Lily woke to the disruptive barks and growls of an argument already in progress. She listened long enough to discern that it was a spat between Whirl and Grass, then ignored them. While she could speak up and get involved, they disliked each other and would only go back to arguing over petty things the moment she left. It wasn't worth the effort.
But having them in the same side-cavern was just the unavoidable side-effect of having her guards with her. Flare would not have been willing to sleep away from his family, and Grass was his partner in the first guard shift at night. Lily had no choice but to pick her side-cavern companions based on who had to be with her during the night, meaning she had them, Mist, and Crystal's family all in the largest of the available chambers.
At least this particular chamber had a high ceiling; Lily liked that it was not at all similar to the one Claw had consigned her, Crystal, and Honey to occupying. She stood and stretched, wincing at the ever-present throbbing in her back. Hopefully by this time next cold-season it would be gone; she knew very little about injuries, but more than a season-cycle seemed like ample time for all but the most serious of damage to heal, if it could heal at all.
She left the side-cavern to get away from the squabbling and walked right into more of the same. The main chamber was a white-colored riot of madness and conversation, much of it less than friendly.
Most of it would resolve itself; she knew that from experience. They were a ways into the overly harsh cold-season, and she had long since learned to only intervene in fights that would otherwise devolve into violence or broken relationships.
She picked her way through the raucous cavern, looking for the most severe conflicts, wondering if this was normal. With only five previous cold-seasons to compare to, and a few of those too dim and vague to be useful, she didn't have much perspective, but she thought that the amount of conflict was growing with each subsequent cold-season.
The reason for that, if it was the case, was obvious. Every season-cycle there were more light wings trying to cram into the same space, physically unable to leave for long due to the weather. People didn't like being crammed together for a long time, and it made them tense. That exacerbated conflict.
Conflict like the decidedly one-sided rant going on in the far corner, a heavyset female berating someone, physically backing them into a corner. Lily turned and made for that particular confrontation, identifying it as possibly dangerous.
As she neared, stepping between tails and wings, she began to hear a bit of the rant over the noise of the cavern, though she could not hear the other dragon's responses, if there were any.
"I have been a Dam for a dozen season-cycles and you for less than two, you do not get to pretend you know anything about it that I do not! Especially this!" The female snarled and shook her head, leaning forward and forcing the other light wing back even further. Lily could see a tail and hind leg shoved up against the corner, both bearing a very light glint-
A glint she recognized. She slowed for a moment, processing the new information. The female was berating Honey, of all dragons. On the one paw, Honey didn't have a violent bone in her body, so the situation was extremely unlikely to get out of paw… And on the other paw, if Lily didn't intervene, she'd be leaving Honey to be chewed out in a manner that almost certainly exceeded whatever she had done.
Honey mumbled something, and the other female threateningly swung a paw at her. "No! I do not want to hear your lies!"
Lily growled and sidled around a napping male, coming up beside the large female. "What is this?" she asked sternly, looking at Honey, who looked relieved.
"Nothing, Lily," the female said dismissively. "Just trying to roar some sense into this airhead. You do not need to get involved."
"I think I should at least make sure I understand," Lily said irritably. "What has happened?"
"I-"
"Keep your stupidity to yourself," the female snarled right over the top of Honey, silencing her.
"No, I want to hear from both of you," Lily growled. "Let her talk, and then you will get to say your piece."
"She will just lie and make me look bad, alpha," the female said dismissively, shaking her head at Lily. "Once you have a few dozen more season-cycles experience, you will understand."
Lily held in a snarl. She hadn't encountered this sort of attitude before, or at least not so blatantly. She was well aware that her fledglings didn't fear her like they did Claw; that was a good thing. But this? Dismissive because of her age?
"I am alpha, and you will let me hear both sides of this, or I will just assume you have something to hide and are at fault," Lily growled, her voice cold and angry. "Honey knows better than to think I will believe a lie." That was debatable, but this female wouldn't know that, and if not then Honey would take it as a warning to tell the truth.
The female flinched and turned to stare at Lily full-on.
"Back up," Lily growled. "Whatever she has done, you are not making yourself look innocent by cornering her and berating her."
The female stared at her for a long moment, too long for Lily's liking, before slowly complying.
Lily nodded tersely and turned to Honey. "You can come out of that corner," she said coldly. She was almost certain that Honey had done nothing more serious than annoy the other female, and wanted to be kinder, but she had to act impartial, and the tone she had set with the other female was the only one she could take until she had evidence that supported her intuition.
Honey stepped forward, letting her tail down. It fell limp on the ground, joining her ears, frills, and general body posture in signalling how miserable she apparently felt. "I did make her mad, but I did not lie," she said quietly. Lily had to strain to hear her over the noise of the cavern.
"You-" the other female began.
"Let her speak if you want your turn," Lily growled, slapping the ground with her tail. She would rather have slapped the female herself, but physical force wasn't acceptable, not from her. "Now, Honey, what were you saying?"
