Lily looked down through a jagged, irregular hole in the ground and saw her new domain laid out below her. Ahead, there was the wall of crystals, with a hole in it that led to the underground lake. To her left and far below, the embedded stream and the tunnel that was a dead end. Behind her, more tunnels and the ravine that they had come in through. To her right at the bottom of the cave, the now-blocked tunnel with its guards. The cave floor itself was still blue-green and mostly untouched, her people only spreading out now that they felt safe. There were no private places or obvious delineations of territory, so families resorted to gathering in groups and flaming the grass in small spaces to mark where they slept.

All of which was well and good, but a view from above wasn't why she had come up here. She could have asked Ember for a favor if she just wanted that.

"You say it fell out the moment someone stepped on it?" she asked quietly, looking down at the distant cave floor, eyeing one thing in particular. Directly below her was a chunk of crystal, broken by the impact into four strangely cubic pieces. She hoped Ember could use said pieces for something; there were only so many crystals in this cave, and while they were in no danger of running out any time soon, she considered them a limited resource.

"Yes, and Storm almost fell with it," Root said. "I have never heard such a surprised yelp from her." He didn't sound all that worried about his… potential mate? Friend? Teacher? Lily didn't know how he saw his relationship with her. "It is a good thing nobody was below at the time."

"A very good thing, and later I'm going to want someone to go through these caves and stomp on every crystal someone might stand on." If one could fall, others could too. She hadn't seen many crystals set in the floor so far, maybe one or two, but those would need to be proven safe. She intended to let families with small and not-so-small fledglings live up here, after all.

"I will not be the one doing that," Root huffed. "I can see a lot of things, but the difference between a crystal and normal rock is subtle. Anyone with eyes would have a much easier time."

"You've done far more than enough already," she assured him. "Checking the entire cave for openings, exploring this small cave system, fighting for the pack…"

"That last one was very short," Root said, looking away even though Lily knew that movement did nothing for him. "And frightening."

"Get Storm to add fighting to the list of things she is teaching you, if it's not there already," she advised. On top of every other useful thing Root could do, a fighter who could see around corners and didn't necessarily need line of sight might be crucial someday. Root was quickly turning into one of her most important fledglings, possibly the very most important one that was definitely under her control.

For the moment. Depending on how he and Storm progressed, he might not be hers for that much longer. That bothered her more than she expected; she didn't resent the dark wings for potentially poaching one of hers, but she did dread the day they left, and them taking Root made that day even less palatable.

"She says we might start wrestling practice soon," he said obliviously. Or maybe it was her hearing the dirty interpretation, and Storm had actually meant it the way he was taking it.

"That's nice." Lily turned away from the hole and stifled a yawn. "I think I'm done up here." She had toured the winding complex of caves already; it wasn't exactly private, not when any hidden corner was all of three steps away from another tunnel, but it at least provided the illusion of solitude. She would figure out who was getting it… later.

"You sound really tired," Root remarked as he led her back toward the way down. "When did you last sleep?"

"How would I know?" Lily asked in return. "It is not like there is a way to keep track of day and night down here." A thought occurred to her. "How do you do it normally?"

"Feeling the sun on my back, being told everyone is going to sleep," Root huffed. "Now, though, I just sleep when I feel like it."

"So you can sleep," Lily murmured. She hoped that the pure exhaustion dragging her down would be enough to get her some actual rest.

"You cannot?" he asked with a questioning warble.

"No, just so much to do and so little time to do it in," she lied. He didn't need to know about how she had barely managed to doze since reaching this particular cave; it was a product of her wariness and the danger the now-blocked tunnel had posed, nothing more.

"You could spend some time testing out one of these caves," Root suggested. "Is it the alpha's duty to make sure they are nice and comfortable to sleep in? You do not have to delegate that."

"Funny," Lily chuckled. "But I meant real duties, not excuses to laze around."

"Real duties like what?" Root pressed. He turned a corner, and suddenly they were headed down. Lily was glad she had him as a guide; she would have spent a lot more time wandering around aimlessly, trying to find the way out. There was no indication that this particular turn led to the exit.

