Daenerys Targaryen

She was born in 53 AC in King's Landing, arriving stronger than the brother who had come before her and had not lived. Jaehaerys was at Stonesept when word of the birth reached him, and he flew Vermithor back to the capital at once; though he had hoped for a son to succeed him, he was smitten the moment he took the girl in his arms.

Daenerys spoke before she turned one, and soon after went from crawling to walking and from walking to running; her wet nurse said the girl was always in a hurry. Curious and fearless, she drew Queen Alysanne away from council sessions for a time, the queen preferring to spend her days playing with her and reading her the same stories her own mother had once read to her, certain the princess would grow into a great queen.

In 55 AC, King's Landing held a tournament to mark the completion of the Dragonpit. Ser Simon Dondarrion won the joust and, in naming little Daenerys his Queen of Love and Beauty, won the affection of both the smallfolk and Queen Alysanne.

That same year Daenerys gained a younger brother, Prince Aemon. Jaehaerys began calling him his heir, which displeased Alysanne, who argued that their elder daughter, first in the succession, should keep that place; the king never contradicted her, only saying Daenerys would be queen once she and Aemon wed, ruling side by side.

For all the fondness between them, the two children were very different in temper: Daenerys tore through the Red Keep day and night astride a broom that served as her dragon, forever muddy and out of sight of her mother and handmaidens. When Prince Baelon was born in 57 AC, she took great pleasure in bossing her younger siblings about.

In 59 AC, a sickness known as the shivers swept the Seven Kingdoms, claiming the lives of many lords and smallfolk alike. The following year it reached King's Landing; Jaehaerys ordered the Red Keep's gates shut and barred and the wall guard doubled, but one night Alysanne woke to find Daenerys gently tugging her arm, complaining of the cold.

Everything was tried to save her: prayers, poultices, soups, scalding baths, blankets, furs, heated stones and nettle infusions, and a wet nurse was even sent for, since some claimed mother's milk could cure the shivers. She was given the kitten she asked for, but her shaking grew so violent the animal fled, scratching her hand. Near dawn Jaehaerys ordered a dragon brought from Dragonstone; a day and a half after she had first woken her mother, Daenerys died. She was burned and her ashes laid to rest beneath Dragonstone, where twenty-two years later her sister Daella's would join them.