LAST MEETING OF THE DAY

17 FEBRUARY, WEDNESDAY, NIGHT

"What's the situation at the checkpoint?" Dad asked.

See! My Dad did have a purpose for bringing it up (and he did not just make up a question on the spot)!

"Well, it was quieter by the end of our shift. But some of those reporters are just begging to be shot. Totally loco." Gamma Endo replied, "From tonight though, the Lorries are on duty and, no offence Luna Bell, but your Lorent warriors have only 3 inches of happiness, and its all in their happy trigger finger dance."

"No offence taken." Bell answered impassively, so I couldn't tell if he were being sarcastic, "But if its a nuisance, I could have their happiness cut off, Gamma."

Gamma Endo laughed heartily at that. He probably thought Bell was joking.

"Please, Endo, we are in a meeting with the Alpha." Beta Gerald tried to remind his Gamma, but Gamma Endo merely brushed him off, "It's fine, beta. Just a little warrior talk."

Gamma Endo took a moment to grin at Bell then, "It's great, our princess got a seasoned warrior for a luna. I don't have to worry about Morning Light's future now."

"It's true. Luna Bell's accomplishments on the field had been nothing short of praiseworthy." Beta Gerald agreed, "Morning Light's borders had never been so peaceful for a long time."

"It's good training ground for new warriors to hunt rogues." Bell answered, his indifferent persona still on.

"What? Are you saying Morning Light Warriors are only as good as your trainee warriors?" Gamma Endo growled.

"I think he said they were worse than his trainees." Gamma Harry chuffed.

Gamma Endo growled louder.

Bell smirked and raised his brow in challenge, "What? Did I say that?"

Gamma Endo and Gamma Harry paused and blink for a moment before bursting out into loud guffaws. They slapped each other on the backs as if Bell made a very funny joke.

"He got you there!" Gamma Harry said, slapping Gamma Endo repeatedly on his back, "He really didn't say it."

"Hahaha. He got you too!" Gamma Endo slapped Gamma Harry's back even harder.

One day, one of the older male wolves was going to get fed up with Bell's attitude and punch his ears or something. But it wasn't today.

Today the two gammas were too busy trying to see who could tolerate the hardest back slap to notice that they were being played.

I don't understand it. It was like this during training nights too. Bell would be cold and aloof, bossy and demanding, and the other guys would fawn over him like he was the darling of the town. (Was that the power of the luna? omo)

Tonight he was just as cold and aloof, sarcastic too, and Dad and the other elder wolves were beaming like they just met the brightest most engaging young man they've ever seen. Like seriously! Wth?

I know he's my luna, and now that he's here in person, I was even more aware of the existence of our mating bond.

I'm not sure what happened earlier, but when we met, something zinged through our mating bond and now It was as if the little stream between us had widened and deepened into a river.

My wolf could practically race straight through the bond, directly into his heart and back... repeatedly. (Yes, my wolf might just have ADHD. Could wolves get that?)

The mating band on my arm was reacting to our physical meeting too. It had been emitting a soft warm feeling around my upper arm since dinner. This was very distracting, I wanted to roll up my sleeves to try to get a look, but we were in a meeting... which wasn't starting because everyone was fawning over MY luna and saying all kinds of nice words about him.

It had to be a Luna thing. I know he's my Luna and all, but why did everyone like him so darn much?

Everyone loved Mum, but Mum was a warm and nurturing Luna. Mate was...

Yeah, that was the other thing I realized about my luna now that our mating bond had strengthened its link... Mate's wolf, was not quite the gentle Luna wolf typical of most packs.

Okay, it's not like I was the typical alpha wolf either... I wonder how that would work out for our pack?

I mean, now that I thought about it, I wasn't sure what our pack leadership was going to look like.

Even though I've been told our pack was crazy, we had the standard Alpha-Luna model. Dad was the strong, authoritative alpha male and Mum was the capable and compassionate Luna. The both of them worked hand in hand in leading two dozen wolves into the Green Packlands to start a new pack. And now we were the Night Leaf Pack of the Green Packlands.

Of course they always had Beta Lucas, dad's true beta, who was faithful and surprisingly dependable when it counted, and Gamma Harry who was actually the Gamma's heir from the ousted Gamma family at Night Forest.

When Grandpa Alpha's and Grandma Luna's packs merged, Grandpa Alpha's Gamma had to fight Grandma Luna's Gamma to see who got to keep the gamma position. Gamma Harry's Dad lost. So yeah. I guess he figured he might as well follow Dad out, since he liked to tell Jonah, "Better a gamma of a small pack, than nothing in a big pack."

Which was kind of insulting to deltas and warriors and everyone else in general, but Gamma Harry was not known for his tact, and we all got used to it by now.

Anyway, my parents modeled a very standard and proper pack leadership. No matter how "radical" our policies were, our pack's hierarchy was pretty textbook standard when it came to wolf packs. I'm not sure how to follow in their footsteps.

I mean, have you met Bell's wolf? Or mine? I'm not sure what the goddess was thinking when she bonded us to be soul mates. I mean, I was like Twilight - not the movie, let's be honest here, more like Twilight from My Little Pony. And the Moon Goddess be like, "Who should I pair with this socially awkward blue haired pony? I know!"

