Dragons Fill the Skies

***Rhaenyra Targaryen***

In the depths of true black oblivion, swirled the billions of souls forgotten to time and the memories of men and women. With no candle lit in their honor or memory, no gravestone or headstone with their names written on them, these poor souls had only their bitter pained howls and the freezing pitch blackness for company. Even when their new place of rest was filled with countless other suffering souls, it was impossible to comfort one another.

Amongst the millions of lost and forgotten souls swirling in forgotten oblivion, one soul was curved in the fetal position, crying to herself. Her hair was pale blonde, her eyes blacked and empty staring into an eternity of nothingness. Like the many souls around her, she was naked. Her body was pale and shivered eternally, sobbing uncontrollably. In her eternal pain and loneliness, she reached out into the darkness in front of her time and time again, calling out names.

"Jacaerys, Lucerys, Joffrey...where are you. Harwin, Laenor, please somebody please come for me" she said with trembling lips and shivering limbs.

In that darkness, she saw them, all of her children fully grown to adulthood, running towards their mother's plea. Harwin and Laenor and Christon too came and shielded her from the everlasting pitch-freezing blackness with their shields and cloaks that provided her memory of warmth.

"Mother, what's wrong, why do you weep," Joffrey, so young and sweet asked her. He knelt beside her and held her hands in his, small as they were.

"Come here my sweet boy, come here, let me see you." Joffrey snuggled up to her as Rhaenyra held him in her arms.

"I weep because you're not here, none of you are. As much as I try to pass eternity with sweet comforting memories, you always leave me; All of you do. Your kisses, sweet as they are, are empty with no heat in your little lips. Your sweet tears always vanish before they can fall from your cheeks. I can't remember how many times I've seen you weep."

When she spoke those harsh but true words, her children vanished. Her lovers and husband knelt around her, taking her hands, and touching her legs and arms. Sir Criston Cole took hold of her chin and kissed her up and down her neck, much to her approval. It was a moment's pleasure she wished could last her eternal afterlife.

Laenor, hugged her with all his strength, hoping to take away her loneliness if only for this moment. Harwin moved in after Laenor stepped back and vanished into the darkness. Rhaenyra rose to her knees and watched the father of her first child undress until he was naked, his armor and clothing beneath disappearing from him like sand blowing in the wind.

Her former lover and father of her bastard children touched her and caressed her. Rhaenyra, forgetting her eternal predicament, humored the delights of these moments and allowed Harwin to fondle her breasts and kiss her along the nape of her neck. Despite knowing this was all a farce, a dream in eternity, she let herself feel loved, remembered, and...

"Rhaenyra" a voice almost as old as the conqueror's memory and legacy resounded in the blackness surrounding her. Harwin vanished and Daemond, naked, pale, and strong in appearance, approached her.

"Have you forgotten me already?" He asked, his eyes staring at her with icy focus.

"As much as I loved you Daemon, there was nothing else we could have done, we lost, and look where it got me."

Daemon, grinning at her words, laid-on top of her, pushed her legs apart, and rested between them. "Let me make you forget about everything for a while--"

"NO DAEMON! You're not here, NONE of you are really here!" Rhaenyra barked madly.

Daemon kissed her and despite her words, Rhaenyra cooed and caressed his shoulders and strong arms, betraying her anger and frustration for this false moment of tenderness.

The roaring and wailing of a familiar sound resounded again in the infinite darkness. It was Syrax flying down from the unknown. She landed next to her friend and rider covering her with her wings.

Daemon vanished before her, and so did everyone who came to her cries. The sight of her children vanishing including her former lovers, parents and her dragon brought her back to her new normal, eternal loneliness and ever-pitch freezing blackness.

"Wake up Rhaenyra, wake up...WAKE UP!!" a voice said softly at first but then thundered, shaking the black void, causing the souls to wail in fear and pain.

She uncurled from the fetal position and stared back at the tallest being she had ever laid eyes on. This being was pale and sexless, lacking a man's cock or a woman's gash or fingernails and belly button. A long, black hooded mantle covered much of its face, leaving a black void where its face would have been. it had two pinprick lights for eyes that bore into her. In its mantle were the stars of the night and the souls of all the newly departed swirling endlessly in it.

