………..
293 AC
Lord Eddard Stark
The march south had taken longer than expected, when the Northern host rode into Seagard, the castle was in celebration, with first victory over the Ironborn mere days ago.
Rodrik Greyjoy the Krakens heir, a young lad barely seven and ten names days old drunk in victory, had foolishly led a charge against the castle in broad daylight. A bloody and fierce battle followed directly under the castle walls, Ser Jason Mallister the heir to Seaguard had ridden out to meet the invading enemy and met Rodrik in single combat killing him directly under the walls before slaughtering the invading Ironborn without any mercy.
Soon news came from the east the king accompanied by his own brother, a six and ten name days old Renly Baratheon the Lord Paramount of the Stormland and Lord Jon Arryn the Lord Paramount of the Vale and Neds own foster father were heading to The Rock and all hosts were to converge there to begin preparation for an all out invasion of the Iron Isles.
But that was still a dozen sea battles away. For now Aeron and Victarion Greyjoy still ruled the seas from Crakehall to Cape Kraken, they scoured the coasts burning any and every ship that was on the horizon and kept every Lord on their feet with regular raids. The Fair Isles faced the brunt of the attack. Some even whispered of Ironborn ships moving south to attack a still sparsely defended Shield Isles. They would have to break the Iron Fleet if they were to successfully launch an invasion of the Iron Isles.
They moved through the Crag, coming up to the ancestral seat of House Westerling, once a strong castle now a barely maintained ruin. Passed through Castamere once a great fortress housing a proud house, now a symbol of Tywin Lannister's ruthlessness. Often engaging in fights with Ironborn raiding parties that often fell upon the seaside villages, castles and settlements.
They arrived in Rock almost a moon later, the Rock was bursting with activity. Knights rode down through the streets, men at arm's carried weapons to caravans, carts of supplies were being wheeled down to Lannisport to assist in the rebuilding, an anti Ironborn sentiment was in the air with the people calling for blood. As he rode to the main castle, he saw several lords and knights from the sack of King's Landing, he recognised the banners of Crakehall, Marband and Lefford amongst some of them.
The king had arrived a fortnight ago, Ned rode into the castle to be received by his good brother Edmure Tully, the heir to Riverrun and Ser Brynden Blackfish.
Exchanging greetings they walked up to the war room, to find a very distraught council.
Soon he knew the reasons, Stannis Baratheon had been caught in a stalemate in the Battle of Fair Isles and Euron Greyjoy had landed in the North with one thousand six hundred Ironborn and four thousand sellswords, Winterfell was under siege.
The Stoney Shore, The North 293 AC
Euron Greyjoy
As he sat by the campfire Euron remembered the first time he had explained his plan to his brothers, Baelon had kept his usual unreadable face whilst Aeron and Victarion had mocked him and pointed out the risks and how much it relied on assumptions and luck. But in the end he was right. His plan to burn the royal and Lannister fleet and thus cripple the Westerlands worked, in no way would the Reachmen have enough ships to go against the Iron Fleet and would have to wait for the detachment of the Royal Fleet from Dragonstone and the Stormlands. Thus buying them more time while Euron takes Winterfell and captures the Stark family prisoner thus forcing both the North and the Riverlands out of the war. All Aeron and Victarion had to do was to win some battles against the Royal Fleet and maintain naval dominance thus making sure no invasion of the Iron Isles could take place.
Thus he landed in the North, at the Sea Dragon Point to be exact, with 1600 men, they raped and reaved through every village in the vicinity as they marched through the Wolfswood towards Winterfell encountering little to no resistance.
It was here that he had the first hitch in his plan. The sellsword companies that he had hired had been delayed by almost a moon. This changed things, while they still outnumbered the Winterfell garrison they would have to take a much more cautious approach.
His nephew Maron had been increasing hard to control especially since he wanted to take five hundred men north to capture Bear Island, the boy fashioned himself as Ravos the Raper forgetting very well that Ravos had died a painful death at the hands of the Hungry Wolf.
For now Euron expelled such thoughts as he rose from his seat and walked towards his tent, whilst dragging a captive girl all bound and gagged to his bed.
