prow the entire time observing, called one of the men standing behind him.
The former commander of the Kingsguard of the Seven Kingdoms stepped forward. "Yes, Your Grace," he said, kneeling.
"You are already used to dealing with the ironborn, correct?" Jon asked.
It was obvious that he was. Jon himself had asked Barristan to pass on the tactics to his men regarding this group of raiders. He had fought in the Greyjoy Rebellion when Jon was still six years old and living in Winterfell. He had not played a major role in that war, continuing to protect King Robert, but he had experience and knew the enemy better than many who had distinguished themselves in battle.
"You are correct, Your Grace. The memories of the Battle of Pyke are still fresh in my mind. I know a bit of their tactics," said Barristan.
Jon nodded, satisfied. "Very well. I want you to help Lancelot command 1/3 of our men. We will enter with three thousand from the North, while the rest of the fleet will land more than two thousand at each point of the island." He paused.
"You and Lancelot will each lead a thousand men. And I will lead another two thousand."
"My king..." Lancelot stepped forward. He certainly wanted to be by Jon's side, but Jon shook his head.
"There are two larger concentrations of enemies on the island. One further to the east and another gathered directly at Mormont Keep. My idea is that you deal with the smaller one. There are many people kidnapped and placed there. They are being taken to Pyke little by little. Your task is to free them and exterminate as many of those bastards as possible." There was a gleam in the king's eyes that made Lancelot, though dissatisfied at not fighting beside Jon, respect his sovereign's order.
That was the king's command.
"The beach is already quite restless," Arya's voice sounded beside Jon as she observed the ironborn through a spyglass.
Like Jon and all the Kingsguard, she was already wearing armor ready for battle. All the soldiers on the ship were prepared for a fight.
Jon turned his gaze forward. "Let them run. Fifty ships are not enough to frighten them that much. At least not to the point of making them start fleeing the island."
He did not want to appear with the entire fleet at once, because the ironborn might flee. And even their ships could be destroyed with wildfire hurled by the giants, but that would endanger the victims inside the ships. Jon's goal was to save as many harmed people as possible.
Arya watched as the ironborn were already agitated on the beach, shouting as they realized they could not handle whatever was inside those fifty ships.
They abandoned the docked vessels and began to gather with the main groups inside the island, warning them of the arrival of the mysterious fleet.
The eagles continued flying through the air, watching everything.
Jon merely sighed; it was time for him to truly act.
He began by closing his eyes to concentrate better. His consciousness started to spread throughout the entire island.
The animals — especially the bears inside the caves, walking through the forests, those that fed on human flesh when they managed to catch prey wandering through the woods, or drank fresh water from the island's rivers, or even those that were simply sleeping under the sun — suddenly began to lift their heads.
Even those that were hibernating. Due to the growing accumulation of cold that had come more than a year ago with the White Walkers, affecting the temperature of the entire North, many assumed that winter was coming, and the bears had already prepared to hibernate. Even so, those in particular awakened at that very moment.
Jon was taking control of all the bears on the island at the same time.
"It's time to start hunting these rats," Jon murmured.
He knew that the ironborn were hunting the survivors who had taken refuge in the forests. So he would use the forest itself to slaughter them.
In one corner of the island, in a dense woodland.
A massive black bear weighing more than 500 kilos, in particular, sniffed the air and began moving in one direction, along with other bears who were also heading that way, finally joining one another along the path.
It did not take long for about six bears to be walking together toward a specific point in the forest.
It did not take long for them to hear barking, along with footsteps running quickly through the dense woods, as the bears watched a group of three people fleeing.
It was a man, carrying a child and a woman. A family trying to survive after the island had been raided.
"We found them!" a malicious voice sounded not far away, as another group of five men ran right behind, accompanied by a dog that was tracking the family.
"Release the mutt! Let him catch those fleeing rats!" shouted one of the raiders coming up from behind.
The sound of the dog running, with even fiercer barking, echoed through the forest as the three people ran as fast as they could, groaning in despair as they saw the animal closing in on them.
