CAUTION: Spoils aspects of Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities, as well as aspects of When Nothing Remains, and much of Usurpation of the Darkness through chapter 36.
Seriously, major spoilers here.
Assuming you wish to continue, read on…
Background: This was originally going to be the final chapter of Gold's mini-series, but that was way too pessimistic of me. There's quite a bit left to have fun with! 2 more chapters, to be precise.
Gold panted, happily exhausted, and rolled onto his side. Droplets of cold water fell from the dark clouds above, but he was happy to ignore them. His scales warmed them quickly enough, anyway, so he did not have to deal with lines of cold being traced down his body.
Lily, still presumably lying on her back, huffed a short laugh. "We cut it close," she panted. "Look."
Gold lazily turned an eye skyward, blinked out another raindrop, and saw that some miserable, wet light wings were flying in from beyond the mountains. Some looked down at the rocks, and he was glad he was still under the cover of camouflage. Not that he would risk mating atop their rock in plain sight without that, of course, no matter how empty the valley was right now. There was a fine line between the thrill of risking discovery and just putting on a show, and he didn't want to do the latter at all.
"They are back early," he observed. It was hard to tell with the clouds in the way, but he thought it was not much past noon. The searches for Claw tended to be out until shortly before sunset, or shortly after if they misjudged distances.
"Enthusiasm for looking might be running low," Lily theorized. The blur that was her body shifted, and he guessed that she had either rolled onto her side, or all the way to her stomach. "Sooner or later, people will start wondering."
A roar resounded from near the plateau, and Gold huffed. He would have credited her with a good prediction, if she had not said as much at least once a day since they had doomed Claw half a moon-cycle ago. "Something is going on," he said.
"We will go see as soon as we are visible again," Lily decided.
"Or you can go see?" It could not be anything too important; only one of the two big search parties had returned, and that meant a good portion of the pack was still out looking. Nobody hoping to make waves would start something without everyone present.
"We will both go see," Lily said serenely. He imagined that she looked innocent, as if not understanding that there was any alternative to that. The effect was somewhat lost when he couldn't see her, and even more so when it was him she was trying to fool.
Still, he didn't have the energy to argue. Maybe if they had not just finished a hurried mating session under the cover of camouflage in a mostly deserted valley. He was still feeling the indolence that came afterward, and going with Lily was the path of least resistance.
So, when he felt his scales shimmering a short while later, he rolled to his paws, sighed heavily, and set out across the rocks, flying low because he had no reason to go up.
They set down near the plateau, eyeing the discussion already in progress. He recognized the female who was speaking most often, but none of the others, which was no great surprise. He had never bothered to look at Claw's many mates too closely.
But the one he did know was not a good sign, to say the least. Lily growled as Cressa spoke once again.
"Face the facts," Cressa snarled. "He is not here. We need leadership in his absence."
"Do we?" Gold hummed quietly, speaking for Lily's ears alone. "Nothing has fallen apart yet." As far as he could tell, Claw not being around had changed nothing significant about the pack's daily life. Claw had not exactly contributed to anything except the growing number of children in the valley who shared his blood.
"He will return any moment now!" one of the females said stubbornly. "I do not want to listen to you until then."
"You will have to listen to someone, since you are spineless," Cressa hissed.
"Not you," another female shot back. "You led us all on a wild fish chase hunting some figment of your imagination."
Gold snorted, and he heard Lily do the same beside him. Pyre had been nowhere to be found, and Lily had, before any search could be mustered, contaminated his cave with stinking plants that made it impossible to smell whether any light wing used it as a home. A quick lie about fledglings making trouble had been all that was needed to explain the plants and discredit Cressa entirely; it was barely even a challenge for his intellect, or that of his mate.
Cressa growled something rude back at that female, but her credibility had taken a hit, and she had the small amount of cleverness required to not press the matter. "You will all reconsider when a decision needs to be made," she hissed, before leaping off the plateau.
"Pathetic," Gold judged. He would not have even made an attempt, were he in her place.
"Testing the waters," Lily argued. "This is going to come up again. We need to do something."
"Figured out what yet?" he asked lazily, watching the females by the plateau mill about pointlessly. Some went back to the caves, presumably to collect their children from the groups being watched over there, and others flew away.
"No, which is why we're going to Pyre," she said. "He will know what to do."
Gold didn't argue; letting her decide what they were doing was still the path of least resistance, and he was more than happy to follow and see where it led him.
O-O-O-O-O
Pyre had been moved out of his cave high up in the mountains, and his replacement dwelling was not nearly so nice. In place of a clear stone ledge and spacious cave was nothing more than a muddy hill, and under it a hollowed-out place barely big enough for him.
