Senya would have my balls for approaching a foreign people like this without a manned escort, but Balerion—in my opinion—was better serve than some knights and a few scores of men-at-arms as a big and scaly "don't fuck with me sign".
It took less than a few minutes for Balerion to cross the lake the length of about four miles, before I directed him toward an elevated hill top a good distance away from the village but not so far as to have them questioning my intention to meet.
Balerion tucked his limbs and dived down sharply on my order. His leathery wings sprang out at the last moment to catch the wind and stop his fall as he gave them a couple of flaps to slowly land.
I worked to undo all my chains before unstrapping the shield I had tied to my saddle to equip and slid down, taking care not to have Blackfyre, as well as some of the metallic vials hanging on my belts tangled onto anything.
Stepping my feet on solid ground, I waited under Balerion's wing for less than under a minute before a small party of about a dozen people trickled out toward me.
I found it curious how the party consisted of only grown women, carrying harpoons as makeshift spears.
Did all their men's balls drop off or something?
It was plausible, taking Balerion into account, but that didn't make my disdain for these men any lesser.
The women were also followed by a single horse drawn cart stuffed to the brim with sacks of what I suspected were all the valuable goods they could scrounge up as offerings.
They stopped at the foot of the hill, then a grey haired yet still robust woman in her mid 40-50s stepped forward, albeit with shaky steps, no doubt pissing herself at the sight of my hill-sized lizard.
"Oh mighty Lord Sorcerer! We 'ave not much 'round these parts being mere honest farmhands. But please accept our humble offering and not sic that beast upon our home. I care not one whit if that beast swallows me whole, clothes and all, m'lord but we 'ave children. Tiny helpless babes that have not seen a moon past their fifth birthday…"
'So they speak the common tongue.' I mused. 'But a Sorcerer? While not false, it does give me an idea.'
I let her ramble on for a while, slowly growing increasingly more uncomfortable at some of the things she would offer to send me on my way like women, or younger girls, although I did note the lack of mention of young boys or young men.
Not that I was into that, but logically speaking, if they were already desperate enough to offer up their womenfolks to me, why not their menfolks as well?
Eventually, I got tired of her very vivid description of the second young maiden's tits like the girl was some prized horsemare. So I had Balerion slithered forward in a serpentine fashion right next to me—dropping some of the women on their asses from his mere presence—before the hill-sized lizard growled with his fangs bare to the sun.
The two rows of razor sharp sword-sized teeth did their job in making an impression, perhaps a little too well in fact, when all the women—at least the one still standing anyway—got a bit jumpy and levied their measly harpoons at me even if they looked as though they were about to soil their breeches.
Thankfully the elderly women's sudden scolding stopped them from doing something foolish like trying to run me down with those poor excuses for spears.
"What're yer waving those sticks around for fools?! Lower them before Lord Sorcerer's beast makes quick meal of us all!"
I took that chance to interject, trying to appear as harmless as possible, which was an exercise in futility in truth with Balerion's intimidating frame standing so close.
"Your elder is correct, good women, I have no quarrel with your village nor would I accept your meager tributes whether that be in gold—for wealth I have aplenty—or your women…"
The 'For Senya and Rhae would have me castrated' part was left unspoken.
It was at this point that I realized I was one hell of an actor as I leaned deeper into the mysterious sorcerer persona that they had so conveniently presented to me on a silver platter.
"I'm a hermit, or at least I was until today. Now I seek adventures, to explore the world for all its wonders and beauty. But the world isn't kind to the ignorants, that I know. So like any wiseman would, I seek to rectify my shortcomings. What I require of you, good women, are rumors, words carried by the wind and picked up by open ears as well as any writings, or drawing of anything and everything. Rest assured, I will not ask you to part with them without just compensation for services rendered, or goods exchanged."
By the end of my words, the villagers were looking at me with relief and a little bit of temptation, fully bought into the tale I had spun.
My stingy dragon on the other hand was looking at me like I was one of those charlatans who tell tall fortunes for a living, not very approving of my shenanigans albeit very used to it at this point after almost more than a decade being my bonded.
