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: Part eight of Gold's mini-series, we're well off the beaten trail now.
"My paws are sore," Gold called out.
"My chest aches," Pearl replied, walking behind him.
"I tripped on a stick," Cedar supplied.
"I tripped on Cedar," Liona added with a giggle.
"I was blinded by sappy affection and ran into a tree," Mist snorted.
"My wings ache," Crystal complained, breaking the chain of follow-up complaints.
"I have dirt between my claws," Pina added seriously, shaking her left front paw with every other step.
"I have a headache," Lily growled, rounding them out.
"And yet, we are still walking," Pyre retorted, looking back at the group but never stopping his relentless trek forward. "No rest yet. The sun has not set."
"My sun has set," Cedar grumbled.
"What does that even mean?" Mist asked.
"That I am too tired and sore to come up with understandable complaints," Cedar hummed. "And that if I had a sun, it would have already set by now. In fact, it would set right after noon, and stay down until right before noon. Daytime is overrated."
"Why have any day at all, if you are going that far?" Gold asked. It was a ridiculous idea, of course, but appealing all the same. Having a rock-solid excuse to sleep nine-tenths of every day-night cycle, and even having the darkness to do it in undisturbed, sounded especially nice now. It had been half a moon-cycle since they began this endless walk, and his paws were always sore.
"Liona looks prettier in the sunlight," Cedar said loyally.
"Do you want me to bring up a fish?" Mist asked. "Because that is how you will get one out of me. Just keep that sort of thing up."
The banter continued as they walked, staving off boredom and discomfort both. That had to be why Pyre and Lily allowed such complaints; Gold had been given ample time to notice that serious whining did not start so easily when little things were taking all the attention, but he suspected such a concept had been known to his mate before the end of the first night's trek. She certainly did not try to stop it, though she did not contribute much, either.
Gold, for his part, had not been lying when he claimed his paws were sore, so he walked gingerly, following Lily and Pyre as they picked the easiest path through the forest. Thickets of thorns were avoided, hills and valleys crossed, infinitely many trees woven through, and all the while the group was headed nowhere except away.
When the shadows lengthened enough that Pyre called a halt for the night, Gold flopped onto his side where he stood, flexing his paws and groaning dramatically. All around him, others settled down with more dignity, but what did he care for that? Taking weight off his paws and looking obviously exhausted were more important goals.
"Not it!" he called out, remembering why he wanted to look exhausted.
"Not this again," Pina huffed. "We agreed to do a rotation, Gold."
"And it is not my go even by that," he said blithely. "But-"
"Not it!" Cedar barked, likely remembering that it was his evening to secure fish for the rest of them.
"No, that is not how this works," Mist said dismissively. "Nobody play into their trick, this is not decided by who says 'not it' last."
Lily huffed. "Do not think none of us heard you saying 'not it' while claiming it did not matter. Hedging your bets makes your words fall flat."
"What? Not it!" Pearl glared at Mist, as well she should; she had been the one to lose the game last night.
"I will go, if you are all too exhausted to bother," Pyre said with a sly grin. "Though you all know how long it takes me to fish for so many, so you will be waiting for a while."
"Ugh, nobody wants that," Crystal groaned. "Come on, Liona, we can do tonight."
Gold held in a purr as Liona agreed, and the two females left in the direction of the shore. His ploy had worked-
"You have just been moved to tomorrow morning's fish-gathering duty," Lily said, coming up behind him. She did not look amused. "I don't like you making chaos where we could have a nice, simple rotation."
"But chaos is the only entertainment most of them have," Gold argued back, not all that surprised that she had remembered who started tonight's cascade of responsibility-avoiding light wings. "I did all of those bored people a favor, really. Besides, you do not have the authority to make me fish tomorrow."
"I have the authority to volunteer myself and then publicly ask you to help me," she retorted. "So either you make up for this, or you look bad in front of everyone else."
"Fine, fine," Gold acquiesced, lessening her victory by pretending he was not really giving up anything. "I can do that. Anyway, what is Pyre up to?"
"He is busy staring at your back and wondering what I see in you," Lily quipped.
Gold turned far enough to see that Pyre was saying something to Crystal, not looking at him at all. "Liar," he said. "Since you can punish me for causing trouble, does that mean I can punish you for lying?"
"That would be fair," Lily admitted. "What is your proposed punishment?"
"Wait until we get some time alone and find out," Gold hummed. He was tired, they all were, but he was not about to let a little exhaustion get in the way of enjoying himself. They could sneak away once everyone had gone to sleep. Finding isolated places was almost too easy now that there were only seven light wings to avoid.
