Hornfoots

"May the winter not kill them."

At the exit of the Thenn valley, just before entering the gorge, a dozen Thenn men, with Styr at their head, dismissed the caravan of the black axe tribe.

"It won't, and when we return, I expect you to keep your word."

Oswin shook hands with Styr to bid the group farewell.

"And thank you for the glass houses, and everything you gifted us with, boy, my people won't go hungry even if the winter drags on."

Styr nodded to Oswin and turned his gaze to Blake.

"This winter won't be long, and the greenhouses won't last long, but they'll still be useful one way or another, when the ice chunks start weeping, you'd better remove them or harvest the crops."

Blake took the Magnar of Thenn's hand in response.

They had told the Magnar of their intention to trade with the giants, and it was a surprise to them to learn that the men of Thenn had maintained trade with the giants for thousands of years, and the two groups considered themselves friends.

Styr, to help them, had sent one of his best warriors, Gerd, accompanied by 5 Thenn men.

This group would not only take them to the giants but would also follow the group to the lands of eternal winter.

After listening to Oswin and Blake, and seeing the ice sword Oswin had given him, a sense of urgency filled Styr's heart.

But he would not just wait for Oswin to bring some spawn from the lands of eternal winter to run scared under the protection of the black axe tribe as they knew how to deal with these creatures, he would send his best warriors along with the group, and find out for himself if what Oswin and Blake said was true.

In response to this favor from the men of Thenn, Blake proposed to stay in Thenn for a full week.

During that time, Blake made 2 large greenhouses so that the Thenn men could continue farming during the winter and built a canal from the lake, which would carry water to the settlement and the greenhouses.

Blake in turn learned the methods the Thenn men used to make bronze, the Thenn had a deep copper and tin mine from which they obtained the material, and forged them in furnaces carved from stone.

The Thenn placed the bronze in stone molds where they made axes, swords, and disks that they used to make breastplates or beat into the shape of a helmet.

Blake, in consideration for the knowledge they passed on to him, taught them to make clay molds so that they could shape the bronze into whatever form they wanted, being able to create breastplates, shoulder pads, and various armor, without the need to only sew bronze disks.

The Thenn smiths had been impressed with this and requested that he teach them more, but time was short and they needed to leave, leaving only a promise on Blake's part to teach them later new techniques and objects they could make.

"In the end, we could only trade 15 wagons with Thenn, and we have 5 to spare, do you know of another tribe nearby on the way to the Giants?"

Oswin asked Gerd as they walked through the gorge.

"There are only two nearby tribes, the Cave dwellers and the Hornfoots, but the Cave dwellers are to the south and we would have to detour to visit them, the Hornfoots on the other hand are to the east and it wouldn't take us long to reach one of their settlements."

Gerd knew these lands much better than Oswin and his men, so Oswin agreed with the suggestion and told Gerd to take them to the Hornfoots.

"Do you want to face the giants again?"

Blake asked Zafar, who was walking behind Oswin.

"No one who has seen them would want to face the giants, but if you die, my father will skin me alive, so I'll go with you some more."

Zafar replied, joking.

"It might be the giants who will skin us, for them, it would be as easy as doing it to a rabbit, I've seen them tear off the legs of deer with just their hands."

Gerd said joining in the chatter.

Half of Zafar's men had left with the sheep and the various goods they traded with Thenn's men, Zafar had decided to stay with the other half of the men and leave for the second settlement only after safely engaging in negotiations with the giants.

"What are the Hornfoots like?"

Blake asked Gerd.

"They are a peaceful and friendly people, but they can become very dangerous if you decide to confront them. They run through the forests and Frostfangs looking for prey, they don't wear shoes, but they are very fast, and although they always carry spears, they never get so close that they have to use them. Hornfoots hunt using slingshots and rocks that they sharpen to a point. They throw the rocks with such force that they can pierce a wooden shield, let alone leather armor."

"And what could they give us for our wares besides furs?"

Blake asked again.

"They raise sheep and goats, and from what I've heard, they are so good with slings as they used them to keep wolves away from their flocks."

Gerd spoke the common tongue, as did Styr, as both had traded with many tribes, so he stopped using the old tongue when he left Thenn.

As the sun was about to set, they pitched their tents and prepared for the night.

"Do you also want to take these Hornfoots?"

Oswin asked Blake.

"They have characteristics that could be useful to us, as they are peaceful and raise sheep, plus they have held their own among the Thenn, the giants, the Cave dwellers, and the Nightrunners, so they are a strong people."

The two were chatting about the next plan of action in Oswin's tent.

"According to Gerd, they are a large tribe, they have 3 large settlements, so it would be difficult to absorb them."

Oswin nodded slightly.

"When I recruit men, I never go after the whole tribe at once, I just need to offer them what they need and many of them will defect to join us, and with a few more trips there will be no need to do anything anymore, they will come to the tribe themselves. That is the method I have used to grow the tribe so far."

Blake shrugged his shoulders.

"We don't have that much time to do that anymore, do you have any other way?"

Oswin's brows furrowed as he thought.

"Can you make another ice sword?"

Oswin asked, but Blake shook his head.

"I could make it, but sharpening it will take a long time, so you won't be able to do that trick again of breaking a bronze sword with a single blow."

The ice sword was the first weapon made by Blake with his blood.

It was made of 50% water and 50% blood and became extremely hard. But, because of that hardness, it was almost impossible to sharpen, Blake had tried everything, he even heated a piece of steel until it was red hot, but the sword was completely resistant, although it made an unsettling sound.

The only way he could sharpen the sword was with a piece of obsidian after passing it over the edge of the sword hundreds of times.

