Dragons and Wolves

Aegon waved for his man to stop kicking the cripple and walked over to kick the cripple himself, “Do you think I’m a fool?! Did you think I wouldn’t realize who you were!?”

Aegon screeched, his vision red, the crippled alchemist had taken him for a fool… and he would pay for it.

Brandon Stark’s wince turned into a snicker, “Yes, I do take you for a fool, to be honest.”

“How dare you insult the rightful king?!” The gold cloak drew his sword and attempted to stab the alchemist but Aegon stopped him when his blade was just a hair’s width from his abdomen.

“Stop this, when I want Brandon Stark dead, I’ll be sure to let you know,” Aegon turned back to his prisoner, “What have you been making me give the dragons? Strengthening potions? Chemicals to make them violent towards my men? Tell me now.”

Brandon laughed, “Those are good ideas, I wish I would’ve thought of them.”

Aegon kicked him again and he heard the air leave Brandon Stark’s lungs. The cripple wheezed grabbing his ribs, “Well, I think you’ve managed to fracture a bone or two with that puny foot of yours.”

“I’ll do more than that if you don’t tell me what was in those potions!” Aegon snarled.

“Fine, it was my blood, your majesty, I’ve been combining my blood with small amount of milk of the poppy to dull their pain from those magic chains of yours.”

“Your blood?” Disgusted, Aegon couldn’t fathom a logical reason for doing that, “You’re sick!”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Brandon Stark gave a humorless chuckle, holding his ribs on the cold stone floor below him, he wheezed.

Aegon snapped his finger at the gold cloak and the man stepped forward and held Brandon Stark in place. Aegon pulled out a black knife. “You’ve seen dragon glass before right?”

Brandon’s eyes widened but it was the only reaction he gave, the Stark man’s eyes drifted across
Aegon’s knife and back into the king’s eyes, “If you kill me, my family won’t rest until your head decorates a pike at Winterfell.”

Aegon laughed, “Oh I’m not going to kill you just yet, I’m considering what you’ve done high treason and your family and all of their bannermen will pay the price for what you’ve done. Rickon Stark’s time is up, I’ll march North within a fortnight and kill everyone you hold dear.”

The gold cloak held Brandon’s right hand up, Aegon grabbed Brandon’s hand holding out the finger that Brandon wore one of his father’s rings on, “But not before sending them a little message.”

Aegon cut the finger off and handed it to another gold cloak outside the cell, ring and all, “Send that by raven to Castle Black immediately.”

“No letter with it, your majesty?” The gold cloak asked.

“I think they’ll understand what I’m trying to convey,” Aegon turned back to his captive with a grimace.

Instead of crying or begging for mercy, Brandon appeared passed out.

“Fainted out of terror did he?” The goldcloak laughed.

Aegon knelt and lifted the cripple’s eyelid, his irises were there but his pupils were completely gone.
Aegon jumped back, “No, there’s some sorcery at work here.”

In the distance, a dragon roared, shaking the Red Keep.
--
Brienne walked a weary Sansa back to her quarters, the female warrior chatted excitedly with her charge.

“No wonder Commander Snow has been off kilter the last year, I was half-smitten with her myself!” Brienne’s squire Podrick laughed almost falling into the wall.

“I think you’ve had a bit too much ale, boy,” Brienne shook her head but couldn’t help but smile.

Sansa smiled too, everyone had been celebrating the dragon queen’s arrival. Before Aegon, they had all been unsure of their new ruler and a bit terrified by the infamous Mother of Dragons but since the new Mad King had come to power they had realized the female Targaryen was a far better monarch.

And that included Sansa, like Podrick, Sansa was half-smitten with the dragoness herself, albeit in a platonic way. Much like her initial thoughts of Margaery Tyrell, she was absolutely delighted to be friends with someone like her.

Sansa had listened captivated to the stories of Daenerys’ travels and her time with the Naathi.

