Chapter 43
Natalie woke up to a bouncing feeling on her belly. Looking down the blanket as she rubbed her eyes awake, she saw that it was unsurprisingly Spirit bouncing in a circle on top of her, chasing his own tail. Did that pup ever lose energy, or could we hook him up and power the entire continent and still have excess energy? Disregarding that train of thought, Nat slowly got up and moved towards the entrance of the tent. After confirming with Edwin and Lucille that there was no other happenings in the night, she went around and roused up all of the wolves and the coyote pups. The three pups had ended up changing their sleeping schedule to match the rest of the pack, and away from the nocturnal way their parents slept. After a few licks from the pups and the two coyotes, they all disappeared into the Soulscape. The coyotes had taken the morning hunting training as their responsibility before going to sleep.
After a quick breakfast of cereal for Nat and some hares for the canines, they all cleaned up and made sure that there was no trace of them. The knowledge that there were bigger and meaner threats prowling around raised the potential for issues to arise. Quickly everything was taken down and stored and they were on their way into Cardston. Given the sight the night prior, Emily, Ash, Maia, and Shadow all traveled out with her, and Bryden and Kali kept at the ready in case more help was needed. They followed the highway into town and moved along the south side of the road, keeping to shadows and moving slowly from building to building. According to Shadow who was on point today, the scent from the passerby's last night went down the same road they were on.
They followed the road for a few blocks until they came up to a vet clinic. Knowing that she did not have a full complement of gear to help deal with wounded animals, they all went inside and quickly stocked up on what they could. Most of what the pack stored for her were medicines, but there was a fair amount of tools and specialty bandages and braces that could prove useful in the right situation. Hopefully they would never get into such a situation, but it was always better to be prepared for the worst and never have to deal with it, than assume that it would not happen and be fucked when it did. Once satisfied with her current inventory of medical equipment, Nat directed the wolves outside. Resuming their journey down the road, they all froze after half a block of travel when they all heard a loud shriek, followed by a symphony of muted laughter to the south, deeper into the town.
Initially, Nat had the instinct to head straight north and then find her way back to the road later. The volume of the noises indicated that while they were not close, there were a sizable number of them. However two things stopped her feet from turning that way and running. The thoughts on the dream from the nights before, and how it might be an issue that she needed to save those large wolves from. This was supported by the second reason, which was the sound of the shriek. While she had gotten familiar with the shriek of goblins, whether in pain or from being alarmed. This did not sounds anywhere close to either. It more closely sounded like a wounded dog, almost like the yelp one would make from having its tail stepped on. Her mind said to run away and leave, for it would be foolish to fight. However she could not say no to her heart and leave a dog of any kind to suffer. Pushing the thoughts about the dream out of mind, discrediting them as just wishful delusions, she guided the pack towards the sounds of cruelty.
Cutting diagonally through the backyards of a couple blocks brought them up to the high school. Moving up to the corner of the building adjacent to the parking lot, she suddenly heard another yelp, which sounded much closer. However, the sound of ugly laughing and maniacal shrieks sounded just as close. Peeking her head out from the corner of the building, rage immediately bubbled inside of her. There was a park on the other side of the road, with what looked to be a swimming pool complex beside it that was completely fenced in. What was occupying that park was probably three dozen goblins, and another half dozen of the bigger variety she had seen in the moonlight. They had a makeshift camp set up, and some of them were just idling about the camp. Most of them however were lined up around the pool. Inside the fence was a bunch of giant canines. Given their size in comparison to the goblins outside the fence, Natalie felt like calling them wargs. That however was all superfluous to Nat, as her eyes were focused on the monsters laughing as they threw stones at the huddled up creatures.
Even knowing that there were almost forty of the fucks, Nat decided right then and there that every single one was gonna die. No one should treat any animals that way, least of wall these ones, which were basically just bigger, fluffier wolves. Moving backwards a little so she was not seen, she got down and explained what she wanted to do. As she outlined her plan to save the mistreated beasts, the wolves around her adopted a predatory grin, and their tails slowly wagged faster and faster out of excitement. Once the plan was outlined, most of the wolves found the plan perfectly acceptable. Maia had other ideas and pointed to the roof of the nearby building. It appeared to be an ice rink, but had one part that was mostly flat, hidden behind the domed top of the building. Hearing the idea of the wolf, Nat could not help but match the grins of the canines. These were going to be the prey of the pack, and they would be taken down without mercy.
Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Lachlan, Coen, Adam, John, Ty, 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!