Jump then Fall // Jaime Lannister

6. Level Up

It was six levels of climbing and hiking and climbing again before they got to the cave.

"Alright." Lena spun around to them stopping them from getting any closer.

"What you are about to experience is unlike anything you have ever seen!" Maisie declared. Owen knew that Maisie was basically a mini Lena. He loved his sister but he was tame in comparison and it was nice for Lena to have someone that kept up with her.

"Keep your head down and fingers close, or you might lose both." Lena added. Ned took a step back.

"Remind me why we couldnt bring our weapons?" Ned whispered.

"Don't want to be seen as a threat." Lena remarked.

"Yet losing heads or fingers..." Sandor countered.

"I have blades, so does Maisie and Owen." Lena assured. "We will keep you as safe as we can while still maintaining our own heads."

"Great pep talk." Owen murmured.

"If you had a weapon you would be swinging at everything." Maisie remarked. "You wouldnt think about it, you would see something flying at you and even if it wasnt trying to kill you, you would attack..."

"Then it would definitely be pissed off and kill you." Lena agreed. "Alright." she clapped her hands together. "Going dark."

Arya was giddy as she followed them in. Jaime, Sandor and Ned, not wanting to look like chickens compared to a child followed in hesitantly.

"Lena likes to-" Owen began.

"Hush, don't ruin the surprise." Maisie insisted.

"I can't see anything." Arya remarked as her feet slid forward not knowing what was ahead.

"Link hands." Maisie instructed grabbing Lena and Arya's hands. Sandor grumbled, Jaime awkwardly touched Arya's hand as they got farther in.

Lena stopped walking, Maisie knew where they were but the rest shuffled right into them.

"Goodness, take in your surroundings." Lena mused.

"I can't see a fucking thing." Sandor corrected. Lena moved them lining them up side by side.

"Don't freak out." Lena instructed as cold hands traveled along Jaime's face. He reached a hand out for her but she was already gone.

"You ready to level up?" Lena whispered, as she lit a flint match, running a composite of her own creation quickly across the rough edge their eyes shifted to the only light in the cave. Lena's face illuminated just for a moment, fire in her eyes before she held it out over the drop, their gaze shifted with match following it.

A million little eyes stared back at them, glowing in the darkness. Lena dropped the light and they were all expecting a boom, chaos, madness, those eyes staring back at them to devour them in a bite. Yet they all remained quiet, paralyzed by fear.

But there was no boom, no chaos, no madness, instead there was light.

A million little lights around them. The cave lit with light. Stalagmite and stalactites handing down from the ceiling of the cave, hugging the walls, and growing up from the floor. Those million little eyes still staring at them.

"What are those?" Arya whispered.

"Bats." Ned offered.

"Dinosaurs." Owen corrected.

''Archaeopteryx." Maisie informed them as she stepped forward. "Archaeopteryx is the combination of two high velyarian words. Archaic, meaning ancient and pteryx meaning wing."

Jaime saw the look of pride in Lena's eyes as Maisie spoke. As much as he loved his own child, tried to love Joffrey... he wasnt never going to be a part of his lives. He was uncle Jaime the kings pet. He went from king slayer, to spineless cunt so quickly all because he fell in love with the wrong woman. But looking at Lena and Maisie now, he wanted that. He wanted to love someone that much like he saw that love in Lena's eyes when she looked at Maisie.

"They weight about 2 pounds." Maisie went on. "smaller than ravens, larger than the average robin."

"They deadly?" Arya asked.

"Anything can be deadly." Lena agreed. "If given the proper motivation." Lena looked to Arya. "You included." Arya smiled back at happily before looking to her father. This trip was not helping his plans for Arya to become a lady. If anything Lena was convincing Arya that a normal life of marriage and castles was a bore compared to the island.

"How many are there?" Jaime asked his gaze shifting to the eyes, it seemed like a million staring back at them.

"In the cave right now... 30, 50, 200... hard to say this cave stretches on. Maisie and I have just scratched the surface, who knows what creatures are laying, hibernating underneath, for moons, centuries..."

Although that thought terrified Jaime he saw the look of wonder in Lena's eyes. At the possibility of more.

"We also have Pterodactyl's." Maisie remarked as they stepped forward glancing down. "They have bat-like wings with stretched membranes between the fingers. Lena has the wings inked on her arm." Maisie added.

"How can you tell them a part?" Jaime asked and Lena loved a man that was intrigued with her dinosaurs.

"They have a crest on their head." Maisie informed him. "They are also a bit temperamental."

"Which is why I requested you didnt freak the fuck out." Lena agreed. "Alright, so what you see down here is our tunnels." Lena remarked. "Newly dug out by our raptors."

"Raptors?" Jaime questioned.

"Can we meet them!" Arya exclaimed and Maisie loved having another kid on the island that shared her passion for adventure.

"Of course!" Lena agreed. "We have four really well trained, Blue and her crew following us up here and thought it would be fun to start digging, they found a little lagoon, which is what is glowing at the moment."

"How is it glowing?" Sandor questioned.

"Something Lena created." Owen answered.

"Maisie and I work in the lab often trying to find next things for the island, to better it for us and the dinosaurs." Lena agreed. "Maisie is a genius." Maisie leaned into Lena contently. "Oh look..." Lena whispered seeing a shadow in the lagoon below.