A/n-My first battle
Theon Greyjoy
288 AC 5th moon
Pike
Theon Greyjoy, the thirdborn son and youngest child of King Balon Greyjoy, watched in amazement as the Lords of the Iron Islands proclaimed his father as King of the Iron Islands at a Kingsmoot at 'Old Wik.'
In reality, no one else would go against his father, not even Uncle Euron, but it was necessary all the same, at least that's what his oldest brother Rodrick told him.
He now stood in his father's chambers at his father's command, watching and listening to the plans they were making in their rebellion.
"Euron, you will sail to Essos at once and get us a loan of gold to hirer sellswords. Once you return reap and rave the coast, do what you have to do and do not even thinking of coming back if you are not successful."
"Why do we need sellswords, brother?" Uncle Euron asked.
"Why do you think? The water is where we thrive, no one can match us, but if we wish for the other parts of our plan to bear fruit, we need foot soldiers to reinforce our takings. You will be leaving as soon as this meeting is over, and I will hear no more of it."
Euron just smirked as per usual. He was the one whispering into Theon's father's ear, telling him to revolt. Theon knew it to be true even as young as he was. Theon could bet right now that he had no plans of actually paying back that loan.
King Balon Greyjoy next turned to Theon's other surviving uncles Victarion and Aeron.
"You two will take the shield islands in The Reach. They will supply the grain we need to keep ourselves fed. Use two hundred ships to do so while Euron takes another two hundred across to Braavos.
They both nodded. Although Aeron was a little bit more apprehensive about it, he raised no issues all the same.
Finally, he turned to Theon's older brothers Maron and Rodrick.
"You two will have the most important task of them all. Rodrick, you will take one hundred ships to Bear Island. We will strike the Lord Regent, where it hurts the most, causing his brother to send his forces up the way. While at the same time, Maron will raid Cape Kraken.
"Your objectives are simple. Pillage their resources, take home some thralls, and show that pitful wolf Lord who the fuck he is dealing with. Euron leaves today. The rest of you leave on the eleventh moon or later. Now get out of here and prepare.
"What is dead may never die," They all shouted before leaving.
Euron was first out, followed by the rest, and just when Theon was about to leave, his father pulled him back.
"Not you, child. Where do you think you're going?"
"Father, I want to pillage with Rodrick or Maron."
"I am a King. You will address me as such." Balon snapped back.
"You will do no such thing. You and your sister Asha will stay here. I will not have the stupidity of children get in the way of greatness."
Theon nodded and dropped his head to the floor. His sister was there too beside him, grinning away.
"Your Grace, may I ask you a question?"
His father scoffed at him, then groaned and said, "Very well, get on with it, I have much to do."
"Why are we doing this? What if we lose? They will kill us all, surely?"
"What are our house words, son?" Balon snapped.
"We do not sow."
"Exactly, we Iron Born are worth ten of those Greenlanders, but our natural resources are few and far between. So we take what is ours as it is owed to us. The Reach, as well as other places on Greenland, have resources we do not. We will take them for ourselves, and if Ned Stark wants them back for his precious baby King, then he will have to take the Iron Price for them."
"But what if Ned Stark is stronger than us?"
"Theon, I have spent the last five years building this fleet. I now have five hundred Longships and twenty war galleys at my beck and call. Your uncle has been sent to purchase sellswords. We will cause so much destruction that Eddard Stark will have to sign away his claim to all the islands on Westeros. Not like he will have much of choice. I have a plan that will make him sign on the dotted line that all the land we gain is ours, and there will be no one who can deny it to us."
Theon did not know how to respond. His father was clearly a smart man to come up with this plan. He wondered what it was.
"A child sits on the Iron Throne Theon, younger than you. They are weak. It is time to prove it.