"I'm making a better spot further out," Pyre revealed, seeing right through Gold's lack of a reaction before he even claimed a place on the wet grass near the hill. Gold was used to being seen through by now, given how often Pyre and Lily managed it. "This is just what I could make on short notice. It's not luxurious, but it protects me from wind, rain, and the occasional estranged daughter with a vendetta."
"It could be better," Lily agreed, nosing around the hollow with an unimpressed look. "Can we help you make the better one, to speed things along?"
"No, I am just waiting for the clay to dry," Pyre said cryptically. Gold wasn't entirely clear on what clay was, despite his own Sire being named for it, but he didn't ask. He was content to sit back in the wet grass and wait for Lily to bring up why they were here. It might have resembled what his Sire so often did, staying out of things and letting his mate talk, but he could participate if he wanted to, and Lily would not mind in the slightest. There was a difference between inability and laziness, and he was firmly for the latter whenever possible.
"And besides," Pyre added, thumping his tail on the ground, "you come visiting for a reason. Else, Gold would not look so resigned to sitting through a long discussion."
"He's a liability, with how easily you extrapolate from him," Lily said fondly. "I'll have to teach him to hide things from you."
"I can hide things, I just have never bothered to try," Gold claimed. It was a lie, of course, but not one that could be disproven.
"Perhaps," Pyre said, bowing his head. "Anyway, what is it today? More news on Cressa?"
"She is beginning to angle toward leading or at least holding power," Lily said bluntly. "It's starting. I don't know what the best move for us is."
"Go over your reasoning," Pyre requested.
"The pack has no leader, Gold and I are implicated by association if we try to take advantage of it, meaning we cannot take power directly and remain above suspicion," Lily recounted. "Those who are most likely to amass power are beginning to notice that it is available, Cressa first among them. She made moves today, and when others who might have plans hear, it will accelerate those plans."
"And what do you want out of this?" Pyre asked.
"Safety for the pack," Lily huffed.
Gold cleared his throat, catching her attention. "You do not care about Cressa's safety," he corrected her. "Safety for the people you do care about, maybe." He had the suspicion that Lily wanted to throw herself into somehow making the pack good for everyone, and that was just unrealistic.
"Okay, safety for the people I care about," Lily conceded. "There are a lot of those, though, and they include all of the young ones in the pack, so it is the same thing."
"Narrow your gaze to what you can call your own responsibility," Pyre advised solemnly. "Those hatchlings and fledglings have parents to look after them. Unless you are alpha, you cannot hold yourself accountable for the choices of those parents, and I will not condone taking their children to raise your own way."
Lily reeled back as if struck, opened her mouth to argue, and then stopped herself. Gold wasn't sure what about that had surprised her, and didn't really feel like speculating. What mattered was what she would end up actually saying, not what she contemplated along the way.
"Just the people I know personally and want to see safe," she huffed. "Pina, Crystal, probably Pearl though she should be fine now that Claw is gone, all of my new friends who knew Gold first, and Gold's parents. And of course you two, but that is implied."
"Right," Gold hummed. Besides that, he didn't need her to scheme to protect him. Nobody was out to get him, for one thing, and if they were then he was capable of scheming on his own behalf.
"But all of that would be solved by just getting a reliable, moral person in to be alpha, or 'temporary' alpha." She wiggled her ears as she said temporary.
"And one that can keep the position on their own, without you spending too much time interfering," Pyre said. "That probably means complying with as many harmless customs as possible, to reduce unrest. People don't like change."
"Meaning they have to be male, trustworthy, and cunning." Lily looked over at Gold.
Gold ran the idea around in his mind for all of a heartbeat. "No way, and we already said I cannot because it would be suspicious," he said vehemently. He did not want the responsibility without any of the benefits. He already had Lily, taking charge of the pack would just eat up all of his spare time and make him miserable. Power was only good so long as there was something he could get with it, and no amount of power would protect him from Lily's retribution if he started sleeping around, the only thing he had ever really wanted from the power being offered.
"Well, it cannot be Pyre, Cressa has already bad-mouthed him and will gain credibility if it turns out he does exist," Lily complained. "The only other males I know are either spineless, or way too immature, like Cedar or Root."
"No argument there," Gold murmured. "I do not have any suggestions."
"Even if we assume that putting a female in charge will not be a problem, it causes more issues in the future," Pyre added. "Actually, so long as the new alpha does not take over all the mates Claw had, there will be an imbalance."
