Hooray! The next chapter is already out, you lucky ducks. Two chapters, and perhaps more, in one week? Wow! I'm on a roll... :)

Grumman Tomcat~ I'm glad you liked that last chapter. And thanks for pointing that out, I fixed it now. Also, I used the name Ribal, as you'll see. It fit perfectly for one of the planes of Lightning Pack, thanks.

MovieGirl44~ That's funny, that Lightning Pack reminded you of our RP. :P I'm glad you've liked the last chapter. And, yes, Llegar has his hatchlings.

Chapter 9

It was over three weeks later that it happened, that the first sign of Thunder Pack's patrols appeared on Lightning Pack's boundaries.

We were flying, now, over dozens of trees. This was a rare treat, as none of us had been out of the den for a while since the sighting of twolegs, or as I had learned now, humans. Coryn, Logaan, Ribal, and I were on this patrol. Coryn's sharp eyes spotted them first. "Thunder Pack has made its appearance. It's good to know that not all the groups of the forest have gone into complete hiding."

Logaan, the oldest of Lightning Pack and the plane who had reminded me of Narvelous, nodded thoughtfully. "But Thunder Pack has not been attacked for quite some time, not even bothered."

"Hey, you might think you're all knowing, but you're not," Coryn snapped. "You aren't Greatwings, for Caracallum's sake!"

Logaan only gave him a glare for a long moment before replying, "You have to keep it down, Coryn." But it was too late for all of us. We had dangerously crossed into the zone that both packs had always fought over, the gore zone as Lightning Pack had come to know it.

"Hey!" a sharp voice sounded an alarm, "You are crossing into Thunder Pack territory. What do you think you're doing?"

It was Ribal that made the first move to fight, "This is our territory, dark forest plane." He dived nose first into the green and silver warrior. The Thunder Pack member hissed and lunged into Ribal's wing, knocking him off balance. I joined the skirmish, snapping at a warrior still twice the size of me. Logaan took him on with me. That is, until I realized who it was we were fighting.

"Blitz?"

Blitz's huge frame shrunk slightly in shock, "Roven? But… how? Conleth said you were dead!"

I felt even stronger hatred for Conleth. The rotting deer carcass had lied to my mother and all the pack. "I'm very much alive. I found Lightning Pack, they took me in."

Blitz hadn't been paying attention. Instead, he was breaking up the fight between Coryn and Gillzar. Ribal had stopped as soon as I had. He joined in on constraining Coryn, who was straining against Ribal to get to Gillzar. Gillzar was held back painfully by Blitz's jaws biting down on his elevators. Both planes would have killed each other if not for the planes holding them back. After a few moments of intense glares, they gave up their fighting to listen to us and land. Blitz was the first to speak, "Gillzar, you remember Roven, the rightful leader of our pack? Keeleth would have given up her position from the start if Roven had been old enough. I think he is now, if he wasn't from the beginnin'."

Gillzar cast a glare at Ribal and Coryn before turning to me, "He fought with these scoundrels for this territory. He's with them now."

"No," I said truthfully, "I'm with both Lightning Pack and Thunder Pack. We're both against the… twolegs, that's all that matters."

This earned me narrowed eyes all around, even from Blitz. "You can't be a member in two packs," Blitz said suspiciously, "It's impossible to be loyal to both of 'em."

I knew it was true, but I also knew I couldn't choose between the two packs. For me, that was also impossible. My family, or what I had come to know as my family, was split between scent boundaries. But I couldn't dwell on that now. Now, I needed to show Blitz all the things I had discovered that might help us all fight against the humans. I began, "Blitz, I think that, maybe, just maybe, we have what it takes to defeat the humans."

"Humans?" Gillzar asked, confused by the term.

I corrected myself, "It's the correct term for the twolegs. The term they themselves use."

Blitz shook his nose, "How'd ya know this?"

