"Tell me again why she is the first one you are asking about how to make the pack better?" Crystal requested as they walked. "I would not take her advice on anything, even to appease her."
"I plan to make her want me in charge," Lily explained. Diora was watching them from atop her rock, glaring down at them as they approached. "While not promising anything I am not going to do anyway, and not letting her feel she has power over me."
"Sounds hard."
"It might not be possible," she admitted. "Stay close, but don't say anything unless I ask. She would be offended that you were butting in." Crystal not joining the conversation would also make it much easier to direct.
"Got it." Crystal stopped just short of the rock. "How are you getting up?"
"With difficulty," Lily remarked, looking at the painfully high jump she would have to make. "Diora, I've come to speak to you."
"Get up here, then," Diora said spitefully, having heard the last part of their exchange. Lily could almost see the petty reasoning behind Diora letting her ascend onto her rock, thinking it would hurt and be humiliating.
Which it would. But she underestimated Lily's ability to hold the pain inside and act like nothing was amiss-
"Here," Crystal said, crouching in front of the rock. "I can help you up. Step on my back."
"You don't have to do that," she objected. Literally stepping on her friends was not the image she wanted to convey, and other light wings were watching.
"I want to," Crystal said loudly. "I help my friends."
"Okay," Lily conceded, stepping onto Crystal's back and quickly continuing up onto the rock. She met Diora's scornful glare with what she hoped was unruffled neutrality. Crystal hopped up behind her, but stayed back, watching carefully.
"Speak your piece and begone," Diora hissed.
"I was hoping to have you speak to me," Lily said casually, "but I suppose I could start. I'm sorry things turned out the way they did with your mate."
"The mate you killed?" Diora glared fiercely at her, but didn't come closer. Lily attributed that to Crystal's presence; Diora would definitely get physical if she could.
"I wish he had not forced me to that point," Lily said diplomatically. "But I do not regret saving at least two lives. Mine and yours."
"You say he would have killed me, but that is just a lie to make me not care about what you did," Diora spat.
"He had seen Claw's body, attacked me, and spoke of how he would be free of us all. Claw, me, you." Maybe Pearl, but he hadn't mentioned her, and that wasn't something Lily wanted to bring up with Diora in any case.
"All I have is your word, and you lie as easily as you breathe," Diora retorted. She didn't seem at all convinced.
"Which is why I am going to leave it there, with my apology and explanation," Lily retorted, seizing the conversation and forcing it away from the lost cause that was convincing Diora that her life had been saved. "I will not point to evidence, like the recent damage my already injured back shows."
"Disgusting," Diora murmured. "You walk around like a fledgling who has not learned to clean herself."
Lily suddenly realized that not only had she not gotten her back looked at the night before, she had totally forgotten about it in the morning and afterward. It already ached with every movement; a little more pain wasn't noticeable enough on its own to spark her memory, and she had come here after mourning Pyre…
"Yes, I know," she said, resolving to try and clean herself off as soon as she was done talking to Diora. For now, though, she needed to pretend it was intentional, and come up with an explanation…
"I won't clean myself until I have begun cleaning the wounds the pack is suffering from now," she improvised. "I have already said I will tend the pack's needs above my own." She could put it off until nightfall, to make good on that. It wasn't bothering her yet. "And to do that, I need to ask you something."
Diora glared and said nothing.
"What do you want changed?" Lily pressed. "I need to know what everyone needs, what they want. Where do you see yourself in a few season-cycles?"
Diora seemed caught off-guard by the barrage of serious questions; she had probably been expecting an inquiry about her loyalty, or some other unpleasant topic. Being asked what she wanted had to be the last thing she expected.
"I want Claw back," she said, but there wasn't much force behind it.
"Keeping in mind that I am going to do what is best for the pack," Lily clarified with a snort. "And that I cannot raise the dead."
"I want…" Diora trailed off, looking around. Eventually she looked back at Lily. "I want my daughter back. And I want Pearl punished for taking her. And a new mate, a better one, and to have a say in what the pack does."
Crystal made a small noise of disapproval, a near-silent huff that only Lily heard. As if she needed a reminder to not just give Diora everything she requested.
Still, she had to get Diora on her side, and the best way to do that was to make sure Diora knew her life would improve so long as she just accepted the way things were and didn't put up a fight as the world changed around her. "There will be more available males going forward," she offered. "As for Silva, I don't know where she is, but if you wish to go looking, I can ask the pack for volunteers to go with you."
"I want her brought back here," Diora clarified. "And Pearl punished."
"I promise to judge Pearl as she deserves, should I ever be in a position to do so," Lily said carefully. "You do understand why I cannot promise to just punish her the moment it is in my power, of course. I must be fair to everyone. But I will definitely empathise with your side of things."
Diora purred consideringly, hearing what Lily had meant for her to hear. She interpreted that as a promise to make it seem fair, but to rig the result of such a judgement in her favor.
