BEN'S EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

14 FEBRUARY, SUNDAY, CONTINUED

There are some things that shouldn't be opened, like beta's brains. But how was I to know?

"Alright." Ben frowned a little as he gathered his thoughts, "FAO was established based on the next gen you chose at the NL internal meeting. It's been rapidly expanding in scope and resources since. The Princess Town was the first project, the first social enterprise town of its kind, its inception and seed funding began even before the FAO was established."

Wow, Ben made everything sound so official...

"Later on you accelerated the project, with support from the the major packs of all the colored packlands and instructed for the move of the Underground Army to be brought forward. This was made possible by the immediate funds you had secured, mainly from the suppression of the Ciara Coven."

Like that was our jaunt where we killed the old Ciara Lord (and nearly started a war in the Red Packlands), right?

"Meanwhile, you spearheaded the merger of the Green Packlands with the consolidation of Morning Light and Night Leaf, followed by talks with the Lorent Pack. You rescued the Lorent's true beta and then played a key part in the release of your Luna Bell, the Lorent heir. Your engagement with Luna Bell successfully binded the Lorent Pack into our merger deal."

Okay, now that was just... I don't know what that was. It just turned out like that.

"You gathered an underground army in the Red Packlands which is now the backbone of our pack's military power, and providing the manpower to ensure the security of the fast growing pack. Which you named, by the way, Moon Bell."

That was also urm...I did say we could've accidentally started a war right? And in hindsight, I should've put more thought into a pack name. I took the first suggestion my wolf offered. So now the pack was named after two things my Wolf liked looking at best - the moon, and Mate. I probably should never tell anyone that.

"What else?" Ben asked, and then he answered his own question, "You called for the war on the Rogue King, capturing and disposing of rogues that trespassed our land, as well as securing the borders by making the opportunity to eradicate the roaming rogues with your underground army before they returned to cause damage on home ground."

In my defense, they started it... they exploded my home, etc.

"You were also the one who highlighted the existence of the Free Wolves caught in the cross fire, and gave instructions for outreach to the Free Wolf pups, this move significantly reduced the volatility at the borderlines. By the way, Delta Charlie was asking you on this point earlier. What were your intentions regarding the future of the Free Wolves?"

I shrugged, "I don't have any intentions."

Ben chuffed, "Fine, you don't have to tell me now. Anyway, we're nearly out of corridor so let me finish."

Wait, there's more?

"You further strengthened Moon Bell's backing with good relationship with other packs, most visibly in the alliance with Alpha Henry's Silver Mountain of the Gold Packlands, known for its formidable intel and business acumen. You also secured bilateral military training ties with Alpha Solomon's Black Forest, which is regarded as the colored packland's largest military power."

Well, that's because they were the largest pack - they occupied the entire Black Packlands! Of course they needed the warriors to protect it.

"And even excluding the fact that you have your grandmother's ring held hostage, Night Forest of the Blue Packlands, one of the most historic and respected packs in the colored packlands, is seen as our natural backer. Put it altogether, and Moon Bell has suddenly been propelled and solidified to a leading position among the other packs in the colored packlands."

We stopped outside a door at the end of the corridor. It had a hand painted wooden sign with the words "Youth Club" followed by a slot thing where you could cover either the word "Open" or "Close." It was "Open." Yay!

But Ben wasn't done, "The Youth Club was the development upon the dungeon clean up party you started, and what you instructed about letting the youth take ownership from ground up, using "a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down". It proved very popular, and we revamped the existing Youth Club at Morning Light and set up one for Night Leaf to allow for more youths to participate."

Ben reached out for the door knob, but paused there, "Finally, the FAO's newest initiative is the media and PR department that was formed on your decision to mark your territory in the online world. It's still in its initial stages and keeps evolving to respond to the new demands created by your recent appearances in media, particularly the Lycan News Channel."

Ben turned the door knob, "And that's all the official FAO initiatives to date and your involvement in it."

I will never test my beta again.

He pushed the door open and I stepped in automatically. Did it all really happen that way?

Ben intoned with a shrug, "Alpha Princess is here."

"Yo, princess. Welcome to the Youth Club."

It was Lola at the front desk! She smiled and I felt my heart smiled back so big that the smile reached my face, "Lola!"

Suddenly, the perplexities of the FAO melted away. Was this what they meant when they said a smile of a beauty will help you forget your troubles? Hahaha.

"I want to do a mission!" I was excited again.

"Something within half an hour would be good." Ben said.

Eh? Only half an hour? I looked at the mission board.

"Let me register you to our Morning Light branch first." Lola suggested, "May I have your Youth Club card?"

Oh right, the card... urm... Ben produced it from his wallet, he handed Lola two cards, "Mine too, Lola. Might as well."

"Alright." Lola nodded, "Pick a mission. For half an hour, maybe you can help shovel a driveway, or run an errand for the packhouse kitchen."

I shook my head, "No, leave that for the younger wolves. I want to do something fun."

In which I mean, dangerous. I looked at all the mission slips on the board. I didn't have time to read through them all. Ben wanted it done in half an hour. Okay! I randomly pointed, "That one."

"You want to chop wood?" Ben smirked.

I nodded. Then I stopped nodding. What? Wood? No, I wanted to start something FUN.

"Are you sure, Sam?" Lola asked, "That's Mr Greene's home, it's down Maple Lane."

"Is that far?" Ben asked.

"No, its right by Lullaby Route." Lola said, "Mr Greene is known to be a little difficult, so that slip had been here since last week."

