Chapter 73
Natalie stood at the door of the tent for a few seconds, taking in the sight in front of her. Coming to the realization that she would not get any answers if she stayed inside the tent, she got up and slowly started walking towards the two pairs of coyotes. As she approached, she called out, "Hey you lot. How's it going this morning?"
While Edwin and Lucille just turned their heads to look at her, the other two showed off the skittish side of coyotes perfectly. Within seconds, both of them were already at the bushes, carefully peering at the new arrival. Upon noticing that neither of the other two moved, some cautionary yips came out from the bushes. Lucille calmly seemed to reply back to the pair of cautious canines, with a great deal of calm and patience as Natalie came up and started scratching them both behind the ears. The yipping went back and forth, but it was always Lucille being the only one responding between the pair on either side of Nat. Edwin was still doing his best to keep a watchful eye out on the horizon, despite the furious wagging of his tail. He always seemed to enjoy head scratches the most out of the pack.
Eventually, the yipping died down, and she was left just scratching the two coyotes' heads in silence. Both seemed to be enjoying it, and she felt as though she never got to spend that much time with the two of them. Therefore, Natalie was perfectly content to just stand there between her two faithful night lookouts and pamper them a little bit. With everything they had done for her and the pack, they had deserved at least this much, if not so much more. It had been almost nine days since they had joined up with her, and they had been faithfully keeping watch at night. Wondering on what everything that was happening was, she asked the two of them, "So, what exactly is going on? I just woke up and am not following at all."
'They were wandering through about an hour ago when we saw them. Since then, we have just been talking about we have been up to, how the bond is, stuff like that.' Lucille responded.
"So, are they just wanting to continue chatting? Join up in the bond? Seemed like a long discussion back and forth."
'They are considering it. The two of them were more caught off guard by your sudden appearance than anything, and had many questions after seeing you. However, it does seem to me as if they have come to a decision.'
Looking up at the bushes, Nat saw the two coyotes poking their heads out to observe the three of them. Noticing she was still standing up, Natalie paused in scratching the two coyotes' heads to sit down. Lucille just sat there, patiently waiting, but Edwin's tail instantly stopped wagging, his head whipping around to look at Natalie to see why she had stopped. After getting seated cross-legged on the ground, she looked up to see Edwin looking at her full of concern. Feeling what he was implying, she moved both of her hands back up to their heads and resumed the pampering. Getting attention again, Edwin immediately turned his head back around to stay vigilant. His tail however, resumed its rapid pace, now whacking Natalie lightly on her leg with each pass. His whole shy act was so good, that Nat could not help but send a thought directly to Lucille, 'So cute!' All that came back was a sense of agreement overshadowed by giggles.
When the two spying from the bushes saw her moving, they immediately pulled their heads back into the foliage. Peering out once more, they saw that she was now sitting between the other two coyotes. Slowly, they started inching towards the group of three. Natalie, Edwin, nor Lucille made a single move the entire time the new pair approached, save the scratching of the heads and movements of tails. Slowly they worked their way closer and closer, sniffing the air between them in caution. Coming up to her, they each took turns poking her with their snouts, gauging for a reaction. Natalie just sat there, pleasantly content with just scratching the heads of her watch coyotes. The two started circling her, trying to get a measure of her in some regard.
As they circled, Nat remembered her dream from last night, as well as what happened as they left Lethbridge. The monsters had been able to sense or notice when things came out of her Soulscape, and in her dream there had been green light coming off when the canines left to join her fight. If the two really did bond with her, it was the best time for her to see if she could notice that light, or whatever it was. Focusing her eyes on the two newcomers, she watched as they stopped circling and started walking towards her from the front. With their tails down and their ears laid flat, the body language was overly clear as to what they were saying. It was a standard form of canine body language, that always showed submission. Slowly, she stopped the hand scratching Lucille's head and outstretched it towards the approaching canines. She would have done both, but she did not want to get that look of betrayal from Edwin again.
The two coyotes paused for a second, before Lucille let out a quick yip. Hearing that, the two slowly trotted forwards, and placed their paws on her hand one at a time. Intently, Nat focused directly on her palm where the two new coyotes bonded and entered her through. Not surprisingly to her, faint lines of green smoke seemed to come out of her hand whenever one was entering. It felt similar to the black mist that came of dead monsters, but it felt different in nature. Whereas the one from monsters felt oppressive and stifling, this one felt freeing and wild. It was if they were opposing ends of a magnet. Filing that away in her mental archives, Nat felt she now had a much more pressing problem. The two new pack members needed names!
Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, Nikolas, Saganatsu, Eeleater, Eric, Corgi, Lachlan, Coen, Adam, John, Nicholas, Jacob, Onean, Hades, Neal, Sebastian, Sir Hellington, 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!