Only Willa had seemed to notice what Dorand's conversation with the trader had meant. The children were completely oblivious, treating the exchange as only a minor interruption to what had quickly become one of their favorites of Dany's stories. After she had finished the Tyroshi tale, the children had run off to play, shouting loudly about what color their hair and beard would be for their game.

It was a relief to watch them leave. Dany had nearly been unable to finish the story, tripping over herself continuously as her mind raced with thoughts of what the trader had said.

Drogon was in the north. Old Dryn had been telling the truth, as had her dreams. But what is he doing here if he isn't coming to find me? Though most of her was perplexed, a small part of Dany was very hurt by the realization that Drogon had seemingly come with his own agenda. Did he blame her for abandoning him? Would she ever get to tell him that she had no choice? How do you explain "conspicuous" to a dragon? More importantly, though, what was his agenda?

She remembered the feeling from one of her dreams that something had compelled Drogon northward. Though she couldn't remember what it was, it invoked a funny feeling deep in her chest that there was somewhere else she should be.

"Are you finished scrutinizing the knot in my table?" Willa asked, breaking Dany out of her thoughts. Two little feet landed on the table, bouncing, and she looked up to see Willa holding Rose's hands as the baby swayed, trying to keep herself upright. The sun had moved across the sky in the time she had been staring.

"Sorry, I've just got a lot on my mind," she said, shaking her head a little to try and clear her thoughts. Rose lost her balance and pulling at Willa's arms as she sat down on the table, violet eyes wide with the sudden development and turning to Dany. Ghost popped up from underneath the table to see what had happened. Dramatically, Dany spread her hands and pretended to look shocked. "Skorion massitas, Rosie?" she asked. Her daughter giggled and the direwolf settled back down by Dany's feet.

"Mm...hearing about your long lost dragon would do that," her friend replied, picking Rose up and placing the baby's feet on the table again.

Dany pursed her lips, watching her daughter and friend together. "What are you doing?" she asked as Rose swayed and fell on her butt again (Ghost's head reappeared over the table).

"Just seeing what happens," Willa replied, letting go of Rose's hands and sitting down. Dany placed a hand at Rose's back automatically, although Rose could now sit up on her own. Willa looked at her more seriously. "It is Drogon isn't it? The trader wasn't making it up?"

Leaning her head on the hand that wasn't occupied with Rose, Dany huffed a sigh. "I don't know," she said, before frowning, "No, that's a lie. I do know. I know it's him. I just do. But I don't understand."

"Why he wouldn't come to you and instead rob a man of his dead bear somewhere north of here?" Willa translated, taking away a rock from Rose, who had been angling to stick it in her mouth and trading her for a braided cloth that she had seemingly produced from nowhere.

"Why he's in the north at all!"

"Because my love and my daughter are here," came the teasing answer from behind Dany. Strong arms wrapped around her middle and she felt Jon's chin on her shoulder.

Rose was ecstatic. "Ba! Bababababa!" she exclaimed, shaking the braid-toy up and down and bouncing on her rear. Her father smiled, reaching out from Dany's waist to take Rose's hand in his own.

"Hi, Rosie," he greeted her. Rose smiled, flashing her only two teeth (the bottom front ones) in the process. "Who's in the north?" Jon asked, shifting to the stool next to Dany and continuing to play with Rose, shaking her hand up and down. His eyes crinkled in the corners as he did so, creasing at the now-familiar lines from smiling.

"It's Drogon, Jon," she told him, Willa adding, "We think."

Jon's expression turned from a smile to a goggle in an instant, and he stopped moving Rose's hand to turn and look at Dany, who nodded in confirmation.

Clearing his throat, he blinked several times. "You saw him? Here?" he asked incredulously. Rose protested at the sudden end of her game, tugging at her father's fingers.

"No, no I haven't seen him at all - at least not while awake. A trader passed through and told Dorand that a black dragon took a snow bear from right in front of him," she explained.

"And you think it's Drogon?"

Dany regarded him with pursed lips. "How many other black and red dragons are in the world?" she asked him impatiently.

Though Jon continued to look incredulous, he nodded slowly. "Where was the trader from?" he asked.

It was Willa who replied to that one. "Oh, he travels here and there, wherever the people are. Trades in bone tools - pretty good ones. But I heard him yesterday talking about recent trades in Thenn, so he must have come from the northern forest. Didn't have any walrus or seal bone tools this time, so he can't have been near any shores recently."

"Hmm," was all that Jon replied, taking up Dany's old position of staring at the knot in Willa's table. It's no use wondering about a dragon who isn't wondering about me, Dany thought sourly. "Wait - what do you mean you haven't seen him while awake?"

"I've been dreaming about him," she said evasively, her bitterness of having not seen Drogon for herself angrily taking over. Changing the subject she asked, "I'm guessing you're here to tell me that Tormund didn't break the house?"

Jon frowned, but didn't press her any more, instead replying, "Why don't you come home with me and find out for yourself?"

They walked home in comfortable silence, or what would have been comfortable had Dany not been preoccupied with continued thoughts of Drogon in the north. She was now torn between an ache in her heart to find him, and a bitterness that he hadn't even bothered to show up. It's my fault, she thought sadly when the bitterness struck again, I'm the one who left him behind. And now, with the news she had heard, she felt unsure if she would ever be able to set that right.

From the outside, the house looked no different to Dany as she walked into the clearing. A plume of smoke rose from it as usual, the furs from their bed hung outside where Dany had left them to air out, and it didn't look as if Tormund had broken anything while wielding his ax. The red man wasn't there, having come to the village with Jon and stayed behind.

Of course, Dany had seen the room on the back of the house get built from the outside, so she knew it was clearly there. But there was definitely something jarring about walking into her home and seeing a door hole where the wall used to be.

