Chapter 32 - Consequences.
Chapter 32 - Consequences.
[Chapter Size: 3200 Words.]
---------------------------------------
Third Person POV
North, 100 AC.
---------------------------------------
Blood dripped onto the ground between the leaves as he passed, while Jon finally caught sight of the farm among the trees, approaching it. Even the animals around seemed to move away from him in fear.
Jon knew it was because of the creature's head. Even dead, it still exuded a kind of presence that made every animal except Ghost feel their survival instincts flare up.
Jon wasn't surprised to find his mother crying at the entrance of their house, with Sarra by her side comforting her, while Roman prepared himself, saddling the horse. He had a crossbow in one hand and a sword in the other.
At some point, his mother had realized Jon hadn't returned from the forest after going to gather herbs. As the hours passed without any news of him, she imagined the worst.
It had already been four hours since Jon had left.
She had certainly realized he had truly gone deeper into the Wolf Forest after the bear.
Jon immediately felt guilty, but he still took a deep breath and approached them before he had been noticed.
Mari was together with Sam, standing near them. She was the first to see Jon coming along the side of the crops, riding Ghost and advancing with light steps through the snow. That was why no one had noticed his approach.
"Jon!" she shouted.
All heads lifted and turned toward him.
"Jon!" his mother shouted the moment she saw him. She got up running and rushed toward him with tears of relief and fear in her eyes.
Jon, already expecting what would come, climbed down from Ghost. There were several bloodstains spread across his body. When he had started cutting off the bear's neck, the blood had splattered easily, even staining his clothes.
His mother almost stumbled when she reached him.
"Jon!" she said, kneeling in front of him before hugging him. "Are you hurt?" she asked while looking over his body with a certain desperation.
"No... I'm fine," he murmured, looking at her somewhat embarrassed.
His mother still examined him, her green eyes shifting toward the bear's head hanging behind Ghost.
She shuddered at the sight of the enormous creature. That thing must have weighed more than thirty kilos. Ghost's entire rear side was covered in blood dripping from the severed head along the way.
She stared at the head for a moment, with Jon able to see her eyes reflecting every kind of feeling and fear, then she turned her eyes back to Jon.
Her green eyes became two furious emeralds. Jon didn't even have time to react before his mother's palm struck his face.
-Slap- 1
Jon merely turned his head to the side without reacting to the impact. The sting quickly spread across his cheek.
"You foolish boy! How could you risk your life like this?! Promise me you'll never do this again, Jon!" she began shouting while hugging him once more and crying.
Hearing those words, Jon remained still, still feeling the sting on the side of his face. 'Well... I deserved that,' Jon couldn't help but think as his arms wrapped around his mother's back, hugging her as well. Unable to feel angry about receiving the first slap of his life from his mother, since she had never laid a hand on him before.
His uncles arrived shortly afterward. Mari even seemed afraid to get close to the head and stayed at a distance with Sam. Her brother was still resting, unable to stay awake any longer after spending the night without sleep.
Jon looked at his uncle while still hugging his mother. His uncle seemed unsure of what to do, looking at his nephew who had been named only ten days ago and then at the monster's head.
"How did you do this...?" was all he managed to ask.
After all, that bear had already caused the deaths of armed soldiers, entire groups of experienced hunters, and even his own brother had almost died to that creature.
But his nephew had somehow killed it.
It wasn't possible.
Even after everything Jon had already shown himself capable of doing, this was still far beyond what anyone imagined. Many adults had already failed against that creature and a boy killed it?
That child had succeeded. And had even managed to remove the thing's head.
"Ghost helped me, obviously. We kept running from it while I shot arrows until it couldn't endure anymore and died."
"How many arrows did you shoot into it?" his uncle asked.
"I counted twenty-one," Jon replied.
His uncle shuddered.
"Damn it, brat... I could expect many things from you, but not this kind of madness. Do you know how worried your mother was about you? Your father was almost killed by that thing not long ago, and you simply went into the forest to face the creature that almost killed him, and killed other grown men!!" Roman had no gentle words for Jon.
