Rocks were moving in ways rocks weren't supposed to move; specifically, they were moving of their own accord. Or so it seemed, seen out of the corner of Lily's eye as she lay curled up by the patch of mud.
She was being freed; that much was apparent. Someone was pulling apart the blockade in the wall, bit by bit, in a way that would have intrigued her were she in a better mood. It could be someone coming to rescue her, Crystal or Pina or even Beryl, having had a change of heart. But she didn't think it was; Beryl had told her she was being exiled, not left to rot in this tiny cave, and exile meant letting her walk free. Free to go anywhere but where she wanted to go.
She would be back, no matter what they wanted. Until then, until she proved she could not be driven away, could not be relegated to irrelevance, she had nothing to say to anyone. Not Ember, who she suspected was the one removing the blockade, certainly not Beryl...
Only when the noises had stopped and a set of paws had long since walked away did she emerge into the narrow, winding tunnel that had been revealed, stepping over broken slabs of rock and dusty, crumbling mud of some sort. She saw nobody, and nobody saw her.
She knew she was going to need to get used to being alone; until she found the cave with the white flowers, she was going to be on her own. Nobody to help her, nobody to talk to. Nobody to care.
A growl wormed its way out of her as she set out into the unknown. She didn't need anyone to care; she could fend for herself. Somehow. She definitely didn't need Beryl. Her righteous, totally justified anger at him was a good motivator, but other than that she didn't need anything he would offer. He had betrayed her.
She came across a split in the tunnel soon enough, one path leading to the left and one to the right and vaguely upward. If Beryl could be believed - it hurt, having to consider that, but she wasn't going to get caught out - the left passage led back to the cavern. To her pack, her home… to a blockade and guards who had probably been personally selected by Cara for the position. They would refuse to listen to her, and if she managed to get through, they would drive her off. Maybe with lethal force if they could get away with it; killing the 'crazy former alpha' during her attempt to 'attack her former pack' would legitimize Holly's authority with anyone who believed her version of events.
To her right, on the other paw, was the vast unknown. Said unknown being composed of tunnels and caves, and hemmed in by rock, did nothing to make it any less vast from her perspective.
On one side, what was expected and prepared for, a dangerous direct path toward what she wanted. On the other, a long and likely dangerous route through the unknown, to strike at her enemy's rear.
She took the path none would expect her to take. The hard path, the long path. All larger implications aside, the uphill path, which her aching legs were already complaining about. It was almost comforting, feeling the burn and inconsistent weakness; she didn't enjoy it, but she knew how to deal with it. Pain and weakness of the body were her speciality, if one considered being burdened with plenty of both for more than half her life a specialty.
More than half her life… She almost didn't want that spurious thought to be accurate, but upon reflection it definitely was. She had spent as long as alpha of her pack as she had a powerless hatchling and then fledgling. Longer. Or maybe not longer, since she wasn't alpha anymore…
Everything came back to that. She snarled at nothing and nobody, and set her eyes on the furthest piece of rocky wall she could see. She was going to get to where she meant to go, and anyone who thought they would never see her again was in for a big surprise some day. Though 'surprise' was far too pleasant a word for what some of them would be getting, however unexpected.
O-O-O-O-O
She had been walking for a long time, and her physical condition had not improved in the slightest, but she still found herself stopping and staring when she finally made it to something other than more winding tunnels; the sight in front of her broke through even her simmering anger with its pure 'other' quality. It was a forest, a long and apparently sloping cavern peppered with plant life, much of it tall with branches and flourishing blooms, of a sort. All of the strange foliage only barely lit by soft, glowing crystals embedded in one wall but not the others, unlike most of the caverns she had seen. Small insects buzzed around aimlessly, and it sounded like there was flowing water somewhere, but what caught her eyes were the trees.
They were not trees. They were massive, impossible-looking stalagmites. Mushrooms bloomed off of the stone spikes in every direction, somehow surviving in the oddly isolated position they had grown into, making the stone look like the trunks of trees.
She took a few steps out into the forest in wonder, only to be splashed by a large glob of cold water. She shook her head, noticing that the ceiling was leaking. Water dropped onto every inch of this massive subterranean forest, and mud coated the bottom of the cavern. It was always raining here, or so she assumed.
She didn't care. What mattered were the many exits of all varieties peppering the walls. Some led in the completely wrong direction; others were only slightly off. At least half a dozen pointed the direction she wanted to go, but she would have to cross this whole cavern on paw to get to them.
Now would have been a great time to fly. She could not reach a good portion of the possible exits while stuck to the ground, and what would usually be a few moments of flying promised to instead be a long slog through the mud and rain.
