A/N: sorry I'm late, I just got Mortal shell and I couldn't put it down. so fav, fal, and review!

A\N: this is an edit as I've re read this chapter and found a continuty error, all the event in this chapter happened in 280AC. sorry for the error.

Essos, Somewhere near the Kingdom of Omber, second Legion war camp, 280 AC.

"ONE, TWO, THREE!" the laborers shouted together to synchronize their movements, with a mighty pull they managed to slide the massive log into a hole that aligned it with the other three logs that would soon make up the legs of the fourth watchtower for the outpost that was steadily rising around it after the laborers fill the hole to stabilize the log they would then add crossbeams, a ladder and eventually the crow's nest where a three-man team would man it, the task of building the outpost was easier because all the logs, beams, panels, and boards were all pre-made and transported here from the Rose Kingdom.

"Good!, open the next bundle and watch where you put your feet!" field manager Fowley shouted with a scowl, it had rained the previous night as it did every night since a month ago, a clear sign that summer was ending and winter was on its way, so this morning they were greeted by thick mud and cold wind. three massive horses drudge through the ankle-deep mud dragging two makeshift sleds behind them, each carrying several wooden planks tied into a tight bundle, the men then begin to unload and untie the ropes and then carefully lay out the wood for them to easily assemble, "where are that damned Bowen and his herd?" Fowley asked the man next to him "they were supposed to dig those fucking drainage canals yesterday"

"They did, it's the only reason why we're walking in mud and not swimming in it" Lotin was one of the first of King Eddard's engineers, they were instructed by the King himself, unlike the later batches who were instructed by older Engineers. His task was to map out locations, measure the materials, and maintain the buildings to ensure that everything went according to the plans, while Fowley kept everyone off their ass and on schedule, "but I'll make a note of your opinion to Bowen's team"

"While you're at it," Fowley remarked as he spat out his morning Flem, "tell him: if he can't keep me dryer than this he can suck what's left of my cock" Fowley laughed at his joke as he left the tent they set up to keep the measuring instrument out of the rain, but that didn't keep the mud out or the stench of the men pissing everywhere they can, usually they'd be flogged for that but since the mud made any movement a tiring affair they were allowed to relieve themselves wherever they were, for the time being.

"Noted" Lotin responded, though Fowley was too far away to hear, Lotin knew all of the current field managers were veterans of the Rose company who had become too old or invalid to directly participate in the battles, but they were still useful for preparing and planning for one. The King had given each field manager command of his herd and were left to govern themselves, to prevent offending one another, they often used inside jokes to identify themselves to the other managers as a means of expediency or extortion.

Lotin watched the receding back of Fowly and took a brief moment to drink in the sight that surrounded him. There were already tents, towers, wells, and walls around the camp, further out there were thousands of hedgehogs peppering the perimeter of the site to prevent a raid, put in place by the builders of the scouting party that chose this site to establish a war camp. The scouting party remained just beyond the camp, patrolling for any enemy scouts and killing them so none may know of their plan.

Lotin knew he was no soldier from the day he was born, from his thin gangly figure to his aversion to the sight and smell of blood and bile, he was the last person you'd have with you in a fight, yet here he was, ankle-deep in the mud at the center of his King's war machine with two thousand soldiers along with five hundred laborers and two hundred specialists.

His King and former teacher, Eddard had divided the population of the Rose into two branches, the Fest and the Hand, The fest was the main armed force of the Kingdom and was called the Rose Legions, the Legionnaires formed the bulk of the army, ten legionnaires were known as a pack, ten packs were known as a century and was commanded by a centurion, ten centuries formed a cohort commanded by a warboss, and two cohorts made up a legion which was lead by a warlord. the heavy and light archers, the heavy and light cavalry, the rangers, and torturers were all considered specialists, they were separate from the Legionnaires and primarily served as add-ons to the fighting force if the need arises, they were called detachment, the reason for this was the majority of battles often needed specific units to win since assets and inventory were limited they were allocated to where they would be needed the most.

The Hand consisted of everyone who didn't directly participate in a battle, they were laborers, scribes, healers, teachers, and engineers. Similar to the Legionnaires, the Laborers made up the majority of the Hand, laborers were the builders, cooks, craftsmen, smiths, fishermen, and farmers, while the other four were known as scholars, Lotin is a member of the Hand and therefore his duty was to support the Fest. that was why he was standing in the mud while rechecking the plans for any flaws.

