Author's Note: Hey guys, I just wanted to say that this is the first fic I have ever posted. I really hope you enjoy it. I was inspired to write this because it was a daydream I had the other day and I wanted to see where I could take it. Depending on how it is received and how many reviews I get; I am hopping for at least five, will dictate whether or not I upload the second chapter on Sunday 01/19/20. My disclaimer will be posted at the end of the chapter as to not spoil the events of this first chapter. Enjoy and let me know what you think.
Chapter One: The Mystery In Valyria
~~~ Set the day Ser Barristan speaks about Rhaegar
I walk out onto my balcony and stare down at the shining city of Meereen. The breeze blows through my pale locks and the warmth of the sun kisses my skin. I breath in deeply. And exhale just so. I hear footsteps behind me, the heavy boots of Ser Barristan.
"Everyone looks happy enough from up here." Birds caw in the distance.
Ser Barristan chuckles. "What?" I say smoothly as I turn to face him.
"I was thinking about all the times your brother made me go down with him down from the Red Keep, into the streets of King's Landing." He recollects. A look of awe on my face, "Why?" I ask. "He liked to walk among the people, he liked to sing to them." A small smile works its way across my lips as I ask "He sang to them?" "Yes." I give a short laugh as we walk inside. "Rhaegar would pick a spot on the Hook or the Street of Seeds and then he'd sing. Just like all the other minstrels." "And what did you do?" I ask.
"I made sure no one killed him." He takes a short pause, his tone becoming warm with fondness. "And I collected the money. What? He liked to see how much he could make."
In shock I ask "He was good?"
"He was very good. Viserys never told you?"
Shaking my head I respond "He told me Rhaegar was good at killing people."
As I finish my sentence I sit at a small table in the chamber just inside the first set of doors leading in from the balcony.
"Rhaegar never liked killing. He loved singing." Was his response.
Curious, I ask "And what did you do with the money?"
Jovially, Ser Barristan responded "Well one time he gave it to the next minstrel down the street. One time, he gave it to an orphanage in Flea Bottom." And almost bashfully he said "One time, we got horribly drunk."
At this I laugh with a large smile on my face. Hearing stories about my brother, what he was like, it always makes me smile, makes me wish I knew him. Though through Ser Barristan, I feel as though I am getting to know him in a way.
From behind me Darrio speaks "Your Grace. Hizdar is here, waiting in the audience chamber." With that sentence all joy leaves me.
"How many others are there?"
"Fifty? One hundred?" He responds.
I turn back to Ser Barristan and ask "Will you be joining us, Ser Barristan?"
But before he can answer, Darrio speaks up "I think I can protect you from Hizdar zo Loraq." Annoyed, I look at him over my shoulder and respond "I think I could protect me from Hizdar zo Loraq." And turn back to Ser Barristan, who has a small smile on his face. "Go, Ser Barristan. Sing a song for me." I say smiling back. "Your Grace." He nods and walks out of the room.
~~~ In the Audience chamber
I sit on the throne with Darrio on my left and Missandei on my right. Hizdar is in front of me, standing on the step below the platform I sit upon.
"All men must die, but not all can die in glory." He states.
"Glory?" I ask astounded, "Why else do men fight? Why did your ancestors cross the Narrow Sea and conquer the Seven Kingdoms? So their names would live on. Those who find victory in the fighting pits will never become kings, but their names will live on. It's the best chance they'll ever have." He rants.
"Is that what you used to tell men before you set them to butchering each other for sport?" I ask in a calm but aggravated tone.
Hizdar quickly responds, "Your Grace, today is the traditional start of the fighting season." I interrupt "I do not recognize this tradition."
"Traditions are the only thing that will hold this city, your city, together." He quickly states, trying to convey his will. "Without them, former slaves and former masters have nothing in common." He pauses, "Nothing but centuries of mistrust and resentment. I can't promise this is the answer to all our problems, but it's a start."
~~~ 3rd person POV
Sons of the Harpy start their attack, they burst into brothels and blaze through streets and courtyards killing Second Sons And Unsullied as they go.
Ser Barristan hears screaming and looks down the street he walks on to find the source.
