Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Dreams didn’t make them kings, dragons did. But dreams helped them to keep their crowns.
Aelina Goldeira was nine when she met Aemond in her dreams for the first time.
It was also the day when she decided to become the second dragonblood of her house. She had a dream to bond with one of the riderless dragons and became something more worthy.
It was also the day when she made her way to the Caves and tried to approach one of the riderless dragons residing there. Where she was only met with a vicious growl and a wall of flames aimed at her – only her small, agile stature helped her escape mostly unscathed. She also almost wished for flames to touch her after her lady mother found out about her another failed attempt to become a dragonblood.
“You stupid girl, I thought I raised you better than this,” while her words her harsh, all Aelina could hear were echoes of fear in her mother’s voice while she coated her burns with healing salve.
Neither of them seemed to notice tears from Aelina’s eyes dropping into her lap.
“I only wish to be like you, mama” Aelina sobbed lowering her head and letting unbraided hair cover her face. She did not see her mother’s face twisted into something more tender and motherlike.
The Lady Goldeira of Golden Hall was a stoic woman with a spine made of steel but she still oh so gently cradled her youngest’s daughter’s face between her hands making Aelina look at her. When the older woman spoke, her voice was firm and steady.
“My daughter listen and listen well. Dragons are not pets and not the prizes to be claimed at whim. They’re magic, fire and power weaved into the flesh, and they bring heavy duty to its rider” Lady Goldeira’s eyes flashed with something her ten-year-old self couldn’t recognize. “And when you will be ready to accept that responsibility and only then the dragon will find you, because it is a dragon who chooses its rider, not the other way around. Do you understand me?”
Aelina lowered her eyes; despite her mother’s reassuring words, she did not feel better. She was disappointed, sad, tired, bitter, and so many more.
But Aelina knew that despite her mother’s love and encouragement, she would not know what is like to be without a dragon. Aelina looked into her mother’s eyes – the same colour as hers - and lied.
“I understand, mother,”
Her mother stayed silent for a moment and for a moment she seemed so tired and so much older than she was. For the first time in her life, her fierce, strong dragon rider mother looked so small and vulnerable. Aelina felt guilt eating her from inside. She hated seeing her mother like that.
But the next moment all of the weariness was once again hidden behind a skillfully crafted mask. Her lady mother picked spare bandages and salve from her bed and stood up. Her golden dress flowed without the slightest wrinkle on the skirt. A skill Aelina still needed to learn.
“Now sleep, my little flame,” she spoke making her way towards the door “By the grace of Maker, may your dreams be calm,”
Aelina dreamed seldomly so when she opened her eyes to the dark, barely lit caves and she was confused. It was a place she had not seen before neither in her life nor her dreams.
Cold and dark stonewalls, only lit by a few torches made the caves feel even more unwelcome. The same damp coldness seeped into her bones through her dress was the only familiarity she found. She shivered and rubbed her arms together to get some kind of warmth.
Aelina wanted to get out. She did not like this dream. She wanted to wake up in her warm, light bedchambers.
“Hello?” she quietly called out and waited for an answer. Her voice echoed slightly in the walls and stopped for a second to listen. Her hand subconsciously stroked the leather of the small blade she always carried (Aelina was very surprised to see that even in her dreams she kept it on her)
Silence.
She turned around to look at her surroundings before deciding that her only choice was to go forward. She didn’t know how long she walked; it seemed like hours but she knew that it was only a few minutes when she heard some kind of sound. It sounded like someone was crying. Were they lost like her? She could not just leave them there besides when she was sad or scared, she always wanted somebody (preferably her mother) to hug her or at least stay with her.
She furrowed her eyebrows in thought and carefully made her way towards the sound. Soon enough she saw him.
It was him - a boy, a child just like her. He was sitting against the wall with a head full of white hair (what and surprise! white hair was so rare) tucked between his knees.
His shoulders shook with barely concealed sobs.
Aelina hesitantly approached him while he still was unaware of her.
“My mother used to sing to me when I was crying. And while I do not possess my mother’s voice I can still hum to you if you would like,” She spoke and it was almost funny how suddenly the boy scrambled to his feet and twirled to face her with the most surprised look crossing his face. His hand unsheathed the dagger from his waist and Aelina curiously looked at the gleaming blade pointed towards her.
It was a pretty one. Without looking away from the weapon she moved her hand towards her own dagger. It was small and may not look very threatening, but it was something her older brother gave her when he left so she treasured that blade with her life. “I also have one, but mama always said it is rude to point a blade at someone if you do not wish to stab them. Do you wish to stab me?”
The white-haired boy only clenched the dagger tighter in his hand while his face hardened, his dark eyes seeming almost black in the dim light.
“Who are you?” he firmly demanded “What are you doing in Dragonpit?”
Aelina tilted her head in thought. Dragonpit? Were there dragons in there? Or it was just a place – like their Golden Hall, which was not made of gold as the name would imply.
She lifted her eyes to meet the dark eyes of the boy. His white hair was dirty and in disarray, while his face was streaked with dirt – she could just feel how her maid would react to him - she would flick him for getting himself that dirty. Or maybe it would be different because after all, he was a boy. Aelina also noticed his once rich green tunic was almost dark grey because of all that dirt and why it had burn marks.
“Answer me! Or I will cut you,” he spoke again taking a small step towards her. There was a hint of fear in his voice and Aelina sighed. She did not know why he was in her dream and why he was acting like that. But she was exhausted, and she wanted to finally rest. She never thought she could feel that weary in her dream, nonetheless. Aelina felt her shoulders slightly sagging.