"Hearing what the latest scout reports say about our surroundings, checking in with Ember on how blocking the other tunnels is going, making sure anyone who goes fishing is going in pairs like I said they should, going around and checking for other problems I have not noticed yet…"

"What about Holly and Cara?" Root asked. "Holly can do some of that, and Cara can do the rest. I thought they were doing those things."

"Some things I just need to do myself," Lily huffed. She wasn't going to get into her suspicions with anyone except maybe Beryl. Voicing them would give Holly and her sisters power, of a sort, the power of being recognized as a legitimate threat to her authority.

"If you say so," Root warbled. "What is next? Anything else you need me to do?"

"No, nothing for you," Lily said. She couldn't think of anything else she needed him to do, and having him rest and relax was probably a better idea in the long term. Not everyone could push themselves the way she did.

Of course, by that same measure, she should probably go lie down and try to sleep again… Soon. Not quite yet. She wanted to spend some time with Beryl first, both to catch up with him and to hopefully relieve some stress.

O-O-O-O-O

Beryl was off fishing with his brother. Lily felt irrationally angered about that. She knew it was irrational, so she didn't act on it.

"Lily, my Dam says I cannot go play with the bugs!" a female fledgling called out, skidding to a stop in the grass in front of her.

Just like that, she had something to do while she waited for him to get back. If there was one benefit - or downside, usually downside - to being alpha, it was that she was never bored.

"The bugs over there?" Lily asked, looking back at the bug-filled crack in the wall. It was the only land-based exit she hadn't had Ember close off; her people needed a way out into the wider world, after all, and an inhospitable chokepoint was the best option she had for that. Nobody would get through without a lot of death, and so far it didn't seem like the dragons who had attacked before knew about that way in…

"Yes, they are fun to swat," the female answered, unaware of the somewhat violent tangent Lily had mentally gone off on.

"And your Dam said no," she said, looking around. One particular female was watching her, but she knew Diora didn't have any fledglings nowadays, so she had no idea who this particular fledgling belonged to.

"She does not let me do anything," the female grumbled.

"In this case, she's right," Lily hummed, crouching down to look at the female without looking down on her. Most fledglings didn't like that. "Those bugs are not very good prey anyway. Maybe have your Dam play hunting prey with you instead."

"Why are the bugs bad prey?" the female asked, her ears falling.

"They're small, annoying, and might follow you back into the cave and get everywhere," Lily said, speaking as if she was offering her some great insight. "Bugs in your fish, bugs where you sleep, bugs in your ears when you least expect it… Do not anger the bugs." Of course, none of that would actually happen - unless she really didn't understand how intelligent and driven the average insect was, which seemed unlikely - but it was a good enough reason for a little one who didn't know better.

The female squeaked and nervously glanced over her shoulder. "That does not sound very fun…"

"Which is why your Dam makes a much better target," Lily assured her. "Go play with her."

"What about you?" The fledgling gave her a hopeful look.

"I make a terrible target," Lily laughed, trying not to think about how much it would hurt to have a fledgling who probably weighed half as much as she did landing on her back. "Go hunt your Dam before she wonders where you went."

"Okay!" the fledgling scampered off, moving to the nearest group of light wings and crouching in a vain attempt to hide behind one of them. He noticed, but she didn't notice him looking down at her as she crawled through the grass-

"So impolite," Diora purred from right behind Lily.

"To sneak up on someone and try to startle them?" Lily drawled, for once thankful that she was so tired she hadn't reacted at all to the scare. "Yes, it is quite impolite. How nice of you to get a head start on apologizing."

"I meant the fledgling, bothering you like that," Diora said, completely ignoring Lily's less-than-subtle attempt to make her apologize. "But it is to be expected, what with Holly spending so much time around them recently."

