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leftdragonwombatroad · 2 years

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dragon bride (prologue) || aemond targaryen

pairing: Aemond Targaryen х original female character

warnings: nothing like that now, but then…

summary: two worlds intersect and feelings burn through two hearts

a/n: Near the Seven Kingdoms lies the kingdom of Darein where dragons are considered messengers of death and misfortune, so they try to ward them off with magic…

English is not my first language I apologize for the mistakes!

this part is a prologue (yes, you could think of it that way)

_______ இஇஇ _______

Eileen had always believed in fairy tales, which she read with the daughters of other Darein princes at family feasts.A group of ruddy girls each time ran away from the feast and settled around the fire. Then the most nimble of the princesses would pull out a small book cleverly hidden in her skirts and begin to read, looking around fearfully.

“Come today about the beautiful Dragon Prince who took Princess Spring as his wife,” Maria whispered, giggling. “They had so many children born… and all as beautiful as their parents.”

“No, about wolves with wings!” Erina exclaimed.

“There’s no such thing, you fool!” Natalia snapped at her. “Let’s read in order.”

Everyone obeyed the oldest of the princesses and began the first story. Eileen held her breath and began to listen to the tale of the Great and Fearless King, who with a simple song was able to make a dragon serve him and not kill people. They flew together and rose above the clouds. Eileen covered her eyes and ran her hand over the short grass, smiling at the way it tickled her palms. Was it possible to fly so low on a dragon over a field and touch the spikes? Was it possible to fly so high on a dragon to take a ray of sunshine with her?

“That’s boring…” Lucia frustrated. “Let’s talk about how dragons choose their brides!”

This time a muffled maiden hum approved of the chosen topic. Eileen couldn’t object either. At twelve years old she already dreamed of meeting her betrothed. She wished it were Night of Fortune and she could look in the mirror and see her future. What would her husband be like? Surely as strong and kind as her father, good-natured and merciful…

“Okay, little naughty girl, let’s read about marriage,” Nastasia snickered. “Here, it’s about a dragon wedding…”

A few minutes later, all the listeners were sitting with their eyes wide open and huddled together in fear. Except a delighted Eileen. This ritual… A true fusion of bodies. The accompanying bloodshed and magical dancing… Eileen wished she had seen and participated in something like this in her life. In Darein, the wedding ritual consisted of vows and the exchange of rings, but no daggers or kisses through which the spouses exchanged blood.

“How much blood does a bride spill…” Natalia sighed. “First on the altar, then on the marriage bed.”

A foul comment from Natalia distracted everyone gathered from their shock, and silent laughter erupted again around the fire.

Eileen smirked, too. She had heard about bloodshed in the marriage bed from her older sisters, but never more. All she knew was that pain very often bordered on pleasure, and many women went mad for it.

Eileen looked toward the forest. All the feasts took place near the border with the Cursed Lands each time and ended with a sacrifice to keep the gods safe from the monster raids of Darein. It was so close to a country with such a mysterious history… All one had to do was stand on the path and walk straight ahead all the time…

“Hey!” A nasty boyish voice interrupted all discussion. The princesses turned around and saw two boys. Prince Tavrog’s sons, Marus and Ulvin. Vile and cruel, they were just like their father.

“Go away,” Natalia almost growled. “We’re having fun with the girls, and you don’t belong here.”

Marus grinned wickedly. Ignoring all requests, he walked closer to the fire, and Ulvin followed him like an obedient dog.

“I know what you do, unworthy daughters of unworthy mothers.” Marus began circling the girls like a hawk. Eileen wanted so badly to pick up a rock and knock him down. “You read tales of the Cursed Lands. Maybe I should tell everyone what you do.”

The girls whispered excitedly. If they were found out, they would be in trouble. The book had been stolen, and even more so about forbidden topics. They would all be locked in their rooms until the end of Spring and made to recite prayers as punishment.

“Who’s going to believe you, Marus?” Natalia interjected. “Just go away.”

