Oathkeeper

Chapter 72: The Dragon and The Maiden

When Ilizabeth and company arrived back in the Frostfangs, she practically charged into the hut to tell Jon every detail of what she knew. When she entered the hut, she'd found the man wrapped in a nude embrace with the leader of the Hornfoots. The same woman he insisted upon not having relations with. In truth, Ilizabeth was glad to see them together, and not just because she wanted to have cousins who bore the Stark name, but because she figured the giant crack in the ground was news everyone would want to hear eventually.

She was forced to tell him about the attack when he quickly pointed out the scar on her neck. A thin, cherry red, four inch slit formed just above her trachea. The flesh was still toasty, and a little puffy like her morning eyes. Still, it was nothing more than a scratch that would suffice for a good story to tell one day. He began to lecture her and himself in saying that he should've never allowed her to go. Which she then used as a perfect segway into her findings of the Frozen Shores vitality.

Jon was her blood, which meant she truly didn't have to do much more than eat, pee, and sleep to make him proud. But after spending hours nearly every day with each other for two weeks, Ilizabeth found herself seeking Raekuls praise subconsciously. She wasn't quite sure when it happened, but she no longer saw her as scary and strange, but more as a nurturing mentor who genuinely believed in her ability to be great.

Ilizabeth rambled on and on about everything she saw rather excitedly. From the silver fish springing from hole to hole, to the wild polar bears, to the vegetables blooming a few miles from the shore.

It played a part in their decision to leave so quickly. But the biggest factor was the split in the ground. When Ilizabeth spoke the words into existence it brought night over the entire hut. Everything went dark and cold. It brought a chill down their spines, and filled their hearts with such subliminal distress it was almost taunting. Jon and Raekul scurried to their feet to gather the other leaders and within the next hour the entire camp was packing their things for the journey.

The Frozen Shore was over six hundred kilometers from their previous encampment just outside of the Giant Stairs. It was at least an eight day walk with no rest, which was utterly impossible to achieve when you were moving a mass amount of people. Where most of the leaders and a handful of the community worried about those who wouldn't make it, Ilizabeth was glad to be young and healthy. She had grown accustomed to venturing off on long journeys without her horse. For her, walking to the shore would be no different than journeying to the Stairs, or to the Milkwater River, or back to the Wall. At least, that's what she thought.

She imagined from a dragons-eye view, she and the freefolk looked like a large cluster of tiny little ants struggling to hoist their legs above the snow that stopped just before nearly everyone's shins. But from her perspective, there was an endless sea of brown furs that went on for miles ahead of and behind her. One that must've consisted of nearly a hundred thousand people.

The elders struggled the most as their decaying bones had already begun to take the form of the land they were abandoning. Some of the children struggled too; The ones who were too young to keep the pace were carried by their mothers, which inevitably still affected the group's pacing, and the ones who could, grew bored and would often venture from the widespread line.

The climate was as it always was, cold and windy. But those in charge decided that the people would only walk during the day time, that way the warmth from the sun would be able to keep them upright. It wasn't an easy task at all. Finding food was the hardest part. Over the last few days, a different group from each clan would go out and hunt and everyday they barely came back with enough to feed their intermediate family. Let alone the whole clan.

Ilizabeth had never known hunger, not then. As always, Jon made sure the girl was fed. Whenever he retrieved anything, she had first dibs. Then he'd go back out and try to take care of himself and the rest of his people. Ilizabeth would hide and scruff it down her throat like a child sneaking sweets into their bedchambers. She'd feel just as guilty as the young pupil did the next morning too. The more days the people went in the cycle of exhausting energy they would barely be able to replenish before the next marathon, the more the energy shifted.