Life Weaver (ASOIAF / WORM-OC SI)

[Hordac]

Summary: A unique new soul, created from a fusion of Amy Dallon's memories (the character Panacea from Worm, possessing advanced biomanipulation powers) and an ordinary modern military guy's consciousness, awakens in the frozen North of Westeros. The character has been inserted into the recently dead body of a Night's Watch ranger, approximately 200 years before Aegon I Targaryen's conquest of the Seven Kingdoms.
They retain all of Amy's extensive biological knowledge and the Army guy's common sense, experience and modern perspective. Additionally they are gifted a special variant of the NZT-48 pill from the movie Limitless, which when taken, elevates their cognitive functions—intelligence, memory, processing speed, and focus—to superhuman levels. This allows them to effectively combine the modern guy's strategic thinking and the vast biological knowledge into action, rapidly learning, planning, and adapting in the harsh medieval magical world

 

[Hordac]

Chapter 1 - Prologue
Pain. Cold.
Those were the first sensations as he drew a heaving breath. The second thing was the realization—he couldn't move.

'What's happening? Why can't I move?' He thought in pain and confusion.

Then came the chaos as there were the jumbled memories of three different individuals bouncing in his head, scattering his thoughts like shards of glass. which were not helping him think straight. He started to feel panicked when the oldest personality's thoughts overrode every other thought. His commanding voice cut through the noise.

'No need to panic. Panic doesn't solve problems. Control yourself and find a way out. You have been through worse – remember what I went through the Second World War.'

The wizened, authoritative voice of the old US major Liam Smith's personality lifted the fog of pain and panic that filled his thoughts. As he started to search for a solution, the second and only female personality's thoughts provided the answer.

'Just focus inwards towards your body. Heal yourself. You know how. First, stop the pain by temporarily severing the nerves to the thalamus area of the brain,' the calm, clinical tone of a Amy Dallon insisted.
He obeyed, almost instinctively. Then something extraordinary happened.

As he did something amazingly new yet strangely familiar happened: He could see inside his body. From the smallest cell to the largest organs, every bit of his body was available for him to see in his mind's eye. He could see places where his body was severely damaged, the lack of pain giving him a surreal and detached feeling. Even more astonishingly amazing was the innate understanding of how to alter or fix the damage.

'Hmm, spinal cord severed. Multiple broken bones and internal injuries.' Amy Dallon's thoughts assessed the body clinically and professionally. 'Let's repair the damage. Start with the critical functions.'

The next few minutes were amazing and surreal as he felt his body repair itself by converting cells and tissues from non-critical areas of his body, transferring and replacing the damaged ones. At the end, the damaged spinal cord was repaired along with reconnecting the nerves that he had disconnected.

He jerked in shock as sensations returned and he started feeling everything. The sensation returned like a storm—cold, sharp, alive.

"Brrr. It's cold," he muttered shivering and started to look around. "Where am I?"

This time, it was the third personality that provided the answer, for it was this personality that the body originally belonged to. This person, called Eric Rider, a ranger of the Night's Watch who was out on patrol when their party was ambushed and slaughtered by the monstrous snow bear.

Thinking about his current predicament brought back the most recent and gruesome memories of being swatted by a giant bear, crashing into a tree, and dying shortly afterwards.

'At least the bear isn't around anymore,' he thought as he saw the carnage in front of him. His former comrades of the Night's Watch lay there butchered with some body parts missing and a gruesome bloody trail leading away in to the trees. 'Most likely the snow bear dragged one of my former companion's corpses to eat later.'

'Can we try to save my friends?' Erik thought hopefully, even though from Amy's memories he knew the answer.

'If they were alive, then perhaps it would have been possible' Amy responded, 'which doesn't seem likely. I mean my body... er, your body was dead just a few moments ago. I don't understand how we are alive or even inside your body, but I am certain everyone, including you, was dead for a few hours at least. How are we here at all? My last memory was dying in my body'

'We can look for answers when we are in a secure site. We should move. Other predators could come smelling all this blood,' thought Major Liam, and all the other personalities agreed. 'We should salvage what we can, then find our ride… I mean horse, and leave.'

Strangely, looting the bloodied corpses wasn't an action that any of the three personalities found appalling, as they were still in some form of shock and survival mode. In their search, they found half a dozen steel daggers, three steel swords, and two decent bows with around 60 unbroken arrows—enough arrows to fill three quivers. Everything else was far too damaged to be salvaged.

'It's not a lot, but we still can't carry all this around,' they pondered the problem briefly before Erik's thoughts provided the answer. 'Let's just warg with Luna, our horse, and make her come back to us.'

'If it's alive,' Amy Dallon thought. 'This warging isn't such a great superpower that Erik has.'

'Hey,' protested Erik. 'This world ain't scary like yours with people so powerful they could kill entire armies!'

'Quit squabbling. Positive thoughts, everyone. We can argue when we are safe,' the Old Major's voice encouraged.