When the influx of people had tripled within a year, so did the population of the Fortress, to manage this Eddard declared that only citizens and soldiers of the Rose may be paid in gold or silver, while immigrants were given food, clothing, and shelter whilst they worked within the kingdom, the army had been converted into a type of police force to ensure safety and security throughout the kingdom.

The less skilled laborers dug ditches, canals, and wells. They helped build houses and walls, most of them were in interchangeable working in shifts, one yoke would start from dawn to dusk while another would take over from dusk until dawn, to aid in their in work bonfires were constantly burning and whale oil lamps were perched near their sites and stations, in that way, the work never stopped and the kingdom grew faster.

To organize the growing workforce, Eddard created a chain of command similar to the one he used to organize the army. The lowest were the laborers who were segregated based on their skills, twenty laborers were called a yoke, each yoke had a head yoke who spoke for all of the laborers in the yoke, twenty yokes were called a herd and were managed by a field manager, and field managers were managed by the work boss Lord Iggar Bolton.

"Engineer Lotin" a familiar voice of his colleague Bosien approached him, "the Beatles have arrived" he says as he showed Lotin a wet wooden tablet with carvings on it, "they need all our seals to prove we received it"

Lotin looks at the tablet and sees that the other three engineers had already given their seals "very good" he says as he takes a pair of tonks from the table and fishes out a small brand from the firepit within the tent, he then presses the brand on the tablet, jits of smoke and tiny embers hiss from the wood, he then hands it back to Bosien "there you go", the other man nods and leaves to his own duty, Lotin places the brand back into the fire keeping it hot until he needed it again.

Essos, Rose Kingdom, 280 AC.

"PULL!" the harbormaster yelled and the men inside gigantic wheels started running which turned and engaged a gearbox that then slowly drew one of the four new ships in the Rose kingdom's navy, as it touched the dock the gangplank was lowered, the first man to walk down was the newly appointed Hand of the King, Roose Bolton, he was wearing a black tunic with long sleeves and a large red rose that occupied its entire back, at the center of the rose was an upside-down red man, awaiting at the bottom of the gangplank was a gigantic black stead that bare the same red rose on it sable, holding the reins was a freshly blooded soldier (judging by the single feather on the left cape latch, making him a scout) who's name escaped Roose, "there are more of them now" he thought, beside him stood ten young soldiers who (due to their lack of feathers and helmets) were still unblooded.

When Roose reached them, the Blooded soldier stomped his foot twice then they all raised their chins and open palms at Roose in perfect unison, a gesture of respect reserved only for the king, the Hand of the King, the Fist of the King, the Spymaster, and the Overseer, all others are greeted with a deep bow,

"We are here to escort you to the King's Solar, my Lord hand" the Blooded soldier spoke with what Roose could discern as pride, he then stepped aside allowing Roose to climb the stead.

"Let us be off then," Roose said, now on horseback, he steers it into the side and beds it to move forward.

"REED LOCK FORMATION!" the blooded soldier shouts and the unblooded soldiers all form a five-man line on either side of Roose preventing anyone from impeding him.

Roose trotted at a calm pace to hide his frustration, these people had no business seeing him that way, everyone he passes who wasn't a part of the Military dipped their heads to him as they did to anyone who wore and bore steel, those who were soldier saluted Roose with a raised right hand, time seemed to move faster here than it did in the north, but that was more due to the climate than anything else, in the north, you had to work wearing thick and heavy hides to fight the cold which over time weighed and slowed you down. Here, you wore large hats to keep the sun off your face and lose clothing to let the breeze dry off your sweat.

"There's more of them now than there were a year ago" Roose though again, men and women flooded the fortress when news reached them about a place that was truly safe from the Dothraki. No one could have predicted the sheer number of people who flocked to the Fortress when word of Eddard's success spread. At first, they came for the food that Eddard promised to give them in exchange for working in the fields, armories, and lumber yards then later on they stayed for the safety the Fortress provided. Then Eddard decreed that if they enlisted into the army they would undergo six months of training and if they made the cut they would be issued arms, armor, and a stipend of three silver coins each month upon becoming blooded, there were four conditions for becoming a soldier and if you lacked even one of them you were cut as Eddard had coined.

The first is they had to be old enough to have hair on your genitals and young enough to have no grey hairs on your head because nearly every single one of them could not say exactly how old they were due to their illiteracy, Eddard had to gauge them by how mature their bodies were.

The second is they had no previous debilitating injury or illness, had most of their teeth so that eating solid food would not be a hindrance, and a wife or family living within the Fortress, to bury them should they fall in combat.

