The Rise of Valyria - House Belaegon

The trio moved quietly and calmly to the gate connecting the Dragon Tower to the ruined ornamental garden. When they reached the gate, Taylan and Arda slung their bows over their shoulders and fastened the quivers of arrows to their belts. Taylan drew "Blue Shadow," a sword one meter in length, featuring blood grooves on both sides. Like every weapon forged of Valyrian steel, it had a rippled texture. Its hilt was ocean blue with white patterns resembling spider webs.

Arda, on the other hand, grabbed "Star Slayer," a single-handed battle axe with a narrow edge. The axe had a 40 cm shaft, entirely made of Valyrian steel, including the shaft itself. The head of the axe featured five black stars at its center and had a small spear-like tip at the end.

Sezayi, being the only one among them who could pull a bowstring even slightly, chose Arda's curved bow instead of his sword, "Deathbringer." Looking at his friends, he warned, "Be careful. Don't let the rat bite you or get injured for any reason. Don't force us to use the elixir. Remember the instructions; excessive use leads to death."

The duo nodded to show they agreed. The trio then began walking toward the apple tree where they had seen the mutant rat. Unlike before, when they had hurried through the garden while fleeing, this time they carefully observed their surroundings, anticipating a potential attack. Whenever they passed a statue, they noticed either a bird fountain or a water channel underneath it. The water channels were dry, but some of the bird fountains still held small amounts of water—though the water was green and undrinkable.

As the trio walked among the ruined stone statues toward the apple tree, they noticed a six-meter-tall statue on the right-hand side of the path that they hadn't seen while fleeing earlier. The statue depicted a dragon with its wings fully spread, resembling the ones described in books. It appeared flawless, as if carved from a single block of black stone. The statue stood in the center of a nine-meter ornamental pool. Unlike the water in the smaller bird fountains, the water here wasn't entirely green. Its surface appeared clear.

Arda said, "Guys, I think we could set up an ambush here. Look at this pool—it's not green like the others. I bet that mutant rat, or any other mutant rats that might exist, come here to drink water. What do you think? Should we stay, or should we move on?"

Taylan, trusting in "Blue Shadow," replied, "Let's go to the apple tree. I have unfinished business with that bastard there."

Sezayi offered his opinion: "Instead of waiting here, I think we should go to the apple tree to see if the mutant rat is there. If it is, we'll kill it and come back here. If it's not, we'll return here and wait for it to come for water."

Thus, by majority vote, the trio began walking toward the apple tree—Arda leading the way with Star Slayer in his hand, and Sezayi following behind with his bow and arrow ready. As they approached the apple tree, the darkness of the night slowly began giving way to the light of day. It was estimated that there was still more than an hour until complete darkness. In this dim light, the trio walked for about three minutes until they reached a bush behind the apple tree.

When they tried to pass through the bushes to move further, Arda, who was in the front, suddenly heard multiple angry squeals. He stopped instantly as soon as he heard the sounds. When Arda stopped, the others stopped as well.

Taylan asked, "Darion, why did you stop? Keep moving forward."

Arda, lowering his voice and cautiously scanning the surroundings, replied, "Didn't you hear those sounds just now? It sounded like several animals fighting over something."

Hearing Arda's words, the other two fell silent and began listening carefully. Moments later, they too heard the squealing sounds Arda had mentioned. Then, Taylan and Sezayi moved forward to join Arda at the front. Together, they searched for a good spot to observe what was happening.

Finding a suitable gap, Sezayi signaled for the others to follow. When Arda and Taylan joined him, the trio peered through the opening to look at the apple tree. Upon seeing the scene beneath the tree, all three instinctively held their breath. Underneath the apple tree were twenty mutant rats. The smallest was as big as the handle of Arda's Star Slayer, and the largest was twice the size of the mutant rat they had seen that morning. The rats were fighting over apples that had fallen to the ground.

Taylan, astonished, said, "How did these mutant rats get so big? Is there no predator in this garden to hunt them down?"

Arda replied, "I agree with you, Vaelar. How in the world could these cursed rats grow this large? Earlier, I didn't believe you. I thought to myself, 'There's no way a rat could get that big,' but now I believe you." His voice trembled with fear as he spoke.

Sezayi, on the other hand, replied cheerfully, "Look on the bright side, boys. We've found the majority of the snacks we need for our dragons. Soon, we'll mount our dragons and leave this cursed city behind."

Arda, staring at Sezayi as if he were a madman, said, "Vaegon, would you care to explain how you plan to capture these mutant rats? From what you've told me, just a few hours ago, you ran away from a rat half the size of the largest one here. I hope you're not overly confident just because of these weapons we've picked up and have never used before. If that's the case, let me tell you now—I can't do anything about it, so don't count on me."

