Chapter 1: Isolation Of Dragons

Essos:

The Red Waste

It's been months since a miracle happened in the world. No longer dragons were creatures of the past. They existed now. Not just one or two but three of them. It was fitting of course since the sigil of the house Targaryen has a dragon with three heads. The birth of the dragons solidified the believe of many people that house Targaryen will conquer the world and rule once again. But it was a future that would come true after many years. At present times, Daenerys Targaryen, the mother of dragons could only think about surviving the Red Waste. Even after proving her strength, her power, and her magic, she only had a handful of Dothraki following her through the red lands.

Ser Jorah Mormont was by her side, as he swore to be and so was Nessysa as she promised her friend Hope, that no matter where Daenerys goes, she'd follow her. Even if it meant certain death. Due to the circumstances, Nessysa's purpose of being with Daenerys has changed. She was no longer there to spy on her but to truly help her, in anyway she could. And of course, watch over the dragons as well. Too many people either wanted to take them or kill them. And they were too weak to defend themselves.

As soon as the dragons were born, Nessysa sent a letter to Hope, telling her about them. When she received a reply, it stated that Hope already knew about their birth and that their coming back into this world has done something with her magic. She was leaving castle Black and going beyond the wall for safety and for answers regarding white walkers. The letter was short and nothing was explained properly. But Hope had stated clearly in that letter that she wanted Nessysa to stick together with her aunt and the dragons. After that no words were exchanged between the friends again. And so Nessysa was starving and suffering along with Daenerys in the vast empty land that was Red Waste while wondering and worrying where her friend might be. What Hope must be doing? Many a times Nessysa wanted to send a letter to her but it was practically impossible without getting caught.

Not only they were traveling under open sky and in a very small horde, where there's no such thing as privacy but Nessysa couldn't keep Ryder with her as that would've raised a lot of questions. She didn't give the falcon away. Often she'd see him flying around but the clever bird wouldn't approach her without signal from her. And Nessysa wouldn't give any signal as long as they were in the red waste because the minute she's caught sending a letter to someone, she'd be considered a spy. Daenerys would think her a traitor and Ser Jorah would behead her right away. And even if she does tell them the truth about who she was sending letters to then they'd learn about Hope but she expressed no desire of letting her aunt know of her existence yet. Though Nessysa personally thought it wouldn't do any harm if Daenerys learned about Hope. She got a gut feeling that the mother of dragons would be happy to know that she still has a family rather than think of her as a threat and an enemy. Specially since Hope has no desire to sit on the Iron Throne. She believes, she isn't meant to. That Nessysa knew for certain. Daenerys has no reason to consider her an enemy. Jon however was different matter. Even Nessysa believed that keeping his existence or at least his identity a secret would be for the best.

"What did your brother say about them, Khaleesi?" Nessysa heard Doreah ask. Daenerys was trying to feed Drogon, the black one. But he wouldn't eat.

"He said, they ate meat" replied the mother of dragons.

"He didn't tell you what kind of meat?" Doreah asked. Daenerys shook her head in reply.

"My brother didn't know anything about dragons. He didn't know anything about anything." She said. Nessysa couldn't help but speak up then as she had quite a bit of knowledge about dragons. From the books of course and obviously from Hope.

"They wouldn't eat raw meat Khaleesi. They prefer burned meat, no matter which animal." She said earning a look from Daenerys that was a mix of confusion and surprise.

"How do you know that?" She asked Nessysa.

"A friend of mine was fascinated with dragons Khaleesi. She told me. She read everything there is to read about dragons. She told me once, only dragons and humans eat cooked meat. No other being does that." Hearing that from Nessysa, the handmaiden Doreah got excited. She quickly found two stones and lit a torch. Others got confused seeing that since the sun was scorching over their heads. She burned a piece of meat and handed it over to Daenerys.

"Khaleesi." She took it and tried to feed Drogon again. This time when the dragon sniffed the piece of meat, he started eating it. Daenerys smiled seeing that. She looked over her shoulder at Nessysa.

"Thank you Nessysa." She said gratefully. Nessysa nodded her head in return, accepting the gratitude.

"This friend of yours, where is she now?" Daenerys asked her curiously.

"I do not know Khaleesi. I wish to know that more than anything." She said truthfully.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Daenerys asked.

"Over a year ago." Nessysa replied.

"Then I was sold to your brother and we never met again." She said with sadness in her voice. Everyone knew a very common and believable story about Nessysa there. That she was a slave and was sold to Viserys who ordered her to be his sister's handmaiden just like Doreah and Irri. Obviously Nessysa wasn't important enough that anyone would have any reason to do a background check on her.