The third is they must not be involved in the act of slavery or rape, Eddard had decreed that anyone guilty of slavery or rape or knowingly aided and protected slavers or rapists in any way, were to flayed and exposed to the wind and weather until death, after which the body would be hacked to pieces and burned. For this reason, none of the Dothraki children were allowed to be a soldier, however, their children would be eligible in the future as they were not raised as Dothraki.

The fourth and final condition is that they were able to speak the common tongue and Dothraki, this was the easiest of the requirements.

Roose entered through the newly rebuilt western gate, the old one had taken up too much of the riverbank for them to build a proper harbor so they tore it down and built it taller, thicker, and further inland, inside the fortress he is met by the sight of a massive wagons train, each being pulled by four oxen and each filled with iron sand, wood, and cole all headed to the foundry at the center of the fortress, when Roose looked further he saw another wagon train but it was moving the other way and it was filled with spices, crops, grain, animals and pots all heading to the stock house near the eastern gate.

"MAKE WAY FOR THE HAND OF THE KING!" the Blooded soldier shouted from the front, the people who heard all repeated the order.

"MAKE WAY FOR THE HAND OF THE KING!, MAKE WAY FOR THE HAND OF THE KING!, MAKE WAY FOR THE HAND OF THE KING!" men and women shouted, the wagons in front kept moving forward while those behind stopped to allow space for Roose to cross, similarly men on the streets gave way for the entourage.

Roose continued on while those around him bowed to him, it was all very surreal to Roose, it had only been six years since he arrived in Essos, now he was the second in command of a rapidly growing army that had twice defeated the Dothraki, numerous bandits, sellswords, and brigands who had the misfortune of straying into their ever-expanding territory. And now they were preparing to conquer the rest of the northern half of Essos.

As he trotted on he saw an open space where a portion of the farm used to be, after Maulik's massacre the bodies were burned but due to the sheer amount of them, some were leftover and so they buried them under the farm by packing down soil and stone. As he looked closer he saw that it had been converted into a training yard in his absence. That had become a common occurrence with Roose traveling to Braavos to conduct Eddard's affairs, which included the buying and selling of raw material and more recently establishing an account within the Iron Bank, he would be away for two to three months at a time, within which new additions to the Fortress be built during his absence.

"Ready, Lose!" loud bangs are heard echoing off the walls as an arrow shaft cuts through the air and punches itself deep into a block of packed earth and hay, "Reload!" one man commands, a group of five men all wearing heavy segmented armor scramble to action, in mere moments the Hornet has its bowstring is drawn and a fresh shaft to shoot out, "Lose!"

Several other teams are doing the same nearby, one man aims, two men spin the crank that draws back the bowstring, and one more man who stands ready to replenish the five arrow magazine the Hornet was another iteration of Eddard's anti-infantry and anti-cavalry weapons. It conceited of three-meter long wooden main body reinforced with steel bars and rivets, on top of a cart that had two two-foot-wide wheels in front to easily drag or push it through the mud and sand, an adjustable foot at the back that allows the operator to adjust the angle of the Hornet, the arrows are fed through a magazine directly above the bow itself, when an arrow is shot a gear system is engaged that drops one arrow at a time, more arrows are inserted into an opening, the magazine itself could only hold five arrows at a time, any more and the bow becomes unbalanced and unstable.

"Faster, damn you!" Instructor Kul shouted again, he was a black-skinned bald former slave to Goron's Khalasar, then he joined the Rose army, his long limbs, and high stamina helped him become an archer, now he instructs new recruits on how to safely and speedily operate the new generation of bolt throwers, "trust your pack mates and find your rhythm!"

Following their instructor's commands, they time each other's movements and move a little faster than before, but fatigue was building within the soldiers and sweat was streaming down their faces, it's due to this that one of the soldiers missed the timing, with a loud crack an arrow had jammed inside the mechanism and snapped a bowstring.

"How dare you damage the king's gifts" Kul kicks the recruit in the chest making him fall on his back the dust scattering beneath him. "Get up, fix it!"

The other teams pause at the distraction only to be berated by their instructor for letting anything distract them,

"Sorry, instructor" the soldier hastily stood from the ground and wiped his hands on his cape, he then nodded to his fellow reloader and they both cleared the jam and replaced the bowstring.

Kul hears the sound of hoofbeats somewhere which was strange considering the horses were kept nearby so they would be accustom to the sounds of shouted commands and combat, but they were in a pen so they didn't bolt or wander into the line of fire, Kul turns and sees the noise came from the hand of the king, "STAND AND SALUTE!" he shouted and everyone in the yard immediately stopped their training and raced to form a neat line to present themselves. Each of them raised their open hand to Roose.

