Baela Targaryen and Moondancer's Rider-and-Dragon Bond

Baela Targaryen and Moondancer's Rider-and-Dragon Bond is defined by Baela’s near-daily flying, her appetite for adventure, and her determination to trust Moondancer even when Dragonstone’s castellan forbids her to take flight. The bond becomes most visible when Baela rises to meet King Aegon II and Sunfyre: she and Moondancer challenge a larger, battle-worn dragon, and Baela remains with her mount through the fall. Moondancer does not survive, but Baela does. Their story makes the bond more than a matter of riding; it is expressed in repeated companionship, shared danger, and Baela’s refusal to leave Moondancer at the end.

A Young Rider and a Swift Dragon

Moondancer had been Baela’s dragon for less than half a year when the events on Dragonstone brought their partnership to its end. Baela was fourteen, adventurous, and accustomed to moving freely around the island. Flying was the pursuit she loved most. She had taken Moondancer into the sky every day since first riding her, ranging across Dragonstone and even over the sea to Driftmark. The frequency and reach of those flights establish a relationship built through regular use, not a single ceremonial ride or isolated act of daring.

Moondancer’s qualities suited Baela’s boldness. She was young and pale green, with pearl-colored horns, crest, and wingbones. Though her great wings gave her an imposing outline, she was no larger than a warhorse and weighed less. Her advantage was speed. Baela believed that Moondancer could outfly the Cannibal, a much-feared wild dragon on Dragonstone, and that belief shaped her response when she heard that another dragon had been found dead. Baela’s confidence in her mount was not abstract: it rested on the quickness she knew from their repeated flights.

The Forbidden Flight

After Grey Ghost’s remains were discovered on the far side of Dragonmont, Ser Robert Quince, castellan of Dragonstone, forbade Baela from investigating. He had already prohibited fishing in the waters beneath the mountain’s eastern face, where the dragon’s body lay, and he would not send knights to confront the Cannibal. Baela, however, wanted to learn for herself what had happened. She argued that Moondancer was young and fast enough to evade the larger dragon. Quince’s refusal turned their established freedom of flight into a conflict: the castellan sought to contain the danger by keeping Baela inside, while Baela trusted her own judgment and Moondancer’s speed.

The order to keep her in the castle did not end Baela’s efforts to fly. She was confined to her chambers after trying to defy Quince’s command, and so missed the chance to see the fishing boat that was then making its way around Dragonstone. Later, when men seized the castle, they also tried to take Baela prisoner. She escaped through a window, crossing rooftops and walls to reach the yard. The intruders had guarded the stables, but Baela had grown up on Dragonstone and knew routes through the castle that they did not. By the time her pursuers caught up, she had freed Moondancer and put a saddle on her. Her escape shows that the partnership depended not only on their flights in open air: Baela’s familiarity with their home made it possible for her to reach Moondancer when others tried to prevent it.

The Encounter with Sunfyre

Baela and Moondancer met Aegon II and Sunfyre before dawn, as the king descended toward Dragonstone expecting to find the castle in his control. Moondancer was smaller than Sunfyre, but the older dragon was burdened by a malformed wing and recent wounds. In the ensuing fight, Moondancer used her speed to evade Sunfyre’s attacks, then struck at him from above. The encounter places the qualities Baela had relied on—Moondancer’s quickness and her capacity to take flight—under extreme pressure. Their movements together make the bond legible through action: Baela had chosen to rise against an opponent whose size alone might have made the contest seem hopeless.

The fight ended with both dragons falling to the stone yard. Moondancer could not overcome Sunfyre’s greater size and weight on the ground, and she died there. Sunfyre survived, but his wounds meant he would never fly again. The result was therefore not a simple victory for either mount: Baela’s dragon was lost, while the king’s dragon was permanently grounded. The cost of their confrontation was carried by both sides, and the loss of Moondancer ended the daily flights that had defined Baela’s life on Dragonstone.

Baela’s Choice and the Bond’s End

Baela stayed with Moondancer as they fell. After the dragons struck the ground, she remained beside her mount until she found the strength to free herself from the saddle and move away. Burned and battered, she survived the confrontation; when Alfred Broome drew his sword against her, Marston Waters stopped him, and Tom Tangletongue carried Baela to the maester. The account does not describe Baela’s private thoughts, but her actions supply the clearest evidence of attachment: she had risked the forbidden flight, faced Sunfyre with Moondancer, and stayed with her through the final moments of their shared flight.

The narrative first presents their bond in repetition—Baela flying every day—and then tests it through separation, pursuit, and battle. Quince’s restrictions interrupt their accustomed freedom, but do not dissolve Baela’s resolve to reach her dragon. In the final encounter, speed gives Moondancer a chance against a larger opponent, yet cannot save her once the dragons reach the ground. Baela’s survival does not restore the partnership: Moondancer is dead, and Sunfyre can no longer fly. The ending gives the bond its force precisely through that asymmetry. Baela returns from the encounter alive, but the companion who had carried her across Dragonstone and Driftmark is gone.