"Mmm," Lily rumbled, leaning in to whisper in his ear. "You know, I find myself looking forward to finding out what twisted thing you have in mind."
"And that is why you are perfect," he hummed. Not just because she had fully embraced a willingness to experiment in mating that he had never witnessed, in all his time spent spying on mated pairs at the ledges. It was not only that, anyway. It was also the trust she gave him, to be able to hear things like that as he meant them, not as someone like Claw might have. She thought well of him.
"Flattery will get you somewhere, but no faster than you were already going in that direction," Lily chided. "We're not wandering off before everyone is sleeping."
"I am still hungry," he reminded her. "I do not want to wander off yet." They would be waiting some time yet, because while they were walking parallel to the shore, they were not close to it, and that meant Crystal and Liona would be a while.
Lily settled down beside him, her tail on his. "Wake me when they get back," she murmured, her eyes slowly closing.
Gold squirmed uncomfortably, her body heat warming him, but not as much as the heat rushing to certain parts of him of its own accord. This was going to be a long wait...
O-O-O-O-O
"We are a ways out, now," Pyre said, setting aside the last fish he had been brought. His words had the sound of a beginning, a request for attention, and Gold obligingly looked over at him. It was fully dark, and Pyre lay in one of the many fragmented beams of moonlight peeking through the trees. His face was illuminated, and part of his neck, but his body was shadowed, making him look like a piece of a dragon, not a whole one. Even more than usual, anyway.
"Far enough to start looking for a place to claim?" Crystal asked.
"Not quite, but we are reaching a distance where if we find something remarkable, we do not have to worry about distance making it unsuitable," Pyre clarified. "Every day we continue forward we widen the gap, but we are at the tipping point between unacceptably close, and only uncomfortably close."
"Point taken," Lily murmured. "What are we looking for?"
"I don't know, not for certain," Pyre admitted. "A stable source of fresh water is preferable, and most of the ponds we have found so far are seasonal. We want something permanent, a stream or river would be best. We also want hills or mountains to make good homes for shelter. Past that, whatever we find that is useful."
"We have not come across any of those things besides hills," Liona noted. "Will there be more further out?"
"That is the thing, we do not know," Crystal explained. "Right? We could find a dozen rivers tomorrow, or none no matter how far we go."
"That is correct, yes," Pyre agreed. "But that can only be determined by pressing forward."
"And something else needs to be brought up," Lily added, neatly taking the initiative. "We need to talk about what form our pack will take once we do settle down."
"We did leave for a reason," Crystal mused.
"A good reason," Pearl echoed quietly. Everything she did was quiet, and Gold wasn't sure whether that was because of how she had left with them, or because of what had happened to her that made her want to leave. Crystal had taken the other female under her wing, but that didn't seem to be doing much.
"This should be interesting," Mist hummed. "So, mates."
"That was not the first thing I was hoping to decide on," Lily said ruefully. "But sure, let's do that first. I'd like to start by confirming that currently mated pairs are in no way necessarily separated by us leaving."
"Like I would let that happen," Gold huffed. He got a happy look from Lily in return, and knew it had been the right thing to say. The true thing, too; of all the females available, Lily was by far the best. He would claim her without a heartbeat's hesitation.
"But what about us?" Crystal demanded.
"Except for you three," Lily acknowledged, looking at Crystal, Pina, and Pearl, "you are definitely not mated to Claw anymore. I meant… well, just me and Gold." She shrugged her wings.
"It's understandable to want to secure your own ties before addressing anything else," Pyre said. "But I think Mist means how mating will function going forward?" He looked to Mist.
"That," Mist confirmed. "I want to know who I can be with, who I cannot be with, how I can be with them, and what happens if I do not want to be with anyone."
"Right," Lily rumbled. "Obviously, we will have to change some things around from how the valley handled it."
"Obviously," Pina agreed. "For one, the alpha should not have the ability to claim any unmated female."
"Definitely not," Crystal agreed. "And we do not even have an alpha."
"But we will have one, will we not?" Liona asked. "Do we need one?"
"That was what I wanted to bring up first," Lily huffed. "I don't think we need an alpha so long as we are such a small group. There are few enough of us that if something needs to be decided, we can just discuss it and then do what we agree on."
"And if we need an alpha later, we can pick one then," Mist said. "No need to think about that now."
"Right." Lily nodded. "So no alpha."
"Meaning no male who snatches up all the unmated females," Mist hummed. "Good. If a female wants to not have a mate, she should be able to. No forcing her to choose a male when she becomes an adult."
