The terrain and climate dictate the hard life in the north. The bitter cold of winter makes the northerners very different from the southerners south of the neck. They are born knowing that winter is coming, and they must be prepared to survive. In such an environment, the northerners have no time to care about empty courtesies, court ceremonies, fancy culture, or jousting tournaments. Having never been exposed to the customs of the South, the Northerners, especially the Starks, always adhered to honor and did not seek power.

---------- northern customs

Winterfell, changing white clouds floating in the sky, the sun was shining, and it seemed to be a good day.

Eddard Stark, Duke of Winterfell and Guardian of the North, was standing upstairs with his wife watching the children play, when suddenly Sir Rodric Ketso, the head of Winterfell, came over, respectfully saluted Ed and Lady Catelyn beside him, and whispered, "Lord Stark, there is news from the mountain patrol guards that they have found a dead ice wolf in the mountain forest. ”

Ed frowned and asked, "Are you sure it's an ice wolf?" It's been a long time since there has been an ice wolf south of the Great Wall. ”

Sir Rodric nodded affirmatively, and replied, "I have asked the guards, and according to their descriptions, it is indeed the Icewolf on your family coat of arms. “

Ed nodded, and ordered the soldiers on the side, "Prepare the horses." Watching the soldier depart, he pondered for a moment, and then said to Sir Rodric, "Take Bran, he is 10 years old, and it is time to go out and see the world." ”

"Okay. Lord Stark," Sir Rodrick saluted, and turned to leave.

The unpredictable fate of Ma Shen saved Will, and although the Stark family missed the opportunity to meet the Icewolf, fate guided the Icewolf and the Stark family to meet each other.

More than 100 miles away from Winterfell in the forest, two small figures were struggling to make their way, one of them seemingly telling something to the other.

"My lord, do you know why I would rather risk cutting off my head and break my oath than go back to the Great Wall? ”

Ma Shen comforted Will with empathy: "You can escape is really blessed by the gods, I believe you have really met a strange ghost." ”

Will was thrilled to see that Ma Shen believed what he said, and he was afraid that his allegiance would think he was a madman and was talking nonsense. Thinking about it from another perspective, Will himself couldn't believe that he would see a strange ghost that had disappeared for thousands of years.

"Thank you for believing my words, I remembered the story my mother told me ... “

At first, Ma Shen listened to Will with interest, comparing the image of the strange ghost in his mind with what Will said, according to Will, when he saw the strange ghost, he felt terrified, and he didn't have any thoughts of resisting in his heart, and he didn't even have the courage to swing his sword at the strange ghost, he just wanted to escape.

This should have its own aura of coercion, just like Long Wei. Ma Shen thought to himself, squinting at Will beside him, but it cannot be ruled out that this guy is too timid.

Gradually, however, Will seemed to open up the conversation and kept deviating from the topic.

"My lord, that village is not far from here, and most of the people in it make a living by hunting, and it is not illegal to hunt here, unlike in our place. ”

"Oh, the Seven Gods, my lord, before I was forced to be a night watchman, I was also a hunter, but I was seen by the knights of the Earl of Mellister, who thought that hunting in the forests of the Earldom of Mellister was stealing from the Count, everything there belonged to the Earl of Mellister, a tree, a stone belonged to the Earl of Mellister, but if it wasn't for the fact that I couldn't afford to eat, who would risk my life to hunt in the forest of Count Mellister, my poor mother... ”

"By the way, my lord, there is a widow in our village... ”

Will led the way while happily communicating with Ma Shen, of course, this is Wei himself unilaterally thinks, Ma Shen now regrets chatting with this guy, wondering if he was blind before, and he didn't even see that this guy has a talent for talking, from Count Mellister to Count Mellister's mistress and then to the village aunt, at this time Ma Shen thought it was going to be over, and then talked about the aunt in the next village.

"Shut up!!!I now order you not to say a word. Ma Shen finally couldn't take it anymore and ordered Will

"Alright, sir," Will muttered quietly.