Not that she had a choice; flight had been taken from her long ago. She would have to do without, as always.
Lily quickly found the flowing water she had heard, a stream cutting through the mud, and drank her fill; it tasted gritty, but it was clean enough to live off of. Water and food were going to be constant issues, but she would manage. She couldn't remember the last time she had eaten, and her stomach hurt, but the dullness that slowed her thoughts dulled that too.
The mud, as it turned out, was not uniformly deep, meaning she occasionally sank halfway to her chest where she should have only been getting her paws dirty. She trudged on anyway, pulling her legs up whenever necessary, aiming for one of the two promising passages reachable without flight. She kept time by counting the beats of her heart, at least until she began needing more time to think the number than each beat gave. Then it was just a slow, tiring journey.
She could not sleep. That was a given. So, she decided to just keep going once she made it to the tunnel. The way this cavern was arranged, she would not be able to sleep without being woken by the constantly dripping false rain, so it was a lost cause anyway.
She made it to the tunnel mouth in good time… Or, she thought so. It was impossible to tell. She shook herself off and, after a moment of deliberation, decided to leave her paws muddy. There was no point in-
O-O-O-O-O
Initially, Lily didn't know anything unusual had happened. She stood, shook half-heartedly, vaguely congratulated herself on making it across the entire cavern without stopping, and made to keep moving.
Then she noticed that her paws were clean. She stumbled to a stop not five steps into the new tunnel, staring down at the impossibility beneath her.
Maybe she had just thought there was mud on her. She walked back to the tunnel entrance and spotted a quartet of tired, dragged paws still outlined in the mud. There was no way she hadn't been muddy.
She didn't remember cleaning herself off, either… or going to sleep. Sleep was not an option for her. Not without outside help.
Thinking of sleep reminded her of her naive, optimistic plan to have Beryl put her to sleep. Not that she wanted to think about him. He was nowhere near here… As far as she knew.
It was possible, she supposed, that he or someone else was following her from afar, watching to make sure she didn't do something dangerous like lurk outside the blocked way back into the cavern and lie in wait for someone to ambush. If there was someone watching her, she knew how she would respond.
"Leave me alone!" she howled, receiving no response from the rainy, muddy cavern. Water dripped and splashed without interruption, and she saw no sign she had been heard. A small, dark shape moved in the corner of her eye, but when she looked it was just a bit of mushroom that had dropped to the ground, its own ponderous weight no longer supportable by its flimsy stalk.
Still, roaring at nothing had made her feel slightly better, if no less paranoid. She ventured forward, into the dry tunnel. She was glad it was dry, though the air carried a thick, unpleasant scent that made her think of mushrooms and rot. Given she was leaving the mushrooms, she wasn't sure why she was only now smelling them, but it wasn't interesting enough for her to backtrack and investigate. For all she knew, the rain washed the smell away when she was in the cavern with them.
Her stomach clenched as she got a particularly potent whiff of the rank air. She gagged a little, thankful her stomach was all but empty… Though that was going to be its own problem, and far worse than enduring an unknown stench. She had yet to come across anything edible, and she hadn't eaten in a while. Not since before she was exiled…
Thinking of Holly exiling her - and from the sound of it, most of the pack supporting the move - made her blood boil. They should have been grateful for everything she had done over the season-cycles, everything she had sacrificed. Them being scared thanks to her… incident… was understandable, but it felt like the mountain of good she had done was being washed away by a single drop of bad.
Between pondering the possibility of starvation, and brooding over the fickle nature of her people, she didn't think she was going to enjoy the rest of her walk. Not that enjoying it had been an option to start with; she was only out exploring because she had no choice.
O-O-O-O-O
Lily's stomach was complaining loudly enough that the stronger rumbles faintly echoed off the twisting confines of the tunnel she was still navigating. Said tunnel was far longer and less straight than any of the previous routes between larger caverns, winding around and around until she had no idea where she was going. It had also grown quite restricted as she traveled, now shrunk in diameter to the point where if she had any companions they would be forced to walk in front of or behind her, because there was no room for even two light wings to walk side by side.
Or climb, she realized, coming to a seemingly dead end only to realize, looking up, that she needed to ascend. The tunnel continued upward, driven through the rock without any care for the change in angle.
It occurred to her, staring at a possibly insurmountable obstacle, that she had been assuming something rather important this entire time. Nothing said any given tunnel had to go somewhere, and if it did, there was no reason to think she would be able to travel it. These were not paths that had been made to be friendly to all who traveled along them. As far as she knew, they had not been made at all. Or maybe they had, but by someone who couldn't care less whether a flightless light wing was able to go wherever she wanted.