"Drop that whole concept," Lily suggested. "When fledglings become adults, they get the power to choose. If two adults say they are mates and announce it, then they are mates. Nothing more, nothing less."
"I like that," Crystal hummed.
"I do not," Mist growled.
Gold held in a laugh, not wanting to attract his mate's ire. It had all been going far too well, they were overdue an actual argument, not just people agreeing with each other all the time. He was just glad it wasn't him starting said argument.
"Why not?" Pearl asked. "I do…"
"Because she said two adults," Mist clarified. "It only makes sense that males should be able to take multiple mates if they wish. Females too, but that is not likely to happen here given we outnumber the males three to one. Claw kept that privilege to himself, but we do not have an alpha."
"Why would anyone need several mates?" Lily asked. "That was just Claw being greedy, and we all know how that ended up."
Gold looked from his mate to Mist, and then back again. He wondered if it would be smarter to speak up, or to let this play out. He wasn't sure which side he would support if he did speak, so he decided to keep his mouth shut until he knew.
"No," Mist retorted, "Claw was bad because he used and abused his power. The idea of a male having two or more mates is not terrible by itself, and it is the only way everyone who wants a mate can have one with how unbalanced we are."
"If I might add some context," Pyre interjected, "the system of the alpha having many mates was put into place recently, by the alpha before Claw. It was an emergency measure to address a similar lack of balance in genders. Prior to that, having two or more mates was not an option at all."
"So it should not be now," Lily concluded.
"No, he is saying that it was created to address the same problem we are facing now," Mist countered. "That means he thinks it should be allowed here too. Right, Pyre?"
"I am not taking a side here," Pyre rumbled. "I am providing more information."
Gold shook his head, hearing the underlying message. Pyre, as far as he could tell, had absolutely no interest in taking another mate. That would mean whatever this little pack decided, it wouldn't affect him directly. He was neutral in this, as much as anyone could be.
But what about everyone else? He couldn't tell what the others thought of this little debate between Mist and Lily; it was possible they didn't have strong opinions either way, or were waiting for the choice to become clear, like he was.
"It would not work, anyway," Lily grumbled. "Tell me how it would work in practice, and maybe I will see why you want it."
"In practice?" Mist shrugged her wings. "A male takes a mate. They are happy. Then another female wants that male. She makes friends with the first female, and the male, and if all three agree, then she is also his mate. Beyond that, it is up to them what all of that means."
"And if the male's first mate doesn't want to share?" Lily asked, phrasing it as a hypothetical instead of just speaking for herself.
"Well, then, it will not happen," Mist said simply. "I am not talking about forcing other females out, or anything like that. All of this is voluntary, not expected or required. But I want the option open and acknowledged. It makes no sense to forbid it outright."
Gold looked at Lily, expecting a scathing retort that somehow pulled apart that proposal. He could feel the others all looking to Lily, too.
Instead of sarcasm or condescension, he saw genuine surprise. "I don't see any obvious flaws in that," she admitted. "Except maybe for it putting strain on the mated pair if the male wants another mate, and the female does not like that."
"Well, they should have discussed that before becoming mated in the first place," Mist said dismissively. "Like I said, if it is an open option, then whether or not one's first mate is up for such a thing would be talked about beforepaw. I do not expect everyone, or even most pairings, to be comfortable with such a thing."
Lily looked to Gold, and he shrugged his wings at her, not betraying his thoughts on the matter. Mostly because they were still flying around in his head, set into motion by the proposal Mist had set out, and not yet settled. At the moment, he wasn't going to get excited; the way they were talking about meant Lily had to agree, and he had already tried that, back when Pearl needed some good times.
But he was definitely going to bring this up afterward and find out what she thought about it now, even if that answer was all but assured. And a small chance was better than none at all…
"I, for one, do not plan to ever get involved in such a thing," Crystal said dismissively. "But if you want to do it, go ahead."
"Let's see what everyone thinks," Pyre offered. "I do not have an opinion either way. Crystal approves. Pearl?"
"I do not want that…" Pearl shook her head. "Now. For myself. I agree with Crystal, it is okay if other people do it."
"You all know I am for it, even though I do not see any males I would want anyway," Mist said, casting Cedar an unfriendly look. "More choice is better."
Cedar and Liona voiced very much the same approval, not wanting it for themselves, but seeing no fault in the idea. By the time Pina rumbled her approval, Gold was wondering why they were even bothering. There were no unmated females who wanted to do such a thing, and no available males if he assumed Liona would be fiercely defensive of her mate like Lily was.