"I hope you meet her again one day" said Daenerys, really meaning it.

"I hope so too, Khaleesi." Nessysa said and she prayed that her friend was safe and alive wherever she was. She also hoped that Hope was in a better situation than her aunt was but unfortunately, that was not the matter at all.

Westros:

Beyond The Wall

Hope of house Targaryen. Born to do great things. Her blood was filled with powerful magic. She was unburnt and wielder of fire. But none of that mattered anymore as isolation threatened to drive her crazy. Since birth, Hope was never alone. In the very beginning, she had her mother Alais with her. When her mother died, she had her best friend Nessysa following her from one corner of the world to the other. Then when Nessysa left to spy on Daenerys and Viserys, she had Jon with her. In every point of her life, Hope had someone with her. And sometimes there were more than one person in her life who cared about her. She was never truly alone. Not as how she was now. For months, Hope has been utterly alone. Completely on her own. And this isolation was driving her nuts.

That magical night, when dragons were born, even though it happened thousands of miles away but Hope was affected nonetheless. Suddenly she had all these powers. Within moments, she was much stronger than she was that morning. At first Hope was happy to be so strong. After all she was weak before and dealing with being weak wasn't a very pleasant thing. Specially when so much was depending on her powers. But soon Hope learned that dealing with too much power wasn't pleasant either. More because she didn't grow strong gradually through practice. She got it all on a sudden and knew of no way to control that power.

Hope's magic became so unstable and out of her control that people at Castle Black started to fear her. Hope too realized that sooner or later, she'd end up hurting someone badly. She obviously didn't want that. She certainly didn't want to wake up one morning to find out that she has burned down the entire castle while she was asleep. Therefore, before any tragedy could happen, Hope decided to leave castle Black. She obviously couldn't have gone south of the wall. She needed to go somewhere where there's no people. Where she couldn't hurt anyone with her unstable magic. North of the wall was the only option. Maester Aemon had objected to that decision as expected. Beyond the wall was a dangerous place after all. But Hope had made up her mind. She even told the old Maester that it was a good thing that she was going beyond the wall. That she might find some answers about the white walkers. Besides, most of the remaining brothers at castle Black didn't want her there anymore. Specially Ser Alliser who was acting lord commander due to Lord Mormont's absence. Therefore Maester Aemon could do little to stop her. He could only pray that she'd stay alive out there.

Hope was alive alright but well? No, she was far from well. The cold didn't bother her but aimlessly roaming the endless land of ice and snow was no less torturous. And it's been like this for months. At this point, she'd even embrace a white walker and make it her companion if it meant she wouldn't be alone anymore. Many a times she hoped to come across a bunch of wildlings or even wights so that she'd hear something else other than the sound of her own voice or the cold wind blowing.

In the beginning though, Hope was fine with venturing the North all alone. She didn't have to worry about hurting anyone anymore. She'd sing songs, hunt animals for food and practice magic or more like try to control her powers. But as days and nights passed by and the solitude started to weigh on her, things started to change. Instead of learning control, her magic became more unstable and dangerous. Not only that she lost the focus of her mind as well. Due to that reason she started having dreams and visions that made no sense to her. It was like scattered pieces of puzzle, that served the only purpose of confusing her. She would see glimpses of people whose faces mean nothing to her.

Every time she tried to focus her mind so that she may see something useful, her magic would lash out and do something disastrous. And every time she tried to control her magic, her mind would torment her and give her a nasty headache. To say that Hope was helplessly suffering would be a huge understatement. And of course the isolation helped with eating her up from inside. The cold of the winter couldn't affect her body but it certainly started to take a toll on her heart and mind.

Hope thought, that if she had a purpose rather than just wondering around the empty lands then perhaps her days would become easier to pass. This made her determined to find the white walkers instead of just finding answers about them. Surely they lived somewhere around. Clearly it was a stupid solution that Hope's troubled mind cooked up in order to defeat her isolation. But turned out finding white walkers was just as much impossible as finding justice in the king's landing. If anything it made Hope more frustrated which didn't help with her isolation at all. Only if the white walkers had any address. Or perhaps a castle made of ice where they all lived. Perhaps she would've found them or at least the wildlings, but truth to be told, Hope didn't know this winter country all that well to know exactly where she was going. All the places looked the same to her.

