I came awake inside a tent. I looked around the tent and found that i was alone. there wasn't much inside the tent except for the bed i was in and a chair. soon after a woman entered the tent. she stopped short when she saw that i was awake. "Are you a god?" she asked me.

"what no. just a man" i said.

"no man can fly or do half the things i saw you do" she said with conviction.

"yes they can. where i am from they can" i replied as i sat back.

"do you have any water?" i asked her and she quickly gave me a bowl of water from beside my bed. i thanked her and asked her where i was.

"In the camp of the freefolk" she replied. i let that sink in.

"thenn you mean?" i asked her again.

"yes and some other tribes as well" she said.

hmm so there were more than thenn in that battle. interesting. its as if they all knew that walkers were coming. they had pooled their strength together. smart.

I got up and started putting my clothes together.

"I am Alric Frost. what is your name?" i asked her. i thought i should stick with mag's idea. perhaps a northern name will make them accept me easier.

"Val" she said.

"you are beautiful, my lady" I said truthfully. she was quite mesmerizing. she was tall with blonde hair. I know these were rough people in a rough land. but she looked just as if not better than some noble ladies of Alera. she blushed prettily when i said that.

"could you show me to the giants? i need to speak with them." i said.

"two of them are waiting right outside this tent. they wont let anyone in except me. mag is waiting with our king. they have been waiting for you to wake up. i can lead you there" she replied. i nodded when i was ready and together we left to meet her king. this tent was larger by far than the one i was in. fit for a king i mused to myself. she nodded at the guards on the door and went in first. i followed her in. sitting before me were a random sort of men and one giant.

"Mag" I said.

"Frost" he replied."We were just waiting for you to wake up. As our leader, only you can treat with the king of the freefolk."

so, there it was. officially recognized as leader of the giants.

a man with a shaggy beard looked at me and asked," we don't need your kind here. take your giants and leave us be." I ignored him.

"how many giants did we loose." i asked mag.

"323" he replied.

"too many" i said "but i promised to get you to safety and i will." i looked at the one who had spoken to me and asked,"where is my sword?"

"that's our sword now. we took it of battlefield. quite handy in killing walkers." he replied. i was already suspecting they will do something like that. so i grabbed him by the neck and lifted him off the ground with earth craft. everyone got tense and then i threw him 10 feet away. I looked around at the men in the room. one by one i met their eyes until i met one who looked like he was trying too hard to seem unimportant. he wasn't much older than myself. all of them had fine clothing on in very barbaric sort of way. one was wearing a lot of bones. the other had two axes. then there was the one i had thrown down. one was a tall man with bald head and a big ax in his hands. the last one was wearing faded blacks. a cloak that looked patched up in 10 different places and intelligent eyes. he was the leader. he was the only one who hadn't reacted to my little display. he was just observing and he clearly did not feel like he had to show off his weapons or kills. everybody already knew who he was and he was respected. oh he was the leader.

"so you are the king" i asked him.

he seemed surprised at that and told the angry one to stay away with a wave of his hand.

"not many would have figured that one out. but the bigger question is who are you or more importantly what are you?"

"my name is alric frost. i am from a far away land. I made a promise to get the giants to safety and right now you are standing in my way of doing that."

"you are telling the truth aren't you?" he said with a curious look in his eyes.

i nodded and after a while he nodded back. then he walked over to the corner of the tent and took my sword out from under some covers. he handed it to me and i thanked him.

"That is a very pretty and powerful sword. many would kill for something like that." he said.

"they are welcome to try and take it from me."

he just smiled and said "my name is Mance Rayder and i must thank you for saving the lives of everyone in this camp."

"you have a unique way of showing gratitude. stealing my sword and threatening me."

"we are not southerners. we are of the north and free-folk respect strength beyond anything else."

"Like i said, i need to get the giants to safety. so i don't have time for games. if you want to say something then say it. I'll be leaving with the giants tomorrow."

he started speaking as i said,"Val, can you get something to Shadow. he is my direwolf. he is hungry now." Val looked at mance who nodded and she left.

After a long silence, mance said,"how would you get south of the wall? that's the only place that is safe from walkers."

"i haven't thought it out. but i thought i would try negotiating with whoever is in charge and if that didn't work, i would simply force myself through."

"you could certainly force yourself through from what i saw you do yesterday. but what would you do when the men keep attacking you. there's thousands of them."

"I am harder to defeat than most. I will think of something."

"lets not play this game. we need you and you need us. with our numbers and your abilities, we can easily take the wall. and if everything failed, we can always use this."

and the bald man stepped aside to reveal a five foot tall horn.

"blow that all night so they can't sleep?" i asked.

