Hey everyone Shadowwolf1997 is back with a new update…. Haha now before y'all track me down and murder me allow me to explain the lateness of this update… combination of college, breaks, writer's block, and me struggling with a little thing called ADHD meaning I have the attention span of a fly when something new catches my attention, but thank you for your patience, now without further ado. Also, I do not own A Song of Ice and Fire, only George R. R. Martin claims that distinction. I know it's been a while and I would love to thank everyone for their patience.

Rivers of Blood and Mountains in the Night

Song of the River Stags

The Riverlands had long been a place of war, lacking the natural defenses of the other kingdoms and being the geological center of the continent of Westeros made it ideal for the other kingdoms to wage bloody and continuous wars to take and hold this fertile area, fertile in rich earth for crops, and plentiful in blood.

The Native Riverlanders were very familiar with war, being caught between almost every other major kingdom, their own rival feuds that lasted generations, and simple banditry had taught the people of the Riverlands the price of those unwilling to take up arms.

But that had done them little when the Durrandons and their Stormlanders came during a civil war fought between the ruling House Teague, and the rebels lead by the Tullys of Riverrun 500 years before the coming of the Targaryens. The Civil War left the Riverlanders vulnerable, and the Storm King of the time, King Durran XXIX, also known as The Brilliant took advantage of the turmoil to ally with the rebels.

He offered them aid, but in reality, was using them to destroy House Teague all the while having them take all the casualties while his Stormlanders waited in reserve. Once the forces of the rebels were ravaged and tired from their victory, Durran descended upon them like a thunderbolt, and crushed the rebel army to dust.

With no force left to stop him, Durran set about adding the Riverlands to his domain. He then built a large fortress near the center of the Riverlands, on the shore of the God's Eye. The citadel he built was to be the new capital and administration center of the Storm Kings' Riverlands. It was made the largest in the whole of the south, using the treasures of the many now extinct Riverlands houses that had just perished in the war.

Durran's Hall was the name given to the large bastion, and Durran placed his second son Stannis as the Lord of Durran's Hall and named him Prince of the Rivers.

Stannis was very much his father's son having a keen mind and a great understanding of warfare. Knowing that his family would never be able to retain hold of the center of the continent without a strong military, Stannis set about turning the people of the Riverlands into one of the greatest armies in Westeros.

And Stannis had just the force along his border to model his new army after, the fabled Wolf Fang Guard of the Northern Army, the personal guard of Winterfell and the Starks, the greatest warriors in all of Westeros. And Stannis didn't stop there, looking across the sea to the phalanx formations of the Unsullied that could break the mighty Dothraki hordes to dust. Stannis knew that if properly trained, these formations could be used to even the odds against two of the North's greatest weapons, the Giants and their Mammoths. Even creatures such as they would hesitate when faced with a wall of spears and disciplined and determined men to hold them. Stannis would begin by gathering the smallfolk from the region of the still constructing Durran's Hall. He came to them himself and talked to them, got to know them and then told them why he had gathered them.

"You are all proud Rivermen, and proud you should be. Your ancestors have claimed one of the most fertile regions of this continent for themselves, and since the first Riverman settled here you have been forced to fight for this land. The Northmen have the Neck to bottle up their enemies and their frozen winters to kill those unused to their home. The Valemen have the gates of the Moon they can retreat behind after attacking your lands and the Westernmen have the Golden Tooth, the Reach has its vast armies to repel attackers, the Dornish have the Boneway and their deserts, while we of the Stormlands have our martial ability."

"My father brought in this land and its people through conquest and intrigue and I will not insult your intelligence by saying otherwise but in doing so I will give you and you fellow Rivermen a strong defense to drive off any would be invaders. Your former lords were more concerned with their petty disputes and politics them protecting you, their people, which allowed my father to defeat them. I however will do my duty as your lord to keep these lands not only safe but also give you the means to drive off any that would take your lands and families from you. Under my leadership I will turn you and your brethren into a force to rival the Wolf Fang Guard of Winterfell, when you take the field the other southern Kingdoms will run from you in fear and even the Northmen will sweat when their only true challengers come to meet them. You men are the first to form the wall of the Riverlands, my River Guard."

