No Story Stands Alone

by VigoGrimborne

This is a collection of one-shots, short stories, and alternate perspectives all based in the universe created by the story Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities, and its various sequels. So, in case it's not clear, new readers won't want to start with this one. No set genre or main characters, as it focuses on whatever genre and character I want to write about.

50. Runaway: Searching (AU)

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…

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Howl's cave was not a place Lily ever wanted to sleep. First because Howl was a recently bereaved distant relative, a male missing a mate with enough space for said mate and little more. Then because Howl was dead, and the customs of her new pack forbade it. Once that no longer held, because it was meant for one of Galen's sons and she valued her relationships with his family more than a cave that came with many trailing weeds that would inevitably yank it right back out of her grasp, those same customs conspiring to keep a space meant for two out of the paws of one.

Now, she did not want to sleep there because being banished to an empty cave meant for Agate would mean Galen and his family feared or disliked her. She would deserve their disgust, if so, but she did not want to lose one more good thing because of her actions. Galen had promised her a spot with their family, taking Agate's space once he moved into Howl's cave, but that promise had been made to the Lily who had not yet savaged their alpha in a fit of mistaken, undeserved fury.

She would not want that kind of light wing sleeping within clawing reach of her son or mate. Why would Galen? Why would Emera? Shell might hesitate too, though she would not be surprised if he was unimpressed and undeterred by the blood so recently washed off her claws. He might not care, just as he did not care about much else. Agate, well, Agate might support it because the alternative was giving up the cave meant to be his. If she were going to try and argue her case, Agate would be the one to get on her side first.

She wasn't going to do that. She hadn't done that. She'd sought out Emera and Galen, after her flight with Sola. Having found them in their cave, with Galen trying and having minimal success chivvying Shell out for the cycle, she told them exactly what happened in as few words as possible while conveying the important points.

She had attacked the alpha. She did it because she thought he was attacking Sola, because her last alpha had done something like that. She was wrong. Sola was fine. Rose was hurt but would recover. She had been tried and found 'unjustified but possibly understandable' pending an investigative expedition out to her former pack. She needed somewhere to stay, but she completely understood if they no longer wanted her.

Being banished to Howl's cave was, in her estimation, the most likely outcome to develop from Galen and Emera staring blankly at her as she finished her explanation. Not a total rejection, because they would feel bad about such a thing, but a softer kind of rejection that gave her what she needed while denying any further connection or obligation.

Shell peeked down from his ledge within the cave, his upside-down eyes fixated on her. He'd heard her, too, and it seemed she'd done the impossible and caught his attention so thoroughly he actually cared to get up and look at her. Agate was out, which was good in that he wasn't staring at her with the rest of his family.

"The alpha will live, right?" Emera asked breathlessly.

"He's out of danger." She wouldn't downplay what she'd done to him, but neither would she make it sound worse than it truly was. "His wing shoulder is badly torn up, but that is the worst of it."

Emera turned to Galen. "You and your 'rough play is good for them'," she growled.

Lily and Galen both stared at Emera. "Me?" Galen whined, causing an instinctive flinch in Lily and Shell. "Rough play? That was not rough play. I said not to play if lives were on the line. She thought they were. Being wrong and acting wrong are not the same thing. She succeeded in hurting him, so I have taught her exactly right as far as my responsibility goes."

It was her judgment that was at fault, not the effectiveness at which she carried her decisions out. He was entirely correct. But he didn't understand the violence she had committed. "They had to remove my teeth from inside his shoulder!" she exclaimed.

"I did not get to safe biting techniques yet, we only started wrestling last cycle," Galen retorted, with a cautious glance at his mate. "You cannot expect me to teach you everything when you do not tell me what the deadline is well in advance."

This had taken a turn for the absurd, when Lily just wanted to get the latest and far from last in a long line of rejections over with. "Just tell me – tell me to go."

"Go fly one hundred laps of the vertical cavern for cutting wrestling practice short to maul the alpha," Galen said lightly. "That does not count as exercise."

"After," Emera hissed at Galen, "we tell you that yes, we are still willing to have you take Agate's spot in our cave."

"You are?" Lily asked, dumbfounded.

"I fight for my life and for my pack," Emera said. "I am a scout, but I have had to fight. You fought for bad reasons, but you know it, the alpha knows it, the whole pack will know it. Justice has been – will be – done. In the meantime, a little violence does not scare either of us."

"It would scare me," Shell said lazily, his ears drooping down as he continued to peer at Lily. "If I was the more annoying brother. Agate will be my shield. So long as he lives, I know I am safe because you will maim him first even if he does sleep somewhere else."

She didn't deserve this, but they were giving it to her anyway.

O-O-O-O-O

As it turned out, Galen was not joking about her flying around the vertical cavern a hundred times. He made her chase Shell, and every time she touched Shell he had to do another five laps while she had to do one less. Lily tried to lose herself in the hectic, grueling flight that came of such sadistic starting conditions, to some success. Agate showed up midway through, right as the vertical cavern was reaching peak crowding in the middle of the cycle, and was subsequently cajoled into joining.

A good chunk of her cycle was spent flapping her wings and striving to avoid running into other light wings, and though she was tired down to her bones, Lily felt a little better once she was finally done. Wrecked, physically, and her mouth was throbbing where she had lost her teeth, but pushing away everything else for a time lent a certain lightness of thought that didn't entirely go away even after her thoughts returned to everything else that had happened. Tack on a slow glide for fish, and seeing Agate off to his new cave with the rest of his family – ahead of schedule, not that they bothered to tell Sulfa – and she was ready to sleep no matter where she was or who might be nearby.

Especially as she was beginning to get wary looks, most noticeably on the flight back from fishing. The gossip was starting to filter down in earnest. Going to sleep early and avoiding that for as long as possible was a good plan. Shell was of the same mind for very different reasons, so they ended up negotiating their shares of the ledge early on.

He and Agate had occupied a space only slightly bigger than two light wings making a serious effort to huddle in as tightly as possible. What this amounted to between her and Shell was a cramped but serviceable sleeping area with a claw-width of empty space between them that occasionally closed to nothing if they both breathed deeply at the same time. Compared to the tunnels it was a mild luxury. Compared to Rose's main chamber, it was tiny, cramped, and uncomfortable. She would have to sleep with an adult male right next to her, even if that male was Shell, and thus as unoffensive as a male could be by virtue of aspiring to be a rock. Having to sleep next to anyone in such proximity made her anxious.

Lily was, on the other paw, dead tired, physically and mentally. That seemed to outweigh everything else, because she slept like a rock. If she dreamed, she didn't remember any of it, but she did wake up with a start and the acute feeling that something was caught between her teeth, even though they were retracted. Also with Shell's side brushing against her, but she believed that was unrelated, simply a consequence of one of them shifting a little bit in their sleep. He certainly wasn't awake.

She had expected nightmares. Was it a bad sign that none came, the night after mauling someone who had never done her any harm? She didn't know, and there was no one she could ask. No one would know.

The following cycle passed in something of a daze, though she was wide awake. It was eerie, to see light wings doing double-takes when they caught sight of her, or whispering in corners. The overall atmosphere was hushed, not with tension but rather with the whispered undertones of news none dared speak in her presence burning through the pack like a wildfire.

If there was a predominant opinion among those who whispered of her attack on Rose and the subsequent trial, it wasn't being shared anywhere near Lily. She fished, flew around, and wasted the cycle trying not to think too hard about anything that had happened, or would happen. There was nothing to do, because her entire life for a while now had circled around the fact that every other cycle she was with Quartz, and couldn't be spared to do anything else. Now, that left a gap a cycle wide, every other cycle.

Still, she muddled through. The next few cycles were better. Quiet, awkward around strangers, but better.

Rose never did make any sort of official announcement. There was no word of the expedition's planning, or what might have been decided. Lily never flew higher than Galen's cavern, not even to the mouth of the tunnel leading up to Rose's chambers. She didn't see Rose at all, and she only saw Sola in passing, though they did have another aiming lesson soon, so that was more Sola being incredibly busy than Sola avoiding her… Or so she assumed.

