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Daeron knew it was going to be a long week when he was woken up by frantic knocking way too early in the morning.
He sighed, recognizing the voices of his little siblings outside and knew if he didn’t answer they’d just barge in somehow.
“To what do I owe this visit?” He said, blinking sleep out of his eyes as Daella stormed in, Aegon and Aemon trailing behind her. Aemon shut the door as Aegon and Daella began furiously ranting.
Daeron was too tired and had too much of a headache to understand everything, he just heard Aerion, stupid older brother, cat, and a bunch of swear words that would make their father angry.
He held up a hand. “One at a time or you’re all going to be kicked out.”
“Aerion threw my cat in the well!” Aegon said, on the verge of tears.
“He also decided to make fun of my embroidery and deliberately splashed mud on my favorite dress. And he was making fun of Aegon again and kept chasing him with a sword!” Daella continued her tirade.
“He has definitely snapped. Just because father yelled at him in front of everyone last week does not mean he can take it out on us!”
Daeron snickered slightly, remembering fondly the memory of Aerion getting yelled at in front of the entire household after he had said something stupid to the river land delegation. He loved it when he was not the one in trouble.
“Well…. You’re probably right he’s gone a bit crazy. I don’t see what brings you here though. It’s not the first time he’s gone through one of his moods. Simply stay out of his way and you shall be fine. I am sorry about your cat though Aegon, if you like we can look for another one for you.”
Aegon shrugged. “It won’t be the same as Ser Whiskers but I suppose so. As long as you hide it from Aerion.”
“But that’s just not fair!” Daella cried out, causing her brothers to look at her.
“Why must we always have to accommodate for Aerions moods? Just because he is stronger than the rest of us. We are more than he is. I saw we should teach him a lesson!” Aemon and Aegon grinned. Daeron felt his headache increasing. This was not going to end well.
“I think that simply waiting for his mood to pass is the better option. After all, we know he shall calm down in a few days if none of us engage and go back to his usual insults.” Daeron tried to be a peacekeeper. He knew that if his siblings ended up fighting in front of their father he would once again be blamed.
Daella sighed, looking at her older brother like one would look at a small child. She patted his arm patronizingly before saying:
“It’s okay big brother. We know you’re not a fighter. We shall handle this ourselves.” Daella smiled at him, gave him a hug, then dragged the other two away.
Daeron was sure that he was supposed to be insulted, but frankly, the headache was too great and his hands had started shaking again. If they wanted to be little menaces they could get dealt with later. Besides, how much damage could three children even do?
Daella led her brothers to the library, the one place she knew Aerion would not be in. At 11 years old, she knew she was rather clever, but she also knew her limits which is why she sat Aegon down next to her and turned to Aemon.
“Alright Aemon. You are the smart one. What should we do now?”
Aemon stared incredulously at his sister. “Why am I the one that must come up with the revenge plan? I’m smart with books not with being annoying like Aerion.”
Daella nodded. “Yes but maybe we can use your knowledge from books to make him suffer.”
Aegon nodded excitedly. “Yes! I want him to hurt the same way he hurts us!”
At the back of his mind, Aemon was sure that wanting their older brother to suffer was not exactly the best thing to want. But also he had insulted Aemons books, and thrown one of them into the mud. Amongst other things. Hmmmmm.
“I think that we should focus more on humiliation. If we embarrass him and show him we are not scared of him, mayhaps he will leave us alone for a time. Aerion trains violently so making him hurt will be hard.” Aemon proposed.
Daella grinned. “I like that much better. Humiliate the so called ‘dragon of summerhall’ so he will think twice about messing with us!”
The three of them agreed. Time to figure out how to humiliate Aerion with their evil plans.
A week or so later, they were no closer than when they started. Turns out, making an evil plan is harder than it appears.
They had tried multiple things:
1) stealing his favorite sword-Aerion had blamed the servant and gotten him extra duty
2) leaving bugs in his pillows- Aerion had shown up the next day and dumped the bugs in Aegon's cup, this somehow resulted in a food fight and their father yelling at them both
3) telling their father that they think Aerion would benefit from being thrown in a lake- they had gotten a lecture about being responsible that made Daella and Aegon fall asleep
4) trying to throw water at him while he was training- he simply laughed and told them thanks for the shower before throwing the bucket at Aemon and Aegon
5) having Daella try to blackmail him- Aerion told her that if she tried that again, he was going to tell Father that she wanted to be married off immediately, Daella threw her shoe at him and ended the conversation
6) trying to make a poison in the kitchen- Daeron found them and called them idiots. He said next time they should try somewhere else as they might accidentally poison the entire castle
7) they took the entire shipment of salt beef and hid it in Aemons room- Daeron and Aerion both found out because the smell was so powerful, the dogs kept licking Aemon as he smelt like beef
8) they tried convincing Rhae to bite him, but she said that she was sure he would taste awful, then she bit Aegon
9) they stole his favorite helmet, Aerion found out and told them he will burn all their clothes. They did not believe him until he actually went to get a candle and then they panicked
10) they tried taking important documents from their fathers study and hiding them in Aerion's room, but Daeron caught them and told them that if they get in trouble he will not help, so they decided it was not worth it.
This led them to their current predicament, thinking of a new plan while hiding again in the library.
“I wish we could as Aerion for help. He is excellent at humiliating people he would definitely have ideas.” Aegon complained.
Daella nodded. “That does seem to be a talent of his. Too bad he is the one that we are trying to make suffer.”
Aegon banged his head against the table. “This is so difficult. Everything we think of can’t possibly work.”
“Yes because your latest plan was to throw him in the well Aegon, he is much too heavy for us to do that.”
“I still think it would work.”
“Well I think you’re an idiot.”
“No, you are!”
“You are!”
Aegon and Daella continued their argument as Aemon wished for the millionth time that he was an only child.
Later that evening in supper, they finally found their answer.
The family was sitting down, eating silently as always, when their father suddenly cleared his throat.
“Now, as you know, your cousin Valaar and his bride shall be coming to visit summerhall soon. He says she will hopefully benefit from the change of scenery. They will arrive in a moon, so I expect you all to be on your best behavior.”
Before anyone could agree, Daella slammed her hands against the table.
“I’ve got it!” Everyone stared, including Maekar, not used to his daughter acting like this.
Daella’s face turned red as she quickly apologized and steered the conversation elsewhere. Next to her, Daeron felt another headache coming.
That night, Aemon and Aegon snuck into their sisters room as she excitedly informed them of her plan. The three of them went to bed that night, with matching grins on their faces. Elsewhere in his room, Aerion did not know why, but he felt a sudden chill.
Two days later, a certain face was notably absent at dinner.
“Daeron, where is your brother?” Maekar asked, confused.
Daeron rolled his eyes. “How should I know? I’m not his wet nurse.” He muttered.
Maekar frowned, looking at the younger children. “Have any of you seen Aerion?” Daella, Rhae, and Aegon shook their heads quickly.
“I think he mentioned having a headache and that he will retire early father.” Aemon’s soft voice spoke up from the end of the table.
Maekar hummed, making a mental note to check in on his son tomorrow if he was still not feeling better.
He had no need for that, as it turned out, because at breakfast the next day, the family was sitting peacefully until the door slammed open.
“WHO DID THIS?” Aerion burst into the room, purple eyes inflamed with fury as he scanned the room looking for guilty faces.
Maekar knew that he should probably be outraged and figure out what is going on, or at the very least attempt tp calm down his son, but he could do neither of those things. The only thing he could do was stifle a laugh because his second born son, so proud and bold, had burst into the room….
And his hair was bright pink.