CAUTION: Spoils aspects of Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities, When Nothing Remains, and Usurpation of the Darkness.
Seriously, major spoilers here.
Assuming you wish to continue, read on…
Author's Note: Now, posting a day late on this site because of its multi-day outage, I feel it's pertinent to remind all my readers here that I also post over on AO3 under the same name. I fully intend to keep posting here in tandem for as long as this site allows me, but AO3 seems a lot more likely to withstand the test of time. Anyway, on with the conclusion to Runaway!
It had taken an unsurprisingly long time, and a series of grueling multi-pronged defenses and counter offensives that demanded cunning and a lot of improvised strategy, but Quartz finally considered Lily competent in the ways of war. This was the highest possible praise, coming from him, though it made little difference in her cycle-to-cycle life. It certainly didn't change how he spoke to her, or who was in charge of the war efforts. It didn't give her any more authority, seeing as she was already his second-in-command on the home front. His most trusted subordinates out in the unprotected territories already listened to her, and through them the rest of the fighting light wings.
In truth, the only real difference in Lily's life that came with Quartz's declaration of competence was that she was undeniably his successor, and that both Obsidian and Sulfa resented her a little more by association. That, and a deep sense of accomplishment.
"Scout arriving!" A sixth light wing flew up to alight on the ledge, crowding the already crowded dark cave with his body. Lily broke away from Quartz, who was brooding over something he'd been told a few moments ago, to greet the new arrival. The light wing who had announced the arrival stepped to the side to let her through.
"The Noxious Fumes pack is falling back in the mossy tunnels," the scout reported without preamble. "They have made some attempts to get past us, but every time we injure one they retreat and no replacement comes. We think they will attempt to hole up at the bottom of the tunnel some time soon."
"How many are left?" Lily asked.
"Six," he answered.
Down from more than a dozen, as of last cycle. Such a drawn-out conflict was rare, this was more of a series of minor conflicts than one real battle, but she didn't expect they would want to retreat any further. Not without a serious fight. "Stop short of the place you expect them to make a stand. Keep them from passing you, but don't push any further." The Twisted Corridor pack did not need that tunnel. They only needed to force the Noxious Fumes pack to actively hold it. "Tell your replacement, anyway," she amended. "You were taking part in the fighting?"
"A little," he said reluctantly.
"You're a scout, not a fighter, and we need you fit for scouting." Lily growled at him. "Now someone else will have to pick up your slack because you are not fit for a fast flight back out there this cycle. Think about that while you are resting, after you tell the one who will be doing more work because of you."
More and more, she understood why Quartz's grumpy attitude was so impossible to shift. It was constantly reinforced by having to deal with a tide of minor stupid decisions and mistakes. A stern reprimand was necessary to correct such things, and if she wasn't careful, constantly barking orders and recrimination at people who deserved to be barked at might harden her attitude too…
But she was careful to keep things in perspective, and so long as she was Quartz's successor and not the advisor of war herself, she would continue to have every other day off. Quartz could train other subordinates in her off days, and she could knock off the social crust. Everyone won. When she took over from him in the future, she would have to figure something else out.
Quartz was very good at what he did, but what he did was all he did. That wasn't what Lily wanted for herself.
"Quartz, the mossy tunnel is going well," she called back as she dismissed the scout and turned around. "Everything is holding nicely."
"I would not say nicely, but yes," Quartz huffed. "Stal's messages indicate that they might be focusing on him, and I was considering sending reinforcements there."
"Focusing is a strong word for it," Lily said, thinking aloud. The situation was delicate, yes, and she didn't want to underestimate the Noxious Fumes pack, but there was a reason she had the leeway to tell her people not to press an advantage. "More and more they are penned up in the territory they lay claim to, and with danger coming from another front entirely they may simply be reinforcing the place they think is most in danger of collapsing inward."
"I am not used to thinking of them as on the defensive," Quartz grumbled. "This press of yours will not last forever."
"No, but it will last long enough." The problem with this war was that it was worn into a rut so deep neither side could climb out if they tried. Not without a real, genuine truce, which was something that just couldn't happen right now. Between the two packs, nothing could be done to end the war.
Lily had plans for fixing that, she was not content to wage an endless stalemate with minimal back and forth progress, but this current initiative was smaller in scope. She just wanted to claim specific, useful pieces of in-between territory, convenient tunnels and the like. The Twisted Corridor pack had held these specific tunnels before, and if they had enough time to check them over and be certain there were no new cracks for crawlers to squeeze through or gas to seep through, they would hold them again soon. Hence the push on multiple fronts.
Another light wing flapped up from the tunnel below, landing with far more poise than any exhausted scout could manage. "News from protected territory," Andes told the light wing watching the entrance.
"You deal with him," Quartz huffed.
"Happily." Andes was not Obsidian, and that would remain true whether or not Quartz chose to acknowledge it. "What has happened?" she asked Andes.
"Crystal and Shim have returned." Andes' tail flicked wildly behind him, one of many ways his subdued excitement shone through his affected poise. "They went to the healers right away, but both were flying so it cannot be too bad."
"And you did not go to make sure?" Or to hear their report? This was Andes' domain, after all, and that was no small thing. He could have, should have gone to them immediately.
"I thought you would want to know right away," was his answer.
