Into the Dragon's Den

When You Were Young

Laena Velaryon, the second of her name, came into the world on a grey, rainy morning. The tiny babe kicked and screamed her unhappiness for the entirety of the Red Keep to hear. It quickly became a running joke that, while Rhaenyra had been The Realm's Delight, her daughter would be The Realm's Dismay. She was born fourteen months, to the day, after her older brother, Jace. While she had come into the world with tiny tendrils covering the top of her head, her father's dark curls, she had also been blessed with her mother's violet eyes. When she was brought before Alicent, less than an hour after her birth, the queen took one look at her tiny mop of hair and smirked with disbelief at Rhaenyra's audacity. And then little Laena opened her eyes to look up at them and the King crooned in adoration.

"Eyes like her mother, absolutely beautiful! My granddaughter is going to be the perfect little lady!" Her eyes were strikingly violet, unsettlingly so, and Queen Alicent eagerly handed the crying infant back to Ser Laenor. Upon his return to their family apartments, Laena was placed into the arms of Ser Harwin Strong, and she immediately settled as the knight easily rocked her to sleep...

The silver dragon that incubated beside her in her cradle hatched with spots of white scattered around her horned crown. Laena named her Starfyre and mounted her at eight years of age. She would go to the dragonpit with her brothers and uncles as often as her mother would allow, often to avoid the dull activities her mother insisted she take part in. Aemond's egg had never hatched and, as they got older, the princess couldn't help but feel sorry for him. They were close in age and Laena couldn't imagine the loss he felt at being the odd child left out. She offered to let him ride Starfyre, when she was big enough to saddle two, but the idea only irritated him and he would tell her to shut up. So, she would. She'd clamp her mouth closed, mount her dragon, and lift off into the sky, following Aegon and Sunfyre up over the blackwater...

***

Laena was sitting beside Helaena on the chilly stone floor when her uncle was brought before the queen, covered in soot and streaming tears. Outwardly, she continued to study the long insect in her aunt's hands, but she was listening closely to the conversation between Aemond and his mother, across the room, as Alicent continued to scold him.

"They gave me a pig!" he complained when Allicent told him she was tired of his obsession with the dragons. Laena's gut turned to lead and she instantly knew what he was telling the queen. Her insides twisted and she clenched her fists. She was going to kill those idiots...

"A what?" Alicent asked, confused.

"They said they found a dragon for me. But it was a pig." he told Alicent with tears still in his eyes. His mother sighed and wrapped her arms around Aemond, attempting to console him.

"You will have a dragon one day. I know it." the Queen told him. Laena was so concentrated on the conversation happening across the room, she never heard the soft words Helaena had spoken. When her lessons had finished, Laena hurried to her brother's rooms across the castle.

"Are you two idiots?" she asked, leaning against Jace's door with her arms crossed over her chest. She wasn't much younger than him, but she felt vastly more mature. Her brothers stared at her as though she had gone mad. She sighed and attempted to explain, "Prince Aemond is our uncle; the king's son," she told him. "The princes already don't like us. The crueler you two are to him, the worse it will be for all of us. You shouldn't give him more reason to be angry..."

The next afternoon, Ser Laenor came to her bedroom, interrupting her embroidery. "Your mother would like you see you, all of you, in her quarters. Find your brothers," he told her. Her fingers were aching and she was ready for a break anyhow. Jace and Luke were in their rooms and she had to drag them with her. They looked a mess, covered in dust and sweat, and she could only imagine what they had been up to. When she arrived, her mother told her that there had just been an altercation in the yard. A short time later, Laena sat in contemplative silence as Harwin Strong said goodbye to her brothers. She didn't move or speak, despite Ser Harwin and her mother's efforts, a silent protest against his banishment. Only when he had made it out into the corridor, did she break into a panicked run.