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Chapter four

It was close to two weeks after he had left his home. He had taken the kings road to castle black maintaining a steady pace to not tire the horse.
It would be impossible for any search party to catch him after a week's journey. Lady stark will make sure he has that much head start. Ironically the last person that would ever help him was lady stark. But without her this journey would have been possible he laughed bitterly. After following the road for a week he changed the direction to north east. Travelling woods after woods becomes a kind of routine. This is the farthest away he had been from winterfell. He was leaving on rabbits, hares and one time he even was lucky enough to put down a small boar which had lasted for 4 days. Because of the provision he had gotten from the kitchen he didn't have to worry about starving when no game was found. The head cook would have gone mad for the amount of found he was able to sneak out of the kitchen.

Human contact was at minimum. He had passed a few town and villages but never spend any time to interact with them. Only filling his waterskin from a village or town well and leaving. He already had a false story formed up if someone asked. He was a bastard of a guard of castle cerwy, searching for his mother who was a fisherwomen. After lying a large amount for amira' sake, he had learned that the best lies were the closest truth. He had reached the coastline a day ago. He was travelling north along the coastline now.

Jon was not a idiot. He knew there was not straight way to travel skagos. In fact there was no way to travel to skagos. The island was one of the most isolated in whole of westeros. It was a mystery. That is why it had been an interest for amira and him. A land which nobody had explored and studied from the time of westeros's birth.. If he managed to get there alive, then survive among cannibals after that he may have a tiny chance of finding some gold mine or something, thought Jon to ridicule himself. Every land has its limits and advantages. Skagos must have its own. If he could find and somehow use it to for his betterment that all this trouble would be worthwhile, thought jon to reassure himself.

For all their small life Jon and amira both had tried to find some purpose for their future. Robb had winterfell, sansa had his husband castle, bran and arya too would have something, even baby rickon will, as a third son can be master of arms or be a castlellan. What would they be? Lady stark will not allow them anything in winterfell that was sure so they had to find their purpose. Wall was not one as amira can't be a black brother. Because of amira's curious nature they thought of being explorers .to travel to exotic and new lands. Sure they can work as sailors and even can be merchants if they want to travel. But what is the fun and adventure in that. They wanted to find something of their own. To live other than the bastard twins of winterfell, the shame of house stark. Or in the end it was just children foolishness. But if there was a land which was within their reach than it was skagos.

Now for all their isolation the skagosi can't leave without any trade for so long. Skagos was a harsh land with rough and treacherous currents around the isle, preventing safe sailing. They had good water for fishing but that can't sustain a whole island. If trading along the east coast was not possible there has to be some kind of trade between the west coast. Even it is a small boat for fishing it would be sufficient for jon. With that in plan he hoped that he would find what he was looking for, before he travelled all the way to east watch by the sea.

He was passing what looked like a hut for fisherman when he heard the scream. His right hand reached for his sword as he got alert. He took some time to decide to follow the scream or not. In the end he went towards the direction of its source. He heard a continuous grunting sound as he got near. When he was closed enough to look from a small window he froze. A man not younger than jory was forcing herself on a girl. The girl did not look older than jon. To stop her from screaming he had a hand on her throat chocking her while he rapped her. The girl was close to fainting by her looks. the fear in her eyes woke him up. He went around the window through the door silently as ghost while unsheathed his sword. He rammed the end of it to the exposed neck of the man. The man spluttered and chocked on his blood while the girl below him got showered in it. After a couple of seconds of trying to stop the blood he fell on the girl dead. Jon had killed a man by ramming a sword through his neck when his back was turned. The man didn't even got to see the face of his murderer.

He was so shocked with what he had done that he had noticed a bear of man who had entered the hut. He had yelled at him with a foreign tongue. The next thing he knew he was on the ground, searing pain was coursing from back of his head. The big man had used the bottom of his axe to struck him on the head. The last thing he saw was the blood of the man he had just killed trying to reach him.

When jon woke up his head was pounding continuously and he couldn't see properly. After t a few moments of trying he finally was able to process his surroundings. He was tied to tree just tight enough so that he couldn't escape. Around a small fire 6 huge men were sitting. He tried not to make noise so that they will notice he had woken up, but the big man who looked the one who had hit him was staring at him.

"it looks like the fuckin killer had finally woken up to grant us his presence huh" . The accent of the man of so rough it was difficult to understand with his throbbing head. Now all the attention of the men was at him.

"Who are you? Why had you bound me?"