The dog reached the last in line — the woman — while the man ran ahead carrying their son.
The woman screamed when she felt the dog's teeth sink into her leg. She fell to the ground with a cry of pain and despair.
"Viola!" the man shouted desperately, stopping when he heard his wife's cries of pain echoing through the forest like the lament of a wounded animal.
"Help me!" she cried, as the man quickly grabbed a branch and began striking the dog.
"Let her go!!" He began striking the dog's head repeatedly, injuring it, but that only seemed to make the dog clamp its teeth even tighter into the woman's thigh.
The child was left aside, watching his mother's leg being pierced by the animal's teeth, while his father desperately tried to pull it away. The raiders were drawing closer and closer, and their laughter echoed along with the sound of their footsteps.
"Look what we have here. Damn, he injured the only thing we're interested in from this group," said one ironborn, laughing.
"It doesn't matter. With a leg or without a leg, what interests us is what's between them."
"You don't even care if she's alive or dead. I've seen you fucking even corpses," the other said, laughing even louder.
"You!" the man exclaimed in fury, trying to tear the dog away by force while his wife continued screaming in pain. She was in tears.
Their son trembled. He was only eight years old, witnessing that scene of terror.
"Kill the man. Get the dog off her leg. We need her," said the one who seemed to be the leader of the raiders.
"And the boy?" one of his companions asked.
"He's just another mouth to feed. I'd rather keep a woman without a leg," the man mocked.
He gave the order, and his companions nodded. They had been reeking for days in the forest, mixed with the smell of blood, hunting groups like that across the island.
The man no longer knew what to do as he saw the raiders approaching. Whether he should face them or keep trying to pull the dog off his wife's leg, which was being torn apart by the animal's teeth. He had already hurt the dog, but the beast would not let go.
With the teeth sunk so deeply into the flesh, his wife would, at the very least, be crippled for the rest of her life.
"Stop! Please! Why do you have to be so cruel?" the wife began to scream, despite the pain, when she heard that her son would be killed. "Please, let my son live! I'll do anything!"
Her pleas did not seem to matter to the men, who merely laughed as they approached, ready to kill the man and then the child, who was already starting to step back, prepared to flee into the forest.
What they could not imagine were the wild eyes among the trees, watching the scene since they had arrived with the dog attacking the woman.
The bears were only waiting for the right moment to act, circling that place in silence, preparing to catch the raiders by surprise.
The man looked at his son with tears in his eyes. "Get out of here! Run! And if you manage to survive... avenge us, son!"
Overcome with fear, the boy obeyed. He simply turned around, ashamed and saddened, and began to run in the opposite direction. What he did not expect, as he ran in tears, was to collide with something before leaving the area. That made him fall to the ground, frightening him.
At the same time, the woman stopped crying, panting, when she saw the enormous black bear standing in front of her son. This was the most powerful species of bear on the island, capable of reaching up to 600 kilos, while most weighed half that.
Even the raiders stopped laughing and looked on, surprised. That bear had emerged from between the trees without them noticing. It seemed as if it had been there the entire time, in silence.
The boy, fallen on the ground, trembled while his father called his name, but he barely seemed to hear. The bear turned its gaze toward the boy.
There was no savagery in its eyes.
The boy realized it.
He simply stared at it...
Almost with... pity?
But to the other onlookers, the bear was about to devour him.
"It's going to eat the boy..." said one of the men, still astonished by the largest bear he had ever encountered on the island.
"Who cares? We have to deal with it. Get the arrows. After it takes the boy, we'll kill it while it's distracted... At least we'll have meat for tonight," said another, casually.
The others nodded, very different from the woman lying on the ground and the trembling man beside her. What kind of father and mother could bear to see their own child devoured by a bear right before their eyes?
The raiders gave up on close combat and quickly began to grab their bows. They had two bows in the group, while the others were waiting for the bear to finish with the child before attacking it. No one wanted to face a bear directly — and that one was particularly large.
