Halfhand's Legacy: A Dance of Dragons - A Self-Insert Tale

129 AC

Sunfyre and I wheel around for another pass while Tessarion and Daeron zip past me before Tessarion releases a blue whip of flames that catch a ship setting the deck alight and its sailors aflame. The transport ships being virtually defenceless against a dragon were easy prey as Sunfyre descended upon a vessel of unfortunate souls that did raise the white flag of surrender. Still, I ignored them as I allowed Sunfyre to gush out a stream of fire that engulfed the ship, the sailors, the soldiers, the sails, and the rigging were all caught alight in a single fire blast. With no fear of crossbow bolts or scorpions from these ships, Sunfyre could unleash continuous streams of golden fire until the ships were charred black and their crew ash and bones fell into the roiling seas.

In that same run, I turned Sunfyre's head to the left and he sent a fireball to the ship next to us, a ship whose crew were jumping off into the water to escape Sunfyre's flames, not so fast, Velaryon cunts, I thought as I directed Sunfyre to boil the seas and he did. The shrieking from the ships transferred to the sea. On board, burning men were jumping off into the waters only to realize that I had boiled it prolonging their agony.

Sunfyre and I charged headlong into the battle like a bull, taking each ship out with a single fireball for that was all that was needed, making their crew jump off the ships in terror while abandoning the soldiers inside the ships to their fates. While Tessarion and Daeron weaved and zipped past the ships setting them alight like lightning before taking on the next one in moments before they had time to blink in their agony.

Men give out guttural screams for the sensation of being burnt alive is simply unbearable. Sailors burning and twisting in flames, the soldiers dying of the smoke and fire as they were trapped in the holds of the ship, they were meant to take Gulltown but now they will die choking and screaming without ever seeing land or their loved ones. What was meant to be an easy campaign has turned into a disastrous calamity for them, the Velaryons and the Blacks.

The warships were slightly difficult to deal with, an incoherent and disorganized fire of arrows, crossbow bolts, and scorpion bolts filled the sky when Daeron and I made runs over them, Tessarion weaved through them being the agile dragon that she is while Sunfyre took the brunt of the attack on his chest and stomach where the most hardened scales were present while I crouched on the saddle before unleashing hell on every single one of the dromonds even if Daeron had set them alight to ensure that no one would survive. Once the warships were out, the desperately reversing transports were at our mercy, they didn't get far.

I raised Sunfyre in the sky and looked around to see that the Velaryon fleet was burning, I couldn't spot any ship that was unburnt or wasn't sinking. Daeron and Tessarion zipped past us as they weaved through the battlefield flying low and burning the water whenever they saw survivors trying to swim to safety. Further off, was the city of Gulltown with its battered sellsail fleet limping back to the city, they were goners before by their luck, Daeron and I arrived on dragonback during their dire moment of need.

We arrived an hour ago to find a squadron of the Velaryon fleet sailing to assault the city as the warships of both sides clashed in full view of the city walls. The sellsails were outmatched and outnumbered by the Velaryon fleet and they were on the brink when we arrived to turn the tide. I could even hear cheers from the city when the people saw our dragons arrive to rescue them from a probable sacking.

Once we were satisfied that the Velaryon fleet was no more and all Velaryon sails were burnt with the survivors boiled in the sea, Daeron and I began our descent into Gulltown. Thus, the Second Battle in the waters of Gulltown resulted in a Green victory. A second victory for the defenders.

A city placed in a natural harbour surrounded by defensible hills making it one of the only portals to the Vale from the outside world. Smaller than King's Landing, Oldtown and even Lannisport but large enough in its own right with around a hundred thousand people when compared to the other cities and settlements of Westeros.

Daeron and I land in the square of what I assume is the city centre, the place was cleared by Grafton soldiers when Daeron and I began circling the spot. I took notice of a rather prominent but ancient-looking tower from a little further afar, it must be the Gull Tower of House Shett, while nowhere in size compared to the Oldtown it was still something impressive especially seeing that it was in fine shape despite being so old. Tall and wide, it held a commanding view of the city from the Eastern side.