"No matter what we do, we either leave things broken, or break them more," Lily said bitterly.
"Or we go somewhere with no preset rules to correct," Pyre suggested, his ears perking up. "This valley is good, but it has so many things to maneuver around. Why not take those you care for and set out on your own? The alpha who would stop that is gone."
"And abandon everyone else?" Lily huffed. "That's a terrible idea."
"Abandon the troublemakers," Gold said, arguing for the sake of it. He had no clue where they would go, and no desire to go anywhere, but Lily's objection wasn't a good one. "Keep the good ones. Say that we are a new pack who make our own rules. That would solve all of our problems immediately."
"By also abandoning a great location for the unknown wilds beyond," Lily retorted. "Unless you know of a place we could settle, Pyre?" She looked to him expectantly.
"No, my knowledge is decades out of date," Pyre admitted. "It was a suggestion, but it may not be the only one."
They continued to discuss the issue, but Gold tuned them out once Lily began going over the candidates for the next alpha again. If she was retreading old ground, it meant she didn't have anything new to say. She was not one to repeat herself for the sake of hearing her own voice.
He closed his eyes, letting his mind drift. It was not so bad out here in the forest. The grass was ticklish, but apparently Pyre could make halfway decent dens in the ground, given time. Leaving was not a horrible idea, but it sounded like a lot of work. It would take some doing to convince him that it was worth the effort.
O-O-O-O-O
The next morning dawned dark and dreary, just like the last, and Gold drank from a puddle on the ground rather than making the cold, unpleasant flight to the pond. He snuggled up beside Lily, once again appreciating how having a mate improved his sleeping conditions. If he was back on his parents' rock, his Dam would be waking him by now, sending him out for fish if his Sire wasn't picked for that duty. Here, he could just wait…
And, while he was waiting, he could absently lick her shoulder. He was awake now, and the drizzle made it hard to go back to sleep, even as it also made him want to nap the day away. Some persistent, gentle annoyances would get her up.
"Everyone up!" a shrill female shrieked, flying right over them. "Everyone up!"
Lily jerked up, and her wings shoved Gold off of her and right into the puddle he had just drank out of. He hit the ground with a yelp, the repeated roars of the female echoing in his ears as she continued to shriek her way across the valley.
"I am going to find out who that was, and I am going to bite them," he announced.
"I'll join you," Lily growled, slinking down to the ground. "Are you okay?"
"It takes more than a fall to harm me," Gold said proudly.
"You have mud on your face," Lily observed before setting off on paw. Gold trailed behind, stopping every few moments to paw at his face. He didn't feel any mud…
"No I do not," he said belatedly as they approached the plateau. Other light wings were walking or flying in the same direction around them, most just as annoyed as he was.
"You definitely do," Lily retorted without looking back. "That's Diora, I think." She was staring at the female who had landed on the ground in front of the plateau, the one everybody was approaching.
"Now I know who I am going to bite," Gold murmured, ignoring her insistence that he had mud anywhere. She was just messing with him, and he was not going to fall for it again. Not when she had not even looked back to check before assuring him it was still there.
"She is Pearl's Dam, and a disgusting waste of breath," Lily huffed. "Crystal was telling me about her the other day. She is also infatuated with Claw, so that is probably what this is about."
"We have not found Claw yet," Diora proclaimed. "We are not trying hard enough! I am going to organize the searches from here on out, until we locate him."
"You are stealing my idea!" Cressa howled indignantly, leaping out to confront Diora. "I said we need someone to lead until we get Claw back. You cannot just take that spot, one of his mates should have it."
"I did not hear you saying this," Diora shot back, tossing her head dismissively. "Besides, if you were talking about taking his power for yourself, you clearly do not care about getting him back. I care more, so I will organize things!"
"Shut your mouth and sit down," Cressa roared, spinning to slap Diora with her tail in a move Gold could not help but judge as hilariously inefficient and stupid. Diora bit down on her tail, teeth out, and Cressa yelped.
It only devolved from there, much to his delight. Cressa shrieked and slapped her tail down, pulling Diora's face down with it. Diora let go when her chin hit the ground, snarling all the while, and leaped onto Cressa's back. Cressa lurched around, smacked Diora into a rock by falling over, and repeatedly hit Diora with her wings. Neither was fighting to kill, and their claws weren't even out, but they were hissing up a storm. Well, another storm.
"I am not stepping in," Lily said primly, a sly grin tugging at the corners of her face. "Let them beat each other senseless."
