Chapter 3

Rhaenyra POV

As I said before I was definitely late, but not as late as I've been before which is already a good thing, as I'm walking towards the table I can feel all eyes on me, to my surprise Daemon isn't here, I was sure he would be, he has always been like a older brother more than a uncle to me, father doesn't like it because he knows Daemon isn't the best person to follow, Daemon doesn't follow rules, he only does when he is in trouble already it drives father crazy and he doesn't want me to learn those ways, I'm a little sad he's not here because usually he's the one that helps me feel less nervous, yeah I know I'm the princess of Westeros only daughter of the King and meeting new people makes me nervous, I'm not easily intimidated and I'm not nervous because I'm scared, when you're the princess people expect perfection everyone expects me to act a certain way or talk a certain way and I have a problem with disappointing people, my parents, the people of kings landing, the people of Westeros.

Daemon usually says that I'm not supposed to worry about what the common people think but why wouldn't i? doesn't that make you a better ruler, listening to your people. I'm four and ten already and Daemon keeps reminding me that I don't have to worry about these things until im older but I just like to be one step ahead. As im walking towards my parents something green catches my attention or rather I say someone wearing green. For a split second as im walking by her i stare right into her eyes and Im not sure if I catched that right but she seems to not like me, shes starting at me but Im not sure if its in a good or bad way, these dresses make me look strong and even intimidating to some people so that could be why shes looking at me like that, and she hasn't even seen the back of it, it is absolutely too much but mother asked me to wear it and I hardly say no to her.

"My apologies Father, this dress is awfully complicated to put on and my maids couldn't make their mind up about my hair" I say while hugging father, he knows im lying but he always says that when late one must come up with an explanation.

"You look Beautiful as always daughter. Let me introduce you to the our guests" I was already sitting down next to him, as soon as he finished his sentence everyone on the other side of the table got up so did i.

"Daughter this is Taena Hightower my soon to be wife" he says as she bows to me, she's a beautiful young lady with green eyes, long brown and curly hair, completely opposite to my mother.

"its nice to meet you and I hope our home will soon feel like your own Taena" I say with a full smile on, I might not agree to my father marrying someone else but if mother is fine with it then so am I, the point of this situation is to keep her in good health and not have her go through another pregnancy, Mother is not as young as she was when she had me and every pregnancy seems to be harder than the last.

"Thank you Princess, let me introduce you to my family" she says as the older man sitting next to her and who I assume is his daughter get up to bow just like she did before.

"My brother Otto Hightower and my niece Alicent Hightower" as I look at them to acknowledge them, i give them a full smile and I wonder why the girl wont look me in the eyes she keeps starting at her fingers, so I assume I was right, she doesn't like me.

"its nice to meet all of you, and like I said before I hope our house soon feels like a home to you too" they both thank me and take their seats again, I do the same so father can start this dinner, I can't help but wonder what I even did for Alicent to not like me already, we haven't spoken two words to each other.

These are the kind of things that make me nervous I shouldn't care but I do, she doesn't seem like the kind of girl to dislike people randomly and I heard from mother that she's always been a sweet kid, she likes reading and she enjoys embroiding, two things that are not my favorite at all, but I was hoping to atleast find a common ground with her, we are the same age and I thought maybe that would help but she still hasn't looked at me again since I walked in the hall.

We are just finishing eating, there wasn't much talking during, but it was still comfortable, Alicent still hasn't looked at me for more than a second. Mother decided to invite Alicent and Taena to her chambers were she has a pretty comfortable area where we can drink tea and talk, and im planning on getting a conversation ouf of this girl before the night ends, if shes going to dislike me atleast I want to know why.

As we are walking towards mothers chambers I realize that mother and Taena are already talking and seem to enjoy each others company which im happy about, the last thing I want is for mother to not like the woman father is going to wed. Alicent is walking behind Taena not involved in the conversation just walking behind her, I stop out of nowhere and to my surprise she's the first one to notice, she turns around and walks towards me.

"everything fine princess?" she asks, looking at the floor, she's not looking at me and I don't like it.

"yes everything fine. Mom can alicent and I go to my chambers first I want to show her the other dress options you had for me" I say without thinking twice, mother turns around to let me know its fine and with a smile in her face that says be good to that girl.

As we are walking towards my chambers I take the lead and speak first "is everything ok? Are you liking the castle? Has everyone been nice to you?"

"yes princess everything is fine, your castle is beautiful, and big, I fear I might get lost soon, it will definitely take some getting used to it, everyone has been pleas…"

"why do you keep avoiding looking at me?, I noticed during the dinner and now too, you are speaking to me but looking at the floor, why? Our flooring is not that interesting." I interrupt and before she has time to explain I continue.

"seems like you don't like me, from the moment I walked into the hall you looked at me once and haven't again since then, why? What did I do?" giving her time to answer after a few seconds she does, and she looks like shes about to turn around and leave, but we keep walking towards my chamber as she starts talking, finally.

"not like you? Princess why wouldn't I like you, your family has been absolutely delightful to us, I might have thought that it was interesting that you weren't in the welcoming crowd when we got here but outside of that I do like you, you're just… intimidating"

"intimidating? You think im intimidating? Its only the dress, it makes me look older than I am, a little much for a dinner with family but mother is big in first impressions, I think is absolutely too much, if it was up to me I would be wearing pants, but mother would faint if I walked into a any important event wearing pants" I say as the door to my chambers is being open by Sir Wales, he's the knight in charge of my safety his job is pretty much making sure I don't do anything too crazy "thank you Wales, we won't be long"

Alicent POV

We are in the princess chambers now, and im lost in how perfect her chambers are, just like her. Why am I thinking like this?, ive seen attractive girls before, but shes more than attractive that's why I haven't look at her since dinner, shes too attractive, hard to look at without blushing, I don't know how everyone else does it. But I cant tell her that, her dress is also perfect, I don't know why she would think is too much, I think it makes sense that someone that beautiful should wear such a dress, shes waiting for me to reply and I cant think of anything, I cant think because shes staring at me with her pretty purple eyes.

