Cregan Stark - Blog Posts

Jacegan week 2024: Day 3. Fire and Ice

Semi-crossover with Ice Dragon short story. 

In this AU, Cregan is born a strange boy. He is born cold, but not dead, with grey eyes and part-grey dark hair. Once he starts to grow up, he becomes even more strange: he rarely smiles but never actually cries(even at his fathers funeral), he actually loves the cold weather and can go out even during the bitter cold and collect the snow even with his bare hands. One day, to the great fear of his cousins, he is found playing with the ice lizards without causing himself frostbites. They told their father about it and Bennard is inferred as hell. 

Cregan also has a tendency to disappear from the keep and return after many hours of absence. When one day he says that he flew on the dragonback, nobody seems to correct him or say that only Targaryens can claim the dragons. They are actually afraid of this strange as hell boy.

So, when one day nobody can find young lord Cregan in his chambers, and another day — when Lord-Commander of Night Watch tells them about a huge dragon(the old men of the Watch say that it’s a same size as Queen Alysanne’s dragon) and his rider taking control of Skagos. Another day, there was a rumor about its inhabitants stopping to eat human’s meat.

Nevertheless, Bennard Stark seizes control over Winterfell. Prince Jacaerys still visits him in attempts to get reinforcements for his mother, but, unlike Cregan in canon, Bennard decides to stay neutral and politely refuses. When Jacaerys flies from Winterfell, one of the old servants tells him about the Skagos and Cregan and his dragon living here. At first, Jace doesn’t believe him, but when the servant tells him about the size of the said dragon, he suddenly remembers Aemond and Vhagar’s size. So, he decides to play safe.

If this thing could be said about traveling even further into the North, to the island where cannibals live or used to live(or so it is told). Where it is even colder than at the Wall. 

Nevertheless, he goes here. 

The place is harrowing, to say at least. There are three keeps left and they seem to be fine, but the island himself seems gloomy. Their lord seems the same. When he looks at him, Jace is ready to laugh at anybody claiming Starks are emotionless. By this man’s standards, lord Bennard seems of one of the merriest people Jace has known. His eyes seem to be made of dirty ice and he watches Jace like his dragon watched the food.

He doesn't know that in fact, he seems interesting to Cregan. While Jace gets trouble with deciding what to promise to him for his help, Cregan decides to join him no matter what and asks him to show him the other kingdoms. While he is content with ruling Skagos and wants nothing other than it and flying on the Snowstorm, he is interested in seeing the world in the South.

Nervously, Jace replies: “And you wouldn’t melt?”

To his surprise, Cregan chuckles and says: “Look at Snowstorm, prince, and think again.”

And then he leads Jace to the dragon. His size doesn’t really surprise Jace: he has seen Vermithor, Silwerwing, Grey Ghost and other wild dragons. He, of course, has seen Vhagar and while the dragon is smaller than her it’s nevertheless big.

What impresses Jace is how the dragon looks. The dragon is crystal white, piercingly white to the point of blue, the shade that is cold and hard even to look at. His whole body was covered with frost, so that with every movement the skin was covered with cracks, like a snow crust under a boot, and crumbled in flakes. The dragon's eyes are clear, deep, and icy.

Huge bat wings, bluish-white with iridescence.His teeth are exactly like icicles: jagged, unequal-length ice spears, lined up in a triple palisade to guard the dark blue mouth.

And when this dragon opens its huge mouth and exhales, it does not emit a stream of fire or a burning sulfur stench from its throat, like its smaller brethren. The ice dragon is icy because it breathes cold.

The dragon truly suits the man of the North.

They fly to Dragonstone. On the way here, Cregan and Snowstorm suddenly separate their ways with Jacaerys and Vermax. Cregan says he needs to examine the bay in case of danger. Jace understands it's the right thing to do(who knows whether Greens have their relatives Redwyne’s fleet or not) and flies to Dragonstone. He regrets his brothers would not see him flying with the legendary Ice Dragon.

But soon he will find another type of regret. 

Cregan is present, when they  bury what remains of Luke and Arrax. He stands still, head lowered. Jace by himself is too busy holding Joffrey, but nevertheless he is surprised to see Cregan being emotional about the boy he never knew. 

