Hugh Hammer (ASOIF/SI)

 "My Lord Hand" the man reported, pulling up his horse before him,

 slightly breathless and red cheeked.

 "Report" he replied curtly, eagerness and wariness warring within

 him.

 "The forces of the Usurper Queen lie across the path of our march, a

 day's march away. They look like they are in prepared positions

 before the village of Rushing falls. Their right flank is anchored on

 the coast of the Gods Eye, upon the unscalable cliffs north of the

 village and their left in dense woods, it is a strong position my Lord

 Hand."

 "I expected nothing less" he grumbled, making some quick

 calculations in his head, gazing up at the sun and gauging its

 progress across the sky. He rechecked his figures, and checked

 them again, and with a swift prayer to the Warrior that he was right

 announced "We will have to fight them, and it will be a bloody affair

 my Lords" turning and addressing his words to the coterie of

 Westerlander Lords who rode with him.

 The vassals of House Lannister made up the bulk of his army, and

 many of these self-same Lords had disagreed mightily with his plans

 to abandon Harenhal and head south to join up with the forces of the

 Greens in the Reach.

 Bull headed idiots the lot of them, nary a brain between any of them

 he sadly noted. With Kings Landing, the King and Queen, the

 Dowager Queen and most to the Small Council captured, there was

 little point in keeping Harenhal, except for visiting Fire and Blood

 upon the unfortunate smallfolk of the Riverlands. And upon their

traitorous Lords, whose castles and keeps Vhagar had burned just

 as easily as their fields and villages.

 Thankfully Lord Humfrey Lefford was not amongst these lords who

 rode with him, with his age and injuries the most stupid of the

 Lannister bannermen was confined to a wagon at the rear. But the

 rest of them were of little note as far as Cole was concerned, but

 they did have substantial levies, Men-at-Arms and Knights with

 them.

 Over two weeks ago now the watchtowers and patrols had spied the

 enemy massing, but cleverly, wary no doubt of Vhagar and his fires.

 And a plan had come to his mind, a desperate and risky plan, but

 one that gave the chance of a great victory, or a crushing defeat.

 Three days ago they had abandoned Harenhal and struck

 southwards, down the western shore of the Gods Eye, again using

 the lake to ferry supplies to them on the march, so that they were not

 burdened by a slow supply train. While their scouts had tracked the

 movement of the Riverlander forces, he knew that what lay across

 his path was not the full strength of the rebels, and that other forces

 were hurrying to join up to confront him, based on his scouts reports

 he again did some more calculations in his head, and sighed in

 frustration, he did not have the full picture.

 But he had to risk it, he had no choice, but he hated having to take a

 gamble like this, but sometimes one had no choice.

 But rather than attack his enemy as they expected he decided that

 he would instead entrench his forces and compel the enemy to come

 to him, and nary a few leagues back there was the perfect position,

 with the Gods Eye at their back to allow supplies to be ferried to

 them easily. A sandy cove with steeply rising ground on three sides,

 the land sloping away from the crests overlooking the cove.

 Perfectly sized for the forces under his command and with a

 substantial forest nearby for building defences. But of course, these

Westerlander cunts would probably complain and moan, decrying

 the chance to attack and win glory.

 "The enemy seeks to heard us into a trap my Lords, their disposition

 across our path and on our flanks is evident enough of their

 intention. We will deny them this, we will turn around and withdraw to

 a defensive position against the Gods Eye a few leagues back the

 way we came. We will meet the rebels there, if they dare!"

 "You would exchange the defensive comfort of Harenhal for some

 temporary barricades?" asked one of the Westerlanders, Lord of

 House Swyft by the looks of the tabard he wore over his plate.

 "Aye I would, for it will draw out our enemies, when we sat in

 Harenhal they avoided coming to grips with us, but once we quit

 Harenhal they are massing to give us battle."

 "They are before us; we should march on and give these usurpers

 the battle that they deserve!" harrumphed another Westerlander lord,

 the red rampant lion flying above his bodyguard of knights identifying

 him as a Reyne.

 "Fear not my lords, we will give this scum a battle they will likely

 never forget!" Cole replied, before adding "you think that the cross

 words exchanged between I and Prince Aemond over the moons

 that we spent in Harenhal were real, and a serious matter? No, my

 lords they were the finest mummery, designed for the eyes and ears

 of the spies of the usurpers, why do you think that after Prince

 Aemond declared that he would stay in Harenhal to burn all of the

 Riverlands to ash after I decided to retreat to the Reach that the

 elusive armies of the traitors suddenly appear?"

 In truth Cole was putting on a display of mummery here also, him

 and the Prince had clashed, and clashed badly, enough for all to

 notice and many to comment on, either openly or in whispered,

 secret conversations. Cole was not naïve enough to not suspect

 spies in Harenhal, and a plan had come to him, slowly, tentatively

 over the passage of a few days. He had gone to the Prince in secret

with his plans, who, idiot though he was, had immediately grasped

 the important of what Cole was proposing, and he had agreed

 readily to this course of action. The gleam in the Princes eyes when

 he spoke of how he would use Vhagar was unsettling to say the

 least, but Cole had put it from his mind. Now was not the time to deal

 with the incipient madness that seemed to be consuming the Prince

 and Lord Protector of the Realm.

 But it all depended on Aemond, and that was the part that Cole

 disliked, the necessary trust he had to put in the lad for this plan to

 work. This made him understandably very, very nervous, but as he

 accepted, he had little choice.