*The alarm bells start to ring*
Unsullied soldiers walk into a brothel yard where some Second Sons were killed and are told by a crying woman that it was the Sons of the Harpy, she points to a doorway. As soon as they leave, she wipes her tears and glares at the doorway they traveled through.
The group is surrounded as are many others, a bloody fight ensues. Greyworm takes a hit, but does his best to keep fighting off the Sons of the Harpy. Ser Barristan arrives to help Greyworm, he is hit in the leg, then in the stomach. He dies next to an injured Greyworm.
~~~Dany's POV
It is night now, and my happiness seems to have fled with the sun. I stare at Ser Barristan's cold body as it is laid on a table in the audience chamber. Darrio stands just on the other side of the table, at the corner opposite me.
Sadness spreads through me, but I can not cry. Shock is the cause from my understanding. Hizdar is led in to the chamber along with two guards.
"I am so sorry my Queen."
I shake my head slightly.
"He was a good man." He continues.
"'Barristan the Bold' they called him. He crossed a continent to serve me. He was a loyal friend." I say, my voice shaky. "And he died in an alley, butchered by cowards who hide behind masks."
Darrio speaks then "We could pull back to the pyramid district, secure it, and use it as a base from which to operate." I start to shake, and clench my fists.
"Then we clean the city out, neighborhood by neighborhood, street by street, until the rats have nowhere to hide."
"I prefer your earlier suggestion. Round up the leaders of each of Meereen's great families and bring them to me." I finally respond.
"But, I am the leader of my family." Hizdar says concern speckled in his tone.
Darrio nods, and the two Dothraki behind Hizdar cease him. "No Your Grace, I had nothing to do with this." He shouts. "Your Grace!"
I hear him say again as I glare at the back of the chamber.
~~~Under the Great Pyramid, in the Dragon's chamber
The heads of the great houses stand in a line, surrounded by Unsullied. Darrio holds a torch behind me as I look into the darkness that lies beyond me. The same darkness that hides Viserion and Rhaegal. I turn to the heads of house then, and walk away to a position behind the group, Darrio with me.
*Chains rattle*
I then turn back to the heads and say "Walk forward" in Valyrian.
The Unsullied lower their spears. One of the heads responds, "You cannot do this."
*Chains rattle again*
They whimper as they are forced foreward, some trip along the way. They stop, "Another step" I command. They whimper some more.
*Dragons growl*
I then make my way forwards, as I walk I say "They will eat you, if I tell them to. They may eat you even if I don't." A smug smile on my face. "Children. Some say I should give up on them. But a good mother never gives up on her children." I hear the men start to pray quietly, and my children start to growl.
"She disciplines them if she must." Darrio pushes a man forward. He cries out and lands on his hands and knees.
*Chains rattle*
"But she does not give up on them." I finish.
Then from the darkness comes a light. And my child Rhaegal steps forward and sets the man aflame. He screams as he burns, as my child bites at him. Viserion joins his brother as them roar and eat the man. All the while the rest of us watch on in various degrees of horror or indifference.
"Who is innocent?" I ask. As I look side to side I continue "Maybe all of you are, maybe none of you are. Maybe, I should let the dragon's decide." I run my hand up Hizdar's back. "Valar Morghulis" he responds. I stare at him from where I stand and think about pushing him, really, I do. But ultimately decide against it and pull my hand back. "Don't want to over feed them." I say, "Tomorrow perhaps." I walk out from behind him, and towards my children. They screech as Darrio leads the others out of the chamber. I stand there for a moment looking at them, before turning away and walking out myself.
~~~ Later that night Dany's POV
I wearily enter my chambers after a long day of meetings and the sadness of the loss of Ser Barristan and Greyworm's injury hits me, and I sink down onto the mattress, my legs hanging over the side. I lay there for a moment, thinking about all that has happened. Sighing, I sit up and bury my head in my hands trying to massage away the pain pounding behind my skull. The bed dips behind me, I was so focused on trying to rid myself of the pain I didn't hear the door open. Familiar hands grasp my shoulders and start trying to relieve the tension between them.
