Beryl flew like a rambunctious fledgling, all wings and flashy maneuvers and quick turnarounds that would tire him out sooner rather than later. He threw himself through the air in a high-speed game of 'fly as hard and as fast as possible without crashing into something', down and then back up the ravine-like structure of the tunnel.
Lily found herself flying right with him, copying him move for move where she could, and taking the more elaborate maneuvers that escaped her understanding as moments to breathe. She didn't care in the slightest who saw her flying so recklessly and foolishly, either; Beryl's return from the depths of his own addled mind was something to be celebrated, and pushing her already sore and cold body in the misty expanse of the tunnel was one way to do that.
But reality intruded, butting its head in far more quickly than she would have liked. Her entire body was still stiff and cold-burned, her wings ached from the flight into the cold territories, and she was ravenous on top of everything else. She broke away while Beryl was busy gliding both upside-down and backward – an unnerving stunt she never wanted to try, no matter how happy she might be – and blasted enough fish out of the water for the both of them.
By the time she found a suitable ledge along the rocky side of the tunnel, Beryl was coming over to her, eyes wide and ears straight up, the picture of innocence and tired satisfaction. They landed together, and for a short while all that could be heard was the wet noise of fish being torn, bitten, or immediately swallowed, depending on their size.
For once, Lily had questions but absolutely no desire to ask any of them. She dreaded any answer that might pop the infectious bubble of relief that had encapsulated both of them, whether or not it might be practical to do so.
She finished her last fish with a swallow that ended in an oily smack as the tail slapped her face on the way in. It sounded extremely loud in comparison to the near silence that otherwise occupied their ledge.
Beryl looked over at her.
She pawed at her face, cleaning it off with far more thoroughness than was strictly necessary.
Beryl continued to look.
"Yes?" she asked, fighting the urge to look away and paw at her face some more. It hadn't been that loud. Not really. Maybe a little.
"I don't know what to say," he admitted seriously.
"I should work on my manners, I know," she grumbled.
"What?" he asked. "No. Not that. I mean about what just happened. It's… It's a lot."
"You do remember everything, right?" she asked. It felt unreal, even now. After spending so much time dealing with his memories slowly, inexorably leaving him… No amount of explanation from the guardian could really convince her that it was all better, just like that.
"I remember being bitten, helping you with your back, travelling. I remember meeting Considera…" He growled and shook his head. "Not fun. I remember the trip here, too. Every day, every bit of it."
She cringed, twitching her tail anxiously. She had not looked or sounded good in those days, tired and manipulative and going by rote… "I tried my best," she said plaintively.
"I know you did, I was there," he hummed, crossing the distance between them with a few quick steps. Her head was resting on his neck before she knew what was going on, and his on hers. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I did not see it at the time, I couldn't, but I know now how much it was wearing you down… I was rude and suspicious and hard to deal with every single day, but you never stopped. You never gave up."
"How could I have?" she murmured. "I couldn't just decide that it was too hard or too much effort and go off to do something else… It was your life at stake."
"I know, I'm not saying you would. I'm saying it wasn't easy, it wasn't something I expected of you…" He licked the back of her neck, something she would definitely have shied away from doing on her own part since they had stepped back from their relationship. Not that she was complaining.
"It wasn't great," she admitted. "I was so tired, and by the end I was just going over the same empty words, over and over again."
"It worked, and it worked every single time," Beryl assured her. "That means you did the right thing."
Lily hummed noncommittally; being told she had done the right thing felt nice, but it didn't get rid of the underlying discontent she felt, thinking back on it. Maybe that feeling was irrational, she had done what was needed, no more and no less… But doing what was necessary and doing what felt right were two different things in this case, and having the necessity validated did nothing for how it had felt.
"And it answered a question I did not know I was still asking," Beryl said quietly, his voice coming from right behind her ears. "You are better."
"It was only that I could not sleep, what came of that was still me, to some degree," Lily objected. Her heart leapt at what she thought he might mean, but she couldn't let that potential misunderstanding deceive him. "She did not say I was driven mad by outside sources… That was just what happened when I was too tired to control myself."
"You are being too hard on yourself," he murmured, pulling back just enough that they were eye to eye. His breath came hot and heavy on the side of her neck. "I cannot even imagine never sleeping again. It would drive me insane. That it did the same for you is not your fault."
Again, she said nothing. Not because she disagreed, or not only because of that. She would like to blame a sickness for all she had done then, but that would be ignoring the many mistakes she had made in the long-term. She had… accepted that. To deny that it was her fault now would be to go back, to undo her acceptance.
Even if he was entirely right, she would not relinquish the responsibility, not entirely. Keeping some for herself was how she had learned to be better.
She broke contact with him, leaning back and gently pushing his head away. "Maybe one day I will really believe that," she said. "But… not today. It is enough that I am better now."
"More than enough," he agreed. "Lily… I love you. With all my heart, as much now as I ever have or ever will." There was a calm purpose behind his voice, a simple, unyielding sentiment that would not move if a mountain fell overtop of it, or a storm pushed at its back. As steady as Lily did not feel, rocked by such a powerful, unexpected statement.
But for all that she was surprised, tired, feeling a little sleepy, and down on herself for the things she had done to get to this point… there was only one thing she knew to say, one thing she knew was true. "I love you too, Beryl," she said vehemently, rising to her paws. Her face met his, a long, drawn-out nuzzle that managed to say the exact same thing a thousand times more eloquently without any words at all. Her scales all but tingled under the pressure, the skin beneath still sore and sensitive from their near-brush with freezing to death, and all she felt now was warm.
"I want to be your mate, whatever comes, wherever we end up," he said, his voice a low rumble that worked its way through her body, strong and sure, starting where they were touching and going all the way to the tip of her tail.
"Wherever we go… Together." She liked the sound of that, and she liked the idea of freedom. "Your family, though?" she forced herself to ask.
"They will not turn you away," he assured her, slipping to the side to rub up against her. His muzzle trailed over her back, and she shivered at the dulled sensation coming from the start of her scar patch. "I know they won't. Even if they did, we could travel the world, so long as we could visit… But they won't be like that."
"They won't," she agreed. For all that she knew it would be deservedly awkward and laborious to rebuild the trust she had broken with various members of his family… They would let her try, if only for his sake. That was enough. "But whatever they do, that does not change what I want. To be your mate."
