The Bloodriders had previously been ordered to scout the terrain and local resources. Naturally, they couldn't travel by night and rest by day—the Bleeding Star hung in the heavens, dyeing the sky red, but relying on that dim crimson glow to see distant scenery was utterly impossible.
So last time, Aggo and the others had truly suffered.
This time was different.Their objective was clear. There was no need to check for nearby human traces or large beasts.
The Bleeding Star of blood and fire hung overhead. Without the elderly, weak, women, or children of the khalasar to slow them down, Dany rode at the very front. Her silver mare galloped joyfully across the endless red sands, hooves kicking up a thin trail of crimson dust.
Three horse-lengths behind her rode Jorah and her Bloodriders. Following them were twenty Dothraki screamers.
The thunder of hooves rolled across the land, carrying far into the distance. A sand lizard clad in reddish-brown scales poked its head out from the scrub, as if sensing the trembling of the earth.
"Skree—""Graa—轰—"
A sharp, grating cry suddenly rang out overhead.
The sand lizard, no larger than a wildcat, instinctively tried to retreat back into the grass—but what fell from the sky was a streak of dark-red flame.
Black smoke laced with the stench of sulfur erupted, instantly igniting the demon grass nearby.
The sand lizard squealed as it fled the sea of fire. In the next instant, the sky darkened, and it was yanked helplessly into the air. The sharp pain of fangs piercing its soft belly hadn't even driven away the panic in its heart when—
Boom.
A ball of blazing fire swept over it, and the sand lizard lost all consciousness.
Thud thud thud.
Horse hooves thundered past. The demon grass set alight by dragonfire was quickly trampled into the shallow red sand, leaving only thin wisps of white smoke swaying in the wind.
Dany lifted her head and glanced at the young dragons in the sky, fighting over their bloody meal. A satisfied smile curved her lips.
The Dothraki had an excellent sense of direction. The group barely took any detours and, around midnight, found the dragon skeleton.
Thinking about it, it made sense. Anyone without a keen sense of direction could never become a khalasar's outrider. The Dothraki Sea was even harder to navigate than the Red Waste, and outriders often scattered in all directions, sometimes riding a day or two away from the khalasar.
"Seven gods… is this really the skeleton of a living creature?!"
Even though she had heard many times that Balerion could swallow an aurochs whole, seeing a dragon skeleton as massive as a destroyer made Dany cry out in shock.
The bones exposed above the sand were gray-white. The deeper they went into the ground, the darker their color became. Only half of the skull had been visible at first; last time, Rakharo had dug away the sand burying the head to assess the dragon's size.
"If we completely dig it out, the workload will be enormous. It'll take far too much time…"
Dany climbed atop the dragon's skull, which was as tall as a two-story building, and looked out at the burial site that stretched like a winding ridge. Hesitation crept into her heart.
Jorah frowned as he examined the enormous skull."Princess, how do you plan to deal with this dragon's remains? Transporting all of it back seems unrealistic."
"Well…" Dany gave a wry smile. "To be honest, I really did plan to haul it back at first. Setting aside how many gold dragons dragonbone might fetch, just forging it into weapons—well, you've seen the power of dragonbone bows. A supreme weapon worthy of any warrior!"
"The horselords don't possess the techniques to forge dragonbone weapons," Jorah shook his head. "Only the finest smiths of Qohor can shape dragonbone into arms."
"Then what do you suggest?" she asked. "Leave it here and do nothing?"
Jorah rubbed his chin and said, "Select some of the more portable dragonbones to take back. Bury the rest on the spot. In the future… we can return for more if needed."
"The skull is too large and difficult to handle. Take bones from the wings instead."
With Dany's order, the horselords immediately got to work. They dug along the dragon's neck toward its abdomen. There was no need to dig too deep—just enough to search for broken bones.
The bone Rakharo had brought back earlier was one such fragment. The dragon truly seemed, as Dany had guessed, to have been too badly wounded to fly, falling from the sky midway through its journey.
"Eh? This… this bone is so slender. No, that's not right…"
A Dothraki stopped digging and picked up a forty-centimeter-long bone rod from the sand, turning it over in confusion.
Following the route of "skull—neck—spine—wings," the horselords dug out a winding trench.
The sand was loose—much easier than expected. The trench quickly reached two to three meters deep.
By the time the sky had darkened into a deep indigo, they had already reached the middle of the neck.
"Khaleesi! Something's wrong! This isn't dragonbone—I've dug up a human corpse!"
The Dothraki shouted loudly, his voice trembling with fear."This isn't a human. It's a demon. A demon's corpse. Humans aren't supposed to look like this!"
"A demon! A demon's corpse!"
The other horselords gathered to look and cried out in terror as well.
As the big boss, Dany naturally didn't need to do any labor. She had been training the young dragons nearby.
Hearing the commotion from the pit, she hurried over and leaned forward, shouting,"There are no demons. Demons wouldn't dare approach a dragon, even a dragon that's been dead for years! That must be a human—uh…"
She had started out confident and loud, but as the crowd parted and she saw the twisted remains half-buried in the reddish sand, her voice caught in her throat.
The corpse was simply too horrifying.
It was curled into a fetal position, but it wasn't a mere skeleton.
Its skin looked like purple-black demon scales, tightly clinging to the bones. Thumb-sized, rough "scales" like old tree bark covered its entire body.
