Chapter 1

NOTE: I do not own this story

Chapter 1: 1800 words

Tyrion Lannister and Oberyn Martell were on their way to the throne room from the city streets of King's Landing, Tyrion having just pulled Oberyn away from a potential bar fight with two soldiers from his father's army.

"The last time I was in the capitol was for another wedding" Oberyn said to Tyrion. "My sister Elia and Rhaegar Targaryen. My sister loved him, bore his children, fed them at her own breast. She wouldn't let a wet nurse touch them. And beautiful, noble Rhaegar Targaryen, left her for another woman."

"My prince and lord." The voice that called out to them interrupted their conversation. Both men turned to see a Lannister guard running up to them. "My apologies, but both of you are to report to the throne room."

"I'll greet Tywin when I'm ready too" Oberyn had told the messenger.

"No, my prince" the messenger replied. "King Joffrey has called all members of the council and all the nobility currently in the city to meet in the throne room."

"Did my nephew bother to say what this is about?" Tyrion asked.

"No sir, but I do know that three visitors arrived at the keep and said they were to deliver a message to the people of the city."

For reasons he couldn't fathom, this made Tyrion feel a sense of unease, making it the latest in a series of mysterious premonition-like feelings that had plagued him lately. These feelings started a few months after the red wedding. The thought of that atrocity still made him angry, despite the fact that it had dealt with an enemy of the family.

Robb Stark, the proclaimed King in the North, had been fighting a war against the Lannisters in response to the murder of his father by his idiot nephew Joffrey. To the surprise of the entire realm, Robb Stark managed to smash every army that was fielded against him (at least when he was leading the northern forces). However, Tyrion's father Twyin learned that Robb had broken a marriage agreement with the Freys of the Twins to wed someone else. His father saw an opportunity, and arranged for Robb and his army to be betrayed and massacred by the Freys and Boltons, one of Stark's vassal houses. The betrayal took place at the Twins during a wedding and saw the deaths of Robb, his wife and mother, as well as the majority of his army.

Tyrion had been absolutely disgusted when he found out about this. Yes, they had been at war and cheating in times of war was something he supported. But to arrange for people to be slaughtered at a wedding, under the protection of guest right, was sacrilegious. Tywin had justified it by saying it was to stop the war, to protect the family, but Tyrion could tell it was equally about getting revenge on the Starks, who had humiliated the Lannisters time and again during the war. To cap it all off, Sansa Stark, Robb's sister, was still being held in the city. She was devastated upon hearing the events that took place, and Tyrion, as her husband (the two having been forcefully married by Tywin), held great sympathy for her.

Still, whatever the reason for these ill feelings, Tyrion had pushed them aside whenever they came. He'd deal with it when it arrived.

Little did he realize, he was about to learn the source of these horrid feelings.

Arriving in the throne room, Tyrion saw the rest of his family near the Iron Throne before a crowd that half filled the room. Cersei, his ill-tempered and slightly unhinged sister, was sitting to the right of the throne that her inbred son Joffrey occupied while his father stood in front of them. On the left was his brother Jaime, standing guard as a member of the kingsguard should. Tyrion also noticed that Sansa and Margery Tyrell, Joffrey's future queen, were also present among the crowd of nobility, as was Margery's grandmother Olenna. The crowd was split to the left and right of the room while three hooded figures stood before the royal family. Tyrion could only guess these were the messengers.

Tyrion marched right to his family while Oberyn joined his paramour Ellaria in the crowd. His father gave him an irritated look, as if he felt Tyrion had deliberately delayed himself getting there.

"Now then," Tywin spoke, "perhaps you can give us this message you claim to have for us. However I demand you remove your hoods and cloaks first."

The first of the three figures stepped forward. "Y-yes si-sir" he stuttered. It was clear that something had terrified this man. All three men pulled their hoods back, and the sight caused many in the crowd to gasp and reel from them.

Parts of their faces were deformed by dark blue blotches. They looked like bruises but much, much worse. Tyrion looked on in shock. Frostbite, he realized.

The three men than removed their cloaks, showing they were wearing the armor and symbol of guards from House Frey of the Twins. The leader was the one who did the talking. "My name is Damian Rivers. Like my companions, we were part of Lord Walder Frey's forces."

"Were part of" Jaime inquired.

"Yes. House Frey no longer has a need for soldiers or guards. They have been rendered extinct."

