POV: Aemon Targaryen
Now after opening my company headquarters, my business is almost self-sustainable. By delegating proper responsibilities and keeping corruption from taking hold, I can leave it on its own.
Now I have more than 150k gold dragons to go ahead with my plan. But it lacks substance, the foundation to become something that can truly give me dominance in this world. And for that, a trip to Valyria is important. Building my own fleet is also important.
I have brought up building one for our house multiple times, but my father thinks it's not necessary. He thinks Corlys's fleet is his. Sometimes I feel like pulling all his hair from his head. I cannot neglect it. But I need to build a harbor, a shipyard, and many more things that will deviate me from my original goal, so I am forced to put it on hold.
Now my full focus is my trip to Valyria. And I cannot go immediately—I have to make preparations. I've been making them for a year now, but it's still far from complete. Secretly preparing for a trip to Valyria is not easy—it makes things harder. So now I am again faced with my father to grant me a favor—well, not a favor, but permission.
I want permission to go to Volantis. And I asked him that. But he refused. Now I have to use a proxy to get things done there. So I sent Alister and Perestan along with 10 guards to Slaver's Bay to buy Unsullied—30 Unsullied, 5 sailors, and 10 slaves.
Finally using my white male privileges that I got in this world. I even have a pink butthole now to prove it.
They were very reluctant, but they understood my reasons—though Baelor wanted that if the slaves survived, we set them free. And I agreed. It took them 3 months to send a message that they were ready. I have also procured 5 modified ships adequate for the journey.
But the main thing is Zalrazar. The longest preparation I have done in this life is training Zalrazar from a young age. I have spent hours preparing strategies to enhance his fighting capabilities. Zalrazar is small—well, big for his age—but small compared to other dragons. I taught and practiced aerial maneuvers from birds and fighter jet dogfight strategies. It goes beyond just making sharp turns and breathing fire. There are no second chances 1000 feet above the ground.
And I went beyond that—just beyond training him—I made battle gear for him. I took help from the Alchemist Guild, procured their wildfire-making methods, and mixed it with gunpowder. And what I got surprised even me—a solid explosive material that explodes twice as strong with gunpowder of the same mass. I call it solid explosive.
Then I had a wild idea—I wanted to make Thunder Spears from Attack on Titan and install them on Zalrazar. I call it DragonFang. I've carried out tests and made 4 prototypes, which I'm bringing with me. And a TNT of solid explosive.
Now again I reached my father, saying that I need to go to Volantis. It's important for me—I am about to make a very crucial deal with them and I need to be present. After having our first real fight—both with my father and mother—with a heavy heart, I left.
I promised to bring Kingsguard with me. The one coming with me is Ser Steffon Darklyn. After all these years, I have made him my ally—and mine alone. So I am taking him with me.
"Whatever happens from now on stays between us. I hope you keep my trust," I said.
"I am yours to command, my prince. What you have done for my house—I cannot even repay it with my own blood," said Ser Steffon.
"Well, no need to go all grim and all. Just keep what happens between us a secret," I said, throwing a wink and smirk.
Then I left for Volantis. The things I brought with me were fireproof suits made from wool and leather. Then there is a smoke-filtering mask with glass goggles on it. Then there is an oxygen tank—well, air collected from trees in the daytime and TNT made from solid explosive.
When I reached Volantis, they were already prepared. I also brought 10 guards with me. I left 6 of them in Volantis—they were spies planted, by who knows whom.
Then we set sail to Valyria. I acted as a scout to monitor from the sky and find the way.
This is the moment.
So all in all, I had around 50 people with me.
I won't lie that I wasn't scared.
Then it took us 2 days to reach the outskirts of the ruins of Old Valyria. The sky turned dark with smoke. We all then put on our suits. I rode on Zalrazar and led the way from above.