However, the celebration of the evening had been dampened by Jon’s absence. And Sansa kept catching Daenerys’ eyes trying to covertly scan the room for her brother. And she wasn’t the only one who noticed his absence. Sansa asked Brienne and Podrick what they thought of it.

“I noticed, I figure he’s avoiding the dragoness, I don’t know why though and I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t very curious, didn’t you say he went to King’s Landing? Perhaps something happened there,”

Brienne’s eyes were focused ahead deep in thought, this was one of the reasons Sansa liked the warrior woman so much, the brutal honesty and shrewd curiousity.

Podrick nodded at his master, agreeing with her, Sansa knew the young man practically idolized his master and she was sure he was going to be a knight within the year.

As they reached Sansa’s quarters, Podrick jumped in front of Sansa and opened the stone door for her, almost tripping over his own feet.

“Thank you, ser,” Sansa curtsied politely, giggling a bit, and moved to walk into her room. Brienne caught her arm and Sansa turned to look back at her.

“Are you sure you don’t need any help milady? You had as much wine as Podrick here.”

“I’ll be fine Lady Brienne, please just get Ser Podrick to his quarters safely,” Sansa smiled. Her guard nodded and ushered Podrick down the hall.

Sansa smiled slightly and closed the door to her quarters. She moved to walk toward her vanity mirror but she was knocked gently back against her door.

Before she could say anything, she felt the tingle of lips at her neck and chills ran down her spine and jolted her awake like cold water.

“I swear if they had followed you in here, I might’ve had to kill them both,” the tall Sandor growled into her pale throat, his growl reverberated through her body making her toes curl, “I’ve been wanting you the last two days but it’s been impossible to catch you alone.”

After that night he had snuck into her chambers they had secretly been seeing each other. There was no rhyme nor reason to it, no rational explanation. Arya was sure to hate her for it if she ever found out. She kind of hated herself as well, she knew his past, the bad things he’d done. He was a murderer, one who blindly obeyed his masters and had once cared not for honor or doing the right thing. He could also be called a drunk (though he had stopped as soon as their tryst started).

Sansa would have to say it had been the look in his eyes as he confessed to her. The complete and utter love in them, and the lust as well. How could someone not respond to such utter devotion?

But she knew it was a cop out, she had had a strange fascination with him since King’s Landing, fear with a dash of desire she hadn’t been able to articulate until she was older. She knew it was bizarre and no one would ever understand but she just couldn’t stop it. She almost refused to believe she was falling in love with him.

She may appear to be a lady but in truth she was just as messed up as the rest of her siblings. And she hated herself for it.

Sansa clenched her eyes shut and quelled the urge to sigh, “As if you could defeat Brienne.”

“Would you like to see me try?” He growled again, tracing surprisingly gentle kisses down her throat to her clavicle, she melted into him, he stopped at the hem of her bodice, “Would it turn you on more?”

One of his calloused hands had snaked into her auburn curls, running his nails over her scalp and driving her wild. The other kept a tight grip on her hip, as if he feared she’d try to run away.

“I don’t know if that’s possible,” Sansa moaned into his sandy hair and then opened her eyes embarrassed by the sound. He looked up and smirked at her.

“My little bird, you don’t need to be ashamed of those incredibly teasing sounds you make,” He grinned at her, “Actually you can keep doing so, I do enjoy the color red you turn. Kind of like a tomato I’d like to fuck.”

Sansa gasped and batted him away, “Don’t talk like that!”

He snickered and grabbed her wrist, she struggled to get away but she knew it was futile. He knocked her onto the bed and within a moment he was on top of her pressing her into the bed, “What are you going to do if I don’t stop? Call Jon or Brienne in here?”

“N-no,” She stuttered when he resumed his kisses on her neck once more, he knew it was her weakness.

“That’s right, you know he’d be honor bound to kill me for soiling such a highborn lady and we’d have
to escape in the night together,” He started to bite at her neck and she wasn’t sure if it was the nibbling or the thought of running off with him that was making her heart beat erratically. “I can hear your heart thrum little bird, does the thought of running off together excite you?”

