Hello. This is my first fanfiction. Ever since i started reading A song of Ice and Fire i was captivated by the Valyrian society. I undestand why it isn't a very large part of the main story, but i still think it is a shame. Whatever. Here is my attempt at a fanfiction. If it is a steaming pile of garbage i apologize for wasting your time. It is worth mentioning that the opening of this is based on som other fanfic i read long ago, can't remember who though.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, sadly.

Chapter 1 - Awakening

Darkness. When I woke, everything around me was pure darkness. It felt as though I had been swallowed by a looming presence. I was disoriented, drained and confused. It took me a few minutes before I came to my senses. I tested my own state of mind. My name is Aerios Batorion, I am 21 years old, I am son of Akorios and Rhyania Batorion. Good, I seemed to be able to think clearly.

Where was I though? Fumbling around in the dark my hand touched something cold and metal. I sighed with relief as I immediately identified it as my vectium. I mumbled a simple spell under my breath, and out came an orb of white light. It illuminated my surrounding and I identified where I was. This is... the family vault? What the hell am I doing in here?

In the corner, a small mountain of gold coins were laying in a pile, stretching up the wall. Next to that, a large display case of jewelry and precious stones could be seen. This was the entirety of the Batorian family's liquid wealth, tens of millions in gold. In the other end of the room however, lay the true wealth of the family. Strange artifacts where meticulously placed on pillows of red and golden silk, expressing their value. There were rings, necklaces, beautifully ornamented horns, two vectiums and even a strange looking crown was there. A tingle rose up my spine just standing near these artifacts, as I could feel the tendrils of magical power crawling up my spine.

Even I didn't know just how many hundreds of millions of gold that have been spend through the ages to create these, not to mention the millions of lives, sacrificed to make them. Next to the artifacts though, was something of even greater value.

Eggs. Breathtakingly beautiful dragon eggs where displayed. Each with vibrant and extravagant colours of various kinds, depending on the egg, and each with a mesmerizing design marking it. One was combination of a glowing golden colour and an orange colour, beautifully woven together. Men could look at it for hours, without realizing the passage of time. Another was a dark blue obsidian colour mixed with pure blackness. Looking at it gave one a feeling of being swallowed by darkness. I tore my eyes from the eggs, as my mind suddenly came to think about my own dragon!

I reached out with my mind for it, and I felt its presence not far from here. I visibly shook, as I almost lost my footing due to my overwhelming worry and subsequent relief. However, as I called out to him, no response came. Even if he was asleep some kind of response would always come, so he must be dormant in some way, but at least he was alive!

My dragon was named Ragnirion, I called him Ragni though, and he was a dragon of the highest bloodline. Dragons of higher bloodlines where different from the mundane dragons the many lower dragonlords rode. Typically, a dragonlord family would have around 3 - 5 dragons of the same bloodline.

Their magic and the dragons' quality don't allow them to directly control them and form a mental bond, so they merely bind them to their bloodline. This creates a problem though, as the bloodline cannot change too much, otherwise the binding spell will lose its effect. That would require a new one, which is magic only great mages can accomplish, and that is very expensive. Therefore, the practice of incest became commonplace.

My dragon and I however, was not bound by some flimsy blood spell. My mother and uncle were archmages, and I myself am a greatmage. There can only be 14 archmages in Valyria at one time, each having been given control over one of the 14 flames. My mother and my uncle were both one of such archmages. In total 5 of the flames where in our families control, as they had been for 600 years. We held such a power, for we were the one of the triarchs of Valyria, the triarch family of magic.

An extremely strong connection was established between myself and Ragni. This created a powerful mental link, and a symbiosis of magical energy, lifespan and to some extent even senses. This connection however, has drawbacks. Should one of us fall, the other would suffer a mental breakdown, and either lose himself to madness or become an idiot. I returned my focus to my situation.

I looked down at myself and it seems I was wearing my night gown. Instinctually I reached for my bag of holding and found it was indeed there, strapped to my side.