Ribal hissed at me, warning me not to tell. It was Lightning Pack's secret that Llegar had been "broken", as the humans called it, to do the humans' wills. They were embarrassed by the fact that they could not keep their own planes safe. I ignored this warning but was not going to break the promise to keep Llegar's past a secret. "Lighting Pack found out and told me. Besides, what does it matter how I came to know this? It isn't even relevant to defeating them."

Coryn snarled, "Are you thinking we, Lighting Pack, are going to join forces with Thunder Pack?" He mentioned Blitz's pack's name with such scorn that I flinched.

"I am," I said confidently, "I have what might be a plan."

Gillzar laughed, "A plan to defeat the twolegs? Ridicules, they haven't even bothered our pack since Conleth's reign."

To me this sounded suspicious, "You mean to say they haven't attacked the camp. Surely they are still a concern to you?"

"Not in the least," Gillzar snorted, "They haven't even been spotted and the deer have returned."

All of Lightning Pack just shook their noses in disbelief. Ribal was interested now, his bright blue stripes flashing messages to Logaan and Coryn. Lightning Pack had an entire system of language in their typically luminescent markings. I only caught a few "words" in their conversation. Blitz and Gillzar both just looked on in shock. Then Ribal spoke, "The humans haven't been spotted, but why not in your territory. They are all over ours. What did your pack do to get rid of them?"

Blitz shrugged, "You'd have to ask Conleth. He's the one who made our territory a safe place from twolegs."

"Who's Conleth?" Ribal asked, obviously curious as to Thunder Pack's situation.

"Our leader, or at least one of our leaders," Blitz explained, "Roven's mother, Keeleth, is the other super alpha."

Logaan's lips curled downward, "Roven is part of Thunder's royal family? Why isn't he leader then?"

"None of your territory," Gillzar snapped, "Conleth and Keeleth are our super alphas. That is all you need to know."

"Stand down, Gill," Blitz hissed, "these planes are friends."

"Says who, you?" Gillzar snickered, "Are you our leader?"

Blitz's flaps rose in anger, "No, Roven is. Now he's alive, whatever Conleth says, and he's the rightful heir. The only reason Keeleth chose to keep the throne of super alpha is because they were too young."

Coryn slammed his nose into Blitz, "Okay, we get it. Now we need to hear Roven's plan." I couldn't believe it; Coryn trusted me to give orders. If there was one thing I had learned over the month I had stayed with Lighting Pack, it was that you can never predict what will happen.

At first I couldn't speak. Blitz nudged me into reality. "I… I… we need both packs for this. Lightning Pack, I'm guessing, is going to be with me, but what about Thunder?"

Blitz gave Gillzar a sideways glance, "I don't think Conleth is going to accept this. We aren't in any trouble right now."

"Oh, but if I know humans," I argued, "They'll return and destroy Thunder Pack if they possibly can."

Gillzar looked as if he agreed, "They will be back, but how can we defeat the most abundant creature in this forest?"

"One word: Fire," I answered. "But I have to tell you the rest with the whole of both packs present."

For the first time in what had become over two months of banishment, I was being brought into the heart of Thunder Pack territory along with all of the members of Lightning Pack: Starlight, Ribal, Llegar, Logaan, Coryn, Dennyr, Linna, Ethra, and even the hatchlings. Blitz led us in, parading us through the tunnels of Thunder Pack's camp as if we were heroes. Starlight and Coryn both were joining in on Linna and Logaan's glaring fest, receiving glares from the pack members of Thunder.

But this glorious entry was stopped by two, huge, impressive planes I had never met before. One had jagged fresh grizzly bear claw marks slashed down her nose, the other was blind in one eye. Scars from a fight long ago twisted down his eyelid trailing all the way down his fuselage. Each had blood red markings under each eye, and circle with two slashes down the middle of their noses. It made every member of Lightning Pack freeze in terror. "Who are you?" the female snarled in an accent I had never heard.

Blitz stood up to her, but even he only stood up to where her wing met her body. I wondered where these planes came from. They looked like nothing I had ever seen before. Like Llegar, they were plain silver other than their red markings. "I am Blitz, deputy of Thunder Pack; I am to show these planes of Lightning Pack to Conleth and Keeleth."

