Sleep had not come easily for Lily. She didn't like the never-changing light of the cave they were in, or the moss underpaw; the two feelings combined were uncomfortably like sleeping in the middle of a field in broad daylight, something she couldn't help but feel was extremely dangerous. That was, of course, ridiculous, but it wasn't her conscious objections that made her feel like she had gotten a fitful nap instead of a full night's sleep, it was the way she kept waking up-
"Lily?" Mist got right up in her face and stared. "Lily."
"You were talking about what lies ahead," Lily said quickly. "I was thinking. Give me the description again." She wasn't even lying; she had been thinking about the caves past this particularly unpleasant one. Going off on a mental tangent about sleeping conditions, maybe, but that was important too. A substantial number of her fledglings were wandering around with drooping ears, dragging tails, or other indications of fitful sleep. She wasn't the only one.
"A long stretch of narrow caves with tunnels between them, spreading out like a spider's web," Mist said patiently. "We stuck to the leftmost tunnel at every branch, just in case, and going that way leads out into more massive caves with nothing but rock and connections to other places. They are very dark. Past that, there are dozens of ways to go, and we could not explore them all if we had a moon-cycle. Every new cave gives at least three different directions to explore."
"What about elevation?" she asked. "Do any of these paths go down?" She was wary of running afoul of the nameless horrors the guardian had warned her about. Staying as high up as possible was a sensible precaution. It might not be an efficient way to search for a new home, not if every newcomer to this realm had the same idea, but that problem could be dealt with if it came up.
"They all do to some extent," Mist said, thoughtfully tapping her tail on the ground and staring off at the empty air somewhere next to Lily as she thought. "Some more than others. There were a few holes in the spider web caves that go straight down with no bottom that could be seen… And they were too narrow to fly in."
Lily shuddered, understanding all too well what that meant. She was going to have to be exceedingly careful with arranging the pack for this next part of the trip; a deep hole with no way back up was a nightmare she would just as soon not lose anyone to. "Beyond that, though?" she pressed, hoping for less horrifying news.
"Everything slopes down, but not by much," Mist said. "Some paths go back up again, but never for long. None of it will be hard to walk. I cannot promise anything for the places beyond the first dark cave, though. We stopped keeping track of little details and just tried to get a sense of how many ways out there were."
"And you didn't find any signs of life?" Lily asked.
"None," Mist confirmed. "Nobody is around, and there are no signs of anyone passing through. But we did not have time to explore more than a tiny bit of the spiderweb."
Lily heard someone coming up behind her, a distinct set of squishes as paws pressed down on moss, and turned enough to see that it was Pearl. "We're almost ready to go," she said to the other female.
"I was going to ask if you wanted any more of the prey," Pearl said lightly.
"I've eaten," Lily replied, turning back to Mist. "Go tell Pina and Dew what you told me about vertical holes and spider webs in rock, then either scout more or take a break and walk with the pack, whichever you feel you can do." Normally, she would expect Mist to want to rest, but that wasn't an option. The pack was going to be moving, so it was either walk with everyone else, or walk ahead and explore. If Mist felt the latter was better, she wouldn't stop her.
"Got it," Mist said, leaving in a hurry. She didn't look tired, though she'd been out scouting while everyone else slept. Lily envied her energy.
"Spiders?" Pearl asked curiously. "Are we talking little ones that make good prey for hatchlings, or big ones that might prey on hatchlings?"
Lily turned and stared at her. "Should I be worried about that?" she asked. "Have you seen spiders that big?" She barely ever thought about spiders, they were tiny things not big enough to be interesting, but the idea of one so big it could be a threat was inherently unsettling. All of those legs and eyes…
"No, but you never know," Pearl said thoughtfully. "What were you talking about?"
"Caves that are complicated and interconnected enough to resemble a web," Lily said with a badly hidden sigh of relief. She knew it was badly hidden, but she was too tired to care. Her energy would be better saved for deceiving people who needed deceiving.
O-O-O-O-O
The path went up, then down, then up again, and split in every direction consistently enough that Lily had long since internalized the rhythm.
"Up, left, down, right, down, up," she muttered as they passed yet another passage that consisted of a small hole in the wall with a slope so steep following it upward would be more like climbing a tree than walking.
"Ten, twelve, fourteen," the young light wing behind her recited, counting their steps. It was another pattern, another thing that made Lily certain that the tight, winding passages were not natural. She couldn't get Pearl's off-paw comment out of her mind now, and hadn't been able to since realizing that nothing about the tunnels was random.
