Chapter 133: 133- Mixed feelings.
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~~~Aerys Targaryen, Ninth moon, 277 AC~~~
~~~Ocean Road, westerland~~~
Carefully, I began to climb up the ladder, my head spinning, my blood boiling, and my body seething excitedly. So much so that my hands were shaking.
Endoxes, turned out to be calmer than I first thought, keeping himself lying down and not making any sudden movements, which I attributed to Azrael.
Once at the top, I was greeted by the sight of a somewhat strange chair, as it looked like a chair at all, instead of a horse-like saddle, the 'chair' was a thick, padded style of mat that covered the dragon's back, and the part closest to the neck, was where there were three seats.
The rest of the 'chair' was covered by cushions and chests attached to the chair, and I couldn't help but think how practical I was.
"Aerys, come closer," Azrael was already waiting for me, sitting in the front seat, the other two seats were to the left and right of his, a high-backed seat, lined in red leather, it was a beauty.
Without waiting, I approached the right seat, which had several chains attached to a metal ring with leather straps. Not knowing what to do, I watched as Azrael got up from his seat and approached me. Without a word, he began to attach the straps and chains to my body. " We are not Daenerys, or at least you are not," Azrael said with a chuckle as I stood there confused.
"Daenerys?" I asked, not knowing what he meant, "forget it, it's a joke... A joke," he said, condescendingly waving his arm. Once I was ready, he moved to his seat and sat down, and it was here that I remembered I was on the back of a dragon.
My body jerked as the dragon rose, and my already tall eyesight rose until it was on par with the lowest trees nearby, "māzigon va valītsos", even being a bit distant from Azrael, I heard him tell Endoxes to move forward, as he gently patted him.
Endoxes began to walk, and every step he took sent strong tremors, forcing the Royal Guard away, as well as Azrael's Blood Riders.
"ROOOOAAARGH!"
With a roar that scared away the nearby birds, Endoxes propelled himself, and with a loud flapping of wings, we soared. The force was so much, that I felt as if my hip would break where the straps held me, forcing me to hold on tight to the support bars that were on the chair.
I opened my eyes without knowing at what point I closed them, and my eyes were filled with the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. A row of trees brimming with green ran to our left. From this great height, the forest looked tiny, and the convoy looked like just a bunch of ants, and I couldn't help but feel like a god, feel something bigger.
The sea stretched to the horizon, and the sun was hiding in the far east, this feeling, this feeling, this feeling, it was great, was this how my ancestors felt? Flying over the greatest power this world has ever seen.
"Hold on," the reminder came to me late, as I hit my back with the chair rest the moment Endoxes rose up hard, as the wind hit me in the face and made it almost impossible to open my eyes, but without warning, he stopped rising.
"You can open your eyes now, hahaha", Azrael laughed, and listening to him, I opened my eyelids, and I could no longer see land or trees, but we were flying over the clouds, the same clouds that before I saw very high, but now I was flying over them.
It was here that Endoxes flew flat, and this part was the one I will remember most because the row of pink and orange clouds made it impossible for me to see my duties and responsibilities on the ground, and the soft wind brushed my face and body and refreshed me as if the sky itself was welcoming me. And it was here that I discovered that I belonged here, not on the ground, not in an ugly uncomfortable chair.
"If you feel this is beautiful, wait and see," Azrael snapped me out of my reverie, and wondering what he meant, I soon got an answer.
The row of spines and horns running down Endoxes' back, continuing to the neck and ending at the large crown-like horns, began to glow deep purple, while a buzzing sound was heard, like thousands of waders.
Understanding what was about to happen, I forced myself to keep my eyes open and not take my eyes off the front, and the result did not disappoint.
"Pryjagon!" With Azrael's shout, Endoxes opened its maw, and out of it shot a purple-colored lightning bolt, or something like it, which reached an enormous distance, until it reached a point where it advanced no further, but exploded.
"It was great!" I spat, without a doubt it was a great and beautiful thing to see, "I will never forget this, Azrael, in me, you will always have help," I told her, amid so many betrayals and concealment, to meet someone clear who spoke the truth, was something hard to come by.
~~~Rhaella Targaryen~~~
"ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAARG!"
A roar caused me to prick my finger with the needle I was doing my embroidery with, as muffled screams and noises could be heard outside the carriage, with an idea of what it was, but wanting to be sure, I opened one of the windows and saw it, Azrael's dragon; Endoxes, had arrived.
Azrael, an enigma in himself, a name no one knew until two solar cycles ago, someone who had risen to a firm and powerful position at the top, and the dragon I saw was a sign of it, a supreme power that nothing could stop, and that was now the power of a man of Essos.
The strange thing about it was that he had no Valyrian features, nor did he look like a descendant of some Dragonstone dragon seed, or someone hailing from Lys or Volantis, where long before they were the places most often Dragonlords came to.
Instead, Azrael had jet black hair, almost golden amber eyes, and clear skin, a depiction of a dragon rider completely out of the history books. This created more mystery about his origin, and how he had managed to get his hands on some dragon egg and manage to hatch it, something even we Targaryen, with our years of histories with such beasts, have been unable to do.
"Father will fly with him," Rhaegar, my firstborn, rode up to me on his horse, he rode alongside his father, or at least that was until Aerys decided to go ahead and ride alongside Azrael.
"He will be the first Targaryen in a century to ride a dragon, he must be happy," I said, knowing Aerys would be very happy and excited to be in the skies on a dragon, 'that's what worries me,' Rhaegar said with a serious countenance and a frown, which only made me sigh.
"Your father is happy for the first time in years, I've never seen him smile as much as he is now, you should be happy with that, your father is, I am, why can't you be?" I scolded him, while Rhaegar was a good son, his outburst in being against welcoming Azrael and his group into Westeros had been creating arguments with Aerys, who himself already maintained a volatile attitude.
"That is not being happy, he is being captivated by what that king shows him, and my father is falling into his trap, many, even Tywin has, the man is making a conquest without bloodshed, and you are all surrendering without even knowing it."
Conquest, whatever place Rhaegar was drawing those conclusions from, was hurting him, and that would create problems for him with Aerys, "you know nothing, Rhaegar, the landscape of the realm is too high for you to understand, your father fights day in and day out to keep our house high, while you just whine about how he is achieving that, while you just stand around singing with bards and the little people." Amid my anger, I hurt him with what hurt him the most, his love for music.
And when I wanted to take back my words, Rhaegar had already left, just like Aerys on Azrael's dragon, while I, left to my own devices, was left alone again.