Lily knew that luck had been with her all day. Nothing she had said or done had fallen in on her yet, and Claw looked to be staying away for the night, probably unwilling to put himself in a confined space with two females who hated him while he was freshly injured. Honey hadn't even come back yet, though it was well after nightfall.

She should have known something would break her lucky streak.

"You said something earlier…" Crystal murmured.

"I said a lot of things," Lily agreed. Many of those things had been risky, but telling a stranger who was not coming back for a long while was about as safe as any confession could be short of confessing to nobody at all, or someone soon to be dead.

"You said you would never be able to have eggs," Crystal persisted. "I almost did not notice, but now I do. Was that just a lie to make Storm feel better?"

Those words poured cold regret over Lily's shoulders, but she was careful to keep it from her expression as she looked over at her friend. She was almost certain Crystal did not believe that and wouldn't if she said as much, but she was offering the option so readily, as if giving a choice.

"You already know the truth," Lily said quietly, sure in her assessment of the situation.

"I suspected," Crystal admitted. "You were never worried enough about yourself, and some of the things you told me did not seem quite right, like they were truth but leaving out things."

"Was it that obvious?" Lily asked, dismayed. She was supposed to be in control, not dropping important secrets with every other word.

"Obvious?" Crystal snorted derisively. "Nothing is ever obvious with you. I was not sure, even with all the little things pointing that way. Why did you do it?"

"I think that would be obvious," Lily retorted sadly, lowering her head to rest on her paws.

"Just checking," Crystal murmured. "I would not have done it, but I am not you. And I know about making hard choices that others would not approve of." She shifted to press her side against Lily's, no longer separated by hatchling and egg between them. "Now, anyway."

"I don't want anyone to know," Lily requested, glad her friend understood. "Nobody needs to know."

"Your far future mate should," was the whimsical objection Crystal came up with.

"Sure," Lily agreed, far too tired to overturn that rock at the moment. "I'll tell him myself. Nobody else, though."

"Okay." Crystal sighed and let her head fall, closing her eyes. "I miss him."

"I know. I do too." She couldn't be sure whether Crystal meant Burble or Granite, though the latter was a leap, but her reply held true for both.

The slow, unassuming entrance of Honey with a whiny hatchling on her back put an end to their conversation, and Lily surrendered to sleep, feeling far less triumphant than the day's efforts merited.

O-O-O-O-O

"Where are your egg and hatchling?" Honey asked, looking at Crystal and Lily. She sounded far more subdued than usual, though there was no apparent reason for that.

"With a friend," Crystal said truthfully, stretching languidly and yawning. "I can still take Wax for the rest of today."

"Good, because I want to… I need to go." Honey set her hatchling down and quickly left.

"Day one," Lily rumbled sarcastically. "She shows no suspicion, and seems preoccupied. Want to guess how many days it takes her to realize you do not have them anymore? We can see who guesses better."

"That is not fair," Crystal lightly objected, purring in amusement. "I do not even know if we should hide it, and I would ask you. If you are competing with me, you can make yourself win."

"Fair point," Lily agreed, seeing the myriad of ways either of them could corrupt any sort of game of chance on the subject. "I'm really not sure what to do with it either."

"We could just tell anyone who asks that I sent them away," Crystal mused, looking over at Lily. "We could say I wanted to keep an eye on Pearl…"

"By sending a hatchling who doesn't know that's his assignment?" Lily quipped, at the last second avoiding any possibly more depressing jokes she could have made with that prompt. Humor was good, but only when it distracted, not reminded.

"Ah, but I have a promise that they will return," Crystal retorted lightly, seemingly not too bothered by the subject yet. "Thus bringing people who know Pearl's location back to me. Think I could spin it so that Claw considers it a good thing?"

"More importantly, do you want him proud of you?" Lily asked.

"Well, yes, because proud is not punishing or just beating me into the floor of this dingy little cavern," Crystal replied seriously. "Like with you. He let up on Pearl far sooner than he is with you. It will only get worse if he has reason to be mad at you."

"I know." She was used to the pain, the constant bruises on her underside and back that were renewed every time Claw came to visit for the night. The best she could say for it was that she didn't really experience the actual abuse, as he had yet to break through that defense. He was not really trying anymore, from all she could tell after the fact, just casually being more brutal with her than he could with any of his more willing mates.

"Then you know it is better if I take the credit and say you did not know what I was doing," Crystal insisted. "Really. Whether we try to spin it as a ploy or just a way of spiting him, it should be my doing."

