I don't know how long I slept but it felt like I had just closed my eyes when something suddenly started poking me in my ribs. I tried to ignore it but it only got more insistent as time went on, so ultimately I had to open my eyes.
"Hmm... what is it frost," I mumbled while rubbing sleep from my eyes. Frost immediately started pecking his beak toward the window, "huh...what's out there Fros— Oh shit, I am going to be late,"
I started panicking and immediately started changing my clothes, and gathering my stuff from around the room, "Old mark is so gonna kill me, that block of ice doesn't tolerate shit," I fretted while tying my shoes. That old man was already so grumpy so I always made sure to never be late or else who knew what set him off and he stopped giving me lessons.
"Aww... Frost couldn't you have woken me up a bit early, the only thing you do during the day is fly lazily anyway—Ow...Ow..." I flinched and shielded my face when Frost started swatting me with his wings, "Alright! Sorry! Sorry! it was my fault," I said while ducking from the overgrown bird, before immediately rushing out of my room.
I dashed straight out of the Winterfell Gates and didn't stop even for a second to take a breath. I completed the journey through Wintertown house in a record time and ran toward the unused path outside town.
"I... I am he...here..." I shouted huffing the second I reached the old hunter's cabin while trying to soothe the stitch in my side, but didn't find the Old hunter at his usual spot which was not a good sign.
The cabin door opened and I looked up hopefully but it was hunter's granddaughters, Emily and Becca, and not the man himself.
"Umm... Mr. Jon," Emily hesitatingly said while coming out of the lodge, with Becca, the merchant's daughter following, "Grandpa went away when you didn't arrive for a while. He said that he would be back after a while,"
"Yeah, Grandpa Mark was very angry," Becca said teasingly, "You're gonna be in so much trouble Jon hehe..."
"Shut up, Becca," I growled at the blonde but the mirth dancing in her blue eyes only increased, so I just huffed before moving to sit on the usual tree stump.
'This is not good, the last time I messed up like this, Old mark had me climb the tree at least a hundred times, he didn't tell me that it was a punishment and not training but my body definitely felt it that night.'
"Come on, go get your stuff, Let's complete your lesson—And stop smirking Becca," I grumbled at them while swearing that I would teach that naughty girl a lesson. Emily immediately pulled Becca inside the hut before she could make any more mischief, they came out a minute later carrying a wooden slate, some charcoals, etc.
"Becca, Show me your homework?" I asked her with a small smile after they sat on the ground in front of me at their usual spot, hoping to get some revenge on the peppy girl.
"Why do you always ask for mine first?" Becca pouted while reluctantly handing me her slate.
"Because Emily is a very good student and always completes her work," I praised the brown-haired who immediately blushed, which made her bright green eyes stand out even more, before turning toward the blonde, "But you on the other hand...Tch...Tch," I shook my head and went back to check her work.
"Hey, what does that mean," She made a wronged face, while Emy's body shook with suppressed giggles.
"This looks completed—surprisingly... You didn't ask for Emy's help, Did you?" I asked suspiciously.
"Of course not!" Becca said self-righteously with pride, "I would never do something like that,"
"That's what you told me the last 5 times you copied from her,"
"That's in the past," Becca said airily.
"Well looks like you dodged extra homework this time," I said feeling a bit disappointed before continuing, "Now, let's pick up where we left off... Umm Emily what was I teaching at the last lesson."
"Mr. Jon you were teaching Becca about Multiplication and adjectives..."
Emily was scarily smart and had already learned all about reading and writing the common tongue as well as simple algebra, So I had already started teaching her old tongue and more advanced stuff that mostly nobles and big merchants learn for administration.
Becca on the other hand didn't have quite as much interest in learning and was more curious about learning how to bash people's heads in. So at the start when she was being difficult to teach, I started incentivizing her by teaching her a trickle of combat lessons every time she completed her homework correctly.
And it turned out that Becca was quite a natural at combat. She soaked all the weapon lessons like a sponge and I would even go as far as to say that she was a prodigy in the spear, a few more months and she could even beat Robb, and while she was about 4 years older than us that was still a big thing.
