The 500 men that were sent to find Bran and Rickon had just landed in the North near Last Hearth and were now heading to Queenscrown which was a short march. The food was already unloaded and being transported to Castle Black, where they will meet with the Lord commander.
After a few hours of walking, the soldiers had finally reached Queenscrown which from their prospective looked to be completely empty except for the viking warriors that were guarding the village and the tower.
Once the soldier approached, the Vikings had all gathered at the front of the village since they thought that an enemy was approaching the village, but once the soldiers got closer they saw that it was the Emperor's soldiers.
"Are you from the Empire" Asked the viking leader whose name was Jorund
"Yes, we are here to bring you back to the Empire along with Bran Stark and Rickon Stark here is a message from his majesty" The Imperial officer had handed Jorund a letter with the Emperor's seal on it
The letter told Jorund to leave the Stark boys to these soldiers and for them to head to Castle black and join the rest of the soldiers.
"Okay, we will leave the Stark boys to you and head to Castle Black, but I must tell you that the new Lord Bolton won't let these boys go that easily he has been on our trail for a while until we settled down here in Queenscrown but everyday I feel like we were being watched but every time I send out men to scout the area they find nothing" Said Jorund
"It's probably just some wild animals or something, so I wouldn't worry about it, plus in another month or two the Bolton's will soon be destroyed by his Majesty" Said the Officer since it was already known in the Empire that a war was coming
Just as the Imperial officer had said this, they felt the ground start shaking slightly. There should be no Earthquakes in the North, so the only thing that could cause the ground to start shaking is thousands of soldiers on Horseback running.
Not even a second later in the distance there were thousands of men on horseback running towards the village with their weapons drawn. The Officer had quickly ordered the 200 men he had with him to get into a square formation while he had two soldiers take both Bran and Rickon to castle black.
The Vikings had got into the formation as well, standing behind the soldiers with shields. The officer was standing in the middle with his sword in hand. He knew that this will probably be his last time living, but even so he wasn't scared, in fact he was happy that he could die fighting the enemies of the Empire.
"Listen up men, these soldiers in front of us are the enemies of the Empire and are here to take away the last remaining boys of the Stark family which his majesty has put under his protection, but we will not allow that to happen so while the Stark boys escape we will stand our ground and give them time to get to Castle Black.
We might not make it back alive to the Empire, but at least we will die fighting for what is right, so let's show these enemies how the soldiers of the Empire fight"
The officer paused and raised his sword in the air, "For His Majesty"
The other soldiers said the same thing, "For His Majesty" as they braced for the impact of the cavalry charge.
The cavalry had crashed into the front line of the formation, the soldiers were able to hold on with the help of the second line, but the power of a horse was just too great for a normal soldier and the line collapsed, and some soldiers were run over the horses.
Behind all the soldiers charging, Ramsey Bolton was watching as his soldiers surrounded the enemy, overwhelming them "Look at them, they thought that we wouldn't find them hiding out here nobody can hide from me, isn't that right Reek" Ramsey started laughing after what he said
"Yes Mi'Lord, they were wrong to hide from you" Said Reek as he was trembling
Ramsey continued to watch the battle, which lasted a while because the 200 soldiers and the Vikings had fought until the end, not giving up at all and even killing more Bolton soldier than what Ramsey predicted.
Bran and Rickon had made it to Castle Black and were safe and sound there with the Lord Commander and their brother John snow, but Ramsey wasn't just going to let them hide in Castle Black.
Even if they were an ancient Knight order, they were harboring traitors, so Ramsey had gathered his 10k men to siege Castle Black.
Castle Black hasn't been besieged in almost centuries, and the Men of the Night's watch weren't going to just surrender to some Lord from the South.
And not only that, the Free Folk were only days away from approaching the wall, so the Nights Watch would have to fight two battle if they didn't receive help.
While Ramsey was heading for Castle Black, Maximus was in a meeting with the Wealthy families of Volantis who wanted to thank him for coming to their aid when they were attacked. They had offered him lots of gifts and money showing their support for the Empire, but really most of them just wanted to get on the good side of the Emperor since he held a very Profitable beer business that they wanted to introduce in Volantis.
So the gifts were just a cover in order to gain favor with the Emperor. As Maximus was sitting down drinking some delicious Wine, a Maid had whispered in his ear about an important matter concerning the soldier he sent to the North to bring Bran and Rickon to safety.
He excused himself from the table, leaving the Merchants to eat and converse amongst themselves and once he was away from the room the Maid had informed him that the soldiers who went to get Bran and Rickon were ambushed by House Bolton but Bran and Rickon were able to escape to Castle Black.
But even still they weren't safe, since Maximus knows that some people in the Night's Watch would rather stay out of matters of the Southern Lords, but Lord Commander Mormont had a good relationship with House Stark and was often helped by them, so he wasn't going to abandon or turn over the two sons of Lord Eddard.
Maximus wasn't going to allow Ramsey Bolton to get away with the murder of his soldiers and also thought that this was the perfect time to attack the North since he had gotten some reply's from some of the Houses of the North who said that if what he said is true then they will stand by him.
He already had a sizable army of 50k men gathered at Braavos and ready to sail for the North. He had the Maid make the necessary preparations for his departure to the North.
He returned to the table with the merchants and continued with what he was doing before. After the merchants left, Maximus had ordered the for the Royal Air Force to prepare since if he sailed there it would take probably 3-4 Weeks to Sail to the Bay of Seals.
The next day he had departed with his dragon Balerion with Aleanna on the back and with the 1500 Asgardian Royal Guard who were on the Great Eagles. The Royal Army would also sail to the North, but they would be some weeks after Maximus arrive.