THE FIRST TRIAL

20 FEBRUARY, SATURDAY, 11.30AM

So here we were, in a stand off with the first line of security we had met since crossing into the Gold Packlands. You know, I had no idea travelling with Dad and Beta Lucas together was going to be like this. Sometimes I heard their stories, and Dad had ever said he had to allow for an extra hour or two whenever they went to town together, but now I was beginning to see why, these two... they were troublemakers.

Mum sighed and settled down. She took out her phone to pass the time. At first, I thought she was going to play Sudoku or Solitaire, but then I realized she was checking out LNC's online tabloid news... on me.

"Mum! Don't read that. They're all lies." I told her.

"But I want to be your number one fan." Mum smiled at me. She put a like next to every nice comment made about me at the end of the article. This one was about the picture of Marcus and I heading to the car after school entitled, "INSIDE REVEAL: After School Romance" There were a lot of comments - on my hair. Like how many times did I change my hairstyle in a day, and how this one looked like something a fairy might wear.

Oh, it was the one that Fluffy had done for me.

SUPERMUM typed, "I'm her #1 fan. I love all her hairstyles."

I watched Mum hit the "Post Comment" button.

Okay, it's confirmed. I was in a car with crazy people. Somehow, I'm not sure when, but my sensible and responsible parents and Beta Lucas had been swapped with these three alien beings... who were all from loonie planet.

I got out of the car - I needed some fresh air.

"Oh wait, Sam, no!" Mum gasped in alarm. She actually dropped her phone on her lap in an attempt to grab at me, but I was too fast. I slammed the door shut behind me, stepped away from the car, and found myself face to face with the red ant officer without a sense of humor.

"Please remain in the car, Miss." The red ant officer said.

"Yo Princess!" My warriors yelled it like a war cry, startling the red ants. The red ants looked warily at the rowdy warriors on half straddle positions on their bikes, unsure of what to do with this bunch of honoured guests.

You know how they called us a barbaric pack right? I was beginning to see why too. It seemed like our trip out of the Green Packlands was quite the eye opener.

It got worse (for the red ants, not me), when Ben came out too.

"Alpha Princess is here." He announced belatedly, but he didn't have to. It might be my blue hair or the blue cars and warriors suddenly yelling their greeting, but I think the red ants knew who I was by now.

"Apologies, princess." The red ant officer quickly corrected himself, and then he repeated, "Please return to your vehicle until the security check is complete."

Unlike the officer that gave me a bad impression when I last visited Henry, this one was quite the opposite. His uniform was pressed to perfection, and all the metal bits on his jacket was shiny.

I offered him a wide smile. I was with Mum on this one. Why make trouble for warriors who were just trying to do their job?

"I'm just stretching my legs." I told him, "Are one of my wolves giving you trouble? Can I help you?"

Ben raised a brow at my apparent siding with the ants, but to his credit, he said nothing.

My offer seemed to have caught the red ant officer off guard, "N..no. Not at all, princess. Nothing we Silver Mountain Warriors aren't trained to handle."

So you handled it by delaying us? I looked back at the queue of cars. From here, I could see the black convoy behind us, and the white one behind that - Mate! Oh, but no, I couldn't sense him near. Still, those cars were definitely Lorent cars - and there were like... I couldn't see the end of their convoy from where I stood, but definitely more than 10 identical cars, no bikes. Gamma Harry was right. It did seem that Lorent warriors traveled in Mercedes Benzs.

But who was I to judge them? Lorent warriors liked to travel in white Merces, mine liked to cause trouble and hold up security check point lines.

"Sir, Gamma wants to know what the hold up is." One of the warriors reported, "The traffic at Gold City Main Street has come to a standstill."

I'm not sure why he didn't think to report this via the mindlink.

"That's because the Lorents are behind us. Your Main Street is clogged because you've got 18 toilet rolls in a row back there." Ben informed the red ants.

Pffftttt... he called the Lorent's white cars toilet rolls.

A red ant ran out with our papers. Ben took it from him, "Don't forget, 3 cars and 6 bikes."

"But..." The red ant officer said.

But Ben was out of patience. He put me into the car. Like he opened the door and pushed me in. What kind of Beta pushed his Alpha around?

