There you go, a new chapter. This is just an interlude. Next chapter will be an actual chapter and we'll see Daenerys meeting Khal Drogo. Sorry if you don't like Dany/Khal Drogo together, I don't like them particularly either but it's necessary for the story for obvious reasons. However, there will be no rape in this story as far as their relationship is concerned so that's a good thing, at least.

Anyway, hope you like this in the meantime Tell me what you think!

Interlude

Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen was born in Dragonstone in the year 282 AC, thirteen years ago now, during the worst storm in living memory.

Her older brother Rhaegar had died, slayed at the Trident by Robert Baratheon, the then Lord of the Stormlands and now self-proclaimed King of the Seven Kingdoms, while her niece and nephew Aegon and Rhaenys together with their mother Elia Martell had been butchered by men sent by the Lannisters.

Her father Aerys – the Mad King as everyone called him – had died as well, killed by one of the members of his Kingsguard. And her mother, Queen Rhaella, had died giving birth to her.

In a little more than one year, of the great House Targaryen only two other members remained beside herself: her brother Viserys and her uncle, her parents' brother Sirys, who had become a sworn member of the Kingsguard at only sixteen years old, only three years before the War of the Usurper started. Before dying, but after her son Rhaegar's death, Rhaella crowned Viserys King and Daenerys was made his only heir, even if both Aegon and Rhaenys (Rhaegar's children) were still alive at the time.

So, it was that the three last remaining members of House Targaryen, together with Ser Willem Darry and other loyal members of the Kingsguard, fled from Dragonstone to Essos – they landed in Braavos where a secret pact was signed.

Daenerys, Viserys, Sirys and their retinue went to live in a house with a red door and a lemon tree outside and for a few years Daenerys called that place home. But the assassins sent by the Usurper were never far behind. One night, when Daenerys was only five name days, they were attacked. Viserys was killed and with him, Ser Willem Darry and the other loyal guards, together with most of the servants, while those that survived fled.

Daenerys was left with only her uncle to protect her, and little more than the clothes on her back. She was a queen, but only in name, with no crown except her mother's – the crown they were later forced to sold – no kingdom and now, not even a home.

Together with her loyal uncle, they traveled from city to city, forced to rely on the kindness of strangers who often wanted to use them for their own gains, or sometimes, when things were really bad, they would be forced to beg and sleep on the streets like common street urchins. Sirys would sometimes offered his sword to nobles and rich merchants as a way to get enough money to take care of her.

Despite all this, though her education was not a formal one, Sirys made sure that she learned all that she needed, about Westerosi customs, history and legends but also war strategy, mathematics and economics. She was taught languages like High Valyrian and bastard Valyrian, Ghiscari and even Dothraki. All that she needed to be a good ruler.

And he made sure she was taught from a young age on how to fight with different weapons. Not only would he teach her himself but he made sure to find others willing to teach her different styles of combat.

Though Sirys had taught her how to use the longsword, the characteristic weapon of the Westerosi knights, and though she was rather good at it, she would never be a great swordsman (swordswoman actually), just an above average one. What she lacked in raw talent and strength she made up with constant exercise - she trained with it everyday for hours - and because she was very agile. However, the sword kept being too heavy for her (even if her arms became stronger and stronger the more she used the weapon), restricting her movements too much for her comfort.

Instead what she really excelled in, was the double short swords, similar to the one the Unsullied used, but one for each hand. They allowed her a much larger scope of movements, being much lighter than the longsword and because she could use both hands at the same time. Add to that the fact that she was quick and light on her feet and she really was deadly with them.

She was also very good with a bow. She used a smaller bow than the one the soldiers in Westeros used. In fact, she used a bow in the style of the Dothraki, being capable of shooting arrows while mounted on a horse. In fact, Sirys often joked that she was half-horse herself.

She was also handy with a dagger and in hand to hand combat.*

Her uncle had made sure she would never be helpless. He had said that, though he hoped he would always be there to protect her if he could help it, he wanted to make sure she knew how to protect herself as well so that no one would be able to hurt her like what had happened to her niece and nephew or poor Elia Martell.

Sometimes she could pretend to forget that they were constantly hunted by the Usurper's assassins, in the quiet moments with Sirys. That they were never safe. That they would never be able to stay in one place for too long. But the danger was always there, a constant shadow chasing them.

Daenerys knew what people called her, mockingly, when they thought she wouldn't listen. The Beggar Queen. She didn't care though. Her life might not be easy or comfortable, but she was grateful for the presence of Sirys at her side. Sirys was her protector. He was like a father to her. In fact, he was her father in all the ways that mattered. It didn't matter what his name was, Sirys Targaryen or Sirius Black. He had always been the only family she had ever known and that hadn't changed.

Daenerys knew what it was like, growing up without no one to care for her and she would never trade this life she had now to the one she had left behind. That life had been treacherous, offering her the illusion of protection and happiness and family and then taking it all away before taking her life as well in the end. This life, though she had lost everyone else and everything else, gave her Sirius back and maybe that was enough, for now.

She had been Harry Potter once. The Girl-Who-Lived, the Chosen One, the sacrificial lamb. She had been selfless to the point of suicide. She had been brought up with one purpose only, to die to save the world. But she was Daenerys Targaryen now. She had a responsibility to her House and her dead family. She won't allow for House Targaryen to be remembered for the actions of her mad father and her reckless brother. She won't allow for her House to die in disgrace and fade into obscurity. She would restore the honour of her House and take back the Iron Throne. It was her duty. She was the last Targaryen, except for her uncle, and it was her responsibility to make sure her House won't end with her in exile and a Usurper and his heirs on the Throne her family had built.

She had been a Potter once, but she hadn't known what it meant, not really. And then Sirius had made her the Black heir but she hadn't known what being a Black meant either.

But she knew what House Targaryen had been. Three centuries the Targaryens had ruled over Westeros. Aegon Targaryen, her ancestor, together with his sister-wives Visenya and Rhaenys and their three dragons, had reunited the Seven Kingdoms into one single kingdom. They had built King's Landing and the Iron Throne.

For their own mistakes, her family had lost all that they had built. But she was still here and she was going to take it all back, with Fire and Blood.

*You know the character Artemisia from the movie '300: Rise of an Empire'? Dany's fighting style will be very inspired by her.