What they did not notice was the bush breaking beside them, as a second creature advanced without letting out any growl.
It simply opened its mouth in front of one of the men who was preparing the bow taken from his back.
The men heard heavy footsteps coming from the side. When they turned, one of them already had his neck pierced by the bear's teeth. He began to scream, but the animal quickly shook its head from side to side, tearing the flesh of his neck and ripping pieces away as his companions immediately backed off.
"What the hell!" a man shouted.
He barely had time to glance to the side, terrified, when he heard another heavy step. A second bear appeared, leaping onto him, knocking him to the ground before sinking its teeth directly into his face. The man let out one last desperate scream as his face began to be eaten.
"What is this?!"
The three remaining raiders stared in horror at their companions being brutally killed and devoured by the bears.
The bear standing before the boy took a few steps forward, causing the child to fall backward, but it did not attack him. The boy remained frozen on his back on the ground, watching the animal step over him and begin running straight toward the woman.
The man, distracted by the sudden death of the enemies while they were being surrounded by the other bears, only noticed when one of them was already close. He startled, but was surprised when the animal simply sank its teeth into the dog clamped onto the woman's leg, crushing the dog's head within its jaws.
The hound, which had still been growling, began to let out high-pitched howls of pain.
The last raider who had a bow began to grab his arrows with trembling hands, ready to attack any bear that was there killing his companions. But he was caught from behind once again when he heard footsteps approaching.
He spun quickly, but the bear was faster, grabbing his leg and throwing him to the ground before lunging and beginning to devour him.
The last two remaining men looked at the scene: three companions dead, the dog being devoured. A single exchanged glance between him and the other raider was enough for them to start running, disappearing into the trees.
One of them, however, was caught by a fifth bear that simply emerged from behind the trees, blocking their path and grabbing the raider, throwing him to the ground before beginning to devour him.
The last one managed to flee at full speed, running through the forest as fast as he could, still hearing the animalistic screams of his companions dying brutally and the growls of bears devouring them.
He no longer wanted to remain in that place. The bears, even though they had caused some problems over the moons while they were raiding the village, had never behaved like that. They had never joined together in groups to hunt them.
That was terrifying even for a raider of the Drowned God.
The sound of heavy footsteps frightened him even more. When he looked back, there was a brown-furred bear running after him.
Desperate, he ran toward a nearby tree. Knowing he would soon be out of breath, he began climbing as fast as he could and made it up. The bear reached the trunk and grabbed it, but could not reach him.
The man sighed in relief at having found a safe place. However, the bear began to growl up at him from below, making it clear it would not leave. That terrified him even more.
"Please... what is happening?" The man seemed to pray as he cried, clinging to the branches.
The bear stared at him with an almost human look, as if judging him: 'You were a raider, slaughtering families. Now you are being put in the place of your victims, praying to your god, begging for help? Your god will not come.'
The bear's eyes seemed to gleam with mockery as it growled. Soon, other bears, their mouths stained with blood, joined the brown one beneath the tree, growling at the man and waiting for him to come down to be devoured.
The raider trembled, searching for a way out around him — branches that connected to other trees, any path to escape.
He needed to calm down. He had time. The bears would not climb up there. At least, he thought he could count on that.
The next moment, he began to hear the sound of wings.
Some large birds began to appear, landing on nearby trees and turning their gaze toward him. An eagle, an owl, and another bird he had never seen in his life were there, motionless, staring at him.
The man seemed to hold his breath.
What was that? Why were those birds looking at him like that?
In the same way the bears were staring at him.
That was his last thought.
He flinched when, suddenly, all the birds lunged at him. He kept his hands clinging to the tree branches and barely had time to react when sharp talons began digging into his face. He let go with one hand to try to fend off the birds that were mercilessly tearing at his skin.
His screams echoed through the forest like those of an animal being slaughtered, as his face was ripped apart.
It did not take long for him to lose his balance. With a cry of anguish, he fell straight into the middle of the bears, who grabbed him the next instant and cruelly massacred him.