Nowadays Hope began to think that perhaps she made a mistake by coming North of the wall. Perhaps she should've gone south or at least stayed on the wall. Perhaps being around people would've helped her learn control of her powers since she'd have feared hurting someone. The isolation took away that fear therefore all her efforts of taming her magic proved futile. Hope was on the verge of making up her mind to head back towards the wall again instead of going deeper into the land. Little did she know that soon, she's going to find all sorts of adventures beyond the wall?

Craster's Keep:

The men of the night's watch were taking shelter in Craster's keep. Craster was a cruel domineering scum. Almost everyone in the night's watch hated him but unfortunately they needed him as well. Jon somehow managed to get on Craster's bad side on first meeting. He was told to sleep outside in order to avoid unwanted trouble. Jon didn't mind. He didn't want to be around that daughter fucking filth either. But he couldn't sleep though. Not because he was outside and it was freezing cold. Truth to be told, Jon couldn't sleep well for many nights. He told himself it was because they were north of the wall and the danger of this place had him restless but that wasn't the truth. Something else bothered him. Something Jon didn't want to admit to himself. The thoughts of a particular someone never leaves his mind. That someone was obviously Hope. Jon thinks very hatefully and bitterly about her but he thinks about her nonetheless. And he hates himself for it because he didn't want to think about her at all. He wanted her to just leave his mind alone and let him have some peace. But whenever he wasn't thinking about Hope, he would think about his father and brothers and sisters. Their thoughts were agonizing too to say the least.

"Can't sleep again?" It was Sam who came to Jon when he found his friend still awake. Sam wanted to sleep but unfortunately lord commander asked him to keep watch at night. Speaking of Samwell Tarly, he was well aware of what was happening with Jon and what he was going through. Even though Jon behaved as if he was fine and nothing tragic happened in his life recently. But Sam was too smart to believe Jon was alright.

"Just thinking, what battle moves Robb must be planning to defeat the Lannisters. If Bran and Rickon are safe in Winterfell. My sisters are still in King's landing. Their lives are constantly in danger." Jon inhaled a quiet deep breath as he spoke of worries about his family.

"I know you want to be with them but we need you more" said Sam. A moment of quietness lingered between them before Sam spoke up again.

"You were thinking about her too, weren't you?" He asked with hesitation. Jon's sullen face immediately became hard. Sam thought he would deny it but surprisingly he didn't.

"Aye, I was. I think about her betrayal from time to time so that my hatred wouldn't lessen" said Jon. Sam shouldn't have said anything else but he couldn't stop himself.

"I know she betrayed you but I can't help but think there's more to her betrayal than just hurting you." He said because somehow he was quite convinced about it.

"Of course there is. She wants to destroy my family." Jon said with anger in his voice. And the anger was obviously for Hope.

"But think about it if she wants to destroy your family then why is she here at the edge of the world? She could've been with the Lannisters and help them destroy the Starks or she could've stayed back at Winterfell and tear your home apart from inside now that it's vulnerable. Alright forget about all these, I still vividly remember the day when she came barging in the library to tell Maester Aemon about her dream about your father. The way she looked worried, it couldn't have been pretense." Sam pointed out these facts hoping to make Jon think about them too as he truly believed Hope was an enemy of his family. What if she wasn't?

"What are you trying to say Sam?" Jon asked sounding a little impatient. Sam was starting to make sense which was making him very uncomfortable. He was content with simply hating Hope.

"I'm just saying that perhaps there's more to Hope than a vengeful Targaryen." Sam said softly, hoping that this time Jon would understand what he was trying to say. Truth to told, Sam didn't really believe that Hope was a bad person with ill intentions. If she was then neither lord commander nor Maester Aemon would have cared for her. Besides, his own gut feelings said she wasn't the person, Jon was thinking her to be. Sam very much wanted their misunderstandings to clear up because after all they were cousins. They were family. Hope and Jon should be each other's support rather than be each other's enemy. Jon on the other hand sighed out heavily this time.

"Even if what you're saying IS true-" He said.

"I still can't forgive her." Jon stated.

"I understand." Sam said sympathetically as he dropped the topic. He then started talking about Craster and his daughters, specially his daughters. Jon listened to him but in his mind, he started thinking- 'Is Hope really just a Targaryen or there's some Stark in her too?'. Deep down Jon hoped that Sam was right. He hoped that he was wrong about his cousin. Because since the moment, he walked away from Hope, he felt a painful emptiness inside. As if he was all alone in this world.

It seemed that the three Targaryens were deemed to suffer a period of isolation in one way or another. But their isolation would end and then they will thrive.