Without looking at Arda, Sezayi kept his gaze fixed on the rats under the apple tree and said, "Darion, don't forget—we are no longer the ordinary people we used to be. We are now Valyrian dragon lords, and we have our own honor. And just a moment ago, our honor was stained. We will cleanse it with blood now. Remember, Darion, 'No wind of fear blows on the Mountain of Courage.' We will no longer be afraid, and we will cleanse our honor with blood."

Taylan said, "You talk as if you're leading an army into battle. They're just rats, Vaegon. Why do you hate them so much?"

Sezayi, without taking his eyes off the rats beneath the apple tree and growing angrier with each sentence, replied, "Why? Do you even need to ask? We are Valyrian dragon lords. How can we run away from these filthy rats? We have our honor. And no one—no matter who they are—can stain my honor. If they do, I will cleanse that stain with the blood of my enemy."

Taylan and Arda fell silent as they realized Sezayi was angry. Among them, Sezayi was always the calmest and most patient. That's why they usually followed his decisions. But when Sezayi got angry, there was no trace of that calm and patient person. Sezayi was someone who got angry slowly but took a long time to calm down. Once, back in middle school, he almost seriously injured a classmate who had mocked him. It had taken five people, including the teacher, to restrain him until he calmed down.

The two realized there was no turning back now and frowned. Arda, in particular, frowned even more because he was afraid of rats—but not as much as he feared an angry Sezayi.

Taylan asked, "So, tell me, Vaegon, what's your plan? How are you going to take revenge on the rats?"

Sezayi responded, "It's simple. What's so difficult about it? We all take out our bows. Everyone draws their bow as far as they can for the first shot. Then, we'll keep shooting until the rats get within four meters of us. Once they're close, we'll slice them up with our weapons. After killing the rats, we'll pack their corpses into a ten-cubic-meter bag and head off to retrieve our dragons."

After finishing his words, Sezayi took 10 arrows from his quiver, "Dawn", and stuck them into the ground beside his knee. He drew his sword, "Deathbringer", which was 1 meter long, had blood channels on both sides, was made of Valyria steel with wavy metal like every weapon made of Valyria steel, and had a blood-red hilt with an eagle head. He placed it beside the arrows.

Seeing Sezayi's determined movements, Arda and Taylan did the same. The three of them simultaneously placed arrows on their bows. After drawing the bows with all their strength, they held their breath in excitement and shot their arrows toward their targets. Only one of the arrows hit. That arrow was Sezayi's. The remaining arrows unfortunately fell to the ground before reaching the rats.

Sezayi's arrow hit a rat the same size as the one they had seen earlier, wounding it. When the rats realized that someone was attacking them, they started running toward the attackers with anger. Seeing the rats coming toward them, Taylan and Arda froze for a moment, but when Sezayi shot his second arrow and killed the rat he had wounded, they snapped back to attention. They quickly began shooting arrows, pulling their bows with as much speed and strength as they could. When the rats came within 4 meters, their number had dropped from twenty to fourteen. They had shot thirty arrows to kill the six rats. Sometimes, the lucky ones hit the rats and wounded them, but the unlucky ones wasted their shots completely.

As the rats approached the set boundary, Sezayi took "Deathbringer", Taylan took "Blue Shadow", and Arda grabbed "Killer Star". They stood back to back, swinging their weapons at the approaching rats.

After fighting the rats for 10 minutes, the trio had a few bites and scratches. In front of them, only the largest rat remained. The rat looked at them one last time, then, with a squeak, turned around and began to flee.

Sezayi shouted, "Don't let it escape, my brothers. Once we catch it, we'll have enough food for our dragons, and we'll escape this ruined city as soon as possible!"

After Sezayi shouted, he chased after the rat with the sword "Death Bringer" in his hand. Taylan followed him. While they were chasing the rat, Arda started putting the other rat corpses into a storage bag.

After putting the rat corpses into the bag, Arda joined the chase. The three of them ran for more than 10 minutes, chasing the large rat. Finally, they chased the large rat to the edge of the transparent barrier. There, there was another rat of the same size. While Sezayi and Taylan fought with these two rats, Arda came to help, and Sezayi cut off the head of the rat they had been chasing with his sword. When one of the rats died, the three of them quickly killed the other rat. After killing the rat, they all sat down on the ground, exhausted. They hadn't shot any arrows or swung their swords before, so they were very tired.

