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Essos, four days to Vaes Khadokh
Caspian Darkwood
57 AC
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"Come on, that's right, it's much more docile than a horse, so don't be afraid," I instructed a woman who was learning how to saddle the camel. Several had already learned, with the women who helped their husbands saddle horses being the first to learn it with the camels.
Although I had brought the saddles myself and could have saddled the camels, I decided not to, as I preferred that they do it themselves and learn the process under my guidance. As the saying goes, it was better to teach the people how to fish than to give them the fish directly.
That's why I still had several women to teach them how to control, saddle, mount, and dismount the camel. Especially since there were still many women who hadn't received a camel of their own.
Once the woman successfully saddled the camel, I explained the second phase: teaching her how to mount and dismount.
So, giving her a wooden stick, I guided her: "Take it by the reins, yes, not... not too hard, or it will bite you." I began to tell her, watching her as she did as I instructed; "Now, with the stick, give it gentle taps on the lower part of the neck, right near its hump."
Following my instructions, she managed to make the camel sit on all four legs, and although its back was still a bit high, it was lower than an upright horse. "Now get onto the saddle, being careful not to scare it, and once you are comfortable, pull the reins; that will make it stand up, but you have to do it without much force so as not to hurt it."
After this last step, the woman got the camel to stand up, starting with its hind legs. "Ah!" the woman screamed, panicking as she felt herself leaning forward. "Calm down! It's normal; once you get used to it and practice, it will be easier and more comfortable to get on," I assured the hysterical woman, managing to calm her down a bit.
"As you saw! It's not that complicated; you just have to do what I told you and everything will be fine," I reminded them, leaving them to familiarize themselves with the animal. Once I considered my part was done for the moment, I mounted my horse and headed to my cabin.
We had been riding for two days, and according to Essino, in a maximum of three days, we would reach Vaes Khadokh. It would have been more than seven days of travel, but as there were increasingly more horses, donkeys, or camels, the pace of the journey was speeding up.
"Blood of my blood, do you think the women will be strong enough to control those beasts?" Zirqo asked me on the way to the cabin, convinced that the women wouldn't be capable of riding the camels.
"The important thing is not whether they will be strong enough to control the camels, but that they know how to ride them; that is enough, that is enough to reach Vaes Khadokh faster." I replied, and it was partly true. Of course, I would love for them to take ownership of the camels and annex them, as the Dothraki did with horses, but I wasn't naive enough to think that would happen just a few hours or days after introducing them.
So, what interested me now was that they could use them to speed up the pace towards Vaes Khadokh. "Blood of my blood, notify the Khalasar that we are going to start marching, the same as before, that they pack up the tents and, importantly, I will take care of the buildings." I told them, wanting to start traveling now, even if the sun hadn't set yet.
"Blood of my blood," they replied, and left to relay my orders so that we could depart in a few hours.
With the sun orange and the clock ticking to half past six in the evening, I observed that everything was ready to depart, glimpsing the line of horses, camels, or donkeys, in that order, with the slaves being last along with the elders or the eunuchs.
I didn't have a morality so puritanical as to reject the slaves; I understood that they were important to the Khalasar, but I also understood that this had to stop, or at least cease to be slaves and become servants. It is worth remembering that, since taking power of the Khalasar, I had given strict orders not to assault the slaves in any way, and to treat them with respect.
At first, I thought this would not be well received, especially when I said that if someone wanted to be with a female slave, they would have to take them as wives, but to my surprise, they had accepted, albeit a bit reluctantly.
In the case of female slaves who did not have Dothraki husbands, they would become servants to the women married to a Dothraki, helping to raise their children, caring for the Dothraki elders, and learning from the eunuchs and Dothraki elders about healing and childbirth methods.
All this caused the female slaves to seek marriage with a Dothraki, as this would convert them into Dothraki women and elevate their status within the Khalasar, making their former slave companions serve them. In the case of male slaves, the situation was more difficult, since, for obvious reasons, they could not marry a Dothraki, and all the Dothraki women were already married, so that option was not available.
Thus, the Dothraki began to use them as servants: caring for their horses, and in the closest case, I would say they had obtained a job similar to squires.
Thanks to this, the situation of the slaves in the Khalasar had improved, although only slightly. But I hoped that with the passage of time, this would improve even more.
"Blood of my blood, everything is ready," my Bloodriders arrived a few minutes after I finished erasing all traces of the buildings I had constructed with the help of the structure block. That was something I had been doing every time we continued our journey. Upon arriving at a suitable place to rest, I created the necessary structures, and when we were about to leave, I erased them from the map with the same ease with which I had built them in the first place.
As it was time to leave, I rode to the front of the Khalasar, guarded by my Bloodriders and, further back, by the two wolves I had tamed, whom I had named Hugin and Munin, like Odin's ravens.
Only two days from Vaes Khadokh, I noticed how the terrain was changing. The dunes and desolate views were behind us, and in their place, a meadow with ankle-high grass filled my view, with tall green mountains and peaks. We had even passed some ponds and groups of trees.
That meant we had reached the Grass Sea, the territory controlled by the Dothraki hordes that infested these places. Which increased my eagerness to quickly reach Vaes Khadokh.
Although I felt we could fight and defeat a larger Khalasar, I had to keep in mind that many of my warriors did not have quick access to potions, and even more so, was the quantity who still did not have iron armor, which I had been slowly replacing the leather ones that I had distributed before.