A bag of holding was a small bag, which as its name suggested, was far bigger on the inside. It was enchanted with spacial and sealing magic which would allow it to hold much large objects than its own size. The ones of higher quality have a temporal enchantment too, making it so that time within is in stasis, which of course mine had. In fact, I had made it myself, one of my more successful creations.

I reached out and put on a practical set of clothes and my armor. With my sword strapped to my side, I started walking towards where I could feel Ragni was located.

I found him shortly, in the main hall of the vault, the armory. Hundreds of spell forged weapons and various armors lined the walls. However, my gazed was captivated by what was laying in the center of the hall. A giant mountain of flesh and scales. A mixture of darkness and red patterns could be seen on the giant beast's side and wings. The rest of the body and tail was pitch black.

In the average dragonlord family, the head of the family would usually ride a dragon between 150-200 feet long. It would weigh maybe 2-3 tons. Ragni on the other hand, was sporting 400 feet, and a weight of almost 12 tons. He looked both beautiful and terrifying, though to me, it looked like home. He and I had been together all my life. I had slept with his egg in the crib, I had grown up with him as my best friend, brother and protector.

Feelings of happiness was pushed aside though, as I noticed the spell, surrounding him. It was a time stasis and a powerful one at that. I recognized the handiwork of my mother, instantly. Undoing the spell though, was simplicity itself for a great mage.

Slowly the monster started coming to life, unfolding its wings the best it could and lifting its head up. It yawned and suddenly shook with panic as it looked around frantically until it spotted me. It made a pleading sound as it lowered its head to let me touch it.

Relief. Happy.

Were the emotions he conveyed. I asked him why we were in here, and he shook his head slightly and looked down. He then projected his last memory to me. I saw myself lying in my bed in my own room, Ragni looking at me from above.

The door suddenly swung open, and my mother rushed in, panic wild in her eyes. Ragni was about to wake me, but my mother signaled for him not to. Confused Ragni obeyed, as it knew her very well.

He was absolutely loyal to me and always had my own best interest in mind, but that didn't mean I would too. Dragons matured much faster than children, so as I was young, he would be the responsible one, and that meant sometimes going against my will, if only indirectly, for should I give him a direct order, he cannot disobey.

He knew my mother well, so he accepted, that what was about to happen, was in my best interest, even if it might go against my will. She muttered a spell, and with a slight surge of power, from her bag of holding flowed a stream of liquid silver. She directed it so slowly lift me up and then signaled Ragni to follow, as she went toward the vault.

First she placed me in the innermost room, and sealed me in time stasis and then started sealing Ragni, as the memory ended. I looked at me pleadingly.

Shame. Forgiveness.

"It's alright buddy" I said, speaking for the first time. "Let's get out of here". The vault door was enormous, luckily, or Ragni would have never been able to fit. I carved the code word of the vault into the rune plate, and the door activated.

As it opened, a heavy mist rushed in. Likewise, a foreign consciousness reached out, instantly trying to penetrate my mind. I frowned and repelled it easily. Ragni didn't even detect it, as his natural resistance to magic was far too great.

As the door opened, a frightening sight greeted me. Ragni instinctively growled as he placed himself so I stood between his too forelegs. What was once the greatest city in the history of the world, was now nothing but a large ruin. Broken, half melted towers and structures decorated the overgrown and neglected land.

I looked towards where the 7'th flame should have been. My mother's flame, but it was gone. The whole volcano was simply not there. Extreme emotions assaulted me as I froze in place, but I quickly manage to calm down. A mages greatest talent was a calm and logical mind in the face of disaster.

I went back into the vault. My bag of holding was about 30 X 30 feet in size, so there was plenty of space. I filled my bag of holding with gold, jewels and a few useful defensive artifacts, as well as 3 medium quality dragon eggs and one top quality egg. I firmly sealed the vault door again, and put my saddle on Ragni.

The ground shook and mist was blasted to the sides as Ragni took flight. Quickly he gained altitude, and the true state of the city revealed itself to me. The land had shattered completely, and now it seemed all that was left was a collection of ruins and a bunch of islands.

