The egg was small, dimpled, and mostly white with the faintest streaks of light grey slipping across it like shadows cast by a dragon's talons. That it was not purely white marked it as being something different, special. Not a light wing egg, not entirely.

Lily had absolutely no problem with that; her egg could look however it wanted. She had expected a more dramatic coloration, really, though that expectation was not based on the idea that she would ever bear one. It was kind of funny, the egg was white and grey like her, but the grey was a color, not a scar...

She let out a small, stressed snort, feeling numb. This egg had come without clear warning, though the unclear warnings had been coming fast and furious in hindsight. This was a surprise, a horribly complicated one with way too many implications, and she didn't know how she was supposed to feel about it.

Happy, because this was something she had thought she would never have. Worried, because it had come at a bad time. Afraid, because she was alone and now had something so precious to protect all by herself.

Of those emotions, fear was the one that was most prominent. She absently curled herself around her egg as she thought. She could feel the warm, life-filled object in her clutches, though it did little to help her think. It was not an unfamiliar feeling; she had tended to three eggs in all, one of Honey's and two of Crystal's, and had helped raise the hatchlings for a time. But those had not been hers.

She snuck a short look at the egg, moving to reveal it to the world for just a moment before covering it back up. It was the same as before, white with grey patches. It was still real, still hers. Still terrifying. Both because of what it meant for her, and because of what it meant that she had it here, now.

The little predators, as she thought of those four dragons with the horns and whoever else was with them, had known this was coming. They had threatened her in a way that in retrospect meant they already knew she would be having it, and they would take advantage of it now that it was here.

The strategy they would employ was simple, obvious, predictable because it didn't need to be anything else. They would send one of their number, maybe two or three at most, to watch her. The rest would go and raid the tiny dragons as normal. If she did not rise to stop them, then they got to feed as normal. if she did leave her egg to stop them, they would get their revenge immediately by going to it and breaking it, or eating it, or just rolling it into the underground sea not fifty paces from where she lay.

She needed to think of a way to prevent that. A simple, strategic answer not affected by fear or worry or self-doubt. One built off the basics of the situation she had found herself in.

The first, most obvious requirement was that this egg needed to live, unharmed. Anything she did had to account for and facilitate that, and it had to do so above all else.

She valued her egg more than she valued the tiny dragons she had only met a few weeks ago, so if it came down to them or it, she knew which she would have to choose. She would feel guilty about leaving the tiny dragons to fend for themselves, especially as that would be just what the little hunters wanted her to do… but she would still do it.

Only if she had no choice. She didn't know whether things were truly that dire, but there were certainly problems to be solved. She could not leave the egg too long in any case, lest it grow cold and die. There was nobody bigger than a tiny dragon to help her with any of this. She was solely responsible for providing heat and protection at all times. Until, of course, Beryl returned; then keeping the egg safe would be no problem at all. It was lasting the time between now and then that would be difficult.

Food was another problem, albeit one of inconvenience and subsistence rather than real danger. She would likely end up eating very little for the time being, catching only what was close to shore whenever the opportunity presented itself so as to not leave her egg unprotected and exposed for too long. She would be hungry, but that was acceptable. Water was even easier, not an issue at all, and she could drop her waste in moments, also within sight of the egg. Sleep, the last of her personal needs, could be managed. She was immensely thankful she no longer needed someone else's input to rest.

If it were not for the little predators and the promise she had made to stop them, that would be it, but they remained a looming, dangerous conundrum. There was no solution to that problem, not with her alone involved in defending the egg. She could carry it around with her, but all it would take the little predators to destroy her egg would be a few well-aimed strikes and distractions, forcing her to retreat and possibly making her drop it, or even killing her if they took advantage of her distraction to strike at her instead of her egg.

Taking it with her while she went to stop them was not a safe option, nor was it an effective one if she could manage it. Hiding it was also out; they could smell it, and there were few good hiding places for an egg this size in a cave small enough to be explored in a few moments. The little predators would find it easily and quickly if she tried to hide it… and that was ignoring the fact that it needed to be kept warm. She didn't know how long she could safely leave it without harming the life growing inside, as nobody ever experimented with that, for obvious reasons. Her trips for food, water, and relieving herself were already going to be nerve-wracking.

"I need to talk to the dragon in charge," Lily called out, stymied by the predicament she was in. She didn't see any of her guards fly off, but she wouldn't, as they were well hidden. It was possible the one in charge was already on his way.

