The Mountain of Ice and Fire

On the Fist of the First Men, in the snowy ground, beside the spiral of dismembered limbs, the Night King wore a black cloak, the very cloak of the Night's Watchmen. His body, his skin, his auburn hair, all seemed encased in ice. Through the thin, armor-like layer of frost, one could see the true skin and color of his human flesh beneath the ice.

The Night King's ice-blue eyes gazed at the gray sky. He saw, hundreds of miles away on the sea near Hardhome, the last of the Eastwatch fleet discovering the anomaly on the coast. Several warships did not approach the shore, but maintained a distance. Nearly two hundred people stood on the decks: Night's Watchmen from Eastwatch and guards of Davos Seaworth, the Hand of the King. They all watched the coast from the decks.

On the shore, wights and White Walkers were cleaning the battlefield, erasing all traces of the slaughter.

The plea for help from Hardhome was not limited to Eastwatch; they had also sent messages to the Shadow Tower and Castle Black.

The Night King felt a slight regret. Humans were cunning, splitting their forces into two groups. A fleet with large warships had witnessed the aftermath of the slaughter on the coast. If only there had been a little more time, the scene of the massacre in the snow could have been completely concealed.

The Night King needed ships, large warships were what he desperately needed. The Wall could not be breached head-on, because the base of the ice wall contained a massive magic array. The sole purpose of the magic array was to prevent the passage of wights and White Walkers.

Unless the Wall collapsed, the White Walkers and wights could not cross it. The Wall itself was a massive magic array targeting dark magical creatures.

Eight thousand years ago, humans and humanoid races were in a magical age. Continent's wizards gathered, led by Brandon Stark, and built the Wall. The foundation stones of the Wall, the ice wall itself, were engraved with magical spells and patterns to prevent the passage of White Walkers and wights.

Unable to forcibly pass the Wall, the Night King devised a way: to detour, bypass the Wall, and enter the Night's Watch's Gift of five hundred miles.

He could go west of the Wall, cross the Great Canyon, or take a boat on the frozen shore, cross the Frozen Sea, and enter the Wolfswood. But this path was too arduous, and the Wolfswood was difficult to traverse. Going east, he only needed to pass the Bay of Seals to enter the frozen plains of the North, without having to climb the Great Canyon or the treacherous mountains.

To cross the Wall via the Bay of Seals, he needed ships, especially large warships that could carry hundreds or thousands of wights.

Davos Seaworth's fleet had large warships, but unfortunately, he arrived a step later than Ser Sytell, witnessing the wights cleaning the battlefield on the coast behind Hardhome, removing bloodstains, collecting weapons scattered on the ground. The slain Night's Watch brothers were rising again, their eyes turned ice-blue, their faces expressionless, their bodies retaining their pre-death injuries, their faces turned black, a strange charcoal black, as if they had been smoked by black smoke.

Davos Seaworth sent a raven to Hardhome. If the raven did not return, it would prove that Hardhome had fallen.

At the docks on the shore, there were a total of seven ships, six long warships, each resembling a large fish. Because they were narrow, they could not carry many wights. But with seven ships, a night raid on the Eastwatch fleet to seize all the ships became possible.

The Night King's ice-blue eyes suddenly narrowed as he looked at the sky. While he was 'watching' the scene at Hardhome hundreds of miles away, another eye was watching him from a hidden place. The Night King abruptly withdrew his gaze, looking sharply into the depths of the Thenn Mountains, the source of the 'gaze' that could sense his presence, coming from the west of the Thenn Mountains.

There was a skinchanger—perhaps observing him secretly from tens or hundreds of miles away—if not a skinchanger, then a greenseer.

Humans who could enter the bodies of various birds and beasts, using their eyes to observe the Night King invisibly, were either gifted skinchangers or the Children of the Forest's wargs: greenseers.

The Night King issued a threat to the mysterious force deep within the Thenn Mountains, and the feeling of being watched immediately disappeared. The Night King steadied himself, beginning to search frantically for any abnormalities nearby. The sensing power could only lock onto him through the eyes of a nearby creature. Finally, he saw a three-eyed raven perched on a ruined wall. The Fist of the First Men had a military fortress built thousands of years ago for battles between the First Men and the wildlings, but now the fortress was almost completely collapsed, with only broken walls remaining.

With a whoosh, the three-eyed raven flapped its wings and flew away, quickly rising into the sky… The Night King's ice-blue eyes stared at the three-eyed raven until it became a small black dot and finally disappeared completely.

…………

The sea off Storrold's Point.

"Lord Davos, did you foresee the White Walkers ambushing in the snow on the coast?" asked Templeton, a Night's Watch centurion.

