Chapter 178

As soon as Sophie found out where they were going after breakfast, she wolfed down her food as fast as she could. She needed to be reminded to breathe, and that the owls could wait a few extra minutes. Her actions became almost as funny and entertaining as Matis' incident earlier. Almost. They kept reminding him subtly, claiming that her actions were the second most hilarious event so far today. He started just owning the whole thing, laughing with them. All in all, smiles were held by everyone who was there, even the extended family that were all shifted animals.

After everyone was done eating, they cleaned up the mess from breakfast. They left the rest of the campsite up though, as they were planning to return to it later on to hear the tale of the Vilkas' couples' journey here. After all, there was no need to take it down if they were just going to set it right back up anyways. It was just a there and back sort of trip here inside the zoo. Sure, there was the chance of monsters coming in, but with how many animals were here and how much of a distaste they had for monsters, safety was not an issue they were worried about. Due to that, majority of the bonded stayed back at camp. Whether it was reading some books, exercising and trying to build up their bodies, or trying to rest and recover from the ridiculous amount of fighting from the day before, the ones who hung back were plenty satisfied with what they were doing. Especially the young who were recently born in the past few months. They were able to run around so much, and with so many new things to see they were having a great time. Though that kept their parents quite busy trying to keep watch over them all.

There were only five in total that stuck with the group as they headed deeper into the zoo. Sheera just never left Charlene's side the entire time, though that was just her way of life at this point. They had been that way for the past ten years, and neither Nat nor Matis believed for a second that would change in the slightest now. One of the bears had joined in, but the entire time kept positioned behind and to the side of Matis. It was as if he had this really large and furry bodyguard shadowing him the entire time. He tried to act it off and take it in stride, but his face clearly betrayed how embarrassed he was. He probably had tried to convince the grizzly to act normal and not follow him like that, but they clearly went and did it anyways. Their face was stoic, so it was hard to tell, but their eyes were smiling and full of mirth. Kali and Maia also tagged along, as they had become accustomed to throughout the past month and a half. They just seemed to enjoy being in Natalie's company immensely.

The final tag-along was actually dragged there by Sophie. It seemed that over the past couple days she had gotten along with Bryden really well, so much so that she was dragging him along as emotional support for this. He had wanted to go back to farming inside the Soulscape, but was quickly stopped by Sophie grabbing his hand. He had been in the process of going back in, but his hand got stuck at the point where it connected to Sophie. It seemed that as long as they were connected, he could not fully go into the Soulscape. He then thought about trying to talk to her and convince her that she would be fine and wouldn't need him there, but he felt the pressure at which she was squeezing his paw. As he looked upon the munchkin's face, he noticed how it was filled with nervousness and anxiety. She was worried about this whole thing, and was scared on how it could possibly go. When he saw that, he quickly scooped her up and walked with them as they went up to the exhibits that had held the owls to see which ones had stuck around.

When they got there, birds fluttered to and from between the different exhibits that dotted the sides. However, that all stopped when they walked in. Each and every bird took a perch and stared at the group that entered their domain. Based entirely on a gut feeling, Bryden set Sophie down and pushed her forward a little bit. She immediately turned back and clutched his leg, as the gaze of so many avian species was intimidating her. It took a little bit of persuading, but she eventually was able to walk out on her own, albeit she kept within leaping distance of Bryden and the rest of the group at all times. As she looked back and forth between all of the birds in the trees, a flutter of wings coming up from the ground went straight towards her. In shock, all she could do was close her eyes and hold her arms up to keep it from hitting her.

When she felt the grasp of an owl perching upon her arm however, she opened her eyes slowly. Standing on the top of her arm was an owl that was about the size of a book, staring at her. It slowly tilted its head back and forth getting a good look at her. Slowly, she lifted her other arm and started scratching at the back of the owl's head. Almost instantly it started preening as she had apparently found a good spot to scratch the small bird. This kept up for a few minutes, until the owl shook out all of their feathers from their head to their tail. Then it let out a short call, before launching straight into Sophie's chest. She felt no impact, as the burrowing owl went into her instead of hitting her. As she stood there dumbfounded at the new feeling, more of the owls around them took flight from their perches, carrying with them either some mice that they had caught or berries they had scavenged. The sudden rush had surprised everyone, especially given what had triggered it. So much, that no one moved as twenty-five owls all descended towards the little girl, before all disappearing inside of her.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Viktor, Saganatsu, Eeleater, John, Hades, Sir Hellington, Onean, Sebastian, 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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