Moments later, a tiny dragon buzzed out into the open. She still couldn't tell any of them apart aside from the one who spoke, even after interacting with them many times over. "An egg. Congratulations." His voice was flat, even as high-pitched as it was.

"This is going to make things difficult," Lily agreed, hearing the lack of enthusiasm. She wasn't surprised he had realized the implications. "Any ideas?"

"We will live as we always have," the tiny dragon buzzed unhappily. "You big dragons do not have many eggs, not like us, so yours is of course more valuable to you." Left unsaid was that he did not feel the same, even if he understood.

"I promised to protect you too," Lily objected. "I asked for ideas, not permission to go back on my word." She would protect them and her egg if that was at all possible… but he was right in thinking she would abandon them before she abandoned her egg. Maybe that made her a terrible person, but in many ways she already was a terrible person, and valuing them over her egg would make her a terrible Dam before she even started to try and play the part of one...

"There is no idea that will help," the tiny dragon buzzed. "You are the only one capable of protecting. Two different things need protecting. You must choose one or the other. Both cannot be guarded at once."

"No…" An idea occurred to her. "But we can minimize the danger. Bring your people out here, and only go to the other cavern section to eat. We put everything of value in a single place I can defend." She couldn't move her egg into their section; the bugs were still the obstacle there. It was not squeamishness that held her back, it was simple common sense. One could not live for days on end pestered ceaselessly by all manner of flying insects. They might even go after the egg.

"The way our eggs are laid, we cannot move them, and we have lost too many already," was the disappointed, and disappointing, reply. "We will fend for ourselves. Thank you for wanting to help. We will also keep our guards on you. There is no reason to give our persecutors any more fun." His voice was curt and unhappy.

"I am sorry," Lily whined. She really was. This shouldn't have happened. But it had, and now she was forced to go back on her word. "If I think of a solution, I'll let you know."

"I do not expect anything to work out well for us," the tiny dragon replied, shaking his miniscule head. "It has always been this way, and probably always will be like this."

Lily lowered her head, feeling terrible about herself. If she could think of a better way she would implement it in a heartbeat, but as of now she couldn't. Maybe a few solid days of pondering the problem would help.

Thinking on this issue was better than worrying about her own problems, anyway. She was less emotionally attached to the tiny dragons than she was to her new tiny dragon that would expect her to be a good, helpful Dam, when she didn't think she could ever be anything like that.

She barely noticed the one she had been speaking to buzzing off. Her mind was on other things, such as how she could possibly be a good Dam, or if she even knew how in theory. Her own Dam was no help, Grass barely counted as a Dam, and even Pina had not really stepped up until Lily was an adult, though she at least had her heart in the right place. Lily had no good role models for raising a child, not straight from the egg. Maybe in fixing one, if she emulated Pyre, but if there was something to fix then she had already failed.

Dams were supposed to be warm, caring, kind, and direct. Empathetic, playful, carefree, to set a good example. That was what she would have wanted in a Dam, but those were all traits she either had learned imperfectly, or did not possess at all.

Beryl, on the other paw... He could be those things, but it was unfair to expect him to act as Dam and Sire, while she sat around, twisting their child with her manipulative, controlling, calculating ways…

Lily drifted off into an exhausted doze, tired in body and mind from the short but intense ordeal she had just gone through. Her thoughts were not happy ones.

O-O-O-O-O

When Lily woke to a rumble in her stomach, she almost forgot the reason she could not just go for a good, long flight and eat at her leisure. Then the dense, heat-absorbing weight she was curled around came to her attention, and her heart dropped like a rock.

She didn't know how she was supposed to do this, and doing it badly would mess up an innocent life in any number of potentially horrible ways. Not just this, getting food right now. She was thinking about the future, the five season-cycles of raising a fledgling to adulthood, and then the rest of his or her life after that. Her own rearing, by good and bad parents of various kinds, was not responsible for all that was bad in her life, but it was definitely behind quite a few of her troubles.

Lily feared she would ruin a life that did not even know it existed yet. She knew, somehow, that she was being foolish and thinking too hard on what would happen no matter what she did now, but she could not stop thinking of it, as if the as of yet unhatched child had taken her mind hostage.

Eventually, hunger and thirst drove her to leave her egg for the briefest of moments. She felt both lighter and heavier in flying away, and drove herself to move faster, to be quicker, to snatch the first decent-sized fish to rise to the surface stunned by her fire, and then to return as if she was racing the enemy to her egg.

