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chaoticsealover · 1 year

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A tale of serpents and dragons:Prologue

Aemond Targaryen x Martell OC

Hello everyone! Hope you all are doing fine :) I'm just passing by to drop the next part of this fic: the prologue. I hope you like it as much as I do, and again, feel free to comment whatever your feelings are while reading it and of course, I accept any kind of constructive criticism that you may have. Without further ado, I let you enjoy the prologue :) Enjoy your reading!

Disclaimer: English is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes.

Warnings: Curse words. Mention of ghosts. Mention of death.

Introduction |

King's Landing, 120 AC

The Red Keep silhouette towered over King’s Landing like a dragon, thought Nymeria, a big red dragon who has been converted into rock and forced to keep quiet and silent, with his roars and fire guarded into his stone heart.

She has always dreamed of dragons: dragons that emerged from the sea, dragons whose wings were made of palms and flowers whose flight left a trace of jasmine scent, dragons whose throat threw out daggers of ice instead of fire, freezing everything around them when they passed by. She didn’t remember when she started to dream about dragons, she just knew she did. It was something that has happened since she was a baby; at least it was something that happened since she can remember. Her father told her it was just a product of the stories her nana Sisi told her before sleeping, of dragons and gods, and of men who were closer to the realm of the gods than that of mankind. But she didn’t agree with her father: even if Sisi hadn’t told her those bed-time stories, she was sure her dragons were still going to come at her in dreams. It was inevitable. They were a part of her now. She didn’t tell her father that, of course, it would have just upset him, or worse, he would have called her childish. Although her father referred to her as child, affectionately by all means, she despised it. She was not a child. Well, maybe not an adult either, but she knew too much for being a child. She has devoured almost half of the library of the Old Palace. She now knew about flowers and plants, wild animals that lived beyond the wall, she knew about the philosophy of the great authors, and she even knew about how a woman came to be with children and the process of birthing (although that is something she preferred to store in the deepest corner of her mind and she vowed to never have children the first time she read about it). Not only was she keen on learning the theoretical, but she was also versed in the art of the spear. Her father had initially wanted her to train with a sword, which she did for a time, but it bored her. Swords were harsh and cold, it didn’t feel like a companion to her. She knew how to handle it and how to use it, but it still didn’t feel like it was hers. But the spear, that was her calling. It was harsh too, but it was also graceful. The spear felt just like an elongation of her arm. The spear was hers as much as her own heart.

She has convinced her father to let her bring her spear to King’s Landing with her after pleading to him for weeks and promising she would not cause any trouble with it. And there she was, sitting in her carriage, with Sisi to her left and her spear to the right. Through the small windows she could see the streets crowded with people selling all kinds of products, from pigeon meat (which she hoped they would not serve for dinner) to wines imported from Dorne. She knew they were closer to the Red Keep as Sisi was already combing her hair to look perfect and fixing her dress to “look like a western princess” she said. They have had arguments about this: why couldn’t she wear the dresses she wore at home? Or her fancy trousers she wore in the Old Palace when there was some important event? Her father had tried to explain to her how their customs were slightly different from theirs and that it would have been an offense for them if she would have appeared wearing those clothes there. Still Nymeria continued complaining about it with the hope to finally convince her father (as it always ended up happening) but this time it didn’t work as she was now wearing a not so comfortable pink toned dress with some intricate hair updo that was starting to give her headaches. The narrow streets then opened to a square and they entered through the first doors of the Red Keep. In her mind, when she entered the Red Keep there were going to be dragons flying around, dancing between them, spitting fire out of their mouths alongside their riders with silver hair and purple eyes who were almost gods. But what she found when they crossed the doors of the Red Keep wasn’t exactly as godly as she had imagined…

She stepped out of the carriage followed by her nana and stood next to her father just as she had been told. Her face must have been a mirror of her mind in that instant: there weren’t any semi-gods nor dragons, but in front of her stood an old man with blonde hair falling alongside the frames of his face and next to him a brunette woman with 3 silver-haired children. They definitely didn’t look like gods. The tall one looked like he has had 3 good nights of sleep in his entire life. Nymeria chuckled at her own thoughts. Next to him stood another boy, a little bit shorter than the other, with eyes that reminded her of the sea in Sunspear when her father let her go to the beach. But not a god, just a boy with pretty eyes she thought. The last one in line was a girl with long silver wavy hair. She had pretty hair, and a pretty face. But when Nymeria was to smile at her, she downed her eyes and left Nymeria with the impression she didn’t want to be her friend. How bored she was going to be if this was it. Maybe she could slip at night and go to the library to read. Or maybe she could convince her father to let her train with her spear and the other children. Yes, she would do that. But when she was thinking about her spear, and the sea and the night getaways to the library, she was interrupted by her father.

