*sigh*
"I... am... tired..." Frost thought ruefully as she flew aimlessly over the endless expanse of the dark blue ocean, with no land in sight in any direction
"No. You're Not," Jon's absentminded reply sounded in her mind, "I know for sure that you fly and maintain a state like this without flapping your wings and skillfully using the surrounding winds for weeks and weeks... So I know that you're not tired."
About a month and a half had passed since the last battle with the Ironborn ships and during this time Jon had made a lot of very profitable trips all over the western coast, even managing to add two more Trading Galleons to his fleet. The Starkhorse business was not the only one that was booming, in fact, other Northern products were also in enough demand that he was already in talks with Lord Glover of Deepwood Motte for a second port for ease of transport from the Mainland.
The Ironborn hadn't been up to any of their usual mischievousness around these parts since that ambush and his minions who had been keeping an eye on them told him that Balon wanted to keep a low profile at the moment and that most of the extreme-right pirates had already gone to the Stepstones, which is said to be a thriving home to them. And while he knew that it wouldn't be the last he would battle with them, Jon was at least relieved to know that he wouldn't have to deal with those scrouges for quite a while.
At that moment his physical body was at the Bear Island port preparing all the ships that he would take for the upcoming trade with the Wildlings. And while he had managed to acquire enough ships during the last battle so that this trade wouldn't affect his Southern one, he wouldn't be able to take too many of them because of the need to keep secrecy. He was only going to bring the most loyal of crew and even then he would try to make sure that he only brought the most essential crew required.
And while overlooking the loading of ships, his mind was connected with only the thinnest of threads to Frost, which meant that he could neither see nor hear anything that she could like he usually would. So instead of sharing any senses with Frost, this connection only enabled them to talk with each other in their minds without interruption, and because it was really efficient, they could do this for hours... it was almost like a phone call from his previous life.
"I am tired," Frost replied firmly, "Seeing nothing but blue sky and the blue sea in all directions again and again, every day is so... so..."
"Boring," Jon supplied helpfully, "So that means you're not tired, but just bored,"
Frost was still learning all the nuances of the common tongue so from time to time, she had trouble finding the words to express herself but it was already very remarkable that she was able to learn so quickly. 'Now she just needed to develop one of those voice boxes that those parrots like birds possess and she would be good to go...' Jon thought absentmindedly while imagining all the pranks he could pull on his siblings if she even developed this ability.
"Yes! Yes, that word. Bored! I am very bored right now," Frost said in a whining tone, "So can I not do it from now on, please... and it is not like it's turning out to be any useful anyway... if I haven't been able to find anything until... there very little chance that I would in the future..."
The reason she was flying aimlessly was that Jon had tasked her to carpet search the complete west side, from the shore near the wall to as far as she could go in a few days and then back to shore and begin once again while moving a little South each time so that in the end she would have completely scouted the accessible part on the West side of Westeros which was still a mystery to everyone.
The main reason for this carpet search was that he wanted to have somewhat of a backup plan for the Wildlings, in case the White Walker turned out to be too overwhelming in the future. So he thought that if during his search Frost was able to find some kind of a big enough island there that no one knew about, then even if the Northern Lords prove to be too stubborn in the future about giving the Wildlings a place to live, then he would have some other place to settle them... somewhat of a safe haven, so that at least the Wildlings don't get exterminated completely and turn into the walking dead.
Jon thought about it for a while before he said, "It has really been unfair on you...huh! Fine, then, you only need to search for a few more days and if you really can't find anything then we'll call this a failure..."
*Squeak!* Frost immediately cheered at that, "A-And you also need to get me a good gift this time for all the hard work that I've been doing... And not something like the last time when you said you'd get me a gift and instead you bought that stupid bird with you..."
"Hey! I thought you would become friends with Tweety... and I remember clearly that Tweety was incredibly excited when she met you..."
"That stupid bird is excited all the time," Frost snorted derisively, "And why would I ever want to become friends with the critter... she is about the size of one of my little claws and I could eat her in a single gulp, and she is stupid and..." and so on, Jon had to listen for quite a while as Frost started to badmouth Tweety with everything that came to her mind, "And just because she was a little helpful during the last battle doesn't mean that she's special... that bird brain can't even learn the common tongue, Humph! Humph!"
It took a while for Jon to pick up the reason behind Frost's sudden hostility from her mind... it seems that Frost was a little jealous because of all the new companions that Jon had been getting lately and in addition to feeling left out she was also a little scared that he would leave her when she became less useful.
Jon didn't waste a single moment after finding out the crux of the issue and immediately tried to fix the situation, "You're absolutely right, my friend. There's no one in the world who can compare to you. No one is as smart as you or is as beautiful as you or has such pretty feathers—"
"I see it!"
Jon's shower of praises on Frost was suddenly interrupted by her, "What is it? What do you see?"
"I think I see an island,"
"What—" Jon immediately put down the work he was doing at that moment and immediately concentrated his mind, widening the connection with Frost he was immediately able to see what Frost was talking about.
Far off in the distance was a very small green dot barely visible even with Frost's magical eyes, "That looks too small doesn't it? Could it be another dud?" And it wouldn't be the first time if that was the case, there were a couple of close calls before where they had gotten incredibly excited about their discovery only to later realize that the island they found could barely hold a thousand people so was completely useless.
"No! T-This one may just be it—" Frost said excitedly, being able to see better with the same eyes and then without waiting for his answer she immediately flapped her majestic wings a few times and zoomed across the sky, the acceleration was a joke as she had suddenly increased her speed from a leisurely helicopter to a fighter jet.
It only took them a couple of minutes before they were close enough for Jon to see the Island or Islands in its entirety. There were a total of five islands in front of them, two very small ones, two medium-sized islands about the size of Pyke, and the biggest one was almost double the size of Bear Island.
"This is it... you did it, Frost," Jon said with glee in his tone as he looked at the islands filled to the brim with greenery, not only that but he was also able to hear some faint bird calls from the Islands, which meant that life already thrived here, which was just the cherry on top.
'Looks like we finally got our backup plan...'
///