Chapter 42

The brothers from the Nights Watch were having their lunch in the Great Hall of the Castle Black when the door of the Great Hall was flung open and one of the new recruits ran in while breathing heavily with a fearful look on his face.

"Lord Commander. Lord Commander."

"What is it boy?" the Lord Commander of the Nights Watch asked gruffly as stood up from his chair and everyone went silent at once.

"Lord Commander." The recruit said once again before he took a long breath and continued "Lord Bolton and his men had returned from their expedition."

Jeor Mortont raised an eyebrow at that as the rest of his brothers cheered. After all, Lord Domeric Bolton had a very good reputation in the Watch because of his recent gifts. But while the brothers were cheering for Lord Bolton's safe return, Jeor Mormont wondered if the young lord succeeded in his mission North of the Wall or not. As he looked at the young recruit who had given them the message, he could tell that they boy wanted to say something more but couldn't because of the noise.

So he picked up his cup and banged it in the table three times which quieted down the hall at once.

"What else?" he asked the boy and the new recruit gulped before he said.

"Lord Commander. He… he brought giants with him."

—————

After a fierce discussion between the brothers of the Nights Watch on whether they should allow Giants to come through the tunnel, it was finally decided by everyone that the Giants were technically not Wildlings as they had never really fought any Giants or even seen one for that matter.

So in the end, Jeor Mormont allowed them to open the gate and went ahead to meet with Lord Bolton.

He was frankly surprised by how few causalities the Bolton men had suffered in the expedition as he knew that they have never travelled North of the Wall before.

Perhaps, their training was just as hard as that Walton guy had claimed it was instead of hot air.

In the end, Jeor Mormont met Lord Bolton in front of his army of 1000 men, 83 giants and 27 mammoths.

"I see that you've succeeded in your venture my lord." Jeor Mormont said as he looked at the Giants in the distance, wondering how many men it'll take to kill one of them. 'More than the Nights Watch could afford.' His mind told him.

"I have my Lord. On all three of my ventures." Domeric Bolton said with a satisfied smirk and Jeor gave a nod in return.

Before Domeric had left the wall, he had told the Lord Commander of the three reasons why he was going on the expedition. For the Giants. For the Wargs and For the Children of the forest.

And Jeor Mormort could clearly see the giants as well as the Wildling men and women at the back of the group with their animals who could be none other than wargs. But he couldn't see the fabled Children of the Forest in front of him.

As if reading his mind, Domeric Bolton smirked at him and said "You're searching for the Children. Don't worry. They're already South of the Wall."

Jeor raised an eyebrow at those words and asked "Did they climbed across the wall?" to which Domeric simply shook his head.

"No my lord. But the Wall is made up of Ice and magic. Magic that was imbued into it by the Children of the Forest. So it's not hard for them to come and go across the Wall. They just don't do it because they didn't want to leave their caves before this."

"And they're now willing to leave those caves because of you?" Jeor Mormont asked and Domeric shook his head.

"No. Not for me. But for their duty. For a promise."

Jeor Mormont knew that he wouldn't get any more answers so he simply nodded his head and said "The hospitality of the Nights Watch is yours Lord Bolton."