A LITTLE CULTURAL MISUNDERSTANDING

4 MARCH, THURSDAY, CONTINUED

I turned and made my way across the lawn. The cool grass felt better between my muddy gritty toes. Ki followed behind quietly.

We didn't talk.

I don't know why, but I felt bad. I felt like I did something really wrong, but I couldn't tell what. We had a friendly fight, Wolfgang was really strong. I had to give it everything I had to win.

Wait... Was I not supposed to win? O.o!

Like was I supposed to lose on purpose to balance out the score? No one told me... But even if I knew, if I were absolutely honest about it, I wouldn't have thrown the match. I guess I was more like Mate than I realized. I didn't know how to lose either. Still, my mind kept replaying what Wolfgang said, what Alpha Gunter said, whatever I remembered didn't match up.

Mostly the bit about Wolfgang's fire being extinguished was concerning. I hoped it wasn't permanent.

WAIT! Was that MY FAULT? Like was it me?

Did I accidentally extinguish the fire of THE LAST FIRE WOLF? By rolling him in the MUD? OMO. I felt myself close to hysteria. I know, I know, it was long over, I was probably just tired, but WTH did I just do?

"Hey, Ki?" I asked tentatively.

Ki had already let me into the side wing of the Alpha House and we were making our way up the stairs to my room. I paused midway and turned. Ki stopped his steps too and smiled his gentle smile, "Yes, goddess?"

I hesitated. Maybe if I just pretended nothing happened, it would all blow off by tomorrow morning. And if it didn't maybe Dad would make it okay. I mean, this was assuming that I was the idiot who just extinguished the fire of the Last Fire Wolf, and the Fire Pillar of the Snow Moon Kingdom... maybe it had nothing to do with me. Maybe it just went out on its own.

"Can you tell me something?" I wondered if Ki knew.

"Anything, goddess." Ki promised.

I sighed a little, "Do you know what I did wrong?"

"Goddess did nothing wrong." Ki smiled like a flower to the sun, and then he added a little more sternly, "It was the Fire Wolf's own fault."

Yeah. Wait, no. That was way too convenient.

"Exactly what is the Fire Wolf at fault for?" I had to clarify because suddenly I wasn't sure if Ki was saying "Goddess can do no wrong, it's everyone else's fault."

Or if he were really stating an objective fact that I was still unaware of. (Please let it be this! I was not ready to carry the guilt of extinguishing the fire of the Last Fire Wolf for the rest of my life and all of lycan history.)

I could see it now, the tale of "How the last fire wolf lost his flame."

And all the little pups would be told the story about a stupid barbarian alpha who rolled the last fire wolf in the mud and extinguished his fire. I didn't mean to! It was an accident! But who did things like that? Who officially caused the extinction of fire wolves by accident? Me. Wow. This must be what an epic fail felt like.

Maybe they'd even interview me on LNC, "How do you feel about being the wolf who extinguished the fire of the LAST FIRE WOLF?"

"Well, Sharon, may I call you Sharon?" I would cross my legs and try to look professional, "If I had to be perfectly honest, it was an accident."

And Sharon would nod with understanding, "Can you tell us, how this accident happened?"

And I would explain that I had to roll him in the mud to put out the fire because I was trying to win and the fire was hot.

"As I understand, it was a friendly match." Sharon would point out to the unseen TV audience, "Why didn't you, I just want to understand because your pack already had a 3-1 win against Snow Moon. Why didn't you just LET HIM WIN?"

And I would blink, like a deer caught in front of the headlights, "That's a good question, Sharon. But let me just point out, the first match was a demo match, so that win didn't count. The technically correct score was 2-1."

Because guilty people liked to play the technical card.

I was still technically wrong for extinguishing his flame.

I plead ignorance. How was I supposed to know it was so easy to put out? People who's entire existence depended on a single flame should be more careful.

"Wolfgang went too far." Ki simply said.

Yes. Let's just go with that. Should I ever have to sit a TV interview about how the Last Fire Wolf lost his fire, I would say, "Wolfgang went too far."

We had resumed our trek up the stairs and I noticed belatedly that I've left muddy prints all the way up to the third floor. I stopped before the third-floor landing and considered the sand-colored carpet that stretched across it. Hm... I probably shouldn't walk on this.

"Please allow me, goddess." Ki stepped forward. I stiffened, he better not try to carry me! It wasn't just my feet that were covered in mud. I could feel my hair plastered on my back. I was sure I looked like Swamp Thing - just scrawnier and more pathetic.

To my relief, Ki opened the secret storage wall and retrieved a couple of fresh towels. Oh. Okay, so I just step on that? Two towels wouldn't get me all the way through the landing and my room to the bathroom. Maybe I could wrap my feet with them, one towel over each foot, and shuffle over to the bathroom. Yeah, that might work. And I guess it'll save on laundry. Good plan! I lifted one foot in anticipation.

But instead of dropping the towels on the ground in front of me, Ki went down on one knee about where I had expected him to put the first towel. I blinked at him nonplussed. He laid one towel on his propped-up knee, "Pardon me, goddess."

My relief turned to horror when Ki moved my foot by the ankle and rested it on his knee. He used the other towel to wipe off the dirt.

