FOLLOW THAT YELLOW BRICK ROAD!

3 MARCH, WEDNESDAY, BEFORE DINNER

Henry saw us off from his porch.

True to his word, Marcus had a taxi waiting for him to send Janice home.

"Looks like Marc is pulling out all the stops." Fluffy commented as he put on his helmet.

"Marcus and Janice sitting in a tree!" Chimed EJ because he was mature like that. I also blamed the boys in our class. They were not the best influence.

"You know, I can always have Pete send you home." Henry smirked.

"I can send my own girlfriend home." Marcus' answered teresly. I guess even Marcus had a line you shouldn't cross, but Henry didn't get the hint, "Why would any girl choose a taxi over a Royce?"

Marcus eloquently slammed the cab door shut and the taxi snorted rudely and jauntily swerved down the flagstone driveway.

"Hn." Henry smirked and crossed his arms smugly.

I really wanted to kick Henry off his high horse... Or at least kick him off his Rolls Royce. Maybe I should just kick him and then laugh it off like it was a joke.

I don't know why it mattered to me, but I was quite aware that Harvey was standing by the Peugeot, surrounded by matching motorbike escorts - which wasn't really a Royce fyi. Still, I felt guilty suddenly about having it.

It's like the car was incriminating evidence that I was on Henry's side, even though I didn't want to be.

Harvey smoothly took over with the appropriate niceties, bowed and thanked Henry, before opening the door for me. I got in quite unable to look Henry in the eye at the moment. I liked Henry, he was a reliable partner, a good friend, and a fun wolf to run with, but sometimes... sometimes he just... grrr...

Harvey seemed to get that I needed my own space and we drove in silence. I watched the throngs of tulips bob their goodbyes in the late afternoon sun. Even the grass in Henry's immense lawn wasn't normal grass - it was like an emerald green carpet, and every now and then a large fountain - like the one in Gate City, but instead of being a landmark for people to meet at in the city centre, they stood in a row along the side of Henry's private lawn.

Does making him rich make him better than everyone else?

Aloud the question came out as, "Is Henry very rich?"

"Pardon, Alpha?" Harvey flipped his indicator light to turn right, but he heard me. I think he only asked my pardon because he thought he must have heard wrong.

"Is Alpha asking about Alpha Henry's personal net worth, or Silver Mountain Pack's wealth indicators? I can forward you the report..."

"There's a report about Henry's personal money?" I asked. That must be a lot of money if we needed a report for that.

"Apologies, Alpha. I mean we have Silver Mountain Pack's Financial Report and the Analytics Report of Key Economic Indicators for the past decade... " Harvey clarified, "On Alpha Hen's personal wealth, there are one or two articles since his inauguration which mentions some figures, but nothing in depth..."

I think this was plenty in-depth, but because I was too polite to interrupt my good beta, I found out that Henry had been featured in several lists as one of the richest kids in the continent.

Aside from being the sole heir to his Alpha Father's personal business empire, he was also the young alpha of Silver Mountain, only the richest pack in the Gold Packlands. Although his estimated net worth varied depending on the date of publication and technical calculations, we were looking at a number that ended with the word "billion."

"What about Marcus, is his pack poor?" I never thought so, but now I wondered. I remembered Jules had once joked that his pack was a poor one. That's why he accepted the scholarship and came out all the way to Winderhill to study - and took the train every day.

"Misty Mountain Pack is a middle tier pack and ranked 3rd in the Gold Packlands." My good beta knew his facts.

This was after Alpha Stephan's Crystal Wind Pack (2nd) whose territories included Winderhill, and of course Henry's Silver Mountain (1st).

"Actually, Misty Mountain Pack's annual income was comparable to Morning Light's last year." Harvey informed me. So Marcus wasn't poor at all, right? Or did that make Morning Light poor? And since our packs had the same GDP... Did that make Night Leaf poor?

The governing system worked differently in the Gold Packlands than back home. Here, the leading pack would receive the lion's share of their shared city's tax collection, putting Henry's pack well above the rest. Crystal Wind and Misty Mountain was always competing for second place. They even had their young alphas born in the same year! So Alpha Stephan and Alpha Nicolas were the same age, both of them had their mating and investiture ceremonies last year.

Wait, Alpha Stephan was how old?

"I believe he's turning 20 this year." Harvey informed me.

But... he looked so.... old. Actually, Marcus' Alpha Nicolas looked old too. They looked even older than Ki. Did getting mated do that to you?

Harvey took out his phone at the red light and typed in a note to himself, "I understand now, I will have a report profiling the Gold Packlands prepared accordingly."

Wait, no... I wasn't asking for that... but the light turned green and Harvey was driving again. Grrr... as if I didn't have enough reports to read as it was!

"The preliminary report from the analyst team working on the reformation of Night Forest's economy had also provided much insights to the Blue Packlands." Harvey informed me.

I nodded, I had seen those. We were going to help Uncle Louis next week right?

"Should I create a report profiling the Blue Packlands as well?" Harvey asked. Why? Did this guy like making reports?

