The light wing who had called Lily over to the blocked tunnel was not subtle in how he did it, roaring for her from across the cavern. Heads were turning all over the place as her fledglings were woken up, startled, or just surprised by the loud roars.
By the time Lily made it to the barricade - nothing was breaking through, as far as she could tell, though the panicked roars for her certainly didn't say as much - others had already arrived. Beryl was off to the side, staring through the crystal - which was actually really confusing, since she had been sure Copper had taken him to go look for plants - and Holly was with Cara doing the same from directly in front of it.
Lily noticed Holly looking back at her as she approached, and very deliberately ignored her to go stand with Beryl. "What's the situation?" she asked.
"The tunnel out there filled with gas," Beryl explained. Lily squinted at the crystal, and sure enough there was nothing but fog to be seen on the other side. Or so she thought; the view had already been poor before any further obscuration was thrown into the mix, so she might just not be able to see anything subtle.
"Think it's an attempt to blast the passage open?" she asked. "And if it is, will it work? Should we not be standing here?"
"It won't work," Beryl said confidently. "It would if they somehow blocked off the other side of the tunnel, so the explosion was forced to push out, but as-is they'll just-"
There was a flash and a muted roar from behind the crystal, and it lit up, shining brightly for a few heartbeats before returning to normal. It hadn't moved at all, and aside from a few bits of dust falling on either side of it, nothing had changed on their side.
Conversely, the other side looked scorched. Not exploded, not really blasted with much force, just scorched.
"They'll just create a big fireball that expands back toward them," Beryl said in the perfect silence that had fallen among the observers. "Kind of wish I got that out before they did it so you'd all know I knew it would work that way ahead of time."
"We believe you," Holly hummed absently, still staring through the crystal.
"You did say something about them needing to be smart with their explosives to break through," Cara added.
"But they don't seem to be smart, yet," Lily said loudly, taking back the flow of conversation with less subtlety than she would have liked. "Guards, pass on the message. If this happens again, call for reinforcements," not just the alpha, though she'd leave that chastisement to someone else, "and give the crystal some distance just in case. Other than that, I'd say we're good here."
"This worked as an emergency drill, though," Beryl said. "I think you might want to set up some plans for what the average light wing should do in the event of an emergency like this. It doesn't seem like most people have the greatest instincts…" He gestured to something behind her.
She turned slowly, wondering what he meant… and saw at least half of the pack's noncombatants watching them instead of getting to shelter, or shepherding fledglings away, or otherwise doing useful things. "I see what you mean. Could you-"
"No," Beryl said bluntly, surprising her. "I'm going to go fishing, wander around for a little while, and then sleep."
She stared at him, wondering why he was being so obstinate. That wasn't like him at all, let alone when they were in public.
"I'll have Spark or Herb come talk to you about emergency plans, they might have some ideas," he said in a softer tone. "But you've had me doing a lot lately, and I need a break. I sent Copper to go see if Thorn and Silva wanted to go with him looking for plants."
"That's… reasonable." He was right, she had been leaning on him for a lot of things recently, chief among them helping to block so many tunnel entrances. That was hard work, and she'd had him looking after other things too, and then sent Copper to go drag him into another thing. "You're right."
"I'm dead tired," he rumbled. "And I've been sleeping regularly," he added, giving her a look that implied his words were meant to poke at her sleeping, or lack thereof, not his own.
"I understand," she huffed, flicking her ears in irritation. She didn't want to talk about her sleep problems in front of everyone, especially Cara and Holly. "Go rest, you deserve it."
"I will," he said, giving her a soft look she interpreted as something like 'I'm not mad at you but I'm guessing you don't want me to say as much in front of everyone', which, if that was what he meant, was exactly right. She flicked her tail in a way she knew he would recognize as an acknowledgment, and turned her attention to figuring out what to do with a bunch of noncombatants who might find themselves in the middle of an attack at some point in the near future.
O-O-O-O-O
Lily was mentally prepared for a force of enemies to assault the blocked passage. She was mentally prepared for them to come through the ravine, or for them to arrive by sea. She had posted guards at all of those places, more than normal, and was ready to direct auxiliary forces wherever needed.
All of her preparation did not cover what would happen if nothing happened. No further attempts were made to unblock the tunnel to their cavern, and all was quiet out beyond the buggy ravine. Further scout reports led her to believe that there wasn't any quick path from the dark caves beyond the ravine to wherever the enemy dragons lived; her scouts kept finding more massive caves with dozens of tunnels branching out of them, but they all seemed to lead in the wrong directions. Which was all well and good in her opinion; it was possible the tunnel she'd had blocked was the only way for them to come through.
She ate, drank, and passed time waiting for something to happen. Beryl was still sleeping up in the caves above, though she hadn't told him he could sleep there… She didn't mind, though it might come back to bite her if someone noticed and complained about him getting special privileges, given she'd said nobody was allowed to go up there yet.
Then a light wing ran up to her, panting and looking very out of sorts. Not one who was on guard duty, but Pina, who had no guard shifts at all. "Light wing," Pina huffed. "In the tunnel, the dead end one. Not anyone I know, does not know me or Dew."
