Sheepstealer; Not So Beautiful Wild Dragon
During the Dance of the Dragons, the Sheepstealer was a male wild dragon who enjoyed eating mutton. There was a house behind Dragonmont where he lived. He liked to hunt between Driftmark and Wendwater. The Dragonstone smallfolk named him for an apparent reason. He was one of three wild dragons living on Dragonstone at the start of the Dance of the Dragons.
Sheepstealer’s Eating Habits and Appearance
Sheepstealer was a bad “mud brown” color. He wasn’t mean to people unless they pushed him, but he could be mean and angry. He liked mutton. He occasionally ate a sheepdog, but he never hurt a shepherd.
Although it is stated that Grand Maester Munkun never actually saw Nettles, Sheepstealer and his dragon rider were described by Munkun as “a skinny brown girl on a skinny brown dragon.” In this way, it is not known how accurate Munkun’s account is.
Well over fifty years ago, Nettles formed a bond with Sheepstealer, so he wasn’t a young dragon. In contrast, Dreamfyre was even older than Sheepstealer but was always called “slender.” This means that Sheepstealer could have been both big and thin.
Sheepstealer’s Owners Over the Years Where He Ended
When the Old King Jaehaerys I Targaryen was still a child, Sheepstealer’s dragon egg hatched. Sheepstealer made his lair in the caves of the Dragons on Dragonstone and would hunt sheep as far away as Driftmark and the Wendwater.
Sheepstealer went unclaimed by any rider in his youth, which made him harder to claim with each passing year and more and more unused to the presence of men. He eventually spent decades living in the wild on Dragons Tone, stealing sheep from pastures across Blackwater Bay.
During the early stages of the Dance of the Dragons, Jacaerys Velaryon invited any potential dragon seeds to try and claim a dragon to ride. Sheepstealer was one of four dragons people attempted to ride during this event, known as the Sowing. Sheepstealer was the only dragon that had never had a rider before.
Sheepstealer killed more candidates than Seasmoke, Vermithor, and Silverwing combined. Alyn of Hull was burned by the dragon when he attempted to claim it, and Silver Denys, who claimed to be a descendant of King Maegor I Targaryen, had his arm torn off by the dragon.
Through a clever technique, a girl named Nettles could tame the dragon. Every morning, she left a newly killed sheep out for the dragon, causing it to get used to her presence before letting her mount him. Nettles and Sheepstealer, two of Rhaenyra Targaryen’s other dragon riders, participated in the Battle of the Gullet and the swift capture of King’s Landing. Sheepstealer then made his home in the Dragonpit.
While Prince Daemon Targaryen and his dragon Caraxes were hunting Aemond Targaryen and Vhagar along the Trident, Nettles and Sheepstealer joined them. The stayed at Maidenpool and continued their search every morning from there.
When Queen Rhaenyra called Nettles a traitor, Nettles left Maidenpool early in the morning with Sheepstealer. They had just fed Sheepstealer the main black ram at the castle. Last seen, the dragon and its rider were flying over the Bay of Crabs.
It was said that Sheepstealer had been seen at Crackclaw Point and the Mountains of the Moon after King Aegon II Targaryen took back the Iron Throne after Rhaenyra’s death. Ser Robert Rowan led a royal army to the Vale of Arryn in 134 AC to help Ser Joffrey Arryn. This was during the reign of King Aegon III Targaryen.
In a cave, Robert’s men encountered Sheepstealer and a ragged Nettles. In the following fight, sixteen men were slain, and thirty more were hurt. The last time anyone saw Nettles and her dragon, they were flying deeper into the Mountains of the Moon.
In the Vale, an offshoot group of Painted Dogs came to worship a “fire witch,” to whom they would send their boys with gifts. To demonstrate their manhood, they would have to face the flames of her dragon in return.
This mount clan was regarded as one of the most savage of the mountain clans, and tales about this witch are still told today. Some maesters in the Seven Kingdoms think this was the beginning of the custom that the Burned Men still uphold today, in which young men must “give some part of their body to the fire” to show that they are brave enough to be men.