Game of Thrones: Rise of the Supreme Dragon Queen

Dany had misunderstood Wahson; he had truly gifted her a legendary manual.

Back in her quarters, unable to resist her curiosity about the twelve "Spring Song" techniques, she secretly opened the book to take a peek.

Initially expecting to study the pinnacle techniques of another world, she was instead greeted by dense pages filled with numbers and maps.

Indeed, Wahson's journal did include the twelve "Spring Song" techniques, but the twelve challenging "gymnastic" poses occupied only a dozen pages. When the book had fallen earlier, it had coincidentally opened to one of those pages.

The bulk of the content, however, comprised detailed data and hand-drawn maps.

It didn't just cover the Dothraki Sea; nearly the entire continent of Essos was charted in detail, including descriptions of terrain, population distribution, industries, military placements, city walls, and watchtowers.

It seemed Wahson had compiled this as a guide for his son, Haggo, to conquer and expand as a Khal.

Additionally, as an observer, Wahson had recorded nomadic pasture growth, rainfall, temperature, humidity, disease-prone areas, herbal remedies learned from healers, the length of summers, and the winter conditions affecting agriculture in various regions.

What seemed like a chaotic collection of data was, in fact, a compilation of the Dothraki's most advanced survival knowledge.

In short, Wahson's journal was nearly useless to an ordinary person but an invaluable guidebook for a Khal—provided the Khal understood its significance.

It meticulously documented the geography, agriculture, and climate of Essos. If Haggo had survived, he might have become the greatest Khal, unifying the Dothraki even before Dany, with his father's guidance.

Realizing its value for her future plans to conquer the Dothraki Sea, Dany decided to honor Wahson with a proper burial.

Yes, she would personally oversee Wahson's cremation ceremony.

"The comet's tail has grown longer! Wahson has joined the Khal's ranks!" Aggo exclaimed, pointing to the bloody streak in the sky.

For ordinary Dothraki, observing omens in the night sky wasn't necessary during cremations. But Dany, true to her word, placed Wahson's body on the modest funeral pyre and even shouted into the sky for him.

The Dothraki, astonished, "discovered" that the comet's tail had indeed lengthened slightly.

The comet, steadily nearing the planet, would naturally grow brighter and its tail more distinct. However, no significant change could have occurred in the span of a few moments.

An illusion. It was all an illusion.

Dany chose not to correct them. Instead, she adopted a solemn and mysterious demeanor, then ordered, "Kill the horse!"

A stubborn, ill-tempered nag was brought forward—stronger than Wahson's previous mount.

Two warriors held the horse's head steady, while a third swung a gleaming curved blade. A line of white light, reflecting the torch's glow, sliced through the pre-dawn darkness.

The horse neighed in agony, its struggles only causing its blood to gush more forcefully from its neck.

A dark-red torrent of blood poured into the copper basin below.

"Bring the grass horse," Dany commanded.

An elderly Dothraki warrior stepped forward, carrying a horse effigy made of wooden sticks and demon grass on his shoulders.

"Soul, depart!" She pointed her right hand at the dying horse and chanted in a rapid string of languages: Mandarin, English, her native Sichuan dialect, and Dothraki.

To her Khalasar, it sounded like an incantation of mystical proportions.

"Mami mami hong!" She added a few nonsense syllables for good measure before dramatically flinging her arm out. Pointing her left hand at the grass horse, she declared, "Soul, return!"

Under the Dothraki's awed gazes and Jorah's bewildered stare, Dany paused for breath, then surveyed the crowd. "It's done. The spirit of the steed has entered the grass horse. It is now a rare mount combining the gentleness of a grass horse with the strength of a warhorse. Wahson will no longer fear falling off his mount or lagging behind the Khal."

"Place the grass horse on the pyre. Dawn is near. Prepare to light the fire," she ordered with a wave.

"What about this?" one of the warriors asked hesitantly, gesturing at the dead horse whose tear-filled eyes still glistened.

Khaleesi was not only the Unburnt and Mother of Dragons but also a master of sacrificial magic. Her abilities inspired both reverence and awe.

"Are you stupid? Roast it over the fire and eat it," Dany snapped, rolling her eyes.

All her efforts had been to honor Dothraki traditions while conserving supplies.

As Wahson's body burned in the fire, the surrounding Dothraki busied themselves. Some roasted horse meat over the flames, while others prepared soup with iron pots—mixing horse blood, bones, barley, dried apples, turnip chunks, and pepper. No salt was needed; the aroma was already mouthwatering.

Was it the enticing scent of the food, the smoky aroma of Wahson's burning flesh, or a mix of both? Whatever it was, it made the Dothraki and Jorah eat ravenously.

Dany, however, found it unbearable. With a basket of roasted meat slung over her arm, she used the excuse of training her dragons to slip away.

On the fourth day, the Khalasar, as in previous days, set out at dusk. Along the way, they frequently encountered waterholes marked by rocks and wooden stakes.

The situation was better than Dany's worst expectations. Most waterholes, even those previously used by the second group of riders, still held shallow traces of water once the covering stones were removed.

Dany spared no effort. As the khalasar advanced, their water reserves dwindled steadily. She collected muddy seepage water into emptied waterskins, intending to filter it when they set up camp.

Despite the temporary relief in water supply, tragedy struck about three hours into their march—a six-month-old baby girl died.

