Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 269 Winterfell

Winterfell was built on a natural hot spring. The talented city builder Brandon used pipes to transport the hot spring water between the walls to warm the rooms of the castle. There is even a greenhouse heated by the hot spring in the castle, where fruits, vegetables and flowers can be grown even in the cold winter.

Such conditions make Winterfell, the core city of the North, have unique living conditions during the harsh northern winter.

In the ice and snow, except for the tops of the castle's towers and the city walls, there are hot springs in the inner city steaming day and night. There is almost no snow in the numerous courtyards and small open-air spaces, and the soil is not frozen, only muddy and damp after the snow.

Even the winter town outside the outer wall is very livable compared to other places in the North, because of the warmth of the castle's geothermal hot springs. Although there are often drunk people freezing to death on the streets in winter, this town is very livable in winter compared to other places in the North.

Under the cover of the long night, torches were lit in many guard towers on the outer walls of the fortress, illuminating the steam rising from the sturdy fortress.

The castle is now bustling with people everywhere. There are a total of four thousand soldiers stationed in the castle. There are soldiers stationed in every guard room and tower in the castle, even in the ruined towers.

Even in the large courtyard within the city there were soldiers camped there.

But the castle was now filled with soldiers from all over the place, each acting on their own, and the noise continued day and night.

Here are the Vale soldiers that Sansa left behind - they waited until the long night fell without heading to the Wall.

There were also Glover and a part of Greyjoy in Aegon's coalition. Greyjoy was originally arranged by the royal family in the name of Aegon to go to the southwest of the North to seek to coordinate the ports of the Iron Islands with the Lannisport fleet at sea, with the Iron Islands as the center, and try to develop a new sea supply line. Starting from Lannisport in the west, transiting through the Iron Islands, and heading to the Bright Flame Bay or the River City in the north. Unfortunately, the representatives of various places had just started to pull, and had not yet entered into formal negotiations and scouting, and the long night enveloped the North and spread to the central part of the continent.

The project was unfortunately cancelled.

Asha Greyjoy had just seen that the royal family's plan for the Ironborn seemed promising, but the project was cancelled before she set off, so she wanted to talk to the king or Aegon in person. On the grounds that the Ironborn had rich experience in sailing at night during their pirate career and were willing to take risks, she wanted the royal family to revoke the order and hand the task over to the Ironborn.

Asha was willing to brave the long nights and cold winter to lead her Ironmen to explore the sea and do some risky logistical transportation work.

The Ironmen do not produce anything, but survive by plundering. If they give up plundering, they will not survive the long night and cold winter. But at this time, if the Ironmen dare to plunder, the Greyjoy family and the Ironmen will destroy them without the Long Night or the White Walkers. King Viserys will do it. Euron's fleet and the Lannister fleet have verified the power of the king's three-headed dragon for them, although these are only hearsay. But the disappearance of the Iron Fleet from Westeros and the defeat of Euron's main force in one battle are real.

King Viserys was very generous to those who worked hard, and Asha felt this deeply in the Moat Cailin. The Ironborn troops she led received a large amount of supplies just by receiving a number. In Winterfell, she saw the civilian labor promoted in the name of Targaryen and Stark, allowing the civilians who were taking shelter from the winter to participate in collective snow removal, collective logging, construction of the ring wall of the winter town, and general material transportation.

The affairs officers sent by the royal family handled this matter in a very organized manner. After observation, Asha found that although this kind of labor was nominally the nobles exercising their rights to conscript civilians to participate in labor for a period of time without compensation, subtle changes had occurred.

In Asha's view, the purpose of ordinary labor conscription is to build something, such as repairing a castle. The nobles always hope that it will be done as quickly as possible so that they can reduce the food supply during the labor period. In addition, the food provided for labor is generally fixed and can barely maintain basic needs.