"Look, put a note on the guest list, or choose if you'd rather I call Henry or Pete and demand the parking spaces."

And then Ben slammed the door shut behind me.

"Oh, is it over already?" Beta Lucas put his phone away at my entry.

We watched the gravity of Ben's threat sink in on the red ant officer, and then Ben returned to his car without taking out his phone. The red ant officer wrote a note on his clipboard and waved us through. The other red ants watched from the side as we pulled away from the guard house.

"Young wolves have no patience." Dad shook his head.

What? Were they planning to sit here all day?

"You know, Sam, if you had waited, their Beta would have to come out." Beta Lucas told me, "And then there would be a good show."

"Remember the last time we came, Alpha?" Beta Lucas prompted.

The corner of dad's mouth quirked upwards just a little.

Beta Lucas laughed out loud at the memory, "Rob was so mad, it was like setting fire to ants."

"I'm sure he was mostly mad at us." Dad said, "He was just looking for a dog to kick."

Like I said, it turned out that Dad and Beta Lucas were the real trouble makers. Next time, we were riding in separate convoys.

Anyway, we were finally through the the check point - let us call the THE FIRST TRIAL because the road to Henry's Inauguration turned out to be full of hidden trials and only the worthy may enter. But I didn't know that then. I had thought we were finally cleared and everything would be smooth sailing from here. Well... yes and no.

Because no sooner had we gotten out of our cars, we were led to the Alpha's Hall to greet Alpha George and the Young Alpha Henry, THE SECOND TRIAL.

Silver Mountain had a bizarre custom which I could have sworn was designed to fleece its guests.

The Silver Mountain Packhouse was grand and imposing. A butler met us at the front door, "Good afternoon, honored Alphas and guests. I am Delta Sebastian and I will be your assistant during your stay at Silver Mountain this weekend. Please walk this way."

Okay, so he wasn't a butler. He was a full delta, but you had to admit, with lines like those... Hahaha. Delta Sebastian was the closest thing to a real butler I've ever known.

Sebastian led us through a large hallway, with crystal chandeliers and thick carpets, "Over here is our chandelier collection. Over the years, our pack house has undergone many, many, renovations. Our luna had found all the chandeliers from previous eras stored in the basement, and in our last revamp of the pack house, we have incorporated them along our hallways. As you can see, not one of these chandeliers are the same. They are arranged in historical order."

I looked up at the sparkly lights that were all brightly lit in the middle of the day. They looked like a row of huge fairy lights, each light like a glowing jewel. It was very pretty.

"Very nice. Reminds me of the shop window of a lighting store." Beta Lucas informed Delta Sebastian.

"Erm, yes. Quite right, beta." Delta Sebastian lowered his head in submission. Poor Delta Sebastian!

I wanted to tell Beta Lucas to stop picking fights, but when I turned to him, I saw him admiring the lights and realised he was just stating an honest opinion. Omo. I couldn't fault anyone for being honest right? And now that Beta Lucas pointed it out, I had to admit, he had a good point.

"The Night Leaf and Morning Light Alphas and Betas bring their greetings." Delta Sebastian announced sounding rather relieved that he could wash his hands off us once we stepped into the Alpha Hall.

Little did I know that this was the signal to THE SECOND TRIAL in which every pack who came had to first come to the Alpha Hall, and present the Young Alpha Henry with a gift to congratulate him on his inauguration, represent their pack, and express the kind of future relations we hope our packs might have.

This in itself was not unique to Silver Mountain. What was unique was that the whole ceremony was on live telecast. There were cameras mounted on tripods and tracks around the hall, and long mics on even longer sticks, so all the world would know exactly what each pack had brought.

The last time while attending some young Alpha's investiture, Beta Lucas took care of the gift. "It was very easy. I just collected crates and packed in a bit of everything we produced at Night Leaf and Morning Light. Some maple syrup, our packhouse bread, apple jams, maple tree saplings..."

Wait, where was our gift? I panicked. Now all the world would know we were the barbaric pack that came empty handed!

But I needn't have freaked, we had Ki who knew all the proper etiquette. Our gift had been sent before us and was already sitting in the large hall. All I saw were a few cars parked in a row on one side of the hall - which was weird. Why would anyone park cars in here? If the corridor here was the shop window of the lighting store, the Alpha hall was the car showroom.