This is my pet project that I had been dreaming of doing. By this point, I must admit, I have some craziness on Targaryen lore and so; I took up this idea and spun a tale of it. If you like this story, let me know by leaving comments. I enjoyed writing this chapter. Hope you guys do, too.

Note: This story occurs during the time of Aegon the conqueror, with his sister-wives Rhaenys and Visenya. Do not confuse it with Rhaegar's children.

THE BASTARD DRAGON

Irina stuffed seven sweet plum candies into her mouth, chewing it along the way of stealing the remaining ten candies from her brother's chambers. Her father had yelled at her for eating too much, and he already hid her candies somewhere in the lair of the dragons. Mother had sweetly requested her to not eat any more, but the urge was hard for Irina to control. She didn't even bother to think to steal from her big sister's chambers. Visenya would burn Irina with a mere flicker of her purple eyes.

Rheanys would taunt Irina by calling her a 'fat dragon' causing her to cry. But her brother would do neither of what her sisters would, and he never ate any candies, either. It would anyway go to waste. It didn't mean Aegon had a liking for her. It was just... he wouldn't care of her presence, even if she was caught stuffing all those honey laced plum candies. She was often invisible to Aegon's purple orbs.

Lady Irina of House Targaryen, last child and third daughter to Lord Aerion of House Targaryen and Lady Agnes of no noble house, had seen six name days, but forgotten by her half-siblings most of the time and they would never take her into any of the games they played. Visenya was nine years older than her and Irina often dreamed of becoming a great warrior like her big sister, who owned a Valyrian sword called Dark Sister and claimed a great dragon called Vhagar. But Visenya wouldn't accept Irina even as her squire, for she was fat.

Irina's swollen mouth full of candies dropped dead without moving, while her sticky fingers from the sugar and honey visually pointed her that the candies might be the reason why she was fat with big fluffy cheeks unlike her half-siblings' square-cut jaw, with high cheekbones. Irina always wanted to look like them. With silver-gold hair and purple eyes, same like her father Aerion Targaryen. Perhaps they might allow her in their games if she looked like them, but she took over her mother with brown hair and sparkly blue eyes, which was nowhere close to her siblings.

Abruptly, the wooden door screeched, and she instinctively went to hide behind the stool, forgetting that this was Aegon's chamber. When she realized she had no need to hide, she peeked out and found Aegon. He was making weird sounds.

"Rhaenys... Take it slow... Oh, Gods. Wait..."

Her sister was sticking to Aegon's body, like those juices from sweet candies had stuck on her fingers, doing something with her hand to Aegon's breeches that clearly caused her brother to scream in pain. She must be hurting him. They often played silly games, which she was never allowed to involve.

"So, tell me, brother. It is going to be our sweet sister, the warrior, Visenya over me. Isn't it?" Rhaenys asked, pulling something from Aegon's body that her brother cried out.

"Fuck..." Aegon screamed, while his back was shown to Irina. "How many times should I tell, I will not let that happen?" When Aegon said, he twisted Rhaenys silver-gold hair and even her sister was screaming in pain.

"Shall I join the game too?" Irina questioned, clicking her tongue to taste the remnant juice of the plum candy. Slowly, like dragons staring at scorched meat moments before devouring it, her brother and sister turned to see Irina in a panic set motion. "But, don't hurt me." She requested, crossing her hand to her heart.

"You little bastard dragon!" Rhaenys screeched, and Irina ran, realizing her sister was angry. Irina hated that name, which Rhaenys often preferred to address her with. Within few steps, her sister pulled Irina's soft velvet gown and dragged her to a corner, all the while twisting Irina's ear with her long fingers. "What have I said about you entering and stealing my candies, fat dragon?"

