Chapter 40
I am thinking of Opening up the discord before hitting 25 patrons, whenever here or RR get the view count to surpass the word count. I do want to hear peoples thoughts on this, see if that is even something that people actually want, or if I am just crazy.
Eventually they came up to the town of Leavitt. They had not made any more stops along the way, as Natalie felt that they had everything they could need out of people's houses, and the rest of the farms had yet to have any crops planted as the ground was still too frozen. Given that planting season was a month away, all that the pack could get there paws on was a sizable amount of seeds for the different crops that were usually grown here. The main problem was that Nat had absolutely no farming knowledge, and she was not about to think that the canines would have any idea themselves. Since none of the farms had anything the group actually cared about anymore, they just focused on heading down the road and staying perceptive for any aggressors they may run across. However none of the properties they passed by had any signs of life, be they wild, monster, or undead. Thought thinking about it, would signs of undead be counted as signs of life? Or just as signs of movement? Maybe they register as signs of death? The stupidity of that line of thought and the severe lack of any actual bearing it had on anything made it so those were some of the few questions left to be forgotten and never written down.
As they looked into Leavitt, they all simultaneously agreed to leave it. The center building that was visible in the hamlet was a decent sized church. Milling around it were countless zombies, intermingled with goblins moving about and scavenging. The fact that they did not try and fight each other just went to show that raised corpses counted as monsters, at least in the view of whatever new rules affected this world. Some goblins were just sitting around doing nothing, some were walking around, but neither of those groups were what gave Nat anxiety. There was a goblin who was holding a really long stick, and with the other hand and his teeth was trying to attach a pointy piece of metal to it. Goblin's claws and teeth were already bad enough threats to deal with, but if they had weapons that gave them more reach and potentially more damage, fighting them would become a heck of a lot more dangerous.
Thanking whoever may have been listening, Natalie was extremely glad that they were on the north side of the main road. It was on the side directly out of the line of sight of the cobbled horde. Not being seen by any of them seemed like a great idea. Thankfully as they headed through the north end, none of the monsters came anywhere near. They all seemed satisfied to hang out around the church. As the group reached the edge of town, Nat's foot accidentally caught a rock. While normally it would have not made that much noise, it was hit down a driveway and audibly tapped against a garage door. Freezing in place, they all looked back towards the bunch of creatures they had just snuck past. By some sort of divine grace, none of them seemed to hear the noise, that or they thought it was nothing. As they were about to move on, a noise broke into their ears, faint but near.
Looking in the direction of the noise, it was found to be coming from the garage that had just been hit with a rock. It was a light scratching sound, though it was very infrequent and sounded weak. Curiosity won out for Natalie, and she directed Bryden and Ash to join her in investigating the sound. Arriving at the main door to the garage, Nat got one of the pups to bring out a stump that they had grabbed before. Having it placed up against the door, she slowly climbed up and looked through the windows that rand down the length. Inside was a pretty empty garage, save for some general hand tools and outdoor camping supplies. The stuff that caught her eyes though was the dog bed in the far corner. Hearing the scratching from her left, she slowly pushed her head against the door to get a better view. What she saw made her upset beyond words.
Up against the door was a German shepherd. The part that was upsetting was that it was clearly malnourished, and lacking in energy. The reason behind it was not important to Natalie, just the fact that someone's dog was sitting here waiting for its family to come home, just so it could have some food. Still conscious of the goblins and zombies nearby, she went up to check the front door, followed by the windows and back door. Sadly, none of them were open or easily accessed. The back patio door however, was a sliding glass door. Getting Bryden and Ash to be on lookout in case the noise alerted the monsters, she got to work. Some of the pups brought out a couple blankets, while Maia quickly went off to hunt a hare. Laying down the blanket all around the screen door, Nat got the pups to bring her a hammer.
After making sure that all of the canines were inside the Soulscape save for the two on lookout, Nat swung the hammer at the glass. While most of it shattered inwards, some did fall out and land on the blanket causing part of the sound to be deafened. Not waiting to hear whether or not the monsters had heard the break in, she made her way into the house in towards the attached garage. Upon walking in, the shepherd looked over at her, its tail droopily wagging. When it saw it was no one it recognized, it attempted to stand and raise its hackles, but was to weak to even do that much. Slowly moving towards it, she got Maia to pass her out the hare. "Hey there. I know that I am not someone you know. I am just here to help." Just as she got within a meter of the dog, she stopped and tossed the hare towards it.
'No movement. Monsters heard nothing.' The notice from Bryden instantly relaxed Natalie's shoulders. Turning back to the dog, she was happy to see that it had no reservations about eating the hare. Continuing where she left off, "I will give you a choice. You can stay here and wait, possibly seeing your family again should they still be alive. Alternatively, you can come with me and join my family. If we come across your current family while we are travelling you would be free to leave and join with them. The choice in this is ultimately up to you." The Shepherd looked up from its meal, seeming to study Natalie. Their eyes never left one another for a couple minutes, before the dog nodded slightly. It most likely had no capability to move much more than that. Reaching out towards it, she made the physical connection to the dog herself, which it then entered into her Soulscape. Getting the dogs bedding and a couple of the toys that it had, Nat left the house and rejoined Bryden and Ash outside.
Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Lachlan, Coen, Adam, John, 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 25 patrons, which I will then open up an official discord for everyone to come and discuss the story in and hang out!