Stannis was meet with a cacophony of cheers as the men made their agreement with his plan clear and they began their training to become the first members of the vaunted River Guard. Prince Stannis spent eight years training his River Guard, at first made up of only 5,000 men, what they lacked in numbers the Prince made sure they had in quality. While Durran's Hall rose up from the ground Stannis recruited trainers from Essos and the North to turn his Rivermen into a disciplined and cohesive force. Everyday Stannis would drill his men with their long pikes and how to retain their shield wall, march without breaking formation, and how to advance as one mowing down all before them. Armed with chainmail and a layer of wool armor on top of that, with plate greaves and gauntlets, combined with iron great helms and large shields the River Guard were hard to stop with arrow fire and even more dangerous to engage upfront with their pikes and swords for when the pikes were broken.

The River Guard also took after the Wolf Fang Guard in another regard that made them different from any other fighting force in Westeros. They were trained to also be able to fight unarmed with their bare hands. But this was not the rough and uncoordinated brawling of a tavern fight these men fought with, but with a precision and strength none of the levies of the Southern kingdoms could hope to match without months or even years of training. The River Guard utilized a popular fighting style from the Riverlands that had doubled as a sort of regional sport for millennia, a sport called boxing. The sport had long been popular among the Rivermen and large regional tournaments would even be held in times of peace, with the winners earning great fame for their prowess.

Stannis would utilize this sport into part of the training of the River Guard, not only because all the men had some experience with it, but it also provided an easy way to keep his men entertained, in shape, and a use outlet for them to vent and prevent the breakdown of discipline. The gauntlets of the River Guard were specially crafted to deal great damage to any caught of the wrong side of a punch while also containing padding on the inside to prevent harm from occurring to the Guardsmen's hands.

This too Stannis had taken from the Northmen and Ironborn who had long been famous for utilizing their own national sport, wrestling, into their fighting styles when going to war. More than one warrior had disarmed a soldier of the Winterlands and, getting overconfident had gone in for the kill, only for the men of the Winterlands and the Isles to utilize their wrestling training to overcome their opponents and snap their necks once they had been immobilized. Stannis hoped that this focus on unarmed combat would also give his warriors a greater advantage against the other Southron kingdoms and help to even the odds against the Northmen.

In fact Stannis himself trained in the art to show solidarity with his men and for excellent method of exercise it provided, and came to enjoy it so much that he later would organize great tournaments to attract the greatest boxers in the Riverlands with the champions earning great fame and prestige, and the sport eventually came to supplant activities such as jousting in the Riverlands. Stannis would even build a great arena to hold these tournaments outside of Durran's Hall called Arena of Stannis, later just known as the Arena.

And Stannis did not stop there and would go on to found to best unit of archers in all of Westeros to support his River Guard, the Blackwood Rangers.

The Blackwoods had seen what the Durrandons were doing and, with no love for the Andal Teagues and their brutal crackdowns on the Old Gods and their worshippers and the Tullys with their great disdain for their beliefs and ways of life. Fed up with the constant disdain and arrogance of their neighbors, Lord Tytos Blackwood came to King Durran and gave him his allegiance in return for his people's right to practice their religion and customs unencumbered and volunteered to turn on his fellow rebels the moment the Storm King made his move. Seeing a chance to increase his own forces and securing the allegiance of one of the strongest houses in the Riverlands and their fabled archer corps was too good for the cunning Storm King to pass up, and the Blackwoods up held their end of the bargain when the moment of truth came, their archers shot into the backs of the Riverland rebels as the Storm Lords smashed into them from the front.

For his loyalty Tytos would become the second most powerful lord in the Storm Riverlands and Prince Stannis's right hand man, and his father-in-law when Stannis married Tytos's daughter Betha, thus sealing house Blackwoods allegiance to the Princes of the Rivers. And it was with this loyalty that Stannis went with his plan to form the Blackwood Rangers. Every man from the Blackwood lands was required to be taught in the way of the bow and sword, skilled in marksmanship, tracking, and woodcraft. The Rangers would become the sentinels of the Riverlands, enforcing the Prince's laws and while also keeping a look out for possible invasion. The men practiced daily becoming the best archers in Westeros, being able to go arrow to arrow with even the gryphon riders of the North. In fact, many trained to fight the Gryphon riders by sniping flying birds from great distances, to serve as a counter measure for the Winterlands' aerial warriors. It was said a master Blackwood Ranger could shot a falcon on the wing from 150 yards.

