THE DAWN OF THE GREAT OUTDOORS

Saturday 5 March Continue

We all got up to put away our plates and mugs when the bell rang. At least everyone else did that. Ben had stacked my plate over his (he had a few)and left the table without a word.

There was a line of low steel shelves on trolley wheels and large bins at the back of the hall nearest to the kitchen. We were supposed to stack our used plates there and throw our own trash. I mean, we didn't expect guests to do that, but most wolves would just do that. It's just always been this way.

When we were pups visiting at Night Forest, I was very confused because Grandpa Alpha and Grandma Luna's dining hall didn't have anywhere to return used cutlery and plates.

"What should we do with these after we're done?" I whispered to Savy over the meal.

Savy looked around and shrugged, "I dunno. We'll just follow the adults."

Which sounded like a good plan as any. I ate really slowly to make sure that I only finished right after Mum and Dad did.

To my horror, the adults all got up after the meal and walked away from our table without taking a single plate along with them. Savy and I immediately followed. I kept casting glances back at our table. Were we really going to just leave it all there?

Mum had always said the ladies in the kitchen had enough to do as it was. It didn't feel right to just leave all our dishes for them to clean up.

So despite Savy's advice, I made a last-minute U-turn back to our table.

"Oh, Sam!" Mum immediately realized one of her pups had broken away from the group, "What is it? Did you forget something?"

I pointed at the table, "We left the plates."

"You can't take the plates, Sam!" Mum sounded properly mortified that her pup wanted to steal plates from Grandpa Alpha's dining hall.

"But…" I tried to explain.

"Let her take what she wants." Grandpa Alpha waved it off.

Grandpa Alpha was easygoing like that.

"But Father…" Mum frowned. She decided it might be easier to reason with me, "Sam, why would you want to take the plate?"

Yes, exactly. Why would a puppy want a dirty plate? Of course, I didn't want the plate!

"Maybe she's still hungry, Luna." Beta Lucas tried to answer on my behalf.

"No!" I yelled because no one understood me.

"Hoo boy." Beta Lucas dropped back behind Dad, "She's going to meltdown alpha."

And whose fault do you think that is?

"It's nearly her naptime." Beta Lucas had my naptimes in his phone.

"It's not!" I argued because I hated naptimes.

"The plates are dirty." Grandma Luna made a face, "She'll dirty her hands."

We just ate off these same plates a minute ago Grandma Luna.

"Someone get her a clean plate." Grandpa Alpha decided.

"What would a puppy do with an empty plate?" Grandma Luna argued.

"And cake." Grandpa Alpha added, "A clean plate with cake - make that two. I'm feeling quite peckish myself."

"You eat too much cake." Grandma Luna told him.

"I'm just spending time with my granddaughter." Grandpa Alpha explained. He ordered one of the warriors standing around, "Bring them up to my library. With coffee."

"I don't drink coffee." Grandma Luna complained.

"And tea too." Grandpa Alpha amended and turned to go, fully expecting everyone to follow him.

"Come on, Sam." Mum grabbed me by the hand and dragged me away, "Your dad and Grandpa have things to discuss."

I think she was quite desperate to leave before I caused another scene.

As we left, I took one last look back at our messy table. A few women from the kitchen had come out to clean it. They were dressed in uniform - brown shapeless dresses and tan colored aprons. They didn't look anything like the ladies in our packhouse kitchen at home. Like our ladies would be smiling and chatting over the bustle. If they thought we were out of line, they'd be tutting and shaking their heads as they cleaned up the mess. These ladies had no expressions whatsoever. They kept their eyes firmly down on the table, silently and quickly (no bustling) stacking the used dishes and glasses onto large trays to be carried out.

Everything was different in Night Forest.

Or rather, Night Leaf was probably the one that was different. Now that I've been to other packs and met other alphas, I seriously doubt most alphas cleared their own plates.

Case in point, Henry. Even at Winderhill with school-bought lunches, it was Marcus who had automatically cleared his tray after lunch, pretty much the way Ben had just taken my plate.

I followed my gang to the metal trolleys and watched them put away their stuff. There was nothing else to do. Ben was first to turn around, he looked surprised that I was there. His first reaction was to look back to check the plates he had just returned. When he saw nothing out of the ordinary there, he turned back to me, "What?"

I shook my head, "It's nothing."

I wasn't a puppy anymore. I was the Alpha. And while I didn't mind putting away my own plate - it's hardly going to make me any less of an alpha, I wasn't going to make a fuss over Ben doing it either.

"Thanks." I said.

"What for?" Ben asked.

"For everything." I decided to just shrug it off.

"Whatever." Ben shrugged too.

And that was that. It was always easy with Ben like that.

Today was different at Lycan Study Group. Instead of us going up to our classrooms, Teacher Rose and a male warrior stood at the stairs.