"its the horn of joramun. it can destroy the wall."

I looked at him as if he was joking. "if you destroy the wall, there will be nothing stopping them. the wall needs to remain standing if that's what stops them from crossing over."

"I agree but the night's watch will not let us cross over. trust me i know, i used to be one of them."

I pondered it for a while and said,"either way we must try to negotiate with them before we started killing each other. besides like you said. even if we make it south of the wall, they will keep attacking us."

"if we must negotiate then we must negotiate with the starks not night's watch. if they allow us south, then nobody will attack us even if they are not happy about it."

"who are the starks?" i asked him. he looked at me as if i was an idiot.

"Starks were kings in the north once. now they are wardens of the north. Lord Rickard Stark is the lord of winterfell and warden of the north. if he allows us south then nobody could do anything about it."

"wouldn't it be better to go straight to the king."

"we could but north doesn't care much about the king or the south. but they respect the starks. besides it was Brandon Stark who built the wall. so its their authority that matters."

"Brandon the builder was a stark? and his descendant is the one leading the north?" I asked.

"yes, he was and yes, he is" mance replied.

"I must think about this" i said. and we sat in silence while others chatted. I simply didn't know enough about this situation to provide a solution. i mean if the men were fighting the giants i could understand but why were they fighting other men. unless there was some dispute amongst them. I asked mance as much. he sighed and said that free-folk have rough land to live upon. so often they raided south to find more game or wives.

right. that explains it.

"if we are going to be allowed south of the wall, they will need to stop doing that. or else they stay on this side of the wall and fight until death."

"we already know that. the freefolk are desperate. they will agree but the problem is the south wont believe us even if we told them about the walkers." mance said.

"what if we took proof? like a head of a wight that still moved."

"it would work, i guess." he agreed begrudgingly.

"but if we are to be represented together then we need to work as one people. there is strength in numbers of course. but i think we need to move fast. because the night king is not going to wait for our squabbles."

"I would yield my right as king of the freefolk to you. they saw you yesterday. they saw what you can do. i have spoken with styr here and he agrees. if thenn can follow you then so can the rest."

this just keeps getting better and better. first the giants and now the men. all i needed was the children to show up and call me their king. then i will have the whole set. But we need to be united and i can use what they saw me doing yesterday. it would make them accept me as their king.

"do all of them want me as their king?" i said eyeing the one i thrown across the tent.

"aye they do. they all owe you their lives and i don't think i can save them. not after what i saw yesterday. if they come at us again, we will need you at our side."

"very well. tell everyone that we will break camp in the morning and head south. do you have a proper map that i could look at."

"no but i know the north very well. i can draw one for you easily."

well it was better than nothing. mance slowly showed me that there is the wall. and we were slightly to the west of it. there was a big forest known as the haunted forrest which was the last cover before the wall. to the far side there was hardhome. some 50 thousand or so freefolk were scattered from hardhome to the haunted forrest in small villages. if i was going to save them then i was going to save them all i thought.

"how many do we have in this camp?" I asked mance.

"over a hundred thousand. we lost nearly half that in yesterday's battle"

damn it. if one more battle like that took place, they would all die. barely one in 5 had a decent blade. even then from what i heard that steal was no use against the walkers.

one thing at a time. I went outside and crafted a tub that i filled with water. stepping into it, i reached into the frostfangs that we had come from and saw no dead. then i reached farther to where we had come from and saw them coming from lands of always winter. as far as i could see in every direction. there were too many of them. i broke the crafting and told mance and styr what i saw.

"we have one moon to get south of the wall or we are good as dead." they nodded grimly. there is two types of watercrafting. one is where you reach for a single target and the other where you project yourself from every body of water and pool there is. the second is good to issue a general alarm or a command. I tried the second one now. I reached far and wide. from the thenn valley to hard home. i projected myself everywhere.

"My name is Alric Frost. King of the freefolk and the giants. the walkers are coming south from lands of always winter. and the dead are coming with them. we are going south of the wall. I have over a thousand giants with me along with the thenn and other freefolk over 100 thousand strong. if you hear this message, then make for the southern border of the haunted forest. we will cross the wall at Castle Black. beware you have been warned. if you remain north of the wall, you will receive worse than death."

with that i broke the crafting. i looked at mance and styr staring at me as if i was a ghost. "everyone can do that where i am from" i said as i passed them into the tent.

"I will leave mance and mag in charge. i want you to travel fast and hard. make for haunted forest near castle black. it is central to everyone. we will not wait for anyone once we are crossing. anyone who chooses to stay on this side will have to fend for themselves."

"where are you going?" mance asked.

"i am going north to find some proof for lord stark" i said smiling.