Chapter 2 - The Price of Freedom

'Valyrian speech'

Missandei was born on an island of Naath in the Summer Sea, off the coast of the continent of Sothoryos. She became enslaved at a young age and taken to Slaver's Bay in Essos, where she was eventually put to work as an interpreter for the slave master named Kraznys mo Nakloz, one of the Good Masters of Astapor. She was famed for speaking nineteen languages including High Valyrian.

A young woman probably ten and nine name days was being accompanied by two guards. One was already old in his late fifties and the other was probably younger by a decade. Missandei observed them from a distance as they walked down along a narrow path by the edge of the sea. The young woman suddenly came to a stop to observe a man nailed to a cross. They were plenty. She then borrowed a flask from the old man which was probably filled with water before heading over towards him. Missandei saw her trying and failing to feed the man before she gave the act all together. It was strange to see the kindness that she displayed towards an unknown person. In all her life as a slave, she'd never seen anyone act as such.

The three strange men continued they walk towards the entrance to where the unsullied army stood in a stage area to be sold to the highest bidder. Missandei went over to greet them as custom demanded. The two men were Kingsguards to the female Daenarys Targaryen, First of her Name.

"Greetings to you two Missandei." The girl replied back politely to her greeting. That was a first for Missandei. Usually everyone just overlooked her like a dirty dog with a choker on her neck. She led them inside the huge gate before proceeding on to the side pavement till they reached a small gate. Once they entered that small gate they came in the presence of her master who was sitting next to another man responsible for the brutal training of the unsullied.

'Now comes Daenary's Targaryen, queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms. . .' Missandei brief introduction was rudely cut off by her master Krazyns.

'This bitch is not the queen of the Andals, only Joeffrey Baratheon. Everyone knows this.' Krazyns said condescendingly at Daenarys and received a raised brow in the process. Missandei translated her master's response back to Daenarys and only omitted the crass words.

Daenarys spoke back but not to rectify Krazyns's statement of her being the queen, "I have travelled a long way in search of the best army this world has never seen. I learned that you might be able to help me in this endeavour Master Krazyns." Missandei went on to translate to her master what was just said.

Krazyns sat up straighter at the praise before giving his response. 'Tell the bitch that I own eight thousand unsullied but buying them won't be cheap.' After Missandei translated back to Daenarys, she became surprised at the predatory smile that crept up her face.

"Tell him I own three dragons and will only part away with one for all the eight thousand unsullied, also tell him that I want you to be handed over to me as bonus of a deal well struck."

Missandei's eyes widened further in shock and before she could respond back, Ser Barristan and Jorah moved quickly towards Daenarys to prevent her from trading her dragons.

"You will conquer the seven kingdoms with your dragons your grace and not slaves." Barristan spoke sharply looking quite appalled at the way she was throwing away a priceless gift. That didn't sway her but only made her glare coldly at the man who had the decency to take a few steps back.

"Khaleesi . . ."

"Enough Ser Jorah, my decision is final." Daenerys hissed at the man before turning to face Missandei. "Relay my massage to Kryzns." Missandei blinked once before translating her proposal to her master.

Kryzns eyes widened in greed at the mention of dragons and demanded Daenerys to hand out two.

"No, one dragon is capable of too much destruction. I will trade him only one." Daenerys spoke with a tone of finality. After a moment of consideration Kryzns agreed to the proposal.

. . .

"Do you have a family to go too if given the chance Missandei?" They had just exited the small gate headed to Daenerys ship when the queen asked her the question.

"No your grace." Missandei replied with a blank look not understanding where the question was going.

"I am about to wage a war that will probably last many years Missandei. Hundreds of thousands will die in my quest to free all men, women and children. If you are to aid me in this endeavour, I need you to be prepared in case that I lose. Should it become too much for you and decide to leave, I will provide you a ship and enough gold to settle anywhere you choose."

Missandei was awed by the lengths that she was willing to go to keep her safe. First she would risk her own dragon to buy her freedom and also protect her to the very best ability. No one in her entire history had ever cared for her this way as memories of her past ran through her mind. For the first time Missandei cried and was rewarded with a comforting hug and her soft musical soothing voice.