"...Thirty," said light wing concluded as they turned onto a new path headed to the left. "Two, four…"
Spark, who was walking in front of her, twitched as a piece of particularly brittle stone crunched under his weight, his golden tail flicking nervously. It lacked the excessive caution that characterized Beryl's tail, the odd lack of scars on one side and battle-worn streaks on the other, but it was still a tail. Proof that there was someone in front of her, someone who would see any danger before she did and maybe be able to do something about it.
Knowing that Ember was in front of Spark, somewhere ahead in the twisting tunnels, was even more of a relief. She wasn't comfortable with Ember, but it was a great relief to know that he was leading the way. Any massive spiders - stone-eating spiders, to be able to make this place - that came at him would hopefully find they had made a terrible mistake… and then he would know everything they knew. It was morbid and strange, but useful, and she hadn't had to ask for him to be in front. He had volunteered.
Beryl, on the other paw, was one of the scouts, and was somewhere beyond this terrible place, out in bigger and less ominous caves. She wished she was with him. No, she didn't, she wished they were all with him. It would do no good to leave her people behind.
"I just had a thought," Spark said quietly, looking back at her. "Do you think this is why there are no dragons around here?"
"Because whatever made this killed them all?" the light wing behind Lily asked fearfully, her voice tight with tension.
"Because this is scary and I do not think I would want to live right next to it," Spark explained. "Not that. Hopefully."
"Depends on whether whatever made this is still around," Lily ventured, slowing to look into the next passageway, which was right where it was supposed to be. It consisted of exactly what Mist had described, a brief widening in the path to accommodate a deep, seemingly bottomless hole. There was nothing visible in its depths, just as there had been nothing in any of the holes before it. That didn't stop her from checking every single one.
Checking the holes was something she could do, a rare commodity in their current situation. She couldn't coordinate with others, she couldn't give new orders if something came up… If some horrible creature came rushing out of a passage behind them, it would be the rear guards who fought it off. If the same happened in the middle of the spread-out line they had formed to venture through the tight passageways… There was nothing she could do. She couldn't even walk up and down the line itself; the cave was so tight there was no room to pass anyone.
"Hey…" Spark rumbled quietly. "How do we know we are not going in circles?"
"We're headed down," Lily said confidently. This, at least, she could answer. "Consistently. By the time we get back to where we were, we're too low to connect to the same path. So we're not going in circles."
"It is a spiral," the female behind her added. "One I wish would end soon."
Lily saw a bit of movement from the light wing in front of Spark, and heard murmuring from the person in front of them. It wasn't urgent, and Spark's tail began to sway more happily. "I'm betting you're about to get your wish," she said quietly, hiding her immense relief.
O-O-O-O-O
The exit to the horrible maze of tunnels was just as disconcerting as the actual web, if only by coincidence. More so for Lily than most.
The path she had been walking on suddenly flaring out to reveal a massive cave that they were coming down through the top of wasn't exactly a welcome sight to someone who couldn't fly, after all. There was more green moss down on the floor of the cave, though it would do her no good if she fell all the way to it, and a pond that was too far away to act as a soft landing. No path carved into the side of the cave, no sloping crystal to slide down, nothing.
Nothing but a familiar dark wing hanging back and letting light wings squeeze over him to drop into the open space. Spark stepped on his brother's back and leaped off without a word, and then it was Lily's turn.
"Want a ride down?" Beryl asked casually.
"Assuming you mean Ember, yes," she said quickly. She didn't want to hold up the line.
"Well," Beryl mused as a familiar Deathgripper flew into view, gliding beneath the hole, "there was this time we moved someone by grabbing their paws and tail…"
"I'll take the easy ride," Lily snorted. "Ember, I'm coming down!" He was gliding in circles, passing under the hole as often and as slowly as possible. She waited the half-dozen heartbeats it took for him to come back around, then hopped forward.
She fell for a timeless instant of terror and elation, and then hit his back, landing awkwardly to avoid hurting herself on the various sharp and spiky bits along the middle ridge. After that, it was an easy, if quick, descent to the ground.
The cave was dark, the only source of light coming from a few of the far walls, and even then not directly, just a few glowing holes. There were no crystals in the cave itself, but Lily suspected the light was coming from crystals further down the various paths. It wasn't even close to enough to illuminate the truly vast open space. She was familiar with the dark caverns back at the valley, able to see its short distances in the sheer darkness with ease, but this giant void was unnerving; she as if felt anything could be creeping up on her from anywhere.
Ember touched down on bare rock, and Lily stepped off. He shifted back immediately, his blue fire casting light all around them in a neat circle, fading out at the edges. "Nothing worth staying for here," he remarked.
Lily made a show of looking around the vast, empty space. "I don't know, there's something to be said for it," she said dryly. "At least it's dark enough to get some sleep."
"If anyone sleeps in this, they need to get a new sense of self-preservation," Beryl grumbled, flying down to land beside them. "I'm going to go help figure out which of the ways out of here leads to somewhere bright and warm and not extremely creepy."
