Chapter 189: Strange Footprints
Chapter 189: Strange Footprints
Beyond the Wall, True North
POV of Doric Bolton
The magic armors had done their job as they escaped the area that Weeper’s people had surrounded them, but that didn’t an things were going easily.
Unfortunately, due to a three-week delay because Doric miscalculated the Glass Cande’s functionality, eventually they had to fight a total of 28 small groups and kill over a thousand n and won before they were finally out of the area that the Weeper was using to forage for food.
By this ti, the White Walkers had moved once again, and he had to use so wild direwolves’ blood as a blood sacrifice so that he could charge the petrified Dragon Egg once again.
He wasn’t sure whether the direwolves that were exhausted from blood loss would survive if he released them. So, he took them with him, along with the small host.
He would release them once they recovered, or if one of the wargs wanted them, they could take them as warging animals.
He wanted to treat them as well as he could because the dragon egg that was recharged thanks to them allowed him to use the Glass Candle to find the White Walkers once again.
One day later.
"Footprints. That’s all I see." Benjen Stark said, not even trying to hide the disappointnt in his voice.
"No. There’s... sothing weird about these footprints." Qhorin Halfhand said as he studied the wights’ footprints on the ground.
"You found sothing?" Benjen Stark asked as he jumped down from his horse to study the footprints on the snow. "Hmm... now that you point it out. There is sothing... strange about these footprints. I just can’t tell what it is."
"They look unnatural." Kalmyr, the most excellent tracker in his army and one of the wargs he had brought with him on this expedition, spoke as he knelt and sniffed the ground and frowned. "There’s no sll."
Qhorin nodded at Kalmyr’s words. "True. I noticed the sa thing. But... there’s sothing else we are missing here. Though the lack of sll is alarming enough as it is."
"Why is that?" Smalljon asked as he knelt and looked at the tracks as well. But he was sure that just like him, Smalljon didn’t know how to read the tracks either and was just doing it to look impressive. "True, so of the wildlings we killed sll like hell. But what makes it alarming?"
"All living things have sll," Kalmyr said as he whistled and sat down on the ground, getting ready to warg into one of the wolves under his care.
They were simple arctic wolves. Not the direwolves Doric was so fond of. But these wolves also had a great sense of sll and were great trackers. Both these traits made Kalmyr invaluable to him.
Well, he would have been invaluable in this expedition if he hadn’t used the Glass Candle to learn his target’s location by cheating.
But with the Glass Candle, he could only scout from above. In places like a city, where there were many covered places to hide, Kalmyr’s skill was still invaluable to him.
And since the Glass Candle failed to show at the exact vicinity of the White Walkers, he still had to rely on Kalmyr this ti.
"Even those who’ve just taken a bath have a sll." Kalmyr said as one of his wolves arrived in front of him, and he looked in the wolf’s eyes, "Only those who’ve been dead and have been frozen for a long while don’t have any."
Then Kalmyr’s eyes went white, and he slumped down on the floor.
He and Qhorin helped the man’s body against a tree as the wolf bowed in thanks before sniffing the target and darting forward.
"Be careful," Doric said, and the wolf huffed before vanishing among the trees.
Now, all that remained was to wait and allow his scouts ti to discover the White Walkers’ location.
At least, that’s what Doric told the other heirs and commanders.
His guests didn’t know, but Doric was a warg, too, even though he was a special kind of warg.
But Doric didn’t want anyone else to know about it if possible. Knowing he was a warg ant knowing which animals he could warg into, too.
And that would increase the likelihood of his close friend falling into a dangerous situation, and could lead to the detection of his nurous espionage operations.
After all, as long as no one knew the truth, Hedwig was just an owl. And most people wouldn’t even notice an owl nearby while they were talking, and even if they did, they wouldn’t hide their conversation from her.
Doric turned away from the others and walked towards his tent. Once inside, he called out for Hedwig to co.
-Pop
With a pop sound, Hedwig apparated inside the tent and landed on Doric’s shoulder.
"Hello friend, how are you?"
-Hoo, hoo
Hedwig hooted in response while nipping Doric’s ear.
"Okay, okay. My fault." Doric said, took two pieces of bacon out of his bottomless pouch, and gave them to Hedwig. He always kept so bacon in his bottomless pouch for Hedwig, and the stasis charm kept them from spoiling.
After Hedwig finished her snack, Doric set to work.
"Okay, girl. We have work to do."
Doric looked into Hedwig’s eyes, and in that mont, a connection was ford between the two.
But unlike normal wargs, Doric didn’t lose control of his own body.
This was what made Doric a special warg. Unlike other wargs, when Doric ford a warg bond with Hedwig, his consciousness didn’t leave his body.
Instead, it was as if Doric and Hedwig shared their consciousness, and Doric could see and hear information from Hedwig in his own mind.
And Hedwig, unlike other warg animals, did not consciously enter a sleep state while Doric ford a warg bond with her.
Rather than using Hedwig’s body, Doric was instructing and directing her.
This type of warg bond had several advantages over a normal bond.
First, Doric’s ability to maintain control of his own body was sothing only other wargs could dream of.
And Hedwig’s continued consciousness during the warg bond allowed her to utilize her natural instincts better.
After all, no matter how much a warg could warg into an animal, it was impossible for that animal to fully utilize its abilities.
Once the warg bond was ford between them, Hedwig flew out of the tent, and Kalmyr began flying in the direction he had gone.
And everything Hedwig saw was reflected in Doric’s mind at the sa ti.
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Ch.190: Playing Cat and Mouse
Ch.191: Magical Dominance
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