"There is no time to lose, then," seeing as he had already wasted the time needed to fly out here and tell her. "Quartz–"
"Poke Obsidian in the eye for me," Quartz rumbled. "I have things covered here." He might not like Andes, but a secondary hate could never outweigh the primary hate it was derived from. Not a good situation to have between two light wings meant to work together, but tolerable so long as cooler heads prevailed.
Lily followed Andes down into the dark tunnel below, the two of them flying through the stone maze with the ease of familiarity. Andes had come this way often enough since their return from above the ground, as part of Lily's plots. The same plots that he had hindered by coming to her first… but she didn't really want to be mad about that. She was looking forward to seeing Crystal again and if Andes hadn't come she wouldn't have found out about Crystal's return until the next cycle.
"Got you out of there early," Andes chuffed as they slowed down to make a tight turn. "Added benefit."
"I like working with Quartz, as you well know," Lily grumbled.
"Only because he likes you," Andes said airily. "If he did not, you would have a terrible time."
"I never denied that," she snorted. One had only to look at the speed with which he ran off all of the light wings Sulfa had foisted upon him while Lily was away. Quartz's reputation had only grown more fearsome in her absence.
They ascended the sinkhole, acknowledging the guards at the top with subdued barks of greeting, and set off at a fast pace toward the vertical cavern.
Andes might be a reluctant successor to Obsidian, and a self-professed coward, but Lily didn't think he was bad as light wings went. He was smart enough that he could keep up with her, diplomatic in manner, and willing to work with her. That made him a lot better than Obsidian, but down here, below the ground, Obsidian kept him far away from anything involving their shared position.
That was intolerably stupid, and while Lily understood why Obsidian did it – Andes served as his second only insofar as it suited him – she didn't like it. As such, she had set about edging Obsidian out of his own position in favor of Andes. It was a long-term plan, but she and Andes had made a good start of it and Obsidian had very little recourse.
How could Obsidian object to his successor taking initiative and bringing an entire new pack into contact with the Twisted Corridor pack? It was simply a coincidence that the acid-spitter representative had chosen exactly two light wings she would tolerate, a group that included Andes but did not include Obsidian. Lily barely came into things, beyond having introduced them… so far as Obsidian knew.
They flew into the vertical cavern at such a high speed that Lily had to circle around the cavern a few times to bleed off some momentum before landing and trotting down to the tunnel. The wet, steamy cave below smelled strongly of something that made her nose wrinkle and her eyes itch, but she pushed forward anyway, Andes right behind her.
Crystal and Shim were still there, the former on her hind legs as two other light wings poked and prodded at her stomach, while the latter watched with an expression of absolute disgust. Obsidian was nowhere to be seen, which was good. Neither was Linara or either of her familial caretakers, which was odd but not entirely unexpected. None of the badly-scarred light wings who usually resided in the warm cavern were present. Acid-spitters had caused a few of their injuries, after all. The current alliance could not completely break down old resentments, and an acid-spitter standing right in front of them, visible to all, might have been too much to tolerate.
"He must not have heard," Andes exhaled. "Good. Shim! How go things?" At the same time, Crystal saw Lily and purred. Lily would have gone to her, but the light wings examining her blocked any closer approach so she settled for purring back.
"You ask stupid questions," Shim complained. "Tell your healers to hurry up, they are not listening when I command it."
"Exhale," one of the two light wings said. Crystal breathed out.
"She can breathe, she would be dead if she could not," Shim hissed.
"When one is, and I only repeat your own words, 'kicked through a stone wall,' one may be internally damaged." Lily tensed at the assessment, but the healer was not done. "That said," he pulled away from Crystal, "I do not think any of your ribs are broken. How big was the limb that kicked you?"
Crystal dropped back onto all four paws and shrugged her wings. "Bigger than mine, but…" She shook a paw out and let it dangle limply. "It did not feel entirely solid. I have no idea what it was that attacked us that cycle, it was like nothing I have ever seen. Shim called it a limp-worm, but it did not look like a worm to me. Limp, I understand."
"Its name makes much more sense if you see it for more than an instant before it kicks you through a wall," Shim retorted. "Now can we go?"
"You need to be seen to," Crystal said seriously. "It did not only kick me."
"I am hardier than you, we made it back here…" Shim faded into invisibility. "Andes, I will find you where you fish. Crystal, I await our next journey." Lily felt a scaled form brush against her as Shim slipped out.
"I do not know how you can stand her," one of the healers muttered to Crystal.
"She only gets like that around crowds, I think it may be a trait all acid-spitters possess," Crystal explained. "She is actually rather nice if you are alone with her."
Lily certainly hoped so. She was trusting Crystal's well-being to Shim on these journeys, for all that it was Crystal's decision to go.
"I do not believe that," the healer light wing said seriously. "In any case, take it easy for a few cycles and come back here right away if you experience any discomfort at all. We want to catch any subtle injuries early."
Lily led Crystal out of the warm cavern, and stuck close to her friend as they took to the air. "How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Like I could fly to the surface and back if I needed to," Crystal assured her. "It is just a bruise. Lily, we found traces."
"You did?" Andes would get the full report from Shim, but that would be later and she didn't need to hear it second-paw when Crystal was right here. "Where?"
