The hill on top of which the Company of Cats had lain their camp was chosen after a lot of thought.

Three sides of the hill were completely barren while the tall grasses on the fourth side had been regularly culled for about 200 meters away from camp so that anyone approaching them could easily be spotted from afar.

And even though the hill wasn't too high, it was still steep enough that anyone thinking of attacking them would have to climb an uphill battle while the defenders would have the advantage of downward momentum.

Jon and Sam were crouched and hiding among the tall yellow grass on the fourth side. They were at the very end just before the grass stopped, so they were easily able to watch the camp from their position while the sellswords up there couldn't notice them.

"She's back," Jon suddenly whispered, and Sam immediately looked up with searching eyes and sure enough not even a second later he caught sight of a colourful little critter flying towards them from the direction of the camp.

When Tweety reached above their heads, Jon extended his right hand and a moment later he caught a thin earthen bottle in his palm thrown by the bird before she perched on his shoulder.

Jon silently handed the bottle to Sam, who immediately placed it on the ground alongside five other empty ones, before putting his hand inside his armour to take out a new bottle.

"I think that should be enough bottles for now, Sam," Jon said stopping Sam from pulling out another bottle of poison, "I don't think Tweety needs to make another trip,"

"Are you sure? I mean what if she missed or spilled a little outside the pots? Shouldn't we pour a little more just to be sure..." Sam asked fidgeting with the bottle in his hand.

*Chirp* *Chirp*

Tweety answered Sam before Jon could even open his mouth. She squeaked out in an indignant melody while puffing up her chest and ruffling her feathers angrily.

Usually, Jon left most of the heavy work and long-distance things under the purview of Frost, so Tweety rarely gets the chance to shine. But when it comes to sneaky things like this, she was the only expert he had among his wargs as because of her insane speed and small size, she could go in and out of most places without anyone noticing, so the little birdy was quite proud and defensive of her work.

"Fine, Fine, I believe you," Sam apologized hastily while raising his hands in surrender towards the fuming hummingbird.

Jon suppressed his chuckles to save Sam the embarrassment before he cleared his throat, "Sam, I don't think I'll need you for the next part, so you should—Oh!" Jon abruptly stopped mid-sentence and raised his head towards the sky as if someone had called him.

"W-What happened, Jon? D-Did someone find out?" Sam asked nervously as his eyes involuntarily went towards the camp to see if he could make out any commotion.

"Hmm...Maybe..." Jon murmured with a frown on his face.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well, two people just left the camp on horses and they are moving away at quite a fast speed as if they were running away from—Oh!" Jon stopped midsentence once again as he finally caught sight of the faces on the horses.

"What? Why did you stop? Did they really notice us? Should we run away? What should—Wait! Why are you smiling like that?" Sam asked in a bewildered tone as he saw a wide smile appear on the young northerner.

"No, Nothing," Jon quickly shook his head while trying to suppress his grin, "We don't need to worry about them."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Even if those runaways found out about the poison, they probably decided to not share their findings with their friends and run away alone since most of the sellswords in the camp are still laughing around and happily eating their food."

"But why would they—"

"Don't worry about them," Jon repeated in a firm tone, "Now, as I was saying before, the next part only needs me so you should go join the others," he pointed his thumb towards the back where they had come from.

Jon and Sam hadn't ventured on this adventure all alone, three more from the Company of the Rose had joined them, namely, Bran, an experienced guard and a young stable hand. Jon didn't want to answer too many questions so he made them stop some distance back giving the excuse that more people would mean less stealth, which wasn't false.

"Yes, I understand," Sam finally nodded his head before raising himself from his crouched position but still making sure to remain hidden in the grass. But just before leaving Sam turned to Jon and asked something he was really curious about, "But how are you going to get past them, Jon," he pointed his finger towards the camp where two sellswords acting as look-outs were standing right at the edge.

While even Sam could see from afar that the guards weren't particularly alert or diligent about their jobs, he was sure that even those slackers would notice if Jon ran straight towards the camp through the open ground ahead of them.

"Using a simple magic trick... Why, Do you want to see it?"

"Yes."

"Well, then Tweety, show him your magic," he turned to his friend with a mischievous smile, who chirped happily and immediately took off.

...

The two guards on the lookout were barely looking out as most of their attention was back towards the camp where they could see the fires from the dinner rising high up in the sky.

