INTERPRETING DREAMS PART 2

It took a bit of explaining on my part, and then more explaining on Mrs Beta's part, and then more explaining on what I mean by "do something crazy."

All the adults had very perplexed expressions at my idea that we might not necessarily have to follow the standard dream path. My analogy of a which-way book or hidden dungeon in a computer game totally did nothing to improve their understanding.

But finally, we had a breakthrough when Lizzy managed to say it's like taking a road trip and making unexpected detours. We weren't exactly abandoning the journey, we were just going to stop at the gas station for fuel and supplies.

"Not only that, we are also going to study the printed map instead of blindly following the GPS." I add, "We're going see if we can find a better way through."

All the adults acknowledged that while novel, this might be a possibility.

So without further ado, here is the final interpretation of our prophetic dreams:

What we do know about these dreams is that they each hold a piece of our personal destiny.

We also know that what we see happen in the dream will happen. But we don't know when or how it would actually play out. For example, instead of rogues attacking in wolf form, they would be in human form. Or they might not be rogues... Just something similar.

Instead of stabbing Ben with a knife, I could in reality use a dagger... Or whatever else really, I don't really want to think about it now...or ever actually.

Jonah decided to point out to me that the sharper the blade, cleaner the cut for Ben. I guess he was trying to be helpful.

Back to the interpretation, even though these were personal destinies, in reality, our destinies were often entwined. Our dreams all happening on the same night confirmed that.

Furthermore, the dreams came to all the children of the alpha, beta, and gamma families of our pack, meaning that these destinies pertain our pack, and also that it was our generation who would lead it.

And the dreams came before their time, indicating urgency.

My mate's dream was probably not a pre-shifting dream, it might actually be more of an instructional one. My mate being on the stage, made him a key player of what might be a gathering of a Lycan army. The many unique and individual warriors indicated that it was not an army of any one pack.

For some reason, I had been given privy to my mate's dream. Why? This one had no answer.

And the fact that my mate's dream was not a pre-shifting dream probably meant that he had already shifted and is probably older than I am, as in the second dream in the woods, an older teen.

And if I am seeing my mate at his current age in the forest, then there is a high chance that I'm also seeing him at his current condition. Which is pretty bad, but I don't say anything.

Lizzy's dream of her mate, seemed like just that, the usual pre-shift dream. In wolf form, so her mate probably has shifted already too.

Ben and Jonah's dreams were obviously indicating war or capture and our pack had to train and prepare for that.

Based on their descriptions though, it seemed that they were at least much older in their dreams then they were now. They both said they were taller and bigger, like full grown adults or nearly so, Jonah was at least shifted to be in his wolf form. And Ben remembered he had an outgrown stubble in his dream... to with Lizzy scoffed because Ben's chin at this point of his life is as smooth as a baby's bottom.

And there is one more thing: their dreams all triggered the night after my mate's dream, and exactly the same night as my meeting him in the dream forest... Somehow, my mate was a huge piece in the puzzle of our pack's fate.

"Makes sense," Gamma Harry agreed, "after all, he will be our next Alpha."

"Or Luna" Beta Lucas countered.

Gamma Harry rolled his eyes, "Please, who has ever heard of a male Luna?"

Beta Lucas didn't miss a beat, "No, but there have been female alphas all through Lycan history."

"Beta Lucas, Gamma Harry, please. I don't think it matters right now. Whether my mate is an Alpha or Luna, we need to focus on our game plan now."

"Spoken exactly like an alpha." Beta Lucas crowed.

"Or a wise Luna to an Alpha the goddess chose to lead such a splendid army!" Gamma Harry insisted.

He looked around the room, and must have sensed our general flabbergasted expressions, he explained, "An army of warriors from different pack is no joke! Is very hard to control! In the history of Lycan, the alpha must defeat all those packs and then absorb their warriors into your army. Very hard! Impossible even!"

Point taken.

I had not considered it from this point of view. Gamma Harry often thought a little off tangent from the norm. It had always been both a frustrating distraction as well as a surprising source of solutions.

My dad moved then, and everyone stopped to wait on his next words, "Thank you everyone for your thoughts. I need time to think about this. And I believe our planning would benefit from any new information we might be able to recall or research for now."

