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AFTERGLOW chapter one.
THREE PAIRS OF LITTLE FEET PATTERED INTO THE DRAGONPIT, ONE AFTER THE OTHER. "Luke! Hurry up!" Young Jacaerys Velayron yelled back to his younger, much smaller, brother. Even further behind the two boys were their sister, Maeyra, and the Lord Commander of the City Watch, Harwin Strong.
"How about you lads slow down! Huh?" Ser Harwin called after the two boys, "How do you survive with those two, Princess?"
Despite her brown hair and dark eyes, little Maerya Velaryon was the spitting image of her mother. Questions were in place about the three children's paternal heritage, not sharing their father's darker skin tone of platinum hair, but there was no questioning who Maerya's mother was when the two stood side by side. "I barely do. And to think we're going to have another one, ugh!" She groaned. "All I ask for is a sister, Ser Harwin."
The knight next to her laughed, "Then we shall hope for a sister, Princess. Now let us catch up with your brothers."
Maerya didn't need telling twice; she picked up the skirts of her dress and took off after her brothers. Catching up to Luke, grabbing the younger boy's hand and pulling him along to her twin, "How many are there?" She asked Jace.
"Four," he answered as they neared the cradle that was keeping the eggs warm. "That one!"
"I didn't even get to look!" Maerya sighed. The three of them gathered around the batch of eggs, and Maerya looked towards her younger brother and asked, "Luke?"
Lucerys looked up guiltily at his sister and said, "I agree with Jace." Ser Harwin stiffled a laugh.
"Ugh!" Mae groaned, "I hope that this one is a girl."
Princess Rhaenyra had given birth to a perfectly healthy son.
Word had travelled quickly around the castle that her labours had ended, and so Ser Harwin had tasked himself with escorting the three young Velaryons to their mother's chambers in order to meet the new baby.
Maerya sat quietly on the chair with her book, whereas her brothers were busying themselves telling a tale of dragons to the commander: "And he sees a big, scary dragon!" The door opened, and in walked their mother and father, stopping Jace's story in its tracks.
Maerya slammed her book shut and rushed over to Rhaenyra. "Mother!"
Jace and Luke hastily followed after their sister said, "Look." Jace walked over to the cradle that the dragonkeepers had bought up from the dragonpit and lifted the lid to reveal the steaming dragon egg concealed beneath it.
"We chose an egg for the baby," Luke said, looking up at his mother.
Rhaenyra sighed, clearly in pain. "That looks like the perfect one." Ser Harwin offered her his arm, which she accepted. Maerya sat beside her, and Rhaenyra took her hands in her lap and smiled at her only daughter.