"Perfect," Gold sighed, sitting back and getting comfortable. The vast majority of the crowd seemed paralyzed by indecision, and the male responsible for stopping such fights was dead, so nobody else was going to step in.
Cressa, who had managed to turn over and pin Diora, began head-butting her, ramming her forehead into the other female's neck and chin, all the while thumping her with every available limb in a delightfully senseless series of attacks that would have had any serious combatant laughing in disbelief.
Diora, though, was not a serious combatant. She shoved up and tried to push Diora off, holding her paws up to fend her off, and shrieked at the top of her lungs. Cressa actually looked disoriented by the unceasing noise-
A female leaped in and tried to stop the fight, much to Gold's surprise, but she was treated with as much respect as the combatants had for each other, getting tailwhipped by both of them. She snarled and said something that Diora's screeching drowned out, and then leaped into the fray in earnest, taking their heads in her paws and doing her best to smack them together. It didn't work, mostly because of the wings and paws flailing at her whenever she leaned in to get any leverage.
Cressa abruptly rolled off of Diora, snarled at her, and turned on the third combatant, lunging at her. Diora took the opportunity to flee to the top of the plateau. "We should…"
She panted, looking down at the tussle that she had just escaped. "Search. Search for Claw."
"Stop that!" Cressa howled, abandoning the third female - who fled the moment she was free of the fight, probably regretting ever sticking her nose in - and firing a small shot at Diora.
"You stop it!" Diora snarled, staggering with the blast. "I want him back, you do not, but that does not mean you get to stop us!"
"It is not about that!" Cressa exclaimed. "It is about who leads while he is gone!"
"Not you!" Diora snarled. "Who is with me?"
A small minority of the crowd raised their voices in agreement; Gold looked over, and from what he could see, it was mostly Claw's mates. The ones most worried for him, if he had to guess.
"Who is with me in wanting him back but also wanting someone who is not named Diora to take charge?" Cressa asked.
Another small group roared, and Gold suspected some of the same people had raised their voices for both females.
"Who just wants him back?" someone else cried out.
The vast majority of the pack howled, roared, or otherwise voiced their support. It was a hesitant, staggered wave of noise, but a loud one for that. Gold covered his ears, annoyed. He had done a good thing in arranging Claw's death, and the idiots who wanted him back were not going to convince him otherwise, but he was surprised to hear so many so adamant about wanting him back.
He looked to the side, and noticed that Lily looked physically sickened by the noise. His protective instincts rose, and though he was surprised by her sudden susceptibility to the noise, he knew what to do. "We can go," he suggested, putting a wing over her.
"Yes," she growled, shaking herself and turning her back on the gathering of the pack. "We should. At least for now."
"Well, they will all be out searching, so it is not like we will be coming back," he reasoned. "And I do not know about you, but if Diora does this again tomorrow I am just going to ignore her screeching."
"No, I don't mean leaving this," Lily stressed.
"But we are walking away," Gold noted.
"Because they're obnoxious," she growled. "You were right, I do not want to protect everyone. Just the people I care about. And pretty much everybody just said they want Claw back."
"So… what do you mean?" he asked. He wasn't sure he liked where this was heading…
"We're striking out on our own," she confirmed. "You, me, Pyre, and the people we care enough about to bring with us. Everyone else can stay here and bicker and wish Claw was back. We'll go make our own pack without all of these stupid rules and stupid people who like them."
O-O-O-O-O
By nightfall, the plan had been made, and all that was left was to execute it.
Gold crept through the darkness, alert despite himself. He would much rather be sleeping, but seducing defectors to join his and Lily's own little pack was almost worth missing some sleep.
He snuck up on the rock he was aiming for, creeping softly, and considered his options. Would a paw to the nose bother Liona enough to wake her, or would a growl work better? He-
Murmuring voices in front of him made him even warier than he already was, and he crept forward like a silent shadow.
"It is not like anyone will know," Cedar murmured, lurking beside the rock Liona and Danda shared with their parents. "Come on, it is just looking at the stars. I promise I am not going to ask for anything else."
"Quiet, you will wake Danda," Liona hissed warily. "I cannot, she will notice if I am gone, and she will tell tales we cannot disprove."
"Then we will tell worse tales about her and Ash, and she will regret it," Cedar huffed. "At least come with me to argue about it out of earshot."
Gold shook his head, glad he was past that stage of courting and onto the stage where his female was as enthusiastic as he was most of the time. Still, he could not deny that Cedar's struggles here were both entertaining and useful. "Hey!" he hissed.
Cedar flinched, and Liona squeaked in fright.