'Hopefully, Erik's warged horse is alive and well. Even if it's injured, we can heal it using Amy's powers.'

'This is so weird. Three different people from three different worlds stuffed inside one body,' Erik thought.

'Indeed.' 'Yeah!' were the positive replies. 'The entity that sent us did say he would provide something to help us deal with this multiple personality problem,' Major Liam thought. 'We have to survive first. We'll deal with everything else later.'

Sitting down under a tree, they closed their eyes and concentrated on their connection to Luna the horse. They found her not too far away, terrified and in pain.

'She probably scratched herself running through the bushes in a panic,' Erik thought as he took control of the mare and started to bring it back.

Soon enough, the nervous horse had reached the clearing. After healing the horse and calming it down, they quickly stored their loot and climbed on.

'Where should we go?' Erik thought. 'My old posting at Eastwatch by the Sea is far to the south-east.'

'Can we just get away from here? Preferably in the opposite direction that the bear went. I don't want to deal with snow bears or hungry wolves,' Amy thought grumpily. 'Or whatever else lives in this world.'

'There's an abandoned hut nearby; it's got no roof, but the walls are sturdy enough. We'll head there,' Erik thought as he directed Luna the horse to move in that direction.

They rode in uneasy silence, three minds sharing one body.

'One boon to our condition is that I can control the horse while you two control our body,' Erik thought filling the uneasy silence. 'Usually, my body would sleep while I warged.'

'But we are still connected even though you are primarily controlling Luna while we are controlling this body.' Major Laim thought

'Hey, aren't you even a little bit bewildered by having two other personalities in your head?' Amy asked Erik. "You're surprisingly calm for a man sharing your head," Amy teased.

'I was at first,' he answered. 'But then I realized that if this… whatever this may be, hadn't happened, I'd probably be dead back there in that clearing with my carcass being torn apart by wolves. So, while I'm definitely not happy to share my—I mean, our body and mind—it beats the alternative. I'll take strange company over the grave. It's also a little bit like warging.'

The next couple of hours passed as they talked and got to know each other better.

It was near sunset that they reached the abandoned hut. It had no roof and the door was also missing, but the walls were indeed quite sturdy and tall enough to stop sneaky night attacks. They quickly tied the horse inside and set up a tent that was packed with the horse.

'Let's gather some wood before it gets dark. It gets cold at night even during summer. Fire also keeps predators away,' Erik thought.

An hour later, they were sitting in front of a merrily burning fire, eating their rations and finally feeling relaxed and safe enough to focus on their unique predicament.

"We need to do something about this multiple personality situation," the old Major thought to the other two, his mental tone weary but firm. "From my memories, we know that I was sent from a dimension where no superpowers exist, yet knowledge of both of your dimensions exists in the form of stories that I have read extensively with my grandchildren.

The being that sent me here told me that our different set of memories and personalities will be too much of a strain on a single mind. To remedy that, they said that they will provide us with something."

Saying that, his hand reached under his clothes and fished out a small, cylindrical steel locket.

'How did that get there? I don't remember having it!' Erik thought worriedly.

'And we definitely didn't loot it off the bodies,' Amy thought curiously.

'I believe it is a container. Let's open it and find out what remedy we have been provided,' the Major thought as he unscrewed the top off. They could see that inside it was a single transparent pill and a rolled-up piece of paper. The paper had information written in English which Erik couldn't read but the other two could.

NZT is a nootropic drug that enhances human memory and intelligence while acting as a nearly perfect antidepressant and anxiolytic. It unlocks 100% of the brain, referencing the oft-repeated myth that only "10%" of our brains are normally used. It increases intelligence to superhuman levels and results in perfect recall for the extent of its activity.

'I remember this,' Amy thought. 'It's from a movie I watched, imported from the Earth Aleph dimension. This pill could solve our problem.'

You think it's safe? Erik asked doubtfully.

'Indeed. You don't sound so sure,' The Old Major stated.

'Well… From what I remember, the pill made a brain work to its fullest potential, essentially granting them Thinker-type powers. Theoretically, it should help us in not only solving this multiple personalities problem in a single brain but also in surviving this place.'

'What if we don't take it?' Erik thought, wary of medicines gifted by strange, powerful beings.

'That's also not an option,' Amy replied. 'Our shared brain is already under a lot of emotional strain. If we don't resolve this problem soon, we could damage our brain. The human brain is simply not designed for this. If we don't fix this, it'll tear itself apart I say we take it.'

'Agreed,' The Old Major thought. 'I may not have seen that movie, nor do I have the medical knowledge that Amy has, but I believe that the entity that sent us here would not go through all this effort to put us here and not provide us with a viable solution.'

'That makes sense,' Erik thought, changing his opinion of the pill. 'The God that did all this must have a purpose for us.'