As we moved towards the Smoking Sea, I saw something move beneath our ship. As I waited for a few more minutes, I saw tentacles—coming out of the sea and attaching to one of the ships. I immediately ordered everyone to scatter. The ship that was being held down was slowly tilting under pressure. I didn't want to go anywhere near the tentacles, so I dove down and Dracarys—spread fire just above the water. Tentacles are sensitive, so hot water should spook them—and that it did—and they let go.
I immediately ordered my men to throw barrels of solid explosive covered in rotting meat into the water—after lighting them up. Being solid, they drowned and immediately exploded. Huge pillars of water rose and shook all the ships violently. I kept surveying from above, but we didn't stop—kept moving forward.
Finally, we saw land we thought was appropriate to land on. We left 10 men behind near the shore, and all of us prepared to go inland. We estimated to travel 5 km inland from here. Then we assumed a formation and kept moving forward. The oxygen in the air here was really low and the smoke was suffocating.
{A/N: The oxygen in the air is 10% less than normal over here—bad if there is prolonged exposure, even severe for children. The average time it takes to walk to and fro 5 km is 2 hours, provided you don't stop. Then there is risk of dehydration because of heat.}
What shocked me was that there were roads still present—tough, cracked—but even after the cataclysm, they survived. As we covered 3 km, we came across a town—filled with dust and broken buildings. But what shocked me was that there were people present—or people suffering from greyscale. They acted like zombies, but not typical ones that make sounds from their mouths. They were the lethargic type, standing in one place.
But I didn't take any risk. I immediately burned all of them before they took a step forward. I've seen enough apocalyptic movies to know what they do. But I was curious if I would get lifespan for killing them. But no—nothing happened.
So we kept moving forward. After what felt like an hour, we reached a big settlement. It was in ruins. It looked like it was a part of a single complex as big as King's Landing.
I immediately ordered my men to search the place and bring anything of value. By this point, it was getting harder for me to breathe. I was taking short, frequent breaths and starting to feel drained. I landed Zalrazar on a nearby hill with a huge collapsed castle. Looked like the place had blown up and fallen in on itself.
I wandered through the ruins and eventually found what looked like a lord's chamber—no roof, half the walls gone. I searched the whole area and found an armor made of Valyrian steel, some books on advanced blood magic, and two Valyrian steel swords.
Then I kept looking.
Found a cave next. I had a bad feeling about it, but I went in anyway. The entrance had partially collapsed—if I wasn't a kid, I doubt I could've squeezed through. As I went deeper, my breathing got heavier. It was getting hotter.
Then I reached a place that blew my mind.
Tens of dragon eggs, scattered all over the place—most of them half-fused into the rock and dirt, like they'd become part of the earth. It was a dragonmont.
My heart started racing.
I ran forward and touched one. It was warm. That one tiny detail sent my brain spinning in ten directions. I knew what this meant. Inbreeding among dragons was a serious issue—I'd heard of it in my past life. But with this many eggs, this many bloodlines… this could change everything. New vitality. New blood. A better breed of dragons for House Targaryen.
I quickly loaded the warm eggs into a chest I found nearby. Four eggs per chest. I found three chests total. Couldn't carry all of them myself, so I just picked up one for now and brought it out.
When I got outside, Ser Steffon was waiting with the men.
"We found a lot of gold and books, my prince," he said. "But there's too much to carry. I'd estimate the gold and silver together are worth about two million gold dragons—but we've got neither the time nor the means to haul it all."
I nodded. Not surprising. For a Valyrian ruin, that was modest. Most of the treasure was probably still buried under rubble.
"Alright," I said. "Carry only the pure gold, diamonds, and anything made of Valyrian steel. Leave the silver. Each man takes a 40kg chest."
Then I added, "I'm going back down to dig out more dragon eggs. Move fast—we don't have much time."
To speed things up, I dove back into the cave and brought up the second chest. Then went in again for the third. But just as I picked it up, I felt a low vibration in the cave floor.
Something was coming.
I dropped the chest and sprinted out, dizziness hitting me like a wave. My breath was ragged, my head spinning, but I kept shouting.
"RUN!!!"