"I cannot foresee anything unknown, Templeton. I simply treat the White Walkers as real enemies. If this were a battle, the target of our departure from the harbor must not be detected by the enemy. Even if the enemy knows our intentions, they must not be able to predict our route, nor anticipate our arrival time."

"I see. If we had gone north along the coast, probably no one would have escaped alive," said a Night's Watch brother.

The soldiers looked at the wights and White Walkers on the coast, everyone still shaken. There were also White Walkers and wights on those seven ships.

"My lord, if Hardhome has fallen, Commander Qhorin and the Hound are likely in grave danger."

"If Hardhome has fallen, we must not approach the coast, nor approach those seven ships." Davos Seaworth's face was hard, his eyes filled with frost.

He was so cautious because of the red priestess Melisandre. Melisandre possessed unpredictable mysterious powers, which Davos had witnessed firsthand, but that power required royal blood to catalyze. Without royal blood, Melisandre could only see prophecies in the flames, and her extraordinary power and magic were not prominent.

A red priestess already possessed irresistible mysterious magical powers. Davos Seaworth dared not be careless with the White Walkers, these magical creatures from the Land of Always Winter. He believed that the White Walker's king should also possess unknown magical powers, such as a predictive ability similar to Melisandre's.

Anyone who underestimated the wargs and the White Walker Night King was not wise.

In the past few months of fighting, the Night's Watch and the Northern Alliance had won more than they lost, and the warriors' morale was high. Most people did not take the White Walkers seriously. However, Davos Seaworth was never optimistic. Deep down, he always believed that the White Walker Night King was planning something terrible.

Having personally witnessed Melisandre's mysterious power, Davos had always believed that the White Walker Night King also possessed some kind of magical power—the ability to foresee, the ability to sense, dark magic. The White Walker Night King certainly possessed these, Davos was convinced!

The raven that Davos released flew over Hardhome, seeing the densely packed wights in the castle, ice-blue eyes, black faces. Ravens were intelligent birds. In the Citadel, white ravens were even taught to speak, able to have simple conversations with their maester masters.

The raven was startled by the sight of the castle full of wights, shrieking. The entire town was full of dead people—Night's Watchmen, free folk, Northmen, and a few Shireen scouts. None of the wights were disturbed by the raven's cries. They stood still, like ice sculptures.

Several White Walkers looked up at the raven. The raven dared not fly low, rising higher, shrieking as it flew back.

Soon, the raven flew back, the parchment scroll it carried still intact.

The raven kept shrieking in Davos's hands, constantly jumping from Davos's hand to his arm, from his arm to his shoulder, onto his head, pecking at Davos's face, the back of his hand, and other skin, constantly chirping at everyone, as if expressing something, appearing very abnormal.

Everyone could see that the raven was frightened.

"Hardhome has fallen," Davos Seaworth's face became grim. "The city is full of dead people, wights, there are no humans left."

"What about Commander Qhorin?" Templeton could hardly believe it.

"They… may have been completely wiped out," Davos said in a heavy tone.

The entire fleet, nearly two hundred warriors, were silent, their hands on their sword hilts, but no one suggested landing to fight.

"Ser Sytell's warship arrived before us. They should have encountered the White Walkers' ambush on the coast," Davos Seaworth said in a low voice. "Brothers, we were a little late. What we saw last may have been the battlefield cleanup after Ser Sytell and his men were slaughtered. I hope you all understand from now on that the White Walkers have the same intelligence as us humans. They may have set up a trap to encircle and ambush reinforcements."

"The White Walkers' intelligence also understands military strategy?" a Night's Watchman murmured.

"The scouts from the Shadow Tower are in the far west, but they were also driven to Hardhome in the far east, which makes me very suspicious, it's unreasonable, unless it was intentional by the White Walkers. However, it is impossible for the White Walkers to use Hardhome to annihilate our main army. The rescuers will only come by sea, which is Eastwatch. They want to kill all the main force in Eastwatch. Could the White Walkers' next target be Eastwatch?"

There were many doubts, and Davos could not figure it out. But because of his caution, he saved the lives of nearly two hundred people.

The Night's Watch brothers' gaze towards Davos changed. The smuggler Hand was not as embarrassing as people ridiculed. They scorned Davos, mocked him, and humiliated him, but he did have extraordinary wisdom. Although his analysis still had many doubts, it had already convinced the Night's Watch brothers.

Ser Sytell disobeyed the Onion Hand's orders, resulting in him and his brothers all dying tragically. Not even one of the brothers who burned themselves was left.

To be burned after death was the wish of the Night's Watchmen, and the wish of all other warriors.

They would rather be burned to ashes than become wights driven by the White Walkers.

