*Thanks for reading! Sorry it took so long to get around to a second chapter, I've been incredibly busy with college and haven't had much time for leisurely writing. If anyone would like to read some original writing of mine, I have a short story on Wattpad. Just search "The Niobe Compendium: Isolation" Enjoy!*
Chapter 2: Tales and Tails
A merry fire crackled in the hearth that was the centerpiece of the circular room. Dunk and Egg had shed their wet clothes in favor of garbs that the Crannogman had provided. The room was Spartanly furnished, but had a warm inviting feel all the same. It smelled of many old wood burned fires and swamp flowers. Edric Reed had supplied a plate of chunks of breaded bits of meat drenched in gravy of a type that Dunk had never encountered before. It had a chewy, thick texture and tasted wholly different from any type of meat that the big knight had ever tasted.
Lord Reed smiled as Dunk looked at a piece curiously before popping it into his mouth. Egg ate more slowly, looking royally content, but he ate vigorously all the same. "Please, forgive the lowly fare, Your Grace. I rarely have the pleasure of hosting a Prince of the Blood in my simple outpost."
Dunk and Egg shared a knowing look, before Dunk spoke up. "Forgive me my Lord, but you seem to be mistaken. My Squire is just a lowborn lad I found in the Reach before the Tourney of Ashford." Dunk looked to change the subject, naturally. "What is this meat, my Lord?"
Edric Reed smiled knowingly and his mossy green eyes danced with reflected fire light. "Ah, my apologies. Your Squire looks strikingly similar to the Prince I saw convening with Brynden Rivers at White Walls, after the attempted coup." Lord Reed looked intently at Egg "What you eat, Ser, is lizard lion. It was just slaughtered this morning."
Egg coughed, nearly choking on the bite he was working in his jaw, and struggled to swallow before speaking. "Lizard Lion!? You hunt those creatures? I thought they were man killers!"
Lord Reed laughed "Indeed they are, seldomly. My lands don't offer much in the way of animals for meat, so my people long ago learned to hunt the hunters." The small man was speaking with just a hint of a smile " However, if an outsider wanders into the bogs of my land, they are likely to become unwitting prey. Many times the simple rumor of threat from these creatures has protected us from our enemies. Lizard Lions have been the bane of the Ironborn over the centuries, they are incredibly hard to kill, if you have no knowledge of them. But my people know how to spot them and avoid becoming dinner. Though, not always."
The small Crannogman turned and strolled with silent footsteps to the wall where a spear hung mounted. Dunk had given the spear a passing glance, but hadn't studied it too critically. It was only now that he realized what the mammoth spear head was. A tooth. An incredibly long tooth, a time and a half the size of his own forearm and bigger around than his own thick neck.
Lord Reed paced towards them, bearing the spear with near holy reverence. "By the Gods…" Egg murmured in hushed astonishment. He'd seen dragon's teeth in the old Dragon Pit of King's Landing, but this out matched any of those. He was sure it had to rival even The Black Dread.
"Yes," Lord Reed said "I've often questioned the Gods for making creatures that continue to grow until they die." Edric stared down at the tooth, running his hand along it thoughtfully.
"How was it killed?" Dunk finally asked.
Egg forgot his food and leaned forward in his chair towards the little Crannogman, elbow on his knees and chin resting in his hands. Dunk appraised his squire, He is still just a boy. I often think of him as My ward and Squire first, and then my prince. He has not entirely left his childhood behind, and I must give more thought to that. The ways of the world will bear down upon his shoulders soon enough, I should give him the opportunity to be a boy as long as I can.
Edric Reed took the seat across from Dunk and Egg, back straight, and laid the spear across his knees. The flicker returned to his bright green eyes as he spoke. "It was many years ago, before the dragons came to bend the knees of the realm. One of my forebears was tracking a great stag that had made its way into the Bog, on a day just like this. It was then, and is now, rare for a stag to be found in my land. The beasts know better than to wander into the swamps. They will get stuck in sucking sand, or caught in a thorn patch, or killed and eaten by a Lizard Lion. It is a rare opportunity for my people to get stag meat, so my ancestor tracked it relentlessly into the stormy night. He was called Rymald." The little man paused for a moment and bowed his head. Egg and Dunk shared a glance, Dunk raising his eyebrows questioningly. Egg simply shrugged.
Lord Edric looked up suddenly and continued "On through the night he tracked it. Through the dark, the wind, and the rain, lightning split the sky and called down the thunder of the Gods, but on Rymald hunted. On and on he followed the beast, through lizard lion nests, thorn patches, and sucking sand. The stag seemed just to remain out of range of sight, as if it knew it was being followed. Through mud and muck, under tree and over rise, on and on Rymald tracked the beast under the stormy night sky. Until at last he caught it." Lord Reed paused here and fingered the point of the great tooth.
