Chapter 5: The Battle Of Green Fork And Whispering Woods.
The Battles Between the Wolf And The Lions.
299 AC
RIVERLANDS
GREEN FORK
TYWIN LANNISTER
Tywin Lannister, the old lion of Casterly Rock, watched the retreating Northern Army on the northern bank of the Green Fork, being led by the Stark boy.
He still remembered how things led to this current situation.
For years he had prepared the Westerlands for this current conflict. He knew very well that after Robert's death his younger brothers Renly and Stannis might try to usurp the Throne, that rightfully belonged to his grandson Joffery.
After Lady Stark, kidnapped his youngest Tyrion, he did what any other respectful lord would have done.
He invaded the Riverlands with an army of 60,000 Westermen.
Lady Stark had slighted the honor of House Lannister, by capturing Tywin's son and in return Tywin is going to bring her girlhood home to heel.
After all a Lannister always pays his debts.
His ploy was to pillage the Riverlands and lure Lord Eddard Stark from King's Landing, because he knew that if he captured Lady Stark's husband, he can swiftly bring an end to this conflict.
But his fool of a son Jaime attacked and injured Eddard Stark, in the Street's of Silk, forcing Lord Stark to stay in King's Landing and foaling Tywin's well led plans.
Nevertheless, Tywin launched his invasion in the Riverlands, his plan now was to capture Riverrun and force House Tully to sue for peace.
He divided his army into two hosts, each 30,000 strong. One led by his son Jaime, who was now besieging The Tully's ancestral home, after he defeated the Riverrun army being led by Mark Piper and Edmure Tully near the Golden Tooth and Riverrun. And another host being led by him, which has now already taken Harrenhal, Stone Hedge, and Maidenpool and was now currently guarding the southern bank of the Green Fork.
At Harrenhal he had received scout reports that the northern army at least 30,000 strong is currently marching on the Ruby Ford of the Green Fork, so he had immediately left his position at Harrenhal and marched out to face the Stark boy.
He had camped at the east side of the Green Fork and west of the Mountains of the Moon, a few miles north of the High Road that led to the Bloody Gate of the Vale.
Along the way he had meet with his youngest son Tyrion who had brought 2000 mountain clansmen with him as a gift for his father.
His army had entrenched themselves and waited, expecting the Northern Army to reach them within three days time.
Except that was not the case.
Three days passed and scouts reported that the northern army was still moving south. Then another two days passed and still, the scouts reported the same thing, that they were coming. It was ridiculous, he had expected the young Stark boy to be inexperienced, but even he had not expected it to be such an extent.
Then the host finally arrived and he ordered the vanguard commanded by the Mountain that Rides to charge. He hadn't expected much of it, the vanguard was a ragtag group of men consisting of the Clansmen from the Vale, fresh recruits, Freeriders and Sellswords.
Overall, it came to about 5000 men.
As he had expected it didn't accomplish much as the northmen had taken a defensive position around a hill and the steep ground and shallow waters of the Trident blunted the charge.
The men of the North are excellent warriors, and their troops are much more experienced in fighting. Their elite infantry the skirmishers are particularly very dangerous, a fact he was reminded as he saw them raining Javelins on his troops.
Seeing that his vanguard is struggling, he ordered Ser Adam Marbrand who commanded two thousand heavy cavalry to ride down and run down the weaker left flank of the enemy.
The Northmen rained arrows on the charging cavalry, and by the time Ser Adam reached the Northern host, he had already lost about five hundred men.
It was to expected though, the Northmen were considered one of the best bowmen in the realm, armed with their strong weirwood bows.
He then ordered his brother Kevan to send half of their infantry to assist their cavalry forces struck on the northern bank. But before that could happen the entire Northern host retreated.
It didn't make sense and his men who had been irritated by waiting for so long had nearly given chase to the retreating northern army. It was only because Tywin had anticipated this that he managed to keep order amongst his ranks and instead, watched as the northern army retreated back North.
The question remained, why?
Had the young pup attempted to lure Tywin to give chase only to spring an ambush on him. Most likely, Tywin had only seen a few hundred northern cavalry units, about six hundred in all on right flank, half of which now lay dead on the field. He hadn't seen the famous Winter Wolves, the elite lancers of the Northern Cavalry or their deadly horse archers that could even take down enemy Knights from a distance.
"He truly is inexperienced to believe that I would fall for such an obvious plo".
As he sits on his horse, he watches as a relatively large, but strong man is brought towards him. The man wore some fanciful clothes marked in blood and mud, but there was no denying that he was of Noble birth.
"Your name?" Kevan Lannister demanded from where he was beside Tywin.
"Halys Hornwood." The now identified man responded gruffly.
