Disclaimer I do not own a Song of Ice and Fire nor any of its characters all I own are my OCS.
Dran's POV
After waking up and packing supplies, I decided I would search for a new companion preferably a large bird. But anything that could easily Trek through the mountains would do.
After setting out I started traveling Southeast, and after more than half a day of traveling I found tracks, they seem to be the tracks of large mountain goats.
Judging from the size of the prints they seem to be much larger than species from my original world. Meaning these mountain goats could perhaps be used as mounts or at least a beast of burden.
After tracking them for a few hours I caught sight of them in the distance climbing on the side of a mountain. Not wanting to alert them of my presence, I waited until they were out of sight before following them further. I didn't want to attempt to skinchange into one of them while they were on the Cliffside.
So I followed them, staying just out of sight until they were in a flatter, less steep area.
I had never attempted to skin change into an animal from such a long distance, but you never know until you try so I attempted it going for one of the smaller mountain goats in the herd.
After feeling a slight twinge of pain I reached the mind of the goat, the mind of a goat was a lot different from the mind of a fox.
It was more and less alert then a fox it was more a stupid alert, jumping and running from every thing that moved. rather than alert checking of its surroundings.
It seemed to worry about nothing but it's next meal, and it was slightly more aggressive in it's thoughts then you would
Seeing as how it would slip away if I didn't do something I decided to dig my heels in, and decided for lack of a better word to reel it in instead of yanking on it.
So as our minds fought its mind started to become exhausted, with its wills being weaker than mine it had to use more energy than me just to fight back making it's mind become exhausted.
With its mind having become exhausted from our battle of will, it became much easier to reel it in and after about a 30 second struggle I gained control of his mind.
It's mind was unlike a fox obedient but always trying to slip free, nor like the goat accepting of its fate dolsey following where I led it,.
It was more like holding onto something that was a bit too hot, painful but with time one could get used to it. After gaining control of that mind, I made it land next to me onto the horns of my mount then headed back to my cave.
After all these years I have studied and theorized about the effects and about ways to use first men runes and the Old tongue. I decided that I was ready to begin experimenting with them.
That being said I wasn't going to attempt anything massive like warding my cave or giving myself an ability of some kind. I was going to try to enchant an object with simple enchantments first.
So I decided to first create two knives that were the exact same from the same stone, and try to enchant one and see if there were any differences between the two knives.
I then made an almost needle-like pin with the strongest Stone I could find since I did not have any bronze or iron materials to work with. It would have to be strong enough to carve into the stone knife.
After that I drained about a pint of blood from myself into a large stone basin, then I soaked the stone needle and the knife I was going to carve for a day and a half in my blood.
After that I spent the next day and a half slowly carving first men runes into the knife then the blade Of the knife.
After I did that I let it soak for another day in some fresh blood. I then finished carving the runes onto the knife they were Runes of durability, strength and absorption.
When I was done carving the runes onto the knife, I then let it soak for another 2 days in the stone basin with some more fresh blood in it. So that the rune would absorb my blood into the knife.
Knowing that I would do nothing but discourage myself if I stayed and watched and nothing happened. So I left the cave for the first time in a week.
I decided that I would go on a hunting trip for a few days, so I prepared the supplies I would need for a week outside my cave and then headed out.
Knowing that I needed to gain a large predator for their strength and for the protection one would give me if I was ever in a situation I could not handle on my own.
Trying to find a large predator to skinchange into such as a shadow cat was very difficult because of their rarity. While they weren't going extinct, shadow cats in general are rare because one they live alone and do not often give birth, and two they are often hunted for the pelts and because of how dangerous they are.
l need something large enough and strong enough to hunt for me, if I don't have the time to do so my self or if I was in a situation were I couldn't do so
Because while my eagle could kill something it could not drag it back to the cave and while the eagle could catch some things they would be too small for it to be worth the trouble.
There weren't any direwolves this deep into the frost fangs and I didn't think it would be a good idea to try to skinchange into a snow bear. Since I had so much trouble with my eagle I didn't think myself ready to have a battle of wills against such a willful beast.
Making the shadow cat my best option this deep into the frosting things, so with that being said I set out.
After I headed out I first had my eagle start scouting the surrounding area in search of a shadow cat.
I spent a few days exploring areas of this region that I had never been to before. I decided it was time to start heading back since I had found no presence of a shadow cat the whole time I was gone.
I didn't want to keep delaying my trip back so I decided that I should just head straight for my cave, and to not procrastinate any longer on the subject of the knife.
On my way back to the cave I stopped at a cave to rest for the night. After settling into the cave for the night I decided I would explore this cave before I headed out. After all, you never knew when a cave like this could have something interesting in it.
as I searched the cave making sure that I was looking out for the presence of anything dangerous as I searched the cave. as i explored the edges of the cave, i found something beyond valuable on the back wall of the cave there was a dark glass like material.
I got a closer look and I realized that it was dragon glass, with that realization I discarded the idea of leaving in the morning. Knowing that I needed to stay for a day or two so I could collect some good chunks of dragon glass, not just tiny shards that I had before with all this dragon glass I could create actual weapons from the material.
Like arrowheads, spearheads and daggers, sadly I did not know any techniques to create larger weapons like axes and swords.
When I got up in the morning, I decided that I needed to connect all my mountain goats and my eagle and have them carefully head in my direction.
Having the eagle scout ahead and the goats follow slowly from behind. I left a small presence in the back of all my animals' minds so I didn't have to put my full concentration into controlling them.
enabling me to do other things as they headed this way, while I was waiting for them to arrive I decided to scavenge for long, small, sturdy rocks and a medium size rock that could fit in my hand.
and would not break on contact when hitting a stone rod into the dragon glass, and while I knew that you were supposed to chip away at it.
I did not have time to do it that way so I would try to break off larger pieces then bring them to my cave and then process them into chips of dragon glass that I could then use to make into different things that I needed.
To get them to my cave I made some makeshift saddle bags, I used a leather rope to attach two bags to it then attach it to the goats then I would lead them back to the cave.
I would have to take a longer route because of the extra weight on the goats to make sure they didn't lose their balance on a cliff from the unfamiliar weight but after an extra few hours of travel I got back to the cave without any of my goats dying.
When I got back to the cave I unloaded the goats and took off their saddle bags storing them in the cave. Then I let the goat go off in search of shelter and food for themselves.
After doing all that I decided that it was time to check on the knife.
The reason that I put runes of durability, strength and absorption on the knife was so that the knife would not break in the process of absorbing my blood.
The reason I carved absorption into the knife is so that it might absorb my blood as well as the magic in it since I didn't know how to manipulate magic.
You might say that since you can skinchange into an animal then you can manipulate magic. You are wrong, skinchanging is more instinctual than me actually manipulating magic, and while I can somewhat sense magic I was still trying to figure out how to channel it though my body or into things.
Not that I was complaining, most of the people in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire don't have any or have very little magic in their blood. And while being born into a family such as the Starks would have definitely been easier. It would have also cut off a lot of avenues to growing stronger, so while I am a little frustrated with the small progress I have been making I was not very disappointed in my progress.After all prity much every magic user In the world of a song of ice and fire, has studied magic most of their life and can still barely do more then parlor tricks.
So being able to skinchange with the proficiency I have is already a great achievement. So taking a little bit more time than I hoped in learning first men runes is not really a big problem.
Because as long as I keep experimenting and try different ways of doing so I will eventually find a way.
author note
Tell me if you like the length of this chapter, should I make the next chapter longer or shorter then this one.