Everyone looked to him, and he nodded. "I am okay with it, so long as we ensure both mates must agree," he said, reassuring Lily even as he approved of the idea she had initially opposed.
"Looks like we've reached a compromise," Lily hummed, seemingly at peace with their decision. "Good. Now, on to other things…"
Gold did his best to listen, but his full stomach and growing lethargy distracted him. The conversation turned to boring little details like how arguments would be settled if there was no alpha, and he had nothing to add. He didn't care so long as Lily was keeping her paw on what they decided. She was happy with their current dynamic as equals, and wouldn't do anything to upset that, even in her favor. If there were any loopholes to be had, they would be exploitable by him too.
So, instead of listening, he closed his eyes and grunted 'I am with Lily on this one' whenever anyone asked for his opinion. When he heard it, anyway; his name always caught his attention, but if they asked him something without using it, they were out of luck. Especially when he finally dozed off despite their droning voices…
O-O-O-O-O
A paw prodded him, and he reached around to hold it tighter. He couldn't quite feel Lily, she must have rolled over in the night.
"Gross," a voice that was not Lily grunted. The paw pulled away, and then nudged him much more forcefully in the back. "Were you even listening?"
"Yes, totally," Gold murmured, slowly waking up. It was still dark out, and Lily was not near him. Mist was asking him if he had listened…
"So you know we agreed to abandon you here in the middle of the night?" Mist asked seriously.
"Go ahead," he rumbled, unconcerned. "I will catch up."
"And we agreed that Cedar could have Lily as his second mate," Mist continued.
"Lies," he grumbled. "Blatant lies."
"She was very enthusiastic about it," Mist assured him.
He rolled onto his side and cracked open an eye, taking in her blurry form above him. "Are you my consolation prize?"
Mist huffed and took another step back. "Idiot," she grumbled. "No. Lily asked me to wake you."
"Because she cannot do so herself?" he asked, getting to his paws. The woods around him were deserted, oddly enough. He had assumed everyone would sleep where they were.
"Because Pearl wanted to talk to her alone, and she did not want you sleeping alone in the middle of nowhere," Mist explained. "Everyone wandered off after Pyre mentioned that this place might flood if it rains later tonight."
Gold shook himself and glanced up; he couldn't see any stars through the trees, which meant it was cloudy, which made sense. Pyre wouldn't be talking about rain if the skies were clear. "Oh. Where is she?"
"That way," Mist said, pointing her tail in a random direction.
"Really?" Gold asked, wondering whether she was pointing him in the wrong direction. That would be the sort of thing he might do to annoy someone.
"Yes, really," Mist said, walking away with a haughty huff. Gold let his eyes linger on her hindquarters for a little bit, but soon looked away and began walking in the direction he had been given.
A blur of white to his left caught his eye, and he saw Pina, clawing at a tree for some reason. He nodded to her, but she hadn't even noticed him, too busy doing whatever that was.
Two more white shapes threaded through the trees, these heading in his direction, and he sped up. Pearl split from Lily before long, melting away in the dark forest as she headed somewhere.
"Have a good nap?" Lily called out. "We set the future of our little pack while you dozed."
"Good, I slept through the whole thing," Gold chuffed. "It might be important, but it is also boring." He met Lily with a nuzzle and a purr.
"Except for the first part," she said, lying down between two trees. "You were wide awake for that."
"Well, yes," he rumbled, settling into a place across from her. He sensed a talk coming and wanted to look like he was taking it seriously. Lying down on top of her, however tempting, did not project that image… for him, she had made such a thing work in the past. "That was important."
"Even though pretty much everyone said 'not for me' when they approved it," Lily noted. "I don't think anyone is going to go for it right away."
"No, probably not," Gold admitted. Even if she told him 'go ahead' tonight, he would have to start courting someone, since none of the females present actually wanted him at the moment. That promised to be a lot of work for something that might sour relations between himself and his current mate.
"Cedar is busy wooing Liona, and would be sabotaging himself to look at anyone else too closely," Lily continued. She was staring into his eyes, as if trying to see what he really thought about all of this. "Mist doesn't like Cedar, Pearl doesn't seem to be looking for a mate at all, and neither is Pina. I'm not sure what Crystal wants."
"And what about you?" Gold asked, piercing through to the heart of the matter. "Because I am happy either way."
"Are you really?" Lily huffed. "This has not gotten you all excited for chasing and catching another female?"