"Mates," he declared with a deep purr. His paws brushed against her legs as he stepped around her, and she could feel his wings under hers as he pushed up against her, every movement a strong sensation that straddled the border between pleasant and painful, trending more toward the former with every passing moment. "Do you feel like…"
"Oh, yes," she said sultrily, pawing at his flank. "I would make a joke about leaping into things, but… yes." Rationally, they were both tired, sore, and had just eaten. It was possible one of them would fall asleep halfway through, and they would both have to be careful not to hurt each other. She couldn't think of a less convenient time…
But they were alone, light with no worries and no cares, and she couldn't think of a better time when better meant letting the moment pass.
She licked at his flank and dragged her tongue down the base of his tail, tasting the cave-water condensation that overlaid his own unique, unmistakable scent and taste. He shuffled around her, out of reach, and a moment later her tail curled as he did something wonderful with his tongue and the tips of her tailfins…
Lily let herself relax, feeling totally free and safe for the first time in moon-cycles, dropping the last of her worries and cares to focus on the moment. She rolled onto her back, slowly and steadily, marvelling at how easy it was now, her tender skin and scales keeping her aware of every little movement, and how none of it hurt.
Beryl loomed over her, strong and there, his eyes bright with desire and love. He moved slowly, steadily, taking the utmost care to avoid going too fast or hard for their sore bodies to handle, and Lily moved with him, eagerly welcoming him as her mate in full.
Their cries soon echoed through the empty cavern, mingling with the sound of rushing water from far below.
O-O-O-O-O
Some time later – a long, long time judging by how well-rested she felt – Lily woke. Beryl was draped across her at an angle, his weight heavy but not uncomfortable on her chest and hindquarters. He breathed easily, but he was not asleep; his green eyes set into his black scales were the first things she saw when she opened her own.
"How was it?" he asked softly. "Your night."
"Wonderful." Whether he was asking about her sleep, effortless and natural as it was now, or their mating directly prior to that, her answer was the same. She felt like she had slept for a season-cycle, or maybe just caught up on a season-cycle's worth of missed sleep all crammed into a single night. A warm, heavy lethargy rested in her bones, dissuading her from moving with pure comfort. She could have stayed there, on her back and dozing, all day.
"That's good," he said slowly, staring down at her. "Should I be letting you up?"
"No, stay there," she rumbled, letting her eyes drift shut. "I'm going to sleep all day." Or as long as she could before her body reminded her that she had other needs. Which might not be that long, annoyingly…
"On second thought," she huffed, "Scratch that. I'm getting up now." If she was going to have to get up, she would just do it now. Less annoying that way.
"I thought you might," he snorted. His torso slipped to one side, and his weight fell off of her. She rolled to her paws and stretched, yawning hard enough that her jaw ached. Everything ached, at that.
A large, green-winged figure glided past their ledge, trailing flames like a shooting star. A very slow-moving shooting star with horns, a sinuous neck, and back spines that looked unwieldy and annoying, as well as no front paws…
"Looks like we are not alone," Beryl remarked, looking out at the passing dragon. Said dragon flew solo, whoever they were, and moved at a leisurely pace. Or they were just that slow; Lily had no frame of reference. "I could go find us a more hidden ledge, maybe. If you want to stay here."
"I haven't put a moment's thought into what we are doing now," Lily admitted guilelessly as she pawed at her face. Her skin still felt as if it was a size too small, and some of the smaller scales bordering her nostrils were outright flaking off… Stupid cold territories. Her face was going to itch until all of her scales were shed, she was sure of it.
"Well, we have been gone for…" Beryl paused, tilting his head to the side as he thought. "Six moon-cycles? Around that long."
"Six is a good estimate," she agreed. She could think back and try to add up all of the days, but there really wasn't any point. "You told your family you would be gone for a while, right?" She remembered him saying something like that.
"I said that it might take me a while, but that I would be coming back," he confirmed with a huff. "I was not really thinking of it taking more than half a season-cycle, though. Maybe a few moon-cycles, two or three at most."
"To be fair," Lily countered, "If it were not for that Fear-monger biting you, we would not have come to this place. That was two moon-cycles on its own, so your estimate would not have been far off." Especially not as Considera had said where to go to find the way back to the underground lake and the ledge pathway leading to the pack that had cast Lily out in the first place…
She wasn't sure if Beryl had caught that, now that she thought about it. He hadn't been in a frame of mind to be paying close attention to her conversation with Considera. She pawed at her nose one more time and looked over at him.
"It has been a long while," he huffed. "I am not sure whether they will have left for the surface yet. There were things they needed to figure out, who was going with them… It will be at least another two moon-cycles to get back to that place Considera told you about."
"You do remember that," she hummed. "I wasn't sure. Yes, it would take a few more moon-cycles to return, but why would we? We could just go find the surface and go back to where you know they will be going. Meet them there." Of course, that ignored her other reasons for going back to the pack, but she wasn't sure what those were. Not anymore. Apologies she wouldn't be allowed to give, old wounds that she wouldn't be allowed to address. She wanted to, but it wouldn't work out. It might be better to not try.
"Speaking solely of meeting up with the others," Beryl said carefully, eyeing her as he spoke, "I would say we will have to go back regardless. I have no idea where we are now in relation to the world above."
"Oh," she rumbled. She hadn't thought of that, but it made sense. She didn't know where they were, even relative to where they had started; none of the tunnels or caves they had traveled through under the ground were straight lines. To make matters worse, she had no sense of distance as compared to anything above ground, both because of the vastly different terrain, and because she hadn't been able to fly above ground since she was a fledgling. Her sense of distance was skewed and would be for the foreseeable future.
"We'll need to go back," Beryl repeated, seeing that she understood. "If only so that we can leave the way we came in. That means we'll be able to check there anyway, just in case they haven't left yet, so it's fine… for that."
"But it's not fine because I would need to go through," Lily added. "They won't like that." To say nothing of actually stopping to talk to anyone. Maybe there was a way around. It would be something to look into.
"We can think about that once we are closer to the time when it will matter," Beryl declared. "I think we have gotten off-topic."
"From what?" she asked.
"From the fact that we are mates and everything is good," he said firmly, stepping into her, and for several long, wonderful heartbeats they just nuzzled each other with deep purrs. "We shouldn't spend the first day of our lives together worrying about the future. We have a direction, and unless we can fly two moon-cycles in a day, none of what is ahead matters right now."
"Yes, that is true," she said firmly, pushing away her doubts and uncertainty about the future. "But…" She padded toward the open air. "There is one thing ahead of you that you need to consider."
"What would that be?" he asked as she passed him. He nipped playfully at her flanks, and she swayed to the side to drag her tail across his face as a tease. The casual, intimate contact was perfect and something she had sorely missed.
