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A Song of Fire and Ice does not belong to me, nor do any of the images shown. This fic was created by me for entertainment purposes.

NA 1: This is a translation from Spanish, made with a text editor, so spelling and grammatical errors are possible. My apologies to all.

NA 2: If anyone wants to help with corrections or translations, and serve as an editor, please send me a private message. Again, my apologies to all.

Robb 3

After a month's march from Winterfell, they arrived at Cailin Moat where they were joined by two more groups. One with the forces and supplies promised by Roose Bolton, and another with the rest of the forces sent by the Manderly's, led by Lord Wyman Manderly's heir, whom Roose called Lord Too Fat To Ride, and who could not join them for this reason. Instead, he sent his eldest son, Wilys Manderly, who was fatter than his brother Wendel and bald like him. Both shared walrus mustaches.

These men were not noted for their physique or appearance, but their loyalty had been more than proven in the original story and they were one of the main supporters in this war, mainly for White Port, the city ruled by their father, which gave him access to Braavos, his only hope of getting funding and supplies for the end of the war in which they were involved.

With Lord Wilys came Lady Catelyn Stark, Ser Rodrik and Brynden Tully, the self"dubbed Blackfish, Catelyn Tully's uncle and part of the last salvageable generation of the Tullys, as the current generation was a mess with legs. Robb was interested in Wilys and his news, but for the moment, the former master"at"arms of Winterfell was more useful to him. Robb greeted Lady Catelyn with a formal embrace and took her into his tent to brief her on everything and answer her questions. She embraced him shedding tears as soon as they entered the tent and the canvas closed behind them.

Robb patted her back, feeling very uncomfortable. Since he had died and been reborn, he no longer felt like a child at all, and these gestures of affection made him feel stress...

"That doesn't make sense," Robb thought. He was glad to see his mother and his feelings for her had not changed, if anything, they had grown stronger because the guilt of being the cause of her death weighed him down at night. He longed to see his mother, but this gesture of affection provoked rejection, and now that he thought about it, this feeling was not of the Robb he once was, it was something he brought from his other life where he could be considered someone cynical and lonely. The affection of other people was only hypocrisy to him, for all his life he was alone and never did anything to avoid it, for he did not trust people even if they smiled when they looked at him.

Still, he had thought that when their souls merged, his life took a 160 degree turn, as it was not a complete change and left the 20 degrees left over as the feelings of the old Robb. Now he realized that it wasn't like that or wasn't completely like that, the lonely man had feelings too. Feelings of distrust, love of solitude and a growing stress of closeness when they violated his personal space as they did at this moment.

Robb sighed in his mind as his mother sobbed, causing him a feeling akin to mild discomfort, but his feelings of love for her prevented him from expressing it. He also couldn't help but think that this woman did nothing but screw up to the core every time she acted. And it seemed to run in the family, for he remembered that Edmure Tully was the reason or one of the reasons King's Landing did not fall to Stannis when he disobeyed an order from Robb. Of course, he had also been remiss in not informing him properly of his plans.

"Robb, is something wrong? "his mother asked.

Robb supposed he noticed her coldness, but there was nothing he could do about it. While he didn't want to be a cynical person, he also didn't want to be hypocritical, something he would hate more than being cynical, so he just behaved like what he was now, not worrying about the strangeness others would notice. He sat back in his Lord's chair and shrugged.

"They say I have matured and that I am a Winter Wolf. There's ice and cruelty all around me," Robb rolled his eyes. Mother, the truth is that I now possess some knowledge that has changed the way I see the world and those around me. That is all," Robb explained sincerely, and stroked the head of Grey Wind, who, like his faithful shadow, crouched beside him. Robb had already begun to have wolf dreams with him, but he had made little progress in trying to sense other animals consciously. Lady Catelyn looked at him in confusion.

"Mother, first of all, I will fill you in on your most recent mistakes, and those of father. Please sit down," Robb commanded, and his mother looked at him doubly quizzical, but without seeming to be aware, she sat down.

