The Rebirth of the Dragons - Chapter 15

AN: Hey Guys.

I'm sorry for the long wait, the last few months have been really hard for me.

I usually take the month of july each year to do a bunch of medical exams and the last one was pretty hard. I got a gum infection after my routine teeth cleaning and my new doctor said I should do a few exams on a spot I have in my foot, I have that spot for almost three years now and my old doctor said it wasn't anything serious.

Once i heard this my hypochondria started to attack and i have been in a bad mental place for the last few months, but i'm getting better now and i'm starting to write again.

I had a lot of ideas during that time, both for this fic a new ones, so expect a lot of new things going forward.

A nice visit beyond the wall this chapter, were Ned will learn a lot of important information and hopefully secure a few good deals.

Hope you guys enjoy this one.

Chapter 15

Eddard Stark. 291AC

As he rode uphill towards the largest weirwood tree he had ever seen in his life Ned started thinking about what he would learn from the old greenseer who lived there. This meeting was one long in the making, he had been waiting for this moment ever since he talked with the leaders of the free folk just a few moons after the rebellion ended, he knew that the words of this greenseer were the only reason that the free folk started trading with his lands, trade that had benefited his lands to an immense degree.

The free folk didn't had any concept of gold, so the trade was done through bartering, such an arrangement benefited his side much more than the free folk, they mostly wanted food, furs and wool and were willing to trade precious stones, amber and even some silver from the new mine that was found in the mountains near the fist of the first men. Sometimes he wanted to change the trade deal, it wasn't honorable to trade in such a way, they were bleeding the free folk dry, but his many years of marriage to a woman as stubborn and as knowledgeable in 'the game' as Ashara was had changed his reaction, these days he was willing to use anything to the benefit of his lands, especially with the certainty of war in the near future.

'There is a place and a time for honor, an honorable fool will always end up dead.' Those were the words of his wife and Ned had learned to trust her when it came to politics. She was born in the south, were such things were much more common, and her time in the Red Keep as the lady-in-waiting for Princess Elia had improved her skills even more, someone who didn't knew how to play the game wouldn't survive long in the court of the mad king.

In fact the meeting with the greenseer wasn't actually the main reason for his trip beyond the wall. He wanted to meet with the free folk council in Hardhome much more than he wanted to meet with the greenseer that made it all possible, as a child of the North he knew the power of the greenseers and he would listen to their advice, but the ideas he and his wife had talked about could be much more beneficial to his lands than advice about a possible future. But the free folk council refused to talk with him before his meeting with the greenseer.

He wasn't alone in wanting to talk with the free folk council, quite a few of his lords also wanted to talk to them and were waiting for his return to Hardhome. Lords Umber and Karstark were quite happy with the increased trade that the free folk brought to their lands, even Skagos was prospering from the amount of gold that was flowing through the northern waters.

And it wasn't just the east coast that was prospering. While most of the free folk had settled in the east, Hardhome and Whitetree being their largest settlements, there were also a few smaller ones on the west coast. Those smaller settlements were the primary exporters of the silver being mined near the fist of the first men, houses Glover and Mormont were earning a lot of coin from facilitating that trade, so much so that Lord Mormont was able to keep up with the spending of his Hightower wife who Ashara called 'a snobbish bitch that would spend all the gold in Casterly Rock if given the chance.'

His vassals to the north weren't the only ones gaining new wealth. His road buildings and expanding projects were finally completed and were already improving trade to a massive degree. The new port on the western coast was also mostly completed and the fleet was expanded to 100 ships, enough to escort trade ships all to way to Lannisport and Oldtown, food from The Reach was arriving on his lands for cheaper than ever before. His lands were also producing a lot more food than before, Ashara's new farm communities proving that they were a better even if the cost of providing the smallfolk with farm tools caused them to be more expensive the increase in production was much larger than the cost. The king's road was also improved and trade from the riverlands was now easier and safer so the volume increased, all that combined with the way that population was increasing in his lands made The North the fastest growing economy in the seven kingdoms.

It was quite nice to walk through the roads of Winter town and see the constant growth, there was always something being build be it inn, houses, shops and even brothels. The smallfolk families were also growing, one only needed to walk through any village to see the number of children, the survey he ordered last year had shown that the average number of children in Winter town was 3 per family.

He almost chuckled imagining the look on Lya's face if the plan to bring her and little Visenya for a visit actually works as expected in a few moons time, so much had changed that Lyanna might not even recognize the town anymore. But it would be good for them to visit, Ned hadn't seen his sister since his wedding and Visenya had never seen her home, she might be a Targaryen and she might have been born in Dorne, but she had the blood of the winter kings, Winterfell would always be her home.

