8 Dragon Dreams

Note: If you don't care about Jon's childhood and Flashbacks and want to get straight to where Jon learns the Truth. I would suggest skipping to Chapter 25 (The Truth).

Jon Sand

'She pleaded with the King to allow her and her children to leave the Red Keep and return to Dorne where she would be safe, but he was too far gone in his madness that he struck her, shouting that she would remain here and that they would share the same fate. She knew she and her children were now hostages, secured within the Red Keep to ensure Doran would fight for the royalists and not join the rebel cause.

She wished she had someone here. There was Ser Jaime, but his time was often spent next to Aerys, also a hostage against his father. She liked Ser Jaime; he had very little of his father's ruthlessness. He was essentially a boy still and wanted to do what was right.

Rhaenys adored him, and in turn, he smiled when she approached him, but even the constant company of Ser Jaime would not be enough.

She wanted her friend here. Ashara was safe at Starfall, but the selfish part of her wished her friend would put herself in danger and return here so she would not feel alone. She didn't honestly wish it, she wanted her friend safe, but she longed to laugh and joke with her. But She knew she would not come.

Most of all, she prayed for the day that Oberyn would knock on her door and take her and the children back to Sunspear. She missed her brother more than anyone and would do anything to see his face right now. But despite all her praying, he never came, and any letter he wrote she suspected was destroyed before it reached her.

Instead, she spent most of her time curled up sobbing on her bed, Aegon in her arms and Rhaenys clutching her side. Her darling girl had taken the loss of her father badly, crying for him for hours. Balerion, the cat, could not even cheer her daughter up. So She sat and prayed that her children would not suffer any more heartache, that they would be safe, but knowing how close Robert Baratheon was, she suspected they would soon be in danger, and the thought turned her stomach.

Please, she prayed. If I die, so be it. But let my children remain safe.

The city fell in hours, and She heard the screaming from outside. Fires rose from houses, and it made her sick to imagine what the men, women and children were going through down there.

She remained in her room the entire time, confident that the Red Keep would hold for a while longer. Both her babes had been crying since the screams from outside had started, and she did not know how to soothe them. She simply closed the window and told them a story, trying to calm them down.

"Mama, why you cry? Bad men come for us?" Her daughter was so innocent that she couldn't bear to tell her the truth. She was so young, she did not deserve to hear what may happen.

Why?

"Of course not, my love. Ser Jaime will protect you, remember how much he loves you." Rhaenys smiled at that, and She continued, wanting to see the precious smile as much as she could. "And do you really think Uncle Oberyn would ever allow anyone to hurt us?" Rhaenys shook her head, and She held her tightly, and she remained with her daughter in her arms for hours.

Eventually, She knew that the Lannisters had made it to the Red Keep. The guards would put up a fight, but against the might of the Westerlands, she knew it was over; there was no hope. Her hope that even Ser Jaime would help them was now over, it was his father who had sacked the city, and she doubted he would turn against him.

No

Then she heard it. The unmistakable sound of soldiers approaching her door. She grabbed a knife from the side, standing protectively in front of them, hoping that at least some of the things Oberyn had taught her would be useful now. She would fight anyone to protect the two people behind her, and she would fight until she was dead.

No, No

Rhaenys escaped her mother's grasp and left the room. She was sure she would find her father in his solar.

"Our", a voice echoed.

No, No, Nooo

When the men burst through the door, She's knife was promptly hit to the ground by the tallest man she had ever seen.

Nonononono

She felt her vision blur, her mouth opened and screamed, her baby boy grabbed by...

"Noooooooooooooo", his scream echoed through his bedchamber and beyond, his eyes immediately searching around the darkness of his room as cold tears roamed down his cheek, his breath on his throat, his heart beating like a hammer.

He felt the darkness surrounding him like a cold blanket; he hugged his legs tightly, praying for his father, sisters, anyone.

He closed his eyes tightly as the door was slammed open; another scream escaped his throat, seeing the evil man had come for him.

He started kicking the air everywhere around him, his hands covering his face.

"Please no, Please No", Jon pleaded over and over again. No, I don't want to leave my sisters, he thought.

"Jon, Jon is me, is me, your father" a pair of hands made him look up and see his father looking at him concerned.

Jon, for a second, didn't believe his eyes before hugging him and crying as his hands didn't want his father to leave him.

Oberyn said nothing and just stroked his dark hair, hoping to calm him down.

"It was a dream, it was a dream", Oberyn repeated in his ear; Jon kept crying on his shoulder, soon his muscles relaxed, the door opened again, revealing Ellaria behind her with his daughters.

