For whom the bell tolls

Jon woke up a month later eyes fluttering open as he slowly shifted against the cocoon of wood and foliage that nestled him tightly in place.

Chirping filled the air around the tree that he was resting in, and he was almost hesitant to break out of the cocoon but ultimately Jon gave a few kicks bashing out a big enough gap to slip out.

Once he was out of the cocoon and standing on the branch that had noticeably thickened seemingly having merged with the other three Jon turned in place finding himself higher up than before as well.

Shoving some of the now more vibrant foliage out of the way he peered around at the road now realizing just how big this particular tree had grown. It had seemingly shot up about another ten feet the branches extending out over the tops of some of the trees around it.

The leaves were turning an off shade of gold as well seemingly releasing a faint amount of light that captured Jon's attention for a moment.

Not seeing anything he could use here Jon leapt down landing at the base of the tree with a soft thud getting ready to move away when he spotted a decent walking stick laying on the ground.

It looked like it had naturally fallen out of the tree and Jon took it using it while adjusting how he walked while heading towards Winterfell gaining a limp and a slightly bent back.

His hair had grown longer, and the beginning stages of a beard helped him sell a scraggily look of a refugee or nomad wandering from place to place in search of work.

Though realistically Jon only had one goal travel west, but he would need funds and he might as well collect survival skills and perhaps some trade skills as well.

Looking longing to the west as he fumbled his way to Winterfell it was another three days of travel before, he finally found himself standing outside of the gates.

There was a slight line but not big by any means as it seemed quite a number of people were away at the moment according to the chatter that he was hearing at least.

"The Lord is still looking to increase the number of blacksmiths, right?"

"Yes, he is though the old blacksmith is being quite annoying about having to handle so many people trying to learn from him then quitting shortly after."

Once he was at the front of the line Jon inquired with the guards about the location of the blacksmith holding a small conversation with them in which they looked at him with the disgust the whole time.

They had practically informed him that with a crippled leg long work would be impossible for someone like him insisting that he should find another line of work.

Not that it really mattered to Jon he knew that his leg was just fine, but it was nice to know that his acting was good enough to fool guards at least.

Shuffling through the relatively small crowds on the paths Jon soon found himself standing outside of an open-air shop that had a number of stations in it a bear of an older man working away.

Stationed beside him at a different anvil was a younger man that seemed to share some of the Targaryen traits purple eyes paired with black hair.

[Observe]

[The forgotten prince Lv.35]

[Reincarnated human]

[Stats Hidden]

Jon froze up for a second at the results of the skill before returning to his act approaching the blacksmith.

"Hello? I was hoping to be trained how to blacksmith."

"Hmm boy with a leg like that you would be lucky to make it from the forge to the anvil fast enough to work the metal let alone make a decent item."

"I can try though, Sir."

"Don't start with that sir crap you will be given today to try your hardest I want a simple let's say shovel head forged by end of day or you can fuck off."

Jon nodded moving into the forge settling the walking stick against the wall as he made a show of stretching for a minute before finally hobbling around at twice the speed grabbing an iron ingot.

Tossing it into the forge Jon stood there aware that the blacksmith was watching him intently getting ready to give him tips and actually try to make it fair at least for him.

After a few minutes the blacksmith finally spoke up.

"Pull the ingot now and set up on the anvil next to me." While instructing Jon the blacksmith set up a hammer on the side of the anvil.

"You are going to hit it to flatten it as many times as it takes you to do so before heating it again to give it a slight curve fairly simple starting test."

Jon using the tongs for the first time in his life struggled a little to grab the ingot but once he focused his higher-than-normal stats showed their worth allowing him to fluidly pluck the glow ingot out.

Hobbling over to the anvil he set it down gripping the hammer tightly as he prepared the first swing bringing it down with what he believed to be a good enough amount of strength.

Though when the ingot only dented a little Jon couldn't help but frown a little adding more strength to the second swing the dent almost doubling in size that time.

Soon he was striking the ingot at a rapid pace managing to mostly flatten it over the course of two hours having to stick it back into the forge a couple of times.

Once it was flattened out, he worked on giving it the curved edges hammering away even as his enhanced muscles began to ache from lack of breaks.

With out having noticed at all Jon worked throughout the day the sun beginning to set when he put the final touches on the shovel head something that he certainly could have finished hours earlier.

[Uncommon Shovel Head]

[Made of normal iron this shovel head was crafted by an amateur to the art of blacksmithing making it all the more surprising that this shovel head will allow holes to be dug twice as fast]

[Blacksmithing Skill Acquired!]

[Similar skills detected merging]

[Crafting Level Increased X3]

"That is good work kid you can come back tomorrow for more lessons I expect the same dedication as tonight from you but for now go get some sleep."

Jon took a second to shake off the urge to keep forging his mind trying to come up with designs for weapons as little tidbits of information related to making things filled his head thanks to the increased levels in crafting.

Touching the handle that was tucked underneath his shirt Jon nodded at the blacksmith grabbing his walking stick hobbling away.

He may have been mostly focused on the forging but that didn't mean that he had missed it a slip up in the young man who the system labelled "The Forgotten Prince".

It was surprise and hatred but that couldn't have been correct there was nothing linking the two together at the moment except the blacksmith.

Now Jon wasn't exactly a big fan of reading books, but he was aware of the tendency for enemies to try and remove a problem before it became too big to control.

Shuffling along the roads of Winterfell while keeping an eye on the shadows Jon moved in search of an inn the biting chill of the North.

And while walking along a particularly desolate road Jon leaned backwards a sword arching over his chest missing by inches as he had just managed to hear it the attacker having bumped into a wall.

The sword dug partially into the walking stick though it stopped barely a ways in suddenly enough to make his attacker stumble.

Noticing that detail Jon dropped to his back rolling back to his feet more to the right keeping the wall of a building on one side.

"You should have just let yourself die there." A slightly deep voice spoke from a different alley.

A bigger man almost seven feet tall emerged from between the buildings while the forgotten prince stood in place sword hanging limply at his side.

"It's too late now we knew when he would arrive, but something is different with this version." The forgotten prince spoke softly the larger man halting his menacing steps.

"It isn't too late now is still the prime chance to take him out."

"No, now the time has passed."

Bells seemed to start echoing from the two as a symbol began to glow brightly underneath their clothes resembling an hourglass wrapped in lightning.

"We will see you out there in the verses."

While the two were talking Jon reached out arm extended with the handle clasped loosely in it the big man noticed but a little late as the blade sprang out the two disappearing as blood splashed.

An arm hit the ground sword still loosely gripped in it the immaculate sleeve of the forgotten prince wrapped around the limb as the fingers twitched a few times.

"I hope when we see each other again that you are prepared to lose more than an arm."

Kicking the limb Jon returned the handle to its hiding spot returning to walking around with his walking stick aware that on some level he had probably kicked a massive hornets nest.

But he would see for whom the bell would really toll only when the fighting broke out.