Winterfell, The North - 293 AC
Jaekar Targaryen/Jon Snow.
The day had started out as just another morning in Winterfell, he and Robb trained, went to their lessons, he got his usuals dose of insults from Lady Stark, Sansa kept being the perfect lady attending her lessons with her septa and ladies in waiting and Arya kept being the wild wolf she was and pestered them for more details regarding the war, but everything changed when a man rode into Winterfell's courtyard yelling about invading Ironborn and collapsed.
He was immediately taken to maester Luwin and when questioned after his recovery said.
"Ironborn… milord …. Nearly 1500 of em… they landed near the Sea Dragon Point, they… they burnt down my village in the Wolfswood and are coming for Winterfell… ".
Jaekar looked at Robb his face was pale, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry Robb… let them come, we shall win… ", and with a smile on his face continued " ….and not just win, we shall crush them, they will learn what happens when they dare invade our lands "
Robb smiled in return, color returning to his face. Jaekar didn't fault him, he was but a boy of ten name days and already the acting lord of Winterfell and now he had to fight a battle to defend his home, even in his last life Jaekars first fight had been with bandits in the imperial province of Bruma and that too when he was six and ten name days old.
For now they had to prepare, Winterfell had about 500 men ready to defend its walls and it's stores were full, so unless it was a huge host constantly assaulting the walls they would hold until help arrived from the south.
Soon the raven bearing more bad news arrived, Euron Greyjoy had hired about four thousand Essossi sellswords to fight for him, the only respite was that they were more than a moon late.
" We have five trained hundred men ready to defend the walls, of these 200 are skilled bowmen and a hundred skilled crossbowmen and the rest warriors favoring the sword and spear. We should also dig trenches around the castle to slow their advance ", Ser Rodrik said at the war council. He, Robb, Lady Catelyn and Maester Luwin stood around the table with a map of areas surrounding Winterfell on it.
"Ser Rodrick, how many boys around my age are in Winterfell ? " , Jaekar asked.
" About five to six hundred, why ? Don't tell me you want them to fight ", Ser Rodrick asked, surprised.
" I intend to use them for two thing, first to start mining flash powder from the hot springs, we can ground it to dust and create a heavy mixture of it with oil, load them into casks and blast them at the invading enemy with catapults, before igniting the mixture with a fire arrow, moreover I want to use the flash powder inside arrows and bolts to increase the effectiveness of fire arrows and turn them into incendiary arrows and bolts and secondly to start production of quicklime, we can load the powder up in clay pots and flung it at the battlefield with catapults the invaders would choke amidst the quicklime dust and go blind ", he waited looking through to room, finding approval especially from Maester Luwin and Ser Rodrik, he continued ," Moreover I intend for them to run errands, take water, food and carry the wounded inside…. We need every man, woman and child to work with us if we are to hold Winterfell "
" Very well then I will round them up ", the knight said.
"We also have to consider ways of dealing with their siege machines, if they reach the wall, I recommend us throwing boiling hot oil to stop them ", he said to a horror of Robb and lady Stark while See Rodrik and Maester Luwin looked unbothered.
" Jon…. boiling hot oil, are you sure ", Robb asked.
" While it may seem cruel my lord, we can take no chances, I agree with young Jon on this ", maester Luwin added….
He walked into the courtyard flanked by one of the men at arms. In front was an assembled host of boys, most were between ten to three and ten name days old. Whispers ran through the group, worried eyes looking up to him.
" Quite ", he commanded, the whispers immediately died down.
He scanned through the assembled host, most were sons of men at arms who had gone south with his uncle, some sons of farmers, some even of merchants. These were but green boys, who have never seen a drop of blood unless it was their own, he would have to fire them up. Use their love for their family and home, their hatred for the Ironborn and pride as a northern to his full advantage.
Slowly he began ," So, here we are…. We have all heard of how the Ironborn march to our home, how they come to kill us all, how they come to loot, to rape, to reave..… It is true, I will not lie to you….. we are alone….. it would be moons before our allies reach us…. we are outnumbered... So what do we do ???? ", He asked, raising his voice, his eyes fixed on the crowd.