She didn't see either of the guards, either. For the unfriendly one, Lichen, that was a relief, but the other… She wanted to learn his name, at the very least. It was wrong that she didn't know his name after seeing him every cycle for the duration of her life in the Twisted Corridor pack.

That desire, like all of her other ambitions of late, was a dull flame smothered beneath anxiety and the need to avoid stirring up any form of trouble. She was waiting, plain and simple. Waiting for things to happen. It was very hard to start something new, even something as simple as seeking a light wing out, when at any moment she could be told it was time to leave, or that the expedition was canceled, or that it had been decided that she was to be exiled immediately, or anything else.

Six cycles passed far more slowly than they should have, and no amount of Galen's screeching could break her anxious quiet. By the seventh cycle, not knowing what was happening with the war or with the impending expedition, Lily was eager to go back to working with Quartz, even knowing that it would be different. Not allowed to leave protected territory, forced to listen as Quartz lectured her on leaping without looking… After and around these things, there was a promise of normalcy, something she sorely needed.

Lily was excited to get back to the drudge work of listening to a thousand variations of 'I flew this way, and saw nothing, but it was creepy' from scouts. That was how anxious she was to do something useful that could not be interrupted or rendered pointless. Quartz would bite anyone who even tried to tell her to stop mid-cycle.

She had an escort on the short trip from protected territory to the dark alcove in the maze of tunnels, a female guard who happened to follow her out and kept doggedly on her tail the entire way there. She had never been told that she was being watched or followed, but that was because she hadn't needed to be told. This was the first time she was venturing out beyond the confines of the vertical cavern and underground lake. Even Galen's workouts stuck entirely to those two places, to the great irritation of all with working ears.

Her guard might stay by the dark alcove, or she might not. Lily genuinely did not care. She wasn't going to make such a watch necessary. As such, she endeavored to ignore her follower and focus on what was up ahead, even as she flew through the dark tunnels and flapped hard to alight on the awkward lip of the alcove.

Quartz was there, alone in the dark as per usual. Lily's guard landed beside her, and that seemed to catch his attention far more thoroughly than her own arrival. She was expected. "You, go away," he chuffed.

"Not while she is here," the guard replied.

"Wait out of earshot, then," Quartz said gruffly. "There are things we speak of that the Noxious Fumes pack would enjoy dragging out of you if they ever get their claws on your hide. That danger should be spread as little as possible."

"Sulfa says–"

"I say that you will inevitably catch her if you go wait down this dead-end tunnel a ways, before it intersects the rest of the maze," Quartz growled. "Stand in the middle. It is narrow, she could not pass even if she was camouflaged. Do not block my scouts."

The guard huffed and descended, flying away.

"If you intended to flee, you would do it from somewhere that is not naturally a dead end," Quartz said to Lily. "Trust Sulfa to waste someone's time by assuming you are foolish."

"I won't be going anywhere until the expedition," Lily promised.

"Of course," Quartz agreed with a swift chuff. "You spoke truth. Obviously."

It was not obvious at all, but that was his belief, and he happened to be correct. She didn't really want to know why he was so convinced, as his reasoning was unlikely to be flattering or at all helpful.

"Liars rarely give directions as to exactly how their lies can be checked," he continued, nodding in her direction as if to credit her for a good decision, "and yours would fall apart the moment anyone looked, if it were false. Unless your entire pack has decided to move since you left. Then you may be in trouble."

"They would never do that," Lily said, thankful that she was entirely certain of this. She did not need to worry. "There is nowhere to go, and no one wants to leave."

"They could be forced out," Quartz said. "Though you did not mention any enemies of this valley pack, only internal problems."

"They have no enemies, there is no one and nothing else around." She had hoped to avoid talking about the valley pack, but this was at least comfortingly impersonal.

"Do they know how to fight?" Quartz asked intently. "Are they prepared if someone was to arrive?"

"No. Not really. Not at all." Claw could fight, but aside from him… The only light wings who chose to learn to fight were the young males who he subsequently killed.

"Ups and downs," Quartz grumbled. "Less risk, less reward."

"What reward?" He was not idly curious, this was more directed than that. "The expedition is to verify my past, not to fight–"

Quartz stared at her, and the words died in her chest.

"Follow my thoughts," he said with a low huff, never breaking eye contact as he continued in the same foreboding tone. "My chosen replacement, who I have been teaching, makes an incredibly emotional and violent decision, a grave mistake to be sure, but not one that I would care about beyond ensuring she does not make such a mistake again. It comes out that she has fled a place where our kin are acting abominably, led by one who should be all rights have been killed by now. It further develops that many among my peers do not believe her word, even though it can be verified if we wish to check. Why, then, do I propose we send light wings to check, light wings, plural? Why not a single competent scout, who can question some distant light wing just as thoroughly as a larger group, without pulling as many bodies away from the war?"

Not to scout. The only reason to send multiple light wings, sacrificing their ability to effectively travel while camouflaged because they would need to stick together, was to take advantage of their numbers and firepower. The only threat on the journey, as far as Lily herself knew, was what lay in wait at the destination.

"Sulfa, Obsidian, Peat, Gilla," Quartz continued after a moment. "They do not think about it that way. For them, it will be a question of who they can send to support their varied interests. Proving you a liar. Opening contact with another pack. Digging up old roots to bring back, in both meanings of the word. They would each like at least one light wing solely dedicated to their purpose, so they think there should be multiple light wings sent along. For me, though? I am the advisor of war, and seeing as I know you speak the truth, I aim to decapitate an enemy before he knows that I exist. Claw must die."

"Furthermore," he added, "this is an opportunity in many ways. To clear you beyond doubt, yes. To kill an enemy before he could some cycle become a threat, absolutely. But also to bolster our own forces. The light wings of the valley pack are incautious and lazy, perhaps, but they could be whipped into shape. The more objectionable brought back to throw into the fiercest combat, the more reasonable made into valuable fighters, or brought in to free up reliable Twisted Corridor light wings from guarding at the very least. Their entire pack could not be relocated to the grassy cavern without provoking a wholesale slaughter in retaliation, but there are many lesser measures and if our current spaces are truly strained beyond their limits we will expand to take over the ravine or some other undesirable cave and make do."

"So," he concluded, "whatever the others think, whatever they plan for, this is in truth an attack. One that I will ensure has enough competent fighters to succeed, along with a mostly reliable and extremely well-informed proxy to direct them. I will cope with reduced forces in the meantime, I have done it before."

Lily had let him monologue without interruption because while she did have objections, she needed to hear everything first. Now that he was done, though…

It was not as crazy as she had reflexively thought. No one in the valley knew how to fight well, beyond Claw. He was dangerous, yes, but he was only one light wing. There would be several with her. It could be done. Perhaps it should be done.

But not by her. "No one will trust me to direct an attack on an enemy pack."

"I get to say who among my competent fighting light wings can be spared," Quartz rumbled wryly. "I would not pick distrustful fools. They will be fully informed of this plan before they agree to go. You are to be a near-prisoner with no authority up until the moment they have confirmation of your past, at which point they will defer to you for the rest of the expedition. Or you can advise the one nominally in charge, I will be sending someone competent to lead the journey in either case. That can be flexible."

Who led the attack might be open to change, but not that there would be one. "How?" she asked. "How will it be done?"

"Do not ask me, I have never been there," Quartz said. "Think, Lily. It would be pointless to come up with a detailed plan when we lack those details, I in any capacity and you with knowledge many cycles old. The plan will be decided once the expedition arrives and can scout out the valley in secret. It should be easy, if they are as unguarded as you say, but if that has changed then you see exactly why I am not planning, only putting light wings I trust in a place to do what needs to be done. I expect the others will land a few light wings in the group that will have no place in an assault, but they will not outnumber my own."

"I see…" He had no plan, only a goal and the ability to order those on the expedition to see it carried out. "It will all be decided there."

