In an Arctic location, where the drills were being conducted, Ducken ordered "RAISE THE SHIELDS!" and saw 25,000 human soldiers obey the command exactly as he had given it. Ducken looked on proudly at how they acted as a single unit, knowing how such an army would be feared by the whole world.
He was disciplining a people who, until a few years ago, were very individualistic and disorganized, despite being the most fearsome warriors he had ever seen in one-on-one battles. Against groups and armies, they were very poor, 1,000 knights from the north could easily defeat 10,000 of them. But this began to change over the years, the group of stubborn individuals, who were even worse than the northerners from the other side of the wall, began to improve every day and became more disciplined. Initially, Ducken did not want to train them, did not want to command them, he lived and grew up knowing the terror of these people from the south of the wall, felt anger just by looking at them, but Jon asked him to give them a chance, that not all were wild savages, that perhaps their customs would change if their needs were not so desperate in this frozen desert that is the north of the wall, that while the people of the seven kingdoms have the south to buy food and survive the winter, the freefolks have to fend for themselves between life and death here, that most of their children don't even survive before the first two years after birth, they even have a culture where children are only named after this time.
Over time, Ducken came to understand them, aside from some wildlings with brutal cultures, the majority wanted to live a peaceful life away from hunger and cold, everyone who followed the laws of the Arctic is living in peace here, Jon really created a nation just as he said many years ago, although Ducken was very skeptical at the time and could not imagine in the slightest of his fantasies, what Arctic would be compared to the nation that is living now with four different races with everything it shelters.
Here, Ducken has to admit he lives a much better life than a great southern noble, food is fresher and much better than the lords of the houses can eat, common people have the most beautiful houses than most of the castles in the south, even though magically Arctic is much warmer than the lands outside of it, they still have a system of boiling water through piping that Jon and dwarves designed with waters that pass through the volcano and connect to all the houses, the entire population has besides hot water, cold water to fill their bathtub with the city's own water, there are also things like showers and toilets with a sewage system, inventions that Jon saw in the lands of the far east with Brynden, hygiene was on another level and sanitary diseases were nonexistent here.
In Arctic, there are also hot springs in some public places, where they can relax with their friends with a pleasant conversation. Ducken knows how dangerous it is to have a volcano in the middle of the city as the stories of what happened in Valyria, but Jon assured that thanks to the great Weirwood, its deep roots would take care of the balance to never let the dormant volcano reactivate and be dangerous for the inhabitants, his goal was always to create the largest city in the world, a city so large that it could even be called an entire country, the first magical nation in the world since the Valyrian kingdom, and Arctic will be much larger than the ancient land of the dragon lords, Ducken was absolutely sure about that.
And who is Ducken in all of this? Ducken Frost, the name that represents his house in Ártica with its own coat of arms. He is the general of the human army and supreme commander after the king, in the military force of this country. He knew he had never imagined leading tens of thousands of swords and shields and being responsible for thousands of lives. But Jon gave him this burden and made Ducken study military strategy with the king, although he did not participate in the other classes, this theme was addressed by Jon, creating for Ducken and all the military leaders to learn everything about war strategies and various scenarios against enemies and how to overcome disadvantages on battlefields. Ducken started as the king's royal guard, but some time after founding Ártica, the king himself mentioned the importance of training the army and how he was already training the giants, so, from that day, Ducken has been leading a large number of men and women freefolks directly, despite being hard-headed at first, over time they learned to execute his commands and everything he learned from Jon.
He also took care of the giants for a while, but soon one of their own species took responsibility for the race, and took the lead of the colossal force, as for the dwarves, well, dwarves were difficult to deal with, even more when you want to command them in a military group, they are too proud and Ducken never had a chance, Thor, the former king of the dwarves and now leader of the race in the Artican kingdom, commanded the little men.