After the funeral he asks his guest about it and Cregan replies that the killer of his own kin is cursed in the eyes of the Old Gods. And so, he will remain in the South not only to see it but to punish the man who disrespected Gods's law.

It isn’t a promise and lesser than oath of fealty, but now Jacaerys can believe that he will stay. And for some reason he feels happy for it.

It takes a lot of time to convince Prince Daemon not to send the killers to Helaena’s children. Revenge aside, but one of their major alies will not be pleased by this and probably will abandon them to another side. The size of Snowstorm also serves as the argument in the discussion. Eventually, Daemon gives up. However, he and Mysaria still send the spies into the Red Keep and kidnap prince Jaehaerys and princess Jaehaera. The disappearance of her children renders Helaena catatonic and never allows Dreamfyre to be used by Greens. 

Cregan never says anything about it.

Once a day, he and Snowstorm are patrolling the surrounding bays. For some reason, Jace finds himself following him. He trusts their new ally fully, and probably, he does in order for Vermax to fly more and get bigger. So, they patrol the bays and, as the time passes, they start to speak with each other. They speak about their past: Cregan about how he became ruler of Scagos and how he got out of his house, Jacaerys about his conflicted family situation. Ironically, despite them coming from different regions and cultures, Jace and Cregan find a lot of themes to speak about. They nearly got the cold throat due to it, but it their discussions seems them worth it.

Everything major from here and up to the Gullet goes the same as canon, except the Dragon Sowing. The Snowstorm is the same size as Vermithor and Silverwing, so there is no need to recruit more riders in order to get the advantage over Vhagar after Meleys’s death. So, only Addam and Nettles get their dragons — Seasmoke and Sheepstealer respectively. 

The Gullet goes differently. With Cregan patrolling the Gullet with Jace, they notice the Three Daughters fleet attacking “Сheerful nonchalance” and go to fight(with Addam and Nettles joining them later). Cregan destroys the ships surrounding “Nonchalance” and takes baby Viserys out of the battle and Aegon on Stormcloud follows him. However, while shielding baby Aegon on the Stormcloud, Jace still falls from his dragon into the sea, breaking his hand and ribs. He is fished out of the water by Nettles and put under the maesters’ care after that. 

But nevertheless he lives, which leads to his mother's mental stability. During the month of his recovery, Jace and Cregan spend a lot of time together. Cregan by himself doesn’t know what feeling urges him to spend more time with the prince. While living as Skaagos ruler, he repeatedly heard the words of love his subjects whisper, once he met Jace and moved to the South, he listened to songs about it. What he understands it means being by this man’s side, supporting him and deciding to stay in the South. Jace meanwhile takes every opportunity to show Cregan everything in King’s Landing as he feels it’s gonna change irreversibly soon.

It does not help that Snowstorm does not actually seem to like the South. He likes and cares about his rider, but feels uneasy of him growing up close to a mortal man. The only ones to bond with him were the Winter Children — boys and girls with suppressed emotions, who were born in coldest winters, who never cried and rarely smiled, whose hearts seemed to be frozen. They spent their youth with Ice dragon kins, but when the playful young man or woman with fire in their blood catched them, they seemed  to alienate from dragons and eventually left for them. And this time, it seems no different. 

At least, he is gonna die a good death, at duel with the biggest of Old Valyria dragons.

When Aemond starts to burn and pillage the Riverlands, it’s Jacaerys and Cregan who go to stop him here(Daemon goes after Daeron, while Nettles and Addam stay in King’s Landing and quell the Shepherd’s riot). Snowstorm is way bigger than Caraxes, and while Vermax is still young, both of them are tested in battle. And Aemond knows that no matter of size, Vhagar would not stand the fight against two dragons. 

Before the last battle, Jacaerys, not entirely knowing what he is doing and not really sure they are gonna live after that, kisses Cregan, but asks him to return the kiss after the battle. Snowstorm watches them strangely. The old dragon understands that winter goes out of his rider’s heart, and, then, he will likely leave him. 