Lady Catelyn Stark was not a middle"aged woman as in the series. She appeared in her thirties, with a decent figure to her eye, spectacular by the standards of this world, fine features, a shock of red hair and blue eyes to match, with a suitable height. It was no wonder she still made Baelish lose his mind.

"First of all, the dagger did not belong to Tyrion Lannister, but to the king, and it was Joffrey Waters, Queen Cersei's bastard son, who had Bran murdered. So you were about to kill an innocent man and you brought the war forward, causing us great trouble.

"Secondly, Petyr Baelish hates all Starks because he believes you were stolen from his side, so he deceived you and father, and lied about the dagger to provoke this war so we would all die in it. It was also he who betrayed father and gave him to the queen," Robb explained, and raised his hand when a shocked Lady Stark pretended to speak. No, mother, I cannot tell you where I got this information. Though I have lied to the lords, saying that father informed me of it before he was arrested. And yes, my manner has changed because of all this I now know, which yes, is much, much more than I have told you, and which you must keep an absolute secret if you do not want us all to perish in this war.

"Finally, my lord grandfather, Lord Hoster Tully, is suffering from a serious illness, and I fear he will not live more than a year. I think you should come with me to bid him a proper farewell," Robb offered, the calculating part of him not wanting this hurricane of disaster near Winterfell to crumble his plans. He felt sorry for little Rickon, for it was likely that because of him he would grow up a lowlife, without a mother's love as he had been in his other life, but it was either that or have this walking disaster hanging around his home base.

Catelyn Tully burst into tears when she heard about her father's death, and Robb thought he had been too abrupt and thoughtless, so he was overcome with guilt and rushed to get up and hug her to comfort her.

Robb had nothing against Catelyn Tully. She was a square"minded person and rejected everything that was different from what she had been brought up with, but she was not a bad person. It was her ignorance that led her to commit disasters. She was like her father, whose honor cost him his head…

"I don't even know what I think anymore, let alone what I feel," Robb thought with a sigh.

"Mother, you'll be all right," Robb consoled. A woman's sincere crying was one of the things that made him most uncomfortable, and it was the same in both of their lives.

…

Lady Catelyn cried some more, but after half an hour, Robb's duties claimed him, for they would leave in the morning and he had very important things to do there.

First, Robb called Ser Rodrik to his tent and explained his plans to reinforce the Winterfell guard, and that they would be sending orders to him using ravens. Therefore, he was always to ask Maester Luwin if he had sent orders before making any moves. He was also to be mindful of Bran's safety, but for no reason should he invade his privacy if he did not request it.

Ser Rodrik looked at him strangely as he received his orders, but he did not reply and nodded to all of them, though at the last part he seemed at a loss for words to reply. Robb gave him no time either and dismissed him to call his lords and ask for a few men each, along with enough supplies for a year. These men numbered three hundred and stayed at Cailin Moat, as a small surprise for when Balon Greyjoy thought to cut them off. Their lords saw it as a precautionary measure in case they were defeated, securing the passage back to the north.

Great Jon and Rickard Karstark had not liked the measure, but upon protesting and seeing Lord Bolton give them a silent but somehow mocking look, they both fell silent.

Robb did not overlook that the Lord Leech was the only one who realized their true intentions. Intentions he would never have if he did not know a possible future, but the Lord Leech had already foreseen this attack and determined that his hostage, Theon Greyjoy, was a paper shield against the Ironborn.

…

One more week of marching and they arrived at The Twins, two stone towers that stood on either side of a river and were the residence of a senile and insane old man who had been one of the causes of death of the former Robb.

Robb had already learned that his mother's brother, belonging to the Catastrophe family, had lost his battle against Tywin Lannister, who invaded his lands. His mother's brother had rushed in headlong without having his army at full strength, so Tywin had beaten him up and scattered his forces, as well as captured him. Now Riverrun was also under siege and Edmure was a prisoner of Jaime Lannister, who was the commander of the siege forces.

Tywin Lannister, who had learned of their movements, had his main army awaiting their arrival to engage them with some twenty to thirty"five thousand men. Some of the more talkative lords said they could handle them, but even they dared not assure that they could capture Tywin.

