At this moment, high in the sky, Aegon II sat atop Sunfyre's back, looking down at the burning battlefield below.
His heart hammered like a war drum.
He saw the two dragons.
Meleys, scarlet and gargantuan, larger than Sunfyre.
Caraxes, blood-black and serpentine, also larger than Sunfyre.
The first time Aegon had seen Caraxes was when he was a child; his uncle had ridden the beast to King's Landing.
Aegon II let out an internal sigh. He had never truly wanted to be King.
He had been pushed forward every step of the way by his mother, Alicent, by his grandfather, Otto, and by his brother, Aemond.
He had never harbored the desire to harm his kin. He even understood the pain his father, Viserys I, must have felt.
But his mother always said Viserys was a weak man. Perhaps he was the same.
He thought of Jace, of Luke... He felt a twinge of regret.
He shouldn't have joined them in bullying and mocking Aemond. Perhaps if he hadn't, none of this would have turned out this way?
Back then, he thought the dragon was beautiful, its blood-red scales like burning gems.
Now, he didn't think it was beautiful. Now, he thought it was a monster.
'But where is my brother? Aemond, where are you?'
Aegon believed that Aemond must be hidden somewhere, waiting to deliver a fatal blow to the Black dragonriders.
"Go, Sunfyre!" he roared.
"Let's show them what we're made of!"
Sunfyre turned his head to look deeply at him. Within those golden eyes, there was far too much to say.
Sunfyre knew he could not defeat those two dragons, not even in a one-on-one fight.
But if his master Aegon commanded it, he would give his all. Even unto death.
Sunfyre dove.
In the sky, Rhaenys looked up at the golden dragon, momentarily stunned.
"Is that Aegon? How is he here?"
Daemon, riding Caraxes, banked around from the other side to hover parallel to her.
"I don't know," Daemon shouted, "but since he's here, don't let him leave!"
Rhaenys looked at him. Daemon's purple eyes flickered with a complex light.
He thought of his brother Viserys. To personally kill his child...
"He is your nephew," Rhaenys said.
"And so? Is he not yours as well?"
Rhaenys was silent for a moment.
She shook her head and shouted, "I cannot strike the blow. We are kin, after all..."
Daemon looked at her, shook his head, and scoffed.
"Then let the burden be mine."
Daemon knew clearly that it had come to a point of no return; blood had already been spilled.
The Blacks needed someone to be the kinslayer. Kinslaying? Those were the rules of the "False Gods."
He was a Targaryen! His ancestors came from Valyria.
A true Targaryen never believed in such gods; they believed only in their dragons.
Unless one side surrendered completely... but he was Daemon Targaryen!
How could he possibly surrender to that boy?! Rhaenyra might, but he never would.
Daemon would sooner feed his young sons, Aegon and Viserys, to a dragon than let them spend the rest of their lives living in the shadow of the Greens.
He desperately wanted to kill Aemond in this battle.
The boy was growing too fast; it made him afraid. When had the Targaryens produced such a monster?
Even if it meant they perished together in the end...
He paused and reminded her, "Watch for Vhagar. That black dragon was in this airspace not long ago; she might be hiding."
Rhaenys nodded. "Do not get entangled with him. Watch for an ambush from Vhagar."
Daemon remained non-committal. Vhagar was old and too massive.
As long as their dragons didn't get locked in a grapple, Vhagar would have no chance to close the distance.
The two dragons moved simultaneously. Meleys flanked from the left, while Caraxes closed in from the right.
They moved with perfect coordination, like a seasoned pair of hunters. Sunfyre banked sharply in mid-air, narrowly avoiding Meleys's first gout of dragonfire.
Aegon panicked. He didn't understand why his brother Aemond hadn't appeared yet.
"Run south! Fast, Sunfyre!" Aegon couldn't help but scream.
Aegon II wasn't afraid of looking like a coward; he just didn't want Sunfyre to die here. Beneath him, hearing his master's shout, Sunfyre visibly accelerated.
Like a streak of brilliant gold, rider and dragon began to flee southward.
But the incredibly swift second gout of dragonfire from Caraxes arrived, grazing Sunfyre's left wing and charring several golden scales.
Sunfyre let out a roar of fury. Aegon gripped the dragon-saddle with a death-grip, his heart beating so hard it felt like it would leap from his throat.
'Too fast.'
These two dragons were too fast. He could barely react.
'Damn it! Damn it!! Aemond, where the hell are you!!'
