As you all may know my Hidden History series does not cover the Targaryen/Baratheon era. However, I was so disappointed by how one-sided the Dance of the Dragons was in favor of the Blacks that I decided to write a little something fixing that. Hope you all enjoy it:
As Lord Borros Baratheon led twenty thousand men north from Storm's End Black partisans harried his line of march, at one point attempting to ambush his host as it crossed the Wendwater the same way Lords Errol, Fell, and Buckler had his famous forebear, Orys, more than a century ago.
They did not succeed, having waited too long to spring their trap, and so the final result was a Green victory as lopsided as any in the Dance.
When Lord Borros later led his men out of King's Landing after restoring the city to order in exchange for the promise that his eldest daughter would become the new queen of the widowed Aegon II he found the Kingsroad blocked by a mixed host of ten thousand Black loyalists from the Stormlands, Vale, and Crownlands, which had elected not to wait for their Riverlander allies before giving battle. In the fighting that followed, called by the Maesters the First Battle of the Kingsroad, the Blacks suffered a crushing defeat, losing a third of their numbers as well as most of their commanders, who were all either killed or captured if they had not fled the field.
Flushed with victory, the Lord of Storm's End is said to have then laughed openly when told by his newly-gained hostages that the Riverlanders approaching his position were not only roughly a quarter his size but led by women and children as well.
Thus emboldened, he force marched his men up the Kingsroad in the expectation of an easy victory before the deciding battle with the Lord of Winterfell only to be caught in a cunning trap laid by the very foes he had so recently scorned as being no threat to him.
This last engagement of the Dance, called by the Maesters the Second Battle of the Kingsroad, took place in the following manner:
Capturing a Black scout the day after his triumph on the Kingsroad Lord Borros was delighted to hear after some sharp questioning that the Riverlanders' camp was both nearby and poorly-defended for their spirits had been low ever since word had reached them of yesterday's disaster.
Consequently, he proposed to further quicken their pace of march so as to take the enemy unawares. His younger brother, Ser Bartimos, disagreed however and instead urged caution, citing poor visibility as well as the condition of the Kingsroad due to ongoing rains but alas he was overruled though no less than seven lords supported his suggestion.
When the Greens finally came upon the Riverlanders' camp two days later Lord Borros ordered an immediate charge, leading the first one personally from atop a monstrous destrier.
In hindsight a grievous mistake for not only were the Stormlanders blinded by the rain blowing in their faces but the ground was soft and muddy as well, causing their attack to lose all cohesion and momentum, at which point the Riverlanders put their plan into action.
Leading a company of archers out from inside the tents Alysanne Blackwood brought down Lord Borros's knights, pinning his men in place while her younger brother, Benjicot, broke his left flank and Lord Kermit Tully his right.
But even in those dire straits the Stormlanders, true to form, gave as good as they took such that when the battle closed with the death of Lord Borros and the routing of his host more than half of the Blacks' own men lay dead on the muddy road as well, leaving them too few to threaten the high walls of King's Landing...a fact they knew Aegon II would be unaware of and so they continued their march, safe in the knowledge that even now the Lord of Winterfell was marching south with an army of his own and would soon join his strength to theirs.
(In the First Battle of the Kingsroad the Greens had seventeen thousand men, having lost two thousand on the march to King's Landing and another thousand taking the city.)
(In the Second Battle of the Kingsroad the Greens had sixteen thousand men, the Blacks fifty-seven hundred.)
