BACK TO LULLABY ROUTE

15 FEBRUARY, SUNDAY, AFTERNOON

Ben was waiting for me on our front porch, "Alpha Duty time."

I thought he wanted to cancel that. 

"Where are we going?" I asked. 

"Lullaby Route." Ben grinned.

Ben had answered just as my family was passing to get into the house. I felt their footsteps falter, but it could've been my imagination.

I'm glad that for whatever reason, Ben hadn't cancelled. I had read a report on Lullaby Route since I last reported the incident at the debrief meeting, and I wanted to see it for myself again.

Since our last encounter with the Free Wolf pups, Night Leaf has been collecting donations of second-hand children winter clothes, toys, books, and food stuff. When the box gets full, someone drives it down to leave at Lullaby Route. We've done two drop offs to date, and although no one had ever seen the children since, the items in the box disappear overnight. We still heard the children though, its not creepy anymore. The warriors on patrol have been teaching new songs to the kids. I wanted to go hear it.

I still owe them a magic stone too. But it's not like warlock stones were things you could buy at a store.

"Do you need to get ready?" Ben asked.

I shook my head. I felt his hand immediately take possession of the small of my back, "We'll meet the rest there."

And that was all the explanation I got. Ben led me off the porch to the garage. I was relieved when he opened the door to my usual coupe. Actually, I would have been relieved as long as it wasn't the Lambo. 

"Have you ever been there since?" I asked Ben once we were in the car.

"No." Ben said and then the car shot out of the garage and straight out of our driveway, skidding a little around the mild curve. It turned out that even though the car was the same, the way it moved depended a lot on which beta was driving (and in Ben's case, his mood). Let's just say we got to Morning Light very quickly. I hadn't realized how close our pack houses were until today. 

Nix met us on the porch, and threw us one of his playful salutes. Ben flat out ignored him, walking past him as if he hadn't existed. I decided to raise a hand in return, "Yo."

"Alpha Princess is here." Ben intoned to the small group waiting for us in the lobby. I'm guessing we were late.

"Yo princess." Everyone in the group stood up and bowed a bit.

That would have been weird to do in a casual setting, but today, the larger group made Alpha Duties suddenly more formal than usual. Today's Alpha Duties somehow included, Jonah and Gamma Harry, Flynn, with special guests, Delta Simon (the doctor from our pack in charge of healthcare), Delta Charlie (New Leaf Academy's principal and the guy in charge of education), and lo and behold, Delta Felicity (Tim and Angela's mum - the one in charge of foreign affairs, but was very good at embarrassing her kids when she was home with our pack). 

On paper, I was supposed to be doing Alpha Duties with Ben and Jonah. Flynn was the Delta in charge. Gamma Endo was supposed to be the guide. 

"Okay, now that we're all here. We can start." Nix clasped his hands together, "Greetings, my dad, Gamma Endo, is outfield this weekend. My name is Nix, and I'll be your guide to Lullaby Route today. Right! So first thing's first, I'll show you the armory so we can suit up in our protective gear and grab a few guns. Is that alright with everyone?"

"Is there a need for us to gear up too?" Delta Simon asked, "I understand that is usual practice for patrols, but I'm just tagging along to check for a place for the outpost medical clinic."

"Same here, ah, but I'm here to see if there is a way to run a remote reading or homework program... or something. I need to see what's feasible first." Delta Charlie trailed off in thought.

"Okay..." I had to give credit to Nix for keeping his smile stiffly in place, "I'm sorry, it's safety regulations. Anyone who travels along Morning Light borders must minimally wear NIJ level 3A protective gear. It's for your own personal safety."

"Good, if it hails, we can use it to protect our heads too!" Gamma Harry decided. I'm not sure how. Maybe he meant to wear the vest over his head instead of the rest of his body.

"Sorry, but you have to wear the vest according to the manufacturer's instruction for it to protect you." Nix felt he had to specify at this point.

It was even funnier because of the way Nix's smile was cracking under the ridiculousness of our Night Leaf elders. I can't imagine Morning Light having Delta Elders like ours under the very proper leadership of Beta Gerald, but Dad and Beta Lucas had a strong tolerance to weirdos.

"Our Night Leaf had always been a hogepodge crew." Dad had mused.

"They make the meetings less boring." Beta Lucas had added.

Delta Felicity raised a hand, the many ornate bangles she had on her wrist jingled, "I am already wearing a NIJ 3+, but it's underneath my clothes. Do you need to check?"

"Oh...no. No, no, no, madam." Nix refused quickly, "I'll take your word for it."

Gamma Harry had a bright idea, he patted his wide girth, "I also have armor under my clothes."

