Chapter 2: At the edge of the Mander

"This is boring." complained Rhaegar

"Have a care Prince Rhaegar. It almost felt like whining." said Ser Baelium with an amused tilt to his face.

Rhaegar gave his sworn shield a withering look.

"No longer able to make a run for it now can you Prince Rhaegar?" asked Ser Addison Hill of the Kingsguard with amusement.

"If it wasn't for father know that I would have left you all in the dust." said Rhaegar with a huff.

"Unfortunately you will not be flying on poor Starfyre. I think even the dragon has enough of your stunts my prince." said Corlys Velaryon the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard as he pulled his horse close to the Prince's own horse.

"I am not talking to you Ser Corlys. You're the one that tattled me to my father. I thought you to be a good man but it seems Alyssa was right. You cannot be trusted." said Rhaegar

"I will have you know half the realm saw you flying upside down on your dragon Prince Rhaegar. I was hardly responsible if your father saw what you were doing." said Corlys

"But you were the one that told the King first." said Ser Addison

"Aha! I knew it. You Ser are not a true knight. A true knight would not have betrayed the trust of a prince." said Rhaegar

"You only have yourself to blame my Prince. You angered the king with your stunts when he explicitly forbids your usual activities during this journey. And I would like to remind you that I am sworn to serve the King. You cannot expect me to lie to the king." said Ser Corlys

"You are no longer my favourite Kingsguard." said Rhaegar with a glare at the Lord Commander. He immediately ducked his head as the Black Dread made a dive. His horse became spooked and threw him down from its back. The Kingsguard knights and his own sworn shield were conveniently keeping a distance when that happened.

"This is no fun. You have no sense of what is fun at all father." Rhaegar screamed at the top of his lungs after he managed to stand up dusting off the soot from his clothes. Then he turned on the Lord Commander. "You are responsible for this Ser Corlys."

"How am I responsible if your father decided to give you some lessons in humility." said Ser Corlys with a shrug but one could see that the Lord Commander was very amused by the way his eyes sparkled.

"I don't know how or when but I will pay you back Ser Corlys. Mark my words." Threatened Rhaegar before riding off with a huff. The Kingsguard and his sworn shield were quick to keep up lest the Prince rides away far from the royal convoy.

It took the royal procession three days to see the edge of Mander. Seeing the Mander let Rhaegar know that they have crossed into the borders of the Reach. The lack of roads was a problem and it made the journey difficult. He wanted to take Starfyre and go on his merry way but after his latest stunt on the dragon, his father had grounded him so to speak. He rode ahead of the convoy towards the Mander with Ser Baelium as his company.

Rhaegar dismounted his horse and led it towards the river. The horse happily drank the water and he rubbed the white mane of his horse affectionately.

"Drink up boy. We do have a lot of ground to cover before you can properly rest in a stable."

A large shadow enveloped the spot he was standing on and he had to rein in his horse who was neighing in fear. The reason for his horse's discomfort landed on the ground with a thud kicking up dirt.

"Mother above!" Ser Baelium cried as he too struggled to hold onto his troubled horse.

Rhaegar just laughed as he gave the reins of his horse to a servant. He walked towards his dragon who blew a puff of smoke to his face. Just like him, his dragons loved to mess with others something he suspected Starfyre learned from him.

"Don't you dare do that you overgrown lizard." Rhaegar warned and Starfyre merely let out a screech before swinging his tail through the water. He could hear Ser Baelium's laughter as he was drenched from head to toe in water from the Mander.

"You taught your dragon well my prince. I have to say this is fun and I see why you enjoy playing pranks on others so much." crowed Ser Baelium before breaking down into further laughter despite the scowl on Rhaegar's face.

Rhaegar glared at Starfyre who preened and looked at him smugly. He could feel the waves of emotions from his draconic friend in the back of his mind. Starfyre was hatched in his crib when he was a baby. In many ways they were brothers and he had learned that he shared an empathetic bond with Starfyre. He could not remain mad at his childhood companion for long. There was a time when he feared the blue scaled dragon but over time he grew out of that fear. Nobody could blame him because one moment he was watching TV and the next he was a freaking baby.

At first, he thought that there was some drug in his food to make a powerful hallucination like the one he experienced. But as days and months went by he came to the conclusion that he somehow reincarnated but that was bull because he had no memory of dying. Frankly, he was very wroth to be displaced from his world. He was about to celebrate Christmas with his family and he was planning to spend some quality time with his parents. Early on he realised that there was no point on bitching about his situation so he decided to make the most of his new life by rolling with the punches. There were a million things he could complain about with his situation but that would be totally unlike himself. So he decided to focus on the good parts namely his cool draconic friend Starfyre.

Just seeing a dragon up-close was a dream come true. To ride it and concoct acrobatic stunts with the dragon was downright exhilarating. His greatest accomplishment was to hijack Balerion and he did it with begging on his knees before the mighty dragon. Dragons were intelligent creatures who read others through empathy. Balerion was hoodwinked by his desperate pleas and that's how he managed to ride the greatest of Targaryen dragons. Although, that did land him in a heap of trouble.

"My Prince, we are setting camp and your father is asking for you." said Robin Darklyn another member of his father's Kingsguard. The knight was widely known as Darkrobin and was a skilled knight.

Rhaegar was wary of this knight because Ser Robin was chosen by Visenya. Not that there was anything wrong with it as the knight was loyal to his father. It's just that he had this habit of treating anyone that was remotely close to Visenya Targaryen with suspicion. It was something of an inborn trait as his younger years growing up was ripe with rumours of his mother's infidelity. The lords, ladies and servants thought he could not understand what they were whispering but he understood. Since then he had a healthy dose of paranoia regarding Visenya Targaryen and anyone that she was friendly with.