OMG. The mortification. I felt the blood rush to my face in a bid to dissociate itself from my feet no doubt. OMG.

I tried to pull my foot away, but the movement only caused Ki to look up, "A hundred apologies, goddess. Should I fetch a chair?"

What? Why? Wait... I was NOT going to sit on a chair while Ki cleaned my feet! I shook my head, "I... I can clean my own feet."

Ki smiled his Killion-dollar smile, "Of course, goddess."

He released my foot. I breathed a sigh of relief. Ki folded the towel on his lap so the clean side faced me, "Please, goddess."

If Ki thought I would just step on him with another muddy foot, he must have gone mad. I shook my head. I very nearly flared, but I remembered just in time that my hair was currently in nature's mud mask, so I only shook my head a very little bit.

"You don't have to." I tried to explain, "I can do it on my own."

Ki was immediately apologetic, "Forgive me, did I wipe your feet with too much force?"

Ki had gone MAD.

I took the towel from his hand, "No. But it's weird."

I roughly swiped off the dirt as best as I could. When the outermost pieces of dried mud started flaking onto the floor, I pulled the first towel off Ki's knee and straightened it on the carpet to catch the dirt.

Now Ki looked honestly confused, "Apologies, goddess."

He stood up and proceeded to turn down my room and prepare my bath and clothes... I finished cleaning up my feet and followed him into my room. He bowed to leave at my entry, "Is there anything else I can do for you goddess?"

In every way, Ki had returned to his usual self again. It was like the feet cleaning incident didn't happen. I was sorely tempted to just pretend it didn't happen too. I had already extinguished the last Fire Wolf's flame. In every way, I felt like I had enough to deal with on my plate, but Ki was... Ki was wearing his gentle smile. The one he reserved for when he was being very careful.

"What's wrong Ki?" I asked.

"What do you mean, goddess?" Ki's smiling mask was quite firmly in place tonight.

I took a steadying breath and look Ki straight in the eye, "You know."

Ki's smile fell now, "I've somehow displeased you."

What?

"No, I mean, I'm not mad. Just that cleaning my feet was weird." I tried to explain, "You shouldn't have to do that."

"It's tradition." Ki informed me, "I've been doing it for your luna, as my father had been doing it for his alpha."

Wait, what?

"Doing what, Ki?" I asked. Just to be sure we were talking about the same thing.

"Cleaning after my alpha after a fight." Ki explained, "For example, after the demonstration, I helped your luna clean his sword and boots too. This responsibility is my privilege and honor as your beta."

"Like, you let Bell step on you with his boots on?" You know, just to be VERY SURE we were talking about the same thing.

Ki smiled, but it was his usual smile, "I never thought about it that way, but I suppose you can say that, goddess. A beta is after all nothing but a tool sometimes and the doormat other times."

This had to be a Lorent thing.

"The Alpha should only hand his weapon over to someone he trusts. The same is true for cleaning his feet. One can never be too careful. The warrior kneeling to clean your boots might be the warrior who would catch you off balance and kill you." Ki said.

Well yes, I guess if your alpha stepped on you with muddied boots on a regular basis, eventually the temptation to throw him and stab him might become a very real thing.

"Alphas should wipe their own weapons and clean their own feet!" I argued. That would save everyone the trouble.

Ki shook his head, "An alpha should not soil his hands, nor lower his head in front of others."

This wasn't really too far a stretch from lycan traditional expectations, but the application of this ideal in real life was really the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I've never seen Beta Lucas cleaning up after Dad like that! (Collecting dry cleaning and bringing our car to the car wash didn't count!)

Okay, admittedly, Beta Lucas did clean up after Dad a lot now that I thought about it - especially when Dad needed someone to help clean up the paperwork, rogue bodies, coffee spills etc. BUT I felt quite sure Dad had never stepped on Beta Lucas with his boots on - not on purpose anyway.

"Ah, I see now it was a cultural misunderstanding." Ki smiled, "My faux pas. A thousand apologies for the confusion."

His foe what now?

And then Ki mused aloud, "Sometimes I become so comfortable here, I forget myself."

Which was good right? I wanted Ki to be comfortable and happy here, right?

Okay, whatever. I shrugged my mud-slicked shoulders feeling glad that whatever Foie Gras (?) it was had cleared up. Just as Ki said - just a cultural misunderstanding.

Ki excused himself after once again ensuring I had everything I needed. Left alone by myself in the bathroom, I got to work unfastening my warrior jacket.

The Betamen warrior gear was amazingly mud proof. When I took off the jacket and pants, everything covered was mud free.

I should wear it the next time my class had to play touch rugby. And then I realized, I'd never play touch rugby or have any kind of physical training with my class ever again.

Enter the Pink Elephant named GOODBYE-WINDERHILL, because all my pink elephants were still lurking. Tomorrow will be my LAST day of school. Wow. It felt like I was reading a good book and suddenly flipped to the last chapter.

I squelched GOODBYE-WINDERHILL away to the back of my mind with all its other pink elephant friends.

Okay, no matter what happens, we need to settle Wolfgang's problem. The last thing I needed was another pink elephant.