Chapter 50

Moving through the snow was slow work. There had to be at least twenty centimeters, or eight inches, of the cold powdered water covering the grounds on top of the road. Meanwhile they were still moving through the ditch, but now more as an attempt to give themselves some more protection from the wind. What made the travelling much easier was the warg travelling in front of her. Sol had to be almost seven feet tall, and that was just from the ground to his shoulder. He had no visible issues travelling in this weather, be it from the snow or the cold. The path he carved through the ditch made it so that Nat was not fighting against the snow, just keeping her head down and making sure to put one foot after another into his paw prints. Behind her, Luna was taking her time and keeping her head on a swivel. Following Nat's footprints was easy work for her so she did her best to take advantage of the opportunity to watch for any monsters or people out there. If she was lucky, she was hoping to even spot a bit of prey.

While Luna's vigil over their surroundings was appreciated, it left Natalie feeling conflicted. Firstly, all monsters she had seen so far, be they the goblins or hobgoblins, had a loin cloth at most for clothing. None of them seemed capable of dealing with the cold or easily moving through almost a foot worth of deep snow. The idea of the tiny goblins moving through this was humorous to her, them waddling through while up to their belly button in snow. 'Wait a minute, did any of those goblins even have belly buttons?' As there was snow worry about missing anything in this winter wonderland, Nat kept her mind active while walking by debating silly topics with any willing participants. Those willing were the usual three that joined in with her in scheming and planning, as Emily, Mai, and Kali loved the conversations they had. The questions went from do goblins have belly buttons to if they shed enough fur and collected it, would a new wolf just spawn? How many hares would it take to fully satisfy the hunger of a warg? Did the colour red really go all that well with black?

As the inane questions went back and forth, the group stopped for a few minute at every residence they passed. They did not attempt to enter them, as Nat felt that they had everything they could currently need stored away. They just wanted to check and see if anyone had stayed in their homes during this week of madness. Farms would be the most likely spot that people would not head outside to see if something was wrong when they lost power. A lot of the houses they had passed by previously had wood burning stoves or actual fireplaces that they needed to cut wood for. Add that to most people usually buy their groceries for a week or two at a time, and some people would probably not even be bothered by lack of power. Alas, no residents were found in their door to door checks.

Eventually they came up to the town of Spring Coulee. Well, town was a tad exaggerated. This hamlet could not have had a population larger than Waterton's, but what it did have over her old home was that it had a church. Noticing it closer, it seemed that every town since hers that they had passed by, had a church, and all of them were of the exact same denomination. Were they a bigger thing here than she thought? Putting the questions about peoples belief aside, what really drew her eyes to the church was the plume of white smoke coming out the top that was barely visible against the snowing sky. Letting Sol know, they turned their way towards the large building.

Coming up to the front door, she was not surprised to find scattered goblins that had no signs of wounds on them, but were all afflicted with frostbite. One had even frozen in place at the door, holding onto the handle in a pose that looked like he was trying to open it before he had frozen solid. Strangely enough, their frozen forms emitted no mist. The wargs stood to either side of her to block the wind as she walked up and knocked on the other door away from the goblin popsicle. A bit of wild movement and some crashing sounds reverberated from within before a raspy and dry voice came from inside, "Who goes there?"

"A fellow Canadian who is seeing if there are any survivors." Nat responded. Silence filled the air between them, with only the dry sounds of whispers happening. Assuming that the people inside were debating as to what they should do, she decided to wait until the voice responded back to her. The wargs themselves started batting at the goblins to pass the time, and started a competition between each other to see who could get a funnier break to happen from the goblins. Interestingly, when the goblins were broken, only then did they start emitting mist. As if they had just been temporarily frozen in time. When the voice came back, it had equal parts sadness and determination. "Go away. We have no supplies to spare for another person. We are struggling with what supplies we have for ourselves."

"Well, what if I said that I was willing to share some of mine." Before she knew it, she could hear people moving large furniture away from the door and the lock being undone. As the door opened, she came face to face with a middle aged man, who did not seem the type to have the voice she heard. The same man was confronted with one person flanked by two giant wolves, who were each larger than he was. He froze their wide eyed in shock until Natalie asked, "So are we allowed to come in from the cold for a minute?" He nodded profusely before stepping away from the door. Nat entered first, followed by the other two. After they entered, the two wargs shook out their fur, getting the snow off of their coats. Turning to the wide eyed man who was trying to formulate his words, Nat spoke to him first. "So, where do you want me to drop off water and food?"

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!