In far-off lands, a creature sat high up on a cliff. After the death of his mother, he had flown away with her body. He had taken her home. To where he and his siblings were born. To the womb from which the whole world was born. Perhaps she would rise from there again one day.

Then the creature had flown. As far south as it was possible to fly. To jungles filled with mysterious creatures. Where he didn't need his internal fire to keep warm. People rarely came here. Mosquitos and diseases kept them away. But those things didn't bother a dragon.

High up on a cliff Drogon had made his nest. It was decorated with bones from his prey. Basilisks, giant apes, and river otters were the most common victims to his giant talons and razor-sharp teeth. The prey had grown to unfathomable sizes on these distant shores. Which was good, because the appetite of a dragon was unfathomable as well.

A bat buzzed around the dragon's ears and annoyed him. Drogon snapped his head and snatched the perpetrator out of the air. Not much to eat, but at least the disturbance was gone.

Drogon scraped with his feet and made a circle to lay down. Time for an afternoon nap. Even dragons need to nap. The giant creatures of the jungle could be safe for a few hours. Then it would be time for an afternoon snack.

But as the dragon's mind drifted into dragon dreams something slipped into his mind. An intruder. Drogon could feel it, it was as if something scraped against his brain and asked to be let in. Like an itch behind his temple. He raised his back foot to try to scratch the itch away. But the intruder wouldn't leave.

Bit by bit the intruder made its way into the dragon's mind. It took control over thoughts and movements. Drogon fought it with every fiber of his being. But it was to no avail.

His eyes blinked and once they were opened again his mind was completely under the spell of darkness.

Darkness had won for now, but under the surface, the struggle for power still went on. Drogon kept fighting, looking for an opening to regain control.

The dragon flapped its wings and took flight. The darkness told it to travel towards a stormy port.

***

The whole castle was sound asleep. But not its lady. Meera sat on the bed with her daughter propped up on a pillow in her lap to nurse. The little girl had woken up and demanded to be fed.

Meera was so tired. She never seemed to get more than a few hours of sleep before when her daughter woke up again. Then she had to figure out what the little girl wanted. Sometimes Joreen just seemed to want to scream.

Howland claimed that a certain little girl that he had brought up had done the same.

Right now Joreen wanted food and she hungrily suckled down milk while her mother looked out the window. Rain poured down on the outside of the glass and created an intricate pattern. Meera's mind got lost in the pattern, in it she saw memories she had tried to forget. How her brother died and how she had to put a knife to his throat to stop his suffering.

Then suddenly he stood there, right in front of her. Jojen. In front of the weirwood. He looked different than before. He looked scared and hurried.

"You need to leave, Meera," he said in a rushed tone. "Take your daughter and escape to the tunnels. He's coming. It's coming."

Behind Jojen she saw it. Dark as the night and huge as a castle. Sharp teeth and a fiery breath.

It was coming for her. It was coming for her daughter. It was coming for them all.

Meera snapped awake. The little girl in her arms had stopped nursing and instead looked at her mother with big eyes. It almost seemed like Joreen had seen the same thing as her mother. The little girl had seen her uncle that she would never get to meet.

There was no time to waste. Meera knew her brother was telling the truth. So she wrapped a blanket around her daughter and pulled a coat on over her own nightgown. Then she swooped her daughter up in her arms and exited the room.

She knocked on the door opposite her own room. "Father," she called. "We have to leave. Now."

Not many moments later Howland appeared in the door. He looked sleepy but yet alert. "What's happening?" he asked.

"Jojen told me," she said. "Bran is coming. With a dragon."

Howland nodded and quickly closed the door behind him. He would never doubt the words of his daughter, or his son.

That's when Meera heard it. She heard a roar. And she ran.

***

Davos could see the flames up on the cliff from where he stood in the stern of his main ship. The castle was burning, and his family was there.

He could see the beast that circled the castle. He had seen that beast before. He had seen it burn the capital.

They had chosen a new king for that not to happen again. To make way for a new era of peace and understanding.

But they had chosen the wrong king. If that hadn't been clear before it was abundantly clear now.