"Why is that?" Lily asked, mostly to get to what Diora really wanted. It would wrap around to Pearl somehow, so Diora might as well get to that part. Not that she would say as much; there was sarcastically chastising the other female for her rudeness, and then there was pointing out her more fundamental issues to her face. The latter would cause way too much trouble.

"It is just that since you have had Holly not doing important things," Diora murmured, "she has gone around organizing playtimes for the fledglings. She and Cara and Aven."

"This sounds like something I should be thankful for," Lily pointed out, wondering how Diora knew she was keeping Holly and her sisters from positions of authority. It wasn't supposed to be obvious enough that people would notice.

"I would not consider those three the best to influence young minds, is all," Diora hummed. "And Pearl has joined in too… Holly trusts her."

"There's no reason for her not to trust Pearl," Lily said, holding in a tired sigh. She was holding in a lot of emotions and reactions recently, come to think of it, but that was only because everyone was so predictable and aggravating. "But you think differently?"

"I just think it is suspicious that a female who has very thoroughly made herself not of our pack is influencing those who want to lead our pack in the future," Diora said with a low growl. "And those females are in turn spending a lot of time with fledglings who will like them better than you when they grow up."

"That's certainly a long-term plot," Lily mused, pretending to take Diora seriously. This was obviously an indirect strike at Pearl, and the supposed plot of garnering authority by playing with fledglings was, on the surface, ludicrous.

Though it would be quite an advantage to have a good rapport with an entire generation of light wings once they came of age. She had as much with those her own age, more or less, and several of them had proved crucial to undermining Claw; Crystal and Mist especially.

Diora was pointing it out to get at Pearl, but that didn't mean the observation she had made was wrong, aside from the obvious leap of reasoning to include Pearl. "I'll look into it," Lily said, for once meaning it without reservation. "Is this happening now?"

"No, they do it when you are not around," Diora said smugly. "They were playing with the fledglings while you were off with Root, for instance, and stopped when you got back."

"I see." Again, she would verify that for herself, but it was valuable information, if true. A thought occurred to her.

"And since you have brought this to my attention," she hummed, leaning toward Diora. "Keep an eye on Holly, would you? If she is colluding with Pearl on something, I would like some advance warning." She doubted Pearl had anything to do with it, but Diora already had her biases, and those biases would keep her attention on the task at paw.

"Yes, alpha," Diora said eagerly. "I can do that. I will tell no one."

"See that you don't." For once, Diora would be making herself useful. Under her constant hatred of Pearl, she could collect and convey valuable information on Holly's machinations… and if the annoying female with an obvious grudge was seen complaining to the alpha in the future, well, Holly would probably just laugh and ignore it. Lily certainly hadn't ever listened to Diora before.

O-O-O-O-O

The trickle of the stream, stopping and starting again at seemingly regular intervals, was Lily's new favorite sound, both soothing and capable of giving her a sense of time passing. She lay on the grass nearest the flowing water set into the wall, out of the way of anyone coming to get a drink but close enough to hear it, and let her heavy eyelids drift closed. She was exhausted, mentally and physically, and no longer needed to worry about bloodthirsty enemies storming in at any moment. Sleep should come with no difficulties whatsoever.

Should, she realized as she lay motionless and listened to the stream, did not mean would. It was there, tantalizing and entirely out of her reach for no apparent reason. She was so tired, she had been up doing things and walking around for so long that her paws ached despite a moon-cycle of walking to toughen her up. She had seen others sleep multiple times since her last failed attempt at it, and even then she had dozed. Now she couldn't even do that.

The stream stopped and started twice while she waited for something that clearly wasn't going to happen. She spent some of the time resolutely not thinking about anything, some of it thinking about nothing in particular, and the rest resenting her own inability to sleep. At some point in the middle she might have dozed off for a few moments once or twice, but that was as close as she got. Her sleeping problem was getting worse, and she had no idea why.

The bark of alarm and thump of someone landing nearby was a welcome excuse to give up, one she seized with both paws. By the time she saw Cara, who was opening her mouth to speak, she was already up-

Up, and the cave was spinning around her. A few deep breaths helped her steady herself. "What is it now?" she demanded.

