The Hundred Companions

[Deleted]

"Our life is made up of every man's separate thoughts. Life is an illusion, yes. It's when you learn to break through the barriers and summon the patterns into cohesion, that is when life no longer controls you." He seemed to be rambling.

"But of course, I'm just a blathering fool filled with too much wine. I expect this will be an exciting course of events."

[Borcas Redwyne]

Borcas shrugged his shoulders.

"If life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content."

He shook his head and reached for a flask at his saddle.

"Now, speaking for wine, here I have some good. It's not much, but it will serve."

[Deleted]

"War wine." Saenarys mused. "The truth behind many men's ferocity in battle." He smiled wanly.

"But you are right. You and I, we are illusions. Perhaps we are dreams. Dreams that better men are having, safe in their beds. Our lives, our world, our thoughts, they might all be the whim of others, dictating our actions in some far-gone world, perhaps we are just characters in a song." He sighed. "Though it matters not. What ever the world is, we must seek to utilize it to it's capacity, else we will fail."

[Borcas Redwyne]

Borcas shuddered.

"Back at the Sea, I met with a Maegi one day. She was old and ugly as hell, yet she seemed strange. Men said she came from the untamed east, from a land of darkness and deep night. I can cleave men in half with my sword. But, though I will never step back, I know my limits. I cannot conceive all these possibilities."

[Deleted]

"Men are brittle compared to the patterns this world runs on. I would sooner fight a horde or men with a shaving razor than try to unravel the recesses of this reality." Saenarys shook his head.

"But that is not to say I have not dabbled. I am a friend of the strange, the odd, the mysterious. I have traveled many places, drank and smoked, dined and devoured. Most men do not see the darkest side that our world has been hiding away."

[Borcas Redwyne]

"While you do? As I said, I will not flich against everything, but that doesn't mean I will force my luck or that I will try finding the things stirring in the dark."

[Deleted]

"If you travel deep enough, Redwyne, you see things you would have never thought possible." He seemed to fall into a sort of reverie at this, obviously reminded of something.

[Borcas Redwyne]

Borcas sipped some wine, then passed the flask to his superior officer.

"Perhaps some day you'll show them to me. As for now, I am content with men to fall to my blade and women to fall at my, well... other blade."

[Deleted]

"Aye, there is that." Saenarys said, accepting the pouch. He took a deep draft and relished it.

"Women are the cause of most everything a man does. Including warring. Such harmless seeming creatures. How clever they are to fool us all." He laughed, passing the wine back to his second.

"Are you married, Redwyne? Any bastards or children that you can count?"

[Borcas Redwyne]

"I am younger than you. I have not married so far, neither have I sired anylegitimate children. Of bastards... Well, probably a hell lot of, though I never came to know any one. What about yourself?"

[Horas]

An eagle circles high above. Some of the more superstitious men seem to think it is following the column.

Scouts to the hundred companions report a band of wildlings up ahead, perhaps seventy five men strong. They neither bother to hide themselves nor look as if they are gearing up for an attack.

[Dyther Morrigen]

Dyther looks interested. He had no dislike for wildlings, but they had murdered some lord and then fled. What they were doing south of the Neck was beyond him. "Maybe they got tired of runnin'."

[Flex]

"Rask, if this is you..." Euric mumbled when the announcement of wildlings went up.

[Marie]

Rhaenys shared Euric's concern but she kept her opinions to herself. She knew it was important to remain calm and dignified.

"We'll ignore them as long as we can," she told the scouts. "There's no sense in fighting unless we must. We'll stay alert, though. Pass the word down the column."

[Fel]

After days of hard riding, Amyrio Mopatis finds the Queen's column. He announces that he bares a message from Lord Oswell Tully.