To round out his newly created professional army, Stannis had a corps of engineers maintain scorpions and trebuchets. The trebuchets for besieging of enemy castles and two different versions of scorpions, one exclusively for dealing with Northern giants and smaller versions to be used against not just infantry but Northern Gryphons manned by Blackwood Rangers.

But the ultimate test for the River Guard would come when the King of the Rock, King Lancel VII would attack the Riverlands thinking that Prince Stannis's grip on the land would still be fragile and with King Durran distracted with a war with the Gardners and the pirates of the Stepstones. But the King of the Rock would soon learn that the young Prince was every bit his father's son.

When the Prince heard of the Westernmen's invasion he rallied his River Guard to action while also sending out the call for the levies to be raised by his lords, many being the second sons of Storm Lords to replace extinct Riverlands houses such as Houses Vance and Piper but also those that had been conquered by his father. Knowing they might try to ally with the Lannisters Stannis sent a very clear message, "Think of defying me and you will have a new overlord who will be more than content to turn you all into either petty servants or strip you of everything, while still leaving the Riverlands under foreign rule, so you can either stick with me or pray the Lannisters are more lenient." This seemed to do the trick as no lords tried to side with the Lannisters, the River Guard and Rangers might have also influenced their decisions.

However even with his 5,000 River Guard and 4,000 Blackwood Rangers combined with a levy force of 35,000 Prince Stannis's army was up against 60,000 Westernmen. However, Stannis and his generals were not going to give in to the Lannisters so easily.

Stannis had the Blackwood Rangers makes themselves a serious thorn in the side of Lancel and his men, picking off outriders, ambushing foraging parties, felling trees and blocking roads, and attacking Lannister camps at night, using tactics that many likened to the Dornish or Crannogmen, and retreating before a proper Lannister response could be made.

As the Blackwood Rangers' raids began to severely delay the Westernmen, Prince Stannis marshalled his forces on the east side of the Red Fork near Riverrun after the Rangers had destroyed all the bridges along the Tumblestone and funneled the Lannister forces to Riverrun. As this was happening the Tullys of Riverrun opened their grate near the river and turned the castle into its near impregnable island form, with the engineer corps having built a small wooden, yet stable bridge, across the Red Fork, with the Eastern side guarded by the River Guard.

When Lancel and his army finally managed to reach Riverrun, two months later than he had planned due to the interference of the Rangers, and seeing the bridge, figured that the young Prince had made it to link his forces but now he could use it to easily put Riverrun under siege and to wipe away the army of the young River Prince. As the morning dawned, the King of the Rock sent a first wave across the bridge of mostly untrained levies to test the River Guard, who locked shields, lowered their spears, and met the charging Westernmen, who were utterly slaughtered as the narrow bridge limited their numbers, and the superior training, armor, and weapons proved far superior to the levies on the bridge. As the western men kept trying to break through the phalanx of the River guard, the untrained levies broken fled to the other side of the river.

Seeing this the King of the Rock tried again to break the phalanx of the River Guard but this time tried to use men at arms instead of untrained levies and again was met with failure as the men at arms were slaughtered on the spears of the guard. During all this time the Rangers had not fired their bows making the Lannisters believe that the Blackwoods were not present but could not use this as an advantage as their bows could not reach across the River even if they could that they lacked the strength and power to break through the armor of the River Guard.

King Lancel tried four more times to cross the Red Fork using the bridge as his way across, using men at arms and dismounted knights in the last charge to break the unflinching shield wall Prince Stannis's had formed, accomplishing only in making the Red Fork run red with the blood of four thousand of his soldiers.

The first day of the Battle of Riverrun ended with the Lannisters stuck between the now uncrossable Tumblestone, the protected pass over the Red Fork was not an option currently, and the island that was the castle of Riverrun. Stuck and unable to find a new path to take as his scouts kept getting attacked by the Rangers and the few survivors had not made it very far.