"A noble goal," Ember agreed. "I'm going to keep watch." He nodded toward where the pack was gathering, all grouped together. "Hopefully there is somewhere better to go."
O-O-O-O-O
"I wish there was some dirt in here," Lily grumbled to herself, eyeing the dozen scouts who had all returned at once. Anything to make marks in, really. The scattered reports she had gotten as the various tunnels were explored were hard to hold straight in her head. "What did you find?"
"We went down the dark tunnel that is set near the top of the far wall," Cara said quickly. "We all went there because it opens out into another big cave like this one almost immediately, and there are many more paths out of there. We split into twos to investigate each of those paths."
"What did you and Aven find?" Lily asked, guessing who Cara had chosen to be partnered with. She was rewarded with a confused look from Aven.
"How did you know?" Aven asked quietly.
"It was an easy guess," Lily dismissed, shaking her head.
"We found a source of water," Cara said loudly. "The tunnel leads right to an underground sea so big we could not see the far side. There is no shore to speak of, and we came out high above it, so nobody could walk there, but there are fish!"
"That's good," Lily said, voicing the relief she was sure everyone shared. "Is the water salty or fresh?"
"Fresh," Cara said with a smug purr. "It is great."
"But there's nowhere to live near it," Lily asked knowingly. "Is there?" Cara would have led with that if she found such a place.
"No," Cara admitted, her smugness dropping away. "And there were fish bones in the tunnel right before it let out, meaning someone has been fishing and eating there, and is either not big enough to eat their fish whole, or just very picky."
"We found signs of life as well," Mist interjected. "A lot more than that. We followed a path to a smaller cave with plenty of light, and there was a waste pit dug into the rock. It had been used recently. Some of the tunnels leading out of that cave had scratch marks, a lot of them, like many dragons passed through recently. And there were a few scorch marks."
"I see," Lily said carefully. "We may not want to go that way now, but it is certainly good to know about." She hoped that wouldn't be a cause of trouble; there being a waste pit but no signs of continued occupation implied that said cave was a passing-through point, a place to rest when travelling. Or that the occupants had only recently left.
"We followed a gash in the stone, not like the tunnels we've been going through," Beryl said respectfully once it was clear Lily had no follow-up questions for Mist. "There were bugs and mushrooms, so it seemed we might find more life if we went that way."
"It is like a ravine with a top," Spark added. "And the bugs are very annoying."
"But at the end, there's a big cave," Beryl said. "Larger than the valley, brightly lit from above, with only a few ways out. It might not be suitable for living in, but it's much better than where we are now, and apparently there is food and water not that far away."
"We found the underground sea too," another of the scouts said. "Ours had a nice shoreline of rock and sand, but the cave ceiling slopes down not that far out, so it is not big enough to fish from."
"Slopes down?" Lily asked. She was struggling to picture what he meant.
"The water stays on the same level, but the roof comes down until it is in the water," he clarified. "So there is probably a lot more, but we cannot go any further, and the fish probably do not swim into reach all that often."
"You found more than us," a female huffed. "We explored three tunnels, all going the same way, and they all were dead ends."
"Honestly, that reassures me more than anything else could," Lily told her. "It means we have less directions to think about." She really wished she had a way to mark all of this down.
There was a moment of silence, and Lily realized that everyone had spoken. "So," she said, "that is all?"
"That is all we have had time to explore," Beryl said. "The problem is, taking into account all of the new places connecting to the caves we have found, there are more paths to explore than when we started."
"Good, plenty of options," Lily said.
"Lily, if we try to explore this whole place before moving on, we will be waiting in this cavern for season-cycles," Cara objected.
"Alpha," Lily corrected absently, her mind on other things. Such as there being no way to explore everywhere before her pack needed somewhere to stay, at least temporarily. For the moment, she had to prioritize finding somewhere good enough for longer than a short rest break.
"We need a place to stay for however long we need," she reasoned aloud, "and we need a source of food and water. Beryl, you say the place you and Spark found has neither of those?"
"Not directly, but it has paths to other places that might," Beryl explained. "And there were some red mushrooms, maybe enough for a few days."
"That settles it," she decided. "Right now, we'll go there. In the meantime, the next set of scouts will keep exploring." They didn't have a permanent home, but the cave Beryl had found would mean a little more food to keep them going. Water would be a problem, was already a problem, but she could send people out to the underwater… lake, really, since it was fresh water.
It was something aside from the ominous dark they were currently sitting in, and moving made her people feel like they were making progress. They would go immediately.
