MY TURN TO SET THE TRAP

26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, CONTINUED

For someone who hated the warlock lands and the jungle so much, I'm not sure why I was writing so much about it. This was not the fun experience I wanted to remember. But maybe I wanted to remember how bad it was, just in case I thought it was a good idea to come visit again. NOTE TO MY FUTURE SELF: NEVER AGAIN!

A shadow fell over me, I looked up and found Fluffy propping up one of those large sharp bladed leaves over my head.

"What are you doing?" I looked up at his smiling face.

"I'm accompanying you, Pretty Alpha." Fluffy answered. Was he serious?

Barry came over with some pale pink fruit on a large green leaf. He laid it out in front of me, "This is Jumbu, Alpha. It's good for quenching thirst."

The pale pink fruit looked weird.

"Ah..." Barry noticed my hesitation, "You can eat it like an apple. It's good. I think they call it something else in our continent."

"Syzygium samarangense." Ink supplied when he came over. I didn't know this fruit, but I was quite sure that would not be its common name in any continent.

"Hoi, hoi! Are you guys doing something fun?" EJ bounced over from nowhere, "What are you doing Fluffy?"

"I'm accompanying Pretty Alpha till Keys get back." Fluffy smiled.

"Yeah, Young Beta instructed for Fluffy to shade Alpha from the sun..." Barry tried to explain.

Ink frowned in thought, "Could it be possible that the artificial lights in this tower emits harmful rays?"

Everyone looked up and squinted at the bright ceiling.

"Hey, what's up guys?" Torque joined our circle and looked up too.

"We have reason to believe that the artificial lights here might be harmful to health." Ink patiently explained .

I suppose... if you were a vampire. Oh wait, no. Actually, none of the vampires I knew were particularly allergic to light.

"Unfortunately, we do not have an optometer or any instruments to measure the degree of radiation." Ink continued.

The other guys nodded respectfully. Ink was really the expert here so nobody thought to question him, either on the necessity of measuring the alleged radiation produced by the lighting in the Warlock Tower, or the practicality to owning an optometer in our daily lives.

"Barry, do you know..." Ink started, but Barry shook his head haplessly before he even heard the question, "Don't ask me. I was just relaying orders."

I don't think those were orders, Barry. Ben was just...

Torque clapped Fluffy firmly on the shoulder, "I don't quite get it, but Fluffy please protect our Alpha!"

No, really. You guys are misunderstanding. Ben was just...

"Mou! I want to help!" EJ volunteered, "It's not fair that Fluffy always get the fun jobs!"

... being sarcastic. Ben was just being sarcastic.

"Aren't you supposed to be keeping our traps, EJ?" Barry asked, "You better finish your task first. If Young Beta gets back..."

"You guys..." Speak of the devil, "You guys better not be slacking off!"

The guys quickly stepped aside at Ben's appearance, "Beta."

"I leave for five minutes..." Ben grumbled as he stalked over, and then Ben saw EJ, "EJ! Have you collected all our traps?"

"Ah!" EJ panicked, "Kind of..."

But before Ben could berate him any further, Ki and the humans returned, River's scuff firmly in Wilhelm's hand.

"I'm truly sorry for the trouble, Beta." Wilhelm was saying, "Thank you for helping us find him."

"Wilhelm! Let me go!" River protested.

"River... I don't think you have the right to demand that right now " Keanu informed his friend, "Do you know how much trouble you've caused?"

"What happened?" I asked.

It might have been better if River had remained concussed after casting that Purification spell. Since then, he had brought back leeches, used up our supply of band-aids, and now... I mean, I shouldn't have been surprised. River was bound to get into trouble.

"Let me go!" River struggled in all futility against Wilhelm's firm grip, "I need to return the stone or else all of you will die!"

"Oh yeah?" Ben glared, "Who the hell is going to die?"

Ben wasn't the only one glaring. Most of my wolves looked p***ed off at yet another disruption at our camp.