Roose kept a stoic face and bowed to them acknowledging their respect towards him, "continue" Roose said and the trainees all scramble back to their places, "very good instructor" Roose says to Kul who puffs his chest at the compliment, Roose and his escorts continue on and did not notice Kul's surprising an even smile.

Eddard's Solar…

Two years had passed since his coronation, Eddard was sitting at his desk and sipping a bowl of broth, there wasn't anything like tea or coffee available in Westeros or Essos but there was a surplus of pork and beef bones, so he had to compensate. It was analogous to his current predicament, Jero was the head of a massive criminal organization that managed and maintained its territory, made a profit by dealing with other organizations, and functioned with a strict hierarchy. Here it was similar in function but differentiated in the facility, Eddard no longer needed precaution or permission to act out his well, they were out in the open for all to see and spy, although that meant they would be noticed by rival kingdoms or cities. But those kingdoms would then they would also note their notoriety.

That thought brought a smile to Eddard's face and as he leaned back into his chair. Just then a bright flash temporarily blinds him, after moving his head Eddard sees his crown rested in front of him, gleaming in the rays of the sun that peered through the window, Iggar had told him that the craftsmen all contributed a single silver coin to make it, which by their standards was a great fortune to give up, they had all shared in its making which showed in its fine detail, to show his appreciation, Eddard wore the crown every day and all who saw him dipped their heads in respect.

His smile turned sour at his laps in focus. It was nearly impossible not to be intoxicated by it all, from frail and frightened girls to grim and grizzled men, all bowed before King Eddard, when before he needed to give an explanation or an example to convince the crowd, now he simply orders, and they obey, if not for the Robert and Greyjoy rebellions looming over his head, he would have lost it the moment he felt the crown touch his head.

With his new title came new trails. The majority of the farmers were older men, they were more suited to the life of labor than that of a soldier, they had lived under fear of the Dothraki for too long that no amount of victories could ever convince them to face a Khalasar in open battle, the young however were far more malleable and made up the majority of the army, the rest were sellswords. Therein lies the problem. Eddard needed more men and women to fill his kingdom, currently, there were six thousand three hundred active soldiers in the army, another five thousand still in training, and over twelve thousand non-combatants.

So the plan was to supplement their numbers with sellswords, but Roose wasn't able to procure the wolf pack, the only other sellsword company in Essos with a mostly Westerosi composition. Eddard was hoping his Stark ancestry and victory over two Khals would bind them to him in loyalty. A moot point now with them refusing his offer, disparate as his to gain more soldiers Eddard would never show weakness by asking a second time, instead hr told Goose to tell them 'if they defeat a Khalasar on their own, they will be accepted into the Rose'.

He pours more broth into his now-empty bowl and admires his desk trying to distract himself from overthinking again. There were no woodworkers in the Fortress so he had to buy the disk in Braavos, the wood used was called 'maidenswood' in the common tongue and 'Da'ohn' by the Essosi members of his kingdom, it's used primarily for its insect repelling properties and subtly sweet scent. Bottles of ink and sand were in small compartments beneath the desk, piles of paper were in another, and drawings of rudimentary sketches of machines that Eddard could recall from his past life were in a drawer, ink and paper were hard to come by, so he instead he used a wooden tray filled with the finest sand he could get, after smoothing out the rough draft he would then draw the 'invention' with ink and paper. He selected people who would become his engineers by having them solve a simple puzzle, giving them five sticks on a four-inch-thick foot-square plank and telling them to make a sty using the least amount of sticks, of the four hundred that came, only ten managed to use two stick then made a 'v' and placed it at the edge of the plank, while only three used one stick and placed it at the tip of a corner.

A knock on the door drew Eddard's attention, "My King" the guard outside said through the door, "the Lord Hand is here to see you, my King"

"Send him in" Eddard stood from his chair and watched as Roose walked into the room, the door then closed behind him "take a seat, Broth?" Eddard offered.

"Thank you" Roose replied calmly, he walks to the offered chair and waits for Eddard to finish pouring the broth from a clay kettle into a spare bowl. nothing went to waste in the Fortress. "The deal is done, you now have an account in the Iron Bank and the last of the Loot is being shipped to Braavos to be appraised"

After filling the bowl near the rim he pushes it towards Roose, "very good" Eddard started as he sat back on his chair, "I hope you were able to purchase what we need?"