In the centre of the city where all the Guildhalls and marketplaces and stalls were located, we could also see the Grafton Keep which could be seen even from the site of the battle. A bunch of crowded white towers surrounded by equally white walls with Grafton banners hanging on them stood above the city atop a hill looking prominently over the entire city. Crowded white towers and walls are a thing I suppose for the nobility of the Vale.

As Daeron and I dismounted from our dragons, a knight wearing the surcoat of House Grafton came forward and knelt before us, "Your Grace, Gulltown welcomes you. Your loyal subjects rejoice in the great deliverance you have given us from the Blacks. I am Ser Gyles Grafton, the captain of the guard of House Grafton. My cousin, Lord Jon Grafton would have greeted me in person but alas, he is unable to do so for he received grievous injuries in the Battle of the Bloody Lake by the Ironoaks."

He sure did answer everything I was about to ask. He seems rather young to a captain of the guards, I have a feeling his predecessor was cooked. He must be grateful that he wasn't taken to the battle.

"Very well then, lead us to your Lord. I have much to ask and much more to do." I said to him as he got up and brought forth horses for us to ride to the Grafton Keep while a squad of knights surrounded us and the other guards kept the crowd at bay as we rode up to the Grafton Keep.

House Grafton is one of the richest Houses of the Vale and their keep is testament to it. As we were led into the keep, I noticed that the floors and pillars were crafted from white marble veined with gold, a marble opulence, the halls were austere yet beautiful and the chambers elegant and not overly decorated. I didn't bother to meet with the Grafton family but rather I told them to take me to meet Jon Grafton.

As we entered the Lord's Bedchamber, an opulent chamber with Myrish rugs, ornate furniture, and fine tapestries from the east it reminded me of my chambers when I was Prince though mine was larger and with significantly more dragon motif.

Jon Grafton lay on the canopied bed, he was in bad shape, burnt in a lot of places with the most severe burns on his right side, his burns would later turn to scars just as how mine would after the Battle of Rooks Rest according to OTL.

"Your Grace," He slowly croaked as he tried to get up upon seeing me, his voice was rough but his eyes were very much alive.

"Don't, my Lord," I stopped him with a hand on his unburnt shoulder, "You must rest." Daeron stopped a bit further behind me.

He continued, "When I heard that the Velaryon fleet was in sight, I thought it was the end but then I heard screams of terror turn to cheers from the people outside the window, and the mood of the servants shifted from one of impending doom to that of hope, it was so loud. I knew that you had arrived with your brother, Your Grace just as you had said you would,"

"I told you to wait, but you didn't," I reminded him. "You could have avoided this had you been patient."

Grafton coughed before saying, "I warned them, Your Grace, I told them you were arriving but they wanted to capture the Gates of the Moon before you arrived. I told them it would be a bloody disaster but they did not listen. We also did not expect two dragons to be there for the battle."

"Two dragons?" I asked bemused.

"Aye," He nodded before coughing again, "Two green dragons, one big and one small. They put our entire army to rout, even before the dragons arrived we were losing."

Looks like Baela is here, no problem, Daeron and I can take care of them. At least it is not Rhaenys.

"My men and my ships are yours Your Grace as is my treasury for I am your man." Jon Grafton pledged before coughing violently again.

I placed a hand on his shoulder, "Rest, my Lord, I shall take care of everything from here."

"Your Grace, my son Gerold is dead, he died fighting for you in the battle. My grandson Denys is my heir, he is but of four namedays old and I fear for his life should I die." He continued as he pleaded. I placed my hand on him.

"Don't worry, I will take him with me. He won't be left to the vultures of the Vale," He looked relieved when I said that.

I got up and walked over to Daeron, "Think you can take on Moondancer?"

He snorted, "Is that even a question? It will be over before it even begins. Wasn't she the one who threw wine in your face when you called her a strong whore in your toast during the feast?"

"Yep," I remarked with a chuckle, "Good, now come on, we need to take control of this city before things go to shit."

