A Lark Among the Wolves and Dragons: A Witcher/House of the Dragon Crossover

Chapter 31

A couple more characters to introduce from the Witcher games.
Also an almost assault happens in the middle, but nothing too graphic, rest assured.

After conversing with some of the village locals, concealed behind a cloak, Aemma made her way into the forest on horseback she purchased with some coin the elf had given her with her pack of goods, staying on the trail with hopes that she wouldn't run into anymore monsters at this point.

As the day progressed, the girl felt herself become annoyed, especially when thinking over her conversation with Cedric.
The reason she came to the Continent in the first place was to acquire answers to her questions concerning her mother. Until that point, she had obtain no answers but a lot more questions, especially where the relationship with her parents was concerned. Now, here she was heading west back to her home lands after being told that her questions could be answered at the place of her birth.

She needed to go back to Dragonstone.

It felt like her journey to this place was a complete waste of time; it felt like the injuries she received from the Crones and monsters, from being thrown off her dragon, and almost getting killed more times then she can count was all for nothing. None of that needed to happen when all she had to do was fly to Dragonstone to learn more about her past.

But that in of itself did not make sense to Aemma whatsoever; when she wasn't with her family in King's Landing, she had spent much of her childhood at Dragonstone with her father and stepmother, she was there when Baela and Rhaena were born, it was the place where Cirillia was saddled and ridden for the very first time. Aemma knew many of the secret tunnels and passageways in that castle like the back of her hand, thanks to her father, and she witnessed on several occasions the wild dragons flying about outside the Dragonmount, a couple of them Cirillia herself had seem to befriend (though there had been one close call with the Cannibal, which resulted in Aemma keeping her away from that dragon's particular den). 

The point is, Aemma was confident she knew all the secrets of her ancestral home, what could she possibly find there that she had never seen before?

As she continued her trek, the princess wondered how long it would take her to reach Westeros without Cirillia...how long would it take to the reach the coast and find a ship that would take her to Westeros?
She wondered what everyone else was doing at King's Landing?

She knew Rhaenyra had been due to give birth to her third child when Aemma had left, surely her cousin must've had that baby by now. She wondered what were the chances this babe would have dark hair and eyes as Jaecerys and Lucerys possess. She wondered what Aegon was doing; probably drowning in his cups, maybe celebrating not having to marry her. Aemma couldn't really complain about that, she had made it clear she didn't want to be betrothed to Aegon any longer, it wouldn't hurt her if she learned his feelings on that were mutual.
Her thoughts then turned to Helaena, wondering what she was doing; no doubt, the girl would still search the Red Keep to collect insects for her expansive collection, but who would she have to talk to about such thing apart from her mother?

Maybe Aemond...oh, the guilt Aemma felt for leaving without telling Aemond of her intentions twisted in her gut. She didn't know why this one hurt the most; maybe because she always cared for Aemond above the others, that he was her nameday present, her best friend and the little brother she never had. Maybe it had something to do with Aemond professing his love to Aemma and his desire to marry her when he'd come of age; the boy had basically made himself vulnerable towards his cousin, placing his heart on his sleeve, something he rarely if ever does, and Aemma had felt deceitful in agreeing to his proposal if only to effectively shut him up so she could sneak out to the dragon pit and leave for the Continent.
She hoped Aemond would be able to forgive her when she returned, and part of her did have some hope that maybe Alicent would allow the two of them to marry someday, if only to have her best friend by her side when she needed him.