"I suppose it doesn't make sense not to organize the information we had collected so far." Harvey deliberated, "Taking the time to collate the relevant information about our allies and keeping the records updated might yield valuable information that we would otherwise have missed out."

"So we're going to make a database?" I asked, "Like how Henry keeps files on everyone?"

Harvey brightened up, "Yes, perhaps a database."

"Actual files sounds like a lot of paper." I mumbled remembering how thick the printed out files were.

"So a digital database!" Harvey exclaimed, "Alpha, you're right. This might be exactly what the FAO needs to set up. Roy had been asking for records..."

Hahaha... The last real "record" of stuff like this had been undersigned by Roy. Dad kept his records in various investor report booklets and magazines in his office shelves. Beta Lucas claimed he had everything safe in his brain.

"This is brilliant. If we start on it now, ten years down the road, we'd have amassed a substantial amount of recorded knowledge." Harvey sounded like we just discovered the yellow brick road.

{Knowledge is power.}

The idea struck me suddenly like lighting. Now that I had a gifted strategist, I think the arsenal of knowledge would come in handy, "Put Fluffy in charge of this project."

"Pardon, alpha?" Harvey asked for the second time today.

Just like Roy, scholar types like Fluffy needed knowledge.

"Fluffy's a true strategist. Might as well use him for something meaningful." I told Harvey. It just seemed like a waste to have an Alpha Scholar wolf running next to me, and limit him to helping me pull of pranks and play the violin.

"Understood, Alpha." Harvey's mouth flattened into a straight line to match the creases that had folded into his forehead.

"But?" I prompted my good beta.

"Fluffy has shown very little interest in data or technology so far." Harvey said, "And making him to do things outside his interest has proven to be kind of time consuming and frustrating."

See, he was such a master strategist that he even managed to implement a strategy to only get assigned to tasks he wanted to do. But Fluffy was running with me now.

"Just tell him that if he can master this digital library, he will be able to help me pull off pranks so big that maybe we can change the world." I told Harvey. Or perhaps it was Boo talking, I'm not sure.

But just for the moment, I could see in my mind's eye, a continent that could share a ferris wheel and fireworks. It would be a continent where traveling from one colored packlands to another would be as easy for a normal wolf as it was for an Alpha Wolf, and trade among the different packlands and communities would become open and commonplace. I was still going to protect my pack and our happiness, but Moon Bell and the Green Packlands was part of something bigger. Why can't the rest of the continent - Snow Moon Kingdom, Silver Mountain, Night Forest... why can't everyone prosper together?

No, I had no idea how to make it work, but that's the strategist's job right? Muahahahaha. Sorry, Heller, I think I'll be borrowing your son for a little longer - I had a continent to reform.

Harvey had pulled the car to a side road and turned on the hazard lights. Good beta took out his phone to take notes.

"With Ki on PR, Ben on IT, and you..." What was the word for it?

"I need you to coordinate everything." I hated not knowing the terms, "And now, let's say we install a database, like a library, collecting and updating everything we need to make the right decisions and effective plans - not just to take care of the Green Packlands, but change the world."

"Get Fluffy to tail Roy, yourself, and your dad. See if Mrs Beta could tutor him on organising a library - like the kind in the Colored Mountains, you know...the magic ones where the books would fly and open to the right pages? Tell Fluffy I want that."

"The flying books?" Harvey asked.

"Yes, but what we lack in magic, let's make it happen through technology." I decided.

I think we did find a yellow brick road to the wonderful city of... Well, it wasn't Oz, but we were going this way - to a future of incredible possibilities, enough to share with everyone.

Everything in my wolf, lucky direction and all, knew this was the way to go.

"Oh, and Harvey?"

"Yes, Alpha?" Harvey asked.

"Let's keep this little project secret for now." I said, "Like just treat it like my own personal project."

I don't know... Maybe, you know, just in case...despite the good feelings I had, it didn't work out.

"A personal project like the Princess Town?" Harvey nodded, "Understood, Alpha."

Oh, right. The Princess Town... But that wasn't a secret anymore. It was a real town now, with the Underground army and Red Cloud Pack moving in... Along with all the hundreds of nitty gritty realistic problems that sprung up with it. But it was there now. The buildings were steadily coming up. The people were slowly settling in. The administration was hastily catching up.

Yeah. Like the Princess Town. Let's hope this personal project comes true too.

"Do you have a name for this project, Alpha?" Harvey asked as he finished up his notes.

This project? Magic Library? Hahaha.

"Let's call this one the Yellow Brick Road." I told Harvey, "It's going to bring us to a better future."

Harvey nodded, "Understood, Alpha."

Anyone else would have laughed or scorned. I'm just a teenage girl... But I had a dream now - something bigger than freeing Lycan slaves or protecting the happiness of my pack - something big enough to include these things, and even secure these things better.

It would be nice if the Yellow Brick Road got built like the Princess Town one day.

{Little by little, one step at a time.}

I think Boo said this before too. Back then, I didn't get it at all, but now... I think I understood a bit more. Big dreams take time, even with my catalyst powers at work, but that's okay too.