298AC
Daenerys Targaryen had never been the centre of attention in her family. Given how she was far less bold than the other children, she had often been told that she took after her mother. The Queen Regent was calm, clever and kind, all agreed, so she did not mind the comparison. But sometimes being meek little Dany grew a little wearing, especially living in the shadow of Aegon's charisma, Viserys' temper, Visenya's pride, Daena's charm and even Valaena's wicked tongue.
Her nephew Aegon - crowned king before he even turned one year old - took after his mother, Princess Cersei, in the sense that he could charm a room easily to have them eating out of her hand. Even aged fourteen, he had a silver tongue and an earnest way of listening and asking thoughtful questions that made people think he truly cared about what they were saying. He was charismatic, intelligent, and even in the training yard, where he was not naturally skilled, he was diligent enough to be a decent fighter, if not an extraordinary one.
All of that would have made many boys insufferable, though to Dany at least, he was anything but. The young king had a good heart, much to the joy of his Targaryen grandmother and the annoyance of his Lannister one. Aegon was perhaps Dany's favourite, not that she would ever say so. She always had the best conversations with him; deep down, the two of them were rather similar, dreamers at heart. And her nephew was not so much of a force of nature as Viserys, Visenya, Daena and Valaena, often happy to step back from the limelight seeing as he was in it so often.
Force of nature was the right word to use. Though Visenya - Rhaegar's eldest child, the only one with the dark hair of Ashara Dayne - despised the Hand of the King, she certainly seemed to act like the woman a lot of the time. Proud, ambitious, sharp-tongued and often scathing, her demeanour was unconsciously similar to Lady Tya's, save perhaps for her hot temper. Dany suspected that deep-down she fancied herself as queen rather than Aegon as king, not that the girl would ever voice such a thing. She took after her namesake Queen Visenya at any rate; dark sister she certainly was.
Visenya's sister Daena was nowhere near so ambitious or haughty, though she was just as bold as her sister for other reasons. She was the most sociable person Dany had ever met, constantly surrounded by a stream of friends and admirers, and could talk for hours uninterrupted whilst somehow still remaining entertaining. She constantly had a smile on her face or a laugh at her lips, was always fun and never boring, and had an incredible knack for making the best of any situation. Admittedly she took very little seriously, falling behind in lessons and being hopeless at embroidery, but was such a joy to be around that most overlooked this.
Valaena was slightly more restrained than her elder sisters, though her sly smiles, wicked looks and cleverness made her just as formidable. She was irreverent of everyone and everything, always had a quip on the tip of her tongue, and her wit could run circles around anyone brave enough to try her. She liked to read, and could often be found in the library with Tyrion Lannister; her bookish side came out around the dwarf, and she dropped her sharp exterior to pester him with questions or argue about various scholarly topics.
And then there was Viserys. Dany's brother was seven years her elder. Old enough to remember when their father had been on the throne, old enough to remember how Lady Tya had worked with their brother Rhaegar to force him to abdictate, and old enough to remember how Rhaegar had almost torn the kingdoms apart for the sake of some foolish prophecy. Viserys had seen the bloody knife Tya Lannister had used to stab their father in the heart, and had seen their mother sobbing over Rhaegar's gruesome corpse, wheeled into the courtyard on a wagon as the city burned.
Viserys certainly held a lot of resentment, though to who exactly, Dany was not sure. Rhaegar, for turning out not to be the brother he idolised and ruining everything. Their mother, for standing by and crying instead of fighting against her eldest son's death. Lady Tya, for moving all the players around like they were pieces on a chessboard, and for being the one to kill their father. Aegon, for being crowned king as an infant, rather than Viserys himself.
Her brother likely just resented the world in general, which would certainly fit with his actions towards everyone, and his disagreeable temperament. Dany was often a target of his anger herself, as she was the most likely to just let him get away with it. Aegon would not rise to it, acting weary but reasonable. Visenya would shout right back at him, Daena would simply laugh, whilst Valaena would deliver some cutting but effective insult that infuriated him further.