"After they deliver the loot the ships will return with your Iron" Roose spoke. Emphasizing the word 'your'

"We are about to conquer the northern half of Essos" Eddard didn't mess Roose' tone "for that I need the entire Rose Kingdom working together"

"Well then," Roose asked as he sips the broth "pork" he thought "we should establish trust"

"Is there something you'd like to say, Roose?" Eddard answered, "I noticed you weren't all that happy about the coronation"

"You're coronation" Roose corrected, Eddard paused and looked at his right hand lightly tapping the table as if to think of something to say.

"Do you feel I have been unfair to you Roose?" Eddard finally asked,

"I'm your right-hand man, I do all your errand and orders, keep everyone inline and operating just like you say," Roose said with all the severity of a threat, Eddard smirked but before he could respond Roose cut him off "but despite all that, you don't trust me"

"I trust you with my life" Eddard answered, too quick and calmly for Roose' liking.

Roose' lip droops into a small scowl, then pauses to collect himself. He took another sip and tried a different approach "the maester at the Dread forth was a sickly old man, he'd have these coughing fits when he was teaching me my letters, so I'd read a few paragraphs ahead" Roose then placed the bowl down "when he was finished coughing I'd reread the paragraph, but this time slightly faster so he'd think I'm smart, Maester Lauren would always catch me, though" he looked into Eddard's eyes then asked, "do you how?"

Eddard returned Roose' focused gaze and answered "your pace slowed down when you reached the parts you didn't read" Roose dipped his head affirmatively but kept his eyes on Eddard's.

"It always bothered me how a genius like you would come up with a brilliant idea for a machine" Roose gesture to the window where a trebuchet could be seen "but struggled when it came to building them"

"What works in principle doesn't always work on the field" Eddard answers as if he had rehearsed the response "sometimes, I need help too"

"Then there's the way you talk " Roose points at Eddard, ignoring his answer "I've never met anyone who talks like you and those strange words you use, 'concept', 'spring', 'reload', I've never heard of those them before"

"I've read a lot of old books" Eddard provided, he then gestures to the bookshelf in his room filled with books taken from Goron and Maulik's loot. "older than those"

"Me too, the Library in the Dreadfort may not be as complete as the one in Winterfell but it's not lacking either" Roose countered, he sees that Eddard was now schooling his face "though I mostly read about flaying"

"You should've read more then, and maybe you might have a larger vocabulary" Eddard calmly shot back, the tension was now building in his stomach.

"Then the night of your coronation I tried to voice my opinion to Willis" Roose leaned closer to Eddard resting his elbows on his knees and keeping his gaze, "he became angry when I questioned your intellect and stormed off"

"You shouldn't provoke Willis like that" Eddard calmly answered, a hint of danger in his voice "he might do something… impetuous"

"The thing you learn when you flaye a man" Roose continued despite Eddard's implied threat "people think I can tell when someone is lying, which isn't true, any man will say anything to make the pain stop" Roose could now see the danger in Eddard's eyes, but like a moth to a flame he couldn't stay away "it's like what we Boltons always say; a naked man has few secrets, a flayed man none" Roose could feel it now, he was crossing a line, but he couldn't stop.

"I can't tell when someone is lying, but I can tell when they're keeping a secret" Roose couldn't stop the hair on the back of his neck from standing, but he could stop his hands from fidgeting "when Willis stormed off, I realized, he never tried to defend you. Then I realized, Willis and Howland are the only ones who don't regard you with any form of reverence"

"Which means they already know" Roose noticed that Eddard's body language was slowly relaxing when he looked away from Roose to pick up his unfinished bowl of broth, realizing Eddard had caught himself and his only chance was slipping away, Roose gambled. "So I followed Willis that night, and I eavesdropped when he came here to talk to you" Eddard froze at the implication and placed the bowl down, Roose then lets the hammer fall "Jero"

Eddard's body seemed to seize up as he heard the name, Roose saw his reaction plain as day, whatever Eddard is and how he was able to create his inventions were all tied to that name 'Jero'

"No," Eddard said with a sigh, he turned his attention to Roose and said again "no"

"No?" Roose said, confused by how calmly Eddard answered him.

"What did you expect from me, Roose?" Eddard sat back down, all hints of surprise and suspension were now gone from his face "that you could corner me and I would tell you everything?"

"So you are hiding something"

"Yes I am"

"Why?"

"Because I don't trust you"

"You don't trust me?" Roose barely managed to keep his voice down remembering the guard outside, he was outraged at the thought of being left out, again "I've kept this fortress in order and the men inline, rode hundreds of miles back and forth into the Dothraki sea and you don't trust me?"

