BLAM! I'M GOING TO CHANGE THE WORLD!

21 FEBRUARY, SUNDAY, CONTINUED

"It seems that things in the Green Packlands is not as rosy as it seems either." Alpha Gunter smiled, but it was a gentle smile.

"The grass is always greener on the other side." I tossed my head feeling a little defensive about having an outsider point something like that out, particularly because I never saw it that way until he pointed it out, "In our case, its true though. We are in the GREEN Packlands after all."

Ben groaned, "Oh no, Sam. Now isn't the time for bad puns."

Jonah chortled though, "Yuh. Hahaha."

"Shut up Jonah." Ben snapped.

Ben never had the patience for bad puns, which always added to the pleasure of making them.

"If you have any thoughts on this, I would like to hear it, Alpha Gunter." Dad said now. And suddenly everything got serious again.

Alpha Gunter nodded, "Of course, Alpha Kingsley. I will be honored if any of my knowledge could be of service to you."

Dad nodded, "Please speak freely. Do not hold back on account of us."

Little did anyone of us know about Alpha Gunter's penchant for talking and talking... and talking. He gave us a full hour lecture on prophetic dreams. His only saving grace was the fact that he actually knew his stuff, and that he was a very interesting speaker. We should invite him over as a guest speaker for our Lycan Studies camps.

Basically, he covered everything Mrs Beta covered when we first discussed these dreams (I looked up my diary for the notes and they can be found in entries #39, and #40).

"Perhaps it is because I am looking in from outside of the situation, but the pieces all seem to fall quite obviously in place to me." Alpha Gunter concluded, "The prophecies and prophetic dreams, along with the signs and circumstances, all seem to merge into one cumulative point in a very near future."

"Yes." Mrs Beta nodded, "We had calculated a three year runway, but now..."

She laughed, a little self consciously, "Well, it looked like we had time, but now... I'm not so sure anymore."

Mrs Beta cast a glance towards Mum as if for affirmation.

"You weren't wrong, Mum." Ben said, "Sam's the one who keeps running in and pushing the timeline forward."

"Me?" So its my fault?

"Yah." Ben said straight in my face. Because he was Ben and Ben was always direct with me like that, "Every single chance you get, your wolf runs right into it and cracks it in the balls."

WTH was that supposed to mean? And why was Ben sounding so proud of me for it?

"That's your nature, Sam." Ben told me with a shrug, and I remembered how Ben had somehow become quite an expert on me, "Your black wolf is the catalyst, your blue wolf is hellalot lucky putting you always at the right place and time, your blade wolf cuts through everything in your way, and let's not forget your gift of insight - even though you've no clue how to use it so its pretty random, but combined with your luck and catalyst nature, BLAM!"

WTH is BLAM?

"It's like how we used to play snakes and ladders, and you always landed on EVERY F***ING LADDER." Ben concluded.

Oh. Yeah. I was pretty lucky like that. I always won snakes and ladders.

"It seems our children are more alike than imaginable." Alpha Gunter smiled.

"I never win at snakes and ladders." River said.

I nodded, that made sense. River's luck was cruel like that, "Don't worry River. If your life depended on it, you'd win."

Now Alpha Gunter looked sharply up at me then, "Why do you say that, Princess?"

I shrugged, I thought that was pretty obvious, but maybe it was like Alpha Gunter said, it was easier to see it from outside, "Is River lucky or unlucky?"

Keanu answered that, "I ask myself that very often too."

Alpha Gunter was frowning lightly now, "I would be grateful for your insight, particularly if your beta's mention of your gift of insight is the same as your enchanting grandmother's."

My what now? Hahahaha.... Was Alpha Gunter referring to my ENCHANTING Grandma Luna?

"Sam, you've mentioned it before, but I don't really get it. Why did you say I am lucky?" River asked, "I seem to bring trouble everywhere I go."

And then River cast a spell, "Sam, tell me the story about why I'm lucky."

His stone glowed and although the words was that lycan spell taught to pups, the warlock stone around his neck cast it. I felt Boo stirred at the touch of the magic, both familiar and foreign at the same time, my hair flared slightly, my wolf ears twitched, "So you want to know about your luck."

Some kind of power seemed to swell up in my heart, which surprised me. I would imagine the gift of insight would be something that swelled up my brain.

"I can only tell you what I know." I answered, "Your luck is a blessing in disguise. Haven't you noticed? The odds of your survival to this day is incredible. You can't walk without tripping over your own feet and yet you never get really hurt. And there's this other thing I have observed."

"What?" River asked.

"You always win if you want it enough." I remembered the experiment I did on him during archery practice.

"River, you're a wildcard. You'd either be an incredibly powerful ally or a terrible plight to our lycan world. Humans like you are nothing but trouble in our history books."

At these words, something seemed to light up in Alpha Gunter's mind.

"But I'm good at taking risks." I told River, "I'm incredibly lucky and my guts never lead me wrong. I'm going to take the risk with you. River, Savy is my sister..."

I swallowed, not finding the right words to express how this was the girl who was half of my whole life ever since I was born, the girl who was my best friend and my closest confidant for almost all my life. How could I explain "sister"?

"I will accept you as her mate. I will protect you as long as you protect her. But if I should ever see you make her cry... goddess forbid, I will throw all my luck against yours and we'd see who remains standing at the end of it." Because even as I said this from the swelling in my heart, I realized I was speaking to a human teen, who was only just my height, but... there was a power within him, completely untapped, and it was suddenly obvious to me: A warlock was just a human containing a large pool of magic.

