Chapter 154
The camp became a bustle of activity as more and more of the pack woke up from their slumber. Noticing that more people were moving around and getting started on morning stretches, Shannon passed off Sophie to Natalie so that she could start work on breakfast. Normally she would have brought her new assistant to help out, but this morning would have a lot of grease. Sausages and bacon were not the friendliest meats to cook, especially if one wasn't wearing something with long sleeves. Sure, they tasted delicious, but they came with a certain degree of caution needed when preparing due to the splattering of hot grease that came off of them. The omelettes that they were going to be cooked into also took a fair amount of focus and care, and in her tired state Sophie would not be of much help. It just meant that tonight would have to be interactive for her in some regard to make up for it.
Meanwhile, the coyotes were all just relaxing around Nat and Sophie. This time, it wasn't Nat who was giving out the scratches on Edwin and Copper's heads, but their mates instead. It was a rare treat for them, and even Edwin was showing off how happy he was. Unlike whenever it was done by Nat, he crooned sweetly and visibly showed off his glee that Lucille was pampering him. Copper on the other hand, was unabashed from the get go, which ended up making it harder on Tin who was trying to pamper the affectionate father of her pups. She ended up just scratching his back after a minute, as he nuzzled into her hard as he enjoyed her ministrations with her claws. Natalie was fine with this though, as she gently held her own munchkin in her hands as the coyote pups rolled around them. She had fallen back into a state of slumber, since before Shannon had gone to make food. A small drool stain had started on Nat's shoulder, but that didn't feel like an issue to her.
When the omelettes were finally ready, Nat gently roused Sophie as Shannon brought over the food. There was no need to move and sit somewhere else, as they had already gotten comfy there. Shannon just sat back down from where she had gotten up earlier, moving carefully so as to not disturb the three plates that she was carrying. Behind her, she left close to a hundred portions piled up on tables she had set out, but they all knew it wouldn't be enough. Ash would probably eat half-a-dozen of them herself at a minimum after all. However, it was easy enough for the canines to work around that issue on their own, quickly getting one stored in Nat's Soulscape before churning out enough for the rest of them.
Meanwhile, Shannon and Nat got started on their food while Sophie slowly woke up from her nap. That was until she smelled the food nearby, her eyes focusing on the delicious scent that filled her nose. Soon, there was nothing but the sounds of almost a hundred bodies eating, silently enjoying the food that had been made. After all, it had plenty of meat, with a liberal share of red and green peppers cut into it. Add in the chunks of mushroom and the layer of melted cheese on top, it was an instant favourite for all, in hindsight, Shannon admitted that onions probably would have worked really well in it as well, but that was shelved as an idea for next time.
After breakfast was over, everyone got to what they had planned for the day. For the canines, most switched back and forth between exercising and attempting to project the energy outside themselves. After all, if the monsters could do it with black mist, there was no reason why they should not be able to do it themselves. Meanwhile, Shannon was working on both overseeing what all of the canines were doing, as well as focusing on her new boot camp recruit. Sophie was getting her physical evaluation today, as well as being fitted into a schedule to help develop herself. The plan was not to make it an intensive program, but a lighter one. That way, she could work out in the evenings while she got taught math and other such subjects while they walked. Shannon just had to get a baseline idea of where she was at first.
As for Natalie, she had patients to check up on. First, she gave a general check over on Mike, before giving him a green light to go join with the rest of the canines. He was mostly healed, but the remaining damage that was lasting was mental in nature, and that was just something that only time could heal. There was just nothing that Nat could do to speed up the process, save what she already was. Then she moved onto the newer pups, as it had been a few days since they had started moving about in their shifted forms. She just wanted to make sure that there were no possible complications or side effects from getting them used to them at an early age. Thankfully, there were none that seemed to have issues, and all actually seemed to be healthier than what was normal for their age.
Her next set of patients would take a lot longer to go through. It had been just over a week since they had gotten the gorillas out of the zoo, and started taking care of their starvation and malnutrition. As she checked them over, she had to continuously look at references and notes to make sure she was doing an accurate job assessing where they were at. Even then, this was far outside what training she had. She was more used to quadrupeds and animals that naturally populated the Canadian wilds. These lowland gorillas were normally an ocean away, leading to her not having a need to work with any before now. Thankfully, as far as she could tell, they were all making steady recoveries, and they just had to continue to slowly increase their intake of nutrients. As she was on the last patient, and the sun sat high in the sky, showing it was around noon, her current patient let out a low and quiet grunt. Looking to Shannon, she was glad that she immediately translated what the gorilla had said. "Someone approaching. On the road from where we came."
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