"I'll take that into account," Lily promised, specifically avoiding any more direct promises. She wasn't about to discard some brilliant plan just because it laid the blame at a paw other than Crystal's. Claiming Storm and Pearl stole her hatchling and egg was still an option, though it would soon cease to be one if they did not act accordingly. Every excuse, like the one given Honey, made it more difficult to pull that off.

"What else will you take into account?"

"How the pack is reacting to all of this," Lily replied, heading for the narrow exit. She stopped to look back at Crystal. "It is probably best you remain here, since I know Diora gets on your nerves by slighting Pearl. Something tells me there will be a lot of that today." The biggest reaction she needed to observe was going to be that one, or more specifically, how the pack reacted to Diora's news.

And it was Diora, so Lily was sure it would be a public affair.

O-O-O-O-O

"Help me!" Diora pleaded, running between rocks. "Silva is missing!" She slapped her tail at the nearest light wings as she passed, striking them as if that would make them more inclined to offer aid. "Everyone needs to help look for her!"

Lily, who was running behind her along with a few more sincerely concerned light wings, couldn't help but wince at the terrible attempt at gathering support. There were many better ways to go about starting a search party.

On the other paw, Diora didn't need to do much to start a search for a missing hatchling; few Sires and no Dams who understood the issue would hold back from helping, no matter how little they liked the Dam of the missing child, and a surprising number of them joined in the moment they saw others were already following her.

Soon, Diora had a sizable portion of the pack looking, and everyone was splitting up to search. Lily felt more than a twinge of some dark form of nostalgia as she called out the name of a missing daughter of Diora, who would not respond because she had fled with another and left the pack behind.

This time, though, she knew where the missing female had gone, and did not have anything riding on Silva's disappearance in particular. She was just along for the search because it would look odd not to help, and because she wanted to get an idea of what would happen next. An attempt to track Pearl and Storm down? Giving up? Some other answer she couldn't think of? It would matter a great deal how Claw and the pack responded to this.

Another factor to that response would be Diora's explanation for not noticing her daughter's absence overnight. For Crystal's hatchling and egg, a lie involving Dew and Pina could easily be concocted, but Diora wasn't trying to ensure they were too late to find the missing dragon. It wasn't even obvious whether she knew Silva had been taken and was not just hiding somewhere.

A loud, commanding roar resounded from the plateau, and Lily turned toward it. She was sure Diora would go to Claw and plead with him to have the rest of the pack help, and he would give some sort of speech once he understood what was going on, like he had for the disappearances of Pearl and Gold. The answers she sought about how this would be handled would come with that speech.

O-O-O-O-O

"Hey!" A larger light wing stumbled right into Lily and didn't even notice, glaring at the female who had pushed her. "There is room for everyone!"

The other female glared right back at her. "I want to see the alpha, not your fat wings."

"Given how beat up he is, my fat wings would be a better view," the other shot back, eliciting a muffled laugh from Lily.

"So you admit they are fat?"

"Everyone shut up and pay attention!" Claw roared from his place atop the plateau. He sounded far angrier than normal, and Lily knew better than to attribute that to the missing fledgling worrying him in any capacity. It was more likely the myriad of injuries he had sustained the day before.

The crowd quieted.

"Pearl," and he snarled the name with such hatred that the female next to Lily shivered, "left at the same time one of our fledglings went missing. I do not think it is a coincidence."

So, he was going straight to blaming Pearl? As the pack expressed their shock over the revelation, Lily contemplated adding in the disappearance of Crystal's children. It wouldn't work right now, but she was beginning to prefer the idea of blaming it on Pearl and Storm, who were already a day ahead and unlikely to linger. All she needed was cooperation from Pina and Dew, the cover story practically told itself.

"I want everyone flying out in the same search patterns as last time," Claw commanded, growling and pacing the edge of the plateau, his many injuries on display. His tail in particular looked very gruesome, a bloody raw patch lining the disfigured side. "When you find them, kill them."

The females to either side of Lily gasped, and from what she could hear the general reaction was about the same. She wasn't surprised that Claw would order that, but she was caught off guard by how openly he did so. If it were her, she would have taken the most loyal aside and conveyed that order privately. Most of the pack wouldn't even know how to fight effectively if the need arose.

"But-" someone began to object.

Claw snarled in their direction and cut them off. "Just go and do it! I want them dead by nightfall." He turned his back on the crowd, clearly taking no questions on the subject.

