CAUTION: Spoils aspects of Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities, When Nothing Remains, and Usurpation of the Darkness.
Seriously, major spoilers here.
Assuming you wish to continue, read on…
The more stressful her life became, the more Lily appreciated her time with Galen. His merciless, ear-piercing workouts were not relaxing, not even close, but they were one part of her life where she could stop thinking and focus her entire being on something physical. She was coming to value that more and more as everything else she did became more complex.
The cycle after Quartz's ominous warning, Lily had an early session with Galen, alongside Agate and Shell. She'd left before Sola woke, and before she had a chance to pass on Quartz's warning. Not that she would have that early in the cycle; Sola did her best thinking well after she woke, and this was a topic that would require her full attention, not sleepy, muddled confusion.
"Up!" Galen cried, his piercing shriek echoing throughout the empty ravine-like section of cavern between the vertical cavern and the drop into the complicated maze of tunnels Lily spent every other cycle in. Lily was a full heartbeat quicker to leap into the air than Agate or Shell, both of whom moaned piteously as they flapped. Lily was similarly exhausted, her wing muscles burning fiercely as she forced herself straight up with repeated, heavy downward beats, but her chest was too tightly clenched for any sound to escape her. She was taking this seriously, and as such she reached the requisite ten flaps before they did by a wide margin.
Then came the hard part. Rather than doing something sane, like gliding around or descending at a shallow angle, she performed a half-flap, losing some but not all of her height. There were easier and better ways to do exactly this, but she ignored them in favor of performing the maneuver Galen had taught her. Such a move was pointless, taxing, and uncomfortable because it was exactly as strenuous as propelling herself directly up, without any of the benefits. It was the most difficult possible way to descend from a height.
Her wings shuddered and protested as she forced them through the half-fulfilled movements of a single beat, then a second, and then a third. She closed her eyes and ignored Galen's exhortations, focusing all she had on the task before her. The harder she flapped, the less height she would lose. The less height she lost, the more times she could flap before her paws touched the ground. Four. Five. Six, with a shudder that blossomed into a cramp–
Her paws touched the ground. Her wings fell limp.
"That is what I want to see!" Galen shrieked. "Shell, your wings are just as big as hers. Agate, she is no older than you. Come on! All Lily has that you do not is determination!"
Shell and Agate both complained, their voices an indistinct muddle to Lily, who was not listening. Not to them.
Her wings hurt, but she was ready to go again, and again, until she could do no more. Fleeting pain now was real pain avoided later, or so the reasoning went. Lily believed it, but she preferred the motivation of doing everything in her power, and knowing that she could do no more. It wasn't the end result she craved, but rather the certainty that she had nothing more to give.
She flung her wings out, lifting them high despite her quaking shoulders, and crouched–
"Nope!" A paw batted at her forehead, and her eyes flicked open as she hesitated. Galen was right in front of her, and it was his paw that rested right between her eyes. His voice was lower now; he might be obnoxiously loud, but someone – probably his mate – had beaten enough courtesy into him that he refrained from shrieking right into her ears. "We are taking a break."
"Finally" Agate cheered. He and Shell were off to Lily's left.
"Not you!" Galen retorted. "Stop your flights, but if either of you stops moving your wings before I get back, I will make you start over! Agate, watch Shell. Shell, watch Agate. Lily, come with me." He stepped back, removing his paw, and turned to run down the length of the ravine.
Legs instead of wings? She could do that. It was a bit of a hassle to tuck her wings in while running, but they wouldn't fold properly with her shoulders struggling to hold them up at all so she did it anyway. She caught up to Galen before he got too far. He was headed toward the pit at the end of the ravine, and she assumed they would run there and back.
Instead, Galen stopped right as she finally settled her wings in properly. "Stop, breathe," he ordered. "Good push today!"
Lily circled around him before she stopped, partly out of annoyance, and partly because her legs weren't quite listening. They'd done all sorts of things before this, the latest in a long string of exercises. Galen pulling her away on her own was unusual, though.
Down the ravine, Agate and Shell milled about, waving their wings like two fledglings trying to intimidate each other. The fledglings would have then gotten into a fight, but Shell and Agate were content to verbally bat at each other instead, judging by their distant grumbling.
"If my sons had half your drive, they would be able to out-fly, out-fight, and then out-eat me by now," Galen commented, his voice still high but not excessively loud. "As it is, they can only do the last."
Lily snorted breathlessly. Agate and Shell might as well be fledglings. They didn't understand how important it was to be able to escape – to fight. To be able, whatever the need might be. They might never understand.
"I appreciate you giving them something to strive for," he continued. "Even if it is done by outpacing them. Nothing like a little friendly humiliation!"
Nothing like it, because it didn't exist. Lily suspected neither Agate nor Shell cared as much as Galen hoped. If they did they would be conspiring to beat or otherwise surpass her, not posturing at each other.
"But," Galen continued, "there are limits to what your body can take. Agate, Shell? They do not reach those limits. You will need to take care not to surpass them and hurt yourself."
That was exactly the last thing Lily wanted to hear. "You stopped, me," she panted.
"This time," Galen agreed. "Next time, I might not notice."
"I will be careful." What else could she do? It was stupid for her to think anything in her life could be simple.
And thinking of simple things… "Galen. I have a question for you and your mate." She chose not to ask back at Howl's sending-off ceremony, but there was little to be gained in procrastinating now. Her plan for escaping the alpha's chambers relied on Galen and Emera giving permission for something they didn't yet know she wanted.
"Oh?" Galen stepped to the side and flicked his wings out, holding them perpendicular to the ground. "Shell, Agate!" he shrieked. "Wings up!"
Both of his sons turned to glare at him before sulkily copying his stance.
"That should hold them for a few more moments," Galen remarked. "What do you need?"
She should have put more effort into socializing with Galen and Emera outside of her exercise; he leapt right to assuming that she needed something, and he wasn't wrong. Nothing for it but to carry on. "I am still trying to find somewhere to stay outside of the alpha's cavern. Howl's cave was not for me, but I need to go somewhere. When Agate or Shell move out–"
"It will be Agate," Galen interjected. "He claims he will have a mate within a hundred cycles. Posie has not been around recently, but then, he would not want to take her home to sit around with his Sire and Dam," he reasoned. His voice had dropped to a pitch that was almost normal as he ruminated. "I have not seen much of Tellur or Braun either, come to think of it."
One more thing to worry about. Agate was determined to fly headlong into exactly the mistakes Lily had attempted to warn him off of. Lily grumbled worriedly… But she didn't share her thoughts, or her superior insight into Agate's friendships. His extremely low chances of landing Posie might affect who got Howl's cavern if Galen was aware of the situation, and on a purely selfish level Lily was much more willing to share a small sleeping space with Shell, the low-energy, low-drama brother.
She eyed Shell, as he and Agate struggled to keep their wings extended. Personal experience said she could not rely on their shared roots to prevent him from desiring her, but his complete lack of interest in anything beyond sleeping or spiting Agate made him safe enough. Safer than sleeping within eyeshot of an enigmatic, unmated alpha. Galen and Emera were good people, and they didn't let their sons get away with too much.
"When he moves out, you will have an open space," she said. "I know it's a big imposition, but I was hoping you –"
"Oh," Galen said. "Yes, Sola mentioned this last cycle."
"She what?" Lily asked. When? How? Why?
"Emera was out fishing, Sola fished with her and brought the possibility up," Galen related, his tone piercing but rather cheery. "Emera has been fretting about her hatchlings leaving her. We did not expect them to move into their own spaces until they took mates, which seemed – still seems – to be far off." They hadn't expected Howl and his mate to die and give them first choice of an open space. When he continued, it was in a much more sober tone. "I did not think you would want to move into such a small space, given where you live now, but Sola was sure."
