Flying Lessons

Daenerys circled above the clearing and then commanded Drogon to land. As the dragon set down, the Queen looked along the edge of the forest. Entering the clearing she could see a dozen grey wolves to her left and then another dozen on her right. Daenerys turned her head and body, finding almost fifty grey wolves at the edge of the clearing.

She turned her look forward again and in the direction of Winterfell, she could see Jon step forward with a young woman. Beside them were two of the largest wolves that Daenerys had ever seen. 

The animals stood as tall as Jon’s head at their shoulders. They all stopped as they cleared the tree line.

Drogon turned his head to face the four standing before him. He lifted his head and screeched. Smoke filtered from the corners of his mouth and nostrils.

Daenerys turned seeing the grey blanket of wolves covering the snow at the edge of the clearing, none have fled and she turned back smiling at Jon. 

‘Down’ she said to her dragon.

But Drogon shook his head and leaned it down towards the four who had enterd from the path. When it neared the ground, they walk forward and when they were just a dozen steps away, Jon and Arya stopped. Nymeria brushed past Arya who reaches a hand out as she moved past. Ghost moved forward to stand along side Jon.   

Jon could see the dragon trying to catch their sent. Moving his head slowly from side to side.

Nymeria took two more steps forward and raised her own nose to smell the Dragon. As they came closer together Ghost took another step toward his sister. Then another until he is was right beside her. 

Daenerys watched in awe of the situation. She pat the neck of Drogon and he finally lifted his head. Turning it slightly toward her. His right wing settles to the ground as she climbed off. 

‘I believe thats a good start’ she said, as she stepped passed the two dire wolves, who were still face to face with her dragon. Drogan raised his head and with a great sweep of his wings lifted from the ground.

Jon went to one knee and then stood up. When he turned to Arya, she had not made any attempt to show courtesy to the Queen. He looked from his sister to Daenerys. ‘Your Grace, may I present my sister, the Lady Arya Stark.’

Daenerys turned to Arya. They stood near the same height. So they looked directly into each others faces. ‘Your Grace’ she heard Arya say. Though she saw no movement in her face besides her lip. Her eyes gave no sign of acknowledgement or even recognition. ‘Lady Arya.’

‘Just Arya,’ she said, ‘My sister Sansa is a Lady.’

Daenerys smiled hoping to receive one back, ‘then what are you?’ she watched the other womans face closely.

‘I am no-one.’ Was the reply she got. She felt a shiver crawl over her arms. When she went to brush it away her fingers touched the snout of the giant grey Dire wolf. She did not flinch but turned to the beast. Removing her doe skin glove, she allowed her to smell her hand. Then after a moment, she turned her hand up and scratched the lower jowl for a few seconds. Nymeria’s great tongue escaped her mouth and licked, covering her hand from top to bottom with saliva.

The queen turned back to Arya, who had pulled a kerchief from a hidden pocket up her sleeve and was handing it to her. This time she had a smile on her face. 

‘Thank you,’ Daenerys said wipping her hand and then handed it back to the girl. ‘Arya.’

Arya turned from the clearing and headed into the woods. Jon stood looking at Daenerys. ‘I’m sorry about that.’ He said looking to her hand but she was still focused on the girl and the two dire wolves walking away. She turned and caught the final grey wolves heading into the forest from the clearing. ‘Tyrion says she has trained with the Faceless men.’ She said not looking back to Jon but up into the sky.

‘That’s what she says.’ He replied.

She turned back to face him. ‘You don’t believe her.’

‘If you had asked me that two years ago, I would have said no.’ He said, looking up he saw Rhaegal descending. As it landed he continued, ‘but then again, two years ago, I wouldn’t have believed in dragons either.’ Looking at her, he then added, ‘But I have watched her train and I am telling you, there is nobody better with a blade. Not that I have ever met.’

‘And the faceless claim?’ she said turning to walk towards her dragon. She had spoken at length to her advisors. Tyrion had heard many stories in taverns about the assassins from Braavos, known as faceless men. But had aknowledged that they were probably as much a fairy tale as dragons and wight walkers.

Barriston Selmy had agreed that he had met men who claimed to be of the order. But each had recanted under torture.

‘I haven’t seen any face other than her own, but Sansa claims to have seen a sachel full of faces in her possession.’ He followed a few steps behind her out into the field.

She stopped along side the green beast and it turned fully around sniffing the air. ‘The wolves’ she said. When the dragon finally lowered its head to her she padded it. She turned to Jon who had stopped a dozen steps back, ‘She won’t bite,’ she said with a sly smiled.

He rocked his head to its side and stepped forward. As the dragon noticed him coming it stomped one of its hind feet and swung its giant tail, knocking down a medium oak on the edge of the forest. As the tree hit the ground it roared and with a blast of flames, it set it ablaze. After it stopped, Jon could see only muddy ash where the oak had fallen in the snow that had just been blanketed by wolves. ‘It not just the teeth I am worried about.’

She reached out and when he moved closer, she grabbed his hand. ‘Come on.’ 

Together they stepped along side Rhaegal and she climbed from the snow packed ground to its wing, onto its back and settled between the spikes. Jon stepped up trying to place his feet in the same spots as he saw Daenerys. When he reached up to grab a spike and pull himself up Rhaegal gave a groan and turned its head nudging Jon up. Jon settled in front of Daenerys 

‘Thanks’ he said to either her or the beast.