Euron Greyjoy
288 AC 8th moon
Somewhere in Essos
He had gotten a so-called loan from The Iron Bank of Braavos three moons prior. He was about to finalize his deal with the sellsword company The Second Sons, who had one thousand men at their disposal. Previously he had bought and paid for contracts with The Stormcrows, The Second Sons, The Company of The Cat, Stormbreakers, The Windblown, and The Company of The Rose. In total, he had spent his stolen gold very well. The Iron Born now commanded eight thousand sellswords. Little did his brother know that they were all, in fact, loyal to him and him alone.
This war was folly, he knew it, Aeron knew it although he hid it well. Victarion did not, but he was as stupid as the man who started it. Balon Greyjoy was a fool, and that suited Euron just fine. He would destroy their house, their ships, and their people, and Euron would swoop in to take advantage of that.
Balon had given him secret orders to be carried out once he returned, so what if those orders were slightly…adjusted. No one would know. His crew would certainly never tell, not like they could, given that they did not have tongues and could not write.
All this planning could only go well, but there was a small voice in the back of his head that kept saying the same words again and again.
"The Iron bank would have its due."
Words one of the bankers he had left alive to sign the contract and deliver the gold said to him.
Even Balon knew they would never sign a contract to loan The Iron Islands out money. Simply because it was a bad investment. Therefore Euron threatened the lives of the bankers he met when he burst into their building. That was before he kidnapped them in the dead of night and tied one to the front of the ship with his guts hanging up.
They handed over the gold and signed the contract in exchange for their lives.
One was bold enough to mutter those words. So in return, Euron put the inside of their building to the torch. They could not take revenge if they did not have the gold to do so, right?
Euron Greyjoy feared no man, no company, not even death himself.
He was the Reaper of Pike, not Balon. It was only a matter of time before he proved that.
Maege Mormont
Bear Island
288 AC 11th moon
Maege Mormont had been made Lady of Bear Island when her nephew Jorah gave up his position for the white cloak like his father had given up his lordship for the black.
It was a position she felt she excelled in, especially with the backing of Ned Stark from King's Landing. Bear Island had prospered over the last few years due to this. Especially with the extra resources that had been found in The North. Not to mention the fact that Oberyn Martell's new law meant Dacey's second-born, Lyarra, could rule Bear Island while keeping the Mormont name alive in the process.
Overall, Maege could die a happy woman knowing the Mormont name would not die with her. She had five daughters, a grandson, and a granddaughter who could carry it on.
However, she was still alarmed when her second oldest Alysane came bursting into her chambers.
"Mother, the krakens are here," Alysane said anxiously.
"How many ships, Alysane?" She replied, fearing the worse.
"The scouts count one hundred even all longships."
"ONE HUNDRED." She could not believe they would have that many. The new defenses they had put in were still untested. Would they be able to hold off one hundred longships?
"I'm afraid so. What do we do?"
"Send a raven to Benjen and Dacey and get yourself and the rest of your sisters out of here. Get a boat and take all the children to Winterfell. The rest of us will hold them off."
"Mother, if you honestly think I am going to leave you here to die alone, then you are as dumb as a court jester. I know Lyra will agree."
Maege smiled at that. Her daughters were so brave.
"I had a feeling you would say that Aly, very well but Jorella and Lyanna need to go, you and Lyra may be women grown, but they are only girls. I will not have them die on me, now send that raven and tell the Maester to get them out of here, then meet me at the battlements."
Alysanne nodded and ran off to do what had to be done.
Maege walked to the courtyard, where all the guards were gathered. They had three hundred men and two hundred fighting women while The Kraken's had one hundred longships held at the very most one hundred men each. However, given how scarce and deserted the Iron Islands were, she guess the reality was much smaller.
Not that it mattered, anyone with half a brain knew that a Mormont fighter was worth ten mainlanders and fifty dirty Krakens.
"Men and women of Bear Island, the day has come to beat the Krakens back into the sea as we have always done before. We might fall, but we will be remembered if we do. The North remembers my friends. The North will not forget us. Now, who holds The North?"
"WE DO," they shouted back.
"Good," she replied. "Now get out there and kill some Greyjoy scum. I'll be wanting squid for dinner."
They laughed and ran off to their assigned positions. They had years to prepare. It was time to put that into action.