Egg leaned in so much it looked as if he'd fall off of the edge of his seat. Dunk smiled faintly to see the boy so entertained, and looked back to the little Crannogman, who looked far away. Ser Duncan found himself leaning forward as well, when Lord Reed has been speaking it was as if the story had played out in the air between them.
Edric Reed looked up, a profound sadness clouding his bright green eyes. "What happened next nearly brought on the ruin of my house. There stood the stag on a low rise among the bogs, shafts of moonlight casting it in pearl light where the storm clouds had parted. Rymald knocked his arrow, and let fly. His aim was true, but he heard a strange cry from the beast when his shaft struck home. Immediately the break in the storm passed, and the earth was pounded once more by heavenly waters. Rymald made his way through the water to where the stag had stood, but when he arrived, there was no stag at all. Only a small woman with an arrow in her shoulder. He fell to his knees beside her in confusion and despair, he was certain his eyes had not deceived him, and he'd touched the stag's tracks with his own hands. The little woman was of a kind foreign to him, her hair was a dark green, like midsummer leaves. Her skin was a dark brown like bark, dappled and striped-"
"A Child of the Forest!?" Egg interrupted. "I thought they were only stories for the children!"
Lord Reed smiled "Perhaps. But much wisdom is passed to our young that we should heed ourselves. You must ask yourself- why did it become tradition for us to share this with our children at all?"
Ser Duncan was now wholly invested. "Forgive my Squire's lapse in courtesy, my Lord. Please, go on."
Lord Reed only smiled mischievously at Dunk, as if they shared a secret. "Once Raymald discovered she was alive, he picked her up and carried her into a cleft on the side of the rise to bind her wound. When the Lord managed to get a fire going, he was stricken by her beauty. He had never seen anything of her like before, and he was wholly enamoured of her.
Raymald refused to stray too far from her, staying by her side while she healed. The first day he went and shot some fowl to feed her, but she would not partake. He was forced to go and collect some berries and roots to feed her, so she could regain her strength.
On the third day, Lord Raymald had made up his mind. "My Lady, you must return to my keep with me, I would take you as my wife."
"No" She told him "I am no lady as you know it, only a lady of the forest. Therefore I am not my own to give. I belong to all that grows and thrives."
So Raymald relented momentarily, going out to collect more food for her. On the sixth day, he asked again. "My lady, I would have you. Have I not cared for you and nursed you back to health?"
"No" She replied once again "One may care for the coin he possesses, but only out of the greed and desire it incites, and he who plants a seed in the place of a tree that he cuts down is not forgiven by the tree that was felled."
Raymald was rebuffed, and so he went out and collected water to boil to wash clean her wound. On the ninth day, he told her "My lady, I will have you. I have cared for you nine days now."
"No" She responded once more "One cannot have that which cannot be grasped."
"But I can grasp you" Raymald said, frustrated and overcome with desire now. He prepared to take her there under the rise in the swamp.
"You may deflower me if you wish" She told him "but take heed: one cannot throw a stone into the water without causing a splash."
Lord Raymald did not take heed. He defiled the Forest's Child there in the cleft under the rise. After a few more days of ensuring her recovery and sating his desire on her, Raymald left her there under the cleft and made his way home. He had been missed by his people, but never told the true tale of his time away.
All was well in his land for many years. There was a new lady of Solidstone, Raymald's family keep, and he fathered ten healthy children on her. But years later, on the eve of the night he had shot the stag, terrible news reached his keep.
A servant ran into the Hall that night, pale as a wight, and made as if to speak but couldn't. Lord Raymald was vexed. "Well, what is it?" The Lord asked the servant "why have you disturbed my sup?"
"My Lord, your son" the servant seemed barely able to speak the words "he was playing outside the keep… We've found him" Raymald Reed forgot his appetite instantly, and rushed outside to the spot the servant had described to him.
His son was indeed found, but only half of him. It was as if he'd been bitten clean in half." At this moment Egg had been guiding a bite to his mouth, and it fell into his lap. His face was as white as snow. Lord Reed had a way of telling the story that seemed to bring it to life in front of their eyes.
"Lord Raymald organized a hunting party to find and kill the beast, and he led it himself. Many Lizard Lions were killed, but none of them had jaws that matched the bite marks on his son.
A year passed without incident, until it came again to the anniversary of that fateful eve. His daughter's playmates had coming running in during the Lord's council meeting with his chiefs, screaming and crying about a giant beast. This time all they found of his child was an arm. The Lord organized another hunting party, and again many lizard lions were slaughtered, but none that fit the description of the girl.
This went on for seven more years, and the lord lost all of his children except one. The night before the anniversary of his meeting the Child of the Forest, the Lord went out upon his tall walls of Solidstone. "Take no more of my children!" Raymald Reed screamed into the darkness "Come and face me!"
The Lord got his wish. That night, a minute passed midnight, a great thrashing and crashing awoke the lord. Shrieks of terror emanated from all throughout Solidstone. It sounded as if the Forest itself had mounted an assault upon his high stone walls. The Lord ran up to his highest tower and looked out to see who the attackers were.