However, the guidance work carried out by the officials sent by the royal family was distributed according to work, and there were special recorders. In the end, they were not given a meal directly, but were converted into remuneration and directly given copper coins. Participants could earn about 4-7 copper coins a day. Although there were also dining points in the concentrated labor area, they had to pay. The food here was usually cheap, but the price was set according to the type, and only people with special wooden signs with seals could buy it at the dining points.

Asha had seen construction site canteens before. But from a manager's perspective, Asha found that this kind of paid work was actually a way to send daily necessities to civilians, but it was not sent directly, but in exchange for labor.

From these points, Asha judged that the royal family or the king himself was a person who would consider the ideas of local nobles, care about the lives of civilians, be generous, insightful and resourceful, and be willing to engage in "fair trade" with nobles and civilians.

So the longer she stayed in Winterfell, the more she wanted to hurry to the Wall, meet the king or Aegon, and seek the "dangerous work" from the royal family for her Ironborn fleet. She thought very clearly that she would organize the Ironborn who were willing to fight to go to the Wall to participate in the king's great war, and if the fleet could not participate in the defense of the Wall, it would seek the dangerous Long Night Sea Route supply line exploration and transportation.

Perhaps the fate of the Iron Islands will be changed in the long night. Although sailing on the sea in the long night and cold winter is extremely dangerous, thinking of the Ibbenese whalers on the trembling sea, Asha believes that the Ironmen fleet in her hands is no worse than that of the Ibbenese.

Winterfell now also has the River Alliance brought by Edmure.

After the arrival of the river troops Tully, Asha took the initiative to move out of Winterfell and moved into the winter town with the Ironmen. There was no way, Greyjoy and Stark lived in the same city, and although the Ironmen were arranged to move in when they passed by and caught up with the long night, they still felt too sensitive and awkward.

Especially in Asha's eyes, Aegon and Arya, the leaders of the North, are not here. Now the so-called leader in Winterfell, Sansa, is someone Asha feels she will definitely not get along with. What's more, there is Theon Greyjoy, who was found by Bolton in Winterfell and was tortured beyond recognition by Ramsay, who is a thorn in the side.

Although Lady Catelyn had rarely appeared since returning to Winterfell, Asha felt that she should stay away from her after hearing about her deeds, in order to avoid a situation that would embarrass the two families.

Speaking of Caitlin.

The Lady of Winterfell, who had died several times, now sat in the room as quietly as death.

This was her room at Winterfell, the most stuffy of all the rooms in the keep.

There was no light in the room, and no fire in the fireplace. She just sat quietly in a dark corner between the bed and the wall of the room, letting herself be wrapped in the darkness.

She forgot a lot of things, and the hatred in her heart after witnessing the fall of the Twins also faded a lot.

When she was in the dark, she would feel an unreasonable fear.

Sadly, fear is the strongest emotion she can feel right now.

So she sat in the dark.

This makes her feel like she is still a human being.

Her memory was a little fuzzy, but she still remembered that she had stayed in this room thousands of days and nights before.

The walls of the room were warm even without a fire in the fireplace, and she vaguely remembered that she once liked this warmth because it reminded her of Riverrun. At that time, she did not love the icy north, but only loved Eddard and the children in the castle.

But now, she could only stay in this place and still recall Ed's voice, smile and the children they once had in her mind.

There was a knock on the door.

"lady?"

Caitlin didn't answer.

But the door was still opened, and the firelight coming in from the corridor outside the door instantly attracted Caitlin. She had a desire for fire in her heart, but fire would make her feel her "inhuman" side. So she suppressed that desire and continued to sit in the dark corner.

It was Harwin who came in, carrying a bowl of porridge and liquid food, and the door was opened for him by the tall maid Brienne.

After returning to Winterfell, Arya originally wanted to find a new woman to serve her mother.

But Lady Catelyn's appearance was horrible, and several women were frightened and even incontinent after seeing her. These people's reactions stimulated Catelyn, and she once had the urge to strangle one of them, so she later asked Harwin, who accompanied her during the Brotherhood Without Banners, to take care of her.

