GOTP Chapter 31

How long has it been? Two years? Four? I don’t even know anymore.
The days blend. The wars, the screams, the fire - all of it.

The rage that burns in me isn’t always mine. It’s hers.
That’s the strange thing about being… whatever I am. A Pokemon, bound to a person not just by command, but by feeling. Closer the bond, stronger the pull. When she’s angry, I feel it. When she’s hurt, it tears through me as well.

And today… she’s both.

She acted calm in front of the camp, face still as stone while the head of her mother’s killer lay in my claw. But those eyes, those damn eyes couldn’t hide the storm behind them.

It all hit me now, the way it always does after the fight.
Her pain bleeding into mine. My fire burning with her hate.

I flew to her tent before I could think twice. The air still smelled of smoke. Men looked up as I passed but said nothing, no one tells a burning bird what to do.

I waited outside for a while. Just… listening. The sound of her breath. The faint rustle of fabric.

Then I stepped in.

She was there in the corner, knees drawn, head bowed low. Not like a princess. Just a girl who had run out of ways to stay strong.

And I realized, I had made it worse.
Bringing that head back, thinking it would give her peace. But killing the Mountain didn’t heal anything. It only reminded her what she’d lost. Her world, her family, her mother, her little baby brother. All of it.

She spoke, voice quiet. “Vel.”

The sound made me shiver. Stupid, right? Big bird, scared of a whisper. But it wasn’t the tone. It was what sat under it, that ache, sharp enough to burn without flame.

I stepped forward, slow. Made a small sound in my throat, soft.

She lifted her head.
Those eyes… hollow. No tears. Just empty.

I hate that look.

She reached out and hugged me. Careful. Gentle. Like I would break if she held tighter.
I stayed still. Fire dimmed to a low glow.

For a while, neither of us moved. No words. Just the quiet between us.

Then she whispered near my ear, small voice, calm, too calm.
“I want them dead, Vel. All of them.”

My feathers prickled. That tone scared me more than any battlefield.

“Every Lannister. Every Baratheon.”
Her breath hitched. “I want them to know what it means to hurt a dragon.”

I looked at her, wishing she hadn’t said it. Wishing she could take it back.

Because I remembered the last time she spoke like that. Different reason, same fire. Yin - that city still haunts me.
The night I turned away while everything burned.
Her command. My flames. Their screams.

And now the world itself seemed to answer her again.
A quest shimmered before my eyes:

KILL LANNISTER
KILL BARATHEON

I froze.

No. Not again.

I pulled away from her arms. She blinked, startled. “Velmir?”

I didn’t stay.
Didn’t look back.

I turned and left the tent before I could change my mind.

She called my name again, softer this time. “Velmir.”

I still didn’t turn.

The air outside was cold against the heat in me.
And for the first time in a long while, I wasn’t sure who the monster was - the ones she hated, or the one she had made me become.