(Location: Miners shack outside Starry mountains)
(Time: Morning)
(3rd person)
As the sun stretches across the sky illuminating the lands beneath it, the wildlife starts to sleep and the only thing that can be heard is the sounds of birds and insects.
In the disused miners shack Jon can be seen still sleeping as he rests peacefully dreaming about being at home with his family.
"WAKE UP!" Arthur shouts pulling Jon off the crooked bed he found himself in and dropping him on the floor.
"AHHH!" Jon screams as he scrambled around trying to find a weapon and to discover the source of the disturbance.
Once he looks up and sees Arthur's smirk on his face he relaxes but gets immediately pissed off getting up and pushing him while the older man chuckles.
"Seven hells Arthur you couldn't just let me sleep" Jon shouts at the older man as he sits himself back on the bed.
"It's almost noon I thought you'd slept enough" Arthur says simply as he leans on the wall next to a window and looks out of it.
"Well you wouldn't be saying that if you'd been awake last night" Jon says grimly as he rubs his eyes.
"What happened?" Arthur asks "And how did we get out of the city".
After Jon explains what happened last night and where he found him, as well as the man he met Arthur looks shocked but then approaches Jon and places his hand on his shoulder.
"Thank you Jon" Arthur says sincerely but then he cuffs the back of Jon's head to reprimand him.
"But you shouldn't of risked your life so senselessly like that, the gate of the lock was open, you could've just sailed right out of the city" Arthur says sternly as he crosses his arms.
"You know I would never of done that so I'm quite surprised you even asked in the first place" Jon says with a chuckle as he stands up.
"Do you have any idea who saved us" Arthur asks with concern.
"Not that I don't appreciate it but nothing in this world is ever free" he continues.
"No I don't, but she did us a massive favour by helping us this far she saved us weeks of travel, so I'd rather focus on saving Sansa and getting the hell out of here" Jon says as he starts to pack up.
"I see you have some new armour and a sword" Arthur says with humour in his voice.
"What was it you said, oh yes maybe I can find a dragon bone bow and then hop on a dragon after finding a Valyrian steel sword" he mimics Jon's voice as Jon just sighs as he feels a headache begin to form.
"Can we do this later, you woke me up so we should really get going, climbing this mountain won't be easy" Jon says seriously.
Arthur frowns and then puts a hand on Jon's shoulder "Jon she's fine we'll save her" he says reassuringly "But try and relax, a rigid swordsman will never improve beyond a certain level, it's the problem your uncle had snd even your father" he continues.
Jon sighs closes his eyes and then breathes in and out "You're right, I'm just anxious when we are so close to our goal" Jon says.
"Then we better get going" Arthur says with a smile before lifting his bag up and walking towards the door.
Jon getting the last of his things does the same.
(Outside the shack)
Outside the shack they walk straight to the bottom of the mountain it seemed to stretch all the way up to the sky with sheer cliffs and jagged edges.
"Climbing this doesn't seem possible" Jon says in a frustrated voice as he kicks a stone.
"And even if we manage to do it, we have no idea where the tribe is in the mountain" he continues.
"Calm down Jon, I found this in the shack" Arthur says as he holds up a small book.
"Now I'm not too fluent in summer tongue but I can make out enough to read that this whole mining operation suffered raids from the tribe" Arthur states while holding open the book.
"Though they could never mount an offensive as they were located too far up the mountain" Arthur says with a smile on his face as he shuts the book closed.
"How is that supposed to help us" Jon asks shrugging his shoulders and gesturing with his arms.
"Think about it, they were close enough to raid this group but they've been mentioned to be far up the mountain" Arthur says sagely as he lectures Jon.
"So we just need to keep climbing until we find something" Arthur says like it's the most obvious thing in the world.
Jon just stands there in disbelief at what Arthur says as he looks at the man who can't help but look pleased with himself.
"You're an idiot" Jon says in sudden realisation as he puts his hands on the sides of his head.
"I've been following around and listening to an idiot this entire time, how am I still alive" Jon keeps saying to himself.