All was well when she returned moments later. Her race was for nothing; no enemy had come, and the egg was still warm and alive. Not that such a good outcome made her even the smallest bit less paranoid.

Lily fretted, worried, and pondered the day away. Sleep, by the time it came for her, was not a retreat from her worry, one filled with unsettled dreams.

O-O-O-O-O

She woke once again to screeching, many tiny but powerful sets of lungs calling out in terror from nearby. The single sound Lily had most dreaded almost from the moment she comprehended what this egg meant for her. The sound that meant the little predators were back. The sound that forced her to choose who she would protect, and who she would let die.

The choice was obvious, no matter how hard it was to actually follow through on. Some might weigh the value of one life against many, but Lily couldn't do that. She valued the life safely ensconced within her grasp far more than she valued a few dozen small strangers, no matter how much logic said otherwise.

Maybe, if she repeated that reasoning to herself often enough, she wouldn't feel so terrible about it.

So when she heard the frantic cries, she buried her head under her tail and tried to ignore them, before remembering that she needed to be on the lookout for herself and reluctantly allowing herself to hear.

Each screech or horrified yowl was another small stab to the heart. She had promised to try and protect them, but here she sat, guarding someone else entirely and leaving them to be hunted. She should never have told them she would get involved; at least then she would only feel pity and the need to intervene, not both of those in addition to the guilt of breaking her word.

Then there was a far closer cry, and Lily heard a small but threatening snarl. She stood, crouching low over her egg, and turned to look at the new intruder.

"Eggs are a delicacy," the little predator hissed, creeping ever closer, a few dozen steps away at the moment, having come from some unseen opening in the wall. "A weakness, too. You just keep your eyes on me, and not on my friends over in the other part of the cavern."

So they had sent a single predator to ensure she stayed where she was, just as she had guessed they would. She snarled right back, her version sounding infinitely more threatening. "Call your friends off and I will not hunt you all down once I am able." Maybe the threat of imminent extinction would stop them where common decency or the empty threat of immediate violence did not.

"Good luck," the little predator sneered. "You tried to stand up to us. You think since you are big, you are invincible? Nobody is invincible."

"Including you," Lily agreed dangerously, her teeth on full display. "You seem to believe otherwise."

"You do not eat anything that talks, if you did you would not be allied with those screeching insects," the little predator said dismissively.

"Who said I'd eat you after I killed you?" Lily asked coldly. She wondered whether they really thought the two had to be connected.

Apparently, yes, judging by how much that threw the little predator for a loop. The small dragon actually sat down on its scrawny haunches, so confused by her question. "Why not eat a kill?" it asked. "Why kill if not to eat?"

"You're threatening my egg and holding me here so that your kind can eat others as much for fun as for sustenance," Lily growled. "I want to kill you, and I can just throw the body away after." She really did want to kill, she realized. Maybe it was a Dam's instinct, or her own sense of justice, or just pure anger directed at this insolent little creature.

"You would not waste food," the little dragon decided dismissively. "And speaking of food." It eyed her egg. "That would be a feast."

"Say that again and I use your body to warn off your friends," Lily threatened.

"Very edible." The little dragon was creeping forward again. "Eat me, and my kind will not stop until we have this egg. Do not, and maybe I will just take a quick bite." The promise of a big meal seemed to be hypnotizing the little dragon, drool dripping out of its mouth.

Lily no longer believed this to be intimidation. "Step back or I blow you to pieces," she warned, building up a blast strong enough to do exactly that in the back of her throat. It was not a large blast, as her fire went, but it did not need to be. Any sane dragon of that size would hear her, see the glow, and get out of the area.

Not this one. This one took another step forward, a clawed limb coming just a little too close, its eyes wide and transfixed.

Lily did not hesitate. She fired, and a spray of dirt and gore exploded back at her, rebounding off the wall, such was the force of her shot, far more powerful than she had intended. The little dragon was simply no more, though when the smoke and dust settled she could see two cracked and broken horns on opposite sides of the cave.

It was not her first kill, and it likely would not be her last on this night. That did not bother her, as it was more than justified. What did bother her was how this one had acted, and by extension how the little predators might all be affected by the smell of her egg. She could not expect prudent or even cautious behavior from them once they got a good smell and a good look.

