Pre-Chapter A/N: More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Experimenting with two chapters a week, we'll see how long I can keep this up for.
I was born to be on the seas, I thought, as I felt the wind through my hair as Father's flagship cut through the waves like a knife through butter.
"We're going to hit eight knots, and we're barely even close to top speed," one of the crew said to Father, and I could see a smile split his face. Corlys Velaryon was a serious, serious man, but there was one place where he was relaxed all the time: in the open sea with the wind in his hair and a ship beneath his feet. I looked to my side and had to turn around to search for Igneel's own ship in the distance. The Dragon Carrier Igneel was currently placed on was different from the one we'd used for that trip to Bloodstone all those years ago. For one, it was much larger. The updated measurements I'd sent back home had been taken to heart, and I was pleased to see that Corlys had added some extra room for growth as well.
Igneel was no longer growing day after day, but there was no guarantee about how long this war was going to last.
"How long until we hit the rest of the fleet?" I asked.
"Orders were for them to drop anchor a few clicks from the target. They should be visible in about thirty-two hours at present heading and speed." Instead of Corlys answering, it was the man by his side who spoke after consulting some charts and maps.
"Alright then. So we just wait and enjoy the journey, huh?" I asked.
"Oy. Break's over," I heard Borros' voice from behind me and sighed before picking up the blunted sword I'd been training with and turned back to my knight to continue our training. Anybody else would have called it a day after throwing up for the third time, but trust a Baratheon man to be stubborn as all hell and keep going after any sane person would have stopped.
I took my stance, feet easily finding balance even with the ship swaying, moving, and bobbing underneath. Borros was steadier than he'd been mere days ago, but he was still far from being as solid as I was. I jumped into the attack first, forcing his shield in the way of my sword. He took a step back and swept his mace right for my head. Of course, that was too little and much too late. My head was already elsewhere, and my sword was making its way for his outstretched wrist.
He parried with his mace and took a step back. I dove forward, and he blocked with his shield this time, but that slash had been a feint for me to twist and ram into his shield with my own. He grunted and took a step backward, but as he did so, the ship swayed in the other direction, and in a second, he was down to one knee as he struggled to keep his footing. My blade was at his neck another second later.
"Yield?" I asked, doing my best to enjoy every second of this. Of course, that was just when he suddenly moved, and I had to move my blade to avoid shortening him by a head as he began to retch onto the deck.
"Tell him he's cleaning that up himself," Corlys shouted from his position at the wheel, and I sighed. Of course, that meant that as his squire, I was going to end up having to do the cleaning. The smile on my father's face told me that he had a pretty good idea about that. Ugh.
"Contact!" one deck hand shouted, hand on one of the far-eyes.
"Where?" Corlys asked, picking up his own far-eye and beginning to scout.
Several others on the command deck began to pick up the scouting devices and look into the distance.
"East, Seventeen clicks."
"North: twenty clicks."
"South: fourteen clicks."
"West: twenty-five clicks," a final voice said.
"Fuck," I said.
"We're surrounded. What sails are they flying?" Corlys said the words on my mind.
"Black sails, Captain. No distinguishing marks," one said.
"What do we do, Captain?" another asked.
"Get a rowboat for my son to get to his dragon. Laenor, I want you in the air. Burn anything that even thinks of trying to attack us."
"But what are you going to do?" I asked, feeling the panic of the crew begin to seep in to me. If we were surrounded, then what had happened to the fleet we were supposed to be meeting? They couldn't have been far from here. He said something, but I struggled to hear him over the sound of my heart beating. Was I having a panic attack?
A harsh slap. I looked back at my father, shocked that he had hit me.
"You are Laenor Velaryon, son of Corlys Velaryon and Rhaenys Targaryen. There is no fear within you." He said, and I nodded, not still following fully.
"Now listen to me. We've been betrayed. Someone has given our plan away. That means that you should forget everything you know about our plans. We are going to turn this trap around, and then we figure out our plan after that," he said. I nodded, this time I felt more stable. Like the ground was not swaying beneath my feet.
He turned away from me then. "Signal the rest of the fleet. Full speed ahead. We face the North-bound enemies first and force the other three to come together and approach us from behind. Laenor, when you determine that they are too committed to withdraw, unleash the wrath of House Velaryon upon them," he said and then squeezed my shoulder twice. I nodded, following the men that ushered me to the rowboat even as I felt the ship begin to accelerate beneath my feet.
Off to the side, I caught a glimpse of Borros holding a bucket like a lifetime before I was placed in the boat and it began to be lowered down to the sea.
