The smithy at Castle Black was currently surrounded by Guards, making it impenetrable.
Toren and Jason, leading Lynn's most trusted Northern soldiers and Night's Watch Rangers, had completely encircled and isolated it from the outside world.
No one was allowed to approach.
Inside the smithy, waves of heat washed over them.
The massive central forge glowed a fiery red.
Blazing flames erupted from it, illuminating the entire space as if it were daytime.
The air was thick with the scorching scent of metal and charcoal.
Lynn stood before the forge, cradling the ice-blue Dragon Egg.
The Dragon Egg pulsed warmly in his arms, like an eager heart.
It seemed to sense the powerful heat around it, becoming unusually excited.
Maester Aemon stood beside Lynn.
He had shed his grey Maester's robes, wearing only a thin white shirt.
His aged face bore an incredibly solemn tranquility.
Jeor Mormont guarded the entrance.
His hand gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, his weathered face etched with tension and anticipation.
"Lynn."
Maester Aemon's voice rang out amidst the crackling flames.
"Place the Egg into the fire."
Lynn's arm stiffened.
"Maester Aemon, are you sure?"
"Dragons are born of fire," Aemon's tone was unwavering.
"No matter what kind of Dragon, only the hottest flames can awaken its dormant bloodline."
Lynn said no more.
He took a deep breath and carefully placed the ice-blue Dragon Egg into the roaring flames of the forge.
A strange scene unfolded.
Instead of melting in flames hot enough to liquefy steel, the Dragon Egg began to emit an increasingly brilliant blue light.
The Dragon scale patterns on the surface of the Egg shell seemed to come alive.
Under the licking flames, they shimmered with a mysterious luster.
A clearer hum emanated from within the Dragon Egg.
A powerful aura of life spread out.
"The time has come."
Maester Aemon whispered, pulling an exceptionally sharp silver dagger from his robes.
It was a tool Maesters used for dissection and bloodletting.
Without hesitation, he used the dagger to carve a deep gash into his own wrist.
"Aemon!" Mormont exclaimed.
Blood instantly gushed from the wound.
The blood was not ordinary red, but a purplish color with a faint silvery sheen.
True Dragon blood!
Maester Aemon ignored Mormont's cry.
He raised his bleeding wrist and walked step by step towards the red-hot forge, a look of relief on his face.
He chanted ancient incantations in Valyrian, his voice solemn and sorrowful.
"Drakari pykiros, issa se ossȳngnoti lēdys."
(Dragons in fire, born of blood.)
"Perzys se bē, zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor."
(Flames without fire, Dragons do not recognize.)
Then, he offered his final vow to the Dragon Egg in the flames.
"Urnegon brōzi, hēnkirī jēdri!"
(With the wisdom of the wise, guide the way.)
"Dārijē sȳzri, līr gūrēni!"
(With the blood of kings, command authority.)
"Drakari sȳzri, sōvegon aō!"
(With the blood of true Dragons, I awaken you!)
"Nyke, Aemon Targārien, brōztē glaesot sȳz naejot ynot!"
(I, Aemon Targaryen, hereby offer all of me!)
He extended his wrist, flowing with true Dragon blood, towards the Dragon Egg in the flames.
Drops of purplish-red blood fell onto the scorching Egg shell.
"Sizzle—"
The blood was not vaporized upon contact with the Egg shell.
Instead, as if alive, it rapidly seeped into the Egg shell.
The next second.
The ice-blue Dragon Egg suddenly erupted with an unprecedented light!
No longer blue, but a pure, all-consuming white light!
The light was dazzling, causing Lynn and Mormont to instinctively close their eyes.
And Maester Aemon, standing at the very front, his smile froze on his face.
His white shirt instantly turned to ash, and his withered skin began to crack inch by inch, revealing the pale bones beneath.
But he made no sound, just stood there.
With his fading life, he endured the primal baptism brought by the birth of a Dragon.
"Maester Aemon!"
Under Lynn's gaze, Maester Aemon's body slowly transformed into countless specks of light.
Leaving nothing behind, no corpse, no ashes.
He simply vanished into the air.
As if he had never existed.
Only an old and relieved voice slowly echoed in Lynn's mind.
"Lynn…"
"Go…"
"Go… end this Long Night…"
Lynn knelt blankly on the ground, his mind empty.
Maester Aemon had exchanged his life for the awakening of this Dragon Egg.
Just as Lynn was lost in grief and shock, unable to extricate himself.
"Crack."
A crisp sound of an Egg shell cracking suddenly echoed in the gradually quieting smithy.
Lynn abruptly looked up.
He saw that the forge's flames had extinguished.
The ice-blue Dragon Egg lay quietly in the cooled hearth.
A crack appeared on the Egg shell.
Immediately after, came a second, a third… The cracks intertwined and spread, quickly covering the entire Egg shell.
"Bang!"
With a muffled thud, the entire Egg shell completely shattered.
A… peculiar creature emerged from it.
It was not the lizard-like hatchling from Daenerys's stories.
This newly hatched creature actually had four stout legs, standing steadily in the middle of the shattered Egg shell.
And what made Lynn and Mormont's scalps tingle was… perched atop its long neck were three heads!
The middle one was the largest, with the two on either side slightly smaller.
Three pairs of eyes, each a different color, curiously surveyed this brand new world.
Lynn was utterly bewildered.
Three heads, four legs, a pair of wings… Was this a Dragon?
Was this a crossbreed between a Cerberus and a Dragon?
"Gods above…"
Mormont walked to the edge of the forge, looking at the deformed creation before him, his voice changed pitch.
"What in the blazes is this?"
He had lived a lifetime, heard countless legends about Dragons.
But he had never heard of a Dragon with this form!
The three heads seemed to hear Mormont's voice, turning in unison and letting out a tender yet distinctly layered growl at him.
The sounds were one high-pitched, one low, and one sharp.
Mixed together, they were indescribably strange.
Mormont instinctively recoiled half a step, his hand already on his sword hilt.
He stared at the little monster, his brows furrowed, his expression fluctuating.
Finally, he let out a long sigh.
"It seems deformed… but it has the aura of a Dragon."
"Maester Aemon, you see…"
Mormont stopped mid-sentence, suddenly realizing.
Aemon was no longer there.
He remained silent for a long time.
"It is a Dragon, after all."
Just then, the three heads turned back in unison.
All six eyes focused on Lynn, who was kneeling on the ground.
The largest head in the middle cautiously reached out.
It gently nudged Lynn with its still-mucus-covered snout.
A surge of affection and dependence instantly flowed into Lynn's mind through some mysterious connection.
Lynn was startled, then a wave of ecstasy washed over him!
It worked!
However, the next second, the joy on his face froze.
He tried to issue a simple command to the little creature through this mental link.
Like "lift paw."
No response.
The connection was like a one-way door; he could feel the other's emotions, but he couldn't transmit his own will.
This Dragon seemed to be beyond his control!
Lynn's heart plummeted.
Dragons only recognized ancient Valyrian bloodlines and fire magic.
Its friendliness towards Lynn was merely due to sensing a familiar aura from him.
"Is it Ice Magic?"
Lynn recalled secretly injecting Ice Magic into the Dragon Egg.
"First, I'll try to see if Jon can control it."
"If he can't either, then I'll just have to help it remember with Ice Magic."
After nuzzling Lynn, the three-headed Dragon lowered its heads to its own devices.
The middle head gnawed contentedly on its shattered Egg shell.
The other two heads vigilantly surveyed their surroundings.
One of them even impatiently bared its teeth at the people around them.
This Dragon has a bit of a temper, Lynn keenly observed.
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