26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, BREAKFAST
I couldn't help it. I was too excited and Boo accidentally surfaced more than I had meant her too. My hair flared just a little as the table of Snow Wolves and humans stood up to bow their greetings. So polite! I smiled my wide smile at them, "Thank you for meeting me so early today."
"It is our honor, Alpha Princess." Beta Glenn answered with all propriety on behalf of the snow wolves and humans present, and I realized that this was going to be a very formal breakfast. In fact, it was going to be the most formal breakfast that I had ever partook in my life! For some reason, such a setting had not occurred to me until now. I was so stoopid, sometimes I exasperated myself.
I let Harvey seat me, but no one else sat down.
"Please allow me to present to you, the Sir Wolfgang. He is the successor of the Fire Pillar. And the Lady Adele, the successor of the Water Pillar." Beta Glenn said from his standing position. When they were introduced, Wolfgang and Adele would bow again. Neither spoke after that. They just remained standing where they were.
OKAY... This was a sign that... what? Was it my turn to speak? Grrr... I hated these formal things, especially when everyone was following some kind of scripted etiquette and no one had given me the script! What to do? Well, when in Rome... except this was Night Leaf. But if it really were Night Leaf, breakfast would be outside in the dining hall with everyone else and it would be a BUFFET.
And then I had the brilliant idea of pretending I was in one of those lycan legends. I think it was the fact that Wolfgang was a Fire Wolf and I had only heard of them in lycan legends - they were really famous in these legends. For a time when I was a pup, I had wished very hard to be a Fire Wolf when I grew up. And you know, I had to wonder what was a Fire Wolf lineage doing in a Snow Wolf pack? I bet there had to be some story behind it.
So I decided to make up my own script, "Please, sit down. I'm very happy to meet you."
The snow wolves and humans sat down, and immediately breakfast was served. I took it to mean that I said the right words.
It was a good thing Ki was around. I don't think anyone else would be able to serve breakfast in such a fancy way in our pack. Who ate breakfasts as a formal meal? The vampire queen? Seriously, that's the only person I could think of who might have breakfast plated and served in three courses. Wait, was I supposed to eat my toast with a fork and knife? WTH!
Luckily, Harvey was standing just behind me, at the traditional beta position. He stepped forward calmly with a polite, "Pardon me" and cut everything into bite sized pieces for me. This had to be weird to the Snow Wolves. They had taken the entire formal breakfast quite naturally, but to have my food cut for me... they took a quick double take, but were too polite to comment on it.
Actually, they were too polite to comment on anything. They sat very silently. Was it a snow wolf thing to not speak at the table?
And then I realized that I was the only alpha at the table. Furthermore, I was the host. Wow, not only did I have to ad lib my own "script", I had to figure out my own role too?
Okay, I supposed I could expand a bit of my imagination to set the scene properly:
River was the underdog human prince with a magic stone and the hero of the story. He was adopted by the Snow Wolf Alpha - a very ancient one who was also the Great Teacher of the Colored Mountains. This made him a prince, but Prince River had always been weak aside from the power of his stone.
At first he thought it was because he was the omega of his adopted pack, then he thought it was because he was a human. Now he realized he wasn't even a human. His mother had run away from her captor, the Warlock, who turned out to also be his biological father.
Now, he was accompanied by his best friend Keanu and his loyal minder, Wilhelm. In today's adventure, our hero desires to return the stone to the Warlock, but he had to win over these three powerful wolves to assist him. This was next to impossible for him because he was still seen as a human, and wolves in general thought very little of humans.
The first wolf was his own father's beta. The other wolves would obey his order, but he was also the hardest to persuade since he was very loyal to his Alpha. Furthermore, he was an experienced elder and he is convinced by logic, he was unlikely to easily accept any of the younger generation's requests.
The second wolf was a proud fire wolf who despises humans. Having to run under a weak human king was an affront to this wolf's pride, but because he was loyal to his pack and alpha, he had long resigned to grit his teeth and bear it for the rest of his life. This was his unfortunate fate. Oh how the mighty have fallen!
The third wolf was just a female healer, and thus a treasure of the pack. She had a lot of responsibility as the next successor of the Water Pillar. She had to mate and produce a strong heir and train her to take over. She had to manage her healing output because it was not unlimited. She was exchanging her life for the lives of those in her pack, so each exchange had to be carefully calculated just so. It was her responsibility to her pack to exert herself in such a way for her pack's long term welfare. Her life was literary not her own.
See, it wasn't all that far off for me to base this imaginary script on the lycan stories of old given these characters!
Anyway, by some chance encounter, Prince River had developed a friendship with an Alpha Princess of the barbarian pack in the wild Green Packlands. He had just enlisted her help. Would she be able to help him?
My imagination was pretty good. This was quite an exciting story. Well, since this hero had come to ask for my help, how could I bear to disappoint him and the readers of his story? I must perform well!
Unfortunately, despite my love for reading Lycan legends, and my desire to nail this role, I was rather lacking at the actual writing of such a script. For example, I had no idea what an Alpha Princess should say in such a story.
I smiled, with every intention of playing the role of a calm and gracious royal. Okay, I know it sounded dumb now, but atm it seemed like the right character for my imaginary script. I imagined it being akin to a fairy queen character or something.