"We…We are but simple farmers Oh Mighty Lord Sorc—"
"Just Lord Aegon is fine, my good woman." I said. "And may I have the name of the woman I'm conversing with? After all, I did not just take the trouble of introducing myself for nothing."
The old woman stuttered at being called out.
"Ye-yes Lord Aegon! I am Ariane, the current chieftess of Gvaern Dearg hamlet."
"Well met then, Ariane, chieftess of Gvaern Dearg." I nodded in greeting
"We-well met m'lord!" She bowed fumbling awkwardly. "As for your request, we are but humble farmers 'round these parts. Most of us can't even read, let alone own a book or a map. I fear that all the news and rumors I have for you m'lord are hearsays these worn ears of mine had picked up over the years."
I nodded in understanding.
"That will suffice, Ariane."
"Thank you for your grace m'lord."
Said Ariane with relief, before she went on to tell me of everything she knew about our surroundings.
She told me of the year being 1240 after the Resurrection. When I asked what the Resurrection was, she couldn't answer so I waved for her to continue.
She talked of the general location of her village, of how it sat on the south shore of lake Muderach at the foothill of the Amell Mountain range.
The same mountain range that I had been flying over for hours, the same mountain range that ran through several kingdoms, and effectively split the entire continent in two halves, the South and the North with us being in the South within a country called Nazair.
She talked of the Marnadal pass, a major pass that connected the two kingdoms of Cintra and Nazair, a pass that was only a dozen leagues North East of lake Muderach.
She talked about a recent war, or rather a battle during that war when Nazair invaded her Northern neighbor, Cintra, with fifteen thousand men through the same pass only to be beaten back by Queen Calanthe at Honchebuz in 1233 in a battle that would earn the Cintran Queen the moniker 'The Lioness of Cintra'.
She then moved to talk of the many cities lining Nazair's coast—which happened to be South East of Dragonstone—where half of their nation's major settlements gathered with the other half clustering around the fertile low land running along the river Yelena further inland, and East of here.
She also admitted that some of the news were most likely outdated given that it had been five whole years since Lake Muderach had seen any traders. And that was because they were very remote, and the merchants feared this place becoming the front of another war, should Cintra choose to retaliate.
When I pointed out how the war was almost a decade ago, and that trade should have returned by now, she got strangely shifty and evasive about the topic before suddenly bringing up the savages and how they were the true reason for their lack of trade.
It was odd how it seemed as though she had forgotten about something as major and as life threatening as a hostile neighbor so I prodded further.
"Is that why I don't see any of your men amongst your party? Did these savages slay all your menfolks, and force you womenfolks under their yoke?"
It was honestly a very inefficient way to go about subjugating a village, at least compared to just taking all the women here back to their home as bedslaves.
And in the scenario that they desire this place as a frontier territory of sorts, they could have just sent their own people to hunker down here instead, like the Vikings did except there weren't any Saxons to chase them off given that by her own admission, this place was very remote.
"Yes m'lord!" She replied. "But you're only partly correct m'lord. Some of our men were lost during the war back, and with our village weakened, those opportunistic craven took the chance to take all our fighting men out for good."
I hummed, still finding her explanation lacking, but then again, I didn't have enough information to prove her wrong so I opted instead to ask.
"These savages, tell me about them."
She was all too happy to change the subject.
"They be them wildmen of the hills m'lord. They called themself Highlanders, and they made nests of our country's harsh rocky highland interior, hence the name Highlanders. United they are not, with their people divided into different tribes. But still Headaches they be for our Kings and Lords since they collectively raid all year round, especially just right before the winter."
She paused to look up at me with a fawning expression.
"But with a mighty beast such as yours under your command, I'm sure m'lord will make quick work of them on your way to the coast."
I hummed, not responding to her assertion, my mind more focused on these savages.
They sounded a lot like the mountain clans in the Vale, in truth, with their raiding culture, and tribal society, although the same could be said for the Ironborn.
And if this Kingdom was still struggling with these kinds of savages, then they were absolutely no threat to our Dragons.