O-O-O-O-O
The ravine that Beryl and Spark had described was just as they had said. It was narrow and cramped, and dark enough to be ominously shadowed in every direction in a way that pure darkness couldn't match. Grey and pale yellow crystals lurked in corners and behind fallen rocks, sparse and dim even when they were in the open. Mushrooms were everywhere, some of them red and some other colors entirely. Worst of all, the bugs were just as annoying as Spark had said, large enough to make her flinch whenever one buzzed at her eyes or past her ears.
As they walked, Beryl made his way back to walk behind her. "Thankfully, the bugs don't come out into the next cave," he said as a way of starting the conversation. "No idea why, though."
"It's big and bright," Lily guessed. "Maybe they like the dark."
"Maybe," he said. "On another topic, I've noticed something. Less people seem to be coming to you and complaining about things. I have not seen a line of people with requests since we came down here."
Lily glanced behind her, saw that Dew and Pina were busy smacking bugs out of the air with their tails, and lowered her voice. "What do you mean by that?" If Beryl had noticed Holly trying to act like she was in charge…
"Nothing bad," Beryl assured her. "I think it just means there are less problems since everyone is focused on getting to wherever we are going. There's something to do, and not much to fight about."
"If that is why, it will end the moment we find somewhere livable," she said. She would still prefer that over her first guess, though. At least a renewed stream of complaints coming to her meant everyone saw her as the one to resolve them.
"That could be a while," Beryl remarked. "Or this place ahead of us could be it. What do you want out of a new home?"
"Safety and space," she said immediately. "Space for moving around, for flying, for living. Safety from enemies, from intrusions of any kind, and from starving or dying of thirst."
"Quite the list of requirements," he said in a teasing tone. "I notice nothing there about bugs."
"Oh, I want them slaughtered to the last gnat," she shot back, flicking her ears at a four-winged pest that was trying to land on her head. "But that would be a bonus."
"They could act as a deterrent," he offered. "If this was the only way into your new home, nobody would ever want to come visit."
"Maybe," she snorted. It was an unusual defence, but a defense nonetheless. Though she'd want something more solid than annoying bugs if whatever had made those tunnels came calling...
"This place could be easily defended, and not just by bugs," Beryl mused, apparently thinking along similar lines. "One guard could watch this passage, and a small group could hold it against ten times their number. Or we could just block it up."
"This rock does not seem loose, and I have yet to see boulders," Lily countered. "How would we block it?"
"I don't know how strong the crystals all over the place are," Beryl said in way of an answer. "We might be able to break and shape them to plug this passage. A wall, and one that we could see through, too. Then we could stick small pebbles and dirt up over our side, to make it look like the crystal is set against a solid wall, so nobody would bother trying to get through."
"That is a really good idea," she hummed. "I might need you to do it at some point."
"Assuming we can break the crystals at all," he clarified. "It might not be doable… But we can talk about this later. I recognize that mushroom." He nodded to a big, bulbous cap with white spots that drooped over their heads, growing out from the wall at an angle. "We're almost there."
Sure enough, the ravine took a sharp turn, and as she came around, she saw that it abruptly ended, terminating in the wall of an immense cave, the one Beryl had told her of.
From where she was, walking out into the open, it looked amazing. Some sort of grass-equivalent that was only a slightly odd shade of blue-green compared to normal grass covered most of the cave's floor and a good portion of the walls. The massive open area spread out into the distance and ended at a gradual, sloping wall composed entirely of colorful, light-giving crystals. The few large mushrooms rising like miniature trees in the darker corners of the cavern even cast faint but long shadows.
Other shadows were cast by a series of bowl-like depressions in some parts of the wall. There was a sound akin to moving water, amplified by a series of echoes, and it sounded like there was flowing water in the depressions, though she couldn't see it from where she stood.
"I thought you said there was no water?" she asked, looking over at Beryl.
The look on his face made her worried. "There wasn't any," he said firmly. "You can hear it from here, I'm sure we would have noticed. We didn't go too far in or stay very long, but-"
The sound of water died away, seemingly of its own accord.
"Okay…" Beryl looked as if he wanted nothing more than to fly over and investigate, but he remained by her side. "That's going to need some looking into."
"Definitely." She set off toward the wall with the potential source of fresh water. "Everyone, take a rest break! We'll be staying here for a little while." She didn't expect her people to refrain from exploring such a light and appealing cave, not after huddling around nervously in the last two, but nobody was going to go too far.
"I saw five major exits to this cave when we were last here," Beryl said as they walked. "There's one up there," he continued, looking off to the side.
Lily turned and saw that there was indeed a small opening set about halfway up the huge walls of the cavern. It might be reachable on paw, assuming she was crazy enough to try climbing a sheer rock face, but other than that it was totally inaccessible to anyone without flight… which was really just her.