The sunlight shone on the brothers, but no one felt warmth. The sunlight was as cold as ice, shining on their faces like knives stabbing their faces.

After a while, Davos released all three ravens, one flying back to Eastwatch to warn, one flying to Castle Black to warn, and one flying to the Shadow Tower to warn.

These were the three defensive points of the Wall: east, west, and center! Davos then ordered a return, fearing that the White Walkers would take the opportunity to attack Eastwatch.

The Eastwatch fleet and warriors were all out, leaving less than a hundred soldiers to guard Eastwatch, half of whom were administrative officers, not trained warriors.

If Lord Gawen Westerling had not stayed to help Eddard Stark, Eastwatch would have been in danger. If Eastwatch fell, the Wall would be breached, and the entire Seven Kingdoms would be within the range of the White Walkers' attacks.

"Brothers, raise the sails, head south along the coastline, we must return as quickly as possible, I fear this is a White Walker trap, luring out the Eastwatch fleet, and then taking the opportunity to attack Eastwatch," Davos shouted.

The brothers changed color upon hearing this.

So, the lowered sails were raised together, the drums on the warship sounded, and the rowers' rowing movements had to be uniform and neat in order to make the ship move quickly. The drumbeat was what directed the rowing frequency to be consistent.

The drumbeat sounded densely, the brothers rowed hard, and the warship quickly turned south in the sea, as fast as the wind.

On the shore, several White Walkers watched the large warship leave, their ice-blue eyes gleaming. They looked at each other, their eyes revealing regret. The purpose of this White Walker Hardhome plan was to obtain human warships. They needed warships to transport a large number of wights across the sea and over the Wall, then take the Eastwatch military fortress, and then use Eastwatch as a base to begin attacking Castle Black.

Several White Walkers walked together, communicating with each other in strange syllables—humans have human language, birds have bird language, ants also have their own language, and White Walkers are no exception. They are intelligent creatures with their own form of language communication.

This Hardhome plan was a strategy planned by the Night King, but it was only half successful. The caution, cunning, and wisdom of humans meant that the strategy made by the Night King based on his predictive abilities still did not fully succeed.

This was the terrifying thing about humans, the thing the Night King was wary of, and the reason why their king had not launched a large-scale attack for a long time.

Human wisdom meant that the scenes seen by the Night King in his predictions could also be changed by some opportunity, thus making the ending of the predictions uncertain, or even completely changed.

Perhaps the will of the gods and human wisdom both had their own power, thus bringing some uncertainty to the outcome of things.

*

Eastwatch, calm seas.

The White Walkers did not take advantage of the Eastwatch garrison's emptiness to launch an attack.

Although Davos Seaworth's concerns were reasonable, he still failed to guess the White Walkers' intentions. The White Walkers' goal was to get ships and pass the Wall by water. However, in the minds of Davos and everyone else, the White Walkers did not go into the water. Wights were dead people and could not sail ships either.

And this was another fatal mistake made by humans.

And in war, the price of making mistakes was blood and life.

*

And several days ago, after Jon Snow received a letter from his father Eddard Stark at Castle Black, he immediately led three hundred cavalry, a fifty-wagon team, and seven hundred infantry to Eastwatch.

The cavalry and infantry were a mixed legion of Northmen, Night's Watchmen, free folk, and Shireen soldiers. This created a miracle on the continent of Westeros: the Night's Watch and the free folk were mortal enemies, and the Northmen and Shireen soldiers belonged to different countries, they were loyal to different kings, and the Shireen people had been trying to persuade the Northmen to submit, while the Northmen were determined to be independent, and the relationship between the two sides was not as harmonious as it seemed on the surface.

The allied forces guarding the Wall were a group on the verge of constant infighting. However, thanks to Jon Snow, who was trusted by the Free Folk; Eddard Stark, who was respected by Shireen's army; Melisandre, who dedicated her life to fighting the Others; and Davos Seaworth, the Hand who prioritized the overall situation, this team—a fusion of the Night's Watch, Free Folk, Northmen, and Shireen's army—was ultimately united in a unique way, twisted into a force of shared hatred against a common enemy.

But this force faced an even greater evil. The Others, capable of sailing, would use the only seven small ships available to them to sneak through the Bay of Seals and attack Eastwatch-by-the-Sea…

And at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, Jon Snow, Eddard Stark, and Gavin Westling were completely unaware and unalerted to this danger…

Meanwhile, a letter from the affairs officer in charge of purchasing iron ore caught Jon and Eddard's utmost attention. The officer wrote that Governor Gubler of the Iron Islands would no longer sell iron ore to the Night's Watch. They would only accept bank notes issued by the Clegane Bank, and would no longer take gold dragons, silver stags, or copper stars.