The man's words set off a chorus of talk throughout the throne room. House Frey, extinct? They had just been promoted to the great house of the riverlands by Tywin, same as the Boltons were now the wardens of the north.

"Extinct?!" Cersei exclaimed from her seat next to Joffrey. "House Frey had over a hundred members!"

"Yes my lady" the Frey guard responded. "They are all dead now. And there is more."

The horror continued as one of the other men produced a sack and dumped its contents onto the floor. Many more gasps were heard throughout the room when the contents of the bag were revealed to be blocks of ice that contained severed heads. Upon getting a closer look, Tyrion realized they were the heads of Walder Frey, Roose Bolton and his son Ramsay Show. What could've done something like this?

"How did this happen?" Tywin inquired, his voice having a slightly apprehensive tone.

"Well sir, it happened about two weeks ago. I was just waking up when I heard the warning bells of the barracks go off. I quickly dawned my armor and ran for the outside... only to be hit by a wave of sheer cold."

"Sheer cold" Joffrey scoffed.

"Yes" the man replied. "Once I recovered from the shock, I saw what had caused it: a massive wall of ice, with at least thirty of my fellow guards frozen in it. I looked on in horror, until I heard a roar from above me. I looked up and saw..."

"Yes" Tyrion asked.

"I saw a huge dragon. It was circling the entirety of the Twins breathing dragonfire, but it wasn't burning anything. This dragon's breath was what was freezing everything."

This news restarted the talking around the room. Tywin was actually looking nervous. Yes, that sounded like an insane story, but there were three men with horrendous frostbite standing before them. When no one commented to him, the guard continued.

"The dragon stopped once it had created a wall of ice around the entirety of the Twins, including the river underneath the bridge. At that point, the dragon landed in the main courtyard, and about thirty men descended from the creature's back. They appeared to be wildlings from beyond the wall. The men went on a rampage, killing any guard that tried to stop them and rounding up all the inhabitants of the Twins."

Wildlings and ice dragons?! Tyrion could hardly believe this.

"Our soldiers began throwing down their weapons when it became obvious they couldn't win. Soon, the entire residential populations of the Twins were gathered in the courtyard. The leader had Walder Frey dragged before him and whispered something in his ear. Whatever it was terrified Lord Frey and he immediately started begging for mercy, but the leader began beating him. While this was going on, the wildlings separated the smallfolk from the nobility and soldiers, herding them into some of the nearby buildings. They were joined by the women, children and elderly of the Freys. Once this was done, the leader stopped torturing Lord Frey and forced him to look towards the buildings. He shouted out to the dragon, and... and... it engulfed the buildings with its breath. By the time it was finished, the buildings had been reduced to frozen rubble."

No talk was being shared amongst the crowd now. Tyrion felt horrified. These wildlings had slaughtered the entire population of the Twins. Men, women and children.

"After the dragon stood down, the wildlings' leader nodded towards his men, and they proceeded to brutally slaughter all the male Frey's who were still present. The leader saved Lord Frey for last."

"How is it that you three are still alive?" Tywin asked, sounding slightly frightened by the story.

"I don't know why we were chosen, my lord. But the leader said he needed witnesses to tell the story of what had happened. He then wrote a letter and told the royal family here in King's Landing."

At this, the guard reached into his robe and pulled out the letter. Tywin walked over, took it, unsealed it, and read to the entire room.

[To Joffrey Waters, the bastard king of House Lannister,

I hereby offer you these terms of surrender in the war that your grandfather started by massacring my family.

First, my sister Sansa Stark is to be returned home alive and unharmed. Her marriage is to be annulled as I know she was forced into it against her will.

Second, you are to step down from the iron throne, for not only are you a usurper of my birthright but also the product of the affair between your mother and uncle the kingslayer.

Third and lastly, you are to have your grandfather Tywin Lannister put to death and his head sent to Winterfell. This is to be his punishment for the crimes he committed against my mother's co-wife and children as well as orchestrating the red wedding. It is also meant to be your punishment for murdering the man who raised me as his own son.

You have two months to comply with these demands. If they are not met, or if you or any of your vassals take any further action against me or my people, my dragon and I will take flight yet again, and King's Landing and all its people will suffer the fate that befell the Twins.

Jaehaerys Targaryen, son of Rhaegar and Lyanna, King in the North, rightful heir to the iron throne, Rider of the ice dragon.]