"Deep, very deep," Crystal said vaguely. "I could not tell you where it is in relation to here if I tried, but I could get us most of the way down to where we were if I retraced my flight. I did not see any, we only found new tunnels, but new tunnels are a good sign. Next time, we will find them for sure."
Crystal had, in her time under the ground, bounced between different duties for the Twisted Corridor pack. Guard, scout, long-range scout… She had even accompanied Shell on his above-ground expeditions. These joint-pack explorations, though, were probably what she was going to stick with. She wasn't so enthusiastic about any of the other duties she had taken on.
"The new tunnels are obvious if you are looking, freshly scraped out of the ground with dust and sharp edges everywhere," Crystal explained as they flew over the underground lake. "They are a maze, yes, and dangerous things stalk them because new passages mean new hunting grounds, but we were close. I know it."
"Things," Lily said. "What things?"
"Things Shim does not even have names for." Crystal spoke softly, but she never once wavered in her description of what she had encountered. "Small scuttling things that burrow into dead bodies, flat translucent slugs with maws full of teeth, larger creeping horrors that we avoided as much as possible… Nothing terribly threatening if it cannot sense you, but camouflage becomes less and less useful the further down you go. Smell and sound matter more to many of those things, and to the dragons who live there too. All manageable if you are prepared."
More things to fight and defend against. Lily would not want to live deeper under the ground. There was a reason the acid-spitters lived so close to the Noxious Fumes pack. They had access to a huge swathe of the deeper territories, but even the more verdant environments were undesirable because other, more violent people or things lurking there.
Lily didn't like that Crystal was venturing into that danger, but she liked that Crystal had found something that made her happy. "Will you be going up to the surface between now and your next journey with Shim?" she asked. They were just gliding now, out above the dark waters. Crystal flew with no visible discomfort, strengthening her claim that her injuries were minor.
"We want to set out again soon," Crystal mused, "but… probably, yes. For a little while. I need some sun."
"Shell might be there, too." He did spend a lot of time flying within easy reach of the Guardian's island. "Say hello to him for me."
"Hmm." Crystal shrugged her wings.
In the past, Lily might have seen fit to intervene there. Crystal had once appreciated one of Lily's relatives, why not another? They were friendly, they both had some of the wandering spirit Crystal was embracing with her explorations, it might be a good match. Crystal probably wouldn't be averse to a helping paw, and Shell might actually need help, seeing as how he was so thoroughly distracted at all times by the sky.
In the past she might have interfered. Now, she had neither the time nor the certainty that her meddling would be for the best. Crystal was still healing. Best not to force matters when time might further smooth over jagged edges. It certainly had for her, and she was not that much further along in her life than Crystal right now. Where Crystal leaned into exploration and discovery, Lily had found her own calling in defending and improving the Twisted Corridor pack. That was more important than leaping into matters of mates and the distant future.
"Tell me all about what you saw down there," Lily asked. "And the acid-spitter pack. How are they doing?"
"That is more Andes' concern than yours, is it not?" Crystal asked. "Though I know that does not stop you from wanting all the details. The acid-spitters are not unhappy with our new alliance, limited as it is. I barely saw a pawful of them this time. We really do need to fulfill our end of the deal soon though. Shim is impatient – more impatient than usual, I mean," she concluded with a snort.
"We have most of the relevant passages now," Lily assured her. "Only the first stretch is beyond our reach, and unless they have changed their minds about driving the Noxious Fumes pack out completely, that is not changing." An all-out war of extermination would be an uncertain, bloody mess even with their help, so she didn't much mind that refusal despite her desire to change something. The Twisted Corridor pack needed to break the endless tide of advancing and retreating over the same contested tunnels and caves, and if that could be done solely through physical force it would have been done by now. The acid-spitters were still an untapped well of possibility in other ways.
Lily wasn't as involved in the negotiations as she wanted to be. There was only so much time in a cycle, and she was most needed actively managing the war with Quartz. Her biggest contributions to the acid-spitter alliance were first reaching out to offer a paw with claws sheathed, and second maneuvering Andes into primacy as their point of contact. Everything else, from the tentative opening of negotiations to the multiple small agreements was the work of Andes, Crystal, Shim, and others from the acid-spitter pack.
That just meant she was doubly interested in getting all of the details from one of her best friends. "Once they are out of Noxious Fumes protected territory, we will control an unbroken route to the surface. Five, ten cycles if our current efforts pan out, fifty if they do not. You have my word on that. Now, once you were through acid-spitter territory…" she trailed off in anticipation.
"It will be a long story," Crystal warned, though her eyes were bright with enthusiasm and she didn't wait for Lily to demur. "We went through the hot rock pillars to begin with, not because they lead downward – they do not. But Shim was certain that there would be a tunnel somewhere in the midst of the pillars that did lead down, and she was right. The entire cave, pillars and all, was made of stone so red my eyes hurt from looking at it…"
O-O-O-O-O
Another aspect of being Quartz's confirmed successor was that when a meeting of advisors was called in the middle of a cycle, Quartz was just as likely to send Lily in his place as he was to leave her to keep up with the scouts coming and going while he went. He actually sent her more often than not, seeing as he considered such meetings to be mostly a waste of time.