Davos had fought his whole life. Served lord and masters. All to give his sons a better and easier life. But the fight never seemed to stop. No win ever seemed to last. There was always a new enemy to vanquish.

His sons had become victims of whatever madness happened in the kingdom. Mathos had drowned. Devan had been banished. And perhaps Steffon was burning up in that castle on the cliff.

At least Stannis was safely back at Cape Wrath, holding down the castle in his own absence, while the Baratheon troops fought the remaining Dornish men.

Davos told his men to pull the sails to stop their progress in the waters. The dragon might spot them if they approached the cliffs. The waters were calm this night and they just floated among the waves while they waited. For what Davos didn't know, but he couldn't turn back now. Perhaps there were still people who could be saved. Perhaps Lady Baratheon and her daughter could still be saved. Perhaps his family could still be saved.

Steffon. If Steffon could still be saved Davos would save him. He would save them all.

Then it hit him. Steffon knew the way down to the beach from the tunnels. It was a tricky route and Davos wasn't sure if anyone else in the castle knew it, but he had shown his son soon after he got back to the castle. The boy never wanted to sit still so running through the tunnels was a great amusement to him, and it kept him from climbing the walls of the castle.

If they had seen the attack coming perhaps people had made their way down the tunnels to escape.

But the ships couldn't venture closer right now. Not as long as the dragon lingered close. It would burn the ships if it saw them.

***

Pebbles and dust fell from the roof of the cave above Meera as she made her way through the tunnels. She pulled the blanket down over her daughter's face to protect her. The little girl whimpered and flailed a bit but accepted her fate.

Right behind Meera were her father, Marya, Steffon, and Brynda with Mathos in her arms. Other residents of the castle also followed. It seemed like Jojen had warned them in time.

"We need to get down to the beach," she said. "Perhaps we can message for help from there. But I don't know the way."

"I know the way!" Steffon exclaimed. "I play down there all the time."

With a torch in his hand, the boy led the way through the winding tunnels. They had to walk carefully not to slip, especially Meera and Brynda who both carried their children. Mathos appeared to be asleep but Joreen was wide awake. The little girl curiously looked at her surroundings and waved her little arms toward the cave walls. At least she didn't scream.

Meera could hear people behind her cough from the dust in the air. It was getting hard to breathe. It was almost impossible to see. They needed to get out.

Joreen started screaming. Meera didn't blame her. She wanted to scream too.

But she was the adult in this situation, not the child. She couldn't scream. Because she had to bring them to safety.

***

From high up in the sky the king swooped down towards the castle, inhabiting the body of a giant fire-breathing beast.

As he saw the castle his hatred took over. The bastard shouldn't have it. He shouldn't rule. He shouldn't have her.

Red hot flames spewed over Storm's End. The king let all his darkness and hatred manifest. He let everything he harbored inside pour out in the form of dragonfire. Roofs and beams burned. Stones fell.

As he let the darkness take over he forgot to hold on for a moment. He let go of the beast he had in his grasp. His control had only been loose to start with and as he let his concentration lapse the dragon's own mind was let in again. And the dragon was furious.

The king tried to regain control but it was too late. The beast would not let him in again. In its fury, it burned woods and fields outside the castle before taking flight. And it pushed the intruder into its head away.

Suddenly the king was back on his balcony. He couldn't see Storm's End anymore. But from the capital, he could see a faint orange tint from the flames he had ignited. It should be enough for his armies to take the castle from the bastard.

***

Davos saw the flames stop. It seemed abrupt. Had the dragon seen his ships? Was it coming for them instead?

The dark night hid the giant black dragon but eventually, the moonlight found it. It was close and it was flying towards them. Davos cowered down on the deck and prepared for the inevitable fire.

But the flames didn't come. A dark shadow just moved over the deck. Then the beast was gone.

Davos looked up towards the moon and saw the silhouette of the dragon leaving. Flying back towards wherever it had come from.

As the monster disappeared in the distance Davos stood up. "Raise the sails," he called out to his men. "We're sailing towards the beach!"

"The dragon might still return," one of the men protested.

