Whoo, okay, short update here. I've had this part saved in my documents for a while... It's supposed to be twice as long of a chapter, but I just thought why not post this tidbit here and then post the rest once I can find some freakin' time to write. Fo' real.. No me gusta el college. Wait, I don't even know Spanish.

Responses:

Zarabethe: D'awww, Julian and Reeeeece, they're precious. I can't wait for the upcoming chapter with them in it. :D Goofballs are gonna get in some trouble.

Noriana: Yes! Unleash the Silverpaws! MWahaha!

Willowstar: Ooh, if you love the explosions, you'll really enjoy the upcoming chapter featuring Julian, Reece, and some cannons...

Lily

It seemed that each consecutive day, the weight she carried from camp to camp seemed heavier. In the bag swung over her left shoulder was a sloshing jug of water, and dangling over her right side were tin cans for distributing said water to the camp workers. Apparently if nothing else, the Goblin slavers did like to keep their people hydrated. Probably solely for efficiency.

Lily had so far made it halfway through her daily rounds by the time she reached a cave that jutted outward from the rocky cliffs by the Tanaris sea, and she stole that moment to take a short breather. The overseers would catch her if she waited too long, but they rarely came to this cave, seeing as its spoils had already been plundered. Any and all valuable materials had been mined already, and now all that was left was sandstone, dirt, and the remnants of salt deposits.

The only other person who ever came to this cave was Duncan, anyways.

She let out a breath and stepped just out of the direct sunlight into the cave. A stump of a rock nearby seemed more inviting than any comfortable chair back home had ever been, so she gratefully obliged, plopping down onto it and allowing the weight to slide from her shoulders and hit the ground. Her blue hair, which she had always taken pride in, drooped limply against the sides of her face and seemed to have taken a dustier, duller shade over the past two months.

Lily had lost faith. Not only faith that someone would come save her, which she'd been convinced of for the first two weeks, but also the hope that she would be leaving this place at all. This was her life, now. No one knew where she was. The last thing she remembered was being in that tavern with Julian and Levianath, and then encountering the Goblins, and then nothing. By this point she understood that she had been drugged and coerced into joining the 'excavators', which were actually just a fancy, loopholed version of a slavery op.

For the first couple weeks' worth of being forced to work here, Lily had fought and complained and cried every night in her old, threadbare cot. She had felt absolutely and dreadfully alone. Julian was probably safe at home, hopefully at least curious as to where she had disappeared. Her friends and family by now probably just assumed she'd gone off to another tribe. The one set up in Darkshore was where half her immediate family was already, so it'd have made sense for her to go there without notice. Basically, Lily was pretty sure that no one was missing her, and as such, she was stuck here, forever. She felt resentment toward those who should be her friends, but ultimately, she found that she'd entirely lost her respect for her tribe. No one had come to save her, and that was that. She was alone.

That thought had initially haunted her night after hopeless night. She had never in her life felt so incredibly alone, exhausted, and futile, with no one to give her even two minutes of their time because they too were working dusk 'til dawn and hadn't the energy. But then, despite it all she had found her diamond in the dust, or in this case, sand. And that diamond's name was Duncan.

Duncan was one of the workers, a human man with far too much spirit for a place like this labor camp. She'd met him her third week making the rounds. Apparently he'd been transferred in from one of the smaller camps the same day they'd met; he had caused the taskmasters too much grief for far too long, and they'd ended up sending him off to a larger, stricter, highly-vigilant camp with more rigorous work, that camp being the one Lily was being held at now, the largest one of them all, the one that oversaw all the other ones everywhere else.

Duncan had been, according to his own nonsense claims, 'born into this line of work', whatever that meant. However he also claimed that he was part dragon and that he had control over the ocean tides, so nothing he really said could be taken seriously anyways. He was an intelligent young man, late twenties or early thirties; he hadn't told her specifically, because he claimed to not know. He was far too smart to be slaving away each day, spending nothing but sheer strength and not being able to tax any of that energy into his mind.

Lily let out a breath, noting the angle of the sunlight that peeked down into the cave entrance. Duncan should be here any minute, she thought to herself, and that brought the hint of a smile to her lips.

Sure enough, a shadow suddenly filled the cave entrance, and Lily stood fluidly, taking in the sight of the form before her. Duncan had his shirt removed and tied around his hips, drenched in sweat from the sweltering heat of the day. His sun-darkened skin glinted as he took a step in, his dark-brown and slightly-bleached waist-length dreadlocks shifting over his shoulders. In one hand, he held a heavy, blunted pickax so lightly that it was as if it were an extension of his own arm. She saw an acute grin plastered on his broad, angular face, and she smiled back as he spoke first.

"Sorry I'm late," he purred at her in a deep melodic tone, setting the pickax on the ground, where its handle fell sideways into the sand. His pale grey eyes held hers. "Overseers decided to eye me all the way back to the main path; had to wait before dipping back and heading all the way around the-"

"Oh, shut up and come here already," Lily giggled, reaching out and pulling his face to hers, kissing him deeply. His full lips were salty; she wasn't sure if it was due to the sea air or his strenuous work. He drew her in tighter, hands closing at the small of her back, before finally pulling away.

"We don't have a ton of time today," he warned. "For some reason the overseers are extra-alert lately; they catch either of us somewhere we shouldn't be, it might ruin this little setup."

"Well then I'll take what I can get," Lily said simply, smiling, and she drew herself in again to kiss him.

He obliged, but again to her frustration, pulled back after only a few seconds. They were losing precious time, here. They only got to rendezvous once a day these days.

He spoke again, this time hushed. "Lily, tonight's the night."

"What!?" she almost squeaked. "But you can't! You haven't even planned it all-"

He placed a finger to her lips to silence her. "I have, though. And I've recruited others. It's time."

Lily found she could do nothing but swallow dumbly, eyes widening in excitement.

Duncan drew his lips back into a dark smile. "Tonight's the night," he repeated, grabbing his pickax for effect, "that I overthrow those cheating bastards. I will take charge here. I will be king of this entire enterprise...and you, Lily, will be my queen."

OH GHAD, SO MUCH LILY INFORMATION AT ONCE, WHAT IS GOING ON. WHAT IS A DUNCAN.

Also the next chapter is seriously insane. It's also from Lily's point of view... I can't wait to write it. It'll probably be around Thanksgiving when I get it up here, since I will have a couple days off.