What lurks in the mountains

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POV of Brynden Tully

While the Prussian works continued to encompass the entire reach a line of march began to move northward, the group was composed of Prussians from the easternmost parts of the Prussian kingdom and Finns because their long collaboration protecting the eastern flank of the kingdom has served to give both cultures a mutual respect.

For days, the group marches north, without much time to rest and moving along unknown paths to prevent the plans they were to carry out from becoming known to anyone before they began to germinate.

When they crossed the river where one of the most important battles in the history of the seven kingdoms had previously been fought, the groups separated.

A group composed of only Finns who differed from other Finns by their white wolf helmets and a Prussian marches to the vale, while a large caravan group marched with Prussian and Finnish soldiers bound for Winterfell to negotiate with the paramount lord of the north

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Brynden Tully knight of the gate, this is what I had become in the last few moons, I never thought I would end up so far from home, but Hoster seemed like a madman again talking about marriages.

As soon as the war was over Hoster started making plans without my consent to whom I should marry, I don't know what happens to that idiot sometimes, every time a war ends he feels the need to see me married to some woman.

Finally, when he had invited me to a reunion, I found out that Hoster wanted to force me to marry a Blackwood to strengthen the ties of the Tully banner men with their paramount lord.

Again, we fought like the time I refused to marry the Redwyne, and Jon's offer to give me this position to protect the entrance to the vale seemed like a better option than enduring Hoster's bouts of rage and I could also be close to Lisa, who hasn't been very well mentally since what Hoster forced her to do.

I have enough trouble with the memories of the damn war... it was hard to forget everything we did... everything I suffered... his smile... that maniac Aleksanteri and the fallen comrades, Hoster doesn't give a shit about the small folks and his knights as long as it keeps him in power and the family ''together''.

Since I made this decision I am dead to Hoster because before he simply considered that my rejection would be temporary, but now he considers that I betrayed the family, since I forgot my duty to the family and instead of bringing allies to the Tully's and only bring disrepute for my heraldry and actions.

So probably my presence in the vale will be very long.

Luckily, the job is relatively simple, you have to watch that the knights who protect the gate do their job because there are moments of so much idleness that some of them forget to wear their full armor, ask the question to all those who wish to cross to the valley and occasionally check the roads for savage groups that often attack small villages.

But finally the lords of the vale, including Jon, consider that it is a waste of time, since every time a force is formed to exterminate those savage clans it ends terribly, apparently there was an attempt that ended with an avalanche that buried almost a thousand knights between snow and rocks and since that event the lords are reluctant to send patrols searching for the clans to end once and for all with their incursions.

Within one of my usual patrols many travelers gave somewhat surprising news

And every day we received the same news... it was difficult to know if it was true, but already many goat farmers have reported seeing in the mountains groups of men wearing animal skins marching with discipline through the mountains

Besides reporting that they have seen many fights in the mountains between the clans, I had my doubts and although I sent permission on several occasions to go and check, but the Castellan did not wish to send many men into the mountains without Lord Arryn's permission.

Something i learned from my time with the Finns that being unprepared is inviting death into your home and if what the small folks are saying is true it is possible that some clan is trying to gain power to launch a large raid, with several hundred knights the vale in the capital the bloody gates are weakened.

I don't think the clans would try to attack the lords, but the small folks would be in danger.

So I decided to go with a personal escort to check what was happening in the mountains, we could not continue to ignore the information that came in every day about the same information.

With twenty of my men we left the safety of the vale fortress and started to move along the roads that lead to the areas where the clan raids usually happen

''Watch out for any movement, if you have any doubt about anything give notice, we cannot afford to be ambushed, we must know what is going on'' I said to all the riders that accompanied me.

Our first was one of the villages that reported the sighting of several hundred men wearing animal skins marching with discipline.

''So, which way did they go?'', I asked the village elder.

''Well, they got lost in the forest...we didn't dare to follow them...there were too many...I didn't want to risk anyone following them'', answered the elder who pointed to the woods where he saw them.

