Chapter 3: salt wives
He had arrived the day before. In the lands of Sandy shores, sea wolves roamed about on the beach and rock cliffs, hiding and eating what they could. Elijah had taken it to himself to walk the ground. The ground was wet with shells. The people of the small town looked to him all queerly. They knew of him; he had arrived when the Iron Bornes were taking their woman. Father and sons adorned with rakes. Half-baked armor tried to fight them off; however, they could not.
They carried rusted swords and short daggers, leather caps, and cloaks, and did not wear heavy armor like idiots. These were iron Bornes; pirating and pillaging were in their blood.
So they took to the women. The small girls would make salt wives of them. Elijah had come this way, on the shorter end of the wolfswood, hunting down some wildlings who had passed through the mountains and through Shadow Tower.
They heard shots in the forest—loud and deafening. It was a wildling man who had run before his brothers with a sword and axe in hand. He ran like a madman through the village, like a beast was hunting him. He saw a corner coming up. There were no walls to the small town, but there were homes made from wood and small farms of potatoes. He crushed the vegetation.
He ran into an Ironborn, whom he cut down and continued to run over. he left his axe in the face of the men, blood oozing out of his crushed eyes. From the woods, Elijah looked through his Rifle. Seeing the small scuffle. And pulled the trigger. The man's back was blown wide. And he was tossed forward as if he had been pushed. He was dead in an instant.
In his cloak was a small packet of handmade cigarettes with some good-tasting leaves. There was no tobacco here in these lands, but if he did, and when he did, he sure would have some of it. His hands were not soft like those of a child; they were calloused and used for hard work.
Snapping his fingers, they lit the tip of the cigarette; he inhaled the smoke and breathed it out through his nose. " last one down." he said. Walking forward towards the village, watching the carnage, a man being stabbed in the belly and whatnot. Children are running for their mothers, who were being dragged off to sailboats. It reminded him of his mother's death, hanged and raped. Her teats cut off. And her eyelids looking at where the corpse of her lifeless child was.
He did not know the magic his mother did, which brought him back to the land of the living. However, when he did, he did some growing up. The boy turned into a man, becoming a gunslinger, a man who dealt death if spoken to the wrong way. Elijah Salamander, they called him. Shoot him, and he gets back up and kills you dead. And there was no man faster to draw than him.
There was an iron-born Raider who was pulling a woman out of her home by the hair as she kicked back from the pain. And crying for mercy. When Elijah saw to it and said words. " I ain't one to stop a good fuck, but I believe the lady is crying for mercy." inside the home, the husband was held down on the ground by the other iron bornes. His shirt was torn off, and Elijah did not want to know what they intended to do to him.
The man let go of the woman and charged at Elijah. Taking a whiff of his cigarette. he drew his gun, pulling the trigger in three quick successions. Heads blown off. The woman did not look at him with awe but pure dread. She covered herself with whatever she could. She was taken from her home, naked and bruised. He pointed to the home with his gun, telling her to walk back in. and that she did.
What came next were sounds of horror and the deafening sounds of the gun. It must have been one hundred times the gun was fired. All the while, Elijah smoked from his cigarette; it did not end until the last body dropped.
The men who thought he had gotten away from the shores with some good salt wives were shot down in their boats. Elijah made holes in them with his rifle. All the while, his horse, midnight, strode through the town. Following him to the beach where he stood. The women and girls that were taken pushed the bodies of the iron bornes into the waters. And sailed back to shore. Thanking him as they passed him.
In his hand was his revolver, and he twirled and placed it in the holster.
Now he stood once more where he stood; it had been two moons since he came to these lands. The people of this town had built him a small home that was made of wood from the wolfswood. And had a small perimeter in the form of a wall. He lived at the highest point of the sea, Dragon Point. And the people cherished.
This was mostly due to his hunting. The land he had settled on had a large forest where game was easily found. Each day, he brought home game, whether it was elk or boar. He brought it all.
The Iron Bornes would have no mercy on him. They held a grudge now, and if he did not act soon enough, then they would come for him. From what he understood from the town folk, the iron Bornes have had this tradition of raiding for thousands of years. It was said and believed that Bear Island was founded and given to the Mormonts in a dispute between the Starks and Grey Joys.
However, Elijah would have none of that, and he intended not to if this grey joy were to attack his lands. He would have another thing coming, and that would be a simple death. He was a man with a gun in a world so backwatered that he did not have the notion of it. Looking at the land, he stood on cold, with no sunshine on the other end of the sea. Endless waves of water and shells. All that could come of it was fishing and ice business. He remembered how lucrative that business was.
But at the same time, the realization came quickly: his lands could not grow much other than potatoes. He would have to steal or hire his services. He had heard of the Dothraki and their barbaric customs. He could be anywhere at any time, and that was good enough. He had told Eddard he would become powerful and that he intended to do so.
Looking at Pyke's position, or at least in its direction, he saw only the ocean. But soon enough, he would rid them of everything. Or perhaps end a few. After all, they attacked his new home. A small smirk came to his lips. " this land is filled with opportunities. And I have the power to take it ." he said. Walking away back to the rocky shores. And climbing the grassy plain tot he cliff of his home. There was a journey coming, and he intended to have an adventure. Eddard had given him land and people to look after. That was purpose enough.