"Fuu... And that's the last one," Jon murmured while letting go of the string and the arrow immediately soared through the air and found its mark in the back of the last running Ironborn raider.
His quiver was nearly empty, and his hands were paying the price for his prolonged shooting. One hand throbbed with pain, while the other had gone completely numb. Despite spending long aching hours with the bow in the training field, it was the first time he had shot arrows for so long in an actual battle, which was completely different with all the adrenaline involved.
"Where next, Jon," came the eager question from his excited ride. Her head and snout bobbed just above the water's surface, and she seemed to think that it was a fun game and was having a grand time watching each arrow disappear into the Ironborn ranks.
"That's it for today, Cory," Jon smiled as he hung his bow on his shoulder and kneeled for better balance, "You were great, my friend. Thank you for helping me," Jon stroked her smooth skin gently with gratefulness. She'd been a perfect ride during the whole battle, in fact, Jon would go as far as to say that he was a better archer on her back than he was on the ships because not only was she an excellent swimmer, but she was also as stable as a rock and was able to carry him wherever he wanted to so he was able to access a lot more ships.
"No problem, Jon, It was really fun," she said, happily spraying a burst of water.
She wasn't actually saying all these things obviously instead Jon had just become so skilled at interpreting the thoughts of animals, even outside of his wargs, that it almost felt as if he was talking to a human instead of the massive killer whale.
Since Cory wasn't his warg, they didn't share the deep connection that he had with Frost or even Tweety, his new warg. With them, he could almost completely scan their mind at all moments and they would have complete access to his desires and emotions so that they are able to respond instantly.
With Cory, it was different, as he communicated to her through a complex language involving projecting and reading various thoughts, emotions, images, and sometimes even memories and then he could interpret those broken pieces into a common tongue and understand them.
*Ki*Ki*Ki*
"Eh... Who are you talking to, Cory?" Jon asked curiously as he felt Cory communicate with someone through her unique methods involving whistles and pulsed calls.
"My Mother," Cory answered casually as she slowly guided Jon toward his main ship. "She's hunting nearby with my brothers and sisters."
"Oh! Are they all down there..." Jon raised an eyebrow before a realization hit him, "Wait!—" he abruptly raised his head and looked around to find that he was surrounded on all sides by corpses littered in the sea because of the recent battle, "D-Don't tell me they are eating Humans!"
"Oh! No! Only fish," Cory replied innocently, "Humans don't taste good,"
"That is good," Jon immediately sagged in relief.
While he didn't worry too much about what happened with the Ironborn after they died. He still had no desire to be in the vicinity of killer Orcas while they were feasting on human flesh.
There are mostly two times when a predator is most difficult to control, one would be when they are on a hunt and their killer instincts take over them and the other is when they are fleeing for their lives from a bigger predator.
Suddenly sounds of jubilation and raucous cheering erupted from all the ships in the distance at the same time. It seemed the people on board finally realised that they had won the battle and completely annihilated the Ironborn.
Celebrations were rare after sea battles, given the usual high casualties and potential ship damage. but hearing the booming hoots and loud laughter coming from the ships, he was sure that there was no one alive on board who wasn't happy or relieved, and Jon was quite happy and proud to admit that he had a huge hand in it.
For the whole duration of the battle, he had tried his hardest and utilised his mind to the fullest. Using the omnipotent view he had of the whole battle, Jon hadn't let a single die person die if he could help it. Every time he came across someone who was getting ganged up or someone who was injured and was on the verge of losing, he immediately sent help in the form of his arrows and saved them.
His archery had long since left the realm of normal people and every time people saw him make those impossible tricky parabolic shots, they were left in awe, not to mention his speed and accuracy had gotten so phenomenal that he barely missed now even when he was on a wobbly ship with unpredictable sea waves.
Jon was absentmindedly watching the celebrations with a contented smile on his face when out of nowhere Cory suddenly jerked to a stop launching him straight into the frigid sea.