"Not our pack?" Lily asked, dumbfounded. Of all the things she had expected to come creeping into her new territory, that wasn't something she had thought of.
"No, he is asking for an alpha, come on!" Pina said. Lily was already moving, but she appreciated the enthusiasm. "He is alone, and I do not think he is dangerous."
"Just like the sea dragon," Lily muttered. It could be coincidence that three different encounters were happening in such close succession, but she didn't believe it. There had to be some common inciting incident. Maybe it was just that her pack taking this cave was finally coming to the attention of those closest, or maybe something else had happened that meant others were coming to her for unrelated reasons and finding an unexpected pack blocking their route. She wasn't sure which she would prefer; both scenarios had their ups and downs.
Dew, Lily saw, was with an unremarkable-looking light wing by the entrance to the supposed dead end tunnel, and there was no outright fighting going on, but the mood was not light by any stretch of the imagination. Pina might not think the newcomer was dangerous, but there was clearly some other source of tension.
Lily slowed to a regal walk once she saw that the foreigner was watching her. She needed to make a very strong impression, and darting to the scene would paint her as flighty or possibly overzealous… or worried. She was worried, but he would not be allowed to know that. Also, acting like something was amiss would alert the rest of her pack that something was going on, and she didn't want that. So far, nobody had noticed anything except Pina running to her.
"What is this?" Lily asked, stopping by Dew. Pina brushed up against Dew and stood close to her on her other side, creating a united front facing the newcomer, though she didn't seem to feel threatened by him. "And who is this?"
"My name is Sandstone," the male announced calmly. His voice was wry, but curious and not all that threatening, unusually high for a male. "And you all are?"
"I am Lily, alpha of my pack," Lily replied firmly. "These are two of my people. Why are you here?"
"Why are you here?" Sandstone retorted. "And where did you come from? I know of no other light wing packs… and I see a dark wing off in the distance." He leaned to the side to look past Lily, his eyes growing wider. "That is very rare, indeed. They are an introverted, secretive breed. If there are dark wing packs, we know of none to be found."
"The dark wing is also under my command," Lily hedged, not entirely sure which dark wing Sandstone was seeing and unwilling to look back and find out. "You never answered my question."
"You never answered mine, and I am here specifically for answers." His eyes and ears fell, and his voice dropped a little, approaching something near normal. "An explanation. The Noxious Fumes pack taunted us last cycle with something very soul-crushing, and we wished to find out what the purpose of their obvious lies was. Now I see that they may have been mocking us with the truth."
"Tell me what they said," Lily growled, her heart growing heavy. She could think of one thing, one person, another pack might taunt light wings with that would be described as soul-crushing. One fledgling hers had lost.
"That we moved on the neutral ground in defiance of our cease-flames," Sandstone replied solemnly. "That they will forgive the transgression if we retreat, because we provided them with ample amusement. That they would give the entertainment back now that it was no more fun." He lowered his head. "I now believe he was once one of yours, because my pack is not missing a fledgling, but if you are a kind alpha, you will not tell his parents what state he was returned in."
Pina inhaled quietly, visibly bracing herself. Dew looked away, her eyes closed. Lily gritted her teeth.
"I do not wish to speak of it," Sandstone said gravely. "The body was barely recognizable as a light wing. The Noxious Fumes pack is known for its cruelty."
Lily held her stoic expression with much difficulty. The young one they had all thought dead had survived only to be captured, tortured, and executed. That was on her head, and it was possibly the most horrible thing on her conscience thus far. She had brought her people here; this death was partially her fault, and her doing.
"Did you send him off, at least?" Dew asked quietly.
"Yes, we did, though we did not know him. Fledglings are the children of all, in spirit. All the Dams of our pack gathered to do it." Sandstone shook his head. "What they did is absolutely deplorable."
"In that we are agreed." Lily had already added the nameless group who had killed her people to her list of enemies, but now there was a name to go with them. The Noxious Fumes pack.
"And they are making noises about going back to war…" Sandstone continued carefully. "Do you understand where you have settled? This is contested ground long fought over."
"We figured that out pretty quickly." Lily knew she needed far more answers than she was going to get here. "You are a scout, correct?"
"Yes. I was sent to investigate." Sandstone shrugged his wings. "Alpha did not know what to think about their lies. He will want to speak to you. I am not a leader, but even I know there is much to be discussed. Your pack disrupts the balance here."
"If I go with you to meet this alpha, can I be guaranteed safe conduct?" She would rather risk herself than anyone else.
"I must ask the alpha about that," he said. "You wish to go to him?"
"I wish to learn about my pack's new neighbors," she said diplomatically, "because unless you can provide a better place to settle, we are not leaving. We have already blocked the tunnel the Noxious Fumes pack used to attack us."
"Have you?" Sandstone asked, his ears lifting a little. That is impressive in such a short time. You could very well hold out here for a long, long time with that sealed. Allow me to go ask my alpha, but I am sure he will invite you and guarantee safety. I will return in one cycle, more or less."