"All of you will die if I don't go!" River tried to tear himself out of Wilhelm's grip, he nearly got free too, except that Ben had grabbed his arm and forced him face first into the ground.

"Ooofff..." River said.

My wolves circled around them. I got up to go see. Fluffy and the umbrella leaf following docilly along.

"Tell me again, who's gonna die?" Ben snarled at the back of River's head, but River refused to be subdued. He twisted around to face Ben, "You don't understand. You're all in grave danger..."

"Says who?" Ben snarled and shook River a little harder.

"A squirrel told me." River said.

Wait, what? I blinked.

"Are you f***ing with me? A f***ing squirrel told you?" Ben picked River up by the front of his shirt and shook him hard. Oh great, Ben was officially cheesed off.

Although River was older, and both boys were the same height... Ben was shaking River like a mad dog with a rag doll.

"Ben, enough!" I had to stop him before Ben's shaking did any permanent damage to River's brain.

Ben paused his hand, but he didn't let River go.

"You said a squirrel spoke to you?" I asked.

"Yes. A squirrel." River nodded and gulped, "It told me that it knew the way out of the forest."

"And you believed it?" I flared.

"The squirrel talked?" Barry asked. Which I suppose was a good point to contend as well.

"Uh... yeah." River answered, "I guess it does kind of sound weird."

"You can talk to animals?" I asked.

"Ah, no, no... I can't." River quickly assured me, "But I don't know why, this squirrel could talk."

Okay... as kooky as that sounded, and as weird as River could be sometimes, I believed him. Not 100%, but enough to nod, "Let him go, Ben."

Ben looked like he'd rather chop off his own hand, but he let River go.

River stumbled back to Keanu and Wilhelm. None of my wolves stopped glaring around him.

"It's been a long day." I decided, "Let's just have dinner and turn in for a rest."

Which was weird to say since the it was still bright as day. But I didn't need a watch to know we've been working overtime.

"What time is it anyway?" I asked, turning away from the humans so they'd have the privacy to nag their prince properly.

"Are we really going to just let it go?" Ben asked and then he answered, "It's not yet 9 in the morning."

Wait, what now?

Ben smirked, "Yes, Sam. We've been in the Warlock lands for more than an hour."

He had to be messing with me! But apparently, Ben wasn't lying. He showed me his watch, and then his phone. 8:47AM.

Ki explained further, "Ben and I have checked all our timekeeping devices from our analogue watches to the digital clocks on our phones and have consistently tracked only a very brief movement of time during our stay here."

Seriously? #ihatewarlocklands.

You mean we suffered an entire day, and its not been 2 hours? WTH was this? High School classroom hours?

"Are we really going to just let that prince off like that?" Ben asked again, "Sam, what if he runs off again?"

Yeah, that would be troublesome. But River wouldn't run off without reason. I couldn't explain the squirrel, but...

"Leave River to do as he please." I ordered, "And tell the other wolves to do the same until I say otherwise."

"Understood." Ben agreed now. He made a quick bow and slipped off, presumably to disseminate my order. This totally surprised me. I had thought Ben would have demanded further explanation before complying.

I'm sorry River, I know you're innocent. But I'm going to have to use you as bait to figure out what the Warlock was up to. It was my turn to set the trap now!

Meanwhile, Ki was smiling at Fluffy and the umbrella leaf. The leaf was starting to droop. Fluffy smiled back at Ki.

"I dare not ask, but what are you doing, Fluffy?" Ki asked eventually.

"I'm protecting Pretty Alpha." Fluffy answered, his smile firmly in place.

"Please protect the Alpha by attending to your patrol duties now." Ki smiled back.

Fluffy continued smiling, "As you command, Charming Beta."

He handed the droopy large leaf to Ki, "Please."

Ki accepted it, but his expression was nonplussed.

And then Fluffy bowed, "Until next time, Pretty Alpha."

"Bye Fluffy." There was a sense of relief to see him go. It was weird being followed around with a leaf over my head.

