"Ow!" Arya exclaimed as Taelerys whacked her on the shoulder. She disarmed the girl, who quickly picked up her wooden sword and shield. Taelerys raised her own wooden sword in an attempt to hit Arya again, but to her surprise, the little Stark managed to recover within a millisecond. She blocked the attack with the wooden sword. Taelerys retreated as the both of them fell into their water dancing poses. "Good, you are getting much better," the Targaryen complimented her. "But, not good enough!"

Taelerys didn't want to feed too much into Arya's ego. She swung around trying to bat Arya at her sides, Taly was impressed that she managed to dodge most of her attacks now. Including landing a quick strike on her own thigh. Luckily, Taelerys's sword hand wasn't the one that bled yesterday when she and Arya tried to hatch the dragons. Taelerys slashed at her head, the wooden sticks clacked as Arya parried her attack perfectly. However, she made the first mistake these past six months by smiling at Arya's victory, who promptly disarmed her. The wooden sword flew across the tiled floor with a loud banging noise. Arya grinned at her friend with the sword pointed at Taly's chin. "Had this been a real sword, you would've been dead," she said, clearly refering to what Taelerys had said to Joffrey when shebeat him in a sword fight.
"Oh, piss off!" Taelerys snorted. "I'm not that bad!"

She was glad that Arya was able to joke once more and the two of them started laughing together. Just like the good old times. Arya was finally reverting to her naturally happy self since Mycah had died. Taelerys and Lord Eddard had hoped to see more of it. Though she had to be careful not to let Arya disarm her again. Taelerys didn't want the little rascal getting ahead of herself.

Their happiness was cut off short, however, when the doors to the Small Hall swung open. Taelerys jolted back, so startled by the loud noise. There was the familiar marching sound of soldiers approaching. The same ones she heard from inside the inner walls of the castle when King's Landing fell.

A knight of the Kingsguard emerged from the arch with four Lannister guardsmen following behind him. They were clad in full armor. The knight lifted up his visor, revealing himself to be Ser Meryn Trant.

"Arya Stark, Taelerys Targaryen," Ser Meryn said, "You are to come with us."

"What for?" Taelerys inquired.

"Lord Eddard Stark wants to see you,"

Arya stepped forward, but Taelerys extended her arm to block her path. She was immediately suspicious of the Kingsguard, most of them were loyal only to the Lannisters. King's Landing was once a time of dragons, now it was filled with lions. "And why would Lord Eddard send Lannister men to fetch us in place of his own?" asked Taelerys.

"You're right, my father wouldn't send you," Arya then said. She picked up her stick sword and held it in a threatening way. The Lannister soldiers began laughing.

"Arya and I are not going anywhere," Taelerys firmly told them. "Until my lord's men arrive to take us, why don't you wait beside the wall like a good little loyal knight who never questions the king?"

Ser Meryn glowered at the Targaryen with his muddy eyes, grinding his teeth together. "Mind your tongue before I rip it out, girl," he hissed. "I am a sworn knight of the Kingsguard, the White Swords."

Taelerys had an amusing fit of laughter. "I'm sure that's what your sworn brother the Kingslayer said when he thrust a sword into the back of my father."

That was all Ser Meryn could take. He pulled down his visor and snapped his fingers at the other sworn swords. And like trained dogs, they obeyed, walking towards them. They expected us to only be stupid little children. Taelerys was determined to show them wrong. All they could hear was the whistling noise of her training sword as she hit one soldier on the head, before whipping the other soldier on the handle. There was a loud crack and Taelerys knew she had broken something. The guardsman yelped in pain, cradling his broken wrist.

Taelerys quickly tossed aside the wooden stick and picked up the guardsman's sword from the ground. The other three men unsheathed their swords in response. The fourth man stepped aside, still holding onto his broken wrist like a pathetic whiner. She licked my dry lips together.
"Arya," Taelerys called to her, never taking her eyes off the Lannister men. "You need to get out of here. Now."

"B-But, what about you?" Arya stammered. She couldn't fathom leaving her only remaining friend behind. The Lannisters closed in on them. Arya took a step back and watched. Now, she would know that Taelerys was taking it easy on her during the lessons.

The three gold cloaks came at her from three sides with swords drawn. Taelerys had learned so much since coming to King's Landing. She was grateful that Ser Rodrick and Jon Snow taught her how to use a sword. She spun to her right, moving as fast as she never had before. This was her first battle all on her own. Taelerys shoved away one sword with her own and ducked from the second. The second blade hit the third soldier across the chest. Off balance, the two men collapsed to the floor like a couple of wooden blocks. She then whirled under a swing from the third man's blade, thrusting her own underneath the chest armor, angled right into his abdomen. The guardsman let out a loud cry before falling to the ground. Blood welled onto the floor in a large pool.

