NOVEL NEXT Chapter 13 - Adventures in the North 10.
[Chapter Size: 2692 Words]
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**Jon Snow POV**
**Kingdom of the North, FrostRoar City, Glovers' Lands, 289 A.C., at this very moment.**
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Jon received a good amount of bronze coins from Icehill Farm in the Tallharts region. However, the boy now had much more than what he earned from the farmers for two reasons.
First, testing his abilities in recent weeks, he discovered that he could find metals in the soil or on the surface in a specific area. By placing his hands on the ground, he had a range of 50 meters to discover things and ended up finding buried coins, probably left by hunters passing through where he was. Although it didn't yield much wealth since no one likes to lose money, he still managed to significantly improve his financial situation as he headed north, finding 25 silver stags and 10 gold dragons. He could only thank the old gods for making his life so much easier through these gifts.
Second, at the giants' camp, there was a small chest with hidden coins, which made Jon very happy for his future plans. However, despite having 1000 gold coins and 500 silver, they were not marked at the time they were minted and needed to be forged into exact forms if he wanted to use them on this continent.
In addition to obtaining materials to fix the forge and reforge his weapon, and obtaining materials for alchemy, he wanted to build coin molds and even make some weapons after surveying the area around those ancient constructions and discovering an iron mine. With this information, Jon supposed that the establishment of that place was due to mining, but at some point, things went wrong for the former lord of the place.
The mine was set up, and Jon was already putting new structures in place, as the old ones had decayed over time after asking the giants for help. They even dug the opening to make it larger; this would allow the 4-meter-tall men to extract iron for the boy.
Since the giants were going to stay with him from now on, he needed to arm them. With the iron from the mine, he could create immense armor according to their sizes. It would be laborious, but Jon resolved that he needed to protect his new people and family. He also plans to assemble armor for the wolves and Panis, if possible, so that no one can pose a threat to his group.
When Jon went to the city, the giants were already digging tunnels and putting new logs in the mine structure. This will take time as well, but Jon has already planned to settle in the place for a few moons, wanting to wait for the she-wolf to give birth to the pups, which would take about 6 moons at most, giving him ample time to arm and equip his group for the journey to the Wall.
Jon could go straight to the Wall, but what if they were attacked on the way? The giants would attract a lot of attention, and knowing how greedy people are, they would be attacked by someone and would never win a battle surrounding their group, as it would be certain death for them.
Looking at the material depot's courtyard, he saw two young individuals, older than him, carrying their purchases in a cart they had acquired from the owner. The merchant tried to inquire about Jon, but the boy simply ignored him.
As for the assistants, they looked suspiciously at this child. It wasn't every day that a child spent more money in a day than they could earn in 2 years. When they finished, Jon tossed a silver stag to each of them. Changing their mood, they chose to thank and not get involved in the business of the little child, who was some noble in their minds.
Jon climbed into the cart, happy that his purchases were of good quality and were accompanied by two medium-sized horses, which made him confident that he could carry all these materials to the camp. Panis obediently accompanied him on the side, so he was walking back through the city with a heavy load now.
He found a large blacksmith shop in the city center shortly afterward. It was an open place to work, and he saw the blacksmith hammering his anvil. Jon stopped by and approached the man.
The blacksmith saw the solitary child coming out of the cart loaded with materials, followed by a horse. The working man noticed that the horse seemed strangely proud next to this child.
'Must be a trained horse...,' he thought as he watched the horse following the boy like a stray, without the boy needing to pull its reins.
The blacksmith stopped hammering on the anvil with the sword and hammer to get a better look at his strange newcomer, also noting that he couldn't see the rest of the child properly. The man initially thought the child, approaching with the strange horse, would be another one of those impertinent little ones who asked or begged to be his apprentice and start the craft. Thinking this, he was already beginning to ignore Jon, who was approaching. But soon, he heard the child's childish voice.
