10

The pair of hummingbirds silently activate one of the perks that their master, the figure they internally refer to as their "Forger", shared with them. The perk has a simple name, one which understates its true potency but hints at how useful it is: "Rogue". 

The birds, potent and mysterious "Dolls", dart from above the Wall down toward the area on the other side of the barrier. As they zip towards the surface they become almost invisible, their presences fading from view as they seek to become like snow and do the bidding of the one they idolize and serve. At the same time, the birds dexterously use the shapeshifting power their master has given all of his creations to lose their strangely brilliant plumage and acquire feathers that will make them harder to see. 

The birds are swift. Impossibly so, moving much faster than any hummingbird has ever moved. It only takes them half a second to move over one hundred feet and dart from the skies above the Wall to reach a large courtyard on the other side of the gigantic wall, where they quickly begin to study the mid-day training of the men clad in dark armor. 

Numerous men, and even more boys, stand in circles and mercilessly savage each other. Most are armed with swords, but some have only their fists, protected by heavy gloves. Some have thick wooden shields, and others have only the armor they wear. The sounds of their clashing fill the air and powerfully echo throughout the courtyard. 

The hummingbirds study the warriors, listening to the violent clashing and the occasional screams and shouts of warriors. After a short while the birds do not pick up any new bits of information, and so they dart elsewhere, flying towards one of the nearby buildings which surround and define the borders of the courtyard. 

The pair of spies dart into the building through a window frame and begin to focus on the tidbits of conversation they overhear. Both birds expertly begin to mentally transcribe the conversations they overhear, as they split up and begin to explore the building known as "The Old Barracks". 

Countless servants and lesser shadow men work or mill about inside of the barracks. The birds take special note of one portly scribe inside of the building, diligently copying the contents of a hand-stitched aged book onto a newer-looking empty tome. Numerous other servants, some of whom are homely-looking women, watch the efforts of the scribe, sneers etched onto their faces. 

"What's that one's name?" One of the women, with auburn hair, asks. The question is neutrally worded but her tone is anything but. 

"Tarly. Sam… something. Sam Tarly." One of the other servants, a very young-looking boy, replies. The birds listening to this transcribe the comments and post them in the guild-wide chat box. And distantly, this is the first time that the strange dollmaker physically reacts to the news he is privy to.

 __________________________________________________________

"Sam… Samwell Tarly." I mentally mutter, even as I bid farewell to another patient. The patient, a child with light red hair and a newly healed knee, happily waves farewell as he darts out of the room. I order the birds to fly directly over the figure that is supposedly named "Sam" and my eyes pleasantly widen when I see the minimap update and reveal the figure's name. "Samwell Tarly". 

I spend several seconds studying the map looking for any other names I might recognize on the expanded minimap but I can't find any. I don't even see any common last names, such as how "Snow" is the last name given to bastard children from the northern segment of the Seven Kingdoms.

"So it's true. This is Planetos. Some… remixed version of the world from A Song Of Ice And Fire." I audibly exclaim, as I fall back onto a chair I set up in a corner of the room. I know that the only people in the Hurt Hut at the moment are Maya, Veronica, Nora, a patient with Nora, and myself so I feel safe voicing my thoughts aloud. 

"But what dictates what areas and things are remixed, if things like 'Taking the Black' and the 'Iron Islands' are remixed, but at least some names of actual people are not?" I ask myself, not even able to ask my companions since all of my current allies, even the ones that are not dolls are locals who don't appear to have any actual knowledge of what lies south. 

The birds continue to explore the barracks, but only for a few moments because I quickly order them to separate. I silently order one bird to proceed to the "Coal Cays", I order the other one to stick around and explore the Wall, and I order a whole group of bird dolls to travel to the Wall. It'll take all of the traveling birds, even the one heading to the Coal Cays, a few days to reach their destinations but they'll also be able to provide me with considerably more intelligence than I currently have, which is suddenly more important than I imagined it being.

Since this is Planetos and at least some of the canon characters exist I absolutely need reliable intelligence. If the places are changed but the names are not then that is incredibly helpful, I can still locate the indispensable powerhouse characters I should convert into dolls with relative ease. I keep a part of my mind centrally focused on the minimap, waiting and watching for any and all familiar names, as well as for the bird to locate any safe zones in the area of the Wall. I need to see if I can teleport to the Wall, or if I'm going to have to potentially travel there by more mundane means.

