556 A. C. The Year Of Ice

         The forest was older then any other on the planet, trees so large, a race of people lived in them never touching the ground, no roads traveled through it, no man ever mapped it. It would take a man two weeks to cut through the base of the average tree. The forest floor never saw the light of day, the lakes never dried, no man had ever flew over it, or scaled it's mountains. It never snowed, and never felt the touch of a hateful man. It was a paradise blessed by god and home to a peaceful branch of the Wali.

The sun was high in the sky as Jackle walked through the forest, they had finally pinned the Walkers down in an old farm house. They were a three days walk from the nearest outpost, they were on their land but it was going to get their leader. What was left of the recon team were in the trees around them, it had been nearly a week since the ambush at the tunnel. The commander had died along side six others, the attackers made a run for it. Jackle had quickly taken control of his people and split them into two tracking teams, the other team had sent word of pinning the enemy down.

The farm was just a small shack and a barn, a skeleton of what it once was. Jackle could see a face in a window looking blankly at him. He walked out into the clearing, his troops fallowed his lead, he drew his knife and kicked the door open. The room was dark so on of his men lit a light and found a candle, the glow filled the room shining down on the remains of half a dozen pale blonde black eyed corpses.

Jackle turned to his men, "where did they go? You said he watched their leader go into there," the treetops around them came to life. A small group of men and women appeared on the edge of the clearing. "What do you want?"

"That walkers want their young back, and I want you to stop ripping through my lands like wild Southerners." Their leader a woman dressed in green leather armor came forward into the clearing. Her hair was a white gray, her eyes similar in color, her skin was that of a young woman. "If you are Asgardian then lay down your weapons!"

Many of the men drew their pistols and tightened their grip on their spears or swords. Jackle lowered his knife, remembering the suite of armor Jacob kept in his study. "Lower your weapons, they have not threatened us!"

Most men did as he ordered, a handful of his sixty did not agree with him and one shouted, "the king has no more friends in the north, if they are loyal to the north then they are our enemy!"

Jackle turned to face the speaker, not to his surprise it was a militiamen dressed in the cloth of the family Faylor Family. He was disobeying orders, most likely doing as his aunt instructed him. He lead the militia men and had been nothing but trouble since they left the city. He had been the one who found Lord Sutherland dead. It wouldn't have surprised Jackle to find out that him and his men had set this whole thing up. The sou9999999th's power in the Western capital had slowly increased since the signing of the treaties. "You will do as I ordered, or I'll remove you from my ranks, Faylor!"

"What are you going to do tell the spy of the hand that, the militia as turned. You won't back it back to the city traitor!" The militiamen readied their weapons against their comrades, "I was sent out here to kill those bastards and she doesn't pay us, until they're all dead, I don't care what this witch of the Vale says!"

"Lay down your arms, this is your last wronging!" She shouted at them, Jackle could see her men in the trees readying their weapons.

"Do as she says you value any of our lives Faylor, order them to stand down!"

"To hell with all you northerners, cowards hiding behind your peace and love," Faylor spit and pulled his pistol. The three rounds he fired imbedded in the trees around the woman.

"Return fire!"

Jackle closed his eyes, as the twang of bow strings filled the air, he prepared himself for the sharp pain of the arrows cutting into his chest.

It never came so he opened his eyes to see a blue skinned woman stand in front of him, not an inch away. Her gray eyes studied his as her head turned on it's side. She stepped back, she wore green chain mail held tight to her body by leather belts. "Why did you, try and stop you kinsmen, human?"

"He was a disloyal southerner not one of my people." He looked around more blue skinned women were coming into the clearing. "I've never seen a female walker before," he looked her over again.

"I am not of the water tribe, you seem dumber then most humans. The Greywatch are not simple fools like the Walkers. We live in the town of the Eye, and serve our queen," she put her hand on his cheek. "The humans normally pull back, or remove my hand when I do this."

"I'm a little stunned other wise I'd probably do the same thing," he watched as she smiled, he felt as if he wanted to pull back but wouldn't. "Who's your queen, I thought the Vale belonged to no one?"

"Oh she is not the Queen of the Vale, just the Eye. Her family has lead us since the last great war, her great grand father took his sons south to war. I'll tell you that story sometime, until then fallow me, she wants to speak with you.

He did as she told him to do and fallowed her into the house, the Greywatch had begun to gather the bodies into the main room. The gray haired woman stood in the center of the room, her soldiers flanked her armed with swords and old service pistols. Their armor looked like that of the Robsin clan.

"I know you are no responsible for what happened here, but I cannot allow you to wander through the Vale, trapping young ones into places like this." She walked forward and stood in front of Jackle, "My question for you is, why are you in our land? Your patrols normally only last a week at the most."

"I am sorry for what has happened here, but they were part of a group that ambushed us at the west gate." He pulled a small piece of clothe from inside of his belt pouch, it was red and gold with streaks of blood across it. "They killed our leader and destroyed the tunnel, now we have no where to, if we go north to the pass we'll be over run by the wild lings and there is no other remaining tunnel out of here."

"We'll take you in as we've done with those before you, first I need your men to dig graves for their fallen."

"Let the birds have their eyes, they were never ours, they belong to the witch under the throne." He held his wrists behind his back and remained as straight as he could, as his lord had in taught him to do when captured. His sword was still on his hip and a his twin pistols on his belt, "why have you not disarmed me?"

The gray haired woman laughed lightly, "a man with a sword is nothing to fear, a sword without a man is everything to fear." She moved around the room, Jackle noticed that her back was oddly shaped in parts. She turned to him, "we'll leave your dead to rot and take ours to the Eye. You have no choice but to accompany us there."

Jackle fixed his coat, "we can stay out here and hunt down who did this."

"No, I won't allow it, you have no clue who they are," she turned to the door and walked out it.

Soldiers began to lift the bodies and bring them outside, Jackle fallowed them out into the sun light. His men were sitting about, most had their pipes out and were smoking some cheap tobacco from the city. Jonah, an old ex-ranger was eying a group of their captors, "what do you think of all this, Jack?"

"They killed our enemies and not us, I'll trust her for the time being," Jackle looked at the Graywatch. Very few of them seemed to be from the same tribe, but the all fallowed the same leader. "She must be the witch from the old stories or something, there's to much peace here. We'll find out soon, I want you at my side for the rest of our time here."

"Of course I serve the commander, and seeing how Sutherland was killed that's you. The others see it the same way, and I've seen pretty monstrous things in these here forests. If she's a witch she's the nicest one I've seen."

Jackle laughed lightly, "she has power over these people, I don't think she has raised her voice once." He looked over at her, she was caring for a group of horses well their riders gathered water from a nearby stream. "You should ready the men for the trip make sure our horses are watered and everything."