Chapter 2: Here There Be Fire

It had been a few months since the birth of the Princess and the kingdom was in celebration. Ravens had been sent to all the Lords announcing the birth of the Princess and the tourney that would be held in her honor and a few months time, enough time for all the Lords to make their way to King's Landing. All that was left to now was to present her to the King. Something Rhaegar was not at all looking forward to. If he...if the King said anything bad about his daughter...Rhaegar didn't know how he would take it. Only a few moons old, and already the amount of power she held over him was astounding.

He stood over her crib and watched her stare at the doll in his hands. Her smile lit up the entire room. He smiled sadly at her, unable to keep the sadness he would feel when his father would inevitably look down his nose and scorn her. She wasn't a pure Targaryen, and that was equal to a rat in his eyes. Rhaegar lifted her out of her crib and held her gently in his arms. His beautiful little Princess, no matter what anyone else thought or said, she would be his most precious.

"Come now little one, let us get this over with." He said looking down at her. He walked out of the room and down the halls to make his way to the throne room, where undoubtedly his father would be. The trip to the throne room was short and fast, faster than Rhaegar had ever remembered to be. There were already quite a few people there, among the most important was his father's hand, Lord Tywin Lannister of Casterly Rock, Warden of the West, and his newly introduced daughter, Cersei and Lord Steffon Baratheon, his father's cousin, and his wife Lady Cassana, whom had returned to King's Landing a little over two weeks ago from Essos. His task to find Rhaegar a wife had been cut short when Aerys himself had decided Elia would marry Rhaegar.

Rhaegar walked into the throne room with his head held high, his grip on his Princess tightening. He stopped right in front of steps leading up to the throne and bowed before straightening and looking at his father, "Father, may I present my daughter Valaena."

His teeth clenched as Aerys just stared. When enough had become enough, Rhaegar turned to leave but was stopped. "Bring...her to me." His father said lowly and slowly.

Rhaegar hesitated for a visible moment until he conceded and slowly climbed up the steps to stand before the unbathed King. His eyes widened as his blood purist of a father held out his arms to take Valaena into them. Slowly. So very slowly, Rhaegar lowered his baby into his father's arms.

King Aerys stared at the little baby in his arms, watched as she scrunched her eyes together before slowly opening them. Oh, the beauty of her eyes were breathtaking. It was like she was staring into his open soul...his little princess.

The dreams and whispers...they had proved to be true.

Aerys brought his hand up to touch her cheeks before stopping short. He stared angrily at his hand, his nails, they could hurt his Princess. He barked at his servant boy, "why haven't you cut my nails! My princess could be cut by them boy! I should have your hea-oh, oh oh, it's ok love no one's going to hurt you." He cooed, rocking Valaena, unaware of the gasps floating around the hall.

He glared at the trembling boy, "if she cries because of you…" he trailed off, there was no need to say anything more.

"Father."

Aerys' head snapped up to look at his son, "what?"

Rhaegar took in a deep breath, of all the ways he thought this would go...this definitely wasn't one of them. He motioned to his daughter, "Valaena, she is-"

"Perfect," he grinned his yellow teeth at her, "just like the dreams told me she would be."

Rhaegar's eyes narrowed, his delusional father and his...dreams, his paranoid dreams. Always for how someone was out to ruin and destroy him or their family. No. Rhaegar would not allow his daughter to be caught up in his crazy. He swooped down and took her from his father, uncaring of the way he growled at him.

"Give her back to me!"

"No. She is only a few months old she doesn't need to be surrounded by all these people, she only needs rest."

"No! Give her back! She can take rest in my arms!"

Just as Rhaegar was about responding, sniffling caught his ears, followed by a gurgle and whimpering. He looked down and watched as slow comprehension set in. His baby was going to start crying.

He braced himself for the inevitable noise she was about to produce. And it happened, she opened her mouth and let out a wail unlike and heard before. The wail of a strong, healthy child. One that wouldn't go down without a fight. He rocked her back and forth, so clearly unknowledgeable about what to do.

His father sneered at him, "you don't know what you're doing little boy. Give her here. Now."

Rhaegar hesitated, what was he supposed to do? He could hand her to him and hope beyond all hope that Aerys wouldn't add to the noise, or keep her and definitely have his father add to the wailing. Rhaegar closed his eyes and slowly placed his baby girl back into his father's arms. And the strangest thing happened, she stopped crying. He watched in shock as his father smiled with his crooked and yellow teeth down at his baby girl.

"What a pretty little dragon you are." Aerys cooed down at her. His mind clear of anything but the little dragon in his arms, "oh what a fierce, beautiful dragon you'll be, my pretty, pretty princess."