"The water," Cara blurted out, gesturing back the way she had come. She hitched her wings up to fly, then realized she couldn't be followed and instead broke into a trot. Lily followed.

"And?" Lily asked irritably. "Run and talk."

"Aven and I were fishing, something huge came up out of the water." Cara huffed as they ran, sounding far more casual than the encounter she was describing should merit. "But it is all fine. She is friendly, and Aven is speaking to her right now."

It took Lily a little while to process all of that; she knew she was thinking more slowly than normal, another consequence of her blasted inability to sleep, and she spent the time to be sure she was thinking clearly. She definitely wasn't at her best at the moment, and this was important. She couldn't let her weakness show, or worse, let it influence her decisions.

They reached the tunnel through the crystal wall, and Lily shoved forward to ensure she went in first. Cara followed behind her without acknowledging the rather blatant move-

"It is fine, Aven is in no danger," Cara huffed from behind her. "There is no need to rush."

"I'm not rushing because I'm worried for her," Lily shot back. If anything, she was rushing because she was worried about Aven, worried about what she might say or do. She wasn't a bad fit for being the first point of contact, but Lily had intended to keep her away from such duties for the time being, both for Aven's sake and for her own. This was just one more way the three sisters might be able to claw back some authority they weren't supposed to have.

Then Lily emerged from the crystal tunnel and saw both Aven and the sea dragon, and thoughts of power fled her mind as awe and more than a little bit of fear pushed their way in.

The sea dragon was large, though not as huge as the guardian had been. It was resting its thick and flat head on the ledge, trailing thin tendrils off to either side, and staring at her and Cara with wide, pale eyes. Its scales were mottled black and blue, perfectly suited for blending in with the dark water it had come from… which meant Lily couldn't see anything of its body beyond the stout neck connecting the head to the water, and the distinct lack of underwater lights in a wide area behind where the neck terminated.

Aven was standing before it, her posture suggesting she was speaking to a friend, not talking to a massive creature who could probably bite her in half with one good lung and snap.

"New light wings," the sea dragon crooned, her voice decidedly delicate and feminine despite her appearance. "Who are these?"

Aven turned and nodded politely to her sister and Lily. "My other sister and the alpha."

The sea dragon inhaled for a long time, its flat nose twitching sensitively. "Both sisters, though. Half-sisters. Why do you not call the alpha a sister too?"

Lily briefly wondered whether someone who could breathe underwater could also smell underwater, and if so how that translated to smelling in the air. Regardless, it was a fair question; she, Holly, Aven, and Cara were technically the same when it came to how they related to each other. Different Dams, same Sire. But by that measure, Lily was also just as closely related to Thunder, Lightning, and a couple dozen other light wings.

"We just… are not close like that?" Aven said. "It is complicated. But the alpha is here now, so you can ask your questions!" She waved a wing at Lily.

"I like you better," the sea dragon complained. "But fine. Alpha of these light wings, do you all plan to stay and fish this area?"

"What of it?" Lily replied, not sure what the sea dragon wanted to hear.

"My people care for this sea," was the reply. "It takes effort to ensure the fish populations match the consumption. We are happy to ensure you get all the food you need, but we need to know you will be staying here before we adjust our husbandry methods to accomodate you."

"You are saying you raise the fish?" Lily asked, unsure of what 'husbandry' meant. Unlike Ember's made-up words, it wasn't composed of understandable bits.

"Yes. We have done so for a long, long time. We are good at it, and it is necessary in this closed sea." The female sea dragon gurgled happily. "It is fun, and we get to eat them once they grow old. So, do you wish us to begin driving schools here and raising more in the area?"

"Yes," Lily decided. It was not a hard question to answer. "What do we owe you in return?"

"Oh, nothing," was the answer. "Just tell us if your pack decides to leave and stop eating these fish we are bringing over, so that we know to scale back. It is a delicate balance. And of course we do not want to be fired upon or feared. We will be in the area more often than not."

