She missed Benjen, she never really realized how much time she spent with the youngest until he wasn't around to spend it with anymore. The dark chocolate hair girl of twelve was currently peeking out from behind a large boulder and watching the eldest Stark argue with their brother about this Balerion fellow.

She was supposed to be in the Keep finishing the lessons that she had been missing, but her mind was currently preoccupied with the thoughts of dragons. It's been about six hours since Ravenna's returned home and two of those hours were spent searching Winterfell for the runaway heiress while waiting for the messenger that was sent out for those guards to return.

Upon their return and finding out that this Balerion had been seen heading towards the Broken Tower, Ravenna grabbed her furs and headed outside. Ned had told her to stay behind, but Lyanna wasn't known for exactly following rules. She had easily slipped out under the noses of those order to watch her and followed her siblings to the Broken Tower.

Lyanna remembered father telling her more than once that she wasn't allowed near this tower. Father... she gave her head a quick shake to push her more unpleasant thoughts away. Father would be back so would mother, and together they'd go and fetch Benjen from the wolves.

"You are not coming with me, I've known Balerion long enough to that he's not going to react very to having you around." The sound of Ravenna's voice carried over to Lyanna's hiding spot making her turned her eyes back to the commotion.

Ned and Raven, with a torch, had been standing outside the entrance of the Broken Tower for at least five minutes arguing about why Ravenna should and shouldn't go into the tower alone. Ned's physically showed very little of his displeased thoughts on that, but Lyanna bet his jaw was so rigid it hurt, he was probably clenching his jaw and grinding his teeth. T

heir mother hated it when he did that, she was often yelling at him for it. It was rare to get either of the eldest Starks to change their minds, the two were matched when it came to stubbornness and Lyanna knew she wasn't that far behind them.

Ravenna had leaned forwards, whispering something too low for Lyanna to catch. Whatever was said seemed to push Ned in Raven's favor because her older brother nodded and headed back in the direction of the Keep. Lyanna lost sight of both of them for a moment as she had to quickly dart around to the other side of the boulder to avoid being seen as Ned stormed passed.

Once his figure was out of sight, Lyanna returned her gaze back towards Ravenna, but she was no longer standing there. In fact, it looked like she had already gone into the Tower. After one more quick sweep to make sure the coast was clear, Lyanna hurried off into the tower after her. Inside everything had worn and crumbled - their decay the only marker of time in a place of uncounted days.

Light shone in, illuminating the relics, precious secrets of the Winterfell. Mother was always complaining about this tower, how it wasn't safe and that father should either rebuild it or get rid of it. Lyanna had the strongest urge to search ever place and find every secret this tower had to offer, however, that could wait for another time when Benjen was back. As the little girl slipped around crumbled rocks and boulders, she made her way to the stairs that led up, the only thing that seemed to be complete or almost completely intact in the tower. She didn't get to go all the way up as she wished, the voice of her sister sounded in the middle of the tower.

Lyanna was careful not to make too much noise as she crept towards the room on the right, she had to slip into the room and took cover near a broken wall. There was a large hole in the middle of the stone wall that led into the next room and she peeked behind it. She found her sister around thirty feet away near the corner of the next room. She had her arms raised and was talking to someone, Lyanna leaned in a little more to get a better look.

Ahead of her sister she could make out another person, there wasn't very much lighting in the room and it was only thanks to the holes in the tower and her sister's torch that she could see anything out all. The first thing she noticed about the other person was that it was a female, the face was hard to make out but if the bosom was anything to go by and the dress, she found female was the best guess. She couldn't see the face very well from here and soon found herself distracted from the female as she noticed the pools of amber near the chest.

She thought it was her imagination at first, although was proven wrong when the eyes shut themselves, vanishing, and opened not slowly like a creature groggy from sleep, but suddenly as if a switch had been flicked. As the fire of the torch danced, she saw him. The dragon was the color of the night, there looked to be a snake wrapped around the female's waist yet Lyanna soon found that it was the dragon's tail coiled around the waist like the female was his possession.