Suddenly Ulvin snatched the book from Nastasia’s hands and laughed out loud.

“What fools!”

Eileen jumped up to return the book, but then Marus pulled out a dagger and pointed it at her. The girls, seeing the gleaming steel, screamed and piled into one pile, grabbing each other’s hands.

“Shut up!” Marus commanded. “Or I’ll cut her.”

Eileen froze in place. If she survived and told her father about this, Marus would be in trouble.

“Stop it, stop it Marus.” Eileen asked him. “Let’s just split up.”

Marus smirked at that again.

“Let’s just split up… well, sure!” He gripped the base of the dagger tighter. “Dreaming of the Dragon Prince, are you? You know what he’ll do to the likes of you?” He looked directly into Eileen’s eyes, and the end of the point pointed toward her heart. “He’ll use you as common whores first, and then he’ll let you be eaten by his pet. Or he’ll let him use you, too. I don’t know what that madman will get into his head.”

“What do you want, Marus?”

Eileen hid the trembling in her body, trying to tame herself. We have to get this straightened out. Marus probably tasted wine for the first time today.

“I want Dragonflower.” Marus replied. “I know some tales from here, too.” He nodded toward the book.

“What do you need it for?”

Eileen remembered about this flower. It could give the wearer unprecedented power and make him invincible. It can be seen why Marus wanted it.

“So go get it yourself,” Eileen muttered.

The dragonflower grew near the border with the Cursed Lands, and appearing there could mean a serious violation of the laws of Darein. Marus was simply afraid…

“You’re chicken, aren’t you?” Eileen teased him. “You want to be the strongest, but you’re afraid to even come close to the border.”

Marus growled and moved closer to Eileen without removing his knife.

“Shut up, you fool!” Something strange flashed in his gaze. “There you go. Or this,” he pointed again at the book Ulvin was twirling in his hands, “will be seen by all.”

Eileen looked at Natalia. Fear appeared in her green eyes. She had already received a warning from her father, and the next one could lead to dire things.

“How will she take the flower, you idiot?” Nastasia snorted. “There are guards there!”

Everyone knew that was a weak argument. The guards were only on the Watchtowers, and it was very easy to find a piece out of sight. Fear and common sense kept the borders impregnable better than any sword.

“If you don’t give me the book, I’ll kill you.”

Eileen turned toward the border and walked to the ghastly laughter of Marus and Ulvin. Nothing she would do to him - everyone knew that.

____________________

Eileen thought everyone would follow her. But missing a dozen princely children at once would lead to unnecessary suspicion. By now everyone must be distracting the already drunk parents so they wouldn’t notice the princess who had stolen. Eileen had already been walking along the trail for about half an hour, noticing every sign that brought her closer to the fateful frontier.

Stupid and cowardly Marus. Pathetic idiot.

But Eileen was partly grateful to him. Her father had only taken her to the frontier once, but she so wanted to stay there longer and explore the nature of the Seven Kingdoms. Eileen shivered to herself. The Cursed Lands. There was no other name for the place. There was only one link between the two completely different worlds: the wooden bridge. Ambassadors and lawbreakers would occasionally cross it into the Cursed Lands. Eileen planned to cross it today.

The border moat and high stakes appeared from behind the trees. Eileen was close. We had to get it over with quickly and get home. The feast would last a few more hours, but still they had to hurry. There was no telling who would decide to check on the spoiled children…

Eileen squeezed between the stakes and stopped at the precipice.

Damn.

The bridge was up today. That meant Eileen couldn’t cross it. Nor could she get the flower.

Shit!

She went to the very edge and looked down. There were stakes at the bottom of the ditch, too. If she fell on them, death would be painful and slow, and the corpse would go to the crows. Eileen shuddered. She couldn’t go back and neither could she cross…

“What are you doing here, girl?”

Eileen cried out in surprise and recoiled from the cliff, losing her balance and collapsing to the ground. On the other side stood a boy. His silver hair glistened in the darkness, and his eyes followed Eileen’s every movement.

