Baby Steps

Kael slept like he never slept before, during the whole night he felt like he was floating in the clouds.

Suddenly he felt something like a push and his eyes went wide, strangely he was not in his bedroom back in Valyria, no, he was in a dreary place, a huge hall.

This hall was the biggest place he had ever seen, the walls were made of weird looking black stone that made it look evil and imposing, but at the same time gave him a faint familiar feeling, a feeling that he felt once he looked outside the balcony of his tower in Valyria, the familiar fused black stone.

He walked around the deserted hall, there was absolutely no furniture, and the whole place was empty except there were a few interesting statues made of greasy black stone.

The first one was the statue of a toad, a toad that reminded him of certain old animes he once saw, but it was not anything anime-like though it was obviously reminiscent of Asian culture. The black toad was just sitting there, but the one small detail that he saw was a faint thick green liquid slowly dripping from the toad's mouth.

The second statue was even weirder as this one was a rectangular block of carved black stone, without much detail on it other than a faint blue glow.

The third one however made him shiver, it was an orb, black as the blackest of nights, with a faint red glowing aura around it, honestly, it reminded him of the dark sign from Dark Souls, but there were no flames, just the eerie red glow.

Before he could move any further, he felt a breeze on his neck, creeped out and obviously scared he turned around and saw weird but slightly familiar figures in the shapes of ghosts that lined the great hall, all dressed in what looked like faded raiments of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade.

"… Magic…"

One of those ghostly figures said.

"… So close, yet.. so far…"

Said another one.

At this point, Kaelarys was completely freaked out, he didn't know what these people were, though he assumed they were ghosts for crying out loud! He always hated the idea of visions, dreams, and prophecies, the fact that his fate was not in his own hands, but at the hand of gods or whatever superior beings existed.

"…You can escape fate…"

The third one said.

"…As you will do in a few years…"

Said the fourth and final one, when he finally thought that it would be the end of it the four ghostly kings took a step further towards him, their eyes were like ghostly spheres of fire in different colors, he didn't know who they were but he felt somewhat…. Connected…

""… But you will need… more…""

They all said together before fading away into the distance.

Suddenly he looked around and he wasn't inside a hall anymore, but knees deep inside a nasty green river by a huge mountain range, not even Valyrian towers were this large.

There was no sun, there were no moon, nor stars, only a massive black cloud spreading as far as the eye could see, and when he finally decided to act…

… he woke up, sweating and exhausted, breathing heavily with his long platinum blond hair glued to his forehead, and his fancy silvery tunic was drenched in sweat. The doors of his quarters were open before he could take any action and his sister came to his side.

She stared at him with a worried gaze, and for the first time Kaelarys saw other Valyrians beside his sister, a bunch of servants with silvery gold hair, but none had the same violet eyes as he and his sister had.

"My lord, do you wish for us to prepare your bath?" one of the maids asked.

Kael could only nod absent-mindedly 'Are all the Valyrians of old beautiful?'

He was brought back by his sister's hug "Did you have bad dreams again, Brother?"

He gave her a gentle smile, he was quite happy to have someone that cared, in this world, a person like that is more valuable than gold.

He hugged her back "I don't know if I should call it bad… but it felt more like a call, an invitation…" he said while looking at the window by his bed "but it did teach me a valuable lesson, two even…"

His sister was confused "What lessons?"

"That no plan survives the first contact… and that this world is bigger and more mysterious than I had considered..."

He thought that being a Valyrian, especially being from one of the top, most powerful, and oldest Valyrian families in this world meant that they knew pretty much everything that he would ever need. Valyrian Steel was the best metal, right? Dragons were the ultimate beasts, right? But no, Valyrians are a mere mark on the pages of this world, this place is bigger, more dangerous, and way more magical than the show or even the books depicted.

Getting over his thoughts, he decided to go take his bath, and enjoy a good meal afterward. He had to admit, the Valyrian food was beyond anything he ever tasted back in his old world, it was not just about the taste itself, but how good it made him feel.

He spent the next few hours reading some tomes on the second floor of the library, he discovered that the hourglass worked on its own, as if powered by magic, he could move the marker on the glass surface to mark how long he wanted the red sand to keep falling until the mechanism locked itself with a loud 'Click' sound, alerting him that the time was up.

He kept reading about the origins of his family's magic, his sister told him that was from the south, Sothoryos, but he doubted it. That place was savage according to the books, but parts of the continent were colonized a long time ago, and he was not talking about the Old Empire of Ghis, those slavers were just taking over a power vacuum that was left in the land, they had numbers and magic, yes, but even their magic had to come from somewhere, because different from Valyrians, they had no Dragons, and Dragons are known as children of magic.

He kept reading and reading until his eyes finally went wide, and his violet irises glowed like powerful gems empowered by magic, he had a clue, not really a clue itself but just a small hint, an old empire that has barely any reliable records anymore.

