"We have giants and mammoths. Those brutes have boundless strength, so building houses or tents will be quick," Steward Bowen Malsee remarked.
Gendry watched the Night's Watch men discussing below. The cold was a great enemy, followed by the problem of food.
The Night's Watch still had some reserves in its storehouses, and the Wildlings had brought a certain amount of stored food, sheep, and pigs, but all of it was being steadily consumed.
To fill all those bellies, they would still need to transport grain from the south.
"Woooooo." A horn sounded in Castle Black.
Most of the giant legion and the Wildling hostages were also at Castle Black, serving as one of their strongest reserves.
Gendry and Daenerys stood beneath the King Tower. The magic dragons lay coiled in the snow, but their body heat made the snowflakes evaporate outright.
Gendry looked at the soldiers from the North. The northern army had arrived first.
Amid the swirling snow, the banner of House Stark flew above the northern army: a gray Icefield Running Wolf on white.
Duke Eddard Stark dismounted, then said, "Your Grace, the North is at your command."
Eddard also knelt in the snow and kissed the ring on Daenerys's hand.
Everyone else dismounted in turn, and Castle Black's grooms came to tend the horses.
"Your Grace, we may have arrived a little late," Eddard said apologetically.
"Actually, your timing is fine. This is Mance Monde from Beyond the Wall, Tormund..." Gendry introduced Stark to another group of newly won-over Wildlings.
With his stern, long face, Eddard embraced these men. Whatever else happened, how to survive before winter was a new trial.
The parties of Jaime Lannister and Tyrion Lannister also spread out. Surrounded by great numbers of Northmen, they looked like a tiny contingent.
Jaime,