Vision, Lily reflected, her eyes sliding to Root's abnormally flat eyelids, was a tricky thing. So much of her plan relied upon it failing, but only temporarily. How strange must it be to not have such an integral thing at all? One day, once she was sure he was comfortable with himself and not likely to take it the wrong way, she would ask. Not today, though.
"I will make sure none pass me," he reassured her, sprawling out in front of the wide exit to the side-chamber. His body was only long enough to block it if one counted his tail, which would only really stop the hatchlings, but his purpose was more to raise the alarm than to stop a determined light wing.
"Especially her?" Lily hissed. The four caretakers currently organizing a game on the far side of the chamber weren't paying her any attention regardless, but she felt it best to be careful. That was why she was talking to Root at all, now, moments before the plan was put into motion.
"I will raise an alarm at anyone passing me, and none can sneak by so long as I do not move." He slapped his tail against the stone in emphasis. "I will feel their body heat or the air they move around me if they try to step over me without my noticing. I do not need sight for any of that."
Lily noticed the badly-hidden growl of discontent, and knew Root was far from being happy with his condition. Yes, her curiosity would have to wait a while yet. "Good."
"But it is necessary?" he asked curiously. "I heard she saved Crystal."
"I'm not taking chances." If Grass truly did support her, she would never even know she had been suspected of treachery. If she was treacherous, she would accomplish nothing, having no opportunity to leave this place. Lily had even assigned a trio of able-bodied light wings to guard the cavern itself, ostensibly against Claw's forces, and they too had orders not to let Grass by under any circumstances.
Unless Grass could somehow fight her way out of the caverns, besting multiple forewarned guards in the process, she could do nothing even if she was a traitor. That was as much as Lily could do short of just having her knocked out or killed, the former being risky and possibly dangerous, and the latter immoral, as Grass had not proved guilty of anything yet.
Lily glanced over at the light wing in question, and saw her reluctantly sorting out a tangle of fledglings. Grass clearly wasn't thrilled to be there, but she had not put up any fuss when Lily told her where she would be. That could imply a willingness to cooperate due to guilt and the need to be on the right side of things, or it could imply Grass had a plan of some sort.
But it would be done soon anyway, and Grass did not know their actual plan of attack, just that one existed. There was nothing more to be done on this front.
Lily stepped over Root's tail, hopping a little as he raised it and slapped her underside. "Caught me," she quipped, rumbling with laughter. Had he his sight, he might be apologizing for almost slapping her in an offensive spot, and she might have assumed he meant to. It was clearly an oblivious accident on his part as things were.
"Good luck," Root said fervently, turning his head to 'look' at her, though he grimaced and lowered it a moment later. "Do not lose. Someone has to win, and if it is not me then it is definitely you."
"Does this make a good story?" Lily asked.
"Better than how mine turned out," he said quietly. "Like I said, good luck."
"Thank you…" Lily began, walking away.
Once she was definitely out of earshot, she continued with a growl. "...But we don't need luck." It would be nice, but she was never going to rely on luck if she could help it. It never seemed to pull through for her.
No, this was planning, cunning, and skill, along with plenty of factors that had already been determined and weighed against each other. There would be no luck on either side tonight. Claw was not slipping out of this, and he was not turning it against her, either.
As Lily walked through the main chamber, heads turned and the ambient noise of a dozen small, quiet conversations died away. All eyes were upon her.
The light of the setting sun illuminated the stone outside with a deep orange glow. She purred confidently as she watched it begin to fade, the sun slowly descending behind the mountains.
Perfect timing. Her plan relied on vision, and now was when vision was most unreliable, this time between light and darkness. Shadows stretched and blurred, light faded, eyes constantly readjusted.
"You all know what is going to happen," she said, her voice even and calm. "Stick with your partners. This will only work if we all do what we are supposed to. If it works, none will be harmed except Claw." Grass was not the only danger of treachery, but there was far less she could do to prevent it when there were so many potential leaks. She had to trust that partners keeping an eye on each other would be enough when coupled with the simple, undeniable fact that her side wanted peace, while Claw's wanted bloodshed.
"Go," Lily said firmly, pointing her tail out at the dying light. "Flame and fly!"
Fires began glowing in the maws of a dozen dragons in response, and Lily closed her eyes as her people camouflaged themselves.
Another permanent weakness on her part; she could no longer camouflage. For the moment, the pain prevented it, but she suspected a huge grey scar patch with no scales or glint would not camouflage like it should, and that meant she could not camouflage effectively at all.