"I… I sleep next to her and her mate," Honey said slowly. "You know how I can sometimes smell when females have eggs coming soon?"
The large female snorted loudly at that.
"I do remember that, yes," Lily agreed. "You were three for three, last I knew."
"I had mostly forgotten about it," Honey admitted. "But I smelled it on her, and after a few nights I was sure, so I told her this morning."
"I see." Lily nodded sagely, and then turned to the large female, who was glaring at Honey. "Now, your side of things."
"She came right up to me the moment my mate left to go fishing, told me I was going to have an egg, and sat there with the smuggest possible look on her face," the female growled, batting her tail against the sleeping male behind her, who somehow remained asleep despite the argument and now physical impacts. "I cannot stand smug young females barely past their fledgling days pretending they know everything, and I was not going to sit there and let her feel happy about her stupid lie. It cannot be smelled, and I am not expecting an egg!"
"So what she said struck a nerve," Lily summarized, "and you decided to lecture someone you don't even know about something they believe is true."
"It is not!" the female objected. "And she has no authority to tell me anything about myself! I did not come to her for advice or guesses about eggs."
"I understand," Lily said, meaning more than the female probably guessed. She could tell that there was something going on under the surface with the female on the subject of eggs. Maybe she couldn't have them easily or at all, or maybe it was the opposite, and she didn't want one right now. Whatever it was, when combined with the general tension of being confined in the cave, and Honey's lack of forethought, it apparently resulted in this sort of situation.
"And you will let me teach her a lesson?" the female asked hopefully.
"I'm going to talk to her myself," Lily said sternly, "but she is not the only one to blame. You overreacted, and it isn't your place to lecture her." It was actually incredibly presumptuous, but Lily couldn't let this female leave the discussion feeling the alpha had immediately sided against her. Ideally, neither she nor Honey would feel they had lost.
"You should let someone with more experience do that… but fine, if that is what you want," the female grumbled.
"Come on, Honey," Lily requested, turning and waving her tail. "We can go to the pond and back." Not a long trip, but out in the cold, so long wasn't possible anyway. She wanted privacy for this, and that trumped length or comfort.
"Okay," Honey agreed, following right behind her, almost treading on her tail on occasion as they made their way out through the crowded cavern.
"Oh," Honey groaned the moment they were out in the open, "that stings."
"It does," Lily agreed, walking quickly. The wind carried tiny shards of ice that she hesitated to call snow. Snow was soft and fluffy, falling leisurely; this was nothing of the sort. She stopped under a shallow overhang, sheltering from the freezing assault. Honey joined her there, pressing against her side in an attempt to get out of the weather.
"I did not try to make her mad," Honey whined.
"I know," Lily admitted. "I don't plan on punishing you. I just wanted that female to think I was so that she would not resent you so much."
"I am not going to do that again," Honey groaned. "She might be cruel to Wax… I will change places in the cavern, too."
"Don't tolerate her being rude to your son, come to me," Lily advised. "But hopefully she will forgive you."
"I was just trying to tell her so she would know ahead of time," Honey said. "I liked that I was being helpful, I was not smug…"
"She did not take it that way." Once again, Honey wanted to be helpful, to do something that would be appreciated, either by Lily or by some random female. This time, Lily knew she shouldn't just dismiss that underlying desire. Addressing it would mean this sort of thing wouldn't happen again.
"You want to do something others appreciate, something helpful. I get that." Lily pushed one of her wings out just a little, resting the edge on Honey's back. Her own back twinged painfully, but she ignored it. "Something you can do, with Wax to care for. How is he, by the way?" She could hopefully distract Honey with that long enough to decide on a way to help her.
"Far too energetic," Honey admitted, shivering as a blast of wind whipped by them. The background noise of tiny ice particles shattering on rock was surprisingly calming, at least compared to the chaos they had left behind. "But Dew and Pina take a lot of the little ones to tire them out some days, so it is not so bad. He had a cough for a moon-cycle not so long ago, but that is gone now."
"Was he hot to the touch, too?" Lily asked. If so, she knew a moss that could have helped with that. She needed to think about that, actually; the knowledge Pyre had passed on to her could be used to make the lives of her fledglings better, if she knew when it could be used before the moment had already passed.
"No, just coughing up the most vile things…" Honey shook her head. "I felt unclean for half a moon-cycle straight, and he was miserable. All better now, though!"
"It would have been better if you'd told me, I might have had some plants that could help a little," Lily mused. "But you didn't know that."
"Maybe show me them soon, so I know for next time?" Honey requested.
Lily purred happily as an idea came to her, a solution to both of her current issues. "You think you could remember what they do?" she asked. "Is your memory good?"
"It takes me a couple times to get something down, but I never forget once I have it," Honey said humbly. "I am not the fastest, though."
"That's fine, that's fine," Lily purred. "Would you like to learn all of the plants I know? And then help others when they get sick?" She didn't have the time to keep track of everyone and administer plants when needed, and Honey wanted to feel useful. The angry female had even complained that Honey had no authority to tell her anything; giving her an official position and making it known to the pack would fix that, too.
