S6, Chapter 2: DAENERYS

ACROSS THE BONE MOUNTAINS

A relatively long amount of time had elapsed since Daenerys Targaryen was riding on the black scales of Drogon fleeing the pits of Meereen.
The dragon, although highly elevated, dreaded danger at every swing of his wing.
For the first time, the mighty bird had been genuinely hurt by human hands. He was in danger. His mother was in danger. He flapped his wings as fast as he could for many, many leagues until his mother caressed a small part of his incredibly large neck, reassuring him that the danger was long gone and reminded him that they needed to eat.

Drogon flew south, and they could finally see land. They settled on a mountain top, not having the slightest idea where they were. Drained, Drogon drifted off into slumber, and Daenerys went searching for food.
She wandered off a little too far and got captured. She hadn’t seen Drogon since… Was he still hurting? Was he worried when mother never came back? Did he find food? Did he go back to Meereen, or was he searching for her?…The unanswered questions that troubled her thou —

— Dany suddenly feels a slight shove on her bare shoulder that instantly brings her back to the immediate moment.
Moddabha, a tall, attractive, dark-skinned, auburn-haired woman, holds a cluster of fresh turquoise berries in her left hand while speaking in a foreign tongue.
Dany politely smiles but gestures that her stomach can hold no more.

Daenerys is being escorted through the Sand Road across the Bone Mountains by a horde of female warriors, tall of stature, wearing ragged brown clothing underneath light armor with iron rings on their nipples and rubies in their cheeks.

The Sand Road, as its name indicates, is rather sedimentary due to successive cycles of erosion. The mountains get their name from the ivory-white color of the rock. The plentiful vegetation pops out all the more as a result of the contrast in colors.

The warriors were striding in double-file, Ready to protect one another at any given moment, regularly on the prowl for the unknown. Dany was stuck between two of them; Moddabha to her right and a rigid, hardened, imperceptible female soldier to her left. She was feeling as anxious as protected…

Dany had tried to explain to her captors that she needed to go West, back to Meereen, demanding her immediate release, but these confident combatants didn’t understand a word of it. None spoke the Common Tongue nor Dothraki nor High Valyrian. Instead, they pointed to the bushes and trees, making Dany realize that they were being watched.
Behind bushes and trees were the Mountain Wildings, a short but athletic dark-skinned people with almond-shaped blue eyes who prey on the weak. Their skin, similar in tone to the trunks of trees, was painted in ivory-white dots and stripes, allowing them to smoothly blend with the nature surrounding them.

Dany assumed that was their way of saying they weren’t collaring her. After all, she had been herded by these women like a precious prize. She was kept clean, fed, and catered to. She’d never encountered any captor behave in this way.
The memory of her late Khal was still fixed in her heart, but she knew he was a brutal savage, as were the rest of his Dothraki horde.
The Good Masters of Astapor, the Wise Masters of Yunkai, the Great Masters of Meereen, all cruel, cruel men… This was a welcomed change… as well as a curious one… “Why are they so considerate… Do they know who I am… Where are they taking me… What do they want with me?

They reached a mountain ridge and began their march down, but the view of the Great Sand Sea gave Dany pause — a dried-out canyon stretching parallel to the Bone Mountains — and the vast plains of the Jogos Nhai reaching for as far as the eye can see.
Dany’s eyes were worried, traveling East and South, North and West. They were focused on the birds, more so than the beauty of the geography. From far away, they appeared Drogon’s size, it gave her some form of hope that was quickly crumpled in front of her as they flew closer and closer in her direction.

A warrior taps her shoulder, bringing her back to the journey at hand, indicating that they must keep moving before the sun sets.
Hundreds of lights were shimmering in the gloaming when they arrived in Bayasabhad, a fortified city that reminded her of a lesser Vaes Dothrak with its broad, windswept streets paved in grass and mud, carved stone pavilions, manses of woven grass, wooden towers, and log halls.

Dany is brought to one of their arched halls to meet Zenad, one of the leaders, whose white hair and blind eyes contrasts her scar-riddled wrinkly skin revealing a past life of war and suffering. She looks into the void but Dany can feel her stare. Along with a heavy foreign accent, she speaks the common tongue and proceeds to explain to Dany what she had quietly assumed.

