A Rogue Dragon's Flight Chapter 11 (ASOIAF Daemon Tragryen SI)

Death, what is death? a transition or an end? perhaps I’m the only man qualified to know that answer but what I know would prove useless to my brother. I don’t have children, not yet at least, but I know what is to lose family, that feeling of the ground giving under your feet, the headaches that won’t stop, losing your appetite, and a rage so great that it threatens to consume you whole… My brother has a gentle soul and losing family always leaves him like a wreck, when I heard his scream of anguish and pain outside the birthing room I paled because I thought that Viserys might do something stupid in his grief, luckily for all of us he didn’t.

But not all is well, my brother hates that he was forced to impregnate his wife as soon as possible to continue our house, he hates that he doesn’t have the strength to go against our grandfather. Viserys will kill Aemma if he continues this and some part of him knows this, I will try to talk sense to the king, to give Aemma time to recover but if I fail then I fear that Viserys may never have an heir…

…I’ve heard whispers around the castle, the people of Dragonstone know of my growing reputation and some are starting to say that the gods desire that I rule the Seven Kingdoms, that Viserys is going against their will by trying to sire an heir and that the gods will kill every last one of his progeny in his wife’s womb. Others think that it was me who has poisoned Aemma, ‘to secure the throne’. They speak of it as fact and while I don’t think that anyone important believes it, but a lie repeated often enough will sound better than the truth, not to mention that if word were to spread about the magic that I’m learning in secret all the blame would fall on me.

…To make matters worse Corlys sent a congratulatory gift to the king for his anniversary marking the fiftieth year of his reign, it was an extravagant sculpture of Vermithor made of pure gold. The thing is more valuable than some castles and whispers are coming around from everywhere that the King is planning to have Corlys’ daughter marry whatever child I have with Rhea as a way to have the family mend past grievances, it makes sense but I don’t have a child yet, Rhea is strong but pressure on the mind is sometimes more dangerous than any injury.

I will have to accelerate my plans, magic is useful for sure but right now I need real power…

Excerpts from Daemon Tragaryen’s personal journal found in the book of A Look into the Real Dragon Knight written after his death by his oldest son.

[Dragonstone, Chamber of the Painted Table]

Daemon Targaryen

“Do you think I don’t care?!” Baelon slammed his fist against the chair he was sitting on as he looked at Viserys “I lost my grandson!”

“And I lost my son!” the broken voice of Viserys did more to convey the pain he was feeling than any tears he might have shed in front of our father, I remained silent staring at the painted table. I slowly traced the place that depicted the Dragonmont before rising from my chair.

“I have an idea, it’s something that will make everyone forget about what has happened, it will give Viserys time and keep the king busy…it’s also extremely selfish” they turned to look at me confused at the last part of my declaration but hope manifested itself on Viserys’ eyes.

“I couldn’t care less about how selfish it is! Aemma needs time or else…or else she won’t make it through another birth” Viserys covered his eyes with one hand while my father looked away. It was easy to forget that Baelon had also lost his wife to childbirth, that wasn’t the case right now. My father’s stare was vacant as if he was watching something in the distance. Lost as he was in his memories he forgot to ask me what I was planning and tinge of guilt passed through me as I was technically taking advantage of both of them.

“Then I wil-“ Viserys raised a hand and stopped me.

“I approve of your plan whatever it is but it’s almost impossible to lie to our grandfather and unlike you neither father nor I can just say that we’re ‘tinkering’”

Baelon shook his head and nodded along at Viserys’ words “My father has spied everywhere, it makes him feel in control now that he is old, I have found at least three people in my retinue reporting things to him and I think he might be trying to bait me into killing them so I don’t suspect others but I’m not sure”

“Very well, I won’t say anything but rest assured that you will know if my plan has born fruit” With that they stood up and made their way to the door.

With grim faces we all nodded at each other before they left the room behind, now I could properly contemplate the next step in my plan since I had gotten ‘permission’ to tame one of the wild dragons.

All that was left was the actual taming part, at least I had a plan that would make it easier to succeed. I discovered another potion in Visenya’s book, it made whatever I poured it on irresistible to whoever smelt it, causing the victim to devour whatever I had doused with this particular potion, she mostly used it to poison other people but she had found that using it with her food tasters had gotten great results, as she could ensure that her tasters did their job properly without fear of betrayal. Not when the tasters gladly stuffed their mouths with a piece of Visenya’s food mixed with this new potion.

My plan was simplicity itself. I would take some sheep to the Dragonmont doused with a little bit of the potion so that the dragon approached me, then it was just a matter of properly bonding with them by giving them some of my blood.

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“Are you sure this is wise Daemon?” Willam asked as he helped me prepare the horse that he had smuggled to me. from what he told me barely anyone had asked where he was planning to take the horse, it seemed like there were advantages to being a knight renowned for loyalty and luck.

“Perhaps not, but the king can hardly punish me, at most I will lose the alchemists, sure it will be a blow to the progress I can make and it will take a few more years to develop some of my projects but time is on my side on this issue, grim as it is to say it, my grandfather won’t leave for much longer. Three years at most”

I would just need to focus on the more commercially viable of my inventions and then finance the rest with the money I make from them, the compass would be the first, and while the tactical advantage of having a monopoly on them would be great, I would have all the martial advantage I require with a dragon.

