Chapter 10: Chapter 6

Chapter Text

Carefully, I stepped on the stones heading up the Dragonmont. Father had shown me the exact location, and helped me to sneak my way out of the castle while Viserys held court. Shown me everything I needed to know to survive. I'd return to the castle and Father would hug me and raise me high, proud that I did what he'd wanted.

A crack of rock and the sound of sliding and a yelp made me turn around, frowning at my follower.

"Step carefully, Rhae! It's a long way down!" I called, as I helped Rhaenyra back to her feet. She brushed some dust from her arm and nodded. According to Father, Aemma had given us unofficial permission to do this. I highly doubted it. Even so, it'd taken everything I had to convince her to not bring Criston Cole with us up the Dragonmont; it had taken me convincing her that wild dragons would probably want to eat him before she relented. Not that I would have minded, the guy was still a dick, no matter how unbelievably hot he was, but Rhae would have cried, and I didn't want her to cry. And it would have been far too suspicious for him to die like that. Mostly the second one. Totally.

The Dragonmont billowed smoke, and the calls of dragons echoed everywhere. Definitely not the place you want to be without adult supervision. Yet, here I was, standing on the lava and ascending for what was probably the most dangerous rite of passage in all of Westeros.

After quite some more time of climbing up the mountain, we finally came to a wide crevice. Too far to jump. I held my breath and slowly made my way around the edge. As I did, I looked back up at the sky. No darkness. Good. The last thing we needed was the Cannibal flying by and deciding we'd be a nice lunch.

Right on cue, a dragon flew by, carrying a sheep in it's claws. It looked down at us, huffed, then kept flying.

"Was that Sheepstealer?" Rhaenyra asked. I shrugged.

"Mud-brown dragon, carrying off a sheep? Who knows, it could be any dragon," I said with a shrug. Rhaenyra jabbed me in the arm playfully. I laughed back at her, rubbing my arm where she hit it.

"Come on, Luke, we still need to find our dragons!" she said with a smile. Soon after, we continued scaling the Dragonmont, carefully working out way toward the northern side of the island. Sheer cliffs, brimstone, and plenty of hatchlings dotted our travel path. None of them interested us, though.

Finally, we approached a large crater, where we crouched behind the crater wall. Before Rhaenyra could say anything, I pointed up the mountain, where a grey dragon flew by, before vanishing into the smoke.

"Grey Ghost," I whispered. "Father showed me how to spot him when he's not busy messing with the Cannibal." Rhaenyra nodded in awe. I waited a few minutes to make sure that said crazy dragon wasn't right behind Grey Ghost, and I poked my head over the crater rim. At the bottom rested two dragons, one of bronze and one of silver. I smiled. Vermithor and Silverwing. I'd hoped for Rhaenyra and myself to claim the two, and it was getting close to such a thing happening!

"I'll go down first, follow me down when I wave!" I whispered. Rhaenyra didn't look happy, but bit her lip and nodded. With a deep breath, I pulled myself onto the wall and began to carefully make my way down to where the two dragons were laying, content with life.

Some time later, I finally reached the bottom. Looking up, there was still no Cannibal. Well, that's good. I slowly approached the two dragons. After a few moments, Silverwing opened her eyes and looked at me. I slowed down and stepped further from her. After a moment, she let out a huff of smoke and curled back up, uninterested in me.

I took a deep breath to steel myself. I just had to pretend there weren't two giant lizards in front of me that could eat me in one gulp. Slowly, I approached the bronze dragon. After a few moments, he perked up and looked at me. I slowed down.

"Hey, it's been a while, Vermithor," I said. The dragon just stared. Well, it was worth a shot. "It's a bit lonely out here. I brought a rider for Silverwing, too, so could you come back to King's Landing with me?" Vermithor stirred a bit, but didn't seem to move. I sighed and began to approach closer. "Come on, I'm trying here. I can get you a sheep back at the castle. Please?" I looked at Vermithor, who stared back, before slowly unfurling to full size. I almost peed my pants as he stood up and stared me down.