"That is a lot of effort," he said. "It would be fun, no doubt, but I do not know what I would be aiming for, and I do not want to make you unhappy. Besides, you probably cannot stand the idea." He tilted his head. "So? What do you think?"
"I would have just said no and left it at that back when we were first together," she said softly. "I did say no to something similar before we were officially mates. But you've shown me a lot of fun things I also would have said no to back then… I don't want to change anything right now. Do not take that as a no forever, just for the time being. Let things settle a little first."
Gold, amazed that he was hearing something other than the outright rejection he had expected, nodded happily. "That is fair, more than fair," he purred. "Should I make all of the available females like me just in case?"
"Don't even think about Pina in that way," Lily warned. "Ever. That is a definite no."
"Pearl, Mist, and Crystal, though…" Gold said hopefully.
"I don't want you courting them," Lily admitted. "Not right now. But you could do without antagonizing them on purpose. I want you on good terms with my friends, anyway."
"I can do that." He waggled his ears. "And I would be okay with any or all three of them, so when you feel like trying something new, just tell me."
"This is weird," Lily complained. "Can we stop talking about it now?"
"As you wish, my mate," he said grandly. "Now, as I recall, there was something we were going to do before sleeping…"
O-O-O-O-O
Their group ventured onward the next day, and outwardly it was as if nothing had changed. The days passed slowly, but time seemed to fly despite dragging with every boring moment.
The idea of having more mates did not come up again between him and Lily, and he did his best to put it out of his mind. When she said later, she meant later, and he wasn't going to bring it up again until she did. Until then, he had more than enough adventurous female companionship to be satisfied.
And in the meantime, it didn't look like any of the unmated females along for the trip were going to be changing their status. Cedar and Liona withdrew even more from the rest of the group, sinking deeper into their own little world, if that was possible. Mist was aloof from both himself and Cedar, and Crystal spent her time with her friends, not the males of the group. Nobody looked at Pyre in that way, not even Pina, though Gold suspected there had been a frank conversation on that topic between them at some point. Pyre was far too pragmatic to not address the light wing in the cave, so to speak.
Everyone seemed to be waiting for the journey, and by extension a lot of the uncertainty they labored under, to end.
O-O-O-O-O
"Is it possible we are all hallucinating together?" Lily asked Pyre. Gold could hear them, though he was more interested in the thing they had just come across, hidden beneath the trees.
"There are plants that could do such a thing," Pyre said, taking the question seriously. "But we would see them. There is nothing unusual around here, no fog in the air, nothing in the ocean to taint our food supply. We did not all drink at the last puddle, so it cannot be tainted water we have just come across."
"This hallucination is wet," Gold remarked, sticking his paw in the large river they had just found. "And cold."
"But is it wet and cold for real, or are you imagining it?" Lily asked, ignoring the half-dozen light wings happily wading in the cold, clean water.
"I do not know," Gold rumbled, retreating from the river with a devious plan in mind. He walked up to his mate, who was a few steps from the steep banks, and flicked his tail at her. She gasped as the immensely cold water hit her in the face. "Is that real?"
"Maybe," Lily said with a laugh. "It could be that I am imagining this, too. What is real?"
Gold exchanged a look with Pyre, found agreement in the older male's eyes, and proceeded to shove Lily toward the river. When she tried to step away from him, Pyre stepped in, pushing her in the same direction from the other side.
"Hey, what-" Lily cut off with a shriek as they pushed her over the bank and into the shallows. She landed on her back and flailed around in the surprisingly cold water. It was only a couple of paws deep, so Gold didn't fear for her safety.
In fact, he didn't think she was wet enough yet. "Incoming!" he roared, leaping off the bank to splash down right next to her. He 'struggled' to his paws, splashing as much water as he could onto her face and chest.
"No more questions that make me doubt my own eyes and paws," Gold said.
"This is real," Lily conceded, finally making it to her paws. "I-"
"Look out below!" Pyre called out, following Gold's lead and leaping down to land on Lily's other side. She was swamped again, and caught right in the face by pure chance.
"Ugh, come on!" Lily exclaimed, shaking her head wildly. "Let me get my paws under me, at least."
"You are standing right now," Gold pointed out.
She splashed him in response, and he leapt into the play-fight with a vengeance.
O-O-O-O-O
"We should stay," Mist said that night, and it was not a question. They were all lounging by the shore of the river, resting in the soft grass and enjoying the pleasant sound of rushing water.
Pyre lifted his head to look around. "I saw nothing bad in my look around this afternoon," he said. "I have no objections. There might or might not be prey animals in the area, but it does not matter all that much. We have the ocean, and there are probably fish in this river."