The Battle at the Gods Eye, where Cregan and Jacaerys are going against Aemond, happens differently from the canon. They manage to catch Aemond off-guard and Vermax manages to blind Vhagar with one single attack. At the same time, Snowstorm attacks Vhagar, biting her into the underbelly and then using his cold breath to cause even more pain to the beast. Then he bites into the tail, allowing Vermax to attack her in the back.

However, Aemond is not gonna go down simply. When Snowstorm is biting his tail, he orders Vhagar to bite him at at the neck in order to get rid of one dragon and his rider, and then do it with Vermax again. But Snowstorm refuses to give up and digs his nails and teeth deeper in the older dragon’s abdomen. Vhagar roars and at the same time, Vermax tears her wings forcing her to let Ice Dragon go. In the next move, deeply wounded Snowstorm tears Vhagar’s second wing off and the oldest dragon falls on the land, killed by the last creatures anybody imagined. 

Aemond may live after the fall and Jace may take his second eye in revenge for Luke. Or not.

But nevertheless, Snowstorm also never gets to live past the next hours. He uses all of his remaining forces to bring his rider to the land without any harm and he is successful in this. Vermax lands nearby him.

And here, the first time in his life, Cregan finally has the tears to fall on the earth. Jace holds him as he cries for the first and for a most of his time the only friend he ever had in this life. Until the tears end.

They give Snowstorm a funeral pyre, and the battle over the God's Eye goes in history books and songs as the Battle of Fire and Ice

Jacegan Week 2024: Day 2, Canon

drabble, 1.4k words

King Jace, AU, minor jacela(political marriage), mentioned jofhaera and Addam/Rhaena

The sun sets over King's Landing as Cregan stands near the Princevault — so this building with the slate roof and high carved doors is called now, with prince Daeron Targaryen, formerly the Daring, kept here. 

It was the surprise when not so long after the war ended, King Jacaerys Targaryen, former Velaryon, declared that his uncle, who barely survived the battle of Tumbleton, would not be executed, but instead held in lifelong captivity.

« I understand your concerns, my lords». — he said to the Small Council. — «But my uncle is not dangerous now. His dragon is dead. He lost his left arm and half of his foot in the last battle, he has numerous burns… He will not be able to fight for the throne. Nobody will follow the king who is crippled to such an extent. And he is still my uncle, and I don’t want to spill the blood of my relatives.»

«Why won’t you send him to the Nightwatch, your Highness?» asked Corlys Velaryon, Master over the Ships then and Cregan, who stood by here with Hand’s brooch on his doublet, was more than agree with him. 

If there hadn’t been a Bitterbridge massacre, Cregan could have even felt pity towards the fallen prince. But not after him demanding to kill all of his inhabitants even after the true killers of prince Maelor were executed. No, he does not understand why Jacaerys spared him. 

« He may be kidnapped by remaining Green supporters during the trip. Here, he would be under supervision. His niece may still visit him, though.» — Here he chuckled.

The only niece the imprisoned prince had was princess Jaehaera, who just goes out from the Princevault, in her blue dress, with her hands hold by both King Jacaerys and Queen Baela. The girl looks not really happy, but content — a wildly different from the tear-eyed, trembling girl Jace described here to him they found when the capital was captured. 

At first, when they didn’t know what to do with her. She was the daughter of the fallen king, of the man, who usurped his mother and abandoned his wife when she lost her son and went mad. But she was still a young, eternally frightened girl too. The better choice was to marry her to someone loyal to the king, who will not rebel to get a crown and has the possessions of his own. There were four men who may possibly wed her - king’s brothers Joffrey and Aegon, or his bastard brothers Alyn and Addam. Some people expected young Aegon to wed Jaehaera, but the King stopped those talks and decided to marry the girl to the middle brother, and also to marry lady Rhaena to Addam, who became the heir to Driftmark. 

«I do not think that Joffrey will be against his bride visiting her uncle when they visit the Red Keep. I am not gonna wed them now cause it’s gonna be nothing, but a farce in this case. I’ll wait until the princess turns at least thirteen and their wedding will happen here.»

«And your brother?»

«Will get a Dornish mark. It’s a hardly controlled region and we need  strongholds both against Dorn and usurper’s sympathizers in the Reach.»