"By you, by the one I put in charge, either way," Quartz confirmed. "Now, we have a great deal to do before you leave. That will not be for a good pawful of cycles yet, but it is still too soon. We need to thoroughly go over how one makes decisions based on what one knows, not what one thinks one knows. We will need to adjust the war efforts to account for losing some firepower. I need to figure out who I can pull off stable fronts to stand in for you while you are gone, and that will not be easy because I have finally gotten you half-trained and you do not ask stupid questions…"

He trailed off, rumbling to himself about all of the other little things he would need to do, leaving Lily to wonder why he was going to all this effort. "Why do this?" she asked. "No, really," she continued as Quartz narrowed his eyes, "why attack at all? Claw does not, and will never, know you exist." He'd killed the only one anywhere near his pack who could tell him about the world underneath the ground. "He is not an enemy unless you want him to be one. Going to all this effort, sending out light wings we cannot really afford to lose for a long while, telling me I should be in charge – why?"

"It is sound strategy," Quartz huffed.

"It is only sound strategy in that you can mitigate the biggest downsides," Lily retorted. "Not in that it is obviously the correct course of action. Why not send a single scout, or postpone the entire thing until the war dies down again?" Not until the war was over, because if it continued the way it currently was it would not end before they both died of old age.

"The latter would never happen, I need you cleared of the stigma of being a liar." Quartz looked away from her. "Lazu has a way with words, but he had fertile soil to work with. It has been a long time since I last knew of an enemy who so offends me, one who has a name and sits content with boundless space and boundless arrogance. He is not unreachable, he is not an endless horde, he is not invincible. I think," he looked back at her, "that this is not a question of 'why do this'. It is a question of 'why not?' That everything lines up to make it feasible, that I think it will be important for you to have a paw in his downfall, that I would like to know that he has died for what he did to you and to others, that we can derive some notable advantages from the aftermath of killing their alpha… Convenient explanations for a decision I would make anyway. It would have to be a very large and insurmountable obstacle, to stop me from attempting to right this wrong."

"But!" Quartz barked, startling Lily. "It is stupid for us to be discussing this. None of us want it to look like you have any real influence over the planning of this expedition, and you and I would be burning even more of one of our few remaining cycles if we continued to fly in circles around this idea. I will send out enough competent fighters to open up many possible paths, they will know all I have told you, and you will be going along. I cannot make you do anything, so it will be up to you whether you take the lead or stand back when it comes time. Right now, we need to begin breaking down the proper way to make decisions, again. It seems you did not take my lessons thoroughly to heart the first time."

Quartz continued to lecture, not letting her get a word in edgewise, and there was genuine annoyance in his voice, but Lily couldn't care less. His overwrought, overly forceful changing of subject was the most transparent attempt to avoid a subject she had ever seen. He very much wanted to skim over the underlying meaning of his lengthy speech, in the hopes that she wouldn't comment on it.

She heard what he truly had to say, perhaps better than he ever meant to say it. That hatred, that bone-deep offense, the desire to reach across such a distance and kill Claw for his audacity, to rip from him all that he had simply because he deserved to lose it…

Sola understood her pain, because she had gone through something similar. Quartz understood her hate, because he felt it on her behalf. Where Sola offered empathy, Quartz offered retribution, an end to the one who had wronged her.

That hate… She couldn't embrace it. That same hate had driven her attack on Rose, a terrible mistake that she regretted. But she couldn't deny it either, not when it stemmed from a source that truly deserved to be hated.

The idea that Claw would die was a distant, ephemeral thing. It wasn't real. It might not feel real until it happened. If it happened.

Lily attempted to focus on Quartz and his short-winded lecture; he was beginning to speak in puffs and bursts, having apparently used up all the good will his body had for him with his previous lengthy diatribe. She didn't know what she felt, she didn't know what she wanted to do, she didn't know what she was going to do…

She did know that she needed to listen, else this would be a very long, frustrating cycle for both of them, and worse, a waste of time. There was a lot to do no matter what she wanted from this expedition, and not a lot of time to do it in.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily thought a lot about Quartz's plans, in the following cycles. She still didn't know where she stood, in some ways. Whether it was a good idea, whether it was possible. It should be possible, but her gut insisted that no, attacking Claw would end in pain and suffering. Even though that was only demonstrably true for untrained individual males, old light wings, and untrained females in a tight space–

It was incredibly hard to properly think through the feasibility of Quartz's intentions when the very thoughts themselves brought back raw, uncomfortable memories by association. Lily didn't sleep very well. Having Shell right next to her instead of having space with Sola nearby… She believed it was mostly her troubled thoughts, but she did not sleep well at all.

The only thing Lily was sure of was that she intended to keep the secret. There was no harm in Quartz's motivations, but the bickering and recriminations that would surely result if his plan was made public knowledge would delay the expedition, perhaps indefinitely, and she was growing increasingly convinced that she wouldn't be able to tolerate a long delay on top of the already long journey.

She was flying down a constricted, uncomfortable tunnel, and she wanted to reach the end no matter what that end might contain. The sooner the better to kill the uncertainty that plagued her.

In the meantime, she had an aiming lesson to attend. Just as soon as Sola arrived on the shore. She couldn't miss Lily; there was a wide empty space around her that few light wings strayed into, right by the water's edge. It was impossible to say whether Lily was early or Sola late… But Lily had a sinking feeling she wasn't early. Sola might have been delayed, or she might not be coming. Aiming lessons might not be so important to her now.

A crowd began to gather at the mouth of the tunnel. Lily idly watched as light wings closer to the commotion got a good look at what was going on behind the growing wall of bodies, and chose to join the fray instead of watching from afar. They were all milling around someone, following along as a blob, some talking and some just watching.

The blob approached Lily. A few light wings peeled off when they were pushed by the group to stand too close to her. Beyond them, Lily saw Sola, thoroughly exasperated in the middle of the crowd.

What a sight she and Sola must have made from above, a light wing who attracted others and one who repelled others in equal measure. "Flight?" Lily barked above the general hubbub.

Sola wordlessly shook her head, before turning to roar right in the face of one particularly close male. "Back off!"

The crowd around her pulsed as those closest pushed back, and those pushed by them pushed further back in turn.

"My aiming lessons are not open to new light wings right now," Sola declared.

"Since when?" a female whined.

"Since I became certain that none of you care at all for aiming," Sola answered. "Go away! Anyone who bothers us, who bothers me, will regret it!"

"She will use us for targets," someone barked.

Sola whirled around and stamped on the ground right in front of a hapless male. "Get! Go! Leave me alone!"

Lily strode forward, hoping to use her currently repellent reputation to help Sola. "I think I would rather deal with them for you," she announced, leaning into the terrible thing she had done, just this once. Rose would understand.

"And I will not stop you," Sola growled. It was almost comical how quickly the crowd around her began to fragment and disappear as light wings suddenly decided they would rather go fishing, go back into the vertical cavern, or in a few cases camouflage themselves then and there. In a matter of ten heartbeats, only a few stragglers remained.

"Now we can fly," Sola snarled, taking to the air. "They would have mobbed me into the water if I tried to take off before," she complained as Lily followed. "Feckless fair-weather fakes!"

Ah. Yes. This would grate on Sola like little else, wouldn't it? Far and away more so than it might Lily were she in the same position. "Weather?" she asked, hoping to steer the conversation away from bad memories.

"There has been much talk of the world above, lately," Sola grumbled. "Which I only hear because I am with Rose. There is a lot happening now that is only happening because I am with him."

The spontaneous crowds would, hopefully, stop once the novelty wore off. It was Rose's doing, having gone so long without even a potential mate. The first female to catch his eye would have been as popular as fresh fish no matter who they were. That it happened to be Sola only lent a darker, less positive direction to the masses.

"It will die down," Lily assured her.

"I would hope so." Sola led them down low, close to the water, where they flew forward at a brisk pace. "A few moments, then we go back. I am not giving up on my lessons no matter how many fools I need to frighten away. In the meantime… I said that much has happened only because of I and Rose being together. One thing, though, happened because we kept it a secret. I did not explain that, did I?"