As for Brienne, she could have been Arya's personal guard. Arya was willing and happy to reserve a seat for her in her tent, and was even willing to personally anoint her with holy oil to make her a true knight, the first female knight in the Seven Kingdoms.

But this stubborn female warrior did not agree. Although Catelyn once wanted to kill her, she believed that she had sworn allegiance to Catelyn, so she had to continue her mission after seeing Catelyn, unless Catelyn had any other instructions for her.

Brienne's actions reminded Arya of Lord Edric Dayne, the squire of Ser Dondarrion. He was Dondarrion's squire and had been with him until his death.

Catelyn asked first. "I heard soldiers speaking with Riverland accents outside. Is it Edmure who came to see me?"

Only Harwin could understand her hoarse and unpleasant voice and answered, "That sound is the Rivermen training in the courtyard, ma'am. If you think they are noisy, I will ask them to lower their voices."

Catelyn's face was hidden in the black silk scarf, and only her eyes, like dead fish, moved: "Where's Sansa, is she still busy?"

"There are a lot of people in Winterfell right now, and Lady Sansa is very busy."

Caitlin's eyes flashed with resentment: "Why didn't she come to see me and ask for my help?"

A trace of sadness and bitterness welled up in her heart: Did Sansa also feel, like Arya, that she had done something wrong and was distancing herself from her and punishing her?

She thought of Robb, and her heart grew sadder. Was it true that every child would eventually become alienated from her?
This sadness quickly turned into hatred. Was it because of her current horrible face? It must be, otherwise why would her children alienate her one by one?
She began to think about Bran and Rickon.

From Theon, they learned that the two children were still alive. Bran, her favorite, and Rickon, the youngest, were still alive.

Arya's last letter from the Wall during the Long Night said that her bastard brother at the Wall had seen Bran's wolf, and Arya had also seen Bran in her dream, so he must still be alive somewhere.

As for Rickon, Arya only told her that she was trying to find him and bring him back, but she didn't tell her where Rickon was or how to get him back.

Oh, Arya.

Catelyn thought that she must have been too cold to her in Winterfell before, so Arya distanced herself from her so quickly after they met again and did not consult her about any problems. She regretted not being nicer to Arya before, and she wanted to tell Arya how much she loved her and to ease the relationship with Arya.

But the damned long night brought Arya to the north.

She suddenly felt jealous of the bastard son. Arya had left behind so many things in Winterfell to go to the Wall. She thought that Arya loved her bastard brother more than her as a mother.

But Sansa.

Catelyn didn't understand why Sansa didn't come to her. Sansa was now the acting mayor and must have countless problems to solve. Why didn't she come to her mother for advice? Did she know how much her mother wanted to help her?
It has to be Cersei Lannister!

Sansa had suffered so much in King's Landing, and although they had not met much and had seldom talked to each other, Catelyn could feel that Sansa was no longer the lady she was familiar with, and no longer innocent.

Cersei and Joffrey must have tortured Sansa horribly in King's Landing!
They had taken away her Eddard, and they had taken away the innocence of her daughter Sansa!

They all deserve to die!
Because she felt so much loss in her heart, almost every major emotional fluctuation of Caitlin would eventually return to resentment, causing her resentment to grow.

There is no solution to this problem. Resentment is the source of strength that keeps Caitlin alive.

In fact, it is precisely because Caitlin is extremely self-centered by nature that her character causes her to always find the key to the problem, the source of everything. That is, whether it is the estrangement of her relatives or the fear and disgust of others, the problem lies with herself.

It is precisely because she can always blame problems on others, foster resentment and maintain her self-awareness from collapsing that the power of the Red God chooses her.

After all, if her personal thoughts had insight into the source, found the key, her soul had been enlightened, and her spirit had been liberated, then she would be like Dondarrion, exhausted by this way of "living" and develop self-destructive emotions.