The mother wailed with heart-wrenching sorrow, her cries echoing through the entire caravan. Dany felt a deep pang of helplessness, unable to do anything for her.

She didn't even know the cause of the baby's death. There was no sign of heatstroke or starvation; the infant simply had bouts of diarrhea for half a day before passing in her mother's arms.

According to Dothraki traditions, children too young to ride a horse could not enter the Night Lands, the endless black plains. Instead, they were destined to be reborn.

The poor child was buried right there in the sandy ground.

The khalasar didn't pause their march. Just as with old Huason's body the day before, only Dany and the ten-member group to which the grieving mother belonged stayed behind to handle the burial.

Perhaps misfortune gives way to luck. The next morning, Dany clapped her hands and cheered, celebrating her dragon baby's first flight.

However, as her black dragon circled higher and higher, becoming a speck in the sky and disappearing from view, Dany suddenly grew anxious. In that moment, she unexpectedly entered a dream-like connection with the dragon.

For the first time, she experienced this bond from a distance, without physically touching the dragon. Yet calling it a "dragon dream" no longer felt entirely accurate.

If compared to the Stark children's wolf spirit ability, Dany's state could be described as a "lesser dragon spirit."

The wolf spirit, also known as a warg—or a subtype of shapeshifter—is a person capable of invading the consciousness of animals or even other humans to control their actions.

For a warg, forming an emotional bond with the animal makes this process easier. Wolves, as loyal relatives of dogs, are the most common companions for wargs.

Someone who controls wolves is called a wolf spirit, though they are not limited to communicating with wolves.

The Stark children—Bran, Rickon, Arya, and Jon Snow, the nominal protagonist of A Song of Ice and Fire—are all wolf spirits with remarkable shapeshifting talents.

However, they lacked systematic training and subconsciously rejected their abilities, so their potential remained largely untapped.

Bran's strength, for instance, needs no elaboration. When he ascends from a warg to a greenseer, he can traverse the timeline of Westeros, altering the past and observing the future.

(Note: While timeline alteration hasn't appeared in A Song of Ice and Fire yet, the Game of Thrones storyline about Hodor aligns with George R.R. Martin's intended canon. Martin himself confirmed the "Hodor twist" in interviews.)

It's worth noting that the Old Gods observe the world through weirwood trees, which are exclusive to Westeros, suggesting their influence does not extend to Essos.

Jon's innate talent even intimidated Varamyr Sixskins, the most powerful warg among the Free Folk. And just how strong was Varamyr?

Strong enough to attempt possessing another human even after being mortally wounded by a Red Priestess, though the effort ultimately failed. When that happened, Varamyr still had the strength to transfer his soul into his pet wolf.

Unfortunately, his luck ran out when he encountered Bran, the most powerful warg in Westeros.

As for Arya, despite her direwolf Nymeria being released long ago, the two maintained their connection across the Narrow Sea and thousands of miles. They often communicated through Arya's wolf dreams while she trained as a Faceless Man in Braavos.

(Note: Unlike the show, which handled Nymeria hastily, the books frequently feature Arya's wolf. Nymeria not only saves Arya several times but also helps recover her mother's body in Arya's wolf dream—a body that would later be resurrected.)

Even Rickon, at just three years old, demonstrated a limited ability to predict the future through his wolf dreams.

Sansa's direwolf, Lady, died too early to determine if Sansa possessed similar abilities. However, her life choices and values are far removed from the North's traditions, leaving the question unanswered.

Robb Stark, on the other hand, likely had immense potential as well. His direwolf, Grey Wind, often sensed danger and gave warnings—"danger approaches" or "this person is untrustworthy." The wolf's prescience made it seem like a divine beast.

But Robb, distracted by love and rejecting the subconscious warnings from Grey Wind, dismissed these signs.

The wolf spirit is universally recognized as a creature on par with White Walkers and other supernatural beings, something feared and hunted by the people of Westeros. This stigma stems from the continent's history.

As mentioned before, all humans in Westeros—save for mythical races like the Children of the Forest and giants—are descendants of past invaders or refugees from Essos.

The Children of the Forest were a dark-skinned, enchanting people of small stature. Even as adults, they were no taller than human children.

They had deep brown skin, large ears, and luminous golden eyes. Some with greenseer abilities had green or red eyes, and if they fused with a heart tree, they became greenseers with the ability to access the "green sight."

This detail is critical: the wolf spirit ability essentially originated with the Children of the Forest, representing a lost civilization.

Twelve thousand years ago, the first invaders with bronze weapons arrived, fighting the native population for resources.

One side was small in stature, few in number, but wielded powerful magic. The other side was larger, physically stronger, armed with advanced weaponry, and more numerous, but lacked magical abilities.

The conflict dragged on for thousands of years, eventually leading to the Pact, a treaty dividing territories, signed on the Isle of Faces in the middle of Gods Eye Lake.

Over time, the invaders, known as the First Men, began to worship the Old Gods, influenced by the Children's magic and loose spiritual beliefs.

Perhaps through shared faith or interbreeding (yes, even with the diminutive Children of the Forest—or worse, the giants), wargs began to emerge among the First Men.

Roughly one in a thousand humans was born a warg, and among them, one in a thousand might become a greenseer.

The odds seem low, but when you consider that each generation might produce one or two greenseers—essentially a Bran-like figure—it becomes chillingly impressive.

And that, truly, is frightening.

(End of Chapter)

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