I also order a few of my dolls to capture more birds. Bird dolls make for better long-distance scouts than other dolls do because they start off possessing the "Flight" skill which increases their flight speed. 

Even as another patient enters the Hurt Hut and I get up to go and greet them I begin to make use of the guild-wide chat box. I smile at the patient when she sees me, she is a young teenager and thanks to "Healer" I can easily see why she is here. I mentally devise a plan of treatment, one involving alchemy, while I instruct the child to come over to the room I'm working out of. 

"The world to the south of our current position is a world that I have vague, partial familiarity with. It is a world that is deeply intriguing to me. The knowledge that… Abrey and Laina have provided by venturing as far south as they have is incredible. It is so potent that now that I am armed with it I wish to shift my goals." I type, and when the message is transmitted to the guild I can subtly feel the ripples of shock and interest from members of the guild located throughout the region. 

"There are resources in the world to the south of us that would make exploration of the world to the north decidedly easier. That said, I do not plan to run off to the south just yet." I add, even as I use my crafting abilities and some of the idle objects I've collected and put in my inventory to brew a potion. 

The ingredients I am using are some of the products a handful of the dolls assigned with exploring the woods and gathering ingredients for potion brewing have gathered over the course of the last few nights. The nice thing about dolls is that since they don't need sleep they are always working, much like I have been.

My ability to "Craft" objects is a neat power. Thanks to one of the functions of my gamer system I can easily and instantly craft objects using the items in my inventory or around me, and thus do things like "Cook" a meal in an instant or turn some iron and some wood into a sword. By combining this power with my ultimate trickster power I can do things like turn a handful of sand into multiple glass bottles or use singular herbs to brew multiple potions. 

I peer into my inventory and watch as a handful of the listed ingredients for a simple health-restoring potion are converted into three such potions. I reach into my inventory and pull the object out, which causes it to appear in my hand and I smile at the teen even as text boxes appear in front of me. 

"I recognize the pain that you're in. Fortunately, women who have come before you also endured this uncomfortable sensation monthly for millennia. Some of the wise women of the past have come up with various mixtures that help reduce the pain you're in right now." I remark, reading a text box verbatim, even as I hand the girl the brew. She studies it uncertainly before taking the potion's stopper off and sniffing it. Somehow the scent of the red liquid calms here and I smile lightly at her as she goes ahead and drinks the whole thing in one go. 

"I… Whoa, that is fast acting." She says, her voice soft as I watch her HP begin to go up. I use "Observe" on her and note the status conditions that have been affecting her begin to ease up and then disappear altogether within seconds of her downing the beverage. At the same time I continue to type into the guild-wide chat box. 

"For now the knowledge that we are gathering to the south of our home is mostly secondary. If you are in the north and you have an assignment, continue to work on that assignment. However, be ready to be reassigned at any time." I inform the dolls I have already created. This causes the dolls to focus on their tasks. 

The rest of the day proceeds without any special incidents. Thanks to my bird I have learned more intelligence pertaining to the Wall, such as the fact that the group of individuals guarding it are formally known as "The Shadow Sworn" and that some of the noble houses south of my home do have their canon names such as the "Starks" and the "Martells". 

That said, one element I notice that is different in this world versus the canon history I'm aware of is that Samwell is already a recruit and it seems that Jon is not! No one in the area shares his name or any element of his that I can remember from my time on Earth. 

This is strange, because I know for a fact that Jon arrives before Sam does in canon. I don't yet know enough to see if that has produced any significant difference in the story, as Sam still seems fairly cowardly and ineffectual, though somehow it seems that his innate intelligence is still recognized even without Jon here vouching for him or encouraging him.

It is only when night falls and the bird still stationed at the Wall flies into the "High Tower", the name given to the tower that houses the commander of the Shadow Sworn that I finally find the location's safe zone, as indicated by something one of the guards stationed outside of it says idly, questioning why people bother to staff guards outside of such buildings. 