 "The spies in Harenhal my Lords? Now we will turn then against our

 enemies, use what they reported to our advantage. Unbeknownst to

 anyone Prince Aemond has been overflying our camp every night,

 high up in the air so that he is not observed, looking out for a special

 arrangement of signal lamps. He will find them tonight and know that

 we are preparing to give battle. He has been raiding as normal into

 the Riverlands so as not to give the game away, but he knows what

 he has to do when battle is joined. He will fly out as normal, looking

 like he is heading off to burn the traitors keeps, but he will fly high

 enough that he is invisible from the ground, then he will turn back to

 aid us."

 There was some mumbling and grumbling at this, but any real

 opposition was muted, and soon his army was backtracking towards

 the spot he had chosen. By nightfall a reasonable defensive

 perimeter had been erected and the special signal lights set up for

 Vhagar to warn Prince Aemond of the impending battle.

 Cole hoped to the gods that the lad saw the signal, otherwise him

 and all his men would likely be feeding the fishes in the Gods Eye by

 the morrow.

 The next day dawned cool and slightly cloudy, his men set back to

 frantic work strengthening their position, while his scouts spread out

far and wide, to give them adequate warning of the enemy's

 approach.

 By midday the first reports came of the enemy approaching but

 based on their progress it would probably be next morning before

 battle was joined. Cole prayed that Aemond would not put in an

 appearance now and spoil the surprise, but by late afternoon he

 spied the dragon far off in the distance, flirting in and out of some

 clouds. He swore to himself, and prayed the boy stayed away.

 Thankfully Vhagar came no closer and soon disappeared, again that

 night the signals were rigged to inform Aemond of the situation and

 again Cole prayed that their plan would succeed.

 At dawn the next morning Cole was awake and ready, a day and a

 half's work by his men had transformed their position, it would hold

 well enough if it came to it.

 While waiting for the first scout reports Cole heard the unmistakable

 screech of a dragon and swore under his breath, the sounds

 repeating on the wind, he turned his head about, yes! Damm that

 boy, he was attacking the main Riverlander force that had set up

 astride their advance, when Cole had wanted to wait for all the

 enemy forces to link up so that Vhagar could immolate them all as

 one.

 He cursed and raged as the sounds of Vhagar's rage drifted on the

 wind, the great beasts' terrible roars clearly audible despite the

 distance. Deciding that he had to do something Cole ordered all

 knights to mount up and follow him out and southwards to where

 Vhagr was obviously busy burning the Riverlander army.

 After two hours hard enough riding, they crested a hill to see the

 scene of devastation before them. They had seen the unmistakable

 shape of Vhagar in the skies ahead of them for the last hour,

 swooping and letting lose streams of fire onto the hapless

 Riverlanders below. And the hundreds of columns of smoke rising

into the air all over the horizon told of the wrath that the great dragon

 was delivering to the Kings enemies.

 Cole took a few moments to take in the scene, before his eyes and

 his mind reconciled what they were seeing - Vhagar had struck when

 the Riverlander army was still on the march, that was obvious, but

 the Riverlanders had scattered and tried to run, unsuccessfully in

 many cases he noted. He was not used to calculating the

 devastation and destruction a dragon could create, so he struggled

 to make an accurate account of the casualties that had been inflicted

 by Vhagar.

 It looked….impressive he had to admit, great swathes of charred

 corpses littered the road upon which the army had been marching,

 burn marks dotted the landscape all around the road, sometimes

 with piles of charred corpses of men and horses centred within them.

 The great beast itself had alighted to the ground just as they had

 crested a slight rise to gaze upon the slaughter, it appeared to be

 busy feasting and what looked like the remains of the wagon train, or

 at least on the corpses of the horses, mules and oxen that would

 have pulled the wagons and carts of the supply train.

 Cole spurred his horse onwards, as he got closer, he noticed two

 things, Aemond was leaning casually against a partially burnt and

 overturned wagon, drinking from a wineskin, seeming without a care

 in the world. And secondly that Vhagar was wounded, there were

 several rents in the membranes of his great wings and hissing,

 boiling blood was fitfully spurting every now and then from several

 tears in his neck. The wounds opened up when the beast moved his

 head to feed, and the dragon rumbled and made low keening noises

 every time this happened.

 "Your Grace" Cole said tightly as he came within distance to be

 heard.

 "A great victory eh Ser Criston, my Lords! A great victory!" Aemond

 declared, waving his arms about to encompass the scene.

Cole could tell that the Prince was already drunk, and decided that

 reprimanding him for springing their trap too early would be foolish,

 behind him several of the accompanying Lords and knights were

 noisily vomiting, the cloying smell of dragon broiled meat

 nauseatingly strong on the breeze.

 He sighed inside, this was unlikely to improve the Princes behaviour

 on whit, and he feared for the rest of his forces against the remaining

 enemy forces in the Riverlands, especially if Prince Aemond stayed

 in Harenhal, intent on burning the Riverlands into submission.

 "Much better spot burning armies than villages Cole, much better

 sport!" slurred the Prince, while Cole stoically gripped the reigns of

 his horse just that little bit tighter.

 "I think I'll abandon Harenhal and come south with you Cole, more

 chance of action and all that!" announced Aemond, almost falling

 over so drunk he was.

 "Your Grace" was all Cole said in reply, sending a silent thanks to the

 Gods but wondering again if this idiot would not get them all killed.