I instructed Rangi to fly in a circle as I pondered on what to do next. I considered going to one of the Valyrian vassal states for more information, but then I thought better of it. Although I couldn't tell exactly how much, I could tell that a substantial amount of time had passed. This meant even the daughters of Valyria might not welcome one of their former masters, for they would surely have rebelled against whatever remained of Valyrian rule, because there were no dragons left to keep order.

I knew the laws of the draconic, which stated that if one held the position of dragonlord in Valyria, to prevent the spread of dragons to other nations and thereby relinquishing the Valyrian monopoly on our greatest military strength, all dragons and eggs must be kept within the confines of the Valyrian peninsula only to leave on a temporary basis. This meant all our power was concentrated to one place which now turned out to be the doom of our great empire.

Well, there was that one exception when a crazy dragonlord was granted the right to leave, only as long as he stayed within the confines of a small barren island. With a shock the thought hit me "Then there must have been survivors!" I blurted out. Even if only initially. But had they endured the time since however long ago Valyria fell? "Haha to think we called them fools. What a joke we... were". I sighed. "I just don't have enough information" I said and I knew where to go.

I turned Ragni towards where the citadel was located. I knew the common tongue of Westeros, though at the time I was learning it, I thought it was a waste of my efforts. Why should I learn the language of barbarians? Thank the gods, father insisted. If the history of the world was recorded anywhere, the citadel would be the place.

I have always frowned upon it. The teachings they learned were inferior even the most simple of Valyrian lessons. And their knowledge of magic was non-existent... thanks to us monopolizing it. Now though, I was suddenly very happy that such places existed.

I flew Ragni above the clouds but as we came upon open water, the sky cleared. Not wanting to draw attention I cast a spell of refraction on him, making it so that anyone beneath would only see a blurred imitation of the light around us. The trip would take almost a whole day. Ragni could fly several weeks non-stop and I could easily sleep in the saddle, so it wasn't a problem. Though after about 10 hours in, I received a statement.

Hungry. Prey. Below.

The time stasis is a miracle like spell, but it does not freeze time completely, merely slows it to an almost stop. The more energy that is sealed, the less effective the spell is. Ragni had grown famished in his magically induced sleep.

"One moment" I said as I took out a pair of goggle from my bag. It was meant for exactly situations like this, where the journey was long and over water. I put on the googles and strapped myself completely to the saddle. I told him: "Alright, I am ready". He replied instantly.

Hunt.

Immediately the enormous dragon folded its wings to its body and dove. He started massively accelerating as we plummeted towards the water. Ragni shielded me just as we hit the water but it still felt as if smashing into a cold wall.

After a few moments, we resurfaced and Ragni violently flapped his wings as we took flight once again. It seems the "prey" was a flock of dolphins as he had two in his mouth. Effortlessly he swallowed them and dove again. 12 showers and 19 dolphins later, we were on our way again.

Soon we started seeing a coastline. After I while it grew dark and I was almost beginning to worry until I saw the Hightower in the distance. It was still here. I flew a good 10 miles inland before I landed Ragni in a meadow, a good distance from the main road.

As I got of him, I said: "This might take a day or two, so when you hunt, do it at night over the ocean, otherwise hide in the cloud cover. Do not draw any attention to yourself. For now, we must keep out of sight" He let out a loud series of unsatisfied grunts.

Annoyed. Worried. Lonely. Sad.

"I know buddy. It just a day or two, I don't want this anymore than you do" I tried consoling him, as I caressed his head. This, unfortunately, was also a byproduct of bond between us. Rarely were we ever more than a 100 feet apart, and if we were it was very brief.

The ground shook as Ragni took off, and I began walking towards the road. I started contemplating the problem of my appearance.

The normal Valyrian characteristics were sliver hair and purple eyes. This was a result of the magic in our blood, but my body was different. Our family simply had so much magic in our body, we had to modify ourselves to control it. This left us with an unusual golden hair colour and ever so slightly glowing dark blue eyes. Should I walk into their city as I was, I would draw a lot of attention to myself.

I put away my armor and weapons and I drew out a cloak from my bag and put it on, then I cast a dimming spell on my eyes. They would still look unusual with their intense colour, but at least they would look human. I was satisfied with my appearance as I started walking towards the road. As I came upon the road, a caravan was occupying it.