What they needed was a bargaining tool, not a victory in a futile battle. Therefore, they decided to go for the lion's whelp, as Blackfish suggested.

The cub was unprotected and confident, besieging Riverrun, and would be easy prey. To do so, they had to avoid the Kingsroad, crossing through The Twins and giving Tywin Lannister the slip to get to his son from behind. An excellent tactic in Robb's opinion, who supported it immediately. Besides, he knew it would be effective.

Robb sighed in relief that Tywin's tactics matched what he knew of his possible future. However, things had changed and Robb knew he was no longer the same as before. His lords had a very different opinion of him than they had of the old Robb in their memories.

Bran, who had a hobby of eavesdropping on other people's conversations, told him via the raven that even the peasant soldiers had found out what had happened at their lords' welcome dinner: how he had nearly cut off the head of one of them for claiming his place as commander of the army, and how he had not hesitated to kick another out of his rightful seat for trying to shirk his duties. This became known, because Roose Bolton's reinforcements did not go unnoticed.

For all this, in addition to the Winter Wolf, his army called him the Serpent Wolf, and the Cunning Wolf, and they were not flattery at all, though the Winter Wolf was not flattery either.

Robb knew that if Tywin found out about this, he would be in big trouble, because Tywin would never consider him an innocent boy he could easily defeat. If Tywin came to think that Robb was tricking him with some diversionary scheme, the initial plan would not work. Fortunately, in this world there was no internet and his army was already on the march, so rumors traveled with him, and unless Tywin had his own greenwatcher passing him information via raven, the initial plan was safe.

Robb was sure that, after this, gossip about him would flood the realm, but for the moment he was safe.

Robb also knew that he had to control his personality and not get carried away, because in this world honor was the most important thing officially. Beyond that, it was a nest of vipers and no one had any honor. If he lost his honor officially, it would be a catastrophe, even his own lords might be incited to revolt. Therefore, the matter of his honor was not to be taken lightly, for it was one of the factors that would determine his survival.

Robb gritted his teeth and felt like having his entire army flogged for talking behind his back, but he couldn't do it and could only swallow his frustration.

"Shitty peasants, snake their grandmothers," Robb thought to himself and shook his head because he had a hurdle ahead of him in this war.

As he had anticipated, the Freys were on the warpath and showed no signs of letting them pass. Lady Catelyn, as daughter of their liege lord, Hoster Tully, offered to go to old Walder Frey and ask him to allow them passage, but Robb denied her request.

"Mother, Walder Frey will not harm my envoy. He is a miserable coward and we have an army at his gates. He simply wants to charge us a great price for our passage," Robb said, showing his frustration and anger. He looked at his lords, who seemed a little surprised to see him angry.

"Gentlemen, at this moment I feel old and bitter. Don't mind him," he said, fixing his gaze on Rickard Karstark. My lord, don't bother, but you look as I feel at the moment," Robb added sincerely, and Great Jon burst out laughing, cracking up on his horse with laughter that could be heard for miles around.

Rickard Karstark grimaced and spat on the ground, while the other lords let out a chuckle or two.

"My lord, please go and let Walder Frey know that I am bitter about his attitude, but I don't have time to deal with him. Let him speak at once and tell me the price for opening up to me, so we can end this theater," Robb commanded.

"Robb, no!" his mother exclaimed in alarm. Robb ignored her and the old Karstark left impatiently.

Robb looked at the rest of his lords.

"My lords, do you see that forest behind us? "He pointed back with his right hand. It's bothering me. Get our army to cut it down. I want logs fifty feet long and lots of ropes.

"Lord Bolton, bring some craftsmen and escort me to my tent.

"Mother, forgive my lack of manners, but I told you before that Walder Frey would not dare harm my men with an army at their gates. You may follow me to know that your son has not lost his wits," Robb commanded, and they all set to work.

…

An hour later, a group of craftsmen watched in awe, along with his mother and their lords, as Robb explained how they were going to create a wooden bridge over the river in mid"afternoon and use it to cross at night after the return of old Karstark, who had quarreled with Walder Frey and was forcibly ejected from the twins, but as Robb guessed, no one died.