Rodrick Greyjoy
Bear Island
His father, the King, had been very clear. Take Bear Island to send a message, then pillage the mainland of The North. It was a sound plan. Bear Island was far away from the rest of the North. To materialize an army would take moons. Moons that favored Rodrick.
"Lord Captain Rodrick, we are about to land."
Said his first mate and cousin Earl Harlaw.
"I can see that Earl, I'm not stupid or blind." He snapped back.
"Prepare to land with twenty ships worth of men, empty them all out. That will give us enough to take this desolating Island. The rest can standby and wait for word.
Earl Harlaw nodded and gave the command.
Rodrick was the first off the boat. He had never been to Bear Island himself but had heard stories.
He first noticed that it was mostly made up of trees. The Island itself was one he had never seen before. It was very unique. There seemed to be only once entranced down at the makeshift dock where he had landed his ships. The Island seemed to be on a sort of hill but still grew trees. On either side were mountainous cliffs of some kind, and the further up the hill you went, the more narrow the path got.
"Spread out. They could take us by surprise from behind those trees." He commanded.
They all proceeded slowly with caution. Rodrick led the charge.
After walking for near an hour, he finally spotted Mormont Keep with archers at the ready on top of it.
"THEY'RE HERE, CHARGE."
Before he could do anything, some bears appeared out of thin air and started killing his men. More archers appeared from the cliff on the right-hand side and started firing. Similarly enough, more archers appeared from the left-hand side cliff and began to fire.
Fire was definitely the accurate word to use as their arrows were dipped in controlled fit pits before being sent to kill Rodrick's men.
His men had been led into a trap. Some men had shields, and most had armor. Still, the enemy had the high ground, so there was little way to protect themselves from all the archer fire as many began to be cooked in what armor they had. The best they could do was kill the bears, but they were so quick. How could such a large animal move so quickly? It was as if it was being controlled.
They had no choice but to acquire further reinforcements.
He grabbed one of his men and ordered him to run back as fast as possible to the ships to tell the rest of the men to file out and help.
Half an hour later and reinforcements had arrived
Hotho Harlaw, his other cousin, led the charge of reinforcements. Every single man had been summoned, although not everyone could arrive at once. That did not matter though
They had at least five thousand Iron Born ready to fight, but they were still being killed every moment they wasted.
It was time to make them pay the Iron Price.
"Hotho, order the men to cut down that tree with their axes. They are to keep doing it until it is down. That will be our battle ram into the keep. We have the number advantage. It's time to prove it."
He looked around just in time to see massive boulders being pushed down from the keep, crushing some men who were unlucky enough to be in its path.
The tree was down. He ordered men to lift it. It was time to charge.
"BREAK THAT DOOR DOWN NOW." He shouted as they hit up against the keep's main doors.
Two hours had passed since they first landed. Eventually, some of the Iron Born made it up to the side cliffs and started attacking the archers, which was all the distraction they needed. Rodrick reckoned he had lost half his men, if not more.
From between the poacher traps, some men had stumbled into leading to a loss of limbs. The boulders had been sent down to kill more of them, the archers attacking them from the high ground with arrows covered in fire which cooked men alive. On top of that, the terrain wasn't favorable too, and of course, the bears attacking their men and being faster than thought possible.
They had undoubtedly been through a lot, but that was about to end here and now.
CRASH
Finally, the doors gave in, and Iron Born men ran into the keep, killing everyone in sight.
He spied an older woman who he guessed could only be Maege Mormont.
She was smiling at him. Obviously, she had accepted she would die here today, and she was right.
Maege Mormont
Their tricks and strategies had worked. All their traps, all the time they spent preparing it, had made quite a dent in the attack on their Island.
She spied the Greyjoy boy, she knew it was him because he was giving the commands.
She had sent out Alysanne and Lyra to command the central defense. Alysanne had skin changed into a bear, and Lyra commanded the left flank of archers on the cliff.
She had heard from neither and feared the worse.
