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.