Not to say that she was giving up on this particular path. She eyed the tight tunnel, wondering if it was tight enough. Climbing seemed like it would be a lot easier if she could stick her wings out and not have to worry about falling. There were some good pawholds around, too…
She decided that she was going to try it, and promptly forced herself to stop thinking about it. This was the sort of thing she might overthink and subsequently reason her way out of if she lingered on it. One paw went up, then the other, then one of her back paws, and she was off the ground, as simple as that. She stuck her wings out and pushed against the rough rock behind her, steadying herself and ensuring that she wouldn't topple backward if she made a bad move.
From there, the climbing was, to put it bluntly, boring and tiring. Her limbs burned with exhaustion, trembling as she pulled herself up pawhold by pawhold. Her wings grew raw, chafing against the less than smooth rocks. On occasion, a stone ledge turned into a bunch of pebbles when she put her weight on it, but she was careful enough that it never caught her out, which was good. A fall would hurt. A lot. She didn't let herself think about it; this was the only way to go, and if she couldn't manage it, she would be stuck looking for a hidden way out or… something. For all she knew, if she couldn't make it past this ascent, she was trapped. All of the other tunnels she had seen in the rainy cavern might also be dead ends.
The only sounds were from her panting and the occasional racket kicked up when she broke a pawhold with her weight. The former was overly loud in her ears, and the latter rare enough that it always startled her. She was acutely aware of everything she heard, felt, and saw. It was almost relaxing, being forced to focus fully on her next step, and nothing else.
A rock clacked against another, but the sound was unprovoked, unexpected. She froze, clinging to her current set of ledges and protruding crystal perches, and twisted around to look down. She hadn't made that sound, all four of her grips were firm.
There was nothing below her that she could see. No tumblings rocks, either. A single impact had rung out, and then nothing. Not that she would see anything, if someone was following her from afar and making sure to keep out of sight...
She forced herself to look up and keep climbing, if only because she didn't have the breath to spare for another angry roar. The rest of her ascent had none of the near-peaceful tranquility of focus she had been enjoying; there was an ever-present current of anger in the back of her head, all the more so because his treachery, in part, had put her in this position.
O-O-O-O-O
The top of the tunnel, as it turned out, was a long way away from where Lily had begun her climb, as the vertical slope continued far above what she had mentally flagged as the end. She scrabbled up the final small slope with a sigh of relief. If she never had to climb anything again it would be too soon. Looking back, even trying had been a risky move, if not when compared to her nonexistent alternatives.
She was tempted to flop down where she stood and drift off into sleep… But she wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, so she didn't bother. Restless energy seemingly from nowhere drove her forward, down the still-narrow path that had leveled out in front of her.
There was something odd about said path, she realized as she walked. She couldn't see the end. No tunnel was perfectly straight, she had always been able to see the distant walls curving to one side or another to cut off her line of sight. Now, though, instead of a distant rock face she could only see a blue-black haze, one startlingly akin to the sky just after sunset. She found the strength to keep going, just a little bit further, so she could see what was up ahead. The floor of the tunnel ended up ahead, and she wanted to see what she had found.
When she did make it to the edge, she was disappointed. What lay below, a short jump down and no more, was more tunnel. Sure, it expanded massively to either side and featured more crystals, along with a large selection of stone spikes, stalagmites and stalactites everywhere, but that just made it less appealing. A sickly, sulfurous stench hit her in the face, and she coughed. The smell was back in full force, now with that sulfurous undertone, and the appealing haze of the sky wasn't real or an indication of long open distances at all; she could see smoke billowing up from a crack in the ground, spreading out to coat the top of the tunnel.
A small squeaking sound startled her; she whirled around. There was nothing behind her except a small cluster of stalagmites, and that was too small a sound to possibly be Beryl anyway. But it was clearly the noise of a living thing.
She stopped and tried to smell the air. Nothing except the medley of stench she was already ignoring. She still didn't know where the first smell had come from, at that. Rotting things could be tucked away somewhere in this cave, but that led her to wondering what said rotting things might be.
There was probably some sort of prey in here, if the noise and the smell were any indication, but she wouldn't be able to scent it over the rank odor that permeated the place, and there would be no tracks in solid stone. Not to mention that, thanks to the closely-spaced stalagmites, there were plenty of places she wouldn't fit that a smaller animal definitely would.
There would be no hunting in this cave, that was for sure. Not that anything small enough to fit that sound would be more than a single bite anyway. She kept walking, glad that there was only one direction to go in. When there was only one option, she didn't have to regret or second-guess what she chose to do.
