The Kingswood is located south of King's Landing, separated by the Blackwater River, and has been the King's exclusive hunting ground ever since the Targaryen Dynasty established King's Landing as its capital.
Because of this, for a long time, this forest remained uninhabited, and its trees were left uncut, resulting in the richest variety of flora and fauna in all of Westeros, with even legends of creatures like the Forest Children still living in this vast expanse of forest.
However, during the Mad King's reign, King's Landing's control over the Kingswood became very weak, leading many commoners who could not survive in King's Landing to enter the Kingswood to make a living.
While it could not provide them with a comfortable living environment, as long as they had a basic understanding of hunting skills and plant identification, they could survive on the Kingswood's fringes.
As a result, more and more commoners lived in the Kingswood, no longer just people from King's Landing, but also debtors and refugees from other territories; in the later period, the entire Kingswood had formed more than twenty villages and towns of various sizes, with a population reaching tens of thousands.
Because the Kingswood was a vital north-south passage, the Rose Road had to pass through it to reach King's Landing, and countless merchant caravans traversed it, leading to a large concentration of bandits, and the villages and towns privately built within the Kingswood became the bandits' best cover.
Originally, those bandits were just small, scattered groups, at best able to rob a few lone merchants and small caravans, but with the emergence of the Kingswood Brotherhood, all the bandits in the Kingswood were unified, forming a bandit group numbering as many as five thousand.
The Kingswood Brotherhood was not only numerous, but their leaders and chiefs were also formidable fighters: their leader Simon Toyne, the Smiling Knight, White Deer Wenda, Oswyn Longneck who could not be hanged thrice, "Big Belly" Ben, and others were all strong enough to contend with the Kingsguard; one must remember that the Kingsguard under the Mad King were known as the strongest Kingsguard, with Barristan the Bold, Arthur Dayne of Dawn, Sword of the Morning, and Gerold Hightower the White Bull all being the strongest knights in the Seven Kingdoms at that time.
With such formidable strength, the Kingswood Brotherhood's ambition was naturally not small; they completely cut off the north-south connection of the Rose Road, set up checkpoints within the Kingswood to collect taxes, and showed no mercy to merchant caravans that did not comply with their rules; not to mention the caravans of minor lords, they even unhesitatingly attacked the royal caravans of House Tyrell, the Warden of the South, and the Targaryen.
The actions of the Kingswood Brotherhood had severely impacted the safety and tax revenue of King's Landing; the Mad King Aerys II sent people to encircle and suppress them more than once, but with little success.
If there were many people besieging the Kingswood Brotherhood, the Kingswood Brotherhood would hide under the cover of the villages and towns in the Kingswood until the besiegers left.
Because the Kingswood Brotherhood would always sell their stolen goods in the surrounding villages, the people in these villages gained significant profits, and many commoners from these towns and villages had joined the Kingswood Brotherhood, creating a close connection between them, which made them very willing to provide cover for the Kingswood Brotherhood's members.
If there were only one or two thousand besiegers, the Kingswood Brotherhood would slaughter them in the Kingswood, then cut off their heads and hang them on both sides of a certain section of the Rose Road in the Kingswood, thereby demonstrating their strength and cruelty, and increasing their deterrence; the forest where that road was located was also called the Howling Forest, and before the Kingswood Brotherhood was completely suppressed, over a thousand heads had been hung there.
Although the heads hanging in the Howling Forest were taken down and buried after the Kingswood Brotherhood was annihilated, it is said that merchant caravans passing through that road can still feel a terrifying aura and hear the howling sounds emanating from those heads.
It's unclear if it was the Mad King's twisted sense of humor, but he actually built an inn in the Howling Forest, ostensibly to provide a resting place for passing merchant caravans, and to ensure this inn served its purpose, he even dismantled all other resting places along this road, meaning this section of the Rose Road in the Kingswood only had the Howling Forest inn.
However, most merchant caravans would choose to rest for a night at Rat Stone, the closest open area to the Howling Forest, as it was one of the few open spaces in the Kingswood with a wide field of view, making it ideal for camping.
After spending a night at Rat Stone, they could then travel through the eerie Howling Forest in a single day, setting off early the next morning.
But this time, the Tyrell's party had bad luck; like other merchant caravans, they stayed overnight at Rat Stone, but the next day it began to drizzle, and the rain grew heavier and heavier, lasting for several days; if they continued to stay at Rat Stone, they might miss the martial arts tournament in King's Landing, which could displease King Robert.
So Garlan could only force the party to set off, and rainy weather naturally slowed their progress; what was worse, when the Mad King built the Howling Forest inn back then, he deliberately pried up the flagstones on this section of the road, turning it into a dirt road.
Robert Baratheon was busy with other matters after his ascension and had no mind to repair the road, leaving this dirt road in its original state.
If this dirt road were on a clear day, it would be easy to walk, but once it rained, it would turn into a muddy mess; let alone carriages, even people walking on it would sink into the mud if they stopped for a moment.
By nightfall, the Tyrell's party had not yet passed through this muddy section of the Howling Forest, and even more coincidentally, just as darkness fell, they happened to reach the vicinity of the Howling Forest inn, which forced them to stop at the inn for a night; otherwise, they would have to camp in the mud.
Although this inn had only been built a few years ago, being deep in the cold and damp forest, and having been unused and unmaintained for many years, many of its rooms were uninhabitable due to rotten wood.
Only the front hall, with its stone foundation and walls, was relatively better despite a somewhat damaged roof; after lighting the fireplace and dispelling the dampness inside, it was barely suitable for a night's stay.
Only Garlan and other nobles and their retainers could shelter from the rain in the great hall; as for everyone else, they could only set up temporary tents outside that offered some protection from the rain, but compared to the guards on night watch, being able to stay in a tent was already quite good.