"I know... but I knew the creature wasn't going to stop. Today my father survived, but what about when it reached the farm? What about Mom, you, Sarra, Sam, Mari, and Caim?" Jon shot back.
His mother seemed to tremble even more while continuing to cling to him.
"We would have dealt with it! We didn't need a brat solving a problem that even adults couldn't solve!" his uncle replied again, his voice harsh.
Jon did not look away from him. He knew his uncle was worried, but at the same time, he believed he had done the right thing. If he didn't deal with the bear now, who would? Maybe he wouldn't be able to save his family next time.
"I did what I thought was right, Uncle. Whether it's you or Mom trying to stop me, I don't regret doing this. I'd do it again, even if I had to receive another slap from Mom or deal with your dissatisfaction." Jon did not back down before his uncle's displeased stare while speaking in the harshest tone his age could allow.
His mother trembled, crying while still pulling him close to her.
"But you brat—" Roman did not seem satisfied with that, until his wife grabbed his arm, shaking her head for him not to continue the argument.
The man merely sighed and looked at the creature's head.
"Now I'll have to let the people from the village know they don't need to come anymore," he simply said.
"The people from the village?" Jon asked.
"Dad called some people to help search for you in the forest. Since you hadn't been seen for more than two hours, he asked a group to go deep into the woods with him," Mari explained.
Jon's eyes widened slightly as he understood that.
"Now I want to see you explain that a boy who's only had his name for ten days killed the bear," Roman grumbled.
Jon then stepped slightly away from his mother and looked at her, his green eyes meeting hers, so similar to his own, though less bright.
"I know you're not happy with me, Mom. I know what I did was reckless, but I don't regret it. Even if I don't like seeing you cry, I would still do the same thing to keep you and everyone here safe."
"I would never have allowed you to do that again, Jon," she grumbled while gripping his shoulders. She seemed defenseless before his gaze, and she saw that he truly would do something like that...
She merely swallowed dryly, yielding to her son's stare.
"Promise that the next time you're going to do something like this, you'll at least tell us..." was all she managed to say.
However, Jon could not agree to that.
"What for? So you can send a group with me and make me lose my advantage? I managed to kill it because I was alone. If there had been adults with me, I wouldn't have been able to deal with the bear. I only succeeded because I had Ghost, who could run through the forest," Jon grumbled.
His uncle seemed to want to say something, but ultimately could not answer.
They looked frustrated, but it was true. If Jon had taken more people with him, he probably would have failed. The bear could have killed everyone else and he would have had to try to defend them. He also would have lost the advantage of being able to follow the creature's blood, since the bear had been the only wounded one. If there had been more bodies, the bear could easily have ambushed them, even if Jon could sense it, the blood from other bodies would have greatly confused the trail.
"Can I take a bath now? We still have to remove the bear's head from Ghost. And if people from the village are coming here... how about we bring the bear's body to the farm? We still have a few hours before nightfall, and I'm sure the village can still make use of the meat. I only want the bear's fur and hide," Jon explained.
"Some families will be happy that you killed the bear. They're still mourning the relatives who died in the camp alongside your father," Sarra said, ignoring her husband's dissatisfied look, as he seemed to treat Jon as though he had done nothing wrong.
Jon stepped away from his mother and headed toward the house with Ghost.
No one said anything else.
He went to the entrance and started untying the ropes from the bear's head, until it finally fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
Jon then led Ghost to the stream near their house. The two jumped into the water to wash all the bloodstains from their bodies, clothes, and fur.
While washing the wolf, he could already hear the sounds of horses entering the farm a few minutes later.
He could already imagine the commotion that had caused.
Mari appeared at that moment.
"I didn't say anything, okay?" she said immediately.
Jon looked at her, knowing she was telling the truth. It was obvious that him disappearing for four hours had already left his mother in a panic.