"I have no issues with you doing as you do best," Lily said diplomatically. She didn't consider the waters her territory anyway, and having a neutral third party occupying them was far more palatable than worrying about what else might be down there…

"How many other packs do you help like this?" Aven asked curiously.

"How many? Right now, seven." The sea dragon laughed, splashing something behind her. A massive frill was visible for a moment before sinking back down out of sight. "The other two near here, some mixed packs, and a group of Fear-mongers a long swim from here."

"Fear-mongers?" Such a foreboding name for an entire type of dragons was ominous in the extreme, even more so if the name was more than simple boasting. That was a reputation, enforced and acknowledged by anyone speaking of them.

"Oh, yes, they are usually horrible," the sea dragon said casually. "They do not hunt my kind, since they cannot swim, but they tend to eat anyone they can catch in their traps." She grimaced, the expression odd on the unfamiliarly-shaped face. Lily noticed that she had said people, not prey. "They are more like your kind than mine, but very different from either, especially the wings and fangs and fog."

"And this pack is how far away from us?" Lily demanded. "If someone who would eat my people lives nearby, I want to know." They sounded a lot like Deathgrippers, ones that weren't stunted by No-scaled-not-prey rearing methods, but mention of some sort of fog made her think that wasn't right.

"That is what their kind usually does,'" the sea dragon said hastily. "The pack my people keep fed do not do that, which is why they need our fish. Some of them are even fun to talk to. Usually, Fear-mongers do not live together at all. But they are a long, long way from here by water. I do not know how close they might be if you cannot swim."

"Good to know," Lily murmured. She didn't like the sound of them at all, peaceful nature or not. They usually lived by killing people, not prey, so that meant they had to be very, very good at killing. She didn't want to meet them at all.

"You know a lot about these waters, though," she said, changing the subject. "Do you know where this ledge leads?" She paced out onto the ledge that her scouts hadn't yet found the end of."

"Yes, it leads to a very distinctive cavern with blooming white flowers, but nobody ever goes there. It is also very far away, and the ledge crosses a part of the ocean where no fish will go, so it is a hard journey to make for your kind." The sea dragon huffed loudly. "The water out there is hot and tastes bad, and I think it is not good to swim through. There is probably a good reason our elders keep us away from it."

Ominous, but Lily was beginning to see that every other thing about this realm was ominous or worrying in one way or another. "Thank you for the information," she purred. "I would like to talk to you at length about these other packs, just to get an idea of who is around us-"

"No, not you." The sea dragon interrupted. She slid her massive head forward and nudged Aven. "I like this one better. You are tired and angry, even if not at me."

Lily really didn't have the motivation to argue that, though she did wonder how the sea dragon had picked up on that. She'd thought she was hiding it well enough. "Well, I have to speak to her for a moment, but you can keep talking to her after," she offered.

"Be quick," the sea dragon requested. Lily was getting the impression that she was younger, a young adult or maybe even an older fledgling. She had no way of knowing, of course, but the attitude and the way she talked made it seem likely. Or all sea dragons were that flippant and occasionally rude.

"What is it, Lily?" Aven asked, following her back a little way into the crystal tunnel. Cara stayed behind without needing to be told.

"First, why does she like you so much?" Lily asked bluntly. If her tiredness was showing so obviously that a complete stranger picked up on it, she wasn't going to bother hiding it anymore. She didn't have the patience for subtlety right now.

"Oh, when she came up out of the water, I was so startled I blurted out the first thing I could think of that would not get me killed," Aven explained sheepishly. "I complimented her looks. I think she is a little lonely, so that got her to like me pretty much instantly."

"That's good… That she likes you, not that she's lonely. Talk to her about whatever you want, but be sure to work in questions about the packs around us. Numbers, locations, dispositions, feuds, whatever might be useful." She wanted to ask herself, but that just seemed like a way to mess things up.

"I can do that," Aven agreed.