"Me!" She leaped off the ledge and let herself fall for a good few heartbeats, savoring the thrill before spreading her wings and arresting her fall enough to control it. The river was not that far below her, and she could easily have gone for a few fish, but she wanted to fly right now. To stretch her wings and feel the air–
Paws brushed her back, and then Beryl was out in front of her, pumping his wings to pull ahead. He looked down and back at her, his face upside-down as he craned his neck, and grinned tauntingly. "I think that is not a problem," he called out as they flew.
"I will make it one!" But not by way of making it a race and trying to overtake him; that was too predictable. Instead, she worked her way up to him, staying just below him in the air, and closed the gap in fits and starts of speed that he didn't notice.
The tunnel walls flickered past them, intermittent crystals lighting the way. They sped by the green dragon she had seen earlier, catching up and passing in a matter of heartbeats. All the while, they were flying close, close enough that Lily could have bucked and knocked Beryl's tail askew.
Then, as an unexpected breeze caught them from an angle, she slipped a little further forward than he did and knocked her head into his stomach.
"Flying a little close!" he laughed, looking down at her again.
"After yesterday, you are one to talk!" she barked. He slowed down, flaring his wings to the slightest of angles, and when she shot ahead, bopped her rear and tail with his paws.
She turned outright, flying in an arc to the side, and he turned after her. They fell into a game of trying to out-maneuver each other; her turning circle was only so tight at any great speed, and he flitted in and out of reach with clever maneuvers she didn't have the experience to pull off, the sort of thing one had to intentionally practice to do without worry.
"You're cheating," she laughed, lunging for his tail only for it to be flipped out of her reach as he fell to the side and twisted mid-air.
"You're good enough that I have to cheat!" he retorted, flapping one wing and curling the other in to turn and send a gust of wind right at her face.
She dipped out of close pursuit for a moment, taking a pawful of heartbeats to recompose herself. While she did so, he flew in lazy, taunting circles around her, keeping just far enough away that she wouldn't be able to catch him completely by surprise.
Or so he thought. There was something she had yet to try since getting her wings working again, something she had not had cause to use in so long that she rarely ever thought about it anymore. He didn't either, so far as she knew; he had never bothered to learn to see with sound.
She built up a blast in the back of her throat, whirled on him, and fired wildly in his general direction. He dodged, of course, but in the process of pretending to lunge for him and missing horribly, she flew through where her fire had detonated.
Her scales warmed and tingled – the latter wasn't entirely normal, so far as she remembered, likely a result of the cold-burns – and she was gone. Mostly; her scarred back was an obvious aberration.
Beryl glanced back, then turned around and did a double-take in the time it took her to get within grabbing distance. "That also counts as cheating," he called out, pushing himself up higher in the air with a few heavy flaps.
"Good!" She rose above him, tucked her wings in, and spun as she dove. Her back presumably twisted into a tight spiral, hard to see and harder to deduce her relative position from, and when he jolted to one side, she was able to twist and bite down – without her teeth, of course – on one of his back paws.
"Hey!" he barked, twisting out of her grip. She promptly dropped on top of him, sticking her paws between his neck and wing shoulders and holding tight. "I can't fly like this!"
"I win," she whispered sweetly in his ears before letting go. They both recovered from their plummets with plenty of time to spare, and when he flew over to a stony outcropping down right by the river, she followed.
He landed heavily, shaking himself out. "I will have to try harder next time," he grumbled as she landed. "I did not expect you to go all-out so quickly."
"Cheat and I will cheat too," she said innocently. "That way it is not cheating anymore. But I claim my prize…" Not that they had said there would be a prize. She still wanted one; her blood was pumping and she was all worked up. A good flight to start the morning was nice, but she knew what would be a suitable encore…
"About that," he said, turning to look at her. Or, at whatever parts of her he could see. "I'd love to give you a great prize, but… It might be best if we talk about what we want, first. Last night was amazing, but there are no convenient bushes of egg-preventing leaves around here." He waved his tail at his own hindquarters meaningfully. "Might be best to go sparingly?"
"Oh." She… hadn't told him. She had never told him. Of course, she hadn't; they were not friends, and then they were but it was a secret she kept close to her heart, and then they were lovers and the idea was that neither of them wanted an egg to begin with. And then they were separated and it was not at all important…
"I think there are still ways to get around that," he assured her, still oblivious to her one, last secret, even though he was her mate now. "Just we might need to use those ways, going forward."
"It… won't be a problem." She could feel herself drooping, her excitement draining away. "Ever. Not for me."
"How so?" he asked warily, his ears going up.
"I made myself barren a long, long time ago," she said quietly, holding herself back from a whine. "For good. I should have told you before we…" The words wouldn't come.
"Permanently?" he asked, sounding almost confused. "But… do those leaves do anything at all?"
"Yes, they do exactly what I said, I just… may not have needed them." She was almost glad he couldn't see her except as a blur and a scar in the air in front of him. She didn't have to hide her face.
"That's…" He shrugged his wing shoulders and shook himself again, his ears drooping. A few terrible moments passed in which he did nothing but stare blankly at the rock beneath his paws.
But then he looked up, flicking his ears to a less dismayed position. Not happy, by any means, but not nearly as destroyed as she dreaded he would be. "I would say that is sad," he warbled, stepping over until he bumped into her. "I mean, it is terrible, you never should have been put in a position to want to do that to yourself, but I can understand why."
"Does it bother you?" she asked quietly.
"I won't lie and say I never wanted fledglings in the first place," he rumbled, putting a wing over her, "but I love you, not just certain aspects of you. If this is part of being with you, then it is a part I will be content with."
"I'm not that happy with it," she admitted. Even if she had never directly desired children, not having the choice was not something to celebrate. Especially when she had taken it away from herself because of Claw… It was like her flight, except she could not take it back with Beryl's help.
"Well, if it is done and cannot be undone… best not to think about it?" he warbled hesitantly.
"Not thinking about things doesn't fix them," Lily huffed. She had learned that lesson already.
"Dwelling on them when they cannot be changed doesn't fix them either, it just gets you down," Beryl countered. He pushed at her side, and she took a step to compensate. "We could talk about it until we were both thoroughly sick of the topic. Or I could do something else that is guaranteed to make you think about something else."
"Do that," she requested, though she didn't think–
He shoved her, and she stumbled off the side of their boulder. She landed in water with a splash, and she flailed for a few frantic moments before realizing that she was kicking at rocks as much as she was water. When she stood, the water only came up to her chest, cold and fast but not deep enough to pose any threat.