Lily shook her head, bemused. That was not how he should be handling any of this. His rage was making him stupid, and his stupidity was feeding his rage. None of this was helping his image at all.

There were going to be many ways to take advantage of his anger and lack of forethought, but for the moment doing anything against him specifically was going to be hard. The pack was reluctantly dispersing even now, off to fly out and search for those who were by now long gone.

O-O-O-O-O

"I do not like this plan," Dew fretted, bouncing her son up and down with her tail. He was far too big for her to actually lift him with only her tail, but he obligingly jumped with each motion, playing along.

"It's better Claw hates someone safe than someone vulnerable," Lily reasoned. "You just have to not contradict anything Pina or Crystal tell him." At that very moment both females were explaining to Claw what they wanted him to believe had happened. She wished she were there watching, but her presence wouldn't help, and spying was pointless when Crystal would tell her what happened as soon as she could.

"Go over it one more time," Dew requested.

"Crystal and I came to you after the search today and asked about her children. You and Pina said you hadn't seen them, Crystal said you were supposed to be watching them, and everyone freaked out." The story put all the blame on Pearl's shoulders, and involved her lying to Crystal and stealing her hatchling and egg away under false pretenses. Lily would feel bad for ruining Pearl's reputation, but it was for a good cause.

"It is simple, but what if he asks about exactly what we all said at the time?" Dew slipped her tail out from under her son's stomach and patted him on the head.

"He won't." Catching people in lies like that just didn't work in practice; the story was too simple for anyone involved to be caught in a logical contradiction, and people never remembered their exact words, so there would be no cross-checking of details. Claw definitely understood that, he had to have figured it out at some point in his many season-cycles of manipulating people for personal gain.

"What will alpha ask about?" Dew's son enquired, looking up at his Dam with a scrunched-up face, clearly confused.

"Just a few missing hatchlings," Dew replied, leaning over and nuzzling her son. "Stay out of his way and do not get his attention. I do not want you hurt."

"Sire would not hurt me," was the innocent reply. "Right?"

"I cannot be sure," Dew murmured. "Lily, enough time has passed. If you are going to play the part of being distraught-"

"Then I shouldn't just hang around here waiting for Claw to show up and confirm what he's been told." She also understood that Dew would want to avoid confronting her increasingly angry and dangerous mate if at all possible. Besides, it was not certain that Claw would come check at all. If Pina and Crystal were convincing, if his hatred for Pearl was strong enough to blind him to other possibilities, he wouldn't bother.

Lily made her way through the caverns and stopped just outside the narrow entrance to the chamber she and Crystal shared with Honey. She still did not think of it as home, not even after all these moon-cycles. It was the site of far too many bad memories for that.

Honey was not there; the chamber was empty. She paced around the edges, feeling too restless to settle down, even if it was night by now. Her wings were tired from spending most of the day flying, but the rest of her was far less worn out.

The clicking of claws on stone alerted her to an approaching light wing well in advance, and she growled worriedly. Claws out meant angry, and angry meant things had not gone well, regardless of who she was hearing approaching.

Crystal slipped into the chamber, her claws noticeably absent, and Claw followed so close behind her he almost stepped on her tail on his way through. His claws were out, and his eyes narrow.

"So?" Lily burst out, playing the part she had assigned herself, even in the face of his anger. The more vehement about this she seemed, the less false it would be. "Anything?" She wasn't entirely sure what she meant by that, but it was a generic request for information that would get the conversation started without her committing to a specific approach, so ambiguity was intended.

"You were stupid, empty-headed fools to let her take the hatchling and egg," Claw snarled viciously.

"Pearl was a friend," Crystal objected quietly, looking more worried than offended. She slipped over to stand beside Lily, not directly facing Claw but certainly not standing alongside him.

"She will be dead in a matter of days," Claw growled. "And I have half a mind to leave the hatchling to fend for itself as your punishment."

Crystal whined loudly, though not nearly as piercingly as Lily had expected. She wasn't a perfect actor, and knowing that her children were already out of danger meant she couldn't be quite as authentic in her protests.

Lily, on the other paw, both could act distraught and didn't need to, as she tended to ignore Claw's vileness as much as possible anyway. She threw a comforting wing over Crystal and said nothing.

"They will be found," Claw asserted, flicking his tail and failing to hide a wince as presumably one of his many wounds was jolted. His eyes narrowed, and Lily recognized where his thoughts were going. She certainly didn't welcome that particular change in subject, but at least he had fallen for the lie. There would be no punishment for intentional defiance.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily limped through the valley, listening to the soft, insistent conversations occurring all around her, and the way they trailed off as she was noticed, only to resume within moments.