"Then do it," Lily said shortly. She turned and made her way back to the main cave. It wasn't that she trusted Aven to report back to her with everything she learned, but staying to listen would publicly display her distrust, and eavesdropping out of sight might do the same if someone - Holly - wondered where she had been while Aven was talking to the sea dragon, noticed she hadn't come back into the cave, and put the two together to deduce what she had done.

A dozen concerned light wings met her at the mouth of the tunnel, a dozen questions assaulting her ears and blending into incoherent noise.

"Quiet!" she barked, and they all stopped talking. "Everything is fine. We have a non-hostile visitor, someone who lives in the water and means us no harm. I've dealt with it."

"Well, that is a relief," Cedar hummed. "Can we go see them, or have they left already?"

"Don't go out there, you would interrupt Aven," Lily growled. "Just… leave it alone."

Some of them left at that, apparently satisfied, but far too many, more than half the group, remained. She didn't like the number of worried looks pointed her way, and made an effort to calm down.

"Alpha," Honey said from the back of the crowd, "could you come help Copper and I with sorting some of the plants he brought back?"

"Yes, thank you for bringing that to my attention," she said, hope flooding into her. Copper had gone out looking, and she thought she had asked him - or maybe Honey - to grab anything they recognized as aiding sleep, or inducing it as a side effect. "Take me to them."

O-O-O-O-O

Lily eyed the neatly separated pile of plant matter, doing her best to pierce through the fog of exhaustion in her mind and dig up some old memories. She hadn't put her plant-recognizing skills to the test in season-cycles, not like this. The only plant she had looked at recently was the blue-green bush that prevented eggs, and that was more than a moon-cycle ago, now.

Said bush was not one of the things spread out before her, sadly. Not that she would have needed it for anything; she had never got around to figuring out how to introduce it to the pack, and it wasn't like she needed it for herself.

She shook her head and blinked a few times, her eyesight blurry and unfocused for some reason. It went away, slowly but surely, and left her even more hopeful that something Copper had found would be useful for her current problem.

"Tell me where you got them," she rumbled, pawing the first little pile, one composed of a vine with tawny brown leaves jutting out like spikes, angular and stiff. The leaves seemed naturally brown, not dead and fading, and while she had never seen one, thinking of what it looked like reminded her of an old hot-season day and a story from Pyre, one long forgotten in the general haze of those days…

"I pulled this one from the bug path," Copper said. "It grows deep in the cracks, out of sight in most places. The bugs do not eat it. I did not recognize it from your teachings, but I took some anyway."

"I'll come back to this one," she decided, moving on to the next pile. A few pawfuls of grey-green moss were scrunched up into little balls, a thin, dusty sort of dirt attached to the undersides in some places. They smelled of oily fish, and she did recognize them. "This one is cave moss, the smell gives it away. Good for convincing hatchlings that some things shouldn't be eaten no matter how interesting they smell." There hadn't been any back in the valley's caves, but Pyre had gone out searching and found some long ago, so she knew what it was.

"Not so useful," Copper huffed. "Too bad. It grows in several of the caves I flew through, so it would not have been hard to get more of."

"What about these?" Honey asked, moving forward to nose at the third little pile. "I have a good feeling about these."

Lily laughed a little in spite of herself. "What does your good feeling say, exactly?" she asked, looking at the one pile of plants she had no trouble at all recognizing. The little black blotches on thin limbs made them look like tiny diseased trees.

"They are for pain relief, right?" Honey asked. "I remember you telling us about them… Good for mild pains, no nausea, no sleepiness, just pure pain relief. Especially good for headaches?"

"That's exactly right," she praised. "This is a great find. Especially as we didn't have any around the valley." They were not strong as pain relief plants went, but they were one of the few kinds without any downsides. As far as she knew, they could not even be dangerous in large quantities; overuse would just cease giving an effect at all, possibly permanently if one really overdosed. A bit like the egg-prevention bush if one traded infertility for immunity to the effect…

"There were not that many, they grow in complete darkness near flowing water," Copper remarked. "Which is why they are wet."

