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Chapter 3 - Ride of the Dragons(R)
🕑 Added 2025-09-06 19:22:15 +0000 UTCRoad to Norvos
Horses, as the main mode of land transport in Westeros, were extremely valuable. Robert sold his share of the loot for a good amount of gold, and it made him think.
If the horses were so valuable, then dabbling in horse trading would be an excellent way to earn a fortune. Unfortunately, Robert had neither the capital nor the time to start a horse breeding business, much less wait decades for it to come to fruition.
However, there was a way of acquiring horses without putting in the required work.
The Dothraki had an abundance of horses, and soon enough, Robert would have dragons. If he could kill the horse lords while they were camping and take the horses as loot, then he could sell them to the Free Cities.
Preferably Braavos, if the city could afford to purchase everything in bulk.
No need to make the slavers stronger.
Corpses were gathered in a pile and burned. After that, it was time for the caravan to depart before they encountered any more Dothraki or anyone else. The Dothraki taken prisoner were to be sold as slaves in Norvos, and seeing as they would have faced the same fate had the horse riders succeeded, Robert found it difficult to care.
—
Norvos
Robert wasn’t going to stay for long in the city, what with the slavery and all, and left the day after he received his wage.
Back on the road, alone, he encountered three Dothraki riders, most likely searching for the missing party. He considered ignoring them, but the dragon eggs needed a live sacrifice.
Waiting for them to get close enough, Robert spurred his horse forward and killed one of the Dothraki. The rider’s head exploded like a watermelon when the hammer slammed into him at full force.
Turning around while at full speed took some maneuvering, but Robert raced at the remaining Dothraki, while they did the same with their fierce war cry.
Careful to not lose his balance and slip, Robert stood atop his horse and jumped, holding his hammer sideways to knock both riders off.
Leaping to his feet, Robert brought the spiky part of his hammer down on the rider on his right, piercing the heart and breaking ribs, an instant death.
The one on the left needed to be alive, so Robert dodged the first blow, twisted the rider's arm, forcing his enemy to drop the arakh, before slamming a palm on the throat, a knee to the liver, and a punch that knocked the horselord out.
Now, he just had to consider what to do. If he burnt the Dothraki here to hatch the eggs, then he would have to spend a month trying to transport the dragons to the cave.
The other option was to spend a month traveling with a man that would try to kill at every opportunity.
Not an easy choice to make.
—
Braavos
As expected, the travel itself was torture, so much so that Robert eventually tied, gagged, and knocked the man out for most of the day, unless it was to feed him.
If he died from starvation, then Robert would have to find someone else as a sacrifice.
The constant escape attempts had grated on his nerves, so he broke the horselord’s leg to make him more compliant, and after over a month, finally reached the damn cave.
The rider wasn't the only issue, as the necklace with the red, unknown gem he took from the prisoner had continued to give him bad vibes.
It wasn't some stress crystal bullshit either, but there was genuinely something wrong with the necklace.
He considered resting for the day before hatching the eggs, but Robert just about had enough of the Dothraki filth he had to carry along.
Gathering what dry wood he could, Robert lit up a fire, and after knocking the rider out for the umpteenth time, tossed him into the fire, along with that necklace, unheeding of his struggles as the flames brought him back to the land of the living.
Realizing what was happening, the horselord’s struggles became frantic, but it was too late. Once the wood caught on fire and the Dothraki rider started to scream, Robert tossed in the eggs.
Immediately, the flames intensified, consuming the life force of the sacrifice, and worryingly, turned blood red. Robert attributed it to the gem, but wasn't in the mood to be picky as the Dothraki was dying.
He tossed in the eggs, and as the screams died out and the crimson flames roared, he heard three distinct pops.
—
Covered by ash, three distinct colored dragons stood before him.
The one in the middle was blue and a bit larger than its siblings. It approached Robert first, smelling the offered hand like a cat before nuzzling his palm. Its cobalt scales gleamed in the sun, and it didn’t even hesitate before leaping to the stag he had hunted to feed on.
The second dragon was more laid back, with its rust-colored scales, which hid a more deceptive nature. Robert tapped on the crimson dragon’s snout to get its attention, and the hatchling nipped at the offending finger, spitting and hissing at him, but calmed down once Robert presented no more danger.
Prickly lizard.
And the last one glimmered like gold in the sun. It seemed more interested in playing with him than feeding, and Robert took a piece of rope, dangling it before the hatchling. It was a fast little creature and caught the rope several times, trying to pry it from Robert’s hand, only to bring it back once successful.
Now, they just needed names, and the hatchlings had the perfect color schemes for matching names.
—
18 Months Later
His dragons were growing unnaturally faster. It took around five years for Daenerys' dragons to grow large enough to be ridden, yet in a year and a half, his dragons were already big enough to ride.
Which confirmed that the crystal in the necklace wasn't something ordinary.
During that time, Robert hid in the cave with his dragons. To feed the fast growing lizards and himself, he hunted frequently and gathered what fruits and vegetables he could, only leaving for the city to buy any necessities, mostly for the winter.
With his previous funds, the horses sold to a Braavosi merchant, and the occasional fur he traded, coin wasn’t an issue.
Between his training and chores, Robert also wrote down plans on how to get rich, which included targeting the Dothraki.