An empire that was believed to be the source of Dragons and Magic, and if his theories were right, his bloodline is a direct descendent of that empire. According to his dream, those ghosts had Valyrian traits, but they were no Valyrians, not unless… the Valyrians themselves came from somewhere else…

He heard the click of the hourglass and closed the tome after marking the page, deciding to follow his plans for today, but not before going to the globe replica of Planetos and leaving two magnet-like marks on two locations.

After giving one final look at the library, getting over the wish to stay longer he left. 'There is time, I have plenty of time to discover the mysteries of this world.'

Walking downstairs he found a huge patio in front of his family tower, he never noticed how vast his lands were, there were many huge towers in the distance, but his lone tower stood out in front of two volcanos like a sore thumb, alone and desolated of civilization. Only his family dragons flew nearby, while others avoided his land.

'It seems we own two of the fourteen' he smirked 'Powerful 2nd indeed..'

"My lord!" said a loud strong voice, looking back Kael saw a huge man, he looked to be in his 40s, he had long black hair with streaks of silver and a trimmed well-kept beard, his eyes were pale silver, he was equipped in what looked like leather gambeson, colored black with dark grey sleeves that had a small metallic luster.

Vaela came close to him and whispered in his ear "That is Valanar, he is our master of arms and most loyal Dragonrider, he never bonded with a dragon, but he is allowed to ride our family dragons in battle, he was one of the few that came back with father, he has no family name but our father rescued him when he was but a small child."

Kael nodded "Hello there Valanar, it's been a while" he knew that he didn't know who Valanar was, but his sister told him he was beaten by the master of arms when trying to learn the sword.

"Yes, my lord, it saddens me that you gave up on your sword practices so soon" he gave a teasing smirk that made Kael's lips twitch.

"Don't worry, I will restart my old routine soon, and I will make sure to beat the shit out of you..."

Valanar gave a powerful laugh "hahaha good! That's the spirit, my lord! But why don't we start with an easier task first? Like… riding one of the biggest dragons in the freehold, a size so big that you could count on your fingers how many are capable of achieving such a feat?"

Kael's eyes twitched '…asshole…'

Before he could have his comeback, Valanar shouted to the slaves behind him "Bring the saddle!" then he started to chuckle, trying to hold back his laugh "A-and… the protection..."

That raised one of Kaelarys' eyebrows because even his sweet cute little sister was holding back her laugh as well. 'what the fuck?'

Then he saw a huge saddle made of some kind of extremely thick leather, this thing was huge, like… really HUGE! The leather was black with gold trimmings, the seat had a cushion, and it was red in color. 'At least I will be more comfortable than Daenarys'

He turned to his sister and whispered in her ear "will this leather be able to withstand a dragon's flight?"

She looked at him like he was an idiot "Of course brother, it is made of dragonhide."

He was surprised "… Dragonhide? I thought dragons had scales…"

She let out an exhausted sigh, looking at the sky as if she was asking the gods 'WHY?!', then she turned to him "Their wings brother, their wings…"

"Oh!.." he finally understood huh? 'Well he always was a bit slow, at least now it's a cute slow.."

Then came long chains made of Valyrian steel, and when Valanar and Vaela saw those, they couldn't hold it in anymore and started to laugh.

""HAHAHAHAHAHA""

Kael was getting annoyed by this but before he could even complain, or even ask what the fuck was going on, and what was so funny… a loud roar echoed through the land, it shook the ground and even the tower, smaller dragons all flew away as fast as they could, and even the laughs stopped as the beast had arrived.

A massive dragon with blood-red scales, blazing green eyes that seemed to glow even under the sunlight plus two ivory horns that curved backward, almost as long as the dragon's head, and a sharp bone came from its nose, almost as if a third horn, but not properly developed, its teeth were the size of a grown man's leg, honestly … Kael almost shat his pants when he saw the beast staring him dead in the eyes.

Right away a couple of Dragonspeakers came beside the crimson calamity and started shouting

""DOHAERAS!""

It took a while for the dragon to calm down enough to allow the slaves to equip it with the saddle

"Father spared no expenses on that Saddle, it's probably the best saddle in the freehold, don't ruin it, dear brother!" said Vaela with a teasing chuckle

"Aye aye, very funny…"

Valanar shouted "Lock the chains!" and the slaves added the Valyrian steel chains to the grip of the saddle, on a hole that was made specifically for that.

Kaelarys still didn't get it, what the fuck was so funny, that was until one of the slaves approached him with its head low and requested permission, after nodding, the Slave equipped him with a belt that looked like a climber's harness, then it finally clicked

'…These things are the training wheels for riding dragons…'

He looked around and all his immediate vassals were avoiding his gaze, holding back their laughs because of the sight, it was like he was wearing thick, black leathery… diapers…

'You motherfuckers!'