Deciding he had no choice, King Lancel began to make plans to attack the bridge again. In the morning he tried again this time sending in heavily armed dismounted knights and his own personal household guard, the best forces in his entire army, led by his twin second and third sons Tyrion and Lann. The bridged, while short, had been made rather wide for reasons Lancel couldn't figure out but decided to use to his advantage. Packing a staggering nearly two thousand men on it before it showed signs of stress. The tightly packed Lannisters smashed into the Durrandon Riverlanders, but still the River Guard did not flinch or break and held the line.

As this was occurring Stannis had sent a small force of engineers on skiffs and boats to the bridge, and had them attack the vital but vulnerable pillars that were the main source of the bridge's stability, and thus showed the true nature of the Stannis's plan weaken the Lannister forces until the King of the Rock unleashed his best forces and dismantle the bridge, taking the best of the Westerlands with it. True Lancel had committed his best sooner than Stannis had anticipated, but an opening was an opening and the young Prince of the Riverlands was no fool.

By the time Lancel had figured out what his rival intended to do, it was too late as the engineers took down the bridge's supports, and caused the bridge to topple into the Red Fork, and took with it the cream of Westerlands soldiers, knights, lords, and two Princes of the Rock, at the same time the stunned Westerlands forces were hit with a barrage of heavy stones, curtesy of a team of trebuchets that Stannis had been building in secret while the Lannisters were busy with the bridge, inflicting even more devastating casualties. In two days, the Battle of the Red Fork had cost the King of the Rock about seven thousand men, including some of his best men and two of his sons. That night as the Westerlands forces were mulling over their next decision, a cry came from the edges of the camp as a swarm of arrows fell upon the Westernmen, followed by a charge of mounted knights that stormed through the camp as foot men followed behind.

While the River Guard had held up the Lannisters Stannis had been leading the Rangers, his cavalry, and some of his best men at arms across a ford in the Tumblestone known only to the Riverlanders of the area and used it to come upon the Lannister camp. Taken completely by surprise and in the dead of night, the Riverlanders slaughtered the Westernmen, with King Lancel being among the slain and Crown Prince Lancel, being captured in the confusion, with twenty thousand Westernmen being killed in the massacre, twenty thousand more were wounded or captured, and the rest scattering to the winds, dozens of lords killed or captured, and power of the Westerlands broken for a generation. And this had been accomplished at the price of six hundred men, who Stannis had buried on the eastern side of the Red Fork under a large stone cairn in later years dubbed the Heroes Vigil, in honor of the men who showed Westeros a new age had dawned for the Riverlanders.

With the new King Lancel VIII as his prisoner, Prince Stannis was able to extract a heavy indemnity from the Westernmen, a large sum of gold, hostages, and most crucially of all… the Golden Tooth, the shield of the Westerlands. As Lord Lefford, all his sons, brothers, and nephews had 'tragically' died in the ensuing Massacre of the Camps, Stannis seemingly ignoring the fact that each had been specifically killed by Blackwood Rangers, like they had been singled out, with only his daughter left to carry the family name.

When Lancel tried to refuse, Stannis calmly said then that he could always take the Tooth by force, and with most of the Lords of the Westerlands now either dead or prisoner, and their best troops rotting corpses there was little to stop him from conquering the whole of the Westerlands, and of course the ever vigilant and opportunistic Ironborn were unlikely to let such an opportunity to raid or even take chucks of the Westerlands for themselves go to waste, and Stannis might even be tempted to split the Kingdom of the Rock with them, provided they could come to an agreement for them to stop their periodic raids into the Riverlands.

Whether Stannis was seriously contemplating this or not is not the issue, the threat was enough to get the Lannister king to submit to his wishes and robbing the Westerlands of their great eastern fortress. Stannis would then proceed to marry Lady Tysa Lefford to his good-brother Bryden Blackwood, Lord Tytos's second son, and he was made the new Lord of the Golden Tooth, starting the Blackwoods of the Golden Tooth, the Shields of the Riverlands.

With this victory in hand, Stannis would release the new king and his lords, but only after Bryden had been married and the garrison of the Tooth was made of Riverlanders and guarded by a detachment of Blackwood Ranges who would begin to train a new force of rangers drawn up from the smallfolk of the Tooth.