“I-I can’t,” Avoiding the question, she sighed, “They need me to take of them.”

“You aren’t in the Vale taking care of little Robert Arryn any longer, your siblings can fend for themselves,” His kissed were getting more forceful and Sansa was starting to feel something hard pressing against her stomach.

“Last time I did something selfish, I begged my mother to betroth me to Joffrey and convince my dad to be King’s Hand,” Sansa could feel her eyes growing wet just thinking about it, if she could go back she’d have thrown a fit to keep them all in Winterfell. Maybe she’d still have her parents, Robb and Lady.

Before she could stop it, one tear escaped and slid down her temple into her hair, that instant Sandor stopped his ministrations and looked up at her, “Now, don’t be doing any of that now, what’s in the past is in the past, you have to move on and grow stronger from it.”

Sansa nodded and looked into his ocher eyes, and brushed a loving hand over his scars, “Help me move on.”

And with that she pulled him back down on her again, planting a forceful kiss on the surprised man.

Sandor laughed and Sansa could feel one of his hands trail up her thigh, “As milady commands.”

--

Bran felt himself losing consciousness and knew what was about to happen. He hadn’t been planning on putting his plan into motion until later but hopefully his little potions had had enough of an effect on the dragons.

He could feel himself sinking but he couldn’t see, darkness all around him, he felt himself being pulled down. He struggled climb up, pull himself higher.

He knew what was happening, the three eyed crow had taught him all about it. Warging was a strange thing, if you had a deep emotional connection to the creature you wanted to warg into it was easy, that made Summer and Hodor easy to warg into. The next stage of warging was taking control of wild animals to which he had no connection, such as boars, bears and crows, the more simple minded the animal the easier it was to control, which made humans and other intelligent creatures like shadowcats hard to take over.

One could do it they dared, but they ran the risk of the creature they had warged into taking control and the warg losing their minds. The three eyed crow had taught Bran of men who lost all will to live after spending too much time warging into birds and only longed for the sky. Or men who went crazy from trying to take over another human.

Bran himself had thought he had lost his mind, the one time he had tried to take another human besides Hodor.

Meera.

The thought made him start to sink again and Bran grit his teeth struggling to kick and pull himself to the surface of the darkness.

What he was experiencing was warring to take control of one such smart creature, a dragon. He had
thought feeding them his blood would give him enough of a connection but he was starting to doubt himself.

Bran braced himself, he could do this. He was the strongest warg ever born, born with the greensight and a master in the art of alchemy. He could do this!

His eyes opened and were met with the hill above King’s Landing, he could see the see gray sea and murky harbor in the distance. His back felt strange, instead of skin he was plated in ebony scales. And vision had magnified exponentially, which wasn’t a surprise, it did the same with most animals. What was shocking was the lack of feeling, it was freezing in King’s Landing lately and the chill that had had him wrapped in a thick cloak the last week didn’t feel like anything. In fact, Drogon felt too hot.

It was strange. Bran was knocked from his thoughts from a hiss, he looked to his right and saw the white dragoness Viserion chained next to him, her golden eyes ablaze.

“You are not my mate,” She hissed.

Shocked he could understand her so easily, he moved to defend his actions, “I will give you your mate back shortly, in the meantime I plan to free the both of you and myself.”

The cream colored dragoness seemed to be considering his offer while Bran was awed by her beauty, she wasn’t white like he had thought, instead she was a creamy color brushed with hints of gold. Her horns, wing bones and spinal plates were the same vibrant metallic gold as her eyes, “And you’d give my mate back to me after we escape?”

“Yes, I need to make a pit stop a bit north of here and after that I’ll help you find your queen or if you like you two may just go on your own way after,” Bran gave her a toothy grin, “But while we’re here, we can cause a bit of trouble for King Aegon if you’d like.”

Viserion flashed her teeth at him that he took as a draconic smile.