The bridge that amazed the craftsmen was not a modern bridge, but a Roman war bridge that Julius Caesar had used to cross a great river with his legions and fish his enemies with their breeches down, just as Robb now planned to do with Jaime Lannister. It consisted of wooden logs supported by a combination of buoyancy and wooden beam support.

Its construction time depended on available wood and hands, and Robb, who had twenty thousand men on hand, had nothing to do but watch as the wood was hauled into the river and the bridge began to take shape at lightning speed, while his army, like a line of ants, cut down trees and dragged them to the construction site to be inspected by the craftsmen, checked against the hastily drawn plans, and put in place to add another step to the bridge.

The bridge, at best, would last a month and most likely would no longer be there in a week, but he only needed it for a day and the wood was free.

Robb was overseeing everything along with Lord Leech and his mother, but in truth he was doing nothing more than looking at the blueprint that was created by his mother, Lady Catelyn Stark, as he blinked and compared it to his original model.

The original model, made by himself, was a series of lines that were intended to be straight, but were a mess of hasty strokes with no scale, more than sideways annotations, with a mess of loose ink and smudges all over the place.

The second drawing, done by his mother, was a scaled design, with perfect lines and no blur. The wonder of it was that his mother had spent the same amount of time as he had to create it.

"Mother, from now on you are going to be my assistant. I have a book to write and this one also has a lot of plans and drawings," said Robb.

Robb planned to seek the help of a maester, as he did at Winterfell with the book he sent to Braavos, but with a graphic designer at his side, such things were unnecessary and would also be taking unnecessary risks. Unlike the first book he sent to Braavos, this one would be a great danger, and if its contents were leaked, he would be in enormous trouble. His mother blinked at his order.

…

An hour after it began, the bridge was already twenty yards long and its construction was accelerating as the craftsmen became familiar with its requirements. But the process was interrupted when a committee of alarmed Freys, led by Lord Walder Frey's heir, Ser Stevron Frey, approached along with another group of people who, by their faces, were also Freys.

In the books they were all said to have weasel faces. In his old life, he didn't understand this and like Robb, he expected to see a family with uron heads, but he saw nothing of the sort. These guys were fine"featured and their small eyes were not attractive, none of them, but they weren't ugly either. They were a long way behind the female bear in beauty.

"My lord, let's get on with our work. Just whip them and send them back," old Karstark advised after Ser Stevron passed them some insincere apologies from old Frey and was willing to negotiate.

Robb and his lords had not moved from their place and continued to watch the wooden bridge go on and on.

Ser Stevron gave nervous glances at the bridge and his party watched apprehensively at the row of logs and the assembly process as the craftsmen ordered the cuts to be made so that the logs would fit together.

"Ser Stevron, as you see, we are busy and have already wasted too much time in negotiations. Earlier I sent one of my lords to inform you of your price for crossing your bridge, but they were shocked and refused, so we are building our own bridge and no longer need yours. Now, please stop interrupting our work," said Robb.

"You were already building your bridge when you sent that one! "Ser Stevron shot a warning glance at the boy who spoke, and a nudge from another Frey shut his mouth.

"My lord father, Lord Walder Frey, knows of your bravery and your plans to confront Lord Tywin Lannister, who has invaded the riverlands. We, too, were preparing to fight. Unfortunately, our Lord of the Rivers has been captured and we are alone against a whole army, so we find it necessary to seek allies.

"Just for that reason, my lord father, the honorable Walder Frey, offers you an alliance against the raiders to free the Riverlands from the Lannisters. And to arrange such an alliance, we see no better option than to formalize it with some marriage alliances between my lord and his sisters, and my lord father's granddaughters and grandsons," Ser Stevron concluded using a cordial tone of speech, which although it was hurried, was also articulate and understood perfectly.

"Your father is somewhat ambitious, I remind you that my lord father traded his hand for the army of all the riverlands in the usurper's war, but now Lord Frey demands the hand of all my brothers and mine in exchange for the army of a single lord of the same lands. I do not see how this is a fair bargain," Robb replied.

