1x06
Marriage Proposals
FLASHBACK
The princess's heart was learning what love was, and not the love of family or the love you feel for a friend, the love you feel for the person you want to be with for the rest of your life. Realizing what that represented left a bad experience for Cerys, with the arrival of first love also came disappointment. The most painful thing about her situation was probably that the person who had stolen her heart was nothing more and nothing less than the person closest to her, after her sister, of course.
Daemon Targaryen was the best uncle in the world, that's what the princesses said when they were asked what they thought of the prince, of course they added one or another flattering adjective to leave Daemon as the most incredible person that existed. However, for Cerys that description of her uncle changed as she reached her maturity. She had always heard the maidens talk about how handsome the prince was and how much they wished they could be of a noble house to marry him, and at first it didn't bother her, but the thought of losing Daemon began to grow on her and overnight she began to imagine what it would be like to marry him. The first person she told him was Rhaenyra and it took the younger one a whole week to process the information. Instead, when she told Laenor this she just gave a simple "I knew it."
By this time Cerys was about to mount Dhagara and leave King's Landing, but luckily both Rhaenyra and Laenor gave her helpful advice. Her sister advised her not to tell anyone else, especially her parents, and her cousin advised her to try to do something about her feelings. Laenor's advice was most welcome, and from then on Cerys strove to show Daemon how much she had "grown up", but Rhaenyra's was only welcome for a while. In Cerys' defense, it had all been the court's fault.
Cerys hated the court, that was clear. She used to spend her days in court meetings accompanying her grandfather, but she only refrained from pretending that she did not listen while she was reading or playing in a corner, but now the court wanted to kick her out of the fortress. Or at least that's how she saw it, since she turned sixteen they kept repeating to her that she was of age to accept a marriage proposal, proposals that ranged from children who could barely speak to men who were even twice as old as their father. The only proposal that made any sense to her was Laenor Velaryon's, but even that one she turned down.
Just like the other three hundred who came to King's Landing.
Rhaenyra had also helped her in her mission to ruin marriage proposals, the youngest of the princesses enjoyed scaring the suitors to such an extent that they ran away from the fortress. On the other hand, Daemon found the whole thing highly amusing. On several occasions he had already found one or another boy running away with tears on his face from her youngest niece, he had also heard the strong words that Cerys released after her meeting with a possible suitor. Viserys felt helpless in the situation and despite having asked his brother for help when Aemma sided with the girls, the Daemon himself seemed to have betrayed him.
"I will not marry him," Cerys refused.
"You have to accept someone, daughter, you can't continue with this attitude", her father scolded her.
"I don't want to marry Otto Hightower's son!" she exclaimed starting to get annoyed.
"You don't want to marry anyone!" Aemma had to take a deep breath to stay out of the discussion. "Don't you want to keep your promise?"
Silence fell over the throne room, even Rhaenyra didn't dare step in to defend her sister as she would have done in any other situation.
"I'll never be able to fulfill it if I marry him", the white-haired girl's eyes fell on Otto and his son, "I don't want to marry him."
"Then who?".
Cerys blinked a couple of times trying to analyze if her father was being serious or not, the truth is that she didn't care. She didn't want to marry anyone who could stop her from fulfilling her promise and her dreams. There was only one person in the world that she trusted to be by her side because she knew that person would support her at all times, but saying that person's name in front of her whole family would be the end of her. . Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rhaenyra shake slightly in her direction, she knew better than anyone that her older sister was impulsive enough to name the only person she cared enough to say that she wanted to get married.
"Daemon Targaryen", both Viserys and Aemma froze, "I want to marry him."
The sound of Rhaenyra slapping the palm of her hand against her forehead filled the room.
"Did you know that?" Aemma turned to look at her youngest daughter.
"I...no," she lied, looking away from her.
Viserys and Aemma had a rather long talk with Daemon that day, but neither Cerys nor Rhaenyra made the attempt to speak to him. Instead, the sisters spent the rest of the day in the dragon pit with Dhagara and Syrax, the older one running from her parents and the younger one just wanting to accompany her. The dragon keepers didn't say anything to them, they preferred that the two dragons were out of the well than inside destroying everything. In that place Daemon found them when he decided to look for them and to his surprise they seemed to be arguing.
"That's strange, the sisters arguing", their uncle's voice took them by surprise.
"You shouldn't get close to people like that, Dhagara could have eaten you just for that," as if she understood, the dragon let out a roar.
"And I don't doubt it," the white-haired looked at the dragon, "I'll take that into account for next time.
"I...I'll go see Mom," Rhaenyra excused herself.
The younger one walked away from them leaving the caretakers to take Syrax back to the well. With the princess's farewell, a somewhat tense silence formed between uncle and niece, a silence that Dhagara did not intend to deal with. The dragon leaned into the right position so that Cerys could climb on her back without any problem.
"Bring Caraxes," Daemon ordered the handlers. "Shall we go for a ride in the skies?"
"I don't want to take a walk with you", the white-haired woman turned her back to get on Dhagara, "Dhagara doesn't like Caraxes".
"I had the impression that she did like him."
Cerys rolled her eyes and leaned in to whisper to the dragon of hers.
"Fly".
With a roar, the dragon took flight just as Caraxes emerged from the well, leaving Daemon behind. Cerys had to close her eyes for a moment to enjoy the peace that flying over Dhagara brought her, or at least what little peace she had, since not long after the peculiar sound of Caraxes was heard behind them. When Daemon reached them the man was smiling and Cerys wiped the smile from her, or tried to, sending Dhagara off on Caraxes.
Both dragons began to spin through the air almost as if they were playing, this made the princess laugh and consequently Daemon. They flew over King's Landing past the fortress until past the city wall, neither stopping until they reached an empty field where they decided to drop off. As soon as their riders touched down, both dragons rose into the air again to continue their game.
"They seem to get along well," Daemon looked at his niece, "perhaps like his riders."
"I hope not," the young white-haired woman sat down on a rock that was nearby. "I suppose father told you what happened in the throne room."
"He mentioned something about it, yes," he moved forward until he was in front of her. "It's true?".
"And what if it was?" Cerys looked away. "I know it can't be, you're going to marry someone else and I'll stay here waiting for my father to force me to marry Otto Hightower's son."
With barely perceptible steps Daemon inched closer to her niece, close enough for him to grab her chin and make her look at him.
"I won't let you marry anyone," he assured her. "I made a deal with your father. I will marry him, as he wants, and in return you will marry when you find the right one."
"I don't like your future wife".
"And why would that be?"
"I don't know her, but I know that she must be a good woman", the white-haired girl stood up. "And above all, she will have something that I want."
"She won't have me," Daemon made his thumb trace the shape of Cerys' lower lip, "you will always have me."
And as if he wanted to make it clear, Daemon sealed his promise with a kiss, Cerys's first kiss. In the background Dhagara and Caraxes roared as if they were supporting their "parents" causing them to separate laughing.
"Someday you will be my wife," the white-haired man caressed his niece's cheek.
"I'll be waiting".
When they returned to the fortress that day they both felt that they had lost an extra weight from their shoulders, of course that happiness did not last long because after the wedding Daemon hardly spent time in the fortress and Cerys joined the court, thus beginning a little war between them.
NOTE:
Original author: zugaritas