It was Sola who would really be affected by the change in living spaces, not Lily. She would have to go back to her little hole in the wall of a crowded tunnel. But she had jumped in and brought the idea to Emera at the first opportunity.
Sola was a very good friend. Or she had her own reasons for wanting to leave the alpha's chamber.
"If I am welcome, I would greatly appreciate it," Lily said simply. Neither of them had brought up Shell's opinion on her taking Agate's spot. It wasn't truly his decision to make. He probably would not mind… But she would bring it up with him soon, to smooth over any problems before it actually happened.
"Consider it done, then," Galen chuffed. "You will have to wait until Agate leaves, of course, but he has said he will be going as soon as Sulfa declares the cave ready."
"Does she know he's the one who will get it?" Lily asked, suddenly worried. Agate held a grudge against Sulfa, and it was possible Sulfa knew that. It might be mutual. Having her in charge of something Agate wanted, that Lily also wanted, was a bad situation.
"I do not think that matters," Galen remarked. "It will take as long as it takes, and no one can change that. He is counting down the cycles."
"How long will it take?" Lily asked.
Out in the ravine, Agate let his wings droop.
"Keep them up, this is your break but you do not get to slack off!" Galen shrieked.
Agate turned to face his Sire, ears back, and dramatically rolled his eyes while pulling his wings in.
"Looks like break time is over," Galen said ominously. "How long? Thirty cycles, fifty maybe. Come on, back to work!" He leaped forward, breaking into a run. Agate, amusingly enough, immediately hiked his wings up again, but it was too late. Galen was on the move, and when he got back they would go back to real exercise.
Lily pulled herself into a slower run, experimentally flicking her wings out to test the shake in her shoulders. It was still there, but less severe. They would hold until the end of the workout.
Such was her situation with where she would live. Not great. Not terrible. Probably good enough. The timespan Galen gave was firmly middling, neither fast enough for her liking nor intolerably slow. There was still time for something to go terribly wrong, but not so much time that she couldn't wait it out and hope nothing happened.
To her, or to Sola.
O-O-O-O-O
Telling Sola about Quartz's warning, framed as an anonymous source, was easy. They met to fish in the middle of the cycle, after Lily had recovered from her time with Galen. Flying out into the empty air, away from prying ears… It was as simple as explaining the situation. Sola was unsurprised. She also didn't seem all that offended on Rose's behalf, though Lily had left that alone. It didn't matter how vehemently Sola opposed Rose being forced to take a mate. She only needed to know so that she could make her position with Rose, and his lack of a chance, clear before he thought to ask her.
Telling Rose? Much more difficult, because the news had to be immediately followed by her tactfully ensuring that he knew not to even think of her that way, without raising his suspicions too much by being too vehement about it. Forewarned was forearmed, after all. He needed to be warned in such a way that ensured he thought twice about any plan that might involve her, without giving him too much indication of the lengths she would be willing to go to avoid another Claw. It would be for the best if he underestimated her.
Rose was annoying to catch outside of the beginning and end of each cycle, so she returned early to the alpha's chamber and waited there. Sola had agreed to come back late, to give Lily time to break the news, though she had to be convinced that was what Lily wanted, instead of Sola's presence as moral support.
There was no moral support to be had in the other at-risk female being there to witness her preemptively rejecting Rose. Only temptation, and thus possibly danger.
Her conversation with Sola practically flew by in comparison to the slow, trudging end to the cycle that Lily sat through, alone atop the red crystal floor. At one point, she even went back out to speak to the guards, stepping through the opening to turn around and look at them from the tunnel proper. "When do you two switch out for the end of the cycle?" she asked the friendlier male.
He shrugged his wing shoulders. "When our replacements arrive," he told her. "Some nights early on, some late. It is hard for them to be exact."
"These are the same light wings who guard during the middle of the cycle?" It was a peculiar rotation, one that synced up rather well with her own schedule, in that she barely knew one set of guards while seeing the other set every time she passed their post.
"Yes," he answered. "We rotate twice a cycle. It is rather boring standing here for long stretches, at some point even the most attentive light wing would falter or miss something obvious if they had to watch for half a cycle in a single unbroken stretch." He didn't seem to mind her rather pointless questions. She supposed he had just admitted that he was bored.
"When do you sleep?" she asked. "I can't imagine you sleep all of the time you are not standing here."
The other guard let out a low growl. "What is your reason for asking?" he demanded. "This is not something you need to know."
"She is just curious," the friendly guard retorted, before Lily could answer. "It is not as if she needs to know so she can sneak past us."
"I am curious," Lily agreed with a grateful purr. "Also, these are things I feel I should already know."
"Most light wings do not know the ins and outs of guarding the alpha's chambers, but that is only because they do not care to," the friendly guard assured her. "It is not a secret, what we do. Our mates – well, his mate, and the mates of the other two," he amended, tossing his head in his fellow guard's direction, "live on the same schedule as us. Sleep in the latest part of the cycle, awake for the rest. You grow accustomed to always being a little drowsy. They get a lot done, or so I hear."
"You only hear about my mate's activities because she cannot resist poking her nose in your life," the other guard remarked. "You should have taken her sister as a mate. Then she would have a real excuse to bother you."
"I am not talking about this with you," the friendly guard shot back. "Or her. No matter how often she brings it up." He tossed his head and huffed as he addressed Lily once more. "I only learned these things when I started as a guard here, and that was not so long ago."
"What did you do before this?" She knew so little about the guards, even the one that she'd put some effort into swaying to her side as a precaution. She should have done this long ago… But she never hung around Rose's territory, and when she did she was often preoccupied.
There was just so much to do down beneath the ground. In the valley, her days were long and empty unless she actively chose to seek out things to do, causes to work toward. She busied herself with very important tasks, but they were all unnecessary so long as she was content to lay on a beach while everyone she loved suffered.
Here, being breathlessly busy was the default that everyone fell into, not something she imposed upon herself. She rushed to catch up with the rest of the pack, not to get ahead of them, and the consequence was an ever-present threat of ambiguous failure or ignorance.
It was a different feeling, though of late the stress was becoming rather familiar.
"What did I do before?" the friendly male asked. "Guard other places, of course! I can stand in one spot and do nothing for ages. It is a natural talent. I like this position because it cuts down on flight time from guarding to sleeping. Also, now that you are here, I can pass the time by listening to you all talk."
Lily stared at him.
"Do not look at me like that, we all know that your voices echo," he continued, steadfast in the face of her suddenly silent disapproval. "I do not gossip. Unless it involves a threat to the alpha's safety, I just listen to ensure I do not miss anything happening inside that would need intervention. Is it not better that I enjoy the listening in its own right, since as a guard I must do it regardless?"
Was it acceptable, that someone friendly with her was constantly keeping a wary ear on her, in the interest of stopping conflict? Perhaps she did appreciate that.
"We are here to protect the alpha, not eavesdrop," the other guard growled.
And there was the alternative. Uncaring, about the topics of conversation and about her well-being. "I hope we are entertaining to listen to," she said.
"I am not gossiping," the friendly guard said seriously. "Not even with you."
Roughly a third of the things he could gossip about would involve her, so in theory she appreciated the discretion. But another third would be about Rose, and she would love to have an always-listening spy ready to warn her if he began plotting. Then again, maybe she would get a warning if anything that bad was overheard…
Something to think about.
"You cannot even hear the light wing coming up the tunnel while you are busy talking," the other guard remarked. "Do less of that. We are not here to talk."
