DB14

The following day, João carried on with his day calmly at the camp. Lucis had emerged from her tent and greeted him while Jon handed her some meat he had just roasted.

"Good morning... Thank you," she said, taking the meat.

Jon simply nodded as she sat beside him. The day at the camp was peaceful, then came the rumors of news that some of the 'Bone Lords' had been found devoured by wolves in the woods, which greatly outraged the tribe, even casting suspicious glances at the Dragonborn, since some must know they had come to visit the "Southerner" the previous night. But John paid no mind to this, after all, who could incriminate him.

"Lucis, tell your man we need water, can he fetch it for us?" The man responsible for the camp, Guren, said.

"Lucis, tell this guy, if he isn't man enough to ask for things directly from me without being a coward, I won't do anything for him," Jon commented on the side, as this Guren had never ceased to demonstrate his disdain for the dragonborn.

People around the tribe looked at this with curiosity, Guren, not liking being called a coward, looked at Jon with fury. "You dare call me a coward?!" He said, almost grabbing his axe.

"And aren't you one? Pull that axe from your waist, and you'll have only 30 seconds to live, so think carefully," Jon commented calmly, looking into the man's eyes, who was somewhat intimidated by Jon's gaze, after all, he had taken thousands of lives, and his eyes could very well convey that.

"We need water, you have to do something for the camp!" The man growled, but in the end, he couldn't face Jon.

Jon would laugh, saying that's not how you ask for something from someone, much less someone he can't order around, but Lucis commented beside him. "Jon, please... Don't make things worse, we need water, it's not worth fighting over pride," she practically begged, and Jon sighed.

"I'm doing this for you, otherwise, I'd already be making this man swallow a gallon of water until he drowns," Jon commented and ended up standing up.

Jon went to the wax bucket where they got water and took two of them, while a man could only carry one full, but Jon didn't care and went out to the nearby stream.

After descending the camp and passing through the forest with some foliage, he entered the forest walking calmly until he reached the river, about 500 meters from the camp. He approached and noticed the presence of some people nearby.

'They are hunting...' Jon commented, looking at the footprints on the ground. And when he began to fill the clay pots with water, he felt the presence of someone approaching him, it was a girl with red hair as they call here, kissed by fire and eyes clear as a blue sky.

If Jon wasn't mistaken, this was the girl that Tormund asked him to take care of strangely, she approached him with curiosity while Jon just analyzed her.

"So you are the giant slayer?" she came close and asked with curiosity.

Jon looked for a moment and, before responding, "I haven't managed to kill any giants yet." He shrugged, as it was true.

"But everyone says you can fight against one. Maybe even defeat a few," he said with a smile, and walked to the river by his side.

"I made friends with some... We fought, I guess I have the knack for it," he said with a small smile.

"You're not from the north, are you? I've never seen any man like you, not one without any facial hair..." She comments curiously looking at him intensely.

"I was born in the south," he spoke, already accustomed to answering this kind of question.

"So you are really a southerner?" She said intrigued.

"Yes, I came from Winterfell," Jon commented since there was no reason to hide that.

"The castle of the Starks?"

"My mother was a Stark, my father was even further south. I was raised by my uncle for a few years until I left there. I was 8 years old at the time," he commented.

She sat next to him, storing her bow, and continued to ask wanting to know more about him and his life in the south. "Really? And where did you go after that?"

"I went to a place far away, much further south or north than you could imagine," Jon referred to another world, what else could he say.

"I don't understand," she asked in a way that made Jon just smile.

"It's hard to understand, but tell me about you, are you a hunter?" he asked, looking at her bow but without any carcass of an animal on her.

"Yes, I am very good with the bow. Do you know Tormund? I belong to his tribe," she said.

"But I still don't know your name, since you haven't told me yet." He smiled, making her blush a bit.

"It's Ygritte." She commented, a bit embarrassed.

"Jon Snow, you can call me Jon or Snow, doesn't matter much to me." He comments.

"Understood, I'll call you Jon." She said, now a bit more comfortable.

He got up from the edge of the lake, stretching his muscles a bit before picking up the water pots, "The hunt hasn't been very good, has it?" He commented, seeing that she hadn't been successful.

"Not really, I'm a good hunter, but the area is quite deserted. We've been hunting for over half an hour and haven't found anything," she said, frustrated.

"Let me see that," he asked for her bow, and despite a bit of hesitation, she ended up giving the bow to him. He examined the bow from all angles before pulling the string slightly, it was made of simple wood and a strong but not very durable string. He noticed that a normal arrow wouldn't even reach 60 meters, not without breaking the bow.