"You two!" Gold said. "Wake Danda and bring her! It is urgent!" He met Cedar's eyes, and then Liona's.
O-O-O-O-O
Ash snored quite heavily, and his parents slept like the dead. Gold didn't bother with stealth, brazenly leaping up onto the fledgling male's rock, putting a paw to his nose until he choked, and weathering the silent assault that followed.
"You know I hate that," Ash groaned as they flew away from his rock. "What prank is it tonight?"
"A huge one that Danda is in on," Gold said, semi-truthfully. "Follow me."
O-O-O-O-O
Gold crept forward warily, internally debating himself.
On the one side, independence and pride. On the other, guilt. He wasn't used to the latter, but it was hitting him hard whenever he thought about ignoring this last pair of light wings. Sure, their presence at this clandestine meeting he and Lily were arranging would be grating. Sure, if they went for it, they would be along for the long haul.
But Lily had not hesitated to say that Pina deserved the offer, and had mentioned his own parents before he even thought of them. He felt bad about that, and knew he would feel worse about leaving without even offering to take them.
So, he screwed up his courage and leaped up onto their rock for the first time since that mandatory visit Lily had forced on him right after they became mates. "Wake up," he huffed-
Only to see that they weren't there. It took him a surprisingly long time to process that, and the conclusion he came to was mortifying, if only because he had just talked himself into not giving up.
O-O-O-O-O
Gold lingered on the overly large ledge, waiting for Lily to deliver the message he had wimped out of giving himself.
"That has got to be embarrassing," Mist mused. "Having to send someone to interrupt your parents while they are trying to make a sibling for you."
"Not as embarrassing as going himself," Cedar said.
"Thank you, Cedar," Gold purred, ignoring the muffled squawk of indignation coming from a nearby ledge. Why had he not thought to check for anyone out here prior to now? He had assumed that the mood in the valley was too dark and uncertain for anyone to be spending all night on the ledges. Lily had too, which was a small consolation.
It did not help that there were so many people on this larger ledge, either. He looked around, mentally naming each of the light wings lurking in waiting.
He had brought Cedar, Liona, Danda, and Ash. Lily, in the meantime, had been far more efficient. Pina, Crystal and Pearl all stood together, having been gathered from the caves. Root and Mist made five for Lily, and if he counted his parents, who she was even now bringing over, she had brought seven to his four. It would have been five to his six, if not for his terrible luck.
Lily landed on the crowded ledge, and his parents followed. He squirmed uncomfortably and tried not to look at them too closely. Becoming an adult and having his own mate had done nothing for his dislike for thinking about them that way.
"Okay, we're all here," she declared. "I'm going to keep this short, because I know there will be a lot of questions, and we want to be done here shortly, so everyone can get some rest."
It spoke well of the group that they had assembled that nobody interrupted; someone would have by now, with most of the pack. Even Cedar was quiet, standing close to Liona and examining the other light wings curiously.
"I am sick and tired of this pack," Lily said without any further setup. "Tired of the customs, tired of the people, tired of the squabbles about Claw. I don't want him to come back, and I don't want to wait here until he does. Gold and I have found a guide who is going to take us deep into the woods and teach us how to make a good home there, and we are going to make our own pack."
Gold nodded when some of his friends looked to him, and stood tall when his Dam stared incredulously. "I would rather be on my own than under Claw, if he even comes back," he said. "And since I cannot follow him, and cannot fight him, it is not like any of my promises hold." Even if he cared about that, which he didn't.
"We're going in secret, and we're going far enough away that we won't be found," Lily continued. "We are leaving in part to get away from some of the people here, so the invitation to come with us is only being extended to you, and if you can make a case for them, close family of yours. You are people who I or Gold think would make this new pack work without bringing a bunch of stupid preconceptions and attitudes."
"Like the ones Cressa, Diora, and a lot of other people showed today," Gold said, giving an example.
"So?" Lily paused, looking at each of them in turn. "We are going, and we would like to not go on our own? It would not be this valley, but we can find a new place and make it good. We can make the rules, we can leave all of this stupidity behind."
"What about mates?" Mist asked. "Even if everyone here goes, there will not be a balance."
"No, and we're not having an alpha like Claw, so if you go without one you will have few choices," Lily admitted. "But with us, not having a mate will be a choice. It is not around here. And if that bothers you, later you can come back here. It is not as if you will forget the way."
"I, for one, was in the moment I heard the idea," Crystal said. "Pearl?"
"Claw will not be able to follow?" Pearl asked timidly.