"Aunt Rowena was really desperate... I've never seen her cry so much imagining you were dead. But I knew you wouldn't die that easily. And you came back!" Mari said.
Jon sighed.
"I didn't want to leave Mom like that... but what else could I do?"
"I know... maybe my mother would also react like that if I went out to face a bear that kills men in the middle of the forest. Maybe I'll do that one of these days," she said in a serious tone.
Jon grabbed water from the river and splashed it at her.
"Ah! Come on! I'm here as a beautiful and wonderful peasant girl, and you soak me like this!" she complained jokingly, while Jon merely shook his head.
"But don't worry... I won't let Mom become desperate again. I mean... now there's nothing left to worry about," Jon said while starting to leave the river with his clothes drenched, Ghost coming out alongside him. There were some clothes he had brought in his leather bag, which he had taken from Winterfell.
The two headed toward the farm, hearing more and more voices coming from the place, some even shouting, while his name could be heard among the conversations.
"Maybe when I have a son and see him disappear like that, I'll cry the way your mother did too."
"I highly doubt it. You'd be a terrible mother," Jon joked.
Mari punched him while they laughed. The atmosphere between them seemed much better now than before.
Internally, Mari had also been very frightened by his disappearance.
"On the bright side, now that I'm here, I can stay for a few days," Jon commented, noticing that.
"Lord Stark is going to be angry at you for disappearing from his castle like that..." she said.
"He will... but now that I'm already here after running away from the most important feast in the North, with all the great lords gathered in Winterfell. I'm going to get scolded either way, so why not spend some time with my family?" Jon replied with a shrug. He had already missed the harvest feast and wasn't in the mood yesterday.
He still couldn't believe he had been in Winterfell until yesterday.
They finally entered the farm area, finding at least eight people talking with his uncle while everyone stared at the gigantic bear's head.
Everyone's eyes automatically turned toward Jon the moment they spotted him.
"Well... this is your problem," Mari merely grumbled, stepping away from him.
"Jon, boy, tell me the truth: did you really go hunt the bear alone and kill it?" asked Owen, the village butcher himself, someone Jon had known for many years along with his wife Jaquel.
Jon nodded while looking at the several village men gathered there. He even found Lord Borok among them with a sword and a bow, preparing himself for the rescue.
That moved Jon.
Even they had been willing to risk themselves for him against a creature that killed armed men...
"I wouldn't have been able to do it without Ghost," Jon told the group of men.
"He doesn't seem injured... well, this is truly strange. Can you tell us how you did it?" Borok himself asked curiously.
"It was a hit-and-run tactic. I learned it in Winterfell from Maester Lorren. I've been training with a bow and arrows for the last two years and became good with the shortbow. If the target isn't farther than forty meters away, I can hit most of my shots, I get praised a lot in Winterfell for it. I used Ghost to move through the forest while keeping my distance from the bear. Once it was injured enough, it was easy to finish it off."
Jon explained everything easily to the men, who exchanged surprised glances and had silent questions for Roman, who did not know how to answer them.
"Well... what do you all think?" one of the men asked, breaking the silence.
"Hard to say it's a lie, even if it's difficult to believe... the boy brought back the creature's head after all. It has marks where arrows were removed," Owen said, though he kept staring at the creature's other eye. "That wound wasn't caused by an arrow. What caused that? It doesn't look like a blade."
"It was my raven," Jon replied.
He saw no reason to hide that fact. Jon raised his arm while his raven landed on it. Biri, his eagle, and Snow the owl, who had followed him from Winterfell, were also there, though they remained perched somewhere only observing.
'I need to give you a name...' Jon thought, since the eagle had not only allowed him to see his family through his Warg abilities in dreams, but had also helped him deal with the ravens.
It was now his third bird.
'Your name will be Shadow because of your dark color.'
He did not think much about the name, it seemed fitting, even if a little obvious.
"Well... no one should be too surprised by this," one of the men muttered in the end after seeing the bizarre interaction between the boy and the raven, while they exchanged glances.