"My lord? Do you sell hammers, coal, and forge equipment?" The boy asked. The blacksmith raised his head and assessed the newcomer. They wore poor clothes, and the horse, although a bit muscular, still seemed to belong to a poor farm. He saw the cart next to it full of materials but thought it was just sand.
"Sorry, boy, but you don't seem to have the means for your request..." The blacksmith looked disdainfully at Jon. The boy, on the other hand, became angry. He hated people who judged others solely by appearance or origin, which had been happening to him every time he tried to buy something in this city.
With the knowledge of the old gods, he learned to think critically and reflect on what he learned and the life he lived. With the accumulation of the first vendor who scorned him, he reached his current limit. He just looked at the blacksmith and said:
"My lord. It's a shame for a man to have such a small mind, but no matter who you are or where you're from, never judge a book by its cover!" Jon said these words and then turned away angrily.
Jon might end up without his tools, but he would never buy them from this adult. He had always lived such a situation all his life; he would not be humiliated any longer for things he couldn't control.
The man was angry that a child said he had a small mind. This was an insult from a brat. However, after he thought about what the boy said, it put him in a state trying to decipher the meaning of that last sentence. Before acting against the cheeky kid, he wondered what a book had to do with the situation. Then he could only scratch his head in thought as he looked down for a while. Now that he raised it to ask the boy what he meant by that, he realized the child was no longer there. He sighed and could only go back to his grumpy work.
Jon continued to walk through the city, praying that this man wasn't the only blacksmith around. Jon, through Caraxes, who flew over the city, was mapping everything through his eyes. His bird always accompanied him wherever he went, and it was through his eyes that he saw a square with a group of people. Putting aside his current objectives, he decided to go to the place out of curiosity.
People looked at him suspiciously. It's not every day they see a boy in a cart with a horse next to him walking through the city, but they kept their thoughts to themselves.
When he reached the place, he was excited when he heard a bard giving a public performance. He saw a boy his age next to the square and said.
"Hello, boy! Will you take care of my cart and horse for 10 minutes?" He asked the seemingly dirty boy.
The boy in question looked at him strangely but widened his eyes when Jon showed a silver stag to the boy, saying he would give it to him when he returned.
"Yes, my lord! I'll take care of the cart and brush the horses so well that you won't recognize them!" The boy said in desperation, and Jon nodded, getting out of the cart and going into the crowd.
Jon wasn't afraid of being robbed; his cart was filled with construction materials, and if anyone tried to take it, he would easily take control of the horses' minds.
Jon knew that this boy wanted to hear the show, as these boys are extremely poor here in the north, and hearing a bard was one of the few things that could bring joy to his life. But Jon knew that a silver coin was a thousand times better than a show.
Jon, still an 8-namedays boy, was excited about this performance, so he approached to listen in a corner of the square. He always liked songs, listening to bards, or even singing, but he never sang in front of anyone because he was ashamed of being criticized for not being good. It was only in this moon that he began to have more freedom, but his only audience was his family, who happened to love listening to Jon sing softly to them with his voice and some songs he learned in his time at Winterfell. In recent days, he dared to sing for the giants too, and to his surprise, they also liked his voice, even though they didn't understand any songs in the old tongue. But still, they asked to hear Jon, especially Seryna, who, at the end of each song, he had to run away from the giant female who chased him in search of hugs.
*Applause*
*Applause*
*Applause*
*Applause*
"Well done, now I'll sing another song, which one would you like to hear?" said the Bard.
"Little Jon!"
"That's right, sing the one about little Jon and the 12 bandits!"
The crowd soon began to request this specific song.
Jon, who was lost in thought, was surprised when he heard someone asking for the song of "little Jon and the 12 bandits." He was initially stunned, thinking it might be just a coincidence for the strange song he had never heard before. But as the bard sang with the rhythm, his mouth became more open. How could it not? He knew that this song was made for him in his battle at Icehill. He was frozen for a few seconds, thinking about how his almost fatal adventure became so famous that bards created a ballad, and people publicly requested this same song.