"Bloody oafs, what are you doing?" yelled Ser Meryn. "This is just one little girl!"

Taelerys moved back into her fighting stance. "I am no little girl, I am the true dragon."

Ser Meryn sneered. "Then, breathe fire."

"Oh, don't worry, I will." The Targaryen smiled back, pushing a few loose strands of silver hair from her face. The other fallen Kingsguard were starting to get up. Taelerys noticed that Arya was still here watching. Now, she was getting angry that the Stark hadn't left her. Dogs were always loyal, but so were direwolves. Taelerys spun around and yelled at her, "Arya, be gone now!"

"Not without you!" Arya cried back.

"Go!" Taly shouted at her. "Now!"

Sobbing, Arya spun around and ran. She exhaled deeply, hoping Arya would be safe without her. Somehow Taelerys knew that Arya would. She was a fighter unlike her sister Sansa. Taelerys turned back to her own grave situation.

Ser Meryn tried to do an upper cut slash with his sword, but Taelerys twirled around from his cut, moving swiftly across the room like a dancer. He and the other two men tried to gut her but were too slow. She moved quickly around a circular column, causing one of the men to get their sword lodged into it. Taelerys might not be able to kill these men, but maybe she could give Arya some time to escape. Ser Meryn chuckled once, gripping his sword tight. "You sure are quick," he commented.

"You sure are slow," Taelerys retorted.

It was a dance of three swords, all trying to stab and slash the sly dragon at once. Taelerys was a little amazed were herself, that she was able to hold these men off as long as she did. Maybe she needed to give myself a little more credit.

While Taelerys bounced off the knight's blows, she took advantage of their sluggish movements. She slashed one soldier across the neck during that interval of recovery. And the other, right through the chin. Both men slumped dead and bleeding to the floor. On the opposite side of the room stood Ser Meryn Trant.

Taelerys held my sword up to him, a cheeky grin on her face. "No wonder the King died with men like you protecting him," she taunted.
Ser Meryn unbuckled his helmet, before tossing it across the floor. She could see his puggish face and short black hair more clearly now. Along with his stern expression that he always wore.

The Targaryen raised her white eyebrows. "Oh, Ser Meryn actually has a shard of respect now, eh?" she asked. "I'm impressed, Ser Meryn Trash."

Ser Meryn didn't say anything for a moment, already out of breathe. "You're good, I'll give you that, but not good enough."

"Shall we find out?"

Both opponents ran towards each other. Taelerys tried once again to attack Ser Meryn after he had given a powerful strike, but he was smart enough to be on the defensive side. Ser Meryn raised his sword and brought it down. She raised hers, blocking the blow. Their blades were locked tight against each other. Ser Meryn was trying to physically overwhelm her, Taelerys figured out rather quickly. That was her one weakness in this fight. Maybe this oaf wasn't as stupid as the others.

Taelerys had to be sure to exploit his slowness. That was the only way she would win this fight considered Ser Meryn actually had armor while she didn't. Ser Meryn then swung down low at her legs. She was alert enough to draw back, but not fast enough. The blade cut right through the front of her legs. Taelerys stumbled back once, but quicky regained her posture. She could feel the warm blood dripping into her leather shoes. They continued to hack blades at one another. Ser Meryn managed to land a slice on her shoulder, and received stab in his thigh in return. The aggravated knight let out a loud yell, lunging and swinging the sword at her. He was too angry to concentrate now, Taelerys noted. Another weakness to be exploited.

Taelerys stabbed her sword right through his arm. Clean through. The knight let out a loud howl in pain. She quickly withdrew my sword and stabbed him under the armpit. Ser Meryn crumbled before her feet. He was then sprawled out across the floor like his other dead men.
Taelerys was panting heavily, her heart thudding across her chest. The gashes covering her body were starting to sting worse. She then limped out of the Small Keep towards the household. She carefully made her way throughout the courtyard to their home in the Red Keep. Taelerys quickly hid behind the bushes of our garden as a dozen Lannister soldiers ran past.

Once she had made it to the home she shared with the Starks, Taelerys entered quietly with her newly acquired steel sword drawn. Taelerys discovered the members of her household strewn across the floors, deceased and bleeding. As she made her way past the living room, Taelerys was horrified to find the corpses of Mycah's parents lying on the floor. Their bodies were intertwined with each other. She knew at once that Jorge had tried protecting Marieh from the Lannister men that slaughtered them. Taelerys silently prayed that they now rested easy alongside their slain son, Mycah.

