[Chapter Size: 2500 Words.]
Third Person POV.
Sea.
...
...
Jaime Lannister was frustrated. He had been put on that ship by force. His father's men showed no hesitation in carrying out the orders; he might be a Lannister, but he was not Tywin, and to him, the soldiers owed no loyalty beyond that to his father.
He fought for this not to happen, but Tywin was firm and showed why he was the hardest man Jaime had ever known in his life. In the end, he was forced to go, even if bound.
It was strange, far too strange to be trapped there while knowing that his entire family could be dead by now or very close to it soon. Even so, he had been forced to put himself in that situation.
He hated it. He wanted to break down that door and make the ship return to King's Landing, but he couldn't, he was unable to.
He was no longer even what he used to be; he no longer had his right hand.
His sister, the woman he loved most, was still there, while he had to leave alone. Jaime hated himself for that. His father wanted the bloodline to survive, but how could he live knowing about everyone he left behind? Knowing that Rhaegar's son would clearly have no mercy on them? Daemon had intended to destroy his family for revenge from the moment he laid eyes on them.
That frustrated him, angered him, saddened him. He had screamed and cried over the past days inside that cabin, while the men were forced to keep him there, only feeding him so that he would survive. He had no permission to leave. There were not even sharp objects, not even a knife to cut the damned food; he had to handle his meals with his own hands.
These were his father's orders; those men would obey him from the moment they arrived in Essos, with a few chests of gold so that they could survive.
Jaime had so much on his mind, but what stood out the most was a simple question... How could his family fall into this state? How, after everything, would he be the only one to live among all those he loved, for the rest of his life in that condition?
There were also rumors coming from Storm's End, but nothing confirmed yet. People spoke of ships coming from Essos and a siege being prepared to be set up in front of the castle. It was already old news, but one he had received on the day he was leaving King's Landing.
Either way, the rest had already been left behind. He was now on the open sea. Jaime could not stop himself from wondering when he would receive the news of his family dead in Westeros, and of him...
...being the last survivor.
He refused to believe that. He did not want to be the last of the family. He did not want to leave his sister behind, the person he loved most.
Jaime simply sat beside the bed and kept sighing, looking out the window. The ship was simple, as if it were an ordinary merchant vessel that would sail alongside others, spreading through the coastal cities of Essos. It was a disguise...
Jaime knew that, soon, they would have to change his appearance. The men had already commented that they would cut his hair and then shave him bald, so that he would not be recognized, especially in Braavos. From there, they would move on to another place, further inland in Essos, far from the wars and the influence of Daemon Targaryen. He would have to find a woman and preserve the Lannister name after that... It seemed like a very solid plan from his father.
However, what came next made Jaime change his mind.
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR
As the ship sailed across the open sea, a roar exploded from the sky, immediately making the walls and windows of Jaime's room tremble. He got up quickly, startled, while screams came from outside. The men were overtaken by terror.
Jaime knew very well what that meant.
"How did he find us?" the words left Jaime Lannister's mouth, incredulous.
As something gigantic passed alongside the ship, darkening the small windows of Jaime's room while the sound of wings was thunderous.
Jaime did not take his eyes off the window even after the dragon passed, as he swallowed hard... The Lannister soldiers dressed as sailors were all agitated now, making Jaime wonder what was happening outside. He ran to the window, but could not see anything ahead. Even so, the sound of wings and roars remained present.
A living dragon, a legend that everyone had only heard of through rumors, was there. He saw it pass by the window a moment later... White as snow. Daemon must have been riding it, making Jaime still unable to believe that he had been found after all.
"Hahahaha." Jaime could not help but laugh at that. "In the end, I will still die like a man on the run... So this is how it ends for me..." He seemed empty, despite the humorless laughter from before.
The dragon had followed him across the sea. In truth, Rhaegar's son would never let him escape. That was obvious. The situation made Jaime grow ironic and afraid; in the end, he would earn yet another title for the collection of miseries he already carried in his name...
And after everything, his father's plan had failed, and he was being hunted, probably even before the other relatives, since it had only been a week since he had left King's Landing, sailing the sea, and Daemon's army was still many days away from King's Landing.
Strange sounds began to arise. He could feel small impacts until, suddenly, the ship stopped, as if it had struck something solid. Jaime noticed that the vessel was completely motionless at that moment.
"If I'm going to die, at least I want to look him in the eyes... I won't end it in here, hiding," Jaime growled.
Immediately, he began pounding on the door, hoping that someone would open it. And it worked. Someone came running to him.
"Come with me, my lord," said the man, trembling all over, as if his life depended on it.
It was not difficult for Daemon to find the ship. He simply had eyes inside it, following it the entire time through a hidden bird, memorizing its merchant flag and the model of the vessel. The people there truly found it strange that an eagle had decided to accompany them on the open sea, but they thought it amusing and liked to feed it, unaware of the danger hidden behind the mind that controlled that bird.
They treated it as if it were theirs, since it was extremely docile and interacted with the crew, never imagining that they were being watched the entire time.
It was a search of several hours, passing by many ships that had also left King's Landing, especially those of people fleeing, until he finally found them...
Daemon saw the ship from a distance and dove from the sky, advancing directly toward it. His wings opened in the air, and a roar echoed, announcing his presence, making everyone on the ship scream and point in the direction from which the dragon was coming.
Winter passed alongside the vessel, enough to make it sway with the wind from the dragon, curved around, and quickly began freezing the entire sea ahead, creating a heavy layer of ice, strong enough to stop the ship. The dragon itself landed on the ice created on the sea, waiting as the vessel slowly approached.