When the newly dubbed Valaena Targaryen had fully opened her eyes, she cursed. Going by the clothing the people scuffling around her were wearing, she was once again born in the past. She looked up at the pretty woman holding her, she cooed something soft and low down at her, her mother she presumed. She was a pretty, if frail, woman. Olive skin, dark hair, plump lips, a beautiful set of black eyes, and from what she could feel a very flat chest.

But she looked very nice, so that was a plus, but damn it, she had told Him that she didn't want to go back into the past for this life. Asshole. She heard movement come from the other way, soft and melodic, but still, a man's voice, follow and braced herself for the new encounter. The being that filled her vision was not at all what she had imagined. He was beautiful, with long flowing silver hair, pale skin, and these beautiful, beautiful purple eyes. She had seen purple eyes before, hell she had even had purple eyes...but never on a human.

She watched as the beautiful man leaned down and pressed a soft kiss on her forehead, before pressing one onto her mother's, with the pull she felt for the woman, what else could she be. The man, or maybe a boy still, just almost fully grown, must have been her father. By Death, what did she look like then? It could have gone extremely well, or extremely bad. She felt herself being lifted and held in her father's arms. She smiled up at the man, he wore a crown on his head, a Prince? Or maybe a King? He would be old enough, she remembered being crowned as King when she was only a year or two old, age didn't matter when it came to issues like this. Especially in the old times, from the look of the room and the clothing the servants around them had on, she must have been in the medieval times, at least.

She smiled at the man, he spoke to her softly and caressed her face. The look in his eyes when he looked at her, it was like the universe spun around her. His first child then, or at least his first daughter. She looked at him a little longer before his rocking got the better of her and her eyes slowly drifted shut.

The first few weeks of her life, Valaena-that was a name she had never had-was spent watching her surroundings, listening to the whispers in the wind, whispers that she had no understanding of what they said, but she listened all the same.

She really didn't know how many weeks, months even, had passed, but finally, she was taken out of her room. Her father had taken her out of her crib and took her down a long, long corridor. She watched as he walked her through a large archway and into a crowd. He walked forward at a slow pace, his grip on her tightening, he stopped spoke something, his grip tightened even further. She could feel him climb upstairs. Then she was brought down and ended up in another pair of arms. Her eyes slightly widened at the sight of the man, frankly, he looked absolutely disgusting. His hair was all matted and greasy, his teeth were yellow and gross, and he smelled something awful. His face must have been handsome once, she could see traces of her father in it. But his eyes, it was his eyes looked at her as if she was a god taken human form.

It interested her, what had he seen, what did he know that would make him look at her like that. She watched him speak to her father before she was back in her father's arms. She knew this was a dirty way to go, these movements back and forth though...she was a baby now, who could blame her. She let out a wail and kept it going until she was placed back in her….grandfather's arms.

He smiled with his gross teeth back at her and she couldn't help but smile back up at him. She always had a spot for the crazy ones, and without a doubt, he was one. She got cozy in his arms and fell back asleep, she could worry about this world later.

"Kepa!" yelled a little voice running around the throne room with no care in the world. Heads turned towards the voice and heads bowed to the owner.

Rhaegar looked to his daughter, "Valaena, sweet one, please I'm in the middle of something important."

The little princess quickly went over to him, where is stood in front of the throne, and hugged her father, winding her little arms around his legs. She grinned up at him, all her little teeth bare to the world.

"Come here my little dragon," another voice called to her. Valaena looked up to her grandfather and took the laborious task of walking up the steps.

"Be careful my princess," her grandfather said coming down the steps to pick her up and carry her back to the throne. He sat back down, carefully placing her on his lap so she wouldn't cut herself on the melted swords.

"So why have you come this way my dragon?" The King questioned in a soothing tone he only took with the little princess. He grinned back when she smiled up at him.

"Aerys being nice?" She asked him with a tilt of her head, a series of gasps following her question. No matter how much he doted on her, there was no way that the King would excuse this. Especially not when the little girl had questioned him like this in front of all the people in the hall.

"Valaena!" Her father called out, truly worried for her safety. Rhaegar watched with bated breath as the two of them turned to him, "Kepa? What's wrong?"

"That was rude. You shouldn't say such things." He said in a firm tone, "what is it that you need sweet one?" He asked with a softer tone.

Valaena's smile widened and she clapped her hands, "Muña," she said giggling, "the baby coming."

Another wave of whispers, as well as congratulatory salutations, floated around the room. She turned back to her grandfather, "Kepa go to Muña?" She asked nodding her head.

Aerys smiled indulgently down at her, "of course my darling." He raised his head sharply to his son, "go to your wife Rhaegar."