The arms folded against its chest—were those really arms, and not some kind of creature's claws?Ten dagger-like fingers stabbed toward the sky, as if ready to pounce and tear into flesh at any moment.
The corpse itself was small, no larger than a starved child, yet its fangs and claws were nearly twenty centimeters long—grotesquely disproportionate.
Most terrifying of all, the eyeballs in its sockets had not decayed.
Yes—had not been broken down by bacteria.
The deep-purple eyes were surrounded by a black, tar-like viscous substance, glaring at the crowd with living malice. Its mouth, split almost one hundred and eighty degrees open, seemed to be roaring a demonic curse.
"Fuck…"
She cursed in Earth-speak before quickly switching to the local style."Seven hells, Ser Jorah. You're well-traveled—do you know what race this is?"
She hadn't forgotten this was a fantasy world. With Children of the Forest and giants around, goblins or gnolls wouldn't be too surprising.
"He should still be human," Jorah said. He was also digging in the pit. Walking over to the first Dothraki who had found the corpse, he took the pale bone rod from his hands.
"Princess, look."
He held up the bone and gestured toward the demon corpse's left leg."The body is missing a lower leg. This bone in my hand is it. According to your earlier speculation about the dragon's origins—a dragon escaped Valyria during the Doom.
Then is it possible that it was ridden by a knight?"
"The dragon was mortally wounded and fell from the sky. The knight broke his leg in the fall, causing the lower leg bone to separate from the body."
Aggo objected,"But look how long that shinbone is. It doesn't match this small corpse at all. If this really was a human, then he must've been a dwarf."
The lower leg bone—without the foot—was over forty centimeters long. Its owner must have been a tall, powerfully built man.
Yet the curled corpse was no more than one-point-two meters tall.
"It's said that from the Land of the Long Summer to the ruins of Old Valyria beyond the Smoking Sea, the curse still lingers," Jorah stood up and looked at Dany gravely."From Volantis to Slaver's Bay, there are Valyrian roads left from the days of the Freehold. Yet merchants would rather sail around the Valyrian ruins, traveling several times farther. That road leading to Mantarys is called the Demon Road."
"But wasn't Valyria destroyed by volcanic eruptions?" Dany asked, puzzled. "How does that have anything to do with a curse?"
"I don't know," Jorah frowned. "Perhaps the vengeful spirits of the ancient Valyrian dragonlords? Everyone knows Valyria was a civilization that mastered dragons and blood magic."
"Heh. Just now you were saying this 'dragonlord' died horribly because of a curse," Dany pointed at the demon corpse and laughed."Isn't that contradicting yourself?"
"If it wasn't a curse, then why did not a single person or dragon escape Valyria?" Jorah fired back."Dragons can fly! Lava and fire are terrifying, but they can't burn dragons. How, then, did all the dragons die?"
"Maybe he was cursed and rode his dragon to Qarth to seek help from the warlocks," Aggo interjected.
At first, the horselords had been terrified. But after seeing the Khaleesi and Jorah argue in front of the 'demon' for so long without it doing anything, their courage slowly returned.
"The warlocks of Qarth are indeed famous," Jorah said with undisguised scorn."But they're famous precisely because they deceive the world with false magic. Even in Westeros, those blue-lipped frauds have appeared."
"Then…" Aggo thought for a moment and pointed east."He might have ridden his dragon to the Shadow Lands beyond the Jade Sea. That place is full of sorcerers and shadowbinders. The maegi the Khaleesi burned learned her demon-summoning arts there."
"Why do you assume he went seeking help?" Jorah scoffed."What magic could possibly surpass Valyria's?"
"Whether he planned to go to Asshai to find sorcerers, or was driven mad by the fumes and flew here at random, it has nothing to do with us," Dany said, pointing at the demon-like corpse and giving her order.
"Don't touch it directly. Go gather tree trunks and wild grass nearby. Burn it on the spot. The Valyrians believed in cremation—I won't be disrespecting this dragonlord predecessor."
The horselords immediately stopped digging, climbed out of the pit, and scattered to gather firewood.
Around nine in the morning, Dany's three dragons breathed fire together, igniting the piled wood in the pit. Then dozens of people leaned against the giant dragon bones to escape the sun, waiting until evening to resume work.
As for Dany—she had the most comfortable spot of all.
She set up her rest inside the dragon's mouth. The massive skull completely blocked the sunlight. Lying on the cleaned lower jawbone, it was cool, comfortable… and strangely delightful.
...
The fully completed English PDF of this fan-fic is now available on my Patreon shop.If you want to support my work and enjoy the entire story in one go, grab the PDF and binge-read it from start to finish without any breaks.
Patreon Shop:patreon.com /InkNovels
Here are a few fan-fic titles that I've recently uploaded on my Patreon:
"Game of Thrones: Dragon Prince"
"Game of Thrones: Political Life"
"Game of Thrones: Holy Flame"
"The Game of Thrones Upgrade System"
"Game of Thrones: Lannister Kingdom"
"Game of Thrones: Godzilla vs. Dragons"
"Game of Thrones: Ruler of the Deep Seas "
"Game of Thrones The Glory of a Knight"
"Game of Thrones: The Most Powerful Dragon Queen"
" Game of Thrones: From the Elden Lord to the Young Wolf"
"Game of Thrones: Rise of a Lord with the Army-Building System"
(End Chapter)