"Someone will be stationed here to wait for your return," Lily replied formally.
"Good to know." Sandstone nodded respectfully to her, and then to Pina and Dew. "And I apologize to both of you. This really is a passage, it just only opens from our side. You may not wish to consider it private in the future."
"Our mistake," Pina said quietly.
"And mine, for not checking first," Sandstone admitted. "I wish you both happiness together." With that, he disappeared down the tunnel.
Lily resisted the urge to follow and watch to see how he opened and closed the pathway; all that was on the other side would soon be laid bare to her, which was one of the reasons she was willing to go to them, instead of making them come to her.
"So there are other light wings down here," Dew said slowly. "Lily, Spruce's parents… What do we tell them?"
"You?" Lily asked. "Nothing. I will tell them. But not everything, they do not need to know the details. Just that the Noxious Fumes pack brought in their fledgling's body. I will say nothing of torture. I expect the both of you to keep that quiet."
"We will." Pina sighed and shook her whole body. "That was quite the shock."
"It was," Dew agreed. She looked over at Lily, her ears and wings drooping, but with a firmness to her gaze. "Sleep. You look tired." Dew pointed with her tail toward where Lily had last slept, by the stream. "Go. We will tell the pack what has occurred, you do not need to be there for every announcement."
In a way, Lily appreciated the obvious Dam-esque slant to the advice she was being given, but she purred, nodded agreeably, and left to completely ignore it in favor of thinking. She went to lay down by the stream, of course, Pina and Dew could see her doing that and might follow up if she was visibly doing something other than sleeping, but she didn't even try to sleep once she had closed her eyes. There was too much to think about.
O-O-O-O-O
One of the most important things, Lily decided while she lay, there was that she was going to approach this encounter very carefully, pre-planning as much as she possibly could.
The most important thing, in some ways, was choosing who to take with her. She left that for last, which was now as she suspected a 'night' had gone by, and would need to get up and do something soon.
Beryl was the obvious choice that immediately sprang to mind, but she needed to consider what image she wanted to project.
Most importantly, she did not want her people to be pitied or looked down upon. Past that, she needed her choices to project intelligence, strength, and a willingness to work together, but not to be taken advantage of. Beryl covered dangerous, and represented his family. Ember would be another good choice, but if she brought the head of his family along, it might be assumed that he was the real power, not her. He had a presence about him and absolutely no experience at deferring to her, while Beryl had the presence but also plenty of practice letting her take the lead without any overshadowing.
She could bring Pearl instead of Ember. Pearl was not one of hers, but she was strong, visibly distinct with her scarred chest, and capable of speaking for herself and her family without claiming to lead it.
Aside from Pearl and Beryl, she would need people from her own pack. She mentally ruled out Holly and Cara, but Aven was harder. This was Aven's preferred field, as Cara's was conflict and Holly's was leadership. Lily didn't want to bring any of the three, but Aven was the obvious choice, so obvious that to not bring her would make it obvious she was trying to keep the three sisters out of power.
Beryl, Pearl, possibly Aven… Those were good choices, but she wanted another. Someone intelligent, which ruled out a lot of her pack, a male to even out her escort.
Root came to mind. He was no longer helpless, and if he could fight and fly, he could join her group. It was not going to be dangerous, and treating him as any other independent adult would build her rapport with him. A substantial benefit of bringing him, in addition to appearances and impressions, was that she could rely on him to answer any difficult questions about her pack's history. He knew all, probably more than she did, and she did not want to dig up those memories again. Doing so had nearly destroyed her last time.
With Root and assuming she took Aven, she had four people to bring along. Four was a good number; more would seem threatening or cowardly, depending on who was brought, and less would make her pack seem weak or untrusting.
Lily rose from her resting place in the strange grass and made her way over to the shaded side of the valley, stopping only to eat and relieve herself at the waste pit first. Most of her pack was asleep right now, a coincidence that spoke of them all getting onto the same sleep cycle by chance. That was good, because somehow making them all do so intentionally had slipped her mind.
Aven was first to be found, because she and her sisters always slept side by side. Lily noticed with disdain that Cloud was nearby. He was still chasing Holly, it seemed, meaning he still saw her as an up-and-coming power in this pack. When he dropped Holly, Lily would know she had succeeded in neutralizing her new rival.
Lily prodded Aven awake. "I need you," she hissed, trying to not wake any of the other light wings around her.
"You need us?" Aven asked quietly, yawning tiredly.
"Just you." Lily motioned for Aven to step away so they could talk more freely. "Come on."
Once they were away, Aven grew more alert. "This is about the other light wing pack, right? I was hoping you would want me to go with you."
Pina and Dew had spread the news well, it seemed. "You will be deferring to me, acting more as my assistant than as a negotiator in your own right. Not like how it was with the sea dragon."
"I thought I did pretty well with her," Aven muttered. "Better than you…"
Lily gave that remark all the cold silence it deserved.
"But yes," Aven continued after a moment of awkward silence, "I am happy to go. I think you should bring Holly, too."
"I am bringing a balanced delegation, and Holly is not part of it," Lily rumbled. "The others are Beryl, Root, and Pearl."
