They flew through the pass at the southern end of the Mountains of the Moon, and the rolling hills below gradually gave way to flatter ground.
The Kingsroad wound between fields and woods like a pale gray ribbon. Many moving black specks were still visible along it-caravans or travelers who stopped to watch as the dragons swept across the sky.
After all, most people in the Seven Kingdoms had only heard of dragons and had never seen one themselves. Those who had were mostly residents of King's Landing or merchants who often went there on business.
So even a distant glimpse of the dragons was a rare opportunity for them.
For Ygritte, riding on Blackflame's back, the most obvious change along the way was that almost everything below was green now, utterly unlike the largely barren landscapes of the North and Beyond the Wall.
Ygritte sat on Blackflame's cold scales, her hands gripping the fabric at Viserys's waist, her eyes fixed without blinking on the villages and noble castles passing below.
In the Crownlands, pale blue cooking smoke occasionally rose from farmhouse roofs. Farmers carried tools as they worked in the fields, and whenever they caught sight of a dragon's shadow overhead, they hurriedly dropped flat to the ground. Only when it had vanished completely beyond the horizon did they dare stand again.
These locals often saw dragons, of course, and they also held Viserys in the highest regard. After all, within a month of his arrival, he had ended the chaos of the War of the Five Kings, allowing them or their families to return home alive sooner.
"It's much warmer here than Beyond the Wall or in the North, isn't it?" Viserys turned his head slightly, his voice carrying over the wind at their sides to reach her