For over an hour Tom just knelt there, the sand becoming uncomfortable under his knees, the sun burned the back of his neck, sweat trickled down the center of his back and his thick brown hair began to turn dark from the sweat, yet still he knelt in a stunned vigil for the fallen lord of Dragonstone. His mind was in too much turmoil to notice the discomfort as he tried in vain to comprehend what had just happened.

His impromptu vigil was finally put to an end when sweat trickled into his eyes and forced him to move, his arm wiping the sweat from his face. With that movement, Tom finally noticed the heat and the discomfort of his knees, with slow aching movement, he got to his feet and, facing the sea, he gave his surroundings a proper survey.

To his left, as far as the eye could see, was an endless stretch of beach with woodlands further inland. To his right, the beach continued for a long distance as well until interrupted about a mile away by a mighty river which emptied into the bay. On his side of the river, he could spot several hills adjacent to the river with one of them forming a cliff that jutted out towards the sea. He realized quickly enough that the river was Blackwater Rush, which flowed into the bay of the same name. Those hills were the clincher for him as he remembered from the books he'd read that was where the city of King's Landing would one day stand.

Or rather would have, he thought, grimly remembering what lay nearby. He turned back to the body that lay near where he stood, then he looked at the sheathed great-sword in his hands, he remembered the oath he had given a dying man. "I don't have a choice do I?" He muttered out loud, "I gave the man my word that I would find his sisters, but I don't even know where to look." Then he remembered that Aegon had not gone alone when he went on his conquest, he'd been with a army, albeit a tiny one, but an army none the less, that Aegon himself had survived long enough to make it to shore gave him hope that other had as well. He had to find them if he could, and even if nothing could be found, it was better than sitting here doing nothing.

Deciding on a direction, he turned and walked towards the river and began to scan the beach, looking for anything that even vaguely resembled a person. He strode slowly, his eyes darting back and forth, occasionally examining ocean flotsam with more focus than he should have, terrified of accidentally missing someone and leaving them to die of exposure. By the time he was nearing the river, he was about to panic, so far he'd had two false alarms of what he thought was a person was only driftwood, and the ghastly remain of six members of Aegon's fleet. He had recoiled in horror at their drowned bodies, cheese white skin, and features bloated by the sea with bits and pieces of them already torn off by scavengers. He was about to give up hope of finding anyone alive when he spotted a shape near the mouth of the river.

As he approached the shape, his heart jumped into his throat when he saw the long silver-blonde hair and the rich but soaked clothing that the shape wore. He broke into a run, hoping that he hadn't already failed his promise to Aegon. As he finally came upon the person, he saw that the woman, as only a blind man could have missed those curves, was likely one of Aegon's sisters, given the silver-blonde hair and her features which were strikingly similar to the drowned man's.

At first glance it seemed that she was dead as well, but excitement flashed through him when he examined her more closely and found that there was a pulse as well as shallow and somewhat labored breathing. He then turned her onto her back and tried to wake her, however his attempts all ended in failure and when he checked her breathing again he felt to his horror that her breathing was beginning to grow even more shallow and her heart beat was beginning to fade.

Panic filled him and he scrambled to try and save the woman. After throwing his coat on her, he scrambled for the trees growing further in from the beach and scoured the forest floor looking for branches and twigs, the wood scratched his arm and more than once nearly blinded him but he never even noticed. When he felt he had enough he sprinted back to the woman with the awkward bundle of wood when he reached her side he quickly began to stack the wood the best he could. When the wood was stacked to his satisfaction, he realized that her soaking wet clothes needed to be removed to prevent the onset of hypothermia.

He proceeded to turn her on side and searched for the laces that kept the dress on. He fought with two of the total of thirty laces before giving up on untying each one. He dug into his pants pocket and pulled out a pocket knife he always kept on him. He then proceed to slice five of the top laces and then peeled the dress off of the woman as if he were skinning a snake, the entire time he was cursing how the black and scarlet dress seemed to refuse to let go of the woman.