'He isn't a god, Erik,' Amy responded in exasperation. 'Just an extremely powerful interdimensional being with power beyond our ability to comprehend.'

'Yes,' Erik thought. 'Exactly as you say. A godly being. We must trust in their will and take this pill.'

The Old Major interrupted Amy's heated response. 'So we all agree to take the pill? Regardless of our beliefs or reasoning?'

'Aye.' 'Yes.' 'Ok.'

They took the transparent pill and swallowed it.

Nothing happened.

They waited.

Still nothing happened.

'The being that sent you… Is he into practical jokes?' Amy thought. 'Because nothing's happening.'

'I wouldn't put it past him,' Major sighed. 'The stories sometimes depict them as bored pranksters with too much time and power in their hands.'

Amy chuckled. Wouldn't surprise me. Beings with too much power tend to be either mischievous or worse.

'Blasphemy', Erik muttered

'We shouldn't be talking about gods like that,' Erik thought worriedly. 'What if he's hearing us think badly about him?'

'Oh, he's not a god…'

Then it happened. It felt like the world shifted.

The scales fell from my eyes. Everything was the same, yet so much more. It felt as if I was blind, but now I see the world in its entirety.

Our brain is a miracle, but it's not efficient. There is a maze inside everyone's head. A labyrinth of missed connections and untapped potential. But now suddenly, we had access to every single brain cell.

Major, Erik, and Amy Dallon were extremely different people from different worlds with different ideologies and experiences. Being stuffed into a single body was far from ideal. As such, they were on the verge of becoming split personalities. But now they were becoming one. It felt as if they were living all their lives all over again simultaneously.

They understood each other's thoughts and lived as though they had lived it.

The first among the three was Erik Rider, a man of the Night's Watch. Born to wildlings beyond the Wall, Erik became an orphan at the tender age of six years. Later on, he was rescued by men of the Night's Watch and taken in by them. There he was taught all he needed to know about fighting and surviving in the harsh landscape. The maester taught him to read and write, so he read the books in the library. The Night's Watch was like his family, but he kept one secret from them. The secret was that he was a warg, because he knew that the folk south of the Wall were too superstitious of magical powers like warging.

The second and only female of the three was Amy Dallon, a.k.a. the healing hero Panacea of the Worm multiverse dimension. Born to a villain who was imprisoned, she was raised by the very superhero group that had imprisoned her father. Amy was a parahuman with the ability to manipulate all forms of living matter in any way she desired. She used this power to heal only, fearing that if the true extent of her powers were ever revealed, she would be imprisoned as bio-tinkers had a very bad reputation in her world. Initially, she feared altering brains, but after her manipulation of her sister's brain and the subsequent stint in the Birdcage prison gave her ample opportunity to master tinkering with brains and ultimately altering a person's thoughts. She also learned to manipulate her body. She was in her early 30s when a copy of her memories, sans her ability, were dumped into Erik's almost dead body.

The final and most important of the three was Major Liam Smith. Born in a normal world with no powers or magic at the time of the First World War, he himself fought in the Second World War as a British engineer and sapper.
His task as an engineer was to support both the army's combat and its supply elements. Close to the front, he dug trenches and tunnels, strung wire, or bridged shell holes, while facing the same dangers as regular infantry. Further back, he was constantly building and rebuilding roads and railways and establishing lines of communication. From mine warfare to forestry and topography, he and his fellow engineers from the engineering corps relied on all kinds of knowledge and tricks to outclass the enemy in the field. They didn't see much active combat, but their lives were almost always in the same amount of danger from both the enemy and the dangerous stuff they had to do.
After the first war, he returned to civilian life. He got a master's degree in mechanical engineering and held several high-position jobs, during which he researched and acquired several small patents for his minor inventions. For the last ten years, he taught engineering as a professor before retiring. His favorite pastime was reading stories with his grandchildren and participating in historical reenactments and building medieval and renaissance-era working models. In the end, at the ripe old age of 91, a stroke left him completely paralyzed. After living such an active life, being trapped in his own body was hell.

So when he was offered a chance to live again in a fantasy universe that he had read about, he accepted quickly.
Thus, the memories and personalities of the three became one.

Everything was sharper—each sound, each scent, every flicker of the fire seemed to hold infinite detail. Thoughts aligned like stars, every synapse alive and luminous. The maze of their shared consciousness untangled.

'I feel as if I have lived over a hundred years,' he thought as his newly merged mind started combining the vast knowledge of all three lives and rapidly churning out ideas. He was Erik Rider but he was also Major Liam and Amy Dallon. He was all of them and he was one. 'Add all their lives and I probably have lived over a century and a half'

The NZT pill delivered much more than what was promised.

He remembered it all: the frozen North, the wards of Brockton Bay, the trenches of Normandy. It was as if he had lived a hundred years in a heartbeat.