"Tidal wave!" Beryl barked, leaping into the water nearby. Lily closed her eyes, but she was still drenched anew by the resulting splash.
"You," she hissed, wading toward him with her eyes still half-closed. "You pushed me!"
"I picked this spot because it was nice and shallow," he said smugly. "How is this for a distraction?"
She wasn't about to admit that she was very much distracted; that would be giving him entirely too much credit. Even if that was his plan from the start. "Start running," she said ominously. Ten steps between them, then eight, then six…
Beryl looked behind himself, out to the deeper, main part of the river. "I'd rather not," he said, inching to the side.
Lily let out a savage growl and jumped him, doing her best to push his head below the water. He fought back, wings buffeting her as she flailed on his back, but he was laughing too hard to really fight her off, and she was laughing too…
They were okay. It wasn't a big deal. He wasn't mad, and while she wasn't happy about her own inability, she had spent season-cycles ignoring it and generally getting used to it. She didn't have to let it ruin her day.
In the past, she might have had those thoughts with a hollow, false undertone, telling herself things she didn't really believe, but not now. Now, she really wasn't going to let it get her down.
"Eat surf!" Beryl barked, rearing up and twisting to fall on his side. Lily fell off him, quickly changing tactics from trying to push him down to pawing miniature waves at him, carefully avoiding swamping his head when he came up for air. After a suitable splashing she leaped at him again, roaring out an eager battlecry.
O-O-O-O-O
The journey back along the river was as unlike the journey up as was possible. Where before Lily had been tired, constantly worried, and nervous, she was now happy and mostly carefree. Beryl was back to normal, everything was back to normal except better, and they were together in the best possible way. The few little remaining worries and bad feelings that sometimes made themselves known were not enough to drag her down for very long.
They flew, they raced, they tagged each other-mid air and cavorted wildly, sometimes within sight of other travellers. Other times, they talked, telling stories or jokes, or just making wild guesses about the world around them. Once in a while, they came up behind dragons flying the same way as them, and spent some time interacting with them. Lily learned a lot about how other dragons spoke, and thought, and lived.
All of which made the days pass in a warm haze, and the nights were no less eventful and quickly-passed. Some nights were passionate, and others were sedate, and Lily enjoyed them all regardless. Sleeping with Beryl, waking up to his scent and his warmth, not worrying about her own sanity or his memory...
The days flew by like never before, chased away by contentment and a sense of purpose in the background. They were going somewhere, they were making good time, and she didn't want their journey to end, even though where they were ultimately going would also be good.
O-O-O-O-O
"How are you feeling about this?" Lily asked seriously. They were almost back to a certain place Beryl might have a right to be wary of, even though had been cured of that problem now.
"Nervous? Part of me thinks we shouldn't even be doing this." Beryl eyed the path that would lead to the Fear-mongers who had, at the very least, not attacked them. "The way to where we want to go is right there," he added, flicking his tail at the tunnel entrance surrounded by five blue crystals. They were standing in that intersection of paths that they had already gone through once before, leaving Considera and her people to go seek out the guardian.
Now they were back, both because this was the way to the cave of white flowers, and because Lily wanted to let Considera know they had made it. The young Fear-monger had said some never did reach the guardian, and it was a simple courtesy to let her know they had succeeded in that same endeavor.
"It is a short walk, a short, polite, non-life-threatening talk, and then we are on our way," Lily said comfortingly. "Don't worry about it. We are ready to flee if they even try to attack, and their greatest strength comes from the fog we will not be getting anywhere near." She was pretty sure she and Beryl could outrun and outfly any Fear-monger with ease so long as there was somewhere safe to run or fly to.
"I'm going to do it," Beryl grumbled, stepping up to the tunnel mouth and looking in speculatively, "I just do not like doing it. There is an expression of No-scaled-not-prey that fits this perfectly. Once bitten, twice shy."
"Really? I think you made that up here and now," Lily accused, distracting him enough that she managed to squeeze past him into the tunnel, forcing him to follow behind, and thus forcing him to follow instead of stalling. He had already admitted he was going to do this, so she would help him get it over with sooner rather than later.
"I didn't… I see what you did there," Beryl complained, nipping at the tip of her tail. She swatted his face with it. "Not funny."
"I am laughing," she retorted. "Don't nip at my tail. I need it."
"Don't distract me," he shot back.
"Don't stall for time because you're uncomfortable with this. We both know if we stall long enough we won't do it at all, even though it's the right thing to do." She didn't really want to do this either; only one of the six Fear-wings here was definitely safe, and some of the others were on the verge of not being safe at all.
"You..." He hesitated, and she knew she was leaving him behind. Sure enough, a moment later he yelped. "Hey, wait up! You don't win if you leave before I can think of a response."
"I win because I'm right," she purred, feeling his breath on her tail as he caught up while she waved it about to taunt him.
"I will find some way to get you back for this," he asserted lightly, not really meaning it as a threat so much as a promise. The amused lilt to his voice let her know as much, as if she did not already know simply by knowing him. "Something embarrassing and sudden, something you do not expect," he elaborated.
"Telling me means I'm going to expect it." He should know better than to warn someone prone to paranoia… But she planned on not looking too hard for his payback. This kind of thing was no fun if she stymied him at every chance. Back and forth was far more interesting.
"It won't help." He was walking very close behind her now, her tail firmly brushing his chest.
"I'll tell you what will help…" She trailed off as she noticed movement in the distance, a figure lurking ahead of them. "Being on your guard. There is a Fear-monger ahead, and I don't know which yet."
Beryl tensed, growling quietly as they approached. It was abundantly clear to Lily that his concern was more visceral than reasoned, and she fully understood why; mental influence of their venom aside, Beryl still had no reason to like their kind.
The Fear-monger had noticed them. It stalked forward, glaring. In a few moments, it would be too close for comfort, though that did not mean it would actually be close. Just close enough that they would not be easily able to turn and run before it caught up. Flying was out of the question; they had not gone far enough into this particular tunnel for it to open up into the larger area they had first encountered Considera and her pack in.
"Close enough," Lily called out. "We mean no harm, if you do not either. We just want to talk to Considera for a moment."
The Fear-Monger seemed to consider that, tossing its head after a moment of eerily still contemplation. "I am no messenger. Go talk to her yourself."
That was Aggress; Lily remembered his voice. "I will put in a good word with her if you act as one now," she offered.
