Dragon Hunt

Rhaegar dismounted from his horse. "The boy and I will continue alone to observe the cave." he said, placing a gentle hand on the boy's reins.

"Lord Osmund, Lord Anders, grandsire...make ready your men, but wait here. Conceal yourself from the air. If the dragon takes flight and you are out in the open there will be little protection from its gaze and its flames."

"As opposed to my life." said Rhaegar his voice dripping with as much sarcasm as he could muster. "If you are so concerned for the life of Princess Sarella's subjects, perhaps you should return to Sunspear now and tell her of your concerns. Inform her that locating and killing dragons is dangerous."

He glanced towards the cliffs. "Do you not understand what lies in front of us, Ser? Those cliffs ahead of us consist of many caves and we do not yet know which one it is. This boy is the only one of us who knows which cave. If you truly wish to make sure this boy remains totally out of danger, perhaps you might volunteer to wander the cliffs alone, calling for the dragon until it shows itself."

He stared at the knight speaking through clenched teeth.

"I doubt you will do that though. My death by the flames of this dragon would be too delicious to miss, would it not?"

Rhaegar gave Elyas a final withering look, before moving across and speaking to the boy, explaining to him that he just wanted him to show him the cave.

"Just point it out to me." he said to the boy. "As soon as we see the dragon, get back as fast as you can to here and let Lord Yronwood and Lord Osmund know. I will follow you as soon as I can."

"One of us must go ." Elyas said to Aurane. "For if he flushes the dragon now there will be no one to observe it."

"I will accompany you, dragon." Elyas replied. "But you must give me a moment to don my armor." He was fairly confident that Rhaegar was exaggerating the difficulty of finding the cave with a dragon in it, provided with direction from the boy and basic empirical observation, but as he was joining them himself he was content that he would be able to keep the boy safe.

Martyne snapped at the both of them. "If you two boys have finished comparing your cocks, perhaps I will take this lad up the mountainside so that we can finish this task sooner rather than later," he said, frowning at how easily Rhaegar gave in to the other man's provocation.

He snapped his fingers at the peasant boy, and began to march up the mountainside with long strides, though he shortened them when he realized that the boy practically had to run to keep up. A few dozen yards on, he paused and looked back. "Are you coming, my lord Prince?" he asked.

"I said I will be going alone, Lord Osmund. The boy is only needed to show me which cave." said Rhaegar, growing impatient with both Dornishmen.

OOC - it's the mountains to the north of the Broken Arm. We really need to get moving a bit faster though I am moving it on a little.

The boy led the way up to the path. The journey started with a shallow incline but got steadily steeper the higher they went. The cave was perhaps halfway up the mountain, dark and foreboding. All around was scrubby grass and bushes, but not much else. The boy hunched low as he reached a rock embedded in the ground.

"Don't make me go any further, m'lords."

The boy scurried away with a cry of relief. Up ahead, the mouth of the cave was pitch black at this distance. But at least there was no sign of a dragon flying overhead.

There was definitely no sign of a dragon. They would have to head further up the path towards the cave if they hoped to see signs of dragon habitation, and perhaps to determine if Vandaras was in residence.

Osmund appeared quite calm, his hand gripped the hilt of his sword a little more tightly than one might expect. "Remain here, my lord Prince. I shall see if the boy led us truly, and signal to you from the mouth. A closed fist if the dragon is present, for I doubt I will want to shout and alert it to my presence," he replied, with a sardonic smile.

The lord crept forward carefully, moving across the rocks with a practiced grace. The path had ended about where they stopped, so he moved carefully over the rocky cliffs trying not to disturb any small stones that would inevitably start a louder flow down the mountainside. When he reached the mouth of the cave, Lord Osmund paused for a moment, as if steeling his nerves, and then stuck his head up over the lip to peer inside.

He was smiling when he looked down at them, and carefully made his way back down the rocks to the path, where Rhaegar and Elyas stood. "It's gone, but it's definitely been living here. The floor is littered with bones, all cracked and burned."

Osmund followed the Rhaegar's lead, and concealed himself similarly to wait for the dragon's return. "When it does come back, assuming it does not see us, what then do you intend to do, my lord Prince?" he asked.

They had to wait perhaps an hour or so, getting hotter and hotter, the sun beating down on them. Elyas sweated a great deal in his mail. Heat and the long wait made the men impatient but eventually a great shadow fell over them as the dragon soared overhead. They saw the bright red scales, with black markings, just as described. Rhaegar, who had grown up in Kings Landing, recognised Vandaras as his cousin Daenya's dragon.

Vandaras was flying high enough not to take note of the men but swooped low just outside the cave. They watched him enter his lair, the carcass of a sheep gripped between his jaws.