Were she a less practical person, she might call it appropriate, to lose one's ability to hide even as one stopped hiding and took charge. As she was, she saw it as a loss of capability, and not appropriate at all. She didn't need to become weaker just as she stepped up to lead.
Luckily, her plan had not called for her to camouflage anyway, so realizing that she couldn't had not hindered her in the slightest. Her role was something very different.
When Lily opened her eyes, the cavern was full of shimmering air. All of the light wings were camouflaged, except for two. Three, counting herself.
"This will be dangerous," she remarked, rolling her neck and mentally preparing for pain. There was pain associated with everything now, but this would be far worse than just walking on her own. An appearance needed to be presented, so she would do it and ignore the inevitable result.
"We already know that," Whirl confirmed, looking at her mate. "We are willing, and the most believable."
"So we should just get it over with," Flare grunted, walking over to Lily and leaning to the side, offering his back. "Time is wasting."
"It is." Were she less nervous, she might be bothered by their take-charge attitudes, but as it stood, she needed the push. This plan was dangerous for her in particular.
She stepped up onto Flare's back, noticing the way her weight didn't even phase him. She wasn't sure whether that was because she was light or he was stronger than she expected, but she knew she would never have been able to bear such a burden, even if her back was not a problem. She was weaker than she should be.
Her physical weakness wasn't going to matter now, though. If anything, it would help make what was to come seem more probable.
Lily settled in on Flare's back, draping her front paws to either side of his neck and letting her tail hit the ground. She closed her eyes, letting her head lay limp on his back. Her wings fell to either side, and a quick, painful adjustment trapped the edges under her back paws, keeping them still.
"Let these fall," Whirl suggested, poking her base fins. She responded by letting them fall limp too; she had almost forgotten that part, holding them up was nearly unconscious.
"That should do it," Whirl grunted. "My mate, how are you holding up?"
"Easily, she is light," Flare grunted, confirming Lily's suspicions on the subject. "You first."
"Cannot have you taking charge," Whirl agreed.
Lily felt motion under her, each of Flare's steps a jolt that caused her back to seize up and ache. She ignored it, holding herself limp on him.
The fading sunlight fell across her closed eyes, letting her know that the point of no return had just been passed. From this moment on, they had to assume her predicament had been seen.
Lily could not see what was happening as Flare walked, presumably with Whirl in front of him. She knew what should be going on around her, and held that in her mind, reminding herself that this was not as risky as it looked.
The first part of the trip was the most dangerous. Claw's supporters would see nothing but Whirl and Flare carrying a seemingly unconscious Lily toward the path across the mountain, and thus toward the meeting point.
It was plausible. Whirl and Flare had reason to want Claw's offered amnesty more than most; their son was in a uniquely vulnerable position, and Claw didn't know Flare was the one who had attempted to poison him.
Claw would probably wait for them to arrive, confident that he understood what was happening. But it was possible he'd send his people to attack them on the way, unwilling to wait while Lily was out in the open, vulnerable.
Hence the small swarm of camouflaged light wings filing out behind them, hidden by the changing light and the distraction that had preceded them. They had a complex part to play, and the first stage of that was trailing from a distance, ready to intercede if Claw opted for a quick strike against Lily in transit.
Each painful step was another step away from that possibility. Lily knew that it probably wouldn't happen, Claw was not one to question his own good fortune too closely, and he had endeavored, through Ivy and Cressa, to have exactly this happen.
He was waiting in the forest. Waiting for her to be delivered to him. Past that, she didn't know and didn't want to know. Whatever he intended from there wouldn't happen.
Flare began to tilt upward beneath her, and she slid back. Whirl's muzzle behind her was all that stopped her from sliding right off of him, although she would have tried to remain limp even then; unseen observers noticing that she was still conscious would be a disaster. Luckily, Whirl caught her in time.
She was readjusted, and they continued their trek. They had to be on the way up the mountain now, judging by the incline and increasingly strong winds. Lily couldn't help but wonder whether they had already passed Pyre's cave-
The sudden realization that she had missed the first full moon of the hot-season was a bitter one; another thing Claw had taken from her. She had spent that day and night in senseless agony, not mourning him as she had meant to. Just one more scale's weight of injustice to add to the mountain Claw had accumulated. One more reason to savor his imminent demise.
A light flashed across Lily's face, orange and bright. Flare tilted downward, and once again their small procession stopped to adjust her on his back. They were on their way down.
She could feel her heart beating faster and faster as they went down. This was so, so dangerous. If it went wrong, she would be in the worst place imaginable, trapped, injured, and surrounded. Her life was riding on a plan conceived in the space of less than a day, and built upon the conflicting words of an outright enemy.
