The Last Dance

The sudden rage of The Cannibal was a shock for all the houses of the Crownlands. The reclusive dragon had done little in the years following the Dance and many on Dragonstone were convinced that he would be less of an issue with no other dragons to devour. Many were unprepared for the wroth the beast would bring. Thus the Last Dance began.

Prelude
Little under a year after the so called Witch's War, a disturbance shook the solemn isle of Dragonstone. Prince Aegon was upon the island at the time, seeking solace away from the wife he loathed, and hoping that one of the three frail hatchlings that had been born on the island might yet pull out of the downward spiral their health had been in since they had hatched. One hardly moved, nor opened its eyes, another wailed in pain constantly and had one wing far shorter than the other, and the last leaked steaming pus from sores it been born with. None had a name, and none would live to have them. As the Prince of Dragonstone left the dragonlings in the morning, the sound of wings and a deafening roar filled the air.

From above the Cannibal descended in a rage. In one fell swoop the beast devoured the three hatchlings and began to spew flame. If not for the bravery of Ser Lucas Sunglass, who rushed the Crown Prince to safety before being enveloped in the Cannibal’s green flame, Aegon himself might have perished. Raging, the beast devoured the dragonkeepers as well, along with the vast majority of the remaining dragon eggs before bathing the castle in a gout of flame before ascending again.

The dark beast swept across the island, first bathing the docks in flame, and then the ships unfortunate enough to be present that morning before flying away towards the mainline. The prince and those who had long called the island home were baffled. The Cannibal was a brute no doubt but it often did not trouble men so long as they did not dare to interfere, and it certainly did not attack the docks or passing ships. Worried for his family and the realm, the prince quickly had a raven dispatched to King’s Landing.

Rhaenyra was said to be mortified when she received word, and in her terror demanded that Daemon be sent for to fight the beast on Caraxes. When reminded that her consort was long dead, the queen began to become irate and panic. However as the queen fell into despair, her younger son found courage. Viserys’ father was gone, but he was not, and like his father he was a dragonrider all his own.

Rhaenyra ordered Viserys confined to his quarters as she had during the Witch’s War, but this time the Black Queen was too late. The son of the Rogue Prince was already atop Silverwing, and soaring out to meet the rampaging dragon. The last of the Targaryen dragonriders faulted himself for the tragedies of the Witch’s War, faulted his inaction, and thus he would not sit idly by with danger so close to home.

The Death of the Hayfords
From Dragonstone the dragon burned ships off the coast of Driftmark, then set upon the port of Duskendale. The garrison of the town attempted to attack the beast but their arrows did nothing. The dragon flew off again, this time for the castle of Hayford. The Cannibal's rage on Dragonstone paled to the destruction he wrought upon Hayford. The ancient line of House Hayford was suddenly and unceremoniously snuffed out when the red and orange flames of the dragon obliterated the ancient castle in a matter of less than half an hour. Lords Pyle and Edgerton sent men to investigate, though a band of hedge knights under Ser Archibald Darke reached the castle first, having been in King’s Landing after leaving Duskendale. The men were set upon by the dragon and all but one of the men were killed. The man reported that Ser Archibald had managed to hurl a spear into the eye of the beast, wounding it greatly.

The lords around Hayford quickly formed a small force to challenge the beast, with the Knight of House Suggs joining Lords Pyle, Edgerton, and Blount. The Cannibal rose up to devastate their force when he was met by Prince Viserys atop Silverwing.

The Last Dance
When the Cannibal rose up in a rage to meet the oncoming host of minor Crownlords, Silverwing descended onto the great beast. What followed was a great clash in the sky above the smouldering ruin of a castle, the likes of which had not been seen since the dance, and would not be seen again.

Unlike the fateful clash of his father and Aemond One-Eye, many and more bore witness to the great clash in the clouds. Men, women, and children watched as the Prince’s mount raked and burned the wicked beast, the dragon of light devastating the dragon of darkness with each attack. The Cannibal was a great beast to be sure, but Silverwing was nimble even at its age, and below many began to sing praises to the seven, confident in the triumph of good over evil.