But Catelyn won't. She and Cersei are essentially the same kind of people, but Cersei is in a higher position, more unscrupulous, and therefore more destructive.

Just as Caitlin's many emotions were turning into resentment, a unique hoarse voice suddenly came from outside the door.

"Lady Brienne, please let me know that Petyr Baelish wishes to see you."

When Catelyn heard the voice, all her resentment was immediately directed at the person outside the door who spoke, Petyr Baelish, the Littlefinger.

He had the guts to come and see her!
There are always some people in this world who are conceited and think that their intelligence can handle all problems.

They move with the flow and go with the flow. They are well aware of how to protect themselves, seek a place to make a living and gain benefits, crave power and status, and hope to become great people.

Littlefinger is undoubtedly such a person.

His original plan was not to interfere in the North, but to use the momentum of the Vale assisting Sansa to gain a relationship with the Targaryens, and to use the momentum of assisting Sansa on behalf of Lysa to return to the Vale of Arryn and consolidate the interests of the Vale.

But the plans couldn't keep up with the changes.

But when he found himself trapped in Winterfell for a long night, Littlefinger realized that he had a chance to show his abilities in front of the Targaryen royal family, so he took advantage of the situation and quietly changed his plan. He wanted to use the Starks in Winterfell as a springboard to get on the platform of the Great Wall supply line that the Targaryen king attached great importance to.

If you can get in touch with the Targaryen royal family and wait for the right opportunity, you will not only survive the terrible long night, but you may also get more.

Catelyn is undoubtedly the most conspicuous stumbling block blocking Littlefinger's way to the Stark springboard. At the same time, Catelyn is undoubtedly the best stepping stone Littlefinger can think of, allowing him, a person with a Lannister background who is destined to be looked down upon under the rule of King Targaryen, to maintain his influence around Sansa as the people around Sansa become more and more complicated.

"Oh, Kate, how cruel the gods are," Littlefinger looked at her sadly as soon as he came in, and let out a long sigh, "How sad Lysa would be if she saw you."

Although the whole face cannot be seen, the pair of cold and cruel eyes and the skin color like a dead person exposed from the scarf are enough to scare anyone. There are such ruthless people in this world who can forget fear and do anything for the sake of profit and status.

"Lysa will be sad for me?" Catelyn replied coldly, her voice hoarse as if she was about to be strangled. "And don't call me that!"

Littlefinger pretended to listen hard.

Harwin had a cold face and was about to translate, but he saw the other party stretched out his hand to stop him and answered directly: "There is a misunderstanding between you and Lysa. Madam," he said with a sad and regretful look on his face, "Lysa has told me privately more than once that she regrets not sending people from the valley to help you at that time."

"lie!"

Little Finger frowned, as if he couldn't bear it: "Oh, how could you sisters misunderstand each other to such an extent?"

"Some people say that you betrayed Ed!"

"No, my lady. I wanted to save Lord Eddard. The situation in King's Landing was complicated at that time. I wanted to help him, but he chose to trust Janos Slynt. You can ask Lady Sansa about the situation at that time. Even later, Lord Eddard could have put on black clothes. Alas, we are all very sorry."

"Sorry, stop pretending. Lies!" Catelyn rolled her eyes and said, "Tell me Eddard's name again if you have the guts! And about that dagger! You were hiding in the Vale army, and I couldn't find you to confront you. Now you come to me on your own! Brienne, Harwin, kill him for me!"

Catelyn became agitated and looked at Harwin and Brienne with resentment.

Brienne heard Catelyn's hoarse cry of "Kill" and she drew her sword.

"You can kill me!" Littlefinger shouted excitedly, "You can kill me, my lady. If you don't want to listen to my defense, if you think all my words are lies, if you think I have been helping Sansa count the accounts these days to avoid confronting you, if you think my blood can calm your pain and resentment." Littlefinger's voice was hoarse and angry, as if he was powerless to defend himself and was willing to be killed, "I am willing to die."