Arthur looking quite offended just tuts "Well I don't see you coming up with a better idea" he huffs as he walks closer to the mountain.
"Look" Jon says to Arthur as he points to a cave in the distance.
"That cave has been reinforced so it must've been used for mining the mountain" Jon states.
"It will most likely open up into the mountain range and from there we will have a better idea of where we are" Jon continues as he begins to walk to the cave.
Arthur huffs before deciding to follow him, when they get to the cave they can see that there's a sign in front of it though Jon doesn't recognise the words and neither does Arthur.
"Do you know what the sign says" Jon asks Arthur.
"No, I recognise it's in the summer tongue but like I said I'm not exactly fluent in it, though I won't lie to you that picture of the bat doesn't fill me with confidence" Arthur replies feeling uneasy about going in there.
"We have no choice this is the quickest way forward" Jon replies as they enter into the darkness.
At the entrance to the cave there is an extinguished lantern on the floor it's clutched in the hands of what looks like a mummified corpse, shaking off his uneasiness Jon takes the lantern and lights it with his finger and then hands it to Arthur.
"Seems like a common occurrence that we end up walking into places of complete darkness" Arthur says a little uneasy.
"I think when I get home I'll probably start sleeping with the fires lit" Jon says as he walks slightly ahead of Arthur.
"What will you actually do once we leave here, since you don't want to be king" Arthur inquires curious as to where they'd be going.
"I don't know I guess once I get Sansa home maybe go to Essos" Jon replies as he's not too sure himself.
"Why go to Essos instead of staying home" Arthur replies curiously.
"I don't feel too comfortable with my uncle at the moment, it feels like there is a lot I don't know about him" Jon says solemnly as they continue walking through the cave.
"He tried to make me waste my life away at the wall and never told me who I was, I just hope it was for my protection rather than his friends" he continues.
"And I'd also like to find my remaining family, my aunt and uncle" Jon says in a lighter tone.
"My Stark family is safe but I don't think they are, I want to make sure they are okay and at least meet them" Jon continues before he's interrupted by Arthur.
"You know Viserys will most likely try and push for the throne, even as a child he showed hints of his father's affliction" Arthur states seriously as he looks at Jon.
"That is his choice, I can only discourage him from doing it" Jon says with a sigh.
They suddenly hear a rock falling in the darkness and they both draw their swords and stand back to back, with the sounds getting closer.
All of a sudden a white creature about as long as Jon's forearm jumped on his shoulder.
"Seven hells!" Jon shouts as he falls
On his backside.
Arthur looks at Jon and starts laughing at him.
"Calm down Jon that creature is harmless" he says in between chuckles.
"What in seven hells is it" Jon says loudly as he looks at the purple eyed creature.
"They're called Little Valyrian's due to their features, about the only thing on this continent that doesn't want to kill, skin or eat you" Arthur says as he picks the little lemur like creature up.
The lemur scratches Arthur and jumps back on Jon's shoulders hissing in a quiet tone.
"Well not entirely harmless" Arthur corrects himself as he sucks on the cut.
"I guess you can hang around until we get out" Jon says while stroking the head of the lemur.
The animals leans it's head into Jon's hand and Jon just turns and smirks at Arthur.
"I guess I'm just more likeable than you" he says with humour in his voice.
"Yeah yeah you're a true man of the people, let's get going" Arthur says sarcastically as he continues onward.
They continue to walk in the dark for a while before reaching a slope, they walk up the slope until the reach a metal door with the same lettering that was at the front of the cave as well as the same picture.
Arthur tries to open the door but it won't budge, he then tried to barge it but bounces straight off much to the amusement of Jon.
"It must be locked from the other side" Arthur says while dusting himself off.
"Why don't I just melt the door It looks like a normal iron door" Jon inquires.
"The support beams are wooden if you're going to be producing a fire that hot you'll destroy them and could potentially collapse the cave on us" Arthur states while shaking his head and looking around the door.
"Look there is a small hole there, if we can reach through then we can lift the bar off the door on the other side" Arthur points out excitedly.