"Not to do so..." Irina whispered. "But this isn't your chamber. Its Aegon's and he never scolds me for that." She defiantly crossed her arm, but within a few moments her legs were floating above the floor, while she was lifted like a piece of lamb offered to a dragon in a steel rod. It was Aegon who was lifting her by holding both her hands up in the air, and she was scared when he examined her with knitted brows. "Drop me..." She pleaded as a whisper. "Aegon... I am scared. Drop me." Her legs dwindled in air trying to push her body down, but it was of no use before Aegon's strength. His tight jaw was absolutely terrific to look at.

"What did you see?" Aegon questioned.

"Nothing. I promise... I just came to-" Irina bit her lips, unable to bear the pain in her arms. "-to eat candies. And then... you both were playing. I thought Rhaenys hurt you and you pulled her hair." Tears started building her eyes with the ache from her arm and Aegon turned to Rhaenys with a smirk gracing his lips.

"Yes... Remember that. If you tell anything that you heard to Visenya or your mother, I will make a good fat meal for Balerion, of you. Do you understand?" Irina nodded, fearing for Balerion, which apparently ate two Targaryens of the past who tried to tame and ride it.

When Irina picked the candy bits that stuck to her teeth with her tongue, Aegon pouted his lips and a small grin started to spread on his face. He never smiled, but sometimes, rarely, he would give her a twitch of it, whenever she stole eatables from his chamber.

"Now, if I ever find you coming to my chamber again, I will cut that ugly brown lock from your head. Run away." He ordered, making her cower, and she ran distantly to the door, hearing Rhaenys's loud laughter. Closing the door behind, when Irina examined her bruised arms, she was able to hear her sister's voice.

"Do you really think that ugly thing was from our father's seed?"

Aegon scoffed. "Whatever... She is not a true dragon though. Who cares, sister? Merely a bastard sister for us."

Irina's heart ached. With heaving chest she reached her solar, and eyed the Kookaburra bird, which her mother had presented for her last name day, which sat by the window. Lady Agnes was attached to birds and animals, giving hope to Irina that one day she would be able to ride the biggest dragon, Aegarax, that Aenar brought from the old Valyria before the doom. Aegerax was even bigger than Aegon's black dread and had tasted the blood of three Targaryen men and one Targaryen woman who tried to claim it. The last remaining of the five was Aegarax as Balerion being taken, but Aegarax was lethal and dangerous to anyone who approached his territory. Her father had been thinking of poisoning him, worried of enemies claiming that deadly dragon, which would be even more dangerous competition.

But Irina once dreamed of claiming Aegarax and fly into clouds like Rhaenys often took with Meraxes. When she had expressed this to her father, he laughed. "That is a dragon, Irina. The beast was named after the old Valyrian God who created the first dragon. You can never make him come under your control. But, I will gift you this for you are a dragon too." Her sire had offered her a dragon egg, with scales blue as crystal eyes of her orbs and she gladly took it, hoping day after day that it would hatch. She had slept with it, ever since her third name-day, praying to the old Gods, and the Gods of Valyria to let it hatch. But till date, it never hatched.

The Kookaburra laughed with a cackling sound, and she knew her mother was by the door. The silly bird, which was her present, never made any sound for her. The dragon egg which was her present never hatched. And Rhaenys's words repeated in her head.

"Mother, Am I a bastard?" She questioned before her beautiful mother stepped in. "Tell me if I am a true dragon or a false dragon. Am I a bastard dragon?" She asked with her plump lips pulled out to form a pout but her mother laughed kneeling before her. The Kookaburra flew to her mother's shoulder and gave a cackling laughter.

"You are a true dragon, Irina. Me and your father married before the old Gods and did all the rituals required for the Gods of Valyria too. So, you are not a bastard."

"If so-" She sniffed, wiping her eyes. "Why don't I look like them? They have silver-gold hair and purple eyes from old Valyria, but I don't."

