It had already been 5 weeks we had been out on this campaign to eradicate the mystery caravan raiders. I was already fed up of camping out in the wilderness. Even if half the time we had stayed at the castles or keeps of the nobility of the various lands, and when not available we stayed in the villages. That had meant that we would be camping the other half of the time.
Even if the weather wasn't as bad as further North of the trident and we only got a light snowfall, to me it made camping miserable. We were moving light with around 300 cavalry split into 3 groups. This meant that unlike the first time when I came to Kings landing, we didn't have any luxuries.
No tents, laborers or even carts with extra supplies, weeks of hunting game, sleeping on the cold earth, tending your own animals and shitting in the woods. On the bright side it was doing wonders for my skills. Some had grown greatly and were now stuck on the threshold of 'expert' but no matter how much I tried, they refused to grow. The ones that had grown the most were;
*Archery (proficient-30/30)
*Observation (proficient -30/30)
*Controlled Breathing (proficient -30/30)
*Spatial Awareness (proficient -30/30)
*Riding Proficiency (proficient-11/30)
All my other skills had grown by small increments but these were the ones that had really shown growth and even gained 'Spear Proficiency'. 'Archery' was the one I had the highest hopes for, I was now training it every day. I still trained in all my other skills, but in the wilderness, the bow was my go to weapon.
As I stood now in the twilight of the sunset, with my bow drawn, I controlled and slowed my breathing until I was completely still. I extended my senses as far as I could, the feeling of the wind on my face, the sound of Robar's breathing as he stood to the side, the snowflakes slowly drifting in the distance. Slowly I closed them off until only my target remained in my sight and without even commanding my fingers, the arrow was sent flying forward as the bow string snapped out of my fingertips.
I can see every bend and flex of the arrow as it travels, cutting through the air until eventually the arrow makes contact with a solitary snow flake that had been drifting to the ground. It continues to travel until embedding itself in the small hill around 60 yards away.
This was one of the ways I had found that greatly increased the speed of skill growth. Through the synergy of skills; multiple skills working together to achieve an objective, to hit that one snow flake more than 30 yards away in low light. When given a clear purpose, a clearly defined desire to achieve an objective in my mind, I found my skills improved faster. This was what I had learned over the last few weeks.
It was a concept I hadn't quiet grasped since before leaving King's Landing. I had gotten the idea from trying to shoot flies using my bow in the court yard. It had started off in a rather infantile way, a bowl of rotten fruit left outside had attracted flies and I had the idea to use them for target practice. At first when I notice my bow skills had increased instead, I thought it was because of the level of difficulty, which was still a factor. But as I focused more and began to use multiple skills to hit the tiny insects, I realized that it was my intent that made the difference, that pushed my growth faster.
But now those same skills had hit a bottle neck, I would need to find a way to push them to the other level. I decided to call it a day as it was quickly getting dark and Lord Commander Duncan's men would soon come to find us, for us to return to camp. We quickly retrieved my arrows and began our walk back.
I was already dark by the time we had returned to camp; the guards nodded at us as we entered. As usual, the Lord Commander was making his inspection of the camp. Even if we were a hundred strong and armed to the teeth, he would not make the mistake of leaving the camp vulnerable to attack during the night.
As I made my way to a nearby campfire I was greeted by a young pimple face squire who was around the same height as me but clearly further along into puberty. The boy was a 4th son of House Harte, he become quite respectful of me, after he mistook me for just another squire and tried to bully me on the first day. I had promptly settled that misunderstanding with a sharp punch to the solar plexus.
The boy had folded like wet laundry and as he struggled to breathe again, he realized that he had been mislead by the other squires who had seen me around. As we had only cavalry on this campaign for the sake of speed, all of the squires were responsible for the meals that the knights and the Lord Commander ate. As a result of my gentle correction or me being the Heir of House Lannister, he had become very respectful of me and would actively seek favor with me, making sure I was never lacking for my meals.
Just as he had brought over a pipping hot bowl of rabbit stew, I heard the sound of horses approaching thanks to my 'Observation'. From the sound of it was 2 horses, most likely a scout team that would usually return to camp around this time, from the looks of it, no one around the fire had noticed yet.
Soon the shouts of "RIDERS APPROACHING!" went out and the sentries postured themselves until a response came back from the scouts as they came closer. The 2 men didn't waste any time as they came directly towards the Lord Commander, something they only did when they had found something.
Since we had begun, the scouts had found 2 small groups of bandits, the 1st had been a group of 6 and the 2nd had been a group of 11. They were nothing more than smallfolk who had turned to banditry and poaching due to hard times. Lord Commander Duncan had chosen to flog the men instead and after they swore an oath to never return to banditry and Lord Commander threatening to report them to their Lord if he caught them again.