"Prepare some chains for this man, we shall take him back with us to the camp." Kevan ordered and Tywin went to urge his horse back to the reserve ranks that he had commanded. This battle had been both a waste of time and manpower, as he had no doubt that he had lost more men than the Stark boy did.
It was already noon and night was beginning to descend, it would be best to set up camp in a more defensible location just in case the Stark boy, feeling confident on his little victory, decided to attack them again in the night.
It was only when he heard chucking that Tywin stopped.
He looked back to see Lord Hornwood laughing openly now, a full belly laughter as he threw his head back. His loud laughter attracting more attention from other Lannister soldiers.
"What the fuck is he laughing at?!"
"Fools lost his mind."
Tywin ignored the muttering of his men and instead stared at the laughing Hornwood as he was pushed away by a few soldiers. The large Northman taking a number of men just to get him moving once more.
"Lord Tywin?" Kevan asked and Tywin ignored him, instead continuing to follow the figure of the laughing Lord Hornwood.
Why was the fool laughing?
That was not the laugh of a madman, he'd heard enough of that from the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen. No, this was different, this was the laugh of a man who seemed to have accomplished something incredibly funny.
While Tywin had lost the battle, it was only a minor victory for the Northmen, nothing more than glorified skirmish, as he had lost no more than five thousand men and most of them were the mountain clansmen and sellswords. They were fodder of his army and were easily expendable.
'Why is he laughing? The young pups plot of ambushing me was foiled, yes he has won the battle but it was only a minor insignificant victory. The entire northern host has been pushed back. Unless, there never was an ambush, or at least not one set for me.'He realised too late that it was never him in danger of being ambushed.'The northern cavalry, they did not come down south to engage me, they came south to engage, Jamie!'
With a great deal of urgency, Tywin turned to his commanders.
"Order all the men to fall back from here, we move quickly to Riverrun to aid my son!" Despite their confusion, the commanders serving him didn't hesitate and quickly left and soon his host retreated south west to Riverrun to give aid to his son.
RIVERLANDS
WHISPERING WOODS
ROBB STARK
The eve of battle was upon them. It was a cool night, with the moon clear in the sky, illuminating the world enough at night, while he waited.
Riverrun itself was still far out of sight, but they would be there soon. First though, they had to defeat the Kingslayer.
The Kingslayer's host besieging Riverrun number around 30,000 thousand strong, while Robb had only 10,000 men, all of them being mounted on horse.
While he was outnumbered three to one, Robb was still pretty confident that their army will prevail.
But first they had to defeat the Kingslayer and his cavalry force. The only thing that posed a serious threat to their forces.
But they had to hurry, his Uncle Benjen had already engaged Tywin's army on the Green Fork and it is only a matter of time before the Old Lion realises that the forces he fought was only a decoy.
On their way to Riverrun, they had been joined with the Mallister forces near Wendish Town. Ser Jason Mallister, The Lord of Seaguard had informed them that the Kingslayer frequently left the camp, with his cavalry, to engage any relieving force.
This was something Robb had already taken advantage of. He planned to lure the Kingslayer and his host into the forest clearing of the Whispering woods and destroy his entire cavalry force in a single decisive battle.
He looked around him to see all his battle-guards, comprised of heirs to various northern house, waiting for the upcoming battle. He looked at each of them before his eyes settled on his she-bear.
Dacey must have noticed his staring because she looked at his direction and offered him a small smile which he returned with a nod, before turning his head back.
His eyes followed the movement of the front of the Lannister cavalry, entering the valley.
They were closing in rapidly, but it wasn't fast enough.
From the forest, the horse archers stepped forwards, drawing back their weirwood bows and releasing their arrows into the air. Robb had positioned them in three different locations as to sow greater confusion amongst the Lannister ranks and to ensure that they couldn't mount a single charge on one unit without leaving their rear and flanks exposed.
One unit was positioned north east of the Lannister army, another south east and the final one south west. He had positioned most of his horse archers in the rear as to weaken that area the most so that they wouldn't be able to escape.
And as the arrows whistled through the air, he watched with satisfaction as they came down upon the Lannister host.
Drawing his sword, the men surrounding him, numbering just under two thousand in number did the same. "Wulfric, sound the horn." He ordered firmly as he dug his heels into the side of his horse.
It slowly moved forwards but gradually picked up speed, the host of Frey and Northern cavalry following after this young commander. The sound of a dull horn, sounding like the howling of a winter wind echoed throughout the Whispering Woods.
And it was soon followed by two more horns, one from the north and one from the east.
All of it combined with the stampeding of hooves made for a terrifying sound.
The entire North cavalry smashed into the disorganised Lannister host, cutting down anyone who faced them.