His lords were silent, though most spat on the ground. Robb was already thinking of some way to break them of this stomach"churning custom.

"My lord, it is my duty to remind you that your father was lord of the north and you are his son, not even a lesser lord," Ser Stevron replied. Robb laughed and nodded, which made his lords mouth tighten to swallow the insults they intended to shout.

That is true, but it is also true that I am my father's heir, I command an army of twenty thousand men, my need for your men is minimal, and if I enter into a marriage alliance and die, my place will be taken by my heir or my father's next heir, so you will still have the heir to Winterfell as your son"in"law," Robb explained, and Ser Stevron grinned from ear to ear at getting what he wanted, for he had already implied the price he was willing to accept and his terms.

"My father is a man of understanding and values honor," Ser Stevron declared, and Rickard Karstark snorted, followed by a spit from Great Jon.

Lord Frey's reputation for cowardice was known throughout the realm, though Robb would call it cunning. Of course, in this world, it was not worth losing face for such a strategy, for then it was the same as with Lord Frey, whom the whole realm detested and took the body out of him, despite his wealth and large family. His detestable character had nothing to do with it, because Tywin Lannister was an animal, and everyone was delighted to make any alliance with him. Ser Stevron ignored the gestures of displeasure and let his gaze linger on Robb.

""Nor is my lord father a common lord in these lands or others, and he can bring four thousand men to our cause, with all the supplies to support them, as well as securing this strategic position for access to their lands," Ser Stevron explained and puffed out his chest when his lords could not hide their surprise, for none of them could have that many men in their service, and for the old man to offer to guard the entrance to their lands meant that he had a good garrison to defend his own lands, which would add another thousand men to the numbers of his army, perhaps more.

Robb didn't understand where a lesser lord was getting so many people, but he didn't protest about it.

"Well, I suppose all that remains is for us to meet with his father, take the oaths, and cross over to the other side to conclude this war," Robb concluded, and the Freys nearly dragged him back to their castle in their haste.

Creating the bridge made the Freys useless to Robb, and they could only offer him to their army to formalize an alliance, so their conditions were reduced by a large percentage.

The meeting with the old Frey went on as normal, because Robb left his mother behind so as not to listen to the senile old man's charming jokes about women, and took Big Jon and Rickard Karstark, who was one of the most outrageous and the other the grumpiest, whereupon, the old Frey regretted at the time to make an off"color joke, causing an outburst of laughter from Big Jon, which left the old wretch looking double.

On the other hand, when he tried to renegotiate terms, Rickard Karstark reached for his sword, so everything went smoothly and efficiently, without the miserable old man playing tricks or trying to use his advanced age as an excuse to swindle him. As for his betrothed, he had free choice among the old man's granddaughters.

…

"Lord Bolton, I will give you command of three thousand men to accomplish the task of deceiving Lord Tywin, and I will give you liberty of action to act in the way you think best to perform such a task. If you feel you cannot perform this task, please let me know. After all, many would consider me sending you on a suicide mission," said Robb. As he spoke, all his lords gathered in the command tent, as the troops crossed the Twins, turned their attention to the Lord Leech.

Lord Bolton was one of their closest standard"bearers so far, whom they called upon to organize war strategies that required important technical details, as had been the construction of the bridge, the planning of the camps and their rules, among others. But they also knew that his seat at the welcome banquet with the lesser lords was no coincidence, and since the arrival of his remaining troops at Cailin Moat, it could be confirmed that Lord Bolton had not responded appropriately to his initial call, skirmishing troops and resources, which could be considered treason.

Even so, Robb did nothing more than reprimand him with a minor seat at a banquet, so it was rumored that the next mistake Lord Bolton made, he would lose his head, because the Winter Wolf was ruthless and cruel. There was no way he would let a treasonous attempt on a lord pass him by, when at their first meeting he had tried to cut off the head of one of them, just to make it clear that he was in command.

"My lord, I will do my duty," was Lord Bolton's reply, spoken in a low voice.

