Au where Rafe was a dragonseed, maybe descending from Nettles or from one of the other various bastards running around during the Dance, or maybe she's descended from one of Aegon IV's bastards... but the important thing here is that she was a dragonseed.
She died, her blood spilling across the ground and covering one of her most prized, secret possessions. An oddly egg shaped stone that shimmered in the light. Dunk remembers Rafe always used to stroke the egg, as she considered selling it, but she never did, not even when they were at their most desperate...
Rafe always told him he was to put her on a pyre and burn her if she died and by the gods, he's going to do it!
What little Rafe claimed as hers goes onto the pyre that Dunk builds outside Kingslanding, off to the side along the path back to Redgrass. Dunk thinks about trying to go find the knight who killed the gold cloaks but... instead, he just watches the pyre and so, he gets to watch as a dragon climbs from the flames...
The Rafeling follows Dunk around, crooning until Dunk realises it's probably hungry... then Dunk has to figure out how he's supposed to feed a dragon when he can barely feed himself... he manages it somehow, and at first it's kind of easy keeping this little dragon hidden but... dragons grow and grow and grow...
Dunk and Rafeling end up at the Isle of Faces, the place so mysterious no one will bother them there, or so Dunk hopes. There, the Rafeling can grow as big as they like... occasionally, Dunk leaves the Island and its green men, and its secrets to go walk among the villages and remember what it means to be a regular person, not the Person for a giant, fire breathing beast... but he always returns to the Island and his little (not so little anymore) Rafeling... and then the man with the raven mark on his face comes and he tells him he must find his fate at Ashford... and Dunk doesn't want to listen to the man, but well, one person already found out his secret, why couldn't others?
So Dunk and Rafeling go, traveling only at night. On the moonless nights Rafeling permits Dunk to climb up on their back and she soars them closer and closer to Ashford. To Dunk's fate, whatever that might mean...
It's harder to find somewhere for Rafeling to hide at Ashford, but Dunk still manages it, even if Rafeling has to fly further at night to see him. They manage, as they always have.
Dunk stumbles his way into meeting the royals when he comes across a beaten and bloody Egg on his way to the keep, from Rafeling's hiding place. The little scamp had chosen the wrong knight to follow and been left in the dirt for it. Dunk uses what he's learned from the Green Men and the secrets of the Isle to nurse Egg back to health. Rafeling visits every now and then, always curiously sniffing Egg before she flies off back to her hiding place. Dunk figures Egg's too out of it to realise that Rafeling was really there... until Egg is well enough to go to Ashford where he happily tells his uncle about the dragon and the Giant...
Baelor's not sure he believes his nephew, but certainly someone had been tending for him, else his nephew would surely have died from the wounds that were still healing even now. Baelor uses Egg as a distraction to slip his Kingsguard and go riding out for the dragon on his own... and comes across Dunk. Baelor is relatively sure he's found Egg's giant... but he doesn't see any dragon.
Just to be a little shit, and to try and figure out if there was any truth in Egg's story. Baelor accuses Dunk of being the one who hurt Egg, and Dunk gets rightly pissed off that anyone would dare accuse him of being so cowardly and cruel.
Rafeling comes to investigate whats upset her dad Dunk and finds him arguing with this guy that smells sort of like the little bald one did. But this one is better. This one is right. This one is the one she's been waiting for all this time! She pounces!
Baelor suddenly finds himself knocked into the dirt, he struggles, trying to stand only to feel a heavy weight settling on his chest. He blinks the dust out of his eyes to find a large snout pushing against his chest, two large, mismatched eyes staring down at him.
Dunk is there yelling at Rafeling to please have some decorum! Do not eat the Princeling, they do not need that sort of complication in their lives, Rafeling!!
Rafeling is rumbling that she's found her Person, dad, come on! Read the room!
Baelor is pretty sure he's about to die... oh, the dragon is licking him. Oh, is that a good thing? He doesn't know. He does know he's not dead, though! haha... yet! (Baelor being the Ralph Wiggum meme, lol)
Rafeling eventually picking Baelor up in her mouth, he's fucking terrified, actually!!! But she's just picking him up so she can put him down in front of Dunk all proud like 'look papa!! My person!!' Dunk just sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose and agrees that she can keep the Princeling so long as she remembers to go flying with him, and protect him, and eat his enemies.
Baelor is... not sure how he's supposed to feel about that. He's relatively certain he just got compared to a dog or some other flavour of pet... but hey. It sounds like he's getting a dragon, so he's for that! He also wouldn't mind climbing the giant like a tree if that was something they were down for and wouldn't get him eaten by the dragon that he's relatively certain thinks it's the giant's child...
Oh, the giant is down for that. He's very down for that. 😏😏😏😏😏
This here? This is
