Arrival of Winter

"The leaves are falling from all the trees in the Haunted Forest, before long winter will invade again."

Blake was walking towards the farmland, listening to Cam's words as he watched the forest with a worried look on his face.

Winter north of the great wall was a sign of death for all Free folk.

It was the season that took the most children, old men, and weak men. The reason the so-called savages were so strong was that every living savage had survived in extreme conditions in which no man should be able to live.

"This will be the last harvest, the winter cold is penetrating the Haunted forest, so we won't be able to grow anything else."

Blake had been concentrating on filling the warehouses with food for the past 4 months.

Dean increased the growing areas within the Haunted forest while Blake busied himself with stabilizing the tribe's second settlement, so they had large crops that would help them weather the winter.

Blake knew that this winter would not last long, only a couple of years or a little longer, and hopefully, by the time summer came, they could be on the other side of the wall, enjoying better weather and resources, which would allow them to prepare for the arrival of the others.

"The stalks of carrots and radishes are freezing to death, better harvest them now, before the roots rot, the onions, beets, and lettuce too."

Blake surveyed all the crop fields along with Cam.

"My father is already on his way to the tribe with all the salt he could get out of the Frozen Shore, according to the messengers, he was at war with one of the Men of the Frozen Shore factions, and I don't know how many of them he captured."

Cam looked at the crops before answering.

"We've never had this much food before a winter, unless Oswin has gone berserk and brought all the Men of the Frozen Shore with him, we should be able to survive this winter with no problem."

Blake wasn't so sure, as some of the food would be used to trade with the giants, some would be needed to get resources from Thenn's men, and a third would be sent to the second settlement of the tribe for Dean to distribute.

The second settlement was not prepared to feed so many people for the entire winter. Blake increased the number of chickens, rabbits, goats, sheep, and Aurochs as much as he could while making huts to grow wild mushrooms.

The hunters worked tirelessly to get fodder for the stables, as they could not afford to let the animals starve during the winter.

"Somehow we'll make it."

Blake shook his head and returned to the tribe.

On the way, Blake noticed several crops of uprooted carrots, stopping and walking towards them.

"My hunters wouldn't do this, they managed to get past the sentries without being seen?"

"kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk!"

An eagle flew over the trees, whistling.

At first, Cam didn't understand what Blake was referring to, but his eyes snapped open as several trees away, he looked up at a man hiding over a tree aiming a bow at them.

"Blake!!!"

Cam's shout came in time, and Blake managed to see the savage aiming at them.

An arrow shot out towards Blake's head, and Blake, placed his hand in the path of the arrow, stopping it as it became embedded in the palm of his hand.

Cam didn't waste another second, with his enormous strength, he grabbed Blake by one arm, pulling him to the cover behind some trees.

"AAAHHH!"

After the initial shot missed, Blake and Cam saw 3 savages running towards them with swords and axes in their hands.

Cam unsheathed his sword, handing Blake the dagger he had strapped to his waist, as the latter was unarmed and unarmored.

"Cover my back!"

Making sure he was in cover between the archer's trees, Cam spoke towards Blake, and the latter nodded taking the dagger with his left hand, the right still had the arrow through it.

The first savage charged fearlessly carrying a large two-handed sword.

Blake stood behind Cam, looking for a chance to assassinate the savage and cover him in case the other two attacked at once.

"ROAR!"

Cam deflected the huge sword off the savage, quickly realizing that the weapon was very heavy and the man couldn't master it very well.

"Slash!"

Cam severed the first savage's head with only 2 exchanges.

The second savage arrived shortly after, with the third behind. They were not daunted by the death of their companion.

"Clank!"

Cam clashed sword against the axe of the second savage, quickly realizing that this one, knew how to handle his axe better than the first.

The third savage tried to attack Cam with a crude wooden-tipped spear, not realizing that Blake had been hiding behind Cam the whole time.

"Crack!"

As the savage stabbed with the spear toward Cam, Blake burst out from his side, running as fast as a wolf and thrusting his knife toward the third savage's throat.