"You shouldn't let the King waiting, my prince." said Ser Baelium as he gave a small nudge.

A while later he was standing before his father inside a hastily erected tent. Even after all these years, he found it hard not to be intimidated by the sheer presence of his father.

King Aegon the Conqueror or Aegon the Dragon as he was called was a man built for battle. Square jaw, wide chest, strong muscled hands all contributed to the image but his true strength lay in the king's gaze. The King had dark purple eyes and anyone that stared into those eyes would claim that it was beautiful but in the privacy of their minds they would call them intimidating.

Rhaegar had found it early on that it was very hard to lie straight to his father's face. This was why he preferred to deal with his father from a distance. He had it on good authority that his father knew this weakness and would use it to his advantage at certain times.

"Come take a seat. I would not have you stand there looking like a thief that was caught red-handed." said Aegon as he pointed to a chair opposite to the table his father was sitting at.

"Thank you, father. Now that we are here can you please return the riding harness that you took from Starfyre?" Rhaegar inquired hoping against hope as he flashed a puppy eye look.

Aegon let out a scoff and a brief smile flashed on his face that would have skipped Rhaegar's attention if he was not looking close enough.

"You will not be flying that dragon until I think you learned the lesson."

"What lesson would that be?" Rhaegar asked

"The lesson being some responsibility and acting with caution. Dragons are empathetic creatures. Once a bond is formed some of your own character will bleed into the dragon especially when Starfyre was hatched in your crib. That dragon is already a troublemaker and as it grows it will refuse any riders and become wild."

"I did not know that." said Rhaegar but he received an unimpressed stare.

"You are a terrible liar son. I know you have taken lessons from Visenya about the dragons and there is no one more knowledgeable than her in that area."

"Fine, I knew. It is just difficult not to test the limits you know. To fly in the sky—it's like nothing in the world can stop you. It's just pure freedom." said Rhaegar

"You remind me of your mother. So passionate and driven to ride Meraxes whenever possible." A tired sigh left Aegon. "I will return the harness provided that you will not pull any more stunts on Starfyre. You must promise me this."

"I promise not to pull any stunts with Starfyre father. You have my word."

"Good. Now, I asked you here for something important. You understand why we are here in the Reach, don't you?" asked Aegon as he leaned forward and unveiled a map on the table.

Rhaegar took a glance at the map and identified it as a map of the Reach.

"You want to meet the lords that are under your rule." said Rhaegar

"Yes but…."

"You also want to survey their lands because you are reforming the tax system and build an alliance of some sort."

"Correct. So you do listen to the conversations we have about the realm." said Aegon with an approving nod. "Now, we are at the edge of the Mander. Which castle is the closest to our position?"

"Tumbleton." He answered quickly

"Good. House and banner?"

"Tumbleton is ruled by House Footly. White caltrops in a black field is their banner."

"Correct. House Footly can trace their lineage all the way to the Age of Heroes. We don't know whether Valyrians even inhabited the peninsula that far back and yet house Targaryen rules over all the ancient houses of Westeros. Why?"

"Power. We have power and they don't." answered Rhaegar for which he was graced with a smile from his father.

"True. But power is fickle. Our dragons ensure dominance over Westeros through force but that is not enough. To truly rule all these houses we need allies and their wealth. Reach is the most productive kingdom of Westeros. It has bountiful harvests and in Winter food has more value than anything else. We need the Reach as an ally."

"And Theo Tyrell cannot deliver us the Reach?" Rhaegar asked curiously

"The Tyrells are servants that got elevated because of me. They depend on me to consolidate their hold on the Reach. A united Reach will always be a threat to the rule of Dragons. The Reach must never unite for it houses the Citadel and the Faith of Seven."

"You want to break up the Reach?" Rhaegar asked incredulously.

"Eventually and I doubt I can accomplish that in my lifetime. Perhaps it may not be possible but I will ensure the Reach will not follow one house ever again."

"So you want to build an alliance with some house to counter one of the powerful houses. Force the factions vying for Highgarden into a stalemate or even escalate." Rhaegar deduced

"I prefer a stalemate as it will let me break one of the factions and force them to approach our house for an alliance. The Tyrells are just the bait I set for the different factions in the Reach to concentrate on." said Aegon

"Why didn't you just expand the territories of Crownlands at the expense of the Reach? You could have done that and defanged the Reach after the Field of Fire."

"The Crownlands are made up of lands from Stormlands, Reach and Riverlands. But you are right, I should have expanded the Crownlands. I made a mistake at that time."

The tent descended into an uneasy silence.

"So what should I do?" Rhaegar asked

"Learn about the lands of the Reach lords. I want you with the surveyors and interact with the people. Make friends wherever we go and dazzle the people with your charm." said Aegon

"You want me to marry from one of the Reach's noble houses, don't you?"

"In time." Aegon admitted before he hastily added, "And I will ask your opinion before I make any decisions. You have my word."

"Thank you for that." Rhaegar bit out not the least bit happy about it but at the same time relieved nothing was finalised. "May I take my leave?"

At his father's nod Rhaegar stood up to leave but a question from his father made him pause at the exit of the tent.

"I forgot to ask. Why are you wet?"

It was with a certain level of embarrassment that he had to explain that he fell victim to a prank of his dragon. He certainly didn't like the suppressed laughter of his father from the tent when he left.