7 7
----
177 AC
Dragonstone
Aerion Targaryen
----
"How do you even come up with these stories?" Plagiarism by Mya would never understand so it will be fine unless the FBI comes knocking.
"A sharp and keen mind of a genius such as myself is all it takes." I preen and ignore the annoyed looks of my half-siblings.
"Hey, Aerion." Mya looks hesitant as I look back over at her and raise my brows.
"What?" Her lips thin and she looks around nervously.
"Can we go look at Moonfyre, I want to see her up close again." She mumbles the last part and I snort when I see Eager nods coming from the others.
Even little Shiera is nodding while watching everyone else and I sigh as she will throw a fit if we all leave her at once.
"Someone will have to stay to watch Shiera." Heads swivel around as they all look to see who is going to volunteer.
Seeing no one offer they all shrink back to not be the one 'picked' to miss out on seeing the dragon. This is a common sight, it is almost like they get some kind of high from seeing the shiny scales of my dragon. Each trip out there only serves to make them want to see her more, and then some more on top of that.
I look over at Baelor and his neck almost snaps as he turns his head away to 'avoid' being selected as a babysitter. We could just leave her with the maid but we just got in here and started showing her some attention, she will be upset if we dump her off immediately. I grow more concerned with how little anyone cares about her, a bare minimum is presented to her and it is appalling to my more modern mindset.
Some things that just come as common courtesy to me are seen as odd for a royal family member and it has been tough adjusting as I socialize more. My desire to see Shiera not turn out emotionally stunted has gotten attention from many people and they think it is weird. They don't understand how her not having parents because one died and the other is a poor excuse for human will affect her long term.
The maids do their job but stop at that, they care little for a bastard and will serve me hand and foot catering to my every whim. I have little intention to become some rights activist or something but I don't mind spending some of my seemingly endless free time here and there with my different half-siblings.
My nephews follow close behind me in my example and their Dornish mother doesn't mind in the slightest as bastards are viewed neutrally in their culture. My older brother does not say anything but I know he would prefer his trueborn kids not to mingle with the bastards. Faith of the seven is more toxic than good but not much to do about it without launching a crusade against them.
"Fine, hand her over and I will just carry her." I hold her on my hip and guide everyone out of the room.
Hope Drogon won't mind the guests again, he doesn't attack anyone but he grumbles when people disturb his peace of mind. Like a big old lazy hound dog but instead of droopy ears and eyes, he can burn you alive.
----
Shieras hands roam the silver scales with glee and I hear ooohs and aaaahs behind me as Moonfyre lets out a deep rumble.
"So pretty!" Gwenys looks like she wants to approach but is locked in place by fear or hesitation.
Her sister Mya has no reservations and starts scratching scales right next to Shiera.
"When are you going to take me flying?" Baelor asks while his eyes roam the clouds as if looking for another dragon to swoop down.
"When there is a saddle, trust me when I say this and I mean every word. Flying without something sturdy to hold onto is a quick trip to the grave." He snorts and shakes his head even though I see the 'fire' in his eyes die down.
"We don't go to the grave, were Valyrians, and we get burnt to ashes." Smart ass.
Footsteps on the stone floor alert all of us and I cover Shieras mouth to stop her from squealing in delight as she rubs Moonfyre.
"I think they are in here." I hear a familiar voice and soon see my twin walk in with her new 'friends'.
Narha Otherys and her sister Bellenora Otherys both walking on either side of my twin as she spots me and walks in our direction. I wipe my hand off on my pant leg getting rid of the saliva applied by my sister when she tried to bite my hand off her mouth.
"Hello brother, showing them the dragons again?" Her amused voice irritates me as they never ask to see her dragon.
Drogon intimidates whereas Moonfyre seduces with just her silver luster catching the eye.
"I am, how were the lessons today?" I change the subject and her smirk lets me know she knows but she lets it slide as she starts narrating her daily lessons.
"I am getting sick of the Maesters passive manipulations, everyday he tries to snip and prune me with his 'lessons'. I can see his intentions a mile away and I want to just let Drogon have him and be done with it, next Maester will do more teaching and fewer politics." I also noticed how the Maester teaches us separate and pushes a certain 'agenda'.
Sings of our family's madness and how every time we breed among each other it only gets worse. Only by marrying out can we save our children from a terrible fate of muddled minds and also in the progress secure strong allies for our brother's future rule.