"Oi, Fluffy!" Barry yelled from the other side of camp, "We're up for the next patrol."

I looked at Ki, "Please get rid of that leaf."

Ki smiled, it was his natural smile, the amusement never leaving his face, "Your wish is my command, goddess."

I felt my shoulders drop with relief. Of all my wolves, I had to say, Ki had to be the one I could relax the most in front of. I let him lead me back to my corner of the camp and sat down. He took out a pocket knife and cut the weird pink fruit that Barry had left for me, "It's quite an experience to be enjoying exotic fruits in its natural environment. Please try some, goddess. Rose Apples are a rare find in our continent."

Oh. I looked at the delicate slice with its pink skin on. How pretty, a Rose Apple! Strange how it looked like an alien fruit just now, but now sliced into translucent silvers with its pale pink edge and a name like Rose Apple, it was suddenly transformed into something a Lorent might serve on fancy china plates.

Overall, dinner wasn't terrible either. I mean, eating in the wilderness of tropical jungle was the farthest thing from Momoshiro in my mind, and what would I give for a bucket of fried chicken! But overall, it wasn't the worst dining experience I had ever had.

The guys laid large bright green leaves on the ground to make a picnic mat. These large leaves had also been cut to make plates. Banana leaves. I had no idea banana leaves grew so large - the length of a grown man's arm! Someone had found a bunch of bananas too - I don't mean like a bunch that you could get from the grocers. I mean like a full rack stacked upwards. I had no idea bananas grew like that!

And then there was roasted sweet potato, and an assortment of meat that Ki had pre-sliced for me and served on a piece of banana leaf. I didn't ask what the meat was. I honestly would rather not know, but I did hear that Torque had taken down a boar, so minimally some of it was wild boar.

We had stew in an assortment of metal cups and mess tins. Mine had a piece of meat that was suspiciously longish looking. Monkey's tail?

Don't think about it, Sam! An alpha shouldn't be picky! Just drink the soup, maybe? Although Fluffy had called it Monkey Stew, it was more like a soup than a stew really.

"Sam, stop!" Ben said, spitting something out, "Don't eat that."

I stopped, my cup in hand, "What?"

"The snake. It's kind of bony." Ben answered.

The what now?

"Oh yeah." Barry realized, "Snakes are kind of bony, but snake soup is a delicacy..."

I put down the cup. I had thought Monkey Stew was bad, but Snake Soup wasn't any better. I don't want to know what happened to the parrots. I looked at the platter of roasted slices on my leaf and carefully picked around anything that looked like chicken. With every piece I ate, I prayed it was boar. Boar I could accept - that was like pork right?

It all tasted like meat though. I mean, it didn't quite taste like beef, or pork, but it was some kind of meat. In middle school we had meat loaf Friday every week, and it was made of what Jake and Jerry called "Mystery Meat." This meat reminded me of it.

I ate more bananas and sweet potato - they just felt safer, you know.

After dinner, we cleaned up, tidied our fire, and settled down for the night alternating between sleep and patrol duties around our camp.

"We'll rest for another 15 minutes Warlock Time." Ben instructed.

Was that what they were calling the sluggish time here?

"Ki?" I asked as I lay down and curled up inside my cape. Ki had taken to sitting by my side, his back to me.

"Yes, goddess?" Ki answered softly without turning.

"How long is 15 minutes?" I asked.

"Ben and Ink thinks it should be equivalent to 6 hours or thereabouts." Ki replied.

Oh.

I yawned. I hadn't meant to sleep, but I was just so tired, "Okay, wake me if River tries to leave again, but don't stop him."

"Understood, goddess." Ki assured me.

"And try to catch some sleep too." I mumbled.

"Beta and I will be taking turns to guard you, goddess." Ki informed me, "Please rest and do not worry about us."

They didn't have to! It didn't seem fair that they had to guard while I slept! But even as my eyes fell shut, I couldn't deny the sure sense of safety that the promise of Ki and Ben's protection provided me.