As he listened to the song, it told so many things that he felt like crying with shame. Despite laughing in the last part of the chorus, he was shocked that families told what he did heroically. However, he couldn't blame them; he didn't ask them to keep it a secret.
People were happy to hear, even finishing the public performance to make discussions that were about him as the subject. He had to let out some lonely laughs about how people described him as an 8-namedays with the size of 2 meters or that he could turn into a wolf with the blessing of the old gods. Jon found it even funnier when someone said he has an army of 3 thousand children of the forest to defend the north.
Little by little, people put the discussion aside and began to disperse, handing some bronze coins to the artist. Jon being the last to go to the bard, walked towards the coin jar.
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Cerus (Artist) POV
Kingdom of the North, City of FrostRoar, Lands of the Clovers, 289 A.C., at this very moment.
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With a smile, today would be another afternoon with money in his pocket. Cerus watched people putting bronze coins in his jar. He came from a small farm in the Trident. In early adolescence, he discovered his talent as a musician, and from then on, it was his life focus in that area. Although his parents asked him to stay and take care of the farm as the oldest son, he gave up, giving the place to his younger siblings. Not wanting to spend the rest of his life stuck in one place and with his brothers to take care of his parents and family business, he set out to become a bard.
Even knowing that he would earn less, but it was enough for a man and his travels across the continent, he spent years playing in cities and some castle parties, living his life as he wanted, with adventures and the road.
Now here, passing through the northern kingdom for a few moons, he was having a great day. Although the northerners were a more grumpy people and not as entertained by songs as the southerners, they still liked to hear songs from the kingdom, without stories of knights, as there are no knights in the north. They care more about their blood-filled stories, like Theon Stark, the hungry wolf, and other Starks cruelly killing their enemies. I had to get used to it if I wanted to eat while I was here.
However, what caught my attention was the new ballad in this kingdom, about a boy defending a farm against 12 bandits and killing them cruelly, just like the Stark stories. Although I find the song full of absurdities, it still makes great success and gives me many coins. Now, seeing the result, I could imagine myself eating a good pork leg at the largest tavern in this city. When the last coins were falling into the jar, Cerus was already walking to count his profit for the afternoon when he noticed one last hooded child walking up to the pot.
Cerus squinted, thinking it was a little thief. Usually, coins are given by adults or accompanied children, but he didn't worry too much because the young bard was already close to the pot and could prevent the rascal from running if he tried anything funny.
The boy in question stopped in front of him, looked into his eyes with a smile, and said, "You gave a great performance, Mr. Musician." The musician found it strange for a boy to be so respectful and saw him taking a coin from his pocket.
But the ground beneath his feet suddenly disappeared when he saw the boy tossing a golden dragon and letting it fall into his coin pot. What was a golden dragon? It was an amount he had never managed to have in hand at once; this was his first golden dragon he received and was handed by a child in a square of a small town, when not even nobles can casually pay this amount.
He quickly thought that the boy could only be the son of a rich noble house. Surely, he had to show respect to this little lord, as he thought some guards were nearby, possibly attending to them at this moment. "Thank you for the kind words and the very generous tip, little lord," Cerus said respectfully. The boy remained silent and looked at the musician once again.
"You are mistaken, Mr. Musician. I am not a lord or sir." The boy smiled afterward and turned to the cart the child was taking care of next to the square.
The musician said nothing in response, not because he ignored the boy, but because he was paralyzed by the gaze where Jon was, not by the words of this child, but by his eyes. The eyes of that child were the ones he described in his most successful song currently. Even if he hadn't realized it at first glance for a brief moment, in the end, through the child's hood, he saw the green circles around gray eyes, and only a child could have those eyes.
'BY THE GODS, THE LEGEND IS REAL, LITTLE JON WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME AND GAVE ME A GOLD COIN!!' He shouted in his mind. Looking around, he tried to find him, but the child had already left the square.
Tonight, a rumor would stir the entire city.
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