She stopped for a moment, resting her back paw. She didn't remember it, thankfully, but Claw had taken his humiliation and rage out on her the night before, and her body was suffering the consequences now. Breathing hurt, her chest bruised and painful, and her back paws both felt strained, like they had been pinned down and pulled too far for comfort-

Thinking about that was a bad idea, and she knew better than to go down that path, even in speculation. Her back paws felt strained, her chest ached, and there were dozens of puncture wounds all along her underside, as well as a few scales missing on the side of her neck; by far the scariest injury she had suffered, so close to such a vital part of her. It hurt, but not enough to justify going for pain-dulling plants, not when she could ignore the aching. Her pain didn't matter. All that mattered was what her injuries meant going forward, not the pain or the methods used to get them.

What did they mean? She labored to catch her breath without further straining her aching sides, and ran over the implications once more.

Most importantly, her injuries meant that Claw was still angry. She had already seen him today, directing the hunt that only a portion of the pack was still participating in, and his rage was undiminished. She probably had more excessive pain to anticipate in the near future. His anger also made him sloppy and unpredictable, and thus possibly open to manipulation with new methods, such as how they had cast direct blame for Crystal's missing children on Pearl with such ease.

Along that same line of thought, her very visible injuries were catching eyes today, and more eyes than usual were on her to begin with thanks to Pearl stirring things up. People were noticing, and she would bet news of her injuries was going to travel faster than she could right now.

People were talking, and things were in flux. In a few moon-cycles everything might settle down and go back to normal, but not if something thought-provoking happened in the meantime. Lily didn't know what she was going to do, but there would be something to prevent everything from returning to normal. Something soon, as soon as could be arranged.

That, in turn, led her thoughts to the open-ended problem she needed to solve, and she began making her way to one particular boulder, though she had no intention of doing anything important once there.

Root's life was her problem, and the solution needed to preserve it. Surely there was some way to use this new upheaval to solve the problem? There must be. She felt like there were a thousand new paths to take in manipulating the pack opened by what had happened, and some of them would be useful here.

But in the short time it took her to reach the rock Root's family claimed as their own, she hadn't thought of anything.

"Lily, good to see you," Whirl called out, surprising her by openly acknowledging her presence in a positive way.

"And you," she responded noncommittally, gingerly creeping up onto the boulder, favoring her back paw and chest. "You seem cheerful."

"Today is a good day," Whirl explained, her good mood disappearing even as she spoke. "Aside from the missing hatchlings. We will find them, and punish Pearl for taking them."

"Maybe, but it is Pearl, so they are safe even if we do not find them," Lily responded, dismissing the topic. The whole point of pinning it all on Pearl would be subverted if she spread the truth, so she could do nothing but let Whirl hate.

"Flare will bring them back," was the obstinate retort. Whirl shook her wings out and resettled them. "He and Root are off searching."

"Root went looking?" Given what she knew of his opinions, she suspected he had gone to ensure Pearl got away if she was found, though there was no need for that as she had to be long gone by now.

"Yes." Whirl patted a higher portion of the boulder. "Come sit here."

Lily didn't see any real reason to move, but as she was in Whirl's territory and had no desire to annoy her, she moved.

"You look awful," Whirl said bluntly, watching her gingerly step across the rock.

"Better alive and hurt than dead," was Lily's deliberately flippant reply. She needed to continue walking the fine line between keeping her ongoing condition in the minds of those around her, and being too obvious about it.

"Or better alive and angry than dead," Whirl agreed. "It seems I might have to settle for that with my son. Unless there are better plans?"

Well, that was clear enough. Lily tilted her head to the side and lowered her voice, looking Whirl in the eye. "To know what might be better, I have to know what you have decided on doing." It was clear Whirl had something in mind.

"The morning before the ceremony," Whirl hissed, leaning in so close Lily could feel her breath, "we will take a family flight, far out along the shore. Flare will knock him out when he is not suspecting it, and we will drag him into the woods so deep that he cannot possibly find his way out before the ceremony is long over with."

Lily hummed thoughtfully. "And when he eventually returns? Won't he just challenge Claw then?" She had considered a similar plan and discarded it for not dealing with the real problem, Root's unwavering intent to die to Claw.

"That is why I want a better solution," Whirl whined. "Anything better than him dying."

