The Stag and The Frog - (GendryxMeera GOT fanfic) Part 1: Alone

17: Everyone falls, everything burns

Before Queen Cersei fell she did hear his name. She heard the name Gendry Baratheon spoken. And she cursed as she did.

The Queen stood looking out over the capital from the balcony of the throne room. She was, of course, sipping on a glass of wine.

Behind her was the iron throne, the symbol for everything they were fighting for. A thick red carpet stretched from the throne to the balcony. Sturdy marble columns lined the room on both sides. It was a magnificent room, and it was only hours from being reduced to ashes.

Qyburn walked in as she stood there, to give her a report on the war ahead. She didn't even bother to grace him with a look.

"Your Grace, the Northern armies are closing in on us already. By my estimations, they will be here tomorrow."

"So soon... Did the Baratheon armies not hold them up?"

"The Baratheon armies left the Neck... they no longer follow you, Your Grace."

"Then who do they follow? They can't follow her... she would burn them on the spot. They fought against her father, they took his throne from him."

"No, your grace. They don't follow her. They follow Gendry Baratheon."

She spun around quickly. This ridiculous claim needed to be faced head-on.

"Who the fuck is Gendry Baratheon?" she snapped.

Qyburn shifted a bit as he stood there. He hadn't expected this sudden flood of anger.

"They say he's Robert's bastard son, Your Grace. The Dragon Queen legitimized him. A young blacksmith apparently. Rumor has it he's also taken Storm's End."

As she heard that she suddenly remembered. She remembered the boy who fled. The boy who her men hunted down. The boy who her men said they killed. The last of her husband's bastards.

A faint memory of her late husband also hit her. It was just a feeling really, of when she had almost loved Robert. Of when he had been the brightest shining light in the whole kingdom. Apparently that light hadn't quite burnt out yet.

The Queen couldn't help to feel admiration for the boy. That he had crawled out from whatever rock he had been hiding under and risen so high. But she also felt rage that he dared to come back and haunt her now.

"I'll deal with him later," she said as she turned back to look out over the city again.

But later never came.

Instead, everyone fell, and everything burned.

Queen Cersei fell. As the city around her burned.

Queen Daenerys fell. As she burned the city she was supposed to rule.

Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister fell. As they took down the queen who burned the city.

But that is the end of another story. A story that's already been told. That's not this story. This story begins in that story but will end somewhere else. Yet in exactly the same spot.

***

Gendry stood atop the tower of the castle that he now ruled. He could see almost the entire Stormlands from there. The wild and thick forests teeming with life. The lush islands in the deep blue sea. The water crashing against the rugged cliffs below them. He stood atop that tower every day, trying to take in the fact that these were his lands.

But this day he also saw smoke appearing in the distance. Giant plumes of smoke covering the lands around the capital like a blanket. He could feel the smell of it in the air. It smelt like when he burned his hands in the blacksmith workshop. It was the smell of burning flesh. He didn't know what the smoke meant yet but he knew it couldn't be good. That smell was never good.