"No, and if he did, we would protect you from him," Lily said boldly. Gold knew it was a moot point, but nobody else did, and Pearl needed the reassurance, which was obviously why she had said it. "You would be part of our pack, not his, free to take a mate or not as you wish. And Diora is not coming, either."
"I want to," Pearl whispered, her eyes wide. "I do. I will come."
"Well, I was in the moment you said I could choose to not have a mate, or have one, as I wished," Mist said. "Definitely."
They were the easy ones, the ones Lily had said would probably choose immediately. Gold looked around, waiting for the next person to speak, and studiously avoided looking at his parents. He didn't know which way they would go, and he didn't know which way he wanted them to go, either.
"I have learned things that make me less inclined to stay with Claw than I might have been once," Pina said softly, looking at Pearl. "So long as there is to be no punishment for abandoning a mate in this new pack, I think I would go."
"Not for abandoning him, he abandoned you first," Lily reasoned. "We can all decide on our rules once we are out there, everyone will get a voice."
Liona whispered something in Cedar's ear, and he nodded, but neither said anything. Gold caught Danda looking, and flicked his ears at her dismissively, hoping to provoke her into saying something.
But Root spoke first. "I am not leaving," he said firmly. "There are things to do here, and I do not want to just abandon everyone else."
"That is your choice," Mist huffed, making clear that she didn't care. "Go ahead."
"That's fine, Root," Lily said kindly. "You will not mention this to anyone until we have left, at least?"
"I do not want anyone to go, but I am not going to sabotage you," Root confirmed. "I want to make this pack better, but I understand if you do not have the patience."
"I don't, not after seeing how many people are desperate for Claw to return," Lily growled. "Not after realizing that Diora and Cressa are the two most vocal options for our leadership in the meantime."
Not after realizing that she couldn't put herself or him in the running, Gold silently added to the list. In a new pack, nobody would be around to complain if they took charge, though in a new pack they might not even really have to take charge at all, which he would prefer anyway. Making their own group neatly cut out not only the problems of this pack, but also a lot of the root causes.
"We would like to come along," Cedar announced. "Liona and I. We will be free to choose each other as mates as soon as we go?"
"You are still fledglings," Lily objected. "Close to adults, but not physically there yet. I'm not sure I'm comfortable saying you can be mates before being adults, especially since I know you have only just started looking at each other that way."
"I would like to go anyway," Liona said quietly. "We can be mates once we are of age?"
"I'm not stopping that," Lily agreed.
"That is fine, then," Cedar conceded.
"Then I am not going," Danda hummed. "But I am glad to see you go, Liona. Have fun. Ash?"
"I am not going," Ash said, staring right at Danda.
Lily huffed and shook her head, and Gold had to give her credit. She had predicted that either Liona or Danda would choose the opposite of their sister just to get some distance, and he did not need it explained to him that the males interested in them would follow their second tails. He was glad they were getting Cedar and Liona; Cedar was more fun than Ash, even if he was also more annoying.
Everyone had given their decisions… except for his parents. He looked to them.
"I'm doing whatever my mate is doing," his Sire said, spinelessly passing over the decision. Gold sighed, glad he had escaped the trap of being like that.
"I will be sad to see you go, son," his Dam said calmly. "Be sure to come back and visit."
Gold nodded, feeling as if a weight had lifted off his shoulders. "I will, on occasion," he promised. "Maybe once a season-cycle, or something."
"So more often than you have been since taking a mate?" his Dam said teasingly. "This is good."
"That is everyone," Lily hummed. "Those of you who said no, we bear you no ill will, and thank you for not telling anyone of this. Those of you who said yes, is there anyone you would suggest?"
"I am not taking my parents," Crystal said coldly. "My Dam and I do not see eye to eye on anything nowadays, and bringing her would be pointless. She has the kind of rotted thinking we are leaving to get away from."
"Same," Pearl murmured.
"My parents would not want to go," Cedar snorted. "And like Gold said, we can come back to visit on occasion."
The other fledglings who were going nodded at that; Gold wasn't surprised to see that they were willing to leave. It was not as if they would never see their parents again, after all, and growing up meant striking out on their own. Except maybe for Root, given how clingy his Dam was, and he was not leaving anyway.
"I have a friend, but she would not want to travel with a fledgling," Pina said. "So maybe a few season-cycles from now, but not today. When are we leaving?"
"Do not say," Root huffed before Lily could open her mouth. "Let the rest of us leave first. No point in telling us things we cannot repeat and do not need to know."
That was the signal for those who had opted out to leave; Gold waved his tail at his parents as they left, glad they were headed back to the valley and not to another ledge. Once those who were leaving were out of earshot, he cleared his throat with a rumble.
