Title: Sun and Shadow
Fandom: Game of Thrones
Rating: Gen
Length: 500 words
Author notes: Dany/Drogo, in case that's not your thing.
Summary: Daenerys has a nightmare.

The beast is all gaping jaws and sickle claws. It is shadow made flesh, its long teeth and longer claws forged of Valyrian steel, and it looms impossibly tall over Dany.

Her silver shies beneath her, an extension of her own fear. Facing this creature out of nightmare, Dany feels terribly small. All around her the Dothraki Sea has turned to obsidian, black and cold and cruel. There is nowhere to run.

Even if there were, she could not run. She is a khaleesi. And a khaleesi does not run.

If she does not run, she will die.

I cannot run. I cannot. I cannot!

And so she will die.

Panic rises within her, but Daenerys does not run.

There is no rush of galloping hooves. Bared steel does not sing its song of death. But Drogo is there all the same. Her fierce khal, mounted on his fearless stallion, silver arakh shining in one raised hand. In the space of a single heartbeat, he puts himself between Daenerys and the shadows.

No! The word catches in her throat, choking her. She can't breathe. There is only fear and pain. Drogo has never lost a battle, but he can no more defeat this monster than Daenerys can. Her brave and powerful khal will die. He will die for her.

NO!

Dany is choking on the word when she opens her eyes. All is calm. The khalasar sleeps. There is no shadow-monster.

And Daenerys lies gasping in her khal's arms while Drogo sleeps on, oblivious to the fear she cannot show.

She is a khaleesi. A khaleesi does not know fear any more than her khal does. And if she does, she knows enough to hide it where none can see.

At last she sucks air into burning lungs and breathes again. Her tent is safe, lit by the warm glow of the fire within and the first light of day without. The khalasar spreads in every direction around her, a hundred thousand Dothraki warriors between her and any danger. Drogo is beside her, alive and safe.

It shocks her to realize that she is safer here, her happiness more secure, than she has ever been in her entire life.

No, she thinks, and this time it is not a plea but a command. This happiness was hard-won and she will not give it up without a fight. She is a khaleesi, wife and partner to the khal of khals, the woman who carries his son inside her, and she will not allow it.

She sits up, looking upon the man who is her Sun and Stars, and feels her heart catch. In her dream this man gave up his life to save her from the shadow-beast. Waking, she will not allow that to happen. She does not know how, only that she is the blood of the dragon and she will keep what is hers, no matter the cost.

Smiling, Daenerys bends down to wake her khal with a kiss.