Everyone above 21 laughed. This must be what you called an "uncle joke". Gamma Harry laughed the loudest, slapping Jonah hard on his back. Jonah managed to choke out a chuckle for his Dad's sake.

"I'm sorry, the armor must be graded." Nix said, ignoring the laughter, "It's for your personal safety. You do not have to carry arms, but that would be highly recommended."

"Then I'll skip the gun." Delta Simon decided immediately, "I've got a bad back."

"We'll leave the shooting to you young ones." Delta Charlie agreed.

"I'm afraid the gun will chip my manicure." Delta Felicity explained.

"Okay!" Nix was finally out of patience, "Then let's go to the armory and suit up, but only if you haven't. Take a gun, but only if you want." 

Hahaha. I actually liked the Nix that was fed up more than the one who liked to flirt.

We got to the armory and everyone started to gear up. Flynn put his on pretty quickly, I guess he was still an active warrior, so he was used to it. He tried to help me pick out a decent vest and adjusted it to my size.

"Don't." Ben said sharply, "Why are you guys always coddling her? She'll never learn to do it herself."

Flynn finished up adjusting the straps and handed it over to me, nevertheless, "But beta, she's a girl."

"She's the alpha." Ben reminded him. 

"The Alpha PRINCESS." Flynn retorted his beta.

I put on the vest and managed to buckle it up the right way. It wasn't hard but it felt looser than when Ki had done it for me. I double checked to make sure I didn't miss a buckle. Just in case.

"Alright, who wants guns? Please check your weapons and sign in for your rounds." Nix called from the table at the other end of the armory. Ben, Jonah, Flynn, and Gamma Harry went to collect guns.

"No gun for the princess?" Nix asked me.

I shook my head, "I don't need one."

Actually, I didn't need the vest either. It'll only get in my way should I need to shift. But we probably won't get into any trouble, right? Right.

"Alright," Nix allowed grudgingly, "Stay where I can see you, Princess. The rest of you are responsible for your own safety. I'd suggest pairing up with someone with a gun if you don't have one."

"I can protect her." Ben said.

"I can protect myself." I told them both.

"Yeah, sure. Princess." Nix winked at me, "Okay, let's go. We've got some ground to cover. Don't lag behind."

Following Nix down the route was a lot like following Gamma Endo. Nix was really following in his father's footsteps. I wondered how often the both of them walked this route together. Nix stomped through the same side of the trail and stopped at the same places to wait for everyone else to catch up.

Lullaby Route had changed since I last saw it. It was no longer covered with snow. The ground was bare and dark brown. I could make out the walking path and some of the trees were beginning to bud - I could only tell from the smell of the tree, and then the tiny buds, just little white dots breaking through the rough brown bark. They were still hardly there yet, but the tree already had a different feeling.

I saw rabbits. Rabbits that ran about the mostly frozen dirt ground, they popped into their burrow the moment we walked by.

We finally hit the borderline, where the frontline of the evergreen woods met and mingled with the other trees on our side.

This time, it was all quiet.

"Funny, they're usually singing around this time." Nix mumbled, and then he raised his voice, "Hullo! Anyone home?"

I sniffed the air and sensed around. They were there.

"Hullo! Anyone home?" A child echoed back.

Nix smiled, "Okay, good. Watch this princess!"

And then he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Our loyalty to the alpha Princess!"

And then some voices yelled back, "Yo!"

And then silence again, before the young voices called out, "Our loyalty to the alpha Princess! Yo!"

Nix pulled out a fistfull of candy and counted out the number of kids he heard. Then threw it into the direction of the voices. The kids didn't come out.

"They'll collect it when we leave. There are only a few of them today. Usually, there could be easily more than 10 of them." Nix told us, then he instructed us, "Start singing with me and they'd join in."

He started first, "A copper coin for two sparrows..." The adults joined in the old war song. And then the Free Wolf kids chimed in. We walked along the way singing. At one point, we stopped for Jonah to refill the box. He put in paper bags of stuff.

And then I noticed, there weren't any paper cranes left on the ground anymore. I actually forgotten all about them, until one appeared, solidarity and white against the brown, now that the snow was melted. Nix automatically picked it up and exchanged it for a small pile of blue candy. Then he crumpled up the paper crane and stuffed it into his pocket.

I remembered the papercranes were supposed to carry a message to the ones who were no longer here to tell it to, "What do you think it says?"

"Nothing new." Nix said, "It's all one tear jerker after another. It's better not to open them."

Oh. I felt sad for the Free Wolf pups. I should be feeling sad for our pups too. Our pups, like Shannon, who grew up never being able to tell their dads anything.