ZENAD: Welcome little lady… I was told you were wandering the woods and the grasslands by your lonesome. Very, very dangerous little lady. That is why you were brought here. The mountain wildlings can be bloody but the Joghos Nhai that roam around are cowardly enough to attack an unarmed, vulnerable, innocent little common lady like yourself.

That last comment made Dany smile. She felt common and it didn’t seem to bother her but it did make her ponder… “What if they knew who I was? would it matter? Would I be treated any differently? Would I be used as ransom? Or simply looked down upon? Maybe they already know who I am… What are they hiding behind the smiles?”
The dragon queen was in no hurry to trust strangers; however kind and caring they may be…

Dany remembered too well the betrayal she faced in Qarth at the hands of Xaro Xhoan Daxos and Pyat Pree. “Lord Daxos was kind and caring as well, trustworthy, even. Until he conspired with the warlock to steal my dragons and chain me into the House of the Undying. I was young and unworldly then. I am not a little princess anymore and will not make the same mistake…”

ZENAD: I see that you already met my daughter, Moddabha.

Dany smiled and nodded at Moddabha, who was standing straight, a few feet from her mother alongside another Warrior Maid standing next to her. Moddabha reciprocated the gesture.

ZENAD: What is your name child?

Dany’s gaze immediately turned back to Zenad’s blind glance.

DANY: My name…

“I am Daenerys Stormborn Targaryen. First of my name. Queen of the First Men and the Andals. Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea. Mother of Dragons and Breaker of Chains…”

DANY: …Dany.

ZENAD: And where are you from Dany?

Zenad’s interrogating tone was still welcoming.

DANY: …Meereen.

ZENAD: Meereen! Mighty city.

DANY: Yes, yes.

Dany quickly realizes that she is fluent in the common tongue…

“What if she asks me where I’m from? Where I’m really from? Westeros? How did I end up in Meereen? I’m too light skinned to be from Meereen…. But she can’t see that… No, the warriors must have told her what I look like, they must have. How did I end up here? On a dragon? I don’t even know where “here” is!”

ZENAD: You were raised in Meereen?

DANY: No… No, I wasn’t.

Zenad, curious, awaited a slightly more elaborate answer while Dany, nervous, shuffled the contradicting considerations swimming in her head.

DANY: I was raised in Pentos… My parents died when I was still little… in the crib. I was adopted by Magister Illyrio Mopatis.

ZENAD: A learned man?

DANY: He taught me everything he knew. My common tongue is almost as good as my Valyrian.

Dany cracked out a nervous smile while Zenad, transfixed on the void, fragmentized a broad smile of her own.

ZENAD: Language… The only way to truly master one’s culture is to understand its language.

DANY: I couldn’t agree more.

Dany was weighing her options as she knew the interrogation would not end here…

“If I speak the truth and tell her who I am… Maybe this isn’t Qarth and these are honest women. There’s a considerable chance she may accept me, even respect me. But what of my son? I came on his back and he can’t be far away. They will fear for their lives, knowing a dragon is near from here. I could tell them he won’t hurt them and why would they believe me? For anyone that isn’t me, a dragon is a weapon. And a weapon must be destroyed before it has time to fire… No, I am Dany from Pentos…”

DANY: It is the reason I ended up in Meereen. As a translator… For Master Loraq… Well, not my master anymore since… since…

ZENAD: Since the Dragon Queen…

Dany gave reflected pause, reading the reaction of Zenad when she said the words. She couldn’t make anything of it, her stare was straight, null of sentiment.

DANY: …Since the Dragon Queen.

Daenerys never had to truly lie before — Why would a queen ever have to lie? — but her children, her advisors, her army, her people were far, far away. She was on her alone, and her only protection was precaution.

ZENAD: How did you wind up here Dany, so far away from home?

Dany took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts…

DANY: I was taken… Outside of Meereen… I was coming back home when I was taken by bandits… I knew I shouldn’t have left the city… I was bound and blindfolded… They sat me on the back of one of their horses. I’ve been riding for days, even weeks. I’m not sure… At one point, they stopped… For a long time. Maybe to hunt… I don’t know… And I made my escape.

Dany was trying not to shake relentlessly and she did the best she could but the emotions ran too high. “Did any of what I just said made any sense?” She wanted to take it back. Take it all back. Her breathing was inconsistent and Zenad took notice.

ZENAD: Are you well child? This must have been quite a shock. Shall I have the maids bring you water from the well?

