83
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207 AC
Dragonstone
Aerion Targaryen
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"If you would stop!" Vaegon shouts with a very dissatisfied tone toward Silk the youngest of the claimed dragons as the younger dragon flies off with the fish he just caught. "Do something, Father!" He turns to me with a pout and I shrug as I wave my hands around at the entire hoard of dragons surrounding us.
"There is a reason they followed us to the beach... and it's not just so the commoners can come and admire them. These greedy scaled beasts are here to snap up any fish we manage to pull ashore." Vaegon glares as he looks around at over twelve dragons that followed us to the beach.
"It's tradition at this point." Tessarion carefully pulls his fresh catch ashore and nearly throws himself between an incoming dragon and the flopping redfish. ""Fuck off!"" I snort and shake my head as the solid red dragon roars at my Son before getting angry and using its tail to throw a wall of sand at my boy before it pushes off the ground and returns to the sky.
"You should know better than to test Satan." Tyraxes chastises his Brother as he watches the most violent dragon alive angrily fly away. "I will never understand how that dragon turned out that way when his rider is so softspoken..." I myself watch the unruly dragon with curiosity as it avoids flying into the flight path of Drogon who has more than once knocked the little shit around.
It reminds me of when I have to throw one of my children around because they are being arrogant little fucks... sometimes a Father has to do what a Father has to do.
"He has the same mentality of trying to prove himself that Verion has, he will outgrow it." Rhaegar who is avoiding his Mother speaks up while trying to help Vaegon rebait his hook.
"Wait." Tessarion who just managed to brush himself off of all the sand looks around in confusion. "That was Satan?!" Seeing multiple nods his jaw drops a bit as he looks toward his own mount in the distance that is napping away. "I thought it was Meleys..." He mutters as he looks down at his hands.
I feel a tug on my line and set the hook quickly once I know the fish has swallowed the bait. Standing up a bit too fast Maegor tumbles from my lap with a shout and it seems he must have been warging as he is rapidly blinking with milky eyes.
"Come on and stand up." I nudge him with my foot knowing he was not hurt too bad and if I just do not acknowledge he fell he will quickly brush it off.
""What is it?"" He grumbles before seeing I am trying to hand him my rod and he quickly smiles before taking it for himself.
I ruffle his short hair as I stand behind him with my other hand on his shoulder helping him stand steady as he fights the fish on the end of the line. My eyes however are quickly brought to the various hungry looks of dragons far too large to even be worried about such a small meal. I narrow my eyes at Princess a pink-bodied and white-winged dragon who is ridden by Daenys. The curved-horned dragon slowly climbs over the beach like a lioness stalking its prey and it even raises its hips a little like it's going to pounce overtop of the dock.
I shake my head before looking over to my own bonded partner who lazily watches her Daughter with what looks like disappointment in her eyes. Moonfyre has seen war and hunted mammoths that can even somewhat fight back when there are no flames involved. To see one of her hatchlings try and steal a fish that is already hooked and 'easy' to get... it must disappoint her greatly.
But before the fish is dragged out of the water Drogon lands on the beach and most of the young dragons scatter as he sends sand in all directions with his mighty wings. I even have to hold onto my Son a little tighter as a powerful gust nearly takes his legs out from under him as all his concentration is on the rod in his hands.
"Fuck it got in my eyes!" Viserys shouts and curses as he rubs his eyes beside me, his wine spills all over his pants and he kicks the cup in frustration. ""You big brute! That was Arbor Gold that I bought with my own funds!"" Viserys quickly shouts at Drogon who completely ignores him as he slowly drags himself across the sandy beach using it to clean his scales after he took a trip into the dirty caves around the Dragonmont.
Moonfyre loudly trills and Drogon returns an equally as happy chirping sound that he only makes when she is around. Even Danny gets jealous at how happy Moonfyre can make Drogon but I just tell her she is the same way, she likes to ride Drogon but we both know she would rather ride me.
It's just the way things are.
"I got it! Hahaha!" Maegor happily shouts, he almost seems to not notice he is peppered in volcanic sand and looks goofy. "It's a big one." He proudly lifts his fish up after dropping the rod and turns with a smile that is missing a few teeth and lifts the fish higher.
"Good job, I am proud of you." I step forward and grab the fish as it thrashes in his hands and begin the process of showing him how to hold the fins down so he can get the hook out.
Ocean fish are a whole lot sharper than the smooth catfish we catch in the God's Eye... minus the whiskers that sting like a wasp.
