The Dragon of the West
A Red Dead Redemption/Game of Thrones crossover
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Chapter 1: The American Dream
In a small wooden building, a young man lay on a simple wooden cot. He had pale skin and oddly enough, blue hair but the roots were pale almost silver in colouration. His face possessed fine handsome, even beautiful almost otherworldly features that would make one think he was a woman. His body was lean and lithe with toned muscle and he was currently shirtless with only some leather trousers covering his modesty.
The young man then opened his eyes, revealing violet-lilac hued eyes. Taking in a deep breath, he slowly sat up and looked around, his violet-lilac eyes taking in his surroundings. Everything seemed unfamiliar to him and he then noticed he was shirtless and he looked around for something to cover himself with.
Then the door of the building swung open to reveal a young woman with chocolate brown hair done in a low and loose ponytail and wearing practical clothing. The young woman had pretty features with hazel-green eyes and cupid's bow lips. Around the young woman's hips was a belt and a holster holding a weapon the young man did not recognise.
"You're awake," the young woman said to the young man with an accent he did not recognise. "We thought you might not wake up and have to bury you," she added.
"Who are you?" the young man asked cautiously.
"Could say the same as you," replied the young woman as she leaned against the doorway.
"Where am I? What land is this?" the young man then asked.
"You're on my family's ranch in Hennigan's Stead," said the young woman in response. "Now, it's mighty rude to not introduce yourself, so how about a name," she suggested.
"Griff. Young Griff," the young man said after a moment of hesitation.
"Well, pleased to meet you, Mister Griff, I'm Bella MacFarlane," replied the young woman.
"A pleasure to meet you as well, my lady," replied Young Griff. "But where is Hennigan's Stead? I've not ever heard of it before," he said.
"You're in the State of New Austin, America, if you want to know and I'm guessing you're a foreigner," Bella remarked.
"I suppose I must be," Young Griff agreed.
"So, mind telling me how we found you outside my family's ranch?" Bella enquired.
"I-I don't know," Young Griff admitted. "It was my eight and tenth nameday and I had received some gifts and I had gone outside for a moment, then everything went black," he said.
"Nameday? Don't you mean birthday?" Bella asked.
"If you want to call it that, yes," Young Griff said.
"Well, we found your things with you when we found you," Bella then said. "And I must say, it's mighty odd to see someone walking around with a sword and bow when you could have a gun instead, although a bow ain't too outta place" she added.
"Gun? What is a gun?" Young Griff asked.
"You ain't never heard of, or seen guns before?" Belle said in surprise and Young Griff shook his head in response. Sighing, Bella pulled out from her belt the strange weapon Young Griff could not identify. "This here is a gun," Bella explained as she showed the weapon to Young Griff whose eyes widened in surprise.
"What can you do with a gun? Hit people with it?"
Bella's lips quirked in amusement. "You can, but it's better to shoot people with," she said.
"Strange, it's too small to fire bolts or arrows, what does it use if not bolts or arrows?" Young Griff asked.
Bella broke open the gun and pulled a small brass object. "It uses these," she said showing the object to Young Griff who picked over the tiny brass thing in detail; it was a small cylindrical object made of brass with the rounded top made of grey metal, lead possibly.
"Strange, I've never seen a projectile such as this," Young Griff stated.
"So, you never said where you're from," Bella said as she placed the small object back into her gun and holstered the weapon.
"I'm from Essos," replied Young Griff.
"Essos? Is that somewhere in Europe?" Bella asked in curiosity.
"I'm starting to think it's not," Young Griff said to himself.
"Well, I don't rightly know where this 'Essos' might be, but right now I've got some work to do around the Ranch," Bella then said sounding like a woman with too much to do and too little time to do it.
"Perchance you would like some assistance, milady?" Young Griff then offered. "I feel I must repay you for taking me into your care," he said.
"I was just about to suggest you help," Bella said with a slight smile. "You know how to ride a horse?" she asked.
"Aye, I know well how to ride a horse," came Young Griff's reply.
"Well, alright. There's some spare shirts and boots by the wardrobe. Get dressed and meet me outside when you're ready," Bella said. With that, the young woman left the small cabin.
Standing to his feet and walking over to the wardrobe, the young man then found some spare shirts and boots. Slipping on a simple blue shirt and a sturdy pair of boots and buckling on his sword and sliding his bow over his shoulder and adjusting the quiver of arrows within easy reach, Young Griff then stepped outside. The first thing he noticed was the weather; it seemed almost dry and dusty, much like Essos and the sky was a clear blue. Looking at the buildings, Young Griff surmised that most of them were made of wood but they didn't appear to match anything built in Essos.
"Hey! Over here!" yelled a voice and Young Griff saw Bella standing over near a building made of stone with two horses on either side of her. Young Griff walked over and looked at the horses with a discerning eye. The first horse was a mare with a brown coat and the other had a pale blonde coat; both seemed healthy and strong looking.
"Nice looking beasts," he said. "Which one is mine?" he asked looking at Bella who handed him the reins of the mare.
"This one's named Dahlia, she's a sprightly thing and a little easy to scare, but she's a good horse to ride around the ranch," Bella informed Young Griff who stroked the nose of Dahlia who snorted agreeably. Bella then mounted the blonde horse with ease. "Well? C'mon, show me that you're a good rider, Mister Griff," Bella then said.
Young Griff lifted himself into Dahlia's saddle and took a moment to adjust to the saddle. Bella hummed in approval and said to him, "You sit a saddle very well," she congratulated. "But how well can you ride?" she enquired.
"Well enough to not shame myself if that's what you're asking, milady," replied Young Griff.