"Tomorrow night," he said. "Spend your morning preparing, and sneak out to the forest on some pretense in the afternoon. Meet us on the far shore just after nightfall. We will be spending most of the night walking, so be ready for that."
"Why walking?" Mist asked. "Flying is faster."
"Many reasons," he said vaguely. "You will see when we get started. " He could say they were walking to avoid being seen, or to enjoy the scenery, or any of a number of explanations, but messing with Mist was more fun. He was glad she was going, too. Her and Crystal; he would have plenty of targets to annoy if he ever got bored.
"The far shore." Cedar stuck his tail in that direction. "We meet there?"
"Yes," Lily hummed. "Tell nobody the specifics, not even your parents."
"But do at least leave on good terms," Pina added.
"Got it," Cedar rumbled. "Now, if there is nothing else, I want to go back to sleep."
Gold nodded in agreement; they had a long day and night in front of them. Sleeping was not only preferable, it was mandatory. Just the way he liked it.
O-O-O-O-O
The valley was once again unusually vacant. Gold had seen the search parties go, some organized and some not, so he knew why, but that did not stop it from feeling weird. Like he was seeing a preview of how it would be once his group had left for real.
Lily flew beside him as they circled idly, her face and movements pensive, like she was uncertain of her next flap, let alone whatever was really bothering her.
"I will make you look good tonight if you tell me what is on your mind," he bargained.
"And if I do not?" Lily asked, amused.
"I will complain about you brooding and compare you to a moody fledgling," he threatened.
"The horror," she said sarcastically. "I suppose I have no choice. I was thinking that you have corrupted me."
"And you are only now realizing that?" he said with a smirk, feeling immensely proud. "Half the things we have done, I expected to be slapped for proposing."
"Not like that," she said, purring quietly. "With this. I could fix the pack as it is."
"It would be hard and frustrating and maybe dangerous," he said.
"Yes, but I could do it," she retorted. "Despite that. It would take a long time, and I would have to focus on just that for a while. I would make them all think, make them all be better, take them by the scruff of their necks and drag them to something better, whining and complaining all the way."
"That sounds terrible," he said honestly.
"It does, and yesterday I found that I just did not feel like bothering," she admitted. "Maybe it is laziness, or maybe it is me being selfish, but I just do not want to do it. Not when we can leave with the people I do not have to drag into the right way of thinking. We made this mess, and I am leaving without even trying to clean it up."
"No," Gold objected, "Claw made this mess. You do not owe the pack anything, and if you did, I would say Claw's disappearance is enough. But you owe me something."
"What is that?" she asked, looking over at him.
"I want your attention, and I do not want to share it with a bunch of idiots who will complain about you fixing them," he said bluntly. "You do not want to share me with other females? Well, I do not want to share you with them." He nodded down at the valley, though it was mostly empty, which kind of undermined his point.
"I certainly cannot complain if that is the trade," she huffed. "So, I am being selfish. You have corrupted me."
"Good," he said. "Now, since you are being corrupted, how would you like…" He wracked his mind for a suitably dirty proposition, something enough to distract her through pure shock.
"Don't finish that thought," she growled. "Or I will bite you somewhere unpleasant."
"Oh, good," he sighed. "I am glad to know my most pleasing parts are safe." He dodged preemptively, and easily avoided the stinging tail-slap she sent his way.
"Not what I meant," Lily growled. "Unpleasant for you."
"So you are planning on putting your mouth on that part of me?" Gold asked slyly, turning his tail and fleeing. "There are better things to do with that!"
"I'll bite it off," Lily cried out, her words undercut by a laughing rumble she couldn't hold back. Gold flew in erratic loops, keeping out of her reach.
"But you would regret that!" he barked. "Very much!"
"So would you!" She cut across his latest loop, and he quickly changed tactics, spinning to grab her. His hind paws wrapped around her tail, and he clutched one of her front paws with his. She wisely folded her wings and dropped, rather than straining them trying to pull his weight, and slipped out of his grasp.
"Stop it," she laughed. "Fine, no biting."
"I have triumphed over my mate, and am thus dominant and superior!" Gold loudly proclaimed, roaring for the mostly empty valley to hear. He leveled out, opening his wings once more, and looked back.
Lily's eyes had narrowed, and she was flying fast. Right at him. He bolted.
O-O-O-O-O
Gold limped along, wondering whether his mate would object to him riding her back for a while. Sure, she was hardly strong enough to carry him for any length of time without tiring out, but she owed him. She had put the many needle-like holes in his paw that were hobbling him now, after all.