Why they had withheld their budding relationship? "No, but it is obvious," Lily said with a low chuff. "To avoid what just happened before you were certain it would be worth the trouble."

"Why we kept it from you," Sola clarified.

She had not been thinking of that. Now that she was… She was not sure she wanted to know the answer. "You did not say," she answered, her voice steady.

"It was a mistake," Sola began with an apologetic croon. "Lily, I am sorry. We are sorry. I knew enough about your fears to know that you might have an issue with it, but keeping it from you – well, it was going to explode once you found out. I thought we were ensuring you did not feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in Rose's chambers. Rose thought the same. That did not make it a good choice."

Lily flew on in silence. Sola was right, it was a mistake. But she didn't have it in her to blame Sola for what came of that mistake. Her reaction was her own, and sane light wings did not react to witnessing a nuzzle with a violent assault.

All the same… So much trouble, for herself, for Sola, and for Rose, could have been avoided. It would have taken a truly compelling argument to convince Lily that Sola's attraction to Rose was genuine – her thoughts immediately flew to Rose holding something vital over Sola's head to get her to be with him and lie about whether she wanted it – but Sola could have given such an argument. Maybe. Even if Sola was not convincing, Lily would not have leaped directly to a mauling if she thought it was a case of coercion. She would already be aware of the issue. Walking in on proof would not be such a shock.

Telling her would have saved Rose rather a lot of pain and suffering, at least. Though he might have had to deal with misguided machinations with their own consequences. She wouldn't have arranged to physically harm him, so it would still be an improvement.

But what good, in turn, would telling Sola that do? Make her feel worse about a decision she could not take back? Perhaps she should feel that regret, the same regret Lily was dealing with, but Lily didn't have it in her to inflict that same anguish on Sola now. She had nothing positive to say about this, having thought it through, so she would say nothing at all.

Lily heaved a great sigh as they flew, her thoughts drifting back to her own actions. She was so tired of the regret and guilt that ebbed and flowed every time she thought of what she had done. She wanted to do something to fix it, but there was nothing she could do, so she was stuck with it. With the consequences of her actions, and with the mindset that drove those actions, even though she was now more aware of the latter.

"Lily?" Sola ventured, her strong voice unusually tentative.

"Even if you told me, I would have had the same thoughts that led to what I did," Lily said, understanding that to hold her silence would be to say something with her silence, something far more condemnatory in nature than she truly felt. "I probably would not have attacked. But I would have done something and it would have come to some kind of unfortunate conclusion driven by my mistakes. Maybe not Rose bleeding on the floor, but something nonetheless."

"That does not absolve us of our mistake," Sola said.

"No, but you did not fly me somewhere I otherwise would have avoided, either," Lily countered.

That was all, it seemed, either of them had to say on the subject. What more was there? Lily was not happy about what had happened, but the majority of the blame fell on her, and she could not truly resent Sola for the small portion she and Rose claimed. Rose had already suffered the consequences of a well-meaning decision, and Sola was truly sorry.

"Aiming practice?"

It took Lily a moment to turn from the well-flown path of her thoughts onto another path that bore absolutely no resemblance to the former. In that time, Sola visibly cringed. "Yes," Lily said belatedly. "If the shore is clear."

"It is not." Sola leaped on the chance to soar past the awkwardness of her offer, looking back with a growl. "We will not get anything done this cycle if we return to the shore. Most of them are still there. This cycle we can focus on firing on moving targets, while moving."

It was as much of a jump as the change of topic, as most of their prior aiming had been done while stationary, but it was something they could do out here over the water that would hopefully bring some sense of normalcy between them. "What will the target be?" Lily asked.

"Not me," Sola snorted. "You are not Posie. I think it will be rocks that I throw with my tail… Very small rocks."

An arcing flight path, small and quick, while flying? This wasn't something Lily would normally try from any great distance. That was her innate sense of her flame coming into play, because why waste fire on something she was likely to miss? Such a thing would not have been reliably achievable before.

It still wouldn't be reliably done now, even with Sola's teachings, but that was why they were going to do it. Lily flew above Sola as she angled toward one of the sides of the underwater lake, to the place where the ceiling sloped down to a near-vertical incline to meet the water. Lily assumed Sola was looking for suitable rocks. There were a few very shallow outcroppings in the wall like the one she had tried to sleep on her first night in the Twisted Corridor pack, but no loose stones anywhere on them.

Sola fired. It was a quick shot, but by no means a weak one. Lily watched warily as the bolt streaked over and impacted the stone wall a little ways above one of the ledges. The solid stone held mostly firm, sporting a new scorch mark and a few pitted depressions where pieces of stone fractured from the greater whole, pulverized by the impact. Chunks of those pulverized pieces splashed into the water below, though a few fell onto the shallow ledge and bounced such that they remained there.

"Any acid-spitter hiding on that ledge would be dead now," Sola huffed. "Still, best be careful. If you see anything unusual but are too far away to intervene, fire directly down into the water, and I will know you see something wrong."

One never could say where an acid-spitter might be; the usual caveats about the underground lake being only somewhat safe went double for an enemy who could possibly sneak in right under an inattentive guard's nose. Best to be safe. "Got it. You will be flinging those tiny rocks with your tail?" Unless Sola was very good at such a thing, they would not go very high or far. Their time in the air would be very short.

"I plan to. I want you to come in from the side, hugging the wall of the cave. That way stray shots go away from me and away from any nearby stone." Sola growled to herself. "It will not be the best possible place for this sort of practice, but this is not the best possible kind of practice. There is one thing you simply cannot learn by doing."

"What is that?" Lily asked.

"Firing on a camouflaged target," Sola answered. "A tiny rock you can barely see in the air is the next best thing."

It was, but an acid-spitter would be wholly invisible, not simply difficult to perceive. Lily turned in a wide arc to fly away as Sola dipped down to land on the shallow ledge, flapping out to a satisfactory distance. She expected Sola would wait until she had begun her approach to fling the pebble. That would take care of the distance of the shot, too, as Sola would be controlling how far away she was when she was forced to fire.

Firing on a pebble, as a substitute for something hard to see… Back on the shore, in front of her though at a great distance, she saw many light wings milling about.

A pebble hurtling through the air would make a much better stand-in for a camouflaged light wing than a camouflaged acid-spitter. One could see the blur of the light wing under the right conditions.

Lily banked around, lining herself up with the gentle outward slope of the wall on the way back to Sola, and pushed herself up higher to come in at a downward angle.

If Sola meant to teach her how to more accurately fire on camouflaged light wings, she had a reason for doing so. That reason could only be connected to Lily needing to make such a shot for real. Sola didn't know about Quartz's plans for her to lead his people to deposing Rose, but she knew about Claw. Everyone present for that trial knew, and she was sure some twisted version of the truth had filtered down to the entire Twisted Corridor pack by now.

Sola knew about Claw, knew Lily was going to be in the same general area as him if not necessarily face to face… and she chose to teach Lily how to better fire on camouflaged light wings.

Lily settled into her approach, wings flapping as little as possible to maintain her sloped, slightly downward trajectory. She was still picking up speed, but her body was solid, not stiff but not loose and moving no more than necessary. She tightened her neck, breathed in deep, and went through the many other little routines Sola had drilled into her. All to better aim at a rock that had yet to be thrown, a shot in the near future.

Sola whipped her tail out and around, and a tiny little speck arced up, out–

Lily fired. The blue bolt streaked forward, to the right and down below where the stone was, crossing a large distance quickly but not instantly.

She expected to miss. She didn't think it would work, even if she tried. But she did it anyway.

The pebble and the bolt of flame passed through the same place in the air, at the exact same time, and they exploded together just above the water's surface.

She could do it, if she ignored the nagging voice in the back of her head insisting she would fail. That voice was wrong and she knew better.

"Great shot!" Sola cheered as Lily swooped past her.