After his victory though, Stannis could not rest as a messenger arrived from his father, one that was asking him to aid in the war with the Reach and it was taking the Storm King all his skills to hold of the Gardeners and their vast armies. Knowing news of his victory probably hadn't reached the frontlines of the latest Gardener and Durrandon war, Stannis wasted no time in reorganizing his forces and marched for the Stony Sept, before continuing south into the Reach. In the East King Durran the Brilliant and King Willas Gardner III were engaged in a stalemate in the lands between Grassy Vale and Ashford and stretching to the Red Mountains, while Stannis's older brother Crown Prince Barristan was leading a campaign against the pirates in the Stepstones. No one expected any reinforcements from the Riverlands to come to the Storm King's aid.

And yet, to the King of the Reach's shock, reports soon came of Prince Stannis's army burning everything on his path to Bitterbridge and to come around the Reach's rear. King Willias sent Lord Mace Florent with a force of ten thousand knights and forty thousand foot soldiers, keeping retain ten thousand knights and fifty thousand footmen of his own to challenge the army of King Durran. Mace was Willias's good brother and a reasonable politician and minister of trade… but a complete incompetent when it came to matters of military and a total glory hound, factors the young Prince of the Rivers would use to his advantage.

Upon receiving word from his scouts that Mace had crossed the Bitterbridge, Stannis would fortify two large hills and the valley between them as he and his army of 30,000 men bunkered down and braced for the coming storm. Using his corps of engineers, he built two reasonable redoubts on the hills with trenches and lines of spikes, with a small trebuchet on each hill and several supporting scorpions manned by the Rangers and bowmen from across the Riverlands that would funnel the Gardner cavalry into the valley, and into the River Guard and the men at arms. The Riverlands horsemen and knights would remain in reserve behind the hills.

Upon arriving at the site of the Rivermen camp Mace wasted no time in the attempt to flatten the Prince Stannis and his forces in a massive cavalry charge, believing as most Reachmen did, in the 'inherent' superiority of the Reach's nobility and knights, and that they would easily run over the Rivermen. Upon seeing the Reach cavalry getting ready to charge, Stannis is noted to have quipped to his deputy Cortnay Selmy, the new Lord of Vance, "Count on the civilized folk of the Reach to come up with such subtle solutions to their problems. Have the men lock shields and get the Rangers ready for target practice."

The Earth itself trembled as 10,000 armored knights made their way towards the Rivermen's position slowly picking up speed until they were close enough to urge their horses to go into full gallop, the infantry following to mop up the surviving Rivermen and take the hills. However, before that was possible, their tightly packed formation came under fire from the trebuchets, with large stones scattering the formation and breaking cohesion of the formation while also inflicting terrible casualties, followed by a deadly rain of scorpion bolts that also disrupted the formation. The power of a Calvary charge came from its speed and the mass of the charging formation, if the formation was slowed or the formation broken, the charge lost its power and became less deadly as a result.

Knowing this and panicking as his men were being picked off Lord Mace ordered a full charge at the River Guard holding their position as the cavalry now came under the withering fire of the Rangers and their fellow bow men. While the knights themselves proved difficult to wound or kill due to their armor, their horses were much more easily dispatched, which the expert marksmen of the Blackwood Rangers wasted no time in proving. Before the great knights of the Reach could even reach the wall of Rivermen, their formation was wrecked and practically useless. And then there was the problem of the wall of spears presented to them. Horses, unlike humans, are less willing to ignore their desire for survival and sensibly prove unwilling to charge a wall of death. Those that didn't stop in time were impaled and the charge stopped dead in its tracks.

At the sight of the dead charge, Stannis gave the signal for the River Guard to advance, and like an unstoppable spiked avalanche, the River Guard moved forward, mowing down the Reach knights like wind wipes away leaves. As the Reach knights tried to get away, they ran into the footmen of the Reach and trampled their comrades in their desperation to get away, all the while still under the devastating fire of the Rangers and the war machines from Stannis's redoubts. And as the Reach infantry were trying to figure out why their lords were running them over they were hit in the front by the Guard, and on the sides from the Rivermen cavalry who had emerged from behind the hill to strike the now disorganized infantry, and their charge utterly destroyed any sense of organization or ability to continue fighting, but Stannis had his forces show no mercy, and the River Guard continued their relentless march, killing thousands of Reachmen even past the point when others would have given a reprieve, but the Rivermen showed no mercy, for millennia they had been the punching bag of central Westeros, and now under Prince Stannis they had the means to repay centuries of pent up rage against the other Southern Kingdoms. If they could finally secure peace for their families under the Lordship of the Storm Kings rather than a native Riverlander so be it, none had been up to the task since the destruction and exile of the Mudds, so maybe it was time to try it with a new lord with a new way, a way paved with the blood of the Reach.