"Never surrender." She said as she charged for the Greyjoy boy.
He picked up a shield from a fallen soldier to defend himself against her spiked mace.
She hit him repeatedly and had him down on the ground when someone hit her in the back of her head just as she was about to kill the fucker.
The last thing she heard before she collapsed was a shout of "Mother" coming from Lyra.
Rodrick Greyjoy
Four hours had passed since they arrived, they brought five thousand men with them, and only one thousand five hundred remained. They lost an abysmal amount of men, but they had taken the Island and now had a foothold in The North.
Maege Mormont and two of her daughters laid in front of him in the middle of the keep, tied up and ready for execution.
It turns out one of them was a skin-changing monster and had been the bear that attacked his men earlier while the other commanding the archers.
"Do any of you Northern scum have anything to say before you pay the iron price?"
He turned first to the archery daughter, who spat in his face in response.
He kneeled down to her and whispered.
"Just for that, I am going to kill you last" and spat back at her then kicked her until she was hunched over gasping in pain.
Oddly in a way, she kind of looked attractive...
"On second thought, I changed my mind. You get to be my salt wife. While your bitch mother and monster sister die."
"Get a block of wood," He shouted at Hotto.
He grabbed his new 'salt wife' again, this time by the face to force her to watch.
"As my wedding gift to you, I will let you pick who dies first. So who will it be?"
She got loose of his grip and punched him right in the jaw before she could be restrained again.
"Very well, no wedding gift for you then. I guess I'll kill your sister first."
"Hotto, make her pay the Iron Price."
Hotto grabbed the skin-changer and forced her head down to the block.
With a swing of his sword, her head was on the floor.
Screams were all that could be heard from the other two Mormont women.
"Now for the mother bear" He cackled
"Lady Maege Mormont, do you have any final words before you pay the Iron Price?" He asked
"I do, Rodrick Greyjoy. What you have done here today is an act of war in the most serious of ways. Know this, The North remembers, The North always remembers. I die willingly, knowing that the Starks will avenge me. All I hope for is that you die a death of the most gruesome accord."
He frowned in a fury. Then turned to Hotto again.
"Kill her and make sure it isn't a clean death."
After five swings of his axe, Maege Mormont's head laid on the ground too. Her last surviving daughter, who had remained on the Island, broke down and cried. She was finally gagged, so that's all she could do.
He kneeled down to her again, his new salt wife in her sad state.
"Your mother kept saying that the North remembers, well I say good. We do not want them to forget, EVER.
WHAT IS DEAD MAY NEVER DIE. He shouted to his surviving men.
Winterfell
Benjen Stark
288 AC 11th moon (two weeks later)
"Lord Stark, a raven for you from Deepwood Motte" The Maester came bursting into his solar.
Benjen grabbed the letter off him and read it..again and again and again. What they had feared had come to fruition. The Iron Born had attacked. Two of Dacey's sisters and the maester had left before they landed. After the attack was finished, someone survived and followed them to Deepwood Motte. The letter was a combination of all the news.
Maege Mormont had died in a brutal execution, Alysanne too. Lyra had been captured and turned into a salt wife, as the Iron Born called them. Rodrick Greyjoy now sat at Bear Island with his surviving men. If the letter was entirely accurate, then they were weak. As devastating as the news about Maege had been, he took comfort in knowing that they were easy pickings now. Dacey would feel no such joy. How was he to tell her and Cregan and Lyarra too? Maege was their last living grandparent, and now she was gone.
He found Dacey playing with Cregan while bouncing Lyarra on her knee. She noticed his grim face straight away.
"Benjen, what's wrong? Have the Iron Born finally attacked?"
"Yes, my love, they have." He replied
"Well, where have they attacked? Dragonstone? King's Landing itself? It would be just like them to be that stupid."
"I'm afraid not Dacey, they have attacked somewhere they have a history of attacking…"
"You don't mean?"
He nodded his head, and she didn't even finish her sentence.
"Have you gotten word about my mother and sisters? Surely the new defenses were enough to cause them to retreat."