The beast had come. A colossal demon from the age of heroes, it batted down his stone walls with a swipe of its tail like they were playthings. It bit through his towers like mere cornstalks. Raymald hurried to his rooms and ordered his wife to take their last remaining child and flee. Then he grabbed his sword and made his way to the castle yard.
"Monster!" Raymald challenged "Stop this madness! It's me you want!"
The beast stopped it's thrashing and turned to look at him. It's eyes were not that of a maddened animal, but that of an injured human. For a long time the two simply stood there, gazing at each other. Then, Raymald charged, sword raised. The beast stood its ground, and quick as a snake, snipped his arm off with its massive jaws, sword and all. Then it turned and fled back into the swamps.
His keep had emptied in the chaos, and Raymald lay there alone, bleeding out into the mud, until he passed out. When the Lord awoke, an old crone tended him, her withered features gently illuminated by the fire she'd struck up. He found that his wound was expertly bound, the bleeding staunched.
"Thank you for treating me" Raymald said "who are you?"
"I've worked in your keep for many years, you simply never bothered to notice me."
Raymald was perplexed "How did you survive the monsters wrath?"
"I was in no danger" the crone tisked "it was not me it came for."
"What do you mean?" Raymald queried "speak plainly!"
"No creature of the swamp would behave in such a fashion" the crone told him "you have angered a warg."
"What is a warg?" Raymald asked "why have you not told me this sooner? Nine children I have lost!"
"You give no heed to those who serve you. Your house has forgotten much. A skinchanger, they are infrequently born into your line. One who can step into the minds of beasts and manipulate them to their own ends."
Now Raymald was truly disturbed, because his hunt of the stag now made sense to him, though he said nothing of it to the crone.
"Take heed, ere you go hunting for a skinchanger. Wargs form a lifelong bond with their beasts, and if one is killed, the other is often driven to madness." With that, the crone got up and walked away into the night.
"Thank you, grandmother." Raymald called after her, but there was no reply from the darkness.
After making sure his wife and last remaining heir were safe, Lord Reed set out on his hunt. From village to village he went, asking after any sign of a strange small person. None of his people seemed to have seen such a one. Raymald had begun to give up hope when he stumbled upon a small, isolated fishing hut in the very heart of the swamp.
The old man told him that a small, strangely colored, twisted man sometimes came to trade with him. The old man said that he knew the cave it lived in and led the Lord to it. Raymald thanked him with gold.
Outside the cave, the Lord saw no giant tracks, or uprooted trees, which would surely be signs of the monster that had taken his arm. The Lord was steeled, and prepared himself to slay the little woman he'd taken under the cleft of the rise so many years ago. But when he entered the cave, she was nowhere to be seen.
In her place was only a small, strangely colored, malformed man of indeterminable age. The little man looked at him with nothing but sadness in his eyes.
"So" the twisted man said "at last you have come to me."
"Yes" said Raymald, drawing his sword "I will have blood price for the children that you have taken from me, warg. I now have only one son left, to follow me after I've left this world."
"You are mistaken. You have two sons, father."
Lord Raymald Reed was confused only for a moment, until it all fell into place. He fell to his knees, and let his sword clatter to the floor. "My son" Raymald uttered "you should've come to me long ago. I would've taken you in graciously, now though, I will not make a kinslayer of myself."
"Why would I wish to endear myself to the man who took the daughter of the swamp without leave?" The son replied "My very existence should not have been, my mother died birthing me. I have revenged her upon you every night on the anniversary of your meeting."
"Aye, I wronged her. But you have made yourself a kinslayer nine times over. I ask you now to leave my last child in peace, and take my life instead." Raymald handed his son the sword, knowing his guards were not far behind. "Take your final blood price and let us be done with it."
And so the warg did. The Lord's guards came to the cave a short time later, and finding their Lord dead, they cut the little man down without question. It is said that all throughout the swamp a great bellowing and thrashing was heard, and a glade was found where all the trees had been uprooted, smashed, sheared in half, or broken.
The Lady Reed, Raymald's wife, was assisted by the wise old crone that had attended Raymald in raising their last remaining son. Our moving fortress, Greywater Watch, was build afterwards, to avoid being found by the maddened beast."
"It was never killed!?" Egg asked "is it still alive!?" The young Squire shivered.
"Some say on the anniversary eve of when the Child was pierced by Raymald's arrow, a great crashing and booming can he heard throughout the swamp, and some folk still go missing." Lord Reed said.
Egg looked thoughtful "and" he paused, afraid to ask his next question or afraid what the answer might be "what time of year is that?"
Lord Reed laughed, "No need to worry yourself lad, they're only stories for the children after all."
Dunk and Egg looked at each other simultaneously, remembering what the Lord had said about stories for the children.