Rhaena Targaryen

Rhaena was born in Pentos in 116 AC, the younger of the twin daughters Daemon Targaryen had with Laena Velaryon, and was named for her maternal grandmother, Rhaenys. She and Baela arrived weak and sickly, and only once they were six months old and stronger did the family sail for Spicetown, where King Viserys I gave them his blessing over the objections of his council.

Laena's death, when Rhaena was four, left her growing up on Dragonstone alongside her sister. There she was given a dragon's egg that hatched into a sickly creature, dead within hours of breaking its shell; she was later given a second egg, laid by the dragon Syrax, and it was said the girl slept beside it every night hoping this time to hatch an animal as hale as her sister's.

In 118 AC, with the king's approval, Rhaenyra Targaryen betrothed Rhaena to her son Lucerys Velaryon.

Rhaena was thirteen when the Dance of the Dragons broke out. While Baela stayed on Dragonstone, she rode to the Vale of Arryn, escorting Prince Joffrey Velaryon as far as Gulltown, sent to help hold the region against dragons loyal to Aegon II. She carried three eggs with her, praying all three would hatch.

After her stepmother Rhaenyra seized King's Landing, Rhaena remained in the Vale as a ward of Lady Jeyne Arryn, surrounded by comfort, maids, and suitors who wrote her verses. One of her eggs finally hatched a pale pink hatchling with black horns and crest, which she named Morning.

When Lady Arryn mustered an army of thousands of knights and soldiers to march on the capital, with Rhaena and her young dragon among the host, word of it reached Queen Alicent Hightower, who feared the smallfolk would turn to the Blacks.

When her half-brother Aegon III took the throne, Lord Cregan Stark held the regency in what became known as the Hour of the Wolf. When Stark showed little will to pardon Lord Corlys Velaryon for having sworn to Aegon II late in the war, Baela and Rhaena appealed to the king directly, reminding him that without the Sea Snake's help he might have lost more than an ear; Aegon III not only pardoned Corlys but restored his offices and his seat on the council.

At court, Rhaena and Baela were the only living Targaryens besides the king himself and Queen Jaehaera, since Prince Viserys was believed dead. She hunted, hawked, received visiting lords, and hosted feasts alongside her sister; where Baela bristled at flattery, Rhaena relished being the center of court life, always with Morning coiled about her shoulders like a stole.

When Baela broke the match the council had arranged for her and fled to marry Alyn Velaryon, the regents decided Rhaena should wed at once. Asked by Hand of the King Tyland Lannister, she said only that she wanted a husband who was "considerate, kind, and noble," and admitted she was fond of Ser Corwyn Corbray, whom she had known in the Vale; the wedding followed the betrothal by a fortnight, in 132 AC. By the middle of the next year she had announced a pregnancy that ended in miscarriage a month later.

That same year, 133 AC, at the Maiden's Day Ball, Rhaena and Baela rode into the hall on horseback to present Daenaera Velaryon as the king's new bride, with Corwyn escorting her. A year later, as the family met Alyn Velaryon's ship at the docks of King's Landing, Rhaena witnessed the return of Prince Viserys, long thought dead. That same year, with Corwyn newly named a regent and sent to settle the Vale's succession after Jeyne Arryn's death, a crossbowman killed him at Runestone, leaving Rhaena a widow.

In early 135 AC, at nineteen, Rhaena flew Morning for the first time, circling the city before setting down again; in the following days she grew bolder and ranged further, once even landing inside the Red Keep despite the king's lingering fear of dragons. She later flew Morning across Blackwater Bay to Dragonstone. Later still she married Garmund Hightower, who gave her six daughters.