House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

The Stepstones are a chain of islands between the southern Narrow Sea and the northwestern Summer Sea. The islands lie east of Dorne, in Westeros, and west of the Disputed Lands, in Essos. There are more than a dozen islands in the Stepstones, with Bloodstone being the largest of them.

At that moment, a red dragon with a slender, serpentine body cut across the sky with a curious shape. Caraxes had a smaller face than other dragons; two small horns grew from his head and pointed forward. This made his face look like that of a demon risen from the depths of the Seven Hells.

The dragon slid through the air and landed on a mountain. Caraxes’s blood-red eyes stared at his rider, and with a quick movement of his throat, he regurgitated a dozen large fish.

Daemon looked at the fish covered in dragon saliva with an expression of disgust and showed a look of helplessness. For some reason, his dragon liked feeding him. As if he feared Daemon would grow thin from going so long without eating.

"I am not hungry." Daemon spoke in High Valyrian, and Caraxes understood perfectly but showed a cruel expression and stared firmly at Daemon.

Letting out a sigh, the Rogue Prince picked up one of the fish from the ground and tossed it into the fire, burning in flames not far from him.

Caraxes showed a very human look of satisfaction and lay down on the ground. Curling around Daemon, unconsciously, protecting him.

Dragons were intelligent, just as much as humans, but that did not mean wisdom. Unlike humans, who had developed language, culture, history, and civilizations, dragons never did any of that. They were solitary creatures and often only met one another during mating season.

So, despite having the capacity to build civilization, they never truly did and remained more like animals than an intelligent race.

Daemon ignored his dragon and looked toward the distant port on the horizon. Even being dozens of kilometers away, one could see the trail of smoke rising along the sky like enormous gray fingers.

Decades had passed since the last cleansing of the Stepstones; the largest island of the archipelago, Bloodstone, was infested with pirates and outlaws. They had built an entirely wooden port town along the island’s coast.

It was a completely chaotic town with no organization of any kind. Daemon assumed the stench of that town was even worse than King’s Landing, which was quite an achievement. Originally, the prince had planned to attack as soon as he arrived, but, after seeing the town, he chose to wait for nightfall.

After all, Daemon might be arrogant, overbearing, conceited, and impulsive, but that did not make him a fool.

Looking at the wooden town, a cruel smile appeared on Daemon’s lips. Building a town out of wood might seem like a good idea, but only when your enemy did not use fire as his primary weapon of attack.

"I hope the Dornish lords arrive quickly with my brother." Daemon muttered coldly. He knew better than anyone that his sole mission was to wipe out these pirates and protect the Stepstones. Governing the place would be entirely up to Viserys and the noble houses of Dorne.

Something he was quite pleased about. Standing by, relaxing while others worked, was something very agreeable to Daemon.

-

When the last ray of sunlight bathed the Narrow Sea, darkness began to swallow the world. Soon, a soft light shone over Bloodstone.

However, the pirate town was still full of light. Torches, bonfires, and watchtowers, everything was lit. After centuries of repression and massacres at the hands of the Seven Kingdoms, the Free Cities, and everywhere else, even fools know how to adapt, let alone pirates and bandits.

Unfortunately, these pirates did not know that the Seven Kingdoms and Braavos were at war; otherwise, they would have already fled far away long ago.

The Stepstones, despite being barren and without any truly valuable resource, had a simply perfect strategic position. The tolls the pirates charged merchant ships made these pirates wealthy men. However, like any pirates, instead of keeping the toll rates under control, they began charging more and more.

When merchant ships could no longer bear the losses, they stopped sailing. This already touched the interests of many powerful people in the Free Cities. So, a cleansing would be carried out, and the Stepstones would be cleared, at least for a few days.

But that was enough, for it reminded the pirates who the true masters of the seas were. Years later, when it happened again, another cleansing would be carried out, and so on.

None of the Free Cities truly wanted to destroy the pirates once and for all. The reason for this was that, besides being complicated, it was expensive, time-consuming, and incredibly difficult.

However, a true cleansing was about to take place.

On a mountain, Caraxes opened his eyes and bared his sharp teeth, as if smiling. Daemon, already mounted in the saddle, wore black armor and a helm over his head. There was a shield on his one arm.

Caraxes raised his serpentine body and looked toward the lit town. He seemed to be smiling in that moment, a cruel, sadistic, and cold smile. Without needing his rider’s orders, the dragon walked to the edge of the mountain peak and did not hesitate to plunge toward the ground.

The dragon wound through the air and drew his wings in a little closer to his body, gaining even more speed in the descent to the ground. Daemon narrowed his eyes against the strong winds and smiled with excitement.

Then, Caraxes fully unfolded his wings, climbing extremely fast toward the sky. Once he had gained enough altitude, he forced his body downward and began another free fall, but this one was aimed at the town below him.

In the town, a pirate could be seen lying back in a chair in one of the town’s four wooden towers. He appeared to be drinking, looking bored and angry.

"I hate when it is my turn to patrol." The man grumbled as he drank large amounts of rum. "That bastard Arthur is probably screwing his sheep while I am out here in this damned cold, staring at nothing."

Drinking half the rum in one go, he did not bother wiping away the alcohol that spilled onto his thick beard and dirty shirt. The pirate refilled his cup from the wooden bucket beside him and went back to drinking as if there were no tomorrow.

"Huh?" Suddenly, the pirate looked up at the sky and glimpsed an enormous red shadow in the night sky. Then, he shook his head and drank his entire cup of rum. He simply figured he was seeing things and nothing more.

Caraxes, drawing ever closer to the town, lowered his head and readied himself for his rider’s orders.

Daemon, the cloak on his shoulders whipping violently, whispered.

"Dracarys, Caraxes!"

Caraxes opened his enormous mouth, and flames burst forth from it. Red as blood, as violent and as deadly as they were meant to be. Just like Smaug burning Lake Town, Caraxes poured flames over the town.

Everything happened in a mere instant. A long band of fire appeared through the middle of the town, swallowing everything and everyone. Because the town was built of wood, it became the perfect environment for dragonfire to spread.

Caraxes did not feel satisfied and twisted his body, changing direction in the air. He flew almost vertically around the town while flames poured out like an endless torrent of fire.

The red flames rose into the sky, fed by the town’s wood, making it look quite beautiful from a distance, but that beauty was only appreciated by those who were not inside the town, for hell had unfolded within it.

Screams of horror and fear rang out through the whole town; those who could no longer scream had already been reduced to ashes by the heat of an adult dragon’s fire.

Amid the ashes of men and wood, Daemon looked at the hell he had created with a single word and felt like a god. Power pulsed through his veins; watching people burn only left him strangely thrilled.

Caraxes, sensing his rider’s pleasure, poured out flames with even greater intensity.

The rider and dragon only feared that the world might be too calm.

--------

Note: Payoner didn’t accept my Patreon payment, and now I have to wait 7 to 10 days to get my money.

I’m going to be living on cup noodles for about three weeks... Living alone is sad.

Read the advanced Chapters on my Patreon!

/GOTSW

Read my other books:

House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos

Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.

Game Of Thrones: The King’s Court Wizard