"You know, you wouldn't have such terrible headaches night after night if you didn't take so many meetings." I sigh and straighten up a little, if this were any other day I would be happy to see him but now I'm just glad he is trying to distract me from the pain I feel in my heart. "If I don't take as many meetings as I do, how am I ever going to hear the plight of my people? It is my responsibility as their Queen to hear them and do what I can to help. If I don't get used to this now, ruling only one city, how am I ever going to handle it when I take the Seven Kingdoms?"
"By then you will have appointed multiple advisors and a Hand who can take some of the weight off your shoulders. Just because you are the Queen does not mean you have to take on the responsibility alone." Darrio responds. This makes me think there is a second meaning behind his words.
Nodding, I stand up and make to get changed and head to bed, I am exhausted and just want the day to end, Darrio follows my lead. I quickly shed my dress and put on my night shift, living in Essos all my life I have learned that wearing as thin a garment as possible to sleep often makes you the most comfortable due to the heat. So of course that is what I favor. Though oddly this one is the thinnest I have ever owned, almost reminding me of the dress; if you could even call it that, Illyrio gave me on the day I met Drogo on the steps of his manse.
I lay down and pull the thin sheets over my body and snuggle deep into my pillow. My eyes almost immediately feel heavy and fall shut. The last thing I feel is Darrio kissing my forehead and wishing me a goodnight.
Daenerys's dream
Darkness, all round me. My breathing is labored and my throat sore and dry. I start coughing and sit up slowly, rolling so that I am on my hands and knees. Opening my eyes I wipe a gray powder from them. 'Is this ash?' I think to myself. Confused, I look up and find myself in a place I have never been before. The sky is covered in a thick layer of gray clouds, like the sky be would before a storm. Though the sun shines through just enough to see what is around me. I notice then than I am surrounded by ruins, some overgrown by foliage and some not. What looks to have been tall towers, now knocked down and crumbling, houses and manses missing rooves and streets covered with scattered black rock with a thick fog seeping from the ground. "Where am I? What is this place?" I say aloud as I stand up, even while knowing I am alone.
It is then I notice the ash falling from the sky, coming down and gracing the land and buildings around me like a light snowfall; or what I can assume snowfall would look like given I have never seen it in person.
I plan my next move carefully, and come to the decision to explore. To gain a better idea as to where I have woken up. I take a few steps forward and come to a street corner, passing building after ruined building. Looking in all directions as I do. After walking across the street and turning a corner I notice a carving on the side of one of the towers ahead of me. I walk closer. The carving is large, but unclear due to the thick layer of ash that has settled in its grooves. I try my best to wipe some of it away. After a few minutes of clearing the ash the image starts to become clear. As I recognize what it is I gasp and take three steps back. "A dragon." Thoughts start racing through my head, and everything starts to come together. The grey sky, the ruined buildings, what I now realize to be the hardened remains of lava in the streets and the ash and smoke covering the ground... "I am in Valyria."
"But that's impossible! I was just in Meereen, from there it would take days to reach the Island Valyria now rests upon." Expressions of confusion, shock and horror spread across my face as I try and place how it is I came to be here. Then a sudden realization hits me, "This is a dream."I then remember my visions in the house of the undying, how they felt so real, how I could touch what wasn't really there. 'There must be some reason as to why I am here.' I rationalize. "Why have you brought me here, what have you to show me?" I say aloud, hoping for an answer.
A loud crack is heard in the distance.
I fling my head to the left once I hear the noise, and sprint in that direction. I have no idea where I am going or if this isn't just another tower collapsing, all I know is that I need to head towards whatever made that noise.
Out of breath, I take a momentary pause. Breathing in harsh puffs I bend down and place my hands on my knees as I catch me breath. After a moment or two I straighten up and move to continue my sprint when a similar crack is heard closer to my right, just behind the ruins of what I assume to be a large aviary, due to it's structure and the glass covering the ground by the base of the building.