"Then there is the bright path, over in the far wall." He looked right at the base of the wall made entirely of crystal. She couldn't see an opening, not with all of the light and colors dazzling her eyes, but she trusted that there was one.
"That makes three, counting the way we came in," she said. "What of the other two?"
"Larger, though not that large, and set in either wall," he concluded, waving to the left and right sides of the cavern.
"And up there?" Lily gestured to the irregular roof of the cavern. There were dark irregularities on the sloping ceiling, which seemed highest where they had come out, and lowest where it met the crystal wall. "I see holes."
"That might be a sixth exit, you are right," he agreed. "Also, you cannot see it from here, but the roof rises again near the far wall. It is almost like a lump in the middle, hanging down, but everything here seems stable."
"I certainly hope it is," she murmured, remembering just how much rock was above them. Somehow, with everything else that was going on, she had managed to forget it. Until now.
"Let's see this disappearing river," she huffed, stepping up onto the chest-high ledge of crystal that jutted out from the base of the wall. It was an appealing blue in color, but she cared more about what lay inset in the stone beyond it.
There was a straight furrow in the stone, one that was still wet. A little trickle of water still ran along its length, originating from a head-sized hole in the stone to one side, and terminating in another hole off to the other side. She could hear distant water, like waves on the shore…
"Tides, maybe," Beryl said, pawing at the trickle of wetness. "Nothing says underground oceans would not have them too. Whenever it is high tide, this stream flows, and whenever it is not, it ceases. That's really interesting."
"If this is coming from the underground lake…" Lily turned to look in the direction the water was coming from. She found herself staring at the crystal wall. "Didn't you say there was a tunnel going into those crystals?"
"I'll go find out where that leads," Beryl offered. "You set things up here."
O-O-O-O-O
Lily blinked heavily, aware that she was depriving herself of sleep. The bright, nearly blinding crystals that surrounded her were not helping her growing headache, either, but from what Beryl had said on returning from this particular path, what lay on the other end was worth being tired.
Even if she had to go with Cara, because Beryl had been pulled into something by Storm and Root. She would have taken Pina or Dew, but they were busy, and the same could be said for Pearl… Everyone was busy except for the people she was trying to keep from doing anything important. So really, Cara being available when few others were was her own fault.
The path through the crystals was jagged and twisting, moving between different colors and in different directions far too often. It had a steep upward slope, and wasn't big enough to fly in, both of which would be annoying, given what it led to.
"Looks like we are coming to the end," Cara observed. Her statement was ended with a huge yawn, and she let her tail drag on the smooth crystals for a bit before remembering to hold it up again. "After this, I will find someone else to scout in my place. I have been up for… too long. How are we going to tell when it is night and when it is day down here?"
Lily held back a scathing comment about how Cara was only thinking of that now, and considered the question. "We won't," she said. "Everyone will just have to sleep when they are tired."
"That sounds nice," Cara huffed. "I am tired now, though."
"Some of us will have to make sacrifices," Lily said coldly. Then they were emerging from the crystals, out onto a rocky ledge, and she had something else to think about. Such as the endless empty space in front of her, or the light breeze on her face, or the swishing water lapping against the stone...
Or the star-speckled night sky that had somehow come to be down in the water.
There really was an ocean's worth of water in this underground lake. It was so deep she could not see the bottom, but she could see the many-colored crystals dotted across what had to be the bed of the subterranean ocean, crystals that gave off light and made what might have been a nightmare of dark water a faintly-lit wonder.
"There are fish, see?" Cara exclaimed, looking down. "You can see them against the light from below. There are plenty, and this place seems to go on forever."
Forever… Lily shivered. "Yes. But are these fish catchable?"
"I will get some." Cara leaped out into the open space above the water and dove down to skim it, looking into it. She made several passes before speaking, her voice carrying clearly. "It is disorienting at first, but once you get used to the light coming from the wrong direction…"
She fired into the water, and after a moment skimmed it, coming up with several dead fish, kinds Lily did not recognize. "When it comes to food, this is great," she said, her voice muffled, "But safety..."
She trailed off, stretching and stilling her wings to glide slowly on the breeze, and Lily looked where she was looking. The stone ledge she was standing on ran parallel to the watery depths, and continued onward out of sight. It led somewhere, and the places where it would have naturally ended were gouged out of the rock, implying that at some point, something had decided that a walkable path was worth making.
"I want guards here," she said as Cara landed. "That was made by someone, even if they are long gone now. A few of the scouts."
"You are using us for a lot of things right now," Cara said, dropping the fish. "We are tired. That might have to wait until everyone has rested and we can set up a rotating watch."
"I am leaning heavily on you," Lily agreed, taking one of the fish and swallowing it. The food felt good in her empty stomach, but also left her feeling far sleepier than she would have liked. "Once we know what is around us, your scouts may get all the rest they need. But that comes first."
