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A Dragon Kissed by Sun Chapter 13 (A Dream of Snow)
🕑 Added 2021-12-08 18:43:31 +0000 UTCJon Sand
Jon reached his father's chamber and knocked on the door; since he could remember himself, his father always told him to knock before entering any room, but Jon didn't know why the same didn't go for Ari or any of his sisters; he always walked inside their bedchamber without knocking. They never said anything against it; Ari many times even encouraged him that he could visit her bedchamber any time he wanted, and there's no need to knock.
Knocking, he heard the sound of footsteps walking towards the door, the door opened slightly, and the face of his father stick out, if it were any other time, Jon would have laughed at how red his face looked; he looked like how Tym looks when she's caught doing something inappropriate, like stealing cake or using live steel.
His father's eyes turned down at him with a raised eyebrow, and it wasn't unusual for Jon to wake up so early; for some reason, his son liked to wake up early, sometimes he wondered if his son was in some kind of competition, 'Who can wake up the earliest.
A year ago, he and Ari would bicker that he was the one who woke up first and detailing where the sun had been when he had woken up. Oberyn knew his son was still a kid, and to a kid, almost everything was a game.
"Good morning Father, can I talk with you?" Jon asked, smiling and grabbing the books from the floor near since the books were quite heavy for him to hold them all the time.
His red face slowly returned to normal color, and A smile slowly erupted on his face when he saw the books fully opening the door. He leaned away to let his son walk inside; Oberyn could only thank the gods that his bedchamber was very dark due to Ellaria wanting last night to be almost pitch black.
Something that was immediately noticed by Jon, who looked everywhere around trying to find the most minor source of light, and he couldn't help but feel the smell on the room, he didn't know what kind of smell this was, but it smelled like... Oil?!
Walking inside, Jon heard his mother sleeping soundly on the bed, and his father led him to the second room of his bedchamber.
This was actually lightened up much to his relief, the light of the sun streaming inside from the solar window.
His father sat in front of his desk before looking at his son.
His father turned fully at him, gesturing for him to sit in a chair near his desk; he filled a glass with water and moved it close to Jon, who put the books on the table with a loud noise.
"Father, I want to learn how to read and write," Jon stated, getting straight to the point; unlike some, Jon loved to get directly to the point and not dance around the bush.
"If you want, I can read them for you," Oberyn responded, grabbing the first book; it felt pretty heavy; he wondered if his son's arms were feeling numb from carrying them from the library to his bedchamber.
Reading the title, he almost froze before looking at his son again with a calculating look.
"Jon, why do you want to read 'Age of Dragons'?" Oberyn asked with a slightly serious tone before reading the title of the second one, and just as he guessed, it was 'Dragon Dreams.'
Jon lowered his head slightly in shame, he knew his father didn't really like whenever House Targaryen was brought up in any conversation, and he knew everyone associated dragons with them.
Oberyn saw his discomfort and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, I'm not angry," he whispered, rubbing his long curly dark hair, bringing a smile on Jon's face.
Oberyn knew he showed pretty clearly that he didn't like whenever House Targaryen was brought up but figured the time had come to change that, his son would soon become the King of The Seven Kingdom, and whenever the time came to find out the truth; he didn't want him to think that he hated him or thought less of him because he was a Targaryen.
"Well, I want to learn how to read, so I don't have to bother you every time I want to read a book," Oberyn wanted to say that he was never bothered and that it was good that he wanted to read; everyone should always seek knowledge, whenever knowledge suited them, if they were interested in making swords and spears, they should seek knowledge on how to make weapons.
Oberyn gestured for his son to continue.
"As for reading about Dragons, I thought maybe I could find an explanation to my dream," Jon finished drinking water from his glass.
Oberyn's glass on his hands almost fell from his hands, and he took a quick breath before raising an eyebrow, not knowing what dream he was talking about.
"Dream? What dream?!"
"Well, last night I saw a dream. I was in a cave, and a chest was there, the chest was huge, inside I found a beautiful Sword, and a Dragon Egg, the egg looked much larger than normal; and it felt alive" Jon explained with dreamy eyes thinking back with a smile; but when his eyes found his father, he looked anything but excited.
His face was slightly pale, his hands clutched together at the top of his head, his hands itching his hair.
"Father, everything alright?" Jon asked, afraid that he might have displeased him.
"Don't worry, Jon, I need to go and talk with uncle Doran; you go and play with your sister and Aly, don't forget she's our guest, and you need to make sure she's having a good time." His father stated with a warm smile before he stood up and kissed his cheeks, much to Jon's annoyance.
"And how could I forget," His father suddenly said from behind him before hugging him.