I carefully walk over the glass and fallen stone to reach the door to the building. I quickly examine the door, that looks to be on it's last leg, and gently push the handle to open it. The door makes a terrible creaking sound, causing me to cringe violently. As I step through the door, the dust and ash on the ground floats up into the air making me cough and try to bat it out of my face. Once it clears, I look around noticing the cracks in the walls that go from floor to ceiling, the shards of glass barely visible under the dust, ash and fog swirling on the ground, the barest hint of light creeping through the holes in the old glass roof and in the center of the room, one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever seen. In the center, under the large hole in the roof is a dragon, hidden under a thick layer of petrified ash. I raise my hand to cover my mouth and nearly started sobbing as I walk closer.
The dragon is huge, gigantic really. It's head curled under one of it's broad wings, tail curled around its body, almost like it was in a fetal position. It's last act to try and protect itself. What I don't understand though, is why it didn't fly away? Why stay in a place that is quite literally being torn apart? Curious, I walk closer to the figure. The top of my head only reaching the underside of the dragon's nostrils. I gently step over its tail, but trip on a rock and cut my right hand open on a piece of glass sticking up from the ground. "Ah!" I shout with a hissed breath following my exclamation. To steady myself I reach out and touch the dragon's head, blood smearing on the surface of the petrified ash. "Ouch." I say looking at the nasty cut, it's deep. I rip a small strip of fabric from my shift and wrap my hand.
Moving on, I take a step around the creatures head and duck under it's large wing. It seems eerily silent all of a sudden, the air around me tense and muggy. Almost like it was humid... 'Odd' I thought to myself.
I looked up to see a hole in the dragon's wing, no doubt caused by a falling rock. And indeed, a falling rock it was, lying a few feet from where it made the hole. It bounced once from the sight of its original impact. I look around to find where exactly that was, and as I do, I find the answer as to why the dragon didn't fly away. She was protecting her nest.
Unable to move the eggs, she had no choice but to stay and try to protect them herself, as a mother unwilling to leave her babies; hatched or not, behind. The sight brings me to tears, her nest, one she gave her life to protect crushed. Her clutch shattered, the remains of the beautiful shells strewn about the impact sight. Fragments of deep ocean blue, crimson red, bright emerald green and a shining silver gray.
So saddened am I, that I can no longer stand, the loss of my own child, Rhaego, running through my head. I collapse to the ground, sobbing out large ugly tears, uncaring of the grime that now sticks to my shift. "Is this what you brought me here to see, a mother that despite her best efforts failed her children! Is this what you think I am, what I will be!" I scream at the top of my lungs. I look up at the nest again, this time a glimmer of plum catches my eye, a fifth egg. I race over to it and realize that it is whole. It's placement far enough from the rest that it survived the impact that killed it's siblings.
Shaking and still shedding tears, now not just for my loss but for hers as well. I crawl over to the mother's head and lean my own against it, I place my hands against her snout and lips with the egg in my lap and say "I am so sorry for what happened to you, *sniffle* I am so sorry your sacrifice was in vain, that your effort was negated by events out of your control. But I promise you that I will hatch and raise your child like I did my own, and give it the life it deserves." As I lay there against her, sobbing I start to feel a warmth, like I had when I first felt my own dragon eggs. It was emanating from not only the egg in my lap but from the mother as well.
Suddenly, I hear the same loud crack I heard before only this time I saw the source. A large line split through the petrified ash and ran across the head of the mother, quickly spreading from her eye to her snout. Panicking, I leaped up and ran to the other side of the aviary, watching as a thick swirl of white smoke rose from the crack.
The room became more humid than it was, and pieces of ash fell away from the crack by the mother's eye till the preserved skin was visible. Cautiously, I walked towards the dragon's head. The air tense, my body shaking, and my breathing unsteady. Then I found myself frozen, for I was now staring into an eye the color of wildfire.
Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own the fantastic world of A Song of Ice and Fire, that belongs to George R. R. Martin, or any of the dialog, characters or plot from the show Game of Thrones, that is George's and David And Dan's work, but I do own any deviation from those plots as well as the Dragon and the egg.
Author's Note: Please let me know your thoughts so far and any criticism you may have so that I can improve my work in the future. Please know that when I say criticism I don't mean outright slander and negativity, be constructive about it okay. :) Thanks for reading!