"It does, I will find someone who can stand guard," Cara reluctantly agreed. "But it will not be me. I still feel as if I am sleepwalking."
"Agreed. Now, we should head back." Lily took a step toward the way back to their cavern.
A haunting cry echoed from behind her, long and low, almost mournful. She whirled, looking down into the water, and Cara did the same almost in unison.
There was nothing new to be seen. Not that they could see much, just the blurred lights and the tiny shapes flitting in front of them-
A whole group of lights winked out in sequence, as if something was passing in front of them from left to right. Something massive.
Lily took three very quick steps back from the edge. "Those who fish here must fish in pairs, with one always watching the water." She didn't know what that was, but it was big. There had been big things in the oceans, and those never caused trouble, so there was not necessarily any reason to be alarmed, but she was not taking chances.
"Definitely," Cara growled.
Another sound echoed out from the depths, another a mournful cry in the distance. Lily shivered. She didn't want to know what was making those noises. So long as it stayed away, she wouldn't have to.
Then she heard a far more familiar and far more alarming sound, a distant roar of aggression and rage. More followed, all coming from the main cavern.
From her pack. Lily forgot all about the unknowns of the water as she darted back up the path to the rest of her people, hating that something bad had happened almost as soon as she let down her guard. She should have been there, not looking into water and being spooked by noises!
They rushed up the short passage that connected the main cave with the underground lake, ran out into the open, and saw a commotion on the other side of the cave, around one of the passages she had sent scouts into. Light wings were moving and roaring and firing in at the passage entrance, which meant enemies were invading the valley-
No, not the valley, their cavern. Lily shook her head as she ran, trying to clear it. This was not the valley, and she needed to be thinking straight to handle this.
Cara dove forward above her, crossing the distance in moments and dropping right into the fray, lending her weight. Beryl and Ember were already there, along with Pearl and Storm, and even Thaw, for some reason-
No, Lily could see why Thaw was there. Fledglings and hatchlings were being thrown and carried out of the fight, most utterly terrified, but a few sporting wounds and bawling piteously.
A few fledglings must have slipped away from their minders and gone exploring, or those in charge of them had seen no harm in letting them play close to the tunnel. Either way, they had found something that did not like them. This was the result. All in the short time Lily had been gone.
She tried to run faster, but she was tired, and her back was hurting too much to ignore, those four points of pain jabbing at her with every bound. It took her precious moments, far too many of them, to make it to the fight.
To make matters even more frustrating, by the time she reached the skirmish, it was over, and Holly was the one in charge. The enemy dragons were retreating, and everyone was listening as Holly and Cara barked out orders.
Good orders. To form a defensive line in front of the tunnel exit; to see to the fledglings, and to make sure no parents of any fledglings involved were stuck guarding the tunnel. To make sure all the fledglings were accounted for.
Lily hated how conflicted she felt. There were good orders in place, ones she would have given, and she had not been able to make it there in time to give them. She wanted to roar at Holly and Cara, to override them and give her own set of orders, better ones, but there were no better ones, and to do that would just make her look bad.
She settled for making sure she knew what had happened. "Report," she barked at Holly, wanting to visually reestablish the chain of command. Holly was still under her.
"I woke up to screeching," Holly explained, panting. "the fledglings were all running out of the tunnel with larger dragons after them. We all jumped into the fray and tried to extricate the fledglings. They fled just before you got here… We do not know why they attacked-"
"And they definitely were not talking to us," Mist added from her position in the defensive line. "I tried, none would do anything but snarl and growl insults."
"So they were intelligent?" Lily asked.
"Definitely, but they were also enraged." Holly shrugged her wings. "There were three different kinds of dragon here. Beryl would probably know what they were."
"Where is he?" Lily spun in a tight circle, trying to locate him. Or any of the dark wings, really. She could see Storm and Root, side by side in the defensive line, looking no worse for wear, but none of the other dark wings were around. Hadn't they been embroiled in the fight just a second ago?
"Something with Thaw," Holly offered. "He was there, and he fought to defend the fledglings he was with. He did not look all that hurt, but something happened and once Ember jumped in they all fled…"
Lily nodded; she had a good idea of why the enemy had retreated. Ember had killed, and in the process scared off the attackers, because the way he killed and sometimes turned his opponents to ash would unnerve anyone.
She shook her head and tried to think of whether she needed to do anything immediately. The way was being watched, the injured fledglings were being tended, and if any of her people were missing she did not know about it. "Did we lose anyone in the fight?" she asked.
"Yes, we lost a female. Her body is down in the tunnel a ways. She jumped into the midst of them to buy the rest of us time to get to the fledglings." Holly sighed, looking down sadly.