And she bonded me with Megatron. From Transformers. Just for the heck of it.

Yeah, that's exactly how I think the goddess matched Bell with me. We came from completely different story lines, with completely different goals. "Friendship is magic" vs "Peace through tyranny."

Yeah, I shall name Bell's wolf, Megatron. Hahaha.

So there I was feeling very pleased about the name I had found for my Mate's wolf, while the other wolves in the room began my Inauguration Planning Meeting by discussing the Underground Army's migration to the Green Packlands.

It sounded like building works had begun on top of the the pretty hill with red trees.

Beta Gerald said something about them being plum trees. They had marked out the plum trees and due to the eco-friendly process of the new building materials, the workers had been building around these trees. (But only the plum trees. The others got chopped.)

Wild plum trees grew on wild magic and Beta Gerald remembered his mother once telling him that they could be brewed into a wine that had special medical benefits, although he could not remember what those medical benefits were, or even if she had listed them.

Once upon a time, these plum trees grew everywhere in the Green Packlands, but the magic in the plains had waned over the centuries. In fact, Maple Trees were planted here by the First Wolves who left the Colored Mountains.

As the red plum trees disappeared, they replaced them with Maple Trees, so that even though in the spring, the number of red flowering trees dwindled, in the fall, the same number of red leafed trees would stand. Just to remember the trees that used to be.

Of course, this was just another one of Beta Gerald's mother's story. Beta Gerald's late mother, bless her soul, was an old wolf who told a great many stories. I remembered Harvey ever saying his Grandmother's formula for cultivating a larger wolf.

The size of our wolves was linked to the size of our hearts, so that our wolves would always be big enough to protect what was important to us. She even prescribed the four virtues to cultivate: Purity, loyalty, faithfulness, and courage... which led to Jonah, the guy who used to flash his Spongebob Squarepants boxers at his entire class, now becoming as modest as a nun, in order to preserve his "purity" until his first shift. Lol.

I wished I knew Harvey's grandmother when she was alive. Didn't I tell you? Old wolves told the best stories!

Anyway, Beta Gerald's point wasn't in his mother's fantastic storytelling skills, "I found it quite curious at first, when my son reported that Alpha Sam wanted to preserve the red trees. Under normal circumstances, one would assume, planting new trees after building the town would suffice."

Right, I suppose that would be a more practical solution. Beta Gerald continued, "My son and I visited the building site and I must admit, I was quite surprised to find they were indeed wild red plum trees. If my mother's stories are to be believed, then uprooting these trees would kill them, for they are deeply rooted in the magic veins of the mountains."

"Wait." Beta Lucas raised his hand, "What magic veins of the mountains?"

"The wild red plum trees grow on wild magic, drawn from deep within the earth." Beta Gerald answered, and then he looked embarrassed, "It's just a story..."

"Then why are you talking about it?" Gamma Endo interrupted, "Why are we wasting time listening to fairytales?"

"Because, Gamma." Harvey calmly answered, his voice cool and steely, "We found the Wild Red Plum Trees."

"Then why are you saying its just a story?" Now it was Gamma Harry's turn to be frustrated, "That's good! Better than Maple Syrup. What are we waiting for? Is there a recipe? How do we make magic medicinal wine?"

Beta Gerald sighed, "I'm afraid I do not know. I am combing through the large library my mother had left behind, but have yet to find any more information about the trees. Even this story, it was one Harvey remembered being told at bedtime."

"So it is just a fairytale!" Gamma Endo deduced.

"Except the trees are real." Beta Lucas reminded him.

There was silence. Dad was wearing his thinking frown, and then he looked at Bell, "Son, do the Lorents have any record of this medicinal wine?"

"Ah!" Beta Gerald lit up, "Yes, the Lorent pack is famed for their alchemy bloodlines. Do you know anything about it, Luna Bell?"

Bell gave it some thought, "Unfortunately, most of our alchemist have been murdered by my uncle or kidnapped by rogues. Only two families remain, although how much remains I am uncertain. I'll have Ki investigate and report."

The other men nodded.

"Well, then let's wait and see. In the meantime, the rest of us should also research on this matter." Dad sounded really serious about it too.

Wild Magic Red Plum Trees... could it really be? I knew the Green Packlands was closest to the Colored Mountains, but could it really be?

I could understand why Beta Gerald veered from telling us about them as a fact, and then as a story. It was unbelievable.

But I suppose if we could grow a Gyaara in our basement, it wouldn't be too far fetched to grow a magic tree in our backyard...

"But the trees cannot be uprooted, right?" I asked.

"Indeed, they are linked to a vein of magic, once broken, it cannot be restored." Beta Gerald replied gravely.

And then Boo suddenly said something, but not aloud. Just two lines of lycan prose, but I realized we just hit the gold mine:

{Often the real treasure lies under the ground.

It is the fool who rejoice in a diamond without seeing the mine.}

Okay, so maybe it was a diamond mine.

Just kidding. You know and I know that Lycan texts were never so straightforward. It would have to be a riddle that would force one to make many detours before finding what might be the right answer - and even then, you'd never know if what you were looking at was the diamond or the mine.