Being in a rowboat in the midst of ships moving at their full speed was an experience that I was far from certain that I wanted to repeat. For one, we already had two close calls where ships unable to see us had almost ploughed straight through us. It was only the quick thinking, and even quicker rowing, of the two men with me that saved me from dying in probably the most ignoble way a Dragonlord had ever fallen.
"What are your names?" I asked the two men as they rowed with all their power, sending us hurtling through the sea.
"Milord?" The one to the left asked.
"What are your names?" I repeated the question with a smile.
"Our names, milord?"
"It's My Lord, first of all. And secondly, yes. Your names."
"The name's Willem mil—My Lord, and this one's named Callum."
"Willem and Callum, then."
"Yes, my Lord."
"And you know where we are going?" I asked.
"Yes, my Lord," he replied again.
"Strange. I've never seen two men so eager to see a Dragon," I said with a smile.
"We used to see the great dragon Igneel all the time, my Lord."
"I see. You're from Hull, then," I said, noticing their vaguely Valyrian look. Please Corlys, no. Please no.
"Yes, milord."
"Alright then. Keep us straight," I said to them, while giving them assessing looks. There was no guarantee they were Corlys' bastards. In fact, it was pretty unlikely all things considered that they were his. For one, they would hardly be the only people with Valyrian looks in all of Driftmark. In fact, the Valyrian coloring was more common than the Westerosi one. It wasn't as prevalent as it was on Dragonstone, but far from special. There was also the fact that they were older than I was. Easily in their early twenties. That would mean he'd have had to have had them even before marrying Rhaenys.
It would take a man of spectacular balls and audacity to father bastards while seeking the hand of a Targaryen Princess. Especially considering where Rhaenys had been in the line of succession at that point. No, this was all pointless to think about. Especially because I could see Igneel's carrier ship now. Through my bond with him, I could feel his enthusiasm for what was about to happen. It would be our first time flying into battle together, and just as I could hardly wait, so could he.
Callum hailed the skeleton crew of Igneel's carrier ship with a horn, and we had a man with silver hair look over the deck and spot us. He turned to say something to another as the smallfolk men rowed us till we were next to the ship. A rope was dropped down to us. I tested it and found it sturdy, taking a deep breath before I began to climb. Thank the heavens for my commitment to exercise. It was still challenging, making the climb with my barely pubescent muscles and with very little to hold on to for support other than the rough rope. As I felt the rope sting my hand, I made a decision to start wearing gloves more often. Just because I ran hot and didn't need them for their protection against the cold didn't mean they wouldn't be useful for other things—the rope burn I was feeling being a perfect example.
When I reached the deck, two of the crew men reached down to help me up. I accepted their aid with a grateful smile before turning to Igneel, who was watching with what had to be amusement in those reptilian eyes.
"Not a word out of you," I said to him before I walked closer and began to tighten the saddle to ride. He growled but said nothing else as I felt the heat of his breath lick at my face.
"Better not set me on fire, you lump," I said, smacking his nose and getting a tongue to my face for the audacity.
"Ughhhh. Your breath stinks." I took a step back. He growled again.
"Yeah, you're right. Let's focus. This will be our first time fighting together, maybe I'm nervous." He gave me a look that I took to mean 'Maybe?'
"Fine, I'm definitely nervous. These people were clearly expecting us so I won't be surprised if they have scorpions or whatever." Another growl.
"Yeah, you're right. There's nothing they could do to stop us," I agreed before I swung myself onto the saddle.
"Brace yourselves," I told the crew of Igneel's carrier, and they moved to do so.
"Soves Igneel!" We shot out of the ship like a missile into the air, accelerating rapidly until we were just below the clouds, and then his wings spread, catching the draft and keeping us flying above at a stable point.
"Lower," I said, when I realized I could barely make out the ships. We lowered ourselves and watched as the Velaryon fleet of Caravels sailed straight at the pirates—for what else could they be—as if they were going to ram into them. We outnumbered those in front of us by a fair margin, so it was understandable that they began to panic and scurry like the rats they were. Of course, their fears were mistaken, as instead of ramming into them, all the Velaryon ships turned hard to starboard in unison—a move that would have capsized lesser ships.
Having prepared themselves for a ramming, the pirates were unable to react in time as dozens of scorpion bolts shot from the Velaryon ships, hitting them and damaging their ships heavily. I smiled, seeing that we had this end handled before I turned Igneel about. It was my turn now.