Aggress snarled at her, baring his green-stained fangs. "I have eaten things larger than you," he said threateningly. "I live here under their rules for my own reasons, not theirs. Do not tempt me. I expect you to do as you say." He turned and ran out of sight, moving faster than Lily had expected. He definitely wanted what she had offered, aggressive words or not.
"I know very little except what I heard while we were last here," Beryl growled from behind her, "but I think I remember Considera not liking him? That is a point in her favor."
"My good word will not counteract what he is, and why she does not like him," Lily said knowingly. "It was a small thing to promise." And she would give it, too, though nothing said she could not also inform Considera of why she was suddenly speaking in Aggress's favor, however minorly.
Moments later, far faster than Lily had anticipated, a different, smaller and sleeker Fear-monger came into view down the tunnel, moving far less threateningly. "Lily, dark wing whose name I have forgotten," Considera called out, running up to them and stopping a respectable distance in front of them, a good ten or twelve steps away. "You made it back! Any problems with panic attacks? Did you remember the way to help him?" Her last question was directed at Lily specifically.
"We did make it," Lily purred. "It was very close, I think the guardian has moved further into her territory since you last were there, but we made it nonetheless." And now that she thought about it… "And we managed to go the entire way without a single panic attack, though I still remember how to deal with them." She didn't even know what the triggers might have been for such events, but whatever they were, she had unknowingly avoided them all. Given how horrible the trip had been anyway, she was thankful for that.
"That is very good of you," Considera said happily. "And lucky, but good regardless."
"I suppose I should thank you," Beryl rumbled, sounding contrite. "We did not get off on the right paw last time I was here."
"No, we did not, and I blame that other Fear-monger that attacked you," Considera agreed. "We have sent a pair of emissaries out to find him, my own Sire and Dam. Either he will be converted, which is unlikely, or…"
"Or?" Lily asked carefully. That first Fear-monger had seemed insane. The odds of him willingly giving up his habits in exchange for peace seemed low, to say the least.
"My Dam went," Considera said bluntly. "He will try to take her, if they cannot convince him to give up how we usually act, and that means my Sire and Dam will have to kill him. Either way, he will harm nobody else."
"Good." Beryl sounded entirely unbothered by the idea that the Fear-monger who had attacked them was probably going to die. "Your pack does good work."
"Yes, we do," Considera purred. "It might be our nature to be terrible, but since when does that mean we do not get to choose differently? I am surprised my parents and the other two founders of our pack are the first to choose this way. Other dragons do not prey on their kin."
"Most others do not," Lily agreed, unable to completely agree thanks to hearing of Second, and remembering some of what had been said and implied about Deathgrippers in general.
"Exactly." Considera nodded to Beryl. Lily leaned to the side so that she could get a clearer view of him, conscious of how she was standing directly between them. "And just so you know, I hold no hard feelings about how rude you were last time. It is always that way with those I help. I have relatively few chances to meet dragons who are not unable to stand the sight of me, and those have never even heard of my kind. They do not know what I could do but choose not to."
"And that is a good feeling, but a guilty one at the same time, because you feel like you are either endangering or deceiving by not telling them," Lily guessed.
"You get it," Considera rumbled. "I like you two. You came back, and that was very considerate."
Lily could sense the conversation was winding down, so she decided to get what she had promised Aggress over with. "Oh, Considera. I have to tell you something. Aggress came to get you, right?"
"Yes, pretending to be all kind and helpful," Considera said bitterly. "He worries me. I am the reason he agreed to live by our rules at all, and he does so grudgingly, abiding by but not agreeing with those rules. He has not actually changed."
"Are you in imminent danger?" Lily asked. "I cannot call him stupid or immature," and that was her 'good word' out of the way, "but I would caution you to be careful."
"Imminent, no. Long-term, maybe." Considera sighed, slouching a little. "I need to get away from him for a while. Especially since my parents are not home for the time being."
"I see an easy solution to that," Beryl offered, unexpectedly speaking up. "Come with us, and go meet the new light wing pack."
Lily didn't look back at him, because that would be equivalent to voicing her dislike for the idea, but she wished she could. He really was trying to make amends, to invite Considera along, even for a relatively short time. He could not have been acting more different from the last time they were here if he tried.
"I cannot, not now," Considera declined. "My parents are not good at showing they care, but they do, and for me to disappear while they are gone will worry them. Besides, Aggress might follow. It is not so bad as I have made it sound, I can manage for the time being."
"That is a fair point," Lily agreed. The idea of Aggress following and acting on the far less peaceful nature he was putting aside was a very worrying one. If Considera thought she could handle him here, then she should do that. Aggress was only a small danger here. Out in the world, he would be much worse.
But she also didn't like the idea of Considera giving up her freedom of movement on Aggress's behalf, or giving up more than that if the situation changed. "You are right, but he is not your responsibility."
"He kind of is," Considera said slowly. "I am the reason he is here, like it or not. I have to think about that. My keeping him here means he is not attacking and eating other people."
"Well, if anything changes," Beryl replied, "know that I owe you a big favor for helping me."
"That was just what I do," Considera objected. "You don't owe me anything."
"I feel like I do." Beryl hummed. "Besides, people like you are rare. I want to help them wherever I find them."
"People like me?" Considera asked, voicing Lily's unspoken question.
"Peacemakers, bridge builders, healers of relations between enemies," Beryl answered. "I've seen what they can do, and even been one myself in the past. It's hard work, far harder than just ignoring or fighting one's enemies, but far more worthwhile. You deserve all the help I can spare."
"You know this kind of thing?" Considera leaned forward a bit, though that made no real difference in how well she could see Beryl, given the dozen paces and light wing between them. Her eagerness was visible on her narrow, fang-laden face, seen in the way her mouth quirked open and her eyes widened. It made her look even more predatory.
"I have some experience with helping someone end a war and smooth out issues between two formerly enemy packs," Beryl said vaguely. "It's a long story. Next time we are here, I might have time to tell it, but right now I need to get back to my own family long enough to bring them the same kind of message we brought you."
"Next time?" Lily asked.
"I mean, this seems to be a hub of sorts," Beryl reasoned. "We might very well find ourselves coming back this way, and if we do we can visit again. Just in case. And we can tell the light wing pack about you, so that you could go there if you wanted to get away for a while."
"We could," Lily agreed, seeing his surprisingly generous point. Just in case Considera needed an out. In some ways, her situation reminded Lily of her own in the past, though Aggress would be equivalent to some twisted mix of Cedar and Gold, and possibly Claw. A diluted mix; he didn't seem truly evil so much as amoral and self-serving, but Lily couldn't really say for sure.