"What is the last report you have of the rebels?" I demanded as I met with the foremost knights and sellsword captains in Gulltown with my brother in the Great Hall of the Grafton Keep atop the oaken table on the dais.

"We have last heard that the rebels were marching toward Runestone, Your Grace, it must have fallen by now and they must be marching here," Ser Robert Shett answered. He was one of the few survivors who escaped relatively unharmed, he had burns here and there but not so much as to to incapacitated like Jon Grafton.

"Alright, we will take care of them when they arrive but first, how many men do we have?" I asked.

"Around eighteen hundred men, Your Grace, five hundred of them ahorse mostly sellswords of the Stormcrows, most of the others are too wounded to fight," Donnel Arryn answered, he was the younger brother of Isembard Arryn who according to reports had been captured by the Blacks, alive but injured. The Stormcrows have made an appearance here as well, I am surprised but I don't comment on it just yet.

"And ships?" I asked as I prepared to kiss my plans for a three-pronged assault on Dragonstone goodbye.

Captain Luceon answered, "Around seven ships are seaworthy, five are sellsails while House Grafton has the other two. We had fifty ships before the battle, around twenty of our ships are in the shipyards being rebuilt as we speak." There goes my plan.

"I am honestly surprised that the sellswords and the sellsails did not abandon you already, I seem to recall that one of your other sellsword companies deserted the battle and fled," Daeron remarks looking at Qhoran the captain of the Stormcrows. To the best of my knowledge according to what I have been told since coming here, the deserting sellswords tried to switch sides but Jace would have none of it and had them all killed which broke the idea of defecting for the Stormcrows, now they were stuck on this ship.

"We would have escaped had we been able to," Qhoran truthfully admits before adding, "We were the ones who rode through the fire, we helped Lord Jon Grafton escape." He seems rather well articulate for a sellsword captain and he speaks the Common Tongue with an understandable accent, from Tyrosh I would presume. He must be a noble.

"How would you like to work for me?" I asked in High Valyrian, and only he and Daeron understood.

"To serve a dragonlord would be an honour and a sure way not to die, I suppose," He remarked with a nod.

"Can we talk about changing contracts later, after the battle?" Daeron interjects and I nod.

"Very well then, we shall await the rebels here, they do not know that my brother and I have arrived and let us keep it like that. Let them come and they will die, quite simple wouldn't you agree my Lords, until then no one gets in or out of the city without my permission." I asked around the table and everyone nodded. The otherwise demoralized men were reignited by my presence.

The Blacks arrived the next day morning, I stood on the walls to see their army make camp with Vermax and Moondancer in full view of the city but the city did not panic for they knew that a higher power was with them, the higher power being myself and my brother.

I saw them send an envoy, "Let him in," I said to Ser Robert as I walked down the steps of the city walls.

"Surrender now and enter the Queen's mercy else be destroyed, these are the words of the Prince of Dragonstone Jacaerys Velaryon, should you fail to heed these words you shall suffer the fate of all traitors to the Queen," The envoy parrotted in front of Ser Robert, Donnel, Qhoran, and Ser Gyles in the Great Hall.

"Is that so," I remarked as I approached from behind the envoy with Daeron. Upon turning and seeing me, he pales and jumps in fright.

"No man of mine will ever surrender as long as I am alive," I snarled as Daeron tossed a scroll at him, the scroll contained my written words meant solely for the eyes of Jacaerys and Baela. "Make sure that this scroll is ready only by your bastard prince and his strong whore."

"Tell him I am here and tell him that I am not alone," I said to the envoy who gulped and nodded before running off.

I turn to the others once he runs off, "Get the horses ready, once their dragons fall, be ready to attack their army that will undoubtedly break."

Everyone nodded as I turned to Daeron, "Let's get our dragons, we have a war to win and debts to settle."

Sunfyre roars as I snap my whip in the air before lifting off, Tessarion follows shortly after as we fly out of the city and straight to the Black army waiting outside. From my view, I can see the tiny forms of Jacaerys and Baela rushing to their dragons while bedlam breaks out amongst the Black army of the Vale, no one expected me to arrive.

