The Dragonborn Comes

11. Command and Conquer

Daenerys Targaryen

 

I wasn't ready.

That thought kept going through my head as I looked around and pulled my heavy wool cloack tighter around my shoulder.

I shouldn't have come here.

And I should most defenitely not hava acted this harshly.

Gathering my army within a moon of recieving news from Aegon's invasion of the Seven Kingdoms, I had gone and taken my forces to Mantarys. From there we marched from some of the smaller towns along the rivers to The Golden Fields, and from there to Pentos. There I had gathered as big a fleet as I could. It took several moons, but with a detached determination I ammassed my forces, decided on showing the people in the Seven Realms what the House Targaryen was about.

Fire and blood.

Consulting with Ser Barristan Slemy I decided that turning my forces to Dragonstone first would be the right choice. Unlike my brother I wasn't looking at ths in the most literal strategic sense.

Dragonstone held Stannis Baratheon.

And Stannis Baratheon right now was the one with the most legitiate claim to the Iron Throne.

He had also been gaining support from other houses when word started spreading across the Lands of Men that the Targaryen had returned to claim what was rightfully theirs.

So I started the siege of Dragonstone.

Information that I gathered told me that Stannis had returned barely a week befor my arrival and had started shipping supplies and weaponry to Dragonstone as soon as he set foot inside his keep. He had help of his so called Red Sorceress and an old knight call Lord Davos. As self proclaimed King of the Seven Realm he had named Ser Davos his Hand, and I was assuming the Mellisandre woman was something like a Maester.

He had fortified the castle, doubled the guards, and raised every possible line of defense, and when I reached Dragonstone I came to realize that Stannis Baratheon was a smart man.

I wasn't about to sacrifice half of my army just to gain a single keep. Conquering Dragonstone was important, if not escential. I just had to find another way to get there.

Dragonstone is a volcanic island at the mouth of Blackwater Bay, created by the active volcano, Dragonmont. The island is damp and drery. The castle of Dragonstone is a small fortress located on the face of the volcano. Outside its walls sits a small fishing village on the stormy coast. Beneath Dragonmont are rich deposits of dragonglass. There is much obsidian seen in the old tunnels beneath the mountain, found in chunks and boulders. The greater part of it is black, but there is some green obsidian as well, some red, even purple.

We had taken the fishing village the moment we arrived, and from there had set up camp for the thousands of men that composed my army.

A short distance off the coast is the island of Driftmark, which is the seat of the bannermen of House Velaryon, another Valyrian house. Dragonstone, though old and strong, commands the allegiance of only a few lesser lords whose islands are too thinly populated to provide any great numbers of troops.I had taken the island, but in the small keep belonging to House Velaryon all I found was a small boy racting as a ruler, and when I questioned the locals it was revealed that the Lord commanding the Keep had died in the attack on Kings Landing, leaving his young boy to rule.

When I inquired further about the supposed forces of the House Valeryon, I gathered that the Lord had had a bastard daughter, who had sailed off with any man capable of fighting, and pledge her alliance to no other than my brother.