"It would be good if you could visit, but be careful. The rest of my people here are not entirely safe." Considera bowed her head to the both of them, her green-stained fangs almost scraping the ground. "I will look forward to that. Thank you for letting me know you made it back safely."
Lily bowed back, feeling the unusual gesture deserved a similar reply, and after a moment she and Beryl turned back the way they had come, and Considera did the same.
Once they reached the muddy cavern, a short walk later, Beryl stopped at the tunnel exit and growled aimlessly. "I feel like we are leaving an innocent in danger, now that I am in a state of mind to truly see the situation. But they have a different kind of dynamic, one we would not be thanked for interfering with."
"Not if we did it with a heavy paw," Lily objected. "What you did, offering her a safe path to travel in order to get some time away? That is a light paw. They could not complain if she took us up on that offer."
"Would you have minded?" Beryl asked, looking back at her. "I know you were enjoying us being mostly alone for the time being." They both took off from the tunnel exit, avoiding a long and wet walk through the mud as they soared across the cavern to the tunnel surrounded by blue crystals.
"No not really." Lily flicked her tail to the side dismissively, dropping a few wing lengths in the process. "We are not going to be alone all the time, and some travelling companions would be nice."
"Well, we cannot exactly…" Beryl trailed off rather abruptly. He dropped down to glide into the cavern opening, but his movements were perfunctory, obviously done as much through reflex as anything.
"What just came to mind?" Lily asked worriedly, landing behind him.
"Nothing I want to say," he replied.
"I can hear anything you think of." Lily lightly set a paw on his tail, a way of calling attention to how much he trusted her, to not have it safely up in the air around her. "Please?"
"If it was… Oh, fine." He shook his head, turning to look at her. "Do not take this the wrong way. I am happy with my life, and with you as my mate. I would not trade this for anything."
"I know." She definitely didn't mind hearing it, though; her heart still fluttered every time he called her his mate.
"I was going to say we cannot just make travelling companions," he explained in a low voice. "It was meant as a joke, but as soon as I thought about it, I heard another way it could be taken."
They couldn't. He was right. She was barren, and had been for a long time. There would be no little light-and-dark wings, what Ember and his family called dawn wings. The only reason they mated was because it was enjoyable. All things she didn't like to dwell on.
"That does not seem fair," she admitted. Beryl took a few tentative steps toward their destination, and when she followed he fell into a casual walk. "Not for me," she added after a moment, "though I wish it was different. For you."
"I did not have a problem with it when you told me about it, and I do not now," Beryl gently chided her, slowing down until they were walking side by side. "I would not mind children, but I do not need them."
"No, it still isn't fair," Lily persisted. "But then again, little ever really is." If he had really, really wanted eggs, she might put her mind to the problem, but any solution she could think of would involve another female, because she was barren, and that did not make her feel good at all. He would never go for something like that anyway, because to him it would feel like betrayal, even if she approved and told him to do it.
Best not to linger on what they could not have. If she thought out all of the details to a plan like that, she would be tempted to bring it up with Beryl, and that would make neither of them happy.
"Besides," she said, hoping to lighten the mood a little, "I think I would make a terrible Dam. Pyre accidentally taught me a lot of his flaws alongside his good qualities, and I am very much like he was." More than ever now, an exile from her own pack, but she had many things he had lost, so she was not nearly as wretched as he had been when she first met him.
"You would be a great Dam, and do not ever say otherwise," Beryl growled as they walked under one of the big blue crystals that marked the opening of the latest tunnel in their journeys. He stepped to the side to let her go first, then continued talking from behind her. "You become good at anything and everything you try to learn, and I would help you. You would help me, too. It is not as if I would be the perfect Sire. Not by a long shot."
"Give me one good reason you wouldn't be the perfect Sire," Lily requested disagreeably.
"You did not give me a good reason you wouldn't be the perfect Dam, so no!" Beryl barked sarcastically.
"I did give a good reason!" she objected.
"The one who taught you wasn't perfect?" Beryl shot back. "If that were the case, nobody would ever be a good Sire or Dam."
"Maybe nobody is," she replied. They were arguing for the sake of something to talk about at this point, so she wasn't taking it too seriously, and she knew Beryl wasn't either. That didn't mean they wouldn't both try to win the debate that had just erupted.
"Pearl," was Beryl's rebuttal. "She's not perfect, but she's great at being a Dam, among many other things. I think because her own Dam was so terrible at the job, she excels at it. She knows what not to do."
"Fine, Pearl," Lily conceded. She wished they were flying instead of walking through a tunnel barely big enough for them; she had the urge to spin around and nip at his tail, but that wasn't possible right now. Then something occurred to her. "Not Ember?"
"I went for the less obvious answer," Beryl explained smugly. "I could have gone with Thorn, too. Maybe Herb, but he had some issues with Storm, and while I don't think those mean he was a bad Sire, I'd rather not use an example someone could pick apart."
"As if I'd do that." Maybe if the examples were not people and their inevitable faults. She knew better than to do that. "Okay, you've proved it's not impossible to be a good parent. Now prove Pyre being a bad one doesn't mean I will be too, since we are so similar." She had him there.
"No, you have to prove it does mean that." She looked back at him incredulously, and was met with a calm, amused look. "Can you? What have you taught others?"
"What have I taught?" she echoed, still looking back but with one eye on the boring, featureless tunnel ahead. That was actually an interesting question. "Well… I taught Holly a little bit about leading, really not enough to count."
"Not enough to count, but if it did count, it would count towards my side," Beryl agreed. "Anyone else? Surely you have dealt out knowledge and advice on some other topic."
"Honey and Copper learned to be healers from me, but I was just passing on Pyre's instructions," Lily mused, turning back to look forward, lest she cramp her neck or do something stupid like trip on a pebble she didn't see. "One might say I taught Crystal to lead a rebellion, as she took over when I couldn't do it, but she got caught, so…"
"Would you have been caught?" Beryl asked curiously.
"If I got myself into that situation to begin with. It was a tricky thing, so I think so." Lily purred contentedly. "There. Proof."
"Proof that copying someone with a totally different mindset and skills won't make you any better than them, maybe," Beryl retorted. "That is not proof. Try again."
"There is no other evidence! I taught the pack to not let a tyrant do whatever they wanted, and they certainly learned that lesson," she exclaimed, "but most of what I know couldn't be passed on, not like it could to an impressionable hatchling I am partly responsible for raising! I didn't even get a chance to corrupt Wax, Honey's hatchling, so we have no applicable evidence."
