Familiar Eyes GoT/ASOIAF-Pokémon SI
Chapter 1 - A Hole in the Ground.
Through the forest a pack of five Direwolves ran, their paws making little to no sound on the frost covered ground beneath them. Their backs loaded with hare and bags of berries and herbs tied down with crude vine like rope. The lead wolf carried a small humanoid figure wrapped in thick bark like cloth and had features reminiscent to that of a Deer.
His name was Root and he was a Child of the Forest.
Root was a hunter of his tribe, and he was coming back from a successful hunt.
His tribe was one of the many that lived north of The Wall, though he had never met another, their Elder spoke of them occasionally though not in great detail. But that didn't matter too much, his tribe needed his strength as well as that of all the other hunters to stay fed. Especially with the first frost of Autumn arriving.
He looked to the north and the storm that had come up towards him at a fast pace. He focused his mind and his wolves began to ride harder in the hopes that he would miss the freezing rain. Illness would not do him any good and by the spirits he would not spend any number of days bedridden when his work was needed.
As he rode forth he saw, the red leaves and white bark of the Weirwood that marked his home. Atop a large hill beneath which ran the tunnels and cavern that his tribe lived in.
He saw his sister, Nails standing watch at the entrance of one of those tunnels and stiffened his back. He would rather not speak to her as she still hadn't warmed up to him after giving birth.
As the wind grew colder he though back to the summer now at an end and felt sorrow for the gulf that had appeared between he and the sister that he had once cared for so much.
He walked in and found himself enveloped in shadow, the smell of dry earth and the warmth of his home supported by the magic of the Elder and the Gods.
His catch would see that his son would be fed and not left to wander the cold when winter came and food ran scarce. The Elder always let the babes starve before able hunters when resources ran low.
One by one he and his pack walked down the root lined tunnels till they reached the central cavern, he paused in surprise for a moment as he found that it was filled with members of his tribe rushing around in a hurry. He dismounted and with the use of his abilities made his pack move into their own burrow as members of the tribe quickly took the goods off of their backs.
"The Elder wants you Root." he heard and without question he made his way to the Elders chamber, dodging the frenzied activity of the tribe around him.
When he arrived. In the Elders room he saw him. The Singer of the Earth, old and frail wrapped in the roots of the Weirwood, but eyes wide open dripping tears of blood. His expression identical to the solemn one carved in the trunk of the tree high above their heads.
"Child," the Elder began, eyes glancing around, focusing anywhere but directly at Root.
"Elder." He replied.
"You are the last to return. Good."
"Elder?"
"Before the sun sets my child we will be attacked" he said, freezing Root in his place. There had never been an attack on there home.
"Who is it?" he asked, would it be the men with their steel and maddened minds or perhaps the ones of ice that all the stories spoke of. Maybe the Giants would rip their home from the ground. He thought of the storm in the distance and felt it shake his bones.
"An old enemy." Was the response.
"Can't we stop them? Wouldn't your magic-"
"Do not interrupt child." The Elder let out a long sigh and crumpled to let the roots hold him up. In all his time Root could not remember seeing him this weakened. "The spiders have stirred and have a Giant amongst them." the Elder explained and Root thought of the times that the older hunters spoke to him of the creatures.
"I know not why he has joined the beasts, maybe he wishes to herd them. You and the hunters will need to be assembled and ready to defend us. I shall try to keep them at bay but my kind are silent to me. Should I be unable to do so I shall rely on you and all my children to do what it needed."
"My-"
"They outnumber us ten to one, but we are not without our own skills. Say farewell to your young ones."
Root stood in shock and as the Elder closed his eyes knew that there was nothing to be said. Only one thing to be done. He walked out to see his son in the nursery. As he left he heard the Elder shout to himself, "my kin. Answer me!"
-
Nails stood watch cursing her coward of a brother. It was all his fault somehow. First he had to sleep with her just because the Elder had told him to, all those years of helping him and supporting him and beating up all the other young who had brought him down and he still hadn't grown a backbone.
And now, here she stood gazing at the field of spiders, each a quarter of her size but numerous beyond words, clad in their pale white shell and fangs dripping with poison. In the middle of it all stood a giant figure that she believed was the giant that was said to be leading them, though it was covered in the insects and she couldn't see the flesh beneath the swarm.
By her sides stood six of her sisters, slings in their arms and fire rocks in pouches on their hips, would they do anything to stop the attack? Probably not. But the plan was that if the enemy was not pushed back by whatever the Elder and his apprentices had pulled together, victory would come from the Hunters and their Direwolf packs coming around from the rear when the Spiders found themselves caught in the traps that were hidden before them.
When the Hunters were dead and they all starved through the winter? That was a question for the Elder to decide. But she would not bear a child with any other to rebuild their numbers once more. It was hard enough to not kill her coward of a brother when he did.
For now however she was just waiting for the beast to make a move, the time ceased. The ground shook. She heard a large explosion behind her.
"What?" she gasped.
"They're inside" came the scream from the tunnels. But how?
"Block the tunnel, stop them!" Came more cries. Her sisters got up from being knocked down and wondered if they should rush in.
"Move the young ones!" the shouting continued and just as she and her sisters began to move the sounds of hundreds of moving spiders from the host before them stopped them all.