“My daughter, Princess Nymeria Martell of Dorne”

This was the signal. She bowed as her father told her in front of, she supposed, was King Viserys. He looked old and tired, but had a warm smile on his face. He may not be the semi god she had wished to see, but he seemed nice at least and what one could hope for the gods to be kind at least?

“My pleasure Princess Nymeria. I can still recall the first time I saw you when you were a baby” King Viserys' tone was tender and although his face was not the most pleasant to look at, his smile was kind and she found herself liking him more than she thought she would.

“Well, I cannot quite remember it” the words flew out of her mouth without a second thought. She felt her father tense up next to her and it only took her a look at the Queen and the children's faces to see that her answer was not appropriate for the situation. After hesitating for a few seconds, she tried to fix her slight mistake by adding “Your Grace”.

King Viserys burst out laughing and so his nervous father seemed to relax again and all of them let out little laughs “A fierce little one. I like this one”.

That same night Nymeria found herself in bed earlier than she was used to. Her nana Sisi has promised her that if she went to bed early, she could train with her spear the next day in the morning, otherwise, she would not have enough time for it. So, half happy and half resigned, she went to that big old wooden bed which made her feel like she was being swallowed by a whale. No matter how hard she tried to fall asleep, it was an impossible mission: she drank the glass of water on the nightstand, tried to focus on her sleep, and even tried to sleep with her head at the feet of the bed. But it proved to be a hopeless matter. Pissed at herself, she woke up and sat in a chair next to the window. King’s Landing was splashed with a million little lights in every corner and the noisy sounds of the capital were almost imperceptible. She kept looking through the window with the hope that one of the dragons came to greet her, and even maybe, he would let her touch him and then she would tell him about her dream dragons and how she waits for them every night to come back to her. But it never happened and she just kept looking at the infinite row of buildings and never-ending streets of the capital. How she wished that at least she could have a book right now… Well, maybe… maybe she could? She remembered how when talking with the king and telling him about her love of books, he had told her how her chamber was going to be next to the library, in the same part as the chambers of the rest of the royal family.

Nymeria quickly stood up and convinced about going on with this little adventure, she put on the silky robe that Sisi had packed from Dorne. It smelt like jasmine and orange blossom, and it reminded her of the long walks in the gardens of the Old Palace with her father. How she wished she was there now. But she wasn’t and she was in dire need of a book, any book, it didn’t even need to be a good one, just an entertaining one that would either keep her reading all night or otherwise, made her fall asleep in the first few pages. It would work anyway. With this though in her mind, she cautiously opened the door of her room. To her surprise, the guard stationed there was peacefully sleeping like a baby, even a trickle of drool was falling from his mouth. Well, this was going to be as easy as stealing a lemon pie from Sisi’s tray. Carefully, she stepped out of the chamber and closed the door silently. Then, she walked down the hall following the vague instruction the king gave her. According to his indications, the library was supposed to be at the start of the next hall, just a minute or so more walking. To her surprise, the halls were almost in complete darkness and although she prized herself to be brave, the truth was that all the haunting stories she had ever heard about the Red Keep were crossing her mind. Maegor the Cruel had killed every person who was working in the construction of the keep, so, maybe, their ghosts had stayed there forever to haunt the little girls who dared to escape their rooms at night. Her spear, she needed her spear. She would feel safe, if she had it with her, she could fight every enemy that she found in this gloomy hall. Suddenly, she heard a little crack behind her and she could swear she saw the shadow of a big man after her. Nymeria then found all the bravery and strength she could in her little body and ran till she was out of breath and could touch the doorknob of what King Viserys had told her it was the library. In an instant, she opened the door and closed it behind her. Nymeria could feel her heart in her chest; it was going so fast that she thought the entire keep could hear the pumping of blood through her veins. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath: she was at the library, she was just safe. It was in this instant when she heard a noise behind her and armed with all the courage she had left, turned ready to put up a fight with whatever was following her. She turned abruptly, and she was faced by the immensity of the sea of Dorne in those mornings after a storm. For a brief moment, she could swear she was at home looking at that same sea.

But it was not the sea of Dorne which was in front of her, but the silver-haired boy with pretty eyes. His eyes were looking at her perplexed and Nymeria felt embarrassed about her attitude. She must have looked stupid. Like a lost little girl. She hated that. She was not a little girl anymore. They both keep looking at each other in silence, without speaking to each other. It’s awkward, though Nymeria, so she decided to speak up but before she could open her mouth to say anything, the boy pronounced some words.

