EYE DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'VE BEEN THROUGH BUT...

Ben was caught spying Bell's territories so Bell did what any evil emperor would do. He had Ben brought to him in the heart of his Tyger Lair and gouged out Ben's eye since Ben "liked keeping an eye on him so much."

It hurt like hell. Ben still dreamed about the pain.

By this time, Bell was completely into his dark Overlord Tyger King persona. There was no going back. Ben saw it with his own eyes, the gold, tributes, and scantily clad women piled up like rubbish in Bell's castle, the mindless dark warriors that slipped in and out of the shadows, the periodic shrieking from the dungeons...

WAIT. WTH! WHAT WOMEN? But the other wolves only shrugged as if this was all expected from Bell turned evil. Okay, so this was in keeping with the most traditional tales of the Tyger, BUT Bell was MINE!

{MINE! MINE! MINE!}

"Sam, the trees are going to give us splinters." Ben said, and I managed to stop my hair from shredding up the foliage around us with my amazing level of self-control. I would keep this anger and shred Bell instead. Humph.

At the moment, Ben's eye was in a jar on Bell's desk and used as a paperweight of the maps and documents of Bell's conquests. No, he couldn't actually see with that eye, Bell just told him about it after he had taken it out.

Bell also told him that he had preserved the eye such that if Ben could steal it back, a healer could fix it.

"It's almost as if he wants you to go back for your eye." Fluffy noted.

Ben would have gone too, but things are such that restoring his eye pretty low on their priority list right now.

"Guess he'll just have to be lonely without me." Ben smirked .

I made a face at the thought of Ben's eye being preserved in a jar like a pickle. My poor Moon and Rose… I know Ben was just making a caustic one-liner, but was Bell lonely? Did he actually miss Ben and everyone? Wth. Who did that? Who conquered the whole world and make himself Great Overlord? Why couldn't Bell have just said, "Hey, I know I was wrong. Let's stop fighting."

Poor Bell. He was never really good at swallowing his pride. Wait, why was I worrying about him? Bell was a DUMBBELL! WTH! He was a grown-up, a grown-up with a lot of power - and too many infidelities! If I ever met that Future Bell, I was going to smack some sense into him! How dare he!

How dare he kill Neil, take my army, roast the whole Colored Mountains, hunt River like a madman! How dare he fool around with piles of scantily clad women! How dare he take another mate! HOW DARE HE?

"Urm, Sam?" Ben backed off a bit.

The others blinked. I stopped, "Ah, I was just thinking…"

I was so going to kill my mate!

"Urm, yeah, just don't go chi-ka-boom on us." Ben muttered.

I stopped my hair because I realized it was flaring again in its blade form and the overhanging trees had lost most of their branches.

I wasn't going to chi-ka-boom because unlike SOMEBODY, I had self control AND WOULD NOT MATE SOMEONE ELSE JUST BECAUSE I DISAPPEARED FOR A FEW YEARS.

Ahem.

"How about the Stick Forest?" I decided to deal with less triggering issues, "How do you heal the forest?"

"How would I know? Maybe for a start you can stop hacking them into bits." Ben dusted off the pieces that had fallen on his shoulder and grumbled now that he was sure I wasn't going to blow my top, "Sam, the entire Green Packlands was cursed to the roots. We couldn't stop it."

"Aren't you supposed to be a genius?" I scolded, "Come on, in hindsight, what should we have done?"

Ben shrugged and sighed, but he was thinking, "I guess we reacted too slowly. We treated it like pesticide for the first two years... By the time we realized it was a curse…"

Ben shook his head, "I guess THEORECTICALLY, but only theoretically, since it hasn't spread yet, you could try applying Bell's black curse over it, and then purifying it with Bell's blue fire. I don't even see it from here, so I think you only need to burn down a small section of forest."

"I see..." Wolfgang nodded, "To fight fire with fire."

So we were fighting the ancient curse with a stronger curse?

"Don't we usually fight curses with blessings?" I asked. I mean, in real life, what fireman fought fire with fire? We used water, or sand, or fire extinguishers... You know what I mean.

"You know how Bell's Blue Fire is the only thing that cleanses his Black Curse right?" Ben said, "It turned out the ancient curse can only be nullified by a healer's blessing. You'd need a really powerful healer with affinity to plants."

"We don't really have any such healers in the Green Packlands." Ki worried, "Not even in the Lorent pack."

"What about Hayao?" The four season fruit trees, roses that produced magic stones… that's definitely some plant thing going on there.

"You mean that healer prince?" Future Ben shrugged, "He died the first night here. Fluffy killed him."

"What? Why?" I asked. I glared at Fluffy even to be fair, they hadn't even met yet.

"Your luna thought it would be funny to house him in Fluffy's room. You know how Fluffy is." Ben said. He made a face, "That was a messy affair. I don't think Prince Haku ever quite forgave us for that."

I narrowed my eyes at Fluffy, "You can't kill Hayao."

"Very well, I will share my room." Fluffy reluctantly allowed, "As long as he doesn't touch my stuff, or breathe my air - his shadow falling on my stuff is touching."

WTH?

"Don't worry goddess." Ki smiled, "I will assign Young Prince Hayao his own room."

"Another one, huh?" Wolfgang said.

Another one what?

Ki nodded, "This is only to be expected."

What was?

"Looks like Hotstuff won't be the youngest brother in the harem anymore." Fluffy smiled.

Oh. Wait no! Wait, yes. Humph. If Bell was going to keep piles of women and mate a Vampire Queen, I was going to keep my harem!

"Well you can try. If the Healing Prince can't cancel out the curse with his heal, just use Bell." Ben said, "In fact, maybe you should apply both. I'm sure Fluff or Hotstuff could look into it. Bell has access to a large secret library... you can try asking him for books since he's still on our side. Or since you have Sam - just make her ask. He never says no to her."

I guess not every solution was as simple as "Don't go into Jude's cell." But everyone nodded and Fluffy and Wolfgang looked so determined and confident that they got this that I felt it was probably still manageable.

"So can I get my cat and go now?" Ben demanded.

"Is there anything else you think you should tell us?" I prodded.

Ben narrowed his eyes at me, "What else do you want to know?"

"I don't know, what else would you like to tell me?" I asked.

Ben groaned, "Why would there be..."

And then Ben stopped.

"I just remembered, there is this one thing." He leaned closer and drop his voice to a whisper, "If I ever get drunk. Don't listen to anything I say."

And then he straightened, "Alright, that's it. Don't tell me about meeting me. You know me...I'll probably do something stupid to annoy me in the future."

Ben reached over to take the cat from Fluffy.

"Wait!" I couldn't just let Future Ben go like that. Fluffy immediately pulled back the cat.

"What now, Sam?" Ben turned back.

And then as if by impulse, he suddenly pulled me into another quick hug. Future Ben was tall like his Dad as an adult, and broad too, "You don't have to worry about anything, Sam. I will save our future."

I pulled away and grinned up at him, "You mean, WE will save our future."

"Oh no." Ben groaned, "No, Sam!"

I hadn't even explained my plan to him yet. But I grinned. Ben had always been a pessimist, so I didn't let that bother me. He'll come around. He always did.