Aegon is her least favorite dragon. He is hard and cruel where Aemond is soft and kind. Aegon pulls her hair and calls her mean names but Aemond only touches her when she asks, only speaks kind words.
He is the only person she's met who is patient enough to listen to her. Be it the nonsense about the future or the endlkess information she has about insects or small creatyres, her little brother is happy to listen. Even once does he teach her something new about the Pentoshi Silk Worms colors. She is grateful to have at least one sweet brother.
She and Aemond sit in the gardens on days where she is not dragged into lectures by the septas. He patiently listens to her ramblings about silver beetles and deadly spiders even when she knows he couldn't care less. When a vision overtakes her and sends her into a fit of Valyrian phrases or blinds her senses, he is there to offer what soothing he can. What soothing she wants.
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Even when her mother tries to warn her about her half-sister, she befriends Rhaenyra for that brief time before she is sold to Laenor Velaryon. They roam the halls of the Red Keep in secret and sneak berry tarts from the kitchens. Her sister is the one to show her the secret passages and rooms that once drove Maegor the Cruel to madness, makes her swear never to show another soul, and produces a map of them all. It's a map she made herself. When Helaena recognizes that some of the handwriting matches that of her uncle Daemon, she says nothing. Her sister can keep this secret as Helaena keeps her own.
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When she bonds with Dreamfyre and takes her into the clouds, the voices in her heads and the images she sees finally go quiet for a time. It's then that she realizes the true power in her dragon. When she knows again what it is like to fly. She felt flight once, in an awful dream of soaring down from a tall tower. No, that was not flying, she decides, that was falling. With her sapphire dragon, however, she cannot get enough of freedom. Even when mother makes her join Aegon and Aemond in the Dragon Pit for their lessons on dragon riding, she takes to the skies, alone in her thoughts, and is all the happier.
She takes Aemond on Dreamfyre's back when he gets sad that he cannot have his own mount. She and her brother laugh together as her sapphire dragon takes them into the dense clouds and over the Rush. Their elder brother tries to ruin the fun and commands his golden Sunfyre to give chase. Helaena knows her dragon would easily outmatch her brother's but lets him play for a time. With Aemond shrieking and giggling behind her, she commands Dreamfyre into the clouds before turning back on their brother. The fear in Aegon's eyes gives them both something to joke about for days.
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She is told she will marry Aegon when she is thirteen. Her flower has not yet bloomed but she has learned from her handmaids what is expected of her. Her sweet Mina even told her about a magic pearl at the top of her sex that would make it feel like she was flying. Helaena doesn't dare touch it herself. That's not something ladies do, her mother once chastised her after she asked about it. Her flower is for her husband but the idea makes her sick.
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Her mother rarely listens to her. Even when they are the only ones in a room and the woman can only pay attention to her, the Queen Alicent nods stiffly and contains her boredom. Helaena notices it each time but says nothing. She wants to love her mother but finds it harder each time the woman chooses any excuse to distance herself.
When the millipede crawls up her hand, Helaena only notices the footsteps approaching. As if it's rehearsed, her mother is quick to stand and see who has arrived, eager to be away from her strange daughter. Helaena is too occupied with the insect in her grasp to comment, let alone care.
When she looks back to see Aemond, hair a mess and sooty, she sighs. 'He did it again.' He glances her way but their mother does not. She hears them argue about the dragons, the pig, their nephews, but her mind is on the voice ringing in her head. She did not want the visitor, she recited in her mind, Aemond didn't mean to startle her.
