Daenerys rides a dragon away from Meereen.

The reopening of Meereen's fighting pits was meant to seal the peace Daenerys Targaryen had bought with her marriage to Hizdahr zo Loraq. Instead, the spectacle in Daznak's Pit became the stage for her sudden and violent departure from the city. When her largest dragon, Drogon, descended upon the scarlet sands in response to the bloodshed and the scent of his mother, the carefully constructed truce between the dragon queen and the slaving cities dissolved in an instant of fire and terror. Daenerys's flight on Drogon's back removed her from Meereen, leaving the city without its queen, its peace in tatters, and its future uncertain.

The Dragon's Descent and the Queen's Choice

The day's final match had just concluded with the death of the fighter Barsena Blackhair, gored by a boar. As the crowd roared and the pitmaster cracked his whip, a shadow rippled across the king's box. Drogon, the largest and wildest of Daenerys's three dragons, appeared above the pit, his black scales drinking the sun. He landed on the carcass of the boar and the body of Barsena, beginning to feed. The crowd erupted in panic. A spearman, later called a hero by some, drove a boar spear into the base of Drogon's neck. The dragon's answering roar shook the pit, and he turned his flame on the attackers, killing several. As Hizdahr zo Loraq shouted for the beast to be killed, Daenerys vaulted over the parapet of the royal box and ran across the sand toward her dragon. She seized the pitmaster's whip and struck Drogon, commanding him to submit. The dragon, bleeding and enraged, folded his wings and lay flat. Daenerys pulled the smoking spear from his back, vaulted onto him, and with a crack of the whip, Drogon launched himself into the sky.

The Flight and the Fall of a City

As Drogon clawed his way upward, Daenerys saw the chaos below: people fleeing, horses rearing, and the fires spreading from the dragon's flame. The flight carried her north, across the Skahazadhan River and into the Dothraki sea, leaving Meereen behind. The immediate aftermath was catastrophic. The Brazen Beasts gathered over two hundred corpses from the pit and the surrounding streets, with three times as many burned or wounded. Drogon was gone, and no trace of Daenerys was found. Some swore they saw her fall; others insisted the dragon had devoured her. The peace she had forged with Yunkai was shattered. The Yunkish lords, who had been guests at the games, used the chaos as a pretext to break the truce, demanding the destruction of the remaining dragons and the restoration of Hizdahr's rule. The city was left leaderless, with Barristan Selmy and the Shavepate Skahaz mo Kandaq moving to arrest Hizdahr on suspicion of poisoning the queen, while the Sons of the Harpy resumed their murders in the streets.

The Solitary Journey and the Return of the Dragon

Daenerys's flight was not a planned escape but a desperate, instinctive act. Drogon carried her far from Meereen, to a stony hill in the Dothraki sea that she named Dragonstone. There, she lived alone for an unknown period, surviving on the dragon's leavings and wild plants, her clothes reduced to rags. She was burned, hungry, and feverish, but she also experienced a strange, wild happiness in the freedom of flight. The dragon, however, was not a tame mount; he went where he willed, and each night he returned to his lair on the hill. Daenerys knew she could not stay. She began a long, solitary walk south, following a stream, hoping to reach the Skahazadhan River and find her way back to Meereen. Her journey was marked by illness, hunger, and a heavy menstrual flow that reminded her of the prophecy that she would never bear a living child. She was found by a Dothraki scout from Khal Jhaqo's khalasar, the same khal who had abandoned her after Drogo's death. When Drogon appeared overhead, the scout fled, but Daenerys called the dragon down, mounted him, and flew after the rider. She landed to feed on the horse Drogon killed, and as the western sky turned red, she heard the sound of approaching horses. Khal Jhaqo and fifty mounted warriors emerged from the smoke. Daenerys rose to stand beside her dragon, facing the khal who had once been her husband's bloodrider and had since become her enemy.