CAUTION: Spoils aspects of Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities, as well as aspects of When Nothing Remains. Also spoils aspects of Usurpation of the Darkness up to chapter 52 and a past chapter of No Story Stands Alone.

Seriously, major spoilers here.

Assuming you wish to continue, read on…

Background: Early post this week, because I expect to spend the weekend away from wifi while moving. This one is a small (and I do mean small) peek into an old idea, one that was barely even employed in the first draft of Usurpation of the Darkness, and excised long before I reached the same point in the timeline in the final draft. The only thing that really needs mentioning prior to this duo of concept-scenes is that originally Lily and her pack were meant to go down below the ground after Grimmel and his people initially bounced off the Guardian's mental defenses, thus leaving him alive and his hunt ongoing, if stymied. On their way down Lily agreed that their pack would be treated as any other pack below the ground. Otherwise the story was to proceed mostly as it did in the final draft…

Cara hated what was happening to her sister. Holly was not well, and it was all Lily's fault.

"I am fine," Holly mumbled, her voice thick with mucus and lethargy. She was still sprawled out on a thin ledge above the waste pit of her recent torment. Aven had a few light wings digging Holly a smaller, personal waste pit over in out of sight of this terrible place, and Cara herself had plans to get a new public waste pit dug so that they could fill this one in, but for the time being Holly had no choice but to linger by the place of her torment, simply because she was coughing, sneezing huge and sickly globs of mucus, and heaving the contents of her stomach too frequently to be anywhere else.

All Lily's fault. Cara hoped she would die or had died a terrible, painful death out in the wider cave system, alone and miserable. It would be what she deserved for turning on them like that. Holly was sick and hurt because of her, and would probably bear a scar on her neck for the rest of her life. It was her fault they were down here. It was her fault they had enemies on one side, and uneasy allies on the other.

Everything was Lily's fault. It was also Lily's fault that Holly, and by extension Cara and Aven, were alphas now, but Cara was not about to thank Lily for going crazy and turning into a violent shadow of Claw.

"You are not fine," Cara objected, putting her mind back on the task at hand. Getting Holly to eat. "You will starve if you cannot keep anything down, and this might help." She pawed at the fish she had spent a good amount of time procuring. It wasn't as simple as dragging it out of the underground lake, not for this one.

"It is humiliating," Holly whined. "I am alpha, and I am a total mess. Do not make it any worse."

The fever again, Cara suspected, as Holly was practical enough to not complain when she was thinking clearly. Thanks to this cursed sickness, Holly was not lucid all of the time. There was no other explanation for her letting Beryl go with Lily out into the world, let alone some of the other things she had said.

Of course, that did not explain Beryl's insanity, but Cara didn't care about him right now. He was a distant friend, her past teacher and now equal when it came to warfare, but that did not excuse his choices. He chose to go, and was even now probably watching Lily die, as she deserved.

"Holly," Cara warned, "I will get Aven and have her force your mouth open if I must." Raw, whole fish came right back up when Holly tried to eat it, so Cara was going to try another way of getting Holly to eat and keep down her food, whether or not Holly liked it. They needed her to get better; Cara functioned best as the one who had to care for combat and protection, not the one who had to care for everything, or even half of everything, as she was doing now.

"Fine," Holly whined. "Who told you to try this?"

"So you can hold a grudge?" Cara guessed. "That is not you, sister. Do not be like Lily." The words were out of her mouth before she even thought about them. Lily was known now for holding grudges.

But the grudge Lily was known for holding had a different set of memories for Holly, one Cara had just brought back. Holly shivered and whined, rubbing her face against the stone to their side, scraping her scales clean, though they were spotless.

Cara moved forward, knowing what to do. "You are clean, Holly," she soothed, holding her sister's head still by virtue of pressing it to the ground. Holly would rub her scales right off if left unchecked. Neither Cara nor Aven was sure whether this was something of the illness Holly was suffering, or something more, but she absolutely could not stand being at all dirty or unclean.

Lily's fault. All Lily's fault. Her fault that Holly had a phobia of all kinds of waste, her fault that Holly could barely stand without throwing up, her fault–

A voice began to whisper in Cara's mind, a female one, but not her own. 'A call to assemble is given. Your leaders have pledged you heed me. Your help is needed.'

Cara knew that voice. It was the voice of the massive guardian they had passed on their way down here. "Holly, did you hear that?"

"She said," Holly whined, "that I am excused. Nothing more. Excused from what?" She seemed lucid again, at least for the present moment.

'Your sister is mentally and physically unwell, but both will heal. You are in charge?'