What kind of luck would pick the last slip left on the board that no one else wanted? But my guts was rearing to go.

"Yes. I want this one." I decided.

"Oh boy." Ben said, "Here we go."

Did his wolf sense it too? Adventure was awaiting us!

"I bet its going to be a lot of wood to chop in half and hour." My beta groused.

Lola gave us a tight smile, "I'm not sure about the details, sorry."

"Just chop faster. It'll be fine." I said.

Lola scanned the bar code and our cards to link the mission to us.

"Alright! Let's go, Ben! Our first mission!" I waved the slip above my head and pulled Ben out by his arm while he struggled to keep our cards back into his wallet, "Bye bye Lola! See you around!"

"See you, Sam! Bye Ben. Good luck!" Lola called out to us with forced cheer. I think she was more worried for us than anything.

"If I'm late for the dance opening, cover for me." Ben said.

"Yes, I will." Lola promised, "Please take care of Sam."

Hahaha, they sounded like a couple on some drama serial.

I mean, we were chopping wood for some old guy. How bad can it get? Okay... my wolf was on the surface. I told you, my wolf could smell fun from miles away, and this was going to be fun. I just knew it. I rushed out of the packhouse to the car without Ben's prodding. He had to half run to keep up.

Ben opened the car door for us and used his GPS to find Mr Greene's home. We got there pretty quick, I just clipped on my seat belt and settled in. The radio had started a song, but we were out of the car before it ended. At times like these, I'm glad I was with Ben.

We strode across the pathway two steps at a time and hopped onto the old porch. Ben knocked on the door. He didn't even wait for it to be opened, he just called out, "Hello, youth club. We are here to chop your wood."

Someone inside shouted, "Back of the house."

The someone had a very cranky voice. The kind angry old men had.

"Come on." Ben told me. I followed him around the house. We were both on alert. The foreign smells made me suddenly realize I wasn't in Night Leaf.

The house looking dilapidated didn't do much for the atmosphere either. It was made of wooden slates, and there were broken pieces of wall.

"He's got a bad case of termites." Ben told me.

I looked around, but didn't know what to look out for. How did Ben know?

At the back of the house, there was fallen maple tree. At least I guess its a maple tree. It looked like Mr Greene liked to cut down the trees behind his home. There were already three or four stumps sitting around.

The dark green back door creaked open. I couldn't help but notice the broken netting where there should have been a window on the door. Wouldn't that let in the draft in winter? But despite the old house looking like some kind of horror story backdrop, the man who shuffled out of it looked like any other old man you might meet on the street. He was in a shirt, with a brown sweater over, and brown trousers.

He gave me a second glance, and then proceeded to ignore me. Glaring at Ben, he grunted, "Chop up this tree, till it looks like that."

We turned to see a pile of logs stacked on one side of his home.

"The outside is damp now." Ben told him, "It isn't good to store your firewood there."

"'Did I pay you to talk, boy?" Mr Greene growled, "Just cut the wood and get out of here. Axe is over there."

And then he turned to shuffle back into his house. He made walking look painful.

"Want us to move them into that shed for you?" I pointed to an old rickety garden shed thing on one side. Maybe Mr Greene just couldn't do it himself.

"Don't touch the shack." Mr Greene yelled and slammed the back door shut.

I looked at Ben, who looked at me. There was only one axe. It was much larger than the small hand axes I've been taught to use. But seeing that Mr Greene had felled an entire tree, I guess a small axe wouldn't have cut it. (Haha, pun was intended)

"I'll get chopping." Ben decided, "Stay out of the way, Sam."

Wow. Ben... if you keep this up, one day you'll be the next Mr Greene.

I stepped back to let him do his thing though. When I saw "Chop firewood" on the slip, I thought it would be like the kind I helped chop before. I'm not sure how to explain it. Like fat firewood that needed to be split into thinner pieces - I knew how to do that. We were taught at "survivor camp". But an entire tree with one axe? Was that even possible?

Ben started on the branches. Yeah, I guess that made sense. We would use the branches and shape them into firewood lengths... I watched Ben work. Despite the winter air, he was working up a sweat. The tree wasn't cut too long ago, and it looked harder to chop than the kind that had been dried out for a while. I watched Ben swing the axe, and then the axe bite into the branch. Ben was doing okay. His aim was sure and the branch was slowly being hacked through, but what we needed was a chain saw.

"I'll head back to the Morning Light Packhouse and see if I can borrow a chain saw." I told Ben. Beta Gerald had chainsaws in his truck when we did the Sunday rounds. Hopefully he was back from the rounds today an could lend us a couple.

Ben immediately put down the axe, "Oh. I'll mindlink Harv. Just wait here."

I laughed out loud at that, "Were you really going to chop up the entire tree with an axe?"

Ben growled a little, "Whatever, Sam. Okay, Harv says he'll drop by with the saw in a bit... where are you going?"

I turned around, "Just looking around the woods... there's something here."

"Wait, what... Sam!" Ben was by my side in an instant. I don't know what alarmed him. I was just going to check out the next line of trees. There was something silver stuck into one of them. A weapon? No... a metal pipe, with a small pail hanging onto it.

"Look! He's tapping maple syrup!" I realized. I looked into the pail. It was less than half full and smelled sweet, except that it was clear and watery. That surprised me, "It doesn't look like maple syrup."

"It's the sap." Ben told me. I'm not sure if he knew, or if he guessed.

I looked around for more trees. One, two... three, four...five. There were just five trees, all with pipes and little buckets attached.

The sound of a truck along the road outside caught my attention.

"Harv's here." Ben informed me.