"He is supposed to be here somewhere," Whirl murmured to Flare. "Do we just walk in?"
"I suppose he must be close. I almost want to turn back." Flare growled.
"Take heart, we are doing this for Root," Whirl hummed back. "Lily got him blinded. This is a just trade."
Lily hated those words, but she could hardly complain, having been the one to suggest Whirl and Flare verbally confirm why they were betraying her once close, just in case anyone was listening. She had even suggested the reasoning they could use, though in far less direct, pointed terms.
More important, at least to her, was the knowledge that they were now at the edge of the forest. The rest of her forces would be landing all along the edge, ready to do what needed to be done.
Claw's plan was probably to torture her again, kill her, and use her death to destroy his opposition. He wanted to isolate her and get her alone out here, away from help.
It had seemed only fair she arrange same in turn, but more effectively. One of them was walking into a trap, and it wasn't her. Claw would not leave this forest alive.
"Stop there," someone commanded. Flare and presumably Whirl stopped dead. Lily didn't recognize the male voice in question, but it didn't really matter. They were here.
"No need to surround us," Whirl quavered, "we are here voluntarily."
Intentional or not, Whirl had confirmed that they were surrounded, for which Lily was thankful. That required multiple light wings, which in turn meant most of Claw's most ardent supporters were probably here.
"I do not plan on letting her get away again," Claw announced from somewhere to Lily's left.
"Of course not," Cressa purred viciously. "Drop her."
Flare shrugged his wings and slid Lily off, onto the ground. He tried to make it a soft landing, but even simple jolts hurt, and limply rolling onto her side was agonizing. She held in every tortured sound she wanted to let loose, but only barely. Her heart was pounding so hard that it felt like it was in her throat. This was possibly the most risky moment in the entire plan.
"Of all people..." Claw rumbled. "Why you two?"
It was very hard not to open her eyes, to move, to see and know what was happening. Claw's voice was not close, not yet...
"We want protection for Root, too." Whirl was doing a good job of sounding frightened, likely because she was. "He could only go where he was led. He is loyal."
"Why not?" Claw laughed. "He can share in your punishment. It is all the same to me."
"Your word..." Flare said shakily.
"My word?" Claw laughed deeply now, extremely pleased with himself. There was an unrestrained edge to his voice that made Lily want to snarl. "My word is whatever I want! Why should I care? I have power, I do not need to be trusted. And once I dispose of her in the way I have planned, no one will ever have the courage to question me on anything, or to ask for my word."
"That will solve this," Cressa hummed in agreement. "Remember. Kill her in front of them all, starve out anyone else in the cavern, and everything will go back to how it should be."
"Why should we betray her if you will not even do as you said?" Flare asked desperately. He was doing well, though he was a little calmer than Lily would have expected if she had not known it was a ruse.
"Cooperate and Root dies easily," Claw snarled. "Do not, and I make him suffer for days on end. Either way, I will not kill either of you until afterward."
"Claw, you make the same mistakes over and over again," Whirl gritted out. "After a certain point, threats stop scaring and start antagonizing."
"And you made the mistake of walking into a forest that cannot be flown out of without even thinking about it," Cressa barked. "Stupid of you. Look at how outnumbered you are! You cannot just take her away again."
And so the trap was sprung, foreseen and already countered. Lily knew that more time was needed, but if Claw's people had come out of hiding, the final countdown had begun. Time for the next stage.
Lily opened her eyes and rolled to her paws, eliciting a bark of fake surprise from Flare, and looked around, doing her best to appear frantic.
It was not hard to justify not making a break for it; she, Whirl and Flare were surrounded. All of Claw's most faithful were there, and he himself was standing off to the side, eyeing her with a truly unhinged look, his tail lashing from side to side.
He stood not ten steps away. People perfectly willing to hurt or kill her had her surrounded. Out behind Claw, far less enthusiastic light wings lurked, present as backup, the rest of his faction.
In spite of it all, she purred softly, though she could not admit why yet. Claw had brought all of his people, by the looks of things. There was no planned secondary strike to get the fledglings, or anything like that. That was the other big risk, but for once, her risks were averted instead of terrible oversights. If there was anyone else in the valley, it would be people like Liona and Cedar, those laying low out of fear.
"The game is up, Lily," Claw rumbled threateningly. "And I did not believe you were truly betrayed for an instant."
Lily kept her calm, knowing this was also being seen and heard by the current enemies she needed to coopt later. "Because, unlike with you, they believe in something more than avoiding pain."
"And here you are." He stretched leisurely, as if he had all the time in the world. "What was the plan this time? Another speech of defiance and another escape?" He seemed more composed now, likely because in his eyes, it was already over. This was all the beginning of his victory, and so long as he thought that, he would gloat and waste time.