But what if she made such a shot and then realized too late that she had fired on the wrong person, or for the wrong reasons? Like Sola. Like she had already done, using her claws instead of her fire. Claw needed to die, yes, but if she confused another light wing for him under the anonymity of camouflage…

She didn't want to use this specific skill. Not in a scenario where she could not be sure who she was firing on. But she did want to be prepared for anything, because she still didn't know what would happen once she was back above the ground. Only that she would be there, and Sola wouldn't be around to help her then.

"Again!" Lily called out.

Fix what she can, and accept that the rest happened, but would not happen again. Did Claw's continued existence count as something Sola thought she should 'fix'?

That would be one thing Sola and Quartz thoroughly agreed on.

O-O-O-O-O

There had to come a point when excluding Lily from the expedition planning ceased to be a reasonable measure and became an active hindrance. Even if she was a liar, she still knew something about where they were going, and every little bit of information she could provide would be helpful in some way.

She expected them, Obsidian and Sulfa and the other advisors, to continue to exclude her anyway. They could happily declare that she'd told them everything she knew in her original deposition, and if there were any major problems, Quartz could ask her himself on behalf of the other advisors.

Instead, she was summoned to a place she had never been, the little dead-end chamber at the top of Peat's root cavern. A guard she didn't know came and collected her from an ongoing, extremely tame wrestling match between Agate and his Sire. It would have been her turn next, so she wasn't entirely unhappy to follow the guard back to Peat's cavern.

Wrestling might be a necessary skill. Galen, Agate, and Shell might not be bothered by what she had done. She might be comfortable with them. These things together did not mean she enjoyed the process.

Peat's root cavern was empty. The guard led Lily up the spiral cut-out in the far wall, around and around as they ascended. At the top, where the wall met the ceiling, the spiral continued up in the same shape for three more full revolutions, before ending in a moderately large, nearly spherical empty space large enough for five light wings to stand across. Someone had gone to great lengths to make the floor flat enough for standing on, as it was covered in a thick layer of gravel, little gray pebbles of different sizes crunching with every shift of weight. Aside from covering what Lily expected was the bottom fourth of the sloped cavern floor, such a setup would be impossible to move silently on.

Protection for the alpha and his advisors, perhaps, but too limited in scope to be of any real use. Of far more interest were the light wings waiting for her. Rose, Obsidian, Peat, Sulfa, Gilla, and Quartz. The main five, and their alpha. No one else. They were already busy discussing – though it was more of an argument with the edges sanded off – the details of the expedition when she arrived.

"He would be there to ensure our ties with our estranged relatives and descendents are maintained, no matter the situation," Obsidian said as Lily was escorted into the small chamber. Rose and his advisors were scattered around the small area, arranged in no particular order or shape. This was a much more informal affair than her trial.

"What ties?" Gilla asked. "We have no ties to them. We did not even know if they still lived."

"The ties that he will reconnect!" Obsidian insisted. "It will not be ideal, I really should go myself. But there is much for me to do here, I cannot take the time away."

"I disagree," Quartz said slyly. "I think you could go and it would not make much of a difference here. Now, whether you made any difference there, either –" he coughed. "Well, that is in question."

"Lily." Rose spoke. "We have some questions for you about the world above. Clarifications, to ensure we are not overlooking anything."

"Fools who have heard things from bigger fools, who have heard them from liars, need correcting," Quartz drawled. Gilla and Peat both huffed angrily. Sulfa looked on with an expression of complete disdain, while Obsidian chuckled.

Thus the lines were drawn, rather unhelpfully by someone who was supposed to be on her side. She was here to disprove whatever Gilla and Peat thought. "What did you need to know?"

"Tell them about the sun," Gilla demanded. "You know, the huge ball of fire that floats above everything! They do not believe me. I have been up there myself, and they still do not listen."

Lily was torn. On the one paw, Gilla having been to the surface made her perhaps the most well-informed of Rose's advisors on this matter, and assuming she was not claiming something untrue about the sun, she was in the right. On the other paw… sneaking up to someone while they were asleep and doing things to them on the unfounded assumption that they would like it when they woke up.

"What are you claiming?" Lily asked. She would tell the truth, obviously. Lying gained her nothing. But she was not Gilla's ally by any stretch.

"That it is so bright one should not look directly at it, and that if it is too hot out our light wings will not be able to do much."

A truth and an exaggeration; perfect. "The first is true, but the second would just be laziness," Lily huffed. "Perhaps you could not do anything in the heat, but if a good dunking in the ocean did not get you moving then you have a health problem, not an obstacle to sending others."

"Salt water is bad for plants, I did not go near the ocean," Gilla said primly.

"Right." so she didn't stay above the ground for more than a cycle. "How long did you spend above the ground?"

"Long enough to know about the sun, unlike everyone else here," Gilla huffed, turning away to glare at Sulfa. "See?"

"This is irrelevant," Rose announced. "Lily, please explain so that there can be no confusion. How long is the sun up, what replaces it when it is down, and does this switching out mean anything beyond there being less light, and it sometimes being colder?"

This was what they needed her to answer? Any light wing they sent would find out as soon as they spent a day and night above the ground. "The moon and stars come out to provide some light, sometimes, if the clouds do not block them," Lily answered. "It does not really change much. We can fly equally well under either, we can hide easily in light or dark. Most people like to sleep while the sun is gone, but there is no need to do so beyond needing to sleep at some point."

"It will not be a problem, then," Quartz chuffed. "Good. Stay in case we have other questions."

Rose nodded. "Yes, stay. Peat." He acknowledged the eccentric male with a small nod. "You were saying, before we went off on this… tangent?" There were probably harsher terms he could have used that would be more accurate. Distraction. Pointless side-argument. "At the start of this cycle," Rose sighed as Peat looked at him in confusion.

"Oh! Yes. I must have a full recounting of the roots of this valley pack, if it exists," Peat said eagerly. "How they connect to us and how they relate to each other."

"If it exists," Sulfa said dubiously.

"It must in some form, I smell enough of Blaze and Risa on her," Peat argued. "Whatever that form is, I do not care. Find the truth, and then find out what their roots are. I want to extend the root wall to encompass them."

"If Peat is getting a representative, and Obsidian is asking for one, I want one too," Gilla complained. "They will be traveling much further afield than I ever went, there could be new plants of great use to the pack just waiting for someone to dig them up and bring them back."

"I will be sending capable, competent light wings and they should not be burdened by irrelevant secondary vanity projects," Quartz snarled.

"You will not be choosing all of them," Sulfa objected, casting a distrustful glare his way. "We all know what you tend to do when you have full control. Let the others send light wings to accomplish their desires, outside of your control. Seeking out the truth is not so difficult a task that it has to be the sole focus."

"I am saying," Quartz retorted, "that whoever is sent will be in danger. They will need to fly hard, defend their own lives and the lives of those around them if needed, make tough decisions in an instant! Therefore, most of them will come from my reserves, the light wings who know how to do these things."

"Quartz is right," Rose announced. Sulfa looked at him angrily. "But so is Sulfa. Everyone's wishes can be accommodated."

Lily tried to settle down on the gravel, having been asked to remain but immediately forgotten by everyone else. It wasn't very comfortable, and the tense, unhappy growls and huffs all around the cavern weren't very pleasant to listen to. Quartz and the others fell into negotiating who might go, and with what purposes, with Quartz only compromising very begrudgingly, every step of the way. Rose played the somewhat distant mediator; either he had long since given up on strictly managing his advisors, or he had something else on his mind distracting him.

By degrees, Quartz, Sulfa, and the others narrowed down the potential group of light wings to go on the expedition. Quartz conceded to a light wing to represent each of the other advisors, and in return they conceded that the majority of the group would be able-bodied fighters, in case they were attacked. He gave up his first choice for the leader of the group – a female named Ru who Lily knew by name as one who basically lived on one of the more dangerous fronts – in exchange for Sulfa not interfering in his picks for the other six fighting light wings coming along for protection… and to keep Lily from flying away and disappearing.

Quartz conceded to this without a hint of hesitation. Lily, knowing his real plan, was impressed by how easily he argued and gave ground in ways that protected his real priorities while giving the appearance of true concessions. He had to be good at such things in abstract, defending the pack with the same principles of defense and sacrifice, but in between the coughing and snide comments, he could do it verbally as well.