Something occurred to Lily, something she had just said taking on a new meaning. "Better hurt and alive than dead," she murmured. If they could not prevent a challenge, then the obvious thing was to make sure Root survived. As it was, survival meant winning, which was not an option.

But what if they just changed the rules, instead? Nothing said challenges had to be fought to the death; Claw already made males who didn't challenge swear to be loyal. A defeated male could swear just as easily.

"That's an idea," Lily murmured to herself, caught up in the rapidly solidifying plan. Nobody except Claw wanted to see challengers die; a movement to change the rules would be supported by everyone, at least in theory. If she phrased it right, had the right person propose it to Claw, and made sure there would be enough support that nobody felt singled out from the beginning…

It would never have worked before Pearl upset the balance of power. Something had happened; Claw had fought an unofficial challenge, lost, and lived. There were plenty of ways to justify the change, and if Claw saw it was a popular opinion, now when his power was on slightly shaky grounds?

"What?" Whirl asked hopefully.

"Let him challenge," Lily explained thoughtfully. "But first have Claw agree to change the fights so that they aren't to the death. Root can fight, lose, swear an oath of loyalty, and live to lick his wounds." That was a good way to bypass his seemingly invariable resolve to fight.

"That…" Whirl shook her head, slapping Lily with an ear, and reared back, visibly working the idea over in her mind. "He would be hurt… But alive. Can it be done? Nobody has ever said they want it to change."

"Half the Dams in this pack have a living, breathing reason to want this rule changed," Lily said confidently. "Half the Sires, too, and all the fledglings if their opinions count, which they should. Add anyone with any sense of decency, and you have most of the pack." The only person who wouldn't want challenges to be non-fatal was Claw, and with the right manipulative pushes she could make him agree anyway, if only for this ceremony to placate the demanding crowd she intended on orchestrating.

"If everyone wants it, why has it not been changed before now?" Whirl asked doubtfully.

"It's not as easy as that, but I can handle the hard parts," Lily replied. She wasn't about to try explaining all the manipulation that would go into ensuring it all worked as she wanted, from deciding who raised the question to gathering support from people willing to stick their necks out and lead the way, and figuring out the best angle to put the question to Claw, as well as when to do it.

"You can?"

"I can. You just need to not tell anyone that we're planning anything." And they were planning, or at least she was. This was the best solution, if it worked, and she had recently used the same sort of tactics against Claw on minor matters, so she even had experience with what she was going to need to do here. "Make sure all your friends know how worried you are and want to help you, but don't know how. The rest is on me."

"You sound so sure this will work," Whirl purred, leaning in and lightly nuzzling Lily's forehead.

"I am not sure," Lily warned, remembering all the times her certainty had been proven laughably wrong, "but I am sure that short of convincing Root not to challenge, this is the best way to keep him alive."

"That is all I ask," Whirl said giddily. "I am going to go tell all my friends how sad I will be when Root challenges and dies!"

Lily reached out and put a paw on the older female's tail, stopping her before she took off. "Maybe wait until you are not obviously thrilled about something," she advised anxiously. Whirl was not the kind of person she would have chosen to subtly prepare others to do something later, but there really wasn't any way to keep her from trying.

"Oh, fine," Whirl huffed, pulling her tail away. "I will go fishing. Come with me. Sea air stings, but it is good for cuts and scrapes."

"Is it?" Lily had already resigned herself to going with Whirl to make sure she calmed down and knew what to do. She certainly wouldn't be going to feel better; her body promised aching, breathless flight for the time being. It was odd to think that the pain she was feeling was Root's good potential future, but then again she only had to imagine her own, bleaker alternatives to understand.

Root would challenge, lose, and live past that night. At best, this would be an end to the deaths altogether, but knowing Claw that was too much to ask. At worst…

At worst, something she wouldn't be able to counter would go wrong, Claw would ignore the many voices calling for change, and Root would die. She didn't think it would happen, not based on the current unrest in the pack and her past experiences manipulating Claw, but she had long since learned not to assume that since she saw no flaws, there were no flaws at all.

She had also learned another lesson from past failures, but putting that lesson into action would have to wait a little while longer. Whirl was taking off, and Lily had a painful flight to endure for the sake of ensuring subtlety.

O-O-O-O-O

Crystal ran past Lily, disappearing behind a particularly thick copse of trees. A few heartbeats later, she ran back into view, heading the opposite direction.