Finally quieted down, the wicked still need the wicked to grind, Ma Shen sighed, enjoying the quiet time, and couldn't help but feel that life was full of beauty.

Not long after, Will whispered to Ma Shen: "My lord, it's almost here, the village I said is there." With that, he pointed in one direction.

Hearing that he finally walked out of this unknown forest, Ma Shen was overjoyed, and hurriedly looked in the direction that Will was pointing, only to see that there was a small village over there, and the smoke of several houses was rising, bringing bursts of children's frolicking, now should be the time to eat, Ma Shen touched his stomach that would react naturally when he arrived at the meal, and touched the (Will's) silver deer in his arms, and decided to find a tavern to solve the normal needs and experience the food of this world.

"Let's go, Will, let's go to the village and find a place to eat, and spend the evening by the way. Ma Shen greeted Will and walked eagerly towards the village.

Walking into the village, a few wooden houses, women with white European appearances walking on the road with pots, several farmers with thin bodies carrying tools home to eat, a lively medieval village scene, so that Ma Shen, who has only seen medieval villages on TV, feels very strange, and everything he sees feels very novel, but the villagers look at him curiously but make Ma Shen feel a little embarrassed.

When the people in the village saw a person who looked completely different from them entering the village, they stopped what they were doing and looked at Ma Shen with wide eyes in curiosity.

At this moment, two strong-looking men with bows and arrows on their backs came from a distance and blocked the way of Ma Shen and Will.

"What's the matter!" Will hurriedly stood guard in front of Ma Shen.

The two men who came over exchanged glances, and one of them stepped forward, looked Ma Shen up and down, looked at Ma Shen's strange but well-made clothes, and asked vigilantly: "Strange-looking stranger, this is Lord Eddard Stark, Duke of Winterfell, the direct domain of the Guardian of the North, please tell me where you came from." ”

Ma Shen didn't want to cause a senseless conflict, so he pressed Will's shoulder, organized his words, and replied cautiously: Hello two, my name is Ma Shen, a traveler, from a country called Huaxia in the far east, the son of a nobleman. "This is my retinue, we want to go to Winterfell where the great and just guardian of the North, Lord Stark, is located, but we lost our way in this vast and mysterious forest, fortunately, under the guidance of the gods, we left this forest, hoping to rest in this village." “

The man who stepped forward did not reply immediately after hearing Ma Shen's reply, he still stared at Ma Shen's eyes, and when he found that Ma Shen's eyes did not dodge, his expression finally eased, and he turned his head and asked his companion behind him curiously: "Hey, smart Jayad, don't you often brag that your ancestors were once noble nobles, have you ever heard of the country of Huaxia?"

Jauad thought for a moment, shook his head, and replied, "I haven't seen this country in the books, maybe it's too far from here, Carl." ”

The man named Carl sneered at Jauad with a slight smile, "Hahaha, it seems that there are things that our clever Jauad doesn't know." After speaking, he said to Ma Shen with some relaxation: "Strange outsiders, it seems that you are lucky to come out of the wolf forest alive, we have many experienced old hunters here who entered the wolf forest but never came back. We don't have a lot of outsiders here like the big places out there, we have very few outsiders here, it's getting late, and you can spend the night with the warm Uncle Rohr if you need to, and then you can continue your journey to Winterfell tomorrow. ”

After speaking, he came over and patted Ma Shen on the shoulder, and secretly said something in Ma Shen's ear: "The food made by Uncle Luoer's daughter is the most delicious and famous in our place, you can try it." Then he smiled mysteriously at Ma Shen and told Jaead to turn and leave.

"Don't be stupid, let's go, let's go find the house where Uncle Rohr lives. Looking at the backs of the two men leaving, Ma Shen shook his head, decided not to think about it anymore, greeted Will, walked over and asked a woman beside him who was curiously looking at Ma Shen about Uncle Rohr's residence, and by the way, politely refused the woman's enthusiastic request to lead the way, and the two of them walked in the direction pointed by the woman.