Capítulo 507: EXPLAINING IT TO BEN
18 FEBRUARY, THURSDAY, ON THE WAY HOME
"Why are you staring at me?" Ben asked after a few more moments.
"I'm not staring at you." I immediately replied.
"You know, if you stare at a guy like that, you might give him the wrong idea." Ben informed me with matter of factly.
"What kind of idea?" I asked.
"Who knows." Ben shrugged back.
Ben could be frustrating to talk to sometimes. I sighed, "Anyway, I wasn't staring at you. I was spacing out at you."
Ben scoffed a little, his eyes on the road, "Then whatcha thinking about?"
Did I say I was thinking anything? I wished I were cooler and got back at him with a shrug of my own and maybe throw that "who knows" back at him.
I really wish I thought of it then, but sometimes my wisecracks only came to me belated. Like at the end of the day...when I'm writing my diary.
So when Ben asked, I only answered honestly, "It's nothing... just about the humans."
Naturally, Ben let it go. Like Boo, Ben didn't think much about humans either. Keanu was right about us, "purebred wolves." I wouldn't say we regarded humans with contempt of anything, more like we didn't regard them at all. They didn't even show up on my internal wolf radar. I never thought anything about it, but Keanu made it sound like purebred wolves were stuck up, which kinda bothered me, just a little.
"Think aloud, Sam." Ben ordered. He was so bossy. My life was full of bossy guys. My dad was the Alpha (=bossy guy), my mate was bossy, now my true beta was bossy. It's like I was a bossy guy magnet. Omo. I really hoped not.
And then I realized my bossiest beta was waiting for me to start rambling out my thoughts. He was making a tsk tsk tsk sound... And then I realised the sound was coming from the dashboard, he was signalling left, so I couldn't tell if he were being impatient at me or the traffic.
Since I didn't want to discuss the bossy men in my life with him (I was sure he would take the bossy side), I tried to come up with something else.
"Today my geography teacher gave us the answers to the exam papers. Nothing happened, not even homework... Oh right! I figured out where Fount's stone is!"
Ben sighed, "Oh no, here we go."
"What do you mean by 'here we go'?" I asked, "I haven't even told you where we were going!"
(I haven't actually thought that far...)
"Well, I'm quite sure we're going to get in trouble." Ben answered.
"No, we're not!" I shot back indignantly. Why would he think something like that? "No, no, just hear me out, Ben."
"Okay..." But Ben sounded more like he was just humouring a pup, "Where is Fount's stone?"
I decided I wouldn't tell him outright. If Mr Bossy Smarty Pants wanted to know, he'd have to work for it, "Guess."
"No." Ben groaned.
"Yes." I grinned. I was quite proud of myself too. That's for always acting like your superior brain made you better than everyone else!
Ben tapped the steering wheel with his index finger, "In the Green Packlands."
"No! Ben, guess seriously!" I scolded.
"I am!" He shot back.
If he said something about these things usually being right under our noses or something cliché like that, I would hit him... Oh wait, it kind of was right under my nose... Or at least River's nose.
That day when he made Spring happen in the picnic area, the magic came from somewhere inside him, or so I had thought. I had assumed the glow had come from him, but now I realized it was the stone, and he was wearing it around his neck under his shirt.
So the key he usually wore (and lost), was probably the key to wherever he kept the stone when he wasn't wearing it.
Ah ha! I was getting closer! I got excited, "Come on, Ben. Guess better!"
"Alright, what do we know about Fount?" Ben asked, "Just so we are on the same page."
Did Ben want clues? Fine! I immediately rattled everything I knew from what I've heard before, "He's a warlock. They have lots of magic stones. One of them is a heart stone which they wear around their neck. A crystal containing their life force that they do not ever take off until they meet their mate. After that, their mate wears his heart stone, while he continues to wear a smaller control stone. But he must have lost his heart stone, so he's dying. They can't be separated from his heart stone for long."
I frowned again, but how would that help?
"We also know warlocks can only mate humans." Ben pointed out, "That disqualifies most of the women living in Night Leaf and Morning Light."
"Why are you still assuming that it's a woman in the Green Packlands?" I asked annoyed. It's like going in one big circle and getting back to square one... Which was the wrong answer, by the way.
"Because Sam." Ben smirked at what he must have felt was his superior sense of intellect, "You found the tree right next to Morning Light territory. Why would a warlock bring his mate all the way out to the border of his land to carve their initials in a tree?"
"He was meeting her there!" I gasped, "She was someone from Morning Light, and he came out to meet her?"
Ben nodded, "Secretly too, probably."
"What makes you say that?"
"The only human women in Morning Light were our wolves' mates." Ben said.
Oh. That's right. Until Mum and Dad adopted Sabre, humans didn't live in our Packlands. The only exception are if they were mated to our wolves, then they were part of us through their mating bond.
Which meant whoever was Fount's mate was also mated to a wolf.
"Oh wait," I realized, "So you're saying that Fount gave his heart stone to his mate? But then how come it's with River?"
"What?" Ben sounded confused for a moment, "Oh, you mean in the song? Maybe she fell in a river and drowned."