Benjen and his wife would also visit and Ned was looking forward to having his entire family together, Helaena was a fierce and strong lady, with all the grace of a queen but still knew how to put a man on his ass in the training yard, she was the best one Ned had ever crossed swords with, even better than his goodbrother Arthur. And the impact she had on his brother was visible, ever since the wedding Benjen has been a lot happier, he hadn't seen his brother smile so much since the rebellion.

But that wasn't the only reason he was looking forward to having his family all in Winterfell, the situation in Essos was putting him on edge, all it needed was a minor push and a massive war would start, and the Targaryens would be right in the middle of a conflict that seemed to be even larger than the looming religious war in the seven kingdoms, another war the Targaryens would start and probably the conflict that would see his relationship with Robert end completely when he refused to march south.

The North would be safe from most of the conflict, there were only a few houses that worshiped the seven north of the neck and based on the information that Queen Rhaella had sent him they would most likely convert to the Old Gods quickly, the faith being responsible for the murder of quite a few of their kin would see to it. But the war in the south promised to be brutal, The Riverlands would be divided between Blackwood and most likely Bracken, he could see a few of the houses closer to the north joining the Blackwood's, house Mallister is almost a given due to their close relations, house piper could end up joining as well, even if the heir is a friend of the heir to Riverrun, the Frey's would probably join the Blackwood's as well, not out of any desire to truly convert to the Old Gods, but mostly out of the cowardice of Walder Frey, he wouldn't want to fight surrounded on all sides by enemies.

Most would expect The Vale to be firmly on the side of the faith, but being fostered there Ned knew it wouldn't be that way. Lord Royce was a good friend of his and he knew for a fact that the man worshiped the Old Gods, they had spent quite a few evenings talking in secret abouth their shared faith when they were younger. Ned also knew that Yohn wasn't the only one that would be quick to abandon the faith, house Redfort were close allies of house Royce and also had a strong first men heritage. The mountain clans would also be quick to take advantage of the situation, they had been waiting for something like that to happen for thousands of years and they would even ally with the houses that bended the knee to the Andals, houses that they considered traitors, if necessary. No one knew, not even Robert, that during his fostering Ned would sometimes ride out into the mountains and talk to the leaders of the mountain clans, the first time he killed someone, was a mountain clansman in an ambush, and the first time he shared a drink with someone was also a mountain clansman, their strong first men culture reminded Ned of The North's own mountain clansmen, if a little more uncivilized.

The Westerlands would probably see a lot less fighting than The Vale. Tywin Lannister would try to resolve the war quickly and completely destroy his enemies as was his usual method. He would probably convert to the Old Gods once he learned of the news, and rivers would run red with the blood of maesters and septons; some of the maesters would be able to survive and be sent to the wall, probably the ones that were as far away from Casterly Rock as possible, but everyone within two days ride would probably die a painful death; spying was bad enough but killing a Lannister, even if it was some 230 years ago, the old lion would never forgive that.

The Stormlands would end up being another bloody battlefield; Ned didn't know enough to say who would be on either side of the conflict but he knew just enough to say it would be brutal and widespread, it could possibly even split families in half. Ned would send word to his aunt Branda to host her family in Winterfell about a moon before Queen Rhaella was ready to release the information, hopefully she would accept.

The few letters he trade with Lya gave the impression that the Targaryens expected The Reach to be mostly united with the faith but Ned didn't believe that would happen; He remembered both Lord Rowan and Lord Tarly and he thought that if even a hint of fighting happened, both men would take the chance to gain power. They were both amongst the best commanders in the seven kingdoms but they would probably fail if they fought alone, but if they put aside their desire for power and decided to ally, they would win any war in The Reach pretty easily, even outnumbered their talent and experience were second to none of their would be enemies, the only one that could give them troubles was Lord Redwyne, and that was only in the sea on land Paxter Redwyne was as good as Mace Tyrell.

According to Ashara Dorne would be divided between the Rhoynar faith and the Old Gods, but a war would be unlikely to happen due to Prince Doran preparing his Lands and subtly encouraging his lords to convert to the old faiths, the efforts were so advanced that it would probably happen even without a religious war breaking out. Her own family had already decided to convert to the Old Gods and his goodsister Allyria would be traveling to both visit her sister and learn more about her new faith.