--

Jon sat in his office, rifling through what seemed to be endless piles of paperwork. Power was not what people thought… it was merely lots of paperwork.

Ghost sat at his side and whined a bit.

“I promise we’ll go for our run later, Ghost,” Jon sighed and put his heads in his hands. Earlier, Val had come by to yell at him for not coming to the welcome feast. Not only that but Arya, one of the wildling chiefs, a few Stark bannermen and a few Arryn and Tully one’s had come by to speak as well, the list went on and on. But he had finally gotten a response from his sibling’s uncle Edmure Tully with his support too, so it wasn’t all annoyances.

All in all, he was feeling pretty overwhelmed, if this is what it felt like to truly lead an army, he wanted no part of it. Oh who was he kidding, despite the stress, he was loving it. Jon gave a humorless laugh and Ghost looked at him strangely.

“What?” Jon asked Ghost.

Ghost laid down next to him, seeming to give up on any sort of a run that evening.

A knock at his door roused Jon from his thoughts and he looked up to Daenerys and Rhaegal padding into his office.

Jon gave her a weak smile before furrowing his brow, “How are you walking around with that thin cloak? We’ve got three feet of snow outside.”

“I guess I don’t get that cold,” She shrugged and pointed to the wooden chair in front of his desk, “Do you mind if I sit?”

“Whatever you like,” He gestured for her to sit, “Lady Daenerys, how can I help you tonight?”

She sat and looked up at the ceiling before looking back to him, “Well, after seeing all of this paperwork on your desk I feel a bit silly, I kind of thought you were avoiding me by not coming to the feast tonight.”

Jon’s heart started to thump harder in his chest, without missing a beat he replied, maybe a bit too hastily, “And what reason would I have to avoid you?”

She met his eyes and looked away again, “After what I said in the clearing… remember?”

“Oh, I thought you meant you were happy to see someone who hated King Aegon as much as you, that you were here to join with us,” Jon put his papers down and met her eyes.

She shook her head, “No, you didn’t.”

“I’m sorry?” Jon asked not sure he was hearing her right.

“You didn’t think that because I had no idea Aegon planned to attack the north until after you brought me to Castle Black, so you had to have known exactly what I meant, one because you aren’t stupid, you’re incredibly intelligent in fact and two because I saw the way your eyes went wide and blushed a bit, no matter how much you tried to hide it.”

“Uh,” Jon wasn’t sure to say, his earlier comparison to Daenerys to Ygritte was probably even more correct than he had originally thought. He wasn’t sure what to do with such abruptness.

“I apologize for putting you on the spot, I’ve come to find you people of Westeros tend to dance around the truth but I find that I have to be honest to get what I want, I came here because I stupidly felt a connection between us and I thought I had nothing more to lose and had no reason not to pursue it.”

Jon was flabbergasted; this was his worst nightmare and deepest desire. He wanted nothing more than to jump across the table and press his lips to her in answer. But he couldn’t.

Jon felt like choking, it really wasn’t fair.

Jon wanted to growl in frustration, nothing was fair.

“Are you going to say anything?” She caught his eyes again and refused to let them stray.

“Lady Daenerys, I want nothing more than I want you, I’ve never felt a temptation like this,” Jon broke the stare and looked down at his shaking hands, he folded them in an attempt hide it, he was having trouble breathing, “But I’ve taken an oath, one I can’t break, I have people relying on that, while I’d love to return your feelings, I have a duty to my people.”

She sat there, no reaction, “And so you’d reject me for the greater good?”

“Not only that,” He sighed, “You deserve far better than me, someone like your Drogo, I’m just a bastard, stuck on this ice wall, a life of servitude ahead of me, I can never hold any title beside commander, never own any land and riches, never marry or father children. I can’t provide for you the way you so deserve. I’m not worthy of you milady.”

At her silence, he continued, “I’ve never wanted anything more that I’ve wanted you but I can’t, for the both of us. You’re beautiful, smart, brave, charismatic and strong, I have no doubt any man would kill his own mother for a chance to kiss your hand.”