" Do we surrender ??? …. Do we surrender and see our homes burnt, our mothers and sisters dishonored and taken as their thralls…. Tell me ??! what do we do ???!" , He shouted, his voice raging. He could see the effect on assembed boys. Their eyes tight, jaws firm and fists clenched.
With a small internal smile he began in a much softer voice that became harsher as he spoke ," None of us can fight… that's true…. But tell me, are we soft southron fools or northerners…. Northerners who have survived for a thousand years in this cold, damp and dreary land we all call home…",
Shouts of " Aye " choroused through the crowd.
" We have stood against invading Andal armies for thousands of years, we are the last bastion of the old ways. Hundreds of thousands of Andals tried, yet failed and now a thousand Ironborn cunts with four thousand Essossi swords for hire think they can take Winterfell…. Ohhh please.. ", he said, he could easily see how much more at ease the boys were, their morale heightened.
So he began again slowly raging, "So tell me, what are we going to do, are we going to surrender or… Or are we going to crush them and make them regret ever coming to the north? Are we going to cower and flee or slaughter them and cast them back into the sunset sea? Tell me surrender or fight, surrender or fight, surrender or fight ", his rage was infectious and soon every one of them were chanting.
" Fight "
" Fight "
" Fight "
" Fight "
Smiling brightly he began ," Good, now here's what you all have to do "…….
They worked day and night preparing for the upcoming fight, the mining of flash powder and preparation of quicklime were going in full swing, he had appointed the older boys with a more inclination towards leadership as prefects who would watch over a respective group.
About fifty of them were mining the rock, twenty five grinding it to fine pieces and then finally came a crew of twenty five who would mix it up with oil and then twenty who would prepare the casks and seal it up with a dough.
Similarly the quicklime production was being looked over by another eighty boys who worked over it divided into various groups working the various stages in the production.
He had another thirty of them help in building a makeshift hospital for the wounded, gather bandages and chemicals to treat the wounded and help make the potions required under maester Luwins supervisor of course. They would run errands with maester Luwin and help nurse the wounded while the battle was on.
Another lot went to the forge helping Mikken with his work sharpening up weapons, creating new ones, upgrading the arrows and bolts into fire arrows and bolts.
A bit more intelligent ones went to the workshop building catapults and ballistas.
Almost a hundred of them would be at the wall, carrying weapons, reloading crossbows, carrying pots of boiling oil up to the wall, carrying down the wounded and most importantly as messengers.
He and Ser Rodrik also had a group of men start exploring the crypts below Winterfell, Their aim was to find the tunnels that led to the White Knife River.
Their aim was to scout out an escape route should things go south and to establish a line of communication with White Harbor.
One thing they had was the size of Winterfell as compared to the invading host, Winterfell was huge and even at their full strength the enemy could only attack from one side, the west that's what it would be. Even so he established a scouting system with a group of scouts patrolling the wall at an interval of ten minutes.
One of his biggest regrets was his age, even though he was skilled, possibly more so than anyone in Winterfell and could defeat most grown men in single combat. Yet there was no way he was strong enough for a full on battle; he didn't have the brute force required for it yet. But that didn't mean he would cower inside the keep, no… he would put his archery skills to use and make sure to take down as many men as he could. He hated it, he hated them, animals that's what they were, raping and looting, he couldnt understand why they had been allowed to live with these ways for so long, why hadn't they been reformed or put to the sword by Targaryen kings of old. He hated seeing his family so worried, he hated that his cousins, no siblings had to live amongst fear of what would come to pass if they failed to defend the Castle. No he would not fail, he would defeat them, he would make them pay, he would make them regret setting foot in the North, like he said they were animals… so he would slaughter them like animals….
It would be late in the evening, almost a week later when they would spot movement to the west, the Ironborn were here.
As he stood atop the wall, beside Robb and Ser Rodrik he had but one thought in his mind.
" Winterfell Would Survive "...
Authors Note :-So there you have it.
Yes I know our boy is giving us some Anakin Skywalker vibes in the end.
Next Up We have the Siege Of Winterfell.
What will happen, you have to wait to find out...
Comment your suggestions and criticisms down below.