Love and Duty (T. Lannister)

Chapter Nine

A/N - This is a little shorter, but I wanted to post something, and the next chapter will have her back in Winterfell, and that felt better starting in a new chapter. 

Skriax seems as excited as Vaella about the prospect of going home. Even if only for a short while. The North isn't really their climate. They both prefer the slightly warmer weather of the Eastern coast. Plus she misses the dragon that lives under the Hollow. All the animals she has with her, and she still misses the dragon. As the only living dragon, he is by far more interesting. She loves them all though. Vaella scratches at Skriax's neck and lets out a breath before she rounds him to climb up onto his back. She is desperate to go home. To escape what is coming. It is a lot for Godric to ask of her. To ask her to be civil to the people who orchestrated the demise of her entire family. That led to the death of her mother. The Starks she understood. They were literally joining their families together through marriage. But Robert Baratheon is nothing to her for her to be civil to him. She hates him. She hates him so much. She leans forward and rests her head on the back of Skriax's neck as she takes a deep breath. Leaving is the easy part. She wants to leave. It is going to be the coming back she will struggle with. She does not want to come back and spend time with that man or his family. But she will. Because she loves her father and she doesn't want anything bad to happen to him because she did something wrong. Everything they do impacts their reputation and their image. They are Targaryens and everything they do matters. Everyone is always watching them. Waiting for an excuse to get rid of them like the rest of the family. Be rid of them and put it all behind them. As if their deaths will clear the world of the past. She leans back and takes Skriax's reins in her hands. The sooner she leaves, the longer she will have at home with Calamtar before she has to return to this icy spit of land.

.......

Below Godric's Hollow, Vaella carries a torch through the tunnel to where there is a large open cavern ahead of her. It's been a long flight back but she wants to see Calamtar before she goes to bed. Just to sit with him for an hour or two. To comfort herself. Staying with the Starks is not stressful, but the coming visit from the King will be. She slows her steps as she reaches the cavern, her eyes scanning around the darkness before she hears it. Something shifting. Through the darkness it looks like rocks moving in the darkness, but it is just the way he blends in with the environment. Vaella sets the torch down on the ground and finds herself smiling. Relaxing. He turns his head to look at her. His sheer size is something that always makes her weak in the knees. She is not afraid of him, never has been, but when he looms over her like this. Something akin to fear does tickle her spine. He could eat her up in one bite if he chose to. He instead chooses to lay down in front of her, turning his head to nod to the space at his side. Vaella smiles and rushes forward to sit with him. To spend time in his company. She always feels comforted just being around the dragon. A connection to her family's history. She wonders if he will let her ride him one day. Her mother was the last and only rider for him, at least, she assumes given the timeline and his apparent age. By the time he would have been big enough to ride, the Targaryens were a mess. But she's read the books, she knows what history says, and he is big but he should be bigger. Living in the underground caverns has stunted his growth. But he is still big. Like big enough that it will take her some effort to climb onto his back, if he were to ever let her. She hopes. One day. That would be one of the greatest things to ever happen to her. After getting Skriax, of course.