'The synergy that my healing powers have with this pill is amazing,' He thought in awe. 'The pill boosts mental faculties to use the bio-tinker's powers in new ways, including taking care of the mental side effects easily since it's all biological. Combine these with warging and controlling animals that I will enhance to supernatural levels, and we have a recipe for guaranteed success. A perfect union'

His thoughts shifted towards his current predicament and the golden opportunities he could imagine.

'I remember this feeling. The feeling that the world is mine for the taking. I just have to decide what to do with it,' he thought as he absentmindedly gazed into the campfire.

And then he began to form an idea. Suddenly, he knew exactly what he needed to do. It wasn't just surviving here. It wasn't just building a city north of the Wall, traveling this wonderful new world, and conquering it with his powerful, enhanced army.

It was all of it and so much more.

'But it would take resources to get there,' he thought as he gazed around as his supercharged mind provided several ideas on how exactly he could acquire some resources immediately.

'Let's start with something small that I can do right now.'

Lighting up a fire torch, he started by laying down small traps and snares to catch small animals in the surrounding areas.

He quickly found areas that animals frequented, and his enhanced mind provided all sorts of ideas for traps and snares to catch them.

'It's too dark to do anything else,' he thought sadly as he returned to his tent to get ready to go to sleep 'My body is too tired from healing and being awake for so long. This NTZ pill's effect will be gone by the time I wake up'

He examined the changes to his brain that NZT pill had done

'Amazing! It's like looking at an entirely new brain. The original neural pathways are still there but now there are so many more and they are working in unique ways. Hopefully, I should be able to recreate this enhancement once the NZT wears off''

But sleep eluded him because his mind wouldn't stop churning out ideas for anything and everything. So busy was he thinking up new plans, he didn't notice when he fell asleep.

Author's Note:
If you want to support my writing and get exclusive pre-release ACCESS TO THE NEXT TWO CHAPTERS of the story, consider becoming a Patron of this work.
You also get access to the pictures, information sources, music, and videos that I consulted with or that inspired me during the writing process
To Become a Patron Visit: pat reon dot com /Hordac Fics

 

[Hordac]

Chapter 2

He woke to the sounds of birds and distant animal calls. His thoughts were sluggish. His body felt tired, weak, thirsty, and he had a nasty headache pounding in his head. Crawling out of his tent, he got up which felt him a bit dizzy. The experience was made worse by the apparent sensitivity to light that was stabbing at his eyes and even the sweet chirping birds sounded too loud. He was having trouble concentrating and thinking clearly.

'Did I drink too much last night?' he thought groggily.

Then it all came back - The reincarnation, the NZT pill. The merging of three different people into one

'My brain is back to normal' he realized 'Thank the old gods that I at least got to keep the merging'

'Eat and drink first,' He muttered as he shuffled towards his food rations and water skin 'everything else later'

After eating some beef jerky with stale bread and drinking some water he started feeling a bit better. He thought about all the brilliant plans that he had come up with and the modern twenty first century innovations he was sure he could recreate. Now they all felt impossible!

'I wish I had some parchment, ink and quill last night' he thought morosely then another idea sparked 'Wait, I don't need that when I can simply replicate the effects of my enhanced brain with my bio tinkering powers'

He concentrated on his brain and envisioned it. Next, he recalled all the biological changes it went through when he took the NZT pill and used his power to slowly change his brain back how it was last night,

'Hope it get back to its wonderful enhanced super genius state' he thought concentrating.

Instantly the world snapped into focus, everything felt more vibrant and every little bit of thing was bombarding him with tidbits of information. Every color was sharper, every sound was clearer, every scent layered with nuance. Information poured into his mind like a flood. He laughed joyfully, startling the horse a little.

"I'm back. Luna" he said out loud grinning like a lunatic as he approached the horse and patted her to calm her down "I just made myself a super genius. Permanently."

The horse snorted at being startled and resume eating.

After spending a couple of minutes simply enjoying his enhanced brain and subsequent heightened awareness while absently patting the horse and using biokinter powers to explore the intricacies of horse physiology, his thoughts turned to his current predicament and what he had planned to do.

"OK. girl" He said to the horse" I'm going to see if I caught something in the traps."

Grabbing his weapon belt, he left his makeshift camp and started to walk towards the traps he had laid last night.

"Gotta catch 'em all" He hummed the Pokémon theme as he imagined what animals he could find and make them his companions.

'I hope i get a shadow cat' he thought 'It would be the best choice for my circumstances'

The first few traps were empty. Moving further away he found a little marmot.

His encyclopedic memory instantly provided him information on the animal

'A burrowing and hibernating animal. It's not very useful. Still useful as food' he thought as he grabbed the animal and simply switched off its brain, leaving its body in a vegetative state ' it will keep it alive longer and give me fresh game meat. I Could also use its living flesh for bio tinkering.'

An idea struck him.