Ned was taken out of his musings once he reached the top of the hill, his mouth open in shock and he almost fell of his horse when he saw a child of the forest walking out of the cave below the weirwood. She had brown skin with a few white dots similar to a deer, pointy ears, large cat like eyes of a deep green color, her hair was also brown covered in leaves and vines, she was nimble and graceful as she walked towards him.

"Stark, the three eyed crow is waiting for you." Said the child of the forest.

Ned dismounted from his horse still in shock, his mouth opening and closing without any sound leaving it. He had seen the giants in Hardhome and he had heard from Tormund that there were still children of the forest living in the deep woods, but it was one thing hearing it and another actually seeing a being of legend right in front of him, his mind went back to his childhood remembering the stories that Old Nan used to tell them, how many of those stories were true, were there ice dragons still alive, had one of his kin truly broken his oath to the nights watch and taken a white walker as a wife. Maybe he would be able to ask this three eyed crow.

"Thank you my lady, I look forward to meeting him." Ned responded as graciously as he would the queen herself, the being of legend in front of him deserved nothing less.

As he started to walk towards her his guards also walked forward taking position on each side of him, causing the child of the forest to raise her hand. "Only Stark will go from here on now." She said to his guards.

His guards moved their hands towards their swords but they stopped when Ned said. "It is fine, Jory, Myken, you will wait here. She invited me into her home, I'm already under guest rights."

"You are well informed Stark. Now come, we shouldn't keep the three eyed crow waiting." The child of the forest said, turning around and walking towards the cave under the roots of the weirwood.

Ned followed her as they walked in silence into the cave, his eyes looking at everything around him, the cave seemed natural but at the same time not, there wasn't any evidence of tool use on any of the walls or on the floor, but the cave was too uniform to be natural, the various tunnels on each side were a little too well formed, arches almost perfect, the only thing he could think of was that the cave was dug in by magic, the earth itself obeying the command of the children of the forest.

"May I know your name, my lady." Ned asked, he was comfortable enough walking in silence but he wanted to know more about the being walking with him while he still had the chance.

"Leaf." She responded in a curt tone.

They walked in silence, side by side for a few more seconds until Leaf said.

"You seem a lot more respectful than your ancestors."

"You knew them, my lady?" Ned asked, wanting to know more about his family and their connection to the children of the forest. But at that moment, when the large cat like eyes looking at him seemed so far away into the past, the way she hesitated on her step, he realized that calling the being by his side a child was the most disrespectful thing he could do, at that moment she seemed ancient, proving the legends that her people could live indefinitely.

"I was there when we fought against the first men; I saw my own kin fall to the blade of one of your ancestors." Leaf responded with a hard look on her face, causing Ned to lower his head slightly, it was easy to forget that before the alliance between the first men and the children of the forest they fought a long a brutal war. He was surprised when her face softened into a fond look.

"And I was also there, fighting side by side with another one of your ancestors when we fought against the great enemy. Your ancestor's blade took my uncle, and another's shield saved my life." Leaf said in a soft tone.

Ned tried to hide his surprise but the soft laughter from Leaf showed him he wasn't able to. He didn't think someone that old was still alive, someone who had seen the first men arrive in westeros, someone who had seen and fought against the others, it was almost inconceivable that someone so old was walking side by side with him.

"My Lady, is there something I can do for the debt that my family owes your people?" Ned asked once he recovered from his shock; He imagined that his ancestors must have killed a lot of her people and even if thousands of years had passed since then Ned would still pay their debts of blood and honor.

"It's been thousands of years, as well as a war against a common enemy, Stark. My people aren't large or prosperous enough to claim a blood debt and the debt of your own family has already been paid by Brandon when he asked for our help building the wall. Besides, if we wanted to claim the debt we would claim it from the children of John 'the oak' since the line of the firstborn of the Greenhand has already died out, even if the debt of Brandon of the bloody gate has already been paid by his son." Leaf responded, revealing a lot of information for Ned, some of which not many in The North would like to hear. Many in his lands refused to believe that their liege lords were decedents of 'some perfumed reachman' even if said reachman was a legend like Garth Greenhand. The knowledge that the builder had help from the children to build the wall was also something important to his family, the legend was always said it was so, but to have confirmation from someone who was there, who probably helped in its construction was a priceless gift.

"It's there something else i can call your people, my lady? Calling them children seems disrespectful for such a long living race." Ned asked, wanting to give the proper respect for someone that had seen the founder of his house.