He then told her the whole story. They just stood there for a solid few minutes. He had taken hold of Lyarra while Dacey only starred off into the courtyard.
"Well, I'm glad my mother and Aly died as they lived with maces in their hands and blood on their faces. When do we march to meet Ned?"
"I have sent the ravens out. The winter snow is gone by now, so fewer men are needed for crops. We should have twenty thousand within the moon and thirty-five thousand within two moons, but I do not plan to call on the Manderlys. They will need to protect their coast and will be needed by Stannis. However, I do not plan to march south just yet."
"What do you mean?" she asked him, puzzled
"Do you honestly think I am going to leave Rodrick Greyjoy to keep your sister hostage for a second longer than absolutely necessary?"
"Benjen, Lyra will be okay. She can take care of herself, and I am going to be the one to kill that fucker just so you know."
He chucked slightly sadly. "Oh, do not worry, I would not take that away from you, Dacey. However, when I was looking at Westeros's map, I got thinking about where they could strike next. Keep in mind that Balon Greyjoy does not have a strategic bone in his body, but he has attacked the most powerful man's homeland. How would he continue his momentum?"
She paused for a moment.
"He plans to attack Cape Kraken moving up the river then to Moat Cailin and cutting us off from being able to reinforce your brother."
Exactly, So that's why I sent a raven to the Flint's too. I will send one to Ned as well, of course, but I say Varys' little birds would have informed him by now.
"So what exactly is the plan, Benjen?
"We will gather our nearby bannermen here except for the Manderlys and their own bannermen, who will be needed to protect White Harbour. Then we divide our forces of twenty thousand strong. Ten thousand will head towards The Neck and Cape Kraken while the other half head towards Deepwood Motte, where we will sail across to Bear Island and cut Rodrick Greyjoy out one finger at a time. The Mountain clans can meet us there too. I will give command of the forces heading South to Howland Reed."
"Before The Greyjoys know what is after happening, we will have a good portion of their army destroyed."
"The North remembers my dear wife. We will not forget Maege Mormont and bring justice swiftly and cruelly. No one will be able to stop us."
Harrenhall
Eddard Stark
289 AC 1 st moon
At this very moment, Ned sat in Harrenhall, surrounded by his war generals. Randyll Tarly first and foremost as Master of War, then there was Lord Rickard Karstark, Greatjon Umber, and Howland Reed, three faces he had missed dearly. As well as Yohn Royce, Hoster Tully and a few more.
They sat around the table, planning how they would end this war before it could escalate further, which was hard to do when they did not know where they would be struck from next.
"What news from the realm Lord Varys?" He asked his spymaster.
He made sure to bring the spymaster anywhere and everywhere he could. He could not fight, but in times of war, the information he provided could be more useful than numbers.
"Your brother rode fast and hard to Bear Island with ten thousand of his men. Unfortunately for him, Rodrick Greyjoy fled inland, so the chase continues. He was last spotted heading towards the mountains, perhaps in search of resources to bring home. The garrison he left behind to cut down trees on Bear Island were all quickly dealt with by Lord Benjen."
"It's good to know that the Greyjoy toe hold was taken care of. I don't expect to have my brother's forces added to ours until Rodrick Greyjoy is dead or captured." He responded. The Greyjoys were truly mad if they thought they could just get away with killing a Northern Lady like that.
Varys nodded and continued.
"As for the rest of the Greyjoys, well Victarion has made a name for himself by burning the Lannister fleet with little to no resistance. Ser Jaime rides for Harrenhall as we speak. Tywin Lannister is gathering the rest of his forces. Once Victarion accomplished that, he took the shield islands and is shipping back the grain to The Iron Islands with no resistance in terms of the water."
"That is only temporary though, Lord Baratheon and Prince Oberyn are bringing the biggest chunk of our fleet to face them as we speak. The Redwynes are to meet them there too." Said Lord Randyll.
"All the same, my Lord, Lord Stannis, will be there soon, but unless he manages to knock them out completely, we cannot make it to The Iron Islands. Therefore the war will continue."