At this point in the day, the Hurt Hut has officially closed for business, though any emergencies can be brought to Maya and me. I am all alone in the tiny room Maya and I have claimed as our living quarters whenever we are here, an arrangement that Oscar gratefully formalized last night when he came here and spoke with Maya and me after hearing about our activities in the Hurt Hut. 

I study my minimap to make sure no one is looking for me or approaching the building. When I am certain that no one is coming to the hut in need of any first aid I go through the process of navigating the various menus I need to navigate before I can make use of the limited teleportation ability I possess. When I reach the final area I need to navigate before I can fast travel I mentally click through it and attempt to teleport to the area just south of the Wall… Only to get a simple and very annoying notification. 

[Alert: Location Not Discovered

You have not discovered the location you are attempting to fast travel to.]

The notification, as annoying as it is, is correct. I haven't discovered the location, even if it appears on my minimap. It's also a signifier that as busted as my powers are I can't quite cheese them as much as I would like to. This means that I will either need some potent ability like a teleportation perk or some method of super speed to really take advantage of the most useful element of my minimap. 

This is deeply frustrating. It means that if I want to go after immensely valuable targets I need something like the ability to apparate, and even that has its own issues… If I really want the ability to reliably go after individuals like Robert, Cersei, Khal Drogo, and even huge targets like the Night King or Daenerys, I need the ability to travel from destination to destination swiftly.

I decide to make a mental checklist of what I could purchase that works and to do that I begin to study the shop. Scanning the totality of its contents takes a few minutes, during which I am perfectly still, and by the time I'm done I've seen two ways I could achieve this goal. 

The first method is both the best and the most costly: going the Grey! route. If I do this I have to save up a healthy amount of in-store currency and use it to purchase the "World Waker" perk. That perk will give me the ability to apparate, and even in the perk's unboosted state that is still powerful enough for me to cut down how long it'd take to get to the Wall to a matter of minutes at most, as opposed to the days it'd take me to fly over to the strange fortification. 

The second method is cheaper but gives me something I can share with allies without making them dolls: an item belonging to Germanic Norse Mythology's Healer origin named "Gullinbursti". This item is a mount, a living item that manifests as a skilled beast I can ride anywhere I want to go at speeds faster than I myself can move. Its nature as an item is especially handy because it means that when I purchase it I'll actually be purchasing three. If I purchase Gullinbursti, which even undiscounted I'd be able to afford if I focus exclusively on money-making for perhaps a week or so I'll be able to reach the Wall in maybe as little as a day. 

There's also a perk named "Gangleri Gangari" that expedites travel, allowing me to reach any destination in a setting in about a month on foot no matter the actual distance I'd need to travel and much, much faster on a mount but to buy it I'd have to purchase another perk named "Hamingja". Buying both perks would cost me about half as much as just flat-out purchasing "World Waker".

During this time I also see that there are plenty of perks and essences, essences especially, that are locked behind unique requirements. Not only are their prices truly daunting, oftentimes in the trillions, but they can also be locked behind "Protean Quests". These are quests that, according to their own descriptions, will have requirements that shift depending on what settings I'm in when I accept them. That is of interest to me, but even if I complete the quests I still need to pay the normal costs to unlock the perks or essences in question. 

I also note that the prices of some perks are listed as "Flexible" which many people would intuit means something to their ebenefit, but I get the distinct, and supernatural sense, that that might not be the case… Could it be that some perks become more expensive as I get stronger? That'd be one way to keep things balanced, though it'd be very annoying.

I contemplate the options before me and ultimately decide to invest in my ability to aid any future allies of mine. Buying "Gullinbursti" means I have a special gift I can give to any allies who are worth not dolling, or who I want to lure into my faction before I doll them, as well as gives me a way to make a hell of an impression on friends or enemies alike. 

Another few moments are spent when I study the minimap to make sure that no one seems intent on approaching the hut. During this time I plan how to begin to make some money. I mentally type out an order to Maya, telling her to stay here and tend to anyone who stops by, just in case, while I go ahead and teleport out of the hut. 

I'm back in the lodge, a place I've grown increasingly familiar with over the last few nights. I am in the room I first woke up in, but not for long. I quickly head out of the lodge and wander into the tunnel that my dolls have been working nonstop on for the last few days. 