The male warrior was very bossy, "Okay! I want all elementary pups to gather here in front of me. Middle and High School pups to follow Teacher Rose outside."

Oh, outside! Something fun was happening at Lycan Study Group today!

"Teacher Cal, is that your girlfriend?" One of the pups asked loudly. The mothers watching from their breakfast table giggled.

"What?" The bossy warrior wolf AKA Teacher Cal looked stunned for a moment, "No… No!"

He didn't have to protest THAT much. Luckily Teacher Rose only smiled and waved us to follow her out to the lobby, "We'll be conducting today's orienteering exercise from the side yard."

We were having an orienteering exercise? So fun!

"Why do we have to help with the pups?" Angela bemoaned.

Wait, I thought we were having an orienteering exercise?

Flynn and Evelyn's elder sister, Dawn, were waiting for us by the side porch.

Dawn was much older than us. She might be Flynn's age or older. I've only talked to her before because she sometimes came over to help with Lycan Study Group activities - especially outdoorsy ones.

Dawn really liked outdoorsy stuff. Maybe as much as Delilah liked balls. Even though we weren't close, I've heard stories about this girl who liked the outdoors so much, she preferred to camp in the yard than sleep in her bed. I know we were wolves and all, but she was a little extreme. Like there was this camp, where she came to help us with the outdoor cooking segment, and she demonstrated how to kill a live frog and cook it over an open fire, "You can always eat it raw too."

Because we were wolves. Even in our human form, our stomach acid was still wolf and could digest raw meat fine. As in seriously, this was a scientific fact.

"The trick to eating raw meat, is to eat it straight after killing it." Dawn had taught us. Leaving it out too long would allow nasty stuff like bacteria to grow in it.

I guess it was all good to know, you know, if I should ever find myself out in the wilderness and hungry, but Dawn demonstrated it right there and then.

If Dawn's Prince Charming ever appeared in front of her in frog form, he would be skinned alive, gutted on a rock, and kebabbed over an open fire.

Like I said, I was all for outdoorsy stuff, but Dawn's version was on the extreme side.

So I was very surprised when I learned from Jessica that she was Evelyn's older sister. Jessica was telling Shannon, because he was the new guy back then, but it was news to me too.

Dawn and Evelyn were really polar opposites.

I heard Dawn got mated last year - to a wolf in a minor pack. They met when she turned 18, but Dawn's parents didn't like the idea of their eldest daughter marrying into a minor pack, so they just dated for years until Dawn's parents realize there was no changing Dawn's mind and gave their blessings.

I also heard that Dawn and her mate in the Minor pack lived in a trailer in the woods and had to eat squirrels and their acorns to survive in the winter, but Mum said not to believe everything I heard.

Even though it was only Spring, Dawn was wearing a pair of cargo shorts and a hooded sleeveless hoodie. Her arms were very buff. Okay, not like Flynn buff. Flynn was in his usual black training gear, black tight t-shirt as usual. Flynn liked to wear black and white. Jessica said it showed he was something who did everything by the book.

Anyway, Dawn wasn't like wolf warrior buff, but she was easily as buff as Shannon or Tim. Like a lanky kind of buff…

"Today's mission is going to be an easy one." Dawn told us, "Easy peasy lemon squeezy."

Red flag +1. Which was weird, because she wasn't lying when she said it was an easy mission.

We were going to lead small groups of pups on their first orienteering exercise. Red flag +3. One for every pup that was coming with me.

The map and 4 checkpoints was going to be a walk in the park - literally, it would just be around the woods behind the Packhouse, the one with proper graveled paths where many of the warriors took their personal runs. It shouldn't take more than 45 minutes to complete either. Technically, the 4 checkpoints were only 3 checkpoints, because the last one would be back here at the side yard of our packhouse.

The tricky part was that while we were allowed to teach them how to apply their map and compass reading skills, we were not allowed to show them the way. Our job was to follow them and make sure they didn't stray out of the map area, leave someone behind, or do something stupid like eat a toadstool or jump a cliff or burn down a forest… or whatever dumb pups did when left alone in a wooded area unsupervised.

I wondered if my Teachers knew that my Mum and Dad wouldn't even trust me alone with Sabre in our own house. Now I got to supervise three elementary school pups on their first adventure into the woods.

Okay, no. I guess my teachers weren't stupid. We'd go in pairs. So each team had two teens, and 3 pups. Okay, here's hoping I was paired with someone sensible.

No wait, I changed my mind. We'd probably get lost and take a couple more hours with dumb pups leading the way. Even if we didn't, experience had taught me that the estimated time was always too short.

Since they said it would take 45 minutes, it would probably take and hour and a half minimally. There was a reason we had 3 hours to lunchtime ahead of us.

Here's hoping I was paired with someone FUN.