"This is fucking amazing!" I screamed into the open air, into the sky, as I held out both my arms to the sides, the wind surging against my face. Nightfury flapped his wings and we surged beyond the clouds and I held on for dear life, because I'd forgotten about the fact that the Targaryens apparently had saddles for their dragons and chains that held them in place, during flight. Ya know, a bunch of security measures to hold them in place, while their dragon's thrashing about in the sky. I'd completely forgotten about that. So, the only thing I could do was hold onto Nightfury and hope I don't fucking fall off.

So, it was incredibly fortunate Halga that she said no when I asked if she wanted to fly, because she would've fallen right off. After all, the only reason I was still barely attached to Nightfury was because of my enhanced strength, putting me just barely above the human norm. And also because Nightfury wasn't flying at full-speed; as I understood it, my little boy was essentially just doing the draconic equivalent of taking a relaxing walk.

Still, my nerd brain refused to see this as anything other than fun and exciting, a fucking dream come true, because no fantasy nerd would deny the fact that they've always wanted to ride a dragon. We flew over Bear Island a bunch of times. Like myself, Nightfury was happy to finally fly around, to fully spread his wings and claim absolute dominion over the sky. He was a Fatalis, after all, arguably the most powerful elder dragon in Monster Hunter, the Monster that other monsters were deathly afraid of. Even in this world, I was pretty sure that I was the only one fully immune to Nightfury's passive aura of dread. Halga could tolerate it to a degree, but I knew she felt no small amount of unease around my cute little hell dragon.

I think we might've even passed over the fishing village where Lysa was, but I couldn't be sure.

Flying feels good. Am happy. Sky nice. Freedom. Ground not good. My fatalis then unleashed a plume of fire so great and so intense that the sky turned crimson for a moment, before we flew right through, a haze of heat and harmless fire washing over me.

"You said it, Nightfury," I said, patting my fatalis on the neck, even as I held on for dear life. There was a trick to it, I found, and a few of Nightfury's scales, especially at the base of his neck, were tilted in the opposite direction and were flat and dull around the edges, which meant I could hold onto them, like a handle, and not have to worry too much about falling off. My main problem was that there was nothing to hold me down, but that was easily fixed as soon as we got back on land. For now, I was going to enjoy every second of it. "Wohooooo!"

It was a strange feeling, honestly, flying. It felt like I should've been able to do this, since the moment I was born, but was bound onto land by legs, instead of wings. A certain dragon from Skyrim once said that, should we ever get a taste of flight, humans would grow to envy dragons even more; well, I can't say Odahving was wrong about this shit, because... I've never felt happier.

"Let's go higher!" I said, with almost no regard for my safety. I could hold on properly now. So, I wasn't scared of falling off. If I did, I was pretty sure Nightfury could just catch me. We were high up enough that he'd probably notice me falling. Probably. Ah well, fuck it; I was determined to enjoy flying, even if it was the last thing I was ever gonna do. I mean, shit, I've been on airplane flights before and, in all of them, I had window seats and none of them could hold a candle to the joy, exhilaration, and... contentment I felt in this moment. No wonder men dreamed of becoming birds, why mankind sought to conquer the sky and stars; maybe it all was our subconscious desire, our dream, to fly and soar as we saw fit.

Okay. Mother.

Nightfury soared higher and higher, until the sky turned black from blue and the stars revealed themselves to me. Breathing was a whole lot harder from up here, but the view was... incredible. I was pretty sure that was Essos over there and that smoke-filled land, way out there was probably Valyria. Amazing. The great shadow in the far east would be Asshai... or maybe the sun just hadn't reached them yet. I don't know. But... damn... people would kill for a view like this. I know I would. Westeros seemed so small. I could even make out the individual territories, like the Riverlands, the Westerlands, the North, the Reach, Dorne... damn... amazing.

This world was beautiful. Its skies were not clogged by smog and the land was fertile and rich. Rugged though it might've been and cruel, Westeros and Essos were both beautiful places, especially from up here, where I don't have to see all the war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed on a daily basis.

I choked and tapped Nightfury a few times, signaling him to begin descending. He did. I also realized, right then and there, that I would've already frozen to death if I was wearing anything other than the [Zith Robes]. Huh, this was a pretty dangerous thing to do. Halga would be really dead if I brought her up here. Our descent was relatively peaceful. Nightfury held out both wings, which slowed us on our way down and also kept the winds from just sending me right into outer space.

Nightfury flew straight towards Mormont Keep, a landward journey that took us only a few minutes. We landed dozens of meters away from the castle itself, close to the mountain of Wildling corpses my Undead minions had gathered, all of whom were now standing idly, awaiting further commands. I saw Halga standing atop the walls. She'd had a change of clothes, I noted, now sporting a regal blue dress with golden trims, which I figured she must've nabbed from a random cabinet from inside the castle. Eh, what the heck. Lysa probably wouldn't care too much – if she cared at all.