But this last inconvenience had been improving, with the summoning of more blacksmith villagers, this was being covered. It was during the process of summoning more villagers that I understood something important.
When I had the spawn eggs, I summoned the villagers I needed at the moment, for example; when I wanted to summon a leatherworker villager to help me with clothing, they appeared, as was the case with the blacksmith villagers.
Why did I bring this up? Because when the maximum number of 64 villagers were summoned by me, I decided to use the mob spawner, and this is where the problem arose. And it was that the summoned villagers were not all of one type, but appeared with different professions, from blacksmiths, unemployed, butchers, librarians, and even cartographers.
The conclusion I reached was that the spawn egg was more specific depending on who used it, and who or what I wanted to summon, while the mob spawner was more general, and any villager, with different professions, could appear.
But, anyway, I had strayed far from the other topic I wanted to address, and that was the topic of potions. I alone could not be taking potions out of the menu every time they were needed, and the idea had been running through my head since we started the march.
What was it? Well, to summon witches, not only because I knew they were capable of making potions, but also because they could be knowledgeable about the mystical, and even be helpful in case I suffered a magical attack, or some witchcraft. In this world, that was a very strong possibility.
If even many years from now, Melisandre could assassinate Renly Baratheon with a shadow binding, or whatever that thing was called, in this time, there might well be greater ways to kill someone with the aid of witchcraft, considering that dragons were still alive, and with them, magic was still strong.
Although I felt that magic in this world was not very powerful compared to the magic of other worlds in which I might have awakened, that didn't mean it wasn't lethal, considering the shadow binders, the warlocks of the House of the Undying in Qarth, the thousands of practitioners of sorcery and witchcraft in Asshai, the Rhoynar with their water magic, the Valyrians with their blood and fire magic, even the First Men with the ability to see the past, present, and future, not to mention the Children of the Forest, the Faceless Men, the Wargs, and the Red Priests.
All these beings possessed magic in their blood, whether for good or for evil, mainly for the latter. Therefore, I had to have my defense. And while I had witches in mind, I also thought about Evokers.
And while Evokers could summon demonic entities called Vexes to attack their enemies, as well as cause spikes to sprout from the ground to wound, they didn't motivate me, given that they were related to the Pillagers, and although I did want to summon some, that would be later in a safer and more protected environment, since while the villagers I summoned were loyal to me, I didn't know if the same would be true with the Evokers.
So I decided on the witches, users of offensive and defensive magic, immune to various types of attacks and, in general, very friendly with the villagers. That last point being the reason why I decided on them.
So once the camp was set up to rest during the day, I rode to a place a little away from the Khalasar, not wanting to be near my people, and instead, only went with my two wolves. I even asked my Bloodriders not to follow me, since the safety of my wolves would be enough for what I was about to do. In addition, there was the factor that the Dothraki detested magic and any practitioner of it.
With bricks, I built a small cabin with a glass pane at eye level and placed a lantern inside, preventing darkness inside. And once this was done, I decided to go ahead, to summon the first hostile creature from Minecraft into this world.
And when I did, I immediately felt the atmosphere turn cold and heavy. At the same time, my scalp tingled and I felt as if my head had become larger and heavier.
Inside the cabin, through the glass, I saw everything suddenly darken and the light of the lantern dim. And inside, I noticed there was a person with their back to me, dressed completely in black, from head to toe, in garments so dark that they seemed to absorb light.
"Hahaha."
Suddenly, I heard a low, melodious laugh, as if someone were laughing right in my ear, resonating on both sides. My soldier instincts bristled, and even my two wolves adopted an attack posture, slowly wagging their tails.
"You don't need to look around; you only need to look ahead... My life-giver." With those soft words, which failed to calm my heart, I saw the being turn around. And the... woman, of an ethereal beauty, greeted me, with skin stained as if with scars that failed to completely vanish, lips painted black, and the contour of her eyes, the same black as her clothes.
However, what caught my attention the most were her eyes, a fiery green color, with yellow glints, along with the black lines on her cheekbones and cheeks like dark tears.
[Image]
"A new world, full of malice and misery, perfect to prosper, perfect to advance, perfect for vindication," the woman began to say, as she approached the glass that allowed me to see her.
"What is your name?" With the courage gathered from decades of a constant life of war, I asked her name.
"I have been called many things throughout my existence: Mérida, Gabriel, Valka... But you... My life-giver, you can call me whatever you wish." The woman answered me with a slight smile.
Hoping that she would be loyal, just like the villagers, I asked her the million-dollar question: "What does it mean to be your life-giver?" The woman, smiling almost fanatically, placed her palms on both ends of the glass, bringing her face close to the pane. This caused my wolves to growl. "You have given me life; you have made me breathe this air full of death and desolation; only for that do I thank you; furthermore, you have given me a second chance to start, and only for that am I unconditionally loyal... my creator."
I nodded and stared at her for a while. The memory of what I had seen of her people in the game prevented me from fully believing her, but at least what she said seemed sincere... Or so I thought, although that didn't make some external measures undesirable.
But I had no choice but to believe her, and right now, I needed beings like her on my side, so deciding to remove the concrete blocks that held her captive, I freed her and allowed her to leave, all while hoping that I hadn't opened a Pandora's Box.