Much like how she was going to take back her pack, now that she thought about it. There was only one option, so she didn't have to worry about whether she should. She was dedicated to the pack, and had given up far too much to let it go that easily.
As she walked, Lily began to think about what she would have to do to take her pack back. It was better than thinking about how sore and tired she was; she couldn't stop here, not when there were things skittering in the dark and the air made her want to vomit.
The first, most obvious thing that came to mind when she thought of the future was that she would have to go slowly once she was in a position to interact with her people. Most of the pack wouldn't trust her enough to even hear her out, and being discovered by the more aggressive elements before building up a solid base of support could be fatal. Somehow, she would have to find somewhere hidden to lurk - despite knowing from experience that there wasn't anywhere hidden - and from there draw out individual light wings she knew well enough to be confident in turning back to her side. Crystal, Root, Pina, maybe Dew though Pina could probably handle that...
Nobody else was coming to mind as easy to reassure; even Root might end up being difficult, depending on what had happened to the hero complex he had shown so long ago, and what Storm had changed about him. This wasn't going to be easy. She-
Another squeaking sound came from somewhere to her left. Lily didn't need to turn to know she wouldn't see the source; the sound had been further away this time.
She went back to thinking, but try as she might, she couldn't see an answer to the main obstacle in even beginning to fix what had happened. Even her friends were going to be wary of her; the average light wing would probably flee shrieking, and even if they didn't, most would tell Holly or one of her underlings. Last time Lily had built up her reputation in the face of an alpha she wanted deposed, she had started with the alpha wronging her, Claw officially claiming her as his own despite her being his daughter. That had set her up, given her an in, a point over him. It made people subconsciously disposed to hearing her out, if only because they felt bad for her but couldn't say so.
Now, she had taken Claw's place in that regard. Holly had a hold over her, and would continue to have it, no matter what, because Lily could not erase the past, even if she could barely remember it in any coherent fashion.
There had to be a way around that, but Lily didn't know what it might be. Claiming insanity would do nothing to damage Holly's reputation, even if it recovered some of her own. Saying Holly set it all up wouldn't be believable, not without a lot of evidence she didn't have and couldn't get. Blaming outside interference would, again, not hurt Holly. Unless she claimed Holly was collaborating with the other light wing pack, but while that would work on a lesser opponent, Holly had contacted them, so she would have done so in a way that none could claim was suspicious. Not even exiling or killing her would destroy her reputation, not after the last attempt.
Lily shuddered, vague memories of the waste pit and blood on her claws flashing in front of her, all tinged by a red haze of rage. Even if she could, she wouldn't try to have Holly killed. The thought made her nauseous.
Then something more immediate came to her attention, a little thing she would have ignored had she not been so desperate for a distraction. There was an odd hole in the rough stone beneath her paws, a dimple one of her claws had slipped into. It was small, so small she couldn't even fit her whole paw into it, but it seemed to go somewhere.
"Did you make these," she murmured as she stopped bent down to look, hoping the sound of her own voice would drive away some of her creeping apprehension, "or did you find them?" Small-sounding creatures, a stench that filled the air, no visible plant life, and now tiny tunnels under her paws… She didn't know what all of that meant, but she was getting a bad feeling about it. She could imagine a bunch of oversized beetles boring through stone, eating whatever was foolish enough to stop in their territory, a chamber below her paws filled with the remnants of a hundred dragons caught by the same ambushers… Or it was nothing, just a few scavengers living off of plants she couldn't see.
If it was the former, Lily wanted to get out of this area, and if it was the latter it wasn't like she would be missing out by leaving quickly. She had no desire to meet those 'prey' creatures. Her scales and skin were far less sturdy than stone, and probably a lot more nourishing.
But it - or they, probably they, with her luck there would be thousands of them - obviously didn't plan on attacking while she was alert, because it would have happened already if that were the case. It was a good thing she couldn't sleep on her own; she would be sure to make it to whatever came next without stopping.
O-O-O-O-O
Lily yawned, getting to her paws with a groan. All of this walking on already sore paws wasn't-
She snarled angrily as she realized what had happened, again. She had found, after reaching the end of the tunnel and doubling back to check the walls, a small crevice that led out to another of the now-familiar crystal-lined tunnels. That was all she remembered. Beryl must have snuck up on her again.
It still wasn't clear how he was managing it. She couldn't possibly be so unobservant; especially not this time, not when she suspected there were opportunistic creatures waiting to prey on her once she let her guard down. He was getting to her despite her alertness.