She was beckoned to stand by an unknown force but standing in the presence of this thing sapped all strength she mustered just to stand. "Who--who-- who are you," Rhaenyra studdered with trembling lips.

"Do you not recognize me, is it not obvious who I am" it asked. Rhaenyra trembled uncontrollably. The voice from this giant sounded both like a man and a woman mixed in one voice.

"I-I--don't know who you are, a Demon?"

"Oh Rhaenyra, you are a sweet and strong child, but also lost. You have lived a charmed life, filled with more adventure than the average commoner will ever see or experience In one lifetime. You had the world in your hands until--"

"--My fucking half-brother took it all from me!" Rhaenyra shouted, finding new strength in her anger.

"Aegon ii, his dragon set you ablaze before ripping you apart in six pieces, then leaving the last and seventh for..."

"Oh, Gods...You're The--The"

"STRANGER." The black void shook upon The Stranger saying its name and title.

"You're of the seven, you're The Stranger. What am I doing here, why am I not with my family in The Great Rest, why have I been separated from--"

The Stranger placed its pale gaunt hand on her mouth, shutting her while placing a finger up to its light blue lips gesturing her to remain silent.

"Where do you think you are? You, or rather, your last piece was offered to me. Little did Aegon second of his name know, he prevented you from joining your family by leaving your last bleeding limb for me, meaning your soul belongs to ME. Inside of me is where you will remain for all eternity, my child."

Rhaenyra nearly buckled over in disbelief hearing that declaration.

"But," The Stranger began to speak more softly this time, "You coming here, being offered to me was no coincidence child. You see, what the Hightowers did by usurping your birthright was upset the balance of the future. It was through my power that I saved you."

"Sa--Saved me? how exactly am I saved? Where are my children, where are my parents and my husband and Daemon and WHERE IS MY DRAGON!"

The Stranger's glowing pinprick eyes flashed, causing Rhaenyra excuiating pain that forced her down to her knees. "AAAHHH, FATHER! DAEMON!"

As soon as it had started, the pain was gone. she rose back to her feet, now more docile and quiet.

"You needed to sit on that throne Rhaenyra, it was through your blood that would have saved the world from the true threat that is yet to come from the cold north."

"The conqueror's dream, the song of ice and fire, the prophecy my father, the king entrusted to me. But that's no longer my burden to bear anymore, I'm dead, there's nothing more I can do. That problem is something for the living to contend with."

"Dead you may be, but I need you, Rhaenyra. Let me show you everything that has transpired after your passing so many generations later."

Raising its gaunt hand, The Stranger pointed and pressed its bony finger out and pressed it against her head. Like multiple flashes of lightning, she bore witness to every single mundane and major event that transpired in all of the seven kingdoms. She saw the conquest of Dorne, The Blackfyre rebellion, the great spring sickness, the war of the ninepenny kings, and the reign of the last Targaryen, Aerys Targaryen II.

Her eyes flashed with millions of images passing through the passage of time and concluded with the end of the terrible but brief long night that all the realm's armies united to repel with the aid of Daenerys Targaryen and her last dragons.

Her non-existent heart froze seeing the white walkers for the first time and learning The Night King's invulnerability to dragon fire. She fell when The Stranger pulled its finger back from her forehead.

Rhaenyra huffed, trying to catch her breath and calm herself. "Is this what my father warned us about, about what the conqueror saw in his dreams? I thought a Targaryen was supposed to be on the throne for the darkness to be vanquished, but that young girl, Arya Stark, killed that ice demon. The threat to the world of men has been eliminated so why do you need me? And the entire history and fate of my ancient house rests on that raven-haired half-Targaryen that was heading north."

The Stranger lifted her up from the ground with the wave of its hand and morphed into a dark mist-covered skeleton with white flaming eyes. Its dark mist switched between a royal bridal dress and a groom's royal suit.

"The world of men has not been saved, it has only been given more time to dig its own grave, that is not to say that the men and women who stood together to repel His attack were for naught. The only thing that girl did was avail them a second chance, nothing more."

"What do you mean by 'His' who exactly are you talking about," Rhaenyra asked.

