The universe of A Song of Ice and Fire and its characters belong exclusively to George R.R. Martin. This is a work of fiction created by a fan for fans, made solely for entertainment and the development of creative writing.
Only the characters created by me, such as the protagonist and some other original characters, as well as the changes to the canonical plot resulting from their actions, are of my own intellectual authorship.
I wish everyone a good read!!
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QUICK AUTOR NOTE
Sorry for the delay in releasing this chapter. Unlike the last times, I didn't have any ready to publish and had to write it now. In the previous chapter I mentioned that I would try to release an extra one, but unfortunately, with the current situation, that won't be possible.
Instead of increasing the quantity, I'll have to reduce it: I won't be able to post two chapters per week anymore. From now on, it will be just one chapter weekly. The planned date is still Sunday, but there may be delays. My classes have resumed and, until I manage to reorganize myself with work, it may take a while.
Once everything is more stable, if I can post more chapters, I will. I have many responsibilities at the moment, but I want to make it clear that I don't intend to abandon the story. We'll just continue at a slower pace
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Chapter 11
Year 100 AC
POV: Denovan
As soon as we finished setting up the tent, I sent Horus to explore the surroundings, to see if we were close to anything dangerous.
I am determined to return home much stronger than when I left. After losing to Sig, I think my ego has been taken down a notch. After all, too much confidence is dangerous. I lost to Sig due to carelessness, and that was good; after all, I underestimated her, and it ended in that. It has happened other times, but I really exerted myself in that training, so perhaps it carried a bit more weight. That is why I will train with Halgar during the time I stay here. Before getting the enhancement from the bonds with the saber-tooths, I need to improve my skills, before my body becomes stronger than my technique.
I looked at Halgar, who was appreciating the valley's landscape. Truly a paradise compared to the desert of ice that is the extreme north.
"Halgar, it's been a while since we trained, what do you think?", I said to him, taking the axe off my back.
"Do you want a training session or a fight?", he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Isn't the best way to train by fighting? You were the one who told me that."
A smile appeared on his face. "It's been a good few months since we fought."
"Let's go outside then," I said, already turning to leave the tent.
Halgar and I stood facing each other, two fighters who use axes. The man was strong, skilled, and tall. Besides having a weapon larger than mine, he had a better reach. Even with my strength improvement from Breu, I was not stronger than a giant almost 1.90m tall. I was at a disadvantage in every aspect, and that was good. Fighting against someone better made you approach their level.
"Come, boy," Halgar provoked.
I advanced. Not with the recklessness of before, but with calculation. My axe whirred in a low arc, aiming for his thigh. Halgar didn't even move; he just rotated the handle of his axe and blocked with a sharp CLANG.
The counterattack came fast. His axe came down in a vertical blow that would have split me in half if I hadn't rolled to the side. The impact kicked up dust and stones.
"Slow!", he shouted.
I got up and attacked again. My muscles burned, sweat ran cold down my back, but I didn't stop. With every exchange, I tried to read his movements, tried to anticipate where his body weight would go. But experience beat brute force, if indeed he had less strength than I did.
Halgar feinted a high attack, I raised my guard, and he swept my legs with a low kick. I fell on my back, the air leaving my lungs. The blade of his axe stopped centimeters from my nose.
"Dead," he said, extending his hand to help me up.
I accepted the hand, panting.
"Again," I asked.
Halgar laughed. "I like that spirit. But let's rest, we still have to hunt."
After the fight, we set out to hunt ourselves. Horus was busy surveying the entire valley, I wasn't going to overload him, and this increased the need to have more birds at my command even more; they were too useful.
We walked silently along the edge of the pine forest that covered part of the valley. The snow here was softer, muffling our steps. Halgar went in front, tracking fresh deer prints we found near a stream.
"There," whispered Halgar, pointing to a male deer grazing among the trees.
I prepared my bow—which I brought, although I preferred the axe. Halgar signaled for me to flank from the left while he would go from the right. We moved like shadows. When the deer raised its head, alerted by some scent, it was already too late. My arrow flew, hitting the flank, and Halgar's came right after, taking the animal down cleanly.
"Nice aim, boy," said Halgar as we approached the kill. "We won't go hungry today."
We carried the deer back to camp, the weight of the fresh meat being a welcome reminder that survival here depended only on us.