It was actually quite ironic considering that the hunter's granddaughter Emily didn't like physical stuff much and was into learning while the merchant's daughter Becca, was instead interested in combat and couldn't do the math to save her life.
"Ugh... It's done," Becca said while showing me her work, "Can we do some training now, Please Jon," She said while opening her blue eyes as wide as they go.
"Well let me see..." I said while perusing over her work, "half the answers are wrong or riddled with mistakes and your writing is barely illegible," Becca immediately deflated, "but I guess you did complete it. Fine! go get your stick," I said and Becca immediately ran away, with Emily following after her a bit slowly.
They came back a minute later with Becca carrying a thick wooden stick about her height and Emily with two small wooden daggers.
"Alright, go through the forms I showed you last time,"
"But I wanted to learn a new one," Becca whined.
"Uhuh...Not until you've mastered them," I shook my head, "Now come go through them a hundred times," and they immediately started going through various basic forms I had taught.
I wasn't teaching them any advanced stuff, just making them repeat normal stuff so that they would have a solid foundation.
At first, it was just Becca who trained, but after watching me teach her cousin, Emily had picked up the courage and asked to be taught too, so I handed her the lightest weapon, and while she had not been as good as Becca she was a hard worker.
"No Emily! You need to move your whole body," I said before showing her how to do it, "you need the strength from your hips, not just your arms—Yes! just like that,"
I trained with them for about an hour like that, while Becca only needed to be shown once to correct her mistakes, Emily needed constant guidance. I was just correcting Emily's leg posture when I was startled by a cough behind me. I turned around and found Old mark standing there holding a long package in his arms.
"Old Mark!" I shouted and immediately went toward him, "I am sorry I was late, I fell asleep and—"
He cut me off with a raised hand and just turned around while asking me to follow him.
"We are done for the day girls," I shouted back before following after the old hunter, who was remarkably quick for a man his age.
We walked for a while in silence before I couldn't take it anymore and blurted out, "I know that I made a mistake, but I don't think tree climbing is going to help me much anymore—" I stop mid-sentence when we passed through some bushes and emerged into a clearing.
My breath caught up in my throat, the place before me was a training zone straight out of an anime, there were wooden targets stuck on a stick at varying distances and some targets were also attached to ropes, hanging from branches and they moved along with the wind.
"Is this what I think it is—" I asked while turning around and found Old mark had opened the package he was holding. It was a small but sturdy bow perfect for my size, along with a quiver full of arrows.
"You are ready to learn how to shoot," He said gruffly while giving me the bow and arrows.
I took both of them gratefully into my hands, while over the past few weeks he had been teaching me stuff like how to properly string a bow and how to make my own arrows so I had been anticipating it for a while, but I didn't think it would be this soon.
"Well, what are you waiting for," He interrupted me admiring the bow while pointing toward the target, "Get on with it,"
"Yes," I enthusiastically said before taking the right posture and after holding still for a while, shot my first proper arrow. The arrow sailed and stuck at the edge of the target, which made me wide grin widely.
"Don't stop," the hunter snapped, "You are not to leave until you have stuck dead center at least 10 times,"
"Figured as much," I mumbled under my breath and went back into it.
...
By the time I reached Winterfell, I was dead tired and my arms were shaking from exhaustion, I barely lasted through the dinner, and was half dead on my feet by the time I reached my room.
My body protested but I still didn't go to sleep right away, and instead sat on my bed and tried to warg a couple of times before sleeping. I wasn't expecting much as I hadn't succeeded in the last handful of weeks so I was just going through the motion.
About 10 minutes later my mind had been emptied of all thoughts and I was only focused on the picture of Frost inside my mind, I don't what had happened or how I did it but suddenly a pop went inside my head and my sphere of consciousness pierced the needle outside it.
I immediately felt the path to Frost open up and when I went along it, I suddenly found myself leaving my body behind, I felt as If I was occupying a different mind and when I opened my eyes, I was looking through the eyes of Frost for the first time as she was flying over the Wolfswood.
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