61 Final Destination

"Gather the sails!"

"Lower the Anchor!"

Captain Silas along with his sailors stopped the ship after reaching the edge of the Haunted forest.

"Finally we can get off this damn ship..."

Oswin said to a shore-gazing Blake.

It didn't take long for them to reach the lands of eternal winter, but the icebergs and seasickness caused by the waves had given Oswin a hard time.

"Neither Mag Mar Tun Doh Weg nor Wulgin were nauseous, so we have to be thankful we were not surrounded by giant vomit."

Zafar along with the men of the second settlement had departed after finishing the exchanges with the giants, so besides Gerd and Thenn's men, Wulgin and Mag Mar Tun Doh Weg, the group had returned to their initial numbers.

"Prepare to disembark!"

At Blake's shout, all the men were dressed and armed.

They had 4 full barriers of clothing to shelter from the cold, the first of cotton Blake ordered from the Night's Watch, the second of wool, the third of leather, and lastly their armor and cloaks.

The most skilled warriors were armed with obsidian knives and arrows.

"Keep the ship on standby."

Oswin shook Wymond's hand, leaving the orders.

"We will not move from here, even if we are attacked by an ice dragon."

Wymond assured though Captain Silas' face was not so sure.

The group went in boats to the shore.

"I thought we'd be a lot fewer by now."

Oswin said to Blake.

A voyage to the lands of eternal winter is a difficult journey, Oswin believed that many of his men would fall by this time.

"Anything is possible with good preparation, father."

Blake replied, though Oswin simply shook his head.

Winter was much more frightening than Blake thought, and they came quite close on several occasions to dying in Oswin's experience, in the icy fangs in the middle of the storm some of his men stripped naked and ran into the snow, it was fortunate that nothing like that was repeated so far.

"It's a big ship, do you think the best option is to leave it at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea?"

Oswin asked his son, as he looked at Captain Silas' war galley, the Lance of the Sea.

"It's useful, but we don't have that much time, besides, I thought you wanted the ship to be as far away as possible."

Blake replied.

The Lance of the Sea was a war galley that could also carry goods and up to 150 crew, but unfortunately, they had no crew, and training the tribesmen until they were competent sailors could take years through the unstable sea waters in the world of ice and fire, it would be utter stupidity to launch into the sea without knowing it.

He needed a competent captain to sail such a galley.

Blake had seen in great detail everything that Captain Silas applied to orient himself, he had charts, a compass, and a sextant, they could measure speed in knots and be guided by the stars, his sailors were veterans of a lifetime, and according to Captain Silas that was the minimum needed to navigate a ship in such dangerous tides, Blake had finally concluded that the best course of action was to leave the ship at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea and enlist Ser Denys' help later, though if he had more time he would have liked to make a small base at Hardhome and have these sailors teach him everything they knew, even if it took a couple of years.

The Greyjoy rebellion could be less than a year away by Blake's estimates if he let such a good opportunity pass him by who knows when all the black axe tribe, who were already numbering in the thousands, could safely cross the wall.

"Start cutting down trees!"

The boats came ashore and the surviving clansmen, giants, Thenn's men, and mercenaries set to work on a base under Blake's orders.

They used shovels to clear snow, picks to remove rocks, and axes to cut down trees.

In a little over 4 hours the base was ready.

Blake built it as a trench, with 3 narrow exits, one of them hidden and leading to the sea.

He also placed pots of oil throughout the forest, in case they were attacked or outnumbered they would set fire to the entire edge of the forest and have cover to escape.

A large amount of resources had been saved to make the expedition as safe as possible.

"It's all set, we need to scout the perimeter of the forest before starting the first expedition into the lands of eternal winter."

Blake said, looking at the base.

"Clay, take five men and scout the forest, Be back before dark!"

"I've never seen a dead man walking, maybe we'll get lucky and see one today."

Clay left immediately after receiving the order, but not before uttering a taunt.