"You are only the second human to ask such question, you can call us earthsingers, it is the closest translation in your language." Leaf responded giving him a soft smile, something in that smile caused Ned to feel pride, knowing that he was giving the earthsingers the respect they deserved.

"We are here, from now on you go alone." Leaf said when they reached a small entrance covered in vines.

"It was an honor to talk with you, my lady." Ned said, bowing his head towards Leaf.

Once Leaf left he pushed the vines aside and walked into the chamber and what he saw caused him surprise once again. The walls were covered in roots and vines, torches hung from the vines but didn't burn either them or the roots, even more roots covered the floor, so much so that one had to walk carefully unless they wanted to get a foot stuck in the roots and sprain an ankle, but the most surprising thing was in front of him, an ancient looking man was stuck in the roots, his body more tree than human, his one good eye was red, the other was taken by the roots, he didn't know if the man had lost his eye before he was merged with the tree or not but it seemed so judging by the scar that Ned could see on the man's face.

"Eddard Stark, you arrived at last." The ancient man said.

"I'm guessing you are the three eyed crow?" Ned asked, walking a little closer towards the man.

"That is what I am now, but i was called many things before, bastard, lord commander, but the name you should know me by is Bryden Rivers." The man responded, causing another wave of surprise and shock to pass trough Ned, to think that he was still alive after all this time.

"Bloodraven." Ned said in a calm tone, not betraying his emotions.

"I was him once, now i'm only the three eyed crow." He responded.

"And why should I believe anything you say? You are a traitor, a kinslayer and an oath breaker." Ned asked with a little more steel in his voice.

"Because we are in the same side." He responded.

"And what side is that?" Ned asked.

"The side of the living." Bloodraven responded, causing chills to go down Ned's spine. He couldn't be talking about that could he, about the ancient enemy of all living.

"They will be returning, not now, we still have a few years before they are ready, but they will return within your lifetime." He said causing Ned to almost panic, what would he do against the ancient enemy, would his children have to fight, die, against such terrible foe.

"And what should I do? What do you see?" Ned asked.

"The future is always changing." the three eyed crow responded. "Many different, small things can change the future, in another time and another place you wouldn't do anything, you would be dead long before they attacked, but in that other time your sister wouldn't be alive, the queen wouldn't be alive, a bastard wouldn't exist while a true born, your nephew, would be raised as your bastard. But this isn't that other time, in here we have a better chance, more dragons, more people ready and willing to fight, more time to prepare. The best thing you can do for now is buy as much dragonglass as you can and make weapons out of it, arrow heads, spear heads, even daggers if you can, every piece of it helps." Bloodraven responded, causing Ned to scowl at him.

"That's the best you can do, buy dragonglass." Ned asked with annoyance.

"For now yes it is, you should also tell the queen what I told you." He responded.

"She would never believe me." Ned said still annoyed.

"She wouldn't." He agreed. "That's why you should also tell her that the moment to give the sword should be coming soon, and that she should look into page 43 of the book, one of the pages lost on the few copies others have, she will know what it means." The three eyed crow said.

"Is that all you have to say to me?" Ned asked. "I expected a little more help if the ancient enemy is truly ready to return." He added.

To the right of Bloodraven a few roots started to move until a small hole formed between them, inside was beautiful looking rock of a snow white color with hints of blue. Ned recognized the rock even if he had never once seen one before, a dragon egg.

"This one came from Silverwing, give it to your niece when she comes to Winterfell, she will need it in the future." Bloodraven said.

Ned walked forward and grabbed the egg from the small hole in the roots, it felt hot to his touch, the fire of the dragon inside it heating the egg shells, each one of them like a beautiful gem, with a soft glow of their own.

"In the future, there might be a need for me to pass more information to you, if it happens Leaf will visit Winterfell to tell you so. She might also visit for reasons of her own." The three eyed crow said with a tone of finality.

"I still don't trust you, but I thank you for the information you have given me." Ned thanked the man in front of him. He might be an oath breaker, a kinslayer and a traitor to the realm, but he was also a greenseer and his powers were proven to be true, so Ned would listen to his advice.

Ned walked out of the chamber and saw Leaf waiting for him outside, she said nothing as she walked with him towards the entrance of the cave, once outside she turned towards him and said. "We will see each other again Stark, I hope it is before the end."

"Thank you for receiving me today." Ned said as he sat down on the chair inside the free folk building.