Lily curled herself back around her egg, staring around the cavern. She didn't know if her tiny guards were still here, and she wouldn't rely on them to give her warning at all if possible. This was no longer a game of threats and checks played to keep her out of the conflict. Now it was a small war, one in which she was alone against an unknown number of small, sneaky, and at least somewhat cunning enemies.

Lily regretted her decision to stay here while Beryl scouted her former pack. She should have gone out part of the way with Beryl and lingered there, on the ledge some way along the path. But there had been no way to know that before any of this came about, and it was too late now.

Unless it was not too late. She eyed the ledge that stretched on into the depths of the cavern, out of sight. She could take her egg down there. Food, water, and a place to relieve herself could all be found…

But the little predators could just follow, and the ledge was narrow. They very well could kill her there, simply by waiting until she was forced by exhaustion to land, and then using the extremely limited terrain to their advantage. The same could be said for her egg, and the ledge was slightly slanted down toward the water.

To go onto the ledge was basically suicide now. She would, if she had the measure of the little predators, have gained their enmity, and the egg might drive them crazy the moment they got a good whiff.

She needed to make her stand here, and she needed to hold out for at least a day, likely several. Beryl could come back at any time, but she only thought that because she didn't know exactly how far away his destination was. For all she knew, he had not even made it to the pack yet. She was on her own, aside from at best a few guards who would ensure she could sleep and pretty much nothing more.

Lily began to laugh, a strained noise that even she could tell held a hint of hysteria. Somehow, a peaceful, isolated cavern populated only by dragons no bigger than her claw had become a place of war, death, and a last stand against the enemy, who was still no bigger than her head, but nevertheless deadly.

And it was still the less important thing that they had not anticipated would happen while he was gone, or at all. Despite everything, it looked like her luck was still terrible when it really mattered.

O-O-O-O-O

The discovery of what Lily had done was not long in coming. She didn't even notice the destroyed horns disappearing until they were already gone, and neither did her guards, which meant she had better just assume her guards weren't going to be very useful at all… If they were still around. She didn't know.

What the horns disappearing meant was clear. The enemy knew she had killed one of their own, and they knew she had a very vulnerable egg with her.

They would strike, but Lily would kill every single one that came into her cavern. There was no holding back, not with this. If she struck, proven murderers would die. If she did not, an as of yet unrealized life would die just as surely. The choice, at least for her, was easy.

What felt like the remainder of the night passed, and then some. Lily did not sleep. She guessed that the first probing assault would come soon. These predators worked on short-term cunning and rage, so she would expect them to just keep coming until they were either all dead or too scared of her to try anything. The delay was only that of the time it took for them to regroup, realize one of their own was missing, retrieve the remains, and work themselves into a frenzy before coming back.

Or they were sufficiently intimidated to never show themselves, but she didn't believe that was the case. It would be too easy, too much of a relief.

She spotted a bit of movement; one of the little predators was slinking in from directly to her right. They could enter without her knowing, but she had relocated to the water's edge, so there was no getting to her without being seen. The edges of the cave were as far as they could go in secret.

She did not even stop to think when she saw the small horned figure slipping in. A small blast incinerated him or her before they could do anything. There was an outcry of fear from other parts of the cavern, beyond the openings that led to the rest of the place. That one had not been alone, of course.

"I'll kill any of you that comes near," she roared defiantly. "I know what you want, and you'll get what your two friends have gotten. Trying to get my egg brings your death."

"We'll eat it right in front of you," a disgustingly cheerful voice offered from somewhere. The high pitch made it almost impossible to locate by sound, but at least Lily knew there was still one nearby.

"Break it open, eat the unhatched, and then crunch the shell," another voice agreed.

"Or just crack it, drink the fluid, and then crush it," another offered. "That's always fun."

"How would you crush one that big? We should just let it get close to hatching and then eat once the shell starts cracking," a fourth, or possibly one of the ones who had already spoken countered. "More meat is best."

Lily seriously considered bombarding all of the flowery bushes in the area with powerful blasts, or barring that just blocking her ears. They spoke of terrible atrocities as she might of taking a walk and catching a fish for dinner. It was almost but not quite a sort of oblivious innocence; if it weren't for the taunts she knew were meant to enrage her, she might have questioned whether they even understood that what they wanted to do was considered horrible by people outside of their pack.

"Maybe we could eat her?" one proposed. "Can we kill her?"

"We would if we could," another answered. "Go for the eyes, or for the belly?"