"Two from the dark wing family, two from our pack. Two male, two female. Two who know battle and two who know peace… you really thought that through." Aven purred happily. "I can go get the others for you."
"You do that," Lily agreed. Aven took off, and as Lily crossed the cave, first to the makeshift fish pile for one last snack in case they would be walking for a long time, then to the tunnel entrance, she saw Aven flying back and forth overhead, and her chosen four making their way there… And others, too, people she hadn't asked to attend. Storm, Ember, Spark, and Crystal were also there by the time she arrived, along with the four she had chosen.
Lily nodded politely to them all, then got down to telling some of them to leave. "I am only taking the four I specifically requested. More may be seen as threatening."
Ember nodded right back at her. "Spark and I are just here to see Pearl and Beryl off."
"And I am here to go with you," Storm growled. "I want to check out this other pack."
"I want to be there in case Root needs help," Crystal added. "Lily, surely six are no more threatening than four? Or five, if you must."
Lily shook her head. "Root, do you need Crystal's help? Or Storm's?"
"I need no help, but it is nice that she wants to offer it," he hedged awkwardly. "Crystal, I really do not need you along, but I would be fine with you coming anyway."
"I need to be very specific with who I bring," Lily concluded. "Crystal will stay here, and so will Storm."
"You cannot make me," Storm growled.
"I very well can," Lily retorted. "You live here, under my authority. Defy me and I will force you to leave. Something tells me you won't like that."
"No, I would not." Storm shook her head. "But you are not pushing me around. I am going."
"Storm!" Root huffed. "If you keep arguing you will just make her mad to no avail. Drop it, please."
Storm turned her glare to him. "Make me."
"I will if you do not see reason," he growled. "This is stupid. I am sure there will be plenty of times to go see the other pack later, and you cannot find anything there that is not also here. They are just another group of light wings."
"I cannot find anything there that I would not find here?" Storm growled. Then she relaxed, so sudden in her change of mood that Lily knew it couldn't be real. "You are right. But we are going to have a long discussion about this when you return." Her voice was threatening now.
"We will," Root agreed calmly. "Of course, first I will need to apologize to my Dam for leaving without telling her. You can talk to me after her attempted lecture." Storm shot him an appalled glare, which Lily interpreted as her being insulted that he would compare the two of them. She thought said comparison was masterfully done, if he had done it with the intention of getting her to back off, but of course Storm wouldn't appreciate it.
"You did not tell her?" Crystal exclaimed.
"She would be here begging Lily to either not take me or take her too, and Lily would say no to both. I saved her some frustration." Root shrugged his wings. "It is easier to tell her afterward. Or not at all, but I am not going to do that."
That seemed to drop the entire group into an awkward silence. They spread out a bit, Beryl and Pearl speaking with Spark and Ember, while Root, Crystal, and Storm sat in silence. Aven stood off to the side, probably feeling out of place, while Lily lingered by the tunnel entrance.
The one nobody was watching. She had forgotten to actually set a guard there, despite intending to do so. That could not happen again. Her grip on her pack was tenuous enough without giving Holly such obvious opportunities to step in and usurp her. If Holly had spoken to someone and arranged a guard, she would have been hard-pressed to spin it as anything but someone making up for her own shortcomings. Only Holly not pressing the advantage had saved her from that headache.
Time passed. Lily realized that she had no idea what 'a cycle' meant in terms of how long Sandstone might be gone. Her assumption of it being about a day might be way off. She really hoped he would be returning soon; it would be mildly embarrassing to have to tell everyone to disperse and come back later.
Thankfully, the telltale sound of a rock shifting from down the tunnel came sooner rather than later. A familiar face emerged from the tunnel shortly after. "I am to guide you and any of your followers who will be joining us," Sandstone announced. "You are all guaranteed safety in our territory, and will be allowed to leave at any time."
"Good." Lily knew her four chosen delegates were assembling behind her. "We are ready to go."
"If you will follow me, it is down this tunnel," Sandstone said, turning to lead them into the passage. "It will not be an overly long walk, but we could fly there if-"
"Flying is out of the question," Lily interrupted as she followed. "Some of us are grounded."
"Grounded…" Sandstone looked back at her retinue, looking past her to stare at someone else. "I see."
"And I do not," Root barked humorously, "but she does not mean me. I can fly if needed."
Lily huffed, and sped up her walk just enough to force Sandstone to look ahead instead of behind. "It is inconsequential."
"That it is." Sandstone slipped into a crack on the left side of what had been a solid wall at the end of the tunnel, and she followed. The other side of the passage was no more interesting, leading off into the darkness with the occasional small crystal to light the way.
They walked for a short while, and Lily tried to get a sense of how far they were going. It was very hard to tell, especially as this tunnel was not entirely straight. She had a good sense of space and direction, but this entire world beneath the ground seemed designed to confuse.
Sandstone stopped just in front of a sharp turn in the tunnel. "My alpha wishes to speak to you on neutral ground… but you and your people are living where we usually consider to be the neutral ground. So he and his advisors are here, in the next section of the tunnel. I hope you do not mind not seeing our home itself immediately, but you understand that some precautions must be taken."