One fewer light wing in the cramped chamber up above Peat's domain was also to everyone's benefit, seeing as there wasn't much room to spare. Rose was there, and all of his advisors aside from Quartz were meant to be present, but since her return some of them had decided to get their successors more involved in the cycle-to-cycle duties they would eventually be taking up, and some had gotten new successors altogether.
Obsidian was there – he wouldn't miss even the smallest official responsibility when Andes could show up to take over. He stood as close to Rose as he could manage without outright getting in his alpha's personal space, and every time he thought no one was looking he glared at Andes. Andes stood by where Lily and Quartz would usually be, and Lily hurried over to join him. She always made a point of demonstrating that unlike their predecessors, they worked well together. Such an impression in the minds of the other advisors bought them more legitimacy than any of the other successors, and made it easier for her and Andes to keep a paw on the shape of any decisions made.
By and large, Lily approved of the way the Twisted Corridor pack functioned, but there were occasional old problems and failings scorched deep into its roots, and she liked to be in a position to negate or even bite off gnarled bits of stupidity whenever they popped up. As an advisor's successor sometimes she was in a better position to attack such things than Rose or Sola would be.
Speaking of Sola, she was conspicuously absent, and by the way Rose stood he didn't expect her to turn up. Usually she attended these gatherings to act as his voice of loudly roared reason and order. Not always, though. This would be a longer and more argumentative session than most.
Alongside Obsidian, showing solidarity in disgruntlement, was Sulfa. That was a tree well and truly burnt, as far as Lily knew. Calci, Lily could get along with if she tried, but Calci wasn't here and would never be. She had disappointed Sulfa, and in response Sulfa had chosen another to work with instead. Not that her current successor was any more solidly placed than Calci had been. A meek, quiet male named Silt stood beside and slightly behind her, ready to chime in to echo Sulfa's opinions but never to give any of his own. He was only one of several frontrunners at the moment, and Lily had noticed that said group of possible successors shed and gained younger light wings rather frequently, but never actually shrunk in overall size.
Sometime soon Lily was going to have to turn her attention toward stabilizing the position of the advisor of safety; Sulfa could handle the practical aspects of the role, but her attitude and approach to ensuring continuity in case of emergency were glaring failings that weakened the pack.
Gilla was present too, with her current successor. He was a big, broad-shouldered male light wing named Twist, and the two were close. Very close. Neither had a mate. That was as far as Lily thought about Gilla. She was there. She had someone other than Rose to focus on. She performed her role as an advisor adequately, and no trouble ever came from her realm of authority. She was more Sola's problem than Lily's at this point, though Lily would always be happy to jump in on Sola's side of things if Gilla stirred up trouble.
Finally, coming in late to stand on Lily's other side, was Peat and his new successor. Clay, Gold's Sire, looked half-asleep as he wandered in, but he seemed capable of listening to Peat talk and tolerating his oddities all cycle, every cycle, and already having a mate was mostly immune to Peat's meddling to ensure everyone's roots continued into the future. It might be some time before he and his mate were allowed an egg, if they even wanted one, but neither of them were in any danger at all and as such Peat wasn't worried about their roots ending prematurely.
Usually there were twelve light wings in this small chamber, so ten felt rather roomy. Lily was able to stand with half a wing of open air between her and Peat, and her other side only occasionally brushed against Andes. Rose was across and to her left, and he favored her with a small purr moments before growling to call the gathering to order.
"I do not have much for us to cover this cycle," he announced. "Two things before we get to your general updates. First, it has come to my attention that there have been a rash of plant thefts recently. Gilla, why have I not heard about this from you?"
Gilla shrugged her wings. "Because it is not theft? Some of those who come to me are too shy to show their faces. They are only taking leaves, not the entire bushes, so no harm is being done. Who told you they were stealing?"
"They were bragging about it and one of my guards overheard," Sulfa growled.
"And you went to the alpha instead of just telling me?" Gilla waved her wings for emphasis, knocking them on Twist and barely missing Silt. "I am right here! I–"
"You have made your point," Rose interrupted. "Sulfa, Gilla is right. You could have gone to her first. Gilla, Sulfa was looking out for you in her own way. Next time you will both handle this better, ideally without involving me."
A hard one, that. Sulfa was using her knowledge to snipe at Gilla's authority through Rose, and in doing so she had concealed her pettiness behind an appeal to authority that Rose couldn't refute too harshly without undermining himself. Still, it was a small thing.
"Second," Rose continued, "our envoy to the acid-spitters has returned. Andes, I understand you have their report to share?"
"I do." Andes spoke confidently, with nary a glance Obsidian's way. "To summarize, they believe they have found the current territory of the diggers, though they have not yet made contact. This place is deep, very deep, and far from any claimed territory we know of. It is of course only accessible to us through the acid-spitters' territory, which remains open so long as we uphold our ends of the various deals I have brokered." Even then it was a serious risk, sneaking a light wing through the heart of Noxious Fumes territory. It wouldn't be possible without the aid of an acid-spitter openly walking through to guide and distract from the light wing tagging along. "Both of our current explorers are willing to go back to this place and delve deeper, looking to make contact and open negotiations."