As she walked in, Dany saw that Jon had more than one surprise in store. "A bed already, Jon?" she asked him, eyeing the narrow sleeping spot with raised sides.

"The cradle's getting too small, Dany. And I built it so she can't roll out. And once she can sleep on something softer, we can replace this with the feather mattress," he said, bringing Rose out of the sling, "Do you like it?"

Dany turned around in the small room. It was warm and comfortable, well-heated by the fire. There would even be room for a second bed, eventually. When we need it.

"Yes," she replied, smiling at him, "Of course I love it. She's just growing fast. Seeing the bed made me remember that." She reached out to take Rose into her arms, marveling at how the baby who had once nestled close to her chest to sleep could now be moving on to sleep in a bed in her own room.

"I wouldn't be too wistful about that," Jon chuckled, pulling Dany closer and bringing his arm around both of them, "I'm sure plenty of cries to mama will be made during the night."

Dany looked up at him. "I'm pretty sure 'Ba' means 'papa,'" she said.

"Only every other time," Jon reminded her, kissing her hair.

Unfortunately, Jon predicted the future too well and Rose took ages to settle down in her new surroundings that night. Try as they might to alternate who got up each time she started crying, Rose absolutely refused to calm down for Jon. Dany resigned herself to walking zombie-like from one bed to the other, eyes barely open, and ears ringing with Rose's cries to pick her up out of the bed until she calmed down and then place her back.

After the eighth time, Dany didn't even bother turning the right way when she reached her bed again, and fell with her head on Jon's lap and her feet dangling off the bed, poised to slide back out when Rose cried the next time. Vaguely, she felt Jon's hand move onto her head before instantly falling asleep and melting into a world of white.

She was flying over a fresh expanse of snow and ice with slender, tall trees dotting along the way. Up ahead, an isolated mountain rose amongst a copse of thicker trees that tapered into two distinct lines that curved outwards like the beginnings of two spirals. Losing height, she just scraped the tops of the trees as she came to land near the foot of the mountain. Before her, the mountain opened into a dark cave. It was ringed with ice and frosty air seemed to unfurl before her. It seeped into her bones and chased away any warmth she had, but resolve made her press on. She stepped closer, meaning to enter the cave, when two enormous, blue eyes blinked out from the darkness.

"Don't!" Dany shouted, sitting up in bed. No longer before a mountain, Dany had been laying in bed the correct way before sitting up. Light streamed into the house and as Dany gained her bearings, she noticed Jon standing in front of her holding Rose.

"I don't have to bring her over if you don't want," he said, looking concerned.

"Oh, no - I mean yes! - yes, I want her. Sorry," Dany said, her voice still hoarse with sleep.

Nodding, Jon handed Rose to Dany, who sat her on her lap and gently brushed through Rose's curls with her finger tips. Jon sat down next to them, eyeing Dany closely.

"It was Drogon," she said quietly, not looking up from Rose, but knowing Jon well enough to answer the question he wasn't planning on asking.

"Like what you said about yesterday?" Jon asked, "You've been having dreams about him for a while."

"Yes," she replied, "And yes, it's been happening since I was pregnant. Until yesterday, I wasn't really sure if they were real. I've dreamt of dragons since I was little. But now…"

"They're different," he finished for her, "What have the dreams been about?"

Pausing in brushing through Rose's hair, she looked up at him. "Mostly flying. Every time is different, but I started remembering the dreams more clearly once Rose was born. This last one, though...it was vivid. It was at a cave. There was this lone mountain in the middle of forest - a strange forest. Its trees ended up branching into two lines like a huge section of the middle had been cut away. I don't think it was far from the sea. I - he flew there. And, right before I woke up, he was at the mouth of this frozen cave in the mountain and…" How was she supposed to describe the eyes? Eyes paler than the lightest winter rose on the bushes by the barn, haunting and almost...had they looked expectant?

"A cave on a lone mountain in a forest with branching sections?" Jon repeated, brow furrowing.

"I know, it didn't even look - "

"No," Jon said, stopping her, "No, I think I know where that is." Taken aback, Dany looked at Jon like he had suddenly claimed Rose had learned to cartwheel. "You're sure these dreams are real, aren't you?"

"Yes, but, Jon, it's not like there's - "

"Why not?"

"I can't just go wherever you think this is!" Dany insisted, "For all I know, they are just dreams." Liar, a voice in her head scolded, You're just scared of what happens when you find him.

"You know they're not just dreams," Jon told her. She nodded, wondering if her most recent dream was clearer now because she was certain that the trader from yesterday had been talking about Drogon, which confirmed that all of this was real. But fear bubbled up inside her at the notion of confirmation.

"I'm scared of it, Jon," she admitted quietly, averting her eyes again, "I do want to find him. But...I'm scared of what happens if I do. How do I apologize for abandoning him? And...what happens if he comes with me?"

"You think that finding Drogon makes you Daenerys Targaryen again," Jon inferred, a look of understanding crossing his face.

"You once told me that being able to walk away from everything made me different from my father. What does it make me if I try to find part of it again? And what if Drogon doesn't want to be found?"

"Dany," Jon said, taking her hand that lay behind Rose's back and squeezing it, "We're not talking about seeking out an army again. Or a way to conquer Westeros or the free folk. Drogon's not a weapon. He's your child."

He looked at Rose, a familiar look of love and awe crossing his face as she looked back up at him, muted violet eyes onto gray ones.

"I've seen the two of you before. I don't think he would hold a grudge against you. And you won't have to go alone," Jon said, looking back at her with a serious expression, "We'll do this together."

Like mother, like dragon, seeking out caves. I'd like to imagine that Drogon had initially left Dragonstone intent on finding Dany after realizing she wasn't coming back, but got sidetracked by something else.