little bird | aegon targaryen

𝚘𝚗𝚎

When Daella was five years old, she thought she was going to die.

Her memory was a bit blurry to this day, but she still had dreams about it. She had always been curious as a child, maybe too much for her own good. At least that's what her mother always told her. 

Nevertheless, Daella had been known for wandering places she shouldn't have been and Dragonstone was no different. It shouldn't have been much of a shock to anyone. Dragonstone was a large place, and the supervision of the children was more relaxed than when they were at King's Landing. 

She had been playing out in the fields with her brothers, left to their own adventures when Jace and Lucerys tiredly decided to return to the castle. Daella wanted to stay back to play, and so she was left alone as her brothers returned to Dragonstone. 

It didn't take long for boredom to take hold, being alone with nothing to do. She had briefly considered returning to Dragonstone when her eyes caught sight of the many mountains and caves that surrounded the fields. She had heard brief stories from her mother about the caves surrounding them, of the dragons that resided within them. 

While she didn't have her own dragon, that wasn't what prompted Daella to start climbing up towards these mountains in curiosity. No, she had simply wanted to see a wild dragon for herself instead of the chained down ones in the dragon pits back home.

Perhaps if she had put a bit more thought into it, she would have realized what a stupid idea it was, but she was only five at the time.

Daella found the easiest path up the mountain, kicking rocks and stones as her feet trudged beneath her dirtied dress. She reached the cave with ragged breath, wiping the sweat from her face as she found herself in awe of the view before her. 

Dragonstone was even more beautiful from farther away, its towering walls bathed in the golden sunlight before the sprawling landscape below as she gazed out with a sense of wonder. Her eyes soon drifted to the other side of her, where the mouth of the cave loomed before her in a dark and taunting manner. For a brief moment, she had a sense of clarity as she wondered if what she was doing was a bad idea. In the end, her curiosity won out over her own fear, and with a determined set to her jaw, she took a hesitant step forward into the shadows.

The cave was cold and damp, the air thick with the scent of earth and stone as she shivered in her thin dress. Her soft breath and footsteps could be all that was heard in the empty hollowness, her eyes adjusted to the dim light filtering from the entrance as she ventured further. She moved cautiously, her pace slowing the further she traveled into the cave as her small hands brushed against the rough walls to navigate the darkening cave.

She paused at a different sound, foreign to her ears and further down the cave. Again, she questioned if she should return back to the safety of her home before shaking the thoughts off with stubbornness. Daella remembered the stories her mother told of the dragons that resided in Dragonstone without a rider, all mostly harmless and simply keeping to themselves until someone would claim them again.

She allowed those thoughts to push her forward, convincing herself the sound was just a trick of her mind. The dragons didn't like residing in caves that often anyways, preferring to fly freely around the mountainside of Dragonstone. Daella was hoping perhaps she would find a nesting of eggs somewhere in the cave, remembering the beautiful bright colors of her younger brothers' eggs when they were born.

She jumped at a crunch beneath her feet, jumping back before thinking as her eyes narrowed in an attempt to adjust to the total darkness. There was a moment of pause, like the world had simply stopped time before she heard it. A low rumbling sound that erupted a squeal from her as she realized she was no longer pressed against the wall

She stumbled on her feet, tripping over something else as she landed harshly against the stone beneath her. Her heart pounded in her chest as she felt it first, the boiling heat in the limited space of the cave before light suddenly erupted her senses. The fire missed her, but it was there all the same, licking against her skin as a threat while her eyes snapped up to the fiery beast before her. 

He was unlike any of the dragon's her mother had told her stories about, its scales dark and rotted as slitted eyes sent shivers down her spine. Another breath of fire petrified Daella to her core, her eyes catching sight of the broken egg shells that surrounded her. There were no baby dragons to be seen, only the monstrous form of the Cannibal that stood above her as it prepared for its next meal.

Daella could still remember the tears welling in the corner of her eyes, her body trembling as she realized she was going to die in a cave alone with her family none the wiser. Looking back at it, she wished she would have been less pathetic, hiding away the wailing sounds that left her mouth as she realized her fate.

But back then she was just a scared child, one who had wandered too far away from home.

Perhaps her wailing was what cave the dragon pause, the fire dying in the back of its throat as Daella braced for her impending death. The darkness that developed the cave was worse, like death was taunting her before it finally took her to the afterlife. 

The wailing paused when she felt it, the snout of something warm and scaly against her tear stained face. It was enough to shock her out of her petrified state, even if the tears kept flowing. The snout released a huff of hair, sending her stumbling back in shock and fear at the feeling against her skin. 

She wanted to scream or cry, but was stuck whimpering as her eyes could only make out the dark shadow of the figure before her. It seemed the two stared at each other for ages as Daella wondered when the dragon was going to finish her off. 

But nothing happened. 

Daella wasn't sure how much time had passed when she had pulled herself together, rising slowly to her feet as the dragon did nothing but stare back at her. Realizing the dragon didn't appear to want to burn her alive, she didn't wait another moment as she fled the cave as fast as her legs would take her, ignoring the sudden rain that pelted against her skin as she continued down the rocky path. 

It wasn't until she reached the bottom that she tripped over the skirts of her dress, sending her stumbling into the dirt turned muddy from the rain. Perhaps it was the adrenaline wearing off or the reality hitting her all at once that Daella found herself unable to move, crying as she hugged the ground tightly as if she would all but perish if she let go.

Laenor found her several hours later, tears streaming down her face as rain poured around her in the fields of Dragonstone. Mud splattered her dress as she lay in a puddle, too exhausted to move another step towards the castle.

Daella remembered the way he picked her up, making some off-handed comment that she was sure was meant to be a joke but her young brain couldn't quite understand how it was funny. He held her tightly to his body, allowing his body heat to warm her pale skin as she wrapped her arms tightly around him with her head resting upon his shoulder. 

Her eyes had somehow wandered back to the mountains and the caves that she swore she could see light coming from within, sniffling back her tears as she felt a new emotion surface from her near death experience.

There was fear, as there always would be when Daella thought back to that very day she swore to never tell a soul, but there was something burning deep within her as well. The desire that burned in all Targaryen's the moment they were born.

Daella Velaryon yearned for her own dragon.

If only she wasn't too much of a coward to actually claim one.