If I can get to Jacaerys before he can get to his dragon, this will be over in a heartbeat, I think as I snap my whip once more to urge Sunfyre to fly faster and then as soon as we reach them, Vermax comes in front to shield Jacaerys before sending fireball in my direction, Sunfyre counters it with one of his own, the fireballs collide no more than twenty feet above the ground resulting in an explosion that rocks the sky and the ground. The resulting blast is so blinding that I have to shield my eyes even as Sunfyre rolls out of the way of the explosion.

As I uncover my eyes and see through the remains of the fireblast Vermax has taken off as has Moondancer who is now dancing with Tessarion. I snap my whip once more as I urge Sunfyre to follow Vermax. Jacaerys has been caught flatfooted and he is not ready for this as he tries to escape and regain his wits before engaging in a firefight but I give him no quarter.

"YOU OWE ME A DEBT BASTARD AND I AM HERE TO COLLECT IT," I scream as Sunfyre chases Vermax.

Sunfyre unleashes a barrage of fireballs against Vermax who nimbly dodges and rolls out of their way but I do not give up as I press the chase. Vermax then suddenly stops before turning and sending a stream of dragonfire toward me, Sunfyre dodges before replying with one of his own.

For what seems like an eternity, Sunfyre chases around Vermax who runs and dodges before I finally notice that he trying to draw me away from the Black army down below. Fine, if I can't catch him then I will make him come to me, I think before I snap my whip, Sunfyre breaks off his pursuit of Vermax before heading straight into the dance between Moondancer and Tessarion. The two dragons dance around each other in a circle-splitting flame, both are equally nimble but Tessarion is bigger and stronger so Baela wisely ensures that she doesn't get into a grappling match with Tessarion but unfortunately for her, I am coming to push the scales in our favour.

I hear a roar behind me, I notice that Vermax is following me as Jacaerys has realized what I am doing but I smirk, he is going to be late.

Moondancer notices Sunfyre coming from behind at the last moment but it is too late as Sunfyre slams headlong into the smaller dragon throwing her off her balance in the air while the collision has little impact on myself or Sunfyre.

Before Moondancer can react and regain her balance in the air, I shout, "GRAB HER" and Sunfyre sinks his teeth into Moondancer's neck, "TEAR IT OUT," I screamed with fury as I locked my eyes with those of Baela, for the first time, I saw fear in the eyes of that wild girl who considered herself the second coming of her father. With a violent jerk, Sunfyre ripped out Moondancer's head, boiling blood coming out of her neck even as the rest of Moondancer fell with her rider still atop her.

I heard a guttural roar from behind me as Vermax headed straight for me before unleashing his flames, Sunfyre flew low and I narrowly avoided the fires even as Tessarion slammed into Vermax before the two dragons began grappling each other. Tearing away with teeth, claws, and flames even as I look down to see Moondancer's remains on the ground with Moondancer's head as Sunfyre dropped it, I wonder if she survived.

Tessarion breaks off the attack with Vermax long enough for me to pounce, "NOW" I shout with another snap of the whip, Sunfyre sends a fireball to the tired and bleeding Vermax that hits him straight in the chest and makes him give out a wail and that is my chance as Sunfyre lunges forward for the kill. Vermax once more tries to run but in his tussle with the larger Tessarion, his wings have been rent and his one advantage over Sunfyre was his speed and now that is gone as Sunfyre crashes into Vermax.

Sunfyre began to viciously tear into Vermax, breaking open his belly through the weakened scales, even as boiling blood began to fall Sunfyre and I did not let up before Sunfyre reared his head back while a dying Vermax held on by a thread, I couldn't see what he was aiming for but I had a good idea, "DRACARYS," I howled with a vengeance before Sunfyre unleashed an unrelenting stream of golden flames.