Besides that, the army is becoming more powerful every day, whether it's humans, dwarves, and giants, Jon and the dwarves are producing large quantities of Eldenmetal armors and weapons and the army is not fully armed because the dwarves and all the other human blacksmiths are working on the wall, the canal is finally ready, a colossal excavation and Ducken had to move much of the army to end hostile attacks outside of Ártica, as soon as they finished, the water from the rivers that cut through the city, would finish the job and since then they began to make their main defense, a wall that would be surreal to the rest of the world with a thousand kilometers in length.
Ducken snapped out of his thoughts while looking at all the raised shields of the army, he resumed to the army and shouted, "LOWER SHIELDS!" It's humanly impossible for one man to speak to all those people, only Jon could do something like that with his magic, however in this army of 25 thousand men, there were 50 artirions to command 500 soldiers in their platoons and all had one characteristic in common, they were Wargs, with their animals flying over Ducken, everyone understood his commands and passed the order to their men, they obeyed and almost in perfect sync, the shields were lowered.
As soon as he saw the army execute the command, Ducken didn't stop there, "FORMATION!" Ducken's voice thunders through the field, clear and powerful, cutting through the air with the precision of a sharp blade. Receiving further instructions, the human soldiers move as a single organism, lining up in perfectly ordered ranks.
"SHIELDS FORWARD!" follows the next command, and with a unison crash, hundreds of shields are raised, creating an impenetrable wall of metal.
"SPEARS AT THE READY!" Ducken continues, and the spears rise into the air, pointing to the quickly darkening sky, a forest of sharp tips ready to repel any threat. The sound of feet adjusting on the earth echoes, as each soldier finds their exact position.
"ADVANCE!" With this order, the mass of soldiers begins to move forward, steps synchronized, each beat an echo of the warrior heart that pulses within each one. They advance a few meters, the demonstration of discipline and power not needing a real enemy to prove its effectiveness.
"HALT!" Ducken's final word resonates, an abrupt command that freezes the moving army. An almost tangible silence falls over the field, the only sound the collective panting of breath, the sign of a training day pushed to the limit.
"Great! You are dismissed!" With a gesture from Ducken, the army breaks formation, the soldiers beginning to disperse back to camp and stow their gear. Thus, everyone headed to the city after finishing their things there. He stored his equipment and was going to his family, that was until he felt a rumble on the ground behind him. He looked at the new guest, a giant white eagle, it was Caraxes, that bird which was the size of an adult eagle when he met, now it's so big that people can fly on it, although the bird only lets one person do that.
Jon said he wants to create birds of this size for people to travel when more cities are made in the North beyond the wall and the kingdom is expanded after the threat of the white walkers is destroyed. Arctica already has 30 giant eagles, Jon said he changed their genetic structure so all their descendants would be as big as the current ones, creating an environment where they could easily reproduce without lacking anything they need, now it's just to let them multiply with their nests under the main tree, the great Weirwood, where they seem to grow much faster.
"Did you come to see me, buddy?" He said to the beautiful eagle, whose beauty never went away even with that size, he ended up getting attached to the bird since he met it and it seemed to have the intelligence to recognize friends.
"Croac! Croac!" the beautiful eagle exclaimed and he smiled at that. He stroked it until another eagle landed in the same manner as Caraxes. He saw the other great Eagle, but this one was red and had feminine traits, it was the bird he had met in FrostRoar and practically responsible for creating the situation why he met Jon for the first time and his life changed drastically.
"Looks like your woman has arrived, Caraxes, I'll be going because mine is also waiting for me at home and I don't like to make her moody!" He said smiling.
"Croac!" It responded taking flight with its companion. Heading back to the city, many people greeted him, he was famous for being the first guard of the king and turning into the general of the human race, and a few more titles he earned during these years and one of them for being a great warrior, Jon's potions also helped, but the inhabitants of Arctica had great respect for him as a skilled commander and one of the greatest warriors of the kingdom.
Finally, he arrived home, a gigantic house like a small castle with a yard just for him, Jon said that this style of house is called a mansion, something he never dreamed of having while he was in the North, his wife came out as soon as she noticed him arriving, they met in the army, it was ironic he ended up sleeping and marrying a woman from a people he hated, but he ended up falling in love with her beauty and ferocity.
