ASOIAF Dragon Lore
Shrykos
The hatchling cradle-dragon of Prince Jaehaerys, twin son of Aegon II and Helaena — the boy murdered by Blood and Cheese. Shrykos was kept chained in the Dragonpit and killed at the Storming by the one-eyed mute woodsman Hobb the Hewer, who reportedly took fourteen axe blows to bring him down. He never knew the sky.
- Type
- Dragon
- Rider
- Jaehaerys Targaryen (son of Aegon II)
- Hatched
- 120s AC, King’s Landing (Dragonpit)
- Died
- 130 AC, Storming of the Dragonpit
- Era
- Dance of the Dragons
- House
- Targaryen
- Status
- Dead
Shrykos was a young dragon of House Targaryen hatched in the Dragonpit at King’s Landing during the early 120s AC. She was bonded to Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen, the son of King Aegon II Targaryen and Queen Helaena Targaryen. As a cradle dragon, Shrykos was raised in confinement within the Dragonpit and did not reach a size suitable for combat or sustained flight during the Dance of the Dragons.
Descriptions of Shrykos are limited, though she is generally noted as a small and developing dragon at the time of her death. Like other dragons of her generation raised within the Dragonpit, she lacked the size, strength, and experience of older dragons that had been raised on Dragonstone or had seen battle. Her existence reflects the later stage of Targaryen dragon breeding, where dragons were increasingly kept in captivity rather than allowed to grow in more natural volcanic environments.
During the Dance of the Dragons, Shrykos remained within the Dragonpit and did not participate in any military engagements. Her rider, Prince Jaehaerys, was a young child and took no part in the war before his death in the Blood and Cheese incident. Following his death, Shrykos remained riderless within the Dragonpit, one of several young dragons confined in the structure as the conflict intensified.
Shrykos was killed during the Storming of the Dragonpit in 130 AC, when a mob of smallfolk overwhelmed the defenses of the pit during the Moon of Madness. In the chaos that followed, multiple dragons were attacked and slain within the confined space. Shrykos, being small and unable to escape effectively, was killed by the attackers. Accounts suggest she was overwhelmed by numbers, likely slain by weapons and the collapse of the structure as the battle progressed.
Shrykos’s death is representative of the broader destruction of dragonkind during the Dance of the Dragons, particularly among the younger generation of dragons raised in captivity. Unlike the great dragons that fell in open battle, Shrykos died without ever taking flight in war, a casualty of civil unrest rather than direct combat. Her brief life and confined existence reflect the declining strength and vulnerability of Targaryen dragons during the final stages of the conflict.