Negotiations with the very dragons who had shaped the tunnels and caves they currently lived in. That was a literally world-changing opportunity. There was a lot left to do before a light wing could make a deal with a digger – if that was even possible, nobody knew if diggers could speak, they were so rare – but as a pack they were closer now than they ever had been before.
"Good. Come to me if the acid-spitters request anything more of us." Rose nodded seriously. "We all know how impactful even a discussion with a digger could be."
Everyone knew, all right. Twisted Corridor light wings had searched for such shapers of stone long before Lily came along, because even a little influence over the direction of new tunnels could completely change the shape of the world around them. No more space problems, new connections between different parts of the overall cavern system, maybe even strategic destruction of existing passageways… The possibilities were endless.
"We could be free of this war," Obsidian mused. "Give the Noxious Fumes pack twice the space, give ourselves twice the space, and call it quits."
If Lily had her way, they would get as much out of the diggers as they could. She was not, however, convinced that Obsidian's plan was smart. "I would not want to put any potential diggers we meet in contact with them, but we can discuss our exact plans some other time. We do not even know what they might want from us, or if we can bargain with them, or even if they can speak." Best not to take anything for granted, else they might walk out onto a cliff edge made of gravel.
Her warning of caution didn't sit well with Obsidian, but the rest of the chamber seemed to agree with her. Some part of that was probably fear of change, but the motivation mattered little. There would be time to fight over exactly what to ask for later, when there was someone to ask.
The rest of the gathering went by rather quickly, though there were more than a few interruptions from the advisors Lily had come to think of as problematic, namely Sulfa and Obsidian. Rose wrangled them well enough, with her occasional interjection to redirect animosity toward herself, but Sola's absence was felt throughout the meeting. Afterward, Lily fell in behind Rose as they slowly filtered out of the cavern. "Where is Sola this cycle?" she asked.
"Home," Rose said simply. He stopped short of the exit to the chamber, and Lily followed his lead. They waited until everyone else had left before Rose continued. "We are keeping this quiet, but I trust you not to spread it. Sola thinks she might be carrying an egg. Right about now, the healer I requested attend Sola privately will be returning to her duties with no one the wiser about what she was doing."
An egg. Proof she could carry on the alpha's roots, the one thing she needed to officially become Rose's mate. "That's great," Lily said. "Congratulations – if it is an egg. Though I am sure you will have one eventually even if this is not the time." She didn't think either of them would be willing to split apart because they hadn't had one yet, and who could put a time limit on having an egg? It was impossible to prove that an egg would not be had in the future.
"If," Rose stressed. "I am trying not to get my hopes up so soon. But thank you." He shrugged his wings and started toward the exit, his puckered oval of a scar prominently displayed on one shoulder.
O-O-O-O-O
Sola's position in the Twisted Corridor pack would never be that of a normal light wing. Lily had missed a great deal of the social shift that happened after Sola was acknowledged as Rose's future mate, being far from the Twisted Corridor pack at the time, but she had returned in time to witness the long, gradual evening-out of public opinion. Sola was revered and resented in equal measure, but only from afar. Personal opinions on her tended to disappear whenever she spoke to someone individually.
"Heads flat, tails out," Sola instructed as she paced back and forth behind three fledglings. A larger-than-necessary space had been cleared around them, blocking off a third of the underground shoreline, and while Sola consciously chose not to use the outskirts – she was not the one who had cleared the area, and probably considered the extra deference annoying and insincere – she kept clear of the area directly behind the fledglings. Unlike full adults, their flame while usually stable could occasionally destabilize in an unpredictable and chaotic fashion.
"Fire!" Sola barked. Two fledglings coughed out undersized bolts of blue light. The third, right between her compatriots, let out a startled sneeze and blasted the ground directly underneath her face. The recoil, and her own surprised jump, sent her tumbling into Sola despite the empty space between them. Sola caught her with a raised wing and a ready shoulder.
"She knew exactly where to be," Rose murmured from behind Lily. He, too, had an unnecessary and entirely unavoidable gap around him, even though there were upwards of twenty light wings standing around watching the lesson… Or watching him.
"Quite right, alpha," someone said loudly. "Could not have said it better myself."
Rose half-turned and squinted at the speaker, who stood outside of Lily's peripheral vision. She imagined that said light wing was squirming right about now. He would be fixing them with a mildly disapproving stare, as was his wont when someone said something mindless in an attempt to earn his approval.
Spending more time among his subjects was a good thing, but he still needed rather a lot of work at relating to them, without coming across as exactly as intimidating as they had always assumed he was. He might disapprove of blatant sucking-up, but there were better ways to deal with it.
Then again, he was here to watch his future mate, not listen to his people. He didn't have to be sociable right now. Most of these light wings were here to rub shoulders with him, not watch Sola. Only Lily, Rose himself, and the parents of the fledglings being taught had a genuine reason to be standing around while Sola chivvied the apologetic female back into her place in the firing line and made her blow her nose out into the water before trying again.
"I wonder if any of them will carry on with these lessons." A male light wing ducked aside to avoid a startled wing from another bystander as he came up to stand beside Lily. "I always wanted to play or sleep at that age. Not be lectured about fire."
"And look where you are now, guarding a pond as your most important duty," Lily chided him.