"The body is in the forest? You told your uncle you wanted to retrieve it, right?"
"Yes. I believe we can give part of the meat to the families who lost relatives in the camp that almost killed my father and also divide the rest throughout the whole village. There's no way to store all of it here on the farm, so it's better to distribute it to everyone. I only want the hide and fur..." Jon said while the men nodded.
After a brief discussion, they truly decided to do it.
They could sell a good portion of the meat later to merchants, but Jon did not care much about the spoils. What he truly wanted was what he had already asked for.
He wanted to make good cloaks out of it. His grandmother would probably be able to sew something incredible using that material.
The men nodded at the idea and set out. Jon took advantage of the remaining sunlight while guiding the group.
After an hour and a half, they arrived at the location. There were already a few foxes trying to gnaw on parts of the bear's right leg, with the animal's body still stretched out, headless and full of arrows.
After scaring the animals away, the group of nine men together with Jon stared at the creature, unable to believe the boy had truly fought that thing.
There were still arrows scattered around the area, some missed shots from Jon, along with blood everywhere.
"By the gods, boy... I've never seen a creature like this. You truly are protected by the gods to face something like that. And besides surviving to tell the story, you even killed it... I can't believe this, even seeing it with my own eyes," Owen murmured.
"Jaquel is going to have a fit the moment she hears about this..."
He was already thinking about his wife, who adored Jon and had been very worried when Roman showed up announcing that Jon had not only failed to return, but had disappeared into the forest, just as they were planning to visit the farm to see how Garen was doing after hearing the news that he had already recovered from near death.
"Well, let's tie it to the horses and follow the trail we came through. If we hurry, we can still make it back to the farm before nightfall," Roman said while everyone started working.
Not surprisingly, everyone's eyes remained fixed on Jon, who stayed mounted on Ghost in silence.
They were still trying to process that they were dragging the carcass of a gigantic creature that that boy had faced alone in that forest... and defeated.
"Why did you do it?" Borok approached and asked as he came closer to Jon. Borok was also standing nearby, listening with interest for Jon's next answer.
Jon looked at him for a moment before responding.
"I had people to protect. I couldn't let that beast do whatever it wanted. There would come a time when it would reach the farm... threaten Mom, Sam, and the others. And if that day came, no one would have any way to defend themselves from that thing...."
The man beside him, Borok, remained silent for a few seconds.
"Your uncle said you were quite stubborn in insisting that you didn't regret this. You have a noble heart, boy. I always knew you would go far... that you would become someone known throughout the entire North. What we saw today only confirmed that," the man said.
He had trained Jon since he was six namedays old, even before the boy had the opportunity to go to Winterfell and receive even better training. He had already seen that the boy possessed great talent despite his young age, even if he claimed that seeing a child wield a sword was far too premature to confirm anything.
Still, even if he had all the training in the world, Jon had still done something that seemed impossible.
Then they headed back to the farm once again, dragging the enormous bear's body while making their way through the forest.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
🦝 Raccoon here: 🦝
I deeply appreciate your support since the beginning of this exciting journey!
🌟 RaccoonLeague | Patreon🌟
Visit our Patreon for more: https://www.patreon.com/RaccoonLeague
Extra Content Already Available:
🏴☠️ One Piece - I Am a Different Luffy!: 30 extra chapters!
👑 Game of Thrones: The Legend of Jon Arctic!: 30 extra chapters!
👑 Game of Thrones: DragonBorn! 30 extra chapters!
👑 HOTD: Jon Arctic! 30 extra chapters!
🌀 Naruto - Minato Namikaze SI!: 30 extra chapters!
🗡️ The Witcher - As Uchiha Madara! 30 extra chapters!
⚡HP - Jon Arctic as Severus Snape! 30 extra chapters!
⚡ Harry Potter - Shadow Monarch! Finished! [100%]
⚡Danmachi – The Alchemist! [Coming Soon.]
Visit our Patreon for more!!
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