The Chronicles of Valyria,

Book 1 Resurrection

Chapter 14

The fifteenth day from their trip to Dragonstone, both Silvana and Lissena came running into their parent's bedroom and yelled, "THEY'RE HATCHING."

Both Aurora and Gabrielle jumped up from beneath the blanket, bumping their heads together in the process. Rubbing their temples carefully, they saw that both girls held their egg in their hands and small cracks had appeared in the hard shells.

Aurora and Gabrielle quickly dressed, since they always slept nude after their 'nighttime activities', and joined the girls in watching the eggs.

Rhaella had told them that she chose to let her egg cool off, as she didn't have the time to raise a dragon in the near future, so these two were the only ones that were about to hatch.

Over the next few hours, they watched as more and more cracks appeared in the shells. They had called for a servant to bring them breakfast, using some lame excuse no one would believe, but was obeyed anyway.

Finally, an hour after noon, the first piece of shell broke off from Silvana's egg. Lissena's followed soon after and in less than five minutes the two baby dragons had crawled their way out of the eggs.

The one on Lissena 's lap was a deep purple with light violet markings around the spine and legs, and the one on Silvana 's lap was sapphire blue with lavender colored markings. They were roughly the size of a cat with wings that spread out maybe 2 feet to either side. Like wyverns they had only two legs and two wings, contrary to Aurora and Gabrielle who had four legs. Their wings were leathery but they could see and feel many thousands of miniscule scales already present on their bodies.

To the surprise of Aurora and Gabrielle, they could sense the minds of the small reptiles the moment they left their eggs. The minds were infantile and contained no more than a few basic instincts, but with training and lots of practice, they thought that they might eventually be able to communicate with them on a very basic level.

On the urging of Gabrielle, both girls held their right forefinger in front of the little dragon heads, and soon both latched onto them with their small, though very sharp fangs. The twins twitched when their skin was pierced but didn't cry out as they watched the two little dragons eagerly drink from the blood that dripped from the wounds.

"A bond sealed in blood." Muttered Gabrielle as Aurora carefully took a large needle which she had put there before hand, and carefully pricked it into the left leg of Silvana's hatchling. The dragon was so busy drinking, that it didn't notice the pinprick until Aurora carefully grasped its leg and pulled its head away from Silvana's finger. She raised the dragon's leg to above the bleeding finger and squeezed three drops of blood from the dragon which dropped into the open wound.

Next she pricked her own finger and added two drops of her own blood, the effect was rather brutal. As soon as the second drop hit, Silvana cried out in pain before fainting and being caught by Gabrielle. The hatchling was still struggling in Aurora's hands until she hissed at it and it became instantly still, recognizing her as the superior predator. She placed it on Silvana's lap where it curled up and went to sleep.

Lissena looked wide-eyed at what had happened to her slightly older sister, and was a little hesitant until Gabrielle said, "Trust me sweetheart, this will make both you and the hatchling stronger than normally possible and it will strengthen the bond between you two."

She finally relented and allowed Aurora to repeat the procedure with her, which had the exact same effect. When both girls had fainted, Aurora and Gabrielle picked them up and carried them to their bed, where they tucked them in with the hatchlings next to them.

They stayed by their bed for the rest of the day and all through the night, during the feverish dreams they knew would accompany the transition from human to part-dragon.

The next day at dawn, both girls woke shortly after each other, Lissena waking her sister while she stretched herself. The hatchlings were likewise awake, stumbling around on the blankets, looking for food.

"What happened last night?" was the first question Silvana asked as she saw their mothers dozing in two chairs next to the bed.

The two women shot up as they heard Silvana's question and before she answered it, Gabrielle asked, "How are you feeling?"

Both girls checked themselves over for any sores or pains but found nothing. However, when they inspected the fingers the dragons had bitten yesterday, they found no wounds, only very faint scars.

At their surprise, Aurora said with a grin, "That would be one of the advantages of what we did last night. You will find that you heal a lot faster now and that you will become stronger. Not as strong as us, but you'll be able to easily match an adult man, whilst having a far greater condition than any normal human.

