After a long night

Robb POV

The fight should have ended in an instant. There were only five of them and hundreds of us. Yet I watched as my men were cut apart like they were made of cheese. I saw our steel weapons couldn't pierce the ice armor, while the ice weapons cut our armor easily. Before I could snap of it, twenty or so men already died by their hands.

Only Jaime Lannister could stand his ground by dodging the ice weapons before they reached him. I would have joined him, but Dacey Mormont and Harrion Karstark stood before me, refusing to let me through. Yet when I looked at Dacey's back, I saw a hatchet with a dragonglass head secured on her belt. Without hesitation, I took it before Dacey could ask why I threw it at one of the White Walkers.

The White Walker didn't see it as the pale figure was distracted by butchering my men or didn't care for it as nothing else worked on them. Fire arrows had hit him multiple times, but all they did was bounce off them, as fire extinguished at the touch and the Torchpikes broke under their armor. Yet the dragonglass hatchet hit its shoulder. The White Walker let out a screech of pain as its body started to melt.

"Dragonglass!" I yelled out. "Use Dragonglass!"

The other four White Walkers were surprised by one of them dying. It took a moment for the men to draw their dragonglass weapons. This would be the end of them, I thought, as I turned to see the snow bear's legs being broken by men led by Lord Karstark, and the bear was put on fire. Yet I heard from behind us the dead bodies closing in.

At that moment, I realized that these monsters weren't mindless. The White Walkers were here to hold us down to let the dead surround us. They were more capable than I thought. We had to break through them and fast before we were surrounded. Lord Karstark noticed the dead, too, as he ordered them to prepare for them.

"Run!" I ordered. "Leave them and run past them!"

If only it were that easy. The White Walkers understanding my words or my intention spread themselves a bit not to let anyone get past them. Ignoring the wishes of my guards, I pushed them away and raised Ice to meet one of the White Walkers. I only wanted to push one of them back with my massive Valyrian greatsword. But Ice cut the White Walker in half as it failed to block my attack with its icy weapon.

Seeing me cutting one of them in half so easily, the last three ignored the others and rushed at me. It seemed I was the most dangerous to them. I didn't hope to win against them but wasn't alone. Harrion Karstark quickly stood before one of the White Walkers and me. Dacey Mormont blocked the second's attack, and the Kingslayer pushed the last one away from me.

"Go! Leave them and run!" I yelled out the orders again as the dead were getting closer.

Few stayed to stop the White Walkers from moving while the rest hurried away. Even though my guards wanted me to run with them, it seemed that the White Walkers made me their highest priority. Seeing no way out other than cutting my way out, I raised Ice again and joined my guards in fighting the White Walkers.

They were careful now, blocking and dodging attacks from my sword and dragonglass blades. But we outnumbered them way too heavily. It didn't take long before a few dragonglass arrows found their way into the back of one of the White Walkers. With the help of Harrion, the Kingslayer managed to stab another in the chest. And with the help of Dacey, I managed to cut the last's once head off.

"My lord, are you all right?" Harrion quickly came to me.

"No time! Run!" I yelled.

"They are on our toes!" Dacey agreed.

Even though the dead didn't manage to surround us, they overwhelmed us from behind. They rushed relentlessly at us. I watched momentarily as they jumped on the men tackling them on the ground before ripping them apart. I forced myself to turn away from the sight and ran with Dacey, Harrion, and the Kingslayer.

The freshly fallen snow covered the terrain, so men easily tripped and fell to the ground as they tried to run. Our feet sunk into the snow, making it harder to maintain balance and stability while running. The dead didn't seem to have the same problems as they continued to rush at us. Only half of the men were on horses, and it seemed only they would be able to escape.

"They are gaining ground on us!" Harrion yelled as the dead were not far from our backs.

"Keep running. We lose them in the forest," I said, my throat hurting from heavily breathing cold air.

"We won't make it," The Kingslayer said. "Go, I hold them back."

"What?" I turned to see the Kingslayer picking up a shield from the ground and standing behind us.

I wanted to tell him to stop his foolishness, but Dacey took my arm and forced me to leave him behind. I saw Kingslayer cutting the dead apart and pushing them back with his shield. It didn't take long for him to be overrun, but he drove them in a different direction from us even then. After a few moments, I couldn't see him anymore as we managed to enter the forest.

With the little time the Kingslayer bought us, we managed to gain some ground on the dead, and in the forest, we quickly lost them. But we didn't stop running and followed the footsteps of the other men on freshly fallen snow. Only now did I realize we were the last to come into the forest. Those behind us were all dead.

