⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ °• ☼ CHAPTER TWO: MOONDANCER ☾ •°⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

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WHEN NESSIE AND RHAEGAR were ten and seventeen, Rhaegar snuck Nessie out of the castle's walls and took her hunting. It was strictly forbidden for the women of the household to even touch such things as weapons, so the thought of getting covered in muds and sticks in the forest as they chased animals excited Nesaela, though she would never dare to admit it in front of their father. They took their horses: Rhaegar's as white as the marble steps that carved their way to the palace entrance and Nessie's black like the midnight sky. Nessie had called her own horse Moondancer, after the swift young dragon rode by Baela Targaryen.

     The story told of Baela Targaryen, a fourteen-year-old, with her young dragon during the Dance of Dragons. She escaped the men who smashed down the door of her bedchambers and found her dragon. Loosening Moondancer's reigns and placing a saddle on the dragon, Baela rode the young dragon to face the fearsome Sunfyre—mounted by Aegon II himself. When he thought himself triumphant in the dance, the girl and her dragon attacked. While Moondancer was much smaller than Sunfyre, she was also quicker and more nimble - and both Moondancer and her fierce child rider were brave. Moondancer gravely injured Sunfyre, but was blinded by Sunfyre's flame. Entangled, the two dragons fell to the ground. While Aegon II jumped from his dragon's back at the last moment, Baela remained with Moondancer to the bitter end. Ser Marston Waters saved Baela's life, and she lived on for many years afterwards.

     Nesaela thought it was a very brave tale. She thought, despite the dragon Moondancer's death, she deserved to have something named after her.

     After leagues of riding through the dense forest to the North of King's Landing—horses ducking through ditches, spraying mud, twisting beneath looming branches and forked trees and leaping across streams - they began to slow. Nesaela had gotten her silk silver-blue gown splattered with mud, not that she minded. Her father had never allowed her to do anything like this, and the fresh air smelled of adventure.

     Nessie was beautiful for a little girl, sporting the silver-white hair and lilac eyes the rest of her bloodline had, and would be sought after by many suitors when she came to age - despite the fact her eyes were a little too rounded, and she had a small gap between her two front teeth when she smiled, and flat lips. She had a few pale freckles spread across her curved nose from hours reading and writing poetry in the sun.

     She was not symmetrically or marble-esq beautiful like her mother or brother—and her father said she would "just do"—but she was still exceptionally pretty. (She would grow up more beautiful than they could have imagined.)

     Nessie slipped off her dark horse, letting her skirts drape in the mud as she dropped with a sigh and a laugh. They'd stopped at a tiny clearing in the forest, muddy and fern-ridden. The eroded signs of grass and roughed away dirt indicated Rhaegar had come here many times to train before, when he didn't want to be pestered with guards. A stream ran through the trees to their left. The earrings attached to her pointed ears glittered silver in the sun.

     "Rhaegar," she protested, but was grinning just as much as him. "We shouldn't be sneaking out. Father will be angry." Her brother just gave her a chuckle and shoved a bow into her hands. It was a longbow, as big as her and strong too. It was made with sleek carved metal shined with silver, rubies—the traditional family gem—encrusted at the handle. Nessie suspected it might have been his, once-upon-a-time. The grip was night sky black, and had the symbol of a three-headed dragon carved into the rubber. "This is for me?" she asked, unsurely. The bow was much too heavy in her hands, though the metal beneath her fingertips was comforting.

     "Yes," her brother told her, smiling widely. He handed her a quiver of arrows. "These too. Now, I know you're supposed to be a princess, but, well, you're also my sister. And that means I also have to protect you. Plus, don't pretend I haven't caught you looking at the archers every time they come past. I see you trying to steal their bows." He spoke each words with the taunting and knowing shake of his head, long silver hair tumbling over his shoulders.

     Nessie gave him a playful glare, trying to lift the bow above the ground. After a few failed attempts, she managed to brace the muscles in her arms and hold it in the air. She squinted, looking towards where the bow was pointed.

     "I thought that because you've never held so much as a common bow in your dainty hands in your life," he spoke the words teasingly, pointing at a tree stump looming ahead, "that you should practice before we go hunting. Just so you don't accidentally shoot me."

     She gave him a fierce but playful nudge, strong for a tiny girl. Her hair was released long down her back, half of the strands tied in an intricate braid which her mother had done for her. It was secured with her favourite silver dragon pin.

     "Thank you, Rhaegar," she said, grin exposing her white teeth and pretty gap. He moved to help her hold the heavy bow as she slotted an arrow in the string with her soft hands. The weapon felt unnatural in her hands but she drew the string back anyway. After a few hesitant moments, she let the arrow fly. It soared through the air and completely missed the tree stump.

     "Nice try," Rhaegar said, but snickered beneath his smile. Nessie crumpled her mouth and hit him hard in the side with the back of an open hand, though amusement was shining in her lilac eyes.

     "Shut up," she told him. "I'll get better. I'll get better than you, even," Nessie promised.

     He raised his eyebrows. "I have no doubt you will. Now, relax your bow arm..."

     In the next few hours, she began to get more arrows brushing or even hitting the trunk. By the time they were finished, the tree trunk was torn and splintered, littered with many arrows and even more lost in the woods behind. Her hands ached with callouses but she was grinning in satisfaction, eyes alight.

     She looked up at Rhaegar hopefully. "Are you going to show me how to fight with a sword?" Her brother just laughed at her comment, clasping a hand over her head and brushing her silver hair out of its braid and into her face. Her mother would be angry to see her handiwork get ruined.