Honey hummed thoughtfully, but the hum soon turned into a purr. "That sounds great!" she said happily. "And I could tell them if they have eggs, and everyone would come to me for help when they need it."
"Exactly!" Lily agreed. She slipped out into the open, exposing herself to the sharp shards of ice for the time it took to dart to the next rock. "Now let's go get some water so we can get out of this cold!" As far as she was concerned, that was all the 'talking-to' Honey actually needed.
"Can we start now?" Honey asked, running alongside her.
Lily felt the throbbing pain in her back, and squinted up at the cloudy skies. Her chest felt cold, and her body stiff, though they had only lingered outside for a few moments. "Once the cold-season is over," she said. There was no way anyone would make it to the forest and back in this weather, not to mention the lack of leaves, and she wanted to teach Honey with plenty of examples at paw.
"I cannot wait for this cold-season to be over," Honey said vehemently. Lily nodded in agreement. She didn't think anyone was enjoying the weather or cramped conditions.
O-O-O-O-O
Whirl shook herself as she entered the side-cavern, showering everyone around her with droplets of cold water. Lily shifted, groggily huffing in annoyance as cold drops traced their way down her face.
"Sorry everyone," Whirl chirped cheerily. "It is snowing hard out there. Root, do you want to go out and play in the snow tomorrow?"
"No, Dam, I do not," Root said in a gruff voice, not even raising his head to respond. "I really do not. It is miserable out there."
"Oh, but if you move enough, you feel warm anyway," Whirl argued, cheerily waking everyone else with her loud voice. It was not night, so far as Lily knew, so she wasn't being that inconsiderate, but it still rankled. Half of the people in the side-cavern had been napping before she came in.
"She should go back outside instead of arguing about it here," Crystal's Sire grumbled quietly. Lily doubted he meant for anyone but her and his family to hear him; they were lying together, sharing body heat.
"Yeah," Crystal groaned.
Oblivious to the disapproval of the rest of the cavern, Whirl wedged her way between her son and her mate, nudging her mate to the side to claim the warm space between them. "And this part is good too," she sighed happily. "Nothing like coming in from the cold to warm family."
"Nothing like my enthusiastic mate doing her best to freeze my scales off," Flare growled, shuddering. "You forget how not fun that is for the rest of us."
"Oh, quit complaining," Whirl huffed. "You would not be so cold if you had gone out with me. How about we all go take a walk tomorrow morning?"
"You mean besides the one to the pond and waste pit?" Root asked, scooting away from his Dam.
"Yes, besides that!" Whirl exclaimed. "That is not fun, that is necessary! We can go for a fun walk after that."
"When we are already freezing and want to go back to the cave?" Flare rumbled.
Whirl slapped her wing down on top of him. "Why are you both so grumpy? The cold-season can be fun if you just try to see it that way!"
"Or we could go back to sleep and wait for warmer weather," Root retorted.
"Like everyone else is doing!" somebody called out.
Whirl leaped upright and looked around, trying to discern who had interrupted. She was confronted with a host of sleepy and annoyed glares from every angle.
"Oh, fine," Whirl huffed quietly. "But we are going to do something fun tomorrow."
"She sounds like my Dam did when I was a fledgling," Crystal muttered to Lily.
"More so than usual?" Lily quietly asked. She had been under the impression that this was just how Whirl acted; neither Root nor Flare seemed that surprised by her enthusiasm.
"Much more," Crystal hissed. "Since, well, you know. I do not know how he stands it as well as he does."
Lily glanced over at Root, who was stretching his wings out, a disgruntled look on his face. He didn't seem happy with the situation, but nobody was, so that did not tell of anything. She had no way of knowing what normal was for him while they were all crowded in close quarters.
Another thing to check on after the cold-season had run its course. She closed her eyes and tried to relax; she was going to need all the energy she could get for the upcoming thaw, to say nothing of keeping everyone from rioting in the meantime.
O-O-O-O-O
Lily stepped in a puddle of slush. A loud gasp resounded from the cave entrance.
She shook her head, bemused and a little annoyed, and walked just out of sight of the cave entrance, ignoring the loud clamor of disappointment and speculation. If she had a more intimidating reputation, this wouldn't be such a huge deal, something the entire pack was trying to watch.
She tried to focus on the reason she was outside, holding her tail up and feeling the wind. Cold, but not too cold. Piles of snow were melting, slowly but surely. Spires of ice were dripping steadily. The sky was cloudy, but the wind was pushing the clouds away, off to bury some other land in snow and cold.
But was it warm enough? Could she be sure this was the end of the cold-season? Another set of heavy clouds might be just off the horizon, ready to drift in and send everyone right back to confinement if she gave the word too early. It might even be dangerous to let her people resettle on their rocks before she was sure.
She felt her lack of flight keenly, unable to act on the urge to leap up into the sky, enjoy the only mildly chilly currents, and then check the horizon herself. It grated on her, and knowing that Pyre's cave and the accompanying ledge was the only way to even come close to scratching that itch was no better, because if she told everyone to stay inside, she would have to lead by example.