"Finished your work, Ducken? I thought you had forgotten your wife and your son..." She said, teasing him with a seductive smile.
"Karsi, you know it would take hundreds of white walkers to stop me from coming back to my family!" He said, smiling as he approached the woman, who had a voluminous belly, the city healers and even Jon stated that their son who was missing a few moons to be born. He kissed his wife's belly and finished with a kiss on her, before they entered the house and the first thing he did was take a shower and eat. Eating the delicious food his wife prepared, he began to tell about his day and they talked about many other things.
"Are you going to the university during the afternoon tomorrow?" She asked him as soon as she finished.
"Exactly, the king is going to give a session on tactics with me and other leaders." He said.
"I see, I heard some interesting things today, I heard that the king will marry next year with two wives." She commented.
"Knowing the king, I bet he won't just limit himself to two, after all, Jon always said he wanted to have a few dozen children." He laughed loudly at his statement. Jon never hid the desire to have a large family.
"Lucky him, because just so you know, I don't want to have more than 3 children!" She began to protest, and he nodded, not thinking about being the father to multiple children like Jon, a few to continue his lineage was fine.
Brynden Rivers was looking at the city below with a large central lake, something that wasn't there a few years ago. He was walking in an opening in the Great Weirwood, finally able to escape those roots that bound him. Jon made potions that helped with vitality so he no longer needed the root to stay alive, however, it wasn't just the potions, as Jon strengthened the tree, the energy it drew also strengthened him, he wasn't immortal now, but he had time to continue living.
It was great for Brynden to walk after decades, he would now be more useful to this kingdom, he still remembers that after losing his green sight to see the present and the future, he had once lost hope in this world. When he saw the change of the future he had foreseen decades ago, he thought humanity might be lost, however, somehow the gods interfered with Jon's birth, if he had foreseen something about him, it was erased from his memory. The first time he thought about it, a shiver ran through his entire spine, because for someone who always knew of events and practically had control of destiny, the uncertainty of the future became frightening, not just the future, since Jon's birth, he could no longer look at the kingdoms and his Warg was limited only to one region.
Unfortunately, it seems not just him, nor can Jon do it without spending months with his birds going south and coming back to Arctica with information, the wall blocked the connection and even though Jon being the greatest warg that ever existed, the boy could only see memories of birds arriving in Arctica.
Many years ago, when he saw the child for the first time, he was scared. Even his powers where he could use, were blocked by the Gods a year before seeing the child, he couldn't see through the ravens, and he knew it was related to the child that had arrived. Yet, even with the uncertainty of the boy or the future, he ended up seeing some hope in the child's journey and saw how they transformed this land into the largest city under construction in the current world, a future that was gloomy even with a small chance of victory against the dead, turned into a light for the people north of the wall with various races.
The children of the forest are managing to reproduce again now and coexisting with people for the first time, giants interact more in their own way and walk through the city enjoying what it can offer without any problem with their size, as long as they don't try to enter any inappropriate places, but there were exclusive buildings for them, they had their own set of giant houses on one side of the city, with shops and taverns made for them, with all the other races feeling quite small when they entered that district.
Dwarves, a race he didn't imagine existed or see in his vision, as they were older than the children of the forest, had been hidden in mountains for thousands of years and the king managed to locate them through the gods and unite them in Arctica as one people, their citizens respect and know each other, have some problem here and there, but nothing they can't handle quickly, their military power is now on par with a kingdom, and soon will be surpassing any kingdom of Westeros and in less than a decade will have more soldiers than the rest of Westeros combined. A military power that is concentrated in just one place, no one in the world can boast of this besides Arctica.
Bryden still had difficulty believing in his memories of how a boy of 9 namedays started creating all this many years ago, "who would believe this?" he thought, laughing.