“I asked what you were doing here.” He demanded an immediate answer, speaking to Eileen in a common language.

“I…” She mumbled. “I have to…”

“Are you a fool?” The boy was beginning to get angry. “What are you sniffing around here, you Darean ignoramus? ”

The insult brought Eileen to her senses. That arrogant jerk… She stood up and shook the dust off her skirts.

“I want Dragonflower.”

The boy jumped with laughter. There was amusement in his eyes, previously angry and sad.

“That weed? I told you - ignorant.” He laughed frankly at Eileen.

“What do you care?!” She snapped. “You’re the one who started talking to me.”

The boy kicked the stone and it flew into the ditch.

“I wanted to know what you wanted near my kingdom.” Arrogance emanated from his every word.

“Yours?” Eileen asked incredulously.

“Yes,” the boy declared, “I am a prince. Who are you?”

A prince… The dragon prince… Eileen saw him before her, the hero of fairy tales. Though it was hardly exactly him, because her unexpected interlocutor was too young. This boy was hardly more than two years older than Eileen.

“I am a princess.”

“Then our conversation can be considered a royal audience.”

Eileen saw him smile and couldn’t hold back in response.

“Hardly, of course. But so be it.”

“We made history with you,” the boy declared. “Our kingdoms rarely talk like this.”

“Perhaps your kingdom could give ours a little help?” Eileen began to act the way her mother sometimes acted, asking her father for something. She called it feminine cunning…

“Don’t expect any help from us, but here’s an exchange… You want a flower, don’t you?” The boy bent down and, poking around on the ground, plucked an inconspicuous flower that actually looked like a weed. Only the fiery red leaves made it special. “What will you give me for it?”

Eileen accepted the rules of the game and looked at her hand. An emerald bracelet glittered on her wrist. She wanted to sacrifice it on the Night of Fortune to see her future husband. But for that she would find another.

“You can have it,” Eileen offered.

“All right,” the interlocutor agreed. “Throw it.”

Eileen calculated her strength and threw the bracelet. It swirled in the air and flew straight into the hands of its new owner.

“Come on, now you.” Eileen could already taste victory.

“Catch,” a grin appeared on the boy’s face, malicious and sinister.

He threw the Dragonflower so weakly that it didn’t even make it to the middle of the moat and fell down onto the stakes.

“Sorry, princess, you’ll have to climb down.”

“You…” hissed Eileen, but suddenly there was a furious cry from behind her.

“EILEEN!”

Her father seemed to have discovered her missing.

Shit.

_____________

Eileen isn’t thirteen anymore. She is a bride-to-be, a grown-up girl and her father’s hope. Eileen will soon give birth to children, but in her dreams she still dreams of dragons, dreams of flying them and seeing other wonders.

More than five years had passed since her first contact with the world of the Cursed Lands, and in that time she had met the young Dragon Prince a dozen more times. He knew her name, taunted her with the bracelet he had tricked her with, and owed her for that awful lie. But it had been three years since Eileen had seen this wayward young man, and his fate made her heart flutter. She wanted revenge in the first place, and in the second.

“Eileen, wake up!” her younger sister Olia burst into the room. “Hurry up! There… there…”

Eileen barely woke up from her sleep. Oliya was circling her bed and tugging at her feathers, trying to wake her up.

“What… are you crazy?” Eileen muttered.

“The dragon, Eileen, the dragon. A dragon has been seen at the border. They’re summoning a council to choose a girl for sacrifice.”

Sleep was relieved. Eileen sat up on the bed.

“Father told mother that your name was written for selection, Aileen,” tears appeared in Aileen’s eyes. “You could be made a dragon bride.”

I’m really looking forward to the feedback to understand your reactions and your strengths

This is just the beginning… be ready for Slavic content

#aemond the kinslayer #aemond targaryen #aemond targaryen imagine #hotd #house of the dragon aemond #hotdimagine

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