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

31: The world shatters

It should have been a time for peace. It should have been a time to put together the broken kingdom and let it heal.

The capital was burned to the ground. The population was displaced. Armies were annihilated. Ruling houses were eviscerated. Lords and ladies had been executed. Everything was in shambles.

It should have been a time for hope. A new king was elected. New lords had risen. Love had started to grow.

But it wasn't the time for peace, healing or hope. It was the time for war.

Because it would start all over anew. The world would shatter once again. It would all fall apart. And no one would be able to escape it. One after the other all the kingdoms of Westeros would fall into war.

But love would still grow amongst the shards of what was broken.

***

Dorne fell first.

When Prince Quentyn returned to his kingdom it was already taken from him. Ellaria Sand had made her way back home, taken his throne and made herself Queen. She made Dorne its own kingdom as she refused to follow the newly elected king of Westeros. Ellaria Sand was a smart woman.

The people of Dorne supported her as they no longer had any interest in associating with the northern parts of the continent. Only war and suffering and came from it lately.

Quentyn had not been a good ruler. His only interest had been in the pomp and circumstance that came with it. He had not cared about the people or their needs. But Ellaria did. So the people loved her and celebrated her.

As she stood in the main square of Sunspear and received her crown in front of the cheering crowd she looked triumphant. Her clothes were no longer in tatters. Her dress was in golden brocade that sparkled when the sun hit it. Her hair was once again immaculately styled in a sculpture of curls that reached high over the top of her head. And her eyes were as dark and defiant as ever.

She would show them all. She would get revenge for the daughter that had been taken from her. And she would give her other daughters a kingdom to inherit. A kingdom larger than the one she currently ruled.

As Quentyn arrived he was left standing with a few hundred men outside the gates of the capital. He did not have enough forces to take it and no one in there was loyal to him anymore. In the end, he had to beg the Queen to let him in. Not to rule but to serve under her.

Ellaria did let him in. And she threw him in the dungeons. Not because she needed to but because it amused her.

The king did nothing to reclaim Dorne. Since he had let his sister Sansa in the North leave Westeros he couldn't really stop other kingdoms from doing the same. And Dorne's forces were strong and unharmed by the wars in the North.

Now only five kingdoms remained.

***

Next, the Reach fell.

It had all started with a promise. A promise from Tyrion Lannister, who now was the hand of the king, to the mercenary Bronn. Tyrion had promised Bronn Highgarden, the biggest castle in the most prosperous part of the kingdom, as Bronn held a crossbow to his head. And since Tyrion was a man of his word he intended to keep that promise.

But the castle was now held by Paxter Redwyne who had been left as the castellan in charge after the Lannister armies took the castle. But Lord Redwyne had no intention of leaving his castle. As far as he was concerned Highgarden was his by claim and by blood as his wife was the daughter of Olenna Tyrell who had held the castle before them.

The king sided with Bronn. He claimed that Paxter Redwyne was a usurper and should be taken down. Why only the king knows. Maybe it was because he wanted to control the Reach and claim their armies for his own. Maybe it was because he wanted to watch the world burn. Maybe it was all part of a grand plan.

So the king gave Bronn his armies to march and take Highgarden.

But Lord Redwyne wouldn't let them. He wouldn't give in that easy.

So on the luscious and green fields outside Highgarden, they met. They parked their armies and waited for the other one to make the first move. Their armies were about equal size and who would win was not a foregone conclusion. And there they stood for weeks, stuck in a stalemate.

But Lord Redwyne was prepared. He had heard the rumors of his claim being questioned when he was in the capital. And he had already sent his only daughter Desmera off to marry the man, or boy rather, who commanded the largest force in the whole kingdom. He counted on his new son in law to come to his rescue if needed.

As Tyrion Lannister realized this he also arranged a wedding in an effort to strengthen the Lannister forces and have them join the conflict on the crown's side. Another boy was about to be married off to a girl he had never met.

Once this war ended both of these boys would have lost something that mattered to them.

***

Soon the remaining parts of the kingdom would fall into wars as well.

The Vale would fall. The Westerlands would fall. The Riverlands would fall. The Iron Islands would fall.

And the Stormlands and the Neck would also fall.