When those two," she pointed at the dragons who had given up their search for food and curled themselves in the girls' laps, "are a few months older and no longer require full-time attention, we shall begin your training in earnest. When they are old enough to be ridden, you will be strong enough to force them to obey you, which is not a physical struggle, but a mental one."

Gabrielle nodded and asked, "Are you hungry? We can send for a servant to bring you something to eat, as I'm afraid those two cannot leave this room until they are a bit older. Until they can breathe fire, they are too vulnerable to be left alone, so the next month or so, you two will not leave this room. We'll tell everyone you have come down with some sickness which is contagious, so that no one will bother you. But don't worry, you won't get bored, raising a dragon is very hard work."

Gabrielle's words proved more than true as the two hatchlings, which were named, Saphirus (Silvana's and being male) and Violet (Lissena's and being female), caused a lot of trouble during the first few weeks of their lives. Aurora and Gabrielle spent most days with the Council, discussing all matter of things, or otherwise flying to and from the encampment at Ghost Hill.

For some strange reason, which Aurora and Gabrielle were unwilling, or unable to explain, no one outside of a very small circle of people seemed to remember seeing them change shapes. Only the Council, the Kingsguard and the Royal Family were able to remember the event.

Luckily the men from the Westerlands behaved and though they were closely guarded by the Northmen and the men of the Vale, no fights had broken out yet between the different factions.

The Ironborn were making good progress and had passed the Arbor by the fourth week since their voyage began. They were expected to reach the mouth of the Greenblood within another three weeks, which would be around the same time as the 19,000 men who would march there from Ghost Hill.

When the hatchlings were a month old, their bodies were the size of large dog, and they both ate four whole chickens every day. On advice from Aurora and Gabrielle, the chickens were released into their room and Saphirus and Violet would have to catch their dinner by themselves. An unfortunate side effect of this was that by the end of the fifth week, not a single piece of furniture remained in one piece.

By the end of their sixth week, Saphirus managed to set Silvana's dress on fire, when he sneezed as she was tickling him under his chin. Both she and Lissena started screaming in fear, until Lissena threw a jug of water over her sister, dousing the flames and coming to the realization that Silvana was not even a little tanned by the dragonfire.

However, people in the hall had heard them scream and soon the door was thrown open and Ashara, who had been given a room on their floor, came rushing in followed by her brother Ser Arthur and Yara Greyjoy, who had fully recovered from her wound.

"WHAT IN THE SEVEN HELLS ARE THOSE?" Ashara yelled at soon as she saw the dragons who were happily chewing on a piece of wood, which used to be part of the foot end of Lissena's bed. They were startled by her yelling and sprang up with their wings fanned out and hissing loudly towards the intruders into their domain.

Arthur had already drawn his sword in preparation to defend his sister, when Silvana and Lissena sprung in front of their dragons and yelled as one, "NO DON'T HURT THEM!"

The other three looked more than a little surprised but soon realization dawned on Arthur as he compared Saphirus and Violet to the shapes of Aurora and Gabrielle. "Wait," he gasped, "Are those…?"

The twins nodded and while they patted the dragons on their necks to calm them down, Lissena said, "Yes Ser Arthur, these are Violet and Saphirus, our dragons who hatched six weeks ago."

Arthur blinked a few times before the world spun before his eyes and he dropped flat on his face, fainted by pure shock at the revelation.

"They are so cool," Yara whispered once she had recovered from the shock and moving closer hesitantly, she asked softly, "Can I touch them?" The hopeful expression on her face persuaded the twins to permit it and Yara slowly approached the legendary creatures.

Saphirus hissed warningly to Yara, but when Silvana took his head in her hands and rubbed it roughly, just the way he liked it, he allowed Yara to carefully stroke the scales on his back.

"It is so warm," Yara whispered excitedly and Silvana nodded while Violet nudged her head against Yara's back, wanting some attention for herself. Yara was startled at first but soon she recovered and began scratching Violet under her chin, by Lissena's direction.

Meanwhile Ashara had managed to wake her brother and both Dayne siblings were staring in awe as the fearless Greyjoy girl was dividing her attention between Saphirus and Violet.

Soon more people started to arrive, drawn by the initial noise and later when the news spread around the Red Keep, until finally it reached the council chamber, which just happened to be in session that day.