"Were they submerged, or sticking out of the water like trees?" Lily asked, curious. She had never seen them in their natural habitat, after all. She assumed they were like roots, spreading out in the water.

"Submerged, but right by the edges, not deep," Copper confirmed. "I was thinking we might get some to grow here in our stream, but it might not work since ours does not flow all the time."

"No harm in trying," Lily assured him. "This was a good find."

"What about this last one?" Honey asked.

"Well…" Lily kicked a few of the bulbous yellow mushrooms out of the pile. They were damp, vibrantly colored, and small enough that Copper had probably brought them in by carrying them all in his mouth, hence the dampness. "You grabbed these because they looked like the edible mushrooms I told you about, right?"

"Yes… They are not the ones you taught us to look for?" Copper asked.

"No, definitely not," Lily told him. "These are all yellow, the ones I told you about are white on the underside." She had no idea what these were or what they did, and mushrooms could be dangerous. "Get rid of these, I don't know what they are. They might be poisonous. You should probably throw up too, just in case you swallowed one."

"I made sure not to," Copper rumbled. "But I will do that anyway. I have not felt any ill effects yet, but it might be slow-acting."

"As a general rule, don't carry mushrooms or things with sap in your mouth, in case you get the wrong thing by accident like this," Lily huffed. "You are probably okay, but it was a risk."

"Risks are bad," Honey said solemnly.

"I will not do it again," Copper huffed. "What of the vines?"

Lily looked back to the vines she hadn't been able to identify. She squinted at them. Moved over to smell them, though they smelled like nothing at all. Tentatively licked one, and tasted sour sap that she took great care to spit out, just in case.

"Get rid of them too," she eventually decided with a sigh. "I have no idea what they are. Were there any other plants in the caves you checked?"

"I would have to go further to find more," Copper rumbled.

"Take at least two scouts and do that," Lily said. "Your highest priority is finding something to aid sleep." It was selfish, but she was beyond caring. "Go as soon as you can."

"That would be now," Copper said, brushing past Honey with a purr and an intimate flick of his tail that made Lily think of Beryl.

Beryl, who she had last heard was out fishing, and had not seen since, even though she had been out at the underground lake.

"Maybe take Beryl with you," she suggested. "Do you know where he is?"

"He flew up to those caves just before you went running off to the lake," Honey offered. "Are the dark wings staying up there? I want a little cave of my own if anyone can have one."

"I'll be assigning them soon, you might get one," Lily said. She was probably going to let Honey and Copper have a side-cave of their own if they were mates. If they weren't, that would be extremely awkward…

She couldn't remember whether they had made it official yet. She growled at herself and strained to recall whether they had told her they were mates, or whether they had told someone else in her presence, but nothing came to mind. She didn't remember a denial of such either, or a clarification, and she couldn't be sure. What was more, she knew she should know; she had kept an eye on them, because she knew them and liked that they were slowly getting together, and wanted to keep current on how they were doing. It didn't make sense that she wouldn't know, which meant she couldn't remember, which was probably the fault of her exhaustion.

"Go now, get him and search," she said. "Right away."

"On it," Copper said, leaping into the air. Lily turned to watch him flap his way up to the subtle hole in the side of the cavern roof's bowed middle. He was getting Beryl, and they were going to go search out plants…

She growled at herself again when she realized that meant she wouldn't be able to seek Beryl out and spend some time with him like she had wanted to. That was stupid of her. Sending Copper to get him, that was, not wanting to spend time with him. She really didn't feel like herself right now.

But life went on whether or not she was up to dealing with it. "I'm going to take one of these," she told Honey, using her claws to pick one of the little spotted-tree-plants away from the others.

"Are you hurting?" Honey asked, circling around to stand in front of her and likely looking her over as she moved. There was a distinct change in her demeanor as she went from 'learning from the alpha' to 'checking over a potential patient' that Lily was extremely proud of, even when the latter mentality was being turned on her.

