The Crimson Dragon |ASOIAF|

The Seventh Child Of the King

Alicent Hightower had found herself at her breaking point.

The Queen had expected her current pregnancy to be her easiest, but eight moons in and it had somehow become her hardest.

She was bigger than she had been during her previous pregnancies, her mood constantly fluctuating, and even the slightest movements sent waves of pain throughout her entire body.

When Alicent had gone to Mellos with these concerns he waved them off, stating that she was feeling this way because it had been so long since she was last pregnant, and her body had forgotten what it felt like.

Even Lilyanna, who disliked the man despite being his student, had reluctantly agreed that Mellos was right.

"You had my siblings and I back-to-back, your body did not have time to return to normal and remain in that state for long before you became pregnant again." Lilyanna told the woman, inwardly Lilyanna believed her mother was lucky to not have died from exhaustion due to living in a world without proper medical care and having five children within the span of five years.

Despite saying this, Lilyanna had begun to follow Alicent around whenever she could, constantly asking how she was doing and how she felt, wanting to be told immediately if she was in pain.

Most who saw this would whisper that Lilyanna had become Alicent's shadow, that the girl was never far from the Queen's side during her pregnancy.

It warmed Alicent's heart to know that her daughter cared so much about her, but she also felt suffocated by Lilyanna's constant attention and oversight.

"Lilyanna!" Alicent yelled, ending her daughter's long-winded lecture on pregnancy and the intricacies of childbirth. "Thank you, for telling me about all of this, but don't you have other things you said you needed to do today?" Alicent said kindly, not so subtly trying to get Lilyanna leave her alone, if just for a moment.

Lilyanna looked sheepish, realizing that she was annoying her mother with her overshadowing. "I do, I promised Mushroom I would watch the new act that's he's been working on."

"Oh." Was all the Queen said in response, Alicent's smile disappearing, and her lips becoming a straight line.

Alicent never understood Lilyanna's friendship with the court fool, at first the Queen wrote off Lilyanna's interest in the dwarf as the passing fancies of a child, but as the years went by it became clear that Lilyanna genuinely saw Mushroom as a friend.

In the eyes of everyone else, Mushroom was a disabled lackwit that was nothing more than a crude joke. But despite this, Mushroom had managed to stay within the service of the King longer than most entertainers.

I blame this on not pushing the children harder to make friends with the other noble children of court. At least Lily is still young enough that this appears to be a little girl's desire to befriend others instead of an inability to make friends with her peers. Alicent thought.

Just as Lilyanna was about to leave, she turned to face Alicent, "You promise to relax and not to overextend yourself?"

Alicent smiled and laid a kiss on Lilyanna's forehead, "I promise, my little flower."

Lilyanna accepted this and left the room, but kept her mother's health in the back of mind, knowing that she was due to give birth any day now.

                                           ~X~

Anyone who passed by the Weirwood tree in the courtyard would pause at the sight of Princess Lilyanna Targaryen sitting in front of said tree and laughing as the court jester threw a pie into his own face.