After sitting for a while, Arda opened his backpack, took out the bag containing the rat corpses, and put the large rat's body into the bag. Now, they had food to give to their dragons when they woke up. As the three of them stood up, smiling, they suddenly heard a woman's scream. Looking in the direction of the sound, they saw a woman in her twenties, wearing a patched-up, dirt-stained outfit, with white hair, running quickly toward them from a destroyed building about 100 meters away. As the three of them wondered why the woman was screaming and running toward them, the woman began to shout in high Valyria, "Help me, please, save me. I don't want to die. I will even be your slave if you want!" And at that moment, they saw why the woman was running.

Behind her, there were five stone men with skin completely cracked, resembling snake skin, petrified, and running on all fours like animals. Seeing the stone men, the three of them instinctively felt like they were going to vomit. The woman was getting closer and closer to the barrier, and as she approached, she kept begging them to save her. Arda turned to the other two and said, "What are we going to do, guys? Are we going to help the woman, or are we going to watch her die here? My decision is to leave. I don't want to get caught by the gray scales just because we saved this woman."

Taylan had already turned his back. "I'm in favor of leaving. As Darion said, I can't become a Gray Pul addict just to save a woman."

Sezayi looked once at the woman and then at his friends. He then turned to Arda and said, "Darion, give me my bag. I'm going to take out my bow and arrows."

Arda handed him the bag as requested, and Sezayi took the bag with only the dead rats inside and followed Taylan. Sezayi took out his bow and, to be safe, grabbed 15 arrows. When the woman saw that two of the three people she had asked for help had turned away and the remaining one was pulling a strange bow and pointing it at her, she started crying and begging while running: "Please don't kill me. I'll do anything you want, I'll be your slave, I'll even sleep with you. But please don't kill me."

Without saying a word, Sezayi placed an arrow on his bow, pulled the string back, and waited for the woman to approach. When the woman saw that Sezayi was just drawing his bow and not shooting, she gained some hope and started running faster. But as she sped up, she didn't notice that one of the stone men, who had been running on all fours, had begun running on two legs, closing the gap between them.

The woman was getting closer to the barrier. She was only 12 meters away from it when the stone man caught up with her. At that moment, Sezayi aligned his arrow with the stone man. Although he still didn't fully know how to shoot, the small difference from his previous attempts while hunting rats was enough. At least he could draw the bow a little more. When the woman saw that Sezayi was still holding the bow with the string taut, she didn't realize what was happening. The stone man was closing the gap between him and the woman, now only a meter away from her. Just as he was about to leap and catch her with all his strength, Sezayi shouted at the woman, "Run to the right!"

Although the woman didn't understand what was happening, she had to trust this person. The reason was that of the three people she saw inside the transparent barrier, the only one left to save her was the one standing in front of her. As the woman was about to jump onto the stone man, she suddenly veered to the right while running. The moment she changed direction, she heard a sharp ringing sound.

As the woman darted to the right, Sezayi released the arrow he had aimed at the stone man's head. He had misaligned it slightly, as the arrow struck the stone man's left chest instead of his head. The arrow didn't harm him, but due to the close range, its force made him stagger backward, giving the woman just enough time to reach the barrier. When the woman stepped forward to pass through the barrier, she was blocked and fell onto her backside. As she couldn't get past the barrier, she became dazed. Seeing this, the stone man, who had been staggered by Sezayi's arrow, regained his balance and started running again to catch the woman.

While the woman remained dazed on the ground under the barrier, the stone man was only three meters away from her. Just as he was about to leap onto her, Sezayi reached out of the barrier, grabbed the woman's leg, and pulled her with all his strength toward the barrier. This time, the woman managed to get past the barrier. The stone man chasing her crashed into the barrier. The impact caused him to fall, and before he could rise, the other stone men reached the edge of the barrier and began punching it. However, their punches had no effect. As the woman watched the stone men punch the barrier from the ground, it seemed as if she couldn't believe she had escaped.

Still lying down and watching the stone men, who were punching the barrier, she heard a voice say, "Get up, woman. If you make any suspicious movement, I will cut off your head." She then saw the man who had saved her earlier, holding a sword. The sword was one meter long, with blood grooves on both sides, made of Valyrian steel, and had a blood-red hilt with an eagle's head on it.

The man stood at 1.80 meters tall, with broad shoulders, white hair that reached down his back, and a sharp-featured face. His prominent cheekbones, strong jaw, and straight nose stood out. But the most striking feature was his eyes. Despite his typical Valyrian features, his eyes weren't violet or sea-blue. They were gray, like steel. Looking into his eyes, the woman unconsciously blurted out, "Why are your eyes gray?"