Lady Agnes took her near the cushioned couch and made Irina to lie down on her lap, brushing her brown lock. "You belong to the Old Gods, my love. Do you remember the tale where I came from?" Irina nodded, remembering the old tale her mother was so fond of. "The houses, the names, are nothing before your blood. Yours has the pure, true magic and when you tune it, with a genuine purpose, you can turn the world the way you want it to be, Irina." Her mother ended swirling her fingers in air, and the Kookaburra flew wherever her mother's fingers pointed at. Irina jumped up seeing the magic and clapped her hands, finding the bird obey to anything her mother wished. With a small whistle from Lady Agnes, the Kookaburra started cackling again.

"Teach me... Teach me, how to do it. No one plays with me, here. The daughters from father's bannermen stay only for a fortnight with me and they leave calling me a bastard dragon. If you teach me this... I can make Visenya, Rhaenys and even Aegon to love me, mother. Please..."

"Irina..." Her mother hugged her close to chest. "They shouldn't love you for what you are capable of, but what your heart is made of. One day, they will love your pure heart, my little ice dragon..."

Irina made a long face knowing they wouldn't love her, who was fat and ugly. The only nice feature of her face was her eyes, with crystal blue having ice flecks sprinkled on it. "But I want them to like me... I don't want to be lonely, mother. None of them take me to a flight in their dragons." She said trying to wave her finger in the air to make the Kookaburra move, but it wouldn't.

"Forget them... How about we go for a horse ride?" Her mother asked, lifting her, and Irina nodded happily, for her mother was everything she needed to change her mood.

The next two moons that followed were followed by chaotic events that Irina didn't fully understand. Her father was often furious, and even her mother couldn't calm him. Aegon was disturbed, and he left with Balerion somewhere to the sky, followed by Rhaenys in Meraxes. Irina was left to her devices, as usual unbothered by any of her siblings. With time, she realized it could be because of her age. Visenya and Aegon were closer at age, and they often trained in the castle, competitively like warriors. Aegon doted on Rhaenys, for her sister knew how to please anyone she met. But with Irina being so small, they forgot her existence unless, if Rhaenys felt a mummer was missing in court. She wished her mother had a baby brother or sister for her to dote on.

Plucking a scented red rose from the plant that she and her mother had planted a few weeks ago, Irina lied down on the garden, which her mother whole-heartedly made. Irina enjoyed basking under the sun too. Her mother, Agnes, was born and bought up in dead cold North of Westeros, and so the lady preferred flowers over candies. Irina enjoyed their fragrances, too. When the breeze of flowered scent brushed her nostril, Irina chuckled. As she stared up to the sky, there was something like a bird falling. Irina tried to focus by shrinking her orbs, and sooner the bird came lower and lower, and she knew which bird it was.

Before she rose to run away, Balerion landed on the garden, crushing all the roses, tulips beneath its giant paw, that was scratching the mud. Mother worked on this garden for a year. She would be wroth to see it destroyed. When Irina tumbled to stand up, behind her, Meraxes landed, destroying the rest of the garden.

"This is a garden. You can't land on flowers." She cried, picking up those pretty yellow roses in hand. But in response, Balerion roared, approaching her with fright of killing and eating her. She wailed, unable to stop fearing for the beast. The dragons were scary after all. Only when she cowered and knelt down, did the dragon stop moving and Aegon slid down from its back.

"He has to agree. There is no way we are letting go of Visenya." Aegon screamed approaching Rhaenys, who had already slid down from Meraxes.

"Father asked you to choose. And will you not choose me and be content with it?" Rhaenys snapped.

"Visenya has Vhagar. Tell me, sister. What will happen when dragons go to another family?" Aegon questioned. Balerion and Meraxes both spread its wings and ran in the opposite direction, fluttering and making the dirt and sand pepper on Irina's body as it took flight. She turned all around, blinking her eyes to see all her mother's passion turn into dirt. "Father has to agree, and he knows it is the wise decision. The dreams don't lie."

Irina collected what remained of the flowers, and when she felt a pair of eyes piercing her back, she turned around to see Rhaenys smirking, with her hand across her chest.

