Not All Men Dance With Dragons

...Then You Haven't Been Paying Attention

A day had passed since leaving King's Landing and the earth was trembling. It wasn't because the earth itself was moving but because everything outside seemed to be on fire from the beasts that circled overhead. It was a miracle that Maerys even made it up the hill or into the Dragonpit without being burned.

"Go! Go now!" Maerys shouted in High Valyrian, shoving one of the dragonkeepers aside back towards the entrance to the Dragonpit so he could escape. "Release them and run!"

The few remaining did as they were told and pried off the chains holding the young Wisp down. The small dragon shrieked as the ground beneath their feet trembled. Scared out of her mind, she became nothing more than a gray blur as her chains fell from her neck and she shot off. Crashing through the doors and tearing one of them off its hinges in her scramble to take off into the sky.

Casiran was far more calm in the presence of his rider. He leaned his head down so that the chain could be pulled off of him, lowering a wing so that Maerys could climb up onto him. They managed to come together and make it out of the Dragonpit and into the open sky all without issue. Flames were raging, consuming the woods that surrounded the holdfast that they built into a hill but they hadn't yet reached their home. Even as Maerys searched desperately, the beasts that caused such destruction were nowhere to be seen.

Yet, despite their bond, Casiran was faster than Maerys. His senses keyed up to a point that the prince's couldn't reach and the beast turned his head just in time before a pair of jaws nearly closed around the column of his neck. The larger beast shrieked in pain anyway as those teeth caught skin anyway before he jerked around in the sky. He managed to avoid being ripped from the air by the flash of gold and Casiran let out a blistering roar of fire at his attacker before going to retreat.

That didn't stop the second monster that came swooping down from nowhere. Giant talons sank into the side of Casiran's chest and both of them jerked at the sudden collision. They were sent spiraling out of the air with a gush of hot blood from the dragon's new wound. Against the drag of wind and the gut-deep pain that shot through him, the prince clung to Casiran's scaled back.

His vision blackened as they slammed into something. The sounds of wreckage, of collapse, filled his ears and Maerys covered his head as rubble collided with the back of his skull.

When it all seemed to slow and the fog of dust was making a thick layer over the inside of his lungs, Maerys peeled his aching body off of the saddle. Hot blood poured over his brow from a gash on his forehead that he no doubt gained when his head met the saddle but what was worse was his leg. Something in it made a cracking noise when they crashed and he looked down to see his trousers were just as bloody as they were dusty. He peered up with aching eyes to find the roof and doorway of the Dragonpit were what they had wrecked and that dark shape that caused all that pain was disappearing into the clouds above.

He was brought back to himself with a sudden, sharp stab straight to his chest.

"C-Casiran!" Maerys coughed as he barely managed to slide off his mount's back without feeling more pain. He rounded the dragon's body, ducking under one of his wings that were sticking up at a horrible, broken angle from the fall.

Maerys came upon Casiran's face and nearly collapsed at the sight he found. Giant gashes were opened up across his scaled chest, reaching up to the base of his thick throat as well. Blood oozed freely into the darkening dirt as Casiran weakly tried to raise his head at his rider's approach. A thin shriek was the only sound he managed as Maerys collapsed against him, holding his snout as he would when one of his children came to him crying. He was fighting back his own tears as he ran shaky hands across Casiran's face. "It's alright, Cas. Y-You'll be alright. Just breath, pleas-"