To give the word and release the hordes of fledglings, adults, and general insanity, or to announce that they would wait another day? Nobody was forced to remain inside, everyone could still enjoy the milder weather, but it was more about the deeper meaning. Everyone wanted her to come back and declare the cold-season over with…
And since she wasn't nearly as intimidating as Claw, they all wanted to watch her make the decision, speculate among themselves, and give her advice. She had gone too far in trying to make herself approachable, and she was reaping the consequences, as minor and annoying as they were for the most part.
That was going to be one of the many things she tried to fix this season, though unlike most of her other plans, she didn't know how yet. Any move away from her current image and toward something less fallible would inevitably scare people, because it would remind them of Claw, and what she had now was better than fearful doubt and worry in the back of everyone's minds.
She circled around a few rocks, feeling the air, and came back into sight of the cave entrance. The same squashed crowd as before waited just within the confines of the rock, only barely abiding by her request that they leave her alone while she made her decision. They were tightly packed and most had smaller fledglings on their backs, and those fledglings in turn continuously fought to be at the top of the pile, touching the ceiling of the cave mouth.
So many eyes on her, so many expectant faces. She shrugged her wings. "Everyone should be prepared to move back inside if there is another storm," she said sternly. So long as they were expecting to-
The living dam of light wing bodies broke with a roar, and she hopped out of the way of the stampede that immediately followed. The cold-season was over, and they didn't care about the possibility of it making a return, punishing them for believing it was totally gone. As far as they were concerned, the alpha had spoken.
O-O-O-O-O
"You have a leaf stuck between your frills," Crystal said.
"I know," Lily admitted. She shook her head and dislodged it. "So, your honest opinion?" She was interested in hearing how Crystal felt about the lesson they had just concluded.
"You were holding out on us," Crystal declared, darting forward and disappearing around a corner of the steeply sloped path. She emerged above Lily as she neared, peering down at her with a mock-glare. "Do you know how many headaches your people have needlessly suffered?"
"No longer," Lily growled back. She knew better than to take that to heart; while it was somewhat true, the pack didn't need her knowledge of plants. Nobody ever died of something she could have prevented, so long as Claw wasn't involved, and the only way to stop him with plants had been tried by Flare.
"What I do not get," Crystal continued, turning to address Lily as she rounded the same corner, "is why you did not try to get Pyre down into the valley using this knowledge. Could you not have gotten a few people sick with the plants, brought them to him to cure, and made everyone like him?"
Lily barked in surprise. "I really am rubbing off on you!" she exclaimed.
"We spend half of every day together," Crystal said, darting ahead once more. "So?"
"If Claw and Cressa had not existed, that could have worked," Lily said thoughtfully. The details weren't there, but she could have worked them out easily enough. But it didn't matter; so long as Cressa hated Pyre and Claw was more inclined to listen to her than not, and probably threatened by any male who was not under his paw or dead, it would not have ended well.
"Get rid of them, and then… Well, no," Crystal mused. "I guess we would have ended up here anyway."
Lily's good mood faltered. Here, with her in charge, Claw dead, Cressa as good as dead… But also Pyre dead. She winced, pushing that thought away. The time for mourning would be upon her soon enough, and she needed to be able to function here and now.
"But anyway, you were asking about how I think the lesson with Honey went," Crystal continued, pulling the conversation away from Pyre as soon as she noticed Lily's sudden silence. She flicked her tail dismissively. "No offense, but this does not feel like one of your best plans."
"How so?" Lily asked, focusing on that.
"I would not have picked Honey to do something like this," Crystal explained. She stopped at the top of the path, waiting for Lily to catch up before heading down the other side. "She is absent-minded and liable to hurt someone with the wrong plant. You are putting the ability to cause harm in her paws, and even if she does seem to want to do good, I would not do that."
"She learned well enough today," Lily countered, looking out on the valley before focusing on the path below her paws, lest she slip. Everything was wet today, a result of the intermittent downpours the clouds were letting loose with no warning every so often.
"She did not remember three plants!" Crystal exclaimed. "One of them was dangerous! You said so yourself."
"On my first lesson, I remembered two of the ten I was shown," Lily countered. "She remembered eight." A lot of that was likely Honey's desire to learn, and the fact that she was an adult, not a scatterbrained fledgling like Lily had been at the time.
"Two? Really?" Crystal hummed thoughtfully. "Okay, but she still forgot a dangerous one."
"I do not plan to unleash her on the pack today," Lily laughed. They stopped at her cave, standing on the ledge and looking down on the valley. "Not before the ceremony, and probably not until well after it." She wasn't about to let Honey do anything potentially dangerous until she was sure she had beaten all the requisite knowledge into her head, repeatedly and forcefully. Honey had not lied when she said it took several repetitions to get her to remember anything complicated, but she did remember… short-term. Lily hadn't gotten a chance to test her long-term memory yet.
