Chapter 10

Waking up, Nat was unable to move anything except her hands and feet. Looking down, she saw that not only had the little pup stayed curled up on her chest, but the rest of the wolf family had ended up sleeping on top of her in the sleeping bag. While normally she would have felt fear at the fact she was covered in wild predators, all she felt was warmth, comfort, and security. And then confusion for feeling that way.

'Don't worry, won't hurt. Pack mate.' Suddenly, Natalie heard a voice in her head that wasn't hers. With wide eyes she looked towards the adult wolf curled up on her waist. The wolf was looking at her with kind eyes that still had the remnant of sleep to them, as if she had just woken up as well. Did this wolf just speak to her in her mind? 'Yes. Bonded. Can sense, feelings?' The wolf though to her, almost unsure of the word choice.

Natalie's mind instantly put together all of the pieces. The green wave affected her and the wolves. It allowed them to 'bond' with her as the wolf put it, and apparently allowed them to talk mentally. However, it must have either difficulty thinking out in detail. Was the wolf learning English as she was mentally talking to her? Perhaps the more she talked with the wolf, then the faster it would actually learn how to think in English. Deciding to try out how the connection worked from her end, Nat tried to project her thoughts towards the wolf in question, 'How is your leg feeling?'

All the response she got in response was, 'Hurt.' Shaking her head at the curtness of the response, she was glad that the communication between the two seemed to go both ways. Thinking back to wolf, so as to not wake all of the sleeping pups, 'I know that it hurts, I was just wondering if it hurt less than yesterday.' Being able to get how a patient was feeling was important for doctors, and now she could finally understand how her patient was feeling! She felt joy at being able to finally talk to animals, regardless of the fact that they probably had to be bonded to her to do so.

'Better. Still hard walk. Why happy?' Realizing that the wolf had said earlier that she could know her feelings, she giggled a bit. Before she could start to explain, the giggling which had caused her chest to move up and down erratically caused the pups sleeping there to wake up. One by one, almost like a line of dominoes, they all yawned. The first one to finish yawning, which happened to be the first one that joined her last night, took a couple steps towards her and started to lick her face. She heard a third voice go through her head, 'Clean! Clean!' Realizing that it was the pup just trying to help clean her off, she could not help but giggle some more at the pups adorable efforts.

"You all know that I would be able to get a lot cleaner if I was able to get up and go into the pond, right?" After saying that, the mother wolf barked once more. This bark shocked Natalie, as she felt she could understand what it was saying, or at least what it was implying. She had just told all of the pups to go back in. One by one, the sleepy pups entered back in, followed at last by the female wolf. Getting up, she remembered how much of a mess everything was. Looking around and noticing that her whole tent was dirty, she just took off her clothes and tossed them into one corner, and headed over towards the pond with a towel wrapped around her, even if it was just currently for warmth.

As she got in the pond, she realized she never answered the female wolf's question. Thinking towards her, she all the sudden had an image of a blank area, populated only by the wolves. 'Is that what it looks inside me?' she couldn't help but think that first. It just looked so bland and white. She almost felt bad for the wolves as while they could run around, there was nothing in there. 'Yes' was the only response to that she heard from the wolf. Moving on, she explained her love of animals and her want to be able to talk with them like a certain fairy tale character while she cleaned the dirt and blood off of her as best she can.

Noticing that the feeling sense worked both ways as well was interesting, as she felt that the more she explained, the more of an understanding feeling came from the wolf. She was surprised that she wasn't sensing the pain, but that could have been any number of things. Getting out of the water, she dried herself off as best she could while heading towards her tent. While walking back, she remembered that she hadn't even asked a basic question for someone she just met. 'Do you have a name that I could call you? Mine is Natalie.'

'What name?' the wolf inside responded.

'It's something that you use to identify yourself, something that anyone can use and you know they are talking about you.' Natalie realized that having to explain what a name was meant that the wolf probably did not have one.

'No. You give one?' the wolf asked, while giving Nat a feeling of acceptance.

After she got back to camp, Natalie finally thought of one that might work well. 'How about Kali?' Feeling happiness at the new name, Natalie assumed that Kali was happy with her choice. Walking into her tent, she sighed. 'I wish that all of this dirt would be easier to clean." As she said that, the pups came out and rolled all around the tent. As they were rolling, they gathered all of the dirt up to Natalie and then brought it into her with them. Shocked at seeing dirt just enter her, Natalie peered inside the space the wolves occupied. As she did, the space inside had changed. The space now had a clearly defined sky, with land covered in dirt. Could stuff that wasn't bonded enter her body?

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