"Sss! I can already smell the soup all the way here," one of the guards groaned as his stomach growled loudly.

"Don't do that, you idiot. The more you think about it, the harder it is going to be to endure the wait."

"Argh! But why! Why do we have to wait..." the guard replied in a disgruntled and envious tone, "I just hate those lucky bastards. While we are stuck here guarding this barren land where nobody has stepped a foot in years, they are out there happily enjoying their food..."

"But what can we do about it? We can only get our food after they have had their fill and the next shift arrives to relieve us. So you should suck up and—Argh!" the guard abruptly covered his eyes and screamed before bending down.

"W-What? What happened?"

"A b-bird! A fucking bird just shit on me, argh!"

"What?" he barked trying to suppress his laughter while pulling his friend's hand away from his face only to see that both of his eyes were completely covered in white goo which immediately made him lose his control, "Pfft! Haha!"

"Don't laugh you bastard!"

"But h-how can you be so unlucky as to—Argh! Fuck!" halfway through mocking his friend, the guard screamed as he got served the same dish as his friend.

"Hahaha! Serves you right for laughing at me!"

"Shit! Fuck this! I am going back to my camp to clean this filth!" he cursed and then made for the camp without looking back.

"But the captain—Ah! Curse you!" he screamed before immediately chasing after his friend.

...

"T-That was brilliant, Jon. Jon?!" Sam exclaimed in awe before he turned around but he got no answer as Jon had left his place and was already halfway towards the hill.

"Good luck, Jon," Sam mumbled to himself while looking at Jon before he turned and ran back through the grass to join the others.

...

The Camp of Cats had long wooden fences surrounding it on all sides like any other long-term sellword camp in Essos. But while these fences were usually supposed to keep the enemies out, in this instance they were mighty helpful in keeping Jon hidden.

Jon ran silently along the border of the camp while making sure to remain crouched at all times so that unless someone was looking directly at him through the fences, they wouldn't be able to spot him through the crisscrossing fence.

He ran past the empty ground where most of the sellswords were eating their dinner and then past the big tent that he knew was the food storage, and then past a few smaller tents before he finally reached his destination—the stables.

The fences surrounding the stable were a bit higher and had spiky sharp ends sticking out of either side so that horses didn't vault over it and run away. But Jon didn't have much of a problem jumping over the fence with his athletic body.

He landed on his hand and then rolled to stop his forward momentum before standing up and the moment he did, he was hit by the pungent smell of horse shit.

Jon was surrounded on all sides by horses of all kinds, some were brown, some were black, some were standing in their place and chewing hay while others were looking curiously towards him and others still had their eyes closed and were taking a nap.

It only took a single glance for him to see that there were something like 40 horses here and all of them were of excellent breed and in battle-ready condition, "This is quite the haul..." Jon murmured with a satisfied expression on his face.

"Now where is your caretaker, my friends," he asked distractedly to a nearby horse while taking out a dagger from his waist. The horse looked confused for a moment before jerking his head towards the entrance of the stable.

Jon nodded his head and began to move sneakily towards the entrance but it didn't take him more than a few steps to find that someone else had gotten to his target before him.

"Oho! Looks like someone ran afoul of the red viper..." Jon only needed a single look at the clear spear wound in the stablehand's throat to see who had done him in, "Well all the better for me," he shrugged while sheathing his dagger.

Jon knew that the time was tight so he immediately went to work on his next task... which was to get all these horses to agree to run away with him.

He went towards the nearest horse and after looking it in the eye for a few seconds, he created a faint rudimentary connection. Only a few moments later, he was done with his task as they came to an agreement, so he didn't waste any time in cutting open its rope and moving on to the next one.

One after the other, Jon freed the horses after spending a few seconds bonding with each of them. And not a single horse tried to create a clamour or escape from the stable using their new-found freedom, instead, they all patiently stood in their place while waiting for Jon to finish with the others.

A few minutes later, Jon was finally done communicating with the last of the horses and had gotten an agreement from every single horse in there to come with him.

And unlike what it looked from the outside, Jon wasn't actually trying to control all these horses, because even he with his robust mental strength would not have been able to control more than a few horses at the same time, but if it was just a short-term agreement to follow his orders then it was a bit more doable given enough time.