So Conleth and my mother had eggs? That was news to me, but there was no time to think upon that. The male plane spoke, his voice as dull as his eye, "Conleth does not have time for this. Prisoners are to be killed immediately."

Conleth had been taking prisoners? Why… and why did my mother approve? Blitz had no time or patience for arguing, "I demand to be let through. That is where my den is, that is where my home is. It's against the Leader's Code to keep a warrior from his room."

The female slipped away for a moment, only to return a few minutes later. She showed no sign of emotion, she seemed not even to blink. "Conleth allows it, but you may only see Keeleth." The two planes moved away from the entrance of the royal tunnels to let us through.

If looks could kill, those planes would have been dead. Blitz's eyes contained Sorcanar's entire palace in them, fire and death written in his face. He rolled through the folded wings of the two planes with dignity and hatred. We followed.

The tunnels beyond the warrior's dens were elaborated with deer hides painted with the juice of berries and plants. It was not the home I remembered. How had Conleth changed everything in so little time? I wanted to rip each and every tapestry off their hook-like branches and give them back to the warriors that rightfully owned them. Yes, these wild painted deer skins belonged to warriors. They were given to them by the singflight of the pack. The highest of the warriors rank wise would be given these to show their accomplishments. Conleth had only been given three since I had seen him last: two for good work in battle and one for becoming leader. Now there were at least ten of these decorations hanging on the walls.

As we made our way into tunnels that never existed when I was with Thunder Pack, Blitz was mumbling something about how horrible Conleth was and how other pack members failed to see that. Finally he snarled to me, "Be prepared fer what's next. It gets far worse than this."

And it did. The leader's den, the one with the stream, the one that almost ten full grown, oversized planes could fit into, was now even larger. It was freshly dug out. You could smell the dirt still clinging to the air, the fresh earth damp around you, and there was no denying it had taken a lot of planes to stabilize yet create this big of a space. But not only the size of the room was impressive, but the ornaments adorning the walls. Wolf skulls, deer antlers, and bear claws hung from artistic and strategic places. It was as amazing as it was revolting. Last but not least, my eyes settled on the oddest part of the place, the beds for the leaders. There were two, piled high with cow skin, rabbit fur, and deer hide. Another, smaller bed was placed on the floor besides the left of the larger. None other than Azarious lay curled up there. Other than him, nobody was there.

Azarious slowly opened his eyes. As soon as he did, he bounced up, "Brother! Roven, I can't believe it's you!" He ran to me and rubbed his nose against mine. "What was it like being banished? Was it scary? Did you meet any twolegs?" My brother then looked at the planes behind me and hid against my nose, "Why are prisoners here?"

I looked down at him; he looked scared and was shivering. "They aren't prisoners. I don't know what Conleth is even doing with prisoners. They are my friends." I smiled at them, hoping they would smile back. Only Coryn and Llegar did not, but how could Llegar see to smile?

Azarious inched out of hiding, "You… you're sure?" I gave a confident nod. Azarious then burst out of his place next to my nose and excitedly began greeting everyone. "Hi, my name's Azarious, what are you guys' names?"

Ethra and Starlight shared a laugh and began to give him the attention every hatchling Azarious' age wants but tries to get away from. I watched in amusement as he scrambled to get away from Ethra, who had begun to nuzzle him sweetly. It was then that my mother came in. She looked pale and restless, as if she had gotten very little sleep. She looked at Blitz sadly and then scanned the room, taking in all of the planes there. All, it seemed, except me. She passed over us once more and then gasped.

"Roven, you're alive?" Her voice was harsh and raw, as if she had been yelling. Then she came up to me and rested her nose on mine, "Roven, Conleth said you were dead."

I suppressed a growl, "He was mistaken. But now I have a plan that just might get rid of the humans for good or at least shoo them off."

She looked at me confused, "Humans? Roven, what language are you speaking?"