"Is there someone coming?" The friendly guard huffed a sigh. "You are right. Sorry Lily, but duty calls!" He winked at her and proceeded to dramatically straighten up. Seeing as neither of the guards had moved from their post to begin with, the effect was minimal at best. Lily obligingly moved back into the alpha's chambers to clear the way.
She had not, over the course of the conversation, forgotten the reason she was waiting around. When Rose walked in a few moments later, she pounced on the opportunity to get this over with, though she stepped around the perimeter of the chamber so as to avoid him getting between her and the exit. Just in case. "Rose, there is something you need to know."
"Hmm?" Rose looked weary, and his ears were drooping. "Is it very important, Lily? Because this has not been an easy cycle, and if it is exceptionally bad news I would appreciate it if you…" He shook his head and looked directly at her. "Tell me anyway," he concluded with a low sigh.
Hopefully he was being sincere, because she was going to do exactly that. "I know for a fact that your advisors are going to start pushing, hard, for you to take a mate as soon as possible."
Rose growled, low in his chest. "This again," he grumbled.
"There is talk of threatening you with being exiled for not having an heir," Lily added.
Rose's growl tapered off. He went from tired and frustrated to something much more anxious in a matter of moments. He straightened up, though his tail and ears still drooped, and spoke with much more urgency. "You are certain?"
"As certain as I can be." She'd heard it from the advisor least likely to care about such things.
"A changing of ruling roots," Rose said, "has not happened in so long that I did not know it was possible until my Sire told me. They have never said anything about such a thing."
"They're tired of waiting," Lily remarked.
"I am tired–" Rose cut off. Looked away from her, toward the opening in the wall, and the tunnel beyond. "Never mind." He turned back to her, and rolled his wing shoulders. "Thank you, Lily. Was that all?"
"No." Here it was. She squared herself, bent her legs ever so slightly, and looked Rose in the eye. "You do know that I have absolutely no interest in you as a potential mate, right?"
Rose blinked. His pupils, halfway to slits, narrowed further. "In me? Yes. I know this. It is obvious."
If only she could trust him at his word. But it was also obvious, to her at least, that her own Sire wouldn't have any interest in her. "Say it, please."
"That I know you have no interest in me? I just have." Rose glanced down at the floor, just for a moment, before slumping a little and looking back up. "The feeling is mutual. I hope you do not take that as an insult. It has nothing to do with how you look, or your personality, you are beautiful–"
"If I thought not being interested in someone was an insult, I would have apologized for saying it, so you do not have to reassure me," Lily interrupted. Her scales itched at that word. Possibly innocent, possibly an indictment of a deeper urge beyond the cover of feigned disinterest. No way of knowing.
Why could she never find proof one way or another? Why was it so hard to reveal him as another breed of monster, or innocent beyond doubt?
"Good." Rose closed his eyes for a moment. "I am… not happy about what my advisors are planning. But thank you for bringing this to me. It would have ruined another cycle if I was unaware until they deigned to inform me."
"What will you do?" Lily asked, her voice flat.
"What will I do?" Rose murmured. "I need to sleep on that. I will see you next cycle, Lily. Please tell Sola that I have gone to sleep early." He retreated to his side-chamber with a decidedly despondent gait, dragging his tail across the crystal floor.
So much for establishing beyond a doubt that there would never be anything between them. He was already in a bad mood before she said a word, and he took her twin revelations with little more than a sigh. It was impossible to figure out what he was thinking when his mood didn't change at all!
At least now there would be no doubt if he did do something. He couldn't claim ignorance, or that he had misinterpreted her. She'd said it loud and clear, and he had repeated it back to her.
He could not be a sly brute, now. Only an honest one. If he chose to do anything. If, if, if!
Lily was thankful she was going to work with Quartz next cycle. Helping run a war was easier and more straightforward than navigating her own life. She was more useful there, too.
O-O-O-O-O
Quartz really needed to get more helpers he trusted. Lily was set to have a very busy cycle, flying from place to place within the territory the Twisted Corridor pack controlled, all because there was only one of her and Quartz wanted a reliable pair of eyes on three different places.
She didn't disagree that a second opinion was necessary. She was there when he'd received the two reports, from different scouts on different cycles, and she heard the discrepancies too. On one side of a tunnel, a scout reported a natural cave-in. On the other side of the same tunnel a cycle later, another scout reported an obviously planned cave-in. The tunnel led to nowhere of importance on either side, and was a straight shot from one end to the other.
If one side collapsed naturally, why collapse the other end? If both were intentional, why do both sides? Why render the tunnel impassible at all, if it was so unimportant? And why did the guard post near the natural cave-in not notice when it happened? Such a shifting of the ground was unlikely to have happened silently.
Lily was to check both sides of the tunnel and check in with the guards at that post, all in the same cycle. She was beginning to remember her way around certain parts of the territory her new pack laid claim to, enough that she had foregone a guide, but it would have been much simpler to send two or three trusted light wings out to check the different places at the same time. Especially the two ends of the tunnel; the next most direct route from one side to the other would take up half the cycle.
She had chosen to go check the far end of the tunnel first, so she could get the longest part of her journey out of the way first, and spend the rest of the cycle working her way back with the other two, closer locations. So far the flight was painstaking but not particularly interesting. She was on alert, just in case, but she hadn't seen a single living thing since leaving Quartz behind in the maze of tunnels.
She hadn't seen any water, either, and her mouth was as dry as the stone surrounding her. This was expected; water being painfully scarce was part of why the large, well-lit and spacious caves she was flying through weren't highly prized. Nothing could live or grow in such a bone-dry place.
It was possible for her to fly all the way to the far end of the tunnel, do her work there, and then fly back through the dry caves without dying of thirst. It would take less than a single cycle, after all. She would be miserable but alive. But she didn't have to. There was a single, slowly-refreshing pool of clean water along the route she was taking, something created in times long past by a huge shaking of the ground that formed long-running cracks too small for anything but liquid to seep through.
The idea of the earth shaking was new and potentially terrifying, if it wasn't so incredibly rare. The event had made such an impression on long-gone generations of light wings that the tale survived, despite no one alive remembering it. In theory such a calamity could also collapse tunnels and entire caves, open up new spaces, or otherwise remake the world around her in a single, uncaring, mindless disaster.
If it ever happened again. Lily was inclined to assume that it would not. What was the point of thinking it might happen at any moment? It could, but there was no way to prepare for such a thing beyond fleeing the underground entirely.
Right now, she was thankful for the chance to slake her thirst. The dry cave she was currently flying through came to a gradual end up ahead, the gap between ceiling and floor narrowing too much for flight, and then beyond that too much for any light wing to squeeze through. There was a tunnel bored into the left wall a winglength above the ground, through which she could continue toward the cave-in, but just before the floor and ceiling closed in too much for her to continue would be the pool.
Lily landed by the tunnel and then continued past it. She would double back and continue her trip after she drank her fill. As she moved forward she was uncomfortably aware of the ceiling sloping down toward her head, flat and unyielding. A scattered outcrop of gray – an odd color, that – crystals blocked her view, spanning the rapidly shrinking gap across most of the cavern's width.
Lily walked up to the crystals and sidled in between two, squeezing herself into an opening only a little bigger than she herself would be if she pulled her wings in and sat on her hind legs. Her ears would brush the ceiling there.
Beyond the crystal chokepoint, the cave continued to shrink in on itself. All of the dull gray light came from behind her as she stepped forward, as there were no more crystals. The pool of water rested where the floor sloped down at the far side of the cave, wide and shallow. The ground was clear, and though a few dust motes floated in the gray light, mostly clean.