His first pick vetoed, Quartz proposed Stal, the light wing he delegated to after the Crawler attack a while back, who if Lily remembered correctly had some healing knowledge and a good head on his shoulders. Sulfa begrudgingly approved him, and then they got down to picking representatives for each of the other advisors.

This was a process that Quartz managed four times over, one for each advisor. It gave Lily a thorough insight into how much actual power each of the four had when measured against Quartz himself, the pressure they could bring to get their way. Peat was the least influential, and was almost immediately relegated to having someone assigned to look out for his interests. He couldn't name anyone he thought would be willing to go in his stead to begin with, so he didn't seem too unhappy with having someone assigned to his cause.

Gilla was next; Lily noticed that while Rose kept out of the negotiations for the most part, he looked actively uninterested in Gilla's plight as she struggled to name anyone that Quartz did not immediately dismiss as a foolish airhead. For some reason Quartz knew everyone Gilla named, and he could cite at least one ridiculous-sounding incident for every single one of them, ranging from stupid guarding or scouting mistakes to intriguing-sounding vague references that had most of the advisors groaning at a memory Lily was not privy to.

Quartz himself did not seem to mind Gilla that much, but he was ruthless in dismantling her proposals, and in the end she resigned herself to joining Peat in having a light wing assigned to her cause. She did demand to know who it would be before the end of this cycle, though, so she could find them and tell them what to look for. Quartz scoffed at that, too, though his derision in that case might have been for the idea that it was in their power to come to a final decision this very cycle.

Obsidian fell next on the order of advisors from least to most influential, though he barely used it. Lily would put him mostly on par with Quartz in that he suggested a name, and Quartz accepted without comment. Andes, a male by the way they spoke of him, was to be Obsidian's representative. He was Obsidian's successor, a truly unimpressive and unremarkable light wing given Lily had never heard his name before now.

Then there was Sulfa, who Lily would say was more influential than Quartz himself, but not in any matter where the alpha sided with Quartz. This being one such matter – insofar as Rose wasn't really contributing while Quartz browbeat the others – she gave her suggestion, a female named Calci. Quartz admitted he didn't know her, and then further said it probably didn't matter so long as Calci was made aware that she needed to listen to Stal when it came time to act, else she would be endangering the whole group. He said this in ten times as many words and poked at Sulfa's disdain for his methods while doing so, but that was the gist of his reply. Sulfa, for her part, hissed and growled but eventually accepted that Calci needed to listen to Stal, just like the rest of them.

Sulfa alone had not given a reason for her representative to go along, perhaps because it was obvious to all involved. She did not trust Quartz, and as this was shaping up to mainly be his expedition, she wanted someone she could trust to tell her everything his people had done. In principle Lily would have done the same in her place, just to ensure there was some accountability. If Quartz had total control of who went, he could conceivably send them all out with orders to sit around for a few moon-cycles before returning and lying to back Lily's story up, all so he could keep his potential successor in good standing with the pack.

He wouldn't, his belief in her didn't mean he would lie for her, but it would be possible if he had total control over the expedition. Sulfa, however, was not going to be content merely to check the truthfulness of his people. She would be looking for something to use against him, or against Lily. The occasional distrustful glares she sent Lily's way made that clear. Where Gilla might not have an opinion, and Peat was certain at least some of what Lily said was true, Sulfa seemed disinclined to believe her at all.

Then there was Rose. Lily didn't know which way he fell on believing her before they received proof.

Finally, as Lily's hunger began to grow, they settled into the last topic of the cycle; Peat and Gilla needed to know who would be representing them. Lily was only half-listening by this point, having not been asked a single question the entire time, but Quartz's proposed names caught her attention.

"Agate?" Gilla asked, even as Sulfa growled. "Who is Agate?"

"A troublemaker," Sulfa huffed, "an overgrown fledgling."

"He can dig, he can take direction, and I am going somewhere with this if you will let me continue," Quartz said. "Agate for Gilla. Shell, his brother, for Peat. Shell can listen and I am certain he can ask a few questions. I already intend to send their Sire and Dam as two of my fighting light wings, as Galen is a superb long-range scout and his mate exceeds his skill with mid-term scouting and scouting hostile territory. They would not want to be away from their sons for so long, and Galen has been trying to toughen both of them up as of late. I say send them too, keep them with their parents and give them some responsibility. Their parents can pick up the slack if they turn out to be unsuitable, so Gilla and Peat get two light wings for the price of one. In the meantime, Sulfa, you can enjoy Agate being out of your scales."

And Lily would have four additional friendly faces to lean on every step of the way. He couldn't just be doing this for his stated reasons, he was trying to further help her, too. She didn't need Galen, Emera, Agate and Shell. Just like she didn't need Quartz himself, or Sola, or anyone else she knew well. But having all four of the light wings she was currently living with come along was far more than she expected.

This, too, did not go unchallenged. "There are other, better choices," Obsidian remarked. "Surely. Two young adults who have never done anything productive?"

"They are not feckless or two-faced enough to resemble you in any other way, Obsidian, so do not worry," Quartz growled. "They have good role models and can take on a little responsibility. I would not send them as fighting light wings, but they will fit well with the group and that may turn out to be important. Further, they are male."

"That does not matter," Sulfa growled.

"I want to minimize the number of unmated females we put anywhere near this valley pack," Quartz growled back. "It does matter. Calci I must accept, Emera is mated and can kill if need be, Lily must go and I would say much the same of her, but I will not actively suggest more targets for a monstrous alpha to covet if he encounters them. I cannot think of more overall convenient light wings than Agate and Shell, and unless you have a real objection I will not try."

There was more, but it was all reiterations of the same grudges and dynamics Lily had grown accustomed to in the last half a cycle. Quartz did not entirely get his way, but in this case Gilla and Peat were the ones who had to approve, and they both did after a little while and a little bit more convincing.

After that, everyone was ready to leave. Quartz's voice was hoarse, Sulfa sounded like she had been holding in an angry screech for far too long, Peat was thoroughly bored, and Gilla kept eyeing Lily in ways that made Lily want to bite her. Lily herself would have been the first out, if she thought it appropriate. As it was, she let the advisors go first.

"Lily." Rose stopped short of the exit. "A word? We will only be a moment."

Sulfa trailed behind, the last of the advisors out. The guard, who had been waiting outside the entire time, came up the tunnel. "Alpha, should I take her back now?"

"Go down to the bottom of the root cavern and keep anyone from coming up for a little while," Rose instructed. "Lily will be on her way down by the time you get there."

"But… Yes, alpha," the guard said, thinking through Rose's instructions. He was meant to keep Lily from repeating her assault on Rose, but at the same time Rose was actively setting this up without any fear at all. Loyalty outweighed his objections.

Lily seriously considered following right on his tail before she could be properly left alone, but she squashed that thought before it could reach her limbs and drive her to act. Rose was not Claw. She knew it. She would act on it.

"Yes, alpha?" she asked deferentially, once the guard's claws clicking on stone had faded away.

"Lily, I will be direct." Rose looked her in the eye. "Lazu said a lot, and Sola has told me some things beyond that. I am inclined to trust both of them. I am inclined to forgive you."

No. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. She had not proven herself, had not done anything to deserve forgiveness.

"If you come back and my people tell me you told the truth, know that I do not hate you," Rose said. "I welcome you back to my pack with open wings. If you did lie… any number of light wings cannot keep you from camouflaging and escaping in a place where you could fly any direction. There will be a thousand chances for such an escape where you are going."

Lily stopped breathing, the air caught in her chest.

"It is not my place, even as alpha, to hold back the rolling boulder of justice if you did lie," Rose said, his voice low and sad. "But I do not want to see you hurt for my pain. Nor do I want to see what will inevitably come after when my people are told. I also do not want to see Sola hurt by watching those things. So if you lied… please, take this as my mercy and do not return."

"It wasn't a lie." Rose was not Claw. Claw could not hurt her so badly with pity. He wasn't capable of it.