"This new decoration suits your face, half-sister, with mud and shit."

Irina ignored her sister, collecting rest of the flowers, which was decent enough, with sadness and dreadness filling her heart. She could console her mother by offering help to fix the garden. What she didn't expect was to hear Kookaburra give a strangling noise that was different from what it often gave, which was like laughter. It was ominous. When ravens, birds, eagles, owls circled above in the sky, Irina screamed, stomping her feet on mud, unable to accept her instinct.

"Hey... What's wrong with you?" Rhaenys asked, coming forward.

"My mother..." She barely finished before running to the Keep, directly rushing to her father's solar, but there were guards already moving around screaming and yelling something unintelligible to her senses. When she entered further, her father stood dumbstruck, staring at something, with eyes that were bagged with layers of skin tugging beneath. "Mother... Where is she? What happened to her?" She questioned, but when her father stood still, she turned towards the direction of his eyes, finding her gentle, kind mother lying dead in a pool of blood.

"No... No... No..." Irina screamed. Her eyes blurred, going red. "Get up, mother. Please." Irina wanted to unsee it. It shouldn't happen. Someone should change this. And she would do anything to change this moment. She would jump before any dragon to change this.

"Maester Gerard will know what to do. Come, mother... We shall go to his tower." She dragged her hand, unwilling to give up. "Please... Don't do this to me." Her voice strangled seeing Mother's beautiful crystal blue eyes staring at the ceiling without a blink. "Use some magic and come back to me. Please..." She wailed, holding her mother's head with those fragile little fingers that was of no use. She swung her hand in air, trying to imitate what mother would often do, but nothing worked.

"Don't leave me, alone. I don't want to be here without you. Please... Please..." She begged, hugging her mother's body, while her left hand still held those flowers from the garden. The same garden which could be seen from the window nearby her body. With a tall chair lying next by her mother, she realized her mother had taken a fall after climbing the chair to look through the window. "Why do you do this to me? It hurts, mother. My heart hurts. You said you would never hurt me. Please... Don't do this to me... I won't let you go." She screamed, beating her fist on the cold stone floor before her father scooped her away.

"Father... Ask her to come back. She loves you more and if you tell, she will come back with her magic. Please..." She shouted, clinging to her father's legs. And moments later, she was dragged out of the chamber by her sister, Rhaenys, who spoke something about how dirty she was looking and how unladylike she was mourning. Nothing went into Irina's head, when they threw her into a large bathtub and maids scrubbed till her skin went peach.

Dressing her in Targaryen colours of black and red, they left her into her chamber and she saw the Kookaburra come and sit on her shoulder on its own will, for the first time. When she waved her finger in air, it gave a cackling laughter. "Mother..." She called, and the Kookaburra gave another laughter making her mouth twitch even while tears streamed down her cheeks, which the bird pecked with love and rested its head against her chin.

Six months after her mother was cremated, she laid the first batch of daisies, roses and tulips of all colours that bloomed in the new garden. Her father and she did the rework of garden together, while he listened to the tale of how her mother became Kookaburra. Although Irina couldn't successfully bring back the same beautiful design bed in the garden, the flowers bloomed at the same time.

"I miss speaking with you, mother." She cried, standing by the cremated place. The bird pecked her shoulder, and she nodded. "I know you are in here. But I want to go for a horse ride with you and speak with you. It becomes so lonely, you know. And Rhaenys laughs at me, calling me a mad girl for speaking to a ghost."

Not just Rhaenys, everyone in the castle thought her to be a simple-minded girl. Even the Maester was unable to believe she could solve some numbers. She knew how they mockingly laugh at her behind calling her names.