At least he had waited until she was out of that area to make her sleep. Though the last thing she wanted to feel was grateful. She roared long and loud, voicing her frustration to an uncaring world. As before, there was no response, though she was sure someone was stalking her.
For the time being, she couldn't do anything about him, either, for all that he was probably watching her right now. Somehow. The idea of losing him was laughable, given so far she hadn't found a single split in the path - which, now that she thought about it, was strange considering how many choices there had been last time she journeyed through the underground - and thus couldn't trick him into thinking she had gone one way, while making good on her escape down some other route. He was faster than her, too, not to mention fully capable of flying.
If he wanted to follow her, she couldn't stop him. She also couldn't see him, though she hadn't tried that hard to make him reveal himself. Waiting while she faked trying to sleep might draw him in, if he was putting her to sleep, but there was no reason to try.
Lily barely even noticed her body moving, so caught up in her frustrated logic. The only way he would stop following would be if he grew bored and certain he wasn't needed, or if she somehow drove him away through words. The former she was working toward just by not wanting his help with anything, but the latter… It wasn't worth it. The smart move was to continue ignoring his existence; acknowledgment might be encouragement, whatever vile things she roared into the darkness.
She needed to pretend he wasn't around. It would be easy; aside from being put to sleep, she had no solid evidence he was following at all.
Her stomach contracted, spasming erratically, and she groaned. Water wasn't a problem, but food definitely was. She had to keep moving until she found something edible.
O-O-O-O-O
The latest tunnel Lily found herself traipsing through turned out to be rather short. She emerged from her narrow confines to a bright cavern with a surprisingly low roof and no apparent end in sight. There were pools of water everywhere, some deep and some shallow, all sunk into boreholes in the otherwise flat stone floor, and the sound of rushing water echoed all around her. The pools were, like the underground lake, lit from below, and there were definitely fish in them.
Which wasn't to say she could only see fish in the water, however reasonable that might have been. She stopped just short of a pile of dead fish, whole and not yet old enough to start rotting. There was nobody around to claim them, and they were placed in just the right spot to catch the eye of someone exiting the tunnel.
It was hard to ignore the obvious implication that these fish were meant for her. Either for her specifically, caught by someone who knew she was coming, or for any visitor who happened to come along.
Neither possibility made her feel at all comfortable eating the seemingly innocent gift. If it was Beryl, she wanted nothing to do with his condescending charity. She just wanted him to go away. If it wasn't Beryl, then she could think of a half-dozen nasty tricks one might play with fish eaten by an unsuspecting target, with effects ranging from embarrassment to a slow, painful death, and that was just with the plants she knew about.
But the fish did seem fresh, and she could always tear it apart first to check for some of the more obvious signs it had been tampered with… Though that wasn't enough for her to be sure it was safe. She forced herself to ignore the temptation and moved over to one of the larger pools of water. What she ate would come from her own efforts, not from someone else, and would thus be free of contamination.
She stared into the pool, ignoring the soft yellow light from the crystals in favor of the fishy shadows lazily swimming around. A quick bolt of fire would have them float to the surface, and then she could…
Not get them, because she would need to fly out and pick them up. None of these fish seemed inclined to come over to the edges of the pool, and the water was still. The dead fish would just float there, out of reach, as it was too deep to wade in.
Lily sat on her hind legs and closed her eyes for a brief moment, considering the problem. She could not fly; the way of fishing she knew needed flight. She also could not swim, like Pyre had been able to, so that was also out. Learning to swim was not an option; that way led to a quick death of drowning, in all likelihood. Pyre could swim because he had no wing membrane for the water to act on.
She flexed her worthless wings experimentally, briefly considering that difference. She could try and remove the membrane-
No. She shook her head, deeply unsettled by her own thoughts. That was a terrible, impractical, downright stupid idea. She definitely didn't need any more pain in her life, and doing so would just make her even more like Pyre in the worst possible way. It would be an insult to his memory, and his memory was all she had left of him.
That realization, however right it might be, did leave her with a problem. She didn't know how to feed herself. She could always take the pile of fish Beryl had left and then try to figure it out…
Lily cast a longing glance over at the unsolicited but undeniably tempting offering. Five medium-sized fish, all pale and strange, but definitely edible. She could smell them from where she stood.
Then she sized up her surroundings, thinking about who had likely provided them. There were absolutely no places to hide in this cavern, save for moving further in. Unlike most of the caverns Lily had seen so far, this one was like a curved valley, turning to the right and obscuring the far side from view. Beryl would have to be over there, or behind her in the tunnel. There was nowhere he could be that would let him watch her.