Everyone nodded at Varys' statement.
"Very well, Lord Varys, what about Euron Greyjoy?" Ned asked
"He should be back in Westeros any day now Lord Regent, with eight thousand sellswords, he has bought every company except for the golden company. It is expected that he will attack the western coast, but we do not know where."
"Thank you for the report Lord Varys. My Lords, we outnumber these Greyjoys, but if we cannot beat them while they are still gathering resources, then by the time we finally get to where Balon is hiding, thousands more will be dead."
They all nodded at Ned's worrying truth.
"It is not all doom and gloom. We currently hold Maron Greyjoy. His attack on Cape Kraken was not very fruitful in terms of recourse stealing." Said Lord Royce.
"I say we execute Maron Greyjoy and deliver his head to his father. That will send a message in equal to what they did to Maege." Rickard Karstark said, no one seemed to disagree.
Maege was well respected in the North. Jorah Mormont had been devastated to hear the news, but he accepted it and rode out with Ned all the same.
Ned sighed. He wondered if there was a better way. Perhaps not. Maron and his forces had killed more Northmen during their attack at Cape Kraken. Their plan had been to steal the resources, but they were not successful. It had been a stroke of genius from Ben to predict where they would hit next, and it had paid off.
"What do you think, Lord Eddard?"
The Greatjon asked him.
He sighed in response.
"Maron Greyjoy is a valuable hostage, but he will either end up living the rest of his life at The Wall or with his head separated from his body. For the moment, we need to see what information we can get from him."
No one spoke. Most of the lords would have preferred if he was killed right now, but they knew justice would come eventually.
"What do we do next, my Lord?"
Howland asked.
"We wait for Stannis, Howland. If he is successful, then we will be able to transport siege weapons from the capital to meet us at Sea Dragon Point, from there we will siege the Iron Island and end this conflict quickly."
"You're all dismissed for today. I don't expect we will be waiting too long more, rest up."
They all walked out to do as asked.
Ned was about to leave the room too when an envoy arrived with a scroll.
He handed it to Varys, who gave it to Ned to read.
Euron Greyjoy had arrived. He had divided his forces between Dragonstone and raiding the western shores.
Dragonstone
Rhaella
"I'm Aemon The Dragonknight."One shouted
"Oh yeah, well, I'm Cregan Stark, and I name myself King in the North." The other replied
"That statement is treason Lord Stark. You swore your oath."
"Well, make me swear it again."
Both Jae and Robb were laughing at their little conversation.
She couldn't help but smile to see them so happy as they danced around each other with their wooden swords. They were best friends now and always would be. She just knew it. Every Southern King needs a strong Northern Lord to back them up.
They had traveled to Dragonstone to wait out the conflict. They were presumed safe given that the Island was surrounded by one hundred ships and three Kingsguard being stationed here.
Ned's children and wife, Jon Arryn's children and wife, even some other children and ladies of the court.
Viserys, on the other hand, had gone with Ser Barristan to squire for him during the upcoming battles. She would have preferred to keep him out of the conflict, and she nearly ordered it, but Ser Barristan convinced her that he would be safe for as much time as possible. He would, at no stage, be in the middle of the battle. However, he was thirteen years of age, nearly fourteen. She could not keep him safe forever.
After all, Daemon Targaryen was knighted at twelve years of age.
She watched as Sansa Arya and Daenerys came running out into the courtyard, chased by a Septa and Lady Stark. They were shouting at them about their lessons.
"I'm sure they can skip lessons for one day, Lady Stark. How about you leave them be and come sit with me instead?" She smiled at the woman, not quite legitimately but queenly all the same.
"Your Grace, it is important that the girls learn at a young age all the courtesies of the court as we did in our youth." She replied matter of factly.
"You are right, my lady, but I can assure you one day won't hurt. Besides, Arya here is clearly more wolf than Tully. She will make a good fit for her homeland."