The stories Old Nan told them came back to Lyanna's mind. Scales cold as ice that blazes bright as an ever flickering flame. In the chest, it holds often times a hearth of burning fire although in its remorseless heart lay rime. Eyes that turn skin into a sickly pallor, claws able to lacerate even the sturdiest to mere ribbons of flesh and bone, blood so black that night held an intense radiance that could blind your eyes. With its tongue, they could smell your dread and taste your fear. T

hey hold a wisdom like no other and, yet expresses a toxic greed. With a bed crafted from jewels, gold, and stolen treasure. Always trapped in slumber, unless they went to quench the hunger they could not satisfy, or when one was stupid enough to face it. Yes, dragons were creatures of magic something humans should fear, yet Lyanna found no fear only pure fascination at the moment.

In her curiosity, she made the mistake of leaning a little too far. The fingers gripping the side of the wall slipped, she was able to keep her balance but some of the rubble from the broken wall fell down making some noise that sounded loudly in the quiet tower. The light of the flame turned in her direction and she quickly ducked down behind the solid wall and cupped her hand over her mouth. The child remained there until the light faded away, and after several frantic heartbeats took the chance to peek again.

Her sister had her back to her once more, the unmoving female was still in place, but where was the dragon? Lyanna continued staring in that direction, hoping that her eyes had just missed it the first time around like earlier. It took her a few seconds to notice she felt warmer as if she was sitting next to a fire. She didn't move a muscle as her eyes slide as far to her right as she could get them to go, there was steam, rising in short puffs, miniature clouds disappearing into the air behind her. There was someone behind her.

That knowledge froze her in her spot and drained all hope, dreams and feeling from within her, replacing them with a feeling of despair, hopelessness and most of all, fear. Its claws cut through her body and wrapped around her brain. She wanted to turn around and at the same time didn't want to know if who she thought was behind was really there.

Before she could gather the courage to move she heard this screech, it was inhuman and filled with so much pain it might have brought tears to her eyes had she not been so scared. Her muscles unlocked themselves and she took the chance to climb through the large hole in the wall and into the room.

She finally screamed when an arm wrapped around her shoulder only to find that it was Ravenna, the older Stark's face was twisted with some emotion that Lyanna could comprehend at the moment. Ravenna eyes were solely focused on the young dragon who had stopped screeching, Lyanna just saw only the dragon's hindquarters sticking out of the entrance next to the wall with the hole she had been hiding behind.

There was something sticking out of the dragon's thigh she no longer saw it as the dragon whipped around and stalked back into the room. Ravenna yanked her sister behind her and withdrew her second dagger, holding it out in front of her with a shaky hand.

Balerion took a second to turn his head and stretch his neck to reach the thorn in the back of his leg, wrapping his fangs around the hilt of the dagger he yanked it out in one clean jerk. A thick crimson liquid spilled out and painted the formerly silver blade. In his anger, he easily broke the puny yet painful weapon in two, letting the hilt and blade clatter noisily to the ground, and turned his wrath on Lyanna and Ravenna.

His chest swelled and his throat burned with heat as he gathered a flame that would ensure a swift, if not painful death. Lyanna's fear was getting the best of her and Ravenna mind was failing her, she couldn't figure out a way out of this mess for she had seen what a dragon's flame could do. Just as the blue flame gathered in his mouth and his jaw opened itself, a deep voice shouted out in a language foreign to Lyanna's ears but familiar to Ravenna's.

"Keligon! Balerion. Gīda dārilaros. Ziry iksos nyke sepār nyke." It was the Valyerian that had stopped Baleiron's fire more than the owner.

There was a man standing in the doorway, two swords strapped to his person but he made no move to grab them as he approached the agitated dragon. Balerion turned his attention the man, the frills on his spine were risen but slowly settled down as the hood was drawn from the face. Lyanna found him to be rather handsome for an older man, and she heard her sister mutter a name that she didn't catch. The man took a knee about five feet from the dragon, like one would bend to the king, he dropped his eyes and lowered his head.

