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Daenys liked to think of herself as a rather observant person. She was quiet, and while she was never neglected by her parents in any way, it's rather easy to get a bit lost in the crowd of her siblings. She was always watching and listening, catching things most don't.
When Kepa had slapped his head maid seemingly out of nowhere, dismissing her and telling her to only return to Summerhall at her own peril, his only reasoning had been that her work quality was poor. Very few actually believed that, as she was popular for just how good a maid she was. But only a handful of people knew the real reason, observant people, like her.
She had seen the way that maid had been looking at her Papa, and it seemed her Kepa certainly saw it as well. The woman had even grown confident enough towards the end to touch her Papa. Casual touches, a hand brushing a shoulder as she draws back from setting the table, wiping his chest to brush off nonexistent dirt, those types of things, that her sweet but painfully oblivious Papa wouldn't pay any mind to.
But Kepa would. Daenys would bet her entire dowry that the touching had been what pushed her Kepa over the edge. He had calmed slightly in the weeks after, till something new caught his temper. But that was just Kepa. Even the densest of her siblings knew that. Kepa loved them deeply, but they all knew he was not a kind man, not like their Papa. But Daenys always noticed the smallest things. When no one else did, she noticed he always shifted more in a tunic he had with rough stone buttons. She had spent an afternoon once taking out and replacing all the buttons when she was eleven, and her Kepa hadn't said anything, but he had bought her a new hawk afterwards, even though a few weeks earlier he had said they would wait till her next birthday.
But it wasn't just Kepa who Daenys noticed subtle things about. It was everyone. She noticed how her Papa always preferred green apples. She noticed when Maegor developed a small crush on a stableboy, and teased him relentlessly, before comforting him when the boy moved away to be with his ailing mother. She noticed when Aerea started singing quietly to herself when she thought no one was around, and helped encourage her shy little sister. She noticed how, despite appearing most pious on the outside, Visenya always spaced out when she went to pray at the sept. She noticed when Maekar's eyes were slightly red after his cat died, despite him acting completely indifferent otherwise. She noticed when Daemon and Rhaenyra were slightly red one day, and managed to get Daemon to shyly, though proudly admit that after he beat an older boy in a spar, Rhaenrya had given him a tiny, chaste kiss for his trouble. She noticed how Saera ate every pear their Papa brought her, even though her nose would scrunch slightly to show her distaste, simply doing it to see the large man smile at her. She noticed how Rhaena always used to use her hair to partially obscure her brown eye, only leaving her blue eye exposed, and how she had stopped only after having a private chat with their Kekepa Maekar. She noticed how Daeron would always make the tiniest chuffing noise before every sneeze.
Viserra was only five months old. There was little of note to notice about her. She was mostly calm, though was often hard to get to stop once she started crying. She always seemed happiest in either their Papa or Maegor's arms. But for the most part, there was nothing much that separated her from any other baby.
Except, Daenys had noticed something most peculiar recently. Their Kepa had an old, long turned to stone dragon egg that once sat in his cradle as a babe, and now sat in the cradle of each of them for the first year or so. Just a tradition now, of course, as no dragon egg had hatched in generations. Kepa said it was from a clutch from the late she-dragon Dreamfyre. It was a gorgeous thing, scales smooth and a pretty purple, streaked with a marbling silver, and a splotch of soft pink on the top. It shimmered in light, and when there were no babes in the family, it sat in a special little podium in the nursery, and was wiped clean monthly. Right now though, it sat swaddled in a soft blanket in Viserra's crib.
When Daenys had gone one morning a couple weeks back to get Viserra up, the baby had been curled around the egg. It was hardly uncommon. It varied how much they liked it, but all of her siblings had a fondness for the egg as babes, something Kepa always seemed happy about. So, used to it, Daenys had gently pried Viserra's little arms off the egg, but noticed something as the egg shifted with the movement. She settled her baby sister in a sling around her chest and grabbed the egg to investigate. Sure enough, as she brought it closer there was definitely a tiny crack in the hard shell, some of the firm scales slightly shifted. She had put it back, easily reasoning that it must just be getting a little worse for wear in its old age, being decades old.
But then a week later it had grown the slightest bit. And a few days later it was even bigger. Which led to now. When Daenys had once more come to get Viserra up for the day, she was greeted by a most bizarre sight. The five month old was sitting up, leaning back against the side of the crib, a small purple dragon covered in goop sitting in her lap and licking at her face as she giggled, broken shell abandoned behind it. She could do little more than stare blankly at the sight for a few minutes.
"Ah." She said stupidly after a while, still just watching. Eventually, she managed to push through her shock and she stumbled forward to the crib, looking Viserra and the dragon babe over to make sure neither was injured. Thank the gods, they both seemed completely fine. She hesitantly reached in and carefully scooped her baby sister out of the crib. Thankfully, the dragon only let out a displeased huff, and did not decide to use the sharp teeth she could make out when it opened its mouth. She turned from the crib and walked to the changing table, deciding to clean Viserra before even thinking about what to do with the dragon.
She took Viserra out of her dirty nightgown and used a cloth to wipe off the excess goop, her movements stiff and precise as she pointedly did not turn at the sounds of movement behind her. She changed Viserra's diaper and dressed her for the day, picking up the baby and only then turning back to the crib. The little dragon was staring intensely at her with slitted pink eyes.
"Daenys?" She startled and turned to the door, Maegor's voice coming muffled from the other side. "You've taken a while to get Viserra, so Papa sent me to check on you. Are you both okay?” She couldn't think of an excuse in time, and her brother opened the door after a minute. face lightening in relief as he saw both her and Viserra were fine. Then his eyes drifted behind her, to the crib, and his violet eyes got wider than she had ever seen. He dropped the book he had been holding with a heavy thump, and she heard shuffling outside the room as more people came to investigate.
By the old gods and the new. This was going to be a long day, Daenys thought as Viserra began to babble at her, completely unconcerned and oblivious. She envied the baby. Kepa was going to completely lose his mind.