"Jon, what's wrong?" Nym asked, immediately moving close to him.

"It was just a bad dream", Oberyn responded instead of Jon, who still looked slightly scared of the nightmare.

Soon Jon relaxed and was lying on his bed; his eyes would look on Oberyn and Nym to see if they were still here.

The Dornish prince put his hand on his shoulder. "You're safe, it was only a nightmare", he whispered warmly; Jon said nothing but just nodded his head.

"What did you see?" Tyene asked, earning a glare from Obara and Ellaria.

The answer was stuck in his throat, he wanted to say it, but he didn't want to remember it. His mouth opened slightly, but no words came out, his eyes puffy and red; he closed his mouth again.

Jon didn't want to upset his father; he knew from the guards' stories and what Obara told him about who was Rhaenys; Jon could still see her dark hair and the silver head of Aegon, his hair visible before his eyes.

The mention of Elia was still a bitter discussion in Dorne; a year ago, Jon had heard soldiers, servants and workers sometimes discussing Aunt Elia, many times asking each other in hushed voices 'When will Prince Doran kill the Stag?' 'Will Prince Oberyn poison The Lions?'.

Jon had asked Obara and Ari the following day about it, they both explained what had happened in King's Landing.

"I saw ... a monster man, he ... was the tallest man ever, he did something to a baby and a woman", Jon responded, without mentioning names; he didn't want his father to get sad.

Oberyn listened to him and couldn't help but think of Ser Gregor Clegane, a big man who harmed a woman and a baby. Oberyn knew that both Ser Armor and The Mountain had been the ones ordered to kill his sister and her children.

He stood up and avoided everyone's eyes as a flash of rage fell on him like a rock, his hands clenched tightly as he calmed himself down. Turning to Jon, he put his hand on his forehead.

"It was nothing Jon, don't worry," Oberyn said warmly and kissed his forehead.

"I will sleep with you", Nym stated suddenly as she was lying on the bed close to Jon. Oberyn smiled warmly at them before leaving the bedchamber.

Jon saw his father leave and thought if he was angry with him; he knew his father didn't like to mention anything about Aunt Elia or her children.

Soon the young prince fell asleep; Nym whispered that she would protect him from the big bad man. Jon smiled, and his dreams took him somewhere he had never been before.

' "There"s birdsong; not the sound of yellow birds cawing, like Jon often hears when the birds come to and from the castle with their scrolls. These sounds are like the birds he hears in the morning, chirping in the trees and fluttering past the castle windows. He spots a bright green one on a low hanging branch of the strange tree. It whistles gently in its pretty little song and takes to the sky, soaring up and over the house.

Jon can hardly follow it, what with the house and the tall walls being in the way, but he still tries. He climbs up the steps towards the red door and reaches up to grasp its dark, wooden handle. When his fingers are mere inches from it, a loud, muffled shriek of rage comes from somewhere inside the house.

"You've done it- you've done it. You've woken it, sweet sister. Do you know what that means? Do you?"

It's a boy's voice, an older boy. Jon freezes, instantly reminded of the cook's angry voice when he and Obara steal little cakes from the kitchens. Somehow, this boy sounds far angrier.

"Where are you? Where are you?" the voice howls, high pitched with fury. "You have woken the dragon, sister!"

He's looking for his sister; Jon has sisters, too, Tyene, Nym and Obara. He can't imagine shouting at them like that. He doesn't believe he could ever be so angry at any of them or at anyone, the way the older boy on the other side of the door is with his sister.

The next time the voice speaks up, it sounds quieter. The owner of the voice hasn't calmed down, but he is somewhere further away. Jon wonders if it might be safe to go inside the house. Maybe he should help look for the other boy's sister; after all, he wouldn't like it very much if Nymeria went missing, Tye or Obara.

On the other hand, he doesn't want to meet the angry boy inside the house; he doesn't sound very nice. But he isn't as close as he was before, and maybe, if Jon is as quiet as he and Obara have to be when they sneak into the kitchens, he won't get caught.

In the end, curiosity wins over, and Jon reaches out for the door handle again.

"No!" a small voice calls out from behind him.

Jon turns around with a bit of jump. A pale girl in a lilac dress comes from behind the tree, stepping out beside the edge of the pond, watching him in alarm. She says something else in words Jon doesn't understand, and when he squints in confusion, she continues with words he recognises.

"You can't open the door," the girl says, folding her arms. "You mustn't."