"Yes, Alpha." Everyone chorused automatically.

"We will adjourn our meeting till Monday evening." Dad concluded.

"Yes, Alpha." And everyone started to break into smaller groups as they parted.

Dad was talking to Beta Lucas. Mum was talking to Mrs Beta and Laura. Savy was talking to Lizzy. Everyone was talking to someone.

I wanted to draw out a plan now. I hate not knowing what we would do. Shouldn't we at least step up patrol, scale up our army, inspect our safe houses, send reps to source more information from neighboring packs? It couldn't be just our pack that would be affected, right? Something of this scale would easily engulf the whole of the green pack lands. Are the kids in the Morning Light Pack also having prophetic dreams? What about the Lorent Pack?

I suppose we do have several years to prepare for the event. But it left me feeling edgy. I left the office to wait outside for the rest of my family. I leaned against the old wallpaper and sighed.

I need to write down everything. I need to rethink everything. My plan had to be more than just not ever asking Jonah to guard my parents. Or carrying disinfectant on me should I happen to walk into a prison cell and find Ben chained there. Oh, I should get Ben to carry his own disinfectant and bandages. Or wear a bullet vest at all times. I'm brilliant.

"Hi, Sam."

I recognized the hesitant voice immediately, "Hi, Dean."

He leaned against the wall next to me, "You didn't ask me what choice I had to make in my dream."

Well, it's not like it had anything to do with the pack's destiny. It's not even any of my business. All the other guys are dying and you are playing your stupid guitar on stage.

I know it's not Dean's fault what he dreamed, but I still resented how his dream completely ignored the tumultuous future of our pack.

"What choice did you have to make?" I asked roughly. I don't really care.

"I had a stage, my guitar, and a beautiful mate." Dean said.

"Uh huh." I said.

"And I had to choose between this dream and giving you up." Dean actually sounded conflicted at this point, as if it had been a difficult decision for him.

"I chose my mate." He confessed sadly.

"Well, you should." I told him. My voice still hard.

"I didn't want to give you up." Dean said.

"There was nothing to give up in the first place." I said.

"I know." Dean admitted, "But for what it's worth, I had hoped."

This conversation was becoming frustrating for me. I kicked off the wall, and just walked away. I don't have time to coddle Dean's tender heart. Not now.

I wanted to save my pack, maybe even make sure my parents survive, Jonah doesn't die, and Ben live past his operation under my hand... If it really was an operation. He chose to trust me. Even I wouldn't trust me to pull off a stomach operation.

I don't even trust myself to say the right things at times.

What if finding all the loopholes and charting a "do something crazy" path through our destinies turned out to be not only unorthodox but a really bad idea?

We won't know till we try.

But what if trying killed us?

We were all going to die anyway.

What if it killed us worse?

Hey Goddess, how about a dream tonight? One that would show me what to do? You gave one to my mate, what about me? What's my part in this?

Okay, let's be honest, I didn't really think the moon goddess would give me a dream. Prophetic dreams were not like on-demand cable. And I don't think she didn't know that I would probably just take that dream, and do something crazy anyway.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Huh what? That thought popped in like from no where.

But yeah, good point. Making a plan based on a few prophetic dreams on a single night was foolish.

What I need was a trajectory. For example, if the goddess did have a plan, I needed to figure out it's rough direction, then we could ride on that movement. If the whole world was hurtling toward a certain point... I can't control the flow of the world around me, but I can steer my ship.

I can use the dreams as sign posts when we pass them, we might be able to navigate this life.

I get it now. My dad was right. We needed more time to study the matter.

It's not about saving Ben, or Jonah, or even my parents. At this point, it wasn't even about saving my pack anymore (but don't ever tell anyone I thought that). It was something bigger.

I never thought there could be anything bigger than keeping my pack safe. But now that I've suddenly thought of it, it's existence loomed over me like a large storm cloud.

I've changed my mind, goddess. I don't want another dream. They have been nothing but trouble.

And I especially don't want a testing dream. I won't want to choose between my pack and an unknown bigger thing out there. Wait, I already know the answer: I choose my pack! I choose my pack!

Because as much as I want to help, as glorious as it might be to play the hero of whatever unseen cosmic battle out there, I want to protect my pack.

I am the Alpha, I will protect what is mine.