Rhaegar and Tyrion, who accompanied Lord Paxter during every council meeting, were in a discussion about the amount of taxes the Westerlands had to pay for the help of the Ironborn. It had been decided that the Reach would supply everything that had been promised to the Ironborn by Aurora, and the rest of the seven kingdoms would each pay a percentage of the total costs to the Reach.

Tyrion was of the opinion that the percentage that had been dealt to the Westerlands was to large, namely 20%, and he opted for a more reasonable 17%, when the door was thrown open, without knocking, and an officer of the gold cloaks came running in.

"There are dragons in Maegor's holdfast," the man said after regaining his breath. "Two small dragons were found in the chambers of the Ladies Aurora and Gabrielle." At those words all eyes turned towards said ladies who were looking at the commotion with a cheeky grin on their faces.

"Oops, well it would seem that the secret is out." Aurora said casually and to the utter shock of the entire council, minus Rhaella who shared their cheeky grin.

"They hatched about six weeks ago," Gabrielle told the dumbfounded council. "We found the eggs in the vault on Dragonstone, Silvana and Lissena were drawn to them and they hatched for them.

"We have five more eggs," Rhaegar was about to cry out at this until Aurora silenced him with a single look, "which we will hold onto until the realm is stable enough to do without its king for a year. Raising a dragon is a very time-consuming job and it can take more than a year until the dragon is old enough to roam free without being a danger to itself or others. We don't want the dragons accidently killing civilians or burning down houses by mistake. Dragons are very dangerous creatures, who must be treated with respect and appropriate fear and caution, if they are to be kept under control."

The entire council was shocked by the news and it was deathly silent until Randyll Tarly spoke up, "Why wasn't the council told about this before? I would think that such news is of great importance to everyone."

To the surprise of most, it was Rhaella who answered his question. "They didn't inform you all, because I told them not to. They have told me much about the dragons, I myself hold one of those five other eggs in my possession, and I was of the opinion that it would be too distracting for the council. Besides that, it would be too dangerous for the dragons as they need the first few weeks to properly bond with their riders."

The council was mostly pacified by her words but Rhaegar couldn't help but grumble, "You could have told me at least. I mean I am the King for crying out loud."

This outburst only got him a smack to the back of his head from Lyanna who said, "Yes, and if you had been told, we would need a score of oxen to drag you away from them every waking hour. Can you honestly say that you would be able to focus on other matters if you knew they were in the Keep?"

Rhaegar had gotten red after his wife had scolded him in front of the most powerful lords of the realm, most of whom were snickering at her action, and muttered softly, "No I wouldn't have been able to."

Lyanna smirked in victory and said, "Well then, now that the news is out, could we go and see them I am quite curious to see those dragons for myself." Aurora and Gabrielle stood up and without a word, they led the council back to their rooms in the Holdfast.

Barristan and Gerold joined them once they entered the hallway, as they had been guarding the King along with their two newest sworn brothers who guarded the Queen.

The two new members of the Kingsguard, who had volunteered solely to guard Lyanna, were both from the North. One was the youngest brother of the Greatjon, Ser Daron Umber. The other was a bastard-born knight, sworn to house Manderly, Ser Bartimus Snow. Instead of the seven-pointed-golden-crown on white, which adorned the breastplates of their brethren, Ser Daron and Ser Bartimus both proudly carried a white wolf's head on black.

There had been a not so small uproar amongst the nobles and the remaining Kingsguard when it became known that Lyanna planned to add both a bastard and a man who was not a knight at all to the ranks of the Kingsguard. Lyanna's reply was to order both men to kneel, draw Ice, which was slung across Ned's back, and in front of the entire court, she tapped both men on the shoulders and stated. "In the name of the Old Gods, I order you to be brave, loyal, righteous and proud. Now rise, Ser Daron and Ser Bartimus, first knights of the Winter Wolves."

The deathly silence in the throne room had been broken by the sound of an uproarious laughter, coming from Aurora and Gabrielle who were rolling over the floor, laughing so hard that the tears were streaming over their cheeks.

