This is a Bonus Release Chapter after getting another 75 Power Stones. Thanks a lot everyone! Regular chapter will come later today.
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Qhorin POV
"Now, then." Qhorin turned to look at the man in front of the children.
His eyes took note of everything: the cut of his clothes, the plain but well-kept sheath of his sword, the clean-shaven boyish but handsome face. The man was an enigma, somethin Qhorin had never encountered in his near decade of service with the Night's Watch.
"Who might you be, boy?" he asked, intentionally prodding.
"Don't look like no wildling I've ever seen," Rorik said, coming closer on his horse.
On the other side, Daven dismounted and nodded at the words. "If he's a wildling then I'm the king of the Seven Kingdoms."
"I am neither," the strange man said.
Qhorin stared at him, trying to get his measure. His face was a blank mask seemingly devoid of any emotion. He hadn't even twitched when Qhorin called him a boy, nor when the men spoke about him as if he wasn't there.
Not a man easily provoked, then.
"Not a wildling," Qhorin allowed. "But despite dressing in our colors, you are no man of the Night's Watch. Tell me, then, what are you doing here?"
The man's black eyes narrowed. "My comings and goings are none of your concern."
Rorik took that as a challenge. The browny ranger scowled and drew his sword in a single smooth movement. Though not the smartest, Qhorin had to admit Rorik was one of the best blades in the Watch, especially amongst the commonborn men.
"We're brothers of the Night's Watch, stranger. A fish farts on this side of the Wall and it's our concern, ya get?"
Despite the threat of a sword, the man didn't even blink. In fact, he didn't even turn to acknowledge Rorik, just kept his gaze fixed on Qhorin.
Qhorin felt a churn in his stomach. He'd been a ranger for years now, practically growing up on the Watch. After so many skirmishes and close encounters, he'd learned to listen to his gut. It was usually right and had saved his arse many a time.
Problem was, his gut wasn't telling him shit right now. Nothing beyond a single word. Caution. The man was dangerous, he could tell. But there was something beyond that. A wariness coiling around him. The feeling a man might get when he encounters a new animal.
Was it friendly? Venomous? Predator or prey?
In his more rational mind, the man sounded more like a lordling than anything. But then, how would a man dressed like that end up on the wrong side of the Wall?
And even if he was an Essosi that ended up shipwrecked here, which Qhorin thought he might have the look of a man from those far away lands, he was on the completely opposite side of the map for that to make sense. They were south of the Fist of the First Man, not by the Antlers or Storrold's Point.
Enigma indeed.
Qhorin lifted a hand to stop Rorik. "No one matching your description passed through any of our gates recently. I would know," he addressed the man. "If you're not a wildling, then what are you?"
The man smirked, the first expression he'd seen from him. "An Uchiha."
Qhorin raised an eyebrow. The word certainly sounded Essosi to his ears.
Before the men could get offended at the man's obscure answers again, Lady Mormont intervened.
"Stop being mysterious." The girl huffed. "I'm not sure where he's from, but he saved us from the wildlings yesterday. Killed all of them by himself in less than a minute." Her voice held a tone of reverence to it, Qhorin noted.
Beside her, the oldest one, a girl in her teens spoke up. "It's true, ser. He… he saved me from what they were going to do to me and did as the lady said." The kids bobbed their heads in agreement.
Rorik scoffed. "He did, yeah? The letter we got from Bear Island said there were around ten men that attacked the village. A small raid, aye, but more than one man can handle. You need not repeat whatever lies he told you, m'lady."
The last ranger with him, Bain, rode up on his garron. "I can go check," he said in that quiet voice of his. "If they travelled on foot, it shouldn't take more than a half a day there and back."
Before Qhorin could decide, the man spoke up. "I wouldn't, if I were you."
He tilted his head. "Why not, stranger?"
"Afraid we'll find something you won't like?" Rorik gave him a nasty grin.
Again, the man looked to Qhorin instead of Rorik. He shrugged. "Go if you must. But one of the men had left the clearing before I arrived. He watched us from a distance last night and might be waiting in ambush, or checking his companion's corpses."
Lady Mormont gasped. "He did? Was that what you were looking at last night?"
The man nodded. "A man and some hounds to the northeast of the clearing."
Hounds, Qhorin thought. A wildling roaming with animals like this usually meant one thing. A warg. A memory suddenly made its way to the forefront of his mind. A warg, yes, unless…
"Could you describe the man for me, my lady?" Qhorin asked.
"One of the wildlings called him Lant, I think, and he wears bones tied to his chest," Lady Dacey said. "He's not a big man, but the others respected and feared him enough to follow him."
Qhorin nodded. Not a warg, then, but perhaps someone worse.
"He's with Ygon Oldfather's clan," he told them. "Trying to make a name for himself, recently. I almost caught him last summer when he tried to cross the gorge with a Wull girl. Killed three of his men and the bastard killed the girl when she started fighting back."
"Should I go?" Bain asked again. "I might be able to track him."
Qhorin waved a hand. "Leave it."
It didn't matter to him whether the man had truly killed the wildlings or not. It wasn't worth risking the lives of one of his men for something like that, even if Jeor and the Mormonts would be glad to see the heads of the wildlings who took one of their daughters.
"We'll all head back for now." He looked around to his men. "Dismount and help the children and the Lady up on your horses. There's a small hamlet we can stop by to resupply a half day's walk to the southeast. They're no friends of the Watch, but nor are they our enemies either."
Finally, he turned to the Uchi-ha man. "You're welcome to come with us, stranger, or leave as you will."
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