“Gods…” Arthur whispered in awe.
His eyes widened.
His jaw slackened.
Even fear and anxiety faded before the sight spread out before him.
“Real dragons.”
Enormous bones filled nearly the entire hall.
The colossal remains sprawled across the cavern as though the dragons themselves had come here to die.
Their skeletons formed a haunting monument to ancient battles and forgotten ages.
Great ribs rose from the floor like gigantic arches, creating chaotic labyrinths of bone.
Skulls crowned with long horns lay scattered throughout the cavern.
Empty eye sockets stared into nothingness, carrying a silent menace.
Massive jaws hung open as though the creatures had been frozen in an eternal roar at the moment of death.
Their teeth protruded like enormous daggers.
Among the gigantic skulls were smaller ones as well.
One was scarcely larger than a dog’s.
Only its curved saber-like teeth revealed it for what it truly was.
Unbeknownst to Arthur, he had stumbled into the place where the remains of dragons had been carried by servants under the orders of a certain corpulent Master of Whisperers.
The man, a fierce hater of dragons, had ordered that every reminder of Targaryen greatness be removed.
Yet removed was a word open to interpretation.
This immense cavern, where living dragons had once nested and hatched their young, had proven a perfect resting place.
Here, too, one of the last Targaryen dragons had found its final refuge.
The floor was strewn with smaller bones, fragile remnants of creatures dead for ages.
And then, in the pale glow cast by the mysterious symbols, Arthur saw the most astonishing sight of all.
A gigantic dragon skeleton stood at the center of the cavern like a monument to vanished ages.
Its wings, once mighty enough to blot out the sky, might have covered an entire district when spread to their full extent.
Now they resembled shattered frameworks, broken beneath the weight of time.
Its immense tail coiled across the chamber like a sleeping serpent.
It rose higher than any of the surrounding remains, nearly touching the distant ceiling, a final reminder of the beast’s former majesty.
Beyond it, another tunnel ascended into darkness.
To Arthur’s eye it seemed far too narrow for so vast a creature ever to have passed through.
For a long moment he simply stood and stared.
This was not merely a skeleton.
It was a legend.
He felt the cold breath of time itself whispering of ancient wars and battlefields where dragons had served as living instruments of glory and destruction.
Few men would ever witness such a thing.
Fewer still would stand amid secrets hidden beneath stone for centuries.
And he felt, somehow, that history itself had opened before him.
Each breath seemed hushed within this sanctuary of dead giants.
The air was saturated with something ancient, something mysterious that permeated every corner of the cavern.
Reluctantly he tore his gaze away.
This place held far more secrets than he could imagine.
And he found himself drawn to those secrets with irresistible force.
Carefully he climbed down, gripping cracks in the stone wall.
His feet seemed to move of their own accord.
Step by cautious step he threaded his way between the fragile remains toward the enormous grinning skull resting atop one collapsed wing.
It was so vast that, to the boy’s untrained eye, his entire orphanage could have fit inside it.
Arthur’s eyes burned with excitement.
And behind that excitement smoldered a fierce purple fire hidden beneath ice.
Had anyone been there to witness him, no observer could have doubted that the bond between dragon and dragonlord lived within his blood.
But there was no one there.
Only old bones.
To touch a legend.
That was all he desired.
The boy who had known nothing beyond the narrow fish-scented alleys of Flea Bottom now stood before something greater than any dream he had ever dared imagine.
Raised amidst filth and poverty, he gazed upon the grandeur of long-dead giants with awe and reverence.
Not long ago he had stood watching great ships sail toward unknown lands, holding his breath as he imagined himself far from the grim streets of his childhood.
Yet even those dreams of adventure and discovery seemed insignificant beside what he saw now.
This was no pious tale about the Seven.
It was not one of the old sailors’ stories.
Nor some fantasy he clung to before sleep.
Here, among stone and dragon bone, time itself seemed frozen.
And before him stood a true legend.
Slowly he reached out his hand, unable to resist.
To touch those ancient bones.
To touch the remnants of power that had endured across centuries.
It felt both sacred and forbidden.
Nothing in his life of hardship, hunger, and constant struggle could compare to this moment.
This chamber embodied everything he had ever dreamed of.
Freedom.
Adventure.
A world beyond the narrow boundaries he had always known.
At last he stretched upward, rising onto his toes, and brushed the very edge of the giant jaw.
The instant his fingers touched it, a sensation beyond words engulfed him.
A brilliant flash tore through the cavern.
It seemed as though the history sleeping within this place had suddenly awakened.
But that was an illusion.
This ancient hall had never been a sanctuary.
Many hands had touched these bones before.
No.
The light did not come from the remains.
Something hidden within the boy himself had finally found release, touching for a fleeting moment the faint echo preserved within those ancient relics.
Energy surged through him.
It flooded every part of his body, filling his mind with visions he could not comprehend.
A crackling sound echoed through the air, as though time itself were beginning to fracture.
Arthur closed his eyes.
Images exploded across his consciousness.
Dragons soaring above battlefields.
Wreaths of fire.
Monstrous creatures torn apart by ribbons of darkness.
Towering structures unlike anything he had ever seen, reduced to dust in moments.
Green flashes.
A world where magic and reality were woven together as one.
The visions grew stronger.
They merged and twisted within his mind, dragging him deeper and deeper into darkness.
At last the boy could bear no more.
His eyes blazed with searing purple light.
Then rolled back.
His legs gave way.
He collapsed heavily onto ancient bones that cracked beneath his weight and sank into merciful unconsciousness.
A/N:
While everyone else is waiting for updates, com / Captain_Lag (remove the spaces)