The second savage was surprised as well, he didn't expect the boy to kill his companion in such a fast and direct way, which Cam took advantage of, holding the savage's axe with one hand and pushing him hard into a tree, then stabbing him in the chest with his sword.

"kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk!"

In only moments the three savages were dead, and Blake looked up into the sky to see the eagle still circling above them.

He had the impulse to throw the knife towards the eagle to kill it, as some savages trained birds to help them during the hunt, and this eagle might be revealing its location, but in the end, he decided against it.

Cam was armed with his leather armor and sword, but Blake on the other hand had only leather pants and a thin wool shirt, if he threw the dagger to kill the bird, he would be without an important weapon.

"Blow the horn, there may be more savages hiding."

Blake bent down, taking the dead savage's claymore as he gave orders to Cam. The weapon was in good condition, so perhaps these raiding savages had recently stolen it.

"!!!!!!!"

The sound of the horn blared loudly and for a prolonged time. It would not be long before reinforcements would arrive from the tribe and nearby hunters.

"How the hell did these bandits manage to get past the hunters standing sentry!"

Cam cursed, still in cover behind the trees as he surveyed the entire surroundings.

"Most likely they managed to kill the sentries and then try to steal the crops, when they saw us they hid to assassinate us, steal your weapons, and escape."

Blake placed the hand pierced by the arrow in a tree, and then cut off part of the arrow, leaving only a surplus of about 10 centimeters and the tip sticking out of his palm so it wouldn't bother him too much. He knew it wouldn't be good to pull the arrow out in the middle of the woods without a way to stop the bleeding, plus it didn't hurt, it just felt slightly itchy.

"Are you okay?"

Cam looked at Blake's hand, asking.

"It's not serious, are there any more archers hiding?"

Cam looked back in the direction where he had seen the archer over the tree.

"When I sounded the horn, he came down from the tree and ran into the woods."

Blake nodded, and a short time later several hunters approached them, securing the area.

"What the hell happened!"

Clay, with 20 warriors behind him, ran from the tribe toward their position.

"Raiders, we killed 3 but the others escaped, secure the area and look for the hunters who were standing guard, they're probably dead."

Cam spat on the ground as he said.

"Get the horses, they need to be hunted."

Clay looked at the pierced arrow in Blake's hand and a bead of sweat trickled down his forehead. Before, he spent most of his time hunting in the woods, it was only when Blake left him in charge of the tribe that he began to understand how important Blake was to the tribe. If Oswin returned and found Blake wounded, it was possible he would cut off his head.

"Follow the tracks of the attackers and look for the horses, you 3 escort Blake back to the tribe!"

Clay began to give orders, following the savages, it wouldn't be long before they found them.

"One of them has an eagle, bring them back alive, it will come in handy."

Blake left one last instruction to Clay and returned to the tribe along with Cam and some warriors.

"You'll let them live? They almost murdered you!"

Cam asked on the way.

"To the eagle's owner, since we need him. The others will work in the quarry if they want to keep their lives for murdering our brothers."

Cam didn't quite agree but made a smile after some thought, it was always useful to have a few more men working in the quarry, as it was the hardest job in the tribe and not many of his brothers wanted to do it, he would instruct the warriors to make their lives miserable when they brought them in, as Clay wouldn't let them get away.

"What kind of madmen would try to attack our tribe!"

Cam cursed, still angry.

"Winter is coming, so raiding parties and the more desperate Free folk will try anything to get food, increase the sentries!"

Cam nodded.

They finally reached the tribal gates, which looked much more active as the warriors moved around guarding the surroundings.

"Pat!"

Blake felt a prick on his wrist, realizing that the arrowhead through his palm had fallen to the ground. This was the first time he had received an injury since coming into this world.

He looked at his hand, noticing that part of the wound had healed.

Blake took the other end of the arrow, noticing that it was loose, so he pulled it back.

"Drip."

A drop of blood was all that spurted from the hole, a dark blue color.