'O wonder…If I can warg into an animal while also altering their brain to be accepting of the warging, I could instantly tame whichever animal I want. No resistance and no wasting time taming and earning its trust'

In the next traps he found a rabbit and a ptarmigan bird, both were also rendered brain dead. He tied all the animals to a rope to carry them and moved on.

The next traps were also empty and a few were broken out by stronger animals.

It was when he was starting to feel a little disappointed that he came upon his next trap and caught sight of an arctic fox trapped within and his disappointment vanished.

"Hello there" he said as he carefully got closer to the growling animal and crouched beside it "well aren't you a handsome little fox. You will do nicely"

He lunged at the growling fox and grabbed it by the scruff of its neck for which he got scratched deeply but he easily healed himself with a thought

"Let's see if this crazy idea works, "he said to the fox as he carefully modified its brain chemistry to stop being scared of him and be obedient to him so that when he tried to warg with the animal, it would happen successfully. Seeing the fox calm down he looked deeply into its eyes and started warging with it.

Feeling a link established with the fox he pushed through and found out that his consciousness slipped into the fox's brain rather smoothly. Turning the fox's head towards his human body, he saw himself looking back at his human body with milky white eyes. He blinked through two sets of eyes — human and animal — at once.

His body stood there, eyes milky white, while he looked back from the fox's perspective.He could feel and control both bodies simultaneously and effortlessly

'Interesting' he mumbled

Unlike before when Erik had first warged with the horse and had lost control of his human body, this time he had control of both bodies. He let go of his fox and watched as he effortlessly controlled the fox's body. He got up and started walking around to test if he still had full control of his human body which as it turned out he did,

'It seems the brain enhancement allows me greater processing power to control both bodies and deal with multiple sensory input easily.' He thought as he took out his sword and took a few practice swings at an imaginary enemy all the while making the fox run around and sniff everything it found interesting.

'Another difference is that there is no bleed over of emotions from the fox. I can still sense what it's thinking but its thoughts and emotions have no effect on me' he concluded 'Now let's add another element to this experiment by controlling my horse as well'

Mentally reaching out to the link he had with his horse, he took control of her body easily. Ignoring her surprise, he looked through her eyes at his makeshift camp.

"Excellent! I can control multiple animals without any loss of function to my body and there is no apparent decrease in efficiency while doing so" He exclaimed "Let's keep the links running and see how long i can keep it going"

Putting his sword back into his scabbard, he sent the fox to some traps while he walked to inspect the last few ones.

After finding some lemmings and some small red tufted birds that he previously didn't know the name of but his enhanced mind dug it out of a fleeting memory

'Redpolls' he thought amazed with his enhanced brains to recall knowledge 'not very useful for warging. I'll keep it feed the fox'

Speaking of the fox it yipped excitedly as he himself was quite happy with the last find.

Walking to where the fox was looking, he saw that his trap had ensnared a raven.

"Oh, you will do nicely," he remarked as he grabbed the struggling raven with some difficulty earning a few bleeding fingers in the process. He then repeated the process of mind alteration and warging.

Similar to the previous experience he saw and felt everything from the bird's point of view. It was also in pain as the trap had fractured its left wing. He quickly healed it and threw it in the air.

Now he was seeing the world from the perspective of three different animals and himself and one of them was even flying!

Flying was exhilarating — the wind under his wings, the vast forest spreading below, every movement effortless.

'Amazing' He thought as he saw and felt the world for the raven's perspective 'It should feel weird but somehow flying feels completely natural. Must be the raven's instincts'

He felt the wind whipping through his feathers and the forest spreading out below him. He enjoyed the feeling of freedom that flying provided, a sense of being untethered from the worries of the world below

'As long as it was brief, anyway'. He thought as he forced himself to focus back to his current task 'Don't want to lose myself to the almost addictive freedom and sensation'

'I need another warg to compare my abilities with 'he thought remembering lore, statistics, and numbers with machine precision — but dismissed the thought with a sigh.

'But what are my chances of running into another warg? How many wargs are there north of the wall? In the books Bloodraven mentioned that only one man in a thousand is born a skin changer and only one skin changer in a thousand can be a greenseer. During the War of the Five Kings, Mance Rayder led a large force of Free Folk who attempted to break through the Wall defended by The Night's Watch. It was a force of over 100,000 people, from hundreds of tribes beyond the Wall.' he recalled perfectly from a conversation he had overheard in passing 'That means there can be only a few hundred alive at this time. So the chances of meeting them in this vast tundra with such low statistics' are highly unlikely' he thought sadly 'Ah well! I will keep an eye out. Who know? Maybe I'll get lucky. Either way it's not the priority right now'

Finished with the traps, he returned to his camp with his new companions. Sitting down in his camp bed he looked at the raven, fox and Luna, the horse.

'Now that the warging abilities have been tested, let's try some bio-tinkering on my companions' he mused as he called the fox and had it lie down in front of him. Placing one hand on it and the other on the brain-dead animals, he concentrated on the fox's body.

