Version 2.0
The Isdråk in its ever-changing form, coiled and slithered around the cavern, its frost-glow eyes casting peering out from the darkness between rocks, its hisses reverberating around them as its silky fur thickened scales scrapped across the hard rock floor.
Hawthorn quickly unleashed the power of the woods and manipulated roots to entangle the Isdråk, but it simply slithered through the gaps no matter the size as it rushed towards them. Halvar was still fighting the White Walker watched as the Isdråk slithered towards him before it coiled up and sprung towards him.
Whilst the skirmish unfolded, Aloe used it as an opportune moment to escape the fray. However, Hawthorn still had ceased Aloe's wrists with binding roots.
With a flick of a command, the ice spider first tried to bite off the roots, but Hawthorn did not allow him to as he moved the roots out of the way of the spider's attack whilst sending more roots to slither around his body. Aloe smiled before flicking his wrist again as the spider then bit off his wrist, sending out a crunching noise followed by squirts of green blood, his stump now squirmed out the grasp of the roots as he fell onto his spider. Aloe quickly disappeared into the shadows.
The Isdråk dived towards Halvar as he rolled away from them, his eagle soaring high into the cavern. Hawthorn quickly willed the roots to attack the White Walker, as it used its spear to control the biting cold and ice to grip the roots before freezing them and then shattering them.
Halvar dodged and rolled constantly as it slithered around him its fur fluttering against his skin as it just missed him. Finally, it slithered close to him before driving straight for his face only stopped by Halvar's sword when it placed it in the way as it chopped down on it.
Halvar used his entire body to throw it to the side before it then slithered back into the crevices and gaps in the rocks. Despite Hawthorn's best efforts his roots were constantly repelled, as the control over ice the White Walker possessed pushed them steadily backward. Eventually, their backs reached the confined space of the cavern entrance, Hawthorn surged his roots forward as the pair of them ran through the narrow passage through the hiss of the Isdråk was not far behind them.
"Come on Hawthorn, we need to get back to the cave entrance, we can lose them in the mountains," Halvar shouted.
They quickly passed through the tight pathway rushing through it practically bouncing off the walls as they ran. Quickly they emerged into the cavern's mouth trapped over bones and burst into the open expanse of the mountains. The jagged peaks loomed overhead, shrouded in a veil of mist. Halvar and Hawthorn wasted no time, they ran towards the rugged terrain hiding behind rocks and walls as they dashed down the mountain following along the path they came upon.
The rocky slopes and treacherous cliffs concealed them as they dashed down it. Halvar, with his eagle soaring above, scouted their route, while Hawthorn kept a close look behind them seeing the white walker leave the cave entrance before it headed down the mountain path, but he worried about not seeing the Isdråk.
They continued, as Halvar and Hawthorn raced against the pursuit, their breath heavy as they felt the winds against their skin as they quickly saw forest below. They followed their previous path and did not stop at any point as just kept running.
Finally, in their desperate flight through the mountains, Halvar and Hawthorn believed they had successfully eluded them. As they ventured out of the mountains and into the forest, they took a moment to catch their breath.
"By the Gods," Halvar stated. "The white walker would be able to get through the mountains easily. We should be safe for now."
"Should do, fucking abominations," Hawthorn said. "But it means nothing, we lost Aloe, he will disappear into the wild again, and we have no leads, nothing to go on. And I was so close, he was right in my grasp." Hawthorn said, his irritation coming through.
"Better to be alive to catch him than dead trying," Halvar said.
As Hawthorn sighs movement appears in the corner of his eye. With lightning speed, the Isdråk emerged from a crevasse, its serpentine form launching at Hawthorn. The creature's icy fangs sought out its target, piercing through Hawthorn's fleshy neck before quickly ensnaring him in its constricting embrace.
Halvar's eyes bulged, and then he quickly reacted, brandished his weapon, and swung it with his entire body behind it. The obsidian blade cleaved through the air, finding its mark on the Isdråk's neck. Though it seemed to do little to it. Halvar tried his best to hack at its neck like a lumberjack on a knotted wood.
Finaly with a mighty slash Halvar severed the creature's head, Hawthorn quickly gasped for breath as he flung the Isdråk's lifeless body away, before grabbing its still embedded head.
Halvar, breathing heavily, extended a hand to help Hawthorn. "You alright Hawthorn," Halvar asks as he watches him drag out the sharp teeth of the Isdråk from his neck.
"I'll be fine." He says as he weaves some roots and leaves to form a bandage to stem his bleeding. "Let's go, I don't want to find out if there are going to be more of these Isdråk, and knowing Aloe there would be."
They continued their journey, now more vigilant than ever, passing through the forest back home, their shoulders slumped and Hawthorn shaking his head.
/
"And with that, we left the Umbar King's lands and returned Home," Halvar said as he finished his explanation to Brandon and the retinue in the Solar.
They sit in silence over his adventurous time away. "Well, you lived that is the most important," Edric says.
"Quite right, you did well Halvar, and when Hawthorn finds more on Aloe, we shall all go, see if we can't put an end to him."
"Sounds good my King," Halvar says.
"Take rest Halvar but be prepared as I have now decided our kingdom's next move." Brandon starts. "With the lands to the Locke Kings land secure with the allegiance of all the village chiefs in the area along with the rest of the north embordered in war we need to move. In these wars there will be winners and losers, the winners will gobble up the losers and I won't allow that to happen. We shall move on to the Amber King lands. I will unite the North and the Amber King is the next target."
"Are you sure this is wise Brandon," Jon asks, his brow creased.
"Wars are all around us Jon. Things are getting violent, and I fear they are going to get worse. I or my descendants shall make a unified North this I swear." He said getting raised eyebrows and looks of unsurety. "The war between the Amber King and the Marsh should end soon and either way the Amber King will be weakened by it which is when we shall declare war and march. I shall write the letter and Theon you shall send it only once 10 moons have passed since the end of the war."
"Alright, Bran," Jon says. Through looking around the room Brandon can see that the rest of the group is not so convinced.