It didn't breathe fire or try to tear him apart.
Cannibal beat its wings, lifting its enormous body from the mountaintop and heading for the boundless sky.
As the sensation of weightlessness washed over him, Rhaegar managed to crack his eyes open. There was nothing around him to block his view, and drifting clouds stretched overhead.
"We're flying..."
His eyes flew wide. "We're flying," Rhaegar murmured, gazing at the unfamiliar view in bewilderment.
Then joy surged through him, and he laughed with excitement. "I'm flying! I actually made it onto a dragon's back!"
Rhaegar shifted into a better position, pressing himself against the dragon's back as he leaned over to look down at the land below.
Cannibal flew swiftly, easily soaring above the clouds.
Dragonstone, which had been too large to explore in a single day on foot, looked like an utterly ordinary little island to Rhaegar.
Rhaegar understood that Dragonstone hadn't grown smaller.
It was just that from the back of a dragon, nothing seemed so imposing anymore.
Just as he began to relax, Cannibal spat a mouthful of dragonflame into the sky. Its speed surged, and it plunged into the searing blaze.
Rhaegar's pupils contracted. He hurriedly flattened himself against the dragon's back to avoid the torrent of dragonflame.
Every dragon had its own distinct traits.
The shape and color of their dragonflame were no different.
Cannibal's dragonflame was a deathly, ghostly green. It billowed like smoke, shifting between a gaseous and liquid state, and clung with incredible tenacity.
Once its dragonflame touched you, it was as hard to extinguish as a parasite burrowing into your bones.
Rhaegar could withstand the heat of dragonflame for a while, but he couldn't endure the lasting damage caused by being coated in it.
BOOM—
Cannibal burst through the vast green blaze,