Chapter 32: Dany’s Sweet Dream
Aggo, though visibly exhausted, was brimming with excitement. "Khaleesi, I rode west for half a day and saw a vast mountain range in the distance. Because you instructed us not to stray far from the plains, I only scouted the outskirts.
"There are sparse woods and endless mountains there, with antelope and elk roaming around. I hunted a deer with my bow, intending to bring it back for you, but the heat was unbearable. By the time I returned to the Red Sand Plains, the meat was already infested with maggots."
"Half a day's ride..." Dany mused aloud. "For scouts pushing their horses with one rider using three mounts, they could cover roughly 100 kilometers in half a day. That distance is... tricky—not too far, but not exactly close either. Still, this could largely resolve the problem of food for the dragons."
She considered riding west to the mountains with her dragons to hunt.
"Did you see any signs of human habitation?" she asked.
Aggo, unfamiliar with calculating distances, thought for a moment and replied vaguely, "We set out before sunrise, and by the time the sun was scorching but not yet at its peak, we found some collapsed stone houses. They were short and few in number, half-buried in the sand."
Dany nodded, guessing these were small villages associated with the White City. Without walls to shield them, time and the winds had nearly erased their traces.
Jorah interjected, "Your Grace, if I'm not mistaken, passing through the mountains to the west would lead to Slaver's Bay."
"Ser Jorah, we've discussed this before," Dany said sternly, her gaze steady. "Unless survival here becomes impossible, I won't leave."
"As you command," Jorah agreed with a bow.
"And what about you?" Dany turned to Rakharo.
"No signs of people, nor large animals. The farther south we rode, even demon grass became scarce," Rakharo reported. His lips were cracked, and his skin was a sunburned red and black, a testament to his harrowing journey.
"At least we now understand how harsh the southern terrain is," Dany said, offering some comfort. "We can focus our efforts on the western mountains."
"Khaleesi, the south isn't entirely without value—look at this," Rakharo said, unstrapping a long, charcoal-like object from his saddle. Excitedly, he added, "Khaleesi, guess what this is!"
"Isn't it just charcoal for filtering muddy water?" Dany asked curiously, taking the long stick. "Oh, it's so heavy... no, wait, it's light."
She corrected herself, using two contradictory descriptors in succession.
From afar, it resembled a piece of dark, gray-black charcoal. But in her hands, it felt far heavier than wood yet lighter than iron. Upon closer inspection, it had a metallic sheen and the texture of black iron.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through Dany's mind—a weapon made from dragonbone, like the dragonbone bow she had salvaged from Drogo's funeral pyre.
"This is dragonbone?! Unprocessed, raw dragonbone. But how is that possible? Did you find a dragon's corpse?" she asked in shock.
"Ha, you guessed it!" Rakharo was surprised, then grinned smugly at Dany's astonished expression. "Yes, it's the skeleton of a dragon. The bones are bigger than a stone house and half-buried in sand. The carcass is so massive that even the sand couldn't fully cover it. I'd say it's larger than Balerion the Black Dread."
"Impossible!" Jorah exclaimed, as if personally affronted. He shook his head emphatically. "You've never seen Balerion. Besides the ancient tales, I've seen its skull in King's Landing—it's large enough to fit an entire horse in its jaws."
"Haha, I once rode a horse straight through the skull's mouth," Rakharo retorted triumphantly, laughing at Jorah's disbelief.
"Oh my... by the Seven!" Dany gasped, her mouth agape. "It must be one of the giant dragons that perished on the Red Plain during Valyria's decline. In House Targaryen's lineage, none were bigger than Balerion."
"Setting aside what dragons mean to the Valyrians, a dragon's corpse has always been a treasure. Why didn't the Valyrians reclaim it?" Jorah questioned, frowning.
"I can think of one possibility," Dany said, her eyes gleaming with realization. "It must have been the sixth dragon that escaped the Doom of Valyria."
The Targaryens had been one of the dragonlords of the Valyrian Freehold. Before the volcanic eruption that destroyed Valyria, Daenys the Dreamer, a maiden of House Targaryen, had a prophetic vision foretelling its doom.
Her father, the head of House Targaryen at the time, trusted her vision. Ignoring the mockery of other Valyrian nobles, he sold all their castles, estates, and businesses in Valyria, leading his family and their five dragons across the Narrow Sea to Dragonstone.
During the Doom, Valyria and its dragons perished in the fiery eruption of molten rock from the earth's core.
Even dragons couldn't withstand the extreme heat and poisonous fumes of the volcanic eruption.
Thus, the Targaryens became the last dragonlords, as they were the only ones left in the world with dragons.
Hearing Rakharo's description of the dragon's skeleton, Dany couldn't help but wonder—could a dragon have survived the Doom of Valyria?
Perhaps it was gravely injured, struggling to fly before finally falling to the Red Wastes. It might have died in agony, leaving behind an immense skeleton for future generations to marvel at.
After listening to Dany's speculation, Ser Jorah nodded in agreement and sighed, "As long as there is an abundance of food, a dragon will continue to grow. Balerion reached his limit, growing to an immense size before dying of old age. So, very few dragons could be larger than him—unless..."