Once that was off he then quickly removed the rest of her clothing which consisted of a shift she wore beneath her dress, as well as her shoes and stockings. When he was finished he was left with the woman's body bare and exposed for the entire world to see. Tom failed to recognize this other than to throw his coat back on her as he turned his focus back to the wood he'd gathered. His plans to save this woman now hit a snag, to his horror, he realized that he had no matches or any other means to start a fire. He turned back to the woman fading before him. She was dieing right in front of him and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

Or was there? His mind wandered back to what the lost note had said, and what he'd done when he'd spoken those words. His voice now had a power to it that much was certain, but was there anything that he could do for this woman? Was there a word that could light this fire? Yes there was. A word came to mind, one that meant fire in the tongue of a race that had never existed in this world. He bent down to the pile of wood and spoke in as calm a voice as he could, praying to God that this would work. "YOL"

The moment that he spoke, a small jet of fire erupted from his mouth and struck the wood, immediately catching it on fire. Tom now had a warming fire crackling merrily in front of him. He then picked the woman up, never noticing her bare skin or her exposed body as he lay her next to the fire and covered her with his coat.

As he examined her he tried to think of anything else he could do he remembered how if someone had suffered hypothermia that he was supposed to try and warm the victim up with his own body heat after removing his clothes. Not even thinking about the implications he proceeded to strip himself down to his underwear and then quickly shifted himself under the woman, acting as a heat source and a means of getting her off of the cold wet sand and then draped his coat back over the two of them, taking care that she was covered as much as possible. It was about this time that he realized just what the hell he was doing. He flushed a bright red, despite being twenty-two years old, he'd had barely any experience with women outside of his own family and now he was all but spooning a naked woman while he had nothing but his underwear on.

But he did not try and extricate himself from his position, despite his misgivings, he knew that this was the best way to keep her warm and prevent hypothermia, so he grit his teeth, focused his gaze on the river, and did his best to control certain aspects of his body, with middling success.

After a while Tom grew concerned that Aegon's sister seemed to refuse to warm despite all of his efforts. He knew that he was doing everything right, but she still refused to warm up and Tom was beginning to panic, what else could he do? It wasn't like he could make a healing shout. Or could he? His mind went into overdrive and he delved into his limited vocabulary of dragon words. He eventually pieced together what he hoped would work as a healing shout and after extricating himself from under the woman and getting to his knees, he took a deep breath and shouted the words for "Life", "Spirit", and "Force."

"LAAS ZII FUS!" A flash of golden energy enveloped the woman and at the same time Tom had nearly all the strength he had in him evaporate for a moment and he collapsed to a seated position. Panting slightly he got back to his feet and watched the woman carefully as her body seemed to absorb the golden energy. As the energy did its work, he prayed that his cobbled together Thu'um or shout had actually worked.

The reaction was actually quite immediate and severe. The moment the gold energy faded into her body, her skin lost the pale pallor and she all but flew to a seated position. She then hunched over as she began to cough and vomit water and she was soon forced to her hands and knees as she shook from the force of her body trying to expel the water that had been in her lungs and stomach. Tom took a step back in surprise at the forcefulness of his shout. When her coughs seemed to subside, Tom inched back over to her and in a low voice asked, "Are you alright?"

The Targaryen woman didn't seem to notice him and he was about to try again when she surprised him yet again by leaping away from him and scrambled for his pile of clothes and the sword lay.

The Sword!

Tom instantly realized what she was going for and he knowing that she was likely his superior if she got that blade he bolted after her. He all but body slammed the woman then while she was stunned he tried to pin her to the ground in order to stop her. She shrieked like a banshee and fought like a wildcat as she struggled to escape his grip. But Tom had several advantages over her, one he was over 180 pounds compared to her at most 120 pounds, two she had only just awoken after barely surviving a storm that had destroyed an entire fleet and then proceeded to slam the debris of said fleet all along the coast and no magic shout was going to change that. Finally Tom was no pushover, he'd been a high school athlete, playing football, and competing in wrestling tournaments for all four years of his high school career and had kept himself in shape since them. The countless hours of conditioning, games, and bouts had given him both strength and endurance, and while he was not the absolute strongest, or fastest, or the most skilled, he had an endurance and toughness that allowed him to keep plowing on when others would collapse from exhaustion. As long as the fight remained on the ground, he had the advantage.