"I used to guard the alpha himself!" the male drew himself up, and Lily felt as much as heard his deep, vibrating grumble of feigned indignance. "As you well know. But I rather like having enough time off to play and sleep now," he continued with a considering hum. "So maybe not much has changed!"
She'd gotten his name, in the end. The friendly guard who was no longer part of Rose's personal guard rotation was called Druse. He was one of the guards who kept watch over the underground lake now, and as such was another of the few with an excuse to be here instead of going about his business. "Shouldn't you be keeping an eye on the horizon, not the fledglings?" she wondered.
"My replacement just relieved me from duty, I am as free as a gnat hitching a ride on a light wing's frills," he chuffed. Sola was telling the fledglings how to breathe now, and as Lily had heard that particular lesson many times before she elected to ignore it in favor of turning to Druse. He blinked at her. "You know. Because if he moves he might get swatted, and if he stays he will just end up back where he started when the light wing goes back to that place."
That made very little sense as a metaphor or at face value. Lily stared at him.
"You know where I was going with that." Somehow, he managed to say that with a straight face.
"Does standing alone with your thoughts all cycle do this to you, or would you be like this no matter what you filled your time with?" she asked.
"From my perspective, I got exactly the reaction I was fishing for." He purred smugly at her. "Time to think makes me smart. And wily."
Perhaps an all-cycle duty that required he keep his strange thoughts to himself was a blessing for the entire pack, like Galen's long-term scouting. Or perhaps everyone else was missing out. "You just finished your guard duty? We could go fishing. After this," she glanced over at Sola's lesson. It would be over soon. Sooner than Sola might otherwise have intended, given how subtly annoyed she was with the crowd that had gathered around Rose.
"I could eat," he agreed. "There have been a lot of eyeless lamp-fish caught this cycle, I want to catch one for myself. Never turn down a fish you have not tasted before, it might be amazing. Or terrible, which is also good in its own way."
Druse was an odd one. She'd not known what to expect, befriending him outside of his newly diminished duties, and yet she didn't regret it one bit. Always cheery to some degree, unexpectedly cunning and often playful, he was interesting enough that she never regretted spending time with him, and he knew just enough about her through all that he'd overheard as Rose's guard that she never had to explain herself or her past in any capacity. He wasn't like anyone else she knew.
The three fledglings fired in unison, their undersized bolts of fire all going much further than they really should have, hurtling out over the water until they unraveled into a shower of red and orange sparks way out in the distance. There was a low rumble of polite applause, even from those who had only come to get close to their alpha and his future mate. Not a single one of the onlookers beyond Lily, Sola herself, and possibly Rose could do what those three fledglings had done.
"I might have to ask for lessons," Druse said aloud as Sola congratulated the fledglings. "But only because I crave attention," he deadpanned.
"Firing further than most think possible would be a good skill for a guard," Lily noted. "I'll put in a good word."
"But only one," Druse snorted. "What will it be?"
"Amusing, obviously," Lily answered.
"I was hoping for 'perfect' or 'ideal' but that is not a bad consolation prize." Druse shook his wings out. "I will wait, I expect you want to see her before you go."
He was entirely correct. "Yes. You could start without me." He didn't need her to feed himself.
"That would take all the fun out of it," he said seriously.
Lily snorted and ventured into the crowd that had migrated with Rose as he went to his future mate. There was at least a speck of truth to everything Druse said, buried deep under absurdity and whimsy. He was fully capable of being serious, so when he was ridiculous it was on purpose.
"This was a good lesson," Sola was saying as Lily broke through the bulk of the crowd and caught sight of her, Rose, her pupils, and a few light wings who would be their parents. "I am happy with their progress, especially in such a short time. Remember to bring them early next time!" Rose nuzzled the back of her neck as she spoke, and she absently returned the gesture by rubbing the side of her head against his chest as she stepped around him.
"I was impressed, too," Lily said as she walked into Sola's line of sight. Sola nodded to the parents and turned away from them. "They learn faster than I ever did." She expected Sola's own offspring would be incredibly skilled by the time they became an adult, with Sola guiding their aim from their first fire onward.
Sola and Rose still did not know if she was carrying their first egg at the moment, but there would be an egg sooner or later, and following that a hatchling. Lily was looking forward to seeing exactly how they grew up, and contributing herself if at all possible. Discipline, decency, and cunning… A future alpha could go far on those three traits.
"That is not entirely true," Sola said, defending Lily's own aptitude with an admonishing churr. "Fledglings start with fewer bad habits. How is Crystal?"
"Injured, but not badly, and recovering easily enough," Lily assured her.
"That is good to hear, I for one would not want to go anywhere near as deep as she and the acid-spitter must be delving by now," Sola admitted. "Are we still on for that flight next cycle? I might invite her too."
"That would be great." Lily noticed Druse lingering by the very edge of the shoreline, and decided to wrap things up. She saw Sola every few cycles, they had no great need to catch up right this moment. "I will see you then, Sola. Alpha." She nodded to them both in turn, before taking to the air and quickly clearing the shoreline to fly out over the water.
Druse winged his way up to meet her, and they were off. "It is good that you are still close with the alpha, after all that has happened," he said seriously.
"It is, yes." She was grateful her actions hadn't permanently ruined what she now knew was a genuine friendship. Two, even; Sola could have distanced herself too, if she chose. That would've hurt even more. But that wasn't who either of her friends were.