The sound of distant labor fills my ears as I gaze at distant silhouettes of hard-working dolls. Several of them, overseen by a rabbit doll that was naturally higher leveled than the rest of them, all also rabbit dolls, chip and chisel away at a distant wall. Precisely guided strikes, some of which are dealt by hardened, superhuman fists, and others of which are delivered via simple stone tools, constantly damage the wall. Every few blows cause a part of the wall to fall away and slightly elongate the tunnel. 

I don't bother to go over to them and instead place my hand on the side of the tunnel. The stone is hard and cold to the touch, but I am easily strong enough to grab some of the stone and forcibly rip it apart from the tunnel. I glance at the stone in my hand and I dart through the mental menus needed for me to make use of the store. When the store's menu is in front of me I curiously attempt to sell the stone as is. 

[Alert: Sell Request

You have requested to sell a stone. As is the stone's value is priced at $6.00 'Dollars'. Is this acceptable?]

I note the price, aware that the stone's actual value should be 2 units of currency, which the notifications related to the store refer to as "Dollars" for the sake of convenience. My perks are affecting the price, which is incredibly handy, and will make it much easier for me to eventually purchase Gullinbursti. 

I pull out my wand and smile at the stone. I mutter a simple flame charm and watch as my magical focus begins to expel a thin, short-ranged, plasma-like beam. I carefully move the stone into the beam and focus on one of the runes I am aware of, keeping its image carefully centered in my mind as I methodically carve the rune into the stone I possess. 

This slowly drains my magical energy, but I don't have to keep it up for long. In about half a minute I have finished etching a tiny, simple rune onto the stone and when I am done I stop concentrating on the spell that allows me to do so. The spell dissipates almost instantly and I begin to regain magical energy even as the stone in my palm begins to faintly glow. 

I have etched the simplest rune I know onto the stone in my hand: the rune for light. The precise effects of the rune depend on the object, but in this particular case the rune allows the stone to faintly glow at all times. I then decide to check the stone's price in the store, repeating what I did just minutes ago. 

[Alert: Sell Request

You are now requesting to sell an enchanted stone. The stone's new value is priced at $15.00 'Dollars'. Is this acceptable?] 

This time I accept the price and smile as I watch the currency that I can utilize to purchase a range of new goods, as well as wholly new powers, increase. The stone also disappears and I begin to repeat the process even as my stores of arcane energy completely refill. 

I spend ten minutes doing this, able to enchant and sell multiple stones during that time. During this time I am able to increase the speed at which I can etch runes onto the stones, and even obtain a "Runemaking" skill, which is something I'm quietly excited for. According to the skill's description this skill improves both the effectiveness of my runes and also the speed at which I do things related to runes such as learn how to write them and how much energy runes take me to etch on things. 

After a while I approach the dolls and I make use of my wand to collect some of the stones that their efforts have dislodged. I do not bother enchanting them immediately and instead use them as the sacrificial components needed for me to make tools like stone pickaxes. I construct enough for all of the dolls, and then command them to begin to use the tools I have constructed, all while internally smirking at the notification that I have learned a new skill: tool-making. 

As soon as my dolls do as I say I take the tools they have already made. I check how much the tools are worth prior to me etching any runes on them, which is about twenty units of in-store currency before I begin to etch runes onto them. This takes noticeably more time, entire minutes for even a single shovel, but when I'm done the end result is that I have leveled up my runemaking skill more than once and also that the simple shovels are now worth fifty units. 

I gleefully sell the things, and I begin to construct, enchant, and sell more shovels. I do this for entire hours, but each collection of shovels I make, enchant, and sell I gain fractionally more money than I did before. By the time the sun is beginning to rise this process takes less than five minutes and I am earning over sixty units of currency per handful of shovels sold. 

I turn around and spot the light creeping into the tunnel from the one exit and entrance into it. Morning has arrived, but if I want to purchase Gullinbursti it'll take commitment on my part. I silently message Maya and Veronica and inform them of my decision to keep grinding and earning money to purchase the potent mount I am determined to make my own. They both inform me that they'll support my efforts, and they'll also work extra diligently in the Hurt Hut on my behalf. I thank them for their work, and watch as time freezes when I prepare to speak to my allies in my immediate presence. I select a text box to read, and feel time resume flowing.

