Chapter 58: Aegon
A storm swept the Storm lands one day. For a bunch that claims to be blessed by the storm god, they were not prepared at all. Led by a man who will choose whatever god to serve whenever it's convenient. Perhaps the gods sent devine punishment for them.
After all Stannis did abandon his storm God for the lord of light. It's winter everywhere in Westeros but it seems as if it specifically came for the Stormlands. Stannis even actively convinced his people to flee this place and go to the true north where they would live better lives.
He has never been to this city but heard reports about it when he wastill master of ships in the kings council. That coupled will all the items she is selling, she must be rich enough to feed her city throughout the winter.
Three years ago his trusted ally told him he was not the prince qho was promised because someone else has already slain the night king and she even has dragons on her side. She also carried a burning blade and can shoot fire feom her hands.
Stannis immediately knew that all this time he was deluded to consider himself some sort of light champion when so many wonders took place but he is responsible for non of them.
One may think this is it but it was as if a gate had opened and floods of misfortunes rushed in like a tide.
Hunger and sickness claimed many lives in Stormlands because they were weak from starvation. He may have people leaving for the North but Stormlanders are stubborn by nature. Many remained because this is their home many of thier ancesters died in warsto defend these lands.
Others stayed behind to support Stannis as their chosen king. Stannis is not ungrateful but he thought their death would be meaningless if they don't manage to save their families from whatever comes next.
He thought it lightly but he was not ready for actually came for house Baratheon this time.
A flee of war ships with a sigil of on the Targaryen family approached Storm lands with clear intent for war. This number, it will be a total slaughter. His men are not many nor are they strong enough to survive this direct attack from three times their numbers.
Stannis called his wife, Sir Davos and his children. "I am going to need you all to flee and leave me here." He started, his usually hard expression looking sad today.
"No, husband. We are a family you can not...you must not leave me." His wife wept. His first born daughter has grown into a beautiful young woman with his features and her mother's gentle expression.
"You must look after your siblings Shireen. Can I trust you on this?" Shireen felt her knees give in and she fell. She extended her hand to him and pleaded.
"Father. No, please come with us."
"I called myself a king, what kind of king runs away from his place of power? You have to live and continue our line. I will live on in the spirit of my children, my family." His powerful words inspired Shireen and she didn't want to run. If her father is a king then she is a princess.
Stannis saw a his daughter's eyes gleam with a fleeting flame it hapened so fast he didn't know what it was. Then he heard his daughter defy him for the first time.
"Then I will stay and fight too." As soon as she said these words. The men in the room felt proud to have served such a family. Stannis on the other hand is not amused.
It will take a while before the enemy reach Stormlands so Stannis dismissed everyone to try and convince his daughter who is being unusually stubborn.
"I will not leave. I am your daughter, the blood of the storm courses through my veins as much as yours. They are my people too if I die, it will be with a bow and arrow in my hands." She had been practicing diligently he hadn't thought this little 'hobby' of hers will come back like this.
Suddenly, a roar sounded from the sky. It is a roar of a powerful beast, so much so that it's roar shook the earth. Everyone of the men in Stormlands getting ready for war became horrified at the sight of such a colossal beast.
Aeryn had a white body with scales that gleam with a pure almost enchanting light. Her body is large with for limbs and a pair of powerful wings on her back. Sensing her rider, she became restless and Olivia told her to rush over.
They were all arrived in the North many moons ago and her mother had already finished on the road clearing and inserting the heavy wooden fence on either side of every road. All that is remaining is the humans to start the road construction project when they put the warm stone and concrete solution. This will bring together the entire true north map connecting all the villages, cities and small towns.
It was all going smoothly when Aeryn started getting agitated. Now she is finally here and will be complete when she establishes a connection with her rider.
Stannis and his family are stunned but they also run outside to see what is happening. When they get outside and see the dragon larger than anything they have seen or heard about in the stories.
The first thought in everyone's mind is 'the dragons are back!' While Aeryn adjusted her size and landed gracefully on the open training grounds of Storms end.
They all expected to see the one leading the approaching Targaryen army at sea to be riding the dragon but they strained their necks and saw no one. Aeryn started walking with her limbs towards the Baratheon family with careful measured steps.
Soldiers blocked her way looking ready to defend their king to the last man. Stannis saw it approach and thought..'Maybe it is here for me.'
"Give way." Stannis thought If it wanted us dead we would all be ashes by now.
The soldiers let her through Stannis tried to approach Aeryn but she released a rumbling growl showing he would die if he took another step.
Stannis becane horrified but pushed his son to go and claim the dragon, however the same sound came from the now enraged dragon.
Shireen struggled free from her mother and ran towards Aeryn. This time she didn't make any sound but waited. Shireen is nervous even with the anticipation she knew this may kill her but she still went forward and slowly placed her hand on the large warm snout of Aeryn who connected with her.
Their minds and emotions connected. Shireen can feel the happiness from Aeryn for finally meeting her.
"My name is Aeryn, you are my rider." Aeryn spoke inside Shireen's mind shocking her.
"Ny name is Shireen. Nice to meet you Aeryn."
"Do you want to go for a ride?" Aeryn asked but Shireen looked at her parents. Her father seemed deep in thoughts but his eyes gleamed with happiness.
"Ask if you can stop the ships from coming close." Stannis asked his daugher whom he has never been more proud of. But he doesn't want her to be a murderer of thousands. It would be best if they are deterred from coming any closer.
"If you want to do it. We should hurry." Aeryn said. Her mother would normally use explosives on ships before but that was because she didn't want the world to know about them at that time.
Shireen nodded her head vigorously. "I want to stop them. I want to defend my home." She declared making everyone around them very excited.
This scene. Their princess now has a dragon. This changes things.