Lily looked around, visually checking the area, but there wasn't much space for an enemy to occupy, and none whatsoever for an enemy to hide in. She'd come through the only entrance or exit. A stink-spine could perhaps hide where the ceiling was too low for her to fit into, but they would need to be able to breathe water to do so, seeing as the pond met the ceiling only a few wing-lengths out from where she stood.
Secure in the knowledge that she was alone, Lily strolled to where the wall met the side of the pond, a full five paces from the entrance, and put her tail to solid stone as she warily leaned down to drink. She thought she was safe, and she was still camouflaged, but it would be foolish to have her back to the only way in.
The pond being so shallow made drinking her fill a long, boring process. She had to lap at it with her tongue, instead of sticking her head in. Her thoughts wandered as she worked at the wet stone. She hoped that doing what amounted to licking stone would not make her tongue sore. She wondered how many light wings it would take to drain such a shallow pool. She wondered where the water came from, and how far it trickled in the dark to reach this place. The tiny sounds of water droplets splashing was all that could be heard. Little ripples faded into the surface of the water, spreading in unbroken waves before disappearing.
Lily was there for some time. Bit by bit, she quenched her thirst. As she drank, though, a disquieting feeling crept over her. It was subtle, so subtle. A trick of the mind, perhaps. She was not used to staying in one place, alone, outside of protected territory. She was looking right at the only opening anyone, even a stink-spine, could use to approach her. She saw nothing, not even the slight shimmer of another light wing creeping in.
And yet, she felt that she was not alone. That she was being watched. That she was looking right at the one watching her.
Lily didn't betray possibly delusional suspicion. She continued to drink, her gaze casually drifting over the open bit of rocky ground between herself and the gap between crystals. There was nothing there.
Not even the individual motes of dust that she had seen coming in. Some still hung in the air, illuminated by the gray light of the crystals, but the few little specks remaining were all right in front of her. There were none in the area directly in front of the opening.
A sort of terrified fascination overtook her then, as she stared directly at an acid-spitter she could not see. This was not like light wing camouflage. Looking directly at a camouflaged light wing in close quarters, in good light… she would be able to see telltale signs. Fuzzing near the ground, a minor blur as they breathed and their chest moved, a slight discoloration to the ground behind them. Nothing that would give a light wing away to someone unaware of their presence or in less than ideal conditions, but there were tells.
If not for the dust being displaced, she would be willing to call her certainty a product of an overactive imagination. If the acid-spitter wanted her dead, she would have died before she knew anything was amiss. If she tried to leave now, they might kill her anyway. Or they might back up and let her go, under the assumption that she never knew they were there.
She could try and talk to them. Talking opened up a multitude of ways out of this situation, if acknowledging their presence did not mean death. She didn't know what their motivation was for hiding their presence. They definitely knew she was here; her camouflage was worthless seeing as she was actively drinking from the pool. Water did not leap up into the air of its own accord.
They might just be here to drink from the pool, like her. But, having arrived second, they knew they would be instantly noticed if they disturbed the water.
This didn't have to become a fight. Which was good; Lily had seen what acid-spitters could do to light wings like her. Several of the light wings who lingered by the warm pools were direct examples of what winning a battle with an acid-spitter could do to her.
Also, and she wished she had asked this before when she had the chance… Which was faster? Building up and firing a shot, or spitting acid?
This couldn't come to a fight. She was not going to die or be horribly crippled here.
Lily hummed to herself, a low, innocent sound. She had not been killed yet. There had to be some hesitance there, or a lack of killing intent. "This is taking forever," she grumbled, to all appearances speaking to herself. "Stupid water."
She stood from her crouch at the edge of the glorified puddle, slowly and casually straightening up. "Time to go," she rumbled.
It was impossible to say whether the acid-spitter had moved. The lack of dust particles could be a lingering remnant of its presence, or an active indicator. Lily chose to carefully, casually, step forward. In order to keep up the ruse she had to keep moving, up to, then through the empty space.
She felt nothing. No acidic death, and no scaly mass. Perhaps there was never an acid-spitter at all. It really could have been her imagination.
She stepped between the crystals, walked out into the slightly more open cave beyond, and walked away. But only a few steps, before stopping and listening.
Behind her, she heard the nearly imperceptible pitter-patter of droplets of water falling onto a calm pool.
She chose to leave while she had the chance, but even still she would carry the unshakeable feeling of being watched throughout the rest of the cycle.
O-O-O-O-O
Lily's plan, the cycle after her stressful near-death experience, was to relax. Do something light and easy. She didn't want to waste a whole cycle lying around somewhere, but that was as far as her ambitions stretched. She needed to get to know Shell a little better, and she hadn't expected that to involve any sort of physical effort. Emotional, maybe, to drag some personality out of his sleepy self, but not physical.
She didn't consider what they were currently doing a waste of time because Shell was there, but if she drifted off into a doze she would be annoyed with herself when she woke up. "Is this where you go when your Sire kicks you out of the cave?" she asked. Her voice was slightly muffled by the wing she'd hiked up to cover her head, but the alternative was flinching every time a light wing flew overhead.
"No, he knows this place," Shell said lazily. She supposed that made sense; Galen, of course, knew the underground lake. That Shell had staked out a spot off to the far left of the entrance, out of the main rush of arriving and departing light wings, made it no less obvious. He was sprawled out on his back, wings splayed out to claim a large swathe of bare rock a few paces from the water. If Galen wanted to find them, this was probably the very first place he would look.
"Not the most peaceful spot, either," Lily observed.
"Cover your ears and close your eyes, or stop caring," Shell opined. "Same thing."
"You're very easy-going, aren't you?" That was the kind interpretation of his apathy, anyway. Most traits could be considered positive or negative depending on how far the individual displaying them took things. Stubborn or determined. Thorough or obsessive. Laid back or apathetic.
"Easy to be," was the lackadaisical response. "Boring caves. Boring exercise. Bothersome brother. We would bite each other to death if I was like him. So I am not. Poke me, I ignore you. Claw my tail… maybe I kick you off the ledge and then ignore you."
She had poked her claws into his tailfins, hadn't she? To get him moving. "Your Sire was going to shriek all cycle, I had other things to do."
"I did not," Shell exhaled. "But this is not so bad. Do you snore?"
"No?" She did not think so. Maybe she could ask the friendly guard. He would know.
"You will do," he rumbled. "Do not kick me, do not prod me into doing things, we will get along."
As much as it was possible to get along with a rock who breathed, perhaps. It wasn't that he couldn't behave like a normal light wing, he matched Agate in every exercise Galen forced them to perform. Much like a rock on flat ground, though, he wouldn't start rolling on his own. Someone needed to pick him up and push him, and they had to keep doing it regularly for as long as they wanted him to keep moving.
She had never met a light wing quite like Shell. It didn't sit right with her. "Is that all?" she pondered. "What do you like to do?"
"Sleep," he said.
"Besides sleep."
"Find places to sleep undisturbed."
"Things that do not involve sleep."
"Sit around."
"How are you not three times my weight?"
"Do you only ever do the things you like to do?"
"No."
"There you go."
Lily stared at the inside of her wing for a little while. Outside the confines of her wing, light wings talked, laughed, and beat their wings against the air, coming and going. A group of females tittered about something, loudly enough that the sound stood out.
"I thought of something," Shell said.
"What?" Lily asked.
"If you natter on about mates and mating and finding a mate, you cannot take Agate's spot."
"I would not want to live with me if I was that type." Also, even if she was the type, talking to Shell about that sounded as interactive as lecturing a boulder on the subject.