Robb also said no more and proceeded to discuss with the Blackfish and his other lords how they would attack the siege of Riverrun and, most importantly, how they would manage to capture the Materreyes and exchange him for their lord of the North, who was a prisoner of the queen.

The Blackfish stood out again, planning another cunning move against the Lannisters, which Robb knew would work. After listening to the rest of the lords, he made a few minor adjustments and called the meeting to a close.

…

When he returned to his tent, there were three ravens and a "plasta" waiting for him. The "plasta" was Theon Greyjoy, whom he was to carry until the opportunity arose to get rid of him.

Fortunately, Robb had found the perfect way to get him and his tales of the whores he had been with or the peasant girls and maidservants he had tricked out of their virginity. It was that his lords would think less of him if they saw him with young people. With that, there was no way Theon would accompany him, but the bastard made sure to always be at his tent door to ask him to join in any war plans. Luckily, today he had good news for him.

"Theon, we're going into battle in a few days and you'll be one of my battle guards," Robb reported and Theon jumped for joy. Robb, they say in camp that you talk to the ravens," said Theon. Robb rolled his eyes. Theon, tell the lords for me that, no matter how silly and absurd the rumors they invent, I will not reveal to them how to train ravens to deliver messages in person, as it is one of the few advantages we have in our war.

"If you have something important to send to your lands, you can send me your letter and I will send it to Winterfell to forward to your own lands," Robb said.

"And to whom exactly will I deliver this message? "You can give it to the next person you hear spreading foolish rumors. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must use my magical white"walker powers to enchant my wraith crows and have them spread my will across the Seven Kingdoms," Robb said in a theatrical tone. Theon grimaced.

"Hey, don't be ruthless with me, fulfilling that order will take me all night," Theon complained.

"Hey, don't complain to a lord of the night or you'll end up as spectrified as these poor ravens," said Robb using the same tone of complaint and went inside his tent to communicate with Bran so that he could tell him about Tywin Lannister's movements to see if it would fit the plan. For this, and as Bran did not know the south, Robb had a whole table of maps on which he could locate himself thanks to certain clues that Bran observed using ravens or common birds for his spying on the enemy troops. So far, there were no changes to the story he knew, but Robb wanted no surprises.

…

"My lord, your mother asks to see you," reported one of his ten regular guards. By this time, Robb already had nearly thirty battle guards, but that was only for battle and official events. His usual guard of ten Winterfell guards kept an eye on him at all times, following him like a shadow and guarding his tent when he was inside. There were more, but it was shift work to make sure they stayed alert. The creation of this guard was Robb's idea. He refused to die being casually stabbed.

Robb had his mother come in, who was not at all happy that he disregarded her advice, even though she was right every time he ignored her. Robb simply told her that her son had grown up and that her advice was valued and appreciated by him, after which he went back to ignoring her and returned to his conversation with Bran until it was time for bed.

…

With Tywin watched and his position marked on one of his maps at all times, Robb marched toward Riverrun without any sense of haste, unlike Lady Catelyn and half his lords, who feared that Tywin Lannister would learn of their plans and ambush them from behind as they were preparing to hunt their son.

…

The march to Riverrun was not swift. Nothing was quick in this medieval world. They had been marching for almost a month and a half and there had yet to be a single combat. At the rate they were going, they were days away from reaching Riverrun. So when they spoke of speed, this consisted of a march at a brisk pace through the vast territories of Westeros, which would take weeks at least or months if they crossed several territories.

Robb would fall asleep with his eyes open when he rode, if he didn't have the company of Great Jon, Maege Mormont or Rickard Karstark, who would catch on to his tricks and spit and kick if he tried to fall asleep, even if they didn't talk or have anything to do.

The old man even dared to tell him that, although he had a great brain and strategic command ability, he was too lazy. This despite the fact that Robb trained daily with sword, bow and spear. The problem was that he had committed the heresy of ordering a crossbow for self"defense instead of a bow. In short, the old man thought he was his grandfather, although he was not too far from that, because if you saw his blood, he would, in fact, be something like his great"uncle.

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