He asked for two arrows from Ygritte, and she ended up giving them to him to see what he would do. Jon looked around the place with few trees, with his eye for detecting life, he quickly started walking to a specific spot and Ygritte found it strange but followed him anyway.

Jon placed one of the arrows on the bow and aimed it at a tree among many others. He pulled the bow and launched the arrow at the tree, Ygritte saw the arrow hit the trunk wondering what he was doing, but then a rabbit came out of the small hole in the trunk leaving her stunned and she hadn't even seen when Jon had already placed another arrow on the bow and aimed at the animal, a second later she saw the rabbit being shot even as it tried to flee the place at high speed, and that was a white rabbit running through the snow.

"How...?!" She simply asked as the blood of the rabbit painted the white snow with a single shot.

Jon just smiled. "With practice, now you have something to bring back to your tribe." He said, handing the bow back to her.

"Can you teach me?" she asked, looking at him as if he was the best archer she had ever seen in her life.

"I could hardly teach that..." He said, picking up the water pots in each of his arms and beginning to withdraw.

Ygritte stayed there watching him leave as if he hadn't done anything incredible as she witnessed, it wasn't just his skill, but how he saw that hidden rabbit was a big mystery for the girl.

Jon could have killed the rabbit by piercing the trunk if he used magic, but that would have been even more conspicuous, so he did it the traditional way, without imagining the impact it had on the girl even with that. He returned to the camp and went to Karsi's tribe, Guren looked at him still with anger, but said nothing while Jon placed the water pots in place.

The routine in the camp was like this: in the morning they searched for supplies, in the afternoon they tried to rebuild the camp and at night they watched the place. Jon decided to look for his spear-wife and saw Lucis training alone behind their tent. He approached quickly and leaned against a tree, crossing his arms and smiling at her. She noticed, but still didn't pay much attention to him, still trying to cut the air with her movements.

He watched for a while until breaking the silence: "Are you trying to imitate me? Do what I taught you." he said, smiling.

She looked at him for a while and just said, "Maybe. I like your moves, I'm trying to reapply them."

"But you still have to do what I taught you, you need to fix your stance, you'll never be good without good footwork." he said. "Since you can easily lose your balance and your enemy will take advantage of that. You have to be careful with the firmness of your body. It's no use landing hits if you're as fragile as a twig," he said, laughing.

She complained, "I'm not that fragile, I'm trying."

He found it amusing and ended up grabbing a sword as well and said, "Let's train a bit, it's been a while since we've practiced."

She looked for a while and then positioned herself. "Let's do this with real combat." They squared off against each other; Lucy raised her bronze sword, while Jon held his bronze sword lowered, not caring much to act. In the end, he was faster than anyone there.

Lucy made the first move, slashing from top to bottom. He parried the sword, making a metallic click in the air. She was a bit frustrated with how easily he stopped her attack as always.

He looked at her and said, "Stay firm. Your posture is still too weak."

She pulled back the sword and tried a side slash, but Jon, just by moving his arm, quickly stopped the blow, making her back off due to his strength. She took a few steps back, took a deep breath, and attacked him again. She tried a frontal attack, but Jon just raised his sword and moved the slash to the side, making her retreat and stumble a bit. Before she could fall, he caught her by the arm, saying, "Be careful, your posture! Remember that."

She took a deep breath and returned to her position. She tried to strike again, trying in any way to breach Jon's defense, but he easily managed to handle any attack from the girl.

He kept repeating, "Lucy, you've been at this for a long time. You need to learn."

"I know, I'm trying," she complained before returning to fight.

"Well, then practice more." He retorted.

"Have you always been such a bad teacher?" she teased.

"Well, if it's going to keep you alive, yes, I will be," he commented seriously.

During the day, they continued to train. At night, it wasn't Jon's turn to watch, and he ended up sleeping with Lucy. The days began to pass. As a routine in the morning, it was to gather supplies, in the afternoon to build, which Jon always helped with when he wasn't training Lucis, and at night he kept watch.

Jon noticed the movements of the Wights at night in the forest, beginning to see more and more undead gathering little by little in the forest. 'What are they doing...' Jon wondered, since none of the undead had attacked the camp yet or tried to take anyone outside of it.

Then, one day, while on watch, he felt the temperature drop a bit, while he saw some other members of Karsi's tribe who were on watch, feeling quite cold as their breaths turned icy.

It didn't take long for his gaze to go to the forest and with eyes that could detect non-living beings, he saw a large crowd of the undead approaching the camp.

He finally realized that the wights had been gathering in the past few days and forming a more powerful force to confront them.

"It looks like I have to act..." He commented calmly, as he stood up and went to the edge of the camp, which was about to be infested with the undead.