Lord mace

Moving over to where the wagons are I take stock of what's around me, 7 wagons full and of various things, such as food, seeds for farming, equipment for the various craftsmen following me, weapons for people who know how to use them, not to mention the chest with the 2000 gold dragons I got as a gift to help establishing my lordship, not to mention the various chests I traded some of those dragons for silver stage as a gold dragon is hard to change with small folk

...also surrounding the general area just grazing are about 12 horses and more so of various cattle such as cows, sheep and goats we are bringing that I received from Eddard Stark as another partial gift for my lordship title and to help start me off

It's almost feeling like a cattle drive at this point.

Not that those horses are something I could use personally as I'm not sure how much I weight exactly, but if I had to guess I'd say somewhere between 500 too 600 kilos.

I'm a thick boi of that there's no doubt, I tried to mount a horse once while I was in the rebellion war….we had horse meat in our rations for awhile after that… needless to say I also never went higher than the ground floor while I was in winterfell, a few people asked why until I sat on one of the benches at a feast and collapsed the whole table… I'll have to make extra sturdy furniture for my place.

People seem to be settling in around various fires scooping out bowls of meaty broths into wooden bowls out of metal cauldrons filled with the life sustaining soups cold miserable places are so famous for, so this being the north of course soup would be the go to meal

Not that they taste that great…..but after 500 years of nutrient gel and literally being force fed my own shit by my power armour in heavy combat situations….but in the 40k verse….heavy combat situations were a Tuesday afternoon, thank fuck it bypassed our taste buds….. but after all that this "bland" meat soup is the best food I've ever eaten.

But then again I could literally just walk over and take a bite of a tree and get almost the same amount of energy from that as I would this….but that wouldn't look great from an outside perspective…

But I noticed next to one of the bigger fires a solid tree stump has been placed near it just for me…..I don't really know these people but the guy who thought up to dig up a tree stump just so I could sit and eat is pretty alright in my books.

I walk over and take a seat as the girl from before struggles to bring over a near wok sized bowl of meaty broth to me…..looks heavy

"You're a good lass, thank you"

I take the broth with one hand and and bring it to my mouth to take a sip….hmmmm….that hits the spot…..even though I don't actually need to eat that much with my physiology, I still enjoy the feeling.

The girl ran off but quickly returned with a wooden spoon and passes it to me before doing a quick curtesy and leaves to do whatever it is she was doing before….I really should know their names….

Around the fire my stump and I are placed are only 2 people.. an elderly lady and a lad no more than 18, not wanting to try and scare the old lady I call out to the lad.

" you there boy, what is your name"

I should probably work on my social skills and possibly how I start conversations as the poor kid nearly threw his soup in his own face in fright, but answered me almost instantly.

" m-m'lord, my name is will"

"And what are you doing here will?"

The boy pales before he stood up ready to turn on his heel and run, I think he took my question the wrong way..

" I'm sorry m'lord, I'll leave at once"

" no no lad, that's not what I meant, what I meant was why are you here, travelling with a newly established lord to the middle of bum fuck nowhere instead of somewhere more prosperous?"

He seemed to calm down a little after my explanation but doesn't sit back down as he speaks

"I'm not surprised you don't remember me m'lord as you were in the heat of battle when it happened, but 3 different times in 3 different battles you saved mine and my fathers life while we were fighting in the rebellion under lord starks banner"

I did? I don't particularly remember coming to anyones rescue from "my memories" just me cruising around battle fields putting the weapon to flesh of anyone who was unlucky enough to be in my way

"I did? Who's your father?"

" he's the man you had skin your gigantic monster of a bear you brought back to camp, his name is Rickard"

Of course his name is rickard, there's like 6 names in the north, everyone names their sons or daughters after lords after all…..I'm more surprised this kids name is will

" fair enough, but that seems like kind of a stretch to uproot your life after surviving a war and just follow me to start again"

" aye m'lord, normally it would be….but after watching you crush any and all enemies in such a way in battle of the trident, both me and my father vowed to follow you to the ends of the world "

Trident? What did I do that was so inspiring that made the 2 follow me through all this?

"And what part of that fight inspired such passions?"

"Well m'lord….."

People have seemed to clue on some war stories are about to be traded as a small crowd starts to gather around the fire with their soups and breads waiting eagerly to listen to tale of what id done to inspire this young man and his father into such loyalty that he would voluntarily uproot his and his family's life to follow me into the unknown.

" when we and our men were being pushed back and at our breaking point, you showed up…..no armour, weapon broken, and covered in blood fresh from another battlefield, you charged into the fray with nay a thought to your own safety , and just as you did, some lord covered from head to toe in heavy plate armour on the enemy side was there bragging about how he would take your traitorous head as a trophy…..He seemed to know who you were and I can only guess the reason he seemed so confident was because you had no armour or weapon and were most likely tired from battle…..but you just waited until he finished his speech, made your way over to him and grabbed his sword arm as he lunged at you, but instead of just ending his life you…..grabbed his leg and used him as a club to start smash your way through their defences with no issue what so ever…...I've been in a few battles since the war began but that was the first time I've seen the enemy moral broken and our sides moral raised in such a way….it was the most terrifying and amazing thing I'd ever seen….and I vowed on that day I would follow wherever you Went"

Oh yeah, that fat little wanker boasting about how great a swordsman he was at the mud gate, "I" just let him finish his monologue about how he would end the rebellion and how I was a dead man and used him as my "lord mace" because my axe was broken and his plate armour seemed pretty solid, i managed to kill about 40 men before my "weapon" gave out and whatever was left of his body drained out of his armour.

" fair enough I suppose, well will, you seem like a good kid, tell me a little about yourself and your family"

He proceeded to tell me about his father who was also in the war, his mother who was a seamstress and his little sister who was 14….or 10 and 4…..I can see that getting old quick, and how they uprooted their life in winterfell to follow me into the horizon.

About how he was a hunter by trade but was learning leather working from his father and how his mother nearly killed both of them when they told her they were uprooting to follow me.

His mother lyanna, because of course that's her name, calmed down a few weeks into our journey after getting her head around how her life is changing…..it also helped out the their "lord" actually helped them survive by hunting meet for the group by himself which I found out just doesn't happen.

Not that "I"minded, hunting helped "me" clear my head at the time, not to mention I was so good at it….

Apparently there is a small fishing village at sea dragon point that I didn't know about, only about 80 people, it's actually really fertile land around that area and the only reason it's not pretty well populated despite having no ruling lord until now was because of wilding and iron born raids…

The reason he knows this is his old man has gone there a few times over the years for various reasons and that's what he's heard

To be honest I'm kinda hoping for a bunch of iron born raids, far be it from me to ever turn down free ships.

Just as the conversation was starting to die down I felt a wiggle coming from my cloak….oh shit I forgot about the pups!

I reach into my cloak and pull out two wild cubs much to everyone surprise and quickly explain the circumstances around our meeting and telling them I plan on raising them which no one objected too….not that they could because I'm a lord, and even if I wasn't I wouldn't give a fuck what they thought about my new pups.

I set both pups down….who both seemed intimidated by the "giant" humans they were now surrounded by and quickly hid under my feet, I'm going to have to find names for them soon….oh right..

" will, go grab some meat and bowls of water for these two…..also when your old man has finished skinning that bear tell him I want the legs bones with a little bit of meat left on them for the pups to chew on, they are still teething, and I don't want them chewing on all my shit

Will just gives me a nod with a quick " yes m'lord" and moves on to do what he was instructed as I follow up by asking a few of the random small folks gathered around the fire about themselves as the night carries on..