Blake took it upon himself to hide the exit from the last base using pine branches, and to do a final count of supplies before making dinner.

"We have enough food for three months, after that we'll have to go back."

Inside the base, as they ate, Blake briefed Oswin.

At first, the supplies should be enough for 5 or 6 months, but they exchanged a large amount of food with the giants, which was more than they thought.

"Three months is too short a time to explore the whole area... We'll have to send several expeditions on horseback and I don't think the horses can handle it."

Blake turned his gaze to the captured mercenaries he had brought on the expedition.

"You guys seemed to have a lot of experience capturing giants, you've done it before right?"

There were 3 mercenaries, one had a prominent scar on his face and was thin as a stick, another was burly and bald plus he had all rotten teeth, and the last was tall and black-haired with a face as ordinary as it was bitter.

"A few years ago we got a pair of giants from some of the Wise Masters of Yunkai."

Said the last man after none of his companions said anything for a few seconds.

They had lost their money, jewelry, and armor and had also been captured by savages, their luck had not been good at all.

"The Wise Masters..."

Blake said, closing his eyes for a few seconds remembering these slavers who had a confrontation with Daenerys.

"Yes, the slavers of Yunkai."

The three mercenaries looked at each other briefly before looking down.

"Wise Masters? And who the hell are they to enslave free folk?"

Oswin asked with a frown.

"They are the lords of Yunkai, a city based on slavery, where boys are born, become men, and die old men slaves. They trade in slaves and raise them like sheep. They sell breast girls, and boys are given to whorehouses before they know how to speak."

Many of the warriors in the shelter grimaced between disgust and contempt at Blake's words, and the mercenaries felt pressure they hadn't felt in days since they were captured. They didn't think these savages could know so much.

"How about stripping them naked and leaving them in the snow until their balls, noses, ears, and fingers freeze off?"

"Let's throw them in the sea until they drown, it'll be quicker and more fun to watch."

"Let's take them back to the tribe to work in the quarry until they die!"

"Woof, woof, woof!"

Several of the tribal warriors shouted, alerting the cub in Blake's arms, and looked at the mercenaries with eyes full of contempt, for slavery was among the worst taboos among the free people.

Oswin raised his hand, shushing his men.

"Why did you bring these bastards here?"

Oswin asked his son.

To him, these men were no different than slavers, worse, since they were trafficking his people, but if Blake had brought them, he must have had some reason.

Blake placed his gloved hand on the Direwolf's head, causing him to ease himself down with a piece of rabbit meat.

"If they can capture a giant, they would be of help to us in doing the same, since they used our people as a bargaining chip, they should pay the price by helping us this time."

Oswin placed a hand over his thick red beard.

"Fair enough, you guys what do you say?"

At Oswin's question, the 3 mercenaries looked at each other.

Their entire band had been destroyed, and there was no doubt that these savages would kill them immediately if they caused trouble

"Even if we catch whatever they're after, what assurance do we have that they'll let us go free?!"

Shouted the skinny man with a scar on his face.

"If you don't then I'll just murder you, that's the assurance I give you."

Oswin said coldly, making the man sweat.

"If you help us we'll drop you off at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea along with the Braavos sailors."

Blake told them.

"Boy... what the hell do they want to catch?"

Asked the bald man this time, resigned to the fact that he would have to follow the savages' orders if he wanted to live, even a little longer.

"We want to catch a dead man."

*****************************

hi guys!

Well, I'm sorry for leaving without giving notice or anything. My mother had a vacation at the university where she works and invited me to go to the center of the country to visit my aunt and uncle for a couple of weeks, and as I was having eye discomfort caused by fatigue I accepted, I just arrived on Saturday.

Honestly, I didn't want to upload this chapter right now, since I realized how important these last chapters are, We are about to finish the first season and due to the days off I feel that I have forgotten some important things, so I may make corrections to these chapters later on.