"Phew! That's finally taken care of." Jon sighed while wiping a bit of sweat from his forehead, "Now, for the last part..."

He took out a thin wooden makeshift torch he had prepared beforehand from his waistband, before pulling out a small bottle of alcohol from his pocket. He then proceeded to pour all the alcohol slowly over the torch end, to make sure that the fire wasn't doused by the wind.

A small stove near the stable entrance took care of the fire part, as with Jon's years of outdoor camping experience it only took him a few tries with the nearby tools to get the fire running.

He quickly lit the torch using the small fire in the stove before hurriedly dousing it just to be safe. A few seconds later when the fire was completely stable on the torch, Jon stood up and went towards the side of the fence he had entered the stable from before looking towards the sky, "It's your turn next, my friend..."

'I'm ready,' came the immediate reply from Frost, so Jon didn't waste any more time before chucking the burning torch straight into the sky as high as he could. Not even a second later a blue flash of light passed by and the torch disappeared from his view as if it had never been there, "Let's get the heat up, Frost,"

...

"Is it time?"

The gruff voice shook Gared out of his concentration, so he lowered the far-eye from his face and turned towards the Tattered Prince, before replying, "No, but it will be soon..."

The Tattered Prince was the first and only commander of the sellswords company, Windblown. He was a fifty-something-year-old man, with silver grey hair and an appearance so ordinary that he could easily disappear in a crowd the moment he took off his silver mail and his colourful tattered cloak.

They were both standing on a steep mountain a few leagues away from the Camp of Company of the Cats and from their location, Gared was able to get a clear view of the camp and what was happening in there using the Far-eye Jon had given him.

"The sun is going to set in about an hour," murmured the old commander while looking at the horizon, "So I hope that whatever plan you've cooked up occurs soon because I don't fancy having a night battle."

"Oh! Don't worry too much, Old Man," Gared said with a mysterious gleam in his eyes, "This battle is going to be the easiest and most fortuitous one of your life. You can trust me on that."

"Don't call me an Old Man, I'm only twenty years older than you, boy," snapped the white-haired old man, "And besides I wouldn't have brought all my warriors here if I didn't trust you," he said waving his hand behind him, where stood lines and lines of warrior readying their weapons and waiting for the order from their commander to set off towards their target.

Almost two thousand of these fighters belonged to the Windblown, while the other five hundred belonged to the Company of Roses. And even though they hadn't been allowed to set up camp so there were no tents signifying their different allegiance, anyone would have been able to pick the sellswords from the two companies apart.

The sellswords from one company had good quality weapons and armour while the other had shabby equipment, they were well-maintained but they were old. While one company boasted over two hundred horses ready to charge into battle, the other only had foot soldiers.

"Really? Because I thought that you only came because the ones we're about to attack are the Cats..." Gared chuckled with a sly smile on his face. It was an open secret that the Company of Cats and the Windblown had bad blood between them, both companies had fought in battle with each other on more than a few occasions, and both wanted nothing more than to tear the other to pieces.

"Even if I wanted to wipe these currs from the face of Essos," he said while looking at the far-away camp with distaste before shaking his head, "I would not be so stupid as to attack them in their well-fortified camp when they are ready... So I hope that what you had promised me comes true... for your own sake..."

It hadn't been too hard for Gared to persuade the old sellsword to join him in his crusade. Of course, he had to give away a few concessions including, leaving most of the loot they would get if they managed to defeat the Cats. But Jon had repeated many times that as long as the company came under him, they would never have any problem with money or weapons so Gared didn't feel that it was too much of a loss.

"What have you got to worry about?" Gared snorted at the not-so-hidden threat, "After all, I already said that we would be in the vanguard."

"Well, then I hope you live up to your honourable reputation and keep your promise, because—" halfway through his words, the Tattered Prince stopped and looked towards the enemy camp with narrowed eyes, "Is that the signal we are waiting for?"

"Wha—Oh!" Gared exclaimed as he followed the old man's finger and caught sight of a sky-reaching fire that was burning the biggest tent in the camp.

"I'll sound the horn," the commander of Windblown said resolutely while turning away.

"No, wait!" Gared had the far-eye back on his eye and was moving it left and right along the camp as if searching for something, "Not yet!"

"What?! What are you talking about?" the Tattered prince asked in a bewildered tone, "If I am not wrong then that is the food storage burning out there. What else could you be waiting for?"

