Fire And Blood

The Snake, The Lion And The Goat

Aegon XVIII

Twelve days.

For twelve days they had been travelling through the Smoking Sea now. The first day alone had seen them lose so many of their men and women and an entire ship's worth of horses.

He did not allow his mind to wander into the manner of their deaths.

Afterwards, they had been able to travel mostly in peace – or as close as one could get to peace in this accursed place. They still had to suffer through stray attacks, or attempts at attacks from more queer melds – sea creatures with human limbs, a beast with fangs and the bottom half of a giant serpent but the naked torso of a woman – but they had managed to repel those with nary a loss.

Their small fleet of four ships sliced through the waves at a steady pace. Lady Korra deserved their gratitude for it as well. Out of everyone, the she-pirate was contributing the most to get them out of Valyria. Her water sorcery had been a huge boon for them. She was tirelessly forming these deliberate, gentle and wide waves, which gave their ships that additional push needed to traverse these uncharted waters. When the winds favoured the sails, she allowed herself half a day's rest or more. Their ordeal from that first day had left Korra close to collapsing and in need of a full day of sleep to recover. Now, she was more mindful of her own strength, of her own limitations.

Since they had slain the speaking creature, the winged beast stalking them had not reemerged again; something which did not put him at ease, however. On the contrary: he felt tenser, more paranoid than ever as the week went by with neither hide nor hair of it atop the cliffs. For as long as they were travelling these waters, he'd never be able to relax. Sleep eluded him and he would often wake up abruptly in the middle of the night expecting an attack which never came. He kept rousing Dany and Rhaenys each time he did so, which in turn made him feel guilty for constantly awakening his wives from their slumber.

Anything and everything could jump at them as it had happened already.

Not even their dragons dared to stray far from the ships, or dove into the waters to hunt. Soon, they were forced to feed their dragons meat from their rations, once the corpses of the dead creatures and the remnants of their kills had been completely devoured. He made sure to remove the bodies of their fallen men from the dragons' meals before allowing them to eat, however. It would not do good for morale. Thankfully, they showed patience these days – even Jadewing.

The fact that they had not been stalked for almost two weeks now made him all the more sure that they were, indeed, being stalked. He was sure the creature had kept out of sight. Perhaps it had even seen them kill the armoured beast. If so, then it wouldn't be unlikely to be wary of them.

When Ser Jorah joined him at the bow by the forecastle, Aegon heaved a sigh and glanced at the muscled, balding, hairy and bulky knight. "This silence and calm is unsettling me, Ser," he admitted. "We've spent close to a fortnight here unbothered and yet I still expect something to attack us at any given moment."

"I understand, your Grace," Ser Jorah answered with a tired smile. "I share the sentiment. I've not had a good night's sleep for days now. I cannot help but wonder if I would wake up only to find a watery grave around me."

Aegon respected the man, though a hint of wariness remained. Ser Jorah's forlorn, lingering gazes on Dany still caught his attention here and there. Was it lust or love the knight felt towards his wife? Aegon didn't know and didn't want to know but whichever it was, he hoped Ser Jorah would soon forget about it.

"It's the nature of this place," Darron spoke up from farther behind them. Aegon turned around to look at the grizzled sellsword as he was gazing at them. "You hear tales of demons and monsters and giant kraken. You hear of ships disappearing forever in the Smoking Sea and of adventurers daring to explore the land in hopes of finding Valyrian treasures and dragon eggs, all of them vanishing to never be heard from again. The stories pale in comparison to what we have witnessed with our very own eyes." He then shot them a humourless grin. "And yet we outlasted them all save for that one thing." Darron then pointed high at the cliffs.