Lily shook her injured paw ruefully. She had suggested this knowing she wouldn't be able to participate, and assuming she wouldn't have wanted to anyway. Now, watching Crystal run, she wished she could join in.

Crystal ran into view for a third time and skidded to a stop directly in front of her. "How many?"

"Forty heartbeats," Lily reported. "Slower than last time."

"Too bad," Crystal panted. "And how many until we have to go back to the valley?"

Lily glanced up, noting the sun sitting high in the sky. "It's noon. I hope you don't want me to convert that to heartbeats. We have plenty of time." They were supposed to be searching for Pearl, and thus would not be expected to return until sunset.

"Good." With that, Crystal collapsed in front of Lily, rolling onto her side. Her body heaved with every frantic breath. "What is the plan of attack?"

"For Root?" She purred confidently. "Basically, we need everyone thinking about how tragic and unnecessary it is that their sons die every season-cycle for nothing more than youthful overconfidence and a desire to be important." She couldn't help the cynical tone her explanation took on; the very idea of needing to spin pointless deaths to make them seem any more unnecessary bothered her.

"Everyone including Claw?" Crystal scowled at that. "I do not think he will care."

"Everyone but him, you're right," Lily corrected herself. "He doesn't need to hear about any of this. It should be a shock when everyone speaks up in support of the light wing who proposes the change." She wanted to knock him off-balance, threaten his power just a little bit, and then offer a way out that just happened to involve agreeing to what was being asked of him.

"What do I need to do?"

"Simple," Lily purred. "Just work Root's predicament into conversation with people, and talk about how you wish there was something that could be done." Crystal knew how to do that; she had done as much before.

"I will not be able to talk to everyone in the pack," Crystal warned. "Are you going to have Mist help?"

"Yes. Dew and Pina too." And Ivy. She had special plans for Ivy…

"Good." She rolled to her paws and leaned back, digging into the soft grass. "Time me again!"

"Go!" Lily barked. Crystal shot off into the undergrowth.

As she counted her own steady heartbeats, she wondered how Crystal was really feeling. Right now, she seemed happy, but her children being gone probably hadn't sunk in yet. They had often spent time away from the hatchling and egg, so at the moment it felt like they had just left her children with Honey.

She suspected Crystal would need comforting once the reality really began to make itself known and felt, but for now she wasn't going to bring it up. Let Crystal enjoy all the carefree moments she could get.

O-O-O-O-O

"Attack!" a female fledgling squealed, leaping off a low rock and landing on Lily's back, almost knocking her over. Two much smaller fledglings followed her lead, one landing and the other bouncing off to hit the ground with a loud thump.

Lily winced, swaying on her three good paws, and braced her tail against the ground. She could have avoided the playful but painful ambush if she wanted, having seen the three fledglings stalking her and plotting among themselves, but had decided not to. Dew and Pina were supposed to be watching this particular group of fledglings today, and she needed to talk to them.

The fledgling who had hit the ground sprang up, undeterred, and leaped at her bad paw. She groaned as a dense weight pulled at her injured limb, and tried to move away. Two sets of thankfully toothless gums clamped down on her ears.

"Surrender!" the oldest fledgling demanded, her voice only slightly muffled by the ear in her mouth.

"I surrender," Lily immediately capitulated, crouching low and hoping the one trying to scale her bad leg got the message. She wasn't confident she could dislodge any of the three without hurting one of them.

"We win!" the female crowed. "Now we take you to Claw!"

Lily winced at the shrill voice in her ear. While the idea of being paraded in front of Claw was not at all appealing, she couldn't see any real harm in it, as it would only serve to reinforce her harmless appearance.

"No," a welcome voice called out, "you take her to me, remember?"

"Yes, you Claw," the leading female squeaked, a little indignantly at having to break the illusion of the game. "We caught Pearl!"

"You did," Pina laughed, "but now I have her. Go catch Dew next." She waved her tail over in the direction of the pond, and the three fledglings fled like they were being chased.

Lily shook herself and watched them go. "Is it safe to have them running around unattended?"

"They are old enough," Pina rumbled. "You are limping. Did they hurt you?"

"I was already hurt, so not really," Lily explained. "Interesting game they're playing."

"Not my idea," Pina hummed. "Fledglings will pretend to do what their parents do, though, and everyone is off hunting down Pearl. Or trying to, at least. I have heard a few say they hope she is not found."

"Anyone with a sense of justice hopes that," Lily agreed. She purred slyly, moving on to the reason she had sought Pina out in the first place. "You don't need to help Silva against her Dam's will anymore. Ready for another sneaky assignment?"

