The News

'It's been a week since I introduced the wights to the Nights Watch patrol, and since then, those two blondes has been stalking me. I don't know what they are accomplishing by stalking me like this.' Bjorn thought as he took a peek at where the two blondes were staying.

Ygritte, who has been staying with Bjorn whispered to him "Why are they here? And why are they looking at you with so much intensity? What did you do to attract those two?"

Looking at her, Bjorn asked "You know them?"

"Of course I know them. I've seen them when I went to their clan for trading with Ryk. What was their name again? Right! Dalla the elder sister and Val the younger sister. I heard that both of them are fierce fighters. You didn't do anything to gain their wrath right?" Ygritte asked Bjorn, while looking with a face that said 'You messed up.'

Chuckling at her last question, he said 'I didn't incur their wrath, but I think that I may have made them indebted to me."

"And how did that happen?" Ygritte asked.

"You do remember the day when you slept early?" Getting a confirmation nod from Ygritte, Bjorn continued "On that evening, some wights were stalking our camp, so I lured them towards the wall. And coincidently, I saved those two from getting raped by the Crows."

When she heard the word Wights, her eyes went wide in fear, but she didn't scream as she clamped her mouth shut so that she won't attract those abominations and asked him in a quite voice "Did you kill those wights?"

Smiling at her, he asked her "Who do you think I am? No one can escape from my sword if I aim it at them with the intent to kill. You think I won't be able to kill some mindless creatures?"

Shaking her head quickly in denial, she said "You can defeat anything you're a strong warrior."

"Heh." Shaking his head, he looked back into the meat that he has been grilling for some time.

Far away from the camp site, Dalla and Val were looking at Bjorn and Ygritte. Without taking her eyes off Bjorn, Dalla asked Val "Are you sure about this?"

Raising an eyebrow, Val said "From what we observed so far, he doesn't have clan for himself. So we should try to make him one of our clan member, plus he saved us and he's strong."

"I know, but what if he wants to create his own clan? What are you going to do about it?" Dalla asked her sister.

"We should integrate into his clan with our clan members. Even if we join the clan created by him, I don't think that we will loose out much." Val said.

Sighing, Dalla said "I am sure that the Crows have started to inform their Lords about this guy, and from them some of the free folks will also hear about him, a man who can take down six Crows single handedly and four Wights without a rest, and also the Crows not being able to injure him, even though they slashed at him. The other clans will try to recruit him with more offers than we can give."

"True. But, I don't think that he will join anyone. So I going to shoot at my chance." Saying so, Val moved from her hiding place shouted out "Ironhide! We come in peace!"

Bjorn, who heard the name, turned to look at her and shouted out "Who is this Ironhide?"

"You! The Crows named you Ironhide as their sword didn't cut you! Can we come closer?" Val shouted out.

With a hand gesture, Bjorn allowed them to come closer to the camp. As he placed a piece of meat in his mouth, he mulled over 'Ironhide have a nice ring to it. But when did the Nights Watch members slash me? I didn't feel anything like that when I rescued these two, so how?'

On the other hand, Ygritte readied her bow so that she could fire at them if they showed any kind of hostility.

As Dalla and Val reached the campfire, Bjorn said "Sit down and eat some meat."

They did as he told them to do so and started to eat grilled meat. As they were eating, Bjorn asked "So why re you two here?"

Tearing a piece of meat and chewing it, Val said "We came here to invite you to join our clan."

Shaking his head, Bjorn said "I'm not joining any clan."

Smiling at his reply, Val said "We figured as much, the we would like to join your clan."

"Who said I have a clan?" Bjorn asked in amusement.

"If a strong person like you is not joining a clan and not in a clan then that means you are going to create a new clan." Val said.

Nodding his head, Bjorn told both of them "You are right, I'm going to create a new clan. But to join my clan, you will have to adhere to my rules and if you can't adhere to those five rules then you can't join my clan."

"Let's hear about you rules, Ironhide." Val said.

Holding up his hand he said "My name is Bjorn, not Ironhide."

"Then we will call you Bjorn Ironhide. Now out with those rules of yours!" Val urged him to tell them about the rules in his clan.

A week before Bjorn met with Val and Dalla and explained the rules that had to be adhered when joining his clan, the news of Bjorn had reached the lord commander of the Nights Watch.

A bald headed man with a long beared that covered his chest locked at his brothers in black and asked "You are saying that a single wildling defeated the six of you without any external help?"

"Yes Lord Commander." One of the six men said.

Scrutinizing them the Lord Commander asked "How do we identify him?"

A man with shirt stature, who was pinning down Dalla with another man, spoke "He wore a bone mask, Lord."

"He uses two short swords." Another one said.

"His skin is like iron! When I slashed at his wrist, there were no wound on it!" A tall man said frantically and another man also nodded in agreement with the man and said "When I tried go stab him in the leg, there was no wound on his leg either."

Hearing that, the Lord Commander's eyes went wide and asked "Are you guys drunk or what?! You want me to believe that there is a wildling out there who have iron as his skin?"

"Elaric named him Ironhide, Lord Jeor." A large man replied while pointing at the short man.

Covering his face with his hands, Jeor asked "Is there anything else that I should know about?"

All six men shook their head, indicating that there is none. Nodding at them, Jeor said "Then get out and nurse your wounds. And call Ranger Benjen."

As the six men scurried out of the room, Jeor stood up from his desk and went to look outside of the window overlooking the Castle Black garrison. A few minutes later, a knock was heard, in response Jeor said "Come in."

"You called me, Lord Jeor?" A blue-grey eyed man dressed in black asked as he came inside the room.

Without looking at him, Jeor started to describe what the six men told him before the arrival of Benjen. After hearing everything, Benjen asked "Do you want me to investigate those six?"

"You noticed it too huh? They're hiding something important from us due to fear. Dear of what? I don't know, but we won't find anything from those six." Taking a deep breath, Jeor continued "I am assigning you a month long mission to find this Ironhide lad and find the truth from him. You have a week to prepare."

"Yes my Lord. I'll take eight rangers with me during the mission." Benjen said.

"You have my permission to recruit anyone you want. We must find the truth of the matter. Those six deliberately lied to me to hide something, and I want to find it no matter what."

"Yes Lord Commander." Saying so, Benjen left the room leaving Jeor alone.

Closing his eyes tightly, Jeor mumbled "I hope it is nothing troubling."