"I'm going to go and convert the birds that your sisters have captured into dolls. Keep up the hard work." I tell the dolls, who all nod at me when they hear me speak. I notice that they each redouble their efforts, beginning to smash into the stones that stands between Silverberg and the lodge with much more enthusiasm than before. As I begin to head towards the lodge I inform the dolls out in the wilderness, ones whose tasks have them alternate between collecting valuable medical herbs and capturing birds to head to the lodge so I can make some new allies. 

The dolls immediately make my command a priority, and in seconds I can see their icons on the minimap turn and begin to charge towards the lodge. Since dolls do not experience physical fatigue or exhaustion I get to watch them hurl themselves full speed towards the lodge that is currently considered my primary base. Their simple loyalty brings a smile to my face, and I delight in watching them sprint towards my home. 

I seamlessly shift and take the form of a bird before launching myself full speed at the lodge. Doing so allows me to experience a fun rush of adrenaline as I move at speeds that match the speeds of my dolls and we all dart towards the lodge. 

I exit the tunnel, already several miles long, in only about a minute, and reach the ski lodge only shortly before I spot creatures like quick birds and speedy leopards join me in front of my home. We all nod at each other even as we each return to our standard forms, which in the cases of the dolls are their human-like forms. 

In moments my dolls are standing before me, and when I pull my wand out of my inventory and nod, they get in a single file line and begin to present the animals they've captured. I stun each animal and then instantly overwhelm them with the transformative energy I possess. This causes the animals to begin to undergo the transformational process I can inflict on creatures I encounter. Whenever this happens I don't stop at just transforming the dolls, I immediately begin to pour in supplemental energy and upgrade the doll. 

I give each doll access to basic versions of perks and skills I possess related to scouting. This includes stuff like "Rogue", "Master of Beasts", and "Language of the Insane". Seconds later I add them to the guild, and begin to assign them various missions. 

The simplest missions I give all of the new dolls I create are to keep their eyes open for opportunities for me. Some dolls get custom missions as well, depending on the make up of their particular skills. 

I patiently teach each of the dolls I make during this transformation spree how to do basic things like insert things into their inventories, and also the basics of their minimaps. Before each doll is released into the wild I also have them temporarily join my party so their minimaps can be updated to show them nearby areas of interest such as the closest villages and the curious mountain overlooking the ski lodge. 

This process takes me about three hours, and during this time I make use of the gacha function of my system to acquire a set of fun items to sell: a simple, but well-crafted golden sword, a set of metal armor that shapeshifts to accommodate any wearer, and an artifact which keeps anyone who wears it comfortable in all natural weather conditions. 

Of course each object is multiplied when it enters my inventory, and that particular aspect of my shop makes me excited to sell them. Before I sell the sword I take a quick break from doll-making to etch a rune of light onto the swords, and to try and do the same thing to the other items but because they are already enchanted I can't actually modify them further. Still, I make a few thousand units of currency from the sells, which is the largest single haul I've made so far, but I'm still nowhere near the price I need to pay for Gullinbursti, even after factoring in the discount I have as a trickster. 

When the last animals have been transformed and released into the wild I take stock of my current situation as far as my unique labor force goes. I have a warren's worth of rabbit dolls, nearly all of whom are in the tunnel working to extend it from the lodge to Silverberg. Maya, one of the two exceptions to the rule of the rabbit dolls working in the tunnel, is with Veronica and both of them are deftly working in the Hurt Hut. 

Numerous bird dolls are on their way to the named parts of Westeros, and two bird dolls are already in the Seven Kingdoms. The first fox doll I made is the leader of the hunting and herbalism pack of dolls that are wandering the forest and capturing birds and foxes. This group of dolls mostly consists of fox dolls, and numbers only a few, totalling eight dolls after I add several new members to that pack.