"I talk about the true threat that lies at the top of the world. This was only the first wave, my child. The Night King was merely a puppet controlled by the creature that gave birth to the elder races, the children of the forest, the giants, unicorns, and divine beasts and beings in Westeros. It is the progenitor of Magic that gave the children their power; I speak about my own child."

"The Stranger...has a child, and who is the other parent if I dare ask"

"The force you call Life is the other parent. Our child was placed inside of your world to preserve balance and stability. It was responsible for The Doom of Valyria."

"W--What? How, Why!" Rhaenyra shouted, angry that the destruction of her people's ancient homeland was caused by some unknown physical God.

"Your people's blood mages created dragons with my child's power that seeped through veins beneath the earth. Had your people's power and influence been allowed to go unchecked, you would have filled the skies of the world with innumerable dragons. The world would have been purged with flames and smoke had that happened, so The Doom was allowed to happen and order and stability were restored thanks to my child."

"I still don't see how any of this relates to me, I can't do anything in my current state. How am I supposed to stop your renegade child, and how exactly did he, she, IT stop listening to its parents!"

"It no longer wants to do what it was created to do. Its function was to keep and preserve stability for as long as your world turns. It now wants to rule over your world, the world of the dead and rotted. Perhaps you do not believe me still and must be shown proof of what my beloved child looks like and where its home lies. Here, let me show you."

"Please no more images, I believe you, I BELIEVE YOU!!" But shout and cry as she might, hundreds of bony hands held her soul in place as The Stranger pushed its skeletal hand inside her skull.

Blinding light broke through the darkness of the eye of her mind and revealed to her a castle that was taller and more fortified and blacker than Harrenhal. It was made with ice as black as dragon glass. Black flames burned on top of its battlements. Monsters that looked like men patrolled those same battlements. There were altars in front of statues and images of dark and death gods from different cultures around the world.

Pushing open the behemoth-sized doors, her mind saw centuries-old dead men prowling the halls, white walkers commanding the dead, monstrous beasts guarding rooms and passageways and roaming everywhere.

Deep beneath a spiral staircase, the temperature was the same as the inside the void. The darkness was inky and oppressive, all-consuming, and suffocating. This was absolutely no place for anything living. just being in this place caused her soul pain similar to what The Stranger did to her.

After what felt like centuries of flying down the stairs, Rhaenyra Targaryen finally came upon the child of The Stranger and Life itself.

Its entire body was something that could have only been conjured up in black rituals of those seeking power, its whispers and influence nesting in every living person's nightmare. Its limbs were like tree branches with multiple eyes and mouths full of razor-sharp teeth. It was kept satiated by hoards of the dead that no longer served as puppets along with sacrificial white walkers and monstrous animals like a giant pale spider, funded polar bears and a mixture of dead animals.

Its size was as large as a small country. The sounds of its cries and wails overrode her soul with maddening thoughts of suicide and murder and chaos. "Now you see him" The Stranger whispered but when it did, all eyes on this horror from the deepest abyss shot in her direction as if recognizing the voice of its parent.

"GET ME OOUUUT!!" Rhaenyra cried out with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"AND NOW HE SEES YOU TOO!!" The Stranger shouted at her.

The blackened walls of this monster's chamber turned to living black slime. Hands and limbs pushed through as if it were birthing them. Pained moans and pleasurable sighs reverberated, shaking the walls and the earth around them. Horrible amalgams of man and beast and unknown creatures pushed forward, walking on three legs, on multiple limbs, and slithering around them all to get their hands on Rhaenyra.

"DO YOU SEE HER, MY WAYWARD SON! FROM HER BLOOD YOU WILL BE PURGED FROM THIS WORLD FOREVER!!" The Stranger roared like a million angry Lionesses.

Likewise, the monster roared back with all the fury of hundreds of animals and men combined. Barbed tentacles shot toward them, but before they could coil around them and take them; Rhaenyra and The Stranger were back in the cold black void.

The late Targaryen queen shook to her very core, her mind broken beyond all point of ever returning to normalcy. But the Stranger restored her sanity and explained to her.

"I need you Rhaenyra, the prophecy will resume in effect if you are returned to the world of the living."

