Princess Valera Targaryen, is the first child of Viserys Targaryen and Aemma Arryn.
Valera was born during one of the worst storms of the season, her birth bringing prosperity to the realm.
Soon after the Princess's 16th name day, a tragic spiral...
Both girls enjoyed playing with Princess Arianna's cat and litter of kittens. Arianna also frequently took her new friend out on rides around the near by forrest. The two girls also spent much of their time lounging by and swimming in the many pools that scattered the grounds of the palace.
They also liked to play with each others hair and dress up in the others clothes, Arianna finding the dresses from Kings Landing quite interesting.
"How do you not die from heat in this!" The Dornish Princess had asked the first time she put on one of the thick, multi layered gowns Valera had brought with her.
The day Valera arrived to the water gardens, she was gifted a dress from Qoren and when she put it on after cleaning from her travels, she exclaimed that she felt naked to her handmaiden.
"There is almost nothing on me," the girl told Talia while staring at herself through the mirror in disbelief. Talia re-explained to the Princess that people in Dorne do not wear much clothing, or at least thin fabrics, due to the intense heat. This was something Valera had know but never realized how bare she would feel.
Despite feeling exposed in her new dress, Valera wore the gown to dinner, hoping to please the Prince and wanting to show her gratitude for the gift. When Prince Qoren saw his betrothed in the dress, he flashed a charming grin and told her how beautiful she looked in it.
Qorens 1st gift:
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Prince Qoren and Princess Valera spent the majority of their days in the heart of the water gardens. Qoren would start to teach his fiancée of the native plants they grew and what they were able to do.
Many of the plants in the back of the garden were poisonous, each in their own way. Some were poisonous to the touch or when the stem was broken, others when ingested and a few when burnt and inhaled.
They poisons varied in intensity, some only causing it's victim to fall sick for sometimes an undetermined period of time. Others caused a slow and painful death from a single dose and some that have to be consistently administered to be fatal. There are poisons like "The Strangler" that could kill in under a minute when ingested, the strangler would constrict a person throat, having them choking on their own spit and everything they try to ingest. There is a cure for the poison but most victims are long gone by the time someone has gotten ahold of it. In fact, most of the poisons antidotes also grew from a different plant in the gardens.
The Water Gardens of Dorne also grew rare and exotic fruit. The Princess tried a new hybrid fruit that had not yet been sent outside of the kingdom, Pineapple, and the girl instantly fell in love with it. From that day forth, Prince Qoren had pineapple served at each meal.
Within another sennight, Princess Dyanna Martell, the Kings sister had arrived at the Water Gardens with her family. The Princess married Lord Arron Dayne and together they had 2 children, twins, Larra and Layla.
"Auntie Anna is going to love you," Princess Arianna told Valera, who stared intensely at herself in the mirror, analyzing the dress she wore. Arianna had been braiding her new friends hair, layering them throughout her long wavy hair while admiring the way the silver strands gleamed in the sunlight.
Valera wore a gown that was a light blue that faded into a slightly deeper blue and bunched at her feet. The sleeves were loose fitting and fell past her hands. The neckline reached deeply, almost half way down that girls abdomen.
Throughout the past weeks, the Princess had adapted to the Dornish fashion and began to embrace it. She also noticed that she began to get a light tan from all the time she had been spending out in the sun.
"I do hope so," Valera sighed and waited for Arianna to finish braiding her hair, something she hadn't done since leaving Kings Landing.
Although the girl had been enjoying her time in Dorne, the haunting sight of her mother laying mutilated continued to play over and over again in her head.
There were nights she woke up screaming from nightmares. Ser Erryk rushing in to check on her before calling for a maester to bring valerian root to help the Princess sleep again.
There were many times that Prince Qoren would catch the girls eyes welling with tears as she stared off into the distance before blinking them back and collecting herself once more. He never prodded the girl for information, knowing she would open up in her own time, when she was comfortable.
"Do you miss home?" Princess Arianna asked softly, tying off the Targaryens final braid.
The question caught Valera off guard, seemingly coming from no where. Arianna could see the far away look in her friends eyes when she zoned off and had continuously wondered what she thought about so intensely.
The purple eyed girl turned in the backless chair so she could face her to-be good sister. The Princess looked troubled as she stared up at the girl she felt like she'd known forever.
Sighing, Valera began to speak in a hushed voice, a brokenness being hidden behind her words, "I do not know where my home is."