She sat down on the cold stone ground with her back to the wall. She could feel damp coldness seeping through the back of her dress, but she did not care.
“I’m Aelina,” she introduced herself not deigning him with the proper greeting. He was rude and he did not deserve one. “I just woke up in here and you’re the only one I found. I heard you crying and wanted to help and maybe for you to help me get out of here,”
She confessed softly while pulling her knees towards her chest and resting her chin on them.
“I was not crying,” he defended himself while lowering the blade and Aelina felt her lips twitch in amusement. Of course, he was not crying. “Only babes are crying and I’m not a babe! Ser Criston says I have real skill with a sword, and I will make a fine knight,”
“Everyone cries, it’s nothing to be ashamed of or at least that’s what my maid says,” Aelina spoke watching how the shadows from the torch danced on the wall. “And who is Ser Crispin? Is he a good swordsman?”
The boy bristled at the mention of the knight’s name. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
“It’s Ser Criston Cole! Not Crispin. And he is one of the greatest knights in Seven Kingdoms” she spat angrily, and Aelina grimaced at the way she butchered the name. She was always bad with new names. But Seven Kingdoms? She never heard of even one of those seven kingdoms before. Master Scholar always told her she had too active an imagination.
“My apologies,” she tilted her head in a small bow. “Well, I bet even Ser Criston cries”
Boy scoffed.
“He would never,” he stated with utmost conviction. Aelina narrowed her eyes as if she would back down that easily.
“He would!” She stated back.
“He would not!”
“He would! Well, mother told me that there is always a way to make a grown man cry,” she tilted her chin in defiance which was mirrored by the boy in front of her.
“How?” he asked letting the hand-holding dagger drop at his side. Aelina shrugged.
“Mother did not tell me how. She said that she will teach me when I am older.”
“They always say that, “He admitted grumpily, and she nodded sagely. Finally, someone who agrees with her. She hated when people told her ‘I will tell you when you’re older. She wanted to know now!
She felt the boy sitting down too.
“I cry too.” She did not know why she admitted that but sitting here – on the slightly damp stone ground in the dark-lit cave with the nameless boy who just a few minutes ago threatened to cut her. Aelina never felt more comfortable. It probably had something to do with the boy being in her dream. “I cried today after I failed in bonding with a dragon. All I ever wished to be like my mother. And that dragon was the only one without a rider, it was my only chance to show them that I was my mother’s daughter” she felt her eyes start to burn with unshed tears and she clenched her jaw tighter. She would not cry. Not now.
Aelina swallowed her tears and when she felt safe enough to speak without starting to sob, she continued.
“He rejected me and…” she closed her eyes for a second to try and swallow fresh tears which were threatening to break out.
For a moment there was only silence.
“It hurts,” he finished for her, and Aelina lifted her head in surprise to look at him.
The white-haired boy was staring at the ground and scratching shapes in the stone with his dagger. “It hurts to be left out, to fail at something which comes easily to others. It hurts to receive pitiful looks from everyone and then hear them joke and whisper that there is something broken within you. It hurts to be left behind by everyone only because I was not good enough for a dragon.”
A broken sob escaped his throat and the only thing Aelina wanted to do was to reach out and pull him into her arms. The boy who shared her loneliness and pain. The only one who could finally understand how she was feeling. She fought the urge to reach out.
“They gave me a pig.” He continued after a second, his voice broken and weak and so full of pain “I was so stupid. They told me they found me a dragon and all I ever wanted was to be accepted and included by them and they gave me a pig.”
As she listened to his cries, she felt tears streaming down her face. While she did not completely understand the story, she understood the pain he was feeling. Aelina did not know who ‘they’ were but she couldn’t not help but feel anger towards them for pulling a such a cruel prank on the boy next to her
She scooted closer to him and took his hand in hers letting their fingers intertwine. At first, he tensed and Aelina thought he was going to pull away but after a few seconds, she felt him squeeze her fingers with almost bruising force.
And for some time, they just stayed like that. With their hands intertwined and shoulders touching they sorrowed together in silence. She did not know his name, nor his family, but she felt a kindred spirit in him.
“Is there something wrong with us? With me?” she barely heard his question. Was there something wrong with them? Aelina did not know. She was only a child, and she did not know the answers to such big questions. But she remembered what her mother told her. And her mother seldom was wrong.
She repeated what her mother told her to her new friend. She did not know if that comforted him or answered his questions. Probably not, but it was okay. They finally were not alone in their sadness.
“We will have dragons,” Aelina promised, her voice firm and steady. She did not know from where that confidence came. But she had a good feeling about it. “Who knows, maybe our dragons are claimed by other people, and we just need to wait for them to kick the bucket,”
He lifted his head and tilted to one side in question.
“What does it mean ‘to kick a bucket’?” he asked and wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his tunic.
“To die, it means to die,” she answered and waited for his offended look. People never reacted kindly to her bawdy sense of humour.
He snorted.
“Well then I can only hope they will kick their buckets very soon,” he responded, and she could not help but let out a loud cackle at his response. Soon he joined in and while their laughs were still a bit tearful and a bit sad, they were genuine.
“Aemond. My name is Aemond”
Aelina smiled brightly with a laugh still on her lips and Aemond returned it with a smaller, but no less genuine smile of his own.
On the other side of the castle, Princess Helaena Targaryen also shared a smile while stroking the back of the spider she was holding in her hand.
“Spool of green, spool of black and spool of gold. All weaved together into something beautiful and true,”
For the first time in years, she was hopeful about the future.
She couldn’t wait to meet her.