"I didn't bite you that hard," Lily sighed, catching his thoughts without even needing him to voice them.
"You have sharp teeth, and sand is not good for wounds," he whined piteously.
"I'll lick it better once we get into the forest, but other than that you are on your own," she rumbled. "Consider it a lesson in provoking me."
"The lesson I learned was 'never provoke my vindictive mate without having an escape plan and a head start,' was that what you meant to teach?" He leaped over a small sand dune, just so she didn't think he was seriously hurting. Her teeth had hurt, for sure, but it was a shallow wound. He would milk it for all it was worth, of course, but only so long as she knew he was doing so. The game could be played even when both knew it was a game.
"Yes," Lily said blandly, though the twinkle in her eyes betrayed her amusement. Gold wasn't sure if he was getting better at reading her, or if she was intentionally letting such things through, but either way he was glad to have such hints. Even if he did have to think twice about whether or not they were intentional, and thus whether he was being played with while thinking himself clever.
And wasn't that a thrill in itself? He hummed thoughtfully as they approached the small gathering. Not everyone was present, hence there being no need to fly all the way to the group. Cedar and Liona had yet to arrive, and Pyre was not waiting with the rest.
Those who were there were feigning nonchalance. Pina lay near the tideline, watching the sea, while Mist and Crystal spoke casually, their tails buried in the sand. Pearl looked on from nearby, far more jittery than anyone else present, but at least making an effort to seem innocent. It would take at least an intimidating growl to make her talk, not just a glare.
Two light wings flew overhead, landing with bounding leaps to either side of him and Lily. "Beat you here," Cedar crowed, launching himself into the midst of the gathering. Liona followed behind, only slightly less enthusiastic.
"Congratulations, you have managed to make a moment's flight when given a whole day," Mist said dryly. "Truly, you are quick beyond all reckoning."
"I am going to quote you," Cedar said proudly.
"And Liona will too, once you start mating," Gold laughed.
"We are all here," Lily barked, gathering their attention before the back and forth could devolve. None too soon, either; Cedar looked ready to pounce. Liona, for her part, seemed equal parts embarrassed and amused. "Let's get moving."
"Sounds good," Crystal huffed. "Where are we headed?"
"Follow me." Lily walked away from the water, into the treeline. Gold ran for a short distance to catch up, and settled into an easy gait by her side.
"You ran on your paw," Lily murmured.
Gold growled in annoyance. He had forgotten about that, and now he wouldn't be able to use it as leverage. "Will you still lick it better, at least?" he asked.
"If you're good," she replied.
A pale presence flickering through the trees in front of them distracted him, and he resolved to get her back later. They would have all night.
"We are going deep into the forests, far from the valley, to settle in a new place and live there," Lily intoned, glancing back at the six light wings following along. "We need someone who knows how to do all of that, and I happen to know one such dragon."
Pyre stepped out from a dark thicket, his empty wing arms spread wide. Several of those behind Gold gasped in shock, and he distinctly heard someone gag.
"I swear I remember one of Claw's mates going on about a wingless male traitor in the mountains," Mist huffed. "I guess she was not crazy."
"This is Pyre, everyone," Lily said proudly. "He's always been around, he just wasn't allowed into the valley."
"Why?" Cedar asked skeptically.
"The previous alpha blamed me for something I was not responsible for in any meaningful way," Pyre huffed.
Gold nodded sagely, pretending he had any idea what Pyre was talking about. Of all the things the older dragon spoke of, his past was one of the few thorny issues left up to the imagination. It seemed that was going to change, at least a little.
"But we can talk about that on the way," Pyre concluded. "If we must. Right now, the priority is putting as much distance between us and the valley as possible. Tell me, how many of you can run?"
"We will be running?" Pearl asked timidly.
"Well, you did not expect to get anywhere quickly by just walking, did you?" Pyre asked with a toothy grin. "Come on, surely you can outlast a light wing ten times your age."
Gold cast Lily a meaningful look, and she winced. Maybe his leverage was still good after all.
The group set out at a trot, everyone following along as Pyre elaborated on how they would be running. Gold drifted to the back of the group, so as to watch the shapely behinds of the many females they were bringing along, and chanced a look behind.
The moon was rising, the mountains looming in the distance, and the pack was sleeping off another day of fruitless searching for a dead dragon. Behind him was a myriad of annoying customs and problems.
Ahead, was a very appealing sight, led by his mate, and plenty of possibility. He had to look away, lest his running be impeded even more before they even began.