"Good. Agate will not shut up about Posie. I cannot wait for him to move out." The tittering grew louder, then was abruptly hushed. Lily's ears twitched, despite herself. She kept her wing firmly over her head, though. Like a fledgling, innocently believing that so long as she could not see something, it could not see or in this case annoy her.
"What about you?" Lily asked. "Did you want Howl's cave?"
"I would not be allowed to keep it," Shell reasoned, sounding slightly more awake. "So why bother? Maybe if a female offered to stay with me in exchange for living in the cave… That might have worked. Would not happen, though. She would expect me to do things." From any other male Lily would have expected that last statement to be delivered laden with innuendo and wistful anticipation. From Shell, though, it was delivered with a straight, uncomplicated dread. Doing things with a kind-of-mate, to him, meant being dragged out fishing, or scouting, or otherwise exerting himself.
In some ways he was more mature than Agate, but in others he was far more of a fledgling. Though that did not quite fit either.
"How about a female who would happily have a mate who does nothing all cycle?" she asked, probing his interests. She wasn't going to get much of a chance to do so beyond the one question, because if she pushed or even continued on the topic for too long he would probably complain that she had lied to him.
Shell rumbled quietly, a low vocalization that rose from his prone form and drifted over to Lily as he thought. "Kind of boring."
That would be his fault.
"She would bring me fish whenever I wanted. Sire would not be allowed into the cave. I would get hugely fat."
Very true.
"But she would mate with me."
This dream – possibly nightmare – female would do that, yes. Agate sounded mildly interested, now. So it was only the prospect of having to exert himself that made him dislike the idea of a mate, not the actual mating. That was her half-formed question answered.
"She would have to be very impressive and useful, for the pack to tolerate me doing nothing."
Working her tailfins off all day while Shell grew moss on his back.
"Which would mean the alpha would let her have eggs. Which would mean I would have hatchlings. I would not get to sleep for thousands of cycles."
Lily barked out a laugh.
"No," Shell concluded. "That also sounds terrible. There is such a thing as too perfect. Also, it sounds boring."
It was odd, the way he complained of boredom while actively seeking out every opportunity to do nothing. "She does not exist, anyway."
"Good. I would not want to tend to an unmoving lump of a mate. Why should she?" Shell sighed. "Am I supposed to ask you something, now?"
"It would be nice," Lily said.
"How long is this stupid fuss over the alpha going to go on?"
She wasn't prepared for that question.
"I thought you would know. You live with him. Agate keeps whining about all the females trying to cozy up with Sulfa, or Gilla, or Obsidian. Posie is doing it too, but he whines about them all."
Ugh. Posie. Between her firing on Agate and her stupid desire for an older male she'd never properly spoken too, Lily was inclined to forget about her. Agate was an idiot too, but he was family and he at least was not lusting after Rose. Word of females trying to get in with various advisors was slightly more palatable. The news that Rose was going to be forced to take a mate had never been officially announced, but she expected the various advisors sounding out their candidates had spread the word. "They are doing that in the hopes that Rose will be told to take one of them as a mate."
"Will it be over quickly?" Shell asked.
"Picking an alpha's first mate is not something that gets done quickly," she reasoned. "They all have something to gain from choosing the female he ends up with. They will squabble over whose pick wins."
"First mate?" Shell rumbled.
"Mate," Lily corrected. They did not do that here. Yet.
"Agate cannot even get one mate," Shell chuffed. "If having more than one was an option, he would die of old age still trying."
"What is his strategy for Posie?" Lily asked.
"He told Sire he wanted to fight for Quartz. Sire said he could not do that. Then he asked to be in the firing lines. Sire said he could, if they accepted him. He came back very angry that cycle. Then he asked if he could be a scout. Sire said maybe. But Tellur is scouting now, so that will not be enough."
Tellur was scouting? Not on the cycles Lily worked with Quartz. Some scouts did do every other cycle though, so it was entirely possible they would never see each other under normal circumstances. He'd not been there on the cycles she came in when she was not meant to, though.
"So much effort for a female who does not like him anymore," Shell grumbled.
He would be much better off accepting that and trying to repair the burning tatters of their friendship, but Lily knew Agate would ignore her if she told him that. Thankfully, it seemed like the light wings around him were effectively keeping him from doing anything too dangerous in his misguided quest.
"Do you have any friends, Shell?"
"Do you have any friends, Lily?" Shell repeated in a monotone. "That are not in your roots somewhere," he amended.
Did she?
No, not really.
She shouldn't have asked, seeing as she was pretty sure Shell was in the same position. It wasn't a nice feeling, even if the lack was partially self-inflicted. She had too much to do to be seeking out more people to befriend. Shell had too little motivation. They had ended up in the same place, though.
"I am enjoying having many family members to get to know," she lied. It was a lie, because if it were true she'd be doing more. More with Linara. More with Jet and Onyx. More with the distant relatives Peat had mentioned, that she'd never followed up on. She enjoyed having family, but not so much that she sought them out. Galen, Sola, Agate, even Shell now… She had other reasons for getting to know each and every one of them. They were close, they were convenient.
"Maybe we should stop talking," Lily said, her voice hollow.
"Friends are a lot of effort," Shell remarked.
So much effort that she'd abandoned one to Claw.
Lily tucked her head further under her wing, pressed down on her ears, and tried to block the world out.
Sadly, the things bothering her were all internal. She couldn't block out her own thoughts.
O-O-O-O-O
The guards were speaking to someone, out in the corridor.
Lily rolled over onto her other side and tried to recapture the sleep she had been pulled from. It was too early to wake up.
Then someone stepped into the chamber.
Lily surprised herself with how quickly she whirled around, pushing up and spinning in place, her teeth sliding out at the end of the single, fluid motion as she inhaled, clenching her chest to build up a blast at the back of her throat. There was no conscious thought involved; she wasn't awake enough for that. Actually looking at the intruder was secondary to responding to the intrusion, something she only did after the fact, once they had stilled.
An older female light wing stood there, eyes wide as she froze, her tail still in the corridor. She had a silver glint that reflected shiny red in the red light of the crystal floor, and her eyes were a washed-out orange, her pupils rapidly shrinking slits as the danger she'd stepped into really sank in.
Sola was still asleep on the floor, off to one side. Rose was still in his side chamber, presumably also still asleep. If Lily had been sleeping as soundly as she would have liked, she wouldn't have woken up at all.
This had never happened before. Her thoughts flew frantically through her head in between heartbeats, racing at top speed. There were three, and only three, light wings allowed into Rose's chambers. Rose himself, Lily, and Sola. The moment Lily and Sola moved out, that number would go back down to one. If Rose took a mate before that happened, it might briefly reach the lofty height of four, and some cycle far in the future it could surpass that, one way or another. Or it could drop back down again. This was something Lily had come to take for granted. It didn't make her feel safe, per se, but it did strictly limit what she worried about. Not even the guards came in.
This female couldn't be here legitimately. That wasn't how it worked.
Lily exhaled, loosing her throat enough that the glow emanating from her mouth lessened, but did not entirely disappear. Thanks to Sola's breath exercises she knew well how long she could hold a shot. A weapon, ready to do harm in an instant, if her claws and teeth weren't enough. All were on display.
It was initially an unconscious reaction, but Lily was willing to continue from the position of power her defensive first instinct had granted her. She tilted her head, ever so slightly, and saw the other female flinch. Not expecting to be caught, or not expecting such a potentially violent response if she was caught?
Lily knew that she could call out. Wake Sola, wake Rose, draw attention to herself and the intruder. But the guards were out there too, and they'd let this female through. She wasn't camouflaged and Lily had heard low voices in the moments before the intrusion.