“I didn’t know I was going to have company tonight” The boy hesitated for a few seconds before adding in a whisper “Are you okay… princess?” Nymeria felt her cheeks reddened and building up courage she answered as calmly and collected as she could.

“I’m sorry if I scared you, I was just looking for a book. They didn’t let me bring one from home”

The boy looked at her, hummed and returned to the desk in which he was seated with a book. What was she going to do now? What was the correct thing to do? Stay and choose a book? Leave and do like anything has happened? Well, that would be even weirder than this. So Nymeria stayed and wandered about the library. The thing was that the library wasn’t even that big and even though she tried to disappear from the boy’s sight it was almost impossible. She tried to focus on looking at the titles of the books but all of them seemed to be pretty boring books about herbs or either way some old ragged books about laws. She didn’t know if it was better to have stayed at her chambers. At least she wouldn’t be in this situation with the boy with ocean eyes.

“I don’t think you are going to like anything in that section. It’s pretty boring” The boy spoke up and Nymeria turned to face him “At least I don’t find anything there quite… entertaining”

Nymeria looked at him and his hair. It was frizzy, but the light of the candles made the silver of his hair look the same color as the sand of Dorne. He is pretty, she thought. How she has wished to look like that: silver-haired, blue deep ocean eyes. But no, she was there, with her common brown hair and her normal brown eyes. How boring she must look to him. How oddly ordinary she felt in that instant. But she was not going to show that to him. She may look ordinary, but she was a Martell with the blood of the Rhoynar and the first men. Finding new and renovated confidence in her looks after all, she answered back.

“Oh, then, what would you recommend Prince…? I’m sorry; I’m not quite good with names”

“Aemond, my name is Aemond” The little prince looked calm, as if he was not bothered at all by the fact that she didn’t know his name. Would she be mad if he didn’t know her name? Well, she couldn’t be, right? She didn’t remember his, but she felt like it would be nice if he at least remembered her name. She found herself wishing he remembered her name “I don’t know what you like, but I enjoy this one” He lifted up one of the books from the desk and Nymeria stood up next to him, she was so close she could almost touch him.

“It’s about Old Valyria Princess Nymeria” He remembered her name. He knew who she was. Not knowing why, Nymeria felt her cheeks heaten up again. What was happening that night to her?

“Do you know about Old Valyria Princess?” She looked at his face, he looked thrilled, almost enchanted by those words. Of course she knew about Old Valyria, and about dragons, and about all the tragedies that have occurred there. She was fascinated by it. Sisi had told her everything about it, and even though she had the certainty the book couldn’t tell her anything she didn’t already knew about dragons and semi gods, she accepted the book in his hands.

“My nana Sisi told me about it. And about dragons and how their scales are even bigger than you and me” The little prince let out a little funny laugh.

“Well, some of them are not that big yet. Have you ever seen one?”

“No” Her little eyes looked at him. She was lying to him: she has seen dragons. Her dream dragons. She knows their wings, and their eyes and she knows the smell of their burning hearts. Like blood.

“My brother and my sister have one. And my nephews. They are not that big” She could perceive a hint of resentment in his tone. Does he not have a dragon?

“And yours? How is your dragon?” The silence invaded the room for a few seconds. Nymeria was starting to think that maybe the question wasn't appropriate. Prince Aemond looked at her nervously.

“No, but I will have one”

His voice was clear but behind it a curtain of sadness veiled his face. She knew that sadness, that anger too. No one ever believed her about her dragons, which were all too real for her. She could touch them and fly with them, and they would answer to her voice. In that moment, she felt connected to that little boy who claimed himself to be a prince but inside he was just afraid of being little more than a kid. Just like her. He needed this future dragon, as well as she needed her dream dragons. They were just shadows of the tomorrow, of their own dreams and their own nightmares. They were children playing a game of chess they yet needed to understand.

So she told him all about her dream dragons. Nymeria didn’t know why she trusted him, but she did. She knew he could have laughed at her, told her she was crazy, that it was just dreams. But he didn’t do that. He listened to her, like he cared about her dragons. His ocean eyes were staring directly at her, glistening with eagerness and hope and Nymeria felt the words fall out of her mouth, unable to stop. He understood her. That’s all she needed.

That night, both kids sat there, in the middle of the library among books about love ballads, battles and wars telling each other stories about imagined dragons and unborn ones, unaware of their fates collapsing and intertwining together for the rest of eternity. They didn’t know at that moment, but Aemond Targaryen and Nymeria Martell would have many more nights together to talk about dragons and dreams. How they wished to have known at that instant years later. But isn’t that what always happens with time? It will always win the race.

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