The other exception to the rule of rabbits working in the tunnel is a rabbit doll who is on the prowl for other rabbits. She is one of the dolls who appeared before me and gave me rabbits to transform. I have ordered the dolls I created from her efforts to go to Silverberg and work on the tunnel from their end. In minutes all six of them will be in Veronica's house digging a hole in her bedroom that we can use to give her steady access to alchemical ingredients. 

I have more bird dolls than any kind of doll, as I now have over fifteen different birds in my forces. The rarest type of doll among my forces are human dolls, since so far there's only one such doll among all of my forces: Veronica. This is, in truth, the biggest thing holding my forces back since each new human doll will be pushed by the transformation process so dramatically that I can easily make them a leader of some sort. Veronica is a skilled alchemist, one naturally more skilled at alchemy than myself, and when the tunnel is complete I know I'll be able to rely on her to easily and constantly make valuable potions. 

If I could only capture a hunter of some sort and make them a doll I know I'd be able to more efficiently capture animals to add to my forces, thereby tremendously increasing the rate at which I could do minor things like make the tunnel connecting my home to Silverberg. If I got my hands on a blacksmith doll I'd be able to tremendously increase their efficiency, and I'd be able to more easily outfit my forces with valuable weaponry and armor even without making use of my own crafting skill. 

I march back to the tunnel and resume my old grind when I watch the dolls depart from the lodge. I hurl myself back into the activities I was enjoying doing last night, having gained more experience in the relevant skills while I was making the dolls I have just finished creating thanks to "Master of All". I spend the entire day doing this, and when night falls I am making close to eighty units per handful of shovels sold, and I can complete a cycle of activity in less than four minutes. This means that in an hour I am able to earn over one thousand units. I don't bother stopping my activity at all during the night, and by the time the sun's early morning light is streaming into the other end of the tunnel it only takes me three minutes to complete a cycle and each handful nets me 95 in-store currency. 

The math this time is incredible. Now I am earning almost two thousand units an hour, and the mount only costs somewhere around 1,000,000 units of currency after applying the discount I have thanks to my trickster perk, which means that even if I stopped making more money per cycle of crafting, enchanting, and selling handfuls of shovels I'd still only need a few hundred hours of working. To anyone else that'd be daunting, but I have a gaming system on my side, grinding is just a part of what it takes for me to grow. 

That said, by the time the sun is beginning to set this day the explosive rate of growth I've grown familiar with is beginning to slow, and I am only earning 105 units per cycle and it still takes me about three minutes to complete a cycle. Still, my growth is amazing and I intend to continue to rely on it. 

This begins my first real period of monotonous grinding. I commit to this and for days, most of a week in fact, I continue to hone the skills involved in my money making scheme, even opting to switch my hyperspecialized skill from healing magic to runemaking the same day I spend the entire day working on shovels, which helps me overcome the subtle plateau that I was put on after about a day of using the skills constantly. In days, much longer than it originally took me to get spies to the Wall the first time because I have them scout out a handful of "Wildling" communities along the way, I am able to earn over ten thousand units in an hour, and my bird dolls begin to reach the destinations I've asked them to visit: I now have a lone spy in the "Coal Cays", and multiple spies in the uncreatively named "North". 

I immediately order a few of the newly arrived spies to fly over the Kings Road, the first object I've seen that is a specific thing to retain its canon name. They only have to wander for a few miles before I spot something that makes me smile in a rather predatory way: a carriage containing two individuals I know and have been waiting to see: Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister. I now have my eyes on some of the first targets that came to mind when I first speculated about who from Westeros was actually worth turning into dolls. 

Sadly I don't yet see anyone in the Coal Cays who match the descriptions of or share the names of various Greyjoys, which is a shame. If I can seize control of the Coal Cays I can have a lot of fun, as everyone permits a bit of bad behavior from the people of the Cays, even according to the conversations my dolls have spied on in the Wall. 

Nonetheless I cannot hide my smile, even though I'm currently in the tunnel with a group of rabbit dolls. If Jon and Tyrion exist in this version of Westeros that means that some of my other, more important, targets probably also exist. I ask the doll on the King's Road to go and describe the two, and the bird quickly provides me with a description that matches the show's version of the characters, with Tyrion being handsome and Jon being a man in the ambiguous stage of a man's life where he might be an older teenager or a man in his very young twenties, instead of being fourteen. 