"There you go, then," Beryl decided. "You say you'll be bad at being a Dam, so it's up to you to provide proof, but you have none. I choose to believe you'd be more than good enough."
"I can't argue with that," Lily complained. "When did you get better at debating than me?"
"When we argued other things?" Beryl suggested. "We do this often enough for me to learn your tricks. I like it, really. We both know when to admit we can't argue something, so it's not just us saying the same things over and over again."
"So what you're saying is that you're not better than me, it's just that you happened to be right this time." Funny, that. She had always lived with the idea that whoever was more persuasive would be considered right, assuming it could not really be definitely proven either way. That was why taking Claw out of power had been so hard. Apparently, that principle did not hold when two people who did not fear being wrong debated something.
She liked debating things with Beryl. Maybe she should think up other topics for them to work over together.
O-O-O-O-O
Beyond the tunnel marked by the blue crystals, which was surprisingly short, a new kind of cavern made up their chosen path forward. This cavern, while not at all narrow, was long, with no end in sight, and sloped up and down like a series of hills. Greenery, not to mention all kinds of mushrooms, carpeted the stone from the ground to the ceiling, growing up and hanging down to meet and mix in the middle. Light was plentiful, coming from yellow and pure white crystals that stuck out at every angle, and the entire cavern seemed to be experiencing an endless sunny morning.
"I will never understand how plants work," Beryl remarked, batting away a hanging vine. "What is there to eat or drink in here?"
"I hear water, but I don't see it," Lily agreed, looking around. "Maybe it is under these vines." As far as she knew, plants did not eat. She stepped down from the tunnel, which emerged into the cavern a few feet above the extremely thick floor layer of greenery, and both heard and felt a distinct slosh. "There's the answer. This is another muddy cavern, but plants grow a lot better here." She didn't understand it either.
"So… fly through?" Beryl looked down at the layer of vines with a dubious expression. "That does not seem very good for walking on."
Lily took a few steps forward as a way of testing his observation. The vines immediately caught at her paws, sliding over the moment she pushed forward with her paw, instead of just pushing down. "Yes, walking is going to be frustrating or leg-breaking, depending on your luck. But we can fly most of the way, assuming those vines will not hurt too much to pass through."
"You've never flown through greenery, I see," Beryl remarked dryly. "That will sting unless we glide slowly, and then we might as well be walking. But it will only sting if we get hit by it."
Lily eyed the vines Beryl was talking about. They were thick and greenish-gray, and she didn't doubt him on whether it would hurt to fly into them… but there were gaps she could see herself fitting through. If she looked at it like that then it was not a frustration, it was a challenging little obstacle course.
Actually, not so little; if this was what Considera had referred to as a range of caverns, then it was anything but short in distance.
"I'll race you to…" There were no good landmarks down here. "I'll race you."
"First to fall so far behind they lose sight of the other loses," Beryl offered.
"You're on." She wasn't going to lose to him. He had taught her how to really fly, not the mediocre, good-enough way she had half-heartedly learned in her youth. She could pose a good challenge.
O-O-O-O-O
In the end, there were no losers of their first race. Or if there was technically a loser, Lily did not feel like there was, not after settling down for the night and having fun of a different sort. And since she had lost sight of Beryl first, she was the one who got to decide how she felt about it.
Though she did feel the tiniest bit disheartened by the lack of effect. It was the choice that had been taken from her that she mourned; against reason, she still felt she would be a bad Dam. And on top of that, if she could have eggs, they would have to stop doing that so often; there were no plants to stop it down here, and an egg right now would put a crimp in their travel itinerary.
The days, or cycles as those who had always lived down here would call them, quickly settled into a routine as Beryl and Lily traversed the seemingly endless cavern of vines and water. The most efficient method of travel was gliding slowly, as Beryl had originally suggested, so they spent most of the day gliding along. When their wings tired of that, walking, though that was also slow to avoid tripping and getting stuck.
Efficiency was key, because there was no food in the entire cavern. No fish of any edible size could swim in the murky bottom layer of water, and nothing seemed to feed on the verdant environment. They certainly couldn't, though as the days passed, that became an almost tempting idea. Only Lily listing out the variety of ways eating unknown plants could get one killed stopped Beryl from gnawing on a few mushrooms here and there.
If it was only a day or two, she would have endured the deprivation without thinking much of it. But it wasn't; it took them five whole days and most of another to reach any sort of change in scenery. That change was a dead end adorned with a large pond, one that, frustratingly enough, contained absolutely no fish.
What the pond did have, on the other paw, was flowers. Simple blooms with six large petals, coming in all colors, or almost all colors. They carpeted the edges of the pool, marking a floral border between shallow water covered with vines, and deep water unobscured by plant life, clean and empty.
"Not a single white one," Beryl remarked as they finished their inspection, pawing at a red flower. His stomach growled audibly.
Lily looked over at him and winced at the gaunt look his body now sported. Hers was probably worse; she was smaller and tired faster. They needed food, and soon, but there was none to be had here. "We keep going, then."
Beryl turned in a quick circle. "Where, though?"
Lily turned in much slower circle, copying him in surveying the territory around them. The pond lay in a narrow shelf of stone and mud, surrounded on three sides by what to all appearances looked like dead ends. There were no convenient tunnels sticking out at them.
"Considera said… to go down here, and then to find the cavern of flowers. She said where to look would be obvious." There had to be something they were missing.
"Obvious…" Beryl walked up to one of the stone walls of the cave, stepping carefully but wearily, out of energy and starving just as badly as she was. "Obvious. Right."
"Yes, obvious. Or, it was when she was last here." Lily did not suspect for a moment that Considera had tricked them; that was not who the young Fear-monger was. Aggress, definitely, but not Considera. Besides, she had no reason to trick them, and every reason to want them to continue living, not starve to death in some dead end. To Considera, as far as she knew, it was obvious. Or it had been.
But she was thinking of trickery now. She would assume for a moment that there was a passage somewhere around here, one that used to be as obvious as Considera had implied. That meant that someone or something had endeavored to hide it...
The stone Lily could see was smooth and unbroken, incapable of hiding anything. But she couldn't see all of the stones; the vines covered a good three light wings in height up the walls. "Beryl, check that side for anything hidden behind the vines. They might be covering a path." She moved over to her side of the cavern, leaping and gliding across the pond, and began searching there.
