The Mountain of Ice and Fire

“The Mountain, it's the Mountain!” The people cheered in the shoemakers' square.

The Mountain held immense prestige in the hearts of King's Landing's citizens, especially among the poor, to whom he was a great benefactor. This stemmed from the first year of the civil war when the Mountain led his army from Harrenhal to relieve King's Landing, bringing a large supply of bread to the city's starving populace.

At that time, the city was flooded with refugees. The Mountain distributed vast quantities of various grains, quickly gaining the people's support. He then recruited two thousand spearmen, nearly a thousand builders, blacksmiths, horse breeders, arrow makers, sword sharpeners, armor repairers, laundry workers, cooks, and cloak and robe menders from among the refugees.

The citizens, who had been hiding, emerged upon hearing the Mountain's call. Suddenly, Flour Street, Steel Street, Street of the Silent Sisters, Hook Alley, the King's Road, Flea Bottom, the Mud Gate square, and the training grounds outside the city were packed with people… All the hundreds of brothels in the city, which were the Mountain's property, were filled with women who screamed in fright. But upon hearing that the Mountain had arrived on a dragon, they were both surprised and delighted, rushing out to stand on rooftops, balconies, and windowsills, waving and shouting to their big boss…

Ever since the Mountain seized Littlefinger's brothel business, the women no longer had to worry about not getting paid, nor did any foreign captains or local mercenaries dare to bully or torment them at will…

At the Blackwater docks, the porters, errand boys, fish market workers, and merchants were all cheering!

When Vargner Gahl, a follower of the Mountain, served as Master of Ships, he also held the position of Commander of the Royal Fleet. The dockworkers had been completely unified by the Claw Isle people, the Mud Gate fish market was entirely controlled, and the fishing rights on the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the Blackwater Rush were also controlled. Even when Vargner Gahl relinquished his position as Master of Ships, the underground control of these areas remained in the hands of the Claw Isle people.

Most of these fishermen and workers came from Claw Isle, and they revered the Mountain as the King of the Isle. The Mountain's arrival on a dragon made these bottom-of-society people the most excited! At the Blackwater docks, shouts of 'Doro! Ro! Ro! Ro!' echoed in unison…

The coolie gang and the fishing gang members all knew that their biggest backer was General Vargner Gahl, but their real supporter was actually Lord Mountain.

On Silk Street, in Earl Oldber's noodle shop, Arya, the wife of Black Stone, the former standard-bearer of the Mountain, stood on the balcony, looking up at the sky, at the unparalleled dragon and the Mountain's shadow. Tears glistened in her eyes. Ever since Black Stone died in Claw Isle after being used for a blood sacrifice, her two children had become the Mountain's adopted son and daughter, taken care of by Lady Janei, learning to read and write, becoming a noble's young boy and lady. Her gratitude and affection for the Mountain was that of a servant for their master, and of family…

In the Flea Bottom orphanage, the little birds rushed to the roof, shouting and yelling at the dragon and the Mountain in the sky. Master of Whisperers Bernie was their boss, and also their leader. Bernie unified all the ruffians in King's Landing, establishing a black underground gang, ending the history of Varys's little birds being bullied by local thugs. These little birds and all the city's ruffians, hooligans, and thieves knew that their boss, Bernie Clegane, was the Mountain's man.

On Steel Street, all the blacksmiths needed to exchange gold dragons for Clegane paper money to buy iron ore, and Clegane paper money was the rarest thing in King's Landing, only widely circulated in the Westerlands. They had no choice but to exchange it at high prices on the black market, which caused the price of weapons on Steel Street to rise sharply. After the initial chaos, the blacksmiths began to benefit from the sale of weapons. The way they looked at the Mountain was more complicated, but shock and admiration outweighed aversion and hostility…

Rotten Street actually had a more fitting name, Drunkard Street. All the city's wine merchants were on this street. No one knew when, but the wine had been secretly monopolized by the Mountain. Whether it was Arbor Gold or the Riverlands' various fruit wines and stouts, recently, they all needed to exchange gold dragons for Clegane paper money to wholesale the wine, otherwise the merchants would have to close their doors and change careers. This made them extremely uncomfortable, and their resentment towards the Mountain was still in its initial stages of dissatisfaction… The initial stage of change is always accompanied by discomfort and chaos… Rotten Street was also packed with people, but there were no cheers. Shock and fear outweighed everything. They knew that their insistence on refusing to exchange gold dragons for Clegane paper money would completely collapse. The Mountain's dragon crushed their last shred of hope for unity and resistance…

Meanwhile, in Maegor's Holdfast, Court Steward Oswell Kettleblack said cautiously to the Queen Mother: “Your Grace, cheers have erupted throughout the city… Those commoners seem to support the Mountain… The dragon is too shocking…”

“I know!” Cersei said expressionlessly, a bitter taste rising in her mouth. “Those commoners only remember that the Mountain distributed bread to them. They are grateful to the Mountain and regard him as their savior. But when we have the Tyrell family transport a constant stream of supplies to King's Landing to feed them, they take it for granted. Not only are they not grateful, but they also complain even more… The commoners should all be executed…”

“You are right, Your Grace.”