Lily meant it as something different; she doubted Pearl would ever really return, and she would do her best to avoid being put in a position where Diora would expect her promise to be fulfilled, but if it came down to it she would do what she had said, not what Diora had heard. She would judge Pearl fairly.
"And Silva?" Diora asked hopefully.
"If we knew where to go, I would be all for sending a search party," Lily lied. "But we don't. I can ask around and find out Pearl she told anyone where she was going," though she knew Pearl had intentionally not given that information away, as it was just common sense, "but lacking a destination, I cannot order anyone to go on a wild fish chase. You may go if you wish."
"There is no point," Diora growled. "And a voice in the pack's decision-making?"
"All will have a voice," Lily offered. She had already planned as much. "You included."
"Not good enough."
"I'm sorry, but that is not negotiable," Lily said firmly. She hadn't succeeded in promising Diora anything that couldn't be done under another alpha, but that was more Diora's fault than anything. She had liked her position in the old way of things, and improving on said position wasn't something Lily could do without compromising on her own goals, which came first. "You will have a fair, equal voice, just like anyone else."
"I deserve more. You killed my mate!"
"Your favorite alpha killed dozens and crippled me for life, to say nothing of your own mate trying to kill me," Lily retorted. "I ask nothing of you but loyalty. Consider what you are getting in return a fair trade, and be content."
"Or else?" Diora hissed.
"Be discontent," Lily said casually. "But if you strike at me or try to undermine what I intend to create, you will be stopped."
"You will not kill me," Diora said fearfully, backing up to the very edge of the rock.
"No," Lily agreed. "I won't. I won't torture you, either, or strike at your children, should you have any more. But I might just throw you out of the pack and let you go searching for Silva… Permanently. Or worse. Do not think that just because I am not Claw and not using his methods, I cannot punish those who need punishing." She was not bluffing, within moments of contemplating Diora working against her, she had already begun to think about morally acceptable ways to neutralize her. Before then, even; discipline was going to be one of the most delicate issues she anticipated being forced to handle sooner rather than later.
"You wronged me," Diora said sulkily.
Lily noticed another irritated huff from Crystal, louder than the first, and decided that it was time to wrap things up. "We are starting anew. I hold no grudges from before, and I expect you to do the same. What we do now matters most, and I will be quick to keep everyone on a better path than before. Keep that in mind." Hidden in that seemingly casual reminder was both a ray of hope and a threat. Diora wasn't being punished for the things she herself had done, whether she recognized them as bad or not, but if she set a paw out of line from now on she could expect to be firmly put in her place.
"I am not calling you my alpha," Diora huffed, trying to get the last word.
"Good," Lily said politely, turning to leave. "That title has bad connotations now. I am going to come up with something better." She hopped off the rock, not letting Diora retort-
And paid for her dramatic exit in pain, her back flaring up as she hit the ground. She staggered, held in a moan, and forced herself to walk away as if nothing had happened.
"I feel dirty," Crystal complained, leaping down to walk beside her. "I so wanted to knock some sense into her. Silva is better off far away from her."
"She has a chance to do better, to be better," Lily said quietly. "One chance. She will not get another. I have done my best to ease her anger, I have warned her, and now I will wait."
"For her to screw up and do something bad? Because we know she will, eventually. Like if she takes another mate and has more eggs-"
Lily cut Crystal off with a wave of her tail, conscious that they might be overheard by any of the light wings lounging on rocks nearby. "She gets a chance, like everyone else, and I hope she will make something of it. If not, then we will deal with her, like we will deal with anyone else intent on acting in ways that are not acceptable."
"She will do something horrible," Crystal muttered.
"Maybe." All the talk about someone doing something terrible brought to mind a different problematic female. Lily looked up at the mountains around them, thinking. She planned on spending the rest of the day talking to people, but afterward? There was something else she wanted, no, needed to do.
O-O-O-O-O
The sun was low in the sky, what looked like a tailwidth away from touching the mountain peaks, and Lily was tired. She nodded sympathetically anyway, making eye contact with the female who was currently talking.
"... So if you could maybe give my mate a talk as well?" the female concluded sourly. "I wanted to oppose Claw, but he wanted to keep his head down, and he just would not listen. He has always been such a worrier."
"And this is just the latest in a long line of fights?" Lily asked gently. She had gotten a pretty good idea of the situation just from listening to her ramble, and suspected she knew the answer. Having already spoken to the male in question also helped fill in the blanks the female was leaving in her rant.
"What?" the female looked up, caught off-guard. "Well, recently, yes… And before that too… We fight a lot. Only it is not really fighting, we just disagree a lot. But what can I do about that?"
"It depends. Imagine for a moment that he was off doing something important for the pack. Would you be happier alone?" She was getting a lot of practice in sounding casual; it was the best way to ask such sensitive questions.
"He would be coming back eventually," the female grumbled, which in itself was an extremely telling answer. "But we are mates, and we have to work out our problems."