Lady Tya had caught her brother spitting venom at Daenerys once, Viserys roughly grabbing her by the arm and forcing her chin up to look at him. The Hand of the King had sharply told the boy to release her, and he had let go of her arm as though stung, but shot a nasty look at the woman as he did so. Lady Tya had narrowed her eyes and warned him to be careful, lest he act too much like their father, who had mistreated his sister too. Unspoken were the words, and everyone knows what happened to Aerys.
That was one of the reasons Dany did not resent the woman, not like Viserys did. She had never known Rhaegar or her father, after all, and both of their actions had been reprehensible, even her mother agreed. Not to say that she wasn't scared to death of the Lady Hand. Tya Lannister had been a looming presence over all of the Targaryen children's lives for as long as they could remember.
Cersei was somewhat approachable at least, as Aegon's mother, and though she clearly favoured her son over the others, so long as they did not outshine him then she was relatively pleasant. Valaena idolised her no matter how the girl tried to hide it, and Cersei seemed only too happy to let her do so, seeming amused by her wit and cynicism.
The king's mother liked Daena too, and was positively warm to her, Valaena and Dany. Perhaps it was because she would never have daughters of her own and they were the next best thing. Cersei often clashed with Visenya, however, and had no real liking for the proud girl to whom she was similar to in many ways.
Lady Tya, on the other hand, could never be described as warm to any of them. Dany had spent her childhood shrinking away from the woman's cold stare and disapproving looks, terrified of drawing her attention in any way. Though her bold nieces would never admit to it, she knew they felt the same.
Not that the Hand had ever been cruel to them. She was just scary to most children, let alone royal ones who were likely to draw her attention. And her past concerning their family did not help matters. Visenya had used to scare the younger ones before court functions, telling them they'd better be on their best behaviour or else Lady Tya would kill them like she had Aerys and Rhaegar.
Dany knew that was ridiculous, of course, but the woman was intimidating to many lords, let alone four little girls. She marvelled at how Aegon pushed things with his grandmother, who always narrowed her eyes at his nerve talking back to her; she often glared at her husband on these occasions too, for he was usually grinning alongside his grandson.
She had always marvelled at how such a warm and charming man as Lord Jason, Master of Laws, could stand being Tya's husband. Perhaps she turned into a different person in private, took off her icy mask and actually smiled. That seemed rather unlikely. Though Dany could certainly admit that despite her coldness, Lady Tya was rather impressive. Her achievements were inspiring - particularly considering she was a woman and should have ended up being nothing but a lady of some keep in the Westerlands - despite leaving a bloody trail across history.
Part of Dany found the idea of being so involved in government appealing, though knew that she would never be Aegon's first choice as his Hand, when his grandmother finally stepped down or died (though Tya was not too old yet, aged fifty-five, her hair now gold and grey both but still harshly beautiful). Visenya had a much better chance than her, though Aegon would most likely give the position to his bastard brother.
Despite living on opposite sides of Westeros much of the time, King Aegon Targaryen and Jon Snow were as close as if they had grown up together. The other boy did not look Targaryen in the slightest, aside from his tall, almost graceful build that reportedly came from his father, and his often melancholic expression. Aside from that, he looked like his Stark mother through and through. A fact that both Lady Tya and Cersei were glad of. No doubt Jon's mother, the future Lady of Casterly Rock, was glad of it too.
Dany was never quite sure what to make of Jon. He was a rather quiet, sullen and brooding boy who often seemed irritated by those around him. Nothing like his charismatic half-brother or his mother's Lannister children, but nothing like Viserys either.
It was Jon who had caused Dany to end up where she was now. Well, at least partly. He and Aegon had been reminiscing about various trouble that had got up to as young children, and Jon had mentioned a secret passage that led under the Red Keep. Dany wasn't in the habit of wandering off on her own to explore, but she had heard from her handmaid that Viserys was on a rampage looking for her, angry for whatever reason this time. Not wanting a confrontation, she had found the secret entrance that Jon had spoken of and slipped inside.
Now she was well and truly lost, and trying her best not to panic as her torch began to burn low. The passage turned into a maze of passages and tunnels and hidden staircases, a warren that ran all the way through the castle. At first she had been glad for the lack of cobwebs and other unpleasantness, but then she had realised that meant someone came through here regularly, and that thought was horrifying.
Even worse was that she thought she could hear voices somewhere ahead of her.
