An Adventurous Journey

Since they didn't have to to find the traces of anyone to return back to the wall, Benjen and his team reached the wall within two hours.

The first place Benjen went after coming from the unsuccessful mission was to the Lord Commander's room. Before he could knock on the door, he heard the gruff voice of the Lord Commander Jeor "Come in."

Opening the door, Benjen saw Jeor sitting in his chair and reading a parchment. Looking up from the parchment, Jeor asked "Did you find anything?"

"No, my Lord. He have taken twenty wildlings with him and is moving through the shivering sea. His most probable route will be going around the Storrolds Point and then beyond the wall through the sea. We need to inform the Lord's near the wall and also the East Watch as soon as possible." Benjen said.

Nodding his head, Jeor said "If a wildling who is immune to injury is heading beyond the the wall, then we have to be ready for a devastating raid. Tell the maester to sent ravens to the Lord's near the wall and Lord Stark about this wildling."

"Yes, my Lord." Getting his orders, Benjen went to inform the Black Castle maester to sent ravens to all the Lord's.

The Lord's near the wall got the information on a possible wildling raid from the east, and Lord Stark was informed about it too. They prepared for it as best as they could, but they couldn't still believe that there would be some wildling who is invulnerable to blades. Some Lord's believed that it to be a hoax, some believed it fully, some didn't even mind it and wanted to fight a man like that head on.

But the expected raid didn't come in a week, it didn't happen for a month, after two months the Lord's concluded that the information that the invulnerable wildling, Ironhide was swallowed up by the shivering sea.

After moving past the Storrolds Point, the sailing on a small boat for a week long was rough. The rowing of the boats was rotated periodically to get rest from the heavy labor, but still they held on. By the second week, Bjorn understood that they're not his Myrmidons from the time he was Achilles and he have to find a better way to reach Essos. In the third week, they were on their last batch of their provisions that could last them a week more. Understanding that if this continues they won't reach their destination safety, Bjorn decided to take out the food stored on his skin using fusion in two days time.

But, a day later something happened that intrigued and scared them at the same time, except for Bjorn. The thing that made them intrigued and scared was a pale skined creature looking at them from a short distance. That pale skinned creature was looking in the eyes of Bjorn, and Bjorn didn't divert his eyes from it. While looking at the creature in the water, Bjorn thought to himself 'This must be one of the merlings in the Shivering Sea. They were a myth in this world as no one has been able to find them. They're no different from the mermaids in my previous life, who were at the beck and call of my mother.'

The merling, slowly brought their head above the sea water and spoke in merling tongue, "Screeechhh screeechhh screeechhh screeechhh screeechhh"

"Argh!!" Everyone on the boat screamed as the sound made by the merling.

"Screeech screeechhh screeechhh screeechhh screeechhh screeechhh" Suddenly another screech was heard by everyone, but the source of the screech was Bjorn, this surprised everyone present on the sea.

The astonished merling opened it's mouth and asked "qanoq oqarput ilisarissaviuk?" (How do you know our tongue?) {AN: I'll be giving each species different languages from our planet. The first interaction will be written in the language of my choice, and after that it will be written in English. All the merling's will speak Greenlandic.}

"​​Achilleus-veq imarpiup guuti arnaanit Thetis qitornartaarpoq ernioqqinneruvunga." (I'm the reincarnation of Achilles, born to Goddess of the Sea, Thetis.) Bjorn told the merling as he can fully understand the language of merlings due to All Speak, one of his gifts.

"Why is the son of sea goddess with land dwellers?" The merling asked Bjorn.

"That is non of your business. Now, answer me. Why have you blocked our path?" Bjorn asked the merling.

Swimming close to the boat and holding on to it, exposing it's bare upper body, the merling said "To savor the taste of the travelers."

Bjorn scanned the merling and understood that it was a female, so Bjorn asked the mermaid "Then what are you going to do now?"

Gulping down, the mermaid said with a wicked smile "I'm going to have a taste of a demigod."

Just after saying that, the mermaid lunged at Bjorn to tear of his head, but an arrow struck square in the mouth of the mermaid and it penetrated it's head all the way to the back.

Looking back, Bjorn thanked the one who shot the arrow "Thank you, Ygritte."

In return to his thanks, Ygritte gave a sweet smile to him.

Looking back at the dead mermaid, Bjorn thought 'So mermaids are not a myth, but real. And are all merling's aggressive towards humans like this one, or is it only the merling's of Shivering Sea?'

Sitting back on to his seat, and taking up the oars, he said "Let's move from here, blood will attract sea creatures that love to eat meat."

Ygritte, Val and Dalla started to row the boat as soon as Bjorn ordered them to do so. Everyone, including the four ladies, wanted to know what Bjorn was screeching about. As they saw the mermaid get closer to him and engaging in some kind of conversation. But they held their tongue, as they know that they were not out of dangers of the Shivering Sea.

A couple of hours of rowing, they were at a great distance away from the spot where Ygritte killed the mermaid. And now, they were facing a largest animal that they have seen in their entire life, and the free folks have seen literal giants beyond the wall.

Ygritte, who was on the first boat as she climbed into it after seeing the creature, asked Bjorn "Bjorn, what is that?"

Looking at the large sea creature in front of him, Bjorn said out loud "That, my friends is the legend among legends. The Leviathan."

"A WHAT?" Every single one of the clanmates shouted at the same time as they heard the name of the large creature that is floating in front of them.

Smiling, Bjorn was about to open his mouth, but stopped as he heard Ygritte say with a small laugh "Are you going to ask the Leviathan for directions?"

Looking at her with a side eye, Bjorn said "Well, if we travel anymore like this then we will be meeting more dangers like the mermaid before. So I'm thinking of asking the leviathan to help us reach Essos faster and safer."

Wide eyed, Ygritte looked at Bjorn as if he had another head over his shoulder.

Not minding her, Bjorn shouted out loud "Mmmrrr. Llleeevvviiiaaattthhhaaannnn, cccaann yyooouu hhheelllpp uuuss rrrreeaacchhh Llllloooorrraaattthhhh?" (Mister Leviathan, can you help us reach Lorath?) {AN: Read it like how Dory from Finding Nemo will speak to a whale.)

"Whale sounds" {AN: 🐋}

Nodding his head, at what the leviathan said, Bjorn told his clanmates "Everyone hold on to the edges of the boat. We're in for a rough ride."

""You understand that??!!"" Ygritte, Dalla and Val asked at the same time, the others asked "What do you mean by rough ride?"

With a playful smile, Bjorn said "Yes, I can understand leviathan. And, she is going to get us to Lorath by swallowing us."

The eyes of everyone went wide and one of the free folk sitting in the first boat mumbled to himself "This guy is crazy!"

"What do you mean by swallowing us?" Ygritte asked him as it was a bit dangerous.

"What I said. She won't eat us, we will be resting inside her mouth and she will release as near Lorath as she's also going to Lorath Bay to find her mate." Bjorn told her.

Val, who had made three people in the first boat to move into the second, third and fourth to make space for her and her sister Dalla asked Bjorn "You understood all of that from the sound that the leviathan made?"

"Yep. Now, hold onto the edges, she's going to swallow us." As he said that, the leviathan, swam to the back side of the four boats and slow started to swallow the boats one by one. The free folk on the boats were already unconscious after seeing inside the mouth of the leviathan.

With that, their journey to Essos sped up in an unexpected way. The clanmates of Bjorn understood on that day that their clan leader is someone who can speak with animals and mythical beings. In their mind, they concluded that Bjorn was not your everyday free folk, but something much more. Even before falling unconscious, they realised that the words spoken by Bjorn when they first met was true.