Rivers of Fire and Blood

Sansa XII

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Ice and Fire Novels, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon TV shows. However, I decided to have a little play around with the characters. I do not earn any money from writing these stories, it is for my entertainment and is something I like to share.

The wait was excruciating and seemingly, never ending. Ranny had gone through the door to hatch her egg and Jon had flown into the volcano on the back of Drogon, followed by Rhaenys. After two days of waiting in the stone cottage outside of the volcano, Sansa was still alone, waiting for them to return, every passing minute worrying her more and more that she was destined to die here alone. Of course she did have the company of the Ghost called Aeleen, but this wasn't completely reassuring for Sansa, she wanted her husband, their dragons and Ranny back, being told they would be fine after walking into a volcano would never be enough until she saw them return to her with her own eyes.

If Sansa hadn't have been so worried about everyone else, she would've found Aeleen very interesting company. When the Ghost had been alive, she was one of the custodians of the magical mountain. Inside this very volcano, the sorcerers had created the bond between dragon and Valyrians, although the magic only worked on some families. The had not seemed to be rhyme nor reason as to why the magic didn't work for everyone who could afford it, but the sorcerers decided the magic would only apply to those who the gods deemed worthy. One of the wealthiest families in Valyria couldn't bond with dragons, yet another family who weren't wealthy, albeit just enough to afford to try one dragon hatching, which turned out to be fortuitous as that allowed a further hatching, making them one of the most successful dragonlords in the sense of hatching success, although they still seemed unable to substantially increase their wealth. The sorcerers had also performed magic on the families to see if any were seers. They suspected the only ones who could hatch the dragon eggs must have some other gifts which allowed this magic to occur. It turned out that these families who became dragonlords did have some gifts, although it varied from family to family. These gifts only manifested themselves once a dragon had hatched for the family, therefore it was impossible to tell beforehand which families would be able to bond with a dragon. The most common one was the ability to read the minds of others. One family however, stood out, the Targaryens, instead they had prophetic dreams, although many turned out to be unconvincing and often played out different to how they were interpreted by the dreamer, who often spoke of the dream in riddles. The most well known one was Daenys Targaryen, she dreamed of the doom of Valyria. Everyone except her family mocked her, until fourteen years after the Targaryen family left, Daenys was proven right and Valyria was no more. Sansa had tried to press Aeleen about what happened to Valyria, but the woman shook her head.

"Some things are best left unsaid and unknown." the Ghost had told her, and that had been the end of the conversation.

After five days, a red door magically appeared out of nowhere on one of the corridor walls, inside the house, next to Sansa's bedroom. Excitement grew in the pit of her belly, she knew it wasn't Jon, but the fact that Ranny would be returning was enough to tell her Jon would survive the volcano too. Sure enough, on the sixth day, Ranny appeared, looking exactly the same as she had when she walked through the door almost a week earlier. Sansa wanted to rush up to her and hug her, but her restraint as a Queen prevented her from doing so. She had to be polite and civilised, one of the things she hated about her role.

"Good to see you Rhaenora, where is the egg?" Sansa frowned.

"Oh it hatched." Ranny grinned. "I've called her Verrax."

Sansa looked around and frowned. "Where is she?"

"Verrax is in the volcano being nourished." Ranny told her. "The gods told me to let her fly into the depths of the volcano with Rhaenys and Drogon, then she will be large enough for me to fly within the month."