He gave them a few copper stars, enough to see them through the next few months of winter and sent them on their way. I understood his reasoning as they barley had anything of value or that would suggest they had been at it long, as well as there were no serious reports from the surrounding villages. This would give them a chance to seek better opportunities in the larger towns and cities.
From what I observed, the scouts seemed to have found something significant, they were excited. The Lord Commander seemed to have picked up on the same as he also got up and moved to the side to hear what they had found.
It had been a week since we had entered the Northern Crownlands after a local hunter from a village we had stayed in, had informed us that he had seen a group matching the description of the raiders we were looking for, a week before. They were around 60 to 70, around 2 dozen were on horseback and wearing armor.
I quickly concentrated on what they were saying as they began reporting what they had found. "It has to be them Lord Commander, the tracks were from this morning, they were following a game trail East of here heading North towards Maidenpool. We should be less than a half a day hard ride behind them. We followed as long as we could before it started to get dark." Came from the excited scouts.
That was when I heard the Lord Commander call out to me. "TYWIN, come here, I have something I want your opinion on."
I didn't idle and got up and quickly walked over. "Yes Lord Commander, how can I be of assistance." He had them repeat the report to me and I listened and gave a look as if this was the first time I was hearing the report.
"What would you advise me to do in this situation?" Lord Commander Duncan asked me with a serious look on his face. It was only made to look more imposing as the light from the camp fire bathed his old grizzled face and his height added to his grandness.
"My Lord, I would have the men prepare for battle tomorrow and get as much rest as they could. We can send men to inform the other 2 groups, Prince Ducan is the closest West of here. Have him move in to join us by the middle of the day and have Sir Donald Tyrell, move his men towards Maidenpool.
Maidenpool is less than 2 days away, that has to be their destination. Have him hold out of sight of the town and wait for us, if there any stragglers he will be able pick them up. Chances are that they were either meeting someone there. Either a merchant to sell their loot or they have a ship docked there.
That was one of the reasons why I suspect that they had gone undetected for so long, they might be mercenaries from Essos, recruiting local hedge knights and poacher, training them up and putting them to work. If they have a ship or a contact in the Town, we will need to capture them and get them to give up their accomplices.'
"Why mercenaries from Essos?" the Lord Commander asked giving me a displeased look?
"They are too organized and too disciplined; someone would have already gotten back to Ser Martyn Farring if they were the regular rabble. They have to be getting supplies and weapons from somewhere as well as spending their loot somewhere. Probably in one of the free cities, Bravos and Pentos are only a week away by ship. That would explain the intervals in between the raids."
He nodded at my response. "What about battle plans for tomorrow?"
"We have around 200 men with both groups combined. After we meet up, take our time and catch up to them by mid evening and then hit them hard on there flanks. We will have a few hours before sundown to try and hunt down any of them who try to run. We can use around 150 men for the attack and have around 50 try to come around and hit them from the North. We will give them a head start to get in position.
Wait for them to crumble first and then close them off, the 50 from the North will be responsible for chasing down any cavalry that try to flee. The 150 from the South West and South East will be the main attacking force, this way they will try to break and scatter North reducing our chance of casualties. When their formation crumbles, we will have a better chance of capturing them."
"Like a Pot and a Lid?" One of the scouts said unconsciously before he realized that he had commented.
The Lord Commander simply nodded at him. "We will try it your way then. Tomorrow you will lead the group from the South West, I will lead from the South East and Prince Duncan will lead the one from the North." The Lord Commander said to me.
I had to admit that I was a little taken back. This was a lot of responsibility on a 11-name day old boy, but not too strange as this world have many instances of entire armies being led by teens. This had to be Duncan's way of testing me as I had long noticed him observing me constantly, every time we have stopped at a noble's home or in a village, fortunately I had long caught him and was on my best behavior.
"I will do my best for my men and myself." I responded firmly and I notice a slight change in his facial muscles, he had reacted positively to my response as I had predicted. He didn't t need to here me say that it was time for payback for the bastards who were responsible for the death of my friend Garrand.
A/N
Hey guys, sorry for the late return. Things didn't work out the way I wanted. Work didn't slow down as well as had some family issues that has hit hard. Exams were postponed to at the last minute to October, so now I have that as well.
I took on this hobby because I enjoy the works of G.R.R. Matin and I wanted to tackle it. I may have been way too ambitious. Maybe I should have done a Pokémon or the MHA instead, but for better or for worst I will finish this story. I will just have to release once or twice for the week, I will try to experiment with sightly smaller chapters to see it that will help, I averaged around 3000 words before but instead I will try 2000 for now and see it that will help.
Thanks for the readers who have returned to this story and the ones who genuinely enjoy and support.
I intend to do an original story one day, but in the future, if I was to tackle another Fan-Fic, which one do you vote for down in the comments.
MHA- An original character
DC- An original hero
DC- Villain
Pokémon- An Isekai original character.