Pina chuckled at that, but nodded seriously. "You have something that needs doing?"

"Yes." She went over the plan for keeping Root alive as she had with Crystal, giving the general idea and explaining what she wanted done. Pina and Dew would be spreading sympathy for Whirl's upcoming senseless loss among Claw's mates and anyone else they came into contact with.

"A moon-cycle is plenty of time to make people think," Pina hummed thoughtfully. "It will not be you suggesting this at the ceremony, though, will it? Claw would not take it well from a mate he knows does not like him. He would suspect you want Root." There was just a hint of curiosity in her otherwise worried tone.

"I don't, but you have a very good point, which is why I won't be the one raising the idea directly." She had already decided as much, though the idea of Claw assuming she fancied Root hadn't crossed her mind. "I have someone else in mind."

"Someone with no reason to want Root alive aside from general decency?"

"Exactly." She noticed a group of tired light wings flying overhead. "Looks like the search is over for today." Every day, more and more people returned well before sunset, a visible indication of people losing hope. Claw would be furious, but he was already, so nothing would change.

"Time to round up the little ones and send them home," Pina warbled happily. "Want to help?"

"Sure." She had time to spare and nothing better to do with it than help her cavern-Dam. "How's life?"

"Less simple, less easy, but happier in some ways," Pina said briskly. "I do not know what will happen next, but knowing you have a plan is comforting."

"I would hope so," Lily agreed, glad Pina was trusting her to handle everything. It was not an attitude a cavern-Dam should hold regarding the one she helped raise, but it was the right attitude for a close follower of a leader, and the latter was the situation she was trying to create.

"And living with another little one is refreshing," Pina continued as they walked. "I am glad I ended up with Dew. She is great."

"Just because she has a fledgling, or for other reasons?" Lily asked.

"She is kind, loving, and interesting," Pina said. "I could not have asked for a better person to share a side-cavern with."

That was an interesting list of traits. "She seems smart, too," Lily observed. That would have been the first thing she said if put in Pina's place.

"Also that," Pina agreed. "She likes me, too."

"I would hope so. What's not to like?" A small suspicion passed through Lily's mind, and she decided to discreetly push in that direction, just to see what would happen. "I bet you like the privacy, too."

Pina nodded happily. "Yes, definitely. It is just the three of us, but now that means a good friend and her son, not two disagreeable females."

"How did you originally end up with Cressa and Grass, anyway?" Lily asked, putting aside her unconfirmed suspicion to follow up on some other time.

"Chance. I became Claw's mate, and he told me to share a side-cavern with them." Pina veered off the path they were following to head in another direction. "I saw one of them. They are not going to just come quietly, so you be ready to pounce once I slow her down."

Lily couldn't help but laugh at that; she knew all too well that fledglings would see the end of the day's fun as something to be avoided at all costs. "Got it."

O-O-O-O-O

Lily had never before realized how slippery fish were. Usually, she bit them in half or swallowed them whole; actually holding them was the work of sharp, piercing claws or teeth.

Now, when she wanted the fish whole to hide the evidence of what she was really trying to do, she was realizing that without claws supplemented with plenty of undiscerning strength, it was hard to do anything useful and precise.

"Just get in there," she grunted angrily, trying to poke a blue-green leaf into the wet slits on the side of the fish's body. She couldn't pierce the leaf to hold it steady; her claws were too big for that. It slid all over the side of the fish with every push, avoiding the slits despite her best efforts.

The flat edge of the leaf slipped down into the fleshy slot, and she held her breath as she gingerly poked it in further, gradually obscuring it from sight. Only once the final sliver of blue-green plant matter had disappeared did she let out a small roar of triumph.

She stepped back from the fish and eyed it. The four normal, unused fish piled around it were identical in every important way. There was no way to know which one she had altered, or in what way. Her scent was all over all five fish, and there were no obvious claw marks on the one she had slipped the leaf into.

Just in time, too; it was almost noon, and Ivy would be flying over soon. She had observed him taking a seemingly innocent flight over the forest every day around noon, and knew he passed over this small clearing. He was looking for the protection she had promised him. Today, he was going to get it… Along with something he wasn't expecting.

She backed even further away from the pile, almost to the edge of the clearing, and flamed herself, camouflaging for safety's sake. If anyone followed Ivy out, they wouldn't see her right away, which would give her time to be sure he was alone before revealing her presence. It also meant she was going to get to see his reaction to the fish when he didn't know she was present.