"I do." She would have done much the same were the positions reversed. "Lead me to him."
"He is here." Sandstone slipped around the corner. "Alpha, I have brought them."
"Good," a deep voice called back. "Well?"
Lily knew this was it. Another first impression, one she couldn't botch like she had with the sea dragon. She focused, breathed out, ignored the pain she lived with, and stepped around the corner.
The alpha was a large male with a green tint and red eyes, which was quite the contrast, made even more obvious in the green light of the crystal he was standing on. He had a few small scars, but nothing substantial. Three male light wings stood behind him, Sandstone having joined two others she didn't know.
Lily could hear her group filing into place behind her, probably mirroring the other light wings as best they could.
In the very least, if it somehow came to violence, her side definitely had the advantage in numbers, and in both Pearl and Beryl, who were both entirely capable of combat against other light wings. She couldn't be sure, but the other alpha's advisors didn't have the look of capable warriors. They looked more like she and most of her pack had before Beryl came.
Lily nodded her head ever so slightly, showing respect, but not all that much. "You are an alpha."
"And so are you." The male tilted his head, looking over her party. "I have never seen such a diverse group. A dark wing, a blind light wing, a female light wing with a massive scar, and a female who seems more excited than nervous." His voice was light. "I am Rose, alpha of the Twisted Corridor pack."
Rose? Lily didn't find the decidedly feminine name all that funny, even applied to a male as it was, but the fact that it was also the name of a flower did tickle her sense of humor. "And I am Lily, alpha of my pack." Her pack didn't have a name, now that she thought about it. It had never needed one.
"Lily." Rose gestured back to his three subjects with his tail. "You know Sandstone, one of my scouts. The male on my left is my senior advisor of war, Quartz, and the male to my right that of peace, Obsidian."
"I left my advisor of war behind," Lily quipped, "but I suppose Aven is the closest I have to an advisor of peace." She flicked her tail in Aven's direction, and Aven purred.
"And who are these others?" Rose rumbled. "I have never seen a dark wing before, so I would be pleased to meet one."
"I am Beryl," Beryl supplied. "This is Pearl, my Sire's mate."
"And I am Root, the keeper of our history," Root declared, his flat eyelids pulled up for no apparent reason.
"Keeper of history… a history I would very much like to know. Why has your pack settled here, Lily?" Rose growled lightly. "It is a good place you chose, but the neighbors leave a lot to be desired."
"Lead us to a better place, and we will gladly move," Lily countered. "But not before. We came here to escape a far worse danger, one that could have wiped my entire pack out."
"And will it follow you?" Rose asked warily.
"Only if it can somehow get past the guardian on the surface, which it cannot," Lily growled back. "We do not lightly forsake the surface."
"From the surface… Lily, who were your Sire and Dam?" Rose asked curiously. "My pack sent a group of light wings to spread onto the surface many cycles ago."
"And that group suffered many misfortunes," Lily replied calmly, having more than suspected as much the moment she learned of another light wing pack. "The greatest of which was the ascension and rule of a male named Claw. I am the one who took over when he proved himself greatly unfit to live, let alone rule."
"So that secondary pack was not so successful," Rose mused. "But you count a bad leader as worse than the threat that could have annihilated the whole pack?"
"Yes." She definitely did. "My pack was weak and spineless when I was hatched, and Claw took full advantage of their blind acceptance. Of the five of us here, three suffered horrible things under him. The other two were either not present or far too young to be a target at the time. But we want no pity from you, so that is all I will say." She huffed and resettled her wings to visually signal that she was done talking about this.
"Pity is not the same thing as understanding," Rose said calmly. "I can guess at those things. Your back, Root's eyes, and either Pearl or Beryl's scars."
"Yes and no." She was going to have to explain, because he was not going to let up. "Claw was an abusive, lustful creature with no inhibitions. Many of his worst acts left no visible marks. But he is dead now, and that is the past." If he kept pushing, she was going to have to be blunt.
"We shall talk of the present and future, then," Rose agreed, finally getting the hint, "but as you have brought your keeper of history, I must assume you are willing to share that history in the meantime. Could he explain to one of my advisors? I do not need to hear it personally, there is likely far too much for me to handle while also dealing with you."
"I will explain," Root agreed, not even waiting for Lily to respond. "But will we do that talking here?"
"No. You are our descendants come home from the great unknown, battered but defiant. I harbor no distrust, and keeping the meeting here would be the mark of exactly that. Walk with us, and we will host you in our home caverns."
Lily accepted his offer by way of walking up to him, and then beside him as the entire group moved. She could hear Root speaking quietly to the two advisors Rose had brought behind them.
"I am amazed a blind dragon can function so normally," Rose said quietly to her. "Is he really-"
"He is an honored member of our pack," Lily interrupted. "His is not a position given of pity. He worked for season-cycles on end to piece together the whole story from many different viewpoints, and did such a good job I would rather have him tell our history than tell it myself." For many reasons, but if she could explain her reluctance to speak as admiration for Root, all the better.