"I was thinking if I went for the belly, I could just go in and start eating right away," one suggested. "Would save some time."

Lily flicked her ears, trying desperately to catch the location of any of the speakers. If she could kill just one, that would let the rest know speaking was inviting death, and they would shut up. But their high-pitched voices were making that impossible; all she heard was the piercing quality of their voices, not where they came from. They were free to talk unless she wanted to expend her entire shot limit on driving them off. Then she would be down to teeth and claws, and at that point they could rush her and probably break her egg no matter what she did. She only had seven shots left at the moment, as the one she had used to kill the first little predator had long since been restored.

"I smell that egg," one called out mockingly. "I really do, it's delicious. Hey, light wing, guess which, male or female?"

"Why do you ask that?" one of the others asked.

"Well, when we break it open, we might find out before we finish eating," the first replied callously. "Might as well see whether the Dam knows beforepaw."

Lily held her fire. They were trying to draw it out, and every moment was precious. The longer she held out and stalled, the longer Beryl had to fly to the rescue. She would not resent that; he would need the rescue just as badly were their positions reversed.

O-O-O-O-O

The day stretched on, unchanging. The little predators seemed content to torture her with their high-pitched voices, delighting in speaking on all things terrible, planning elaborate fates for her egg and for her, as time wore on.

Then Lily thought of something, and decided to make use of the time they were giving her. Every once in a while, she fired a single shot into the underbrush, annihilating a small portion of the cover the small dragons were using.

At first, they mocked and jeered at her, enthused. This was their plan, after all. To run through her shot limit so they could rush in.

Then, after about ten shots and the majority of the day, they realized what she had known from the start; she was never going to run out if she just waited for her eighth shot to come back over and over again. A dragon could fire until they were starving, and she was reasonably well-fed.

Lily knew when the little predators realized what was going on and switched tactics. The jeering stopped, and a deathly silence descended upon the small section of the cavern she was holding out in.

She could hear bugs in the distance, which in turn made her think of the tiny dragons she had originally intended to protect. She wondered what they were doing now. Those assigned to watch her were either dead or had abandoned her, and she didn't know which she would rather have happened. She was on her own, which was appropriate, because she had left them on their own earlier. There was no reason for any more of them to die for her… But they could do something. Maybe. If they chose to.

"Light wing…" one of the little predators called out in a sing-song tone.

"Weak wing," another continued in the same ever-changing kind of pitch.

"Egg holder, we're coming for your egg," a third hissed. Lily was pretty sure there were only three of them here now, but she couldn't assume there were only three left in total. She wanted to think that the four she had encountered here all there were, but that was a foolish hope.

A piece of brush rustled to her left, a dozen paces away. She didn't fire.

Another moved to her right. Still no fire. She wasn't going to shoot until she was sure every shot would be a kill. They could taunt her all they wanted; she could go without food or sleep for a week or more, and unbeknownst to them had done it before. The only side effect was potentially slipping back into sleep-deprived madness, and she was willing to risk that to protect this egg and to spite them.

Though she suddenly doubted whether it was necessary. She and Beryl could make more eggs, she knew that now. It was unique, but not irreplaceable-

No, it was irreplaceable, a symbol of hope, her first child. The one she was entirely sure she'd never have, thanks to Claw. If she lost it, then Claw won. She had taken flight back from him, and now she was going to take her ability to have eggs too, and she was not going to lose this one. No matter how uncertain she was about her ability to raise it, she would keep it and fail or succeed in the future.

A little predator jumped out of the bushes – Lily immediately fired on it and struck it right in the face, blowing it apart just as thoroughly as the first two.

"You will lose," one of them snarled from nearby, intelligent enough not to show her face and lose it. "You have too little fire to kill us all."

"We'll see," she growled back at them, at all of them.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily's annihilation of her third little predator brought her a long time of absolutely nothing happening. She heard ominous rustling in the greenery near the walls from time to time, but no little predator showed itself. Her mind immediately went to one of them leaving to call in reinforcements, but there was nothing she could do if that was the case.

So she was not surprised when, some time later, the bushes began to rustle louder and more frequently. They were back, in greater numbers.

Their new weight of numbers didn't immediately embolden them, though, and she thought she knew why. Each little predator individually wanted to live, and they all knew the first eight or more to rush her would die. They were going to hold off until the average little predator could attack with confidence that they would probably live to enjoy the spoils of victory. Or until something convinced them to attack anyway.

