Warg

Yimu had almost bitten Robb. If I had told it to stop a second later, or if it hadn't listened to me, Robb might have died.

It emerged from the collar of my shirt and stopped about three or four centimeters from Robb's arm. I quickly grabbed it and stuffed it back into my shirt, but it was too late; Robb had already seen it. His eyes went wide, and he screamed in terror.

"Icicle Snake!!!" Everyone's attention suddenly turned to us. Even people far from our group began gathering around or looking our way.

"Calm down, Robb; Yimu won't hurt anyone unless he's provoked."

"Who's Yimu?"

"It's the name of my Icicle Snake."

"Are you suicidal? Why would you keep such a dangerous animal, and put something so venomous inside your shirt? You must be suicidal."

"Don't worry. It's very docile; as long as I treat it well, it'll be loyal to me."

"You shouldn't keep temperamental, aggressive animals like venomous snakes as pets; they're unpredictable animals." After Robb said this, the kennelmaster came over to us and said:

"The young lord is right; you shouldn't keep venomous animals. Even if you do, you need a secure container they can't escape from."

Ah! Yimu, you've caused such a scene. I knew it hadn't meant to do this; it had only wanted to protect me. It must have thought Robb was attacking me.

"Please let me prove it; Yimu isn't that sort of animal." After saying this, I reached for my collar and told Yimu to come out of my shirt. It slowly crawled out and coiled around my arm.

Everyone's eyes widened, and some people gasped at the sight of it. You have to understand, in the North, a bite from it was almost certain death.

"Yimu, now climb onto the top of my head and wait there." Once I said this, it crawled from my hand to my shoulder, then wound around my head and finally reached the top.

Everyone except Bran and Arya looked terrified, while those two wore expressions of nothing but genuine wonder and awe.

After growing accustomed to the animal, though still keeping his distance, Robb asked, "How did you do that?"

"I didn't do anything; I just trained it to obey a few commands and taught it some tricks." Of course, that was a lie, but I didn't want anyone to know what I was.

Just then, Rodrik pushed through the crowd and came up to us.

"What happened here?" After people told him what had happened, he spotted the Icicle Snake on top of my head, then jumped back in horror and shouted, "By the old gods, are you trying to give people heart attacks?"

He watched the snake from a distance, then said, "Boy, have you ever dreamed of becoming a raven or a snake?" Oh, our Rodrik has a sharp mind, despite his appearance.

"No, ser, I've never had a dream like that."

"Then have you ever made an animal obey you immediately?"

"Of course not; they were all willful and aggressive before I trained them. They only started listening to me after their training. Even then, it's only a few simple tricks and commands."

I could see some disbelief in Rodrik's eyes, but he didn't press the matter.

But just then, the kennelmaster asked, "How is it possible to tame a snake? How did you do it?"

"It was difficult; I spent three years raising it from an egg and training it until it became an adult snake. Of course, I can't tell you how I did it; that knowledge might be useful in the future."

When I said this, the kennelmaster's expression darkened, but with Rodrik beside him, he said nothing and remained silent.

Meanwhile, Arya and Bran slowly edged toward me. I caught her hand as she tried to climb the fence and reach for my head.

"Arya, never try to touch the snake. Yimu may be tame and won't be aggressive toward me, but that only applies to me. If anyone else tries to touch it, it will definitely bite. Do you understand? Never try to touch the snake!"

Robb caught Arya by the arm, pulled her aside, and began scolding her for what she had just done.

(Eddard Stark's POV)

I was busy making my daily inspections. As I walked through the courtyard, I heard a commotion by the kennels. I was about to head over when I saw Rodrik approaching me.

"My lord, if you have time, there are some things I would like to discuss with you in private."

"Can't we talk while I make my inspections? Is it that important?"

"I believe so, my lord."

"Very well, let's go to my study."

We entered my study, and Rodrik closed the door and explained what had happened. As I listened, my eyes grew wider and wider in astonishment.

"How could a snake be tamed to that extent?"

"It couldn't, which is why I don't believe what he said, my lord. I think that boy is a warg."

"Please don't talk like Old Nan, Rodrik."

"My lord, I saw it with my own eyes."

"What did you see?"

"A warg, my lord. Before I became Winterfell's commander, when I was still a young knight, I had always wanted to see the Wall. Once, I even went on a patrol with the Night's Watch, and we were ambushed by wildlings. We successfully foiled the ambush, but while pursuing a wildling who was trying to flee, I cornered him. The man's eyes turned completely white, and a wolf leaped at me from the bushes. After a struggle, I finally drove my knife into the wolf's belly, but at the same time, the wildling clutched his own belly and began screaming. I was about to finish him off when his eyes turned white again. This time, an eagle began attacking me. That eagle left this scar on my cheek."

"Why have you never told me this story before?"

"Because, to tell the truth, I was afraid, my lord."

"What do you mean? What were you afraid of?"

"I was afraid of the boundary between reality and fantasy, my lord. I didn't want to ask myself: if wargs were real, what else was real?"