"I see. And what was your role in that history?" Rose asked. "I would like to know who I am dealing with, and that seems like an important part of what makes you who you are."
"My role?" She narrowed her eyes and tried to think of the most appalling, short explanation she could give that would make him drop that line of questioning. "Daughter of the alpha. Unwilling mate of the alpha. Rebel against the alpha. Alpha, now, because there is no better dragon for the job. My pack is my life, and I have willingly sacrificed much to protect them."
"Daughter… mate… I see." Rose shuddered. "Things went very badly out there."
"Very, very badly, but we were fine in the end. Then we gained the ire of a force capable of destroying us, and I made the choice to flee instead of die." She would not be scorned for that, either.
"I will get the details later," Rose agreed. "This seems to be a subject of much personal pain."
She stifled the impulse to laugh; she didn't want to talk about any of this, but he kept pushing and pushing. Of course it was obvious, in the same way that the shrieking of one with open wounds dunked in the ocean would be obvious. Irritation of wounds tended to be that.
"It is past," she said for what felt like the tenth time. "Tell me of the Noxious Fumes pack. I wish to know who killed my people and tortured a fledgling."
"They are a group of two-heads, four-heads, self-burners, smelly ones, and no-wings who eat eggs," Rose explained. "They are called the Noxious Fumes pack because their uniting trait is the use of explosive gas, mucus, spit, or other such foul things, all of which stink to some degree. We have been at war on and off again for hundreds of hundreds of cycles."
"Not hundreds and hundreds?" One was large, but the other was absolutely immense. If a cycle was something like a day, hundreds and hundreds was a few season-cycles, while hundreds of hundreds was much, much longer.
"hundreds of hundreds," Rose confirmed. "The last real fight with them occurred a while back, before we sent the founders of your pack out. We have had peace for most of my lifetime, but that peace may now be at an end. You settled in the middle, in the place both packs want. The deal was that neither of us would try to take that cavern."
"And now I have." Lily shrugged her wing shoulders. "It is a defensible place. The only route open to them is a death trap. I am not worried."
"They will not just attack you." Rose huffed. "My people will pay the price for your return. They will never believe two packs of light wings living side by side are not really one pack of light wings. I do not believe it myself."
Lily tensed, still walking alongside him. "Try to take my pack and learn why I lead. Kill me, and learn just how badly you have misstepped." Some of that was hot air, but she would dissuade him here and now.
"I did not mean like that," he hastily explained, sounding suitably intimidated under his facade of calmness. "Aside from fending off little sneak attacks, I do not know war. I was thinking we merge our packs in a less aggressive way. It only makes sense."
"To you, maybe." She didn't like where this was headed. "I am not stepping down to follow you, and I do not want to lead your people." The latter option was ridiculous, she had enough people to care for as it was. More responsibility would just open her up to being overthrown by any and everyone, especially because a whole other pack would of course come with dissenters who desired power.
"I was thinking neither," Rose suggested. "Do you have a mate? I would have thought you would bring him, if so. I have none, myself."
Now she saw his angle… and she didn't even have to think about it. Being Rose's mate, even if only for the political alliance, would carry all of the same issues publicly accepting Beryl as a mate did, and came with none of the benefits. "I will not take you as a mate."
"Even to benefit your people?" Rose asked carefully. "Oh, we are here. Let us put this aside for a few moments so that I can show you around."
As if on cue, Rose stepped out around another sharp corner, and when Lily followed, she saw…
She didn't know what she saw. Her eyes were confused, and the jumble of moving light wings among the odd rock formations did her no favors. It took her a long moment to make sense of the chaos, and looking both up and down was required to fully understand.
Lily now understood why Rose and his pack would want her pack's cavern. Where her pack's cavern was open and wide, this one was vertical, tall and deep, with more of those unnatural passages burrowed into the walls of the immense cavern. Light wings glided from wall to wall, walked the sloped paths, and appeared from deeper tunnels.
Pyre had once dug up an anthill and sighed, telling her that there was only one way to actually see an ant's world. Living as one. Now Lily understood why he had wished to see such a thing. This was exactly what she would have envisioned an ant's colony to look like.
"The lower levels are for food and water," Rose said loudly, for the benefit of everyone she had brought, all of whom were gawking at the sight in front of them. "The only connection between our part of the lake and yours is fully underwater. Upper levels are for socializing, playing, and raising young. There are many exits out into the wider world throughout the entire cavern, but almost all are blocked and guarded. We are mostly safe here… but our connection to the lake is vital and vulnerable. Assault will come from there, if we are attacked, and while one can only reach your connection to the lake by going underwater, ours and theirs can be flown to."
Lily leaned down, looking into the pit. "This place is… interesting," she said, ignoring his less than subtle hint about how his pack was vulnerable.
"It is home, and we have long since given up the idea of taking the cavern your pack has somehow secured," Rose agreed. "We thought it was a price to pay for peace. But now you have it, and apparently have blocked the main difficulty in keeping it, the large passage that leads right to the Noxious Fumes cavern system. How did you do it? The stone we use for our blockades is not present anywhere near your cavern.