Catelyn raised her hand stiffly to stop Brienne and Harwin: "Then let me ask you, have you betrayed Eddard?"

Littlefinger sighed, "My lady, betrayal requires trust. You know your husband. Do you think your husband would trust me in King's Landing when King Robert died?"

"Then let me ask you, does the dagger belong to Tyrion Lannister?"

"I knew you would ask me this again!" Littlefinger lifted his cloak and took out a Valyrian steel dragon bone handle dagger from his waist. "I got this with great difficulty in King's Landing. When I rescued Lady Sansa from King's Landing, I brought it out on purpose. I originally wanted to give it to Lady Sansa so that she could confront Tyrion and break off the engagement one day. The Lannisters forced Lady Sansa to marry Tyrion. What a humiliation it is for Lady Sansa and the Stark family! Now the dagger is here. I heard that Tyrion is in Eastwatch. If I have the chance, I would like to confront him face to face!"

The conflicts between them, which had accumulated since Littlefinger threw the dirty water of the dagger at Tyrion, were always eased by various things that happened. But now that the fact that Littlefinger secretly rescued Sansa from King's Landing has been made public, the conflicts between them have become irreconcilable.

With Tyrion's intelligence, he must be able to guess that Joffrey's death is inextricably linked to Littlefinger.

It is not an exaggeration to throw a little more dirty water now. This matter involves the Stark family and the Lannister family during the reign of King Robert, and now it is under the rule of King Targaryen. As long as Catelyn has a little brains, she should know that for the sake of the interests of the Stark family, she should not bring up such a mess in front of the king, and she cannot expect King Targaryen to give Stark "justice."

As for Tyrion.

Who conquered the Westerlands of the Lannister family? How dare Tyrion, the Night's Watcher, leave the Wall and come to Winterfell?

Littlefinger is certainly not afraid of confronting Tyrion, because he would never let this confrontation happen while Tyrion is alive.

Littlefinger believed that even in the long night, he was not the only one eyeing Tyrion's head.

Caitlin disagrees. She says, "You'll have a chance to confront him."

"Then it seems my life is saved for now." Petyr gave a difficult smile.

"You saved Sansa, and I am grateful." Catelyn still didn't trust him. "But tell me, Petyr, what do you want? What is your purpose here?"

"I heard about you, ma'am," he shook his head, his eyebrows drooped, his gray-green eyes were faintly tearful, and his tone was sad, "Whether you believe it or not, Caitlin, I feel sincerely sad about your experience. I'm sorry, maybe I have no right to say this, and I shouldn't say it, as if I sympathize with your experience. But I really, really regret it, very, very sorry."

Little Finger's answer was irrelevant, but it was undoubtedly what he had been waiting to say and the attitude he had expressed.

"That's enough!" Caitlin said coldly, "I don't want to see you, you should go!"

Little Finger sighed, raised his hand to wipe the corners of his eyes, turned around and left the room silently.

Catelyn looked at the dragonbone-handled Valyrian steel dagger left on the dining table and fell into a long silence. With her ability to judge people, she would never have thought that when Littlefinger left, his sad expression concealed his inner disdain and secret joy.

It seems that Littlefinger just came here and said a few words, and was driven away by Catelyn, but given the current relationship between Catelyn and Sansa, there is already a middleman who makes a profit between their mother and daughter.

The long night makes it impossible to tell whether it is day or night, there is only the sky that is always occupied by darkness.

After Catelyn drove Littlefinger away, she blew out the lights in the room, sat in front of the table with the dragonbone-handled dagger for a long time, and fell asleep in a daze.

"Mommy." She had a dream she hadn't had in a long time. In the dream, three-year-old Rickon was crying in front of her, calling her anxiously.