Hearing his question made all the men laugh. "ha you just ran through one of our man, that too when he was busy fucking. You are lucky enough to live boy."

"he was raping a girl. He was hurting her. Where is she? Did you…". He couldn't complete his question when his mind flew all the images of worst things these men would have done to her. If he guessed correctly who these were according to their attire and rough talk, death would have been a better fate her. They all were tall. The shortest one was probably the height of ser rodrick, who was taller than most man in winterfell. The tallest one was close in height to hodor. The grandson of old nan was considered to have giant blood. They all had shaggy beard with stone with different colors wound in them. It made them looked even more fearsome. They were all holding a strange horn filled with some kind of drink he could not recognize from the smell. They all carried at least one axe. Some even carried a bow made from strange wood and swords. They all had many furs to cover their body. Two had some semblance of armor which was crude as their wearer. One of them was wearing a gold arm band on his right arm, just below his shoulders. These men didn't look and behaved anything like northmen. This was a feared wilding raider party. He had heard about wilding raids around the umbers land. Jon feared that he may have come too close to the wall. He just hoped that the villagers had send some news to a nearby holdfast so they send some men quickly. Jon knew the chances of that happening were small.

"Don't worry lad, the girl is with his mother getting treated for her injuries. Now we will answer you, first tell me who are and what are you bloody doing here of all place"

Jon for a moment thought to answer truthfully, as they could help him to reach skagos . But if one of their own can do that to a girl…, he shuddered thinking about that. He can't trust these men. They may have killed the girl and were lying to him. His hesitant was clear on his face apparently.

"If I found you are lying I will have your head boy "the wildling said casually like he was talking about dinner. But what were wildlings doing so south of the wall. He had never seen a wilding before but heard the tale about them from uncle benjen and old nan. Jon feared the worst; he was captured by a wilding raiding party. If anything was bad than skagosi, it would be wildlings. It seems Jon's bad luck had followed him here. He breathed deeply, trying to calm himself. He answered them as firmly as he could so they couldn't detect his half truths.

"What castle does your father works at?"asked the big man which was the leader.

Jon didn't expect this question, after all what would wildling would know of the north. jon said it was castle cerwyn, as it was the only castle other than winterfell that he knew about.

"You really expect me to believe you boy, that your father sends you, a green boy alone with a nice dagger, longbow, a castle forged longsword and food towards the north to find his mother. If I was in your place I wouldn't lie to me."

This caused jon to panic. This wilding leader was smart. If jon lied more he would be caught and god knows what these wildings would do to him then

"I ran away. My father is married with other children. his wife doesn't like me. So I took what I could and ran."

"More like stole ha" said other man you was a little shorter and older than the leader but bald. His japed caused all except the leader to laugh, who was still eyeing him coldly to know if he was telling the truth.

"Did you find her then?"

"No, nobody knows a fisherwoman of the name my father gave." Jon said trying to sound dejected on not finding his mother. He didn't have to though; not knowing who his mother was has always been a sad point in his life.

"Is that it boy? I asked the nearby villages about you, they say they never seen you."

Gods, this was a suspicious man

"I haven't asked a lot of people. My father never talked about her. I was just looking around for a woman who looked like me, I guess." Never go far from the truth. That was what he was doing. His answered sounded childish and made him looked down. The man laughed and japed about his stupidity till was silenced by the leader.

"So why have you not returned home boy?"

"I don't have one"

This caused a momentary silence. He could hear his heart beating faster. Should he have instead said that if he went missing his father would send someone, to scare them for not hurting him. A boy with no one to look for is the best for doing anything you want with him. What does these wilding want with him?
The leader stared at him thoughtfully for a moment. At the least the cold calculating look was gone from his face.

"You killed one of my men even if he deserved it. So I have a need for a pair of hands. You can join us, I can't assure you safe journey or if you will ever return north again but it will be an exciting " the leader said laughing in the end with the other. This response made him pause, surely they were talking of getting back beyond the wall. But for that why would they want another traveler, in his case a boy.

"Where...um…where…"jon stammered. He tried to calm his fast beating heart and mind by talking to himself to stay strong. He had to if he wants to get far away from them. He was on his own here. The only one to help him was he himself.

"who are you and why have you bound me?"he asked his first question that they had not answered.

The leader got up from his place and freed him. He grabbed him by his shoulders like a sack and got him to his feet. He grinned at him and said

"We are going back home. To skagos.

End note: next one will have a time skip of two year.