She is young, even smaller than Jon, though not by much. Jon would likely reply if he could, only he never really talks to other children, and he is rather distracted by... her.

It just about reaches her shoulders in smooth, silvery gold locks, so light that it almost seems white. Jon has seen white hair before on the heads of the elderly, but this is something else entirely. The girl is far from old, and the way the sunlight gleams off it when she steps out from the shadow of the tree shines in away Jon has never seen before.

"The door has to stay closed," the girl says. Her voice wobbles when she speaks like she's uncertain of her own words.

"Why?" Jon finally manages to say.

The girl peers behind him at the red door then takes a tentative step forwards. She begins speaking in another tongue again before words Jon knows to slip out in the same breath. "I close it at night," she says, but although Jon understands what she is saying now, he is still puzzled. It's not night, not even close- even if he is wearing his bedchamber clothes.

When the girl reaches the steps, she climbs up rather slowly, almost as if she's hesitant to come any closer to him. Jon is confused until he wonders if maybe she's afraid of the door, not him. Or rather, what's behind the door.

It doesn't occur to him that she is the little sister the boy inside the house is looking for. He is too young to put it together correctly, and he is still somewhat mesmerised by her hair.

She, too, seems to be a little too young to ask an obvious question, such as why and how Jon is in her garden. She merely stares at him when she reaches the top of the steps, and he stares right back.

"It's bad inside," she says, "so the door is closed."

"Oh," Jon says, not really understanding at all.

"Do you want to play?" '

Alyanna Stark

' Her legs took as far as she could reach; the frozen land below her pawn felt as cold as the coldest night of Dorne. Colder, but she didn't feel any of it. The snow was deep beneath her, but that didn't bother her to walk forward, her nose picking on the scent around her. She felt fearless. She felt Free.

It was a deer, it had to be; her tongue licked her mouth at the fresh meat waiting for her ahead of the trees, her eyes searching far and beyond, her body lowered and her feet moving slower as her silver eyes found the small deer eating fresh grass, the scent of the frozen sea was around the air.

Sometimes the weird people with strange animal clothes would come to catch fish with long spears, bows and arrows. It was the warmest part of the land; the fish and animals of the land mostly stayed near the coast. The fresh grass and plant mostly grew here.

Aly felt the snow touching her lower body as her eyes found the deer eating grass; the small deer stayed close by.

She moved closer, her white fur covered her, as she stood slightly covered behind a tree, she took a deep breath before her body moved as fast as an arrow, the prey started running; she soon reached as he was slower than her mother, her sharp teeth deep in his throat as the blood-covered her mouth, her fangs holding it down, as his legs moved around in instinct still trying to run away.

Her teeth bite deep in the throat as the deer leaves out his final breath.

Her teeth opened up the prey, the fresh and warm meat in her mouth testing better than everything else before. '

Aly's eyes opened in the middle of the night, the smell of meat and blood still fresh in her mouth; moving her tongue around, she felt like she still had blood in her mouth.

Her hand moved to her mouth but saw no blood; her eyes caught the darkness around her room showered by the light of the full moon, a large window letting the light of the moon in, the window led to the balcony of her bedchamber.

"Where are you, White Snow?" Aly asked quietly, she would want to meet her wolf she had known her wolf for a long time, she couldn't remember the first time she met him, she closed her eyes again, hoping to see her friend again, even if she wasn't real, the thought of running around as freely as White Snow always brought a smile to her face.

Closing her eyes, she prayed to the old gods to see White Snow again.

Tomorrow

The morning came, Aly opened her eyes, her hands in front of her covering her eyes from the burst of light in front of her room, the sun always smiled for her in the morning, and during the night, the moon told her stories of Wolves and People far away from here.

Her violet eyes found her clothes hanging in the armchair near a table mirror close to her bed. On the table were different dresses, but her eyes were set only on one dress.

A sly smile spread on her face, her small hand, held the white dress, with blue decorations around the arms, around her chest was decorated the symbol of a blue wolf, she smiled wildly.

While wearing it, she heard a knock on the door, turning her head towards the door, as she tried to put her left arm in the dress.

"Come in", Aly called; while putting on her other arm, the door opened to reveal her mother wearing a deep purple dress; she smiled brightly seeing her daughter.

"Good morning mom," Aly said, smiling brightly, her face long, her violet eyes brighter than her mother's, small nose, long dark hair that reached her middle back.

Her mother would always tell her to keep her hair shorter, but she liked long; she wanted her hair to dance with the wind.

Around her neck was a necklace that held a wolf head; Aly always loved wolves, from the first time she had a dream about wolves, from that moment, she couldn't wait until she saw one.

