It had been a moon since he had been assigned the southern seas of the Stepstones to patrol, and very little had happened. A few skirmishes against some scouting ships, easy fights he hadn't even needed to call most of his fleet, let alone Seafoam. Nothing worth even reporting to the main fleet.
Currently they were in the middle of the ocean, sails lowered as they enjoyed the clear sky and calm waters. Treating what was a brutal war in the north as a vacation in the south. One of his men was stationed in the crow's eye using his special far-eye to keep a look.
He had worried about letting his men use it. Fearing others would learn about the uniqueness of it, but the more he thought about it the sillier it sounded. First, far-eye's were fairly rare. Only lords lords and wealthy merchant had them. His watcher had never seen one, nevertheless looked through it. There was no way he would be able to tell it was special. Lastly, no one would believe the words of the man, certainly not enough to investigate. Unless they got their hands on it themselves to verify it, something he wouldn't allow, there was nothing they could do.
So he worried little about handing the item to his men. He was even less worried about it breaking. He had dropped the thing from heights even higher than the crows eye and it still didn't have a scratch on it.
While his crew were enjoying the simple day on the ship, he was in the water- adorned only in cut breeches and a shell necklace- practicing his acrobatics with Seafoam. He had gotten the idea to do so from his sister a few years ago after Seafoam used her snout to throw up in the air. Laena had gotten such a laugh out of it she begged him to do it again. And like the fool, he did. Since then, when he had time, they would do acrobats.
As they rose from the depths with speed he gripped on of her horns tightly. Holding his eyes closed until he felt the cool rush of air from their breach. He opened his eyes and with strength positioned his legs on her horns as they rose into the air. He could see his flagship below them. Her head had clearing the height of largest mast and still rising. He cheered as they rose higher. Reaching the apex of her lift, he jumped off her with all his strength gaining even more height.
He rose a few more feet. As he began to fall he sucked in a deep breath, curled into himself and flipped as he fell back to the ocean.
He heard her land with a hard splash, as he finished his second flip. She would now move out of the way to not injure him upon his return. He flipped three more time before he straightened out, almost two meters from the water. With practiced ease speared into the waters. He sunk deep into the waters but he did not worry for as soon as he opened his eyes he was greeted with the giant blue eyes of his life long companion.
He could see the joy in them at the completing the trick, and he smiled toothlessly. Swimming closer to her he rubbed her snout. A few large bubbles flew out of her nose and popped on him, they were warm to the skin. Usually he would blow bubbles back, but he was not using the magic in his necklace and was currently relying only on his lung capacity.
A long time ago he learned his dragon was far more intelligent, than the already intelligent flying dragons. He was sure if her body held vocal cords she would be able to speak almost as well as he. It was why he felt so comfortable trying dangerous tricks like this. He knew she would be there to save him should anything looked like it would go wrong.
There had been a time were he tried teaching her numbers. It was a middling success. She could count up ten, using the tip of her tail to make marks. Any more and she got frustrated and stopped paying attention or fled deep into the sea.
It was far more than he expected. He was not too beat up about her not wanting to continue. Even if he wanted to see if she could learn algebra, there was no real use for him in it. Her learning her numbers did not make anything better, and probably made things worse for her. Certainly more stressful. The most he needed from her was to know her directions and understand detailed commands. Two things she naturally excelled at. In the end it was only a nice experiment.
As they floated underwater, he smiled at the memory of her tenure in mathematic and roughly rubbed her scales like she liked it. He leaned his body against her head and she coiled her massive frame around him. A remnant from her younger years. It was one her favorite things to do when she was smaller, she would wrap around him like a garment even when they were out of water.
It was not possible now. She was far too big. Her head was over ten feet thick and her body stretched over 50 yards in length. She was the largest creature in the ocean, even the whales paled in comparison to her now. Her 'coiling' around him was very loose. More for her own emotional joy, as she was not even able to touch him with anything accept her head.
He enjoyed it all the same. It made him feel safer in the endless waters. Being her rider made him safe in all oceans, but only when she was near. He was not foolish enough to jump into the sea without her.
They stayed underwater for some for some time. Having gotten so comfortable he almost fell asleep resting against her head. Eventually, reason got the best of him and although his crew knew he could stay underwater for a long time, 'Half-merlin' they had taken to call him, he knew they would still worry if he stayed under too long.
He tapped her on the nose, the white and blue scaled dragon opened her eyes and looked at him. He pointed towards the surface and sent the command through their connection to bring him to the surface. Swimming to the top of her head he gripped onto a set of her smaller horns and rested against her body.
When he settle down she slowly rose. Only breaching enough to get his full body above water. He took a deep breath at the breach, stood and looked around for the ship.
He found it a few hundred meters behind them. He could see his men pointing in his direction and shouting things he couldn't hear waving at him, he smiled and waved back at them, but when a red flag was waved his smile faltered before growing larger then it had before.
"To the ship, Seafoam, our friends have arrive." he said.