"We used crystals instead," Beryl called out from their left, also leaning down to look into the deep pit. "It was not easy."
"I believe that." Rose tossed his head to an open ledge directly across from them. "That is a private place, and I know who it belongs to. It is much more open than this ledge." He gestured to the somewhat cramped, slightly angled bit of rock they were all perched on.
"How do we get there from here?" Lily asked tentatively.
"We glide across…" Rose looked over at her. "I see. Then we may wish to stay here. There is only one walkable path out into the main areas from here, and I do not want the entire pack to know of all of this until a decision has been reached. They always react better when there is less uncertainty, and they trust my judgment."
"Here, then." Lily stepped away from the rest of the dragons on the ledge, and Rose followed her back into the tunnel. Once they were far enough that she was sure nobody would hear them, she turned back to him. "I am not going to be your mate," she said bluntly. Anything less would be seen as open to negotiation, which she was not.
"But it makes sense," he argued. "We both lead packs of light wings who are going to want to mingle once they know of each other. Outsiders will assume we are one pack even if we tell them otherwise. You and I are both unattached, and both in positions of leadership. A formal alliance will not be good enough to satisfy some of my people, but mating and continuing to lead our portions of the single pack we create just might be. Give me a reason this would not work."
"I'll give you several." Lily took a moment to arrange her thoughts. "First off, my pack has a history of following whoever they think holds power, and my predecessor killed off all of the strong-willed males for many generations. My taking any mate will destabilize them, because many of my people will automatically assume that male holds power."
"And second," she said in a low voice, "just because I have no official mate does not mean I am unattached." If anyone from her pack asked, she would claim it was a bluff, but it was entirely true. She had no desire to put Beryl aside just to be with this arrogant, unable-to-take-a-hint alpha.
"If your males will follow me, and we are equals, they are basically still following you, and us being mates means you have an equal say," Rose countered quietly. "Some of my females very well might go to you with their problems and requests. We will lead one pack, and that pack will be big enough to need two leaders. But…"
He shook his head angrily. "But you are spoken for, it seems. I would prefer to have a true mate, not a female who claims the title while not living up to it. And we would need offspring to pass our leadership roles onto, offspring of mine, not that other male's."
Lily laughed bitterly. "You would not get that in any case. I am barren. I took that possibility away from myself a long time ago." Again, something she could claim was a lie if her people somehow overheard.
He stared at her with wide eyes. "That can be done?"
"It can with the right plant… which I have not yet seen down here. In any case, it has already been done." She met his gaze and willed him not to show any pity.
"That makes things both easier and harder at the same time," Rose murmured. "It is widely known?"
"No, and I'm keeping it that way," she warned. "Don't mess things up unless you want me to find a way to return the favor."
"Then…" Rose grimaced and lowered his voice even further, down to a whisper she could barely hear. "We could officially be mates with the public understanding that I would go to another female to continue my line. In that arrangement, you could not be faulted for doing the same with your lover, as long as you kept it discrete. How about that?"
She had to think through that for a second. Putting aside the issue of balancing power and another pack to deal with, was it acceptable?
Living always in secrecy or at least discreetly. Unable to ever show affection in public, and mated to another male to boot. It was all the bad parts of her current arrangement with Beryl, plus the added frustrations and difficulties of having an official mate she didn't care for. Not acceptable in the slightest, from a purely personal standpoint.
Besides, it was not as if this was a good idea even if she and Beryl were fine with it. The best-case scenario Rose described would not happen; Lily would be relegated to being the alpha's mate, and in truth would probably not last long as that, either. Rose would just take over and then put her aside.
"No," she growled. "My final answer is no, and will be to any proposition that involves me becoming your mate. There are too many downsides to justify it."
"It was a long shot," Rose agreed. "And an abrupt one. But I saw an opportunity to easily resolve all of this. Now all that is left are more difficult, imperfect solutions."
"Here. I have one." Lily did not trust Rose very much. He wanted their packs merged. "You publicly acknowledge me as alpha of my pack, declare our packs on friendly terms, and go about life as usual. We will contact you if we wish to have any further interactions with your people."
"That is no good at all!" Rose exclaimed, abandoning his low tone now that his apparently scandalous proposal was no longer being discussed. "We have to merge our peoples somehow, or they will do it themselves in defiance of us. There is no point in keeping separate. They will not stand for it."
"Maybe your people won't," Lily growled, "but mine trust me and know I do what is best for them. Merging with a whole other pack expands our territory, leaves us open to attack, and puts me in a bad position, one I cannot work with."
"Isolation is not best for your people!" Rose complained. "It is terrible!"
"Better than merging and losing our independence," Lily replied coldly. "At least with isolation we make our own choices."
"You are not your people," Rose grumbled. "I am sorry for trying to convince you to do something so big, so quickly. But now you are confusing personal feelings with what is best for those under your guidance. That is a bad idea."
"And you are not?" She knew what he wanted. Power over her people. He was just like Holly, or Ivy, or Claw. He wanted control.