This was her last impression of Rickon. At that time, she was sad all day by Bran's bedside because Bran fell and fainted, and it was uncertain whether he would live or die. She heard Rickon's uneasy crying, but she was immersed in grief at the time and ignored other children.

She realized later that that was the last impression she had left on Rickon, and she felt a pang of regret.

Suddenly she found that this dream was slightly different from her memory.

Rickon in front of him was in a dark and cold environment, his long and willful hair was a little messy, and he and his black direwolf named Shaggydog were mostly in the dark. He looked uneasy and called for his mother in panic.

"Mom is here."

She wanted to say, step forward, but suddenly, in the darkness before her, cold stones appeared, stone sculptures of snarling direwolves, and stone statues of the Starks.

She had not been there many times, but she recognized it. It was the crypt of Winterfell. She had always disliked the cold and darkness there, and was afraid of the stairs that led to an unknown depth of cold underground.

The tomb was cold and dark, and the environment made her feel uneasy.

“Rickon!” she cried, her voice hoarse and unpleasant, like the voice of a strangled person.

But Rickon had vanished, and before her was a narrow, winding stone staircase that led underground to the tombs of even older kings. A chill gushed out from it, as if something lurked there, something so dark and terrible that the mere sense of it made her shiver.

She woke up with a start.

There was an inexplicable burning sensation on her skin, making her itch.

For the first time since she became like this, Caitlin felt uneasy. She stood up and walked to the window, pushed it open, and let the cold wind flow in, whistling around her.

She raised her eyes to the dark sky of the long night, and her gaze slowly fell. In the dim firelight of the castle in the night, Catelyn looked towards the location of the Winterfell crypt in the north of the city with her terrifying eyes. The door of the empty crypt was as black as ink.

Caitlin had an impulse, she walked towards the door and opened it directly.

Brienne, who was taking over from Harwin outside the door, was startled: "Madam?"

"I'm going to go out for a while, you don't have to follow me."

"Yes, ma'am."

Following the bridge of the main castle, Catelyn avoided the courtyard of the castle which was now occupied by various armies, and went directly to the crypt through the corridor.

"Sansa?" Here, Catelyn met her daughter holding the torch.

"Mother?" Sansa saw her too.

When the guards around Sansa saw her, they all straightened up: "Madam." No one dared to look her in the eye.

Sansa was also afraid of her, and asked cautiously, "Why are you here?"

“I dreamed of Rickon,” she said.

"What?" Sansa listened hard, but still couldn't make out what the hoarse voice said.

Caitlin shut up.

Sansa was a little embarrassed, and then hurriedly explained, covering it up with her own words: "I dreamed of my father, so I wanted to come and see him, you too?"

Catelyn nodded to Sansa.

"You stay here." Sansa ordered the guards, then she held the torch and looked at Catelyn, "Mother?"

Caitlin stepped forward silently.

Compared to other places in Winterfell, this crypt is terribly cold. Standing in front of the door, you can feel a chill sweeping up from the cellar.

The crypt was pitch black, and Sansa's torch could only illuminate a small section of it.

The mother and daughter walked down the stairs along the dark wall in silence.

Soon they reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the deep darkness of the crypt.

Caitlin had never liked it here before.

But now there were two sarcophagi here that held the remains of those she loved, though Eddard's tomb was empty, with only Robb's bones inside.

Catelyn began to resent Greyjoy again when she thought of Eddard's empty tomb. When Tyrion was Prime Minister, Lannister returned Eddard's body to the North. However, on the way back to the North, the Greyjoy family raided the North, and then Winterfell fell. The whereabouts of Ned's body were unknown, and it was unknown whether it had become a pile of dry bones in some corner.

She led the way, weaving through the aisles between the stone pillars, and Sansa followed in silence, breathing heavily from the chill of the underground.

Finally, they came to the tomb of Eddard and Robb. The statues on the closed sarcophagus were engraved with their appearance when they were alive, and a huge roaring stone sculpture of the dire wolf curled up at their feet. Father and son sat side by side, staring at the eternal darkness with eyes that could no longer see.