"And we might have to assume the two scouts I sent down that very tunnel are not going to come back," Cara added solemnly. "I hope they do, but I am not going to count on it. We lost at least three to those dragons."
"It will not happen again," Lily snarled. "Cara, I am putting you in charge of defending this passage. Nothing gets by."
"Yes, alpha!" Cara barked, and Lily was reminded that she had meant to keep Cara and her sisters from any sort of authority… but it was too late to go back on the decision now, not without looking weak.
"I need Beryl to see if we can block this passage," she snarled, turning away from Cara. "Can someone give me an idea of where Beryl went?"
"He and Thaw went over there," Aven said sullenly, nodding toward one of the few big mushrooms, in the far corner of the cave. Sure enough, Beryl and his family were clustered around the mushroom.
Lily nodded wordlessly and ran across the cavern, her mind focused on the task at paw. She needed to get Ember and Beryl working on blocking the passage, and then she needed to see someone about arranging guards on all the other paths, and send some people to fish for everyone...
"Beryl, I need you and Ember over at the defenses," she called out as she got close.
Beryl lifted up on his hind legs to look at her from the far side of the huddle. "In a little while. This is important."
"Is Thaw okay?" she asked.
"He is not hurt," was the short, obviously incomplete reply.
"Then what is the matter? You are needed now." She didn't have patience for this, and while she knew he was holding something back, she didn't have the time to coax it out of him… especially not in front of the rest of his family.
"Lily, I said in a little while," Beryl growled. "Now please, if you are going to stay, be silent and do not intervene."
"She is not staying." Ember lifted his head to stare at Lily. "This is a family matter. Leave us."
"Ember, if we make her go she will just nose around until she finds out what we were doing," Beryl sighed. "Let her stay, it will make things easier. And she is not going to say or do anything, right?"
Lily glared at him. "If that is the trade for being let in on what is going on, fine." She walked over to stand behind Beryl, and got a good look at who was in the center of attention.
Thaw was huddled between his Sire and Dam, under their wings, shuddering silently with his face hidden against Pearl's side. He was in distress, clearly, but not hurt from what little Lily could see.
Nobody spoke for a long while. Lily grew impatient despite herself, but she didn't let it show. Whatever was going on, she was well aware that only Beryl's endorsement - and she had to wonder what Ember and the others thought about how easily Beryl would bring her into something like this - was allowing her to be present.
Eventually, Pearl spoke. "Thaw, it is fine. You did well."
"You protected those who could not protect themselves," Beryl agreed. "Any of us would have done the same."
"And if you do not speak, we cannot be sure you are going to be okay," Ember rumbled. "Thaw, remember what I told you."
"Never kill if there is another way," Thaw huffed, his deep voice cracking and strained. "There was no other way, Sire, he was lunging for a little female who was not fast enough, and nobody else could do anything."
"I know. I saw. And you did well. I meant the other part." Ember's voice was soft.
"To… To listen to you and do as you said afterward, to not hide it or feel ashamed, but…" Thaw shivered, looking up at Ember. "Sire, something is wrong. I feel strange."
"You know what I am, son. Now we get to know what you are." Ember lightly pawed at Thaw's side. "I am not ashamed, because I know it was not my choice to be this way. All that matters is what I do with it. You will not be ashamed of this. You had even less choice than I did."
"I am sure it is scary," Pearl murmured, caressing his head with the tip of her nose, "but you must push aside the fear and find out what has changed. Then you will not have to be so afraid."
"So, son?" Ember asked kindly.
"I know I have to see," Thaw whined. "But am I like you?"
"We don't know," Ember admitted. "What do you feel?"
"I don't feel anything in my head," Thaw replied, seeming to know what he was supposed to be focusing on. "I remember the shape of the one I… I killed… but there is nothing more."
"Try to concentrate on that form," Ember coached. "Do not try too hard. I think you may be missing the vital part of this ability that means anything, in which case-"
Thaw began to shimmer, and Ember and Pearl backed up. Lily stared, utterly fascinated, as the fledgling began to disappear, tiny clear flames dancing across his body, so very clear that she could barely see them. Then, when Thaw was translucent but still visible, an in-between state Lily was entirely sure no light wing could ever accomplish, his shape began to twist and expand, like he was suddenly made of dirt and being pushed and pulled by some giant paw.
Everyone backed up as Thaw continued to expand, still a translucent shape just barely on fire. It was a slow process, which just served to highlight how very unnatural it was.
Then the fires flickered out, and Thaw faded back into view. At least, Lily was pretty sure it was Thaw. He had two heads on long necks, and two tails, along with a much larger and flatter body. He was also still colored the same as before, and looked distinctly odd, white mixing with blue-green just like before, but covering a far larger body.
