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Daenerys shifts her weight from one feet to another, pulling the hem of her skirt frustrated with herself while she tries and fails to decipher the map of the museum, the portrait of king Robb still is finding ways to evade her, all the times she tried to watch it were met with failure, changes of plans, restoration works, even it was lent for a good while to another country, all her giddiness to finally been able to see it today crashes with her inability to comprehend the map of the place, how is possible that she can’t find the room where is located after several attempts, and with the museum more than half empty because the late hour and the holidays, she will have to set for wandering around the place until she either bumps into someone or the closing hour finally reaches.
Maybe she should have waited until the new exhibition is running, if the what the rumors are saying is true, after the death of Tywin Lannister, one of his sons, Tyrion, was about to donate some of the pieces of the personal family collection that included two more of the drawings done by the king, one that features him with his wife, which was the base for the portrait that this gallery holds even though it was made a couple of centuries after his rule, as well as personal belongings like his crown or his sword. She sighs, and tries to appreciate what the place offers to her but still all she wants to see is the one thing she can’t seem to find.
Daenerys is sure that she can blame Viserys for her little obsession with the figure of the late king, after all, he was the first one to tell her the tales of the king when she was just a kid scared of thunderstorms, and crawling into the bed of her brother for comfort. Those tales were the seed of her love for books, and for the daydreams that accompanied her all her life and manifested in different periods of her life on what she wanted to be in the future. Queen, author, archivist, and finally editor.
Queen
Like most young girls, the legends of King Robb, led her to want to be a queen when she grows up. Sharing the name of his wife did help a lot with that, she doesn’t know another one person named like her and being linked with the protagonist of her stories made her really happy, little Daenerys evenings were filled with her knighting her stuffed animals under the shade of the lemon tree in her family garden, pretending that the three lizards sunbathing there were her three loyal dragons, and the ugly scarecrow her neighbours had in the other side of the fence was a terrible magical creature that wanted to create an eternal winter, and together Robb and her must defeat it together, the king here, was portrayed by her favourite wolf plushie. When Rhaegar gifted her a book with all the legends she was positively delighted, until she found that one of the few stories where queen Daenerys appeared she was portrayed as a witch that wanted to conquer the world and bewitched the king to be able to do it faster, outraged for her namesake Daenerys closed the book, buried it in the tallest part of her shelf and picked another thing to read, something that didn’t lie to her like the tale, because how king Robb would let himself be tricked by a witch, what a ridiculous thought, she was confident that those were the words of someone jealous of the queen.
Author
Her anger with the book was short-lived, but Daenerys decided to skip that particular tale in her future readings; the lies of the author weren’t going to stop her from enjoying what her beloved king did. But as she grew up, Viserys started teasing her about it, each passing time growing to be more vicious and laced with venom, losing the initial warmth with what he started doing it. So Daenerys promised herself that one day, when she grew older and didn’t need to hide to read some books just to avoid the poison dripping from her brothers voice, not only she would have a big library filled with all the books she cherished so much, but she would write her own books, for kids to read and dream as much as she did. Maybe they could have a crush on her characters the same way she had on the king.
Archivist
Her affair with writing ended after a couple of years, it didn’t take too much time for Daenerys to realize she wasn’t as good with words as an author needed to be, she failed to create her own worlds and to breathe life into her characters. After some consideration, she came to the conclusion that maybe not every reader is suited to be an author, no matter how much they love reading, some people are only meant for wandering in the stories, making them theirs in the same way one can make theirs a handcrafted item. But that left Daenerys wondering where to take her life now, her love for the tales of king Robb persisted through the passage of time, soon another way of thinking filled her head, wouldn't be fantastic being the one to discover and unknown story, forgotten in some dark corner of an archive ready to fall in her hands that would love it so much.
But this idea ended being short lived, the possibility of finding a new tale was very small, since most of them reached the present thanks to the oral tradition that kept them alive for centuries, albeit changing them a little bit every time they got retold, until someone decided to compilated then, and she couldn’t see herself on an archive fencing dust and humidity from destroying invaluable pieces of parchment that she didn’t hold as close to her heart as those stories.
Editor
In the end her answer was in the books, maybe she could not write them herself, but she could be the medium by which stories reach the readers, and there was the thrilling part that allowed her to be the first to visit new worlds and discover new people. Daenerys knows that the first thing she will publish is an updated version of the legends of king Robb, an illustrated version to accompany the stories to be loved by children and adults alike, something made by a small artist that shares her love for the project.
Lost in her thoughts Dany finally reaches a room, where a young red haired man is sitting in one of the benches, he is watching intensely a small drawing of the Queen Daenerys the one said to be done by her husband, barely moving, as if he is holding his breath for some reason, unable to find anyone else, and with the closing hour nearing, Daenerys decides to approach him for help. “Excuse me, can you help me? I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m looking for the portrait of King Robb and unable to find it, and I haven’t found any of the museum workers to ask for help”. The man turns to face her, and Daenerys' gaze meets a pair of blue eyes that look utterly surprised to see her for some reason. After a couple of heart beats he finally smiles answers her with a "It is in the room next to this one, If you follow me I can show it to you, my name is Robb by the way" this draws a small laugh out of her, how funny it’s that she has managed to met a new Robb, and she finds herself saying "Daenerys, nice to meet you" while she lets him guide her finally to the right place.