Here, the king doesn’t tell all the truths. Jacaerys never told about it to the Small Council, but said once to him that the reason his uncles usurped his mother may lay in the fact they would not get anything except reduced to mere toadies if she will get a throne. His uncle and stepfather was a son of the king, but didn’t get anything except a place in the Small council and nothing to give his children except the dragon eggs. Cregan thinks there is nothing to pity the usurpers for, but he more than agrees that Jace’s brothers deserve to get their own lands. Granted, prince Joffrey has Dragonstone now, but when Queen Baela will give birth to the son, it will come to him. So, there are the Dornish mark for Joffrey, Cape Kraken for Aegon and Rain House, whose Lord’s family lost  it due to its association with usurper, for young Viserys. And two of them will get new keeps for their families, when the said keeps will be built. 

Cregan sighs as the King gets down on one knee, hugs his niece and then rises and kisses his cousin and wife, who looks gorgeous in her red dress despite being heavily pregnant, on her forehead. He is not of those who can think a lot about his past, but he hardly can believe that only two years have passed since the green dragon and his rider landed nearby Winterfell. Once they hunted together, played snowballs in secret,watched the night sky and  shared kisses in its darkness. Once merely a young grandlord and prince with a young dragon — now Hand and his King, who is gonna be father soon.

But are they the same persons who have fallen for each other during the visit to the North? 

Once they reunited after Jacaerys’s coronation and his mother’s funeral, he voiced his concerns about it. Jacaerys, who there did his best to make Cregan call him «Jace» again, didn’t smiled in vain attempt to make the situation look easier, but lowered his gaze and genuinely said that he didn't know this. He was thrown out of balance by the betrayal of the dragonseeds he recruited, his brother's death and his mother being killed by one of Larys Strong’s spies. Than, they couldn’t find the words to sooth each other and barely sat alone in the cabinet,  pressing their foreheads against each other, and somehow, this was enough. 

And so they decided — no matter what, to be here and watch for each other.

The princess and the Queen leave King Jacaerys, as he goes to him. In the sky, the dragon’s cry is heard, and Cregan wonders, what sea monster is brought to keep by Moondancer now. Last time, Queen Baela’s dragon dragged the whole shark to the Red Keep. 

«We need to discuss some things privately.» says Jace, when he comes to him and Cregan nods. 

Since the war, huge numbers of armies of North, Riverlands and Vale and Blacks supporters from other Kingdoms have occupied the Westlands, Stormlands, Kingslands and Reach — as the lands whose lords betrayed their true queen. In retaliation, they will be put under direct control of the king’s through loyal people for a temporary time. Kermit Tully got the Westlands, Lord Rovan got the Reach, Corlys Velaryon got the Stormlands, and Jeyne Arryn’s heir Joffrey Arryn got Kingslands. And Cregan thinks that the reason Jace called him to his rooms is somehow connected to this. 

They reach the king’s cabinet in a minute and the guards salute to them. They enter it a second after and Jace closes the door. 

Cregan can see the said cabinet. Poets and bards often talk about how wonderful the Red Keep looks like, and sometimes Cregan is ready to agree with them. There is the broken model of old Valyria made by Jace’s maternal grandfather, king Viserys, a huge table, a chair nearby and a fire burning in the fireplace. There are a bunch of letters on the table and a  ream of sheets next to them. 

Then, Jace shows him a bunch of letters. Cregan reads them patiently. These letters come from different cities - or better to say, from unions the prominent ones of these cities, like merchants or most skilled craftsmen. The number of cities are impressive: Weeping town, Vinetown, Pebbletown, Hull, King’s Landing itself, Duskendale, Lannisport, Tumbletown, Bitterbridge… The prominent ones of these cities are afraid - it’s visible in the tone of their letters. The war left them with no protection from the marching armies of lords, especially the traitor lords and so they are asking the king for protection. They will pay money directly to his representatives, will form city militias or empower the existing ones and put the directly to the king’s service if he’ll support them in their initiative.

And there Cregan understands. Now, there are Tully, Stark and Arryn armies keeping the order in former rebel territories, but it ain’t gonna last forever. Sooner or later, but they need to leave home… And then…

« Are you going to use city councils against the former rebel lords?»

And the smirk blossoms on Jace’s lips.

«Exactly».