Hands Of Gold

LITTLE DRAGON.

Aerys Targeryen remembered a girl that ran around the Keep, a girl with hair that shone like red gold. But, as he got older the more he chalked the vision of the young girl to his imagination.

But even as he grew in years, he watched as his mother called the royal jewelers to construct a piece of jewelry he realized his sister never wore. He watched every year as her and his father continued to call for a new piece of jewelry around the hottest month of the year.

"Mother?" His tenth name day made him more inquisitive, with this came a rash of brazenness.

"Yes, my sweetling?" Her indigo eyes look to him, as her delicate ivory hands lay in her lap.

"Every year around the time the Keep grows the hottest, you and father always have a piece of jewelry commissioned."

She smiles, but in her eyes he can see the weight of such a sorrow- a sorrow he never wished her to bear the burden of. Not his mother, never his. "Yes we do."

He tilts his head, his curiosity taking over. "Why so?"

"Do you like receiving gifts, Aerys?" She asks pointedly, making Aerys look to the ceremonial dagger draped at his hip.

He sighs, "I do."

"All children do, even as they age into women and men. We all enjoy receiving even the smallest of affectionate tokens."

But the word before the word, affectionate
made Aerys think twice. For if one had affection in giving a token, than one felt someone for the person receiving the token. "Who do you give yours too?"

She muses before gracing him with one of her most dazzling smiles, "You and your sister of course."

"But this jewelry, I never see it on Rhaella." He questions, a silver brow lifted.

"No, emeralds do not suit your sister nor I." She laughs lightly.

"Then whom do they suit?"

She tilts her head, "Come here." As she calls for him, he feels like a little child again, not a prince of the realm destined for the crown. And, yet he does as she asks and sits on her lap like he did as a young boy. She brushes his hair behind his ear, "You must swear not to tell your father I have told you this, this must stay between only you and I."

"Always, mother." He says so lightly, it is almost a whisper, words on the wind.

"The jewelry is for a child, a girl. I am sure you have fleeting memories of her."

"A girl I used to chase around the gardens, a girl with hair like red gold." He says dreamily.

"I know you did, I could see it on your eyes. Oh, Aerys, I never wished to part you two, you were the best of friends, like your father and I when we're smaller." She laughs as she reminisces on joyful memories.

"Then, why, why did you separate us?" Indigo eyes met indigo searching for an answer, anything.

She does not look at him, "The Targeryen siblings have caused enough chaos in our wake, we cannot harm the realm more for our own selfishness."

"But, red hair? Red hair is no Targeryen." He scrunches his nose up as he thinks of his sister with red hair and indigo eyes, what an unappealing combination.

She laughs harder than usual, making her snort causing Aerys to laugh. "No, a dreaded one. But, for Gwyneth her Gardener genes run strong."

"Gardener?" Aerys face scrunches up, and his arrogant air returns, or had it left?  "House Gardener died long ago."

"History erased House Gardener, for reasons I am not sure of, but I do know this one remains and she is precious to us."

"But, why?"

"She may not have our name, but she has our blood." She plants a kiss on his cheek, "Now, go. The Maester surly will be combing the Keep for you, and your father will be very disappointed to know I have kept you from your lessons."

"Mother, may I-" He can feel the fear in the pit of his stomach, but he reminds himself, I am a dragon! I am never afraid!  "Can I write to Gwyneth?"

She looks to him with a small smile playing on her lips, "Do not tell your father nor any of your uncles, when you do make sure she knows to keep the utmost discretion."

He leaves with a smile, and he does not care about the tongue lashing he receives from the Maester can bring down his spirits. When he finally retires from his daily activities, he begins his letter to the girl he once knew.  In the cover of nightfall he slips to ravenry to send  his letter, and as he watches the raven fly to Casterly Rock, where he knew Gwyneth was fostered.

He waited for days, he noticed himself grow snippy with those around him, even his mother noticed his growing aggressive behavior.

"She will respond, Aerys. You must have patience." His mother whispered to him one day when she caught him sulking.

And as always, his mother proved right. She responded with glee, as she never forgot him. And as years passed she felt he forgot her. But, in reality she stayed in the deepest crevices of his mind. He only had to close his eyes to see her hair.

And thus, he began to forge an unshakable bond with the girl through her letters. And when she included a portrait for him, on his two and ten name day, the Red Keep never saw the Prince smile as widely as he did that day.

But, as the silver prince smiled with glee a golden haired boy at Casterly Rock became disgruntled that the girl who his family welcomed into their home and treated as their own  began to shut herself away. At first he chalked it up to Kevan's incessant late night ramblings at Gwyneth's door. Dopey and annoying, even more so. But, then Gemma began to cry for her friend. When both his siblings advances failed to stop her from writing letters to her raven pal in King's Landing. For weeks, the golden lion began to act like the sigil of his house, he stalked his red haired prey. He even went as far as giving her small gifts, and his reward would be when her eyes fluttered as she thanked him. How his heart pounded when she kissed his cheeks, how his palms began to sweat with anticipation as he handed her each gift. Soon, the red headed girl carved out a place in the golden haired lions heart, a place that no one could fill.