Dany rounded a corner and froze, too scared to make a sound, as she was faced with two robed and hooded figures. They did not hear her, but saw her still-burning torch, whirling around to face her.
"Who the fuck are you?" One of them snapped. She noted the large stack of barrels behind them, the long length of what looked like string wound in the other man's hands.
"Shit," The other sounded worried. "Look at her hair. She's a Targaryen,"
"Just our luck. What in the seven hells are you doing down here, your Grace?" The words were said with a sneer.
"I just got lost," Dany hated how scared her voice sounded, and tried to pull herself together, to sound commanding and imperious, like Visenya, or Lady Tya. "What are you doing sneaking around down under the keep?"
The two men eyed each other.
"None of your fucking business," One of them spat on the ground next to a full-looking bag, glancing at his friend. "What do we do with her?"
"Well we can't have her running off and telling,"
That was worrying, but Dany had seen the contents of the bag on the ground and anger rose in her.
"Those are dragon eggs!"
One of the strangers chuckled darkly.
"Our payment. I hate your family as much as our entire guild does, but I'm not risking my skin for free,"
"What guild? Payment from who? To do what?" Her blood ran cold.
"Shut your mouth," The man's companion hissed at him.
"It's not like we're letting her go anywhere," The other sounded defensive.
Dany stepped back, preparing to run, but they were too quick for her. She let out a small shriek as they grabbed her roughly by the arms, preventing her from escaping. She tried to use her torch to lash out, but the blow was stopped by one of the men. But the force of his grip on her arm meant that she fumbled the torch. It slipped from her fingers, falling to land upon one of the barrels.
Both men froze. Then with a cry, one of them lunged forward, a desperate attempt to snatch the torch away, but it was too late.
An almighty boom, a flash of light, and for a few seconds - minutes, perhaps - Dany's world became nothing but chaos, confusion, dust and fierce, burning flame. She absently realised at some point what had been in the barrels. Everyone knew of her mad father's wildfire caches throughout the city. She had thought Lady Tya had overseen them all being safely destroyed. Apparently she had missed one.
As the dust began to clear, she realised she was sitting in a crater of rubble, fire burning all around her. There were fragments all around her; flesh, from where the intruders had been blown up, but also shards of a strange, jewel-like substance. The eggs.
Dany was simply entranced, too astonished to realise that she should have been blown to smithereens, yet there was not a single burn on her. All her hair was gone, her clothes as well, but she didn't care, even as shocked, panicked voices started to be heard from through the dust cloud. She watched the four small creatures crawl over her shoulders, her legs, into her lap. One black, one red, one green, one white.
The first dragons in over a hundred years called out to each other, and the sound was more beautiful than any song she'd ever heard.
I'm not especially happy with this chapter, but I wanted a glimpse into the lives of Tya and the future Targaryens, as well as to introduce the dragons of course. I had already spent so long struggling to write this I thought I'd put everyone out their misery and just post haha.
It was a toss-up between having Dany or Aegon be the POV for this chapter but seeing as I didn't want it to be an OC, I settled on Dany. Also apologies but I am not planning a sequel for this; it's intentionally a cliffhanger and this is the end of A Lioness Still Has Claws as far as everyone is concerned (aside from a bonus 'what if' chapter that will likely take a while to be published).
The intruders were sent by the members of the former alchemist's guild, who hated the Targaryens and Tya for disbanding them, and they were paid by a mysterious benefactor in Pentos. The wildfire cache was already there, left over from the days of Aerys. The reason the eggs hatched was that at least four people died in the explosion/fire (the two intruders, and two random servants). Dany of course bonds to the black dragon (though as she never married Drogo, the name would be different), Jon the white, Aegon the red and Visenya the green.
Tya, of course, does not react well to the addition of dragons; they are a potential threat to Aegon's rule, particularly Jon and Visenya, though they don't want to usurp Aegon. It makes her reconsider who exactly Visenya and Dany marry.
I'm so grateful for all the support for all these months, and apologies that the updates have been unreliable. Next in this series I'm planning either a female Ned Stark, or female Daemon Targaryen, although my Robarra Baratheon story will certainly be getting updated too. Any ideas for more genderbent fanfics? I've considered the 'Baratheon' childreen (Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen), as well as Rhaegar.
Thanks so much for reading this story!