Aegon wanted to weep. Had he known it would be like this, he never would have led the army personally.
Those damned Maesters! That damned Septon! Those curs!
They had persuaded him to march. If he made it back alive, he would have their tongues!
Another gout of dragonfire, this time from Meleys, came head-on. Sunfyre pulled up desperately, the flames skimming past his belly.
The heat was so intense it made Aegon's cheeks sting despite having avoided the direct hit.
"Aemond! Aemond! Where are you!" Aegon screamed toward the high clouds in a panic.
Sunfyre turned to spit a counter-fire, but Meleys had long since dodged.
Caraxes lunged from the flank, his massive talons raking toward Sunfyre's belly.
Sunfyre tried to dodge, but failed.
Blood sprayed. Golden scales were torn away, and blood poured from the wound like a waterfall, splashing downward.
On the ground, the fleeing soldiers suddenly felt a wave of heat from above. Scalding dragon blood rained down.
"AAAH!"
Those hit by the blood shrieked in agony.
The dragon blood burned skin like sulfuric acid; men clutched their faces and rolled in the mud, others desperately tore off their clothes, and some were simply burned to death by the acidic blood.
In the sky, Sunfyre let out a mournful wail. Aegon's eyes turned red.
"Sunfyre!"
The golden dragon turned his head to look at him.
In those golden eyes was pain and fear. Sunfyre knew he couldn't escape. If he kept fleeing, his master would surely die.
At this moment, there was only one choice: a desperate, final stand. He spun around and slammed into Caraxes.
The two dragons became locked in a mid-air struggle.
Atop the Red Queen, Rhaenys frowned; she didn't know how to intervene without risking a hit on Daemon.
Sunfyre was a size smaller than Caraxes and lacked his raw strength. But Sunfyre went mad.
Truly mad. He bit and clawed with reckless abandon, throwing everything he had at Caraxes.
Daemon, seeing that Sunfyre actually had the nerve to turn and fight, felt a surge of humiliated rage.
"Madness?" he cursed. Beneath him, the Blood Wyrm clearly relished the thrill of the dragon-duel, letting out an excited roar.
Facing the Blood Wyrm's vicious claw, Sunfyre no longer avoided it. Instead, he lunged and bit down hard.
SHREEE!
Sunfyre let out a gut-wrenching scream! His left eye had been gouged out by Caraxes's talons!
"NO!!!" Aegon II watched in agony as his Sunfyre was maimed.
But a chunk of Caraxes's scales was bitten off, blood surging out.
The Blood Wyrm let out a roar of fury and raked his claws across Sunfyre's belly again.
More blood. Even more blood. Sunfyre shrieked, but he did not let go.
His teeth were locked onto Caraxes's left wing, tearing desperately as if trying to rip the wing from the body.
Caraxes trembled with pain, his claws raking into Sunfyre's belly over and over.
Every rake took a piece of flesh; every rake sent out a spray of blood.
The two dragons tumbled through the sky in a frenzy of biting and scratching, blood falling like rain.
Caraxes's talons raked into Sunfyre's belly once more, this time opening a wound deep enough to see bone.
Sunfyre's internal organs were nearly spilling out, yet he still would not let go. His teeth sank deeper and deeper into Caraxes's wing.
Caraxes, driven into a frenzy by the pain, used his other claw to bash Sunfyre's head. Once, twice, three times! Sunfyre's head was beaten into a bloody mess, yet he refused to release his grip.
"Sunfyre!" Aegon lay flat against the dragon's back, clutching the neck with everything he had, tears flowing uncontrollably.
He felt Sunfyre's body trembling. He felt the dragon's strength ebbing away. But Sunfyre would not let go.
Sunfyre turned his head to look at Aegon. That single look was one Aegon would never forget for the rest of his life.
This was his dragon... born extraordinary... just like him.
He remembered their first meeting, when the hatchling had boastfully puffed fire at him.
He remembered the pride as they flipped through the clouds above King's Landing.
He remembered the resolve at Dragonstone when the heavily wounded dragon slammed into Grey Ghost.
And now, at the brink of death, he saw the stubborn obsession of a dragon protecting his master.
"Sunfyre..." Aegon pressed his face against the warm scales.
Sunfyre let out a low, soft purr, the sound he made when he was happy.
Then, he released Caraxes's wing.
It wasn't that he didn't want to bite anymore; he simply no longer had the strength to hold on.
His body began to fall.
-----
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