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The beast was the strangest she had ever seen, even within the boundaries of the Sealord’s menagerie. She remembered another girl, long ago, who’d had a dancing master telling her of these creatures from far away, but never once had she dreamt such a thing could exist in truth.
Yet here it was.
The lizard – she thought it must be a lizard, surely, with the scales; but then again, the scales were only visible along its underside, the rest of it was covered in feathers, as if it was the largest bird anyone had ever seen, and it had only two legs, too, though no wings but hands instead – was being kept in one of the cages, safely hidden until it was needed to impress lords from far away, and show them the great power of the Braavosi. It had scythes for claws, or what she supposed must be claws, and a queer horn-like appendage on its head, coloured in patters of yellow and red; but the feathers were black, with white ones hidden amongst the others.
The girl couldn’t help it. She’d already seen the monster half a hundred times, and yet she could not help but wonder every time; wonder where such a creature might have been found, where it had used to live before some brave captain of the Braavosi fleet had found and captured it. She was at a loss, too, when she tried to imagine on what kind of beast such a creature might prey. Surely there had to be others, more of these two-legged lizards, somewhere in the world?
Dreams hidden in her long ago resurfaced every time she came by, of ships and the offer to stay on one of them; and visit far-away lands. In time, she thought of other lands, where such beast surely may not have existed, but where another girl had spent her childhood.
The girl found herself walking by the cage far more often than she would’ve needed to.
In a way, it’s like me, she thought, foreign here, and so far away from home. So far.
Then she kicked herself; these thoughts weren’t her own, were not for her to think.
No.
She was just a girl, a simple girl employed to keep the beasts well-fed and happy, so none of them would kill each other. She wasn’t here to think, just to help with the creatures and sink back into the shadows whenever the Sealord paraded men through these halls.
She certainly wasn’t a girl from another land, longing for her a home she’d long since tried to leave behind, and to forget.
Making her way through the hall, that great hall just beside the Sealord’s palace, so one could drive the beast hidden here out to the parks and gardens should the Sealord desire it, and to make it easy for the crews of ships to bring in new arrivals.
When she’d first come here, she’d spent hours looking at them, at the long-necked beast with yellow-and-brown skin that could almost reach the ceiling, at the lions and tigers, even at the lizard-lion, for whom the Sealord had commissioned its own basin, so it wouldn’t dry out. That one had always seemed a little lonely to her; none of the Sealord’s guests ever wanted to stay long with it, fearing it might sprinkle them with the muddy water.
Not that the girl had any such fears. If it weren’t for the lizard-lion’s constant hunger, she’d happily jump into the basin herself.
Alas, that would not be.
So she just took whatever meat and grain they needed from the storage rooms, and cleaned the cages, wherever possible. She was good with beasts, always had been, and even the awe-inspiring predators would seldom lash out, and none of them had ever hurt her, though some, like the lizard-lion and the tiger, didn’t tolerate her presence for very long. It showed in the way they moved, the way they looked at her, as if they were wondering if the girl standing there would taste as delicious as the food she brought them.
It wasn’t really hard work, and downright easy compared to what work she’d done before, out on the streets, and the girl learnt all manner of interesting things about her charges. Even so, the work earned her a meal twice a day, and a little servant’s room to sleep in. Only once a week would she leave the palace at all, to go to the Isle of the Gods, and talk with the kindly man, telling him three new things every time.
She’d been surprised at how many things one could learn just by listening to the other servants, and to the occasional visitor.
And of course, it was always easy to learn new things about the beasts, especially the terrible lizard. That was what the others called it, the creature with the scales and feathers and claws, and truly it was terrible to look at, but then she’d known a man with only half a face who had been kind to her, so she truly wasn’t one to pass judgement over it just based on its looks.
And while she would truly be afraid should she ever come across one free, it wasn’t long till the two of them had formed a friendship of sorts. The other keepers always had trouble with this one, she’d observed, the lizard would tolerate none of them, and often beat at its cage with claws and tail when someone went too close.
Only with her it was different. It wouldn’t exactly behave like a little dog pup then, either, but at least it would wait patently until she’d shoved its meat through the bars of its cage, and not try and hurt her finger while she was at it.
After some time, the girl took to sitting in front of the cage, just looking at it, and sometimes almost forgot to learn three new things every week.
Again, she wondered where it had come from, and whether it missed its home as terribly as she missed hers.
Then she had to slap herself again; she wasn’t that stupid weak girl with a name from a faraway land, she wasn’t.
Still, she wondered if the terrible lizard had any name; a proper one, like lions were called lions and wolves were called wolves, or if men encountered them so rarely that no one had thought to give it one.
Sometimes she wondered if she should give it a name. But then that would hardly be right, as she didn’t have one herself.
Regardless of that, though, she couldn’t help herself, and thought of name after name, hoping no one would notice. One day, on a whim, she named the beast Scales, because she liked the sound of it, and because the beast had so few of them that you would almost need to point them out, or people wouldn’t see them and mistake it for a simply another large bird, as there were so many others in the Sealord’s collection.
Scales seemed to like his new name, and soon he would only answer to her calling him that, looking straight towards her whenever she brought him food.
Sometimes, at night, she dreamt of bars in front of her eyes, and memories of a girl calling her strange names, and of the meat she’d bring her.
One week, she actually forgot to learn three things for the House of Black and White.
Not long after, a guard of the palace found the terrible lizard’s cage broken, its door ripped apart from it and lying on the floor.
And soon, rumours flooded the city of Arya Stark, who’d taken back her home, with an awe-inspiring monster at her side.