I rolled my eyes, "Twolegs, mother, it's their proper name."

She nodded and took a deep breath. "The 'humans' haven't bothered us since your departure." Then she looked around as if checking to make sure no inferior planes were in the room with them. She cast a suspicious glance at the planes of Lighting Pack before whispered, "Conleth fended them off. He made a deal with them."

I backed up in shock, "No, the humans couldn't have! That's what happened with Blitz's sister's tribe! That's what's happened to all of the planes that left without fighting!"

"Keep your voice down," mother hissed, "Conleth could be listening."

Starlight nudged me to the side, "Roven, we came to discuss a plan, not make enemies. We need Conleth here before you discuss the plan and we can't be having you mad at him while he's here."

"You're right," I agreed, taking a deep breath. "We need him here soon. I don't think we're welcome here for very long."

My mother's eyes grew sad, "If I were truly a leader of this pack, you would be welcomed with open wings, but with Conleth?" She looked away, "I'm just here for show, so he isn't disobeying the Leader's Code fully."

"Then why are you even here?" Llegar asked, his blank eyes boring into her.

"Because I have eggs to tend to, even if they are his eggs, I still can't abandon them."

Azarious had got away from Ethra by now, of course hearing our conversation as he got free. "Yeah, we're gonna have brothers and sisters, more of them, Roven! Aren't you excited?" I nodded absent mindedly. Conleth was an enemy to Thunder Pack, even if no one realized it yet. I just knew it.

Mother smiled, despite her the sadness of her situation. It was then that Conleth came in, he looked strong and healthy, his stripes so bright orange that they seemed to glow. Coryn light up his stripes slightly as if to challenge him. I just caught the smug smile of the plane as he did so. Conleth nearly did too. He only glared. "Who are all of these planes, Roven? And why have you returned. You had been banished, or do the rules not apply to you?"

I swallowed, everyone was silent and Azarious pressed himself against Ethra, who he had tried so hard to get away from before. Mother cowered away, positioning herself behind Logaan. Logaan stared at Conleth, but it was not a glare. It was as if he were trying to see good beyond Conleth's frame and soul that was being hidden by evil shadows. I answered when Conleth's lips curled up slightly, showing his sharp teeth. "I came to share a plan with you, and these are the remainder of Lightning Pack."

Conleth's eyes went red, "Lightning Pack was killed. I promised that. Lighting Pack is not welcome here. I don't care about any plan, no matter what."

I shook my head scornfully, "I have a plan to rid the forest of twolegs. They will come back, and you know it."

Conleth looked worried, as if I had hit a nerve. "You're right… but…" he shook his nose and regained his hard look, "You will share this plan with me and then we shall see what I decide. Give me one night of thinking before I make my final decision."

Starlight was reluctant to agree with that, "Yes, I… I'll… I'll agree to that. One night. That's it."

Conleth's voice sounded to me like a snake, "One night."

Starlight then turned to me. I began to explain the plan. When I finished everyone was looking up to me both confused and inspired. "That ought ta work!" Blitz exclaimed.

Conleth nodded, "I'll think about it, until then, I have to go to a meeting to schedule patrols for tomorrow. You have to leave, come back tomorrow for my answer."

I said goodbye to mother and Azarious. Mother had tears in her eyes, "I wish you didn't have to go."

"I wish so, too," I agreed, "But I have to. I'm a part of both packs, but Lightning Pack is my home now." Blitz looked sad too. "Roven, at one point in yer life yer gonna have ta choose yer pack."

I nodded, "I know, but right now, I think we're allies." Blitz smiled slightly as we made our way back to the outside of the Thunder Pack camp.

As we made our way back to our camp, nobody noticed a plane flying off into human territory… a plane with orange stripes that nearly glowed.

Notes:

I think I might have enough names for now, thank you for all who contributed.

I keep forgetting to mention that these planes are based off of F-18s and F-16s. Just to let you know, the forest planes classify the two groups as two tailed and one tailed. I've been meaning to say that for a while.