"You look beautiful Aly", Her mother complimented her; Aly's heart warmed at her mother's compliment.

"Thank you mother," she said as she followed her mother outside.

Her mother had told her that today they would leave for Sunspear; Prince Oberyn had invited them for his son's birthday, Jon Sand.

Aly found the northern name strange for a dornish but didn't mind; she couldn't help but feel nervous at the prospect of meeting Prince Doran Martell and Prince Oberyn; she felt her heart beating in her throat just the thought of saying something or doing something not good.

She knew her name was 'Stark', a member of House Stark from The North, but it hadn't taken long for Aly to hear numerous whispers behind her back.

Bastard, Northern bastard, A wolf, Aly had asked her mother why people hated the wolves and The North.

Her mother told her about Robert's rebellion and how The North had supported Robert Baratheon, resulting in the death of Princess Elia Martell and her children.

Aly had nodded in understanding; she understood why Dorne didn't like her.

Aly still remembered when her mother talked about her father a year ago.

' Aly was playing with her friend, Tanoja; she was the daughter of the guards' commander in Starfall.

Aly would usually talk about dresses with her; the young Stark always liked to change the subject about different places and animals, asking what type of animals she wanted and what places she would like to visit.

Tanoja would always answer that she would like to visit Sunspear and meet Prince Quentyn; she described him as a handsome prince with dark hair and strong. Aly usually just went along with it; sadly, Tanoja didn't like to talk or didn't care to talk about the North or wolves.

"Lady Alyanna, your mother requests your presence in her chambers" a soldier came in front of them; he held a large spear with his left hand, a massive gash on his right shoulder visible through his thin clothes that didn't cover his chest. His name was Ramo.

"Tomorrow we can play," Aly said, and her friend nodded in agreement. Walking away, followed closely by her soldier, she couldn't help but feel small; as her feet walked her through the corridor, servants who were doing their jobs would stop working whenever she passed by.

Sometimes they would point fingers behind her back, making her scared of what they wanted.

If Only I could be a wolf, Aly told herself, she was always fearless in her dreams, and she was free and in The North, where the snow fell, and the white wind blows, she and her wolf alone to travel everywhere.

She escaped her thoughts as she heard. "Bastard Wolf" she heard the word again; Aly had asked Tanoja what it meant since her mother had changed the subject.

She told her that bastards were when the parents were not married in the eyes of the gods.

Aly had noticed that the last time a servant called her a bastard, the servant had left the castle the following day.

Aly reached her mother's chamber and found her mother resting on the bed.

"Mother", Aly called, and her mother stood up and hugged her tiny body, giving her little face kisses everywhere.

"Stop it mother, you know I don't like it", Aly screamed out, moving her arms around and trying to move away. Her mother laughed pointed a finger to sit near her.

"Mother, who's my father?" Aly asked first, knowing that her father was a Stark, but she wasn't living with them. Did he not love them, or perhaps he was ashamed that he had a child with a dornish?

Ashara sighed and avoided her daughter's eyes, every time she looked at her daughter, it reminded her of Ned; she wondered how he was. Ned still sends her letters every month, telling him how he is, the last letter promising to visit for Aly's fifth name day, Asha of course, knew that wouldn't happen.

He was the lord of the whole North, not just Winterfell; he needed to be there, and not mentioning going to Starfall from Winterfell would take months even with a ship.

Looking at her daughter again, she told her everything she could about Ned, how good of a person he is, and that he loved them dearly.

But then Aly asked something that broke her heart. "Does he hate us? Does he hate me because I'm a bastard?" Aly asked, tears rolling down her cheek, her cheek red, but Ashara hugged her daughter.

"No, my sweet, your dada loves you more than anything. Don't ever think that he doesn't love you," Ashara whispered in her ear.'

From that day, Aly wanted to visit the North more than anything else. And to see her father, she wondered if she could meet him when she was a wolf, would she recognise him. Would he?

"Aly, today we will leave for Starfall, remember to always call them 'prince' and don't be disrespectful," Her mother told her with a slightly strict tone.

"Mother, do you think I can make friends there?" Aly asked with hope in her eyes; while she liked Tanoja, she wanted friends similar to her. She also loved her family, except Gerold 'Darkstar' Dayne, who always loved to brag about his non-existent deeds.

Her mother smiled warmly and kissed her forehead.

"I'm sure you will make good friends", Her mother responded with confidence.

Aly smiled back, and her mind went to White Snow, "Where are you, my friend?".