65
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188 AC
Harrenhal
Aerion Targaryen
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"Was it really that big?" I ask with no small amount of wonder mixed with a desire to see for myself.
"Big enough to flip a downed tree in our direction making us run back to the ship." Balerion looks unnaturally serious as he recounts the near-death by the 'big monkey'.
"You should have stolen its baby, Mya has been skin-changing and it would be beyond useful to raise one if she could steer its body at command." Mya has a much easier time warging into animals she has warged multiple times and even more so if she started when they still are young.
I can already see an army of giant King Kong gorillas throwing boulders at a castles walls while wearing plate armor over their vital points...
"I didn't stick around after it screamed so loud it made my vision swim, but I can see the appeal." He trails off with a distant look as he looks toward the window, likely imagining the same exact things I was.
"Well even if you did not get any gorillas I am just glad to see you make it back in one piece after being gone to such a dangerous place. There are tens of fatal diseases known to kill visitors and yet you made it back without a scratch." I smile feeling happy and fortunate that he survived, not just because I actually like him but also because Narha and Bellenora would be depressed if he was gone much longer.
Almost once a week or so they would ask me if my network heard anything about him after he had been gone for so long. They did not expect news of his survival but instead had braced to hear he had died in some distant land they will never see with their own eyes. Now that he is back I need to make good on my promise to them and try to tie him down for a few years.
Narha already started that when she started swelling with a babe, not that it was her intention to guilt her brother into staying to be an Uncle to his Nephew or Niece. But it worked anyway and he has been asking about things he can get up to around these parts. I am planning to have him run around to the less documented and explored places around Westeros. There are tons of remote locations with interesting whispers coming from them that I want to poke at and he can also scratch his adventure itch.
"Thanks, Aerion..." He keeps looking around my Solar as if he became ADHD on his trip but it could also be his nerves are tuned high after a dangerous trip like he took.
"No problem, I had a room prepared for you a while back and it is cleaned and ready for you to use if you want to start unwinding. We can talk later about other stuff from your trip, we got nothing but time at this point." He nods and slowly stands with an obvious weight on his shoulders that was never there in the past.
Makes me want to hurry up with my plan to get him married, another knot to tie around his legs to keep him around for longer. In the past, I would fully support his dreams and wholeheartedly support his passion to see the world. But after this trip, I think he needs to stay for at least three to four years to not only plan better this time but really think about his future.
For now, he seems satisfied to stay put here for a time, likely Narha and the babe growing in her playing into that. But it could also be something he has not talked about yet, something might have happened on his trip. I will need more time to get to the center of the mystery of my Half Brothers noticeable unease but I will figure it out. In the meantime, I can get his Sisters to help me set him up with a cutie to try and distract him.
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"I should have guessed." I walk into the 'hatchery' as we have started calling the nursery for the quickly growing brood of babes. "You two certainly love being around the little ones." I comment seeing my Mother and Melissa playing with small toys over the children who are on the ground.
Aemon and Rhaella smiling wide and swinging their arms or kicking their feet as they sit on their little bottoms sitting up all on their own. Their excitement seeing me can actually melt my chest as my heart becomes a furnace but I hold it together as I make my way to the center of the room to sit before them. Visenya incoherently babbles as is expected from my littlest one but I feel some discomfort remembering her condition.
Visenya seems to have actually gotten her Warging from her Mother, kind of funny she herself might have kicked her Moms power into awakening. But Visenya is already doing it and she can hardly control her own body let alone the baby dragon she somehow is able to warg into. Her Targaryen dragon blood lets her bond with her dragon, her Blackwood blood giving her that warging but as the two mixed in her, she can somehow defy what should be possible. There is no story or history of any Valyrian being able to slip into their dragon's skin and breathe fire onto unsuspecting castle walls.
Thank fuck her dragon ran out of fire and passed out, we might have had another fire in Harrenhal if not.
"How is my sweet girl?" I ask focusing back on the twins as they call out in their extremally selective and broken Valyrian.
Words like Kepa and Muna being the first they learned but unfortunately they also picked up Dracarys. It's cute when they have their little wooden dragons and they are playing trying to mimic me on Moonfyre burning the roads I take them around to see me melt. But I knew I goofed when they called for their own growing dragons to burn shit they get mad at.
