LITTLE MYSTERIES EVERYWHERE

Since I was a pup, I was well aware that Night Forest was a very different place from Night Leaf. My Grandpa Alpha's pack was old, the Packhouse was old, the wolves were old (but that could just be my Grandpa's friends), the landmarks were so old that they were from before the Great War or built after the Great War. That was history books old! They had bridges that were centuries old and still standing.

We didn't have old stone bridges in the Green Packlands, just metal and concrete ones. Actually, we didn't have anything older than Dad. Lol.

I personally liked the stone bridges though. Those were the best ones because they were the ones that trolls might jump out of, or heroes could walk under and emerge in a whole other world. I tried to explain to Dad, Beta Lucas, and Roy that we should consider other externalities. This was definitely during my puphood in this timeline because there was no other life that a dumb pup like me would've been able to use the word "externalities".

The men laughed because I bet they thought I was so darn cute.

"Extra-what, Sam?" Beta Lucas asked.

"Extranalities." I said because I got confused by him.

"What? Extra-nelly?" Beta Lucas asked again. But I realized he was messing with me, I narrowed my eyes at my Dad's beta, "EX-TER-NA-LI-TEES."

"Hoo boy." Beta Lucas shook his head, "What are you reading to her now, Roy-boy?"

Despite my impressive big word, no one was convinced by my puppy self to exchange their modern engineering for a stone bridge. Nobody ever listened to me when it came to urban planning, which admittedly might be for the better. I was the kind of pup with rather radical ideas about how Gate City should be. I'm glad Dad stuck to his own vision. Building skyscrapers like bouncy castles or our train station in the style of giant gummy worms knitted together would not have worked out for their intended purpose.

For some reason though, in this timeline, I spent a lot of time playing around or under Dad's table while he discussed pack issues and city development plans… Hmm… How was it that Dad had so much time in his office? I tried to remember Dad rushing out with Beta Lucas to deal with rogue threats, Morning Light SOS, or any other regular emergencies in this timeline. They did happen, but not as much as I remembered in my Original Timeline. Certainly, I was never stuck in a tree by Beta Lucas because they needed extra hands to fight in this timeline. I never had to ride out to the borders on the back of Dad's bike either.

Night Leaf in this timeline was more peaceful… and dare I say, somewhat wealthier than the Night Leaf I remembered in the Original Timeline. It wasn't so obvious that our packhouse had chandeliers or golden doorknobs or anything Lorent like that. It was in the little things, like how Dad and Beta Lucas still had their motorbikes parked in the Packhouse's underground carpark - or that we now had ample underground parking facilities for that matter. How was that "exactly as it should be"? Very sus, Dad. And Beta Lucas too. It was no secret that the lack of parking during packhouse events had always been a source of frustration for Beta Lucas. Yup, this had his fingerprints all over it. And you know how the beta was the Alpha's right hand right? Right.

I know Fluffy had suggested "guiding" our past selves, but how far had they taken it?

The Grand Old Night Forest in Timeline 3, in contrast, stood largely unchanged from the one I remembered in our Original Timeline. It was like their packland was so old, whatever tempering my Dad and Beta Lucas did never went back far enough to make a difference.

Still, Night Forest too had its own share of mysteries. Like the Legend of the Night Forest Healer. Never mind the plagiarized storyline, nothing was ever said of how she came to be, or what happened to her after the Great War.

There were other little funny things I had observed about Night Forest since I was a puppy.

ONE: Arachnophobia - the fear of spiders, was a widespread phenomenon among the wolves here. My cousins would scream at the sight of the tiniest one in the hallway. The warriors would stiffen in their post. Even my Uncle Louis would freeze mid rush. Grandpa Alpha would laugh - but that was only because he liked to laugh in the face of danger. When I helped stomp it to death, my cousins told me I was very brave. I should be careful though.

"Why?" I asked, "It's just a spider."

Nobody answered me.

"Just don't do it again." Esmeralda told me at last. She added darkly, "You'd never know with these things."

And then my cousins laughed.

TWO: Beyond the lake - The lake behind the packhouse was very large, so large that it seemed to reach the horizon, but Grandpa Alpha told me that this was just an illusion because of the fog on the other side.

"What's on the other side?" My puppy self naturally wanted to know.

"You'd never know." Grandpa Alpha told me, "Sometimes a mountain, other times a field. There are times it is like a never ending sea."

But I think he was lying to me again. On clear days, when there was no fog, you could see the other side quite clearly. Just woods - and when I was old enough, I made Roy show me the map, and the land across the lake was the Night Forest territory that connected to the Blue Packlands. Roy said during the Great War, a huge fire burned through the strip of land between the two colored packlands for many days. Today, the soil there is very fertile and a secondary forest has grown over the long scared grounds.

I bet the only reason why Grandpa Alpha didn't like it was because he was scared of boats and water. So the land there was left to fallow.

THREE: The Other Lake - Technically, this was the same lake, but if you followed the lake down south, the forest trees would bear markers - a small wave symbol cut into the trunk of each tree as a warning. This area was protected land and "those who go beyond will never return."

But now that I was older and wiser, I think its probably their rogue burial ground.

So there was nothing particularly weird about it. I think maybe the weird thing was Grandpa Alpha's fear of the lake, especially since it was just behind his home.

Night Forest Wolves were a black wolf majority. They were the wolves who left the mountains blah blah blah... Some say Grandpa Alpha's black wolf pack were the descendants of the first wolves - like before wolves bonded with humans, or gained their human forms.

They were said to be the most aggressive and territorial of all the wolves on the Mountains. If that were true, wasn't it ironic that they were one of the few packs that got displaced from their Mountain home and were now here in the plains?

Till today, I would find myself wondering, "Why did our ancestors leave the Colored Mountains?"

---

"And she's offline... again." Ben groaned. He complained to the other two betas, "She keeps zoning out since we got back."

(I did not!)

"Maybe alpha's dealing with important mindlinks." Harvey, as usual, was giving me more credit than I deserved.

"No chance." Ben scoffed, "She's totally offline. She even blocked me out."

I did? Oh right. It wasn't intentional. I just forgot to keep it open. For some reason, my mindlinks closed on default. I blamed Maria, but should I really give that vampire girl so much credit?

I blinked at the knock on the door. Ki opened it.

"Excuse us." Wolfgang made a polite bow, "Forgive my lateness, Princess."

Barry entered too and bowed, "Barry greets Alpha."

"Don't bother, guys." Ben shook his head, "She's totally offline."

WTH? I was not!

"I'm not!" I turned to Wolfgang with my wide smile to prove how not zoned-out I was, "Hi, Wolf. Hi, Barry."

I was determined to prove Ben wrong but he only shrugged and deadpanned, "Alpha Princess is back online."