"I choose to stay with you." Missandei said after a while when she pulled away from the short girl's embrace. "I have nowhere else to go your grace. I will stay and serve you the best way I can." She pledged as her fingers rubbed away the tears flowing down her cheeks.

"Then I will make you a promise in return. I will be your friend and you will eat at my table, I will ask you only to perform to the best of your ability. If I tell you to do something dishonourable you have the right to refuse in my face. I will not dishonour you."

A while later they reached the ship and Daenerys introduced her to her Khalasar. When they reached her private room, Missandei jumped in surprise and fear at the sight of the tree dragons lodging on her bed. There were the size of fully grown pit bulls.

"I keep telling them not to do that as they are quite heavy to carry." Daenerys said sighing tiredly in annoyance. Towards the corner of her room lay three big circular made nests for them to sleep in but it seemed as though they had chosen her bed instead. "The only instruction that they can follow is their meal time."

Missandei smiled at what she said foregoing her temporary fear. There were quite intimidating truth be told with their sharp spikes protruding everywhere on their bodies. There were also very beautiful especially the blue one.

"That one breathes ice."

What?

. . .

The next day, Daenerys ordered four of her men to carry the blue dragon out of her ship inside a made up concealed box. She'd had to beg the little beauty to leave its other companions to meet up with Krazyns. Missandei swallowed her guilt at the way the other dragons pleaded for their brother to not be taken away from them. It was because of her that this was being done and there somehow figured it out. The dragons' attention was brought to her and they growled angrily.

"Drogon, Rhaegal, please." Daenerys pleaded with them. "It will all work out, trust me."

Missandei was about to tell Daenerys to send her back to serve Krazyns only for her to raise her hand to silence her. "Trust me Missandei, all is going to be well."

And it was.

When they had returned to meet up with Krazyns, Daenerys tricked him into handing over his ownership of the unsullied army into her care, she then ordered them to slaughter all of the masters, guards and to break all the chains on any slave that they saw. The most shocking thing however was the dragon.

Missandei originally thought that the ice it spat wasn't really that lethal and seeing the way that Krazyns died;

'Tell this bitch that her little bird won't come down,' Krazyns who had been trying to pull down the dragon by the chain from its escape attempts had failed to see Daenarys speaking in Valyrian, ordering the unsullied to match forward and to stop.

'A dragon is not slave,' Daenarys reply shocked him greatly, and seeing the cold sinister smile directed at him he knew then that he had been played.

'Dracarys!'

The dragon stopped struggling from his attempts to pull it down choosing to face him instead. Cold wind spewed out of its mouth and bathed him whole. When it was ended, Krazyns just stood there as his body began to rapidly solidify, changing colour to that of an ice statue. The dragon flew down to him desiring to unbind the chain from his grasp. Its sharp claws collided with Kraznys's head and his whole body shattered into tiny shards of splinter before melting to water in the sun.

It was quite frightening. To burn with fire was one thing, but this?

The unsullied army was freed from Krazyns's cruelty and asked to join Daenary's company to aid her to free other slaves. They all agreed to be in her service.

"Should we depart your grace?"

Daenerys shook her head before replying, "We need to put this city in order Ser Jorah. Also an army needs to be raised in order to protect it from being sieged by another tyrant."

Jorah looked thoughtful for a moment. "That could take a year and a half or two years at most Khaleesi."

"Good, I need practice to run seven kingdoms. This is a perfect opportunity for me to learn by running this city, wouldn't you say?" Daenarys replied with a determined look. "I will also ask the unsullied to train me in the way of the sword, its high time I learned to defend myself properly. I have made up my mind Ser Jorah." She said, stopping him from trying to discourage her.

"I just made a loud announcement to the entire world that I am ready for a fight. The slave masters will not be pleased by this and will seek out to destroy me one way or another. I need to prepare."

Freedom from tyranny was never easy to attain. Death always came first, this was a truth that Daenerys knew all too well from her previous life. The others will be coming for her with a burning desire to destroy her for interrupting what they deemed to be their way of life, but she wasn't really that frightened.

There was no technology in this era and the magic that was practised was parlor tricks compared to what she would be able to do in the future. For now, she was capable of conjuring flames, summoning and banishing things. What had her worried though were the faceless men.