Then, in one move, the Cannibal locked its jaws around the nape of the prince’s dragon, and wrestled it beneath it. Using it’s great size, the Cannibal dove to the ground in a suicidal rage. The beast crashed to the earth, Silverwing and Prince Viserys beneath it. When they met the ground, Silverwing died in an instant, its head torn from its body, its rider crushed beneath it. But, as Viserys and his mount had fallen, the prince’s dragon had managed one final swipe with its claws, tearing open scale and flesh, leaving the Cannibal disemboweled.

The mad dragon screamed and steaming blood gushed from its belly, and attempted to breathe fire at those that looked upon it, but the jets of flame that cane were weak at best, and could reach none of them. The beast languished for an hour, the arrows and spears flung at it doing nothing to hasten its passing. Then the beast joined its attacker and passed on.

Aftermath
When word reached the queen, it is said that her face went pale, and she collapsed where she stood, dead in an instant from the heartbreak of losing another son. The truth was less romantic, for while the queen collapsed, she remained with the living for several days, long enough for Prince Aegon to be sent for, but not long enough for him to reach his mother’s side when she passed.

The Crown Prince arrived to King’s Landing a King himself, and was crowned upon his arrival. He lamented his tardiness, weeping that had he still had Stormcloud, or another mount, he might have made it to his mother’s side in time, or been able to aid his young brother, and that both might have lived. Heartbroken, the new king and his wife, the newly titled Queen Jaehaera shared a moment of tenderness in their usually icy relationship. This change would not last, but warmth between the two would flicker for the remainder of their time as husband and wife.

The new king would mourn for several moons, leaving the realm to his mother’s Hand, Cregan Stark, as he did, but would emerge a man both humbled and desperate to live up to his brother’s legacy.

For Viserys’ part, his wife, the Lady Larra Rogare would deliver their final child, Naerys four moons after his death. But desperate for her home, and changed by the loss of her husband, the Lyseni would remain in Westeros for only half a decade more before returning to Lys, and leaving her children behind. The Prince would be immortalized in story and song as 'Viserys The Valiant', the Last Dragonrider, and enshrined as a hero revered as highly as those in legend.

Among the songs and stories of the bravery of Viserys the Valiant, there remains great debate about what led the Cannibal to start its terrible rampage. Sources at the Citadel are divided as they were with the Witch’s War, with those wearing a link of Valyrian steel favoring the theory that some unknown party had attempted to conduct some ancient Valyrian ritual to bind the dragon and failed horribly, while those without theorize that the Cannibal might have become ill of mind as the result of some illness caught devouring so many of its own, some of which had been born sickly in recent years and never grown as the final three he devoured had. But for every theory at the Citadel, there are a dozen more among those outside it.

Those still harboring Green loyalties such as House Hightower whispered it was the god’s vengeance for Aegon, those loyal to the Blacks came up with various theories to blame the former greens. Among the commons, it was whispered that perhaps it was the last vengeance of Alys Rivers and her son, or even more darkly that perhaps the Cannibal had not been unridden as reported. Aegon the Usurper, the One-Eye, or even Maegor back from the dead were whispered to have tamed the great beast to enact their final vengeance, and that their corpse had simply faded back into the ether upon the Cannibal’s final attack. No witness to the Cannibal’s attacks ever spoke of a rider, and such speculation can be safely dismissed.

The Crown thanked all the men that took part in the campaign and Archibald Darke’s son, Ambrose, was granted the lands of Hayford and a stipend to rebuild the castle. He would be aided by Lords Pyle and Edgerton and even Duskendale sent a few stonemasons and carpenters to the lands to respect their years of service.

With the dance over, but one dragon remained in the realm, deep in the Mountains of the Moon, who the King eyed with longing. But, the Targaryens were without dragons for the first time, and their eggs were destroyed.

And so would begin their time of rule without them.