Rose's face twisted into a conflicted grimace. "I want to believe that. But just in case. I must consider what could be true, not only what I want to be true."

Lily nodded. He wanted to believe, but he wouldn't. Not fully. Not until she returned. "I will be back, and I will make it up to you. Until then, thank you for your kindness."

Rose looked away, unwilling to take her declaration at face value, no matter how much he might or might not want to. He wouldn't leap ahead before he had proof.

Lily turned to go. To go, and in the end, to return once more. No matter what happened, she needed to prove herself. To prove to him that she was sorry, that she was not a liar coming up with excuses, to prove that she was trying to move on.

She needed to prove a lot of things. To him, and to herself.

It wouldn't be long now before she was able to do so. There wasn't much left for Rose and his advisors to decide. The expedition would begin soon.

O-O-O-O-O

"Six to the vine cliff, then," Quartz ordered. "I want two of the scouts to stick around for five cycles. Lily, how many do we have available who would be willing to do that?"

Another cycle, another lengthy round of logistical and tactical decisions. The Noxious Fumes pack had recently gone quiet, which Lily felt was incredibly ominous. Quartz was of the opinion that they were licking their wounds and had lost some of their enthusiasm for renewing the war, but that they would be back soon enough with more creeping aggressions. It was an incredibly normal moment.

It was also the last such moment Lily would have for a long time. The expedition had been finalized, and a message passed down to all who were to go. At the time the message was that they would leave in three cycles… But that was two cycles ago. Two cycles, which had passed in the space of two heartbeats after she'd heard the news.

Highly anticipated moments came at the speed of a stick dragged through thick mud. Highly dreaded moments, on the other paw, raced toward all who feared them.

"Five cycles?" They had a few who would do that, and a few who might outright refuse if asked. "Three who definitely would, two more who might." Easy enough.

"I do not want them to leave until next cycle, so that is that for now," Quartz huffed. "Remind me, how long have the scouts for the dark dead end been gone?"

There was no way he had forgotten, but neither had she. "One cycle." She hadn't been there when he'd sent them out, but she knew he had done so, and she knew they would be gone another three cycles before returning with a lot of information. The close-range scouts took up more of Quartz's time reporting so often, but it was the long-range scouts who required more attention when they did report in. They often had a lot to say, and if one saw something, that was the only warning they would get.

"I pulled in defensive light wings from where?" Quartz continued, dropping the pretense in favor of blatantly testing her memory.

"The sloped cavern front, the jagged ridges, and the tight squeeze passage." Places where one or two more light wings wouldn't make a big difference, either for or against. A small difference might become a big one, but only if those places were tested while short on defenders. Only one had been attacked since the war began, but they were all theoretically vulnerable.

"How is the war going as of this cycle?" he persisted. "Give me potential dangers and opportunities in the near future, as well. High view."

No details, only general trends? "It is a war of threat and counter-threat, where one side is much more likely to act, and much more likely to come off worse when they do act," Lily said, summarizing her own opinion of the situation as much as what Quartz had told her. "The attack on the grassy cavern was a spike in violence that has not been followed up on their end. There is an acid-spitter about, but rogue or in deep cover. It seems as if the Noxious Fumes pack is pulling back in some places, but it is too early to tell if that is real. In the near future we will know for certain whether some recently abandoned stretches of cavern are truly abandoned, and there is always the chance the acid spitter or other forces will strike behind our lines, but those are outliers. Most likely, the pinprick ambushes and sabotage will continue unchanged. We do not know why they rekindled the war, so we cannot guess what might prompt them to try and douse it again."

"Good, but remember that they do not need a reason, only a justification," Quartz huffed. "Fighting like this is how they usually are. Peace was an unexpected development that has since passed. They will not stop until we are dead, or they are."

Lily disagreed with that. If it were true, they never would have stopped at all. "There exists some set of conditions to drive them to peace, seeing as it happened once. It could happen again."

"Beasts like them will always claw anything they see as vulnerable." Quartz shook his head. "But that matters not. We are in charge of the war, and the only way to end a war from within is to win it. Our hopes for other solutions rest on Obsidian, so they might as well not be hopes at all."

On that they could agree. Lily would like to assume that Rose's advisors were all competent within their field by virtue of being his advisors, but Obsidian had never shown any sign of the practical cunning he should by all means possess. Petty grudge-holding and sniping was behavior she had come to tolerate from Quartz, but it was his duty to claw at those who opposed him. Obsidian should have been the intelligent peacekeeper among the alpha's advisors. Instead, he was just as bad!

"That is enough for this cycle," Quartz grunted, lifting his left paw to pick at his right as he spoke. "I will hear the late scouts. This is your last cycle in protected territory, I am certain you have some things to take care of before you leave."

Did she? There was one thing. "Who is going instead of Galen, Emera, Shell and Agate?" she asked. Quartz wanted them in the expedition, but Lily knew for a fact that Galen and Emera hadn't told Shell or Agate anything, which she took to mean they'd been rejected in a subsequent argument she wasn't present to hear.

"I convinced Emera late last cycle upon her return from her close scouting trip, so no one is replacing them." Quartz tilted his head. "I did say I was certain. They will have told Shell and Agate now, and I doubt either will put up much of a fight."

"That is very late," Lily remarked. Only a single cycle's forewarning?

"Galen will go anywhere if I ask, it was Emera I had to convince, and she was slow to budge," Quartz explained. "She has never been above, and living with Galen has found it generally helpful to be incredibly stubborn in all things, so it took time. I made sure to only speak to her when you were away to avoid pressuring her with you. She would have refused me out of spite if she thought I was trying to push her using you."

Would she? Lily did not know Emera well. Her mate overshadowed her with his attention-grabbing voice and personality. Quartz, on the other paw, had known Emera for season-cycles. He probably knew her better. It was not as if Emera had any real attachment to Lily, either; she was a distant relative living with them.

"Say your goodbyes, do what you need to do, and be ready to leave early next cycle after the alpha gives a quick speech to reassure the pack that you are not disappearing with a dozen of their friends and family," Quartz concluded. "Be smart, think things through, and kill that rotten excuse for a light wing as violently as you can without putting yourself in more danger. Consider this a long-running test of your ability to lead when cut off from reinforcements or safe places."

Lily looked at Quartz. Really looked at him, in all of his sickly glory. He was not a healthy light wing. He was not overly polite or empathetic, except for when he chose to be.

He was not Pyre. She'd never thought he was. He was something else, someone else wholly distinct from the males she had known in her past. He wasn't family, and he wasn't attracted to her in any way that she could tell.

"Thank you. For everything. I don't deserve half of what you've done for me."

Quartz squinted at her. "Deserve?" he questioned, his voice rough and disapproving. "All I have ever given you is opportunity. You did the rest yourself. What you might deserve did not come into it."

"Thanks anyway." She walked around him and leaped down into the tunnel below, her wings strong and steady. That was about how she expected a goodbye with Quartz would go. Any soft emotions he felt were hidden under thick scaled disinterest. A few cracks in the scale armor were as good as a tearful goodbye from him.

Her guard – she still had one of those for her cycles with Quartz – fell in behind her as she flew back to protected territory, through the tunnel maze and up into the ravine connecting the two cavern systems together. The guard fell off once she passed into the vertical cavern, only to be immediately replaced by another light wing. Sola.

"Lily," Sola called out as Lily slowed to fly beside her, gently spiraling downward through the vertical cavern. "I hoped to catch you here. You are leaving next cycle. Are you ready? Is there anything you need?"

"I don't think I need anything," Lily said. "Just to say goodbye, for now. I will be back."

"You definitely will," Sola agreed, not a hint of doubt in her voice. "It will feel like a lot longer than it is, though. You coming here has improved my life, and I would be saying the same if Rose and I were not together. I will miss you."

"I'll miss you too." Sola was her closest family, and her closest friend now. She would feel Sola's absence every single day. She was already feeling it, even with Sola flying right beside her.

