Storms on the Narrow Sea always arrive suddenly, but thankfully, Stone Dance of House Massey was just ahead.
So Daniella quickly steered her Dragons towards House Massey's castle.
House Massey's castle was built on a massive rock by the sea, an ancient white stone fortress with thousands of years of history.
Originally, Stone Dance was under the jurisdiction of the Storm King Durrandon, but later, during Aegon's Conqueror's War of the Seven Kingdoms, they directly pledged allegiance to the Targaryen Family, with whom they had always been on good terms.
Furthermore, after the Conqueror established the kingdom, House Massey's fief was directly incorporated into King's Landing's jurisdiction.
However, House Massey's territory was almost entirely covered by low hills and dense tropical rainforest.
Their territorial income mostly came from hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry.
The terrain near Stone Dance was undulating, surrounded on three sides by limestone hills.
To the southeast, it directly faced the Narrow Sea, with deep, wide harbors and no rapid currents or dangerous shoals.
In fact, Stone Dance's port conditions were excellent, with the full potential to replace Tide Head Island as a new large-scale maritime trade port outside Blackwater Bay.
However, due to their limited foundation, House Massey only had a dozen or so small and medium-sized fishing boats.
Nevertheless, because they also had intermarriages with House Velaryon of High Tide, House Massey had also followed House Velaryon's fleet out to sea for long-distance trade, accumulating some wealth over the years.
As soon as Daniella approached Stone Dance, she saw flocks of sheep, cattle, and pack horses on the coastal hills.
Upon seeing the Dragons in the sky, the livestock immediately began to flee wildly.
It was said that the Sheepstealer had often poached House Massey's sheep here.
Before the Conqueror's War, much of the food for the Dragons on Dragonstone was provided by House Massey.
House Massey had always been a loyal vassal of the Targaryen Family, and two Massey Earls had even served as Minister of Law on the Small Council.
The new Earl Massey, Gorman Massey, was only in his early twenties, and his wife was a woman from House Velaryon, rumored to greatly admire Sea Snake Corlys Velaryon.
Out of politeness, Daniella directly landed her Dragons outside House Massey's castle.
At this time, the knight guarding the city had already opened the castle gates and led the soldiers out to greet her.
The leading knight was a young man in his twenties.
The youth was tall and slender, with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes, and a neatly combed head of slightly curly chestnut hair.
His chestnut eyes were clear and resolute.
"Sir Lucifer Massey of Stone Dance, greetings to Princess Daniella!"
The warriors behind him also knelt on one knee and greeted Daniella in unison.
Lucifer Massey walked up to Daniella and explained,
"Princess, I have already sent someone to inform Lord Gorman, he should be here soon, please wait a moment!"
Daniella curtsied slightly, then said,
"Thank you, Sir Lucifer! My Dragons have flown quite a distance, and they are a bit tired and hungry.
I'll have to trouble you, my lord, to arrange for servants to bring some livestock!"
At this moment, Laila, who was busy moving luggage from the Dragons, took out a bag of gold coins from her luggage and presented it to Lucifer, saying,
"My lord, thank you for arranging for more to be brought over.
Here are one hundred gold coins, please accept them!"
Lucifer looked at the money bag Laila handed him, but did not immediately take it, instead saying in surprise,
"This, this is too much, it's enough to buy 100 pack horses!"
Daniella smiled and said,
"Sir Lucifer, please take it.
My Dragons have very large appetites; two hundred sheep would not be enough to fill their stomachs!"
"And the storm is about to arrive.
If there's any left over, please reward the hardworking servants!"
Seeing Daniella say this, Lucifer had no choice but to accept the money bag, then immediately handed it to a soldier beside him and instructed,
"Hurry and make the arrangements!"
The soldier took the money bag and immediately ran quickly towards the nearby herders.
And just then, the Dragon Sea Smoke had also caught up.
However, he only circled at a low altitude, not daring to come closer.
At this moment, the social bandit Miraxis once again soared into the sky and flew towards Sea Smoke.
"Hiss-gah~"
Through telepathy, Daniella could feel that Miraxis was still quite curious about Sea Smoke at this moment.
Because he was the smallest Dragon Miraxis had ever seen.
Sea Smoke was not very wary of Miraxis, this Dragon, so in response to Miraxis's roar, he immediately responded.
Seeing this, Daniella couldn't help but feel very curious.
Could it be that Dragons could communicate through their calls?
While everyone was curiously watching the two Dragons interact in the sky, Earl Gorman Massey had already led the castle's people out to greet them,
"Greetings, Princess, I apologize for being late, I hope the Princess will not take offense!"
Earl Gorman was also only in his early twenties, and looked very much like Lucifer Massey, though slightly plump.
"I apologize for the disturbance.
I had originally intended to go to Tarth, but unexpectedly encountered a storm, so I had no choice but to seek shelter in House Massey's castle!"
At this point, Earl Gorman personally brought over salt and bread.
Daniella picked up a small piece of bread, dipped it in salt, and ate it.
This was also a custom in Westeros; when a visitor arrived, the host offering salt and bread expressed that the visitor would receive the castle lord's protection.
And if the guest ate the host's salt and bread, it was a promise not to harm the host, which was known as guest right!
In Westeros, violating guest right was considered as disgraceful as kinslaying or kingslaying.
After eating the salt and bread, Daniella quickly entered House Massey's castle under the guidance of Earl Gorman.
But as soon as she entered the castle gate, she heard a woman's painful screams.
"This?"
Daniella couldn't help but look curiously at Earl Massey beside her, and Earl Gorman explained to Daniella with a worried expression,
"Princess, my wife is in labor, but the Maester said it might be due to twins, so the delivery is not going smoothly!"
At this time, because the storm was about to arrive, the entire castle appeared quite dim.
Earl Massey had already had servants light oil lamps and candles.
And he had maidservants bring plenty of fruit, pastries, and fine wine.
However, Daniella, who was already accustomed to the kitchens of Dragonstone and the Red Keep, only symbolically tasted the food and did not touch it again.
Out of politeness, she merely held her wine glass and sipped it little by little.
However, the Countess's painful screams at this time made everyone feel very uneasy, even while staying in the hall.
Just then, the castle servants had already brought in Daniella's luggage, so she quickly instructed Laila,
"Laila, didn't we bring some dragonflame wine? Quickly take a cup to the Countess, it might help with her labor!"
Laila quickly found the dragonflame wine from the luggage, then personally followed a maidservant towards the Countess's room.
In a short while, the torrential rain had already begun.
Everyone waited anxiously in the castle hall, but there was no desire for conversation.
The hall was strangely quiet for a time, forming a stark contrast with the lightning, thunder, and raging storm outside.
"Wah~"
After an unknown period, the oppressive atmosphere was finally broken by the cry of a newborn.
Everyone was immediately overjoyed.
Soon after, a maidservant also ran out happily to report the good news,
"They're born, they're born! It's twins, a boy and a girl!"
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