The ensuing chaos and uproar lasted three days, as the entire court and part of the city argued about whether it was possible to have both a Kingsguard and a Queensguard at the same time. Finally, Rhaegar managed to convince Lyanna to allow her men to add a seven-pointed-crown to the White wolf's head on their breastplates. Afterwards Rhaegar swore them into the Kingsguard, though Lyanna insisted that they were to guard her and her alone, which was acceptable to the rest of the Kingsguard.

When they arrived at the rooms of Aurora and Gabrielle, they saw a crowd of several dozen gathered before the doors. Aurora scratched the nails of her right gauntlet across the stones that made up the wall and the screeching noise it caused drew the attention of everyone.

"Good, now that I have your attention, PISS OFF," that last part was yelled through the hallway and the crowd of simple guardsmen and servants scurried away, not willing to risk the already legendary fury of the two 'dragon riders'.

Gabrielle led them into their rooms where they found Silvana, Lissena, Yara and Ashara who carried Elia in her arms, gathered around Saphirus and Violet and doting them with attention. They were guarded by Ser Arthur, who had gotten help from Prince Lewyn and Ser Oswell.

The four women quickly stood up when they saw Rhaegar and Lyanna and after making a courtesy, they each said in turn, "Your Graces, My Lords."

Saphirus and Violet meanwhile didn't like the sudden end of their pampering, and they made it clearly known by fanning out their wings and shrieking to the new arrivals. A single hiss from Aurora stopped their tantrum immediately and caused them to approach her with lowered heads to seek her attention. Both Aurora and Gabrielle scratched them behind the small horns that grew on their heads and they growled softly in an appreciative and submissive way.

The rest of the Council looked amazed as they saw how Aurora and Gabrielle treated the two fearsome and legendary beasts, but being amongst the only ones who knew about their secret, it did not surprise them too much.

Rhaegar stood dumbfounded in the entrance, staring as if enthralled at the two little dragons. He was finally brought out of his reverie by an elbow jab from Lyanna who hissed in his ear, "Stop staring like they're some miracle. It's not like you have never seen a dragon before."

Rhaegar shook his head and asked, "What are they called?"

Silvana was the first and said, "The Blue one is mine, and he is called Saphirus."

Lissena was next and said, "Mine is called Violet, and she's a girl."

Rhaegar carefully approached the two dragons with his mother besides him and they cautiously lowered their hands so that the dragons could sniff them. Apparently, they approved of their smell because both Saphirus and Violet nudged their heads into their outstretched hands.

A look of wonder and delight appeared on the faces of mother and son as they touched the dragons' warm scales.

The next half hour was spent with everyone doting over the dragons, who were perfectly fine with it as they adored the attention they were given. In the end, it was decided that the dragons would be given a formal introduction to the city when they were two months old, which would coincide with the departure of Aurora and Gabrielle to the Stepstones.

The last two weeks before they left were spent with denying access to anyone who wanted to see the dragons and making the final preparations. The last trip of the fleet, carrying 1,500 knights and 5,500 men-at-arms, left a week before Aurora and Gabrielle and they had gotten word from Dagmer Cleftjaw that the Iron Fleet had reached the mouth of the Greenblood and was waiting for the gathered army to reach them.

During the last two weeks, the dragons had grown another three inches in length and now they stood nearly mid-rib with their heads compared to the twins when they stoop upright un their legs.

The day of their departure was a bright sunny day in autumn. It would probably be one of the last few days of good weather, as according to the citadel, winter was fast approaching.

At dawn, Aurora and Gabrielle were woken up by the twins who were overjoyed that the day had finally come on which they could show off Saphirus and Violet to the whole of King's Landing.

"Come on mom," Silvana whined, "Get up, get up, get up. we wanne be on time for breakfast."

Both adults groaned, it was way too early to get up in their opinion, and Aurora hissed to Saphirus and Violet in an attempt to get them to distract the girls. It did not work as planned. Both dragons stuck their heads under the blankets and using their long tongue's, they tickled the soles of the feet of Aurora and Gabrielle.

With a yelp, they both shot up from under the blankets and fell out of bed thanks to their momentum. The twins burst out laughing at seeing their parents in such an undignified position and the dragons strutted around in pride at what they had accomplished.

While they were being praise and petted by the twins, who had trouble doing both that and laughing, Aurora grumbled, "Thanks a lot, you worthless reptiles. You're supposed to be on my side, remember?"