The surviving members of the Reach army would scatter and left the northern Reach near defenseless as 4,000 knights were dead and 10,000 infantry were dead or captured, with most of the levies breaking for home, with the knights making a run for the main army. To make matter worse for the Reach, King Durran had taken the war personally after a Reach ambush killed Crown Prince Durran, at the cost of one of King Willas's most effective Captains, his deputy Luthor Flowers, when Durran crushed his skull barehanded. In retaliation the Storm King had launched a series of feints that had eventually led King Willas into a trap that cost him a chunk of his main army, severed his supply lines and killed two of his sons. And now he was stuck between the King Durran and Prince Stannis, as the Prince was ravaging the Reach and with King Durran on the warpath, Willas was forced to come to the table, and was forced to secede everything to the direct north of Bitterbridge and the Mander, to Ashford and Ciderhall on the Cockleswent in the south, and everything east of that. With these large gains the Stormlands had officially and indisputably become the second power of Westeros. Months later victory over some of the pirates of the Stepstones was achieved with the Stormlands conquering the western part of the chain and setting up a Fortress on one of the islands called Stormguard which served as a Stormlands stronghold and port against the pirates and Dornish, ruled by House Stromguard, founded by King Durran's third son Steffon the Buccaneer, known for his very successful career in hunting down and wiping out pirates and being a nuisance for Dornish and Essosi shipping.

After the war, Stannis was made the new Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Storms and Rivers and was greatly rewarded by his father, and five years later was crowned King Stannis IX who further solidified his gains and even managed to form a treaty with the North, becoming one of the few kings of central Westeros respected across the continent, even the North and Dorne. He made the River Guard the personal guards of the King and handed off Duran's Hall to his younger son Barristan who would go on to found House Durrandon of Duran's Hall, the Prince of Rivers and the loyal enforcers of the Storm Kings' will for centuries checking any ambitious Lannister or Gardner attempts to reclaim lost territory as the fame of the River Guard came to match that of the Wolf Fang Guard, with a sort of grudging respect that developed between the two elite units.

Now on the eve of the Targaryen Invasion, the current Prince of Rivers, Robert Durrandon III, was awoken from his slumber by an urgent knocking at his door. Swearing under his breathe as he sat up, his wife Lysa Connington of the Connington's of Vance, groaned and buried her head under a pillow, saying "This had better be important." "If it isn't I'll make sure the one at the door doesn't see sleep for at least a week," Robert jokingly promised his wife as he put on a pair of deer hide slippers and walked to the door. Upon opening hit he found two Blackwood Rangers on the other side, both of whom quickly bowed and then straightened up to address their Prince.

"Prince Robert urgent news from the North and East. The Valyrian fleet has set sail and our Rangers beyond the Twins report that the Northmen are marching from the Moat." One said while handing him two sealed messages, one from his uncle King Argillic and another with the mark of the Rangers. By now his wife had sat up to see the Rangers and shot him a concerned look. Looking at the missives Robert turned to the Rangers, "Get Maester Bryden and the Captain of the Guard and meet me in my solar." The two Rangers bowed and quickly left to complete their tasks, while his wife sat up and walked to him, "Looks like Uncle Argillic screwed up with that whole messenger business, or at least that's what I'd like to say, but this feels to deliberate, looks like the Targaryens are making a play for a kingdom of their own his some help from the Northmen." Robert said grimly as Lysa grabbed a robe and put it on him, then lighting some candles so her husband could read the letters,

"Damn," Robert growled as he opened the letters and looked at the contents, "I had hoped we'd have more time to prepare but this young Aegon was a step ahead of us, we've got two fronts to worry about, three if the Dornish step in and I'd bet the Riverlands they will, I can only hope Lord Caron can hold Nightsong and slow the bastards down."