'Hm. Adult Male. Young. Excellent senses, not messing with that. Musculature similar to dogs with difference in pectoral and forelimb muscles resulting in better digging, climbing and quick maneuvering.' He thought as his powers allowed him to see the its whole body in a sort of 3d holographic way in his mind 'body designed for ambush hunting smaller prey and not designed for combat. Let's add some denser muscles for more strength' he concentrated and used the bio mass of the brain-dead animals and converted completely to fox muscles down to the last DNA strand' Next increase lung and heart capacity to support more muscles. Increase metabolism for providing extra energy at the cost of eating more. Now for bones, strengthen them by weaving carbon fiber strands in and around the bones. More carbon fiber mesh under the skin making it harder to pierce aaand……. Done. Now let's test these changer' he thought as he ordered he fox to move around him while still keeping his hand on it.

The Fox didn't look much different from the outside but inside was another story. It was a little bit stronger, tougher and faster.

Let's send them out for some hunting and scouting' he thought he sent the raven to circle around the camp a bit to see if anything interesting or potentially dangerous was around.

After a few moments the raven spotted a few more rodents so he sent both the fox and the raven after them to grab their meal. Their coordinated effort led to two successful catches that they ate ravenously.

He himself felt didn't feel tired from using his bio tinker powers so he started bio tinkering with the left-over braindead animal mass.

'It's not enough mass to change myself or Luna' He hummed as he turned their leftovers into a reddish slurry type material 'maybe a weapon? '

His enhanced brain started to rapidly search through all the combined memories and knowledge for a biological weapon ending up choosing stink pellets.

He started making pellets made from some rubbery skin that popped on impact. Inside the pellet he molded the bio slurry into skunk spray, the nastiest smelling liquid he had knowledge of.

He started to break camp and pack everything while his thoughts were on the next step of his plans.

'With these animals and their much sharper senses I can scout ahead' he thought 'This will help me avoid dangers and also look for future opportunities be it humans or more interesting animals to warg and add to my team. I wonder how many animals I can warg with? The stories normally had a single animal while the character of Waramyr six skin could do six.' he thought as he loaded his packed stuff onto Luna 'so theoretically I should be able to control six at least'

'Alright let's go and make some new friends' he thought as he summoned the animals to scout his surroundings all the while he concentrated on his plans.

Author's Note:

If you want to support my writing and get exclusive pre-release ACCESS TO THE NEXT TWO CHAPTERS of the story, consider becoming a Patron of this work.

You also get access to the pictures, information sources, music, and videos that I consulted with or that inspired me during the writing process

To Become a Patron Visit: pat reon dot com /Hordac Fics

 

[Hordac]

Chapter 3

The next day they started travelling towards the nearest settlement that Erik knew of.

As his animal companions scouted his surrounding his mind wandered.

'I know from Eric Rider's memories that it's somewhere around 200 BC or Before conquest of the Targaryens because to all the Riverland rebels that the Durandon Storm king keeps sending to the Wall as he crushes the rebellions in the occupied Riverlands. That means the Targaryens have not yet migrated to Dragonstone yet and it's roughly a hundred years before the doom of Valyria' he thought ss Littlefinger's words drifted up unbidden: chaos is a ladder. The dates, names and rebellions snapped into place beneath his enhanced mind, a lattice of possibilities stretching ahead.

'So many opportunities' he thought 'The doom , the riverlands being crushed by Stormlands and the Iron Isles and lastly the Targaryens'

For a fleeting moment he thought about chaos theory and the butterfly effect of his meddling with the timeline.

Then he dismissed it as his existence already altered the future; pretending otherwise was cowardice.

'I can't simply vanish into hermitage hoping not to alter the timeline. Instead, I will use my foreknowledge to the utmost extent possible and simply become strong enough to deal with the consequences myself' he thought nodding to himself as he came to a conclusion.

Hours passed as they traveled down the road, his mind churning up ideas while his animals scouted. It was almost noon when his raven spotted something in a clearing not too far away.

Focusing on the raven's senses he saw a young woman with a crude spear, sanding protectively before two children. A pack of wolves surrounded them growling and circling. There lay a dead man nearby, with his throat ripped out and a few of the wolves were feasting on the fresh corpse.

'I have to save them' he though sharply

He mentally ordered the fox to jump onto the saddle and mentally ordered his horse to run as fast as possible while he also used the raven's sharp senses to count the wolves

'At least it's a small pack of 8 wolves only. Manageable' he thought as his brilliant mind quickly came up with multiple strategies before settling on one. 'I will try shooting arrows at them, hopefully killing a few and scaring the rest away. If that doesn't work, I'll have to take a risk of attempting to tame the alpha wolf and see if that works'

Stopping some distance from the wolves he took out his bow and notched an arrow towards a wolf. Commanding his horse mentally to stand firm, he mentally calculated the arrows trajectory precisely and let loose three arrows in quick succession.