Her father nodded his head and quickly excused himself from the throne room. She smiled as she watched him go. The past two years had made it clear to Regi-Valaena, Valaena was her name here-the past two years had made it clear to her that there wasn't 'in love' between her parent, but there was a semblance of fondness between the two, and for marriages like theirs...even that was incredible.

Valaena looked at all the people around the throne room, most refused to meet her eyes. The past two years had flown by for her, she had grown tall, taller than most would be at her age, her eyes were still such a purple color that it seemed like they glowed, her skin still sun-kissed, not as much as her mother, but she was nowhere near the pale milk color of her father's side. Her hair though that was mysterious as her eyes it seemed. Instead of being all black or the silver of her father, it was a mixture of both. Well, not so much a mixture as a harsh separation of colors. Going up from one tip of her ear to the other and forward to her forehead the was the silver of moonlight. And the rest was the black of a moonless night. At least that was what the servants and court people around her had said.

And she agreed. She has been very beautiful in past lives, so she understood the consequences that turned heads brought. While it brought many open doors, in this time period, it was better to not stand out. She let out an inaudible sigh and cozied into her grandfather's lap. She looked at the people all around her and she looked at her grandfather's Hand. He was a conniving one, she could tell, she had met so many, too many throughout the years. And his daughter, Cersei Lannister was as conniving as her father but with less than half the control. She would be one to watch out for as well.

She smiled and waved as she caught Steffon Baratheon watching her. He had been nice to her on the few occasions she had met him, or rather the few times her Grandfather had allowed someone other than those with the Targaryen name around her. But even still he had only been around her as many times as he had because of his Targaryen mother. He was sweet and kind enough, his wife as well, but his sons, his eldest Robert was, well she had never really met him, maybe for her birth celebration he had come, but her memories of that were foggy at best. His second son Stannis needed to get laid or needed all the nitrous oxide in the world. How someone so young could be that rigid, she had no idea. And his third son Renly, he was year older, and he acted the way a three-year-old should. The most annoying being in the world, but she found him funny all the same.

Valaena turned back to her grandfather and wrapped her arms around his waist. She turned to the side and laid her legs across his lap. "Aerys," she whispered, "let's go watch the fire." She giggled as he nuzzled her hair, before facing the audience, "You are all dismissed." He got up and placed his arms under her and carefully walked down the steps of the throne.

Once they were down, Aerys turned to his Kingsguard, mainly Ser Lewyn Martell and Ser Gerold Hightower. She liked the both of them, but her great-uncle, she loved him. He would always tickle her and help her hide when she didn't want to be bothered. He never failed to make her smile and laugh, though they tried to keep it as secretive as possible from her grandfather. He liked her fondness for his Kingsguard, particularly Lewyn, less than he liked her being around Tywin Lannister. "The lions can never be trusted." He had told her on one of their walks through the gardens. And she had taken it to heart, no matter how crazy and paranoid he was, he had still lived in this world longer than she had.

Valaena watched as he narrowed his eyes at all of one's there, "do not follow us. My Princess and I are going to have some alone time. Do. Not. Follow." He gave them one last look before he made his way out of the room, not giving them any chance to respond. Not that they would put up much a fight with what he ordered, no matter how much more sane he seemed to be now.

The journey to the secret room took a while. They walked down below the dungeons, through secret passages that only the two of them knew about if the many, many cobwebs and rats and other pests were any indication. But it was their secret, a secret she knew could never be told to anybody else. After a while, they had finally reached the little dark secluded room. It was a place someone would have to purposely be looking for and even then you'd have to be with someone who knew their way out in order to not get lost in the passageways.

He opened the door and walked through the threshold into the brightly lit room. He set her down and they walked towards the fire that raged in the middle. They sat down in front of it, she watched as he quickly started to sweat, within moments it flood down his forehead, "Aerys, you should sit back." She said to him without the child grammar. She had no worries about how she acted with him, no one would believe him if he told anyone that she wasn't a normal child, he was already saying that anyways. But at least he listened to her, she didn't need to explain to anyone how it was that the King had been burned, much less why. She grinned at him and turned back to the pit of fire.

Her eyes lit up as she watched the fire crackle and swirl. It was warm against her skin. It was inviting and soothing. It was calming and captivating. And inside it laid something she hadn't thought she'd see ever in this world. It was beautiful, a mix of black and white, just like her hair. It was large too. Very large. It glowed with the heat of the fire, calling to come alive.

There in the middle of the fire sat her dragon egg.

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A big thank you to all of you who reviewed/followed/favorited(especially all 3), it really means a lot!

Kepa: Father in High Valyrian

Muña: Mother in High Valyrian