"Easy," the female hissed breathlessly, her voice trembling.
The guards couldn't be trusted. If she called attention to the conflict, they might take the intruder's side. So might Rose, for that matter. Sola would be groggy and of little help. Lily was on her own.
She had no idea what she was supposed to do in a situation like this. She couldn't even force the intruder to leave, because the only exit had her passing by the very guards she had subverted.
"Calm… down," the female continued. "I am no threat, you do not need your fire. I will just," she shifted her back paws, "walk back–"
Lily growled. The female froze once more, one of her paws held up. She truly believed she was in real, unavoidable danger… and her response was to try and run away. She definitely wasn't expecting a fight. That did not preclude any number of bad intentions, though, if she expected to have free reign in a cavern with three sleeping light wings.
"This was a mistake," the female said slowly. "I understand that."
It most certainly was.
"I am Gilla," the now named female continued, in the same placating, uneven tone. "One of the alpha's advisors. I manage the plants? We have not met."
Was one of Rose's advisors named Gilla? Lily only knew the four; Sulfa, Obsidian, Peat, and Quartz. She remembered there being five overall… That name did sound familiar.
Not that Gilla's identity would get her out of this. She still had no legitimate reason to sneak in. Peat and Obsidian were not allowed free passage into Rose's chambers, so neither was Gilla.
"I am here to see Rose," Gilla said.
Not enough. Not believable either. Lily narrowed her eyes.
"If you have a prior claim I can respect that." Gilla flicked her tail back and forth once, before stilling again. "I had not heard of it."
That, more than anything else, put Lily in an immediate quandary. She wanted to deny it, but to do so would involve letting her fire die down while she spoke. Probably not a real danger, Gilla was sufficiently cowed, but still a risk…
Lily had no evidence that Gilla was safe. She also had no proof that Gilla meant her or Sola harm, beyond possible motives she could ascribe to any unmated female in the pack, and by extension anyone else said females could convince to help them. In other words, while it was possible Gilla had come to do something terrible to one of them as they slept, it wasn't particularly likely. Still possible, though.
Lily let her fire die down. Her teeth and claws would have to suffice if Gilla attacked her. "What are you doing here?" she demanded in a low hiss.
"I had to see Rose," Gilla said, even less convincingly this time. One vague assertion was chance, but twice over was deliberate evasion.
"I do not believe you," Lily growled.
"I had to see if he had reconsidered my offer," Gilla elaborated. "It was a while ago. Much like now, he was being pressured to take a mate. I was interested. He turned me down."
Her story was getting less flattering and more believable with each new detail, and Lily suspected that she knew what Gilla really intended. Words could wait until morning. More physical persuasion was best done in private, when no one else was awake to notice.
"See him?" Lily rumbled, glaring at Gilla. "Walk up to him. Scent him. Touch him while he sleeps? Was that the plan? Wake him with some, persuasion?" Like Claw would. Or like one of his more enthusiastic mates might do for him, if he required it of them.
Damningly, Gilla nodded. "Something like that," she admitted. "But if you have his attention, keep it. I will not muscle in on a prior claim. There is nothing between he and I yet."
Lily felt sick. Sick for herself and sick on Rose's behalf, as unusual as that was. "Get out."
"I will," Gilla agreed. "I am sorry."
"You will be." She flicked her ears. "I barely knew you existed." Cause and effect were starting to line up, building back from this moment to the past. Gilla had already given her enough to work from, to connect the fragments into one cohesive whole.
"I am not around much," Gilla agreed, sounding vaguely confused.
"I'd guess that started right after Rose, 'turned you down', as you put it," Lily said. Her voice was still low – Sola was still sound asleep, and she wanted to keep it that way – but she managed to inject a mocking lilt all the same.
"The plants always need tending," Gilla demurred, but her gaze had grown sharp, shifting from confused to resentful. Lily had struck a sore spot she had only guessed might exist.
What would Rose do, if one of his advisors overstepped but he didn't feel he had the power to be rid of them? Now she knew. "Some plants only flourish when the pests are kept away from them." Lily stepped forward.
"I see him every cycle like any other advisor," Gilla hissed.
"I could never keep all the crawling-worms off of the flowers, either." She'd actually never tried, not really caring about flowers that served no purpose, but thanks to Pyre she knew enough about them to translate her true meaning correctly, down to the right type of pest. "But you can be sure I squashed them whenever I had a chance. Out."
Gilla moved, retreating backwards through the exit. Lily followed her out, keeping a consistent distance between them, until she reached the exit herself. She stepped through, and watched impassively as Gilla turned around and fled. To either side of her, two male light wings shifted uncomfortably.
Not the guards she knew. It was too late at night for them to be around. These were the ones Lily almost never saw. She looked to one side, and then the other.
They both avoided her gaze.
They wouldn't be guards for much longer. She left them to worry about the consequences of their mistake, and went back into the chamber to check on Sola. Unless she was a truly masterful faker, she was still sound asleep.
For a moment Lily considered checking on Rose, but she decided against it. She would rather assume he was as oblivious as Sola on the matter. If he wasn't, if he was awake now… He could wait until tomorrow to be told what he already knew.
O-O-O-O-O
"Gilla was here while you both slept," Lily announced, some time later. She had waited until Rose was coming out to go about his day, seeing as that was the only time she could engage him in conversation without poking her head into his side-chamber or calling out to him. Sola was more or less awake by then too, which was convenient.
"Gilla?" Rose nearly face-planted on his way out of the chamber, tripping over his own front paws in his haste to check every corner of the roughly circular chamber for lurking light wings. "How – when? Here?"
"Gilla is one of your advisors, right?" Sola asked Rose. "I know her. She is very enthusiastic about plants. Why was she here?" She, on the other paw, didn't know enough to be surprised or alarmed. Her normal response only further exposed how Rose felt about Gilla, by contrast.
Rose's lips twitched up into a subtle grimace, showing off his teeth. "She is not allowed here," he growled. "Lily," he said, "she was stopped by the guards, correct?"
"No," Lily growled back. In this, it seemed they were of like mind. "I caught her walking in. Made her leave."
Rose snarled and stormed out of the cavern, right past the morning guards.
"What was that about?" Sola demanded.
"I know little more than you," Lily lied. "But I know she is not supposed to come in here, and I know the guards let her in anyway. Perhaps only she and Rose know more than that." It wasn't a public spectacle, then. It wouldn't be. Rose stood on thin ice in regards to taking a mate. If he actively rejected someone, how would that affect his position? Gilla was also on very thin ice, because if she said anything about it, he might try to take her down with him. Lily would. Spite could be a powerful deterrent.
"What good are guards who do not guard?" Sola asked incredulously. "I will give them a piece of my mind once he is done – I have to follow him anyway, this is the cycle I start helping him," she added in a rush as she scrambled to her paws. "We were supposed to leave together!"
"What are you doing?" Lily demanded. "What do you mean, helping him?" She knew nothing of this, and if this had been a normal morning she would have gone to work with Quartz without any knowledge of what Sola and Rose were doing.
"You suggested it to him," Sola reminded her, stopping by the entrance. "You said he should have me help him be more efficient. I still do not quite know what you meant by that, and I do not think he fully understands what I am meant to do either, but you tend to have a good head on your shoulders so he asked me to try it out."
Oh, that. She'd suggested it so that Sola could give her a reliable second opinion on what Rose did all day, and how his advisors might be wasting so much of his time. She still thought that was a good idea, but at the same time… She'd suggested it before the new pressure from said advisors started. She wasn't comfortable with Sola getting closer to Rose now. "Did you tell him?" she asked.