Sometimes I want to ask him if it is normal to have dreams of burning people alive, just to see his reaction. I would expect a look that rivals Dumbledore to accomplish the 'greater good' as he slips me some poison or something.
"Just stop going to the lessons." I comment idly as I have not learned anything new other than the history of varying houses and whatnot.
"I just might, but don't tempt the others with your laziness." I smile wryly as I let Shiera start petting Moonfyre again.
Moonfyre has turned her head toward us and is taking in breaths of our scent with her eyes scanning over us. Her tail shifting slightly behind her sends an occasional spark when it rubs the ground at a certain angle. Her scale is impressively hard for her age, according to the books I have read about dragons at least. Their scales can get as hard as Valyrian steel later in their life but Moonfyre is young and her scales are tested to be close to normal steel at the least.
It makes me wonder if it has to do with her more metallic coloring or some other factor I am unaware of. I would love to figure out all their mysteries but most were likely buried in the doom to never be uncovered again. I mean we don't even know fire and blood magic even though it is our House words.
"So you just seek us out to see what we are doing or did you have a different reason?" I ask without looking back but I can see her reflection in the sheen and she nods.
"We sought you out to ask if you wouldn't mind training Bellenora and Narha, they watched us train last time and grew some interest." I nod having expected it eventually, everyone in Dragonstone has taken some interest in my 'training'.
More modern-day exercises that surprise them but also don't make sense so they want to 'try it for themselves' to see what it is like. Most lose interest shortly after starting but a few have toughed it out and I even caught some guards doing 'suicides'.
"They can join, they also don't need to have you ask and can approach me directly if they need anything. I don't bite but I also don't promise to be able to do or give everything, no need to be scared of me." I look over my shoulder at the two half-sisters who look uncomfortable.
Their mom was a victim of the crazy blood mages that have been hunting down my father's kids all over. She is holding on but I don't know her exact wounds as I was not told and also not allowed to see. They likely saw what happened or at least saw the 'damage' and then were brought here for 'safety' and are near abandoned while their mom heals.
Most bastards are sent elsewhere and only the ones who my dad loved the mom of are sent here to be safe. Their brother Balerion is also here but he likes to read a lot and lives in the library at this point.
I shake my head wondering if it is even safe here with how that one 'horn freak' keeps trying to steal the dragons.
He has sailed around Dragonstone blowing some horn that can be heard across the water and sounds like a dying dinosaur or something. Multiple ships have sunk but he manages to escape with the horn each time, his crew was not so lucky. He has a crewmate blow the horn till they die as the horn consumes their life in the process. He is apparently a madman who wants to steal the dragons with the horn.
I haven't seen so much as a twitch from the dragons when the guy was last blowing the horn, if anything I think it lulled them to sleep.
"I will ask you myself next time." Bellenora comments and I nod before picking Shiera back up and walking away from Moonfyre.
"That should be enough for today, crowd the dragons too much at your own peril." Quick footsteps catch up to me causing me to smile.
At least they know when to not overstay their welcome, Drogon might snap someone up someday to mark his 'territory'.
-----
"It hurts." I hold Narha in a stretch as she leans forward and I even feel her back pop and wonder if I just snapped her spine.
"You ok?" I hesitantly ask and she nods slowly and sits up as I move my hand.
"I am fine, that actually got rid of most of the pain." I hope it's not because it did permanent damage.
"Alright, now that stretching is out of the way let's get a run in and then we can go from there." I pull my leg up behind my back by gripping my foot and pulling it up.
Letting it go I bounce in place and feel my muscles are loosened up and start jogging around the yard as I have my little ducklings follow behind me. The sight of a bunch of kids all running circles in a yard likely is funny to most. I just see a momma duck and her kids going around and around, momma duck trying to get them gains.
Tourneys and melees await me in my future, I plan to become the best-known sword in the world. I conveniently have a dragon and can fly all around battling in every melee and riding in any tourney to spread my skills. I can even go to Essos to get some fame and spread my name far and wide, sounds like it will be fun. Seeing new sights and winning gold and glory really fires me up.
Looking at my slowly growing body I purse my lips and put the thought out of my mind, for now, I only torture myself by getting impatient.
But one day I will go out and achieve my goal.