"Do you miss living in the alpha's chambers?" Druse asked.
That was a good question. "Yes and no," she said, thinking of all that had happened. She missed some of the easy closeness that came with living in the same place as Sola, and they did not see each other as often now, but at the same time she had never planned to be there forever. "Do you miss guarding there?"
"Like I said," Druse chuffed, "I get more time for myself now. I think I see a light in the water, I am going for it!"
Lily looked down, saw quite a few different lights in the water – mostly crystals deep below – and then saw Druse diving to fire. He cut quite the figure, but any serious grandeur of an adult light wing stooping into a hunting dive and scooping fish out of the waves was rather undercut by his loud groan of disappointment as he flapped back up to her with a few normal, if eyeless, moon-white fish in his clutches. "I missed," he complained.
"Or it was never there," she suggested.
"Eh." Druse shook himself out and flew up over her. "I have patience. Catch!" He dropped the fish, and Lily deftly backwinged to catch one in her mouth, while the other plummeted past her and back into the water from which it had come. "I will get those lamp-fish yet."
She was never bored, flying with Druse. He certainly had that going for him. He also still lacked a mate, and unlike most of the light wings she knew well was in no way related to her.
Lily swallowed the gifted fish, her thoughts roaming to relatively unexplored territory, if only briefly. Druse, or perhaps Andes, or someone else entirely… She had options, and there was no pressing weight of danger or necessity forcing her to do anything beyond what she was already doing.
This was good.
O-O-O-O-O
In between the cycles claimed by the war and Quartz, and the many things Lily had to do on her cycles off, were the quiet times. The moments when she could find somewhere out of the way to sit and watch the pack going about their lives, with nothing to call her back to her own duties and concerns. These times were not rare, but neither were they so common that she could take them for granted. She was a very busy light wing and expected that she always would be, but part of that busy procession of things to do and people to see was carving out time for herself.
Those moments, sometimes long and sometimes vanishingly short, were important. They helped keep her centered, aware of the pack's overall mood and anything out of the ordinary going on outside of her duty and her immediate circle of friends. The war was only one part of the pack it protected, and unlike Quartz she felt safer with one paw firmly in the currents of said pack, to ensure nothing snuck up on her.
Observing the pack for tactical reasons was not the point of sitting on a tiny ledge barely big enough for her body, so high up in the vertical cavern that she could ram her skull into the underside of Rose's crystal floor if she jumped hard enough. In another place, another time, her distant people-watching might have primarily been a defense against the world, but she was not in danger here. There were no riptides lurking under the surface, waiting to pull her down the moment she blundered into them. Rather, a better understanding of the average light wing was a side effect.
Means and ends aside, Lily found the constant movement, the swirls and eddies of living beings below, to be soothing. A reminder of what she fought for, and furthermore a reminder that she did not know everyone or everything even in this confined pack. A sense of scale, bordered by what she did know. The perfect mix of certainty and mystery, at enough of a remove that neither could be challenged or distracted from by some overheard conversation.
She sometimes watched, motionless, for the better part of a cycle. Other times, she was not content to sit still for longer than a few stolen moments before returning to more productive tasks. This particular cycle was shaping up to be somewhere in between those two extremes. On the one paw, she had gazed down into the vertical cavern for so long that her eyelids were slowly drooping down. On the other, she had a gathering to get to. Technically, she was the first to arrive. The others would begin trickling in any time now.
Galen and Emera emerged from their home, stepping out onto the little ledge beyond their cave. Lily still lived with them, though there was talk of all the successors to the alpha being granted small caverns of their own sometime in the future, when enough opened up. The war was down to a low smolder of violence most cycles, meaning that number of openings could be a long time coming, but then there was the small chance that more caverns could be dug sometime in the near future. Either way, she wasn't counting on things changing any time soon. She didn't mind living with Galen and Emera, and they didn't mind her either, especially as Shell was so rarely home and Agate had moved out.
Lily leaned forward, slipping off the barely-there stone outcropping she had claimed for herself. Abandoning her perch in favor of gliding down to them was the work of a moment, though she had to redirect herself when they too leaped for the air to meet her partway. They exchanged barks of greeting as they fell into a single formation and angled downward.
"See, I am here right on time," Agate crowed as he joined them, leaping out of a tunnel in the far wall as she and his parents glided past it. Two other light wings followed him, one with a huff of irritation as he split off, and the other with a loud snort.
"You were waiting to leap in, weren't you," Lily said as they spiraled down. The actual place they were meant to meet was the cavern floor, but it was packed with light wings at the moment and there wasn't anywhere for a group of more than two to land. As such, they flew in a holding pattern, around the cylindrical cavern while they waited for a larger space to open up.
"You cannot prove that," Agate said glibly. "And anyway, I am here before Shell."
"Because that is what truly matters," Lily snorted.
"It most certainly is!" Galen agreed, flying over his son for a moment as they circled back around once more. Some of the light wings milling about on the ground looked up and chose to move aside, so they all dove to land while he continued to elaborate on his opinions. "Long-range scout or not, punctuality is a very important quality. A light wing should never be early or late, he should arrive exactly when he intends. Otherwise the camouflage might wear off at a bad time, or not wear off at the right time!"