"Tell him what?" Sola asked, impatiently treading the floor.
"That you aren't interested." That was important. Not so much because Rose would definitely heed Sola's refusal, though he might. It needed to be clear, so that any actions taken after would be taken without any excuses.
This pack's alpha was far from unassailable. He bowed to the whims of his advisors. If he did something wrong, and it could be proven without doubt, she would use those advisors against him as a contrary, squabbling weapon.
She wouldn't run again. She no longer had anywhere to run to.
"We discussed the situation," Sola assured her.
"Good." Lily looked down, and caught a glimpse of a light wing streaking across the vertical cavern at top speed. She had never seen Rose so incensed. "If you hurry you can catch him, it looks like he is going to the family caverns, up high." Guards who sacrificed half of every single cycle would be afforded some privileges in exchange for their onerous responsibilities. She expected those guards, and their mates, would be losing said privileges any moment now. With the low, angry growl Sola made in sprinting out of sight, that might even be the least of their worries.
Rose was not Claw. If he were, all of this would be much simpler. The question was not whether he was exactly like Claw, but rather if he was of the same ilk, wielding the same power. Personally tracking down his guards to discipline them for failing at their duty… That didn't bode well. Even if she would have done the same.
O-O-O-O-O
Lily wasn't in a good mood. She felt like a sapling, pulled back by the top of its growth. Stretching, bending, held in place but ready to whip back and strike someone or something the moment she was released. She'd felt like that all cycle. A flight after her morning fish hadn't helped. Some half-hearted solitary aiming practice hadn't helped. Thinking about the latest news from the scouts definitely hadn't helped.
She didn't have high hopes for her workout with Galen and his sons, either.
"We will be doing something new and exciting today!" Galen announced as they flew into their usual ravine-like cavern. A passing scout, freshly back from his duties beyond, flapped harder as he passed them, anxious to get away from Galen's piercing voice as quickly as possible.
New and exciting, from Galen, translated to 'excruciatingly demanding'. Agate and Shell both groaned. Lily's dismay was strictly internal. He was doing this for their benefit.
"This cycle, we will be embarking upon the next flight in your journey toward being more fit than a normal light wing would ever dream," Galen continued.
Was that why they were doing this? Lily was doing it because she wanted to be able to fight or flee anything, anyone, who thought they could hurt her. If there was a way of knowing that yes, she was capable of that, she would stop there and not put in any more effort beyond what was required to stay at that point. Looking good was not the point for her. Maybe Agate wanted a body normal light wings could only dream of. Shell certainly didn't.
"This cycle," Galen crowed, dropping to the ground, "you will learn to wrestle!"
Wrestling. As in, fighting other light wings up close. Pinning, and escaping being pinned down. Breaking holds and maybe breaking bones.
A low, dangerous growl came and went deep in her chest. Yes, that was something she wanted to be good at. She'd not thought herself strong enough to do anything like that… But those thoughts were from many cycles ago, before she started subjecting herself to Galen's peculiar methods of torture. He'd never once misjudged how much she could do, so if he saw fit to teach this, now, that meant she could do it.
She, Agate and Shell alighted on the ground in front of Galen. "Now we are talking," Agate crowed. Shell let out a weary sigh.
"How are we doing this?" Lily asked.
Galen flicked his tail impatiently. "First, I will have to break certain light wings of bad habits they may have picked up wrestling each other…" He looked to Agate and Shell. "And any habits or misconceptions you might have," he added, addressing her. "Which means I must see what you try to do. So we will begin with completely untrained and uninformed light wings battling it out! First, the obvious. Shell, Agate, go!"
Agate and Shell had been anticipating the command, because Lily had to immediately step back to avoid being smacked by the rolling ball of light wing that tripped through where she had been standing. She retreated to stand by Galen, who began offering commentary on the struggle.
"The problem with light wings who wrestle as fledglings is that they do not know what they are trying to do," he narrated as Agate rolled on top of Shell and stomped down on his brother's stomach. "They have a hard time hurting each other, which is good, but they take that," Shell doubled over to bite on Agate's shoulder, "as a reason to practice pinning each other down. One cannot fight if one cannot move."
There was little evidence of fighting to pin in Shell and Agate trading blows. Lily cringed as Agate knocked Shell's head against the ground. Then Shell arched his tail to slip his tailfins underneath Agate's stomach, and Agate yelped.
"Another problem is that they know each others' weaknesses," Galen narrated. "Tickling? Not going to work in a fight against anyone else." Agate yelped again as Shell took his distraction as a chance to wiggle up and out from his hold. Shell immediately locked both of his front paws around his brother's neck and wrenched him down while pushing up with his back legs, flipping Agate neatly over to land on his back behind Shell.
"That was not half bad," Galen remarked as both of his sons scrambled upright to face each other, "but now they are back where they started, except angrier and wearier. Wrestling as an adult is about ensuring the fight ends as quickly as possible, with as little chance of losing your life as possible."
For some, it was about learning to pin females down and use them no matter how they struggled–
Agate reared up on his hind legs, and brought both paws down on Shell's back.
"That would get him killed," Galen huffed. "His stomach is right there, open and exposed."
Shell responded by shoving himself up to try and dislodge Agate, before awkwardly attempting to spin around underneath him, to no avail.
"And now we have come to the grandstanding," Galen said. "Agate! You have not won yet!"
"Feels like I have, Sire," Agate remarked as Shell tried again to throw him off. He had lodged his paws underneath his brother's wing shoulders, and Shell's head was firmly trapped under his chest. If Shell wanted to do real damage, Agate's stomach was right there, but barring that he was stuck in a position with very little leverage.
Shell snarled angrily and whipped his tail up again. He couldn't reach Agate's head, but he began bucking and leaping about so hard that Agate's rear paws lifted off the ground with each push. One last leap and twist finally dislodged him, sending him to the ground on his side.
"Done!" Galen barked. Lily's ears twitched at the renewed assault, but he wasn't as loud as he could have been. Everything was peculiarly quiet, to her. She could hear her heart thumping erratically. "Break it up, you two!"
"I was just getting started," Agate bragged. Shell grumbled and stalked away.
"You can face Lily, then," Galen said. "Lily, this is not about winning. It is about showing me what you already know. You are going in at an advantage, in fact you have several, but as long as you try your best it does not matter how you do. This is to see where we begin, not where we end. Now get to it!"
She should be anxious. Worried. Nervous. Instead, beyond the buzzing mix of all of the aforementioned emotions tucked tight in the back of her mind… She was ready. Ready to fight.
"Hey!" Agate screeched as she covered the distance between them in two leaping bounds. She came down on him from above, landing hard on his hindquarters as he turned to evade her pounce. "No fair!" Her chest smacked down hard, and her paws came down harder on his back and the base of his tail. He tried to swivel about, but she drove her claws in between his scales and he came to a yelping stop.
Lily didn't know what she was doing. She was never one for wrestling as a fledgling. Those things no longer mattered.
She'd been beaten down and pinned. It wouldn't happen again.
Wrenching her claws out, she leaped and spun around to drop her own hindquarters on top of his folded wings. His front legs buckled and he collapsed there. His tail whipped up to batter her face, but she opened her mouth and caught it, clamping down hard on both tailfins and the sensitive end of the tail between them with hard, bony gums.
Agate stilled. He was planning to roll over; she'd seen Shell do the same. When he did, her teeth would come out, and he'd stop or rip–
"Enough!" Galen shrieked. "Break it up. Now!"
She bit down harder. Agate wasn't done fighting, so neither was she.