"Do we even need to put it to a vote?" Gold asked lazily. He was lying on his back, his eyes closed, and as far as he was concerned he would be happy to never leave so long as Lily remained by his side and regularly under or on top of him…
"No, but let's get everyone's opinions anyway," Lily snorted.
"But that is a vote," Gold whined. "I say we are staying. Does anyone object?"
The sounds of the river continued uninterrupted, apart from Lily's amused chuckle.
"There, done," Gold hummed, pleased with himself.
"And now, on to the next thing you will not want to do," Pyre rumbled.
"Sleeping?" Gold asked hopefully.
"Close. Making dens to sleep in." Pyre hummed thoughtfully, and Gold heard something dragging in the water, either a tail or a paw. "Yes, it is here."
"What is?" Lily asked, sounding intrigued.
"There is a kind of dirt one finds in places like riverbeds. It is slimy and unpleasant, but when it's spread out and flamed, it makes a sort of stone that is very comfortable to sit on." Something hit the grass with a dirty squelch, and Gold cracked open an eye to see a pile of red-brown mud by Pyre, looking as if he had just clawed it out of the ground, which of course he had.
"To make a good den in a place like this, you first have to find a spot with a hill, then dig it out, then dig up a lot of this dirt and flame it into the inside," Pyre explained. "It is frustrating, dirty, miserable work, but the end result is worth it. A snug little cave that is cool in the hot-season and warm in the cold-season."
"How long does it take to do all of that?" Pearl asked.
"A one-person cave takes about ten days, from start to finish, and then a few more because you don't have enough fire to flame it all at once," Pyre said. "A den for two would be twice as big and twice as much labor, but with twice as many people, so I would say the same except for more time to flame it. We can all work on our own dens at the same time, and all be done soon enough."
An idea occurred to Gold, or more of a resolution, and he hummed thoughtfully. The end result sounded desirable, even as the work to get it was anything but, so of course he wanted to get out of doing it. Sticking the labor all on Lily was not what a strong, caring mate would do - not to mention that she would never let him do that - so he would have to be tricky about things…
He purred evilly and closed his eyes, beginning to plot even as Pyre explained the specifics to the other dragons. He didn't need to hear any of that; he wouldn't be getting a single claw dirty. With some luck, neither would Lily unless she wanted to.
O-O-O-O-O
Gold sighed happily and rubbed his face on Lily's neck before wandering away from her to wash in the river. They had snuck away that morning for the usual reason and were downriver of the rest of their little pack, making dousing himself and cleaning off the obvious remnants easier than usual. He could just jump in the water-
His smug trail of thought was interrupted when he actually hit the water, after bounding off the bank to land in the chest-deep flow of the shallows. He held in what would have been a decidedly embarrassing shriek, and instead let out a whimper as he clambered out of the icy flow.
Lily looked on from where she was cleaning herself the normal way. "You know," she said conversationally, "running water tends to always be cold."
"I remembered that too late," Gold grumbled. He was used to the pond, not the ocean, and he had severely underestimated the combination of the morning chill, going from a hot body to the water, and doing so before certain parts of himself were safely away from the icy flow.
"Hmm, I guess that makes sense…" Lily pawed at her ears and face, closing her eyes to rub over them. "Ready for a day of exploring and looking for a good hill?"
"I was thinking," Gold hummed, remembering his plan. He walked over to her and licked across her face. "You search, I have something else to do."
"And you will not tell me what it is," Lily snorted. "Congratulations, this is your most transparent attempt to get out of labor yet. It is just walking around."
"I am trying to get out of work, but for both of us, and not this part," Gold said cryptically. "You will find out what I am doing tomorrow, and if I have done it well enough we will both be able to laze around all day."
"Really?" Lily opened an eye and stared at him. "And I will like how you accomplished it?"
"You will find it impressive and possibly entertaining in its own right," Gold claimed. He hoped his plans would pan out, otherwise this would fall flat on its face, but what good was trying something if he didn't talk it up first?
"Okay, you can slip out of today's hill search," Lily granted. "I'll find a bunch of good ones and take you around to look at the best ones tonight."
"I did not need your permission… but I appreciate the encouragement." Gold hopped forward, licked her face again, and fled before she could retaliate.
His escape made and expectations established, he set out to get an easy victory to start his day. Cedar was by far the most simple mark for this little scheme, and conveniently in the first place he looked, dunking his head further up the river. Liona was nowhere to be seen, which was even better.
