29 A Thriving City Beyond the wall

1 Year later

(286 AC) Was the Current year and two years after the Rebellion which saw the fall of House Targaryen and the Rise of King Robert Baratheon to the Iron Throne.

Thornir's kids had turned 1 this year, and he must say he enjoyed having kid's since he spent most of his free time with them. And his children weren't exactly one year old as they were a year and 3 months so by this time they were already walking.

And as much as Thornir was glad that they were already walking, it allowed them to walk around the castle well not the entire castle just the part where their room was.

And while they did this since they were only a year and three months they were curious about the various new things that they saw for the first time while walking around the castle.

Of course, they weren't by themselves as both Thornir and his two wives followed them around making sure they don't hurt themselves. But it was fun to watch how curious they were as Ragvir would always grab things that he can see and play with it. While Olinya would just follow Thornir around all over the Castle.

If Olinya wasn't with her mother Dalla then she was somewhere with Thornir as she liked to stay by his side and hated when he left her.

Ragvir was different as once Thornir left he would just start playing with his toys or go and harass the Maids.

In short, they were a handful, but it was nothing that Thornir couldn't handle since he was determined to raise them into strong warriors who could protect themselves.

But leaving that matter aside let's look at the development of Hardhome. First let's talk about the population of the city which has expanded quite a lot in the last year.

The population of Hardhome had reached 200k people while there were 70k people living at the other city which was previously named the First of the First men but Thornir renamed it to Stormhelm.

So in all he had a population of 270k people. Now that may seem like a lot of people, but it was nothing compared to the amount of people living in just the North itself. The Seven Kingdom's had a population that was 10x bigger than what Thornir's current population was and maybe even more than that.

Hardhome was a big city that had expanded a lot into the haunted forest, and it was now the biggest and safest city located beyond the wall.

And with Thornir having almost 300k people living in his Kingdom he has amassed a very strong army of 20k warriors. Of these 20k warriors 5k were archer's while the rest were a combination of Light and Heavy infantry.

The standard equipment for an infantry was an Axe and shield with winter armor on and some throwing axes hanging off the pants of the infantry. Some had regular sword's and the Heavy infantry had large shield's with a Short Spear, shield, and an Axe as a secondary weapon.

The Archer's were equipped with Long bow's, Winter armor, and a mix of sword's and axes.

And as far as cavalry goes well he has 20 armored Giant's riding armored Mammoths that could crush the front line of any army.

Thornir even planned as far ahead as he made a ship specially for the Mammoths just in case he needs to go and fight overseas or travel using the ocean.

And speaking of ship's Thornir has a small Navy of 40 Ship's docked at the port of Hardhome. Besides fishing ship's those 40 ship's were the only ships in the port since Merchant's stopped coming to his city long ago because the Iron Bank got their feelings hurt.

But he wasn't worried about them though he will get his revenge since they did try to sabotage him, so it's only fair if he gets to return the favor by causing them some trouble.

Anyway back to the development of his territory. After a year the free folk workers have managed to build a long road between Hardhome and Stormhelm. The road was made out of stone and was maintained to keep the path clear of snow.

Transportation between the two cities are done with the help of sled's. Daily patrols wander the Haunted Forest along the roads and in part's of the forest.

So travelling between the two cities was relatively easy and safe.

Thornir also had scout's constantly watching the wall in case another army comes through or something interesting happens.

And he already knew about the Northern Army that was there a couple of months ago, but now the Night's Watch have taken over with their new Lord Commander and a bunch of new recruits who used to be former soldier's fighting on the Targaryen side in the Rebellion.

This was approved by Jon Arryn the Hand of the King as he saw that this would be a perfect way to get rid of a lot of a prisoner's hold up in cells, so they won't have to feed them.

So once the recruiter from the Night's Watch came Jon Arryn sent 600 men to the wall with an escort of soldier's to make sure they don't escape.

Robert Baratheon wasn't interested in ruling a Kingdom and mostly spent his days drinking and with Cersei Lannister.

But anyway now the Night's Watch have gotten fresh recruit's of 600 men which would help them man more castle's on the wall and since these men fought in the war they had some type of training using a sword.

So now all they needed was to teach them the ways of the Night's Watch.

That was the current situation at the wall but Thornir didn't pay it any mind since he had a very organized army of great warrior's that will improve as the years go by. So if he decides that he wants to take the wall, so his people won't be trapped beyond it then he can do that and the Night's Watch won't be able to do anything.

But because of the recent destruction of Castle black making a move right now would attract too much attention from the Seven Kingdom's which could result in a strong response from them.

So for now he didn't have a great ambition to march beyond the wall and all he wanted to do was watch his children grow up but all that could change in a few years.

And now that he has nearly most of the land Beyond the wall under his Kingdom he has been receiving report's of the dead coming back to life. As a person not from this world he knew exactly what that meant, and he did not want to take any chances, so he tightened the security around his two cities.

And doubled patrol's to prevent the White Walker's from preying on innocent people and turning them into walking dead people.

The appearance of the White Walker's were so rare that Thornir figured they couldn't gather enough people because most of the people lived in his two cities which were practically untouchable due to him having protection against the dead and the White Walker's all over the city.

There were large bonfire's all over the city with archer's who had fire arrows to kill the White Walker's at a moment's notice. But the number of dead people that the Night King has so far is not known so Thornir still considered his defenses weak and wanted to get the Dragonglass to make weapon's but so far none has been found beyond the wall.

The only place that he knows of is Dragonstone which is part of the Seven Kingdom's and also owned and garrisoned by Stannis Baratheon who is a very strong military lord who is known to be an excellent leader.

So his plan's to get Dragonglass will have to hold off for now but his patience can only hold on for so long.

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A/N:

First I would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and for those that don't celebrate it I hope you just have a wonderful day doing whatever it is that you do.

And second on January 15th this story will go on Hiatus since I am leaving for the Navy on the 17th, and unfortunately I won't be able to upload any chapter's while I'm gone for 2 month's.

It's truly unfortunate since I have a lot planned for this story but don't worry since I won't abandon it or the people who support the story as I will Always return to finish this story.

And Once again Happy Holiday's for all the people out there.