"Well, c'mon, I'll show you around the Ranch," Bella said as she urged her horse into an easy canter. Griff then urged Dahlia into following Bella.
"Here we have the general store," Bella said showing Griff a modest sized building with a large sign on the eaves of the roof. "It's not Parisian high fashion, but it's good for essentials," she added.
"Interesting, I've never seen a farm with its own store before," Young Griff said.
"We ain't a farm, we're a ranch; we raise and breed livestock mostly, but admittedly we do have a small vegetable plot," Bella said.
"My apologies, milady, I meant no offence," Griff said quickly.
"See that you don't," Bella said sternly as she rode her horse onwards and Griff followed her. "Here's the livestock pens, where we keep the cattle and horses," the young woman informed Griff showing him two large open fenced areas. "We also have a chicken coop to raise chickens and eggs," she added.
"This seems like a very well run ranch, milady," Griff then said. "Who owns it, if I may ask?" he enquired.
"My pappy, of course, Maurice MacFarlane," replied Bella. "He's not here right now, he's up at Blackwater handling some business for the ranch, but he'll be back by the end of the week," she said knowingly.
"C'mon, there's still more to show you." Bella then urged her horse into a slow gallop and Griff followed her. Bella then lead Griff to a tall wooden building that stood alongside a long railway track. "Here we have the train station," Bella said. "Gets folk to most places like Armadillo, Blackwater, even Mexico down south or further up north to places like Saint Denis," she explained.
"What is a train?" Griff asked in confusion. "Is it something drawn by horses?" he then asked.
"Wow! You really ain't from around here, are you?" Bella said in amusement. "Well, the train is a big thing made of metal and runs on fire and steam. It follows these tracks to wherever they lead and stops at stations like these along the way," she explained as she indicated the tracks.
"Amazing! How fast does a train go?" Griff asked in interest.
"Faster than horses, that's for sure," said Bella. "But horses can go places trains can't, and trains make an awful lotta noise!" she added.
"I'd like to see one," Young Griff then said to himself.
"Well, the next train will be here in the evening, so you'll have to wait," Bella replied. "C'mon, there's a couple more things to see," she said firmly as she turned her horse around and urged forward.
"Here we have the foreman's office; this is where the foreman lives and where we lock up people who cause trouble," Bella said showing Griff the stone building. "We also post bounty posters from time to time of thieves and troublemakers in the area," she added. "You can also take the job of a nightwatchman if you feel like staying up all night," she also said as an afterthought.
"I feel I may be taking that job," Griff replied.
"And here we have the house," Bella said as she led Griff over to the largest of the buildings. "My Pappy took on a big debt to build this house and get the ranch," she added. "And we still ain't paid the bank back!" she then said bitterly.
"Money troubles?" Griff asked hesitantly, unsure if he should be prying into his host's affairs.
"Oh, don't mind me, it ain't nothing," Bella said with a deprecating smile. "We've been through worse things since we settled out here; plagues, famine, drought, fires, outlaw gangs running amok. But we've survived it all!" she declared proudly.
"You must have," Griff said. "You're still here," he pointed out.
"And I mean to keep it that way," Bella said with a proud smile. "But enough jawing! I got work to do!" she added. Bella then looked at Griff and said to him, "If you wanna stay here, you're welcome to, but it would be nice if you helped out around the ranch," she suggested. "And maybe, once you're better, you can tell us who you are?" she added.
"I fear you may not believe me when I say," Griff replied.
"Well, have a think about it," Bella said to him. "Ain't nothing you can tell us that'll surprise us. We've seen stranger things out here," she added humorously. Griff smiled at the jest as Bella then urged her horse to somewhere else around the ranch.
Griff looked up at the sky and wondered just how he got to this place and if it was at all possible to get back home.
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TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: There, the first chapter of this done and dusted. Just a short chapter to set the stage of Young Griff/Aegon's adventures in the Red Dead universe. Now, in case you haven't figured it out, this is an Alternate Universe of RDR, so the characters that are seen in Red Dead are different or simply don't exist. For example, in place of Bonnie and Drew MacFarlane, we have Bella and Maurice MacFarlane, both of whom are inspired by Disney's Beauty and the Beast characters Belle and Maurice.
A vast majority of the characters we'll see in this story are OCs, some of whom are based on people in real life and others like Bella are based on fictional characters. Some of the typical outlaw gangs from RDR1 and RDR2 such as the Bollard Gang, the Walton, the Lemoyne Raiders and the Murfree Brood will feature in this story, but they'll have different leaders leading them. I have come up with some OC outlaw gangs based on similar gangs from other games/fandoms, but I won't say who or what just yet *wink*.
And I have set up a voting poll showing a list of romance options for YG/Aegon, most of them are OCs, but there's also the Game of Thrones girls like Daenerys/Dany, Margaery, Tyene Sand, etc. So far, Margaery Tyrell and Arianne Martell are in the lead which isn't too bad, but for those of you who want to see someone else take the top spot, you'd better get voting. And if you're new to this story, feel free to have a vote on whom you want Aegon/Young Griff to end up with, or leave a comment in your review on which girl you want Aegon to be with.
So, not much other than this short preliminary chapter to start with and if this gets good reviews and plenty of them, I may just start to write more, but we'll see how it goes, shall we?
And before you ask, yes, Aegon/YG will learn how to use guns like the Cattleman revolver, the carbine repeater and all the guns we've see in the RDR games. And before I forget, this story is set in the year 1903, for what reason, I'll keep to myself for now.
Be kind to one another,
Angry lil' elf.