"Do not forget to practice your aiming, and come back safe," Sola said, before deftly flipping over and around Lily, skimming close enough that her wing touched Lily's back. She arced up afterward, headed for Rose's chambers.

Lily continued downward for a bit, before flying back up to land on the ledge outside Galen's cave. She could go fishing before going to sleep, but she wasn't hungry at all. All she really wanted was to go. So close to leaving, she wanted to get it over with.

Galen's cave was empty – not even Shell was there. So she leaped up to the ledge and settled down, off to one side so she wouldn't have to adjust much when Shell came back.

Shell, Galen, and Emera were not long in returning, and they had Agate with them. "You had better not forget what Gilla taught us, son," Galen remarked as they landed and crowded in. Shell leaped up beside Lily and let out a tired growl as he flopped down. "I will have a hard time remembering for myself."

"Plants are plants are plants, I will just grab anything that looks weird," Agate huffed. "Shell is going to have the harder time, remembering all those roots."

"Hmmph," Shell grumbled.

"He will remember," Emera said. "Lily. You have heard?"

"That you agreed to come? Yes, Quartz told me this cycle," Lily said.

"I did not think you would need us along, you can take care of yourself if need be, but he made good points," Emera admitted. "It is next cycle. We should all sleep soon."

"Maybe I will not sleep at all this cycle," Agate mused. "You cannot make me anymore."

"No, but I can keep on your tail and not let you rest until you fall asleep on the wing next cycle," Galen said conversationally.

"Early to rest and early to rise, got it," Agate said quickly.

That was that. Agate took off for his own cave, and below Lily Galen and Emera settled down. Next to her, Shell was already asleep.

O-O-O-O-O

Lily was awake well before anyone else in the cave the following cycle. She had slept, thankfully, but when her eyes drifted open she knew she had two options. Try and fail to go back to sleep, or sit and wait for the rest of the pack to wake up. She chose the second, so she was privy to the quiet first moments of Galen's family that final cycle, the morning of departure.

Shell, right next to her, was the first to properly wake up. He then promptly fell back asleep, his breathing evening out again.

Agate was second, a little while after Shell. A light wing landed on the ledge outside their cave, peeked in, and huffed. "Figures," she heard Agate grumble outside, before flying off again. To fish, to sleep a little longer, or to burn off some nervous energy… One of those. All of them. None of them. She didn't know.

Emera was next. Lily could hear her shifting around below, and since she did not immediately hear Galen's piercing voice she knew it was Emera, not her mate. Galen soon followed, with an immediately peppy "Big cycle, early rise! When was the last time we went on such a long flight together?"

"Shush," Emera said breathily. "It is too early, let them sleep."

"I will go fishing, they should be up by the time I return," Galen declared. There was some shuffling about after that declaration, and a few wet licking sounds, before he chuffed. "Like I said. Back soon. Fish when they wake."

"No rush," Emera snorted. "Go, abandon me. I will doze cold and alone."

"Glad you have that worked out," Galen chirped. "Or, fly with me. We can catch more than fish while we are out."

"It is early but Quartz said we would be assembling as soon as the cycle properly begins," Emera huffed. "Later. When we are properly on our way."

"I like that better." Galen departed in a flurry of wings and not nearly quiet enough whispers.

Some time later, Agate returned. He peeked into the cave and greeted his Dam with an aggravated groan. "Did I really miss Sire?"

"He is off fishing, I am sure there will be an extra for you," Emera murmured.

"No, that is just it," Agate groused. "I came earlier, you were both asleep, so I fished for myself. I could have slept in!"

"This is what comes of sleeping alone," Emera told him. "How is Posie, by the way?"

"She is great, could not be better," Agate declared. "She has been talking about working with Gilla recently, which is boring but not as bad as working for Sulfa as a guard so I like it anyway."

Posie and Gilla? They could lust after Rose in exile in the plant-growing cavern, together. Agate was not a great liar, Lily could hear the false bravado for what it was, but a lack of perception or a Dam's desire to think the best of her son kept Emera from recognizing the same.

That thought almost escaped unnoticed, but Lily caught it a moment later. She had a good reason to dislike Gilla, one based solely on Gilla's actions. Posie, though? All Posie had done was say she might like to be the alpha's mate. She'd phrased it poorly, perhaps, but how was she to know? The desire on its own was not a bad one, it was only bad if taken beyond reason or applied to an alpha who was rotten to the core. Rose was not Claw. Posie was therefore nothing more than a young adult female with an inconveniently one-sided social life and not much else.

Posie might celebrate the news that Agate would be away for a long while. She might not. Maybe once everything was settled Lily could help fix her problems once and for all. There would be time to give Agate another talking-to once they had gone to the valley and done… whatever they would end up doing there. The return flight would be just as long as the flight out.

Galen returned with fish and a, for him, subdued roar that bordered on a screech. Shell groaned and pinned his ears to his skull with both paws, trying in vain to ignore his Sire.

Lily, for her part, immediately got up and leaned over to look down from the little interior ledge she and Shell shared. She was not hungry, but she adeptly caught the fish flung at her face between her teeth and swallowed it.

"Up, up," Galen crowed, "the cycle has begun and I already see light wings gathering out there! The alpha will be along soon, and we will all look like lazy lumps of flesh if we have to fly down to meet the others after he starts his speech!"

"I know nothing about roots!" Shell whined.

"You know how to say, hello, who were your Sire and Dam, and that is enough," Emera said sternly. "Come down, Shell."

Lily witnessed a truly unsettling sight then; Shell's eyes blinked open and he immediately stood. "What?" she grumbled as he joined her in looking down.

"Nothing good ever comes of ignoring Dam," he confided in her before snatching a fish that bounced off his forehead and almost landed on Emera.

This put a whole new spin on every time Emera had ever stood aside while Galen ineffectually shrieked his sons out of the cave. Lily didn't know whether she was annoyed or just plain surprised. Either way she thought she might be a little bit impressed.

She lived with them, but she didn't know any of them the way she wished she could. They were relatives, but they were new to her, and vice versa. She would probably be having these little epiphanies for season-cycles to come.

Emera, Lily, and Shell followed Galen out as he spiraled down to the bottom of the vertical cavern with Agate. The many small ledges and cavern openings all throughout the vertical cavern were crowded with light wings looking on, with the floor mostly empty save for one small group. Like when Quartz and the others had returned to protected territory on paw after the ambush, everyone had turned out to witness the moment.

Lily landed next to Shell on the outskirts of the group of light wings. There were six of them in total. One of the males would be Andes, Obsidian's representative. Another, Stal, was in charge of the fighting-fit light wings Quartz pulled from various more important duties for this expedition. There were five males besides Stal, and Galen and Emera added to them made seven combat-ready in total. Lily was there because she had to be, Shell and Agate for Peat and Gilla… They were missing one.

A larger female with a rather pretty tan glint hopped down from a low ledge and joined the quietly mingling group in front of Lily. That would be Calci, Sulfa's representative. She made twelve. Unless there were other last-moment additions, there would only be twelve of them.

Twelve light wings for an expedition one could have made – one had made in reverse. Seven for protection, four to ensure the other advisors felt represented, and Lily.

Seven to kill an alpha. Maybe eight. Maybe twelve. Maybe none. Quartz had stacked their group to open up possibilities, but they were only that. Possibilities.

"Twisted Corridor pack!" Rose's voice boomed, and Lily hurriedly fell into line with the others, in between Shell and Stal. High above, Rose stood at the tunnel entrance to his chambers, looking down at his pack. "Many of you have heard of our distant relatives and the pack they may have made far away, above the ground. Some of what you heard has been disturbing. Some unclear. The light wings below have volunteered to venture out to that pack. They will find the truth, and they will return to us. The journey will not be short, and it will not be easy, but they go anyway."

Lily had not volunteered, but that made no difference to her. Now that she was standing here, she could not imagine standing on a ledge elsewhere in the vertical cavern and watching as others made the journey without her. For good or for ill, she had to be with them.

She had to go back.

"Stal, lead them well," Rose called down. "Now, go!"

And so they went.