"How is my new dress?" She asked swirling her ballooned gown made of intricately woven myrish silk with layers. When her bird cackled, she smiled. "Today, my brother and sisters are going to get married. Guests are arriving from House Massey, Celtiger and Velaryon..." She sunk in that last house name, and the bird cackled. "Of course, they will pass comments on me and snidely remark me as a bastard, eventhough I am not." Lady Valaena Velaryon was her siblings' mother, who passed away so many years back. And as Lady Agnes was not a lady by birth, many lords took offense for her father's second marriage with her mother, which Irina recently understood.

"When you were alive, I didn't bother to understand any whispers and gossips. Now..." Irina made a long face on her fat double chin and started walking towards the Great Hall. "I understand your value, only after you have left, mother." She whispered.

Standing alone in the Hall, far away from prying eyes, she observed the wedding ceremony held in the customs of Valyria, which was getting officiated by her father. That was when a tall man, like Aegon, black bearded with pulled back hair, came towards to her with a smile. For a fine moment, she thought the smile might have been offered for someone else, but he approached straight towards her.

"How are you doing, my lady?" He asked.

"Fine, I suppose." She answered. "Sorry..." She remembered her curtsies, and her plump little form struggled to give a proper poise like Rhaenys, earning a chuckle from the man. "My lord."

"I am no lord, Irina. Have you forgotten me? This is Orys..."

Irina tried hard to recognize him, but she didn't quite catch the name or his face.

"That is my mistake. You were just a child, when I met you last, running around the castle with giggles and laughter." Irina smiled unknowingly for meeting a person who took his time to see her roaming. "You have grown up, now. How many name days, is it?"

"Six... No- Seven." She smiled.

"Your brother seems to be excited taking both of your sisters. Who do you think he loves more?" Orys asked.

"At least, he loves them both. How does it matter, who gets more of his love?" She said surprisingly very sad, staring at her siblings who again missed involving her in any of their happiness. If her father was not there, she was sure they would have not even bothered to check on her.

"Father cares for you, my lady." He said, sadly. "Do you know, I am your half-brother too?"

"Really?" She asked with wide eyes, but he didn't look like her siblings. "How come that is possible?"

"I am a bastard born to a Baratheon woman, by our father." He said with a distaste in his lips. Orys was sad, just like her.

"It doesn't matter, I suppose. They call me a bastard too. My mother often said blood matters, not the name." She consoled him and his sadness was replaced by a laugh loud as a thunder.

"It is what we believe in here..." He said motioning his fingers to his heart. "Doesn't it?"

"Yes, brother." She noted aloud, and he wound an arm around her shoulder with a small display of affection. Irina wondered how good it would have been if Orys also lived with them in the castle.

Following the wedding ceremony, in which both her sisters were standing as an epitome of beauty, with their hair styled and decorated like goddesses from unknown lands, the feast begun. Father took Irina along with him wherever he went and made her meet everyone, and although she greeted them, their instant reaction was a distaste of measuring her appearance. At a point, she told her legs were aching and took a faraway seat, wondering if Kookaburra would have had the worms for food. Father wouldn't allow her to bring the bird to the wedding even if he believed it was her mother. It would make Irina look more of a simple-minded girl, he told.

Rhaenys had taken great interest in arranging the wedding ceremony, meticulously collecting singers and musicians from the lands of Essos, who sand songs in high-Valyrian, bastard Valyrian, Tyroshi language and even the common-tongue of Westeros. It was a grand event with puppeteers, keeping their stalls and mummers doing their dwarf japes with so many lords, ladies and knights attending in their beautiful bright dresses. They danced elegantly, swaying their hips for the music, which Irina never learned. Rhaenys would say, "You have no hips, bastard-dragon. Only a thick log in its stead."

Irina refused to learn to dance after that, knowing it would not result in any good other than earning mockery from Rhaenys. But what caught her attention on that day was not Rhaenys with her bejeweled clothing or Aegon looking strong and charismatic. It was her oldest sister, Visenya. She was even more enigmatic than Rhaenys, but her face had a sharp dullness to it. Aegon offered his hand to Visenya, taking her to the middle of the hall for a dance, and they both swayed from one end to another with an elegant sway of hips and toes. There was perfection in both of them. In their looks, in their glances, in their disciplined moves, in their co-ordination. Everything was perfect.