(Main character's POV)

After Rodrik left, the others gradually lost their fear of and curiosity about Im and returned to their own affairs. The effects of Robb's scolding seemed to have faded; Arya and Bran became lively again.

I put Im inside my shirt, and the Stark children and I continued playing with the dogs, but one puppy caught my attention. It looked very scrawny and weak. Noticing that I was looking at the puppy, Arya came over beside me and looked at it too.

"Aermir, what's wrong with this puppy?"

"I don't know, Arya. It looks sick." While I was speaking with Arya, the kennelmaster came over to us.

"This puppy was born sick. Its mother abandoned it to feed the healthy puppies. We expect it to die soon."

Arya's eyes suddenly filled with tears, and she spoke in a slightly choked voice. "Aermir, we have to save it; it looks so pitiful. Please, let's help it."

"I don't know whether it can be saved."

"Why? Don't you always say you know a lot about medicine and herbs? Please use your knowledge to save it."

"All right, I'll do my best to cure it, but I can't promise anything; it's very sick and might even die tomorrow."

After saying goodbye to the others, I took the puppy back to my room. I didn't think there was any way to treat it with herbs; at least, the herbs I had on hand wouldn't work. If I had more effective herbs, perhaps they would help. Another option was magic, but I didn't currently have any healing magic.

I thought of another method involving magic, but I had never tested it. The idea had come to me when I named Im and saw mana enter his body.

After I named my familiars, they became able to gather mana; I wondered whether ordinary animals could also gather mana inside their bodies without becoming my familiars.

-Bo, Erebus, come to my room. I have something to discuss with you.-

A few minutes later, they entered my room through the window.

I gathered some mana in my hand and asked, "You know what this is, right?"

"Yes, Dad, this is..."

"Mana wind! Have you forgotten what it's called, stupid Aermir?"

"It's not called mana wind, you stupid bird. It's called mana, ma-na!!!"

"You're stupid! Your whole family is stupid."

"You don't even know what mana wind is called!"

There was no having a proper conversation with this musclehead, so I decided to ignore him. I took a deep breath and continued.

"How do you gather mana? Can you tell me?"

"Mana wind!"

"Erebus, open that big mouth of yours again, and I'll pluck out all your feathers!"

"I knew it! You're jealous of my beautiful feathers; you can't have them! They're mine, stupid Aermir, ugly, featherless Aermir! You'll never be as handsome as me."

My face began twitching violently, and I felt like a volcano about to erupt. I used a full-body (Trap) to paralyze him. He lay on the table like a statue.

"Finally, some quiet." I turned to Bo, and we continued talking.

"Dad said mana flows toward the heart during training."

"What! Could that be true!" Does she mean what I think she means? No, that can't be true.

"Bo, come here." I raised my arm for her to perch on. When she landed on my arm, I placed my hand against her chest and tried to sense her mana.

I was shocked; she really did have mana in her heart. There was very little, but it was definitely there. She was essentially creating a mana heart. Was Erebus the same? The spell was wearing off, and he was beginning to unfreeze.

"Erebus, how do you gather it?"

"Gather what?"

(The veins on my forehead bulged.)

"I'm asking how you gather mana."

"Stupid Aermir, why would I gather mana? I don't even like mana."

Be patient, Aermir, be patient. It might be somewhat intelligent, but it was still a bird, after all.

"My ever-so-clever Erebus, what were we just talking about?"

"We were talking about mana wind; then stupid Aermir started talking about mana."

"Enough! I'll pluck every single feather from your body. You stupid raven, if you know what we're talking about, why won't you tell me how you gather mana? You might as well come here and let me look for myself."

"I'm not coming over! Do you think I'm as stupid as you? You just said you were going to pluck my beautiful feathers. Ugly Aermir, you're just jealous, aren't you?"

Deep breaths, deep breaths. Don't get caught up in his whirlwind of stupidity.

Sometimes I thought he was smarter than Bo, but he simply liked doing this because he enjoyed tormenting me and raising my blood pressure.

"Come here. Don't worry, I won't hurt you; I just want to smother you with love."

I finally persuaded him to come over. When I examined his mana, I found that he hadn't concentrated it in one place. His mana was spread throughout his body, meaning it covered every part of him, including his muscles, bones, blood, and skin. But what he was doing was very close to what I wanted to do to the puppy.

I needed to nourish its entire body; I didn't think nourishing only one part would work. The question was whether this would be effective, because the mana would enter its body unwillingly under my control, unlike with my familiars. I held the puppy in my arms, stroking its head as I spoke to it.

"If this method doesn't work, you'll die in a few days, so please forgive me for what I'm about to do, but this is the only way to save you."

I opened its jaws and stuffed a rolled-up cloth between them so it wouldn't bite down too hard and break its teeth.

I slowly gathered mana from the surroundings and began swirling it around me. That way, once I started using the mana, I wouldn't have to focus too much on moving it.