Oswell Kettleblack was an old man. He had three sons. His second and youngest sons had both been the Queen Mother's personal guards and captains of the guard. His second son was thrown off the city wall by the Mountain during the Battle of the Blackwater and died from the impact. His youngest son was killed by Bronn when he was ordered by the Queen Mother to surround and kill Bronn. Only the eldest son was still alive, now one of the Kingsguard, called Little Mountain because of his height of two meters.

Oswell Kettleblack was one of Littlefinger Petyr Baelish's men. He was able to reach the high position of Court Steward because Littlefinger had helped arrange it.

In a dilapidated house next to an underground casino in Flea Bottom, a skinny, but valiant, scarred and bearded, decadent mercenary heard the people shouting about the dragon and the Mountain. He quickly jumped out of bed, took down the sword belt on the wall, rushed out of the door in two steps, stood in front of the door, looked up at the sky, his eyes shining brightly…

He had a face skin glued to his face to conceal his true identity. He was Bronn, the Knight of the Blackwater. After escaping King's Landing, he returned to Stokeworth, but the gold cloaks sent by the Queen Mother arrived soon after. The two sides fought, Bronn's dim-witted wife, Lollys Stokeworth, and his son, Tyrion Tanner, were killed. The family's soldiers were slaughtered, and the maester was beheaded. Only he himself escaped again, with sword wounds on his face and body. He secretly returned to King's Landing and hid in Flea Bottom, the poor district…

And the Mountain was the master Bronn had sworn to follow. It was only later that he coveted the wealth of the royal family and was persuaded by Jaime to stay in Maegor's Holdfast and become the captain of the Maegor's Holdfast guard. Because his son was named Tyrion Lannister, the Queen Mother demanded that he change the name. He didn't care, and then it brought about a fatal disaster.

Bronn looked at the dragon with a face full of shock. The dragon flew low, its wings spread out like two red clouds, blocking a large amount of sunlight, casting a huge shadow over King's Landing.

Such a huge magical creature, who could withstand the dragon's attack? That overwhelming aura swept in, causing Bronn's eyes to twitch slightly…

At the intersection of the King's Road and the Street of the Silent Sisters, there was a famous guild: the Alchemists' Guild. The alchemists in the guild were all in the courtyard, looking up at the dragon and the Mountain in the sky. The dragon glided over the guild, flying towards the King's Landing Red Keep. The alchemists could clearly see the ferocious dragon head and the golden-red dragon eyes.

*

The alchemists called themselves Sages, but the people of the kingdom called them alchemists. In the Battle of the Blackwater, the alchemists provided wildfire to the Mountain and the Imp, allowing the big and little Imps to work together to use wildfire to burn down Stannis's large number of warships, helping the Mountain lay the foundation for victory.

The Grand Sage had a premonition of the dragon's arrival. His spell power began to recover a month ago.

Before that, the magic power of the spells had disappeared completely.

Wildfire is a pale green liquid, invented and refined by the alchemists in the guild. Its method of production is highly confidential. The alchemists only refer to it as “this substance” to outsiders, refusing to give it a specific name. The name wildfire was a fitting name given to this substance by the secular people, just as they called the River Gate the Mud Gate.

Wildfire produces green flames when it burns, not red.

Once wildfire is ignited, it will burn the object completely, eventually turning it into ashes. It can seep into clothing, wood, leather, and even steel, causing them all to burn, and the temperature is extremely high. Even when floating in a rushing stream of water, wildfire can burn fiercely. People know that water is all that is needed to put out a fire, but for wildfire, water is useless.

Wildfire can only be extinguished by the alchemists' spells, or allowed to burn out on its own. When the highest magical creature, the dragon, became extinct, the alchemists discovered that their spell power to ignite and extinguish wildfire had disappeared, making the refining of wildfire an extremely dangerous task.

Unextinguishable wildfire is extremely active. Some careless shocks can cause it to spontaneously combust. This terrible wildfire, after losing the restraint of spell power, became extremely dangerous. Even the alchemists themselves could only be burned to death if they were ignited by wildfire.