During the first few days in the valley, after exploring it, Horus was in charge of looking for an owl's nest, or some large bird, flying tirelessly under the pale light of day and night. But we found nothing, only small birds. It might seem a bit hypocritical, one moment I want small animals and the next large animals, but the truth is I look for animals with potential, regardless of size. Small birds don't have that much potential, except crows, which are small and intelligent animals, and in Westeros they are common everywhere, great for espionage and information gathering—that is potential.
But we found the tigers.
They appeared silently, pale shadows in the snow. I didn't see small cubs, only adults and sub-adults. With Horus's help, I observed their pattern from above. The pack divided itself: one group went out to hunt, while the other stayed protecting the old and the younger ones. Afterward, the hunters called those who stayed behind to eat.
"Organized...", I whispered, admiring their social structure. "They are quite social, even more so than lions; there are other males in the pack..."
They looked like a mix of a wolf pack and a lion pride. Maybe I should give that a name.
And then, I saw my targets. Two sub-adults, a male and a female. They were already about six months old. They were quite big, almost the size of a common wolf, but young enough to be molded and improved by my bond.
I needed to separate them from the pack, that would be difficult. Maybe I should get closer to see their reaction to a human. Maybe if I went with Breu everything would be fine.
"I'm going to use Breu as bait," I said to Halgar while we watched from afar.
"Have you gone crazy?!" Halgar almost choked. "Did your sanity freeze? You are going to sacrifice the best horse in the north for a cat?!"
"I'm not going to sacrifice anyone. Breu is faster and smarter than them. He has an explosive sprint. He just needs to attract attention and run."
"I want to see their reaction to a human... and they are not just cats, you will like it when you see those beasts."
"You are crazy, brat," Halgar looked at me strangely. "Do what you want, just don't kill me while doing it. And remember that if I return without you, I die, so you can't die either."
The first time was a test. Horus was in the sky, just looking for any danger. Breu was about 7 meters from me; that was quite a lot, I wasn't sure if I could reach him before the saber-tooths ate me.
The surroundings of the cave were empty, everyone was inside. By my count, there were 5 tigers inside the cave: two elderly ones, a female who stayed to guard, and the two "cubs".
I approached slowly and made Breu always keep 5 meters from me; the previous 7 meters seemed like too much.
It was a game of patience and nerves. I was afraid, afraid that out of absolutely nowhere one of the tigers would jump out of the cave. The closer I got, the more dangerous it became.
Whistle! I whistled, not to alert or call anyone, it was for the tigers to come out. The cave was 5 meters away, couldn't get closer without risking it.
A tiger came out. It was one thing to see from the skies, through Horus's eyes; another thing was to see an animal like that face to face, without tethers, without being distant. The tiger's eyes bored into me. The animal had a brownish coloration almost white, the saber teeth coming out of its mouth... it was truly incredible. I always had a fascination for these creatures.
"Hey, hey, you're not going to kill me, are you?", I said looking into the beast's eyes. I didn't retreat or anything like that; in nature, whoever retreats is always the weakest. I couldn't project an image like that.
The tiger didn't roar, didn't purr, but started walking, its eyes fixed on me. It didn't come directly towards me; it started to circle slowly. At that moment I began to follow its movement, heading towards Breu.
I'm not an idiot. The beast didn't view me as a danger, but as prey. That was better... an animal with fear was more dangerous than when it was going to hunt.
Seeing that I was following its movements, the tiger stopped and began to retreat to the cave. It seems the animal remembered its obligations, and was very intelligent.
It seems it would be difficult to make any progress. I would have to try another way, it's going to be complicated...
Whenever the adults went out to hunt, I approached the young ones who stayed behind. I repeated the same thing every time. I did this three times and it didn't seem like it was going to work. I changed the strategy: I made Breu approach the cave alone, always ready to run. The worst part is that the black horse seemed to like it.
It seems I was wrong. The tigers viewed us as a real threat; perhaps they had been hunted a lot and didn't attack humans easily, they probed and then acted. But when Breu appeared on a platter in front of them, the tiger that always stood guard prepared to hunt, and it didn't go alone. The animal made a point of calling the other two older adults. You could see by the fur, by the size of the fangs, that they were older animals; they were thinner too.
They approached Breu slowly, silently. If it weren't for Horus seeing everything, I doubt Breu would have discovered them; he would have become dinner. When they were ready to sprint, I sent a mental link to Breu, who took off running without looking back, and the tigers went after him. I took advantage of this and entered the cave.
They were ferocious, hissing and showing their huge fangs, but I noticed something curious: my scent, or perhaps my Skin-changer aura, calmed them. They were less skittish and aggressive in my presence than they would be with any other human. And perhaps that's why the adult hadn't attacked me, even though I was alone. It was curious.