"It's too low to the ground we would never be able to reach it" Jon states bluntly sobering Arthur up from his excitement.
"Use your new pet" Arthur says pointing at Jon's shoulder.
"I don't think I've managed to train him that well in the hour that I've gotten him but your faith in me is appreciated" Jon replies sarcastically.
"Warg into him you prick" Arthur says loudly.
"I don't even know how to warg" Jon says lifting his arms up in exasperation.
"Well Lyanna always said it was like focusing your magic through your eyes and to the creature you want to warg into, though most need to have a connection to the animal in question, I doubt that'll be a problem for you" Arthur tells Jon.
Jon decides to give it a try and kneels down and places the lemur in front of him, he then focus's his magic into his eyes and ends up nearly roasting the lemur as two beams of fire shoot out of his eyeballs.
"What the hell are you doing!" Arthur shouts at Jon before grabbing the lemur.
"I did what you said and focused the magic in my eyes!" Jon shouted back as he looks up to Arthur.
"You obviously did it wrong, you must still be drawing from your Valyrian blood" Arthur states.
"Focus on your Stark blood I imagine it'll feel like the opposite of your Valyrian blood" he continues.
Jon closes his eyes and focuses he looks into himself and immediately finds the roaring inferno that he knew as his magic, deciding to look deeper he went ahead, and deep inside himself he could feel the cold storm so different from what he was used to.
Shuddering he channels that to his eyes before opening them they are no milky white and he slumps over before the lemurs eyes turn white.
The lemur runs through the little hole and comes out on the other side, it climbs up the door and manages to lift the bar so it hits the floor, which Arthur hears and it prompts him to open the door.
Jon's eyes then return to normal and he sits up
"That was by far the weirdest thing I've ever felt" he says mostly to himself.
"Come on you can reminisce about weird feelings later we can go now" Arthur says lifting him up.
The lemur jumps on Jon's shoulder again before they begin walking through the dark.
They enter a big cavern that has a lake, they can see at the other side of the cavern is a slope that is reflecting light.
"Must be the way out" Arthur says excitedly as he starts to pick up his pace before he trips over something.
Jon starts laughing at him quite loudly the sound echoing around the cavern as Arthur picks himself up he realises that he's tripped over another mummified corpse.
Getting up he realised that this cavern is full of them, in a panic he gets up and puts his hand over Jon's mouth.
"Jon I think we may have just wondered into somethings feeding ground" Arthur says with a lot of concern and a bit of terror in his voice.
"What do you think the chances are that those signs meant danger" Jon sighs to himself as he moves Arthur's hand away.
"We need to leave now and very quickly" Arthur says quietly as he begins to lead Jon out of the cavern.
As they made it halfway through the cavern Jon steps on something that makes a shattering sound, he looks down realising it was a glass statue of some sort.
Wincing at the sound it made they wait for a second hoping they hadn't attracted any trouble.
As they relax and continue on they hear a screech.
*SCREECH*
And suddenly a large bat like creature swoops down to near where they were. The creature is as tall as Arthur is and has massive talons and large ears, it's covered in black fur and heavily muscled.
It looks directly at Jon and Arthur, Arthur coming to the realisation that it must be able to hear their heartbeats, so he turns to Jon and shouts
"RUN!"
The large bat screeches again and then jumps at Arthur who takes dawn out and while jumping backwards slices the creatures belly open causing it to cry in pain.
Arthur gets back up and we both run to the end of the cavern jumping over the mummified corpses as we go.
Suddenly screeches can be heard all over the cavern, Jon and Arthur look up and see that the bat creatures were sleeping on the ceiling of the cavern and were now beginning to wake up.
One lands in front of Arthur and Jon again Jon unsheathes his sword and cuts the bats whole wing off running through it while Arthur side steps it trying not to break his stride.
More and more bats begin to land until there are a dozen in front of them.
Jon igniting his sword in orange flames swings his sword leaving an orange slash in its wake hitting the creatures.
But before he can release another one he is picked up from the shoulders by one of the creatures the talons digging into him.
