Mother Of Dragons

Chapter 5

The lightning strikes

Irri stuck close to Dany that afternoon, and they resumed her lessons in Dothraki. Dany would point things out, and Irri would give her the words, then make her repeat them over and over again until she could pronounce them perfectly. Casually, Dany pointed out a nursing mother and child on horseback, asking Irri for the right word for baby, enta, then mother, drane, and then she quickly moved on to rabbits, mawizzi, and the deer, qiaseh, that ran across the great road the khalasar was making. She hoped that Irri wouldn't follow her reasons for asking.

Irri began to tell her a story in the Common Tongue, switching to the Dothraki word when it was one Dany knew, trying to help it all flow together, mixing words more and more as she told the tale. Dany was able to follow the story of how horses had been born out of the great lake at the edge of Vaes Dothrak, known to the Dothraki as the Womb of the World. It took concentration to remember all the words she had been taught, and had to ask Irri to stop halfway through so she could try and process the first half. Irri waited patiently, realizing how seriously the girl was taking her lessons, and it gave her encouragement to teach her more.

Drogo rode by them on his red stallion, he slowed for a moment to look at Dany before smiling and then riding onward to the front of the khalasar. Irri looked at Dany for a moment and then grinned. "Khal Drogo has been struck, I didn't believe Cohollo when he told me, but it's true," she said softly, and it was then that she started looking at Dany differently, as if she believed that this foreign girl was truly now her Khaleesi.

"What? Struck? What do you mean?" Dany demanded. "Who would dare strike the Khal?"

"Only the sky fire, sisi, from the Great Stallion," Irri answered. "There is a story about how the Great Stallion was struck with sisi and he forever after followed only one mare until he returned to the Nightlands, Khaleesi. It is known that no other Dothraki man has since been struck so. It is foretold that when the next Dothraki man is struck, the son that is born will be the Stallion Who Mounts the World, the Great Stallion come again."

"Tell me," Dany demanded eagerly. "I haven't heard this story before."

Irri wove an incredible tale about when the Great Stallion came to the world, he came on the first horse, out of the Womb of the World. Restless and seeking companionship, he moved from Vaes Dothrak under the Mother of the Mountains to a great land. It was green and bountiful, so the Great Stallion settled there with his herd. When he grew bored of the fighting stallions and the endless grass, he began to explore the rocky cliffs on the very edge, always restless, never staying in the same place. One day, as he was seeking water in his travels, he found a young woman sleeping next to a spring. The skies opened up, the thunder, temme, rolled around him, and he was struck by white hot sisi from the clouds. He looked at the now frightened young woman, and his entire being yearned only for her. He kept her only to himself and did not mate with the other women of his herd, only her, and did not allow the other stallions to touch her.

Daenerys listened to the story with rapt attention, picking up and understanding more words as Irri recanted her story, never knowing that "savages" as her brother called them, had such beautiful tales of life and love. She was so caught up in the story, her inner voice startled her. If it were true, would my baby be the Stallion Who Mounts the World? In the tales of Westeros, she knew that there was to be a Prince Who Was Promised, and the worshipers of R'hollor, the fire god, promised Azor Ahai, a savior for the world. Were they all one and the same? She was suddenly more worried than she felt she had ever been. It was a big burden to put on a small baby. Blood of the Dragon. He would need to grow strong and healthy with Drogo's immense khalasar at his back. Dany smiled to herself. She was already thinking she was carrying a boy. A girl she would welcome just a much, but something inside her heart and mind was telling her that her baby was indeed a boy.