“I suppose you’re right…Daemon, if the worst were to happen…” I put a comforting hand on Willam’s shoulder.

“It won’t happen, should the worst happen I will just run” Willam let out a laugh and didn’t point out the obvious, it was better to believe in a lie than to confront such a hard truth. Briefly I wondered just how much chaos my dead would have on the kingdom, perhaps my father would be forced to marry, or maybe Viserys would have to set aside Aemma, seven hells maybe the king might change his mind and make Laenor king.

Then with one last smile at my friend, I went to meet my destiny.

The time that I spent on my way to the Dragonmont seemed both eternal and brief, there was an undercurrent of fear in my mind since I wasn’t Daemon, or rather I wasn’t fully Daemon or at least that’s how I perceived myself, but the chance to soar the skies on a real dragon was more than enough for me to risk my life. As I circled the base of the mountain I dropped the sheep carcasses all around, I had brought four and they hopefully would be enough.

I wanted to bring more but the horse would protest at the weight and the poor guy would already be hard-pressed to listen to me since I had brought him to the most dangerous place on the island, I was lucky enough that he only briefly protested as I steered the course towards the volcano. I patted the horse reassuringly on the head.

“It will be over soon” A year ago I wouldn’t have dreamed of being so close to a horse but I had surpassed my justified fear of them.

Three different roars started going off around me and it was at that moment that I realized I had fucked up. There were lots of wild dragons around and nothing was stopping them from fighting for the sheep that I had brought. I looked at the last remaining sheep hanging from the side of the saddle and snorted at the thought I would die because of it.

“Well, such is life” My words proved almost prophetic as I witnessed a giant white mass of scaly flesh fight with a brownish one not far from where I was, silver blue flame clashed against a reddish brown in a contest of will that was slowly but surely turning in Sheepstealer’s favor.

Grey Ghost however wasn’t going to go down without a fight as the more slender of the two dragons he was able to maneuver himself so that he could bite Sheepstealer’s neck, the dragons fought and tumbled making the earth quake as they fought. I was witnessing a natural disaster happen in real time and it was as beautiful as it was dangerous.

My horse neighed and almost left me behind as it attempted to throw me off him but at the last moment I was able to grab the reins and calm down the horse enough that he was only slowly moving away from the two dragons. As I moved to a safer distance I saw how Grey Ghost swiped one of his claws against Sheepstealer’s snout threatening to take out one of his eyes but at the last moment Sheepstealer moved his head down and blasted a wave of fire at Grey Ghost’s body whose grey scales were turning black on the spots were he was hit.

My horse came to a sudden stop and I turned my head around to meet the last of the wild dragons face to face, The Cannibal had managed to sneak up on me, for a dragon of his size the bastard sure was stealthy. The Cannibal roared directly at me and I had just seconds to jump of my horse as I felt him go lax, the poor thing had died of fright and crumpled into the ground as if it was a puppet whose strings were cut.

The Cannibal didn’t waste any time and devoured the sheep I had brought, horse and all without care even as the other two dragons roared back at him in defiance, the feud that was developing with them was put aside as they turned to the Cannibal. I always thought it was weird that they were still alive, they were smaller than the Cannibal and by all accounts, they always fled when directly confronted by him but if they fled to team up with each other then it made sense as to why the Cannibal had left them go.

At least if I died I would go out on a three-way epic fight between dragons, not my preferred three-way but at least there would be songs written about me. Well, if I was gonna die I would go down swinging. I unsheathed Dark Sister and with a roar of my own launched myself at the Cannibal, in what felt like the blink of an eye I was slashing at his snout and it was difficult to tell who was more surprised the dragon because no one had been dumb enough to do something like this or me because I had managed to at least touch him before he turned me into ashes.

I turned to see that both Grey Ghost and Sheepstealer had stopped to stare at me instead of charging at the Cannibal. Perhaps I was humanizing the dragons but I could swear on all the gods that existed that they had unimpressed looks on their faces and honestly I didn’t blame them. The Cannibal puffed some smoke out of his nose before opening his maw and I prepared myself to see if I would reincarnate again, I closed my eyes just to make it faster but instead of the burning embrace of fire, I got up close and personal with Cannibal’s tongue.

The massive appendage was pressed to my body and I felt like puking when I smelled his breath, it was a mix of rotten flesh and sulfur that could put even the stench of King’s Landing to shame.

“I guess you won’t be eating me” The Cannibal breathed some more smoke on me as an answer. Things hadn’t gone as I expected, there were still two wild dragons behind me who were probably going to try and fight the Cannibal, I had lost my horse and stank worse than the most shit-filled places of the capital but I had gotten myself a dragon and in the end that was all that mattered.

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Author note: so I tried to do something funny with the bonding part of the chapter, i don't know if I handled it well but it helps me differentiate this from the other more serious dragon bonding moment of All I Need is Guts. anyway hope you enjoyed it and i will see you guys tomorrow