Blake, in his experiments with the sword, crashed it against obsidian knives, discovering that, although obsidian did not break the ice sword, it was the material that most resisted the onslaught.

Obsidian was an expensive material to obtain, so the tribe did not have much, Blake gathered as much as he could and made 10 obsidian knives and 30 obsidian arrows with which he armed the warriors for the expedition.

Should they encounter a white walker, these were the only weapons that would protect them.

"Then it is best to avoid any confrontation, I have never visited the Hornfoots, and I don't know how they would react to our intentions."

Oswin shook his head, it was dangerous to start a confrontation with such small numbers. Besides, the Hornfoots were not the reason they had started this journey, Oswin wanted to capture a wraith, and find some way to cure his son Blake.

With these two things, and with some luck, they could cross the great wall, and Blake could have a wife, have a child and thus give him grandchildren, nothing would make him happier than this.

"Well, there's nothing more to do then, try to bring as many as you can towards the tribe, the more the better we can protect ourselves in case something goes wrong."

They finished the conversation, Oswin lay down to sleep to rest from the exhausting day and Blake left the camp to go hunting in the forest.

It had been over a month since he left the tribe and he had not slept at all since then, this was strange, as he should have the first signs of tiredness, but in fact, it was quite the opposite.

As they walked towards the lands of eternal winter, Blake felt more and more energetic.

Blake jumped effortlessly over a tree branch as he searched for prey.

With his great eyesight, he spotted 3 huge Direwolf chasing an Elk.

Two were in the lead, trying to bite the desperately running moose, while the third was just keeping pace behind.

Blake approached, drawing his Bow and placing an arrow on the string.

It wasn't the first time he had hunted a direwolf, but it was the first time he had seen 3 of them together.

The Direwolves were huge, as big as a horse, so they would make good breakfast meat.

He had to hurry, as the first two had managed to bring down the elk, and now they were subduing it on the ground while biting its neck and one of its legs.

When he was at sufficient range to be sure to hit, Blake drew the bowstring taut and let the arrow out toward the straggling wolf.

"Woo!"

The wolf let out a howl before it fell into the snow, the arrow had pierced its neck from side to side.

"Auuuuuuuu!"

"Roooar!"

When they saw their fallen companion, one of the Direwolves let out a pitiful howl, while the other bared its teeth and roared off into the woods.

Blake placed another arrow on the bowstring, striking this time at the larger Direwolf.

"Wofh!"

The arrow smashed into the animal's head as it bared its teeth, killing it instantly.

The third Direwolf, which was the smallest of the three, took one last look at its fallen companions and ran into the forest.

Blake attacked him with two more arrows, but the wolf was very fast, so his arrows ended up hitting trees as he watched the animal get lost in the forest.

Blake put away his bow and walked towards the prey.

The wolves had bitten the elk's neck, so it had already bled to death.

Blake cut open the elk's stomach, pulling out the useless guts, and doing the same to the Direwolf that was closest.

Since the elk and Direwolf were very heavy and would be a hassle to transport, Blake rigged a makeshift sled from the hollow trunk of a fallen tree.

He mounted the first Direwolf and the elk on the sled and walked to the last Direwolf, who had been the first to kill.

"Pregnant..."

As Blake was about to pull the guts out of the second Direwolf, he furrowed his eyebrows.

He hadn't noticed because of the Direwolf's fur and already large size, but now he could tell.

Blake placed his hand on the animal's nose, it had stopped breathing, and from the blood staining the snow, it had been that way for a while.

It was a rule among hunters to avoid pregnant prey, according to Clay, the hunter who killed an animal that was pregnant would have bad luck in the hunt.

Blake sighed, it was too late, the arrow had been released and the she-wolf was dead. He would not waste the meat, but he would give the pups a funeral of flames so that they would not be devoured or rise like wraiths.

Blake opened the belly of the she-wolf, some time ago, this scene would have made him nauseous, but he was no longer the same person, both inside and out.

When he pulled out the she-wolf's amniotic sac and cut it open, 7 small wolves, already covered with fur, showed themselves.

Blake moved them a little with the handle of his knife, to make sure they were dead, as they did not move, Blake walked into the forest to look for dry branches with which to make the bonfire.

Funerals on this side of the great wall involved burning bodies. Some said it was to lift the soul to the stars, where it would shine eternally, others said it was to cleanse the spirit, and that it would have better luck in the next life, but Blake thought it was an ancient tradition, passed down from generation to generation to prevent others from taking over the bodies of the dead.

When he returned, Blake made a mound of branches and placed the cubs on it.

He pulled out a flint he kept in his pouch and began to light the bonfire.

Sparks fell on the cubs, and Blake noticed that one of them began to move because of it.

Stopping, Blake pulled a piece of rabbit fur from his bag and picked up the wolf cub.

It was strange that it was alive, it had taken over an hour to get it out from inside the she-wolf since he had killed it and had left it in the snow while he searched for firewood, and, still, the pup had clung to life, refusing to die.

Blake hesitated briefly about what to do with the pup, Direwolves were magical animals, and he would have liked to have one, he would give it to Ygritte to protect her as the wolves of the Stark family's children protected their owners.

But being in the middle of the forest, in winter, and with no plans to return to the tribe soon, it would be difficult to keep the pup alive.

Blake decided to give it a try, made sure the other pups were dead and lit the campfire, then loaded the second Direwolf onto the sled and set off back to camp.

He put the surviving wolf cub in a wool bag and slung it over his shoulder, whether he survived or died, he would be left to his own devices.

On his way back he noticed a road, and following it he found a village, it was the settlement of the Hornfoots.