Salvation - Aemond Targaryen / Aegon Targaryen

Just a Dream

Sleep. Sweet, sweet sleep. Filled with flowers and streams, the warm sun on her face and the smell of Oldtown, it was all she craved. It was her only indulgence—for in the day she wanted very little, sinned less, and maintain her faith as any righteous woman would.

She enjoyed her dreams and their solitude. The sprawling green valleys with sparkling blue streams that danced through the endless bound of plentiful beauty were filled with brightly colored fish and fresh flora blooming in the water.

Even the winter roses bloomed in her dreams—the mystical blue roses that grew only in the north knew no bounds and grew by the hundreds, thick enough that Jeyne could lie in them like soft pillows and still be kept from touching the dirt.

This time, the Maiden gifted her a large white rabbit. Its ears were large and heavy, hanging on either side of its small, rounded head. A fluffy ball tail sat perched on its hindquarters like a pure snowball, twitching with every stroke that Jeyne rubbed on its back. The rabbit's cheeks twitched and twinged; soft mewling sounds came from its tiny mouth when Jeyne fed it flowers from around them.

The Maiden spoke to her in riddles. Never outright. The rabbit was a fertile creature, known for its healthy litters filled with small kittens that would grow and have more litters. Jeyne wondered if it meant that she would give her lord husband children—a small army they could raise in their holdfast as the next generation of righteous, godly lords and ladies.

Its fur was as soft as silk as she ran her fingers along its back. Soothing, peaceful. Birds chirped in the distance like they did in the country, singing their sweet songs for her ears and her ears only. Jeyne sang with them.

I loved a maid as fair as summer,

With sunlight in her hair.

I loved a maid as red as autumn,

With sunset in her hair.

There was a shift in the air, enough so that even Jeyne ceased her singing. The rabbit that had sprawled in her lap perched up, ears twitching.

"What is it, girl?" Jeyne asked the rabbit, noting how its mouth had stopped its pleasant mewls. "Who...?"

From above, there was a terrible screech—loud, ear splitting, bone chilling. The screech was followed by an immense heat, and the cold relief of wings beating air. Jeyne's heart hammered in her ears as the beast of her dreams flew past her, golden bat-wings near scraping her head from its low-flying course. Its tail soared past her, almost snagging her ear, until it turned wide in the air further back to face Jeyne.

It plunged downward, tucking its wings into its body to increase its momentum. The beast's jaw unhinged, a thousand golden dagger teeth inching forward to swallow her whole. It would have, too, had a much larger, more horrifying beast not swept from the sky and barreled straight into her. The second beast's wingspan could rival the height of the Citadel, large holes gaped the flapping skin.

Sharp green talons slashed through the skin of the smaller dragon like butter, tearing meat apart until the golden beast was a mess of flesh strips and thick, scaled skin.

The rabbit in her lap had gone. And the green beast turned to her.

If the golden beast's mouth had daggers, this one had longswords. Yellowed with age and spotted with blood, the beast's mouth was that of a predator, ripe for the hunt. Deep in the beast's large, draping gullet, orange flames cooked like a hearth filled with fresh wood. It roared; Jeyne cowered. Her hands flew to cover her face though she knew it would do no good.