I tapped Nightfury once and pointed at the pile of corpses. "Those aren't for food, okay? I'm going to reanimate them."

Not food. Understand. Sad.

"You'll get over it, you big baby." As I climbed down from Nightfury's back, I was immediately hit by the thick Necrotic Energies that lingered about in the presence of so many corpses. It wasn't nearly as much as before, compared to the Necrotic Energies I'd gathered off of Nightfury's corpse pile, but it was still rather dense. Good enough, I figured, to empower three spells.

I waved a hand at Helga, who waved back, as I walked towards the corpse pile. I honestly wasn't sure how many corpses there were here, but I'd say probably around a hundred or so, maybe two. There were a lot more Wildlings when I took the castle, but my Undead kind of went overboard and ripped most of the barbarians to shreds and I had no use for shreds. So, I only had them gather the usable corpses, of which there wasn't really a lot of. But, eh, I'll make do. So, I stopped in front of the corpse pile, gathered a bunch of Necrotic Energy, and used [Decompose] on a 9th tier spell slot and watched as all their flesh rotted away in mere seconds, leaving behind what was, quite literally, a miserable pile of bones.

Once more, I gathered as much Necrotic Energy as I could and, as before, cast [Danse Macabre] from a 9th tier spell slot. And, one by one, the Skeletal Undead began to move, their eyesockets blazing to unlife with blue-green flames. I said it once and I'll say it again: skeletons are way cooler than zombies.

Two spells left me with just enough ambient Necrotic Energy for one more empowered spell. I wasn't sure what I was gonna use it for, however, because I was pretty much done. And so, an idea came to mind and I just... slurped up the Necrotic Energy, hoping it'd actually bond with me somehow. It honestly wasn't hard to ingest, since I essentially had full control over it, simply guiding the it right into my mouth and swallowing.

It tasted kind of like diet coke, which was weird.

More importantly, however, the idea worked. I'm not quite sure how or why, but the energy was essentially a hundred percent compatible with my insides and just sort of stayed there, gathering around my heart, not really doing anything. I could still move it around if I wanted to, still use it whenever I deemed it. So, whenever I come across a battlefield and I don't particularly feel like reanimating everything, I could just take the Necrotic Energy and slurp it up for later use. So, whenever I wanted, I'd be able to empower a spell.

Awesome.

Smiling, I eyed the newest addition to my growing undead army and held out my arms and smiled. "Welcome to Jason Lee Enterprises, my unpaid interns! You will be starting work today, until the end of your miserable existence. There will be no bathroom breaks or any break of any kind. Sleep is not allowed. And you do not get dental. Any questions? No, okay, fall in line and wait for me tell you what to do."

I actually think I'd make a great king if I ever sat on the Iron Throne. I'd turn every single lord, lady, prince, and princess into an unpaid intern and have them work the fax machine till they all died of old age or something.

Heh.

"I guess it's about time I go back to the village and give Lysa Mormont some good news," I muttered to myself as I turned away from my undead army, idly commanding them to join the rest as I really didn't want to travel around with four hundred-ish undead minions walking behind me, no matter how cool it would be. Besides, we'd already cleared damn-near every single Wildling from here to the fishing village. I didn't need bodyguards and, even then, Nightfury would be with me.

I turned to Helga. "Oy, get down from there; we're going back. It's about time our dear miss Lysa Mormont reclaims what rightfully belongs to her."

Once this whole debacle was dealt with and Lysa reclaims her seat as the Lady of Bear Island, then I can begin moving my operations to the mainland, where I'd gather more unpaid interns. She told me she'd offer me the greatest reward that she could offer, but I honestly didn't do this for any sort of reward. Killing Wildlings was the reward, in itself. And I was also pretty sure that she was going to offer her hand in marriage. And, while Lysa Mormont was old enough by Westerosi standards, teenagers really weren't my thing. And so, I was physically incapable of seeing her as anything more than a child.

So, I'll turn her down gently and make my way to the mainland. I wasn't sure how I'd transport my undead, honestly. But I guess I could tie them all up with ropes and have Nightfury carry them across the sea. Yeah, that would work. It's not like they'd complain and, even if they did, I'd just ignore them.

"Okay!" Halga walked down the wall and made her way to me, carrying a sword. Its blade was dark, but the weapon was otherwise mundane. But, considering this was ASOIAF, I couldn't really expect a lot of crazy shit, like in Warcraft or Dungeons and Dragons. Still, its hilt was in the shape of a bear and it looked really sharp. Pretty cool.

I raised a brow and pointed at the sword in her hand. "Do you even know how to use that?"

Halga shrugged. "Nah, I'm not keeping this one. This is Longclaw, I think; I'm returning it to Lady Mormont."

"Cool." I said, shrugging. It was a Valyrian-steel sword. I wanted one for myself, but I'd be paying Valyria a visit for it. I wasn't about to go around stealing someone else's shit. "Let's go."

AN: Chapter 21 is up on (Pat)reon !