"I suppose there's now no chance of ripping your throat out the moment you near," Lily grumbled. "You're all that keeps this from being resolved."
"No, you are." He growled, pacing around the ring formed by his allies now, walking slowly. "You and Crystal."
Lily began to pace to follow him, limping in a tight circle around Whirl and Flare, who were reduced to watching worriedly. "And much of the pack, actually. We will not give up, no matter who you kill. You would have to be rid of all of us, and at that point, it would be easier for you and your followers to just leave instead." She wouldn't actually allow that for a number of reasons, but right now, Claw was not going to be in the mood to consider it anyway, so it was safe to say. He thought he was winning.
"No, really, all I have to do is torture you... more. That got everyone's attention. You, Crystal, and probably Root. I make you three suffer more, and they will be too terrified to object to anything. Everything goes back to the way it was before."
"Exactly," Cressa said soothingly. "Remember that."
"I don't think so," Lily countered, snorting and dismissing Cressa. She suspected she understood where some of Claw's current restraint came from; Cressa had his ear and had calmed him down, somehow. It wouldn't last, though. "Before, you had a good reputation, though that's more the fault of the pack than a point in your favor. They were blind. They are blind no more, and you will always be opposed."
"No one risks worse than death when it is not their own in trouble," Claw corrected her idly. "People are selfish, and you have none who would fight for you. Root, well, he and his parents can die, and no one will really care that much. Same for Crystal. As long as I eliminate whole families, no one would care."
"No one cares if whole families are tortured and killed by the person in charge? Really?" Lily snorted, projecting an image of bemusement. "Have you lost all connection with real life?"
"Have you?" he asked, sounding just a little more suspicious than before. That he was not already trying to escape spoke of how little he truly knew her and how she operated. "Here you are, arguing with me with not a care. Do you think to forestall your fate?"
"Given I don't even know what that would be? I see no harm in waiting." Especially when every moment she stalled meant another moment for her people to get into position without being noticed.
"I have plans," he drawled, purring sadistically. "Your back is just the beginning."
She really didn't want to know... Best to change the subject for her own peace of mind. "And when someone else stands up to you despite whatever you do to others? You'll mutilate the entire pack at this rate. And for what?"
"For what? To remain alpha. You have no right to try and take that from me. No one does."
"And how did you become alpha?" she warbled mockingly. "Remind me."
"The pack chose me..." He seemed to realize the flaw in that logic, but it was too late.
"And now the majority of the pack is choosing to be rid of you." She purred triumphantly, relaxing more with every second that passed. She had probably stalled long enough, but it would be smart to keep him talking as long as possible anyway, just in case. No reason to take a chance.
"They do not get to choose that!" He was walking closer now, rage written across his face. Whatever limited control he possessed was failing. Maybe she wouldn't be able to keep him talking much longer anyway. "I am in charge, this is my pack, and everyone does what I want."
"Which basically means all the males bow to you or die, and most of the females keep you company," Lily summarized. "So pointless. The pack does not revolve around the happiness of the alpha."
"Then what does it revolve around?" Cressa barked derisively.
It was intended as a rhetorical question, but Lily had an answer ready. "The happiness and safety of all, the alpha least important among them. The alpha should be the last to eat when there is a shortage, the first to put in extra effort, and the least likely to get what they want personally."
"Goes to show how little you know," Claw growled dismissively, turning towards her and standing at his full height. "Who would want that?"
"No one. That's the point. The people who want power for itself shouldn't have it. It should go to whoever is best suited to keeping everyone else safe." Lily looked around. "You are terrorizing your own subjects. You are not suited for this at all." She was well aware they were fighting on a verbal level, fighting in the eyes of those watching, and she was winning.
"And yet, here I am." Claw shook his head as if to throw away the ideas Lily had endorsed. "You are delusional. And you are going to die. Slowly, painfully, in every way possible."
"Somehow, I don't think so." Lily inhaled deeply and fired a small blast at Claw.
He took it right in the chest, grunting as it hit. It left a small scorch mark and a rippling patch of camouflage, no more.
"What was that supposed-" Claw began, before being cut off by a series of grunts and barks of surprise.
Lily did not take her eyes off of Claw, knowing what was going on around them. Light wings, her group, camouflaged, had maneuvered into position in the trees above their targets. It took time to do quietly, but Lily had bought them time. All around her, ambushed supporters of Claw struggled with nearly invisible assailants who had dropped from above. Her side definitely had the advantage...