Robb speared his lance through the heart of the unlucky Westerland Knight while Greywind tore open the throat of another, who tried to sneak on him.
He abandoned his lance, which was now stuck in the dead man's chest, and drew his sword began hacking and slashing at his enemies.
It was like a rhythm. Block the attack, then parry it, before finishing your enemy with a slash.
Soon Robb could see the fighting is dying down, almost entirety of the Lannister host has been destroyed with some pockets of resistance here and there.
But before he could take a breathe of relief, he heard the voice of the Kingslayer yelling at him.
"Stark" Jaime Lannister, whose armour is covered in blood, yelled at him "Come out and fight me boy".
The Kingslayer is galloping towards him at full force. He must have realised that he has lost the battle and was now trying a last ditch effort to kill him, to end the war.
Torrhen and Eddard Karstark, who were standing beside him, readied their weapons to face the Kingslayer but Robb merely raised his hand as a silent gesture for them to stop.
Robb knows that even if they both engaged the Kingslayer together, they still will not be able to win.
Instead Robb turned towards Theon, who was standing beside him, "Shoot him" Robb ordered coldly "and aim for his horse, I want him alive".
After all why fight someone with a sword, when you can shoot them with an arrow.
Theon followed his orders and proved his marksmanship by putting an arrow between the eyes of the Kingslayer's horse.
The Kingslayer is violently thrown in the ground as his horse collapsed dead. Before the Knight can pick up his fallen sword, Greywind jumped on him pinning the Kingslayer to the ground.
"Surrender Ser Jaime, you are surrounded" Robb said "Resistence is futile".
Ser Jaime looked at his surrounding, seeing that he was indeed surrounded. He looked at Robb with hate in his eyes before he spat "You may have defeated me boy, but my father will crush you".
"Umber put him in chains" Robb ordered Smalljon "and gag him, his voice annoys me".
Smalljon and Daryn quickly followed his orders, binding the Kingslayer's arms before taking him away to put him in chains.
"Lord Stark, the victory is ours." Lord Jason Mallister said.
"Aye, it is, but the night is not over yet." He responded, looking round over the battlefield. It was littered with the corpses of the dead, his ears filled with sound of moaning men as they slowly died, a fine feast for the crows.
"Even so, we have scored a great victory." Lord Mallister continued, the older man recognising the signs of guilt upon the young man's face. Commanding men in battle was hard, especially when one learned of the deaths that came with your orders. However, he couldn't allow the young commander to lose hope.
Men already whispered and looked at him differently.
An army of this size needed a symbol to rally behind and they now had one, the Young Wolf had ridden to their aid and scored them their first major victory, even capturing the Kingslayer.
If the Young Wolf lost hope, then their campaign would be doomed.
"Give it to them, my Lord." Lord Mallister said. "Raising your sword into the air and say the words."
Robb looked at him with a frown before he gave a stiff nod.
All around men watched as the Young Wolf raised his blade into the air.
"Victory…is ours!"
And all around, men cheered to the heavens.
BATTLE REPORT:-
BATTLE OF GREEN FORK :-
COMBATANTS:-
House Stark - 25,600 men (22,600 Northmen and 3,000Freys).
Infantry- 25,000 men.
Cavalry- 600 men.
VS
House Lannister- 32,000 men (30,000 Westermen and 2000 mountain clansmen of the Vale).
Infantry- 26,000 men.
Cavalry- 6,000 men.
Result - Minor Stark Victory. Lannister Army retreated to Harrenhal.
Casualties :-
House Stark- Less than 2,000 dead with another 800 injured (Minor).
House Lannister- At least 5,000 dead with another 1,000 injured (Moderate).
BATTLE OF THE WHISPERING WOODS :-
COMBATANTS:-
House Stark - 10,800 men (10,000 Northmen, 500 Freys and 300 Mallisters).
Infantry :- 0.
Cavalry:- 10,800 men.
VS
House Lannister- 6000 men.
Infantry- 0.
Cavalry- 6,000 men.
Result - Major Stark Victory. Jaime Lannister and many westerlands lords taken as prisoners.
Casualties :-
House Stark- Less than 500 dead and injured (Minor).
House Lannister- Entire host virtually destroyed and very few taken as prisoners (Massive).
And done!
This is my first time writing a battle scene, please tell me if I did anything wrong.
Now their is major divergence from the canon story. It was Benjen Stark who led the second host at the Battle of Green Fork instead of Roose Bolton and it resulted in a minor Stark victory.
And the Karstark brothers are still alive because Robb choose to shoot Jaime with an arrow instead of facing him in a sword fight. So there will be no anger between Robb and Rickard Karstark like there was in canon.
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