"There's another thing to consider," Dany interrupted. "The Red Wastes are near Slaver's Bay, which, to the west, borders the Lands of Long Summer. Ancient Valyria was situated at the mouth of Slaver's Bay, so the distances align."
The location of the dragon's remains was about 300 kilometers from the Third White City, with the sea lying another 200 kilometers to the south.
Dany allowed her two bloodriders to rest for three days before setting out herself. She left her handmaidens and Khal Ls behind in White Cloud City, taking Ser Jorah and 30 Dothraki warriors with her. Each rider had three horses. They departed at dawn, around four or five in the morning, and reached the Third White City by 8 a.m., before the sun had chased away the last traces of shade.
Along the way, they passed the second "City of Devils," where Dany made a point to stop and investigate.
Around the white city walls stood a ring of two-meter-long iron spears, resembling guards stationed around the perimeter. The spear tips bore pale, bleached skulls. When the wind passed through, the skulls rattled with sharp "clack-clack" sounds, almost as if they were chattering.
No wonder her bloodriders had been unnerved. Even Dany felt a chill run down her spine at the sight.
Thanks to the arid air of the Red Wastes, the iron spears had only developed a reddish-brown layer of rust over the centuries, rather than disintegrating into dust.
"This is truly eerie," Dany remarked as she turned to Aggo. "Do the horsemen have such customs?"
"No," Aggo replied, sounding uncertain.
"Khaleesi," Afanti interjected, "Each khal has different habits and methods. Such acts are not against our traditions."
The old man had come along, responsible for tending the horses during the journey.
"Perhaps the city's inhabitants resisted too fiercely, causing significant losses to that khal's bloodriders," Jorah suggested quietly.
Before leaving, he added, "Even if the Dothraki refuse to settle in this city, it should be cleared. There might be valuable items inside, such as that opal bracelet."
Jhogo immediately shook his head and protested, "We cannot take the devil's possessions!"
"But last time—"
"I found the iron bracelet in another White City. I didn't even step foot in this one!" Jhogo hastily explained.
"Our goal this time is to investigate the dragonbones. Everything else can wait," Dany declared decisively.
From the outside, the Third White City appeared to be a slightly smaller replica of White Cloud City. However, upon entering, Dany quickly noticed differences.
The houses were less densely packed and shorter in height, and there was no grand palace like in White Cloud City.
The Third White City had been left with seven or eight Dothraki men to maintain it, and by the time Dany's group arrived, they had already prepared food.
The dragons, having flown ahead, circled above the city, signaling to the horsemen below that their Khaleesi was approaching.
During the midday rest, Dany visited the so-called "library" that Jhogo had mentioned, which turned out to be the administrative office of the city's ruler.
Much like in White Cloud City, most of the books, made of parchment, were unreadable. Only a few scrolls remained intact and legible.
From one of the scrolls, Dany deduced the purpose of the White Cities.
A Silk Road of this world!
Qarth, the pearl straddling the Jade Sea and the Summer Sea straits, held a position akin to the Suez Canal on Earth.
Meereen, the largest and most prosperous city of Slaver's Bay, was also the greatest slave market in the world.
On the map, Meereen, White Cloud City, and Qarth formed a perfectly straight line.
Compared to the long, circuitous sea route, crossing the Red Wastes reduced the journey by 70%, and land travel was far safer than the unpredictable sea. For a time, the White Cities flourished, much like the famous cities along the Silk Road of the Celestial Empire.
"So, there's an ancient road between Meereen and White Cloud City?" Dany traced her fingers lightly along the map, her thoughts racing.
If White Cloud City ultimately couldn't support her three dragons, she could follow this "Silk Road" northwest, eventually building a fortress near the mountains close to Meereen.
She was confident that by following the route marked on the map, she would come across a fourth and fifth White City. Even if they weren't as grand as White Cloud City, there would at least be small towns or villages from centuries past where travelers once rested.
With this, she could carry out her ultimate plan of farming and survival.
Entering the Red Wastes wasn't a dead end after all—it was a heavenly sanctuary, where no one watched her, and no one knew she had dragons.
Prophecies, White Walkers, Jon Snow, and the Game of Thrones in Westeros—let all of that go to the Others!
When her dragons were fully grown, she would ride them, sweeping north across the Dothraki Sea, and crown herself as the sole female Khal of a united world.
With her three dragons and an army of hundreds of thousands of roaring warriors, nothing would be beyond her reach. The entire world would tremble beneath her leather-bound, riding-sandal-clad feet!
Qin Shi Huang, Genghis Khan, Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon—they were all her equals, yet none surpassed her.
"Hehehe..." Lost in the grandeur of her imagination, Dany couldn't help but chuckle to herself.
"Khaleesi, Khaleesi, what's wrong?" Aggo's loud voice snapped her out of her daydream.
"What do you want?" she snapped back irritably.
Aggo, unfazed by her tone, widened his almond-shaped black eyes and exclaimed, "It's getting dark."
"Let it get dark... oh, right, time to move out." This time, Dany understood.
Their plan was to travel as they had before in the Wastes—resting during the day and moving under the cover of night.
(End of Chapter)
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