City In The Woods
"You took your sweet time." Dixon grumbled, shooting an accusatory eye towards the team of veterans who were expected to come back a week ago.
"The slavers had some ideas and tried their luck but we killed them all and took all the people on their three ships, hahaha. It was glorious." The two walked towards the noise where builders have started removing soil from the hallowing mountain.
The many builders have gone very strong and because of the yellow pill that can neutralize cold and maintain the body temperature they can work in the cold without getting the flue. The one in charge is called Seun. He is her tutor on structures and architects.
The outside of the wall there are hundreds of soundly sleeping forest animals. Olivia had known that moving into an old mountain will touch upon some powerful animals territories so he made an area of effect that has a 'tonic' to send them to sleep immediately after crossing it.
What surprised her is a long snake she has never seen such species before. It struck one of the former slave guards almost killing him in seconds. If Dixon hadn't been prepared with antidotes for such occasions the man would have died with in a few minutes.
Luckily he was saved in time. Olivia then decided she can not risk any of them dying like this and gave each an antidote to cure at least 100 poisons. She had wanted to make a stronger version but she is pressed for time. But she took the snake loving its while skin with a silver crown between the eyes.
This way the construction goes on without an all out war between humans and animals. Not to mention there happens to be an iron vein in the forest which means mining will happen sooner than later.
"That is one mighty wall. Made of wood too, now how did we pull that off?" The veterans asked in wonder while thinking the foreigners are good builders indeed.
When they entered the inside of the wooden wall they found the snow is scarce within the wall. There is a feeling of warmth as well. It is not overly explicit but the body can feel it.
They assumed it is whatever was used in the North. The new housing and public structures in the North are all very warm.
In a nearby ship Olivia and her blacksmith mentor are working hard on the concrete powder. They are both wearing masks using their incredible strength to empty the oversized cooking pots and making the same paste and then heating it up to the point of turning its contents into power.
"I will never get used to her doing that." Caine said walking in with Dixon to make a report.
"She is the most hardworking small person I have ever seen." Bellamy spoke from the side. He is the linguist tutor that Olivia bought alongside the rest of her teachers.
"Lets leave her to her work. I will take care of the soldiers health while you train them abit." Dixon suggested and made her way out.
"How long do you think this work will take to complete?" Caine asked his new friend.
"I saw the castle outline and one word to describe it would be grand. It will probably take 5 years to complete the city as well if we only have these numbers." Dixon said with confidence.
"This land is ruled by savage people I grew up hating. How long till they come for us thinkig we have many supplies?" Caine asked in annoyance.
"Then lets increase the intensity with which we prepare the new soldiers." Dixon suggested.
Meanwhile 300 miles east of Olivia's group a group travels trying to hunt for a certain group. One of the man in charge pointed at a small settlement from them and without talking or planning they all took out their knives and all 44 men charged into the settlement.
As they approached in hight speed, a pit appeared with long wooded pikes ready to impale those unlucky enough to fall inside. This is how 12 fell inside and got wounded or killed. The scene is very gruesome but the combrades fighting alongside them did not stop.
They charged towards the place and as they entered, the poorly made fence the place is very spookily quiet. When they entered a house they found a group of wild animals locked inside.
It seems this is where they keep their cattle. Just as they were going to celebrate finding so much food in one place, their leader Bark shouted "Get away from them!"
It is already too late, all those animals facing the other direction turned and pounced ripping into their flesh. The mountain pig with a height of half a man ramed into their bodies breaking bone. The hyena like creatures with spiky fur and sharp claws attacked them with itslong and sharp claws.
By the time they made it out of the large hut they are being chased back into the pits with pointy wooden pikes. They didn't see even one human and they have already lost more than half of their party.
"Tamer, come out you bastard!" The man leading the ground shouted to empty air. The earth trembled and a group of white furred beasts that look like apes came out of the snow on the opposite side of the settlement. When the intruders saw this, they turned tail and ran away.
The apes opened a gap and a 16 year old boy came up to the front. He is the one who tamed all these animals which is why he is a leader at such a young age.
He calls himself Dan because his grandfather from who he learned taming from is called Dannielynn. The boy didn't want to lead humans at first, content with just living amongst animals but the villagers chose him because he can tame several animals at once and he doesn't feel pain when they die even if he uses them in a fight.
A year ago he tamed a ground digging mole. He used it to build an underground settlement for his people so they don't have to cover from the snow but the ground is just as cold so he had to gather a lot of animal skin. This is why he was spotted by other settlers and they tracked him all the way here.
When the leader of the attacking team saw this he also turned and rans away after spitting on the snow in anger.