Lily would like to assume Galen was talking purely about tactical concerns, but Emera's knowing retort put paid to that notion. "So you mean to say you losing your camouflage while eavesdropping on me and my friends back when we were fledglings was a planned maneuver?"
"I got exactly what I wanted, your attention, so yes!" Galen said brightly.
Hadn't Lily heard that before from someone else? Recently, too. Druse had said something very similar, and perhaps he had similar motivations.
Two more light wings landed a little ways away from them, and the cavern floor was well and truly crowded now, but that was to be expected. The smaller group could move more easily, so the latecomers came to Lily and the others. Shell and Crystal had apparently arrived together, and both looked rather flustered.
"Sorry, sorry, we lost track of time," Crystal apologized to the group. Shell shrugged his wings and kept close by her, apparently content to let her speak for them both.
"Did you?" Lily asked, curiosity nipping at her thoughts. "What were you doing that distracted you so badly?"
Crystal looked directly at Lily, casting her a brief warning glare. "Poke me and I poke back," she threatened, before flicking her ears over in Emera's general direction.
Lily knew when to leave well enough alone, especially as she now suspected things were playing out much like she would have wanted them to if she were willing to meddle. She had a few weak points Crystal could pounce on if it was to be mutually assured awkwardness, and she would rather not deal with that. "Where's Shim?" she asked instead.
"Around," Crystal said vaguely. "Though I do not think she cared much to attend. She does send her congratulations."
"Not her pack, not her concern, but I do appreciate the thought." Most of the Twisted Corridor pack had gathered, and ideally everyone not needed to guard their borders would be here soon, but Shim wasn't one of them. She wouldn't like the press of bodies that the floor of the cavern had become anyway. Lily was glad to have Crystal on one side of her and Galen on the other, though Galen was moving to get closer to his mate and sons, and somebody else was coming in to take his place, albeit with enough space between them that their sides weren't actually touching. "Hello, Druse."
"Hello, Lily. I did not miss anything, did I?" he asked. Two light wings bumped him from the opposite side, but he managed to keep from bumping her in turn.
"You're early, not late." And approaching from ahead was Andes, one of the last two light wings she was waiting for. They had formed a rather large group now. "Over here, Andes!" she called out.
"Lily, Druse, Crystal," Andes greeted each of them in turn. "I always forget how crowded it gets down here. Usually I am up on one of the ledges when the alpha gathers the pack for something."
"As am I," for all that she had far fewer experiences with this pack's full gatherings. She certainly wouldn't want to be down here under more normal circumstances. Far too crowded, and when the time came she would have to crane her neck like everyone on the ground to see even a glimpse of Rose. But the ledges were not big enough to hold a large group like the one that had gathered on her behalf, and being on the ground made it much easier for everyone in the cavern to look at them, so this was what was best.
This entire event was incredibly unnecessary, in Lily's opinion, and on this occasion her opinion did hold some genuine weight… if a certain someone hadn't overruled her. She reared back and looked up, searching out the ledge where Quartz usually deigned to sit whenever he had to be present for a pack-wide meeting in the vertical cavern. It was his fault that she was down here, and the glare she sent his way when she caught sight of him looking down at her made sure he didn't forget it.
She couldn't be sure, but she thought that he might have smirked at her before a cough distracted him. He was certainly smirking at Obsidian, who stood on a nearby ledge.
"Yes… You will be up there for every gathering from now on." Andes shrugged his wing shoulders as he sidled in to stand next to Druse. "Aside from maybe one more?"
"I invited you, I will certainly attend if you invite me." One good turn deserved another, though truthfully she didn't know if Andes would ever stand down here like she was this cycle. He would certainly be the next advisor of Peace, Lily would make sure of that, but for him to star in this particular custom required Obsidian's cooperation, which he probably would never get.
A chorus of roars from high in the chamber managed to override the loud hubbub of many light wings packed into a tight space, and a near-silence quickly descended. Never a total silence – the sound of breathing, if nothing else, was loud in such a densely-packed place – but very close to it, closer than Lily would have thought could be achieved.
"Light wings of the Twisted Corridor pack!" Rose roared from high in the vertical cavern. His voice bounced and echoed unimpeded by any other noises. "We gather here on this cycle for one thing, and one thing only. Recognition."
This wasn't necessary. Lily didn't ask for it, and it would change nothing about her life. She would have exactly as much authority and responsibility as before. She had already made her choices, and those were the ones that mattered.
"She came to our pack from afar. She has worked tirelessly to help defend our pack. She is not flawless," and even while nearly roaring his speech Rose managed to sound dryly amused, of all things, "I know that best of any of us. But that is in the past, hers and ours. It is the will of Quartz, the current Advisor of War, that she be named his successor. When the time comes, Lily will be our next Advisor of War!"
Lily stood very still as everyone around her backed up, her friends and family clearing a single light wing's worth of empty space between them and her by sheer force. Facing inward, they all lifted their heads and roared as loudly as they could – from Crystal to Andes to Shell, everyone she knew personally roared. From high up, Rose and Sola joined the cacophonous noise with their own roars, and Quartz as well though his was short to avoid another coughing fit.
This wasn't necessary, but she couldn't deny that it felt good.
Now and forever, she had a place in the Twisted Corridor pack.