In two weeks of insistence and careful approach, I succeeded. There were 3 encounters, and the last one was the hardest, because the saber-tooths had already gotten tired of running after Breu; they seemed to have understood that they couldn't catch him.
Not one, but two. I didn't know which of the two would be more receptive, that's why I did it with both, a pair. I wasn't absolutely sure if they were from the same litter, and also didn't know how my bond changed them genetically, but to guarantee bloodlines of these future beasts, I decided to try with both anyway. If I succeeded, it was a bonus.
I closed my eyes. The beasts were lying near me. I did the same as I did with the pair of crows: the world became empty, I could only see the silhouette of things within this space. I made the golden cord go in the direction of the two tigers, at the same time. I succeeded with the crows, how much harder would it be with the tigers? It was a test for me too. The thread approached quickly and, when it touched the body of the beasts, I felt resistance. A lot of resistance. Much more than the crows.
At first, the golden thread couldn't enter the consciousness of the beasts, but I started letting more and more golden threads come out of my body and wrap around the tigers. Gradually the resistance became fragile, until I could feel one of the golden threads entering the consciousness of one of the tigers and, a few moments later, the other tiger.
But the price was high.
Bonding with two apex predators, almost simultaneously, was like taking a mammoth kick to the head.
"Argh..." I fell to my knees in the snow as soon as the second bond was established.
My head felt like it was going to explode. I quickly left the cave, the two tigers following right behind me. My vision was horrible, my pressure rising and falling according to the pain in my head. After what seemed like hours, Halgar appeared in front of me.
Halgar was terrified.
"Denovan! By the gods, don't die!" He was frantically changing wet cloths on my forehead inside our tent. "If you die here of fever, and I return alone... your mother will flay me alive and then kill me again! Hang in there, boy!"
"I... am not... going to die...", I managed to mumble, shivering with cold and heat at the same time.
My muscles burned as if they were on fire. Fever. A violent fever took over me in a matter of hours. It was three days of hell. But then, the fever subsided. I felt my body different. I felt less cold, my muscles seemed denser, compact. But a new pain emerged.
My mouth.
My dental arch ached as if someone was hammering my teeth from the inside out. Panic hit me.
"Please, no...", I ran to look at my reflection in a puddle of melted ice. "If I end up with saber teeth, I'm screwed. What woman will want to marry me with teeth coming out of my mouth? A life without marrying was enough..."
I had plans. I wanted a wife who loved me, to be faithful, have a family. Giant teeth wouldn't help with that. A thousand plans went through my head: "Will I have to wear a mask?"
Time passed. A month in the valley, totaling three months since I left home, or something like that. The deadline was still comfortable, but we already wanted to return.
I took advantage of this remaining time to train even more with Halgar, I needed to get used to my pre-acquired strength. He made an unlikely friendship with Trasg. The two spent hours talking. This changed my perception and Halgar's. Giants weren't dumb and incapable; they were just simple. Very simple. They were good people.
"If the opportunity arises, I will recruit them," I noted mentally.
The return trip started after a week, enough time for my body to stabilize. And thanks to R.O.B., I didn't have the teeth of an orc, just slightly sharper canine teeth. It gave me a bestial air, but that was all; it didn't make me a monster.
Now, our escort was formidable: two saber-tooth tigers walked alongside our horses. Their fur had already started to fall out, from white to black; gradually it was possible to see the coat changing.
"This is crazy...", spoke Halgar. "It's one thing to see a baby bird have different colored feathers, another is to see a child bigger than he should be. And another totally different thing is to see you become as fast as the fastest warrior I've ever fought, within a week. One day, you were losing to me every time; the next, you were fighting on equal footing."
"And there are these tigers turning black, that is madness. What are you, Denovan...?" Halgar had a strange expression on his face, mixing fear and admiration.
"It is the Gods, Halgar. I cannot explain their will."
"Hmm... perhaps," Halgar cast me a doubtful look.
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Thank you for reading :)
Guys, if you want to help me come up with names for Denovan's next bonds, write down possible suggestions. I need names for two saber-toothed tigers: one male and one female. I have some ideas, but I don't consider them very good.
Also, if you'd like to leave suggestions for the next bonds, keep in mind that there will be a bird. After that, it will take a while before he gets more bonds, since his goal will shift to something else
Leave your opinion in the comments, and if you liked it, leave power stones—it motivates me to keep writing.
Release dates will be Sunday and Tuesday.
I hope you liked it, see you in the next chapter.