"That egg has cost us three lives," a deeper, more strident hiss called out challengingly. "How many more? Not enough to deter us. That smell… We will eat well this cycle."

"Eat," many voices chanted. "Eat."

So the leader was here. Lily snarled defiantly. "Anyone who tries will die shrieking." She did not think she could convince them to see sense and go after something else; the smell of her egg was apparently intoxicating, borderline irresistible, at least to dragons used to eating tiny eggs and the tiny dragons that laid them.

"Eat," the lead dragon replied flippantly. "We will eat that egg, and you."

Lily wished she could work up the bravado to tell them to get some new threats, but she really couldn't, not when they were acting so mindless and savage. She believed they would try, and that made it more of a promise than a threat.

"Eat," the little predators all chanted. "Eat. Eat." Their voices grew louder and more enthusiastic with every repetition.

A charge was coming. Lily had long since positioned the egg between her hind legs, wrapping her tail around and hunching over, having decided that was the most protected place she possessed that would keep it warm without hindering her ability to fight. She was basically anchored to the ground by her back legs, for to move would be to expose her egg to the soon to be swarming masses.

Worse, she was tired, having remained awake for far longer than normal, and having spent most of that time alert. She hadn't eaten or drunk anything in far too long, and her vigil over her egg had forced her to drop waste only a step to the side. That would be a small obstacle to avoid in the short, frantic bloodbath that was about to erupt.

But despite all of that, she had teeth to bite, claws to rend, and fire to blast and burn. She was awake; she definitely wasn't worried about falling asleep in the middle of a fight for her life, and she had enough righteous rage to drive her onward for as long as her body could hold out.

They were going to suffer dearly for this. She was going to make the ones here suffer and die, and then she was going to hunt down any that fled before she caught them. None who had tried to deprive her of her egg would live to laugh about it, not for long.

"Eat!" a dozen or more voices screeched, and the foliage all around her erupted into motion, purple and other colors of dragon all charging her, some flying and some running, all intent on what she obscured with her tail and back legs. Alone, each would be laughable, and even now the entire swarm was not intimidating if she only considered herself.

But she was not worried for herself, and even one of these little predators getting to her egg meant she had failed.

Lily fired several shots into the most concentrated clusters, killing three or four with each explosion. The ones on the outskirts of her strikes were injured or disoriented, but that still left plenty coming for her, sharp little teeth and claws bared.

They swarmed around her, just within reach, lashing out with their tiny claws and baring their teeth. She snarled angrily and smacked her tail into one that tried to come up behind her – they were stupid to think she wasn't paying attention to all angles of attack – and tossing it clear out into the lake. Another lunged forward, snapping small but sharp teeth at her threateningly, and she jolted her upper body forward to crush that one under a paw and snap her own, far larger and more intimidating set of teeth at the rest of them.

Then the skirmish began in earnest, and she was beset from all sides. She swiped her paws in wide arcs, hitting and tossing them more than cutting with her claws, and whatever got past her sweeping defense was met with vicious bites or a tiny blast of fire, whichever seemed better at the moment. She couldn't make herself conserve her fire now, not when biting at those stupid horns could hurt–

She leaned back as she felt a probing slash against her hindquarters, partially sitting on the hapless little predator who had dared to strike her from behind while she was leaning forward. A shuffling jab from one of her hind paws kicked said predator right out from under her, but that left her egg uncovered for a brief moment, little more than a racing heartbeat.

The attack redoubled with that single sighting of pale eggshell, and she found herself beset from above, too. They tried to land on her back, clawing as they came, but she smacked them out of the air with her wings. Those that avoided the hard leading edges of her wings could have clawed into the membrane, something that sent a thrill of visceral fear through her even in the midst of bloody combat, but they were all too focused on her egg to bother with that, or even with attacking from the air with any coordination.

Their lack of planning or strategy made them easier to deal with, but not easy in an absolute sense. She bit, clawed, and thumped their relatively fragile bodies into the ground hard enough to crack and shatter them, burning those that got too close, but for every one that she hit, two or three managed to jump out of the way of her strikes and went right back to harrying her. Not being able to move her hindquarters without risking an attack on her egg was limiting her movement, and she was surrounded.

A flashing set of narrow, angular teeth sprung for her throat, and she let herself take a glancing cut to the side in order to twist around and firmly bite at the immediate threat to her life, but in the meantime three little predators attacked her haunches, biting and slashing, shallow wounds at first but getting worse with every moment she couldn't do anything about them. Two more, at the same time, were going for her head, seeing how she had reacted to the first.