"Which sister are you talking about?" Cara gritted. Lily was technically as close to her as Holly was, if one only judged by the bonds of blood. In reality, she was as far as could be, especially now.

'The one you are touching. The alpha I spoke to when you arrived is… also indisposed.'

"How indisposed?" She would take this chance to find out as much as possible.

'Quite thoroughly. I will say no more."

That was more than she had known before. "And Beryl?"

'I do not call caretakers to me. He is her designated caretaker. Holly may also have one caretaker to stay behind with her, as well as every hatchling and fledgling. Adults under ten season-cycles of age may also stay behind if they wish. I expect your pack up at the entrance with all speed.'

With that, the voice was gone, leaving Cara with a lot of problems and a lot of questions.

O-O-O-O-O

Some little time later, all of the pack was gathered in the center of their new home, save for those guarding various places, and those out on patrol. Cara would send a few light wings to tell them all that had occurred once things were actually settled and decided. Right now, there were way too many details to figure out.

Luckily, she was not alone in deciding how those details should be handled, even if Holly was not going to be involved in any of this. Aven was by her side, as always. One of Cara's most trusted guards was looking after Holly for the moment, meaning they could both be here.

The dark wings were here too, mingling amidst the crowd of light wings, speaking to various people.

Cara was of two minds about the dark wings. On the one paw, they were not part of the pack, not really, here under their own chain of command, for their own reasons…

And on the other, far more important paw, they were experienced fighters, intelligent decision-makers, and willing to follow her lead. Willing to follow Lily, when she had been in charge, but there was no trouble from them once Holly took over. They were powerful allies.

"Everyone!" Aven roared, getting the pack's attention. "I think we all heard a voice recently. Am I right?"

There was a general roar of assent. Cara saw many nods of agreement. Everyone had been spoken to, possibly at the same time. That was impressive.

"It seems," Cara roared, taking over for Aven, "we have all been summoned."

"Well," Aven cut in, "almost all. We need to figure out who has to go, and who has to stay. All of the hatchlings and fledglings, of course, will stay."

There was a quiet, quickly hushed clamor of protest, as the young objected to being left out of what they probably saw as a fun adventure.

"We must only leave one parent per child," Cara continued. "You may sort that out yourselves." She and Aven would go through them later and ensure there was a good mix of fighters and noncombatant adults remaining. It would not do to leave their young unprotected, though the guardian had spoken of taking from all the packs.

There was a sour thought. Would she and the rest of her pack be working with the despicable hatchling-torturing dragons of the Noxious Fumes pack? Possibly.

The real question was what they would be doing, but Cara had not thought to ask the guardian that. It was probably something combat-oriented, as the young and sick were being left behind.

That did, in turn, raise the question of whether they should go and risk themselves at all, but as long as nobody asked said question, Cara was planning to ignore it. This was going to be a strike of overwhelming force, so it shouldn't be too bad. Besides, they had that massive guardian on their side.

While Cara had been thinking, the pack had begun to sort themselves out. The young were all moved to one side, and slowly each little one was claimed by a parent. The rest of the dragons present, including all of the dark wings, remained with the able-bodied force that remained. Those that would be going to fight.

"All dragons under ten season-cycles of age may choose to stay or go as they wish," Aven called out. "I would ask a few stay to protect those that stay behind."

Some of the younger adults moved from the 'going' group to the 'staying' group, doing so proudly or discretely depending on their motivation. Cara knew most of them, and was about…

That was odd. Technically, she, Holly, and Aven could stay. They were not older than ten season-cycles. Cara never really bothered keeping track, but she was pretty sure she was about eight or nine season-cycles in age. Young, to be leading an entire pack, but age was nothing compared to inclination, experience, and reputation, which she and her sisters had plenty of.

Author's Note: The idea behind this went further, but the actual writing never did, because these scenes were never going to be part of the main story either way, being outside of Lily's point of view. Basically speaking, while Lily and Beryl were gone, Lily's former pack would be called up to the surface to fight off Grimmel and his people, along with every other pack in the area, as Grimmel wasn't going away despite repeatedly turning around in a haze. This was meant to give a resolution to Grimmel, to show off a little bit of how the island was to be defended from anything the Guardian couldn't ward away, and to give Ember and co. a good reason to want to leave, though I don't recall if I ever decided how that interaction was going to play out.

What actually got written here is a somewhat sympathetic look at the aftermath of Lily's spiral and attack on Holly, which still holds as mostly canon, and little more.

On another note, for readers of this collection to look forward to: Something aside from deleted scenes, and much, much larger, is nearing completion.