Both heads wobbled on their long necks, and turned to look at each other. Two hisses of shock exploded from them, and then the flames and translucence returned, slowly molding Thaw back into his normal self. He stood on shaky legs, looking like he might collapse. "I am still me," he gasped, closing his eyes and trembling.
"What did you feel?" Ember asked urgently.
"I did not have any new memories," Thaw said faintly, so quiet Lily could barely hear him. "And it was so strange to have two minds… two heads. It felt like I had split myself into two partial people, and those two people didn't really know how to talk to each other."
"I don't think you do what I do, then," Ember said slowly.
"I think he only takes on the shape," Beryl proposed. "You saw, he still looked like Thaw in coloration. There are no memories. The shape is all he got."
"And he does not have a void, not like I do." Ember shrugged his wings. "Thaw, do you just think of the form and it happens?"
"No, I think of it and push it into this odd little spot in my mind." Thaw sounded less horribly afraid now, but still not at all comfortable. "It is not a void, but it is dark, and I do not know what it is."
"Does it matter?" Pearl asked. "You are still fine. Nothing bad has happened, and all of the horrible parts of what happened to Ember are not happening to you. What you have is too… diluted, I think. Weak."
"Weak is a good thing," Ember asserted. "But it does matter. We do not know if he can safely rid himself of this form."
"Do not try!" Spark blurted out, reminding everyone that he was there too. "It looks like he does not switch forms, I saw his injury on the dragon he turned into. He just changes what he is. There is only one body for Thaw."
"That is what I was thinking," Thaw agreed, twisting to look at a shallow gash on his side, not even deep enough to draw blood. "Since I still had this hurt… I do not think killing myself would end well for me."
"Do not try, ever," Pearl growled. "Your Sire is the exception to that. You have a very different… talent."
"A very good one, too," Ember purred happily, rubbing his face against Pearl's head. "This is really just a talent. No stolen memories, and no stolen bodies. Just a way to change shape."
Pearl purred right back at him, drawing Thaw close with her wing and breaking the little circle they had held around him. "That is a great relief. Do not make a habit of taking new shapes, Thaw, and you have nothing more to worry about."
"I will not," Thaw promised, his voice muffled. "This is really a good thing?"
"We suspected you had taken something from being my offspring," Ember rumbled, "but it looks like you got all of the good and none of the bad. What you got was weak enough to not have any of the bad parts."
"It is great," Spark said eagerly. "Really great."
"I guess," Thaw said, his ears perking up. "It is not as bad as it could have been…"
Lily backed away, seeing that the serious, mind-shattering revelations were done, and feeling more than a little uncomfortable spectating such a personal moment.
Beryl also stepped away, shaking his head. "We got so very lucky. None of us knew what might happen. For all we knew, it would go wrong and destroy him the moment he checked."
"Then why did Ember have him check?" Lily asked quietly, not wanting to be overheard. "If it was so dangerous."
"Because the way all of this works, it would happen eventually no matter what," Beryl whispered back. "There is no avoiding it. He might have triggered it without meaning to at some point. Maybe it would activate itself. Even if he never checked, when he eventually died of age or something else, it would be there, waiting for him. Or, that was how it would have worked for Ember."
"But he's not like Ember?" she asked.
"Not in the way that matters," Beryl assured her. "And since you saw, you are not going to ask about it or press for more information?"
"I would have been subtle about finding out what happened," she huffed. "You basically told them I would do more harm than good if I wasn't let in on the secret right away. I wouldn't have."
"I said what I thought," he retorted. "That you would find out anyway. Anything else I might have implied was just that, an implication. What were you originally coming over to ask me about?"
"I… Blocking the passage," she said, remembering her initial purpose. "I want you and Ember to figure out whether you can block that passage. Whoever was attacking, I want them to never be able to come that way again."
"It was a mix of different dragons," he said, looking back at his family. They had moved away, toward the intermittent stream. "Two-heads, those with flaming bodies, and the little smelly ones we ran into in the forest."
"They're here?" she growled. "Really?"
"Not the same ones we met, but their kind," he explained. "I think. It could be the same ones, but that would make no sense. How would they have gotten down here before us, and why would they be attacking?"
"You're right, they're not the same people…" She shook her head and growled again, louder this time. "But they've killed at least three of mine. I want their way into our cave blocked, and if they come back, I want them dead."
"Ember and I can look into that first part," Beryl agreed. "But are we staying here?"
Lily noticed that he had said we, and took comfort in that. She didn't expect him to leave now, but it was good to hear confirmation of her assumption. "Water, food, space, and if we can block up the dangerous passages, safety. This place is worth fighting for, at least until our scouts can find somewhere better." At the very least, this cave was far more defensible than the valley had been. And Beryl would make it better still.
She could protect her pack here.