Then all went silent as Sunfyre let go of Vermax who began to fall like a broken kite, with torn wings, and burnt body parts with entrails falling out with it. The most prominent of all the burnt parts of the body of Vermax was the place where the saddle was supposed to be, the place where the neck meets the torso, it was nothing more than a charred black spot looking from above as Vermax fell haphazardly. His bright olive scales became black, and his orange wings were nonexistent, then after a heart-stopping minute, the dragon hit the ground and I began to laugh.

I looked down to see the Stormcrows attack the rapidly disintegrating Black army, with one mind, Daeron and I dived once more to give them a taste of their own medicine.

The Eyrie was the smallest of the great castles, no bigger than Maegor's Holdfast which made things significantly easier for me as Sunfyre and I plunged straight onto the castle, its seven slim pale white towers stretched out to me like seven fingers and Sunfyre opened his maw to meet them and bathed all the fingers in gold.

The towers were helpless as Sunfyre and I paid careful attention to each one of them, making at least two rounds on them before moving on. The once pale towers became black with ash, the flames of Sunfyre were not enough to melt stone but they were enough to cook a man in full plate armor. Stone doesn't burn but men, women, and children do. As the people of Goldengrove and Bitterbridge would attest to if they were still alive, fire isn't the only danger from a dragon, the smoke is the real killer.

As the courtyards and Godswood burned with any poor souls present being turned to ash, as the infamous Moon Door was turned to ash, as the blocked portcullis melted and became bent, it was meant to protect the inhabitants of the castle but rather became their prisoners even as the fire and smoke spread across the castle, the prisoners in the sky cells jumped thinking salvation was at hand, as the many halls of the Eyrie became clogged with smoke and people desperately trying to find a way to escape the fires started stampedes to escape only to come in the way of each other as they died choking in the smoke as they screamed in terror.

The clever ones jump from wherever they can, they would rather plunge to their deaths than die of smoke and flame, cries of terror and pleads of mercy to the Gods reached my ears but I long ago closed my ears to the pleas of the fallen. Soldiers and knights lept from the battlements and died, servants huddled against the walls and died, and the nobles fled across the yard and died.

Jeyne Arryn and her lover Jessamyn Redfort must be inside the towers, holding each other even as they were cooked alive by Sunfyre.

Others tried to escape down to the way castles only to realize my brother had destroyed them, the Eyrie was a symbol of the Vale, it was a symbol of how the Vale was impregnable against all enemies, not all it would seem. Just like how the Reach would forever remember Goldengrove and Bitterbridge, the Riverlands would remember Harrenhal so too shall the Vale remember the Eyrie, their hubris against the dragon.

"Congratulations, Lord Isembard Arryn, you are now the new Lord of the Gates of the Moon, Defender of the Vale, and the Warden of the East," I said to a rescued Isembard Arryn as we assembled in the Gates of the Moon, even as the Eyrie was smoking above us. Isembard was not happy with losing the Eyrie as a prize and having to make do with just the Gates of the Moon but he was already on the receiving end of a dragon's fire one time and he had no intention of having a second time.

Once Jacaerys and Baela were dead, the Black army was destroyed, and the rest of the Vale quickly submitted once they realized that I was there to deal with them. Jeyne Arryn wanted to parley with me and talk terms but I told her to shove it up her ass and I decided to make an example of her to all Lords in case they thought that their high status would protect them.

I turned to Daeron, "Tell the Maester to send a raven to King's Landing, telling them that we have won and now Aemond can leave for Duskendale, in the meantime we have to make arrangements to get Denys Grafton to King's Landing, I am taking him as a ward."

My original plan was to destroy the Black army with Jace and then leave, letting the loyalists Vale lords side clean up the rest but with most of the Greens in the Vale dead, I had to change plans and wait until I properly took care of the Vale.

Most of the Vale Lords were shocked that I made a Harrenhal out of the Eyrie but unlike Goldengrove or Bitterbridge which could be rebuilt once it cools down, it was now inaccessible as the way castles had also been destroyed. While Harrenhal was too large and too expensive to be rebuilt in full it was habitable but this time Eyrie will forever be abandoned, a testament and a reminder of the power of dragons to everyone in the Vale.