The cats of Harrenhal will never be the same after that day...
"She is just fine, nothing but a sweet girl all day." My Mother speaks up first as Melissa tickles little Visenyas belly making her kick at her Grandmother.
"Good." I am worried for the future of anyone who dares enrage a girl named after Visenya and can take over her dragon's body for a time.
I can foresee a lot of annoying suitors meeting an early grave, especially if they try their dumb shit when she is not interested. If Visenya is anything like Mya back when those serving boys tried to flirt with her back in the day I pity the men who try to catch her eyes.
...even if they catch her eye they still have to get through me so they have a sheer mountain to climb.
"I think she got scared the last time she did it, I don't think we will see her try again unless it's by accident. She is so young and it's hard to tell but I have seen no hint of her trying to 'slip out of her skin' at any point. She has been just like any other baby, cute and always wanting attention.
I nod at Melissa's words, it's nice to hear her thoughts mirror my hopes, if we are lucky Visenya won't try again until she understands what it is she is doing. But I am curbing my enthusiasm after getting some books from Winterfell about their 'wolf dreams' and they are not encouraging. Sleeping is when 'accidents' happen for wargs in their stories, they get caught up in the emotions and instincts of a wild animal and things go poorly.
Some have even died in their beds, they think if someone stays in the skin of another for too long they get stuck. Becoming a mixture of animal and human and living out their days as an animal but there is no hard evidence. But if that is the case it is interesting for Visenyas future, her very far away future.
If she grows old enough to have a weak and frail body and wants to pass on... she could join her dragon and leave behind her human body. To meld with her lifelong bond and become a dragon and live another hundred years or more. Certainly, if the stories are to be believed and people have done it will a wolf or raven then someone able to warg a dragon could do it as well.
Something interesting to think about, not that I would recommend it to her unless she is critically wounded or sick. It would be something I write down and have passed to her upon my death so if she has not thought of it herself then she has another path to pick from when her own time comes.
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188 AC
Harrenhal
Rhaena Targaryen
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Sinking into the hot waters of the large open bath with my sisters already resting inside of the steaming pool I let out a sigh. I reach for the basket I brought with my own 'face mask' that Aerion started having set up inside of the private baths. I appreciate he had a side tunnel made to directly head back to the main 'Kings Tower' shortening the trip back after relaxing and making it much more private. Now I can fully relax and be able to head back to my room without being bothered by others other than a few servants that quickly clear out of the way.
"Let me help." Elaena slips to my slide slowly, small ripples made through the water as she heads toward me.
I smile as she sits beside me on the small cut-out stone bench built into the wall, not the most comfortable on my rear but the padding on the back rest is nice. Elaena takes the small bowl of green slime and starts rubbing it onto her hand before smearing it on my face. I close my eyes and let her carefully work as the smell fills my nose.
The only thing I feel other than her hands made cold from the slime is her warm belly, an extended belly as of late. Something I can't help but want to sigh once more as it rubs against my side as she works on smearing the mask on good. I want to say something but I can't as I know it makes her happy so I keep my mouth quiet.
Numbers and getting her back 'blown out' as she so crudely put it the other night are the things that make her happiest.
"There, now put these on your eyes." She pulls her own basket over and holds out two slices of cucumber making me raise a sticky eyebrow. "I don't know, Aerion said it helps and it blocks the light so Me and Daena both did it." She points to Daena whom I am almost certain passed out in the water, luckily her own swelling belly helping to keep her afloat.
"Should we wake her?" I ask and get a snort in response from Elaena who starts to shake her head and puts her own sliced cucumber back onto her eyes.
"She floats." She chuckles lowly and I can't help but join until I hear movement.
"I heard that." Daena speaks up with a grumble before she seems to go slack once more drifting off into blissful sleep.
I shake my head helplessly before leaning back onto the padding behind me and relaxing my body into the steaming water.
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A/N: Time skip coming, I am just setting up some stuff before the jump, I want some young dragon riders... Got to put that 'Son of the Unworthy' into action by filling the sky with dragons.