''How many were there?'', I asked again

''More than the people living in this village, that's for sure m'lord, but we didn't count them...we were hiding and preparing for an attack thinking they would attack us...but by blessing of the seven they were just passing through and didn't pay attention to us'' the old man answered lowering his head

''Damn... thanks... this doesn't help much'' I said to the village elder and then looked at my companions.

''Well, we will investigate the fighting in the mountains, maybe the events are related... we will need a guide if we don't want to get torn to pieces in a fall'' I told my men

We got back on horseback and headed for the northern mountains, we managed to get guidance from one of the shepherds who reported fighting in the mountains and he guided us through safe passes where sheep and goats are used to move them to new grazing lands

As we were about to reach the top we were hit by a nauseating smell, I resisted the urge to retch at the terrible odor, but some of my men could not help themselves.

The smell was coming from some bodies that were in a state of decomposition and quite destroyed by the carrion birds that were feasting on the rotting flesh

''Lord Brynden...uff...they are members of the burned men...uff...savages of the clans...they have been dead for days''said one of my companions trying not to vomit while he spoke

It was not a pleasant sight, it was a group of twenty of the savages, they had long cuts in the abdominal area, probably the cause of death... although it is difficult to know the crows destroyed much of what could be useful to find out how they died

''Well... throw them down the mountain... to prevent carnivorous animals from ravaging the area... I don't want to have to deal with shadowcat attacks'' I said as I spurred my horse to keep moving forward.

Our journey continued through the mountains of the moon for three days, which completely peaceful, until we came to a battlefield, it was the remains of some mountain clan camp, but it was completely destroyed with bodies of the dead everywhere

My men began to spread out

Wherever I looked there were hundreds of bodies scattered everywhere and they were quite fresh, getting off the horse I started to check the wounds.

A spear straight through the heart... an instant death due to the shortage of armor

An arrow to the throat... a slow death... she probably broke the arrow herself trying to remove it in desperation

Her intestines spilled out... dagger directly into the abdomen... a clean, decisive cut.

A cut to the throat... as clean as it was deadly

The weapons used by whatever is attacking the clans are very good quality weapons to be able to cut through skins and give such clean cuts... what worries me is the skill of the users, all the wounds were made by someone skilled all in one move someone who sought to put their enemy to death in the quickest possible way

And everything was repeated, all the dead had similar wounds, only the more we advanced, the more the dead had wounds on their backs showing that they tried to run away and did not succeed.

But there was a body that seemed to have suffered an enormous punishment, ''something'' broke him in half vertically and it didn't seem to have been done by a sword, whatever broke this man was not clean... but what could it have been?... this one has chain mail armor all of them were broken deformed as if something had torn them off

''Which clan do you think did this?'', I asked one of the knights of the vale.

''These are the burned men, it is one of the most warlike and dangerous clans...I can't tell you what happened here lord Brynden that a clan completely massacred another clan has not been heard in centuries'' answered the knight while looking at the thousands of dead that were scattered around.

''We must go on... this might be more important than I thought'' I said as I climbed back on my horse.

''Lord Brynden if we go any further we will be pushing our luck... for the moment we have not met any savages, shadowcat or bears, there are not many of us, we should go back and report and get more help'' the knight said

''If we do that we will lose the trail, only the seven would know if we can later return to be so close to what exterminated this clan'' I answered and continued spurring my horse.

After a few kilometers of travel we found the survivors of the burned men buried by an avalanche of rocks and snow, there were several hundred bodies buried under the rocks and snow and it seemed that none of them were moving.

I could sense the fear of my men, as they looked everywhere, reacting to the slightest noise.

On our way we encountered the first wild animal... a large bear... it would have been something that would have made me turn back if it had not been for the fact that the bear was already dead

It had no visible wounds as we approached from behind the animal's back

But upon checking it out I found that ''something'' had broken the bear's jaw and not content with that it must have broken the bear's neck because the animal's head is out of place

''What kind of monster could break a bear's neck...the body is intact means he killed it for fun, an animal would have devoured it'' said the frightened guide.

My men began to speculate about what could have killed the bear, as I searched for clues to the fight, but I noticed black smoke on the horizon.

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