Robert's frown only deepened as he read the letters, the Valyrian fleet and its Dragon Riders were headed for the mouth of the Blackwater Rush, its where he'd land, while King Torrhen Stark was heading down the Marsh Road to the Twins, with the strength of the Winterlands behind him, and the Dornish were probably gearing up their cavalry raiders for attacks on the Southern border, this was the worse case scenario if the Gardners and Lannisters smelled blood.

"What do you think our odds are?" The calm word of his wife snapped him out of his thoughts as her turned towards her, her unflinching countenance helping to steady him. "Bad," he answered honestly before continuing, "the Valyrians and their dragons would be challenge enough, but with the Winterlands and Dorne, it will be almost untenable. But I have orders from my uncle to gather my forces and head for the Fords and make them bleed, maybe take out a few of their dragons with our scorpions, they're probably easier to hit then Gryphons." Robert said somewhat jokingly before turning serious again and turning towards his wife, "no matter what though I won't allow this Kingdom to fall easily, if the fuckers want it, they can fight us for every damned inch." This brought a smile to Lysa's face as she embraced him before saying "That's the man I married."

Robert smiled before he kissed the top of her head and began to make his way to his solar, there was much to do and little time to do it, but he wouldn't let this Kingdom fall so easily.

Nighttime meeting in the Mountains

(Meanwhile somewhere in the Mountains of the Vale)

Rhaenys was not what one would call a jealous woman, in fact most felt she never even felt that emotion. When Visenya had been sent to Winterfell all she had asked for was letters from her big sister to keep her informed, and any fun details about her husband in bed. When her best friend Danea had started to fall for Aegon, Rhaenys decided to help her friend. It took her a month to set it up, but the clever woman had gotten them both drunk and led her friend to Aegon's room. The look on their faces when they had woken up that morning still made her laugh, and the rest had settled itself out when the three were married. But right now, as she was freezing in these mountains even with her thick cloak and Meraxes not far from, she glared at her sister with undisguised envy as Visenya appeared completely unaffected by the cold. "H-h-h-how ar-e-e you n-not free-zing right now Vis-senya?" She garbled out through chattering teeth.

Looking at her sister with a smug little grin the eldest Targaryen simply said, "I've lived in Winterfell for years baby sister, I've simply gotten use to much worse weather in all that time." Omitting the fact that the cold of Winterfell was still too much for her, but her sister didn't need to know that. Muttering a few choice words about her sister that sounded suspiciously like, "Damned bitch," under her breathe, Rhaenys took another look around the clearing. They were deep in the mountains of the Vale, with the two sisters were their dragons and twenty of Visenya's personal guard, a squadron of Gryphon Riders that Torrhen had handpicked to accompany his wife in the skies of Westeros. Each rider's Gryphon and Vhagar carried rolled up burlap sacks, what they contained Rhaenys didn't know but her sister said it was crucial to their current mission. Suddenly Vhagar, Meraxes, and the Gryphons seemed on alert as if something had caught their attention.

The Captain of Visenya's Guard, a dependable man of the Free Folk tribes named Domeric, approached the two of them from a vantage point with another of the riders continuing the vigil, bow drawn at the ready, "My Queen, they approach about fifty if not more." Nodding Visenya looked to the Captain, "Domeric you speak Mountain Tongue do you not?"

"Indeed, I do Your Grace, do you want me to translate?"

"Yes, Captain I do." As Visenya finished speaking, the first of the band came into view, a tall man with covered in furs and armed with an iron sword, a thick beard hanging down from his face that was littered with scars. But his most distinguishing feature was his left eye which had been burned out of its socket and the hole covered by a blue stretch of cloth, likely torn from an Arryn banner. Behind him followed men and women in similar dress but many lacked the burned features, it seemed that the chieftain of the Mountain Clans had received Torrhen's message.

The man with the burned eye came forward and Visenya, Rhaenys, and Domeric came to meet him halfway, Vhagar, Meraxes, and Domeric's Gryphon Cliffdiver not far behind. The man began to speak in a language that vaguely reminded Visenya of the Old Tongue, even being able to pick up a few words but for the most part it was to different for her to understand. Domeric however listened and turned to her and spoke, "He says he is Sigmet, leader of the Burned Men and the High Chieftain of the Mountain clans of the Vale. He's gathered all the clan and tribe leaders and come to meet the Queen's of the Wolf King and the Dragon King and to here the deal that was proposed to them."

