Time skip sixteen months
Dran's POV
After more than a year of hunting and traveling outside, so that I could learn to survive outside the cave in the wilderness Beyond the Wall. I was almost of age too set out on my own. I was excited yet terrified, because even with all of the opportunities to learn and grow stronger without the presence of one of my relatives. I was terrified because of all the dangers I knew existed on this side of the wall, anything that moves, and some things that don't Beyond the Wall could kill me.
Example being Bran, in his green dreams Bran was flying over the far North and if Bloodraven didn't tell him to fly he would have died like the many other green sears before him.
Yet he was the one who brought him there, and with the amount of skeletons skewered on those ice spikes deep in the land of always winter, it is obvious that he killed many of them on purpose. Well some of those people would have undoubtedly messed with his plans while others were more than likely just in the three-eyed Ravens way.
so I think he killed all of the green sears he couldn't manipulate that were powerful enough to control their dreams to an extent where they could disrupt his plans.
An example would be Howland Reed since he did have green dreams they would come randomly and he has no control over them, meaning there wasn't really any way for him to interrupt The three-eyed Ravens plans. Then there was Joe Jen Reed who's situation made it to where he would be no threat to the three eyed Raven but in fact was a helpful Pawn that he could manipulate into bringing Bran north of the wall.
We are shown many times in the books that the three-eyed Raven can send dreams to those with magic in their blood. It's not farfetched to say he could easily manipulate Joe Jen Reed, because while he was in the most magically accepting area south of the wall, the people of the neck would assume he was blessed by the Gods.
It has been so long and the magic had been so diluted that most if not all knowledge was lost on the subject of green dreams, skinchanging and other forms of magic known to the first men.
I was glad that to my knowledge I was not a green sear even though they are usually some of the most powerful skinchangers.
There were many other ways the first men used Magic most notably being first men runes, while nobody but the children of the forest use them by the canon timeline. in a Song of Ice and Fire there was still evidence of them being used at one time. Such as the Royce's in the Vale, Winterfell, the Dreadfort Queen's crown, and many other ancient strongholds of the first men.
Then there's the places such as the God's Eye, the Lands of Always Winter, the Barrowlands thenn hardhome Giants stairs for all major places where there is evidence of first men runes being used
After learning to speak the old tongue, I found it much easier to learn the meaning of the first men runes. It also helped that after teaching me to speak the old tongue the crone agreed to teach me the meanings of all the first men runes she knew.
After that I started to progress much further with the first men runes. Sadly, I was nowhere near ready to start manipulating them, for one I didn't know how to manipulate them and two I didn't know how to channel magic. My best guess was it had to do with knowing the first men runes speaking the old tongue and blood.
I had a feeling that I would need to kill a lot of men or use magical species to activate any first men runes. In the world of a song of ice and fire, most magicians seemed to need blood or a sacrifice to perform anything larger than a candle fire.
There were five magical species that I knew the rough location north of the wall and then a couple others that I knew of yet did not know where to find them. The children of the forest were with the three-eyed Raven, giants roamed the north, then there were direwolves which live in most places beyond the wall, and there were ice spiders, and the wight walkers who both lived in the Lands of Always Winter.
South of the wall I knew where or when many magical species or men with very ancient magical lines would be. But I didn't want to go south of the wall until I was powerful enough to defend myself against or run from thousands of men. because there were many things that could kill me North of the wall.
There wouldn't be any organized groups trying to capture or kill me north of the wall, except maybe the three-eyed Raven or the white walkers. And while there were a couple others that could group together in force like the Thenns or powerful rating bands there was no truly organized group of men north of the wall. The Night's Watch was in such a depleted state that at this point that there was no chance of them gathering in force to hunt down a single target.
So I figured that I should grow as strong as possible in magic and physical skills, make as many allies as I can without making many enemies if possible. This way I would have a much higher chance of surviving.
Seeing how in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire there is a lot more magic than there is in the TV show Game of Thrones.
Making it far more difficult to even survive long enough to defeat the white walkers I doubt simply killing their leader will lead to them all shattering like they did in the TV show.
Because in the show the Night King was the last of the original White Walkers created by the children of the forest but in the books there is no clear White Walker leader meaning it is more likely that it is a hive mind. making it more likely that if you kill one the next one in line will take control.
Even if that's not the case in the show The White Walkers didn't use any magic besides making armor and weapons, raising the dead and bringing winter with them, while in the books the white walkers had control of ice and snow they did not just bring the cold they were the cold.
Sadly no matter how much I theorized or speculated on the nature of the white walkers I did not truly know much about them. Besides that they were once men, that they can be killed with dragging glass and Valyrian steel, and that they hated the living and disliked sunlight.
Now that I was strong enough to leave the cave on my lonesome I could now try to experiment with skinchanging and first men runes.
At this point in time I was pretty much insignificant to the timeline, so I didn't really fear being watched by the three-eyed Raven but that would not be the case forever.
My hope was that I could master runes to the point that I could block all forms of scrying being done upon me. Even if that was not possible I had many other ideas of things that can be done with first man runes.
It seems in most cases that they were used to ward an area or enchant objects, examples being Royce's famed bronze armor covered in first men runes or the three-eyed Raven's cave where the children used first man runes to keep the others magic out.
The main example of this being the Wall which blocks all weight walkers north of the Wall from crossing.