She leaned forward and whispering in his ear ,’Up’.

Jon gave the command ‘Up’ and kicked his heels as he would a horse. Rheagal screeched and spun it head around knocking against its riders. Jon tried turning around, ‘What?’ he asked.

‘It’s a dragon, not a horse.’ The queen said amused. She reached her hands forward and grasping his elbows. With just a little pressure she moved his hands down the spikes he was gripping onto. When he reached the base she pulled his hands apart and held them flat on the dragons back. ‘Now’ she said.

‘UP’ he called out.

With a great swoop of its wings the dragons lifted into the air. Jon felt pressure on his elbows and he moved his hands up the spikes as she guided them. With a little pressure back he commanded the dragon forward. 

Daenerys had explained that dragons are opposite most beast. Where most aninmals move away from pressure, a dragon moves towards it. 

Jon turned it right and left. When he wanted to go forward he pulled back slightly. He maneuvered around, up, then down, feeling the power and strength generated by the wings. Though they never seemd to change rythem to change speed or direction.

Out of the corner of his eye, because he was sitting stiff and not relaxed or viewing his surrounding, he suddeningly jerked his hands away as a white blurr came into view from his side. Rhaegal feeling the movement turned into Viserion, crashing against the other dragon in mid air. The dragon started to roll and Daenerys reached forward and wrapped her arms around Jon, digging her hands into his flesh, through his shirt. Jon realized his mistake and placed his hands onto Rhaegal’s back, straightening the flying dragon.

‘Sorry’ he growled, as he realized the queen had not released her death grip, yet. He turned his head enough to see her face. 

Though she had a smile, it was strained. ‘this will be our last ride together.’ He heard her say.

Turning his head back around he noticed the sky around him. He took a breadth and could feel warm air entering his lungs. The dragons body was producing so much warmth, that even the frozen air this high above the ground felt warm in his lungs.

He looked around now and as he sat straighter he felt the queen’s grip loosen. But her arms remained wrapped around him. He leaned himself back into her body. 

She had told him to dress lightly. Though he worried about the temperature outside, he had accepted her word. He could feel the curves of her body against him. His own body started responding as he felt a taughtness in the front of his pants. He moved his legs trying to aleve the binding material and one of her hands slipped from his stomach and brushed the bulge in his pants. She moved her hand back up when he stopped squirming and could feel her finger tips touching the scars on his stomach and chest. She leaned into him and whispered in his ear, ‘look,’ he turned his head in the direction of her voice and could see water.

When he strained to see more. He could see the island in the center of the Bay of Ice. ‘Bear Island,’ he said. ‘but that’s over a hundred leagues from Winterfell.’

Slowly he felt the dragon swing in a wide arc and when he looked back he saw the water behind him. ‘Winterfell’ he said.

Daenerys nodded, ‘we’ll go back now.’ Looking from side to side and up, they both found the white dragon pacing them.

‘Where is the Black? Drogon?’ Jon asked over his shoulder. She reached up and touched his chin, tilting his head, a black spec sailed far above them. Jon’s chin was aflame where her fingers touched him. She cupped his smooth chin and smiled at him, then lowered her hand back to his stomach. Sansa had been on him to stay clean shaven when he was at the castle.

They rode this way all the way back to Winterfell. Jon moved his right hand to rest on hers until they saw the clearing north of the castle. ‘Down’ Jon said easily and he felt Rhaegal start to slowly descend. Not bothering to tell the green beast where, it landed with a thump in the clearing. 

That’s when the queen removed her arms from around him and he slid from his position, down the side onto the wing and then onto the packed snow. When he turned to help Daenerys down he could see her cheeks were flushed. ’Are you cold?’ he said reaching to give her a hand down.

She touched her cheeks, ‘No’ and accepted his hand and felt the ground under her feet. She turned and reached for Rhaegal. With a soft caress and a quiet word she backed away watching the beast raise its wings and as he lowered them, its body rose from the ground.

Now away from the dragon they both could feel the chill in the air. ‘Your Grace’ Jon said offering her his elbow. Taking it, they started walking up the path towards the castle gate. For a minute they said nothing, then the Queen said, ‘Sir Davos mentioned once about a knife in the heart, you took from your men.’ She stopped walking, still holding his elbow. He started to protest when she moved her free hand to his shirt and touched the raised skin beneath it. ‘Jon?’ she questioned.

When he did not reply she pulled her other hand free and lifted his shirt. She had seen scars on mens bodies before today. Khal Drogo, Strong Belwas and Daario Naharis. She knew which scars were scratches and which were mortal wounds. All three of the scars she could see, should have killed him. She looked into his face.

Just then they heard horses coming from the direction of the castle. Jon eased her hand away and his shirt fell back into place. Her blood rider, Aggo and sir Bentley, the guard captain stopped yards away. Jumping down Aggo cloaked the queen with a bear skin, protecting her from the bitter cold. The guard captain held out the reins of two horses that he released into Jons hand.

The four of them rode their horses back to the castle, slowly, where a group of villagers watched and whispered about the Lord and his Queen. The children in the group still pointing skyward at the dragons circling in the sky above.

Author's Note

wanted to give in to irony