Linde, who was originally assigned to the scout team, could also rest in a tent, but the accompanying nobles around Garlan wanted to eat some wild game, so they formed a hunting party from the hunters in the group to enter the nearby forest to hunt; among all the hunters, Linde the Bear Hunter clearly had the greatest reputation, naturally becoming the leader.
"I think these game animals are enough now," Raul said to Linde in the depths of the forest, carrying a small deer pierced by an arrow.
After more than an hour of hunting, almost every member of the hunting party carried a game animal; although these animals were not enough to feed the entire party, they were more than sufficient to fill the stomachs of those noble lords.
Although Linde's hunting skills primarily involved setting traps and he was not adept at tracking prey, he possessed extraordinary sensory perception; relying on his exceptional hearing, sight, and smell, he could easily find suitable prey even in the rain.
The only drawback was that his archery skills were slightly lacking; if it weren't raining and they were in an open area, he might be able to hit the prey, but in the current situation, hitting prey was purely a matter of luck.
Fortunately, there were archer hunters in the party, otherwise, it would have taken them much longer to catch enough prey.
"Let's go! Let's head back," Linde nodded, agreeing with Raul's suggestion.
Perhaps thinking of the warm bonfire they could roast by upon returning, and the chance to change out of their wet and heavy clothes, everyone's steps became lighter, and they even began to joke around.
"Stop, everyone be quiet! Be on guard," However, after walking for about ten minutes, Linde suddenly stopped, called out to everyone, and then looked towards a dense thicket to his right.
Because everyone had already witnessed Linde's powerful searching abilities, when Linde gave the order, they all stopped, silently put down their prey, and took out their bows and arrows, ready to draw and shoot at any moment.
At this moment, Linde looked at the dense thicket ahead with some confusion, concentrating on finding the unknown presence that made him feel dangerous.
Just now, Linde suddenly had a strong sense of danger; the hairs on his body even stood up because of it, which made him immediately order a halt to their movement, to stand guard, and at the same time, carefully search the dense thicket that had triggered the intense feeling of danger.
Although he searched carefully, Linde found nothing, and even the sense of danger disappeared; just as he thought it was merely a hallucination, his extremely sensitive hearing seemed to pick up a faint breathing sound coming from that dense thicket.
"Be careful, be on guard!" The moment Linde sensed the faint breathing, he also saw the bushes under the dense thicket begin to tremble slightly; this trembling was not due to raindrops, but because something else was passing through that dense thicket; realizing this, Linde immediately warned the others and drew the twin swords from his waist.
Immediately after, a large, blurry black shadow darted out from the thicket, rushing at an incredibly fast speed towards the hunters closest to it; before the hunters could react, it passed through the gaps between them, then snatched a small deer from the ground and charged into the forest on the other side.
Everyone was stunned by this scene; they never expected a black shadow to rush out of the dense thicket, and for its target to be a dead deer.
Although due to the cover of darkness and rain, even those who brushed past the black shadow couldn't clearly see what it was, only vaguely discerning it as a beast, Linde saw it clearly: the black shadow looked like a large black panther, and the only animal with such a form in Linde's memory was the legendary Shadow Lynx.
Although the Shadow Lynx is predominantly black, the black in its fur is not entirely uniform, giving its coat a striped pattern, much like zebra stripes.
"What was that just now?" Raul asked, his voice slightly trembling, looking at the direction where the black shadow disappeared, still feeling lingering fear.
"A Shadow Lynx," Linde answered truthfully.
Upon hearing this, everyone gasped; being hunters themselves, they knew very well what the outcome would be if they encountered a hungry Shadow Lynx in the dark forest; at the same time, they were extremely fortunate that the Shadow Lynx did not attack people just now, but instead took a prey animal, which meant that the Shadow Lynx should not reappear, and they would not have to worry about being attacked by it again.
"You all go back first," Linde said to the others, setting down a wild boar he had been carrying on his back.
Everyone was stunned upon hearing this, believing that Linde wanted to hunt a Shadow Lynx, as for a hunter, successfully hunting a Shadow Lynx was definitely an honor.
Additionally, among hunters in Westeros and Essos, there has always been a legend: it is said that if a hunter can hunt ten powerful game animals, that hunter will receive the blessing of the Old Gods, eventually gaining the power to hunt dragons.
Although the names of the ten beasts varied, mountain bears and Shadow Lynx were always on every list, so everyone subconsciously assumed that Linde wanted to complete that legendary hunting list and become a legendary hunter capable of hunting dragons.
"You want to complete that legendary hunting list?" Raul asked Linde, curious.
Hearing Raul's words, Linde felt a moment of confusion, then quickly realized that everyone had misunderstood, but he did not explain, merely motioning for Raul and the others to return quickly, and to report truthfully if anyone asked about him.
Seeing this, everyone said nothing more; Raul became the leader, re-shouldered the game, and reminded Linde to be careful before continuing towards the camp.
Although in the half month since leaving Bitterbridge Castle, Linde had been demoted from a knight's squire to the most arduous scout team, none of the Tyrell's guard warriors, servants, or noble knights believed that Linde had lost his standing; they knew very well that Linde's demotion to the scout team was actually just a test, and it wouldn't be long before Linde returned to his rightful place.
For those low-ranking warriors, this was instead a good opportunity to befriend Linde; when Linde became a formal knight in the future, as Linde's friends, they would more or less receive some benefits; at the very least, as Linde's friends, they would no longer be bullied.
Thus, many guards voluntarily offered to join the scout team and work with Linde; for example, Raul, who had a good relationship with Linde among the guards, was one of them.