One day later
Dran's POV
After I left the cave I wanted to go to a very secluded area, where I wouldn't run into anyone. Sadly while I knew the General locations of the major tribes north of the wall I did not know their exact territories.
I could not travel too far seeing as my body was too young and weak to make a month long journey to a secluded place like hardhome. So I decided that I would travel deeper into the frost fangs but stay away from more heavily traversed areas like Sterling's pass and the Fist of the first men.
Reasons being were as there are many tribes in the frostings they were very spread out due to the limited resources in the frost fangs.
With the resources being so scarce the people were not very concentrated in one area but spread out. There was no ocean to fish there were no underground Hot Springs like Thenn then nor an abundance of game like the haunted Forest. And while there were many hornfoots in the frost fangs. The only other group of free Folk that I truly had to worry about where the Nightrunners.
The Books mentioned very little besides that they fought for resources in the frost fangs against the hornfoots. My relatives were not so scarce on information about them.
Most of the free folk who lived throughout the Frost fangs lived in caves, what sets the Nightrunners apart was they came out at night.
There were Legends saying that the original Nightrunners intermarried with children of the forest. Giving them their large cat-like eyes which lets them see in the dark. And why they are not physically robust like most free folk the Nightrunners are Swift and agile and mainly used ambush attacks when fighting due to their weaker than average bodies.
The Nightrunners' feud with the hornfoots was legendary, and was even known south of the Wall. No one knows how it first started but at this point both the hornfoots and the Nightrunners raised their children to hate each other leading to a cycle of endless war between the two tribes.
Meaning if I ever got caught by a group of Nightrunners I would undoubtedly be killed given that it would be easy to identify me as a hornfoot giving my blackened feet. While I could disguise them by covering them up with shoes, for some reason if I cover up my feet for an extended period of time it causes my feet great pain as if they were being frozen inch by inch.
Given that that's the case I could disguise myself for a short period of time, but it would not be permanent and all it would take was one moment and I would be discovered and killed.
So even with the fact that Nightrunners were not known for their friendliness and would likely kill me on the spot, a disguise or no.
Meaning I would have to avoid running into anyone and my best bet to do that was to learn to skinchange into a bird, so I could Scout the area around me from above. That still wouldn't be a perfect solution like it would be south of the wall for the free folk new of the existence of wargs and skinchangers, and would likely try to shoot the bird down even if they did not suspect it simply because it was food.
But I could not stay around the cave forever worrying about what ifs so I decided to suck it up and leave or I would not grow stronger. Being coddled by my relatives in a cave so I took everything that I owned and my valuables, a pelt with all the first man runes I knew burnt onto it, a small Dragon glass shard no larger than a finger, and my fox. deciding I would never come back.
After days of travel deeper into the frost fangs I decided that I would travel towards the valley of Thenn, but not all the way there. Knowing that most of the free folk that lived in the frost fangs lived closer to the haunted forest or the Frozen Shore and while the Thenns were dangerous they rarely left their valleys protection.
Making that area the most secluded area I knew of in the North not including the Lands of Always Winter and Hardhome. After traveling for days heading Northeast I decided that I would set up a permanent camp to stay in for the next couple of years.
After finding a cave deep in the frost fangs with a high vaulted ceiling and a tunnel in the back of the cave leading deeper into the mountain, I decided that it would be perfect for my needs.
After a couple days of scouting the area I found a large valley with a frozen lake surrounded by a ring of mountains with the largest mountain having a small stream of ice and water flowing down from the mountain side. curious with it being impossible for ice to melt in an area this cold I decided to check around the area the water was coming from.
After a few hours of tracking up the mountain I found a small cave hidden from view by a cliff's Edge.
For there to be hot springs this far north this Mountain had to be a dormant volcano, it had more than likely been kept dormant because of the unnatural cold this far north.
But I was surprised it had to be the thick walls of the mountains and the surrounding ring of mountains that protected this Bastion of heat from the unnatural cold of the Far North.
The front chamber Of The Cave had a large pool of water, there were many holes, some large enough for a man, that steam came out of that led deeper into the cave. As I explored the cave, I did not find anything Supernatural or hinting of it in the cave.
Maybe there was something deeper in the cave system but it would take me weeks if not months to explore even a small part of this cave system, with all its branches going up and down side to side Criss Crossing all throughout the walls of the cave.
I left the cave to further explore the valley with the presence of the hot springs and the lake. The valley was several degrees warmer than the surrounding area.
Even though north of the wall there's never a true summer where there's no snow and grass starts growing and the sun shines all day. There are warmer seasons and colder seasons. According to my relatives, summer ended half a year ago. And said that we're Midway through autumn the weather has been steadily getting colder day by day.
Making this valley a great location to set up a secondary camp as a backup in case the weather gets too cold, or my original cave is found. With the valley being but a 2 hour hike from my original cave it is far enough away for it to not be easily found if my original cave is found, yet close enough where it wouldn't take too much time to retreat here if the worst case happened.
After exploring the valley for more than half a a day I traveled back to my cave.
I spent a few hours studying first men runes and practicing skinchanging so as not to get rusty while I'm setting up my base of operations. I then boiled some dried meat with some roots and ate a light stew before sleeping for the night.
Chapter end
author note
The story will start to pick up from here. I have another chapter that I am working on and I will more than likely post it in about three days.
Constructive criticism is welcome as well as any ideas ya'll have about the story.