"Yes" Eddard answered unaffected by Roose' growing rage

"Why" Roose hisses through his teeth

"I am your king, Roose" Eddard locked eyes with Roose' "trust me"

"So That's your answer, I have no choice but to do as I am told?" Roose nearly growled at Eddard devaluing his opinion

"yes" Eddard stood and walked to the door "trust me"

"no" Roose says with finality before Eddard reached the door, Eddard pulls his hand back from the handle and turns around to see Roose had stood up and faced him "you have kept me out for long enough, I demand to know"

Eddard smiles at Roose like a father would to his pouting son, "you don't get to demand anything from me, Roose Bolton"

"Then I'll leave" Roose bit back, "if you will not acknowledge me as your second then why should I helped you?"

"No you won't" Eddard says nonchalantly as he turns his back and opens the door "I know you well enough to know that you would never walk away from what I'm building"

"You don't know me" Roose said defiantly, it was a gamble to confront Eddard in this manner, and although he did not lose, he didn't win either

"oh, yes I do Roose" Eddard smiled a warm, but his eyes showed only focus "better than you know yourself"

Roose looks between the open door and Eddard, he contemplated arguing further but realized he had nothing to stand on, with a sigh he walks out without bowing to his king. Eddard carefully closes the door and walks to the window where he spies Roose walking calmly out of the building, all the soldiers salute, and all the citizen bow to him and he returns the gesture as if nothing had happened, "clever boy" Eddard says as he continues to watch the rest of the fortress with a smile on his face.

Essos, Kingdom of Omber, 280 AC.

Inside the Kingdom of Omber lied the city of Omber, situated on the northern edge of Essos, it was a trade route that allowed traders from the east and west to rest, resupply, and resume their voyage to the next part within the Axe of Andalos or further still to Braavos. In this place the rulers did not fear the Dothraki or hire Unsullied to defend them, they instead welcomed and waited on them. Giving them gifts of girls, gold, and other goods, so that they may be spared from being sacked.

The history of the Dothraki and the Kingdom of Omber was a particularly odd one, at the beginning of the century of blood, Omber was a nation of former slaves who came together just as Braavos did and made a kingdom for themselves, unlike any Kingdom before or since the duties of governance was divided among individuals, five Kings and five Queens, each of them could only be elected by the people and their children would not inherit their power, they made a law that forbids anyone from owning another. When the Dothraki first came they fiercely battled them and made allies in neighboring Kingdoms to defeat the barbarian race, at first they were victorious and managed to turn away the Dothraki, for a time. But the Dothraki would always return, no matter how many times they would defeat the Dothraki or how completely they destroyed a Khalasar, another would return the following year, to raid and rape again, for many years thousands upon thousands of lives were lost but it did nothing to dissuade the Dothraki's return, one by one the surrounding cities fell because of the seemingly endless hoards horse lords, soon after their last ally the city of Saiys fell. Omber could no longer fight, so they pleaded and paid to be left in peace.

But then something happened that the Kingdom of Omber did not foresee, due to being one of the few remaining trade routes along the northern coast of Essos their economy exploded, hundreds of ships began to stop at the port of Omber and brought with them the riches from both the west and east, felling the tiny Kingdom with more wealth than they could ever have imagined, whatever they lost in tributes they tripled with the amount of trade that came their way, gold flooded their streets overnight and with it they built their kingdom greater than the one before, however, each time the Dothraki came they would always pay tribute to them, gold could be easily be replaced and crops could easily be replenished but their people would always be precious to them, so in place of their own, they began buying slaves and breeding them for the sole purpose of offering them to the Dothraki. and so the once-proud former slave became slavers themselves.

Outside the city walls, far away from the commotion of commerce, lies another city that grew in the shadow of the Omber, made of tattered tents and skeletal shacks, that soaked and spew the foul fumes of filth. The shadow slums, named so for their possession near the walls of the city, that provided the only shield from the summer sun and warmth from the winter wind, the forest that once surrounded the walls were all slashed and burned to allow the city watch to see any approaching Khalasar, any new tree that grew were quickly cut down by disparate people trying to find anything to burn or build, so now only the trees that were too big and thick to cut down remained, this was a city built by those who came to Omber seeking to gain riches from all the influx trade, but lacked intelligence or endowments and were denied entry into the city.

The location also attributed to the smell, as the city's waste drain flowed out from the bottom of the walls and is a frequented by the local disparate enough to find scraps of food, the city had once tried to purge the slums but as with the Dothraki, the slums kept growing back, so the Omberi simply ignored it as they did with all their problems. Even the Dothraki do not raid such a place for no one and nothing in it was worth the trouble.