I watched as Corlys' plan had come together almost perfectly. The three chasing fleets had re-enforced to group together, becoming one larger fleet that chased the much smaller Velaryon fleet but found themselves unable to catch up to us with our superior speed. Igneel and I shot higher and higher into the air until we were completely covered by the clouds themselves. From this high, I couldn't see more than tiny dots to represent the ships themselves. By contrast, Igneel could see them perfectly—dragons had evolved to hunt prey from high in the air so their eyesight was phenomenal.
He positioned himself perfectly before we dove straight down. I closed my eyes, taking a breath as I felt the wind rush past me and push against my body. This was it. This was what it meant to be a Dragonlord. Supremacy over the skies themselves. We passed the clouds and kept going, accelerating even further the lower we got. I heard echoes of the pirates' screams as they finally caught sight of us, but it was both too little and too late.
Just when Igneel seemed like he would crash into the ship at the very edge of the fleet, his wings spread, slowing us down, nearly bringing us to a complete and abrupt halt. "Dracarys!" I shouted, feeling the euphoria of the power take a hold of me. Igneel had been waiting for those words, and unleashed his fire straight at the ship in front of us. It was gone, almost instantly, catching fire. We sharply banked left, going further towards the rest of the Pirate fleet and setting the ships on fire as we flew.
"Loose!" I heard some of the pirates scream, and arrows screamed through the air right at us. Igneel, knowing what to do in this situation, entered a perfect barrel roll with his wings right in front of him. The hard scales on his wings deflected the arrows and placed us just in position to incinerate near a fourth of the fleet with one pass. "Up Igneel!" I ordered as I saw them begin to wheel scorpions around in our direction.
The scorpion bolts screamed past us as they managed to fire, only one of them coming so close that I had to lean to the side to make Igneel bank to avoid it. Good. We flipped, going a complete 360 and began shooting downwards again. These people had no knowledge of how to contest Dragons in the air. No real knowledge, rather. They knew how to use the scorpions but not well enough. Blanket fire was useless when you wasted all your payload in one shot and had to reload immediately after. It was while they were scrambling to do just that that we came upon them.
"Dracarys!" I screamed, feeling Igneel's rage course through my body like it was my own. In one blast, two ships were gone, and we banked left, setting a line of them ablaze. Just as we returned for the next sweep, they managed to finish their reloading from the way the scorpions were being wheeled in our direction again. "Soves, Igneel!" I whispered, feeling fear course through my veins for the first time in this life. They'd baited us in. There was no way they finished reloading those things that quickly. We were caught with our pants down because I didn't take a second to think they might be smarter than they seemed.
While I felt fear, Igneel felt nothing but rage. His fire burned even hotter, and instead of banking away like I would have wanted and surely would have ordered if I had my wits about me, we turned into the attack. The first two scorpion bolts kissed at our wings, but the hard scales on our forearms deflected them away before they could gain purchase on our soft membrane. I did not even truly notice when Igneel and I became one. I had no idea who had even initiated that connection this time. Did I reach out to Igneel out of fear, or did Igneel get fed up with my fear and reach out to me with his rage?
Either way, I saw through his eyes as we dodged out of the way of every scorpion bolt sent our way while we bathed and showered the pirates' ships with Igneel's blazing blue flames. They had baited us in with this stupid formation. They had botched the first scorpion salvo with the goal of forcing us back in and even closer so they could get a better shot at Igneel. They weren't just stupid pirates with scorpions. They had come here to kill a Dragon and nothing else. The thought made my rage overflow, and our flames burnt even hotter as we swept the whole fleet from left to right.
The last ship with a scorpion to its name only managed to fire one bolt that a single gust of wind from our wings sent flying off course. Immediately afterwards, we had bathed it with flames, reducing it to kindling, and that was the fate that the entire pirate fleet we faced suffered. It was rare for naval battles to pass without survivors from both sides, as ships could only move so fast, and captains off to the side could tell when things weren't working and make their way away from the battle. In fact, that was the case now. The only differentiating factor was that Igneel and I were faster than any ship out there. They tried to begin waving white flags once they saw that we would not abandon our pursuit. Both Igneel and I chuckled to each other at the audacity before we set them alight with a single sweeping breath. All three fleeing ships were gone in a matter of seconds, and we swept around, heading back to the wreckage of the fleet to make sure there were no survivors.
These men would never get to report to whoever had given them this mission just how close they had come to killing a dragon today. Instead, their ashes would be a warning to all who dared try.
A/N: We get some dragon rage from Laenor here to round things off. Next five chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.