But he would know. He would probably check here later, at the very least. He had time she didn't, because he could move around freely while she was asleep. She knew he would know what she did with his offering. That made her want to take it without him knowing, but there was no way for her to do that. She sighed, closed her eyes, and weighed her choices.
She could eat, and bear the implications of doing so. Of being weak, dependent, proving Beryl right when he said she should just give up and die. Or implied as much; he had never told her to go die, just suggested something that meant as much.
The second option was to leave it and pretend it didn't exist. That one had obvious repercussions, and was the simplest choice… So long as she didn't end up coming back out of desperation. But coming back would still be a choice she could make later, until the fish spoiled.
The third option was to do something to actively ruin the offering of food. She could blast it apart, or relieve herself on it, or just shove it all into one of the deeper pools where she couldn't get at it. Doing so might send a message, but again, said message would be undercut if she died of starvation later.
Leaving the fish alone was the best choice, if she thought about it logically. The other two choices might have unforeseen consequences. If it was just her, she would have already decided on that. But she had to assume Beryl was watching, and she had to keep in mind that whatever the other ramifications, ruining or eating the food would be sending him a message. If she ruined it, that she didn't want any of his help, with a vehemence that might actually get through to him. She might succeed in driving him off. Or he might see it as a provocation and decide he wouldn't be moved, which was what she would have done in his place.
If she ate it, he might do nothing. Or he might show himself and try to talk her into giving up. She didn't think she could bear arguing with him in that scenario, not when thinking about him hurt and he would have a huge advantage, as she would have just shown her weakness.
Her stomach still hurt like it had been stabbed. She needed food. Now.
She also needed to know she could fend for herself.
Lily left the pile of fish untouched, moving deeper into the cavern of pools and tauntingly unreachable food. There were shallower pools, but it seemed like all the ones shallow enough for her to paw at had nothing edible, and the shallowest pool with even a single fish was more than deep enough to drown in, while also being far enough down in the hole that she would have to leap in to get at it.
Maybe, she considered bitterly after a long search, she should not have been so hasty. Her anger was still present, but it was slowly yielding to practicality. Spiting Beryl and proving herself capable of surviving on her own did no good if she didn't prove that because she died of hunger. Or was nursed back to health by him once she collapsed, a prospect which hurt her pride almost as much as contemplating death by helplessness.
Then she spotted a unique pool, one that had obviously been drained recently, the water level too low compared to all the rest. It was not large, but it was deep… or had been. She could not reach down into it, but it was narrow enough that she could look right down at the fat fish swimming in tight circles.
This was a different kind of puzzle… one she could solve. She hunched over at the edge of the small but deep pool, sticking her left paw out.
The fish darted to the bottom, far out of reach. Using her paw wasn't going to work anyway; she could not quite touch the surface of the water, let alone snag the slippery inhabitant lurking within. There weren't any sticks to use to extend her reach, either. All she had was patience, intelligence, and her less than pristine body.
Though that might be enough, if she was clever about it...
She curled to the side and dropped her tail down into the water, letting the fins drift below the surface. The water was cold, but not too cold to bear, and her tail could actually reach it, unlike the rest of her.
Then she waited. The plan was far-fetched but simple. Let the fish forget her fins weren't part of its natural environment, and swim up over them. She could move fast, and her tail was deft. Pulling the fish up wouldn't work, but she was pretty sure she could slap it right out of the water, given the right positioning.
Waiting was torture, slow and uneventful. There wasn't even a sun or moon to give her a rough idea of time passing; down here, the only sign of time was her own body slowly breaking down as she failed to provide for herself.
The fish didn't play along for a painfully long time. Eventually, after much swimming in circles at the bottom of the pool, it did begin to work its way back up.
As it swam around and investigated her fins, Lily began to wonder how it survived like this. There was absolutely nothing to eat in its deep but small hole. Maybe there had been more around; the other pools had algae and smaller fish. This one was devoid of all of that.
Something had come through here and changed this pool. She was sure of that now, thinking about it. This fish was not long for the world even if she left it alone. Not that she cared; it was food, and stupid food at that.
It was drifting over her tail now, having apparently decided she was just another part of the environment. Lily mentally prepared to strike up with her tail, and adjusted for where the fish would go. This was going to work, she was going to make it work...
She pulled up, yanking her tail through the water as planned, splashing herself and a large portion of the dry stone around her.
The fish, having easily eluded her attempt with speed she had not anticipated, retreated to the bottom of the pool once more.
It took a few moments for Lily to fully understand just what had happened. She had gone for it, just as planned, and it had escaped, it was now back down at the bottom, all of that time wasted-
"You look mad."