She used one of her last few full blasts of fire to kill those two, then almost instinctively leaned to the side to trap the ones by her haunches and crush them, though their horns dug into her.

Her egg shifted from beneath her, pulling out. She shrieked wildly and whirled, standing and turning just in time to put a paw on the back of the little predator pulling at her egg.

She pushed down, and bones broke like brittle twigs. A single step on the pulverized back of the little predator had her standing directly over her egg again, and she flopped down on top of it as fast as she could without crushing it under her own weight. But in doing so, she now had it under her stomach, forcing her to hunker low to the ground and repel further attacks from an even worse position, her wings pressing to her sides to protect herself as their tiny claws dug at her from all directions–

Two blue bursts of flame slammed into the ground on either side of her, throwing up dirt. Lily instinctively closed her eyes as the spray of sediment hit her, but the moment she could, she opened them to see dozens of the tiny dragons she had long since given up on protecting flying haphazardly among the little predators, distracting them even more.

Lily quickly recovered from her surprise and resumed mercilessly striking the little predators down, quickly clearing the area immediately around herself. Each time one blundered into her range, lured there by a tiny dragon, she struck at it, dragging it down to the ground and literally tearing it apart with both paws, or one paw and her teeth if she snagged said dragon with her mouth; whatever it took to ensure it stayed down. She found herself taking them down more easily now, and she knew why.

The greatest weaknesses of these little predators were their stomachs. Free food flying right in front of them was too much to ignore, and thus did they totally forget their intention for a brief moment.

But where had the extra blasts come from?

"Pull out!" Beryl roared. It was really Beryl, not an imitation using his voice, he was roaring at full strength, getting closer with every second. He was here, he was real, and she would have whined with relief were she not so busy killing these little monsters who had dared threaten their egg.

All of the tiny dragons flew around Lily in a small swarm, pursued by some of the remaining little predators. Other little predators were fleeing, and still others were circling Lily, still looking for a way past her claws and teeth.

Beryl roared loudly enough that Lily wished she could cover her ears, and landed with a heavy thump in the center of the cavern. "Get away from my mate!" he snarled violently.

More little predators began to slip away. Lily didn't stop killing them whenever they came near, getting them off of the tails of her allies, who led them close to her in hopes of being saved from their pursuer. Bodies were beginning to pile up around her, a macabre record of just how much this one egg was costing the little predators.

"Lily," Beryl grunted, pinning a little predator and knocking it out against the ground, "I have no idea what's going on here." He sounded very, very angry, and not at her. "But I take from the pile of bodies that I'm not going to be pitying these dragons once I hear the truth?"

"Not at all," she snarled. Beryl had a big heart, but Lily did not doubt his reaction to what she was going to tell him. No decent dragon would support these predators.

"Good." Beryl fired into a small cluster of little predators, concussing most of them and killing the few he hit directly. "And taking prisoners isn't going to be a good idea?"

"No," Lily growled. "Get rid of that one." She nodded to the unconscious body by Beryl's paws. "We need to drive them all out of here."

"On it, as you cannot move?" He glanced at her with questioning eyes.

"No," she said shortly. She would explain the reason for that once they were not in the middle of a battle. It felt strange that he did not know already, but that was just her projecting her own inability to forget what was safely held between her legs, out of sight.

"This is surreal," Beryl muttered, throwing the limp body of the little predator he had knocked out at a group of them, and watching as that group seemed to get the idea that they were going to die if they stayed. There were only a few little predators left now, and most were fleeing. "Absolutely surreal. I've only seen something like that once before."

"Really?" Lily was focused on the bushes right now. The enemy was no longer visible, but she was not comfortable letting her guard down until there was nowhere they could hide. "Beryl, find the exits they are using and burn the greenery in front of them, so that none can sneak in here."

Beryl moved to do exactly that, his fire coming out in bright flashes. Lily licked at the gash on her tail, unwilling to move aside from carrying her egg away from the worst of the carnage and gore and sitting on it once more. She then surveyed the aftermath while the scent of burning flowers wafted over to her, faint beneath the stench of blood and scorched flesh.

Just as Beryl was finishing with the last of the bushes, a single, familiar tiny dragon flew into the room and hovered in front of her. "Thanks for the help," Lily said, remembering the last-moment rush of tiny dragons distracting her attackers.