"I see." She made small talk for another few moments, bid the female farewell, and left.
Crystal fell in beside her, but said nothing for a while. Only once they had entered the burial grounds did she speak. "She sounds miserable."
"She is miserable," Lily agreed. "I am noticing a pattern." Several, actually, though the other one was more of a reflection. Back when everyone had first chosen sides, she had spoken to a male whose mate was with Claw. This felt like a reflection of that.
She had resolved to check in on him and his mate, now that she thought about it. Well, she would eventually get around to them in the process of talking to everyone.
"Females forced to choose the only males left after Claw killed the rest, and being unhappy later?" Crystal guessed. "You did go to a lot of younger mated pairs today. I know plenty of the older pairs are happy together."
"And we will get to them in due time," Lily responded. "But yes. It only makes sense. How many lost the male they wanted because he was too stubborn, or too brave, or too ambitious? And how happy would they be with males who by definition shared none of those traits?"
"You do not have to convince me. Do you have a solution?"
"I might, but let me talk to everyone before I say anything about it." The way she saw it, there was an obvious answer. Let any unhappily mated pair come to her, and she would declare them not mates. The alpha had the authority to do that, or at least Claw had, and everyone would assume she now did. She could use it to revoke the forced pairs Claw had induced, or at least the ones that wanted it. It would cause some small amount of chaos, but so long as she handled things correctly, it would solve quite a few of the recurring conflicts she had unearthed today.
"Okay. How many more days do you think it will take to get through the whole pack?" Crystal asked, scrunching her face up in annoyance. "We only got through a dozen light wings today."
"It doesn't matter how long it takes," Lily said. "If you don't want to be there, we could take some time tomorrow to line up some other guards for me-"
"We should do that anyway," Crystal said fervently. "I feel inadequate. What if Cressa gets a group together and attacks? I am not that good at fighting."
"We can do that tomorrow," Lily decided, "but how would you fare against just Cressa if it came down to an ambush?"
"Oh, just her? I could handle that." Crystal drew her claws across a rock in passing. "I think."
"Are you sure?" Lily pressed.
Crystal turned and stared at her. "Why do you ask?"
"I want to go claim Pyre's cave for myself," Lily admitted, looking at the mountain in front of them. That was where they were going now, though she hadn't taken the most direct path there. "And if she has been waiting for the first moment I am alone, that would be it."
"You would not be alone…" Crystal paused for a moment and looked up at the mountainside. "Unless I camouflage and wait for her to strike. You want her to attack, I think."
"Right now, I have no fair way to punish her for all she has done," Lily admitted bitterly. It wasn't fair at all; Cressa had led Claw to Pyre, had helped him more than anyone else. If anyone deserved some sort of punishment, it was her, but that couldn't happen. The lesser offenders would all riot if they thought Lily was coming for them next, and the pack would be broken in two once more. Things were too fragile to risk on that.
But if Cressa attacked her now? With a reliable witness everyone knew was tasked with protecting her at the moment? She would have a new offense to go after, an example to make that would dissuade people like Diora… And she would have revenge for what Cressa had done in the past, though that would not be the given reason for the judgement she intended to pass down.
"So yes," she admitted, "I want her to attack. You'll camouflage here, I'll go up to the cave and go inside, and the moment she lands to come in after me, you'll pounce on her. If she's camouflaged I'll fire on her, and we'll be looking for it."
"I am not comfortable with doing that on my own," Crystal said bluntly. "Can we wait until I have a few helpers, like with Claw?"
"You should be enough…" Lily ventured, already knowing that she was wrong. If Crystal didn't think she would be sufficient, then she probably wouldn't be, her overwhelmed attitude doing her in just as much as an actual inadequacy.
Crystal, not privy to Lily's doubt, pressed onward regardless. "No, listen. We were stupid last night, letting you go into the forest alone. Cressa was not the only threat, we had just fought off half the pack! I am not going to be that foolish again, not so soon."
"It was not that stupid," Lily objected, cringing at her own lack of thought. Diora could have come after her, or some random Claw supporter; finding her wouldn't have been hard, she had lingered right by Claw's body, which was as good a landmark as any in an otherwise dark, green forest.
"Really?" Crystal asked dryly.
"No, it was stupid," Lily admitted. "I let my guard down." She looked up at the mountainside one more time, forcing herself to wait once again. "Tomorrow we'll get guards and bait Cressa into attacking." Tomorrow, she would claim the one place she felt was safe, the one place with nothing but good memories, even those from the worst time in her life.
"Sounds good," Crystal agreed. "Now can we go to the pond and get the dry blood off your back? I know you were trying to make some sort of statement by keeping it, but it makes me feel sick whenever I look at it."
"Sure. To be honest," she admitted wryly, "I just said that because I didn't want to admit to Diora that I had forgotten about it."
"Fooled me too," Crystal laughed. "Come on."
Lily turned to follow her friend, leaving what she wanted for one more day. She could wait.
