Dragons, missing, sleeping or prolonged life?

[Flightless bird]

The possibility of dragons at the wall or on Dragonstone 

I've been thinking about the missing dragons at the end of the dance with dragons war, Sheepstealer, Cannibal, Morning and Silverwing if any of these dragons had headed north. Could their lives have been prolonged the same as Aemon Targaryen?

"He was more than just the oldest living maester. He was the oldest man in Westeros"

"I should not have left the wall. Lord Snow could not have known, but I should have seen it. Fire consumes, but cold preserves. The wall..... but it is too late to go running back"  Aemon, A Feast for Crows.

 

Or preserved in stone... My second though was "Waking dragons from stone"  could it be possible for dragons to catch the stoneman curse. If there is a cursed stone dragon on Dragonstone (frozen with the disease), could this be where Shireen caught her affliction? and could it be awoken?

This is my third reading of the books and once again my mind is filled with thoughts of dragons and theories... I would like to know everybody elses theories on these topics  

[Lord Varys]

I don't think it likely that dragons thrive or enjoy the life in the cold lands around the Wall or even beyond it. They are fire made flesh, and ice doesn't burn.

I have often tossed around the idea that our old friend, the Cannibal, may lay dormant or in hibernation in his collapsed lair somewhere beneath the Dragonmount. We don't know whether dragons can enter into stasis or something of that sort, but it is not impossible considering they are magical creatures which can grow pretty old.

And since the Cannibal apparently simply disappeared one assumes something like that might be possible.

[aryagonnakill#2]

If there are any other dragons around I will find it incredibly cheap, and it will not jive with what we are told in the books.  Fire magic coming back after the birth of Danys dragons, the maesters recording that winters became longer and colder after the dragons died, etc. etc.

Just because we are not told of how Cannibal died,, doesn't mean we have any reason to doubt it, there are plenty of things we are not directly told.  One thing we are directly told is that they all died.  

[867-5309]

The lifespan of a dragon out in the wild is unknown and its best to leave it at that until we have more information.  Maybe Martin wanted to tease his readers with the possibility of the Cannibal still living.  

Waking dragons from stone already happened when Dany hatched her petrified dragon eggs.  

[Universal Sword Donor]

8 hours ago, Lord Varys said:

I don't think it likely that dragons thrive or enjoy the life in the cold lands around the Wall or even beyond it. They are fire made flesh, and ice doesn't burn.

I have often tossed around the idea that our old friend, the Cannibal, may lay dormant or in hibernation in his collapsed lair somewhere beneath the Dragonmount. We don't know whether dragons can enter into stasis or something of that sort, but it is not impossible considering they are magical creatures which can grow pretty old.

And since the Cannibal apparently simply disappeared one assumes something like that might be possible.

Lews Therin is, literally, the worst.

[Mat92]

5 hours ago, aryagonnakill#2 said:

If there are any other dragons around I will find it incredibly cheap

I agree with @aryagonnakill#2.

The only way around this would be if a dragon did die in the North/Beyond the Wall and was somehow revived as an undead dragon or whatever. But I don't really like this idea at all, it really takes out the importance of Dany's dragons being born. 

If anything, the Cannibal story could eventually be used to explain the effects of the cold on dragons in the next 2 books, which is what I would rather read about instead of another dragon popping up out of nowhere.

I'd like to see a dragon skeleton on Skagos for example.

[Megorova]

My theory about sleeping stone dragons.

ACOK, Dany IV: "From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire. . . . mother of dragons, slayer of lies"

This smoking tower is Tower of Joy in Dorne, where was born Jon Snow, son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. Firebreathing winged stone beast is Jon. He is half-Stark and half-Targaryen, half-direwolf and half-dragon. Which makes him a chimera - a mix of different beings. Statues of chimeras or gargoyles are often used in gothic architecture (like at Dragonstone's castle). According to some legends, during night time those creatures are alive, and during daytime the sun turns them into stone. Lies are often called darkness, or shadows, while the truth is called light. When Jon was born, he was taked by Ned Stark to Winterfell, and was raised there as his bastard. Even though actually he is a legitimate son of Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. Which also makes him a rightful ruler of 7K, and not the Bastard of Winterfell. Thus the stone beast, flying from that tower, and breathing shadow flame, means that Jon is a secret Targaryen, that is living his life in lies and shadows. His every breath is a lie, as long as he is living under guise of Ned Stark's bastard. And also he is a dormant sleeping dragon, because he doesn't know who he really is, that he is blood of the dragon. He is the stone dragon, that will be awoken amidst smoke and salt (probably at The Wall, thru fire-kiss of Melisandre, that said to Davos, that she is able to wake dragons from stone), according to the prophecy about the promised Prince. He is the last Targaryen dragon/prince, and new Azor Ahai.

[Lady Blizzardborn]

Morning was still pretty young, so he/she could technically be alive I suppose. The wiki says she didn't live long, but maybe Rhaena released her into the wild in hopes of protecting her. She would be 169-171 years old. And her best bet for survival would be teaming up with one of the wild dragons who could teach her to survive without the people helping them.

Silverwing's year of birth isn't known but she had bonded with Alysanne by 48 AC, so she'd be at least 252 years old, and that's pushing it a bit for a dragon that had been raised domesticated, so to speak. It's not impossible that she could survive in the wild, but someone would still be seeing her in the Reach if she was alive yet. She might have left a clutch of eggs though.

Cannibal was one of the oldest wild dragons at the time of the Dance. Unlikely that he's still around. Not impossible though. I have a head-canon crackpot that he left Dragonstone and flew by night to Skagos and it's known as the Cannibal Island because of him (the locals having kept his residence there a secret for their own purposes).

Sheepstealer would be around 251 years old. 

Now, assuming Silverwing would have been spotted, so she's probably out, we've still got two or three dragons who could be around. Who should ride them, if anyone?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say Jon gets Cannibal, just because of the whole Night's Watch/wearing black thing. I'd give Sheepstealer to Arya because she's the kind of girl who would think to gain a dragon's trust by feeding it.

Morning is flexible. Ideally I'd say Shireen but I know she's doomed so she won't get to meet any flying dragons. That leaves anyone with Targ blood who isn't Shireen, or already bonded to dragon: Stannis; Aegon; any Blackfyres; any extant Penroses or Hightower descendants (including the Tyrell kids); the Martells; Brown Ben Plumm; and any descendants of Rhae, Daella, Vaella, or little Maegor. And of course anyone clever enough to potentially tame a dragon...like Tyrion.

I must say it would be interesting having a dragon named Morning along during the next Battle for the Dawn.