The King of Winters

Chapter-112

Andrew

The forest was a dense tangle of elms, and oaks and tall redwoods rising solitary and staunch, their fresh green tops visible from miles off. The Rivermen called it the White Wood. Though there was nothing white about it Andrew thought, standing amidst this strong barrier of earth and wood, all green and brown.

The tales they told of this forest that was called as White Wood was of darker stuff. It was said that there was a terrible battle fought here between the Children of the Forest and the Andals during their coming to Westeros. Legends spoke of a fateful night in the White Wood, where the children of the forest emerged from beneath a hollow hill to send hundreds of wolves against an Andal camp, tearing hundreds of men apart beneath the light of a crescent moon during the coming of the Andals. No doubt there were other battles fought here as well, but this was the tale most known to all.

His scouts had found a good elevated and commanding position surrounded by a ring of solemn oaks standing guard for his camp to be set up. Andrew rode to the place first with Lords Jon and Robert, a strong defensive position with a hill in the center. He had left Ghost below with the trees. The direwolf had run off three times as they climbed, twice returning reluctantly to Andrew's whistle. The third time, Andrew let him have his way. It's been a while since he had left for a hunt. The white wolf was prone to get bored when he was fed dead meat. He wants to hunt, he wants to kill. He wants to taste fresh, hot blood. Andrew knew it for he still dreamed in the nights. Jojen Reed was still trying his best to teach Andrew how to control those dreams. But apparently he was a bad student, in part because he didn't believe Jojen's words. How could a man wear a wolf's skin? He never knew but Jojen insisted that he could.

The way up the hill was simple and safe and it was a quick ascent. Andrew reached the summit first, circling around the steep tumbled rocks half buried in the ground. "This is good ground, Jon," Lord Robert proclaimed when at last they attained the top. "We could scarce hope for better. We'll make our camp here before moving onto King's Landing." The Lord of the Storm's End swung down off his saddle, and took a careful look at the summit.

The views atop the hill were bracing, yet it was the ringwall that drew Andrew's eye, the weathered grey stones with their white patches of lichen, their beards of green moss.

"An old place, and strong," Lord Yohn Royce acknowledged.

Andrew had to admit that it was a strong position. His scouts had promised that there were no other army in the Kingsroad and anywhere close to it, but he didn't want to take any chances. He had used more than his fair chances to remove unwary opponents to let himself be unwary.

"The hill will be easy to defend, if need be," Lord Robert pointed out as he walked along the ring of summit, his sable-trimmed cloak stirring in the wind. "We will build a barricade made of stakes around the summit to make it better protected."

Andrew nodded. "Yes, this place will do." The woods made for a wooden fort around them and the trees its great walls. There was a brook at the foot of the hill as well. A source of fresh water within the camp. They wouldn't find a better place than this to make camp. We're not like to find another place as strong. He could make certain they are well supplied before continuing on with the march.

So the command was given, and the combined army of the North, Vale, Riverlands and Stormlands raised their camp within the safety of the White wood. Coloured tents sprouted like mushrooms after a rain, and blankets and rushes covered the bare ground. Stewards tethered the horses in long lines, and saw them fed and watered. Foresters took their axes to the trees in the waning afternoon light to harvest enough wood to see them through the night. A score of builders set to clearing brush, digging latrines, and untying their bundles of fire-hardened stakes to put up the a chest-high barricade of around the ring wall.