The first arrow followed its predicted path and pierced one of the wolves in the stomach leaving it howling and thrashing on the ground. The second arrow also struck true in another wolf's shoulder putting another wolf down. The last arrow missed as the targeted wolf had moved erratically in alarm due to its pack mates howling.

'Distract and harass them' he commanded his fox and the raven as he notched another arrow and fired at a wolf. It missed its target by an inch as the wolf had started to turn towards him.

His fox jumped out of the saddle and started running towards them all the while making noises, Midway the fox bolted towards some nearby bushes successfully baiting two wolves to follow it while the raven flew closer to dive and distract the wolves.

By now the four remaining wolves had started running towards him sensing him to be the major threat.

'They will attempt to surround me If I give them the chance' he thought

He commanded his horse to start running around the edge of the clearing at full gallop as he aimed at the closest wolf but waited for the raven to dive and successfully distract it before shooting it in the neck, surprising himself.

'It feels so amazing! Instant horse archer mastery! I love my powers! Take that Mongols and Dothraki's! "He thought excitedly. "This level of efficient multi-tasking is such a cheat!"

He controlled the raven to harass them while the fox successfully baited two of the wolves to follow it away from them. While they were distracting the wolves, he along with his horse were working in perfect symphony as he shot near accurate shots.

'That's five left' he thought as he waited between the horse's gallops and shot another arrow landing a hit on a wolf's hind leg leaving it howling and thrashing on the ground, howling in agony and biting at the arrow

'Th's Four down' he thought happily as his fox skillfully avoided a wolf's jaws 'only four left now'

Seeing as his fox was about to be cornered, he mentally commanded the fox to lead his pursuers towards him as he tried shooting one of the two chasing him but only nicked it.

Commanding his horse to charge, he quickly replaced his bow with a spear and used it to skewer a wolf. Unfortunately, the spear got stuck in its target so he dropped it and took out his sword.

'Only three left' He thought as he commanded his horse to run for the biggest wolf guesstimating it to be the alpha 'Now's my chance to tame the alpha'

Seeing as the wolves were also running towards him, he got ready and at the right moment ordered his horse to veer left while he leaped out of the saddle and while he was midair swung his sword's flat side like a baseball bat and hit the alpha wolf square in the face knocking him down and stunning him.

Meanwhile he ordered Luna, his horse to defend him while the raven and the fox helped keep the other wolves at bay.

Quickly scrambling towards the stunned alpha, he used his sword to pin him down and touched it and started dominating it via his potent combination of warging and manipulating his brain chemistry simultaneously. The alpha wolf stunned and pinned down didn't stand a chance and as soon it was his to control, he quickly had it stop and other wolves. The alpha ran towards his remaining pack and communicated that that they were part of the pack. The wolves although confused obeyed the alpha none the less for now

"Come let's heal you pack mates" he ordered the alpha wolf who was clearly worried for them "You calm them down and I'll heal them"

'I'll also make them more docile towards me and my companions' he thought 'I don't want to warg with so many wolves'

Running from one injured wolf to the other, he quickly healed them and retrieved his arrows while the alpha growled menacingly at them and together they succeeded in healing them all although the one he pierced with his spear would need rest and would take longer to heal so he simply put it to sleep. He didn't warg/dominate any of them except the alpha as he feared he might have an upper limit to his warging but he did used his healing powers to manipulate their brains enough that they would consider him part of the pack and second only to the alpha wolf. In addition, he also had the alpha convince the others not to harm them.

'Let this one sleep here and recover. Take your pack out to hunt again' He mentally commanded his alpha wolf 'I'll lead you to prey animals with the help of my raven. Serve me well and I'll keep you well fed and relatively safe'

The alpha stared at him conveying feelings of loyalty, gratitude and obedience before he barked and yipped at his pack to follow him. The six wolves silently followed their eyes and body language conveying their confusion at the whole situation.

"Now to deal with the humans I just saved" he muttered as he turned towards the wildling woman and her two children. Surprisingly they had not moved and were staring at him in shock and awe.

'I must have looked like a superhero to them. Blitzing in and saving them single handedly' he thought amusedly

Looking at them properly he saw they were in bad shape. The two malnourished boys with slightly sunken cheeks were aged around nine or ten years and that they resembled the woman greatly. Surprisingly their hands were tied to a rope that led to the dead man. The thin woman while young looked older and haggard clearly indicating she had been through a lot. There were also bruises on her face that were clearly made by human fists.

'Children were captive of dead guy. Woman abused but not captive. Children are either sons or brothers to the woman.' He thought as he pieced together the clues 'Children used as leverage to control the woman. All three were prisoners of dead guy. Not fed properly for over a week at least. Captives for that long'

"Hello there" he addressed them in the old tongue that he knew from Erik's childhood memories

"Do any of you need healing? As you saw earlier, I can mend wounds" he asked politely not stepping closer.