This suits me just fine, because I prefer for him to be older, for Tyrion to be handsome, and for several of the characters to be more akin to the show's portrayal than how they were described in the books. I study the part of my menu that interfaces with the store, and I note that in less than an hour I'll have enough money to purchase the mount I've been working on buying for, at this point, over five full days. I hurl myself full force into my labor, and work at a fever pitch until I finally watch my total stores of internal, shop-specific currency edge just over how much the mount costs. I immediately purchase the item, and smile when I feel it enter my inventory. 

I immediately walk out of the tunnel and when I do I reach into my inventory and grab the first of my newest acquisitions. I have three versions of Gullinbursti, but I only grab the one that is clearly defined: the version of the beast that is a boar. 

The other two versions, created by my powers as a trickster, I own are not clearly defined, and I can sense that if I use them I can determine their form and nature as animals, which makes them much more suitable to be gifts than the true version of this item. The second I do so I am surprised to feel the item react to me and, sensing my desire to free it from my inventory, leaps into existence in front of me of its own volition. 

I am stunned into silence at the sight of the massive, and beautiful, beast in front of me. Gullinbursti is a gold-maned, equally spectacularly skinned boar that stands much taller than I do. It stands perhaps eight feel tall from the bottom of its hooves to the top of its tallest hairs, and it is over seven feet long. It is a gigantic, muscular beast. A luxurious looking chariot is attached to its bulky hide, one more than large enough for me to get on. The beast has stunning silver eyes and it looks at me curiously before marching over to me and nuzzling its head to mine. 

"Hello there…" I reply, smiling as I feel the heat of its fur and skin. It is made of gold, which is a truly strange sight but is also quite stunning. The beast is friendly and I can sense that it wants me to interact with it. 

I step over to the chariot and step into it. The instant that I do I can feel the beast the chariot is affixed to fill with excitement, which brings a smile to my face. 

"Alright big boy, you wanna go on a trip?" I ask, even as I begin to smile quite excitedly. The chariot I'm on vibrates subtly as the boar responds in the affirmative to my question. 

"Okay, big guy, let's go on a trip." I reply, causing the boar to snort joyfully. I grab the reins of the chariot and I envision what I want the beast to do. As soon as I am solidly gripping the reins the boar takes off, intelligently darting into the forest but skillfully dodging trees, bobbing and weaving between them with stunning ease. I mentally message my companions that I am going on a trip and that I should be back in a few days at the very most, which causes them to tell me they worry about me but also wish me well and tell me that'll keep focusing on their missions while I'm gone. 

In minutes the boar and I are out of the thickest part of the forest and on the other side of the mountain. We are still in the forest, but in the strange thin part I noticed a few days ago while on top of the mountain. The boar is slowly speeding up as it dexterously moves through the forest, and I let out delighted sounds as my animal companion and I begin a journey to a place I often daydreamed about as a youth: the northern reaches of the Seven Kingdoms. 

Minutes turn into hours as my companion and I ride through the nameless reaches of the world beyond the Wall. We cross over frozen clearings, icy and partially frozen lakes, and areas where wild horses explore the chilly wilderness. It only takes us the reminder of the morning to reach the plains that lurk beyond the mountain and between the mountain and the Wall. At this rate I'll prove my estimation about how long it takes to reach the Wall correct and this knowledge brings a joyful, and predatory, smile to my face. 

If I can just reach a safe zone somewhere in the Kingdom of the North I'll be able to travel nearly instantly between the nameless reaches of the world beyond the Wall and the North. Such a feat would be absolutely game-changing, especially if I can also turn some of the "Shadow Sworn" into my dolls while I'm down there… 

The rest of the trip does in fact eat up the remainder of the day, but as night begins to fall I find myself able to peer at the gigantic wall which was so eye catching when it first appeared on television screens. 

I have reached the part of Westeros that I am truly familiar with: the mysterious and often snow-covered Kingdom of the North. I am now just dozens of miles from Jon Snow and various other characters who'd make good dolls. If anyone looked at me right now they'd see a smle identical to the one a dastardly villain whose plans are about to come fruition would be sporting.