"I did not look at you and think 'that is an amazing female that I must have for myself," Rose growled quietly. "In truth, I do not care for females much at all, and would be happy alone if it were not for the need to have a successor eventually. But your people and mine will be merged sooner or later, and mating with you was the easiest, best way to accomplish that without unrest. Personal feelings must be put aside to do what is best."
"So you are just now learning how to sacrifice for your people?" Lily snarled. "I've done it a dozen times over by now. I am doing what is best for my people. It just so happens what is best and how I feel personally are in complete alignment at the moment." She was only barely keeping her voice low; rage boiled inside her far stronger than it had in a very long time.
"I do not believe it best for your people." Rose turned away from her, looking back toward his territory. "Or mine. But you will not be swayed. I will do as you suggest for the time being, but please remember that I am willing to talk at any time about permanent arrangements."
"I'll remember, but I won't need to, because merging just gives my pack over to your control." She managed to barely reign in her temper, knowing this argument was over. "Feel free to take my people on a tour, or don't. I will be here, waiting for them."
"I think taking your people on a tour would just exacerbate your anger," Rose commented dryly. "We will, of course, host your retinue for as long as you wish, but something tells me that will not be long."
"We are leaving now," Lily agreed, thinking better of remaining here. These light wings were not a physical threat, but they were definitely a political one, and she needed to get Beryl and the others out of here before that threat could begin to work on them.
She left Rose behind in the tunnel, passing him with a growl, and went over to Beryl and Pearl, who were staring out into the cavern. "We are leaving now. Where is Aven?" She could see Root a short distance away, but Aven wasn't immediately visible.
"Right here," Aven called out, gliding down from somewhere above their current location. "Do we have to go so soon? I wanted to make friends!"
"I am not finished telling them of our history," Root called out from where he was huddled with one of Rose's advisors.
"Yes." Lily jerked her head in the direction of the way they had come. "We need to go now. Don't argue."
Pearl was the first to move for the exit, warbling politely to Rose as she passed him. Aven reluctantly followed, and Root trailed her out. Beryl waited by the beginning of the tunnel for her, watching her closely.
"And one more thing, Rose," Lily growled as she and Beryl passed him. "What I told you of why your proposition was untenable remains between us, or you will pay."
"It does," Rose agreed mildly. "But you should be more careful. I now know the identity, not just the existence." He nodded to Beryl. "You had no trouble letting him alone of all of them hear that."
"You assume much," Lily retorted, before turning her back on him and quickly leaving the main cavern. Beryl walked beside her.
"That did not sound friendly at all," Beryl noted worriedly. "What did he want?"
"Power over my people. The cavern we managed to take that they could never secure for themselves. Me to be his mate in order to merge our packs," she gritted angrily. "He is just another power-hungry light wing."
Beryl huffed in relief. "His mate? I am not surprised you turned him down. What made him think that would work?"
"He wanted it to work, and that was it. When I told him I was unofficially spoken for, he even had the gall to suggest he and I could still be mates in word, but not in action. All he wanted was some measure of official authority over us."
"But why? Was he not content with what he had?" To his credit, Beryl seemed as against the idea as she had been.
"He seems sure our packs merging back together will happen eventually whether or not we allow it," Lily admitted, unwilling to lie about Rose's intentions when the truth was not much better. "They will not, of course."
"Of course." Beryl did not sound so sure. "Lily, are we not coming back here? At all?"
"No. And we're going to seal this tunnel off enough that it will also be a chokepoint." She did not dare seal it entirely, because that was basically an act of war, but if they could have a passage that she could not freely pass through from her side, then she could create the same for her side.
"I do not think the pack is going to like any of that," Beryl warned. "And there is no way this can be kept secret. Word of other light wings was already spreading when we left, and they will want to meet them."
"I will deal with whoever complains," Lily growled. "They are my people, and they will see reason. Friendly or not, fraternizing with that pack will only harm us."
"If you say so." The tone of Beryl's voice said he disagreed but did not want to argue further. "Lily, did you sleep at all recently? You seem even more stressed and tired than before."
"I slept enough," she replied irritably. There was no time for sleep now; she had even more enemies than she had thought, and these newest ones were insidiously friendly. This was going to be difficult.
But she was alpha. She would do whatever was necessary to keep power, so that she could make the right choices for her pack. Even if that meant enforcing something they really didn't like. She didn't remember the last time she had needed to back up something that promised to be so wildly unpopular. She was going to have to take steps to ensure she had the clout to do it… Steps she had never taken before.
Dizziness made her head spin for a moment, totally unprompted, and she leaned on Beryl until it passed. "I know best," she huffed to herself.
Author's Note: It's funny, I've changed so much in the second draft leading up to this point, but the majority of this chapter in particular didn't need any plot-related adjustments. Probably because introductions to a new pack go basically the same regardless of the exact details of Lily's situation. So this chapter is mostly first-draft material with nothing but technical corrections. I wonder if it's noticeable.
Also, for anyone who doesn't already follow No Story Stands Alone, there's another AU going on over there. This one features Gold, of all people, and was a lot of fun to write.