"It might," Davos said. "But I'm not leaving my family behind if there's a way to prevent it. I rather burn myself than have them burn."

***

Meera saw only a dot of light at first but soon it got brighter. The moon lit their way out of the caves.

She looked up towards the castle as she exited. There were flames and smoke lingering. Hopefully, no one had been left behind to burn. Stones and wood could be rebuilt but human lives couldn't be restored.

The bitter cold from strong sea winds bit her skin. She wrapped her daughter tighter into the blanket, only her little eyes peeked out.

Those eyes looked like his eyes. Gendry's. She wished he was here. A pang of longing hit her chest. If only she knew he was all right.

Tears streamed down her eyes, freezing to ice on her cheeks. There were people all around her but yet she felt alone.

Then an arm on her shoulder. She looked up to see her father. "Are you alright, Meera?" he asked.

She nodded and buried her face in her father's jacket. Letting herself be a child, not a parent, for a few moments. Howland patted her hair. "It will be fine," he said. "Jojen saved us. We're fine. Your daughter is fine."

He stroked his granddaughter's cheek and Joreen almost seemed to smile at her grandfather. "Should I take her?" he asked. "You must be tired from carrying her the whole way."

Meera nodded and handed the little girl over to her father, Finally, she had her hands free and was able to evaluate the situation.

She looked around the rocky beach. The moonlight danced over the waves outside the tunnels. There was nowhere else to go. They would have to wait here until they were able to message for help in the morning.

A sound was heard from above and Meera looked up to see the silhouette of flapping wings against the pale moon.

The castle was still burning, but the dragon had left.

Then she saw the ships. Ships that were flying the banner of House Seaworth. Help was already here.

***

The first thing Davos saw when setting foot on the beach, after rowing ashore with a few men, was a little boy running towards him. Dressed in a nightshirt, with hair standing on end, and face streaked with dirt.

Steffon.

"Father!" the boy hollered and threw himself in Davos' arms. His father lifted him up, big as the boy was, and held him for a moment. He placed a kiss on the boy's cheek that the child quickly shook off. Apparently, he was too big for that.

"How did you know I was coming?" Davos asked his son.

"Lady Baratheon told us to go down here before the dragon came," Steffon said. "Her brother told her in a dream."

Davos looked up and saw the rest of his family, Lady Baratheon, her father, and many more residents of the castle come out of the cave as well. It seemed like there hadn't been many casualties.

He put Steffon down and walked up to Meera. Joreen was crying and flailing in Howland's arms next to her. "I'll take you to Cape Wrath, Lady Baratheon," he said. "The king knows about the child. She needs to be kept safe. I'll tell you everything later, but right now we need to leave."

He would have to tell her what had happened to her husband but now wasn't the time for that.

Meera nodded. "I'll come with you," she said. "But the castle... It's burning but it's still standing. The king's men will take it since no one is left up there."

"I'll stay here and hold the castle," Howland said. "I told Lord Baratheon I would protect Storm's End in his absence and I will do that."

Davos nodded. "I can take everyone who wants to leave with me," he said. "And I'll leave the men I have with me to fight. You should still be able to hold the castle if you get back up there now. The king's men wouldn't enter until the flames have burnt out. If you wait in the tunnels then you can defend it from them."

"What if the dragon comes back?" Meera said in a worried tone. She didn't sound keen on leaving her father behind.

"We know the king can control the dragon now, so we can place scouts on the tower to look for it," Howland replied. "If it's sighted we'll hide in the tunnels until it's gone. It seems like he can't control it for too long."

"Promise to be careful," Meera said.

Howland nodded and kissed her forehead. Then he handed Joreen back to her. "Don't worry about me," he said. "Just bring your daughter to safety."

As the beast continued to fly away from the castle Davos brought them all onto his ship. Lady Baratheon and her daughter. His own wife Marya and his son Steffon. His daughter-in-law Brynda and his grandson Mathos.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he stood with Steffon on his side, trying to prevent the boy from climbing the railing, and looked back towards Storm's End. The tower was still standing, he could see that clearly, and the flames had turned into smoke.

This time, he had saved them all. This time, he had won. He just hoped this win would last.