But they were spending it in keeping the others restrained and not hurt, as opposed to killing. The sacrifice to have even a small chance at reuniting after all of this.
Root's parents stepped between Lily and Claw, both looking murderously angry. They had stood silent throughout Lily's verbal battle with Claw, waiting, and now it was time. Claw's most faithful all struggled with assailants of their own, but Claw remained untouched for the moment.
The time for words, it seemed, was over. Claw advanced on them, staring right past the other light wings to glare at Lily. His eyes promised everything he had spoken of earlier.
She watched him calmly, knowing what was coming. There were some dragons who had not dropped yet, as per the plan...
Thuds from all around Claw, and suddenly he was surrounded by barely-visible shimmers in the broken moonlight. Snarls from all sides. Flare charged forward, the only one visible but protected by the three invisible assailants.
Lily watched as Claw was assaulted from all sides, deep cuts opening at all angles seemingly by themselves. He fought back a bit, but was defenseless against multiple, camouflaged attackers going all-out.
He figured it out pretty quickly, to his credit. She knew he had realized his attackers were trying to kill him, and would succeed, when he turned and ran, his damaged tail trailing behind him. The shimmers departed to follow, Flare firing into the air and leaping through the explosion to become only a shimmer himself.
Lily wasn't surprised to see him flee; she would have run too. It was hard to mistake the intentions of four camouflaged, anonymous light wings doing their best to dismember, and even harder to fight them off alone.
"Lily!" Whirl, growled, pawing at her tail. "I need you to watch yourself!"
Lily whirled, more than worried by that. "Why?" she barked. The plan was that Whirl would act as her guard, keeping her safe. All of Claw's supporters were supposed to be kept occupied, and Whirl only a safeguard.
"Because this is not going to last!" Whirl retorted, gesturing to the conflict all around them.
Light wings fought in the scattered moonlight, rolling up against trees and into hollows, camouflaged limbs striking white bodies, snarls and flashes of teeth coming from some of the closer combatants. There was a camouflaged dragon for every uncamouflaged one, but some were far better at fighting them off than others, especially those most willing to injure and possibly kill.
Lily's eyes were drawn to Diora, who was definitely drawing blood, if inexpertly, clawing up at the shimmering air trying to pin her. No blood was drawn in return; her side was not to hurt or kill except as a last resort. This was all a delaying action.
On their side. But if any of Claw's most vehement got free of their designated delay, they'd be coming for her. She backed into Whirl, putting her tail to the other female. Now she understood; she needed to be on alert for anyone breaking free and coming for her. Whirl would watch her back.
If it happened, she would be at an extreme disadvantage, but she still had her fire. Seven shots, by her count, having spent one on the signal fired at Claw. She would have to hold back in order to do no more than bruise, but that didn't expand her shot limit any; a blast was a blast, no matter how half-hearted.
A pained yelp drew her attention to one scuffle in particular, her eyes struggling to track it. Cressa was slamming a paw down, driving something into the ground over and over again, half of her body visibly unsupported.
Cressa looked up, her eyes dark, feral slits, and glared at Lily. She crouched and leaped, leaving the light wing she had just taken out of the fight behind on the ground-
Lily barked an alarm for Whirl's sake and stepped to the side, charging up a blast, then fired at full power the moment before Cressa hit the ground. An explosion of loose dirt erupted between them, and Lily hopped to the side again with her eyes closed.
Whirl swung around and met Cressa as she blindly charged forward, yelping in alarm as Cressa bulled her right off her paws. Lily inhaled and fired again, hitting her Dam in the side, knocking her right off of Whirl. Whirl took the opportunity to scrabble to her paws and pounce, driving Cressa's head to the side with a heavy paw, striking so hard that she fell limp.
Not a heartbeat later, something clipped Lily's hips, and her vision blacked out for a second from the pain. A heavy weight pinning her flank then lifted as a strangled yelp echoed, and she was left whining, rolling off of her side and hunching over, unable to do anything else. It hurt far too much to shrug off.
Was this going to be her life, in constant pain from any impact whatsoever? Maybe, if she lived through the next few moments, she would live long enough to find out if the sensitivity would fade. For the moment though, that possibility was by no means certain.
"Sorry, he got away!" somebody close to her tail said urgently. "Can you stand?"
"I can try," Lily growled, forcing herself up and back into the world, though her back felt as if it had been smashed and battered, given how much it hurt. She was running out of ways to describe the pain it brought, even in her own head. There were not enough words for it.
"She is not safe," the light wing remarked from the shimmering air to Whirl, who looked ready to knock someone else out, her eyes narrow slits promising imminent violence. "Can we take her out of this madness? We need her for what comes next. I do not know how to fix all of this, and I doubt anyone else does either!"