"Happy Name Day, Jon, you're six now, a Man, go to your sisters, and we will celebrate once you return," His father said before kissing his cheek, much to his annoyance.
Jon's face brightens up like a candle; getting up from the chair, he left the room; his eyes saw his mother was still sleeping in the bed, not wanting to disturb her; Jon left the bedchamber, searching for his sisters.
Oberyn Martell
The prince of Dorne hadn't thought that he would wake up this early but most importantly, not knowing he would get to talk with Arthur. Despite being here for six years now, Oberyn never sought him, never sought to repair their friendship; the only time he did was in the first year when he asked why he hadn't been in King's Landing to guard Elia and her children.
After that day, both men had mentally agreed to keep a neutral friendship, but now Oberyn found himself seeking his brother, the three kingsguard, and Lady Ashara.
Quickly the prince gathered his brother, the three Kingsguard, and Lady Ashara in Doran's solar. In the solar was only Doran's personal guard, who was as loyal as one could get.
All of them had wanted to ask what was the problem, but seeing his serious face, they knew it must be something about the prince; Oberyn usually was the least serious person whenever something or anything was discussed.
Doran filled six cups with wine before turning his head to his brother, knowing there must be a good reason to gather them like this.
"Well, talk, what's this all about?" Doran said, wanting to get on with it, knowing his brother since he was born, he knew this meeting was serious.
"Jon came to me this morning," Oberyn didn't miss the small side glares from the three Kingsguard for calling the prince Jon.
"He asked for me to help him read, but when I read the titles of the books he wanted me to read, they were all about dragons and dragon dreams," Oberyn finished, and silence took over the solar.
Arthur remembered Rhaegar many times speaking about Dragons, how his dreams showed the future; the other two Kingsguard glanced at each other; they knew a bit of what Prince Oberyn was talking about, but everyone immediately turned their heads to Arthur.
"Prince Rhaegar had these dreams as well; he said they showed him the future, sometimes a voice in the dream would tell him things," Arthur explained with a slight hint of dread; not because he was afraid that Jaehaerys would turn out like Aerys, but that the others might not see it the same way.
He knew Jaehaerys was nothing like Aerys, but in the beginning, he had been a good king before slowly falling into madness, the loss of many unborn sons and daughters made him paranoid, and The Defiance of Duskendale was the last straw.
Jaehaery's dream might mean nothing, but he knew to take every dream with a bit of salt.
"He said, he saw a chest that contained a sword and a Dragon Egg, he finished saying that he felt egg was alive," Oberyn finished looking at the Kingsguard; he knew the chest was hidden until they thought Jon was ready to know the truth.
Inside was a dragon egg, but he wondered why his son suspected the egg was alive; Oberyn had touched the egg himself and felt as cold as any rock.
"I don't think we will have to worry," the voice of Lady Ashara broke the silence; Oberyn turned to her and gestured to elaborate further.
"My daughter has dreams as well; Ned used to call them Warging, The people of the North, the first men are said to be able to warg; when someone dreams that he or she is an animal. I think Jon seeing dreams is nothing to get concerned with," Ashara explained with a hushed tone.
Oberyn was genuinely surprised to hear that for Lady Alyanna, to his eyes, she looked like a kind lady, and nothing was amiss, but Warging was something he had read about; and was fascinating.
"I agree with Asha; if the prince asks, you can tell him that the dragon eggs reminded are nothing but stone, nothing alive inside," Arthur suggested.
"Arthur's right, a dream means nothing; my son is nothing but a kind child that one day will become a Great King," Oberyn stated with passion in his tone; his brother smiled at him while Arthur was surprised that Oberyn saw the prince as his own son.
Jon Sand
Searching around for Aly, he found her in the garden sitting on the stairs with an open book in her lap and several books lying near her; several birds were singing around the garden, some flying closely and drinking water from the phantom.
Aly didn't really focus on the garden; her whole focus seemed to be in the books, so much that she didn't even notice Jon walking closer.
Jon called her as he walked closer, smiling, but Aly kept her focus on the book and changed a page.
Jon softly nudged her shoulder to let her know about his presence, Aly closed the book immediately and stood up, staring in alarm, but her eyes relaxed when she saw that it was Jon.
"Jon, what-what are you doing?" Aly asked, avoiding her eyes, trying to hide the fact that she got scared.
Jon noticed how she held the closed book behind her back but decided not to push it and ask why?
"I hope I didn't scare you *My Lady,* " Jon said with a cheeky grin and a slight bow of his head.
Aly rolled her eyes before playfully pushing him away.
"I'm well now, my prince: I'm so lucky that a prince like you has come to save me," Aly said, grinning, acting as she was hurt and scared; from an imaginary monster.