[THIEF!] an old tall emaciated man shouted as he struggled to run after a small child, everything about the old man was old, from his thin clumpy hair black with filth to the threadbare rag that he wore which appeared to be falling apart revealing the open and gangrenous bedsores that covered his torso, his fingernails were yellow, cracked and overgrown, his large golden eyes were crusted over.

[STOP HIM!, PLEASE STOP HIM!] he shouted at the bystanders the child had ran passed, his voice was now ragged and raspy, but people didn't pay the nearly skeletal man any mind, the child was now too far for the old man to see and so the old man falls to his brittle knees making a wet noise as he hits the mud, the old man suffering his last defeat and having no strength left in his body he collapses on the mud, he begins to cry like a helpless baby calling for his mother, tears drip down the deep creases of his face but still the people around him do nothing and simply look away, [he stole from me… pleas-please stop him] his struggles to speak as he started to violently cough, his toothless mouth now ejected blood with every cough, staining his cracked lips and the wet mud where he lie half sunk, more blood came out of his nose as he gasped for air, the man starts shaking uncontrollably and then just a s quickly he stops, the people around him gather and kick the old man, when he did not react the people begin to retrace the oldman's steps to find his house.

The child, however, keeps running and doesn't look back, clutching the pouch even tighter as little pebbles under his bared feet jab him, he had befriended the old man when he noticed he kept a small pouch hidden somewhere in his shack, at first he started giving the old man scraps of food which the old man took without question, other times he would give rags so the old man could cover himself up more or use it a bandage for his sores, every time the old man was momentarily distracted he would look for the small pouch, he knew it was valuable because sometimes he'd see the old man kiss it and hold it close to his chest, but every time he came to give food to the old the pouch was nowhere to be found, little by little the old trusted him, and then one day the old man showed the boy his pouch, the old man was about to tell the boy what it was when the suddenly snatched the pouch and ran. Now the boy's only goal was to run as far away as he could from the old man,

He ran deep into the forest, he had a hiding place in a trunk near a stream where he hid all the things he stole, he ran and ran until he saw the stream. But when he reached the stream he saw a man on a horse, the child jumped and went behind a tree, his heart was beating like mad from the run and coupled with the fear of the horse rider he nearly died of fright, then he heard it

The sound of thousands of men marching through the forest, they did not speak a word or made any other noise, the sound of horses snorting and oxen mooing could be heard somewhere in the distance, the boy peaked out and saw that they were headed directly for him, fearing he might be killed or enslaved the boy bolted out from the tree and ran back to the slums, he knew that the Dothraki would not go there.

Moments later the boy was back in the slums, he covered himself with a hood and drifted into the crowd when he looked at the shack where the old man lived it was now gone, it cloth and wood were all stripped away to be used by others in the slums, the old man was nowhere to be found, possibly taken to the edge of the forest for the wolves to have, then he heard the same sound coming from the tree line, from out of the forest came something massive, it was like an overturned boat with slits on the side, it seemed to crawl like a millipede over rock and rubble, slowly moving closer, he didn't see the chain being dragged behind it.

The people in the slums started screaming at the alien thing, no one had ever seen such a thing before, some tried to throw rocks at it, which bounced of making a sound like it was made of metal, the closer it got the louder the screams from the people became and the more rocks and they threw, soon the entire slum was making a loud ruckus at the thing, they were throwing anything they could throw at it.

"BWAAAA!, BWAAAA!, BWAAAA!"

From out of the trees an impossibly loud horn was heard, then the child saw people suddenly fall top the ground screaming in pain, all around him people were collapsing, then he felt something whistle past his ear when he touched his ear he felt something wet, he screamed in horror as he looked at his bloody hand, he ran for any cover he could find as more arrows rained down on the slums, the maze of tents and shacks made it impossible to run at full speed, but after living here all his life he could easily navigate around it, then he found himself on the edge of the slums high above a hill that bordered the forest, when he looked back he saw the metal millipede touch the castle gate, the Omberi were now peppering the thing with arrows, rocks, and oil, but still it did not seem to affect it.

From the front of the thing he sees a great plume of steam and a loud bang, suddenly a single length of chain srang from the mud as it was pulled by something in the tree line, a loud screech was coming from the iron gate as the child sees it being ripped right out of its base, rivets flying out in all directions and then finally it was bent out word leaving a large gap big enough for the metal millipede to crawl under, as he focuses on the chain he sees that it was attached to a hook that he assumed was manual put there by the men in the thing. The city then a second metal millipede appeared from the tree line and inched it's way to the city.