He almost fell as she moved, but kept his balance as she moved to the ship. She rose from the water bringing her head slightly above the bow of the ship, giving him enough room to safely jump onto the boat.
He hopped onto the boat and was quickly flanked by his Quartermaster, his armor already fully equipped, as he walked to his quarters. The boat was in an organized frenzy as his men were tying nots, prepping the sails and equipping their armor. It was a calm chaos, one he enjoyed seeing, he had trained his men hard during the time they had spent with him and he was glad to see the fruits of his labors coming bare.
"Enemies spotted, scouts say they are only a few hours away. I have already raised the ready flags. The men are getting ready for battle, the serving boys are prepping your armor now," Syrio said, using a cloth to wipe the sweat from his brow.
"How many ships are we dealing with?" he asked
"Fifty" Syrio said, his face neutral and his word calm.
If he was worried about the numbers disadvantage he was good at hiding it. Laevon nodded.
"So they've sent everything they have in these waters. Finally, I was tired of waiting." he smiled, stretching his his body as he opened his door. "I was worried that I brought Seafoam here for nothing."
His quarters, while small, was very nice, a sea blue Myrish rug covered floor of the whole chamber and the ceiling was painted white with paintings of swimming seahorse and dragons on it. An iron wood desk sat near the back wall, which basked in the sunlight from the windows behind it. His personal map hung on the left wall, it currently set to their current location and the surrounding areas, above two chest filled with his prized possession and an empty armor stand. The opposite wall was where his neat bedding was along with a few chairs and a small table with a half burnt candle.
"Are we still proceeding with the plan?" his Quartermaster asked, closing the door behind the two of them as the ship boys put his armor on him. He had not taken any pages or squires yet so he had trained some of the serving boys on the ship to help him. He planned to reward them after the journey by getting them a knight to squire under.
"You still disagree with it?" he raised an eyebrow as the chest peace was strapped in, he felt safer already.
"I feel it is unnecessary, we have the power to end them in the open. I do not see why we do not just do that, we do not need to play games with our prey."
Laevon nodded but did not reply, he let the serving boys finish strapping his armor on before waving them out. The boys scurried out of the room towards the lower deck where they would hide during the combat. He walked to one of the chest, made of dyed blue wood and gold plated metal. He opened the heavy lid with a grunt and pulled out one of his greatest items, a simple looking backpack.
"I can understand what you mean, Syrio" he said after closing the lid, he flinched at the loud bang.
Placing the bag on his desk he opened it and reached deep into the it. His arm going all the way until all but his shoulder has disappeared into the bag. He rummaged through it as he continued,
"I... prefer not to take any chances. I want to crush our enemies. Give them no chance to-found it" he interrupted himself with a bright smile as he pulled his arm out slowly revealing a sword would make a splash when the court learned of it.
A sword as blue as the ocean with waves of grey rippling through it, on hilt the head of a sea dragon. Anyone who saw it would understand what it was, Valyrian steel. One never been catalogued before. Laevon noted the surprise rise of Syrio's eyebrows and gave him a smug smile.
Syrio and all his close confidants had seen his bag and most of his other unique items, but he had never shown them this. This he had waited for a day like today, a day where he would begin to make a name for himself.
There had been plenty of times he could've shown it in the past, but now was different. They weren't battling foolish pirates, no now he was fighting true warriors. He had a lot of disdain for sellsails and sell swords, which made up most of both sides armies, but he would never say they were not a fierce force when properly encouraged.
"How many more secrets do you have?" Syrio asked. His shock had vanished but he still stared at the sword.
Laevon could see the mans want to hold the sword, swing it, kill with it. Unfortunately for him, only Laevon and his heirs would ever wield this sword into battle. From the moment he knew what the sword was he had made that decision.
"A few more, but this is the last one that matters" He said with a shrug, he pulled out a scabbard, carefully sheathed it, and fashioned the sword to his hilt. Syrio only scoffed at his words. Laevon chuckled
"Back to what I was saying," he said changing the topic "I want our enemies crushed with as little casualties on our side as possible. This plan will ensure that."
He closed the chest again after placing the bag back inside and turned to his Quartermaster "We do not have many men, and while we can possibly dominate the seas with this one ship and Seafoam if we wanted too." words he truly believed "It is best that we keep everyman we have alive. You understand?"
Syrio nodded his head, though Laevon could still see the reluctance in his eyes. His friends had never been one for tricks, preferring the traditional Westerossi way of fighting; head on with the best man winning in a contest of strength and skill.
It was certainly one of the fastest and most direct way of warfare. It was one he found especially crude.
He stood in front of his friend ,"I know we want to leave this war as fast as possible and get on with our Voyage, but we have to do this right. Once we secure these waters, we can take our leave. Leaving the rest to the rest to my father and the banished prince. And then nobody will be able to say we did not do our part." he patted his shoulders as he walked out the room to the flurry of motion that was his ship, "Now, let us go to war my friend."
"Yes, my lord" Syrio said.
Laevon heard his steady steps as he followed him.