I wondered how many managed to escape. What has happened to the rest of the camp? Did they manage to run away with the help of our distraction? We have cut down many of them and burned them, but there were more. There were always more. How many dead did the Others have at their disposal? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Or more?

After running for a while, we managed to catch up with the others. A few riders came up to us. I could see their relieved faces after they saw me. Grey Wind soon found us too. The wolf had several scratches on his body, but nothing seemed too severe. Still, I was concerned with the blood on his fur, but the wolf was more concerned for me as he licked my hands.

After being given a horse, I quickly found Lord Karstark, and we both agreed not to stop moving forward but still stop at points and leave signs for the others to follow, as we feared not many would be looking at the ground to find our footsteps on the snow. We had to get as far away as possible from this place.

…

We stopped at dawn as the storm ended and the sun rose from the horizon. I ordered my men to build a temporary camp to wait for the other men. The fires were quickly lit up to make smoke for others to see. While we waited and rested, everyone checked on their wounds. I had Lord Karstark see how many of us there were. He quickly returned, informing me that one hundred and twenty men were with us.

"We shall rest till midday," I said. "Then we continue to move."

"Where, my lord?" Lord Karstark asked. "We don't have much food, our tents were destroyed, and not everyone has horses. It will be a hard march for the Wall."

"For now, we move forward. We don't know if the dead won't return to finish us," I said. "We shall wait for the rest of the men and see how much we have left with."

"Very well," Lord Karstark agreed with a tired voice. "I have few scouts to look for the other men."

"Do that," I agreed with him before collapsing next to Grey Wind.

It was a long night, and I was dead tired. I ate some bread that was distributed among the men. Once I finished my portion, I quickly fell asleep. It wasn't long sleep, and I was still tense from the last night's encounter. The sun was about to reach its highest point when I woke up. I saw that our camp had grown twice once I opened my eyes.

"How long I was asleep?" I asked Harrion, who stood near me.

"Not for long, my lord," Harrion answered. "We found some men, and some men found us."

"How many?" I asked.

"A hundred men came to us, my lord."

Still, too little, I didn't see any men from Night's Watch nor Lord Umber or Lady Mormont. The situation was still dire. And I could only hope that more would soon find us. For now, we had to keep moving. It didn't seem the dead were chasing us, but they could still be close. I told Lord Karstark that we should move southeast for now.

…

Days came and left. Each day our men doubled. We were now almost two thousand strong. Yet only today we came into Lord Umber. He had more than a thousand men with him. After another two days of marching southeast, Lord Commander of the Night's Watch found us. He had one and a half thousand men of Night's Watch men with him.

After more than a week of going in one direction and hoping for the best, I was relieved. A bit more than four and a half thousand men have survived. I have almost lost hope that most of us have died. Yet our problems only started. We lost our tents, supplies, and horses. We had about two and a half thousand horses with us. Not enough for everyone, and still a long way to go.

"It was a mistake to come here," Lady Mormont complained. "We only started our campaign and have already lost almost half of our men. And we don't have enough supplies for the ones who are left. We are doomed."

"Lord Commander, which place will be easier to reach," I turned toward Jeor Mormont. "The Wall or Hardhome?"

"Hardhome?" Lord Umber's voice thundered. "You still want to continue this forsaken campaign?"

"Lord Commander?" I ignored Lord Umber.

"If we traveled by Antlers River, we would walk through better plains," Lord Commander answered.

"Then we continue," I said.

"My lord, I implore you to reconsider," Lord Karstark pleaded me.

"There is nothing to reconsider," I replied harshly. "We already are moving to the east to escape the dead and remember. Ships will be waiting for us at Hardhome. And I suspect the White Walkers shall not let us return to the Wall without a fight."

"We already have lost this campaign, my lord. I hope you understand it," Lady Mormont said. "We have gained nothing from it."

"It is you who doesn't understand, Lady Mormont," I replied. "We gained quite a bit of information. Firstly it seems that the dead only travel at night. Otherwise, they would have caught up to us. Secondly, while it looks like the dead are mindless, the White Walkers are capable of strategy and can control the dead as they wish. Thirdly, the dead can be burned easily enough, but the White Walkers can be hurt only by the dragonglass or Valyrian steel."

My words didn't seem to give them more strength, but they placated them a bit. Either way, we learned quite a bit from our encounter, so we had to return and inform the King. I feared that the White Walkers might be thinking that we would rush back to the Wall and have prepared ambushes for us. I could only see that a sure way to return was through Hardhome.

A.N. As always, If you want more, up to seven advanced chapters, you can support me on pa treon. com \ ironwolf852,