"It was worth it," the littlest dragon repeated breathlessly. "You have killed so many of them." There was blatant admiration in its tone. "You have done more for us than just warding them off ever would."

"I did not do it for you, I did it to protect myself and what is mine," Lily admitted.

"And we interfered at the last moment to give you more chances to kill them," the little dragon agreed. "Sometimes, we can help others for selfish reasons. That does not mean we did not help them."

Lily wasn't sure how she felt about that, but she understood that they were talking about this specific case, not the general idea that there was no difference between help offered out of kindness and help offered with an ulterior motive.

"If you need something more from us, ask," the little dragon continued. "You have done more for us than anyone ever has before." With that, he buzzed away, disappearing under one of the arches Beryl had just cleared.

"They came to me out on the ledge on the way back," Beryl revealed thoughtfully, walking back to her. "He talks pretty heartlessly, but they did fly pretty far out to warn me you were in danger, not even knowing if they would get to me in time or not. It had to have been a futile attempt on their part."

"Not so futile, I am sure they listened in on us planning your trip," Lily countered. Her head was swimming, seemingly every scale stung, and her nerves were frayed, but all of that didn't seem to matter at the moment. "They knew you might be on your way back by now." But it was still a massively long shot; she had to assume the tiny dragons couldn't fly very far or very fast, compared to Beryl. They had gotten incredibly lucky to encounter him in time to get help.

"Maybe. I came as fast as I could." Beryl eyed her tail and back legs. "All they told me was that you were in danger and needed my help. Which you were, but why?"

Why, indeed. She didn't know how to explain. Or how he would take it; he had not said he wanted an egg but he had said he was okay with not having one, and she didn't actually know what he would rather have if everything was perfect…

"You know how I said I was barren?" she asked slowly, hoping to ease him into it.

"Yes...?" He tilted his head. "Lily, what happened?"

"This did." She carefully shuffled around and leaned back to reveal their egg, sitting in the dirt under her, untouched by the danger that had raged all around it.

Beryl's eyes bulged to a comical degree. His tail hit the ground with a muted thud, and he crept forward as if approaching some infinitely confusing creature, one that might disappear if he so much as blinked. His nose went to the egg, though he took great care not to touch it beyond the gentlest of bumps.

"That…" He looked up at her. "I… We thought… You…"

"I assumed I was barren, and never tested it," Lily summarized with a wry, pained purr. "Maybe I should stop assuming things."

"Maybe?" Beryl repeated incredulously. "Maybe you should stop assuming? This is a great thing to have proven wrong." He seemed to be in shock, his eyes glazed over. "A very great thing."

"I-" she began.

"A great thing," he repeated more firmly, nosing again at the egg as if trying to reassure himself that it was real and as unharmed as it looked. Once he was done with that, he moved his attention upward, to Lily herself, and began licking her face, purring and nuzzling as he did. He was overjoyed, and expected her to be just as happy.

She pushed away from him with a soft whine. "Not now, Beryl."

"What?" He listened and hurriedly pulled away, but was physically shaking with excitement.

"I am bleeding, exhausted, and on the verge of collapsing," Lily groaned. "Please, can you–"

"Save my excitement for another time, yes, you are right," he quickly cut her off, looking extremely guilty, then moved around behind her. "You're bleeding, but only a little. Are you hurt anywhere else?"

"No," she replied, trying to shuffle around with him; dozens of minor scratches all over, but not worth mentioning. "But the egg needs-"

"Tending to no more than you yourself," he cut off firmly, this time interrupting her with something other than what she would have said, much to her bemusement. "Let me take over both duties for a while?"

"Yes…" He would be better at both anyway. "Please."

"You don't need to worry about anything for a while," he said, tapping a spot near the egg with his paw. "Let me tend to your wounds, and then you will get food, water, and anything else you need. After that–"

"Sleep," she suggested.

"Of course, but you will sleep better if you are not starving and thirsty," he reasoned. "Now let me look at you so that you can get those things sooner."

Lily nodded, and lay down to allow him to more easily reach her deeper wounds. The strangely abrupt, almost nonsensical siege she had faced was over, and would not happen again. Not while there were two of them. The bodies of little predators littered the ground only a few steps away from Beryl and their egg, and she would…

She would stop thinking, at least for the time being. She wanted to let Beryl take over in that department for a little while. Somehow, she knew she would need her full strength and presence of mind soon enough.