"What—"
He coughed and spluttered as saltwater filled his mouth. Panic gripped him for a moment, but he managed to regain his composure and when he resurfaced with a confused look on his face, it was to find his ride, Cory, running or rather rapidly swimming away in the distance and she wasn't alone as there were similar sized silhouettes along with her which he assumed were her family members.
"What in the seven hells happened?"
Jon was completely bewildered by the sudden departure of the friendly whale so he immediately tried to connect with Cory's mind to find out why she was fleeing. But the moment he touched her consciousness he was completely blasted away by the sheer amount of panic and fear she was feeling at the moment.
Her flight response had been fully triggered, her body was pumped to the brim with adrenaline, leaving no room in her mind for any thoughts other than fleeing for her life. But just before he was unceremoniously kicked out of her mind, Jon barely managed to capture a single image from her mind... an image of a large looming shadow hidden in the depth of the sea, which the Orcas associated with the ultimate invincible predator representing absolute death... that they must always flee from; it was something inherited from their ancestors and coded in their genes.
"What is it? What could the creature be?" Jon wondered aloud as he peered into the dark abyss of the unfathomable ocean with intense curiosity, "Could it be 'that' myth?"
The ocean depth was an unknown field even to a warg such as Jon. He had no idea at all as to the kinds of creatures that could be present in the sea of Planetos. And it wasn't like he hadn't tried to scout before, he did... but the results were always disappointing.
He had tried warging into all kinds of different marine species, from colourful tiny fishes to huge whales, from electric eels to killer sharks, but no matter what type of creature he used, after a certain depth all of them started losing their bodily function due to the pressure, and even if he found those rare few that could handle the pressure they would start resisting his control after a certain depth as if they weren't allowed into that part of the sea.
There seemed to be some kind of an invisible line in this world's sea that separated the ocean into two parts, the upper part belonging to the normal creatures while the lower part... well he didn't know who the other part belonged to, and he was dying to find out about it.
Floating in the same place, Jon hesitated for quite a while as his gaze alternated between the ships and the sea depth. A fierce battle was raging inside his mind between two parts of his mind, one side wanted to sate his curiosity immediately and find out about the mysterious creatures that had sent the Orcas running away while the other one was the more rational and cautious one that thought it was absurdly stupid of him to mess around looking for a dangerous predator in the sea while being surrounded on all sides by dead bodies.
"Ah! Fuck it!" Jon finally cursed to himself as curiosity and recklessness ultimately won the day. Crushing the rational part of his mind, he immediately closed his eyes and started to project his consciousness downwards.
Jon had come a long way from when he used to train with Robb and could only extend his mind a few meters at a time but now... now he didn't even know what his limits were.
As his consciousness descended into the depths, he encountered a colourful array of marine life fleeing for their lives. Gradually, the number of creatures dwindled until, just before he reached his limits, he managed to connect with a purple, thin-scaled fish longer than his own height.
He spent a few moments calming the fish's instincts, a skill he could only apply to simple-minded creatures. Then, he gently urged the gullible fish to swim deeper. Darkness enveloped him as he ventured beyond the reach of light. If he had relied on his human eyes, he would have seen nothing, but the fish's vision offered some clarity.
And then it happened.
A monstrous, tentacle-like appendage, thick and several meters long, slithered into his field of vision. Jon's mind nearly recoiled in instinctual fear, but he clung to the fish's consciousness at the last moment.
He swam around at the location where he had glimpsed that thing and before long he managed to capture it, and what he saw sent his heart beating like a drum. A tentacle, thicker than several meters, stretched towards the surface, dragging down the human corpses sinking in the water.
Jon's mind went blank as he struggled to comprehend the reality of his discovery, that his guess had actually been right and that the creatures that he had only considered myths till now actually existed.
If this one existed, then what about the others? What if the giant squid or rather the Kraken he was seeing now wasn't the only one that was real? What about leviathans? or Bloody Sea Dragons? What if all of the myths were actually true?
Greedy thoughts swirled in his mind as he started dreaming about riding Sea Dragons and commanding Krakens to pull down enemy ships for him or making them search the ocean floor for all the treasures and gold that had been sunken to the sea bed over the years.
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