Getting into a stare-down with a dragon was decidedly not on my list of ways to die. But, something in me compelled me to stand my ground. I stared back at Vermithor, despite everything else screaming at me to run. I wasn't sure how much time passed, but eventually, Vermithor reared back and opened his mouth. I flinched and threw my hands up, as with a roar, Vermithor shot bronze flames into the air, close enough to me that I could feel the heat, but not close enough to hurt me. With his showboating complete, Vermithor crouched back down and lowered his head, continuing to stare at me.

"…so is that a yes?" I asked. Vermithor let out a puff of smoke from his nose in response. I supposed that was the best answer I was gonna get from him. Expecting any actual answer would probably be a sign of madness. I smiled and waved to Rhaenyra, before I slowly moved to Vermithor's side, and pulled myself onto him, the same way Father did with Caraxes. Carefully, I wrapped my arm around his neck as best I could and got myself snugly rested on his scales. The spines dug into my arms, but I ignored it as best I could.

A few minutes later, Rhaenyra finally arrived at the bottom, smiling at me before looking at Silverwing.

"Hi, Silverwing!" she cheered. The silver dragon lifted her head and huffed. Rhaenyra slowly walked forward. "I'm Rhaenyra; I'm always with Luke, so we can fly together and you can be with Vermithor still! Wanna let me ride you?" Silverwing stared at her, before opening her mouth and yawning loudly, and crouching down. Rhaenyra cheered happily and ran to mount the dragon. The three largest dragons in Westeros are now ridden by children. This isn't worrying at all.

Finally, I took a deep breath to prepare myself for what came next.

"Fly!" I called in High Valyrian. With a jolt, Vermithor stood up. Silverwing whined, and Vermithor huffed in response. They're probably talking, can't quite tell what they mean, though. Before I could reason anything further out, Vermithor surged forward, and I closed my eyes, holding on as tight as I could, as I felt his wings flap hard, again and again.

My heart pounded and the wind whipped past my ears, and I could barely keep my breathing straight. I felt hot tears run down my face, I was so scared. Kingda Ka didn't have shit on this. My arms felt hot and they hurt more than I could ever have imagined, but I refused to loosen my grip.

Then, the flapping slowed, though the wind remained steady. Even still, it felt like hours before I could stand to open my eyes. After a few moments, I finally began to open my eyes. Flying smoothly above the slopes of the Dragonmont, Vermithor expertly maneuvered, taking heed not to let me slip. Carefully, he began to make his way back toward the crater, where a spot of silver began to rise as well.

"Follow!" I called as best I could. Carefully, Vermithor turned around in a wide arc and followed the other dragon. Soon, Vermithor caught up to Silverwing, flying below. After a moment, the silver dragon dove down, catching the attention of the people in the shore town below the castle.

A loud horn sounded, signalling the town to the arrival of dragons. Vermithor began to circle the castle, letting out a loud roar. Rhaenyra, on Silverwing, landed first in the large yard near the stables. It seemed to be a rough landing, but I couldn't quite tell. The crowd forming in the yard backed up as Vermithor began to slowly descend. I closed my eyes tight at he finally touched down, and I let go.

When I finally opened my eyes, I was met with looks of astonishment from most, and a look of gleaming pride from my father. I'd done everything he'd wanted. I'd claimed Vermithor and successfully gotten Rhaenyra to claim Silverwing. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Aemma looking on with a look of barely suppressed glee. So she was in on it. I thought Father was bluffing to get Rhaenyra to agree.

"I… got… dragon…" I said, suddenly feeling really tired. Father rushed forward and caught me as I fell off of Vermithor's back. I smiled up at him, then closed my eyes; sleep never hurt anyone, and while my arms hurt and were a bit wet, they'd probably feel better when I woke up.