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207 AC
Dragonstone
Daenerys Targaryen
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"He took the boys fishing?" Mother asks from the bed and even coughs a bit leading me to reach for her cup of water.
"Yes, I wanted to have the girls visit with you before we left." I feel a pang in my heart as my Mother in this life takes the cup and sips some before handing it back with a tremor in her hand.
She is not too much older than Daena and Elaena but she has been put through a whole lot worse than they ever suffered. She did not have it as bad as my first Mother but she still had it pretty bad and I know she won't be around much longer. Aerion seemed to want to convert her to R'hllor and have her become a red priest to hopefully extend her lifespan... but we both talked it out and came to the conclusion that she would no longer be herself if he could even convince her to try it.
Not only does she follow the faith of the seven but she is just not the kind of person to pursue magic to extend her time in this world anyway.
"I am happy you brought them to see me, but I still would like to see my Grandsons as well." She sternly voices her desire and I can't help but smile and nod as I drag Alyssa out from behind me to stand beside the bed.
Alyssa is a sweet girl, mischievous as a hatchling, but still a very sweet girl and she hates seeing people suffering. She can tell that this very well might be the last time she is going to see her Grandmother and even if they have not talked much in the past years because of the world freezing over she still loves her. I know that when Alyssa went out to melt the snow around Kingslanding she ended up sneaking a trip out to Dragonstone and stayed the night with her Grandmother. They are closer than most of the youngest are, unlike the older children who grew up with their Grandmother around, the youngest rarely saw her.
""You won't come with us?"" Alyssa asks while looking down at the ground and twisting herself back and forth making her dress sway one way and then another.
I roll my eyes at the back of my daughter's head knowing she is trying to get her way.
""I can't, at least not until I get better... if I get better."" Naerys Targaryen almost seems full of life for a moment as she reaches out to take Alyssa's hand and even leans the other way to grab Serenei's hand as well.
Serenei widens her green eyes and I can better see the streaks of blue and purple almost like ribbons hidden within the emerald eyes. Serenei is likely one of the children who has seen the least of her Grandmother, Shiera always felt out of place around my Mother. Mother cared not for my father's infidelity and did not hold it against Shiera but that did not change the way she felt.
Gaemon has spent a lot of time with his only living Grandparent so it's not as if Shiera purposefully avoided letting them see her. But it's still a tragedy that Serenei, Vaegon, and Nerah have not spent more time with their only Grandparent.
"Let me help her up." I smile at Shiera as I take Nerah from her and she nods with a thankful look as I carry the four-name-day-old girl over to the bed.
""How are you little one?"" I set Nerah down and look toward Bellenora and Narha who are also standing at the side seemingly not knowing if they should jump in on the 'action'.
I meet eyes with Narha and jerk my head to the side a few times and she rolls her eyes with a smile growing as she nudges her Sister. They both mimic me and step forward depositing their young Daughters onto the bed, Syrella and Ariel look uncertain but seemingly draw courage from Nerah and shuffle closer to her on the bed.
Stepping back and letting the older girls move toward the bed to join the younger ones I smile as I look at a mob of silver-haired children. Each seems to have something they want to tell their Grandmother and the woman herself seems more full of life as she smiles and reaches out for each of them.
I nod happily while starting to plan how I will show the boys to her without any of them dicking around and knocking something over. The rough and tumble boys will have to be knocked around a bit before I bring them into this room. I am certain I can get Aerion to slap them around a bit to prepare them to behave but I also know that the boys are quickly learning how to team up on him.
It won't be long before they are slapping him around when he tries to knock some sense into them, he will have to use strategy and target them when they are alone. The last time I saw Viserys go for the back of his father's legs while Rhaegar tackled him from the front they nearly put Aerion on his ass. If Aemon was not distracted with Visenya smacking at him with a wooden sword then they likely would have taken their Father out that day... I could not be prouder.
"Think we could just slip her onto the ship anyway?" Shiera asks from beside me as she looks sadly at the girls talking with their Grandmother. "... if we gave her some Sweetsleep we could transfer her onto the ship without her even knowing." I huff and shake my head as I bump my hip against the woman who keeps teaching bad habits to the children.
"That or the Sweetsleep will be her last sleep." I feel another pang knowing after we leave that we likely will not be seeing this woman alive ever again.
...I hope that when she does pass she will also get a second chance if that is what she wants, I know I am grateful and feel blessed for the one I have been given.