Both girls watched with awe as the dragon locked eyes on the man who became an unmoving statue. It took a few tensed moments before Balerion snorted out a stream of gray smoke and turned away from all of them. He trotted over to the slumbering female and sat in front of her. There was a long sigh before the man finally drew himself up once again, he stared intently at the dragon and the female before looking at the pair of sisters.

"Lady Lyanna and Lady Ravenna." He dipped his head in a mild greeting while observing the two for any injuries.

"Ser Arthur," Ravenna responded in a slightly quivering voice.

As her sister tried to compose herself Lyanna tried to recall where she had heard the man's name from. Ser Arthur glanced once more at them before returning his sights to the dragon and the one he guarded. He deliberately made his steps loud, or that is what Lyanna saw, as he came up to the black beast.

There was a frown on his lips as he regarded the blood leaking from the back leg but made no comment on it. Balerion grumbled softly, but more as a greeting of some sort because he allowed Ser Arthur to walk pass him and bend down to pick up the unmoving blonde.

She moved a little in her sleep but other than that remained motionless once she was situated in his arm he beckoned them to follow him out of the Tower, the dragon took the lead often turning his head to make sure that Ser Arthur was being careful with the female. Lyanna had gripped her sister's hand and wasn't letting go anytime soon. Once they were outside, Lyanna got a better look at the female who she was sure would be referred as beautiful by men and women's standers. Yet the way she remained so motionless was eerie.

"How did you do that?" Lyanna found her voice again and looked up at the man with newfound curiosity. "That thing you did with the dragon." She looked over to the black beast who was now looking over at her before turning his eyes to the front.

Out here she saw that he was about the size of a large dog or a small pony, he moved with a blind and sure confidence of an apex predator, with a slight limp in the back leg. The dragon knew his place in the world and to him, everyone but a select few were inferior to him. As they made their way inside the Keep in one of the side entrances, Balerion faltered in step and drew back moving closer to Ser Arthur who chuckled at the sight underneath his breath.

"A dragon is not a creature to trifle with, they are powerful and magical creatures who expect to be treated with respect. Balerion is still young, cautious and curious at his age, yet that makes him no less threatening. When speaking to a dragon it is wise to speak to them like the are royalty. Treat them with respect instead of fear and you're more likely to come out of the encounter with your life still intact." Ser Arthur told her with a weary smile while adding.

"This is where we split, Balerion is not good with attention so I'll be taking them to the Princess's room, your Lady Mother is waiting for you at the main entrance with some guests." Lyanna nearly forgot about her mother in all of this. She was ready to bolt down the hallway, but Ravenna's hold her hand kept her in place. The younger wolf looked up at her sister, noticing for once how depressed she looked right now.

"I—" Ravenna struggled to get her words out while sneaking a looking in the sleeping blonde woman. "Will you tell Sin— the Princess that I am very sorry about what happened to Balerion. I thought that he was going to hurt Lyanna and—" "She was cut off as the man spoke in a gentle yet stern voice.

"That is something for you and the Princess to discuss when she wakes." It was clear that he had no intentions of apologizing for her.

He dismissed himself with a head dip before walking down a different hallway, the mildly limping dragon curled his lips and made some sort of hissing noise at the eldest Stark before following after him. "Oh, and do not say anything about the Princess or Balerion being here. It will only cause trouble." He tossed over her shoulder without pausing.

Ravenna might have stood there wallowing in her self-pity if not for how Lyanna tugged insistently at her hand. She basically dragged her down the hallways and into the main room where there were indeed a large number of men. The two weaved through the crowd to reach the front where they found the woman talking fondly with Ned. Lyanna threw herself at her mother's legs, startling the woman before she bent down and hugged her. Ravenna joined the hug seconds later, shoving back her tears.

"Mother, what is this?" Ravenna pushed away from the embrace and looked around the room at the many houses in their home. A full blown smile formed on Lady Stark's face, one that Ravenna hasn't seen in a long time.

"This, my daughter, is Rickard's Rebellion."

Keligon! Gīda dārilaros. Ziry iksos nyke sepār nyke= Stop, calm prince. It's me just me.