O-O-O-O-O
Early the next morning, Lily groaned and rolled onto her side, pulling a wing up over her face. It was far too early to get up, but the sun wasn't giving her much of a choice.
She settled down under her own wing, but the light glow through the membrane was still enough to keep her from doing more than lying in the sunlight, awake and slightly annoyed. She lay there anyway, just to spite whoever had decided that it would be light so early in the morning.
"You never told me she was a late sleeper," Crystal's Sire chuckled. Lily ignored him, for the most part. She had a full day of talking to light wings, finding more guards, and luring Cressa into attacking; she needed her rest.
"We are not used to the sun," Crystal replied sharply. Her tone made Lily pay more attention, though she didn't reveal that she was awake. She had not forgotten that Crystal still was not on good terms with her Sire and Dam, but it had fallen to the wayside as something she would soon fix, and thus not urgent enough to worry about.
Sure enough, Crystal's Sire sighed. "No, I suppose not. It is good to have you back."
"It is awkward, you mean," Crystal complained. "Not with you, with Dam."
"Yes," he agreed. "Awkward because you were not speaking to her."
"Because she kept acting like Claw was fine, like he was just some normal male," Crystal snarled. "I could not stand that. She should at least have let me rant and agreed with me, it is not like it was a matter of opinion, he was objectively horrible."
Lily flicked her tail, feeling for another sleeping body, and found none. Crystal's Dam must have already left for the day, maybe to get fish. Crystal certainly wouldn't be complaining about her if she were present and awake to hear it.
"You are being hard on her," Crystal's Sire said. "Maybe she just wanted to make the best of a bad situation."
"Making the best of it would have been agreeing with me, not bringing him up, and talking of other things," Crystal shot back. "Or better yet, acting like Flare and Whirl and swearing bloody revenge for what Claw did to your daughter. I would have appreciated that, even if nothing came of it."
Crystal's Sire growled softly. "Like I said, you are being too harsh. Have you even spoken to her since his death?"
"No, I am waiting for her to apologize," Crystal said firmly. "I am not the one who did wrong, even if I am the one who stayed away. It was either that or snapping in her face again. You should know."
"I know." There was a long moment of silence before he next spoke, his voice soft. "For what it is worth, I am sorry for not swearing vengeance, if that was what you expected of me."
"When you put it like that it sounds unreasonable, but… Well, yes, I did kind of want something like that." Crystal stepped over Lily, alerting her to the fact that her sleeping form had been acting as something of a divide between them. "Apology accepted. I was not very mad at you, you did not speak well of Claw to my face."
"And your Dam?" he asked.
"I am still waiting for an apology, and ideally an explanation of why she was so obnoxious about him," Crystal hummed thoughtfully. "There has to be a reason."
Lily could think of one obvious reason, but she hoped that was not the case. Crystal had enough issues with her Dam without piling on a downright offensive attraction to Claw, even if he was dead and thus no longer a problem in that regard.
"If there is, I do not know of it," Crystal's Sire admitted.
After a long silence, Lily huffed and shifted her wings, giving up on sleep and seeing a way to break up what she assumed was a very uncomfortable pause in a conversation that seemed all but over.
Sure enough, Crystal raised her voice and spoke in a much lighter tone. "Well, if Dam is fishing right now, I suppose we can let Lily sleep."
"Why are you talking like that?" her Sire asked.
"Because Lily apparently likes sleeping in now," Crystal said. "This way if she wants to keep sleeping she gets to pretend she never woke up, and might not be so grumpy."
Lily laughed, opening her eyes and looking over to find Crystal. "Or I can be grumpy about you waking me with talk of fish." She wouldn't mention the far more serious discussion she had overheard. There didn't seem to be a need.
O-O-O-O-O
Lily paced in front of the three males and two females Crystal had gathered, collecting her thoughts. "Your reasoning behind picking them?" she asked her friend, who was lounging on a rock behind her candidates.
"They want the responsibility and I trust them," Crystal said lazily, waving a paw at the light wings below her. "Ask them yourself."
"I want to help my alpha," Cedar said diffidently. "Liona and I both like you, and Liona would very much like to see you kept safe."
Lily nodded knowingly, though she was only now piecing together his motivation. If Mist had told Liona whose idea it was to nudge her and Cedar together, it made sense that Liona would like her, and Liona was skittish enough to highly value stability. Those combined would be enough to have her wholeheartedly support Cedar defending the alpha… And Cedar seemed head over tail for Liona, so there weren't any ulterior motives there.
He was acceptable. She couldn't select for actual combat experience, because nobody had any, so personality and motivation were the only qualifications. "I see. And you, Flare?"
"My family will be more difficult than most to protect and provide for if something goes wrong, and you have promised to do exactly that," he said bluntly. "I feel I should contribute more to make up for that."
"You owe me no more than anyone does," Lily said, hiding the lingering guilt she felt over Root's condition, "and won't you be needed by your mate and son more than normal?"