"I will not leave," Lily growled. It would be practical, and she wanted to, but at the same time, abandoning the fight before the end was incredibly foolish. What would she do, wait back in the valley? They needed her, but they needed her here. She was the only one who might be able to call a halt to it all once the true purpose of the conflict had been achieved.
"Well, you should-"
A deep snarl of triumph interrupted them, one almost feral in glee. "Mission complete," Crystal's voice remarked from the shadows. "He is dead. Sorry, we could not bring his head back, or really anything but an ear." At that, a ragged piece of white scales and gristle appeared from the empty air and dropped at Lily's feet.
She examined it for a moment, heedless of the conflict raging all around them. It certainly looked like an ear, though no one would be able to prove it was Claw's ear without putting their nose to it. Good enough for the moment.
"Time to stop the fighting," Lily announced. "A roar, if you would?"
The unseen victors declared their triumph, their combined sound echoing through the woods. In the instant of silence that followed, Lily roared her own declaration.
"Stop fighting! Claw is dead!"
At her command, those on her side leaped away from their opponents, forming a ring around her with the still possibly hostile light wings on the outside. Or they were supposed to, but it was hard to tell if that had actually happened as her side was still camouflaged. She did see the other dragons suddenly unencumbered and unrestrained, and the air between her and them shimmered violently, movement and camouflage all around.
Some of Claw's side looked around, at a loss, rage diminishing. That was the reaction Lily wanted; no reaction. Others...
A female charged towards Lily and was tackled by shimmering air, pinned in an instant. "Stop it! This is over!" someone yelled angrily.
"So?" The female was... Diora, it seemed. "She needs to pay!"
"For what?" the camouflaged light wing barked back. "She didn't even kill Claw! How could she have?"
"Then whoever did needs to die!" Diora fought futilely, lashing out to no avail. "Tell me who it was!"
Lily held in a small purr. Her side knew who had volunteered... but Diora did not, and would not be able to figure it out anytime soon. Almost everyone on Lily's side had been anonymous in this fight, so it would be impossible to prove who had gone after Claw, even if everyone knew who had volunteered. And as she planned to visit the body just to be sure as soon as possible, it shouldn't be hard to bring a few people to muddy the scent...
Lily looked around, checking to be sure no one else wanted her dead badly enough to strike, and then approached the mostly invisible struggle going on in an unbroken beam of pale moonlight.
Diora was not hurt, a testament to Lily's orders to avoid more than bruises and cuts if at all possible, but she was angry. She glared at Lily as she approached.
"Diora, stop." Lily crouched, getting as close as was safe, just out of lunging distance. "The battle is over and Claw paid the price for the crimes he committed. There is no point in further pain."
"You had no right-"
"This again?" Lily sighed, looking around. "Who thinks Claw did not deserve punishment for the many terrible things he's done? Anyone?"
A few angry mutters from some of his more fervent supporters and that was it.
"He was punished." Lily turned back to Diora. "And those who did the punishing were simply the ones who volunteered to do as the pack required. You will not exact retribution."
"And if 'the pack' says we need to be punished too?" A fearful question from one of the other dragons who had supported Claw. "What then?"
Lily sighed again, knowing what needed to be done, and raised her voice, doing her best to sound neutral. "I understand that this is a messy situation. I think it will be decided that everyone who acted today, for or against Claw, cannot be held accountable for what they did, or which side they fought for. There is no fair way to separate those who should pay from those who were caught up in the tide of events, and I would rather the innocent and guilty alike go free than punish the innocent along with the guilty."
That seemed to meet general approval from both sides, and many of the more hostile light wings calmed down immediately, seeing that they would not risk anything by surrendering.
"That works both ways, Diora," Lily continued. "If you wish to be pardoned for supporting a murderer, torturer, and abuser, then you must not seek revenge against whoever ended him."
"She did more than support him." An annoyed rumble from a male Lily didn't know. He continued even though Diora's glare had immediately focused on him. "She, Cressa and Ivy helped plan this."
"I am not surprised. By the way, where is Ivy?" Lily was looking around now, and she didn't see him. He had been in the close ring surrounding her, she remembered seeing him there. So where was he now?
"I had him," a disembodied voice admitted. "But he got free and ran off. He was leaving the fight, so I let him go in order to help someone else."
So Ivy was... probably long gone. Interesting. She nodded in the general direction of the voice, idly wondering when the camouflage would wear off. Soon, probably. "So they were his assistants."
"Be careful with him," someone said hoarsely. Lily looked over and realized that the one speaking was not one of hers, visible and outside of her protective ring. "He hates you."
