A great funeral was organised for the former King of Winter, and small and great houses alike came to the funeral. However, House Dustin of Barrowtown decided this was the perfect time to attack, while many of the Kings and Magnars, including the Glovers and the Umbers, were at the funeral. King Edwyn Dustin prepared his army, and marched for Winterfell.
Winterfell had recently been rebuilt, and was the former King Brandon's crowning glory. Winterfell had originally been built to be strong, but now it was more impregnable than Storms End itself. There was an outer wall 70 ft high and 15 ft deep, with not a single gap in the stone. Inside the wall was a large moat, with spikes at the bottom to make swimming through it nigh on the impossible. There was a huge gatehouse, large enough to take to giants side by side riding mammoths. Towers were dotted along the walls, all with large conical roofs, and spotted with scorpios and ballistae. The gatehouse was different again, with the wall set forward and back about 2 feet, with a square 'killing centre' in the middle, with four towers, one in each corner, which foregoed the typical conical tower for a large trebuchet.
Then there was a large bridge, which was made of wood, and was covered with traps, and at worst case could be burned down, led to the next gatehouse, which was wider and longer which lead to the keep. The second walls were 100 ft high, allowing the archers to shoot over the lower wall into the enemies. This wall was the same thickness, however was manned by the elite Wolfs Guard, the deadliest soldiers of the Wolfs Watch, the city watch of Wintercity, a rapidly growing, sprawling city outside Winterfell.
The Dustin attack was short and savage. Their army burned the city down, destroying it. However, while their army outnumbered the city watch on the walls 20 to 1, the army was no match for the thick, high walls. King Edwyn, as he watched the city burn, knew he had to take the castle quickly, otherwise the armies of Stark would march on their army, and while they may not have much organisation, as many of their leaders were in the city, they still had giants, which King Edwyn knew would destroy his army if he attempted to attack. So he sent his men, and they charged the walls, hoping to drown the enemy in pure numbers.
Inside the city King Rickard sat upon the cold throne, watching as King Corban Glover and King Jon Umber knelt before him, naming themselves his vassals and giving up their crowns. This was their response to the sudden attack. Suddenly, the door to his solar burst open, and a messenger burst in yelling. "Someone is charging the Dustin's my King." Rickard stood up and nodded. He walked out, flanked by Magnars Glover and Umber. His personal guard of nine humans and two giants filed in behind him as he climbed the second wall and was handed a Myrish spyglass, which he used to spot the force charging the Dustin's. The first thing he noted was that there were very few of them, only around 700 men and 10 – 14 giants. However, they were cutting through the Dustin soldiers in wedge formation. The next thing he noted was the blood red wolf on a black background, and realized who it was. He turned and told his captain, "It's Asher, prepare the giants and soldiers for a counter charge".
King Edwyn watched, shocked, as his rear-guard cracked and broke against the wedge in front of them. The men were all dressed in black, with bronze weapons, but were cutting through the Dustin soldiers like they weren't there. The giants they had, while few, were huge, 20 ft each at least, and were wielding huge one-handed hammers, bigger than two humans on each other's shoulders. At the head of the wedge was something that would haunt Edwyn for the rest of his life. A man, with short white hair, one eye red, the other icy blue, with a scar cutting through it, was slicing through his soldiers like they were butter. In his hands was a huge bronze greatsword, and at his hip were two bronze arming swords, with a third sword slung across his back. Edwyn watched as the man plunged the blade through the heart of one man, before drawing the two swords at his side. The man was already covered in blood, and, Edwyn noted numbly, was shirtless. Then he heard another horn. Turning his horse, he watched in horror as the gates of Winterfell burst open, and giants riding mammoths and other soldiers burst out, charging the enemy lines. His army was caught between the hammer of the attacking army and the anvil of Winterfell.
Asher cut his way through the Dustin's, who dared to attack during his beloved brothers death. He cut through the enemy, his blades singing their deadly song. At his side was one of the Children of the Forest, who he had helped escape the Ghischari and their insane death priests. On his other side was Yezzan, one of the Jhogwin, whose tribe he had help escape from the Jhogos Nai, in return for fighting for him and helping him steal a selection of their youngest Zorses, which were young enough to adapt to the cold of the North. He had sent the majority of his Jhogwin with the Zorses to the Nightfort were they could be kept in the glass gardens. He then took all his soldiers and the best fighters of the Jhogwin to attack the Dustin invaders. As he cut through them with his twin blades, he espied their command camp, which he promptly charged. While his brother had grown old and died, he had remained looking the same age, and the Children he saved theorised that he was practically immortal due to his ancestry and being part Other. This theory was further espoused by the fact he, when taught the song of life by the Children as thanks, he had an unnatural control over ice, yet none of the other elements responded to him. His speed was unnatural, and he never tired as well.
Edwyn watched as his son led a counter charge against those mysterious men and their huge giants. He watched, helplessly, as the men were butchered, and his son cut down singlehandedly by the bloody man. As he looked up, and watched as his men were decimated, he finally noticed the sigil of the strange men. A red wolf on a black field. He felt a deep sadness in his heart as his personal bodyguard, 30 of the best soldiers in the Barrowlands were cut down with ease. He sighed, and drew his weapon, a huge twin bladed axe, and charged to meet this bloody wolf that stood before him. He swung his axe and watched as the wolf moved almost in tandem with is axe, swaying just out of reach before flicking his blades with a strength that shouldn't be possible, cutting his horses head off with ease. As he flew towards, the ground, Edwyn wondered briefly if this could have gone differently, if this bloody wolf had not come. With that final thought in mind, he smacked the ground, and saw black.