"But you do plan to unleash her on the pack eventually," Crystal groaned. "I think you should find another person to teach, make them partners. Someone already cautious, someone able to know all she will know and make sure she does not mess up."
"Want another job?" Lily asked, flicking her ears.
"Not for all the fish I could eat," Crystal said emphatically. "She does not seem so bad now, but she brings up a lot of bad memories. I do not want to work with her every day, not when I have to pay attention and make sure she does not screw up."
"And yet you were willing to let her try out to be one of my guards," Lily retorted.
"I did not know you would put me in charge of them!" Crystal groaned. "I thought I would not have to deal with her that often. My point stands."
"It's a good one," Lily agreed. "I'll find someone else interested in doing the same… But not yet." She didn't want to take this away from Honey, so she would find her an assistant, someone okay with working at her direction. A second opinion to catch mistakes, but one that wouldn't lessen Honey's self-confidence or make her feel replaced. It was a balancing act, the good of the pack on one paw and Honey's feelings on the other. If done right, she could have both where she wanted them, but if done wrong, neither would prosper.
"If not that, then what are we doing today?" Crystal asked. "There is still plenty of time before sunset. Can we just walk around the valley and enjoy the weather?"
"No," Lily admitted. "I'd like to, but there's something else I have in mind." Something she had promised before the cold-season, something put off until now. "I need you to go get someone and bring them here." What was to come would not be pleasant, but it needed to be done.
O-O-O-O-O
"No!" the female roared angrily, pushing against Crystal, who physically held her back. "I refuse! He is my mate, and I do not want to give him up!"
"But I never wanted you!" the male said timidly, only speaking at all because Lily had ensured he understood silence might mean she could not in good conscience do as he wanted. "I did not have a choice. Now I do, and I think I would rather-"
"You are mine," the female hissed in a tone that almost had Lily baring her teeth. "I talked my competition into going after other males, I courted you for almost a whole season-cycle. I put in the effort."
"And you just assume that is enough," the male argued back, gaining confidence with every word. "You are so pushy and angry all the time. I never liked that! We do not have any eggs, no children… Go find a male who likes being pushed around, because I do not!"
"Okay, I think that's enough," Lily interrupted, seeing that the female was close to spitting fire, she was so mad. "Crystal?"
"Too busy keeping my insides inside me," Crystal grunted, pushing down a paw that had been about to swipe her. "I do not want scars from this."
"I will give you scars if you do not let me at that snivelling coward!" the female snarled, pushing forward again. She was not trying very hard to actually hurt Crystal, but she was trying to shove right past her. It was good she wasn't attempting to fly or go around, but Lily had people in place to ensure that wouldn't work. As open and dangerous as this might seem to an uninformed observer, she had taken precautions and nobody was in any serious physical danger.
"Flare?" she asked instead.
"It is pretty clear that one of them wants out," Flare called out from where he stood, ready to intervene should the male try anything, as unlikely as that was. "And it does not look like there is much love between them anyway." He had spoken diplomatically, but the narrowed eyes, tense ears and frills, and slightly raised wings suggested he was holding back some choice words.
"Agreed." The way the female spoke grated at Lily, mates were not possessions to be fought over, won, and then kept against their will. That was far too close to how Claw had operated, how he had thought. He had instilled the same values wherever he could, by his actions and by the ways his rules forced everything. This was one of the results of that.
A result she had to untangle, like a ball of seaweed matted around her paw. What was worse, she had to do it without breaking the individual strands of seaweed, which wasn't usually a consideration in her chosen metaphor.
She walked between the male and female, facing the female. "Tell me," she requested, "would you be happy if he recanted right now? Said he did not want to make you angry, took it back?"
"Yes," the female snarled, leaning back and then ramming her shoulder against Crystal's chest, hitting her hard enough to bruise.
"Even if you knew he did not mean it?" Lily continued.
"I would make him mean it!"
"You do know that abusing your mate is no longer allowed, no longer tolerated and ignored?" Lily growled. "No hitting him. No making him obey you at every opportunity. No controlling his life." Many of those things would be hard to fairly define, but she wasn't relying on exact definitions. The spirit of the rule was all that mattered. She wouldn't intervene in whatever dynamic a mated pair had going if both were content with it, but she would if one was obviously suffering.
"I…" The female stopped pushing Crystal, stepping back to glare at Lily without distraction. "I do none of those things."
"You do!" the male called out.
"This is a chance for a fresh start," Lily said softly. "But fresh means having to start over, in this case. If you really want him, if you really do not intend to bully him or make him lesser, then convince him, and have him agree to be your mate once more. But unless you both come to me genuinely wanting to be together again, from this moment forward you are not mates." She had to trust that the male would hold fast against the female's attempts if they were anything less than sincere, but in the end she was giving everyone a chance, not dictating the outcomes.
"Thank you alpha," the male barked, immediately leaping off the ledge and flying away at full speed. Lily assumed he was putting some distance between himself and his ex-mate, which might be wise given her temperament and current anger.