With some effort, Tom managed to pin the woman to the ground by straddling her stomach, he also had one of her arms pressed into her chest above her breasts while his other hand kept her arm pinned to the sand of the beach. Meanwhile, Tom used his legs to keep his captive from using hers to espcape. Her struggling became even fiercer and Tom had to shift his position several times when she tried to bite him, but through the entire melee he held on and after what seemed like an eternity, she finally gave up and slumped to the sand, panting, her eyes wide open and her pupils narrowed to pinpricks.

She stared into his eyes with incredible intensity then after a minute she mustered the strength to give the young man a truly stunning sneer as she spat out in a bitter tone, her voice laced with the venom she obviously felt, "Well, what are you waiting for?"

Tom immediately answered in as a calm a voice as he could muster, "I'm waiting until you stop trying to run for that sword."

The woman's eyes momentarily widened in stunned disbelief, the quickly narrowed as she glared at him before saying in sarcasm laced tones, "If you truly believe that I will simply lie down and allow you to rape me, then you are an even greater fool than I thought!"

Tom eyes widened in shock and he managed to sputter out, "It's not like that! I wasn't going to do anything that! I found you have drowned and I was trying to keep you from freezing to death!"

"Really? And I suppose that is the hilt of your dagger grinding into my hip just now?" The sarcasm never left her voice.

Tom nearly leaped off of her as if she was on fire his face had now turned a beet red and he could feel his ears burning. The woman took advantages of this and tried to scramble for the sword. When Tom saw what she had done he leaped back after her and after grinding her face into the sand. He did not even try to hide his physical reaction this time and to be honest it was starting to fade especially after his arm got too close to her mouth and she bit down actually drawing blood. Under his breath he muttered, "You know you are really making me wish I hadn't made that oath."

But before she could respond that he continued, "Now, I told you. I am not going to do anything to you! Just relax, stop going for the sword and let's talk about this!" She was silent for a moment then she gave a quick silent nod.

Tom then let go of her and backed away from her, allowing her to get back up on her own. She promptly did so spitting sand all the while, while he tried not to notice how the sand clung to her bare skin.

When she seemed to have spat out enough sand to her satisfaction, she then turned to him, still naked and said in an accusatory voice, "Assuming that you are telling me the truth, where did you get my husband's sword and what oath do you speak of?"

"I swore an oath to your husband to find you and your sister" He replied, not liking where this conversation was going. Meanwhile he grabbed his coat which had been laying on the beach where it had been forgotten after her violent awakening. When he offered it to he she stared at it for a moment before snatching it, slipping her arms into the sleeves, and then held it tightly to preserve at least some illusion of modesty.

"Then how did you get his sword?" The accusation in her voice growing.

He continued to keep his voice as level as possible, "It was payment for giving my oath."

She smirked derisively at Tom and retorted, "That's a likely story, my husband would never give up his sword unless...unless." Both confidence and color drained from her face as her voice started to give hint to her growing apprehension. "Where is my husband?"

Tom was no longer able to look her in the eye, he bowed his head and looked away for a moment before looking back at her, saying, "I'm sorry."

The woman stood dumbfounded for a moment not quite able to process what he was telling, but she was far from a fool and realization struck her like a bolt of lighting, she staggered for a moment before she spoke, her voice thick with emotion, "Your lying! Where is he? Where is my Aegon?" The more she spoke, the more frantic her voice became.

"Um" Tom began weakly, not really sure how to articulate what he was about to say, "I found him on the beach..." He dumbly pointed in Aegon's direction as he spoke, but got no further as the Targaryen woman literally streaked down the beach.

With a deep sigh, Tom slipped his pants on before grabbing the sword and giving chase.