A true knight

Elia could feel the tension in the air, even here in the very godswood of the Red Keep. But she needed to come out from Maegor's Holdfast, her children would not feel well by being locked up indoors all the time. Reminding herself to pay the kind servant who had been kind enough to let them out at a time when no one would spot them that easily despite the colour on their clothing, Elia took the chance to enjoying watching her two children play together. It had also helped that there was no Kingsguard to watch the bridge leading into Maegor's Holdfast, only a random guard who had proven himself rather worrying easily distracted by a flirtatious maid servant as the Princess and her children had sneaked out.

"Aegon is better at walking now, mama!" Rhaenys commented, watching her young brother stumble around on the ground, his lilac eyes big in wonder over the grass felt over his tiny feet. A healthy toddler now when he was almost fifteen months old, he was still needing a little support when walking longer distances but fully determined to follow after his sister.

"Yes, he is. So big from how little he was at birth."

Elia shuddered at the memory threatening to enter the surface of her mind. That had been her closest meeting with the Stranger, unless one did count all the times she had struggled to survive as a baby born a month too early. She had known that she would face a true battle for life and death in the birthing bed, but needing a six months long bed rest to recover after her daughter's and almost dead after the birth of her son only little over a year later? If that was not a sign of that she had to avoid a third pregnancy, Elia did not know what to call it otherwise.

"Ma-ma!" Aegon called, holding up his arms in a request to be held. Rhaenys was satisfied enough by playing with little Balerion, the black kitten she had gotten back on Dragonstone who rarely left her side.

Suddenly, there was a massive amount of screams and the sounds of fighting coming from the city.

"...Lord Tywin?!" Elia realized in horror, having seen the Lannister lion on flags on the army outside the city that very morning. Had he chosen to betray the royal family because there was more to win with the Rebellion, having enough of the Targaryens? Betraying the King he once had been good friends with and served as Hand for twenty years?

"Princess! Please return to the holdfast now, it is not safe there if the soldiers manages to enter the Red Keep!" a terrified servant called.

Too late, just as Elia took a better hold on Aegon in one arm and grabbing Rhaenys' hand with her own free one, they saw a giant of a man, in steel armour, coming into the godswood and the servant was slain with a stab in the back. Despite that her orange dress would only stand out among the trees, Elia still fled in between the trees with her children.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

At the same time, a very different battle was happening just outside a ancient forest.

"Kill every last one of those wicked beings!"

The Éored led by twenty-seven year old Théodred, the Prince of Rohan and heir to their current King, was in the middle of cleaning out a large group of orcs that had been raiding a smaller village at the northern border of Rohan.

"Some of them are running into Fangorn, my prince!"

Then the prince suddenly stopped his horse for a moment, looking around as if trying to listen to something he just heard.

"My lord?"

There it was again, a scream that sounded like a woman, calling desperately for help in a language foreign for his ears. But for Théodred, who had seen his own people slain by the orcs, that cry for help was enough.

"Aldor! Cover my left!" Théodred ordered to his second-in-command, a older man well trained in battle and trustworthy in times of need. Riding in between the trees of Fangorn, Théodred cut down any orc he saw while following the screams.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

When had the forest changed into such old trees? And the air getting more difficult to breathe? Elia did not care, she was only grateful for that she had chosen a simple dress today, refusing to be dressed up in all her jewelry and other fine things people expected her to wear as the wife to the Crown prince. The dress was uncomplicated to move in, a very useful one if you needed to run, and Rhaenys' light blue dress had been made with the same reason in mind, especially as she was in that age when children was curious and sometimes could try to run off from those who watched over them.

"That monster is still following us, mama!"

Yes, that giant of a man was a horrible monster indeed, chasing them even as the branches on the trees slowed him down because of his size. A furious hiss was heard and something tiny, black dashed past them.

"Balerion!?"

That kitten really loved his little mistress, indeed, given how he tried to follow after the escaping family. A roar of anger was heard behind them as their attacker was coming closer.

Then, a grey horse showed up in front of them. Its rider was dressed in mail hauberk and a cuirass of boiled leather, but Elia could not recognize the style of the helmet or the round shield which hung from one side on the horse.

"Help us!" Rhaenys screamed, then she cried out in fear as the large man grabbed hold of Elia's dress from behind. The fabric tore apart all the way along her back as Elia lost her balance, trying to not drop Aegon on the ground as she fell.

Théodred did not hesitate for a moment, but drove his stallion Silvermoon closer in full gallop and willingly sacrificed his own cloak to throw it over the helmet on the large man, blocking the sight which had been visible though the visir. Then he used his throwing axe against the covered head to make the large man lose his own balance, away from the small family.

"Get up!"

Even if it was in a unknown language, the meaning was clear with the offered hand. As Rhaenys jumped up to reach the hand so she could be placed in front of the unknown rider, Elia managed to get up to her own feet. Even after two births and with a terrified, wailing toddler in one arm pressed against her chest to not drop her son, she was still enough flexible to slide up behind the rider as he pulled her up on his horse.

Based on the sheer size of the man and the plate armour, Théodred knew that it would be suicide to try and battle the giant. For whatever reason, the mother and her two children was targeted by him.

"Hold on! I will try and outride him!"

A loud meow was heard to his right, and a small black kitten revealed itself to be holding fast for its very life in his saddle bag with its claws.

As Gregor Clegane removed the green cloak from his helmet so he could see, the mysterious rider had already vanished between the trees with the crown princess and her two children. No matter where he looked for a glimpse of the orange dress, there was no trace.

From that day on, Elia Martell and her two children was gone from the Red Keep with no clue to their fate, but many would whisper of that Tywin Lannister would have gotten rid of them, to ensure that his own daughter would be the new queen, married to Robert Baratheon when he claimed the Kingship, taking the Iron Throne and the Seven Kingdoms as his own.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Somehow, Théodred could feel just for a moment that something changed in the atmosphere just as he rode out from Fangorn. Whatever it was, he did not know, but he knew that he had done the right thing.

"I hope that was not your hus...my lady?!"

Elia felt herself become weak all suddenly, black spots dancing in front of her eyes. As she slipped off the horse, she just barely managed to adjust her body so Aegon would not land with his fragile head first in the ground.

"My lady!"

"Mama!"

Dismounting quickly, Théodred knelt on the ground to see if the mother was injured. Even if she had been lucky to avoid hitting her head, she was pale under the dark skin and her breathing was uneven. Back up on Silvermoon, the small girl started to cry and babble things in that unknown language in a upset voice, though Théodred would not be surprised if she was accusing him of being mean to her mother, and the smaller child wailed from the mother's arms as well.

"My prince!"

Aldor and the other soldiers under his command arrived on their horses.

"My prince, what…?"

"Someone was trying to kill this lady and her children, I managed to save them. The mother needs the care of the healers in Edoras, I do not think she is in the best of health," Théodred explained as he carefully lifted up the unconscious mother, borrowing a cloak to cover her since the dress had been ruined in the back earlier.

Gently, Aegon was handed to one of the riders who had some own children of the same age, Rhaenys was given to another father among them, and Aldor ensured that the black kitten was placed in his own saddle back with its head poking out for breathing, if the kitten was a beloved pet to the children then its presence could be a small comfort around strangers.

The year was 3005 of the Third Age of Middle-Earth, and some major changes was bound to happen in Rohan for the coming years.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Author note

The dress I imagine Elia to be wearing in this story:

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Inspiration for the dress Rhaenys is wearing:

. _

Because Aegon is still a very young, imagine that he is wearing a plain white tunic of cotton down to his ankles instead of anything modern-day clothing a toddler at the age of 15 months may wear