Mania | A.targaryen | DISCONTINUED

CHAPTER TEN

Now he had lost his advantage from flirting and Baela sat on his chest, triumphant. He groaned as Baela got off him and Aemma congratulated her. 

"Good job, sister." Aemma kissed her forehead.

"And you," she looked at his face, as he lay on the ground. "Get your pretty face off the floor, I don't even have the energy to scold you." 

"You think I'm pretty?" He smiled as he took her hand getting up. She rolled her eyes. "Can you please stop flirting and focus on sparring."

"It's not my fault you are jealous of my flirting skills, Aemma." 

"Oh shut up, you bumbling idiot."

This was how they both interacted. He was her greatest friend. He was low born, but he was accepted into the family quickly by her insistence. 

"Now, get ready, we have a dragon to claim" She whispered and he nodded.

…

Aemma was at wit’s end. With no dragon, she was at a political disadvantage. Whispers she could endure as queen but she needed a dragon to convince the lords that she was in fact a true Targaryen. 

She traded her beauty for a dragon. Covered in burns, Aemma cried herself to sleep convincing herself that with a dragon she did not need beauty. 

People in Kings Landing had learned of the burned princess. Queen Alicent thought Aemma Velaryon to be a fool. Trading her looks to be a dragon rider was an unnecessary motion when her future husband already had the biggest dragon in the world. 

King Viserys, on the other hand, boasted about his granddaughter whenever he could. He said his mother, Alyssa Targaryen would have been proud of Aemma, as he shared stories of his mother claiming Meleys.

This was the day she would die or claim a dragon. She stared at Vermithor with anguish in her eyes. 

“You have wounded me thirty times, for several moons. Yet I still come here every month Vermithor! Because I know my visions do not fail me! Silverwing, who guides me to you everytime, does not fail me!” she yelled at Vermithor as she stood at the mount. Winds howled in the air, Trees were singing a warning.

Ben stood far away, sword ready at hip.

“You know we are bound to end together, Vermithor. I can see it in your eyes, you know.” Aemma approached him with light steps, he did not back down. “You have rejected me. You have burned me lightly. But I will not back down because of whatever you are so afraid of.

She was near him now, the old dragon closed his eyes. She held a brave hand and stroked his neck. “You and I are made of the same fire, Vermithor.” cooed Aemma. “The Bronze Fury and the Bronze Queen.”

It started raining as she climbed into neck, her hands shaking as she took the reins. It seemed like Vermithor had finally accepted his faith. “Soves” whispered Aemma as Vermithor got ready to fly in the sky. 

And with that, Princess Aemma Velaryon at age four and ten had finally claimed the Bronze Fury.

                                                              .  .  .

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen was fiddling with her rings, with baby Viserys at her knees when her eldest son Jacaerys Velaryon came shouting that his sister finally did it. 

Together they ran outside to see Aemma Velaryon looking triumphant beside a worn out looking Vermithor. Rhaenyra ran to hug her daughter as dragon keepers and Daemon ran towards Vermithor.

“Oh I swear, you children will be the death of me someday!” smiled Rhaenyra between sobs looking at Aemma with love. “First Jace and Baela with them chasing the sheep in the island only to pass Cannibal and now you running of to claim Vermithor yet again!” 

“Oh mother, I am finally a Targaryen” Aemma told Rhaenyra with a ghost of a smile. Rhaenyra lost her own smile at that, “Oh fuck that! You have always been a Targaryen!”

“Yes but now I have a dragon.” whispered Aemma looking far as if she saw something no one else did. Rhaenyra just looked at her daughter, absentmindedly running a finger on the scar in her hand. 

Later on, Ben came grumbling that she left him alone beside Dragonmont. "The old bastard barely carried me, he would've eaten you if I took you so stop complaining." Aemma told him.

                                                          .  .  .

“As my heir, I must tell you something my father told me.” said Rhaenyra as she paced in the room. They were alone with Daemon taking all the kids flying. “Why couldn't I have gone with Daemon and the others?” questioned Aemma impatiently. 

After claiming Vermithor almost two years ago, Aemma had been flying non stop. She had also grown close to Daemon after claiming a dragon. He taught her how to have a good bond with Vermithor. “Because you are on your sixth and tenth nameday and I’m afraid I don’t have much time with you before you get married.” exhaled Rhaenyra, Aemma has been a good heir but there were some things she needed to know before getting married.

“I may have forgotten about that.” admitted Aemma. She had not thought about marriage ever since Helaena’s. She did think about Aemond from time to time but he seemed like a stranger playing with her heart strings now, not the Aemond with kind eyes and a shy smile.

“Listen to me sweet girl.” spoke Rhaenyra in a firm voice, Aemma’s eyes focused at her mother’s face. “We Targaryens like to pride ourselves as dragon riders but we would not be here without our dreamer. We are here, standing this day because of not some king or warrior. We are here because of Daenys Targaryen the dreamer.”

“And like Daenys saw the doom of Valyria, Aegon Targaryen saw the doom of mankind.” said Rhaenyra. Aemma was confused but she listened. “Aegon saw a dark long night up north, but he also saw a prince or princess born from fire and blood ending that long night.”

Aemma felt a dreadful coldness on her spine at those words. Voices whispered, visions clashed her mind but Aemma tried to stay focused for her mother.

“He said, 

From my blood, comes the prince who was promised, a Targaryen born of ice and fire.”