The first phase of his plan was to convince the Sea Lord and the Braavosi merchants to buy the Dothraki horses he would take from the Khalasars and transport to the city. To achieve that, he would negotiate with the Free Cities that were threatened by the Dothraki hordes to destroy them in return for a hefty but one-time payment, certainly a much better option than paying tributes for who knows how long.
He would demand a small down payment and use it to hire drovers to herd the horses to be sold.
Once his exile was over, he didn’t know what to do. On one side, his family waited at Storm’s End; the other side, however, had grown up alone and wasn’t sure about having a family.
It was an interesting experience, having such conflicting thoughts, and family wasn’t the only matter he had conflicting thoughts on.
Lyanna and Eddard Stark.
One, his former betrothed who had chosen the Targaryen bastard; the other, his brother in all but blood, who had drawn a sword at him to protect Rhaegar, all just to stand with his sister.
Had he done nothing, Robert would have understood, but to defend that inbred bastard against him?
That hurt.
The other side didn’t really care about either. Lyanna Stark wasn’t a woman that deserved to be chased, and Eddard Stark, no matter how honorable due to his upbringing in Vale, would always be a wolf.
However, the opportunity to gloat to the Targaryens was one he did not intend to miss.
And today was the day it would begin.
He would be the first person to ride a dragon in almost a century and a half.
A rudimentary saddle was placed on Obelisk, and Robert uttered the command he had taught to the dragons during their seclusion in the cave.
“Volā!”
The cobalt blue dragon beat his wings, kicking up a small cloud of leaves and dust. The sudden movement sent Robert lurching, but he held onto the saddle.
Used to the extra weight, Obelisk kept rising, and once above the trees, he soared.
Robert couldn’t help the sheer joy that bubbled up in his chest and began to laugh as the dragon cut through the wind.
—
Braavos
Covered by a hooded cape and a mask, Robert circled over the city and, once the Sea Lord had come out to greet him, landed in the courtyard of the palace.
Introducing himself as Matthew, Robert was quick to get straight to business, explaining his reason for coming to Braavos.
The Sea Lord was intrigued and offered to negotiate in a more private setting, and he agreed, as Ferrego Antaryon wasn’t stupid enough to attempt to harm him.
The negotiations went surprisingly well, and Robert attributed it to the mercantile nature of the Braavosi.
His business pitch was exceptional, and Robert was sure it had helped.
The proposal required a meeting between the Sea Lord, the noble families, and some of the richest merchants in Braavos, but in the end, they too had seen the value of this agreement.
Braavos, in general, would agree to buy the horses in bulk below the market price and sell them to the remaining cities for a hefty profit. In return, they would be responsible for providing drovers to herd the horses and guards to protect them and ensure a steady supply rather than just crashing the market with a sudden flood of cheap horses.
Robert didn’t have the business acumen to manage all of that, and while he would learn what he could in time, speed was essential now, so he had to concede those parts to Braavos.
Not that handling the logistics would be easy, or cheap, for the Braavosi.
A Khalasar usually has three to four times as many horses as riders, and a large Khalasar of around forty thousand would have at least two hundred thousand, and the entire Dothraki sea?
Well in the millions.
Not that anyone had the coin to buy that many horses.
Regardless, when he burned the hordes, horse deaths would be inevitable, and adding any losses that may result from sickness, wounds, and spooked horses that escaped, the number would be a lot less.
Still, it meant a lot of coin.
With Braavos handling the logistics burden, Robert started negotiations with the remaining cities for the destruction of the Dothraki Khalasars threatening them.
—
Call him a coward or not, Robert wasn’t going to fight the Dothraki under sunlight and risk injury.
An arrow may not do anything to a dragon, but thousands of them? That would be troublesome, especially for young dragons like his.
That is why he attacked the hordes at night, while everyone was asleep and the horses were secure.
In the time it would take the sleeping Dothraki to rise and mount any defense, enough would be dead, and the rest too late to do anything.
He started with the small Khalasars to test their response time, how they reacted, and what they did when their Khal died.
Gradually, Robert targeted larger Khalasars, gathering thousands of horses at a time, not to mention the loot. The weapons of the Dothraki were rendered useless, with steel and bronze only worth as scrap, but they still had gold, silver, and gems, mostly as ornaments.
Robert had made sure to take every valuable item from the Dothraki and deposited the coin he earned from the loot to the Iron Bank of Braavos, as well as the coin from his business deals, both with Braavos and other cities.
He was steadily amassing a fortune and eventually invested in other businesses, such as spice, weapons, and leather trade, which was on the rise due to the demand for horse saddles.
Cause and effect at its finest.
Slaves kept by the Dothraki were freed and offered settlement in Braavos, funded by the fortune the city earned from the horse trade.
More citizens meant more workers, more taxes, and more business. There were several artisans among the slaves that Robert made sure to keep in contact with, to eventually offer a place in Westeros, should he return.
There was one part of the loot that he did not sell, and it was the bits of Valyrian steel the Dothraki had. An earring here, a bracelet there, and Robert had a sword forged out of all the small items, including the statue he had stolen from Illyrio Mopatis.
Who was frothing the last time Robert saw him but too powerless to do anything.
Life was nice.
—
Notes: I merged chapter 3 and chapter 4, and I have a different idea for chapter 4 this time. The crystal part was something I had planned for much later, but I had to use it here due to the time it would take for the dragons to grow large enough.
