Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit work of fiction. The author does not own nor claims ownership of The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire and their associated franchises. They belong to George R.R. Martin and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Daenerys II

Daenerys climbed the steps slowly, trying not to think of the events of the past day. Her dragons padded silently behind her. Outside sand rose and fell, crashing against the walls of the ancient stone fortress as it likely had for a thousand years, and would for a thousand more but inside the thick stone walls it was still cold and quiet. Too quiet for Daenerys's liking.

She reached the large stone gates that lay at the centre of the stone fortress. The vibrancy these gates must have held was long gone, but the jewels embedded into the stone glittered splendidly under the light of the torch Daenerys wielded. She grunted and heaved against the door, but to no avail. She fingered the faded runes and symbols carved onto the door. Her hands roamed the surface of the gate, lost, searching for a handle, a clasp, something to heave the door open and lay bare the secrets that lay within.

The torch in her hand was a blur, moving side to side, and she moved with it, eyes moving. Daenerys raised the torch in her hand, and found it. Old and green and weathered, the massive handles lay just above her reach with her hand. She lay down her torch on the ground and jumped with all her strength, arms outstretched and heaved.

Daenerys did not remember falling, yet the next she knew she was sprawled on her back on the cold floor. Her head was ringing. The gate was open, and a red light filled the hall. She could see the hall as it might have looked as it burned, dark and foreboding with gems shining, and in their reflections, she could see the short hairy men screaming as fire came in as a water would in a flood. She could see their silhouettes, black right as they disappeared under a torrent of fire. She could almost hear their screams right until the moment they cut out and the bellows and crackling of fire took their place. Daenerys did not know what they had done to deserve this, but their sins must have been truly horrendous, for Justice to be so cruel. Daenerys shook herself from her thoughts as she rose and looked at the vast hall that lay before her.

The Presence she had been feeling all this while was there. She could feel it in her heart of hearts. And so, she stepped forth and saw…

There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; a thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light.

Drogon and Viserion and Rhaegal cried out in fear, and Daenerys could not find it in herself to blame them. Before she had thought for Viserys and herself to be the last of the dragons but then he had died. She could remember what she had thought as she saw him writhing in pain on the ground, He was no dragon. Fire cannot kill a dragon. And then her children were born and she bore her Targaryen name with pride for the first time, and found her legacy. The legacy of fear.

But now, gazing upon a dragon whose vastness far outstripped the size of any stories Daenerys heard in her childhood, she understood. She understood the singing in her blood as she gazed upon the grand beast. She understood the fear that had united the Seven Kingdoms. She understood the fear that forged the greatest empire the world has ever seen. She understood the awe her kos felt as she woke dragons from stone.

And lastly, as the dragon's eyes flew open and glared at her with frightening intensity, she knew fear.

The dragon rose with a roar that sent gold flying. Daenerys had to cover herself with her arms to stop the gold from hurting her. The dragon stood at its full height now, and it easily towered over her and its attention was solely focused upon her. Strangest of all was when the dragon looked at Daenerys and spoke.

"And who are you that dares to trespass on the property of Smaug the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities?"

Daenerys found herself too shocked to speak but that did not deter the dragon. "Are you hear to steal something from me as well? You wouldn't be the first." The dragon laughed, a cruel and ugly thing. "Many have tried to steal from me. I imagine you've stepped over their corpses, or perhaps not even that. I can tell that I have been sleeping for quite some time."

The dragon lost its earlier amusement as quick as it came. Daenerys held her breath. The air was different, stale and somehow cold against her skin. She stared at the large eye before her lost in its depths. The darkness and fury that lay behind the dark slit. She was reminded of the screams she saw in the reflections of the gems.

"So then, my little thief. Name thyself."

Daenerys woke from her trance, "I am Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea and rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms"

This incensed the dragon, "So many titles… You remind me of another rightful ruler who sought to take what was mine. Yet how curious is it that none of your titles explain the hatchlings that cling at your skirts. Nor do they explain why you have brought them here. To challenge me perhaps?" The dragons tail moved, quick as a whip and smashed against a stone pillar.

The idea was laughable. The dragon was several times larger than the bones she had found in the Red Waste. Jorah had told her of the dragon skulls that her father had kept in the Red Keep. Of how they were all put there side to side, each larger than the last. And the largest of them belonged to the dragon known as the Black Dread. A man on horseback could ride into those jaws and never come out. Drogo and his kos could all ride into this dragons' jaws and there would still be space left for more. Whereas her dragons were small, freshly hatched and did not possess whatever sorcery that let this one speak.

She said as much.

The looked at her curiously, its previous anger forgotten, "Tell me of these dragons, thief. I am quite generous, tell me what I want and you may leave with your life"

Daenerys told him what he wanted. She told him of the dragonlords and of the Freehold. She told him of the greatest empire that the world had ever seen. She told him of the Doom. She told him of Aegon's conquest. She told him of the Dance of the Dragons and the death of the dragons. She told him about the Rebellion and the Lords of Westeros. She told him of the wealth of Casterly Rock and the mighty castle of Storm's End. She told him of Winterfell and Riverrun. She told him that the world had forgotten the dragons. She told him of how dragons were considered to be a children's tale. She told him of how she stepped into a funeral pyre and the night was alive with the music of dragons for the first time in over a hundred years.

By the time she had finished, the dragon was oddly still. Its eyes stared at her unblinkingly until her palms began to sweat.

"And you, blood of the dragon. You can feel this bond between us, can you not? You can feel your blood singing, begging for our bond to be completed. You thirst for vengeance against those who have wronged you. These golden Lannisters, and Starks, and Baratheons. I am Smaug, child. I am a dragon of the Third Age, and I thirst for gold and blood. All that I shall reap from these curs who turned upon the dragon. I shall burn all those who mock the dragon and make a hoard that shall be the envy of all those who live and breathe. I shall wring a path so glorious and calamitous that history shall never forget me!"

Smaug roared, and something primal within her roared with Him.

"I, Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen do accept your pledge. I shall deliver all that was promised and more!"

Daenerys could not help but smile, I am going home.

With a mighty flap of His wings, Smaug rose, grabbing her and the hatchlings in his claws as he broke through the stone fortress and glided through the skies once more.

Author's Note: That took a surprisingly long time to write. I spent months agonising over writing this and ended up writing this in a single day. Anyways, how did you find the chapter? Was it good? Bad? Average? I'd love to hear your thought and criticisms. Thanks for reading.

A Middling Writer