"It is done," Lily said, stepping closer to Crystal and by extension the female. "Keep in mind that there will be other males. Not soon, not many for a while, but there will be more." Eventually, the lopsided ratio Claw had created would level out. "Ask yourself if you really want him back, think about it, and do not do anything I will have to punish you for. No hurting him, no taking him by force-"
She was interrupted by a bark of shock. "I would never do that!" the female whined, recoiling. "Never, no matter how long it has been. We have not been together in moon-cycles because he never felt like it, and I did not force anything!"
"Good," Lily said vehemently. "That is good." She really was glad to hear that; it instantly put this female in a far lower category of bad, to have that limitation. Nowhere near as vile as Claw had been, just misguided and used to how things were.
"I wanted him…" the female growled to herself. "But he did not want me? I do not believe it, we have been together for many seasons. Surely he would have complained before now if he did not like how things were."
"And gone where?" Lily asked gently. "Complained to who?" She didn't know whether Claw would have broken the pair up; there were advantages and disadvantages to that, from his point of view. But regardless, the male would not have had the courage to bring up his discontent with the alpha that expected nothing but obedience from him. Claw was not an approachable leader.
"He never even let on that he did not like it," the female murmured, looking down at the stones below her paws, flicking a pebble with a claw. "I thought things were fine."
"That might be another thing to work on," Lily suggested. "Communicating more, making your mate feel he can complain or say he is unhappy and be listened to."
"He was so sure he would not take me back," the female murmured.
"Then accept that and wait for another to catch your eye," Lily said firmly. "Let him be happy, admit you were not good to him, and fix yourself. You will not be able to push away competition and force a male into choosing you again, so you must do better anyway."
"I need to think about all of this…" the female shook her head and huffed sadly. "What will my friends say? My family? Which of us will stay at our rock, and which will have to find another?"
"I'll check in on you tomorrow," Lily offered. "If you need help, don't hesitate to ask." She hoped the female's family and friends would be understanding, but realistically, there would probably be some tension, some hard feelings. As long as it all worked out for the better in the end, it would be worth it.
"How about I fly you down and help you pick out another rock?" Crystal offered, putting a wing over the female. "Right now, so you do not have to worry about it."
"That would be good," the female agreed. She and Crystal left, dropping down off the ledge as the male had moments before.
Lily sighed and let her body relax, releasing the tension that had built in every muscle. This wasn't easy; she couldn't break pairs up without the drama and the anger, but it wasn't fun to deal with.
"I am surprised she calmed down so quickly," Flare observed.
"Some people adapt quickly," Lily mused. "And some hold their anger in." Crystal would be able to tell which it was by the time she left the female to her own devices; the offer to go down and help her adjust had not been as spur-of-the-moment as it appeared.
"Still better than the last one," Flare snorted. "It is good you pulled some of us off our night guard duties to do this instead. That one could have gotten ugly."
"Could have," Lily agreed, remembering the vile words on both sides. By the end of that argument, both had been more than happy to try and forget the other existed. Finding out that there were deep-rooted resentments had torn them apart, and might have ended with one or the other literally torn apart in another place, without the safeguards. At least in this latest case, one of them had left relieved.
"How many more are there?" Flare asked.
"Depends on how many more light wings approach me," Lily hedged. She suspected there would be plenty more, spread out over the next few moon-cycles as people realized she was serious and saw examples of it being done. Knowing she had said she would, and seeing it happen were two different things.
"Incoming," a disembodied voice called out, gliding somewhere above them. A moment later, a brief gust of wind hit Lily, and Grass spoke again. "Mist and Whirl."
"Thanks!" Lily called out, quickly spotting the two females as they dove down from above the clouds. She could easily guess why they were coming; her location and purpose up here were common knowledge, and they both had one dragon in common. The real question was whether they came to argue one side, or two.
"Mist," she called out. "Whirl. Good to see you both."
"Lily," Whirl said, speaking before she had even landed, dropping down next to her mate, "help me talk some sense into Mist, please." Lily sighed inwardly at that, but still held hope this could be peacefully resolved.
"Sense needs to be talked into someone," Mist growled. "But it is not me. This should not even be an argument."
"I know nothing of this," Flare said, speaking to Lily and Whirl both. "What have I missed?"
"What did you miss? Just your mate completely ignoring her place and telling me what I should do, as if I were one of her own," Mist grumbled. "Lily, you are absolving mated pairs of their connection if you deem it wise?"
"That is why I am up here, yes," Lily agreed. "I was wondering when you would come." As far as she knew, neither Mist nor Root actually wanted anything to come of their nebulous connection.
"Surely it is not so cut and dried, though," Whirl exclaimed, stepping forward and addressing Lily. "Let them work it out between themselves once Root has adjusted. They would work so well together!"
"Once he adjusted?" Mist growled. "Say what you told me. Season-cycles! Not only do you want to force us together, you want me to wait around and not consider any other male for season-cycles, when I do not even want him!"
Lily shook her head. She could tell this was news to Flare, too; he was staring at his mate in confusion.