"How am I supposed t--to kill that thing." She struggled to speak.

"From your blood, you will bear seven children, each one will be given their own dragon which will be more special and powerful than the ones you knew and rode when you were alive. Only when all seven children grow to adulthood and learn to fuse their souls with those of their mounts, will you see how you will kill my wayward child. When you return to the world of the living, remember this, and remember it well. YOU are my emissary; you are not to bear children and play politics to resurrect your nearly extinct house. For if you do, Rhaenyra, you will return to me the same way Aegon II murdered you. All your gifted dragons will turn on you and any children you have at the time will be ripped from your arms before ripping you from the living once again. Will you accept this request from me?"

Rhaenyra thought about this for what felt like an eternity, she knelt and bowed her head.

"I Rhaenyra Targaryen, servant, and emissary of The Stranger, accept this request to save the world of men with my blood. I will not become a monarch, I will wear no crowns, I will not sit on any throne. I promise to serve, for all must serve, men and women. Highborn and lowborn, the wealthy and the poor."

"Very well," The Stranger said sounding pleased, "Know that you will take no thrones, wear no crowns, or resurrect your ancient noble house when you return to the world of the living. You will serve a greater purpose, one which will bring you more honor, glory, and redemption than no crown or throne could ever bestow upon you. Are you ready"

Rhaenyra inhaled deeply and let out a deep sigh. "What will happen to me if I am successful? Will I return to this dreadful place or will I be able to live out the rest of my life with my children"

The Stranger's face changed to thousands of faces including those of animals and insects and fishes and strange abominations, all the while its eyes looked like roaring flaming torches. In its eyes, she found her answer. She lowered her head again and gripped her knees and held back tears until she couldn't anymore. Her tears cascaded down her face until her entire cheeks were soaked in a river of tears.

As her new master and God lowered its hand over her head, she felt something she had forgotten long ago.

"Heat...this is..." Rhaenyra said half sobbing half surprised.

"New Life," The Stranger said in a hiss finishing her thought, its voice echoing, undulating all around them.

The heat in her chest was like sitting next to a fire in the north, manifesting inside her like a burning flower that consumed her entire being. The light of her new flame and a new life filled every soul in the void with rage and jealousy and threw the entire world into a panicked frenzy. Each turned on the other trying to block the other while others lunged at Rhaenyra together.

"Remember your promise to me Rhaenyra, and remember, never betray me or expect my wrath" The Stranger reminded her. Millions of floating lit candles appeared behind each soul, pushing them back into the darkness of the void.

She saw a different type of darkness cloud her vision, the darkness of one closing their eyes. Her limbs stretched and twisted in horrible angles and shapes as her body descended and ascended then twisted and turned down a long black tunnel filled with outstretched hands both gaunt and rotted and skeletal trying to get their grips on her.

Rhaenyra screamed as her soul flew down an eternally long passage from the world of the dead. Then she saw the light of life, the world of the living was upon her. In the blink of an eye, she was back to darkness but there was a difference. Unlike in the world, she was previously in, she felt her fingers curling, her toes curling, and her lungs breathing, making her chest expand and retract. Her breathing was short and long but quickly picked up as she realized she was under the pressure of a lot of earth pressing down on her.

Rhaenyra's breathing quickened as she pushed through the earth and pushed upon a long wooden lid reinforced with stone. Her new strength rivaled a hundred knights as the wood and stone fractured and relented to her abnormal strength. The lid swung open, falling on the floor with a loud bang. She sat up, coughing and looking around herself. The first thing she noticed was that she was naked. To her second shock, she saw that there was a large woven bag with seven multicolored eggs resting between her legs.

She picked one of the eggs up and studied its color. It was black and blue with silver. Holding it caused her hands and fingers to tingle in a way utterly foreign to her. The sensation was slightly painful, like fire vibrating through her muscles and rattling her bones. She dropped the heavy egg but not before seeing a vision of herself wandering through the rain holding the egg.

"Wh--what was that just now," she said asking herself.

"Marry the first egg to lightning Rhaenyra, then feast your eyes on a true dragon..." The Stranger's voice hissed in her voice, tracing off into silence.