Where the hooves trod, the blades of grass flattened to either side and quickly sprang back.
The wind rushed past her ears, blowing her hair out behind her.
Green waves surged layer by layer, swallowing her up.
The air was filled with the scent of grass and earth; one breath cleared her lungs.
She reined in the horse, jumped down, and stepped onto the grass.
The grass reached past her ankles, soft to the touch.
She stood there, taking a deep breath, and then another.
Viserys charged to her side on his horse.
His ear was still wrapped in cloth.
He stumbled as he dismounted, but as soon as he steadied himself, he lunged forward, grabbed Daenerys, and shook her violently.
“Have you forgotten your task?” His face was close to hers, his eyes bulging as if they might fall out.
“Have you lobbied that barbarian for me at all?” Daenerys was shaken until her hair was a mess; she was at a loss, unable to say a word.
She had been so happy these past few days that she had forgotten this person even existed.
Now that he stood before her, she remembered that she still had such a brother.
“You Khal’s little slut, making the True Dragon mingle with these savages every day!” “Make Drogo give me an army, do you hear me?” He grabbed Daenerys’s hair with his left hand, while the thumb and forefinger of his right hand pinched Daenerys’s nipple hard.
“Do you hear me?” Daenerys raised her hand and slapped him.
Viserys let go, staring at her in disbelief.
“I am Khaleesi,” Daenerys’s chest heaved.
“I will not have you order me around.” She was terrified.
From childhood until now, she had never talked back to him.
Viserys’s face twisted.
He drew the dagger at his waist and gritted his teeth: “I’m going to shave every hair off you, you little slut.” He grabbed her hair and pressed the dagger against her.
Crack!
A whip cracked through the air, coiling around Viserys’s throat.
Before he could react, he was yanked backward like a dog.
He fell to the ground, hands clutching the whip around his neck, his face turning bright red.
“I can’t breathe…” He kicked his legs, tears streaming down his face.
Drogo watched from a distance; the scene felt familiar.
Daenerys hurriedly shouted to Jogo, who had thrown the whip, “No, do not hurt him.” Her dothraki language was already quite fluent.
Quilo said from the side, “At least cut off his other ear to give him a lesson.” “Let him go, Jogo!
I don’t want him hurt,” Daenerys shouted at him again.
Jogo flicked his wrist, and the whip loosened.
Viserys lay on the ground, gasping for air, his face flushed red.
Rakalo, meanwhile, led Viserys’s horse away.
“Let him walk, Khaleesi.
To the Dothraki, a man who cannot ride is not a man at all; he is of the lowest status.
This way, we don’t hurt him, but he is still punished.” Daenerys glanced at him and nodded.
She turned back and deliberately used the common tongue, speaking clearly: “Fine.
Let my brother walk behind us.” “No!” he began to plead piteously with Daenerys.
“My dear sister, I raised you from a child.
Even if you don’t treat me as your King, you can’t make me walk!” Daenerys looked at him; he was covered in dirt, with tear tracks over the welts from the whip on his face, looking wretched.
Her heart softened for a moment upon hearing those words.
“To make my status lower than even these Dothraki savages…” But when Viserys looked up at her, his eyes were still full of venom.
Daenerys hardened her heart again.
“You shall walk.” Viserys gaped as he watched her mount her horse.
The corner of Drogo’s mouth twitched upward slightly.
He knew that Daenerys’s loathing for Viserys had deepened once more.
He rode over to her side.
“I just struck him,” she said to Drogo, her heart uneasy.
Drogo looked at her and noticed her body was trembling.
“Should I hate him?” she asked, her voice shaking violently.
“If I hate him…
will it make me less afraid of him?” “Whether you hate him or not,” Drogo said, “it is fine.
You are Khaleesi; you have the right to hate anyone, and the right to forgive anyone.” Daenerys did not speak.
The wind blew across the grasslands, drying the slight moisture in her eyes.