Then a rough grip clenched on the back of her neck, before wrenching her to the side. "I 'aid," Galen mumbled as he dragged her off of Agate, "e'uff." Lily was forced to let go of Agate, and she turned to keep on her paws as Galen continued to haul her away, two full paces before releasing the scruff of her neck.
"You stop when I say stop, or we go no further," Galen said angrily.
Lily twitched, the sudden shift from fighting to being berated not sitting well with her, but she had to concede that she'd ignored him. "Sorry."
She'd pounced on Agate, clawed at his hindquarters, thought about biting into his tail – she'd done all of the things that could have really hurt him, without a second thought.
"Good." Galen grinned, wide and gummily. "You have the right spirit for this!"
Her budding revulsion at her own actions shriveled and was replaced by confusion.
"I think I am bleeding," Agate complained.
"Yes, you probably are," Galen agreed. "And Lily, we want to avoid that. It cuts the lessons short. No broken bones either," he snorted, still visibly amused. "Agate, Shell, over here!"
Lily shuffled about as Agate and Shell came up to one side. "Sorry," she told Agate.
"I am so going to beat you next time," Agate grumbled.
"Ground rules," Galen announced. "I did not think I needed to go over these yet, but Lily has impressed me!"
Impressed? Was that what she had done?
"No firing," Galen listed off. "Not when we wrestle friends. I will teach you when and how to use it, but you will never do so here. No shredding wings or tailfins. Most of your enemies will not have those where you expect, anyway. Try not to draw blood, but do not let doing so stop you so long as it is something that can be licked better later." He nodded to Agate. "Above all… We are learning to fight. Not play."
Hopefully one of the first lessons would be learning how to do things intentionally, instead of leaping in and almost biting Agate's tail in half on instinct.
"Now that I have seen your bad habits, it is time to start with some good ones." Galen stared directly at Agate. "Tell me, what part of you should you never shove directly in your enemy's face?"
"But I did not," Agate whined.
"He does not mean your second tail, idiot," Shell grumbled. "The stomach, right Sire?"
"Yes! Thank you, Shell." Galen paused, his face scrunching up in consternation. "And Agate, if your 'second tail' is anywhere to be seen while you are fighting for your life, you may have a problem."
"It is all the wrestling," Shell rumbled.
"No!" Agate objected. "Maybe if Posie was here…" He hummed thoughtfully. "I should invite Posie!"
Lily's stomach churned. The unease she had pushed away moments ago came back, full force. "Galen, I am not feeling well. I will be back next time. Sorry." She strode past Galen and took to the air before anyone could ask what she meant, or say anything else along those stupid, thoughtless, disgusting lines–
She felt better once she was in the air, out of earshot. A quick glance underneath her showed Galen watching as she flew away, but he didn't take to the air to follow. Good.
Why did Agate have to say that? He could have kept his mouth shut. She wasn't thinking about that. She was doing well.
The cycle was not yet old. She had time to do something else before she slept. The plan was to spend the entire latter half with Galen, but since Agate tainted that, she had options. She could fly, she could eat, she could sit around and try not to think…
Lily flew into the vertical cavern, moving at some speed, and had to concentrate on maneuvering around the other light wings filling the airspace. Their gossiping was, as usual, impossible to catch in more than fleeting snatches.
"Obsidian is always willing to do me a favor if I help him–"
" – the alpha will like a little weight in the hindquarters, do not stress about that!"
"Did I miss something? I have not been asked to meet the alpha and I am the prettiest–"
Other light wings were talking about other things, but every other fragment of conversation Lily caught was another little barb. This pack was equally weighted with males and females, so why did it feel like there were so many of the latter, all obsessing over the alpha? Why did they have to talk about it all the time? Why was it such a big deal to them?
She angled upward, frustrating vapid comments chasing her all the way into the tunnel up to the alpha's chambers. No one would be there, so she could count on being alone. Looking down at the pack through a thick pane of crystal, where she couldn't hear their stupid conversations… That sounded good to her. Maybe she'd go flying later, but for now she wanted to calm down and cool off. She still felt like biting someone.
Her lingering ire continued to smolder as she walked the length of the tunnel. Stupid Agate. He didn't deserve a mate, not even Posie, if he was going to wrestle her down and pin her under the guise of innocent training. That wasn't what the training was for. It was for light wings like her to escape males doing that, and for fighting to the death. He shouldn't make light of the dangers they were working to lessen.
She should have roared at him. Maybe then she wouldn't feel so restlessly angry now.
Such was her mood that when she saw the guards, the two she knew, she barely noticed how ragged they both looked. The unfriendly one was blinking heavily, while the one she actually liked stood with his eyes lidded, and his ears limp.
Rose must have told the late-night guards not to come back. Until more trustworthy replacements could be found… The remaining guards would have to stay on duty indefinitely? It was absolutely impossible for two light wings to stay awake and alert forever. They must have replacements coming in later. Why they didn't have replacements now – stupid, senseless. Probably pride, or Rose ordering them to stick around.
As she approached, the friendly one shook his head and cast a suddenly wide-eyed glance at the other, before sticking out a wing. "Lily, now might not–"
"I am tired and angry," she said, her words cold and careful, "and I do not want to snap at you because you have done nothing to me, so move your wing." He didn't even have to do that; she ducked down and stuck her head under his wing to shove it up and out of her way, not even giving him a chance to respond. Not his fault she was so frustrated, but she was not in the mood to argue about something she had the right to do, not even if he thought it would not be safe for her to stay somewhere under such exhausted guard. If it was anything serious he would actually stop her, but as it was, she stepped into the main chamber without any further comment.
The red crystal floor was empty, of course. Lily paced out into the middle of the roughly circular expanse, her gaze directed downward at the red-tinted light wings flying below. It wasn't his decision, but it was coincidentally just like Rose to live somewhere that gave him a constant view of his people, but at such a remove that it was impossible to tell what they were thinking. He could look at them, and they could look back at him, but a thick pane of crystal was always between them.
"Mmh."
Lily's ears flicked up as a soft sound caught her attention. Feminine; not one of the guards. She'd just been ruminating on the impossibility of hearing light wings below the floor.
Had Gilla snuck in again? Was she lurking in Rose's side-chamber, waiting for him to return? It was possible, the guards were tired.
Lily's teeth slid out of her gums as she turned toward Rose's side-chamber and began to creep toward the entrance. If it was Gilla, or any other aspiring mate of the alpha, Lily was going to do her real harm this time. She had enough to worry about without disgusting females who lacked boundaries or good sense invading a place that was already only mostly safe.
It didn't occur to her until too late that she might be walking right in on more than just a lone female. She poked her head into Rose's side-chamber fully expecting to see Gilla, and Gilla alone. Rose's scent was heavy in the air, seeing as he was the only one who spent any time inside, and she assumed that was all there was to the smell.
But Gilla wasn't there. Rose was there, his tail to her. Sola was there, next to Rose, her tail to Lily as well. She was on her side, looking up at Rose, and he was nosing around her neck.
She was vulnerable. Exposed. He stood over her. After she'd told him no. Somewhere no one could see. Behind guards who must have known what was happening. They knew everything that happened within the alpha's chambers. They had tried to stop her from coming in.
He would turn. He would see her. He would silence her, or assault her too. Claw would. Rose would.
Not again.
Solid crystal pushed against her paws, against her legs. Air rushed past her, then out of her as she landed heavily on Rose's back. She bit into his protruding wing-shoulder, deeply, and blood filled her mouth as she wrenched flesh up from bone, jabbing her claws, all of her claws, under and between scales, carving and bleeding him as he bucked wildly and shrieked.
Not this time.