"Well, it will take that long," Whirl huffed, "and I do not want to let him out of my sight until he is completely able to live on his own, however long that takes."
Lily suspected Whirl didn't want to let Root out of her sight at all, and that the disability was giving her a convenient excuse, but that didn't fit with Whirl trying to keep Mist committed to him. "What is your goal here, Whirl?" she asked.
"To help my fledgling recover, make him feel safe and happy, and then when the time is right to know he has an understanding mate ready to move in with us," she said honestly.
"First of all," Mist snarled, "we would not live with you. That is just sad. Second, I do not want him as a mate, and he does not want me, so it would not work anyway. Third, it is not your place to tell me that I will do such a thing."
"And fourth," Lily added at the end of Mist's tirade, looking at Whirl, "there is no commitment there, not one that should outlive Claw. She was only courting him because she had no other choice, and he only accepted to help her avoid Claw."
Whirl scowled at that. "And is that not love, helping a pretty female by offering to be her mate?"
"No," Lily said bluntly. "It's being a kind person in a terrible, restrictive environment. Take this as my official word. Whatever else happens, there is currently nothing between Root and Mist. No commitment, nothing saying they cannot find other mates, nothing saying they have to be mates. If they do want to be mates-"
"Fat chance, with how smothered and weak-willed he is," Mist growled.
"Regardless," Lily continued loudly, "if they do, they'll do it like any other pair will from now on, agreeing that they want to be mates, announcing their intentions, and acting accordingly." She would also play an official role in that, but she was trying to emphasize that it would be their choice, and not something she would interfere with, so she didn't include her part in things.
"I understand that what Claw did should not hold," Whirl said slowly, "but surely there is something else you can do?"
"What would you have me do?" Lily asked scathingly, her voice underlined by Mist's steady growl. "Restrict Mist's rights, and Root's too, just to try and force them together?"
"No!" Whirl exclaimed. "Nothing like that, just encourage them-"
"How about some discouragement?" Mist snarled, stalking over to the ledge and turning away from everyone else. "You and your whole family can lick my tail!" She flicked her tail up in what Lily knew was an extremely offensive gesture and dropped out of sight.
There was a moment of shocked silence. Lily shook her head slowly, there had to have been more than just this day's argument to get Mist that mad, but she could easily envision the slow buildup; Whirl dropping hints, Mist blithely ignoring them until they were too blatant, the small unresolved arguments…
"And now," Flare said in a deep, reproachful tone, "you have taken a friend from our son in a time when he needs friends more than ever."
"He can find better friends than her," Whirl said forcefully. "Or he can just drop all of his immature friends and spend more time with us."
"That would drive him crazy," Flare said sternly. "He is already spending too much time with us."
"No such thing," Whirl muttered. "I am going to go find him now."
Lily winced as Whirl left. "If you want to go stop her, I'll let you," she offered, looking at Flare.
"She does not listen to me on this particular issue," Flare admitted. "She will loosen up once some time has passed. It is still new to her, and she is coping the only way she knows how. It does not help that Root truly does need a lot more assistance now."
"So long as you keep her from overdoing it," Lily said, thinking that Whirl was already well beyond that point.
"I am the reason he is allowed any time away from her," Flare rumbled. "Like I said. Please do not tell her off, it will just make her more stubborn. I am working on it."
"So long as you get results," Lily murmured.
"If you keep the same arrangement of caves next cold-season, you will see my progress first-paw," Flare offered. "Until then?"
"Until then." She wasn't confident in her ability to directly change Root's family life without accidentally removing something vital, something that kept him going. He wasn't independant like any other light wing his age would be, and the unintended consequences of meddling might be much more severe than normal.
That didn't mean she would ignore the problem; she just had to be more careful about approaching it.
O-O-O-O-O
"You six are all adults!" Lily roared happily, and the pack roared with her. The fledglings in question stood on the plateau with her, arranged in no particular order, sharing the center of attention where they belonged. This was their ceremony, their night, and she wanted to make it a good one, despite the lingering unease this particular event held for everyone present.
"Now go," she continued, "go mingle with your friends and family, have fun, enjoy this night." She had a speech planned for after everyone had a chance to fill their bellies and let off some excess energy, but for now she was content to let things go as they would.
The fledglings – no, adults, however young they still looked to her – leaped off the plateau, and were soon surrounded by the pack.
"That was short," Flare remarked from in front of her. She had all of her guards lingering at the base of the plateau, arrayed around it, ready to act if needed, though she doubted there would be a cause to call on them.
"It's their night, not mine, and when you cut out all of the things Claw did for his own benefit, there is not much left," she said absently. Posturing, forcing males to challenge or submit, making every female choose a male to court, instilling fear through the little details… All of that took time, time she now would now use to sit and watch as her people celebrated.
"Lily?"
Lily looked over at Crystal. "Yes?"
"Is it just me, or does that look bad?" Crystal asked, gesturing out at the crowd. "What is happening?"