Now all she could do was wait. She stalked around the edge of the clearing to pass the time, idly winding through the trees and stepping quietly, working her back paw despite the strained soreness that still afflicted it. She was lucky Claw hadn't returned to hurt her further in the last few nights; she wouldn't have put such vileness past him.

Really, it was strange that he wasn't doing that. He was mad, constantly incensed about his humiliation at Pearl's paws, and what else was he going to do to calm down? From what she had seen, he was only growing more frustrated as the half-hearted searches turned up absolutely nothing. Having Diora constantly whining about her daughter being taken could only be adding fuel to the fire.

A shadow passed across the field, and soon a light wing was descending, one with a furtive look about him. He was subverting his mate's wishes in coming here, after all. He probably feared what she would do if she caught him.

Ivy landed near the fish and bounded over to them, clearly intending to scarf them down and flee before anyone could possibly notice him, though the odds of that happening at all were slim to none.

But just before he did that, he paused and examined the fish, looking them over and even flipping one with a hasty paw. Curiosity and nervousness warred, compromising with a hurried examination that was neither thorough enough to turn anything up nor quick enough to help him avoid notice.

Then he threw curiosity to the wind and gulped the fish down, one after the next. Lily chose that moment to step out into the field. "Ivy," she called out, "I see you found your protection."

"Lily," he mumbled as he finished off the last, bowing his head and looking around furtively. "Yes. This will stop Diora from having eggs?"

"With you," Lily confirmed. "You will Sire no eggs for a moon-cycle. But only a moon-cycle if you do not come back here at the end of that time."

"I rely on you," Ivy admitted.

"Yes. And I have something for you to do, as you agreed you would."

"So long as it does not contradict the alpha's orders…" Ivy trailed off.

"It does not." Claw had never ordered his males to not suggest improvements to the way things were. None ever did, and Ivy never would of his own volition, lacking a spine, but she was providing both the motivation and the backbone in this case.

"What is it?"

"At the upcoming ceremony, before the males challenge, you will speak up and request Claw make a change to tradition, for the sake of young adults who do not know any better." Lily kept speaking through Ivy's half-vocalized objections, ignoring his dislike of the idea. "You will ask him to make the challenges not to the death, and instead simply win and then require an oath of loyalty."

"He will kill me for questioning him!" Ivy exclaimed the moment she stopped talking.

"Not if everyone else supports you, which they will," Lily countered. "I'm not asking you to stand alone and question your alpha, I'm just asking you to be the first of many to raise a fair question and propose a good solution. There will be others supporting you."

"Others you are organizing?"

"Others who will speak up and agree with you." She didn't want to outright admit to arranging all of this, simply out of habit. If one never said something directly, it became much harder to be trapped by those words later. "Others like the families of the males who plan on challenging, and the parents with younger males, and the parents of younger females who want their daughters to have options, and so on."

"That is a lot of people…" Ivy bowed his head. "I have no choice, anyway. I will do it."

"Good." She didn't like the utter submission in his voice, but she could think about helping him gain some confidence later, after this important thing was done. For now, she needed his submission to anyone who had power over him.

"I should go," he said a moment later, looking up at the sky. "Diora will want me searching for Pearl."

"Go, then. Oh, and Ivy?"

"Yes?" He spread his wings and stopped just short of taking off, looking in her general direction.

"She's obviously long gone, but what would you do if you found her?"

"Get Claw," Ivy replied flatly, before launching up into the air.

Lily sighed at that all too obvious answer. Of course, he would get Claw. Ivy obeyed whoever had the most power over him, but he didn't like it. Bringing Claw and Pearl into conflict virtually guaranteed that whoever triumphed, he would have one less master.

It was a good thing that wasn't going to happen; aside from the obvious collection of horrors Claw killing Pearl would bring, Lily only had control over Ivy because she was standing between him and the conflict between Diora and Pearl. If Pearl was no longer a threat, he would not need her anymore, able to give in to Diora's demands without any issue.

What would it be like, to live under the control of so many different people? Claw, Pearl, Diora, and now Lily as well? How did he stand it, constantly trying to reconcile so many different demands on his actions and thoughts?

She shook her head, unable to understand that mindset. She would have schemed to be free of them all, but even the best possible outcome for Ivy still had him under the paw of at least one, and probably several of his masters.

And she was one of them. But to save Root's life and usurp Claw, she would use that. There would be time for fixing and healing her flawed fledglings afterward if their flaws were needed now.