"How much of my time would this take up?" he asked.
"I intend to have no guards once everything has settled," Lily lied, knowing full well that she would catch the most crafty malcontents at that very time, "but for now eight is my goal, so that I might have two at any time without taking more than half the day or night from each of you."
"Then I will have more than enough time for them," Flare decided.
Lily nodded at him in turn. He was an easy choice, and the same could be said of Cedar. The other three present were less clear-cut.
"And you?" Lily asked, looking at the next light wing in line.
"I just want to help," Honey said quietly. "But I did not think it would be half a day or night every day or night. That is a lot of time."
"And you have a hatchling," Lily said firmly. "When I come talk to you, we can talk about what you can do to help, but I don't think this is it."
"Okay, it was just an idea," Honey agreed, walking away from the others and springing into the air.
"I do not have any children to worry about," Mist said eagerly. "Let me help."
"Why do you want to help?" Lily asked, suspecting she already knew the answer. Mist was technically mated to Root, or they had at least made their intentions official, but they both agreed that it wasn't real. Mist probably wanted to have that made official, and getting on the alpha's good side before asking would be the smart thing to do.
Lily intended to let them break apart, of course, but she could use Mist's help anyway. So when Mist shrugged her wings and didn't say anything, she nodded anyway. "I understand. And you, Grass?"
"I am making up for being on the wrong side," Grass admitted, not looking Lily in the eye.
"I have officially forgotten who was on which side," Lily reminded her. "You have nothing to 'make up' so long as you do not do something bad now."
"And you do not trust me. I understand." Grass made to leave.
Lily almost let her go, and waited until she was already in the air, flying away. "Crystal, bring her back," she requested.
Once Crystal had returned with a slightly disgruntled Grass, Lily explained. "I had to be sure you were not trying to trick me into letting you help," she said. Pretending to leave in dejection and hoping to be stopped would have been a way to do that. She hadn't seen even the slightest hesitation, though. "You really don't want to do this. Who put you up to it?"
"Cressa and Pina," Grass admitted. "Not together, separately. Pina said I should atone for what I did, and Cressa did not give a reason."
Lily believed that; Grass was not on Cressa's side so firmly that she would risk revealing her intentions. This was a solid confirmation that Cressa was planning something, though…
Could she trust Grass? Did she want to trust Grass?
"You can join," she decided, much to Crystal's visible surprise. "You're all in. I'll arrange a schedule and pair you together later, once we have the other three I want to recruit, but for now I need you all."
"For what?" Grass asked.
"Removing immediate threats," Lily explained, watching Grass carefully. "We are going to set a trap and see who flies into it." Grass would get no chance to warn Cressa, just like last time she had been suspected of being a traitor. If she proved true once more…
If Grass was not helping Cressa, Lily supposed she would be happy to have her as a guard, so long as she was paired with someone reliable. People could change for the better. That was the whole point of her taking over, to protect and guide her fledglings toward a better way of life. She would be a hypocrite to constantly doubt someone who seemed to be trying to atone for her choices, grudgingly or not.
"Now," Lily continued, "here is the plan."
O-O-O-O-O
Lily walked up the lonely path as quickly as she was capable of, ignoring her throbbing back in favor of the anticipation in her heart. She had waited so long for this moment, and at the end of a long day of talking to various light wings, finally taking something for herself felt wonderful.
Not that she was doing this solely for herself. She refrained from looking up, instead gazing out at the valley when possible and looking forward when not, and made her way up to Pyre's cave and overlook.
She lingered there, feeling the wind on her scales and looking out over the entire valley. He had a good view, one she appreciated all the more now, understanding that from now on this was as close as she was ever going to get to flying over the valley.
Her people, her fledglings, were settling down for another peaceful night, unbothered by anything except maybe lingering worry over what she would do as their new alpha. She couldn't help that part any more than she already was by listening to their fears and desires, one by one, remembering what she could and summarizing the rest, fitting long, boring interviews into short, simple goals and issues that needed to be addressed.
She resisted the urge to look around. Everything was well in paw, though it certainly wouldn't seem that way. To an outside observer, she was alone, staring out over the valley from a ledge few knew about, unguarded and extremely vulnerable. A single shove would put her over the ledge.
She squinted, staring through the shimmer that had moved directly in front of her. Crystal must have noticed that particular vulnerability. Looking at the valley through a camouflaged light wing was good enough, given she was not up here just to claim Pyre's cave as her own. Her actions could serve more than one purpose.
Lily lingered for a long while on the ledge, the world darkening around her, and continued to watch as her pack went to sleep for the night. The sky was empty, and there was little to no movement down below, just the occasional shift of people changing positions on their rock. It was warm out, with just a hint of chill in the air, a warning that the hot season would soon be gone.
Time was passing, the days going by quickly. Life was better already. She no longer dreaded the next blow from Claw, the next time he would visit and have his way with her. She had put Pyre to rest, and though thinking of him still hurt her heart, that pain at least did not include an ongoing guilt stacked on top of everything else. The pack was looking to her for guidance.