     "Come," her brother told her, taking the oversized bow from her hands and hiding it beneath a fallen tree trunk. "I promised you a hunt, didn't I?" His voice was still light with amusement, long silver hair trailing over his shoulders. The horses had been let loose to wander across the clearing, Moondancer and Arrax, Rhaegar's stallion, grazing on grass. Moondancer raised her head as her pale, mud-spattered rider approached. The orange of dusk had patterned its way through the mare's black mane, glowing against her fur.

     Nessie clicked and Moondancer trotted towards her to meet her rider's outstretched palm. The young mare pressed herself against Nesaela's hand before the girl mounted, alongside Rhaegar. "Will I be hunting?" she asked, violet eyes speckled with delight.

     Rhaegar laughed at that too, handsome lips spreading to reveal his white teeth. "No, Nessie," he told her, voice fond. "You wouldn't be able to hit a sleeping rabbit," he said, though without malice. "Come, now. We will begin." He pushed Arrax into a trot and led her into the tantalising walls of the wild forest.

     After only a few minutes of casual riding, the two came across a herd of deer moving silently through the woods. As dusk began to set, the animals roamed in search of a sleeping place, Rhaegar had told her, and therefore it was the ideal time for a hunt. She relished in the knowledge Rhaegar gave her, which no lady's books would give.

     They chased a deer through the setting sun, Nessie sitting high on her saddle and letting the reigns rub her fingers. The ferns brushed Moondancer's legs in a soft caress as they careened through the woods, leaping over logs. Nessie adored the adrenaline racing through her veins like liquid fire, building in excitement up her throat. She never had quite been in a hunt before—and the rays of golden sun flickering down upon her through the racing tree branches, and feeling of wet leaves on her face forced a high through her lungs. Excitement felt like the very air she breathed and she was breathless with laughter. She was sure when she got back to King's Landing, her face would be sore from the grinning stretch of her lips.

     Rhaegar led her down a sliding ditch, full of mud and water, cutting closer to the bounding stag. Its long, fawn-coloured horns dully reflected the setting sun. Nessie urged Moondancer forward to catch up to the older, leaping Arrax. Her young mare sprung with each step, muscles uncoiling with the freedom.

     Rhaegar's arrow fired from the black and ruby bow, hitting the stag in the back, narrowly missing the graceful curve of its spine. The deer fell with a squeal, tumbling over itself in fallen leaves and mud. It cried out, head raising in a defeated motion to the sky—and Nessie winced, almost stopping her horse. Despite the fun of the chase, she never had quite enjoyed seeing something in pain. The next arrow struck its heart, so it had no time to struggle.

     The two riders slowed in the dusk mist, fog settling over their twin pale skin. Nessie's horse still pranced, head swaying as if excited. The horses' hooves slid in the mud—it had rained earlier that evening, and the forest was speckles in the aftermath. Nessie could taste it on the air. They watched the deer in silence, and Rhaegar slid the bow to rest over his back.

     "Are you going to take it back to King's Landing?" Nessie asked. The fallen stag had blood on the fur around its mouth, black eyes clear and reflecting her bowing figure like large, circular mirrors. In its eyes, she looked towering and rounded—soft and face twisted with concern. She had never quite seen anything dead before, certainly not this close.

     Once, she had found a dead bird upon her windowsill after having flown into it. It was a baby, the sparrow's wings crumpled like parchment and feet drawn in. Unbeknownst of its death, Nessie, just a child, had straightened its wings and thrown it back out into the air. The poor thing had plummeted from the tower of King's Landing, to hit the marble ground beneath as Nessie watched with horror. It had been the first real time she'd encountered death. More would come after that.

     "Do you think we could take it back?" Rhaegar asked her, brows furrowed. "We brought no cart, and surely we couldn't be quiet if we tried lugging a deer back in." Arrax danced light on its hooves while Rhaegar sat perfectly straight, as if he sat on a throne. After a moment, he said decisively, though not without softness: "We will leave it to the wolves. Surely, they will enjoy their meal.

     "The wolves?" Nessie asked, eyebrows curled inwards and looking worried at the cruelty. Surely they should bury the small thing. They did kill it after all. "But... The deer— should we...bury it?" Her voice was uncertain. She remembered the baby sparrow's blood slick on her child fingers as she tossed it to the wind, with hope. Moondancer bowed her head to inspect the corpse of the deer.

     "Sweet sister," Rhaegar said, softly. He looked at her with eyes that spoke she was too soft, like she was a whisper in the wind of good things—"The things you do not yet know of in the world do not deserve you."—and in that moment she felt as fragile as glass. She pulled her freckles fingers together. Rhaegar raised his head, looking towards the sun setting on the horizon. It cast a warm bloom over the sky. "It's time we'd be getting back now," he said, steering Arrax around. Golden light shimmered through the damp ferns and branches hanging above. He leaned over the gap between them to ruffle her hair again, ignoring a narrow-eyed glare from the younger girl's large eyes. "Father will be annoyed with me. We'll come back here the day after tomorrow."

    Nessie deflated slightly, hands gripping on Moondancer's reigns. "Fine," she said, sighing as twilight softened over them, painting her hair in shades of purple. "The day after tomorrow," she agreed, and kicked Moondancer into a run. She and Rhaegar raced all the way back to the palace, racing the following moon.

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i just want to make a point that there is absolutely nothing romantic/sexual between nessie and rhaegar, as i know that was kind of the thing with targaryens. they're just very close as brother and sister but there is nothing romantic at all !!!

2,194 words

22.07.2018.