For safety, the process of making wildfire became lengthy, but because of the activity of the wildfire substance, the danger was not reduced. Later, the Grand Sage abandoned the assistance of magic spells. He pioneered putting wildfire in a small pottery jar with a rough and uneven wall with patterns to increase control over the wildfire.

After many experiments, the Grand Sage discovered that wildfire could be extinguished with yellow sand. Therefore, the pottery jars for storing wildfire were designed to be stored in stone compartments, with a pressure-resistant ceiling filled with sand above each stone compartment. Out of respect for tradition, the ceiling was also inscribed with spells that no longer had any effect. In the event of an accident, if the wildfire burned, the sand would pour down and cover the wildfire, extinguishing it.

After the method of extinguishing wildfire with yellow sand was discovered, this method was widely used in the manufacture, transportation, and storage of wildfire.

The room where wildfire was manufactured was filled with yellow sand, not only on the ground but also on the ceiling, and the ceiling was deliberately set to be within reach. Once the wildfire substance was out of control, the ceiling would flip over with a touch, and the yellow sand would pour down, drowning the wildfire substance.

A month ago, when the Grand Sage was writing magic spells in his new laboratory, he felt the flow of magic power. So he took out a jar of wildfire substance, ignited it, and chanted a spell. The wildfire substance was not extinguished by the spell power, but the flame was significantly weaker.

This proved that the spell magic power had recovered!

From that day on, the alchemists also had a sense of spell magic power, but the magic power brought by the spells was very weak, not enough to control the burning and extinguishing of wildfire, but it was confirmed that the magic power was recovering. And as time went by, the magic power contained in the spells was slowly becoming stronger every day.

Why did the alchemists' spell power begin to recover?

A few days ago, the Grand Sage verified his inner guess from another person's words. This person was the High Septon of the Great Sept of Baelor.

The High Septon and the Grand Sage were on good terms. The Great Sept of Baelor and the Alchemists' Guild were also relatively close, with the two buildings on the same hill, the Sept on the hill and the Guild at the foot of the hill.

The High Septon told the Grand Sage that the Mountain had tamed a dragon in the depths of the Mountains of the Moon: Sheepstealer. And he would ride the dragon to King's Landing in a few days to discuss military actions to resist the Others with the Queen Mother, the King, and the Hand of the King.

The Others?!

Yes, the Others!

The eternal winter lands of the North resurrected the Others in the long summer; and in the deep mountains of the Mountains of the Moon in the south of Westeros, the dragon was resurrected; in King's Landing, the capital of the continental dynasty, the fire spells of the alchemists were resurrected…

The recovery of the alchemists' spells is related to the reappearance of dragons on the continent of Westeros. Wildfire magic spells and dragons are both fire, and they complement each other.

When the dragons on the continent of Westeros gradually became extinct, the alchemists' spell power gradually weakened, eventually disappearing completely; and when the dragons reappeared on this continent, the alchemists' spell power also slowly recovered, and just this morning, just before the dragon appeared in the sky, the magic power contained in the Grand Sage's spell secrets had almost completely recovered.

The Grand Sage watched the dragon fly over the Red Keep, knowing that his mission had also arrived. He had to find the Mountain. The High Septon had seen a prophecy. He saw the Mountain riding a dragon flying across the sky of the North, and under the sky, there was a dark mass of wights… In the battle between humans and the Others, the High Septon of the Great Sept of Baelor and the Grand Sage both chose not to be bystanders. They will proactively stand with the Mountain and fight against the Others together. This is the mission given to them by the Seven Gods and the Fire God…

Amidst the cheers of the commoners and the poor for the Mountain, the Grand Sage glanced at the Great Sept of Baelor on the top of the hill. He walked out of the guild gate and headed towards the Red Keep…

*

Outside King's Landing, on the King's Road, the sound of horses' hooves thundered. A fierce cavalry force, like a flying giant spear, with three people at the spearhead, galloped towards King's Landing! In front of these three people, ran a fiery steed that was taller than all the other horses, the Mountain's mount, Red Smoke Beast, a magical creature, the king of land running.

On the back of the Red Smoke Beast was the Mountain's heavy plate armor and oak shield. The Mountain and the dragon were in the lead, with the Ice Giant Sword with him…

The Mountain's guard cavalry camp followed closely behind the dragon. The cavalry were all purebred warhorses from Claw Isle. Each horse was tall and strong, running like the wind, extremely fast, roaring towards King's Landing…

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