She closed her eyes and readied her sling. Her fool brother better abandon their orders and protect their child. By the Gods she prayed as her sling let loose. He better save their son.
-
Root rode his way through the tunnels, his pack following behind, praying that Nails would forgive him for letting her fall to the horde, but he had to protect their young one.
He heard the sound of the other hunters coming up behind him and as he burst into the central chamber.
He found a massive tunnel coming out of the ground in the centre. Spiders crawling out of it like a oozing wound.
"Gods make me brave" he prayed.
The tribe were in retreat to the edges. "Charge!" He heard a fellow hunter shout and lead his pack straight to the heart of the swarm, his bow firing flint and bone arrows into the mess.
He heard a sharp scream come from the Elders cavern.
The warmth of his home vanished and the ground shook. He fell off of his wolf. Who rushed forward to snap a spider in two.
Everyone around him was screaming.
Before him the hunter that charged fell into the swarm, he and his pack eaten alive.
He gripped a dagger and climbed to his feet. He was going to protect his home.
-
Thump thump thump.
"Ready!" Nails screamed as the spiders crawled over the bodies of their dead.
Thump thump thump.
"Loose!" and as one the six explosives flew, only half hitting the mass true target. The Giant that was running towards them at full speed.
"Throw them, throw them!" She screamed as it neared. The spiders falling off it when the explosives hit like a sort of armour.
Then it leapt over them.
Ran up the tree to the Weirwood at its top and ripped it apart from its roots.
"Gods" she whispered as the Giant screeched and turned to her.
Its bright blue eyes freezing her body in place.
"Others."
The Giant was one of theirs. The frozen enemy. And that meant-
"The Spiders are nearly here Nails," one of her fellow slingers shouted, "we have to go inside!"
Yes she said to herself. They couldn't beat this, they had to run.
And then a ball of fire fell from the sky and blew up the Giant.
What.
She turned her head and saw highlighted against the dark grey sky a large orange dragon with a flaming tail.
"ZZZAARRDD" it roared. Circling around and launching a spray of flame on the advancing spiders, creating a wall between themselves and the insects.
"By the Gods" she whispered.
The winged beast flew down to her and began to glow a bright white light that transformed it into a Direwolf that was white, black and bright orange as it landed.
It walked up to her group, and only then did she notice the figure that sat on top of the creature. It looked like a smaller giant wrapped up in furs.
A man. She realised
"Tme lok sa ru?" It spoke in a strange tongue a top its beast as she stepped back unconsciously.
Then the screeching began and she noticed the flames dying down.
She saw the man take out a sword from the cloth around his waist and a shield off his back, both made of the metal that the elder spoke of in his tales.
The Firewolf turned to the spiders and launched small balls of fire through them.
She looked to add her own ammunition in support but found that she had run out. She looked to her sisters and found then launching their last.
She looked back to the tunnel behind her. And saw a sight she didn't expect to see as Root and his fellow hunters came out. Though many of their numbers were gone and their bodies were all covered in filth and blood.
"Nails" he began when he saw her. "Is that-"
"A man and a Firewolf! What does the Elder say we do?"
"The Elder is dead," he responded.
"What?" she gasped in shock.
"The spiders tunnelled inside, the tribe is mostly safe but the Elder and many of his apprentices are dead. What of the spiders?" he asked.
"They're there. The Giant is gone because of the Man," she said pointing to the person on the Firewolf who had stopped throwing flames, seemingly exhausted and catching its breath. "What do we do?"
"We could go inside and seal the tunnels," one of his companions said.
"And the human?" one of her companions responded, "he saved our lives."
"He can come inside," came the response.
"We will starve without food for the winter and they will attack us again." She looked at all the hunters and said in a grave voice, "the Giant. It's eyes were the bright blue of the Others."
They stood in silence as this thought gripped them all. The winds of the storm growing wilder and wilder. "Where are the Gods?" she heard one weep.
"Ey!" he human barked catching all of their attention, pointing to the spiders who now moved forward through the dead flames.
"So we all go back inside and seal the tunnels?" she said gathering nods from them all. But stopped when she heard. Movement from the human and saw him charging the horde, the beasts mouth spitting fire at the swarm.
"Shit" she heard Root curse as he rushed forward on his Direwolf. His smaller pack following behind him.
They all looked at each other as the Hunters all joined the charge.
The Slingers all looked in shock.
Nails grinned, "Looks like the Gods gave you some sense brother."
She lifted up her hunting spear and joined them all charge. Rushing over the fields as the beast circled around the edge of the horde that chased him mindlessly. Its flames launching at the mass at every opportunity, the arrows of the hunters and the teeth of the Direwolves doing the same at every opportunity.
By the time they reached the battle. The spiders had began to retreat en mass.
The battle was over.
She did not expect it to be this easy but the smell of ash filled her nostrils and she wondered if she had overestimated their foes.
No, she corrected herself, looking at the scar of black across the land and the still burning corpses. All beasts fear fire.
They took a lift upon the Direwolves and with arm motions guided the man into their home.
Nails felt an overwhelming joy, they would survive the night. Then, looking at the flaming remains of the Weirwood and the flaming corpse of the Giant felt dread.
They may not survive the winter.