Dragonsmith

[bullhorned]

Characters: Gendry Waters, Daenerys Targaryen
Setting: A Song of Ice and Fire; Essos
Summary: Queen Daenerys has liberated Astapor and now continues her journey. But she's picked up a new wayward traveler from Westeros.

Comments

[bullhorned]

The road from Astapor was long, hard, and arduous. With so many people, it seemed almost impossible. The Unsullied moved as though no force in the world could bother them. But it was harder going for others. And for Gendry, he was longing for the days of cross country traveling under the shade of trees. It had been months since then, however. He'd been captured, he'd escaped, and by misfortune ended up on a slaver's ship.

Queen Daenerys, however, had treated him kindly. Ser Jorah Mormont barely paid him any attention, but Ser Barristan Selmy had given him a strange and knowing look that had been the same as Ned Stark and Jon Arryn before him. It unsettled Gendry, for it seemed as though the seasoned knight knew so much more about Gendry than he did about himself. And yet, he had become something of a welcome guest. He was not a lord like the queen's other Westerosi companions, but he was among the very few people who came from the country she'd been born to.

Weeks had passed like this, with spare conversation and introductions. The day came and went and night came. The procession set up camp and food and water was distributed. Yunkai was still many weeks away. Gendry ate and drank along, as he often did. He did not share language with most of those assembled, save for those who rode at the front. They were his betters. People of high birth, so utterly beyond the reach of a bastard born in Fleabottom. A bastard who stayed because he reasoned that he would never make it to Westeros unless it was with the queen's vanguard.

But as evening grew darker, when he was returning from making water, he was surprised to find that very same queen a fair distance from the camp. Alone. And walking further away still.

"... m'lady? I mean, your grace? What are you doing out here?"