“I understand, you have your oaths,” She nodded and stood, moving to the door to leave, she stopped at the door frame and looked back, “I want you to know, noble blood or not, I’ve never met anywhere in all the world, a more honorable, honest and caring man than you, I loved Drogo but I’m coming to find he couldn’t even hold a candle to you. If anything ever changes, I’ll be waiting.”

And she left.

Jon exhaled, it was as if the fire went out in the room, his office seemed cold and dark without her there.

He ran a hand through his black curls, trying to calm himself. Giving up, he put his head in his shaking hands. That had taken more self-control than he thought he had, Commander Mormont and his uncle Benjen would be proud of him for honoring his oath. Many men would have forsaken their oaths the second they thought a woman like that was interested.

Was he being honorable or stupid?

Jon wanted to hit something.

He looked down at Ghost who had been quietly watching the exchange. It might’ve been his imagination but it seemed even Ghost was looking at him like he was a complete imbecile.

“I think I’m ready for that run now,” Jon sighed.

--

“How are we going to get out of these chains?” Viserion hissed.

“Quite simple really, these chains are alchemically modified, they’re made out of iron but they’re imprinted with runes of power, alchemical magic that makes the simple iron mimic diamonds,” Bran explained stretching and rustling the chains, “Diamond is the strongest substance in the world, the most powerful creatures in the world can’t even break it because diamond’s structure is so perfectly aligned and compact for all intents and purposes, they’re perfect, utterly unbreakable.”

Viserion puffed out smoke in her nose, “I am well aware, human.”

“I’m not insulting you I promise! What I was trying to say was that even though the strength is made to mimic diamond through magic and it seems unbreakable, it is in fact not. It’s truly iron not diamond and iron’s structure nowhere near perfect in alignment or compactness. And neither are the runes that the alchemist’s placed on them. We find the kink in the runes where they’re not completely mimicking diamonds and we’ve found where to break the chains.”

“Then do it, boy,” Viserion growled, “My patience wears thin and I want to find my hatchling.”

“Completely understandable, if you’d give me a minute,” Bran draconic eyes studied the tiny runes cast in the chains.

It took almost an hour for him to free them. Viserion roared in triumph so loudly it seemed to shake the Red Keep and Bran joined her. He’d howled as a wolf but roaring as a dragon was amazing, cathartic, he had never imagined he could be this powerful.

Bran stretched his massive wings growing used to them and he truly realized how large Drogon was, much larger than his siblings. A single wing of his could wipe the Red Keep off of King’s Landing and into the sea and single roar deafen every human within a mile. Viserion was only about as big as one of his wings.

“The humans approach,” Viserion warned, nodding her massive head. Bran looked in the direction she had indicated and saw Aegon and a whole battalion of his men approaching.

“I guess our roaring didn’t go unnoticed,” Bran snickered.

“I can’t imagine why,” Viserion hissed and shot golden fire at Aegon’s men. She tried not to burn his men, just burning a few feet in front of them. Her scare tactic worked, his men seemed to lose there fortitude, had they really thought a few hundred gold cloaks could take on two full grown dragons?

“My king, should we wait for reinforcements?” Bran heard a man ask the King.

Aegon ignored him, he seemed to be growing more irritable by the second, a hairbreadth away from throwing a hissy fit, “I will have every alchemist’s head for this! I was told those chains were unbreakable!”

Bran rolled his eyes, knowing the king wouldn’t carry through, the Targaryen liked all their magical inventions far too much to dispose of them. A few heads might roll but the guild would remain and long as dragons lived in the realm.

“I need to stop in King’s Landing to pick up a few things, would you mind helping me out? I believe you might be able to fit in the dungeons a lot easier than I, I’ll help you rip a whole in the castle and you can collect the humans I need.”

Viserion glared but seemed curious, “And why should I?”

“I’m going to help you find your queen and put her back into power, of course.”