Chapter 16: Wolfswood

As Robb gave the order to close the road, the pedestrians on the road were divided into groups by the Northern soldiers. They all stood obediently on the side of the road, waiting for Robb to come and check.

Robb, Bran, and Theon each quickly scanned different groups of people, and if the group in front of them did not appear, they quickly moved on to the next group.

"Let's go, let's go."

As soon as Robb and his men walked towards the next team, the soldiers on the side immediately signaled to the people who had been checked to leave quickly.

Soon wave after wave of pedestrians were released, and Robb's expression became more and more solemn. He knew that the longer the search lasted, the shorter the possibility of finding Jon.

Jon, who was hiding in the grass, saw Robb, Bran and his group approaching through the gaps in the wormwood that was more than a meter high.

When the fat-faced soldier saw Rob and his men walking towards the group he was responsible for, he immediately went to meet them.

Robb ignored him and rode forward to look down at the crowd. Bran also opened his eyes wide, hoping to find Jon.

In the end, neither of them saw the familiar figure in the crowd. As soon as Robb turned around, his followers quickly dispersed the crowd.

Suddenly, Rob found two unclaimed horses tied to a tree not far away, one black and one red, eating grass with their heads down.

He looked back and found that everyone had left, so he asked the bearded guard who had just interrogated Jon.

"Whose horse is that and why has no one claimed it?"

Seeing Robb asking him, the fat-faced soldier quickly answered

"It's a bald trader's horse."

"Where are the others?"

The soldier looked around and didn't see Jon. He suddenly realized something was wrong and sweat started to flow down his cheeks.

"He said he had a stomachache and went over there to relieve himself."

He pointed to the bushes on the other side. Robb and Bran looked at each other and went forward to check. Theon, who was searching the crowd not far away, noticed the movement and came over.

Theon asked excitedly, "What! Did you find Jon?"

Robb nodded, but Bran ignored him. Although the three of them were looking for Jon, Bran and Robb were more worried, while Theon seemed to be gloating.

Robb's followers cleared the weeds and found nothing in the grass except some filth. Following the tracks they left in the grass, they looked towards the Wolfswood.

At this time, even the soldier realized that the so-called merchant from Riverlands was most likely Lord Stark's illegitimate brother.

Robb didn't have time to deal with this careless guard. He turned to Theon and said, "Theon, take your men into the Wolfswood from that side to search for Jon."

Theon said excitedly, "Okay!"

He just got on his horse, turned around and left with his men.

Then Robb said to the rest of the people: "Everyone else, go into the Wolfswood and search."

It was already dark, and hundreds of Winterfell soldiers entered the Wolfswood holding torches under Robb's command.

Jon had thought about attacking a soldier, putting on his clothes and then escaping, but these were the guards of Winterfell. In other words, they were professional soldiers, and their military skills were not comparable to those of Kent's squires.

If Jon wanted to attack a soldier, he would immediately attract the attention of others, so a head-on confrontation would not work.

So as soon as he ran into the Wolfswood, he immediately ran deep into the Wolfswood. The Wolfswood was not small in area. It would take at least ten days to walk from Winterfell in the east of the Wolfswood to Deepwood Motte in the west, even if the road was flat.

But this does not mean that Jon's range of activities is particularly large and he can run east or west all the time.

Because both Deepwood Motte in the west and Torrhen's Square in the south have a large number of strongholds and traps in the Wolfswood. If you rush in rashly, you will die faster. Jon can only move within a range of about a few hundred square kilometers.

However, even a range of several hundred miles is enough for him to hide for a short period of time.

After running deep into the Wolfswood for several hours, Jon finally felt a little safe. He climbed a tall tree and looked into the distance, and found twinkling lights of fire in the distance.

After finding a place to shelter from the wind, Jon was glad that he had brought the tent with him. He set up the horsehide tent and prepared to rest.

On the other side, Robb, who had been searching in vain for most of the night, had to withdraw his troops temporarily. They were now exhausted, and even Hodor, who had been carrying Bran, was out of breath.

"Robb, let's not chase them anymore. It's very dangerous deep in the Wolfswood."

The danger Bran was talking about was naturally not the danger that the hundreds of people might encounter, but that Jon might encounter some dangerous beasts if he escaped alone.

Robb's green eyes flashed in the moonlight, and he said to his followers: "Londo, you take a hundred men to guard Wolf Eye Lake, Sir Eddard, you take a hundred men to guard Front Claw River, Theon, you take a hundred men to guard Hind Claw River."

Robb once again demonstrated his military talent. Wolf's Eye Lake was their favorite place to go when they went hunting before. There were a lot of prey there. Robb sent people to garrison there to make it more difficult for Jon to obtain food.

The Front Claw River and the Hind Claw River blocked Jon's escape route to the south or north.

Finally, Robb thought about it and reminded again: "If you find any trace of him, you must report to me immediately."

He believed that Jon had to die in his own hands. This was certainly not because he had any deep hatred for Robb, but Robb believed that Jon was his brother no matter what, and he could not let outsiders interfere in his life and death.

His logic is actually the same as when Ned killed Sansa's wolf with his own hands.

Just as they were leaving, a white shadow suddenly appeared.

"It's Ghost!"

Bran's eyes lit up and he was very happy to see Ghost suddenly appear. Hodor squatted down so that he could touch Ghost's head.

He still remembered that when he asked Jon what name to give to his wolf, he was very upset why he didn't think of such a cool name like "Ghost" first.

And because Ghost is the only white wolves among the six, he likes her very much.

Bran chuckled as he felt Ghost's rough tongue licking the palm of his hand.

Bran and Robb's wolves came over and sniffed Ghost's body.

"Do you know where Jon is?"

Robb on the side also squatted down and stroked Ghost. Although Ghost was thinner than other wolves, he was also more agile. This was due to Jon's great care when feeding Ghost before.

In addition, it had gone on a "long journey" with Jon, which gave it a bit of wildness.

From Ned's previous letter, Robb knew that Arya's wolf ran away because it bit Joffrey, and Sansa's wolf became a scapegoat for the king's anger.

So he stuffed a piece of dried meat into Ghost's mouth with some heartache, and looked at the three wolves playing together. He decided to lock him up first after he found Jon, and then make a decision after Ned came back