Just then, I noticed that no one had made a move to eat yet. Ah! They were waiting for me to start eating! I forgot it was this way with traditional wolves. If there's one thing about being a Lycan from a grand old pack, it's the frustrating mountain of traditions one had to follow every single day.
I picked up my fork, and then I gestured towards the food and said, the way I had seen Grandpa Alpha do when he was alive, "Please."
My guests obediently picked up their silverware.
I poke a random thing on my plate and put it in my mouth. Yum. Sausage. Wait! This wasn't the time to enjoy the sausage! I was supposed to be winning these wolves over!
Keanu jabbed River in the side with his elbow.
"Ah... ow... what? Ah... ah..." River seemed to get it that it was his cue to speak. See, other people had scripted lines and even a best friend to cue him!
"Ah... Sam, I was just wondering..." River started, "Urm... Can we take a ride to school with you today?"
Eh? So they were already giving up on winning the snow wolves over? This "pretending to go to school together and sneaking off instead" was Plan B right?
Harvey did say to pull out if the Snow Wolves didn't seem forthcoming. I supposed it looked every way like that right now, but I hadn't even started! If there was one thing I hated more than being defeated, it was giving up before even trying.
I flared slightly, and then Boo smiled.
Boo hated being looked down on. How dare they not think I could do this!
"I'm afraid I can't, princeling." Boo answered most amiably, "Since I won't be going to school today. I something to do in the Warlock Forest. You are welcome to ride with me if you dare."
Beta Glenn stopped eating. Like he froze with fork and knife hovering over his plate. Hahaha.
River panicked like I just threw him under a bus, "Wha...ah...what do you mean, Sam? I... I... thought we were going to school."
Hee hee hee. I shrugged, a la Lady Amber's elegant shoulder movement. I was quite proud to be able to replicate it so prettily, "Something has happened last night. My dad and mate want to deal with the remnants of the Rogue King's forces. I will be leading the expedition, so if you still want to return that stone to the warlock, it shouldn't be a problem to take you to him too."
"What?" Now this was the Fire Wolf.
Beta Glenn shot him an icy look and Wolfgang nodded a quick bow, "Apologies, Alpha Princess. This wolf spoke out of turn."
"Sam, it's dangerous and no one knows the paths within the forest." Keanu said, out of turn too, but he seemed to feel like our friendship would cover that. Hahaha. And I supposed he was right, but why was he talking AS IF HE HADN'T BEEN PLOTTING TO ENTIRE THE WARLOCK FOREST HIMSELF!
"I told you, something happened last night." I said, faking nonchalance because by now I've decided that blue alpha warrior princess in this script should be played coolly. Yeah, I've always wanted to be cool!
And then I produced, my triumph card, the crystal key, "I obtained the key into the forest, as well as the map."
"When did you... how..." River asked. The humans looked completely confused at the change of script.
I gave them my widest grin, "Would you believe I paid a visit to the Rogue King's house last night?"
I gave the snow wolves a moment to let it all sink in.
Beta Glenn raised his hand now.
I coolly and graciously nodded toward him so he dared to speak, "If I may be so bold to speak, Alpha Princess, but my Alpha plans to confront the warlock later today. Perhaps if we waited a few more hours for his return, both our packs might enter the forest together? If you could lead us with your key and map, we would naturally assist you in subduing the Rogue King's forces."
Which really, was a rather sensible idea. But Boo shook her head, "Unfortunately, the matter with the Rogue King is urgent, so I cannot wait."
"I understand!" River suddenly shot up from his seat, "I'll come with you."
The moment River decided this, the Snow Wolves panicked and all decorum was thrown out the window.
"Your highness!" Beta Glenn was immediately alarmed, "Please do not act rashly!"
"I'm not acting rashly." River turned surprisingly reliable suddenly, "The truth is this was what I wanted to do for a long time, now that the opportunity is within my grasp, I must take it!"
Wolfgang stood up and slammed the table, "Preposterous! Your Alpha Father has ordered us to await his return to deal with the Warlock. You have no idea what you will be facing in there! Even our Alpha is cautious enough to enlist our help - how can you a mere human deal with the Warlock on your own?"
"I won't be alone!" River yelled back, "Keanu and Wilhelm will be coming with me!"
"Is that true?" Beta Glenn sounded even more stern than usual now.
"Ah, hahaha, well, you know since our prince wants us to go, we will go..." Keanu tried to shrug it off like it only just happened like this by chance.
"I will follow the prince. It is my duty as his guard." Wilhelm answered with a polite bow.
Beta Glenn's expression darkened, but he said nothing.
Meanwhile, the enraged Wolfgang continued ranting, "If you want to run straight into your grave, go ahead! You're weak and useless to begin with. But don't drag other people in with you! Even if they are weak too."
Beta Glenn raised his hand and Wolfgang shut up, the room dropped a few degrees when he spoke, "Prince River, can you not wait for your father to return and handle it? Even though the Alpha Princess will make her move without us, I'm sure your Alpha Father would have his own way of dealing with the situation."
Ah the beautiful trust that Betas had in their Alphas! But in this case, Beta Glenn was probably right. Now that he put it this way, it seemed pretty obvious that Alpha Gunter had some kind of good plan.
"No." River insisted stubbornly, "I know what my father wants to do. He would sooner kill the Warlock than return the stone. Furthermore, this is my problem, and I will solve it my way by my own hand!"
Wow, like I said, River could be surprisingly reliable sometimes.