Lily spun around, not recognizing the small voice at all. A tiny dragon the size of her paw jumped up and out of her reach, flying in circles around her. "I taste horrible! I taste horrible!" It proclaimed urgently.
It was a small thing, one with emerald-green scales, four legs, and a very angular body. The tail ended in an unwieldy-looking single fin, but its biggest feature were the elaborate brown horns jutting out from its head, equal in length to half of the rest of his body.
"I am sure you do," Lily agreed, "and I make it a policy not to eat things that talk." Not that she had ever been tempted before this point in time, but if it weren't for those horns and the promise of an aggravatingly frustrating chase, she might consider it now, so hungry and angry besides.
"Good, because I talk a lot," the small dragon replied, setting down. "You look hungry, so I am going to stay a safe distance away."
"Go ahead," she agreed. She didn't care if the little dragon wanted to be cautious. On the other paw, she very much did care about other choices said dragon had made. "Why are you here?"
"Why are you?" the little dragon retorted, hopping back nervously even though she hadn't moved a muscle.
"I'm trying to find my way to a cavern with white flowers," she explained, hoping against all reason that this little dragon would tell her she was on the right path. "I know it exists, I am trying to find it."
"And… you came here?" the little dragon asked skeptically. "I have never seen that, but I do not travel much, so maybe it is around."
"It is a long way away," Lily agreed reluctantly. "But I must reach it."
"Far be it from one like me to stop a light wing," the little dragon squeaked. "But surely you can spare a cycle or three? A new large dragon that does not see me as prey is a nice change of pace. My friends are big, but they eat other things anyway."
"What do you want from me?" she asked. "Maybe we can make a deal." She was too hungry to resent that idea. So long as she was giving something in order to get her food, she was still providing for herself in a way.
"Food for talking?" the little dragon proposed knowingly. "One fish per cycle?"
"What is a cycle?" Lily asked shrewdly. She had a good idea, but it was best not to assume, and she planned on getting the most out of this deal.
"Time between waking and sleeping. Different packs keep different cycles, but most are about the same." The little dragon gestured with its large horns around the curve, further down the cave. "You are almost to my pack already. It is a small thing."
"Eight fish per cycle," Lily proposed. "I need far more fish than you might think." Which was true, though she expected to be bargained down to six or even four. Leading with extra to cut off later was just good negotiating.
"We have a deal!" The little dragon leaped into the air, wings beating so fast they blurred. "Just keep going forward. My pack will welcome you." He - or possibly she, the voice was too high-pitched to tell either way - darted off toward one of the smaller pools. Lily began walking...
Only to stare at the little dragon as it flew back the way it had come, carrying a fish bigger than it was. She wished she wasn't so intensely envious of how easy that had been… and she wished she wasn't so gut-wrenchingly hungry either, so getting one out of two wishes fulfilled wouldn't be so bad.
Lily began to run, but slowed back down almost immediately. Getting to her destination marginally faster wasn't worth the pain. The food would be there when she arrived, and she was close anyway. She could see an odd assortment of grey stones that looked like someone had piled up a bunch of paw-sized-
No, that was a dragon. A large, lumpy, sleeping one. Two, actually, she realized as she got closer. Two lumpy, rock-colored dragons. They were resting against each other by an especially deep pool. Nearby, two fish lay on the rock.
The small dragon flew past her yet again and added to that pile. Three fish, now. She hadn't even seen the second one delivered.
Lily did not hesitate in walking right up to the pile and by extension the sleeping dragons a few steps away. She had the little dragon's word they wouldn't bother her, and if she was quiet, they wouldn't even wake up. Besides, these were dragons of a kind she had never seen before. She might as well get a chance to look at them up close. If anything went wrong, she was pretty sure she could outrun either of them.
Especially given how tiny their wings were. She eyed the stubby little appendages visible on one of the dragons. She wasn't one to criticize another dragon's ability to fly, or lack thereof, but still. It wouldn't surprise her if she was mistaking massive, ugly ears for wings and that these dragons didn't have wings.
All of that became secondary as the scent of fish wafted into her nostrils for the second time since entering this specific cavern. Lily pounced on the small pile and swallowed all three fish in quick succession, then sat where they had been. Her stomach was no longer aching quite so badly, but she could definitely manage as many more as the small dragon wanted to bring. Right now, she didn't care how much time she would spend here in return.
The small dragon brought another three fish quickly, and she ate them just as quickly. "Two more," she remarked. A gurgle from her stomach emphasized her declaration.
"Yes, very much worth it," the little dragon crowed.