Rickard watched as the dead before him were taken away, the wounded treated, and the enemy imprisoned. He was tired, his armour was weighing him down, his bronze greatsword, covered in Dustin blood, was lying next to him. Walking towards him was his uncle, Asher BlackStark. He had already heard some of his men call him the 'Bloody Wolf', and wondered idly if the name would stick. Next to his uncle was a huge giant, around 28 ft tall, and on the other side was a tiny person, almost a child. 'No', he though to himself, the Child. For now he could see the nutbrown skin, and the slitted eyes of the Children of the Forest. He bowed his head in respect to the Child, and turned to his Uncle. "Asher", he said coarsely "welcome home". His uncle nodded and spoke "I have secured us the alliance of the last of the Jhogwin, the greatest of the giants". Asher turned his head to the huge giant, who Rickard could only stare at dumbly. The giant went to one knee, and said, in a deep voice "I, Yezzan, leader of clan Qaggaz, the last of the Jhogwin, pledge the undying loyalty of clan Qaggaz, to house Stark, to the end of all days.". Rickard nodded dumbly and turned back to Asher, who continued to talk "Me and Greensight here have worked to an arrangement, if you marry one of the younger Children of the Forest, Life, and pledge the eternal support of the Starks to the Children, they will join you, teach your family the song, and advise and support the Starks till the end of days". Rickard nodded, quickly realizing the sense in that statement, and turned to Greensight and said gravely "I accept". Greensight simply tilted his head at him and gave him a strange look, and walked off. Asher followed him, along with the giant. Rickard sighed, and turned back to Winterfell.
With King Edwyn captured, and his only living heir being an unborn child in the belly of his wife, the Barrowlands surrendered quickly. The unborn child was named Magnar of house Dustin, to be married off to one of Rickards sons. With the majority of the North under his control, King Rickard turned his gaze to the Warg king. His army marched, and while they were quickly and often attacked, the Children had agreed to help and helped fight of these attacks. When the two armies met, the animals under the Warg King were driven insane, attacking and killing each other and the Warg Kings men, while the Stark armies drove through the centre, spearheaded by Asher and his Thenns, cutting down anyone in their path.
The Warg king was killed, his heir made Magnar of the Stoney Shore, whose unborn child was to be promised to King Rickards unborn son, as his wife, Joy, had just become pregnant with a child, and the Children could always tell a child's gender before birth. King Rickard, after waiting for a bit, then marched on the Boltons, the last of the Free Kings. When he arrived at the Glover camp, where he had left them to act as a rear-guard in face of a surprise attack, all he found was their flayed bodies, apparently the son of the current King Royce Bolton, Ramsay, was mad, and loved torturing and flaying people. It was said in the history books, 8000 years later, that Rickard was so angry he vowed to flay every living Bolton soldier. As his men marched, he came across a lone figure, Domeric Snow, King Royce's bastard son, whose half-brother had apparently attempted to have him flayed, in fear of being usurped. Rickard nodded gravely, and offered him a legitimisation and a marriage between his sister Bethany and him, which Domeric accepted gladly.
Domeric told him that Ramsay intended to mount a surprise attack the next night, so Rickard had dummies set up in the camp, and had the majority of his men wait outside the ambush, to ambush the Boltons. Ramsay watched gleefully from the shadows as his men charged out against the camp. He leads them, screaming his war cry, executing the first guard, then cutting down another. 'The flaying of the wolves was what they should call this battle', he decided. 'When we are finished, I'll execute my bastard brother, and kill my father while I'm at it'. Then, when he cut at the next soldier, his sword bit into him and Ramsay went flying. He turned and stared at the soldier, to realize it was a dummy. With a sudden, sinking feeling, he swore and started yelling "It's a trap, get out now". But to no avail. For now, flaming arrows slammed into the Bolton soldiers from all sides, and Ramsay watched as thousands of soldiers poured out of the places surrounding them, lead by the one they called the Bloody Wolf, and at his side, none other than his bastard brother. "Fuck you", Ramsay screamed, before charging towards him. He watched as Domeric turned towards him, pulling his string back on his bow, and loosing it. He watched as his death shot towards him, and he found himself frozen, unable to move. As the arrow thudded into him, he wondered briefly if this was the gods final jape, to be killed by the bastard he had plotted to flay.
Domeric was married to Bethany Stark, in the Godswood of Winterfell, due to the Dreadfort having been burnt down during the attack, his father had been captured and Blood Eagled, the Starks showing the Boltons weren't the only ones who could cause more pain than imaginable to their enemies. With that, the North was united, and Rickard, 10 years later, died a natural death, at the age of 73, succeeded by his heir King Jon I Stark, who gained the traditional grey eyes and long face, also had slitted eyes, and almost cat like agility and insane strength, which he inherited from his mother, Joy, who was 146 years old at King Rickard I 'The Conquering Wolf' Starks death.
Next chapter I will detail the changes the Starks make, and will also talk about the rest of Westeros. I am looking for a beta, preferably someone that has decent knowledge of A Song of Ice and Fire. If anyone has any suggestions for where this story should be taken please PM me.
No the Starks will not be having Ice Dragons, and the Starks will not ally with the Targaryens during their invasion.
Please review for that helps immensely.