Looking at the two faces whose charms were captured by the carving masters, Caitlin felt an irrepressible sadness well up in her heart.

She turned her face away, not wanting them to see her current appearance, even with her eyes. She looked at the mausoleum, which continued to extend forward into the depths of darkness, and began to divert her thoughts, wondering why she dreamed that Rickon was here?
"Father." Sansa raised the torch, bowed her head, and whispered to Eddard's grave.

Hearing Sansa's voice, as a mother, Catelyn felt that she should say something, but when she thought that Sansa could not understand her hoarse voice, she just stood there in silence.

Woo——woo——woo——

A low horn sounded from the direction of the exit. In the crypt, the sound seemed so far away, as if it came from outside the world.

But Sansa immediately stood up, her face pale: "Oh no, it's the three horns promised by the king, and there are white walkers around Winterfell?"

There was no time to remember Eddard and Robb. Catelyn and Sansa immediately walked out of the crypt, and Sansa went straight to the castle hall.

Catelyn wanted to go as well, but when she thought about her current condition and how she had scared Arya's own soldiers in the Twins, she chose not to go. She just went back to her room and met Brienne and Harwin who came to look for her on the corridor. After thinking about it, she decided to take the opportunity to let them escort her to the city wall to observe the situation.

Somehow she felt that her strange dream about Rickon was no accident.

As soon as she arrived at the north wall where the horn sounded, Catelyn saw that the dark sky was covered with dark clouds under the long night. A blizzard seemed to be coming from the far north of the city. In front of the terrible astronomical phenomenon formed by the blizzard, there were dozens of firefly-like lights, coming towards Winterfell along the snow-covered King's Road.

Woo——woo——woo——

A huge horn sounded beside me.

The same horn sounded from the east and south of the city as if in response.

This means that the commander of the city wall who was guarding the city discovered that White Walkers appeared in the east, south and north of Winterfell at the same time.

All Catelyn saw was a blizzard, and she wondered if the blizzard was a sign that the White Walkers were coming?

Looking at the fireflies in front of the terrible sky in the north that seemed to be swallowed up at any time, a sharp cold wind blew over the top of the city, and Caitlin suddenly felt a chill in her body.

-

At the edge of the snow curtain in the north of the city, a battle and chase is going on.

Rickon Stark and Ali Karstark rode together on an old horse that was skinny, exhausted, dying, and limping.

Yali still wanted to whip the old horse hard.

A corpse suddenly jumped up at the edge of the field of vision, bringing up a pile of snow-white ice foam.

The horse had no time to speed up and dodge before being pounced on by the corpse ghost.

The corpse's black, cold hands covered with a layer of white frost tore open the horse's belly with unimaginable strength, and was pulling out the horse's intestines with its bloody hands.

The old horse let out a shrill scream, his stomach was bleeding, and the blood spilled on the snow, raising a cloud of pale steam.

Both Rickon and Ali fell down at once. Rickon fell flat on his face and rolled weakly to the side, gasping for breath.

Shaggydog arrived and tackled a wight that was attacking Rickon and started biting it.

Osha ran as fast as she could, using all her strength to thrust the torch in her hand into the broken body of the zombie.

The corpse instantly burst into flames, frost dripping from its beard, its flesh turning black, its mouth opened with flames, and the blue light in its eyes slowly faded.

"Run! Run!" A knight threw away his armor and weapons as he ran, came closer, picked up Rickon, and ran away desperately.

The Shaggy Dog followed closely behind.

As soon as Yali stood up from the snow pile, before she could find the right direction, she was pulled up by the female savage Osha and ran wildly.

More and more people followed behind him, including knights from the Manderlay family who threw away their armor and weapons, and sailors who ran away screaming like crazy.

Winterfell was just around the corner. God knew how long they had been walking in the snow. Twenty days? A month?