Lily, bemused, turned to look out at where the fledglings had leaped down. She could still see excited dragons all around them, shoving each other out of the way, calling out to the males-
All at once, what she was seeing turned ugly as her mind caught up to her eyes. Older females shoving the younger ones out of the way, crowding around the two new males, all speaking over each other. One clawed at anothing in irritation, and then two clawed at her in turn, and then blood was being shed.
"Stop!" Lily roared, her voice cutting through the clamor, charged with anger and disgust and surprise. "All of you, back away from them!"
Some did. Some didn't, continuing to claw at each other and hiss, fighting spitefully. Lily couldn't even see the males they were fighting over.
"Crystal," she growled tersely, "stop them. Flare, Grass, you too."
"On it," Flare snarled, forging his way through the crowd. Most of her pack moved out of his path, and the few who didn't were moved by force. He, with Grass's help, bodily pulled two snarling females apart, revealing one of the two young males who had just been declared adults. He was so small compared to the females who had mobbed him, and looked even smaller with his wings over his head, still hiding from the bewildering assault.
Lily could feel the anger coursing through her body, the way it made her scales hot and her back throb. Once her guards had cleared a healthy space around the two males, she snarled loudly, taking the attention of the crowd. Some of them looked as bewildered as she was, but not enough. Not nearly enough.
"This," she announced, "is horrible, and I am ashamed of everyone who played a part in it." She was ashamed of herself too, had she really not taken preventative measures? The pack was paying for that mistake now; the ceremony, barely even begun, was over, because there was no way to get back the relieved, festive atmosphere. Her short speech about how the pack was improving, gone with the wind in the face of such a failure.
"There are two new adult males in our pack," she continued angrily. "There are scores of you. Almost all of you are old enough to be the Dams of their grandparents!"
"Age does not matter!" a female called out.
"It does when you are pouncing on dragons barely out of fledglinghood," Lily snarled. "When you shove their friends out of the way, when you surround them, when you fight each other over them!" She could barely believe it had happened, hearing herself say it. One moment, the newest adults of the pack were leaping down to rejoin their friends and family, and the next, females were congregating on the males, clamoring for their attention, fighting each other over perceived slights. It had all escalated almost instantly, far faster than she even thought possible.
"This is horrible!" she called out. "We are supposed to be better than this! Do none of you feel any shame?" She glared down at the mass of females.
A few ducked their heads and shuffled back into the crowd, clearly embarrassed. Others glared at her defiantly. She was glad to not see any of her friends or guards among the crowd. Mist, Dew, Pina, Grass, all absent from the humiliating display of how far the pack still had to go.
"What am I even supposed to say?" Lily roared, letting some of her anger and disappointment into her voice. "What has happened? Why?" She knew she was missing something, a lot of somethings, and suspected this was not natural. Someone had arranged this, set up the components and let them all fall into place.
With that momentary thought, a new rush of adrenaline filled her. She was too cynical, too experienced, to miss it. This was manipulation, simple but effective, like what she had done to defend Root but on a different line of attack. A subset of the pack acting violently where they should not, all primed to lash out, all desperate though they shouldn't be.
She glared out at the offending females, quickly taking note of who they were. Mostly Claw's mates, with one or two recently unmated females on the outskirts. Diora was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Granite's Dam, but many of the females she did see, she knew well enough to be disappointed in.
"I don't believe this is us," she announced, breaking the silence in a softer, disappointed tone. "We, our pack, are not like this. Why? Who has told you that you must fight for the males, that you must have a mate now, that you cannot wait patiently for males who will come to you, who are not five times younger than you?"
More heads lowered in shame; most of the offending group, now. Her calm, disappointed words were getting through where anger had not. She had suspected they would, and it was easy to be calm when she was certain someone else entirely was responsible.
"This is not us," she repeated vehemently. "We do not fight over potential mates. Just because you can take a mate outside your season-cycle does not mean you all must, right now, no matter who you hurt to do it."
"I am not going to punish any of you," she continued, addressing the mass of mostly-ashamed females. "I will talk to many, perhaps all of you, to understand what has happened here and why. I am going to require that each of you apologize to the six people whose special night you have tainted with anger and violence. And I am making it a rule that no adult under ten season-cycles of age may take a substantially older mate for the time being, until I better understand what caused this and how to stop it without restricting your freedom."
There was a scattered echo of distress at that announcement, a collection of growls and gasps from the unmated females, but Lily didn't care. She would grant exceptions if some incredibly convincing reason came up, but for the time being she was going to nip all possible conflict in the bud by redirecting any and all resentment at herself. She, with her guards, could handle it and had the authority to stop it.
"Everyone else," she concluded. "Try to forget this happened, and rest easy with the knowledge that I will not let it happen again." She was going to hunt down whoever was responsible. If they thought they could beat her at her own game, they had a swift and thorough disillusionment coming. She already had a fairly strong suspicion as to who was at the bottom of it all, and all she needed was to follow the trail back to her.
Author's Note: Hey, some action! Believe it or not, we're almost at the end of the first 'book' of this story, only three chapters to go. The overall story is ridiculously far from over, but still.