Gold found a nice spot on the bank nearby, pulled a few leaves from a nearby bush, and crumpled them up into little balls. He kept one ball, so small it was hard to move around, under his tail, and the other went into the grass in front of him. They were more or less indistinguishable.
"Cedar!" he barked. "Over here!"
Cedar obligingly waded out of the river and clambered up onto the bank, where he shook himself off; Gold raised a wing and shielded himself from the cold spray.
"Sorry about that," Cedar purred, not sounding very sorry at all. "What is it?"
"I was thinking you would like a chance to impress Liona," Gold hummed. "Care to play a game? You win, I help you look good in front of Liona. You lose, and you…"
"What?" Cedar asked curiously. "It cannot be that big a forfeit, I do not really need your help looking good."
"I did not think that far ahead," Gold lied. "How about… you spend one day digging up dirt for my den, not yours?"
Cedar chuffed agreeably. "I could do that, I do not really mind sleeping on grass for one extra day. But I will win! What is the game?"
Gold motioned downward, drawing Cedar's attention to his paws. "See this leaf ball?" he asked.
Cedar leaned forward and squinted. "Yes? This one?" He poked it with his claw. "It is tiny."
"Right, that one," Gold confirmed. "All you have to do is keep your eyes on it while I move it around. If, when I am done, you can tell me where it is, you win."
"Okay… If we play one practice round first." Cedar sat down and stared avidly at the little leaf ball. "This one does not mean anything."
"Fair enough," Gold conceded. He put a paw over the little grass ball, then slid his other paw over it. He spent a little while shuffling his paws back and forth, pretending to mix it, then quite obviously pressed down a little harder and rolled it under his right paw. "Done. Where is it?"
"Here," Cedar chirped, slapping his paw down on Gold's. The right one, of course; it was meant to be easy this time. It wouldn't do to scare Cedar away before he had lost for real.
"You won our practice round," Gold chuffed, lifting his paw to reveal the fragile little ball. "Ready for the real one?"
"I think you are an idiot to suggest this," Cedar purred smugly. "That was really easy. Has Lily been boosting your ego?"
"Not intentionally," Gold rumbled, unperturbed. "Okay, pay close attention…"
Cedar leaned forward, and Gold began wildly swiping his paws around, shaking his wings, and generally contorting very much like Cedar had moments ago to shake the water off. His tail remained mostly still, cradling the second leaf ball out of sight, but the rest of him went crazy. He flung one paw up, then the other, tore up some grass, and then, when he dropped down to all fours, smashed the grass ball underpaw.
Cedar, by this point, was staring at Gold as if he was going insane right in front of him, and didn't notice the leaf ball being crushed into the dirt, mashed down so far it was unrecognizable and hidden by the grass.
Once Gold was satisfied with that, he calmed down, shuffled his paws a few more times for show, and then purred at Gold. "Okay, where is it."
Cedar looked down at his paws, and then up at his smug face. His ears fell, and he groaned loudly. "I… This one?" He smacked the same paw as before.
Gold was almost impressed; if he had kept the leaf ball under his paws, that would have been the one he hid it under, assuming Cedar would go for the other. "This paw?" he asked, seeking confirmation. "That is your guess?"
"It… No, this one!" Cedar batted at his other paw. Now Gold was less impressed.
"Are you sure?" he asked, just to drag it out.
"Yes?" Cedar ventured. "I think so."
Gold lifted the paw Cedar had chosen to reveal… nothing.
Cedar sighed. "So it was the other one," he said.
Gold lifted his other paw to prove that wrong, too. "I said you had to tell me where it is when I am done. Nothing about that specified that it had to be under one of my paws." He brought his tail around and revealed the second, indistinguishable leaf ball.
"But…" Cedar shook his head and blinked a few times. "How did you get it there? I was watching!"
"I am smart and you were distracted," Gold said, leaving out that he had cheated, tricky wording aside. He could have actually tried to fling the first ball up and over to his tail without it being noticed, but that would have had a high chance of failing. So long as Cedar thought that was what he had done, it all worked out the same anyway.
"I should know better," Cedar grumbled. "Fine. I owe you a day of digging mud for your den."
"I am glad to hear you are a light wing of your word," Gold humed. "Now, do you know where I can find Crystal?"
O-O-O-O-O
"What do you want?" Crystal asked coldly. "I am trying to get some sleep."
"It is the middle of the morning," Gold observed, looking around at the sunny little glade Crystal had found. "I sleep late, and even I am up now."