Lily walked over to the male, looking into his eyes and ignoring the shimmer that meant she was staring through somebody in order to do so. "He might, yes. Why are you now warning me?" Why he thought Ivy hated her was another question; she didn't think he did, any more than he hated his other masters. That was probably it. She certainly hadn't done anything to him.
"Well..." The male shrugged, embarrassed. "I noticed that no one got hurt except Claw and Cressa. That cannot be a coincidence. If you go to such lengths to keep even your enemies safe, I would rather have you as alpha than someone like Ivy."
"It was intentional," Lily confirmed, pleased that her choices were paying off. "And that is also the reason everyone will be pardoned. We must start over." She was going to have to take some time to compose her thoughts before speaking to the pack as a whole. So much needed to be said and done.
"Tomorrow we will figure out how things are going to go," Lily announced suddenly. "Until then, find your families, make up if you were on opposing sides, and wait. Go home, sleep. This pack is no longer at war with itself, and the one who would hurt you is dead."
There was a confused murmur, and nobody moved. She understood that; only moments ago, they had been fighting. But it was sinking in now. The reason for fighting was dead, and most of them hadn't wanted to fight anyway.
She waited patiently, but eventually her patience ran out. "Well? Go. Unless you like standing around in the forest. Also, people from the caverns should go tell Root and the others that they can let the fledglings out now. It is safe."
That got several people moving, those worried about their children, and their departure triggered the rest of those Lily could see, many of whom walked slowly, as if reluctant.
"They do not know how things can go back to normal," Moss observed from nearby. Lily hadn't even known she was so close.
"They won't go back to normal," Lily answered. "Things will be better. That's the point." She looked around. "And can somebody take me to Claw's body?"
"Planning on mutilating it?" Crystal asked from the empty air, her voice departing.
Lily followed, trailing along behind the only shimmer heading deeper into the forest. "No, there's no point. But we're not sending him off, either. Let him rot alone." That was appropriate; he had done as much to Pyre.
After a short time Lily saw the body in the distance, a white corpse in a dark patch of the forest. A heavy stench of blood accosted her soon after. Claw's blood.
"I asked because we did not leave much to mutilate," Crystal continued.
"I can see that," Lily agreed, circling the body. She wanted to fix this image in her mind, to remember it forever. Not because she liked carnage; regardless of whatever satisfaction she found in his broken, lifeless corpse, the sight of it turned her stomach.
Claw had not died easily. His many, many wounds told the story. One of his hind legs was badly broken and charred at the back, totally ruined, which would have crippled his run. The jagged claw marks on his mangled tail and lower back told of how he had been brought to the ground; by the disturbed dirt, he hadn't made it far from that point. Lily was not one for fantasies, but she could imagine the visceral glee of catching up to him, of sinking her claws into his hide, of succeeding in the hunt.
His shoulders and neck were blistered and ruined, the work of several fireballs to incapacitate him, a calculated move to hinder resistance. With a cold satisfaction, she examined the deep, raw trenches that had then been carved into the charred flesh.
There were deep marks in one of his forelegs, an attack caught and countered with strong jaws and sharp teeth. His head had then been held down, judging by the deep impression it had left in the ground. That it was a slightly wider impression than his jaw, and by the raggedness of the puncture marks on his head, he had still been thrashing when likely Flare had shredded his face in ripping out his eyes; she didn't look for those, focusing solely on the body.
It looked like he'd rolled to try to use his last working leg, now broken and missing chunks of flesh, so all he had succeeded in doing was revealing more of his hide to claw through, including his underside. One set of four deep gouges started just under his ribs and ran right down to his tail, though going that far could have been unintentional.
In fact, Lily was having trouble finding any part of his body larger than her paw that wasn't in bloody shreds, and what white remained was smeared and tinted red. Even his wings were broken and shredded, jutting out at strange angles with scraps of membrane fluttering in the breeze, and of course, one of his ears had been torn off. Only his paws, with their dangerous claws, remained unblemished and clean, though they all pointed in disturbingly unnatural directions. It wasn't even clear which of his many, many wounds had been the fatal one; it was possible none of them were, and he'd simply bled out where he lay as a result of all of them.
No, this wasn't something she would want to see, were it anyone else. But this was Claw, and a part of her still didn't believe it. She needed to believe it. He was dead.
"We brought him down here," Crystal said quietly, picking up on Lily's solemn demeanor. "He was roaring, ranting, threatening. No one cared. I do not even know who ended up killing him. We tried to make it quick, or most of us did..."
"Do you mind not knowing?" Lily asked.