River gulped.

And my wolf, feeling quite pleased at scaring the s*** out of what would one day be quite a terrifying warlock, grinned, "You should call me big sister now."

"Sam, don't bully him." Savy suddenly said. She even said this aloud. In front of everyone, no less. Totally out of character, but I hadn't met my mate yesterday, and I was well experienced with this thing called love.

It was kind of unfair that while love delighted to making me look the weak sappy fool, it made Savy rather cool. Her grey eyes stared me right in the eyes, "He's just a human."

Yeah right. This guy had the power to flip the season at will. One day, I would ask him to summon a dragon. That might be fun.

"River, I know I'm not really the best person to tell you this." I told him more seriously, "But you need to focus. If you focus on who you love, and what you want to protect, the magic will work on its own."

At least that always worked for me. Maybe magic worked differently for warlocks.

"I am ashamed." Alpha Gunter inclined his head towards me, "Princess, I humbly thank you for your guidance."

Eh what?

"Even though you are only a young girl, your wisdom and natural understanding of our lycan nature puts an old wolf like myself to shame." Alpha Gunter continued, "May I ask who is your teacher?"

Oh.

Just fyi, Alpha Gunter wasn't asking me for Mrs Henderson's name. In very old lycan cultures, really bright young wolves were often taken under the wing of great teachers after their first shift. Like a bright light is the mind of a young wolf with potential and it was their teacher's privilege and duty to hone their student's brilliance. Usually I imagine a lot of scholarly discussions over tea and chess, which I guess was pretty cliché.

"I don't really have a single teacher." I admitted, "I learn from my parents, from Beta Lucas and Mrs Beta, I have a lot of different teachers and elders who had told me stories and showed me how to live."

I guess I was really lucky. I didn't just have one teacher. I had so many good ones around me everyday.

"Lady Amber of the Lorent Pack will be taking Sam under her wing next term." Mum added.

Oh right. Lady Amber had offered to be my mentor. I guess the Lorent Pack still practiced taking disciples.

Alpha Gunter shook his head, "I'm afraid that won't do."

Then he corrected himself immediately, "Do not misunderstand. I know of Lady Amber's pedagogy and she is the finest teacher any she-wolf could dream to study under, but I'm sure you must have noticed that your daughter is unlike any she-wolf. She is a powerful fighter and her insight is as sharp as her blades. She needs to study under a master."

"Sure. You can teach her." Ben said, "If she survives that long."

"Shut up!" I hit him.

Alpha Gunter smiled at that, "Yes. If we all survive this, please consider playing a game of chess with me. Both you and your beta are welcome. I am only an old wolf, and perhaps I have lost touch with the modern world, but I promise the things of the ancients are just as fascinating and powerful as the technology of today."

I felt my eyes light up, "It's a deal!"

I've always wanted a teacher, and if Ben was on my side, I felt quite sure we'd win - even if it had to be chess.

"Chess is lame." Ben crossed his arms.

Mrs Beta hit Ben over the back of his head! When did she get here?

"Thank you very much for your kindness, Alpha Gunter!" Mrs Beta bowed, "My son would be honored to study under you!"

She pushed Ben's head down to bow with her.

Eh? Mrs Beta was really into it. It was like the best thing that could ever happen to her had happened to Ben. Hahaha. Ben wasn't going to ever get out of this now.

"Come on, Ben. If we team up, I'm sure we can win him in chess." I cajoled. It just sounded like fun.

This Teacher and Disciple thing, it was something I only knew from old lycan stories, but some of these stories were like the most amazing ones ever!

"Ben! Come on! All the best adventures in life begins with playing chess with an old teacher." I tried again to convince my beta to join me in this quest to learn (or rather to go on some really crazy adventure like in those lycan stories.)

Ben only rolled his eyes at me, "And what the hell would you call this mess we're in right now?"

Oh. I grinned, "This is just the appetizer! Come on, Ben. We're just shifted this year. We've got our whole life ahead of us!"

To Alpha Gunter I boasted, "Ben and I are going to win. And when we do, you have to take us treasure hunting and all kind of fun things like that."

Alpha Gunter's face was somewhat frozen in disbelief, "Princess, I... it's..."

And then he changed his mind and said instead, "What kind of treasure are you looking for, Princess? What kind of fun things do you have in mind?"

"I want treasure like the kind that can change the world, and build up my packlands so that it would be equal to the cities in the colored mountains and everyone living in my pack would have fun together and find happiness every time they reach out their hand for it. I want a land where roses are as large as tea cups and peaches have jewelled pits, where soul mates meet and fall in love, where the water is clean and the grass is drenched in new magic every morning. But most of all, I want it to be a place where every wolf can run freely and chase their own dream too." The moment the words left my mouth, I realized how impossible they were - we weren't in an ancient lycan story. The world right now was quite modern, and quite, quite, unmagical.

But to my surprise, Alpha Gunter didn't laugh at me. He smiled back, "Princess, that dream of yours is impossible. But the difference between what is impossible and what is possible is only how far you are willing to go."

And I knew immediately that he must be my teacher.

We were going to change to world. Because we were "The ones who left the mountains, to chase what could have been. The ones who seek the changes that yet could not be seen."

Ben was right, again... it was in my nature. I've been too unambitious with my one punch solution. I had to step outside and look at the big picture. How did Ben put it? BLAM! That's the sound of my fist punching the limit of possibility. The world wouldn't know what hit it.