DANY: I’m okay. I’m alright. I’ve had a long journey and I cannot remember the last time I’ve slept in a bed. I apologize.

ZENAD: No need to apologize little lady, if I was sitting where you are sitting, I would most likely be in the same form as you…

Dany thought Zenad would giver her a break; that she would let her rest and finish the conversation at sunrise… but the old blind warrior was immobile, awaiting… The silence became disconcerting and Daenerys Targaryen understood she had to fill the loose ends of her story before they could move forward.
Calmly and confidently…

DANY: While most were hunting, a couple of my captors stayed behind on watch and they were arguing in a tongue I did not know.
I knew they weren’t looking and I took the opportunity to run. Slowly at first, and then as fast as I could. I managed to rid myself of the blindfold and bind by cutting the rope on a sharp rock and when I looked back, they were no where in sight…

Zenad’s frown started to pleat. Dany, slightly trembling, was going over each section of her lie, ensuring the story was coherent.

ZENAD: Did you happen to notice what these bandits looked like?

DANY: It happened all too fast. Wearing black, I believe. I was blindfolded fairly quickly.

ZENAD: Are you certain you saw horses?

DANY: I heard them. Yes… And I was riding on one.

ZENAD: Did you see them with your own eyes? Did you see what the horses looked like? Their colors?

DANY: No. I don’t think so. I mean, they looked like horses…

ZENAD: And they brought you all the way here? Without lifting the blindfold once?

DANY: I thought it strange as well. I’m not sure what else to tell you.

“I am the Dragon Queen and I came here on the back of my dragon. I’m sorry I lied, I was worried you would see me differently. Can we begin anew?”
The words wouldn’t come out of her mouth. Her story was the story now.

Zenad turns her blind gaze facing her as Dany feels every inch of her disbelief.

ZENAD: What you’ve described… It sounds like Joghos Nai.

DANY: Joghos Nai?

ZENAD: An enemy we’ve been at war with for generations. They have the habit of sending captors to the West and East. They snatch common men and ladies like yourself, bring them back to their camps and use them for their sorcery… their blood magic…
You did well to run. Some say the tortures are so cruel, they are still felt long after death.

Dany didn’t take the time to sigh relief when she realized her lie fitted Zenad’s narrative. Instead, she nervously contemplated.
“What if it the Joghos Nai had found me wandering for food and not the warrior maids of Bayasabhad… Would I be screaming right now?”
Daenerys had only herself to rely on now, and for the first time in her life, she could feel the weight of it.
Zenad pushed her own weight onto her cane as one warrior maid came to lend a shoulder to her frail hand until she stood on her own two feet, with her back slightly leaned in.

ZENAD: I hope that the Warrior Maids treated you well on the Sand Road. You are not a prisoner here, little lady. This is your home for as long as you need it to be.
If you wish to leave, we escort YiTi traders every few moons, you can cross with them and when you arrive at their port, you can sail wherever you wish.
In the meantime, Moddabha will show you to your tent.

Zenad turned to leave the hall when Dany, unanticipatedly…

DANY: Would you happen to know when the next crossing would be?

Dany didn’t want to seem ungrateful. At that moment, she thought she had given offense.

ZENAD: You will have to wait half a moon. Do not trouble yourself little lady, this place is not as awful as it looks…

DANY: No. No, I didn’t mean-

Zenad gracefully retreated towards her chambers before Dany had time to apologize if she had overstepped, insulted her generosity, or let alone thank her for her gracious hospitality.

The darkness had veiled the clear blue sky and the city was at a striking peace. Dany was wandering the paved road as her room was being readied. Some women and their children were closing in the wooden doors of their stoned huts while others , dispersed from one another, on the streets, on their knees, murmuring to the skies.
Their vigorous, coarsened demeanor made It seem like the majority learned to fight before they learned to walk.
Dany turned her gaze in the direction of nearby laughter; little girls were pointing at her, whispering and giggling to one another. Dany knew they weren’t mocking; she realized that her white hair and pale skin gave a conflicting look. At night, it must have been as notable as a glowing firefly wandering the haunted forest. Dany smiled and waved at them while they quickly hopped in direction of their hovels, answering their mother’s calling.
“Where are the men hiding? Are there even men at all? How do women create life here? And what do they do with the sons?”
As Dany inquired and wondered, she was also peering, with tired eyes, at the millions of scintillating stars. One of them seemed to be moving restlessly. Drogon?