JUNGKOOK

~

“I heard that they can only hatch when fully consumed by a roaring fire when the time is right.”

Jungkook was seated at the table in his own chambers, staring at the large, scaled egg that had been moved to his chambers immediately after the feast. He had barely slept that night, knowing that just across the room was an egg containing a creature that one day might grow large and strong enough to defeat entire armies. Now, the next morning, he sat across from it, trying to listen to what his friend was telling him, but he was finding it hard to stay out of the fantasies that kept forming in his mind.

“You’re not listening to me at all, are you?” Taehyung asked, more matter of factual than with any kind of real attitude. “You’re dreaming of riding off to battle on a huge dragon, like Balerion the Dread.”

Taehyung wasn’t entirely wrong; at some point, Jungkook could remember distinctly hoping that some kind of war would break out just so that he could witness the full strength of a full grown dragon.

“You do know that your dragon may not even grow to be as big as Her Majesty’s, right?”

This brought Jungkook out of his thoughts.

“What do you mean, not as big?” he asked, slightly irritated. Of course his dragon would be just as large; maybe his would even hit a strange growth spurt and surpass all of them.

“Her Majesty’s dragons were born much closer to the magic of Old Valyria, and if tales are true, her dragons were also hatched in the fire that sent her husband, Khal Drogo, to the gods. Or whatever gods the Dothraki Screamers believe in.” Taehyung leaned closer to the unmoving egg that sat in a chest smaller than the one the two eggs had been presented in as he continued. “Yours, on the other hand, has to be presented with the right conditions to even hatch in the first place, and when it does, there is no way to know how big it will grow to be as it matures.”

Jungkook eyed his friend closely. “How do you know so much about dragon lore?”

Taehyung straightened up before glancing at his friend, his eyes bright with the passion of knowledge. “Dragon lore has always been interesting to me. You remember, when we were much younger, how you would always find me in the maester’s library, reading?” Jungkook nodded. “It started when I found a few books with pictures of dragons on the front. Maester Visagon was kind enough to teach me to read when he noticed my interest, and I apparently picked it up very quickly. Since then, I’ve been through every one of his books that contains any traces of dragons, including the personal history of Her Majesty.”

The younger paused for a moment, taking in this new information about his friend from childhood. It was strange to him to only just learn something so vital about his friend when they had practically grown up together, and he felt both surprised and a little hurt to only hear about it now.

“You seem more learned than me,” he remarked casually, trying not to show any jealousy. “Maybe you would do better in my position than I would.”

Taehyung visually cringed a little, and Jungkook regretted his words immediately. The two of them had broached this topic before, but rarely did it go well since their positions within Maidenpool were set in stone since they were both born.

“You know I wouldn’t do well as a knight,” the older responded, casting his gaze downward as he grew slightly somber. “And anyhow, I have the hounds to take care of, just as my father does now. We both know I’m as good at that as anyone could be at our age.”

Jungkook only nodded slightly in response, thinking about how much he wished his greatest friend wasn’t confined to the position as kennel master for the rest of his life. He didn’t particularly like the idea of becoming a knight without him.

“However, I could try to teach you some of the lore, if you’d like,” Taehyung added, clearly trying to lighten the mood a bit. “It would probably help for you to become more knowledgeable on the matter before your dragon hatches.”

TAEHYUNG

~

A week passed, and nothing around Maidenpool seemed to change, even with the new presence of the eggs. The only difference was Taehyung’s daily lessons with Jungkook after dinner when they both could be found leaning over many of the maester’s volumes about history and ancient lore.

After the one-week mark, Lord Jacaemar made a small announcement that a large bonfire would be built in the middle of the courtyard of the keep. This particular bonfire would be stoked regularly throughout the night, and a guard would be on watch at all times, no questions asked. After explaining all of this, he revealed that the concept of the fire was to stoke the life into the dragons and cause them to be hatched from their eggs, since it did not seem like anything had changed with them so far.

Taehyung was asked to take one of the later shifts to stoke the fire, and he gladly accepted since it meant he would be that much closer to the dragon eggs. Of course, his real hope was that even one of them would hatch while he was there so he could witness a baby dragon firsthand.

The evening of the announcement, during their lesson in the maester’s library, Taehyung told Jungkook about being asked to stoke the fire because he was unable to contain his excitement any longer.

“You should be thrilled!” Jungkook agreed, genuinely grinning from ear to ear for his friend. “What if one of the dragons hatches while you’re there? You might get to see my dragon before I do!”

“Oh, I should hope not,” Taehyung replied, also grinning. “You would carry jealousy with you for the rest of your life if that happened.”

Jungkook nudged his friend with an elbow before saying, “You know I wouldn’t. I couldn’t blame you for something like that, while you were only doing what was asked of you.”

Before Taehyung came up with a response, Lord Jacaemar’s soft-spoken young steward, Jimin, came into the library, obviously looking for someone in particular.

“His Lordship thought you might be up here, young master. Your father requests your presence in the courtyard.”

“Did