Across from him sat the many leaders of the free folk, among them were Tormund, Styr and Gorne, the leaders of the free folk that he spoke with all those years ago. He didn't have much contact with the others as the didn't leave Hardhome, but Tormund became a good friend of his in the last few years, he visited Winterfell many times with trade caravans and the large man remind Ned of an Umber, it was even clearer to see this here as lord Umber sat beside him. Ned had also met the other leaders of the free folk in the few days he had been in Hardhome, the most impressive were two women, Karsi and Dalla. Dalla reminded him a lot of his Ashara with how she portrayed herself, Ned knew there was a cunning mind behind that innocent looking face. Karsi on the other hand, reminded him of his own mother, Lyarra, the woman was fierce and had a lot of the 'wolf blood' as it was called amongst the Starks, many forget that Lyanna got her stubbornness from their mother, not their father.

"It is good to see you again Ned, even if you are a little more subdued since you talk with the three eyed crow, but that is between you and him. Now tell us this idea you have." Tormund said smiling at him, many would dismiss the larger man because of his lack of education that the lords of the seven kingdoms had, but he was just as well spoken as any royal courtier, he wasn't called tall talker amongst his people for nothing.

"The last time you were in Winterfell you said how troublesome it was to contain some amongst your people who still desire to raid and fight against mine, Tormund." Ned said, getting a nod from the larger man. "So, talking with my lady wife we came up with an idea that we hope would solve this problem." Ned said.

"And what idea is that?" Karsi asked.

"We believe you could point your warriors towards the sea. The Ibennese whaling ships sail the waters east from here and their products are sought after by many in the south, they protect their ships with many experienced warriors, so it would give your own warriors a constant enemy to fight and your people would have even more goods to trade." Ned said giving them what he hoped was a winning argument.

'And the gold from the trade would be used to build large defenses in Skagos, just to be sure you don't get any ideas' Ned thought.

"It is a good idea, the problem with it is that none amongst the free folk know how to build a ship much less sail one or fight on one." Gorne said rubbing his chin deep in thought.

"We would be more than happy to provide you with a few ships, as well as teach your people everything they need to know, just send a few men to our lands and we would teach them to build ships, sail them and fight on them." Lord Karstark said, Ned looked to him seating on his left and saw that the lord of Karhold was visibly excited about the possibility of getting whale oil for cheap.

"It is a good idea, we will give you an answer tomorrow, we need to discuss this a little more." Styr said, closing the discussions on that point, but Ned thought that judging by the looks on their faces they would accept.

"Now for the next point." Karsi started. "We talked about what you offered Tormund on his last visit to Winterfell and we passed to our people your offer, 200 of ours accepted your offer to settle on your lands and two giants, a young couple, also accepted your offer." She said.

Ned hoped for more but he would be content with only the two giants, now he would need to convince them to work on his project so he could finally start to build a canal between the fever and the white knife. The road between Barrowton and White harbor was making good coin, but a canal would bring even more prosperity to his lands, the problem was that building a canal of that size was impossible for men alone, but with a couple of giants working on it, they would be able to start the project. It would take a long time for it to finish, possibly tens of years, but once it was done it would change not only The North but all of westeros.

He had met Val and the young woman impressed him; She was six and ten, and quite beautiful with her light blonde hair and ice blue eyes, she was fierce in the typical free folk way, but also quite delicate in other ways, a perfect blend of a strong free folk woman and a southern lady.

"I would be happy to host here for as long as she wishes to be there." Ned responded.

"Ha, I give a year before she is with child." Tormund said booming with laughter. "How many children do you have now Ned, three and ten from four different women?" He added causing the others to laugh as well when Ned lowered his head a little in shame.

After the many years and the many times Ashara had brought other women into their bed, it finally happened for one of them to fall with child, and when the first one came others quickly followed, he now had more bastards than probably the last ten generations of Starks combined and would forever be remembered as 'the lusty wolf' a moniker he tried hard to stop others from calling him.

"If she wants to lay with him she will, she is old enough to make her own choices and she could certainly do a lot worse." Dalla said winking at him, causing the others to laugh even more when he blushed a little.

"I think we talked about everything we could today. Now i would like a drink to forget the last few minutes of this conversation." Ned said to loud agreement from Lord Umber and Tormund and laughter of the others.

Ned rose from his chair while the others did the same, clasping hands with the leaders of the free folk and walking out of the building side by side with Tormund and great Jon Umber for an afternoon and night of drinking.

AN 2: A lot of important things happening in this chapter.

In the next one we stay in westeros, but from a different POV.

I will see you guys in the next one.