Catelyn turned to look at her dark-haired daughter, and Rhaella nearly laughed at the look of distraught at the idea of Arya taking after her Northern side.
"Your Grace." Brynden Tully came running up to her. He had been stationed by the gate if she remembered correctly.
"Ser Brynden, what seems to be the matter?" She replied.
"Ships your grace, Iron Born. It's Euron Greyjoy with his sellsword army."
She sighed. She was hoping this day wouldn't come.
"How many ships, Brynden?"
One hundred longships and there are about three warships too."
"Shit," she said under her breath.
That is way too many for our forces to handle.
"Have they engaged yet?"
No, but Ser Davos is readying the men. They will give them a bitter fight.
"Aye, send a raven to Ser Davos to hold them off as long as he can and to send for. Then tell the guards to ready themselves on the battlements. I am giving you command of the defense Ser Brynden. Find Ser Arthur and Ser Willem and tell them to take the woman and children to one of the rooms."
"And what about you, Queen Rhaella? Catelyn Stark asked.
She smiled slightly.
"Lady Stark, have you ever heard the tale of Visenya Targaryen? The warrior Queen?"
"Everyone knows about her, Your Grace, but she had a fire breathing dragon. We do not."
Rhaella's smile grew even bigger
She made her way to a cave near the top of the volcano on the Island. Her greatest ally was waiting for her.
She was large, not fully grown, but in truth, dragons never stopped growing. However, she was large enough to give the men fighting for her grandson the air support they needed. She was two years of age by now. Hatching during a random trip to Dragonstone.
Perhaps she was sent to Rhaella for this purpose right here. To prove she was no weak maiden, not anymore.
The dragon roared when it heard her approach, not knowing it was her at first.
Moondancer my child, the time has finally come.
She said while rubbing her snout.
Moondancer then lowered herself down, knowing what it was they were going to do. As if their thoughts were one and the same.
sōvegon, my riña
It was time to bring her House words to life, like the days of old.
In the distance, all that could be heard was the roar of a beast, ready to fly and fight.
A/n-So, this is where a lot of people are prob going to give up on the fic, but at the same time, it's where the real fun begins, so please don't lol.
I may have been slightly liberal with the layout of Bear Island, but I hope it was an exciting fight all the same.
Euron truly is a mad man, who in their right mind would steal from the Iron Bank?
I think hiring sellswords is a good idea. Iron Born aren't that good on land, so the sellswords will help them there, but the question is will they stay loyal when they realize the odds. I'm aware of the origins of the company of the rose, don't worry ;).
According to the wiki, it is estimated that The Iron Islands can put together 20k fighters. As you can see, to make any form of impact, they will need those more suited for fights on the "Greenland." Now I'm going to be friendly and give them 25k to start off instead of 20k, and then when you add the sellswords, that brings them to 33k.
Regarding boats, I'm going to go with 500 longships, which can hold 100-120 each, with 20 war galleys, holding 1000 each. I can't remember where I got that number, but I know the one about the longship is right. So clearly, none of them are going to be full to the brim. Perhaps halfway full at the most. In the show, Euron Greyjoy mentions how he would build 1000 ships, and in the books, rumors suggested he had 1000 longships when the small council thought it was closer to 500.
Anyways it won't matter because fire burns ships no matter the size, lol. We have our first dragon rider anyway. Rhaella is really coming out of her shell, a point I have driven home for a little bit now. I had a suggestion to name the dragon Silverwing, which I nearly went with after Rhaegar, the silver prince, but perhaps it would be too confusing. So I went with moon dancer, but I'm willing to change it if something is better suggested. Maybe I will just go with Aerxys or something, lol.
Oh, and just to make it clear, Benjen's second-born Lyarra is in line to rule Bear Island after her mother, but of course, if there's a male born after her, she would be pushed down the line of succession. I just wanted to make sure the point of daughters not coming before sons is nailed in correctly. Oberyn's law will probably get me some backlash still.
Anyways so there are two chapters up together. Let me know what you think but keep it respectful.
Next- Rhaella makes Aerys very jelly.