I wish I could tell you. Our good hosts ( sarcasm detected — ) claim they banished him in the middle night.
For an "offense", they said. Knowing Nikolai, that could have been anything. He has a knack for finding the most annoying arrangement of words and speaking them out loud. It's believable, only I don't believe it at all. Nikolai would have never willingly gone without me.
She will grow into her tempers, then. A strong rider will know to guide her through dragonflight and hunt both, if their is true. A dragon is not an easy companion to learn, but they are ever fulfilling and satisfying in giving themselves to sincere affection.
My Vhagar is as beautiful as she is terrifying. She is beautiful because she is terrifying.
[ his horniness for dragons is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in this conversation, truthfully. ]
I claimed her when I was ten. We are fire and blood, my family — risen from the volcanic valleys of Old Valyria, where dragons used to roam freely and in great numbers. But the Doom reigned ruin upon the Valyrian states, and only a few great Houses now remain. House Targaryen is one of them.
My forebears had flown their dragons across the sea and conquered the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros a hundred years ago. Aegon The Conqueror led the charge, flanked by his sisters Visenya, who rode Vhagar, and Rhaenys, who rode Meraxes. Meraxes was felled in battle against the Kingdom of Dorne; Vhagar and Visenya rained fire on the kingdom for so long that the ashes of their wrath still remain today.
Vhagar is old, and has had only one other rider. Laena Velaryon, descended from an old Valyrian house same as I. 'Twas the night after her funeral that I approached Vhagar, and she judged me worthy. she allowed me to prove my mettle, and several times she tried to shake me off her back, or throw me from a great height. I held on. We flew around the island of Driftmark and when I felt her laughter in my mind I knew she had accepted me as her rider.
She is my closest and dearest friend. I would risk life and limb to ride her saddle for the first time all over again.
@jacaerys
The ferocious kind. Are there other sorts?
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Are you a dragon rider yourself?
@alina
Is that any way to greet me, Starkov?
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( then, with the begrudging resentment of a child made to eat mushy peas: )
Hello, Zoya.
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Your petty need to be better than everyone? Doubtful.
We're not in Ravka anymore.
There's no reason to pretend we tolerate each other's company.
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Have you hit your head on something?
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Have YOU hit your head, "Queen" Zoya?
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He was here before me. He never led me to believe that was true.
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Our good hosts ( sarcasm detected — ) claim they banished him in the middle night.
For an "offense", they said. Knowing Nikolai, that could have been anything.
He has a knack for finding the most annoying arrangement of words and speaking them out loud.
It's believable, only I don't believe it at all. Nikolai would have never willingly gone without me.
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And their word is all we have to go by?
[ Perhaps a dragon should set out to survey the grounds. ]
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He's not the first to disappear. Everyone has made a poor habit of not questioning it.
@aemond
You make it sound as if you could direct a dragon like you try and tame a horse.
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Have you flown on dragonback?
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[ Close enough to not be a lie. ]
So are you? Worthy?
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And your dragon? What is their character?
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My Vhagar is as beautiful as she is terrifying. She is beautiful because she is terrifying.
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Tell me more of your Vhagar. How did you come to ride the oldest dragon in your realm?
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I claimed her when I was ten. We are fire and blood, my family — risen from the volcanic valleys of Old Valyria, where dragons used to roam freely and in great numbers. But the Doom reigned ruin upon the Valyrian states, and only a few great Houses now remain. House Targaryen is one of them.
My forebears had flown their dragons across the sea and conquered the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros a hundred years ago. Aegon The Conqueror led the charge, flanked by his sisters Visenya, who rode Vhagar, and Rhaenys, who rode Meraxes. Meraxes was felled in battle against the Kingdom of Dorne; Vhagar and Visenya rained fire on the kingdom for so long that the ashes of their wrath still remain today.
Vhagar is old, and has had only one other rider. Laena Velaryon, descended from an old Valyrian house same as I. 'Twas the night after her funeral that I approached Vhagar, and she judged me worthy. she allowed me to prove my mettle, and several times she tried to shake me off her back, or throw me from a great height. I held on. We flew around the island of Driftmark and when I felt her laughter in my mind I knew she had accepted me as her rider.
She is my closest and dearest friend. I would risk life and limb to ride her saddle for the first time all over again.