The vines were strong and frustratingly dense, but she pulled at them, using her teeth as much as her currently dull claws. Constantly cutting herself free of vines while walking for short stints had dulled her claws faster than she would have thought possible.
All thoughts of dull claws left her mind as she noticed a dark, empty space behind one particularly easy to move chunk of vines. She cleared the area a little more, and confirmed that it was indeed a large dark passage partially sunk into the floor of this cavern, one that had a very convenient stone lip around the edge, preventing it from flooding and possibly draining the water of this cavern.
"Beryl!" she barked. "Found it!" Without further ado, she jumped in–
Only to land with a wet splash, cold and murky water swirling around her chest, almost to her head. "It's a little wet," she called up, before moving forward, carefully testing the ground in front of her with each step. Any deeper and it would be difficult to walk through without keeping her head out of it, and she didn't want to fall if the ground gave way to some horrible pit of water. Only her ravenous hunger drove her forward at even this slow pace.
There was another, heavier splash behind her. "A little," Beryl rumbled wryly. "Can you see anything?"
"There's a white light," Lily reported, still making her way forward. She could see it now; the water was so murky and full of dead plant matter that it barely reflected the soft glow, which was why it had not been visible from above.
"Careful," Beryl cautioned, a wholly unneeded warning. The only way she personally could be more careful would be to let Beryl go first, which she wasn't doing and didn't want to do anyway.
Besides, this tunnel, or at least the wet portion, was short. She jumped up onto a stone outcropping, bringing a wave of water with her to spread over the previously dry rock, and discovered that they had already reached the next cavern. There were more flowers, absolutely everywhere, but also many more bugs, buzzing around and generally making a nuisance of themselves in a way that reminded Lily of the pond she had spent several moon-cycles recuperating next to. This cavern was small, with a low ceiling, but there were many archways leading to other places, all around, to the point where it felt like this was just one subsection of a larger open area.
The most immediately apparent of these new features were the bugs. Lily shook her head, flapping her frills to drive away the little gnats investigating her. "Wonder why these aren't in the other– "
There was a splash behind her, followed by a gurgling bark, and then another splash. "I'm fine!" Beryl panted. "But there was a hole. I stepped in it. Also a fish, but I missed it, and it's gone now."
Fish. Lily felt like her stomach was trying to eat through her spine and up to her back scar. "Let's just find that lake entrance and get food there," she called back. "It has to be close." They could go a while yet before the lack of food became seriously debilitating, but that didn't mean slowly starving to death was pleasant.
Beryl leaped up into the cavern, covered from head to tail in chunks of old vine and mud. "Sounds good. I could use a large amount of clean water right about now too."
"If we don't find it, I'll lick you clean," Lily offered.
Beryl favored her with a disbelieving stare. "Did I hear that right?"
"If we don't find the underground lake and by extension food, I'll lick you clean and pretend to myself that the mud is just very slimy fish," she clarified. "But that won't happen, because we're going to find it, imminently."
"If we don't, we'll have to stay here until we do," Beryl agreed. "And from the way you are talking, that will mean I'll have to stay awake all night, lest you decide I don't need my ears and try to chew them off."
"Don't joke about that," Lily requested queasily. "Eating other dragons is horrible, and my stomach is empty enough as it is." Especially as the thought of eating other dragons inevitably reminded her of the Fear-monger ranting to himself about the taste of living, terrified flesh. She didn't hide from the memory, not like she used to, but that did not mean she was eager to be reminded of it either.
"Even little ones?" Beryl asked, his voice oddly loud and insistent.
"Of course, even little ones," Lily agreed without even thinking. "Why would that be any different?"
"What?" Beryl warbled. "I didn't ask about little-"
"Little ones' eggs, too?" he cut in, somehow talking over himself. Only it wasn't his voice, no matter how much what she heard sounded like him.
"Not even little eggs," Lily growled, her mind working through the problem at hand. An unknown entity was asking about eating little dragons and their eggs, and disguising its voice as Beryl's. She could hear him talking, it wasn't a voice in her head, so this was a physical impersonation.
Little. Little eggs, little dragons... Lily shook her head violently on a whim, and felt something almost unnoticeable dislodge from her ear. She snapped at it, keeping her teeth firmly sheathed and out of the way, and caught something.
"You just said no eating us!" Beryl's voice exclaimed as a small creature of some sort wriggled in Lily's mouth, pinned between her gums.
"Lily, what is that?" Beryl, the real Beryl, asked, sidling up to eye whatever it was she was holding. "And why did it come out of your ear?"
"Easiest way to talk to the big ones without being seen?" Beryl's voice replied hopefully, somehow coming from that tiny body. Said body was vibrating violently in her grasp, and she could feel her jaw vibrating along with it, it was so strong. "No eating, please?"
Lily spat out the small dragon. It landed on the ground in front of her and immediately buzzed up into the air. It was grey, bulbous, and had three tiny pairs of wings. She was pretty sure she could fit three or four such creatures on one of her paws without them being crowded. It was bug-sized, though bigger than the gnats that had been troubling her moments ago.
"You caught me," the little dragon admitted in a far higher-pitched voice. "No eating?"
"No eating," Beryl huffed, "and I would rather you not mimic my voice anymore. It was unnerving."
"Funny, though," the little dragon buzzed. "No eating, so you are good. The sea cavern you seek is over to your right. Stay as long as you like, as long as you do not eat us or our eggs. As long as you like." Then it, for its voice was too high for Lily to tell gender from that alone, buzzed away, and was soon gone, disappearing behind a stone pillar.
"And here I thought I knew how small dragons could get," Beryl remarked wonderingly, looking the way it had gone. "I stand corrected."
"I care more about what it told us," Lily admitted, tapping his side with her tail and walking off to the right, ducking under a low stone arch. "Come on!"
"Food, water, and the last stretch," Beryl agreed. "No need to ask me twice." He soon caught up to Lily and decided to take advantage of the space and lack of frustrating terrain to walk beside her.
Together, they found the cavern of white flowers. Dozens of them, everywhere to be seen, an almost blinding array all reflecting various colored lights from crystals… and all illuminating an open shoreline that looked surprisingly similar to the one Lily knew. Deep water, large crystals down in the depths, fish silhouetted, altogether a familiar sight.
There was even a ledge, off to the side, going out into the distance. The way back. They had made it.
Author's Note: So, more OC dragon species. They're basically tiny Gronckles in shape, but not in texture, diet, or anything else. Think dragon bees. Any other details are either unknown, even by me, or to be revealed and thus not to be spoken of yet.