Chapter 122

The group of five made their way up the last bit of the Range Road, before turning east onto Highway 564. The sky above was clear, showing off the bright sun as it rose slowly towards its zenith. Today, since they were out in the middle of nowhere, all three of the wolves were moving about in their shifted forms. Shadow was markedly better than he had been the previous time, but still looked amateurish compared to Maia and Kali. Whereas his steps were slow and steady, methodically placing one paw in front of the other for a stable stride, Maia and Kali seemed to almost glide smoothly along the ground. Their practice the last few days as well as the new workouts that Shannon had them doing was familiarising themselves with their shifted forms at a remarkable rate. Their tails where swinging properly with each step, helping keep their balance upright, unlike Shadow who was still unused to the swinging of the tail mixing with his newfound verticality. Having seen how effective that just a couple days of working with the bodies had proved useful, she decided to get every wolf to at least do the bare minimum of an exercise routine in their shifted forms.

However, Nat took the time that they were traveling to once more train her manipulation of the energy internally. She had received a large boost to her reserves thanks to the new bonds that were made at the zoo, so now it was time to see if she could improve her control once more. However, she felt the same resistance as she tried to direct the formation of a veil throughout her body. She could feel the energy wanting to move away from the veil under the edge of her skin every second, reducing her capability to keep a steady form. While she was frustrated with the inability to progress, it did rule out one of her theories on why. It did not turn out to be due to a deficit of energy, resulting in the energy being stretched too thin. No, now it was actually harder to control than before, working together with strength to resist her efforts at manipulation. Now that that was easily taken apart, the next leading theory had to do with technique. There had to be something she was missing, something that she was doing wrong. It was just the next most logical step.

While they turned off 564 and onto Highway 791 at the Delacour General Store, Nat thought on why the energy was not properly forming a veil. Did it have to be closer to the outer layer of skin? Further tucked away into the core of her being? What if the whole idea of a veil was wrong to begin with. Wait, that might actually be it. She had just come up with the veil idea on her own, there was no supporting evidence to say that it was the best way. While there were many ways to prepare a sandwich, in the end it would all be the same. What if she had been trying the hardest route first, instead of working the easiest way? To get an idea, she focused some of the energy to her eyes, changing her vision to see the energy inside of her canine companions. As she did, she focused on the strands of energy, zooming in her sight to see if the energy inside them was moving in any certain way. What she saw made her feel like the biggest idiot on the planet.

The energy ran through the wolves' bodies through their muscles, their veins, even down to their bones. It ran along the natural channels in their bodies to flow smoothly. Just as she was currently doing with her eyes. This energy seemed to be more natural in nature, as she was also able to see it flowing in miniscule amounts through the trees on the roadside. Here she had been, trying to brute force the energy into flowing evenly throughout her body, when her body already had all the channels that were needed built in from the beginning of her life. Taking her vision back in, she slowly started to run her energy out from her heart all throughout her body. Gently, she pushed it outwards, but let her body do all of the guiding work. As the energy flowed along her body, she did not feel the resistance that she had with the veil, instead the energy seemed to race, trying to expand into her whole body as fast as it could. It was as if a flood gate had been opened.

As it filled her body, she felt many things change at once. Her steps felt lighter, her senses became heightened, and her sore ness just faded away. It left her feeling strong, feeling alive for the first time in a while. What freaked her out most was that she could now clearly hear Shannon's heartbeat, despite them being meters away from one another. It was as if her ear was pressed directly against her lover's chest with how clear the sound was. As for the drain from having the energy flood her body, she felt it slowly expending the energy. Definitely less than the veil had taken to run even partially, and this was over her whole body. Focusing on each section, she realized that she could get a general idea on how much energy was being expended in an area. The big take away from this info was that her legs, which were probably the most physically fit part of her body, had the lowest amount of power drain. Was there a correlation between the two? It definitely seemed that way, but there was, as always, a lack of evidence.

As soon as she canceled the flow of energy, she immediately rushed over to tell Shannon. Strangely enough, after the energy dissipated from her limbs, the soreness did not come back. Did it momentarily enhance her own personal healing? Or did it just do the minor healing needed to get over the strain leftover from the workouts? Either way, Shannon was delighted to hear this information. Natalie, on the other hand, almost immediately regretted sharing this information, as Shannon's visage turned to one of sadistic glee. After all, she now knew that she could push Natalie harder in the exercises and she would be fine. Better yet, she knew that her lover would follow through with it, if only to check to see if being more fit did make the whole process less draining. If there was a chance for science to benefit from her suffering, she knew that she had Nat by the throat. After all, she just could not resist the temptation of finding out something new.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Selvaria, Viktor, Saganatsu, Eeleater, John, Jacob, Onean, Neal, Sebastian, Ethan, Sir Hellington, Adam, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 50 patrons, which I will then spend more time each month writing some side stories and shorts that show other perspectives throughout my stories!

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