"Leader, what do we do now?" An elder asked him. This is the other thing that annoyed him about taking over the position of leader, he has to spell out everything for these people.
He didn't even answer and went to help the injured animals. "Dan, why did you ignore the elder?" A girl he grew up with came and helped him take away the wounded animals. At night they will move to their actual camp so even if someone is watching them they don't see where they went.
"You are ignoring me now aren't you?" She pouted.
"I hear noise, the animals are disturbed deep in the forest mountains." He suddenly said. They had won this time but something tells him the other party has not given up. Perhaps they should have a new fake settlement.
But what could be happening in the biggest most dangerous forest in the true North? There is a reason no one bothers to mine the iron trees and try to build a house or a ship to flee from this hell hole. The forest is very dangerous.
"Perhaps before being curious about other places you focus on our settlement first." She said in slight annoyance.
The boy looked at the girl and utttered a single word that made the girl fume "go."
A distance away three people have been watching the spectacle using the far eye. They are Gina the former bandit leader, Caine captain of the new squad and Bhullheart the leader of the veterans group.
"This is the 7th all out settlement war we have seen in the last three months. Is this all the people in this land do?" Bhullheart asked in astonishment.
"If they want to survive. There is no other way." Gina said, the black hair has white snow restin on it now. Testament of how long they have been outside.
They went back to the construction. The two large ships are now in the throne room. There is no throne as of yet but the arrangement is clear. The two shps are resting on the floor having been pushed inside when the six lower floors of the castle were completed six months ago.
The construction has been moving very fast mostly because of Arkar's innovative suggestions which not only made the process faster, the appearance of the inner castle is spectacular even though it is only at inception.
The metal pipes were bought from across the narrow seas and used for the plumbing system of the castle. When Arkar saw her work with the warm stone back in Winterfell he had made the group going to buy slaves to bring back a flower that grows in the red waste land near the Dothraki sea.
If you look close it seems to be burning with a dense orange color. Touching it is possible because it is not actually burning but alchemist make a type of fire poison with it that feels like being consumed by fire from with in when injested.
It is called the kiss of the sun, when Olivia came in contact with it she is able to create an ever burning flame but the needs the oposing energies to sustain it. This flame is peculiar when it comes in contact with cold substance it burns hotter.
What delighted Olivia is the fact that when she was in Winterfell, the cold material she needed to create warm stone was only found deep in the winter lake but the same cold stone is found everywhere in this forest.
As a result she is able to create as much warm stone as possible making the temperature with in the construction site very pleasant. The warm stone ia also like the kiss of the sun.
It needs cold energies to sustain, the colder the environment the longer it will last. This is why she was confident leaving it on the road throughout kings road.
"There is not enough of the flower, but I managed to make this." She showed her blacksmith teacher a box of cold glass with a fiery yellow flame burning inside. The moment she took it out it illuminated the entire workshop.
"It's so bright.." The workers saw the place light up all of a sudden. The cold glass is light blue with thick ice on the glass and the yellow light from the flame created a blinding glow.
The glass soon started cracking and the heat seeped out. The glass felt burning hot, feeling like something is wrong, Olivia put it down and told everyone tto create a distance.
It soon grew brighter and then blew up. The problem is the glass which flew everywhere hurting some of the workers. After healing them with her new power which came after she broke through again. The soul flame which she only ignited only after reaching the foundation establishment realm in her last life.
Olivia frowned. She didn't make this item from the formula so her calculations may be a bit off. But to actually explode is a bit much no?
"It seems we need a thicker cold glass. And a smaller flame, perhaps a single leaf or only part of the leaf." Her teacher suggested. Olivia's eyes lit up and she went back to work.
It is crazy what she calls indestructible glass was shattered just like that. The problem is the combustion effect of the item. It literally blew up.
This is the second lower floor where separated blacksmithing workshops are located. Glass making, construction concrete powder, obsidian concrete paste and iron clad concrete paste production stations. These are all made with the help of Arkar who has been involved in many construction projects abroad.
They are all very strong and special. Regular concrete powder which was used in the housing project in the North is resistant to fire but now it is has increased this quality by many folds.
However, it is not stronger than the improved kings road concrete and this is a place dominated by cold. It would make sense to find a construction paste that is resistant to the cold instead. However, knowing her ability to antagonize powerful people it is better to use it and guard against fire related weapons.
There is the obsidian concrete powder, the sort that will make the walls and the floor look like glass, it is 8 times stronger than the regular concrete and one can decorate the walls while its wet, it will turn hard along with the wall when it dries up.
