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The little beast poked its head through cracked shells, wide gray eyes stared up dazedly, and a small mewl escaped its gummy mouth.
Aegon gazed back at the creature with an empty stare. He couldn't feel any excitement or fascination, only a deep-seated rage building up within him with each passing second.
His eldest son poked his head out from behind him, mouth agape and his eyes as wide and curious as the creature before them.
"Can I keep it?" Daeron asked eagerly.
Aegon briefly contemplated strangling the newborn dragon to death before deciding against it.
The dragon egg had been a gift from his brother, and there hadn't been merely one but three.
"For each of your lovely children," Viserys said with a sly grin, and Aegon could only glare viciously.
His children were, of course, delighted by their dragon eggs. Daeron and Daena had already begun playing at being Dragonriders, Daena was made the Baela to Daeron's Jacaerys before she instead declared herself Aegon the Conquerer and named her darkly-scaled egg the second coming of the Black Dread.
Even Daenaera was captivated by them, although Aegon wasn't too surprised. He hadn't forgotten how utterly fascinated she had been with Rhaena's Morning as a young girl.
It's no wonder Daenaera was as taken with the dragon eggs as their children were.
-
Aegon could only see a mindless beast when he looked upon the little silver dragon.
He saw its small toothless mouth that would soon grow with sharp fangs, and a jaw large enough to devour a person whole. Aegon saw blank eyes with no signs of intelligence, only animalistic instinct.
There was nothing about the little creature that endeared itself to Aegon, not the way it already had his wife and children wrapped around its claw, one that would grow larger enough to tear into flesh.
"Isn't he beautiful, father?" Daeron said, gazing adoringly at the beast.
Viserys chuckled at that. "I do believe your dragon is a female, nephew."
"She is indeed beautiful," Daenaera stated, running her hand over the dragon's silver and gray scales. "Don't you agree, my love?"
Aegon remained silent.
-
It took everything in Aegon's power not to have the creature killed under the guise of an unfortunate accident.
But when Aegon saw how attached his son was, he couldn't find it in himself to carry through with the act.
"Father! Father!" His son called out to him. The dragon was in his arms, blinking up with that same detached stare it always had.
"Look, father, I've named her Stormstar!"
Aegon froze.
"Stormstar?" He repeated in a quiet tone.
Daeron nodded. "For your dragon, father. For Stormcloud."
Stormcloud. One thing Aegon remembered about his dragon, as well as the dragons of his older brothers, sisters, and Rhaenys, the Sea Snake's wife, that had been different from most. They were not as violent or bloodthirsty as his father's dragon, not as harsh or animalistic as the usurper's. Stormcloud, in particular, had been so sweet. A truly gentle and brave soul until the end.
Perhaps this dragon would be the same.
Aegon swallowed roughly. "A fine name," He said with a half-hearted smile.
He would allow Daeron to keep his little dragon for now. If only to see that radiant beam on his son's face more often.