Back where the family was. The man trembled as he looked at his wife lying on the ground, while pulling his son back to him. Blood from the woman's leg was still pouring out, staining the earth red. She could no longer even scream from the pain.
They were surrounded by death. While the bears continued devouring the ironborn.
"Why are the bears doing this?" the woman, panting and crying from pain and terror, could not help but ask.
They had lived their entire lives on that island, but had never heard of anything like this. Bears did not gather in packs to hunt. They were solitary creatures, perhaps accompanied only by their own family, limited to teaching their cubs.
They had never heard of more than five or six adult bears together, much less hunting as a group. Bears did not share food. They were individualistic.
"I don't know... I don't know what's happening," the man replied, trying to watch for any movement from the bears against them.
But, strangely, none of the bears seemed to care about the family anymore. They dragged the bodies to a corner, feeding, and shortly after began to leave the place without even looking at the three of them.
The screams in the distance had already ceased. Only the sound of branches breaking remained as the bears moved away.
How that was happening, none of them knew.
The man quickly turned his attention back to his wife's wound.
"We have to stop the bleeding," he said nervously, searching for anything he could use. He ended up removing his own shirt, tearing it and wrapping the fabric around his wife's injured leg. Even so, he knew she would probably never walk again.
"This could only have been the work of the old gods... They were the ones who sent the bears," the woman said in a weak but relieved voice.
The man remained tense. The improvised cloth did not seem to help. The blood was still flowing without stopping.
That was when a bird landed there, making a sound that announced its arrival.
The three of them looked in surprise at the bird, which was carrying a medium-sized bag by the strap, bringing it to them and making them freeze.
The bird landed calmly, released the bag near them, and began to make short sounds.
The man looked at his wife for a moment, then cautiously approached the bag, still keeping his eyes on the bird that was watching them.
Opening the bag, there were medical supplies and a large roll of clean cloth.
"What is this?" he murmured.
Obviously, it was for the wound. The flasks were marked with numbers. The man did not know how to read, like most common folk, but numbers were not unfamiliar to them. It was part of life to know how to count and at least recognize numbers... He realized the flasks were numbered, indicating which one should be used first, even before the roll of cloth.
Despite thinking all of it was absurd — where had that bird come from? How had the bears protected them? And why were they receiving such well-prepared supplies, with flasks far better than anything they had ever seen? — he hesitated for a moment, but picked up each flask according to its number.
He began pouring the contents of the first flask over the wound. He did not know that it served to disinfect and prevent future complications, but he did it anyway. Then he tightly wrapped the cloth around his wife's leg until the bleeding finally began to stop.
Only after some time were they able to breathe.
There were still corpses scattered around the place, remains left by the bears. The bird had already gone. But whatever had happened there had saved them.
"Come on. We have to get out of here. I will carry your mother. I want you to walk with me, Pietro, understood?" his father said to his son.
The boy, still stunned by everything he had witnessed, nodded.
And so that family left that part of the forest, without knowing what had truly happened.
And they were not the only ones.
Across the entire island, Jon controlled the bears, hunting the ironborn in a strategic and efficient manner — something completely outside the natural behavior of the island's bears. As more raiders were killed, he sent birds carrying bags with medical supplies and even food whenever he saw wounded survivors in need of help within the forests.
Meanwhile, on the northern coast, the king himself finally began to disembark onto the beach.
His men were already checking the abandoned enemy ships, while the ironborn fled to join larger groups, warning them about the enemy fleet.
"Some prisoners were left behind. All of them women," replied one of the soldiers assigned to inspect the ships.
"I understand. Remove them all and place them under protection. We will need to keep them alive and I want to speak with them," Jon ordered.
The fifty ships that had landed in the north began gathering all the Arctican soldiers. Around three thousand armored men were organizing themselves on the beach.
Jon continued receiving information from the island, guiding the bears to hunt small groups of ironborn who were still chasing survivors in the forest.
His gaze then turned toward the Mormont lands beyond the beach; all the terror they had brought upon this island would end today.
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