Chapter 49
As the morning sun entered the open door of the tent, Natalie awoke groggily. This had to have been her worst sleep in a long time, and most of it was probably due to that night mare she had. Everything about it rubbed her the wrong way. Seeing her friend, who she respects and believes in being in such a state of dismay and pain was terrible. Shaking her head to get rid of the memories of the twisted nightmare, she tried to rationalize what could have caused it. She was worried for her friend, so that worry that has been building up for the past few days probably came to a crashing point last night and it was stress. There was no way a martial artist who is ranked so high globally could be in such a situation.
As she rationalized the dream away, a thought entered her mind that made her afraid. There were the wargs asking her for help in a dream just days before, and now they were lounging beside her in the tent warm and snug. What if the dreams were not just dreams, but some sort of prophetic vision. That if she did not hurry, her friend could be in that terrible predicament. But then the realization came that could not be the case. The wargs had been tortured by their goblin captors for days before she had any dreams showing them. Did that mean that that was already happening to Shannon? No, this was just a one off dream, like the thousands of goblins running after me through the forest. 'She is fine. There is nothing to worry about.' Nat repeated to herself over and over in her head, calming her breathing and pulse.
Extricating herself from the mound of fluff surrounding her, she immediately retreated back in when she first felt the air come in from outside. The temperature had dropped considerably, and the wind coming in was enough to make her hair stand on end. Peeking out of the tent, a fresh layer of snow could be seen covering the ground outside, with more lightly falling from the sunny sky. As quick as she could, she got Kali, who as usual slept beside her, to wake up and get her warmer clothes from inside. While her jeans would probably still be fine, her tee shirt that she had just would not be enough. Thankfully, items coming out from the Soulscape maintained the temperature they were stored at, as her sweater was stored at room temperature. That was much warmer and cozier than the probably negative fifteen weather blowing in from the open door of the tent.
After getting on the gloves and beanie that Kali had brought out for her, it was time to get some food. With the fire pit now covered in snow, she decided to just pull back out the toast she had made before. Finally looking at the door, she noticed that Edwin and Lucille were inside the tent with everyone instead of outside. While still using one hand to eat the toast, she pet the heads of the two faithful lookouts in thanks. They then went inside the Soulscape, followed by most of the pack. Kali and Maia stayed behind as her company while she had breakfast, each nuzzling up against a different side of her to share warmth.
Today was a slightly different day as far as the morning hunting went. The pups maintained their practice, getting a hare per group and splitting that as their meal. For the others, the group that decided to hunt today was none other than the wargs. They had apparently missed hunting while they were captive, and wished to 'stretch their legs' as they put it. Single handed, each one took out a full grown elk on their own, and brought it back to the group. One of the elks was enough for the eight other canines, but the other two caught prey were eaten solely by the wargs. When they were that big, it was a good idea to assume that they ate a lot more as well. Thinking on that, Nat realized that she had been eating more lately, but her diet has also become a lot different. Where as before she would usually default to salads with meat only once in a while, steak was becoming a staple to her and in large quantities. The toast itself seemed to be a bit bland to her, the only part truly holding her taste to it was the peanut butter slathered over top. Maybe bonding with the canines was doing more to her than she thought.
She just laughed off the notion as soon as she thought about it. The pack ate mostly meat, and everything that she made was shared by them. It was not the bond changing her, but the company. When you are cooking for others, tastes begin to overlap and intersect, and she was finding herself eating like them far more. Next time she cooked, she swore that she would do up the bacon strips they had stored a while ago. Nice crispy bacon would go really well with toast in the morning. Once everyone was finished eating, Kali and Maia included, they quickly took down camp. Looking outside, she wanted nothing more than to ride one of the wargs onwards, but she had no scarves or goggles to protect her face. With the speed that they could probably run at, wind burn would become a serious issue. Despite not being able to ride them, Sol volunteered to take point today, with Luna taking up the rear. Given the weight of the logs they pushed as well as the fighting they did against the monsters the day before, all of the wolves were perfectly content with letting them take on the long part of the day. Once they were all good, leaving just an open patch of grass in the middle of a snowy yard, they set off along the road through the white expanse northwards.
Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Eeleater, 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!