The throne room is made to look like a giant tree blooming on the wall in front of which a throne will be placed. The concrete on the ground looks like black glass with large and small snowflakes sparkling like jewels against the floor. The rest of the wall is just black which in turn makes the large tree in the front stand out.
Iron clad needs a lot of iron and takes very long to make but because it will be standing even centuries later, and because the entire mountain has iron vein which resulted in thousands of iron wood trees, this is the material that she will use to buil the wall which will protect her entire city.
Plus Olivia improved upon this known concrete with the knowledge of her alchemy. The concrete on Kingsroad is now at least 10 times stronger than before, it is now used to make the outside of the castle walls and will be used for the ground concrete as well.
It can now be colored and she chose the color white. It is lame but Olivia has felt alone in this world and the only thing that made her feel like she was a part of something is the name Snow.
.....
"There is no sign of her, it has been six months where could she have gone?" Ned asked himself looking at the empty tower that has been emptied of everything.
It seems Olivia had planned to leave home a long time ago. Is it because of his wife? He went out and into the garden she had built, if there is one place that Olivia wouldn't abandon it is that garden. She would spend an entire day inside not even leaving to eat.
The moment he entered the place, his heart sank into his stomach. The place has been emptied of every single plant on the soil. It doesn't even look messy. "She even took the flower."
The small amount of hope he held in his heart has disappeared now. It is replaced with anger, then sadness and finally shame.
He heard about the waves she caused in Kingslanding and he wanted to discipline her about it but now he is very worried that she is not coming back home. If she goes outside and suffers he would have failed his sister's last request.
In the meantime the Lord hand's wife is pregnant and the way she is carrying it is said to be a boy. There is no news of little finger, only a small group of people knows of his location. Even Lysa has been asking about him non stop.
The old lion has retrieved his son from Kingslanding leaving Cersei Lannister feeling alone and worried about her brother. But this did not stop her from fornication with the other Lannister cousins.
The lion's roar brandy was launched soon after the team headed by Lannister himself made a plan. It soon generated mass amount of wealth which was all put into the Iron bank in the same account belonging to Olivia.
This money didn't stay for long as it was used to either buy working slaves, soldier slaves or construction supplies that Olivia didn't know or want to make herself.
The materials are bought and stored in the castle warehouses as the castle construction moves on. Another six months went by with brandy going out and supplies coming in. The large castle is finally completed with six watch towers touching the sky.
At night, the entire castle is lit up with several glowing white lights showing from inside the indestructible glass windows. The money that went into the construction of this one castle is astronomical according to her even though it is just one castle.
The size, the appearance and then there is the color of the castle as if it is blending in with the snow.
The rest of the mountain is also being transformed because many other smaller castles will be built then residential areas under each castle will be built next. The idea is to have one castle lord responsible for the well being of the small folks living in their territory.
The various lords will be tasked with one other important task for the good of the city. The leader will decide what that task will be.
Currently there are over 8 thousand builders from slavers bay and the other cities living in the main castle for the sole purpose of constructing a grand city for Olivia.
The wooden wall is separated into several parts and carried to the next place of construction as soon as the main castle wall was finished. The wall took 8 months on its own to complete after the ground concrete pathway were finished.
The wall is three times higher than the one in Kings landing but still a long way from the height of the ice wall. The space at the top is tens of meters long. The top of the wall is the same color as the window frames in the castle, light silver. The main gate is majestic and made from Iron wood but painted light silver as well.
The size of the castle is two times larger than Winterfell. Perhaps it was to prove something but Olivia is very happy with her bright and big castle. At least she knows she can house all her people if something happened.
It is really thanks to the materials used especially the paste that doesn't take too long to harden that the job was done so fast.
The next construction will be simple but crude. The several mountains will have a single castle at the top which is still lower than the main castle. Then a raw of glass houses will be built under the jurisdiction of this castle lord.
Following which civilian housing will be build next. For the time being there are nine Castles allocated for nine plots of land. Olivia loves that the land here is abundant. Her ability allows her to smoothly moves the trees without cutting them down.
If people were looking, they will notice the forest moving inland as the city expands. Olivia is having a hard time managing her snake pet she is very difficult to get along with. She would occasionally bite her and even inject her poison into her body.
Luckily Olivia has upgraded her original 100 poison antidote to a thousand poison antidote. Now she just has to feed it to her cheap father. And the half siblings. Why?
Olivia doesn't want to be all alone even though she turns her back on her family, deep down she wants to be a family but all these other things get in the way making her want to leave them for good. The mind says one thing but the heart is humanity's humane switch.
....