Version 2.0
The Winter Kingdom was beset on two sides. From the north, the Blackwood King's raiders descended from their treetops, striking at villages and farms, taking food, animals, and people. Meanwhile, from the marshes to the south, the Marsh King's forces crept through the wetlands, launching surprise attacks and retreating into their murky, waterlogged lands.
They always came in small raiding parties and so Brandon used their plans to defend against them. He called it a fortification that men could camp in and then when needed march out of and deal with the raiders. He began to design two 'holdfasts', strong enough to repel attacks and both simple and swift to construct. He envisioned them as wooden forts, ringed by high palisade walls, each with a sturdy central keep. From these strongholds, his forces could quickly mobilize to counter the raiders and stay safe while waiting for these moments.
The first of these forts was erected on the southern edge of Jarl Amber's lands. It was simple with thick walls of sharpened timber logs driven deep into the frozen ground. The keep inside was a squat, sturdy wooden hall with a high tower. Around the keep, tents and crude shelters dotted the inside of the palisade.
The second fort was built to the north, on the very edge of the forest where the Blackwood King's lands met Brandon's. Built in the same style as its southern counterpart. From here, when standing on its tower you could look out the plains and see far and wide.
Brandon found himself drawn into the process of building them. He spent days with his men building the fort with them, smiling and laughing with them, living in the moment. The sharp scent of fresh-cut wood, and the rhythmic thud of axes, became a great reprise from his dull solar and repetitive problems.
/
Brandon's forts were completed just in time. As news of the battles of the Red and Ryder King started to spread, the Blackwood King's raids grew bolder. From the deep, shadowed forests bands of raiders surged in mass. But now, they found more organised resistance than they had expected. Brandon's men could more easily spot them and organise counter attacks back at the raiders, saving the people and food that they had taken.
From the northern holdfast, Brandon personally led many of the skirmishes against the Blackwood King's forces. The Blackwood raiders would come in small, fast-moving bands, relying on speed to strike swiftly and then leave. His men, stationed in the fort, had a clear view of the forest edge and plains.
The battles were sharp and fierce, but never large enough to become full-scale warfare. Quick engagements where the enemy would hit hard and retreat just as fast. After each raid, the Blackwood King's forces would retreat into the dense forest. And still, the Blackwood King himself never left his wooded domain, content to harry Brandon's men from the shadows.
Meanwhile, in the west, Jarl Amber led a similar battle against the Marsh King. From his fort on the edge of the marshlands, Amber and his men fought off the Marsh King's raids, which came out of the swamp mist and dense foliage like ghosts.
Both Brandon and Jarl Amber found themselves locked in a war of attrition, where neither side could gain the upper hand. And as the winter deepened, the raids continued, but with each skirmish, Brandon and Amber held.
/
"My King, are you sure this is wise," Theon asked. "The swamps are no place for us."
Brandon smiled. "Well, I won't know that until I try."
"But my King it wont end well."
Brandon smiled again before clipping his sword to his side and leaving the solar followed soon after by Theon.
"You do not need to come Theon, people need to stay home and defend it, you can…"
"You know that I won't my King." Theon sighed.
Brandon patted him on the shoulder. "Well come on then."
Brandon left the castle and gathered the men he could whilst leaving enough men in the Holdfasts to keep his land protected and marched towards the swamps of the Marsh King. They marched with a force of around 1,000 when joined by Jarl Amber and some of his men, and despite giving the same warning as Theon, Brandon still marched on.
The expedition began with high spirits. Brandon's forces moved cautiously through the outer edges of the marshlands, sticking to the narrow paths that cut through the bogs and swamps. But in the humid, still air of the marsh, the swarms of insects were relentless. They bit at the men day and night, covering their bodies in red welts. At first, the men brushed it off, but the mosquitoes brought more than just discomfort. Several men began to fall ill, stricken with fevers and chills. The healers with the expedition tried their best, but the illnesses were unlike anything they had seen before. It spread by the swarms of mosquitoes and soon began to sweep through the camp, weakening the men. Others developed festering sores, spread by the damp, unsanitary conditions of the marsh.
As the days passed, things grew worse. Thick, sucking mud trapped their wagons and slowed their march. At night, strange sounds echoed through the swamp—unnatural croaks and hiss lurked from the waters. The Marsh King's soldiers were nowhere to be found, and the swamp was proving to be just as bad as the King who ruled them.
"Please Brandon," Edric says his words resonating with everyone in the tent. "This is folly we aren't going to accomplish anything here and we will only get weaker."
"And yet if we push forward, we could be the first to defeat the Marsh King in his lands," Brandon argued.
"At the expense of us and our men Brandon!" Edric shouted.
Brandon stood silent, breathing in deeply, then leaving the tent. He marched past his men, their groans and whimpers passing him by as he stood at the edge of their camp. Just standing in the silence of the marsh, ignoring the mosquitoes bussing around him.
Brandon breathed out a large huff.
"Bran," Jon said patting Brandon on the shoulder. "You're clouding your judgement. You've driven yourself to uniting the north and fighting against the Ryder and Red King that you don't see what you are doing to accomplish that."
"Look at the men Brandon," Edric said patting his other shoulder. "They follow you because they trust and adore you, you took them through the long night, and they trust that you can do it again through this tough winter and expansion of other kings. Don't betray that Brandon, we trust you Brandon to do what is right by us, not yourself."
"I.." But before Brandon could speak a figure surged from the depths of a nearby stream, surging towards Edric. Only by reflex did he survive as he moved his leg out of the way stumbling into Brandon, before seeing what it was.
A large scaly lizard-lion had surged out its long jaw growling through its sharp teeth at them for missing the first time before it tried to scamper up the mud to grab at them.
Brandon grabbed his friend quickly dragging them away back into the camp and away from the water's edge where they were quickly surrounded by the King's guards.
"What am I doing with my life," Brandon said as he looked at Edric's, slightly white face and the dead look that he was getting from Jon, whilst the groaning and sounds of fluids violently leaving an ill man reached him. Over such a short tip they had found nothing and were losing men every day. "This was stupid, we return home in the morning."
He then turned to the ill men he could hear and entered the medical tent. "I won't leave this work until every person who has fallen ill is healed and I have paid for my actions." He told Edric as he looked at men with yellow skin and eyes shrunken.