Only screams and exclamations came from the men, who were drawing closer and closer to the dragon in the middle of the sea. It was terrifying for anyone.
The ship came to a complete stop, crashing against the ice. Then, a man walked up along the dragon's neck and went to its head, facing them directly while standing in a position that would frighten even the bravest of men, with the head of the white dragon, red-eyed, staring at them along with its rider in challenge.
"Attention, everyone," Daemon began, with a friendly tone and smile that reassured no one. He did not shout, speaking just loudly enough for the men on the deck to hear.
"I am looking for two people who are inside this ship. First, I want Jaime Lannister. The other… well, he is hidden somewhere else without your knowing..."
"I want you to hand the two of them over to me. After that, you may continue your journey. I am not interested in common soldiers, so I will give you a choice: either you hand the two of them over and go on with your lives, do whatever you wish with them, or I destroy this entire ship and, by extension, kill those two people and all of you... What choice are you going to make?"
Daemon left them at a crossroads. The men looked at one another and began to argue, but the answer was obvious.
They would never try to fight a dragon in the middle of the sea, when they had absolutely nothing to fight it with. All the lives on that deck simply depended on that decision. The silence already condemned them. How could they fight against that creature… and against the monster who rode it?
"Bring me Jaime Lannister," someone murmured, while everyone seemed extremely uneasy. No one wanted to become the target of that monster.
"The other is hidden in the pantry, he has been there for days, eating and defecating in a corner without drawing attention... I want you to go there and get him. My eagle will lead you to him. Tie him up and bring him to me," Daemon said.
The men quickly began to move, following the eagle that had once seemed like nothing more than a harmless companion, but now revealed its true purpose, obeying the sorcerer's command as it flew toward the pantry.
Jaime was soon brought in with his hands bound by four men. In the corridor, as he was being taken outside, another four appeared to restrain him. He was carried out of the ship by the men and thrown to the ground in front of Daemon.
Now Jaime was there, face to face with Rhaegar's son, who looked down at him from atop the white dragon's head with an indifferent expression, studying the Lannister.
"Jaime Lannister… how long it's been. I did not see you in King's Landing when I arrived in the city. What a shame that our last meeting was only in Winterfell, when no one knew me as Daemon. I was merely Jon Snow." Daemon mocked, with the dragon beneath him seeming to snarl at Jaime.
Jaime seemed to be left speechless, but before he could say anything, Daemon continued. "Do you remember our last conversation?" he asked with disdain.
Jaime could not forget those words.
"I never blamed you for the death of the Mad King, but you deserve to pay for your negligence toward the Targaryen children, brutally murdered by your father's men." Daemon did not continue speaking.
His eyes turned toward the entrance of the deck, where another person was being brought in, struggling with all his strength, eyes wide as he saw the dragon and the man standing atop the creature's head.
"If it isn't a prestigious knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Amory Lorch. It is good to finally meet the man who stabbed my sister fifty times when she was only three namedays old..." Daemon said, with a far too calm look for someone uttering such words.
Jaime Lannister looked at Ser Amory in surprise.
Amory stared at Daemon without any power to react. That was the man who had taken everything from him, who had killed his family with his dragon while destroying the seat of House Lorch. All that remained to him had been to flee. There was nothing left for him in the Westerlands, and now he would be killed in a way as horrible as the Mountain's, according to what he had heard about Daemon's army approaching King's Landing. Everyone in the Seven Kingdoms knew that Daemon sought vengeance, and Amory did not want to share the same fate as Gregor Clegane.
The anger and hatred he had once felt for Daemon, for destroying his family and the seat of his house, had turned into fear. Pure fear. What awaited him was uncertain, but it would certainly be something worse than an ordinary death.
He had tried to flee in hiding, infiltrating the ship upon learning that Jaime Lannister would be leaving with a few people for Essos.
And now, before the man who had destroyed everything he knew, there was no hatred left, only fear and regret for not having poisoned himself sooner. There was no way to know what could come from that sorcerer beyond the worst kind of death imaginable.
Daemon stared at him for a moment, as the sailors dropped him beside Jaime on the deck.
"Well," Daemon said in a low voice.
He raised his hand toward the two of them and brought it down sharply. Both felt their bodies being pulled upward before being hurled against the deck with force, knocking them both unconscious on impact.
That alone left all the sailors behind the two bound men completely terrified, but Daemon did not care. He simply raised his hand again, and it began to glow.
The two bodies began to float, now being pulled out of the ship. They fell at Winter's feet, and the dragon quickly picked each of them up. The dragon was careful not to crush them and soon raised its wings, beating them powerfully, moving away before stopping at a certain distance.
"You cooperated. I will leave all of you alive, but you had better never return to Westeros." With those words, Daemon raised his hand as the entire ship was hurled backward so that it could break free from the ice that held it, after all, it would take days or even weeks to thaw... As soon as the ship was ready to go around the ice, Winter began to fly, gaining height and distance.
The ship was left behind, leaving the men at the mercy of their own fate in Essos from that moment on. Daemon did not even care about the gold, he only took the eagle and left.
Not even a single day had passed since they had arrived before King's Landing. He would still have two more days before returning, so he flew north.
He would return to Winterfell, take some vengeance on the damned Lannisters, and then head south. He would conquer King's Landing carrying the head of a Lannister to show Tywin.
And after that, he would deal with the other false dragon who would come from the south.
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