"I got my revenge," Crystal growled. "All four of us killed him. I do not care who actually took his life."
"He is dead." She continued to stare at the corpse. This was Claw. This was how his reign ended. Hunted down and torn apart by his mates, both tolerant and unwilling, and by the males he had cowed and subordinated. It felt right that none of those who had actually done the deed were happily mated females; they had a stake in it all too, but not one as visceral as that of those Claw had wronged, over and over again, in creating a system where there was no consequence for his own actions.
He was dead. She wouldn't have had him die like this; her ideal was much longer and drawn out, at the end of watching her undo all he had devised for himself. He would never get to see that now; he was dead, and she hadn't even started to set the pack to rights.
Dead. He would never defile her again, never touch her, never so much as look at her with lust or any other thought. There were no thoughts running through his head, and he had no eyes to convey them with. Soon, there would be nothing left of him but rotting flesh and twisted ideas she would have to set to rights.
"How long?" she murmured. "Since this began…" For her, it had begun in earnest a season-cycle ago, give or take a moon-cycle. For the pack, decades ago. But it was over now.
"It is hard to imagine, right?" Crystal asked. Lily felt her friend press against her side, presumably staring down at the corpse alongside her. "I am trying to think of what I am going to do tomorrow, and nothing is coming to me. What now?"
"Now?" That was a loaded question, and one she was going to have to consider very soon. The pack had just settled into an uneasy truce; for that matter, her possibly homicidal Dam was probably still lying on the ground, unconscious.
"Cressa needs to be watched," Lily groaned, forcing herself to consider the practical. "I need to think. And I don't know about you, but I'm not sleeping inside the cavern tonight, or any night." She didn't feel up to going to Pyre's cave quite yet, so that meant she'd have to find somewhere safe and secluded… on paw. Everything had to be done on paw now.
"You should think back in the valley," Crystal advised, moving away. "I will go watch over Cressa. What are we going to do with her?"
"Like I said, I need to think." There was a lot to think about, and she felt she needed to do her thinking here, with Claw's corpse. Just to reassure herself that he really was dead.
"I am going to sleep…" Crystal sighed loudly. "Well, that is unpleasant. I do not even have somewhere to sleep now. Not the cave, not Pyre's cave as I no longer need to be there, but also not my family's rock. My Dam and I still are not on good terms."
"Maybe go there anyway," Lily suggested. "Talk to her tomorrow." Everything had to be done tomorrow. At this rate, 'tomorrow' would need to be redefined to mean the next moon-cycle; things to be done were piling up in her mind after only moments of thinking about it. "She would let you sleep there, no questions asked." Or she would if Lily had the measure of her, which she thought she did.
"Only if you go with me," Crystal said hesitantly.
"How about I meet you there?" She really needed the time. Sleep wasn't going to come until she had everything planned for tomorrow.
"I will get someone to watch Cressa, you will think, and then we will meet there," Crystal summarized. Her blurred form paced around Claw, getting into Lily's line of sight. "And then tomorrow you will be alpha, and you will make everything right."
"And everything will be good for a long time," Lily agreed.
"Forever," Crystal corrected. "Why not say forever?"
"Because I am too cynical to think this is the end of trouble forever," Lily admitted. "A long time is much more believable."
"I do not know what to do with that," Crystal admitted after a moment of silence. "You are right, but I would like to think it will be forever. That this is the end of our troubles for good."
"It might be," Lily offered, feeling bad for bringing her friend's mood down. "What do I know?"
"You are staring at a dead body," Crystal agreed. "Do not do that for too long. I helped do it, and I do not like looking at it. Come back to the valley soon."
"As soon as I am done thinking," Lily agreed. She would tell Crystal not to wait up for her, but odds were that it wouldn't make a difference.
"Like I said, soon." Crystal's blurred form departed, disappearing in between shafts of moonlight and pools of dark shadow.
After a few moments, Lily knew she was alone; Crystal knew better than to dally in getting someone to watch Cressa. So she was alone with Claw's body and her own thoughts.
She toyed with the idea of relieving herself on him, but such gestures really were pointless. He was dead and would not care, and the idea didn't make her any happier. She really did need to think.
But Crystal's advice rang true, and she turned away from Claw's body. Her paws began moving, taking her somewhere unimportant, the rest of her thinking on what needed to be done. A speech, a ceremony for Pyre, talking to as many people as she could manage, taking stock of any lingering-
A low snarl was not nearly enough warning, and before she could react she was slammed to the side, her back impacting a tree, her weak point abused once too often that night. The pain sent her straight to oblivion, her mind shutting down, unable to cope. She never even saw who had attacked her.