Gared didn't answer his fellow commander instead he just focused more closely on the camp.

He saw the mayhem and panic that the sudden fire had caused as the sellswords ran hither tither frantically trying to douse the fire using pails of water and the nearby sand but it wasn't helping too much.

It was as he was focusing on the fire that Gared abruptly caught sight of the first victim of their scheme.

A man in the midst of carrying a pail of water towards the raging fire suddenly sported an uncomfortable look on his face before he suddenly fell down to his knees while holding onto his stomach.

Not many paid him any attention at first as they were too busy with the fire but when the second one and then the third one followed soon after, people began noticing that something worse than fire was happening to them. But it was too late by then as people began falling left and right complaining of weakness, nausea and the unbearable urge to... shit.

"Your plan really worked!" the old sellsword exclaimed in a surprised but delighted tone, "We need to go, now. It's the perfect time to strike. We should hit them before they get a chance to regather."

"No! Just wait a few more—Ah! There it is!" Gared said in an excited tone as he finally caught sight of the scene he was searching for.

While most of the company was focused on controlling the fire and helping their poisoned comrades, a third problem suddenly presented itself as the horses abruptly broke free from their stables and ran out towards the exit all on their own.

If there were just a few of them coming towards them, then the guards at the exit might have even put up a modicum of effort to try and stop them from leaving, but the herd of horses galloping furiously towards them was so scary that they all willingly jumped out their path and let them run away scott-free.

"How did you get the horses—"

"It's time!" Gared said as he cut off his fellow commander's curious question while placing the far-eye back in his pocket, "Let's go," and then without wasting any more time he picked up the horn by his side and turned towards the waiting warrior before breathing into it with all his might.

*POOOOO*

"MEN! LET'S GO KILL SOME CATS!"

"YYYEESSSS!"

...

The moment the herd cleared enough distance from the camp, Jon pulled the reins and raised himself to be in an upright position once again.

To not raise any suspicion or attract the attention of any archer Jon had been riding the horse sideways while escaping. A difficult task even for the most trained knight but Jon had been riding on horses since he could walk and talk so it wasn't that hard for him, in addition being a warg helped a lot.

"Ha!" he shouted, urging his horse to run faster before he escaped his position in the middle of the herd and went to the front.

He slowly began steering the horses away from the camp while changing the direction so that they began heading straight for the rendezvous point he had agreed upon with Sam.

The thunderous sound of a war horn made him perk his head up towards the distant mountain and not even a minute later he was greeted by the sight of his allied sellswords charging down at their maximum speed towards the Camp of the Cats.

From their speed, it shouldn't take them more than a few minutes to reach the camp which would usually be enough time for a well-prepared company to prepare their defences but today... that was just a pipe dream for the Cats.

Other than a few looks to make sure that nothing outwardly was happening, Jon didn't bother with the attacking force too much, as he had already done all he could to help in the battle and now it was the turn for Gared, his company and his allies to make contributions and deal with the rest, so Jon focused on leading the prized horses.

He reached close to his destination about ten minutes later, by which the battle was raging ferociously all over at the camp behind him.

"Jon!" Sam exclaimed as he finally caught sight of him, and eagerly began pushing his horse as he and his three companions began riding along sideways with the herd. Along with Sam came his own horse, Peggy and Jon didn't waste a single moment jumping and changing from one horse to another without breaking their stride.

"Are we going back to the base, Jon?" Sam asked ignoring the superhuman feat Jon had performed as if it was mundane.

"No, we need to do something first," Jon said before he turned towards the commander's son and shouted, "Bran! You and the young lad will lead the horses from here on out," he said while nodding towards the young stable hand beside him, "Don't worry too much, these horses are quite tame and shouldn't give you too much trouble. You just need to ride in front of them and they will follow you all the way towards the camp."

...

A few minutes later Jon and Sam broke off from the group and set off in a completely different direction.

"Where are we going, Jon?"

"To meet with a dear acquaintance of ours..." Jon said with a wolfish smile on his face.

/

I am really sorry for the delays!

I had a very severe allergic reaction two weeks ago and was hospitalised for a week and was on bed rest for another. But thankfully I am a lot better now so hopefully I should be able to upload chapters starting this week once again.

Thank you for your patience.