"I think your dress is gorgeous, not too much at all, its something a princess should wear." I say and to my surpise she smiles, and im in awe, I do not know why im feeling this way but she makes me want to study her face, its perfect it really is, nothing about her is ordinary, ive heard targaryens are closer to Gods than people and now I believe it, she looks like a goddess, too good to be human.

"so I was right you don't like me. I asked you what I had done for you to not like me and your response was about my dress, you're being nice and ignoring the subject but I can tell when someone doesn't like me" she says as she starts gathering things, I assume she's going to change but she isn't yet she's just putting everything where it should go.

"princess I do like you, youre just…." I say unable to word things right, my brain is not coming out with any words to explain why I didn't look at her during dinner, because now Im looking at her and I cant think.

"your beauty is intimidating, not what youre wearing" I finally say after what it seems like forever.

"you think im too beautiful to look at? See now I think youre crazy. It really is the dress once you see me wearing something more neutral you will see im not all that beautiful but thank you anyways" she says and shes blushing, she seems to truly not believe shes stunning and I think it makes her even more beautiful, shes just a girl like me, I would be blushing too if someone called me intimidating because of my looks.

"your chambers are nice they feel warm and welcoming" I say trying to change the subject of this conversation, as im looking at the room I realize one of the walls has a huge painting hanging of a gold colored dragon and someone riding it, she notices this and starts walking towards the wall as I follow.

"that's Syrax, shes bigger now, but that has always been a good painting of us, If I ever move away to dragonstone im taking it with me" she says while looking at the painting and smiling, she seems to really like that dragon, I find it really really intimidating more so than I did her.

"why would you move away? And that is a nice painting of you two, what are you wearing there" ive noticed in the painting shes wearing something that seems like half a dress and half pants the dress part opens right where the pants start but it keeps going in the back making it seem like shes wearing a cape more than a dress.

"if my father has a son he will most likely make him the heir to the throne, making me lady of dragonstone" I happen to notice the sadness in her eyes when she said that and I don't like it I don't want her to be sad ever, about anything. "im wearing pants, like I said if it was up to me I would wear pants a lot more than I wear dresses, they're more comfortable, but what I am wearing there exactly is something most female dragon riders wear, its still a dress if you see it from the back but it helps us be more comfortable on dragon back, dragon skin tends to be rough against our skin and it can hurt us if our legs aren't covered, see" she says as she opens her dress skirt a little and shows her right leg being covered by actual pants, folded in the bottom so no one is able to noticed them from the bottom of her dress"

"so you always wear pants under your dresses" I say trying to not point out how suprising that is.

"As a custom rule I wear pants under my dresses most of the time in case of an emergency, if I need to get on syrax back quick I need to have my legs covered or her skin could scratch my legs pretty bad" she says and I can tell this is important for her, every-time she has mentioned Syrax she does it with a specific tone, I listen as she continues still looking at the painting.

"It has only happened in one occasion, when I was trying to help Daemon and Caraxes (daemons dragon) when they were trying to control a wild dragon, I had to get on syrax fast because the dragon was getting aggressive, and I didn't had time to change so when we finally were able to control the wild dragon and get him to the dragon pit my legs were bleeding from behind my knees and I didn't even realized, Daemon told father and as a custom rule I have to wear pants most of the time which i absolutely love." She sounds so excited when she talks about dragons I want to hear more.

"im going to change into something more comfortable so we can go talk to Taena and mother" I'm looking at the room, she has a lot of different things, there are books, painting materials, there is even a sword and shield here and it makes me wonder If she actually knows how to use them I've never used a sword before, I will make a point of asking her later.

"come you seem like you would like this part of my room" she says as she open two doors behind the far wall where the painting materials are.

Behind the two doors are what seems to be the biggest closet I've ever seen, there is too many dresses to count, and many many pairs of pants, I suspect she only uses this to pick what she's going to wear instead of having her maids pick it out for her.

"this is amazing, how many pieces of clothing do you think you have?, you must have atleast 100 different types of fabric here" i say as I watch her walk from behind her dressing curtain, we all have those in case someone walks in while youre changing you can still be changing and talking to them from behing it, shes already changed into something like the clothing in the painting, a top that opens in the front, continues in the back and lets her pants show, she's now undoing her braids, her hair is longer than I thought and I was right it frames her face perfectly, when she turns around I have to look at the floor.

"would you stop doing that, it makes me crazy" she says as shes walking towards me, and only turns around to close the closet doors

"what am I doing?"I say nonchantly

"you keep looking at the floor when im trying to talk to you and it makes me feel like youre uncomfortable" she says clearly annoyed by it

"my apologies princess, it will take some getting used to it but I will try my best, I promise im not uncomfortable around you" I say smiling at her, and actually making an effort to look her in the eyes.

"Thank you and please call me Rhaenyra, you don't have to call me princess when we are alone" she says as she starts walking towards the door so we can head to the queens chambers.

"Fine by me Princess, Rhaenyra" I correct my self quick and it makes her smile, that's when I realize that I want her to smile more often, I don't know what's with me today but Rhaenyra definitely has some kind of effect on me, we are walking in a comfortable silence, I could get used to walking these halls with her.

Maybe kings landing is not as bad as I thought it would be.