Okay, no... I mean, that would have made a plausible story, but no, I shook my head hard, "No, no, no, Ben... It's not in a river, it's WITH RIVER. As in River, my friend from archery club in school..."
Now I was just confusing Ben more.
"You found his woman?" Ben asked.
Eh? Well, not exactly... I told him what I did find though. Ben frowned, "Prince River is attending your school?"
Okay, I've heard this line of thought already.
"Why is the crown prince of Snow Moon Kingdom studying all the way out here?" Ben asked, and then he smirked, "Kind of a coincidence he's in the same club too, huh?"
I sighed. Now it was my turn to humor him, "Okay, tell me, why would the crown prince of Snow Moon come to Winderhill?"
Did all my betas have to be so over suspicious of everyone?
"Well, it's no secret that you were enrolled there. Your principal made it quite widely known that Alpha Kingsley chose her school for his daughter." Ben reasoned, "After that, Alpha George enrolled Henry there, and even Marcus' pack decided to put him there. There were definitely political considerations made there, I mean, its not like Winderhill is a famous school or anything."
Yeah, Ben had a point there. Winderhill was an old school, but that was it. Besides its illustrious sounding age, it was the only one to admit vampire students, which was more of a minus point than a plus for most wolves. Other than that, it was ranked at the bottom of everything else - except for football. Winderhill was like 8th or 9th at football. Oh, and archery, Winderhill was ranked 4th last year. This year, the seniors wanted to take it further - up to the finals.
At any rate, we weren't like New Leaf Academy, or Black Forest High School, or even the Lorent Girls Academy.
"The real question is, what does Snow Moon want with our pack?" Ben concluded. Ben nodded, seemingly convinced that he was on to something, "Alpha Gunter even attended your Grandfather's funeral at Night Forest. And later on, he donated quite generously to the Princess Town too. They definitely want something from this."
I shook my head, "No, Ben... you're sidetracking. The point here is, River has Fount's blue stone."
"Are you sure?" Ben asked, "Have you seen it?"
"Not exactly..." I admitted.
"So how can you be so sure he has it?" Ben questioned.
Grrrr... Ben could be so frustrating to talk to sometimes.
"Okay, its not impossible. Maybe his mate did fall into a river and River happened to find it. River has insane luck."
"Like yours?" Ben asked.
"No. My luck is just really lucky. His is kind of more like a blessing in disguise." I tried to explain. I didn't really understand it myself.
Ben sighed, "Sam...you do realize that nothing you're saying is conclusive to anything."
"I'm saying that the stone with with River." I insisted. There you have it. Conclusion! Omo. My logic had developed into the likeness of a true Night Leaf Leader.
"But you have never seen the stone with him?" Ben asked doggedly.
Well...no. I have never even seen the stone.
"Just lend me your brain, Ben!" I was exasperated by now, so maybe it was a good thing that we were past Gate City and well on the road home. At least I didn't have to worry about being pulled over with an under-aged driver on top of everything else.
"Alright, what do you want to know?" Ben asked.
"I want to know how to get River to return his stone to Fount." I answered.
Ben smirked, "Yeah, why don't we just ask him nicely. I'm sure he would be happy to give up the stone."
I highly doubted that, but Ben was being sacarstic, so I didn't bother to answer.
"Okay, fine." I decided, since Ben was oh-so logical and clever, "Then tell me what you're thinking."
"I'm thinking that this River dude is shady. The whole thing is too coincidental. Same school and club aside, you mean to tell me that Sabre just happens to be the biological sister of his personal guard?" Ben asked.
"Yeah, but it's not like they could fake that." I argued.
"Humans fake their identities all the time." Ben shrugged, "Have you read their literature? Also, I'm not saying his personal guard isn't Sabre's biological brother. I'm saying how did Sabre's biological brother become his personal guard?"
"I guess their parents were murdered, his home was burnt down. He was all alone. I think he became a soldier..." I tried to explain.
"So Snow Moon took him in and made him their Prince's personal guard?" Ben was skeptical, "Last our investigations show, Sabre was from a small noble human family in a human kingdom near Snow Moon. Why would Alpha Gunter take in a human soldier from outside his pack and put him close to his son?"
"Cos they are both human?" I remembered Keanu, "I think there are humans living among Snow Moon wolves, like living together."
"Have you seen it?" Ben asked me.
"No... I just think so." I admitted.
"What made you think so?" Ben questioned. Ben wasn't someone who could accept something as a fact without verification. And I had to admit, wolves and humans co-existing as equals was somewhat of a stretch to me too.
I mean, either the wolves were on top of the food chain (e.g. Green Packlands), or the wolves were dog-slaves to the humans (historical records as well as a few current independent human kingdoms... ironically most notably in the Blue Packlands where the Snow Moon Pack/Kingdom was)
"I don't know... When I talk to River and Keanu, it kind of makes sense?" I shrugged haplessly. I was really bad at explaining stuff, I know.
Our car was driving up the road to the Alpha house. Ben frowned, and then he said, "It's okay, Sam. I'll think about it. Just be careful of that Prince. I don't think he's what you think he is."
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