The reason for the dragons' disobedience soon became clear when Silvana came up with a leather bag and withdrew two halves of a dead rabbit. Tossing the head to Saphirus and the tail to Violet, the dragons snatched their treats out of the air and scurried out of the room.

"Smart move girls," Gabrielle muttered with a little admiration, "I'm proud of you, and so is your mother though she won't admit it." Aurora huffed in indignation while she untangled herself from the mass of blankets that held her trapped.

"Making a dragon do something for you with the promise of a reward, is a much better way to get him to obey and to form a lasting bond in the long run, especially when they will eventually get so big that they can just ignore any threats you'll make."

The twins were glowing in the praise but it did not diminish their excitement. They hurried to their own room to get dressed, while Aurora and Gabrielle did the same in their own room.

It was not an easy task to put on their armor, it was impossible to do it alone, and even with help, it took them nearly twenty minutes for each. When they were finally done, they grabbed their battle axes from where they rested against the wall and took a last look around their room, to see if they had forgotten to pack anything since they wouldn't be coming back to King's Landing for a considerable time in the future.

Silvana and Lissena were likewise packed. They had all their possessions, which had become a considerable pile in the last few months, packed neatly on the table, the only piece of furniture still standing in one piece, and were dressed warmly for the journey. They each wore thick wool leggings, which were tucked into fur lined boots and over that they wore tunics of the same material as the leggings. A thick fur vest was laying waiting for both of them.

Gabrielle helped the girls to put everything into her pouch, while Aurora put a thick leather collar around the necks of both Saphirus and Violet. To the collars she attached a 15 foot steel chain with a large ring on the end.

When the girls were done, Aurora handed them each the ring to their respective dragon and said, "Now remember girls, hold onto these, no matter what happens. They are not yet strong enough to lift you from the ground, but since they can both breath fire now, we don't want them flying away out into the city."

The girls replied in unison, "Yes mom," before putting a thick leather belt through the rings and tying them around their middles. They had already trained the dragons to walk around with the collar, so they weren't too fussy about it, though they made it obvious that they didn't like the extra weight of the chains.

During their walk to dinner, they attracted a lot of stares from the servants, many of whom saw the dragons for the first time. For the time being, Saphirus had taken a seat on Aurora's right shoulder, while Violet had done the same with Gabrielle. It was soon apparent that their lack of front legs made them very unsuited for walking, and so they had soon taken a ride, to the amusement of the twins.

When they arrived at breakfast, Rhaenys' squeal of excitement was the first thing they noticed. "They're here, they're here."

"Shss, Rhaenys, you'll scare them," Rhaella reprimanded her granddaughter.

"Don't worry," Aurora said with a grin, "They are used to it by now." Aurora stretched her arm out to the table while Gabrielle did the same. Saphirus and Violet used the arms to walk down towards the table where they began to eagerly sniff at every dish they could reach.

With a small grin on her face Aurora pulled a plate of roasted bacon away from Violet, who was about to snatch a piece away. To the amusement of everyone else, the dragon made a soft whining noise as if to say, 'Not fair I want some too'.

Joining them at breakfast were, the Royal family, Yara Greyjoy, who had stayed behind when her uncle and brother returned to the Iron Islands a week before, and Ashara Dayne.

Ashara and Yara were dressed similarly to the twins, as after a month of begging, Silvana and Lissena had gotten their parents to finally agree to let Yara come with them. It made sense, as Yara had gotten very close with the twins during her recovery and they formed a nearly inseparable trio. The time they had been forced apart when the dragons had hatched had been rough on all three of them, but especially on Yara as she had no one else to turn to except for her brother.

During breakfast, they made some last-minute arrangements, including a promise from Aurora and Gabrielle to visit the Wall after they had taken the Stepstones. They would go while their army was resting and preparing for the attack on Tyrosh.

They would drop the girls and Ashara off at Sunspear, before Aurora and Gabrielle would rendezvous with the two fleets to give some last-minute orders and to make sure everyone knew what their assigned job was.

The goodbye they said to Rhaegar, Lyanna, Rhaella, Rhaenys and all the others was for a much longer time than most people expected. Only the council knew of the plans made for the direct future, but it would not be long now before the whole world would hear it.