[There you are!]

The child turned to see the tall thin figure of the old man naked and covered in blood and mud, his golden eyes filled with hate, he leaped at the child and looped his arm over his throat, the child in his shock struggled disparate to free himself, succeeding only in knocking them both to the muddy ground, still, the old man held him using all his remaining strength to press his forearm into the child's windpipe, the child couldn't get a good grip on the old man as the mud had made him so slippery, little by little the child lost his strength and then finally the child felt his life drain away when the old man was sure the child was dead, he let go and gasped for air, breathing heavily before digging through the child's clothes to find his pouch, but it wasn't there.

[you bastard traitor!] the old man yelled pounding his weak fist at the child, [that was the only thing I had left of my home] he looked out into the distance and saw a long segmented metallic snake stretching from the city gates the guards above desperately throwing large rocks at the thing but failed to dent it, then the side swung open to make a roof and revealed a steady stream of soldiers marching into the city, more soldiers funneled into the metal snake unharmed by the defenders above.

He didn't care though, there was nothing left for the old man, so he lied next to the child's lifeless body and waited for death as he wept at never seeing his homeland one last time.

Inside the city of Omber…

Fierce fighting had flooded the streets lead by Willis in his thick boar themed armor, as the Legionnaires slowly gained ground, they haven't trained for this type of close-quarters combat so they could not refresh the frontline as there was no room for it, so the task of clearing the streets was left to the battle-hardened elites and the heavy infantry, they were more experienced in fighting alone and in the open, unlike the new army who only trained to fight in tight formation, the former sellswords could easily transition back to their old style of fighting.

While the veterans and heavies fight ahead, the soldiers use their formation to protect the archers who were concentrating their volley into the city guards so the frontliners would not be overrun, since the archer did not carry bulky shields with them they could quickly snake through the formation and be replaced by another fresh archer, that way the hail of arrows never stopped,

At the city gates, the caterpillars had finished combining and already spread their wings, three rows of caterpillars side by side to maximize the width and allow the most amount of soldiers to rush in an affected by the defenders on the walls, there were some unlucky enough to trip and fall to the side and instantly killed by arrows or rock but that could hardly be avoided, even though they were drilled by their instructors on how to safely traversed beneath the caterpillars, someone was bound to forget.

A whistle sounded in the front which was then echoed by those in the back, it was a signal to proceed forward and establish a safe zone to transport the wounded out and kept the soldiers pouring in, the middle caterpillar moved forward while being replaced by more from behind, they were moved by two stallions each trained specifically to ignore loud noise and stay calm under the heavy barrage, two soldiers stood next to them in case they do lose their calm the soldiers would them kill the horses so they don't disrupt the formation, four wheels underneath keep the weight off the horses and allowed for steadier travel.

Elsewhere within the city, Howland and his rangers were busy killing key citizens and disrupting the cities command, they hopped on the rooftop to rooftop targeting anyone who appeared to be leading or organizing, while simultaneously setting fire to houses throughout the city, their aim was to shock the city into surrender and save as much of it as possible. They also shove to attack near winter when the fewest amount of ships would be in the harbor, Eddard had commanded them not to involve the merchants because they weren't buying the slaves only using the port.

Eddard had chosen Omber for their compliance to the Dothraki way of life, the kingdom regularly supplied them with tribute young girls, strong men, and other treasures, to persuade the Dothraki to leave them in peace, such a practice would label them as slavers and therefore no one would bat an eye if someone were to sack them. It also helped that Omber was a major trading city along the northern coast of Essos, which made them extremely rich and among the few that were capable of defending itself from pirates. Their only weakness was an attack from the land, though they had high walls that could dissuade any Khalasar, it lacked any real defense apart from a skeleton crew, and the majority of their citizens were outside them, in Omber only the rich or noble could live within the safety of the city, the only other class that could remain was the soldiers and servants but, everyone else lived in huts and hovels outside the walls, where they were completely at the mercy of any bandits that may come through, these places were also where they gathered most of the slaves they would give to the Dothraki.

When the sun was at it's highest the battle was over, smoke darkened the sky, blood reddened and the streets, already the bodies of the enemies have been stripped of their arms and armor then piled high outside the city walls, citizens were rounded up and segregated the ruling elites from the simple merchants, those who practiced slavery were beheaded while the rest would be allowed to keep their positions to ease the transition of power, others would be appointed to the vacancies while the entire city would be ruled by the newly appointed high Overseer, Edmyne Reed.