A green grub would be nice too!
When Danyla saw that Dreamfyre's attention was fixed entirely on her whalehide bag, she knew the dragon had sensed the magic contained in the colored soil. It was probably something she badly needed, too.
So she opened the bag, revealing the colored soil inside, and said,
"Dreamfyre, are you interested in this colored soil too? Come on, then. I'll use it to roast some fat sheep for you all."
Understanding what Danyla meant, Dreamfyre immediately let out an excited, ringing roar, then obediently lowered her body.
Once Danyla was seated securely, Dreamfyre hurriedly beat her Dragon Wings, rising swiftly into the air and flying toward the place in the hillside orchard set aside for roasting sheep.
Myracis and Little Balerion, who had just climbed out, followed close behind with the others.
After reaching the orchard, Danyla mixed the colored soil and her newly prepared seasonings with whale oil and other animal fats, then handed the mixture to the Dragon Guards to spread evenly over the marinated fat sheep.
The greasy mud had looked filthy at first, but once it was smeared over the sheep and roasted over a fire, it actually looked quite appetizing!
After teaching the Dragon Guards how to handle the colored soil, Danyla told twelve Skinning Warriors to prepare shovels and some sacks.
She first fed Dreamfyre ten fat sheep and three old cattle, leaving her half full. Then she and the fully prepared Skinning Warriors climbed onto Dreamfyre's back and flew toward the cave where the three young dragons lived.
By the time Myracis and the three young dragons had eaten more than a dozen fat sheep, five old cattle, and over a dozen fat pigs, filling their bellies completely,
Danyla had already made several trips with the Skinning Warriors, digging up dozens of sacks of colored soil from the young dragons' cave and bringing them back.
Along the way, they had also gathered all the colored diamonds scattered across the ground into a pile outside Myracis's little cave.
At first, the sight of all those colored diamonds left the Skinning Warriors rooted to the spot, too shocked to speak.
But the twelve of them had emerged from hundreds of outstanding candidates after rigorous academic examinations, warrior training, and tests of loyalty.
They soon regained their composure and hurried to work as Danyla instructed.
Once they were finished, Danyla sternly warned the Skinning Warriors,
"Remember! Not a word about what happened today may get out!"
"Otherwise, you'll meet the same fate as the fat sheep you're so skilled at handling. Understand?"
Faced with Danyla's savage expression, the Skinning Warriors hastily dropped to their knees and promised in fear and trepidation,
"Rest assured! We won't breathe a word, Your Highness!"
Those Skinning Warriors had personally butchered the vicious "fat sheep of the sea" Danyla had brought back from outside.
Their princess might usually treat them with boundless kindness and tolerance, but the mere thought of awakening her Great Dragon's wrath sent a chill down their backs.
Besides, it was this princess who had rescued them from their precarious existence in Flea Bottom in King's Landing. She had given them living conditions comparable to those of the Kingsguard, so naturally, they were utterly loyal to Danyla.
That was the benefit of raising them from childhood!
Seeing that her warning had achieved its purpose, Danyla immediately spoke kindly again,
"Of course I trust your loyalty!"
"When you marry someday, I'll be sure to give each of your brides a set of jewelry made from these gems."
"Thank you, Your Highness!"
"Thank you, Your Highness!"
These forty or fifty sacks of colored soil would last a long time.
And smearing the colored soil over the fat sheep for the Great Dragons to swallow along with the meat not only made it tastier, but also made it easier for them to digest and absorb.
Dreamfyre and the four young dragons were clearly very pleased with Danyla's method.
Their appetites were all enormous that day, and they consumed nearly half again as much livestock as usual.
Fortunately, Dragon Porcelain now provided Danyla with a substantial, steady monthly income. All the different kinds of porcelain brought her at least five hundred thousand Gold Dragons a month.
She therefore spared no expense in having livestock and grain merchants bring a constant stream of cattle, horses, donkeys, pigs, sheep, dogs, and all manner of everyday supplies to Dragonstone.
The brewery in White Sheep Town now held enough grain to last three to five years. Luckily, when it was being built, Danyla had specifically ordered more than a dozen large grain warehouses to be carefully designed.
Since the method of producing blackstone became more efficient the larger the blocks were, constructing large buildings saved a great deal of time.
A large pig farm on New Dragonstone Island was already being put into operation while construction continued.
Under Danyla's guidance, this method of large-scale livestock farming, so different from the traditional practices of Westeros, had attracted even Maester Tigris's interest.
He often took his apprentices to the pig farm to observe it firsthand.
Really, what technical sophistication was there to it? It was merely a difference in knowledge and outlook.
In this era, ordinary people's living conditions were almost universally filthy and chaotic. Wasn't even King's Landing awash in piss and shit?!
Who would think to raise those filthy-looking fat pigs in clean houses built of brick and tile?
Usually, a patch of ground enclosed by a wooden fence with a simple shed over it was considered a decent pigsty.
There were also serfs specifically tasked with driving the pigs out to forage. The pigs were allowed to roam wasteland or watersides freely, eating grass, leaves, aquatic plants, duckweed, algae, and the like.
Those without suitable land for free-range grazing kept their pigs in small huts and fed them grain, dregs, bran, vegetable leaves, and so on. Most pig feed consisted of wild vegetables and other roots and tubers that people could not eat.
Only nobles occasionally gave their own fat pigs an extra meal of table scraps.
The feed at Danyla's pig farm, however, was carefully formulated. Wild vegetables made up less than half its weight, while the remainder consisted of various grains, ground livestock and large fish bones, shells, and an exclusive secret formula made with Great Dragon droppings, all mixed in different proportions.
This soon made the pigs at Danyla's farm plump and sturdy. The sows also produced better-quality offspring.
Danyla's pig farm was built entirely of blackstone, and its floors were paved with blackstone too, with dedicated channels to drain water and urine. Workers cleared away the pig manure every day and piled it together in large mounds for composting.
Danyla also told her Great Dragon Dreamfyre and the four young dragons that if they needed to relieve themselves, they should do it here.
That would spare her from having to keep sending people into Dragonmont to dig out Great Dragon droppings.
According to the old man who watched over the place, they had understood Danyla's instructions and followed them.
As the livestock merchants brought in more and more animals, the vast stretches of wasteland on New Dragonstone Island were gradually developed into natural pastures.
Of the horses brought over, Samwell sent those that were young, strong, and well conformed to the warhorse breeding grounds.
The old and weak ones, along with cattle and donkeys culled from the breeding stock, were distributed to the residents of White Ocean Town for plowing and transport.
The selected high-quality cattle and donkeys were sent to dedicated breeding grounds to produce offspring and preserve their bloodlines.
With the secret feeds Danyla had developed, the quality of these cattle and horses would surely improve greatly within a few years.
Only those that had truly lost their ability to work, or had particularly poor conformation, ended up as food for the Great Dragons.
Before you continue