"I might have woken up in the middle of the night itching because some bugs decided to form a line across my back," Crystal huffed.
Gold held in a snicker and instead nodded gravely. "That stinks," he said calmly. "I was just wondering whether you would like to make a trade."
"This had better not be what I think it is," she growled.
"Labor for labor," Gold clarified, wondering what she thought he was meaning to propose. Some sort of mating arrangement was the obvious guess given his mostly-accurate reputation, but Lily would have to be involved in that, and he hadn't done any setup. "You come over and dig for our den for a day, and I will come do yours another day." Specifically, he would contribute his fire once she was done with the dirty part of the process, but he wasn't going to say that.
"Why?" Crystal asked. "What do you gain?"
"I want to do something nice for Lily," he said, which was true. "I figured replacing myself with her best friend for a day would work, and in the meantime I can be setting up for later." Of course, he actually meant to have Lily not working that day either, but Crystal didn't need to know that until too late. She would have Cedar's company instead.
"That is… surprisingly nice of you." Crystal shook her head in disbelief. "Okay, sure. The first day we are all digging clay?"
"I thought we left Sire behind?" Gold asked, confused and more than a little worried.
"No, that is what the dirt we are collecting is called," Crystal snorted. "You really were not paying any attention. Learn before you dig for my den, if you do not know what you are doing you will just be wasting your time."
"I will learn sooner or later," Gold chuffed. "See you then?"
"See you then," Crystal confirmed.
O-O-O-O-O
Gold was just slurping down a particularly slimy and thin fish from the pile he had gathered when Lily approached from the other side of the river. She leaped and flew across, landing right in front of him.
"As it turns out," she said, taking one of his fish, "there is a big fallen tree a short distance upstream, one that's easy to walk across. So I ended up considering hills on the far side of the river, too."
"Did you find anything good?" Gold asked, preferring to leave unsaid his confusion as to why a tree mattered when she could just fly across. He would figure it out sooner or later.
"A few places, some quite close." Lily sat back and tossed the fish up, swallowing it in a single movement. "There are two I would be happy with. I just want to get Pyre in there to make sure I'm not missing anything, then your opinion on which, and then we can start digging it out."
"About that," Gold hummed. "You know how Pyre said it would take ten days?"
"No, that was just for getting all the clay and moving it over," Lily said. "Add a few for digging out our actual den, and a few more for flaming all of that clay."
"Whatever. That was ten days of labor from both of us, right?" he asked.
"Yes, it was." She warbled curiously. "So, what were you doing?"
"Arranging it so that our den will be fully supplied with clay in…" He did the math in his head, pausing both for dramatic effect and because it wasn't the easiest problem to wrap his head around. "Seven days!" It didn't sound nearly as good when he said it out loud, but he presented it as a grand accomplishment and didn't let on that he had thought, in planning all of this, that his trickery would make far more of a difference.
"Really?" Lily asked. "How?"
"On the first day, Cedar will be helping us, not working on his own den," Gold began. "He lost a game with me. Liona will also be joining him because I suggested she bond with him over doing good deeds for others."
Lily tilted her head, a small purr working its way out of her. "You don't say," she rumbled.
"Crystal will be there in exchange for my help flaming her den at a later date," Gold revealed. "Mist, on the other paw, will be contributing because she is under the impression she needs to prove she can be as altruistic as Cedar." Cedar's participation had been instrumental in getting a lot of the other light wings, mostly because Gold was sure Cedar wouldn't actually tell anyone why he was really helping if a more flattering excuse came along.
"I see where you're going with this," Lily laughed. "How did you get Pearl, Pina, and Pyre?"
"Pearl was eager to do something for you anyway, Pina is coming to help because she feels it is her duty as your cavern-Dam, and I told Pyre that everyone else would be there, so if he wanted to demonstrate and help everyone on the first day, he should be there too," Gold revealed, not bothered by her leaping ahead. He was coming to expect that she would catch on quicker than he was used to.
"So we will have a finished den days before anyone else," Lily concluded. "That will be nice."
"I was originally aiming to have everyone else do it all for us, but that sort of got lost along the way," Gold admitted. "Now we will just be done a few days sooner." Which was, admittedly, still a huge deal. They would be luxuriating in their new den while everyone else was still working on theirs.
"I still like this," Lily purred. "Consider this a successful surprise. I am impressed and entertained. But is this your only plot, or will there be more later? I cannot imagine you happily putting your back into something when some cleverness could have you sleeping instead."
"Maybe with help," Gold purred. He was looking forward to… everything, really. Life was good.