Chapter 06 - Balerion

I went in the direction of Aemond's room, I was jumping, I was happy for him, soon he would have a dragon just like me.

I had seen how Aegon and my brothers bothered him for not having one, they had not bothered me, they told me that I could get on their dragons as soon as they could support the weight of a person on their backs, they fought over which dragon I would ride first when they fought I left, I did not like to hear the shouts and fights.

When I got to his room the door was ajar, I peeked in and saw that Aemond was not there, Alicent and Ser Criston Cole were there.

- "Jacaerys, Lucerys, and the baby Rhaenyra is expecting are not natural, one is fine but to have three," - Said the queen.

- "Bastards," - Said Ser Criston Cole, - "that's what they are."

- "On the other hand, I heard that Aegon went to Silk Street the other day," - Said Alicent, holding her hands to her face.

- "The prince has been seen going to this place several times already."

- "What's a bastard?" - I asked and they both turned around.

Her face quickly went blank, Alicent gently slapped Ser Criston and he smiled.

- "It's an affectionate nickname," - He said.

- "That's the same, only it's said on special occasions, you shouldn't say it too often, you should rarely say it, it's for elders," - Said Alicent approaching me.

- "And don't worry about Aegon going to the silk street" - I said as I looked at them, they looked at me with confusion - "He told me it's a place where they sell fabrics, don't worry" - I smiled.

- "Come my angel" - Alicent smiled at me and took my hand - "I guess you are looking for Aemond, right?"

- "Yes" - I answered - "We got him a dragon egg, Meleys nested, and I convinced my father to take Aemond to pick one too."

- "Sweetheart, it wasn't necessary" - Alicent said with a sweet tone - "but that's very kind of you" - She stopped in the middle of the corridor and kissed my forehead - "Aemond is in the garden with Aegon, Helaena is in her room, the maester says she has a slight cold because of the abrupt change of weather."

I nodded and then ran to the place where the queen had informed me that Aemond was, in the garden, I spotted the falcon flying over the place, I walked through the gardens until I reached my two uncles.

- "If you call him Dracarys, maybe he will set your chicken dragon on fire" - Aegon joked and Aemond pushed him.

- "Leave Balerion alone," - Aemond demanded, and Aegon held up his hands in a show of peace.

- "I was just saying," - He sighed and then turned and saw me, a faint smile came to his face and he bowed, - "Princess Alexandrya, what an honor you do us with your presence."

- "Lexy" - Said Aemond looking at me, his falcon started to fly lower until it landed on his right shoulder.

- "Aemond, I have good news" - I said while smiling - "Meleys nested in Dragonstone."

- "That's very good Alexandrya... you will have a dragon" - Aemond said smiling, but his expression was now a bit sad.

- "Lexy, when your dragon is born we will fly together" - Aegon stood next to me and pointed to the sky - "You on your dragon and me on sunfire, it will be perfect."

- "You, Aemond, and me" - I answered smiling - "My father said that Aemond can come with us tomorrow to Dragonstone to choose an egg, he says that after my cousin chooses hers you can choose the one you like"

- "What?" - Aemond's face lit up - "Are you serious, Alexandrya?"

- "Yes, I'm serious" - I answered.

- "I will not let the two of you go alone, I will come too, I will delight you with my presence," - Answered Aegon.

- "Sure, you can come, I was going to tell Helaena but Queen Alicent told me she was ill" - I shrugged my shoulders.

- "Here you were Alexandrya" - Jace arrived at the place, I could see he was quite agitated from running, behind him came Lucerys who was running from Lux who ran after him wanting to jump on him.

When I saw my little she-wolf I approached her and carried her, she made a slight sound of disgust for not achieving her goal.

- "Lux, greet Balerion" - With one of my hands I took the small soft paw of my she-wolf and moved it carefully, simulating a greeting.

- "I say she will eat your chick," - Said Aegon as Aemond approached.

Aemond's hawk shook his head as the she-wolf turned her head sideways to see him better, I left Lux on the ground, and surprisingly she stopped chasing Luc, Balerion took to the air and behind him on the ground Lux ran, it was quite a nice scene, Aemond's hawk looked like he had just started to fly, both of them were babies.

- "His name is Balerion, not chick," - Aemond raised his voice, pushing Aegon again.

Out of nowhere the three of them started to argue, I turned around avoiding all that, and walked to a part of the garden where I used to go with Helaena to see insects, I sat on the ground and waited a few minutes to see if there was any new one, to my luck yes, a spider, it was black and had two red stripes on the back, the other day I had seen it with Helaena, but we had not managed to catch it since it was in an area of difficult access.

I extended my hand waiting for the spider to approach me, if it didn't want to do it I would leave it since I didn't like to take insects against their will, most of the insects that I and Helaena had were wounded or that had approached us.

The spider at the beginning began to walk on the sides of my hand without climbing on it, it was in that plan for a few long minutes until it began to climb on my hand, I brought it a little closer to me to see it better, its legs had white and red stripes, I noticed that it was missing one of its legs since it only had seven of the eight, with my index finger of my free hand I approached it to the small insect what I had observed was a female specimen.

The spider was not aggressive so with my index finger I caressed the insect with care, I got up with care not to scare it, it was a tarantula, but it had not yet reached adulthood, it seemed that it was poisonous.

I started to walk towards the inside of the castle until I got to Helaena's room, once there I entered the place, she was lying on her bed, I approached her and sat down next to her.

- "Look, I managed to get the spider from the other day to approach me" - I said while I showed it to her, Helaena sat down to see the little insect better.

- "It is poisonous Alexandrya, but it is very pretty" - She answered while she stretched out her hand to see if the spider would climb on her palm.

The spider did that, it started to walk all over my cousin's hand, she sneezed, but the spider didn't get scared.

- "It's missing a leg" - I answered and Helaena didn't look at me, she just looked at the spider and put her other hand, now the spider was walking on both of her hands.

- "The cracks begin" - She began to whisper - "the footsteps are great, the fire is in him, from his great maw he finishes and ends with many" - I stared at her while I listened to her attentively - "only one will they get before he comes for the others."

I knew that this had something to do with something that could happen, but I didn't understand what she meant, many times I could decipher what she wanted to say, but others were words that even if I tried hard to understand I couldn't do it until they happened, or I simply overlooked them since they were so wanted that I didn't even notice when it happened.

I got up from her bed to leave, but first, she said something else.

- "Beware of those who eat their own"