Plus taking into account their army size, and how most of the famous battles fought were terrestrial in nature, it was safe to assume that these two kingdoms, Cintra northeast and Nazair southeast of us, didn't have any substantial war fleet worth mentioning.
Which ultimately meant that for the time being, Dragonstone was at least safe from any threat to our East with the Amell Mountain Range guarding it. And given that to the West of us was an endless ocean, we were quite secured where we were.
"Very well, I thank you woman for your trouble and for taking the time out of your day to entertain my request." I said finally, and tossed a gold coin—I had taken out of my coin purse at some point—toward Ariane. "Here's your just rewards as I have promised."
Ariane fumbled to catch it as I turned on my feet and made my way to Balerion's saddle. But that was when the woman suddenly called out to me.
"Wait m'lord!"
I stopped and turned to face the old woman, annoyance marring my face. "What's the matter, woman? Surely you don't intend to ask for more when all we did was talk?"
What I gave them was a Volantis Gold Honor. And while I knew it was no longer an official coinage in this land, gold was gold, and Volantis tends to have higher purity than most for their coins.
It was honestly more than enough to pay for what barely amounted to a short conversation, as well as a month of a smallfolk household's expenses if they were frugal.
But then said gold was rather useless when you have no one to trade with, so perhaps I should send some actual supplies for them later once I've my people well situated in this foreign land.
Ariane rushed to shake her head in denial, fearing my displeasure, or rather Balerion's.
"No m'lord I would never. It's just that if you're looking for books or maps, Rhys Rhun castle should have what you need. The keep may have been abandoned when the baron who lived there fled in haste to the capital after hearing news of his King's defeat in Hochebuz. But the spineless cur had only brought with him his family, his soldiers, and his most prized possessions, while leaving everything behind. Perhaps amongst his possessions are the writings and maps that you are looking for m'lord." She said, and I noticed most of the women amongst their group flinched at the mention of the keep even if they made very terrible attempts at hiding it.
"Rhys Rhun Castle? Is that the abandoned castle over yonder?" I asked with my eyes veering North over the lake.
The woman nodded her head, acting like her normal servile self, but Balerion—through our bond—could tell she was very nervous and afraid.
The real question though was whether she was afraid of me, or of the castle?
I hit her with a "I'll think about it." before climbing onto my dragon's saddle and took to the sky.
=Ariane's POV=
Her body visibly slackened once the Sorcerer and his mountain-sized beast had finally taken to the sky, a slight crazed look passing over her eyes when she saw the dragon heading toward that damnable place.
Though her joy was swiftly broken by one of her companions, who had at some point stalked right next to her.
"Was that wise chief?"
"Was what wise?" She groused, irritated at getting her judgement questioned.
"Yer know what we're talkin about chief… Was it wise for yer to send the Sorcerer for those witches? What if he prevails, and comes back for us all?" Another piped up before everyone joined in with ayes, and fearful agreements.
She hummed thoughtfully, pausing before finally pointing out something her fellow villagers had missed in the face of that giant beast.
"He carried a shield."
Confused looks were her answer so she elaborated with a scowl, irritated at being surrounded by dimwitted craven fools.
"If he needed a shield just to talk with us, it means he's vulnerable to whatever attacks that can be stopped by a shield. Which means he's still a mortal, and a mortal man can never truly triumph over those witches regardless if he has a beast that could lay waste to an entire kingdom under his yoke."
Enlightened nods and sighs of relief at not having to sacrifice one of their own this time around reverberated around her, and she was infuriated by it.
Infuriated at them for being content with the status quo, and infuriated at a part of herself for feeling the same.
So she lashed out, barking orders for them to return and to resume their work to which they listened eagerly while she stayed back, still looking at the beast over the horizon flying toward that wretched keep.
What she had intentionally omitted from her fellow villagers was that for all the fragility the sorcerer seemingly possessed, a man with a beast like that under his control was unlikely to fall against anything short of a King's army.
And if he were to come back here to roast them all for deceiving him? So be it! At least she'd die knowing that her sons, and husband have been avenged, even if she had to sacrifice the entire village for it.
AN: This is the rebooted version of this fic fyi. And it's 100% different than the old one