Jon laughed before sitting close and looking at the books lying on the staircase; Jon pouted that he couldn't read yet and did not understand the book's title; the only thing he could understand was the symbol of a Wolf on the cover. The cover itself was blue with the title written in white color.
"What are you reading?" Jon asked, taking the book and looking at it closely; Aly put her book down.
"I'm reading about The North, wanted to see if there were any books about how the North looks like, how the castles look, but all I could find were maps, and vague descriptions of the castles; and who ruled which castle for how long," Aly explained with a pout at the end.
She, of course, left out that she was also searching about anything that might explain her strange bond with Snow White; she still remembered last night; a cold shiver went through her whole body, her skin crawling just remembering the night before.
'Aly and Snow White were hunting together again; this night, it wasn't snowing like usual. Therefore Aly could see very far ahead; her white fur made it hard to detect her, her body lowered so much that her belly touched the snow beneath; her whole legs beneath the snow, and yet she didn't feel cold.
A scent of fresh meat reached her nose; Snow White licked her mouth at the tasty meat; without giving a second thought, she slowly made her way towards the scent of meat, but Aly couldn't help but feel something at the back of her head telling her to run.
Almost crawling fully, her silver eyes saw smoke coming out of some trees; at that moment, Aly knew that the strange people with animal clothes had gotten here first; but Snow White was hungry; Aly could feel the hunger, ignoring the voice in her head, she approached the trees, the trees were the beginning of a large forest, the trees were everywhere around his vision, but no leaves anywhere; the trees looked so lifeless that Aly half-expected for them to fall down at the slightest wind.
Aly felt a strong wind hitting her face; for the first time, she felt cold, and a hint of fear went through her body; No. Aly told herself, she was fearless like this, Snow White will protect me, and I will protect her, Aly told herself.
The smoke was visible through the trees, and Aly could almost feel the warmth coming from the fire burning the meat.
Her eyes saw men and women with animal clothes; they were sitting in a circle way around the campfire, facing each other; Aly couldn't count how many were there, but her eyes saw three men sitting at the side facing her directly.
Another strong wind echoed throughout the forest, shivers of cold went down her spine; the wind was strong enough that it made a strange sound, almost warning her to run away.
The curiosity and hunger got the better of her; as her silver eyes saw a man talking with someone; his strange white eye was frightening; his right eye was brown, but his left was white like milk.
Aly decided to approach, but the white eye moved and made eye contact with her silver eye.
Aly froze when his eye saw her; she felt like she couldn't move; the silence fell around her, she couldn't hear the sound of the wind around her or the talking of the men in front of her.
Aly decided to leave them alone when the following second, she felt a sharp pain in her head. The Dire wolf started crying out in pain; Aly felt her head split open, she cried out in pain, not knowing what else to do, she ran away while she still held control, the vision slowly blurred, and darkness took over her.'
Aly didn't know why that happened; when she had opened her eyes, she was back in her bedchamber; the pain still felt in her head, almost like a knife piercing her skull, the cold felt real even after waking up, she felt as if she saw five feet deep into the cold snow.
It had taken a long time to calm down; Aly hadn't known what had happened and couldn't help but be worried for White Snow; what if she's injured or worse... No, she can't Die. We are one, and no one can break us apart, she told herself determinedly.
She escaped her thoughts when she felt her shoulder shaking; she turned to see the purple eyes of Jon looking at her with concern.
"You alright, Aly?"
For a moment, Aly didn't answer; she almost didn't understand the question before nodding, she knew Jon wasn't buying it, and she knew she wasn't alright.
She couldn't wait until the night came again and sleep to see Snow White again.
"You said you wanted to know how the castles look like," Jon spoke, gaining her attention back; her eyebrows raised in curiosity, her face beamed like the sun.
"Follow me," Jon said; she stood up and followed behind but made sure to take the books.
"Here, let me," Jon offered after seeing her carry the books in her arms and gestured for her to give him the books; she smiled and gave him half of the books and held half of them herself.
Soon they reached the library, Aly wondered what Jon wanted to show her, soon they reached a part where it wrote, The Kingdoms of Westeros.
Jon looked at each of the titles; he only remembered the book's color; after finding it, he walked over and raised his hand, trying to reach the book.
Slowly touching it, the book slowly fell from the shelf directly to his head.
"Jon, are you alright?" Aly rushed at him, seeing a red mark on his forehead; Jon was rubbing it, clenching his teeth tightly but not crying out in pain.
"I'm fine, Aly, just a stupid book," Jon finally said, acting as if it was nothing; Aly knew he was lying.