No one wants to die here.

How many people froze to death, fell behind, went missing, fell into snow pits, and never woke up along the way. Wasn't it just to bring Rickon Stark to Winterfell, for a chance to survive the long night?

Winterfell is clearly right in front of us, why did we get caught up by the White Walkers at this moment!
Some people ran and cried out loudly: "This is not fair..."

But more often than not, there were screams that stopped abruptly and did not sound like human voices.

Rickon was dizzy in the arms of the desperate knight, and his ears were filled with the heavy breathing of the knight. The knight ran so fast, even faster than Yali's old horse, and the wights around him were pulled further and further away by the wights, and the people behind him were thrown all over the place by the wights and died screaming.

Rickon was only a six-year-old boy, but he already understood what death was. He gritted his teeth, and his heart was filled with helpless irritability and anger.

When his anger reached a certain critical point, his consciousness entered the body of the fluffy dog.

The direwolf had a strong and nimble body. It pounced on the chasing corpse like crazy and tore off its black arms and head.

“No, Rickon!” Osha cried as the shaggydog suddenly fell behind and attacked the wight. “Don’t go back!”

But Rickon was too angry to hear her.

He had no control over the shaggy dog ​​and caught up with him.

Suddenly, he saw a White Walker knocking down a knight. Rickon remembered him. It was the knight who reached out to him and pulled him aboard the ship on Skagos Island. It was also the knight who always guarded him and ensured that he had food and drink during the journey.

He controlled the hairy dog ​​to pounce on the corpse ghost, knocked the ghost down, and tore off its arm.

But when he looked back, the knight's stomach was covered in blood and his eyes were losing their luster.

"Help!"

Before he could be distracted, he saw another familiar face behind him. It was the captain of the merchant ship. On the way, he would always secretly give Rickon and his crew some sweet rock candy, letting them hold it in their mouths to maintain their strength.

Rickon controlled Shaggyhound to knock down another wight, clearing the way for him.

But a scream came from behind him, and a zombie from another direction knocked him to the ground, and its black frosted hand pierced his throat.

"No!"

Rickon controlled Shaggydog to continue to rescue people. One by one, familiar faces and unfamiliar faces fell to the ground and died in front of him.

He can't do anything!
He was only six years old, but at this moment he felt an unprecedented sense of powerlessness.

This made him irritable, angry, and he roared loudly and uncontrollably!

As he vented his anger, the human screams completely stopped at some point.

Then Rickon is horrified to discover that he has taken Shaggydog into the midst of a snowstorm.

The surroundings suddenly became quiet, with only the sound of rustling trees in my ears.

It's the sound of heavy snow.

Strangely, Rickon discovered that the sound of the wind was surprisingly quiet in the snow of the blizzard.

He finally felt fear and uneasiness again.

Suddenly, dark shadows appeared in the snow of the blizzard, and Rickon bared his teeth at them and pretended to run.

But strangely, these rows of zombies seemed not to see him. They just walked past him silently and quietly, with cold air all over their bodies.

Rickon didn't understand what was going on. He just felt that at this moment Shaggy Dog seemed to have become a reef in the middle of a huge river, and all the water flowing through it made way for him.

This strange scene made Rickon feel extremely frightened. He felt cold all over and his heart stopped beating inside the body of the hairydog.

To a certain moment.

A tall black shadow slowly walked up to him.

A dead horse.

The horse's body was covered with frosty bloodstains, looking hideous and terrifying.

"child."

A sound like ice breaking penetrated the snow curtain and the rustling footsteps of countless White Walkers.

Rickon looked up and saw a tall figure wrapped from head to toe in mottled black and gray.

The hood concealed his face.

"Do not be afraid."

The rider's voice was emotionless, as if it was produced by two pieces of black ice squeezed together, cold as ice.

Rickon looked at the rider blankly, and saw blue flames burning in his pupils.

(End of this chapter)