After that, Rhaenys was taken by Aegon but their dance had no perfection, but more passion. They didn't move in a perfect rhythm but swirled to their accord, smiling and speaking in between. Irina sighed, still not understanding why Aegon married both of them. When a servant bought a fresh barrel of wine cask, she wondered if her first cup would taste good. Mother promised to offer her a goblet once she reached tenth name day. But mother was not here now, nor the bird to chide her.

As she kept measuring the cask, someone cleared their throat and Irina turned to see Aegon standing in front of her with a tilt in his head, measuring her. Everyone around her seat became silent, curiously observing.

"Come, sister. Share a dance with your brother." Aegon said offering his hand, and she wasn't sure how to reject it. But before she could do the deed, her father came forward and motioned her to accept the offer for the dance with her brother. Once she took his hand, she held it tight, wondering if Kookaburra would come interrupt the hall, so she could run away and hide. She didn't learn to dance, and she was not aware of how to hold his hand or shoulder. And her brother was tall... too tall for her.

A grim tightness settled in the coil of her stomach, and she could sense there was something not right with that freaky silence in the hall. Her nerves took fit, and she moved when the music played. It was all wrong. She even forgot those few steps that the old woman taught and Aegon was trying to compensate that by turning her waist, but in panic, she held his hand so rigidly, making him to miss everything. It ended up in her stumbling forward and stomping Aegon's leg, when the music stopped. All the nobles faces were set solid, but she knew how they were mocking her inside their head.

"Thanks a lot, sister." Rhaenys laughed, walking towards her in the middle of the hall. "I was wondering why didn't father hire jesters for the wedding, but you made sure to compensate for that. My fat-jester-dragon."

Her jaw dropped hearing that insult, and the whole crowd went so loud with their laughs echoing through the roof. Irina walked away, with her head held low to hide the tears. Soon, her father was putting an end to it by calling a singer to sing a song, but many still giggled as she passed by them. She ran to the garden, knowing guards would be sent by her father to bring her back if she went to her chamber, and he might put her up in another embarrassing mission to prove something to the Lords.

Till the sun disappeared and moon came up, she cried her heart out, but when the sounds from the hall started reducing, she picked up another bunch of flowers taking a stroll towards the Keep. At the sight of silver-gold hair, she paused and focused her eyes to find Visenya sitting on a stone chair with a wine goblet in hand. Although she wanted to go back to her chamber, her sister's face was long and sad for such a grand event as a wedding. Rhaenys and Aegon were glowing. Unsurely, she approached Visenya.

With just a stare from Visenya, Irina wished to take back her decision and go settle in her chamber. At least Rhaenys would speak with Irina, in some form of mocking, but Visenya discarded her like dirt. Although, it should hurt, in some way she understood, this was the way of her life. None of her siblings had any fondness for her, and she started accepting it.

Anyway, Visenya was not the one to share anything in her mind, and even if her sister wanted to, it would not be with Irina. So, offering the wild mix of flowers, Irina said, "The flowers have started blooming in the garden, again. This is for you, sister. May the Gods bless you."

Visenya didn't accept it, and before her sister was about to yell, Irina wanted to save her tears. So, she gave a dry smile and placed the bunch on the stone chair, leaving from the place. Inside the chamber her bird was sleeping, and she knew her mother was slowly disappearing from within the bird, the human feeling evaporating while the bird conscience overtaking. For now, she still had her mother's soul, and she was grateful for that.

When she opened the window doors and stared down, she could see Visenya picking the offered flower bunch and inhaling the mix of fragrance while touching the flower petals with delicacy. Perhaps her sister displayed very fewer emotions to others, but it always came out in privacy. Tugging the sheets over her body, Irina closed her eyes with no idea of what future was waiting for her.