Things were better. But some people would not let go of the past.
Lily felt an abrupt, powerful shove on her hindquarters, something flinging her onto Crystal, a push that would have doomed her had her guards not been prepared. She felt a moment of panic-
But then several thuds and a surprised bark informed her that her assailant had just been attacked in turn. She disentangled herself from Crystal, who was holding tightly to the ledge, and turned to face her undoubtedly camouflaged…
"Well, that was stupid," she said after the surprise had worn off, looking directly into her Dam's eyes. "For a lot of reasons."
Cressa, fully visible and pinned under unseen weights, struggled, trying to lift her head and free herself. Whoever was on her head just pushed down harder, forcing her against the stone.
"I assumed we would have to do this a couple times, establish a pattern, throw off suspicion," Lily continued, warbling mockingly. "And even then, I worried you would attack from the air, or aim for my obvious weak point, or just try to slit my throat." She had discussed preventative measures for each of those. Two of her guards had flown tight circles above her to intercept blasts, and two were spreading their wings and linking tails to catch anyone sneaking up from either side, leaving only an attack from behind, the direction being watched by both guards. It was not totally safe, but Lily had been confident she would survive any first strike Cressa could manage within those restrictions, so confident that she had asked her guards to let assailants strike before revealing themselves.
Cressa snarled something unintelligible, hampered by not being able to open her mouth.
"Should I let her talk?" Mist asked.
"No, I don't think she has anything worth saying," Lily replied. "Keep her silent. She'll get her chance to speak later." She couldn't deny Cressa that, both because odds were her impulsive, hateful Dam would say something damning of her own accord, and because totally silencing her made it look like Lily had something to hide.
"Anyway," Lily continued, enjoying the moment with a cold satisfaction, "ignoring all of that, you struck without even bothering to camouflage yourself, not a day after convincing Grass to take a place as one of my guards." It likely hadn't been worded as such; Cressa wouldn't have known she was looking to recruit more guards, though maybe she had pushed for Grass to volunteer for the position anyway, to get her in a more useful spot-
Lily shook her head, ridding herself of that line of speculation. It wasn't helpful at the moment. "And you tried to kill me, to throw me over the ledge and to my death if I couldn't fly. But what if I could? What if I managed to survive the fall?" She wasn't sure if she could do such a thing, but her back was still tender, so it was possible she could throw her wings out and fly at the expense of enormous pain and possibly death by renewed infection later. Not that Cressa would know the details.
"It's like you wanted to fail," she concluded, purring mockingly. "Or just did not think it through. I think the latter."
"What do we do with her now?" Crystal asked. Lily noticed that the one she had assumed was Crystal hadn't moved, and that Crystal was speaking from atop Cressa, judging by the sound. She needed to be more wary; a simple sniff of the one in front of her would have revealed her mistaken assumption.
"Now?" Lily purred loudly. "Now, I want two of you to grip her wings with your teeth, but lightly, along the edges. One put a tail on her head and lead the way, and one hold her tail in your mouth. If she tries to flee or fight, bite down as hard as you can and hold on." In that way, any attempt would leave Cressa severely injured and grounded, thus dissuading her from trying anything. Lily knew how frightening the prospect of being grounded was. It had affected her, and she feared it far less than most would.
"To?" Flare asked.
"The cavern challenges were fought in," Lily answered. "We are going to have a pack meeting to deal with her tomorrow, but tonight she will be held there. I'll have three of you guard her." She hated to put her new guards through too much strain the very day she had recruited them, but Cressa had been stupid enough to go for the bait immediately, so it was necessary. She had to trust they could keep her overnight.
And on the subject of trust… She turned and caught a long whiff of the light wing who had protected her from being thrown off the ledge. Grass.
"Thank you," she said quietly, before turning and saying the same to the others. "Thank you. We can go now." It seemed her trust in Grass had not been misplaced… Though she still was not going to have Grass guard Cressa tonight, and she wasn't going to sleep in Pyre's cave. Not yet, not when her other guards were occupied with guarding Cressa. She could wait just a little bit longer.
O-O-O-O-O
Lily paced along the plateau, aware that she was not an intimidating figure, and thus very much aware that the fear she saw in the eyes of so many was not a fear of her, specifically. It was a fear based on a much larger, more all-encompassing disappointment.
They feared she was like Claw. They feared the guarded light wing standing behind her, her tail and wings pinned, was going to be her first example.
But she was not like Claw, and while Cressa was going to be an example, a way to set a precedent, the tone was going to be very different.
"Do not fear," she intoned, addressing the subdued discomfort of her fledglings directly. "This is not going to end in bloodshed, or pain, or torture of any kind. I am not here to berate you, demand obedience and subservience, or anything else. We are here because we are trying to be better. Right?"