She made her way up the stairs to her own chambers. Once there, Taelerys quickly fell to my knees to look under her bed for her belongings. The only belongings that mattered. Taelerys was going to need Blackfyre. She knew that the dragon eggs were useless to my situation, but Taly couldn't bear to leave them behind. They were like her own children.

As she reached for the small chest containing her dragon eggs, a dagger was slammed into her hand. Taelerys was in too much shock to do anything at first. Blood oozed from under the knife. Her body then registered that her hand had been stabbed. Taelerys let out a loud scream in agony, ripping the blade out of her hand.

Someone grabbed her long, silvery hair and threw Taelerys onto her back. It was Ser Meryn Trant, who was barely able to stand from all the injuries he sustained from her earlier. He had taken his armor off but Taelerys wondered how she hadn't heard him. She could see the blood trailing down his chest and armpit. "You cocky little cunt," Ser Meryn growled, disoriented from pain and the blood loss. "You're gonna pay for what you did to me!"

Her head rolled over towards underneath the bed. Right where the seven bottles of wildfire were hidden. Ser Meryn stepped directly over her, before crouching in front of my face. He held the dagger right underneath the Targaryen's chin. "You're going to suffer before I drag you back to the queen!"

"Still want to see me breathe fire?" Taelerys asked, taking advantage of the fact that the knight hadn't bothered to check her other arm. She then grabbed the closest jar of wildfire and slammed it into the side of Ser Meryn's face. The glass jar shattered upon impact. Instantly, the side of the knight's face erupted into green flames, and so did his body. His screams were the most terrible sounds Taelerys had ever heard. The green hue of the fire lit up the room more than any candle ever could. Ser Meryn tried getting up, as if to escape the flames clinging to his body, but collapsed to the ground.

Ser Meryn was dead.

But, the green flames continued to eat away at his demising corpse. The wildfire quickly spread throughout across the floor like black powder everywhere. The walls, the desk, the bed, the ceiling, anywhere and everywhere. It had been nearly eighteen years since Taelerys had last seen wildfire. She covered her face when the green fire roared towards her.

Nothing happened.

She didn't feel the familiar burning sensation that Ser Meryn sure did. Taelerys lowered her arms in awe. Her clothes had burned away. Taelerys was naked with my body completely bathed in the green fire. It didn't take long for the remaining six jars of wildfire to explode from underneath the bed, sending it flying into the air. None of the cursed fires resulting from that hurt the Targaryen at all. The bed was devoured before it could land on her.

Blackfyre was right beside her. There were two loud kabooms as each dragon egg slammed into the remainders of the wooden floor like meteors falling from the sky. No support beams and no debris of the burning mansion fell on Taelerys because there was none. The fires consumed it.

She crawled through the flames, which only felt lukewarm at most against her naked body. Taelerys gathered my dragon eggs, which were unburnt by the wildfire. It was difficult to do with her wounds. She accidentally smudged a pool of blood from her stabbed hand across the scales of her beautiful dragon eggs. The heat beat in the air as Taelerys watched the fire consume everything around her.
Everything that she had loved was gone. Everyone that she had loved was gone too, she guessed.

But she knew for a fact now that no fire could hurt her.

I am the blood of the dragon, I am fire itself.

Taelerys was about to leave when she started to hear voices. It sounded like women and children crying out. She sat there in the green flames, surrounded by her two dragon eggs and tried to listen carefully. She soon realized it was coming from the wildfire.
There was a loud crack, a sound that Taelerys had never heard before.

Only death can pay for life.

And there was a second crack, it was loud and terrifying like the thunder. For a second, she thought my ears would split.

The true dragon has awakened.

The third crack sounded like the world had been split into two.

Fire and blood.

Taelerys immediately felt the warmth dissipate. When she opened her violet eyes, the wildfire was completely gone, along with the house and everything and everyone inside it. She was surprised that it didn't spread throughout the Red Keep. It was nearly impossible to put out wildfire, it could only be used in controlled amounts. Taelerys stood up, naked and covered with soot, with her beautiful silvery hair burnt to a crisp.

She looked at her hands and legs to see that all of the slashes and bleeding wounds that Taelerys had received from Ser Meryn were gone. It wasn't possible. Blackfyre lay in front of her feet. Taelerys reached down for it, when she noticed what looked to be the broken shells of her dragon eggs. The Targaryen picked up a black-and-red colored piece of broken egg shell.

Did the fire destroy them?

There was an unfamiliar trilling sound from behind her. Taelerys turned around to see two baby dragons gazing up at her right by her very own feet. The black-and-red dragon let out a screech. Its sister, the white dragon with sparkling flecks joined in, singing a song to the night that had not been sung for hundreds of years.