He kept his distance. When they didn't respond - still staring at him as though at a ghost — he smiled softly and waited.

Seeing they were not coming out of their shocked state on their own, he decided to act normally and summoned Luna close to him. He started unpacking to set up camp "I will set up camp and get some food ready. You all look like you could use a hearty meal or two' He added calmly hoping the offer of food would bring them out of their shock and be less wary of him.

As expected, the mention of food brought them out of their shock with the children's eyes lit up at the mention of food while the woman's expression wavered between hunger and suspicion.

"Here's my dagger" He said as he tossed took out one of the daggers and tossed it close to her "Why don't you cut those ropes and free the kids and help me with the cooking and find some firewood" he said soothingly trying to soothe her fears by arming her and giving her an opportunity to run away as well all the while enticing her with food and his non-threatening posture and words.

'I know arming her might seem dangerous, but it's the fastest way to earn trust — or at least to show that they shouldn't be afraid' he thought to himself

The woman's eyes locked on to the dagger. She hesitatingly stepped forward while keeping a wary eye on me looking very much like a terrified but hungry deer. She grabbed the dagger tightly and walked backwards towards the kids still keeping an eye on him

Then Erik remembered the Guest Right — a sacred custom of this world. He took out a piece of bread and a pinch of salt, placing them on his wooden plate to present to the woman.

"Bread and salt" he said softly gesturing towards the food in his hands as he slowly yet casually walked towards them "Come eat. I swear by the old gods that I mean you no harm"

The woman's wary eyes darted between the bread, the salt, and Erik's calm face. For a moment, the only sounds were the whisper of the wind and the crackle of the dying campfire. Then, slowly, she took a cautious step forward, dagger clutched firmly.

"I am Gertrude," she said finally, her voice hoarse and cracking. "And these are my sons… Sven and Dan."

Her hands trembled slightly as she took the bread and salt. She broke off a small piece, tasted it, then fed a bit to each boy. Only when all three had eaten did she allow her shoulders to ease, if only slightly.

Erik smiled faintly. "It's an honor to meet you, Gertrude, Sven and Dan. You're safe now."

She looked at him—still wary, but curiosity had begun to overcome fear. "Safe," she repeated softly, glancing toward the treeline where the wolves had disappeared. "You tamed them. No warg can tame so many beasts."

"I'm not quite a normal man," Erik said with a small shrug. "Just someone trying to do some good."

Sven tugged on his mother's sleeve. "Mama, he made the wolves listen. Like papa."

"Yes, I did" Erik admitted with a grin. "Now, how about we get a fire going and something warm to eat?"

With cautious cooperation, Gertrude and her sons began gathering dry wood. Erik prepared a small pot and some dried meat and herbs from his pack. The scent soon filled the clearing, mingling with the earthy air of the forest. Bit by bit, tension drained from the small family's faces, replaced by exhaustion and the faintest spark of comfort.

When the stew was simmering, Erik slowly crouched near Gertrude again. "You're hurt," he said quietly. "Let me help before those bruises turn worse."

She stiffened and gripped the dagger tigther, but then — remembering the way he had mended the wolves after saving her and the children — she nodded hesitantly.

Erik reached out, his hand hovering near her temple. "You'll feel warmth. Nothing more."

Beneath his hand, the ugly purple bruises on her face lightened, then vanished entirely. Her breath caught. "It doesn't hurt anymore…" she whispered in disbelief.

Sven's wide eyes glimmered. "Can you fix Dan's leg too? He fell when we ran."

"Of course."

Erik placed his hand on the boy's thin shin. The swelling faded, leaving only smooth, unbroken skin. Dan giggled in wonder and swung his leg in joy.

"Better?" Erik asked with a smile.

Dan nodded vigorously. "It feels like… summer inside my leg!"

Gertrude stared at him for a long time, the mix of shock, gratitude, and disbelief clear in her eyes. Finally, she spoke in a small voice. "Why would you help us? You owe us nothing."

Erik looked at her quietly for a moment before answering. "Because I can. And because no one else could have. There is a famous saying that the only thing necessary for the triump of evil is for good men to do nothing"

That simple honesty seemed to reach her. She felt he was being honest. The hardness in her expression softened, and she lowered her gaze. "Then… thank you, Erik. From all of us."

He inclined his head slightly. "You're welcome."

They ate together as twilight deepened, the fire painting their faces in gold and amber. The boys laughed weakly for the first time in what felt like forever. Gertrude smiled faintly, though her eyes still held the haunted look of someone who had suffered too much for too long.

Erik leaned back, watching them quietly, a sense of quiet satisfaction blooming within him.
Maybe this is what I'm meant to do, he thought. Not just survive—but heal, rebuild, protect. So, this is what being a hero feels like, I like it. I shall be pragmatic but I'll also help whenever I can. Afterall good deeds don't always go unrewarded.

For the first time since his strange rebirth, the world didn't feel entirely hostile.

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