She waited a moment before continuing, judging the relief her words had elicited. Not enough, not nearly enough, but what came next would remove the rest of the nervous tension. "We are here to decide on something, again, as a pack."
She lifted a wing, though her muscles ached and her back burned, and pointed it at Cressa, taking care not to stretch it all the way out and rip her back open again. "Last night, my own Dam tried to kill me."
The shocked murmur that followed that cut itself off before she needed to interrupt; everyone was waiting for her to continue.
"I am not claiming this without evidence, not like Claw would," she continued. "I have no less than five witnesses, and my own word as alpha, and depending on what she intends to say, maybe even a confession. You will hear the story from everyone involved."
That, she noticed with satisfaction, was enough to do what her reassuring words could not. The pack no longer feared what was to come. Light wings sighed with relief, sat down, and in general lost their wary body language, like a wave washing over the shore and flattening out as it went.
"As a pack," she said, "we have to decide how we are going to discipline each other when rules are broken, when people hurt each other for greed or lust or just out of spite. I was going to address this once I had spoken to everyone, but Cressa here has forced my paw."
Cressa snarled angrily. She was not being silenced by force, but Lily had made it clear that the moment she began roaring or shrieking, she would lose that privilege. Surprisingly, Cressa had heeded that warning.
"If you have objections to what I am about to describe, please speak up at the end," Lily requested. "I want to hear if there are problems. But here is what I have thought out. When a wrong has been committed, one that cannot be solved without a severe punishment, or when the problem is not clear, or when it involves someone close to me, I will alert the pack. The ones involved will all tell their stories, and questions will be asked."
Lily sat on her tail, rising above everyone else in an attempt to draw all eyes to herself and by extension away from Cressa, who was still wordlessly snarling. "We will listen to them all, and then if it is clear who is in the wrong, I will propose a punishment. So long as you, the pack, do not object, it will be done. If a majority thinks my decision unfair, I will take it back and come up with another, until a majority of you agree."
She had thought that through, though it might be rough around the edges. She was not giving the pack the ability to decide on the punishment itself; that was too much power to put in the paws of a large group who could be influenced. She was simply limiting her own control over punishment, the issue most likely to worry everyone, thanks to her predecessor. Never would anyone be able to say she did what she wished without censure. The pack would be able to stop her if she went too far for any reason. Not that they would ever need to, but it was fair, and a system that would outlive her.
"So," she asked, "am I missing anything? Is there a problem with this? Please, speak up."
"You get to decide on punishments?" someone asked worriedly.
"Yes, but you all get to say whether they are fair. It is a majority, so the one being punished cannot just have their friends speak up and block me, but it is there. If the pack thinks I am going too far, they can say so, and I will have to listen." And in making it a pack approval, she would also be putting pressure on everyone to uphold it later, should it come into question, lest they contradict themselves.
"What if you have everyone lie to trick us?" someone else asked.
"Even the one being accused?" Lily casually retorted. Even if she could manage that, it would at least be an obstacle in her way.
"Even then," the female who had raised the concern agreed.
"Well, I don't know what to say to that," Lily said, though in truth she knew exactly how to respond; it just wasn't ideal. "It would not be good, and I wouldn't do it, but at least it would force me to go to some effort? And it would leave trails, people who know I had everyone lie, secrets I would have to keep… This system would make it impossible for an alpha to do that and get away with it forever."
That seemed to mollify the female; she nodded in understanding.
"Hey," a younger male called out, an older fledgling judging by his size, "what if somebody does something bad and nobody tells you, or you refuse to judge them?"
"If nobody tells me?" Lily scrunched up her face. "Isn't that a problem no matter what I am supposed to do after being informed? And if I refuse to judge them… Why would I?"
"You could, though," the fledgling persisted.
"I could, but then the pack would just insist I do what I'm supposed to," Lily reasoned. "And if it gets to a point where I am directly refusing to do my duty, then we have a different, much more serious problem." She would have to address those possibilities when giving her planned speech about the pack's new rules; they wouldn't need to apply to her, but she had to set things up so that the pack could remove ineffective future alphas.
"That makes sense," the fledgling allowed.
"Anyone else?" Lily asked. "If not, we'll get started with the actual judging."
"Do that!" a female called out. Others agreed with her, nodding or adding their voices in support.
Lily stepped back from the plateau edge. "Okay, then. Mist?"
Mist stepped forward and began speaking, telling her side of what had happened. Once she was done the others spoke, one by one. Lily mostly tuned them out, already knowing what they were going to say, as they had been there. She paid a little more attention to Grass's turn, but she said almost exactly what the others had.
All in all, by the end of their four testimonies, the pack was bored. Lily wasn't particularly encouraged by that, but she supposed it was inevitable, hearing the same thing over and over again. Hopefully the repetition had driven it into the pack's minds.
She herself was not going to speak, though she was a witness and the victim of the whole thing. Her guards had covered everything, including how it had all been an elaborate bait to catch out those who might wish her harm. There was nothing more she could add but persuasive oration, and she didn't want to do that, not when she was arguing against the one who had attacked her. This needed to seem as impartial as possible.