Shireen nervously went to the side to try and climb on Aeryn but she kept sliding down. She finally managed to do it after a few tries and As soon as she sat on the ddragon, she felt secure as if she has no chance of falling.
Aeryn smoothly flew up into the sky with her rider for the first time. She felt complete and understood why Morpheus liked to show off the fact she has a rider.
It is a magical feeling that is akin to satisfaction of mysterious a need. It must be part of the blood magic the Valyrians did to bind their bloodline with dragons. Otherwise how can such a powerful species allow itself to be ridden by such a weak species.
Aeryn and Morpheus are hatched and upgraded with their mother so they are intelligent enough to use actual dragonic magic and speak with their magic.
In a short period Aeryn released the actual size of her body which is large enough to scare the visitors into a shivering mess.
She drew a long line with white flames In front of the ships. The blazing fire that can burn steadily into a wall of flames is terrifying enough.
"Invaders, Leave my home at once. Stormlands is under my protection." Shireen shouted her voice carried by magic making it very clear to hear to everyone in the fleet.
"And who are you to block my way? I am Aegon Targaryen, son of Rhaegar Targaryen. I AM THE RIGHTFUL HEIR TO THE IRON THRONE!"
"Then go where your Iron throne awaits you. This is the land of Storms and harsh winds." As soon as she finished her speech, a powerful wind storm started turning their boats forcing those inside to swim to the other nearby boats. The storm is Aeryn's handy work.
They became very scared and started turning the ships. They sailed for dragon stone lucky to have survived. Had it been someone else they would have burned them to ashes.
Deep down he knows he will not survive this attack. He had played his cards and now he is exhausted. A man without faith is not as pathetic as a man without faith in himself.
He had really believed he was the chosen son of the light. Not with all his might at first but after seeing the army of the dead that day. He didn't think any of those beating their chest calling themselves 'king' had what it takes to face that kind of monster.
He had fled that day and swore to regain his honor from having fled like a coward but upon his return to Stormlands he realized things were getting worse than ever.
But now with the help of his daughter he avoided a catastrophe that was to wipe them all out. When Shireen came back on dragon back he hugged her and for the first time in a long time cried.
Everyone rejoiced having avoided such an obvious disaster all thanks to the prince. Shireen had been scared her father will hant to use her new friend to conquer Westeros but he just thanked her with tears of joy.
Southerner politics is tedious and full of treachery. But this new person claiming to be born from her birth father is more than a little disturbing to her. Olivia disguised herself as an average looking brown eyed woman with brown hair.
She didn't change her height or the shape of her body but put on clean clothes baggy enough to hide her hour glass figure. Her face pale but covered in freckles near her eyes and her eyebrows bushy. Okay she looks ugly.
She is very curious if he is lying or has been lied to because if he was telling the truth his blood should have been stronger than that and Aeryn would have probably chosen him for a rider. Or is it a personality issue?
She flew under the invisibly spell to one of dragon stone villages and tried to blend in. The place has no lord and pretty much anything goes here now. But there are still noble men helping out in the name of some god or personal guilt.
Men have turned into beasts, women have fled or stayed to suffer their cruelty. Arriving when many had fled because of the state of the lands, she is able to buy a small house with four rooms.
One kitchen, a master bedroom, a guestroom an open lounge area. This king of space would normally be for a well off family it is built from stone too. She paid 6 silver stag for this place. There is a shack nearby to raise a few chickens and maybe a cow for milk.
Olivia is not planning on having such things here as she has stocked many seeds, and created a farm inside her space. She wants to see if she can raise spirit food in this space, she suspects it will yield much because she finally has a small pond of high grade spiritual spring water.
An entire family used to live there before. When she arrived though, the place is in complete disarray. There is mud on the wooden floor, the walls are falling apart, it took her a while to understand how this is a wealthy family's home.
Snapping her fingers, a simple cleaning spell later her vew house is spotless but the cracks on the wall letting in cold air are still there so she restores the inside of the place mending the walls and the leaking rooftop.
The magic didn't take too long and ger new house actually looked new at least on the inside. She took out simple woodwn furniture from her space and put it around including warm stove.
She is about to take a bath when the man who sold her the house knocked on her foor. Opening she saw a small boy with blue lips and a grumbling tummy.
She may have let it slip that she knows medicine. She took the boy inside and made him wait outside. No way it will be too suspicious to have a house so good looking insed when it looks to be falling off on the outside.
This is new profession now and if all goes according to plan, she can get closer to this Aegon Targaryen and feel whether his blood is true.
Inside the house she scanned the boy and found he is starving and has cold poisoning. She took out a meal capsule and the yellow pill for generating warmth and maintaining it as a normal body temperature.
She knows it is not just him who is starving so she decided to help. She asked for a few strong people to join her as enter the nearby forest. As soon as they entered, the fleet of warships docked and the thousands of men came out of the ships scawering the castle.
The main man is not pleased at all to have faced defeat before his feet even touched the Westeros soil. He hated that there is no way he can have dragons himself and regin his honor.
"My king, you can see this as the Westeros welcome. They didn't burn us where we stood but let us depart with this many ships. Clearly just a child chasing a bad man away not thinking about gaining political influence." Signor one of his advisers said.
"All you have to do now is to make that lady your wife and you would secure a foothold in this strange land." The advisor continued to say.
"What about Daenerys? She has three dragons and I could claim one of them. This was your advice too. You told me to not mind the rest and just make it here before her. When she comes finding that I have subdued most of Westeros she will cut a deal. What now? I couldn't even go near one of the weakest kingdoms in Westeros." Aegon is angry his purple eyes are blazing with obvious fury.
The people in his council are mostly warriors who are sworn to be his shield. Sighing, he softened his tone and asked "Take me to see this place. I want to meet my new subjects."
....