"Don't try something like that again; what would I do without my prince?" Aly said with a cheeky smile, making him smile; Jon giggled and sat in front of a table.
"This is the Book," Jon stated, grabbing it from the floor and slamming it to the table, causing a loud noise echoing through the empty library.
"The Castles of The Seven Kingdoms," Aly read, and her face brightened up like a candle.
Jon smiled, seeing her happy face, before opening the book, going through pages. Jon, of course, remembered his sister Tyene telling him that the book had very detailed drawings of almost every castle of Westeros, sadly the book hadn't had a new edition for a century now; there was also written text to describe each castle, who ruled for how long.
Jon remembered when he was little that he liked to see the drawings, especially Winterfell.
Going through pages, he finally reached the Northern Kingdom; Aly leaned closer to him, seeing a drawing of Winterfell.
Winterfell, The Seat of House Stark.
From top to bottom was a drawing of a castle, at the very top of the page was written 'Winterfell,' Jon was still impressed by the size of the castle, the drawing showed the palace by a distance that one could see the whole castle. Underneath the drawing was the symbol of House Stark.
A Grey Direwolf racing across a field of white, with the words "Winter is Coming" written close.
Aly was completely mesmerized by the drawing of Winterfell; she couldn't help but wonder how it would feel to be there, how deep the snow would be, how large the castle would look actually to see it with her own eyes; below she read.
Winterfell is the ancestral castle and seat of power and is considered the capital of the House Stark. It is in the center of the northernmost province of the Seven Kingdoms, on the that runs from Storm's End to the Wall.
It is situated at the eastern edge of Wolfwood, North of the western branch of the White Knife and Castle Cerwyn. Winterfell is south of the northern mountains and southwest of LongLake, one hundred leagues, southeast of Deepwood Motte.
Winterfell is a massive castle complex spanning several acres and protected by two massive walls. There is a village outside, the Winter Town.
Winterfell has been built around an ancient godswood and over natural hot springs. The water is piped through walls and chambers to heat them, making Winterfell more comfortable than other castles during the harsh northern winters.
The complex is composed of dozens of courtyards and small open spaces inside the walls; Weapons training and practice take place in those yards. The inner ward is a second, much older open space in the castle where archery practice takes place. It is located next to the broken tower. Inside Winterfell stands the inner palace, which contains the Great Keep and the Great Hall. Winterfell's towers and halls have diamond-shaped window panes.
The Great Keep is the innermost castle and stronghold of the castle complex. It was built over natural hot springs to keep it warm. Its walls are made of granite. The Great Keep contains bedchambers for House Stark and the solar of Lord of Winterfell. The building is connected to the armory by a covered bridge. From a window on the covered bridge, one can see the entire yard. Beneath the Great Keep are the cellars with narrow windows.
The Great Hall is used for receiving guests and is the place where the household dines together, including the Lord of Winterfell. It is made of grey stone and has wide doors made of and, which opens to the castle yard, and a rear exit leads to a dimly-lit gallery. Inside it can hold eight long rows of trestle tables, four to each side of the central aisle, and the hall can seat five hundred people. There is a raised platform for noble guests, and the walls are covered with banners. The hall contains the high seat of the old Kings of The North.
Winterfell is a huge castle complex spanning several acres, defended by two massive walls of grey granite with a wide moat between them. The outer wall is eighty feet high, while the inner is one hundred feet high, with a wide moat between them. There are guard turrets on the outer wall and more than thirty watch turrets on the crenelated inner walls.
The great main gates have a gatehouse made of two huge crenelated bulwarks which flank the arched entrance and a drawbridge that opens into the market square of the winter town.
There is a narrow tunnel inside of the inner wall stretching halfway around the castle, allowing travel from the south gate all the way to the north gate without interruption.
The winter town, so-called because it is mainly deserted during summer, is where smallfolk gather in winter. It is outside the walls of Winterfell. Its market square is filled with wooden stalls for merchants, and its streets are muddy and lined with rows of houses made from logs and undressed stone. Less than one in five are occupied during the summer, but they fill up when winter arrives. The kingsroad, which runs east of Winterfell, is beyond the winter town. There is an inn in the winter town, the Smoking Log.
Jon changed the page after Aly stopped reading; he decided to see DragonStone; changing page after page, he reached.
DragonStone, the Seat of House Targaryen.
Seeing the drawing of DragonStone, Jon felt his breath stuck suddenly. The statue of the dragons felt like looking at his Soul.
"Brother," Jon suddenly turned to see Nym walking towards them smiling; Jon suddenly felt warmth, a deep warmth on his chest.
"Jon, Lady Alyanna, we are taking our horses and go to the Broken Arm, Want to Come?"