"Oh, Brynden? I see you're looking at the kingdom," said a gentle voice behind him with a person approaching quietly.
"Maester Aemon! It's good to see you here," Brynden responded to the lord in front of him after turning around.
"It's a beautiful sight, and the height increases every year, doesn't it?" Aemon said with a gentle laugh.
"I don't know how tall the king wants to leave this sacred tree, but it will certainly be magical to have a tree covering the largest city in the world," Brynden said.
"You're right, the largest city in the world... hehehe," Aemon said more to himself.
"The construction on the wall is reallocating all the kingdom's labor force, isn't it?" Aemon asked. Before, Brynden took care of the city part, but Jon gave him the task of managing the population due to his experience on the small council in Westeros many decades ago. Aemon, now, is responsible for the education of the first batches of people to learn to write and read in several languages.
"That's right, Maester Aemon, we are prioritizing everyone with the safety of the wall, and it is surprisingly going fast. We might have half the height of the wall we initially projected within a year. Even though the wall doesn't seem like much now, the giants have managed to extract materials from 2 mountains and a lot of earth taken from the excavation of the canal. We have a lot of materials a few dozen kilometers from here, and after placing all the material on Arctican lands, the speed of construction will greatly increase," Brynden said, knowing the information he had with Thor, responsible for the dwarves and civil engineering, allocation of builders, and projects.
"I see, I will talk to him if he can give me 10 dwarves for the construction of a larger area in my classes for the children who we are finalizing their learning. They are larger in numbers than the adults I teach now," he said laughing. Aemon always liked children and was teaching the first batches of people from this kingdom with the goal of making a literate population.
"I'm sure that...!!" Brynden was confirming with him when a white flash passed through the opening of the entrance of the tree where they were looking at the city.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!" They could hear the scream of a girl in the middle of Brynden's sentence.
"Hahaha. That was..." Brynden laughed and went to the entrance to look up.
"He's grown quite a bit, hasn't he... and young Arya is already enjoying her flights," said Aemon laughing, joining Brynden. Eragon, the first dragon after almost 2 centuries to come to life. It was good to see the legacy of his family alive again, even Brynden being a Targaryen bastard, he still felt happy about it, and it was the first dragon he had seen in his long life. Aemon is also a very joyful man with the dragon, his expectation of flying with it was great, although the dragon grew a lot, from the size of a horse to the size of 10 meters, compared to half a house, it's very dangerous for Aemon to fly on him now, he will have to wait a few more moons or next year.
"It's ironic to see that, the first to ride a dragon after more than 180 years, are two Starks," Brynden said with irony.
"We've discussed all this, a half Stark among them, Brynden," said Aemon with a discerning look.
"I know, I know you firmly believe he is our blood, but let's tell him when he turns 17 or 18 namedays as we agreed. We don't want to make our king worry about his true parentage in the middle of building the kingdom of Arctica. We don't know how he might react to it, and we already have a powerful enough enemy to start a war in the South for the throne. If he wants to restore what was his family's, it could be bad when we have white walkers and their army of the dead knocking on our gates. Our strength must increase first." Brynden, deep down, feels that Jon is a Targaryen, even without proving it through the green sight. He can feel his dragon blood, not by the powers he received through the gods, that he is immune to fire or that he can awaken and control a dragon with Warg. Although it amplified everything he already had before receiving his gifts, there was never a record of any Targaryen swimming in a pool of lava or mentally commanding his dragon, but all his instincts screamed that Jon was a member of his family and obviously, the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen.
"Anyway, let's hope everything goes well when he knows the truth. I'm sure he'll be furious when he finds out we've been hiding our suspicions from him for years," he said and could only sigh thinking about his reaction while watching Jon and his sister or cousin, flying over the city on Eragon, a beautiful white dragon painting the Arctic sky.
"That's it, we'll suffer his wrath, and it's quite possible he'll want to kill us. But if it means strengthening Arctica and the end of the white walkers, I'll die gladly," Brynden spoke with conviction.