"Get out of here! Something's coming—MOVE!"
I was sweating buckets and could barely stand. Ser Steffon grabbed me and yanked me aside.
"My prince, get out of the way!"
And then I saw it.
A f**king firewyrm.
ROARRRR!!
"Get everything and leave! Make sure the eggs come with us!" I shouted, running straight toward Zalrazar.
I leapt onto him. The firewyrm lunged at one of my men, but Zalrazar's roar distracted it just in time.
I shot into the sky, looked down, and saw my men rushing to escape with the loot. I had to distract this thing so they could get out.
"Let's go, buddy. Let's show this worm who trained you."
I'd trained for this—combat moves, explosives, DragonFang launcher.
I was ready.
We flew straight at the wyrm. It saw us coming, mouth glowing as fire built up inside. At 50 meters, it let loose a fire breath.
"RAZOR TURN!" I yelled.
{A/N: Razor Turn
Inspiration: Sparrowhawk's sharp banking.
Description: A sudden, wing-wrenching turn that sacrifices speed for agility. One wing folds partially as the dragon snaps into a tight horizontal turn.
Use: Dodging projectiles or baiting enemies into overshooting.}
We banked hard left, flames chasing our tail. Dove behind a keep and shot straight up.
Okay. Its breath range is about 20 meters.
Now the wyrm was fully out in the open. From above, it looked like a snake with legs. We dove again—but this time, it wasn't prepping another fire blast.
It was about to dart!!!.
I took aim and fired a DragonFang.
SHROOM!
A sleek missile with green-blue flame streaked toward it and smashed into its neck mid-dart. Perfect timing—amplified the impact.
It let out a deafening shriek. This was my opening.
The wyrm's upper body was still in the air, unbalanced from its charge earlier.
"TALON ROLL!"
{A/N: Talon Roll
Inspiration: Hawk vs hawk mid-air grappling.
Description: The rider commands the dragon to roll sharply while locking claws with the opponent. If timed right, it spins or stalls the enemy.
Use: Turning defense into offense.}
Zalrazar threw his legs forward, wings held wide like an eagle about to snatch a fish. He grabbed the wyrm by its horn, claws sinking in deep, and let momentum do the rest.
The wyrm's body twisted, and its head slammed into the ground.
"Disengage!" I shouted.
We pulled up fast. That last move nearly made me faint. My vision was blurring. Breathing through the mask was getting harder.
I scanned the field—my men were almost out.
Time to end this.
I didn't wait. I aligned with the wyrm and fired the rest of my ThunderFangs—three of them, rapid-fire. Two hit the body. One slammed straight into its eye.
The thing went berserk, thrashing and spewing fire everywhere.
"Alright. Last dive," I muttered. "Stay with me, consciousness. Don't fade now."
We dived one last time—straight down, dead center. Zalrazar roared. The wyrm looked up and fired a stream of flame at us.
We didn't flinch.
"Be ready, Zalrazar. Any second now…"
At 20 meters—the flames reached us.
At 18, we were in the middle of it.
I dropped the TNT charge, rigged to Zalrazar's chest harness.
At 15 meters, we were deep in the fire.
"RAZOR TURN!"
We pulled out hard. My suit was nearly fried.
I looked back—
BOOM.
The TNT exploded right in the wyrm's open mouth. The heat set it off like a bomb.
The wyrm's head blew up.
Zalrazar roared in victory. I screamed out, "YEEEAAAH!"
It was just me and Zalrazar, flying through the air with the burning headless corpse of a wyrm behind us.
As the adrenaline wore off, my vision dimmed.
"To… the ship… get to the ship…"
Everything went black.
***********END*************
I want to hear ppl complaining about pacing after this.
And I tried to add attack moves for Zalrazar .
I never saw any fanfic do this in ASOIAF . I thought a lot that it could be dumb .
But just like Peter Dinklage once said in his speech quoting Samuel Beckett " Ever tried, ever failed, no matter. Try again, fail again, fail better."
Enjoy.