"Just my back, and I'm good at ignoring it, but I think it'll get worse soon," she said. Her back was aching, it always did, but she was guessing that at some point her sleep deprivation was going to mean she wasn't able to ignore it as easily as she usually did. And if not, maybe less pain meant it would be easier to relax… It was a futile hope, but there was no harm to it, so she would try anyway.

"You are having trouble sleeping," Honey said, and it wasn't a question. "You want sleeping plants."

"It would be helpful," Lily admitted. "I'm not sure why it's a problem now, and I'm sure I'll eventually collapse from exhaustion, but… yeah."

"Did you try soothing sounds?" Honey asked. "Covering your face so it is not so bright out? Sleeping in a confined, dark space?"

"Yes, yes, no but it won't help," Lily listed.

"Did you try sleeping with someone?" Honey continued, listing things off of some mental list with an intent look in her eye that meant Lily wasn't getting away with what she wanted until she had fully exhausted her options.

"As in next to, or on top of, or…" Lily trailed off, blinking heavily. She had almost talked her way into revealing that she had slept with Beryl, on Beryl once or twice… That was something she could try if she could get him alone in a private place for long enough.

"In contact with others, I do not think it matters how so long as you are comfortable," Honey clarified.

"I think I've tried that," she said. "Any other suggestions?"

"Have you had someone put you to sleep?" Honey asked.

"What?" Lily huffed.

"Put you to sleep." Honey tilted her head. "You know, press a paw or something to the pressure point. Make you fall asleep."

"That only works on fledglings," Lily pointed out.

"No it does not," Honey retorted. "It works just fine on adults. I tried it on Copper."

Lily opened her mouth to say she was wrong. It remained open as she tried, and failed, to remember if she had ever seen it done. More to the point, if she had ever seen someone try it on an adult.

"So you did not try it," Honey concluded with a smug purr. "Want to try it now?"

"Yes, do it," Lily all but demanded. She lay down then and there, on the grass next to the various plants Copper had brought in. She didn't quite like the idea of Honey touching her for some reason, but she was so tired that she was willing to let it happen anyway, and Honey was the light wing who was supposed to help people with their physical problems, so it would be rude and undermining not to let her do what she was going to do…

Honey put her paw to the underside of Lily's neck, drifting down to the place where jaw met neck. "Sleep well," she said confidently, pressing down.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily woke with a start, her heart pounding though she didn't know why. She looked around, quickly assessing her situation. The plants were gone, all of them. Honey was gone too, but Lily could see a light wing ferrying plant matter across the cavern, so she thought she knew where Honey had gone.

That Honey was only now moving plants gave her an inkling as to how long - or rather, how short - her time spent asleep had been. The lingering ache, sunken deeply into her bones, reinforced the perception that she hadn't gotten a full night's sleep, or even close to one. But she felt better, less tired and more back to her old self, even if it wasn't a full recovery. She could work with this.

She lifted her paw and experimentally tried to put herself back to sleep. It didn't work; she just couldn't get the right angle to press at the same place Honey had, or even close to it. Her limb didn't bend the right way and her claws came out every time she tried to force it back far enough, in some weird quirk of muscles pulling on each other. She would give herself puncture wounds if she could manage it at all, which she couldn't.

She snorted, gave up, and briefly pondered why it might be that she was physically incapable of putting herself to sleep. Not just her, if her struggles could be extended to all light wings. It seemed like a weird disability, since she could be put to sleep, but not by herself… She resolved to see if a rock would work, if she ever came across a suitably-shaped rock that wouldn't hurt to fall asleep on. Until then, she would get by with asking others to do it for her.

Not right now, though. She had things to do, people to talk to.

"Alpha!" a light wing near the crystal barrier roared. "Alpha, come quick!"

Things to do, indeed.

Author's Note: This chapter was almost late thanks to the inspiration / distraction posed by Sunless Sea. If anyone wants an 1800s-era semi-supernatural horror take on 'underground ocean', that's the game for you. It makes my take on an underground body of water look tame and safe by comparison. Great atmosphere, very unforgiving gameplay, and overall a perfectly unnerving thematic experience.