The silver-haired boy and the black leviathan locked eyes.
Resolve burned in Aegon's gaze. Willpower. Fear. The final edge of decision. We will be partners. We will share glory.
The Cannibal snorted, smoke billowing from its jaws.
Irritated, it let the torn remains of Sunfyre's golden carcass fall to the ground. A tiny human dared interrupt its feast. The dragon studied Aegon and remembered the arrogant fools who had once climbed Dragonstone to disturb its rest. Every one of them had been eaten in the end.
The Cannibal was exquisitely sensitive to the scent and heat of unfamiliar creatures. It had been born strong and violent, greedy and hostile, its nature bent toward destruction.
A proud, fully grown black dragon, it knew only three pleasures: feeding, resting, and flying. Beyond those, it tolerated nothing. It rejected all interference.
True to its name, the Cannibal spared neither flesh nor blood, dragon nor man.
It delighted most in hunting its own kind, feeding on dragon corpses, raiding nests across Dragonstone to devour eggs and hatchlings. At times it hunted fish, though even the greatest of them were not its favored prey.
As for humans, the Cannibal usually ignored them, unless they intruded upon its domain. Then it ate them without hesitation. Over the years, more than a dozen had tried to tame it. All that remained were heaps of white bones scattered beside its lair.
The last time it had fed on men was during the Red Sowing.
A man called Silver Denys, who claimed descent from Maegor the Cruel and bore his hair and eyes, had lost an arm to Sheepstealer. As his sons struggled to bind the wound, the Cannibal descended from the sky, drove Sheepstealer away, and swallowed father and sons alike. Sheepstealer had never dared challenge a dragon older, larger, and more savage than itself.
"Rytsas!" Aegon roared, Valyrian spilling from his tongue.
The Cannibal's patience snapped. Its answer was fire.
Sickly green dragonflame poured down in a deluge. The blue-and-white falcon armor Aegon had cast aside melted instantly into molten iron. The older a dragon, the hotter its fire.
Under the rain of green flame, faces blanched. No one dared cross the inferno to save the mad prince. The once-beautiful crescent falcon armor became a smoking puddle of metal.
This was a full-grown demon dragon at its peak, the most violent and infamous beast in all Westeros.
Many had coveted the Cannibal's might, dreaming of becoming the rider of an evil dragon. All had ended as its meal.
Now the queen's sole heir, Prince Aegon, charged the dragon's maw like a madman.
"Let me go! I have to save my brother!" Rhaena cried, terror blazing in her eyes.
"My princess, this is the most dreadful dragon in all Westeros," Ser Harrold said grimly. "Its flame melts steel. I cannot let you go to your death. I will answer for Prince Aegon's life, but I will not watch you and these knights of the Vale die as well."
The most terrible wild dragon.The most savage wild dragon.
He had failed the one he was sworn to protect. Perhaps he no longer deserved the white cloak.
"Ser, look! The prince is still alive!" a sharp-eyed soldier shouted.
Green fire drifted and fell. Heat flooded the courtyard. Aegon endured it, weaving desperately.
The air scorched his lungs. He avoided the green flames as best he could. There was no true defense. Yet his body had been strengthened. His tolerance for fire had reached a new threshold.
"I am fire as well!" Aegon shouted.
Flame awareness. Flame enhancement. He drove himself to the limits of speed and alertness. Life and death balanced on a knife's edge. Only speed could carry him through flame and peril.
With a thunderous roar, the Cannibal unleashed another torrent of green fire. It saw the silver-haired boy charging straight toward it. If he could endure the heat, then devouring him would suffice.
The Cannibal opened its jaws.
Black teeth, sharp as swords, gaped wide. Shreds of Sunfyre's flesh still clung between them. The stench of rot and sulfur poured out, nearly knocking Aegon from his feet. The dragon's maw was vast enough to swallow him whole without effort.
The Cannibal did not take flight. It simply waited, jaws open, intent on snapping up this foolish little morsel.
In that heartbeat between breaths, in a flash like lightning, Aegon thought he glimpsed the Stranger drawing near. The reek of sulfur and carrion was the foulest scent in the world.
Is this life fated to be nothing?Am I bound to suffer the destiny meant for me?
I refuse to lose everything. Brothers. Kin.
The Cannibal roared in fury.
The morsel had slipped its jaws and climbed onto its back.
Aegon's eyes were bloodshot, his heart hammering. With death upon him, he burst past his limits. He dodged the dragon's bite and scrambled onto the demon's spine.
He had ridden a dragon only once before, but he knew their anatomy well. He had grown up among them.
Fangs and talons. Leathery wings. Long neck and tail. Spines bristling along the back.
"You cannot defeat me, and I will conquer you!" Aegon found the place he knew best, where the neck joined the shoulder of the wing.
Every Targaryen dragonrider set themselves there. It was the best position of all.
The Cannibal's back was vast. Aegon clung desperately to the spines along its neck, fighting not to be thrown. An eighty- or ninety-year-old wild dragon stood at the height of its arrogance and ferocity. Its scales were harder than steel, beyond the reach of ordinary blades.
"Ikson jorrāelagon, vāedar ñuha hen sȳrī!"We are companions. Now carry me into the sky.
The dragon that would let him look down upon the world.
The Cannibal raged.
Never had anyone dared such insolence.
The dragon reared its neck and shook violently, trying to fling the audacious morsel away.
Even great dragons had their limits. Their scales and fire were unmatched, but they lacked the agility of smaller, younger beasts. That was the sliver of chance Aegon gambled on. Risk and reward were equally terrifying.
The Cannibal grew frantic, its dignity wounded. Sunfyre's flesh no longer tempted it. It wanted only to tear apart, burn, and devour this hateful speck.
The Cannibal was Dragonstone's oldest and largest wild dragon, the most cunning and unruly of them all. It bowed to nothing. It despised restraint.
The authority of a dragon king could not be challenged. The Cannibal remembered the chattering humans of the past, each reduced to a meal. Today would be no different.
With a thunderous beat of its wings, the Cannibal surged skyward. A gale followed as it leapt into the air.
"Ziry iksā. Sōvēs ñuha!"I command you. Fly with me.
The Cannibal soared, leaving the fortress behind. Aegon clutched the dragon's spines, his life no more than grass in the wind.
"I am the king of the world!" Aegon laughed wildly.
Below, Rhaena and Ser Harrold heard his laughter.
The prince was alive.
And the prince was still laughing.
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A/N:
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