Gholas

Dragons' gender are supposed to be fickle, but they're usually determined to be one or the other and I'm so sorry but Aerion gets a girl dragon or no dragon.

Scenarios:

His cradle egg hatches, it's a female. In my head she's silver, grows at a steady rate with age. She's spoilt, but not docile. She hunts for herself regularly, but will start setting things on fire if she's not brought food as well. Temperamental, not battle-tested but would enjoy fighting. She loves Aerion deeply and is relatively obedient, enjoys going on long flights with Aerion. Might have eggs, but Aerion would be distraught at any attachment she might have to a male dragon and would intentionally move her away if he discovered she'd mated with another dragon (this isn't some weird romantic thing it's more about attention).

If we're gonna do HOTD dragons, it's either Syrax or Cannibal (I know that's 12 year old making an OC as shit but ffs valarr has a white streak in his hair and heterochromia). In the case of Syrax it's very similar to the dynamic Syrax had with young Rhaenyra, and while Syrax might be slightly more aggressive her nature doesn't change much.

Cannibal is the one I picture for a Jace and aerion or rhaenyra and aerion twins au. Rhaenyra claims Syrax when she's seven and names her. If Aerion was Rhaenyra's son or twin, I picture the claiming would be similar. Key differences are little Aerion tells no one where he's going or which dragon he's looking for. Also he gets a 50/50 chance of being eaten or succeeding. Aerion is insistent that he wants a black dragon (this is based off my little cousins insisting on specific colours of backpacks) like his favourite dragon Balerion and his favourite dragon-rider, Maegor. His favourite stories and history lessons are about Maegor. He's keen on Vhagar since he also likes stories about Visenya (mostly because she's Maegor's mother), but he prefers Balerion. Everyone sort of shrugs off his obsession with black dragons, because Balerion's dead so who cares, and then Aerion vanishes.

If Aerion manages to claim Cannibal at the ripe old age of eight, he insists that Cannibal is a female, and takes insult when the first people after return refer to her as 'he'. Basically like when someone has a big female dog and people immediately assume it's a boy. I think he'd claim her as a very young child, I'm pretty sure Cannibal would respond to any adolescent/adult by burning them alive.

Cannibal is not an obedient dragon. She doesn't always obey, and if she doesn't feel like going flying, she's not going flying. She doesn't pull a Vhagar and just go to sleep mid-flight, but there are occasions where Aerion goes to the Dragonpit/Dragonmont and Cannibal basically just tell him she doesn't wanna go. Aerion can just about stop her from trying to eat whoever they're flying with, but that's about it. Other than not eating some of the smaller dragons (Arrax/Vermax), Aerion doesn't really bother trying to tell her not to do things. When he wants her to set fire to something, or go somewhere or do something that's important, she obeys. He doesn't care if she eats a dragon keeper, kills some farmer's sheep or sets someone on fire. She doesn't like being away from Dragonstone, but will travel away, and enjoys flying with Aerion. She doesn't spend all her time in Dragonmont, and both her and Aerion protest to the involvement of chains (she protests by eating dragon keepers). She doesn't love him immediately, but grows to (particularly as he grows more volatile in his teenage years).

People initially try to get Aerion to rename Cannibal, but she responds to the name and seems to like it, so he doesn't + there's no Valyrian translation of 'Cannibal' that I know of and he's basically a teenage MCR fan, he likes her name. Training her to respond to Valyrian is a absolute shitshow, and many dragon keepers die in the process. Aerion mostly uses their bond rather than words if he wants her to do something.

Cannibal never lays any eggs, despite being 'tame', making maesters doubt Aerion is right about her sex. He is, she's a girl, she just doesn't like any of the males. Aerion is the only hatchling she needs. She does see him as a hatchling, which is why it's 50/50 when they first meet, since she likes to eat young dragons.

I think he has a shot at Cannibal because of his penchant for hurting his younger family members and the comparison between Cannibal actively hunting other dragons (smaller ones or eggs). They're both nuts. I like the theory that Cannibal was someone (possibly Maegor's) cradle egg who was abandoned in favour of another dragon, so the pampering Aerion received until his younger siblings were born is comparable. I also just think Cannibal's green flames and green eyes are cool when coupled with Aerion downing wildfire (green).

Sunfyre is the only male dragon I can think of that kind of works for Aerion, but I struggle to imagine Sunfyre with anyone except Aegon. I feel like it could go either way, but definitely not if Aegon is in the picture, he and Sunfyre are made for each other.

Silverwing likes good-natured riders and is quite a calm dragon. While I think she'd have a positive influence on Aerion, I'm not sure she'd like him.

#1 Dunk is 3 times his size

#2 he's lazy. His plan was dunk wouldn't be able to gather 7, and he'd be executed without Aerion having to lift a finger.

kinda sad for Jake but also it's just funny picturing minseon handing him Jake and him being like :/