But once the others were done, it was time for Cressa to speak. Lily watched carefully from the far side of the plateau as Cressa was allowed to approach the edge, so as to be seen, a guard on either side of her.
"This is all pointless," Cressa snarled. "I wanted her dead, I tried, I failed. You will just be helping her take revenge when you agree that she can kill me. I hope you all regret letting a crippled trough tell you what to do, and I hope you choke on fish and die." She directed that last threat at Lily, turning to glare at her, blocked from doing anything more by Flare, who stood between them.
Lily wished she were surprised, but she wasn't. Such a vile, pointless tirade was about what she expected. "Is that all you want to say, Cressa?" she asked coldly.
"Get on with it, trough," Cressa barked.
Lily wondered where that particular slur was coming from; the only male she had ever been with was Claw, and that against her will. Maybe it was just the most humiliating, vile insult Cressa knew. "I take that as a yes," she said. "You can stop talking now."
Flare and the other guards forced Cressa back from the edge of the plateau, and she was soon firmly held down once more.
"So I think this is a fairly simple, clear-cut case," Lily said loudly, "but let me summarize anyway. Cressa tried to kill her own daughter in front of multiple witnesses, and did not offer any reason as to why she was justified in doing so. Given I have not so much as seen her since Claw's death, it's fair to assume her justifications stem from before then, to a time I had already said none should carry hard feelings about. There is no excuse. This is an attempted murder."
Seeing no dissent in the crowd, she continued without pausing there. "So, what will the consequence be? Not just for Cressa. What should we do to those who try to kill and fail?"
"Kill them?" one of the males called out.
Lily couldn't see the speaker, so she glared out at the crowd anyway. "Should we be so quick to leap to killing? Should we kill as a punishment? I don't think so, not when there are other options." Claw had killed to secure his rule, and she would not do the same.
"No, no killing," she continued. "This is serious, and it is terrible, but I don't want her dead for it. I just want her gone, because someone willing to try and kill once might be willing to do so again. My verdict is that she should be exiled, never to return. If she does return for any reason, we will drive her away, dealing injury or maybe even death if she fails to leave, because at that point there really is no other option. Other, more heinous actions might force our paw on killing immediately, but not this."
Cressa flinched at that, even as the pack burst into loud speculation, everyone voicing their opinion.
"Is that acceptable, yes or no?" Lily called out. "Fly for no, stay on the ground for yes."
As those instructions filtered through, a few light wings spread their wings, but many of those didn't actually take to the air, looking around and seeing that the vast majority of the pack didn't feel the same. In the end, the one female who had leaped into the air immediately also landed. None wished to go against the crowd.
"Unanimous? Nobody feels that this is too harsh, or not harsh enough?" Lily asked. "Okay, I can believe that. But in the future, even if you do not think your side will be the majority, do not just go with everyone else. There will be no retribution, I want to see people dissenting if they do not agree."
Even with that, nobody changed their vote. Lily sighed, hoping that was temporary. This whole system didn't work if everyone was afraid to stand out, like they had been with Claw.
But for now, the vote had been cast, and the pack agreed with her. She turned to Cressa. "You understand what will happen?"
"I do not want to leave," Cressa hissed.
"But it is better than death, and that is your other choice," Lily retorted. "Go far away, find somewhere else to live, maybe improve yourself. You're never coming back here."
"Like I would want to live under you," Cressa spat. "Let me go and I will leave."
"So quickly?" Lily shook her head and raised her voice. "This is the pack's decision, so the pack will see her off. When she flies, everyone fly with her, escort her over the mountains and do not let her return. It will be up to everyone to drive her off or alert those who can if she is seen around here after this."
After that, everything went quickly, the work of moments. Lily stepped off the plateau, out of the pack's sight, and soon after her guards let Cressa go. Cressa leaped into the air, only to be immediately surrounded by a dozen light wings, all flying just far enough away to avoid any sudden attacks.
Lily watched from the ground as her Dam was followed out of the valley. Cressa went quietly in the end, perhaps bowing to the inevitability… Or possibly planning on sneaking back, which was much more likely. They would be alert and ready for that for as long as needed.
But for now, to all appearances, the pack had just exiled an attempted murderer. The process had gone smoothly, all had been in favor of the verdict, and it could even be said to be merciful. Cressa could go find a new home, somewhere in the vast expanse of the rest of the world, free of the stigma that would come with being known as an attempted murderer who watched her Sire die with glee and tried to kill her daughter…
If there was anyone out there to judge her at all. Lily was well aware that she didn't know what Cressa might find. Sending her out might be consigning her to a slow death.
Slow death or not, she decided, it was still the best choice for the pack. Cressa was out of the valley, and would not return. Almost more importantly, Lily had handled a very delicate situation in a way that made her as little like Claw as possible. She had to consider that a victory.