Something about the enthusiasm for what Lily saw as a totally one-sided deal bothered her. "Why do you want me here so badly?" she asked, thinking that since the little dragon was already intimidated by her, subtlety would be more or less pointless.
"We like to hear life stories." The little dragon nodded to the two big lumps of snoring scales. "They will wake up soon, and they will want to hear all you have to say. Your back and strangeness with that other pile of fish make it seem like you have much to tell."
She didn't have it in her to be offended by that, and it did explain the willingness to compromise, but she wasn't sure that was the only reason. "I suppose that makes sense," she said doubtfully.
"You will be fun," The little dragon asserted as it landed on top of one of the sleeping dragons. "But... why are you here?"
"I am going somewhere very far away, I told you that much," she remarked.
"No," the little dragon continued, "why are you here?"
"What do you mean? I know what direction I want to go in, and I picked the tunnel that went that way." She gestured even further down the still-curving cavern they were in. "I'm going to just keep going that way."
"That is a dead end," the little dragon deadpanned. "You will not keep going for long."
"A dead end," she repeated, hoping against hope that she wasn't being told what she thought she was. "So where is the exit to this cavern?"
"Back the way you came," was the innocent reply.
Lily held down her rising anger and whatever was under it. "You are telling me this entire path, all the way back to that cavern with the stalagmites and mushrooms, only leads here?" she asked.
"Yes, that is why we live here," the little dragon chirped. "Nobody ever comes down here. Most of the paths down in this part of the world wind up as dead ends, and food is scarce. It is safer than most places because not many want to live here."
Lily groaned miserably, seeing all of her effort getting this far wasted. She would have to go back all that way just to pick another direction, assuming there even was another way to go.
"I told the dark wing that too, but he seemed much less upset," the little dragon remarked thoughtfully.
The dark wing. Beryl. Lily wasn't even surprised; there had been too many hints, too many little details, even setting aside how she was mysteriously being put to sleep every so often. "He put you up to this, didn't he," she asked softly.
The little dragon didn't hear the deep anger in her voice, or maybe they did but she just couldn't tell if they were more nervous. "Kind of, he told us to help you if we could. To let you stay here if you wanted. He said you would have a lot of stories."
"Where is he now?" Lily snarled.
"Right over there." The little dragon gestured frantically toward the curving horizon of the cavern, toward where she had thought she would be going to continue her journey. "He can probably hear us, there really is not much left that way."
"Beryl!" Lily roared angrily, making the little dragon jolt off of its perch on one of the snoring lumps, both of which were still asleep despite everything. "What do you think you're doing? Helping me? All you're doing is making me angry!"
"He really did seem worried…" the little dragon whined, fluttering back toward her, but keeping a wide berth.
"Worried because I'm not letting him talk me into giving up," she spat. "Waiting for me to fail or get lost or need him. But I won't, because he's wrong."
"I do not think I want to be involved in any of this after all," the little dragon quavered. "Best not to get into spats between mates."
"He's not my mate," Lily gritted, "and I couldn't be happier about that." Even though she had wanted him as one, would have found a way to make it work, if only he hadn't turned on her-
She had more, half-formed plans to drive Beryl away by spitting carefully crafted lies at him to destroy any reason he might have to care about her and thus to follow her, but something inside her balked at that. Just because he had betrayed her didn't mean she would do the same, especially when she would be casting shadows on what they'd had before all of this.
"Still want to hear my life story?" she asked bitterly, remembering the small spectator to her internal rage and very external displeasure. "Because if not, I have a lot of steps to retrace."
"Go, and you are welcome for the gift of fish," the small dragon said worriedly. "I wish you the best."
Lily turned her back on the part of the cavern that Beryl lurked in and walked away. She held to her anger; it was the only thing stopping her from breaking down, and she couldn't let that happen. So her plans, her journey, had just suffered a major setback. So she had confirmation Beryl was following her, unwilling to let his previous insults lie, ready to rub it in the moment she showed weakness. Or worse, sure she was weak, sure she would need his help sooner rather than later.
"So what?" she snarled under her breath, ignoring a small part of her that wanted to sit down, whine until her voice gave out, and then maybe throw a tantrum afterward. Just like she ignored the pain in her back and the scrapes on her wings and the soreness in her paws. Just like she ignored the emotional pain of everything that had happened, just like she ignored how she still didn't feel quite right, all of that aside, how she was thinking slower than normal, how she was making bad decisions in retrospect, how she had turned on her friends and family and everyone and acted like Claw-
It all rose up, and she whimpered once, quiet enough that none could hear, as she turned away from the little dragon, the two only now rousing lumps, and somewhere in the distance, Beryl.