He screams in pain alerting Arthur to his current situation, he charges at the flaming bats in front of him and jumps kicking off one of them as he launches himself into the air, he throws dawn which spins in a circular motion until it stabs right into the chest of the creature falling back down to the earth.
Jon manages to push off before he's crushed by the creature and does a landing roll before getting pack to his feet.
Arthur runs up to him taking dawn out of the creature.
"Are you okay" he asks in a concerned voice looking at the blood running down from his shoulders.
"I'll be fine don't worry, let's focus on getting out of here" Jon replies as he gets his sword ready.
They continue running and make it to the slope running up it Jon looks at Arthur.
"Arthur we need to stop them here otherwise they'll just follow us, either now or when the sun goes down" Jon says getting Arthur's attention.
"How do you think we should do that, cause I'm fresh out of ideas" Arthur replies to Jon.
As they reach the top of the slope emerging out of the mountain Jon turns back and sheaths his sword.
He then puts both of his arms outward as his palms face the cave, with a yell Jon summons up all the magic he has and brings forth a spiralling inferno which is shot down into the cave.
The violet flames seem to melt the walls turning it into lava, eventually the structural integrity of the cave seems to go and it collapses trapping the bat creatures on the other side.
Just like the cave Jon collapses from exhausting all of his magic but Arthur manages to catch him.
"Maybe I should start learning other languages, or at least the word danger" Jon says to himself.
Arthur chuckles at him as he lifts them both up and look out into the valley that is hidden in the mountain range.
"Look at that over there, there is a small grove up there" Jon points out as he looks further up the mountain adjacent to him.
"I almost guarantee that's where the tribe is, if there is a grove it means there is a source of fresh water" Arthur states.
"Seems like we're in the final stretch" Arthur continues
"Let's get going" Jon says, before they both start climbing.
(A few hours ago)
Sansa and Rhaenys are currently sitting in their cage when they hear a commotion.
A group of tribes men come bringing in multiple people tied up, they bring them to a cage next to theirs and throw them in.
They look at these men and realise they're dressed in fine clothes, they have bald heads and blue lips.
"Warlocks" Rhaenys says as she spits to the side.
"What's wrong with warlocks" Sansa naively inquires.
"They'd take people like you and me and sacrifice us in order to boost their own magic" Rhaenys says with disgust in her voice.
Sansa looks horrified at the thought of it. But before she can dwell much further on it all the tribes men seem to gather outside near the alter.
"Shouldn't they be asleep" Sansa inquires to Rhaenys as she holds her arm.
"Yes something must be happening" Rhaenys guesses as she looks with interest at what's occurring.
Sansa and Rhaenys are even more surprised when they see someone that they've never seen before, similar to the brindlemen but far larger almost reaching 8ft.
He then seems to give a speech that riles up the tribes men as they stomp their feet in excitement.
He then walks over to the cages and to their surprise he talks in the common tongue.
"Soon this will be over, you will no longer be in the cage" The man says as he towers over everyone there.
He has a thick beard and hairy arms his head protrudes at the front and his teeth are sharp. Sansa feels too scared to speak but Rhaenys does not share that problem.
"Who are you!" Rhaenys says loudly narrowing her eyes at the large man.
The man chuckles at her attempt at intimidation and he simply replies.
"I'm the one who leads us here my name is Marlok, though that will change soon" he says ambiguously.
"The ritual will be complete tonight and all of our enemies will be wiped off the face of the earth" He states with a creepy smile.
"The stone is nearly full, for hundreds of years our ancestors filled this stone and now it is complete and I will be rewarded for their efforts" He says wistfully as he looks to the sky.
He then throws a knapsack of food at them "Enjoy your last meal" he says with humour as he leaves the cages.
"Rhaenys" Sansa says in a scared voice currently trembling, Rhaenys turns her head and looks at Sansa.
"Is there a Plan B"
(AN: Hope you enjoy the chapter nearly coming to the end, well end of the first arc i guess. What is the spooky ritual going to do. Let me know if ya enjoyed the chapter.)