Chapter 161
Their entire time travelling that day was basically uneventful. The only town that they passed by was Ponoka early on, but it was hardly close by. The only reason that they even knew they passed it was due to the signs that were all over the highway. Otherwise, the town was entirely obscured from their vision. It was as if it did not even exist. Other than that, the closest they came to another settlement or town was three times as far away. They didn't find this out till later, but the lack of signs or landmarks helped give that idea some traction.
It wasn't until after they had passed Bearhills Lake that they decided to call it a day. They had been walking for just under eight hours at that point, but it was a nice small cluster of trees just off the highway beside a smaller pond. This pond ended up being the main reason that the group decided to call it. After all, none of the three humans had been able to clean themselves in a while. The stink they were raising was disorientating to some of the wolves, and especially the wargs. Turns out the higher amounts of energy inside of them increased the sensitivity of their senses. It was one way to find out, but not the way any of them wanted to. Trooper could be seen trying his best to ignore the smell to be close with Nat, but it was an uphill battle. And he was losing ground hard.
That meant that before any food was prepared, Natalie and Shannon dragged Sophie with them to have a bath in the lake. She had not gotten properly cleaned since the event, which with her malnutrition was not doing her any favors health wise. However, getting her into the water was more of a task then they expected. Sure, it was late in the day, and the sun had been shining on it for hours by now, but the water was still cold to the touch. As soon as her foot touched the water, Sophie attempted to scramble back and away from the edge of the water. She would have been successful too if it wasn't for the grip that her mothers had on each of her arms. After a bit of a struggle, the two of them finally came up with a plan.
They couldn't just throw her in after all, neither of them had checked to see if she knew how to swim. Nor could they tell how deep the pond actually was. Together, they lifted the squirming and struggling girl up into the air, before running straight into the water themselves. It may have been cold and deterring, but both women were more than used to the feel of cold water on the skin. They carried Sophie straight into the water, which ended up going up to their stomachs by the time they stopped. As Sophie was struggling to keep in an elevated position, they lowered her down into the water. Though, lowering may be putting it kindly, as the pace that she descended at was much closer to falling than a controlled lowering of their arms.
Sophie was unable to stop her fall at all, plunging down into the pond, straight to the muddy bottom. As quickly as she got there, she pushed herself upwards and back into the air above. As she breached the surface of the pool, the air prickled her skin lightly, reminding her of how cold she found the water. Sophie all the sudden got confused, as it was no longer the water that seemed cold to her, but the air above it. She lowered her body back into the water, it enveloping her like a thin blanket. It did not make her warm, just protected her from the air above that now seemed to be hostile to her skin.
Shannon and Natalie could not help but break out into laughter at the scene. They had known this would happen, and decided to help Sophie realize the best way to go swimming in nature. As soon as they got their laughter in control, which ended up taking a while due to Sophie glaring at the two of them, they got to work getting their bodies clean from all the grime that had accumulated. While they did that, the two women stirred up some topical conversation with their daughter. In it, they found that not only had Sophie never been swimming out in a lake or pond, but she had never camped before the event either. She was wholly unused to their current lifestyle, and was just trying to follow them along as they went. Upon hearing that, they both agreed that Nat would have to help teach as well, but not for anything school related. Survival tricks, navigation, and how to approach and interact with wild animals was added to Sophie's curriculum, along with many other things that she may need to survive. Seeing that it was difficult to split up the time in a day to get around to all of it, they just decided to alternate the days for who was giving the lesson. Which meant that tomorrow, it was Natalie's first day teaching Sophie about how to live in the wild.
Part of Shannon was worried, knowing how tough it was to learn anything from her partner, but she had to back down on this one. While she knew a few things about being outdoors for extended periods of time, Nat could practically live outdoors for her entire life without issue. She had a much more comprehensive knowledge thanks to her childhood, that she was just the far better choice for an instructor, even if she had issues imparting information.
As they came out of the pond, towels were thrown out of Shannon's Soulscape. The group dried off plenty, before they threw on some clothes they had set aside before. Which had reminded the group of a current issue that would need to be rectified in Edmonton. Sophie currently had an extremely limited wardrobe, as in the same type of clothes that she had when they rescued her. They had been copied and cleaned in Nat's Soulscape, but there were still tears and holes all over the sundress that she wore. She could not be walking around in that same dress for the foreseeable future, though they would not throw it out. Maybe, if they found Nat's folks, her dad could patch it for her, his new granddaughter.
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