Nodding to the Captain Visenya stepped forward , " I am Queen Visenya Stark, formerly of House Targaryen, representing my husband King Torrhen II, King of Winter and the Isles, and this is my sister Rhaenys Targaryen, Queen of Central Lands, representing her Husband King Aegon and her fellow Queen Danea, also monarchs of the Central Lands. What we have come here to do if forge an alliance between the Mountain Clans of the Vale and our current alliance to forge a new kingdom from the Andal kingdoms." Domeric then spoke to the High Chief who merely listened while the chiefs and chieftesses behind him muttered among themselves.

As Domeric finished talking Sigmet was quiet for a minute or so, obviously thinking before once again replying, after listening to him speak Domeric once again replied to the Targaryen sisters, "He says that the Northmen have long supported the Mountain Clans in resisting the knights of the Vale, even your Gryphon riders use their mountain retreats as secret aeries to hurt the Arryns and he is willing to here what the wife of the Stark and her sister has to say."

Nodding to Domeric Visenya spoke again, "What we want is for you and your warriors to begin a series of strikes to distract the knights of the Vale while we destroy, of course our Gryphon riders will support you in this endeavor, but we must also ask something of you that will not be readily acceptable to you."

As Domeric translated she saw that the High Chief face contorted into a confused wariness, and Rhaneys took this as her turn to step in, "What he aske of you is this, when my husband takes control of the Westerlands, the Reach, Riverlands, and Stormlands, he also plans on taking the Vale. What we would like is for you to swear allegiance to Aegon as his subjects." Domeric swallowed as he translated, and as expected a torrent of shouting and what was likely cursing, the two sisters and their guards slowly began to shift their hands to their weapons. However the descent was killed off by the loud booming voice of Sigmet, who turned to Rhaenys and began to speak. Domeric listened to him before turning to Rhaenys and said, "He wants to know what you are willing to give in exchange for this allegiance and if it is worth his people's time, he says they aren't Vale whores, they won't sell their freedom for cheap trinkets and pretty words."

Smiling Rhaenys looked Sigmet in the eye and laid out all Aegon had told her that he would give the Mountain Clans for their aid, "For your assistance in the up coming war my brother is willing to evict the populations of several of the fertile valleys in the central and eastern parts of the Vale to become the exclusive territory of your people, you will no longer have to scrape a living off the barren peaks the Knights of the Vale have driven you too. Also, as subjects directly under the king, you will be legally protected from any vengeful Valemen out for your blood, and in return keep wife stealing among the clans if you don't mind," at this there where a few grumblings but many now seemed interested in what was being said, "also along with a new home land you will be allowed to follow your customs and religion without fear of persecution and always having to look over your soldier wondering if mounted knights will come over the horizon ready to slaughter you and your families."

Finally Visenya came forward taking on of the sacks from Vhagar as she walked right up to Sigmet, "And with this my husband has included a little thing to not only sweeten the deal, but to thank the Mountain Clans of the Vale for centuries of valuable intelligence on the Arryns and hiding our Gryphon riders among your people." And with that Visenya dropped the sack on the ground, revealing a load of Wintersteel weapons gleaming in the moonlight. Sigmet bent down and picked up a beautiful sword as pale as ice that gleamed like a second moon.

"So," Visenya smiled as Sigmet turned towards her and Rhaenys once more, "do we have a deal High Chieftain?"

Finally so sorry once more for the long wait everyone, hopefully the next one won't take so long. Oh before I forget, if I do decide to write other stories to help me process and get inspired to write, writing reviews on those stories will push me to NOT want to work on this one as it will feel more like work and less fun. If you want to review those stories great, love that, but don't blast those review sections with reviews for this story… I'm begging you please don't do that.

Also little worldbuilding with this chapter, decided to give the Mountain Clans their own unique offshoot of the Old Tongue as well as their version of King Beyond the Wall, High Chieftain of the Mountain Clans of the Vale. Hope you all like it.